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 will not kill. By not killing, the life of the Buddha tree seed grows. Transmit the life of Buddha and do not kill. So far I've been talking about the three refuges, three field precepts, and eight of the 10 prohibitory precepts, and today and tomorrow I will finish with all 16 of the bodhisattva precepts.

[01:08]

The prohibitory precepts, these last 10, are basically designed to create a kind of boundary within us, imaginary boundary. And that boundary can serve as a kind of containment vessel for us, for imaginary selves and the way they behave in our imaginary world. Lying? No. Stealing? No. Slander? No. Speaking of oneself ahead of others? No. Possessiveness? No. And so on. So training the mind of a human being is really not so different than training, you know, a pet. It's really similar. You repeat often and over and over the same instruction. Kind but firm.

[02:14]

No. No. Prohibitore is a Latin word that means to hold in front. is to hold it in front of you. So whatever it is that you're holding in front of you is very hard to ignore. I understand they did a study of training for the military. How long does it take to change a habit, you know, one person, one habit? And what they discovered was the average was 17 repetitions. It's not too bad. 17. No. So six of these prohibitory precepts are to train patterns of our thought and of our speech.

[03:22]

And for thought, there's holding in front of us the effects of intoxication, of possessiveness, and of harboring ill will. And for speech, the effects of lying, slandering, and praising oneself. The next three are about actions that we take with our bodies. Rupasthanda, form. Faesthanda's rupa is form. Form means that which can be hit. not abusing sexuality, stealing, or killing. And so all of these nine precepts together are the primary training elements for a human being. You know, body, speech, and mind. Kind of covers the whole thing, the whole works. In terms of karmic consequences for violating precepts, the

[04:29]

Least consequential are those involving thinking. Thinking something that violates a precept doesn't have much impact, perhaps except on you. So that's okay. You're working inside there with it. Speaking is next and has more consequences because now you've got somebody else involved in your thinking. The most consequential is taking actions with your body. stealing, killing. Well, let's say sex, but more like rape. And each of these was grounds for expulsion from the early Buddhist Sangha, those body violations. So I'm going to be sharing with you this morning my thoughts about this precept of not killing. I already feel it's going to be really hard, so I'm sorry for that.

[05:36]

But if it weren't for killing, I wouldn't be sitting in these robes. The Buddha taught that we are born through the support of the entire universe in order that we might open the door to a peaceful world, the world of the three treasures. That's The last of the prohibitoric precepts of protecting, nurturing and not abusing the three treasures. And yet that door can open either way. It can also open into the world of the three poisons. Of boundless stupidity, of sadism and of rapacious greed. And it can be done in the name of Shakyamuni Buddha. In fact, it has been done in the name of Shakyamuni Buddha. The door has been opened both ways. Probably more often than we know.

[06:42]

Or that we'd like to know. Certainly more than I wanted to know. And often, things we don't want to know, we confront with silence and lies. We violate other precepts. So we don't have to hold it in front. We don't have to see. Sadness and lies are the most common response when humans are caught in poisonous action. Who told you? Suzuki Roshi said that on one side we are all fools. When we are fooled by someone else, the damage will not be so big. When you are fooled by yourself, it is fatal. There is no medicine. This too is the mind of Buddha. So dying isn't really a problem for us.

[07:49]

Dying is a natural life thing. Even though we grieve for those we love, we too will die. Others will grieve for us. And hopefully everyone's steps is in the context of a very peaceful and happy life. She died in her sleep right after baking three pies. Like Lauren's grip. Lauren said to grandma, I kept saying, don't forget to eat the Killing life is quite another matter. I think we have to come to acknowledge the role that we humans play in all forms of killing, you know, starting with the food chain, our role in the food chain, but then also continuing to the horrors of murder, of warfare, and genocide.

[08:56]

humans all along the route. And understanding our place in that killing is essential to our understanding of Buddha's teaching and practice. So this first type of killing, I think we all know very well and we experience on a daily basis, most often three times a day, what we call our daily bread. Life feeds life in order to live. Life East is in the bread dough. It smells wonderful in the oven. And then there's apples and pears and milk, cheese, eggs, and for breakfast, coffee with cream. So this basic truth

[09:59]

You know, that life is life started a long time ago when a single self, identical to its neighbors, took nourishment that was not being given. And from then on, for the next millions and millions of years, living beings have been taking nourishment from one another that is not being given. Evolving strategies both to protect and to attack one another. So these early life forms absorbed calcium from the ocean floor and created little protective shields over their bodies that we call shells, while their cousins, meanwhile, were taking the same calcium and making little pokey things we call teeth to break into the shells. Evolutionary biologists call this period of time the arms race.

[11:01]

It's not over yet. It may never be over as long as there's life on this planet. And although the humans have gotten ahead of many species, we will never get ahead of each other. Just like those first life forms. Nobody's going to win it. As the old witch said to the children she trapped in a cage in her cottage, I will grind you bones to make my bread. And it's kind of like that. That's how we live. We grind the bones of other living things. So we can't, before we, we reflect on the effort that brought us this food and consider how it comes to us. We reflect on our virtue and practice and whether we are worthy of this offering.

[12:03]

I often wonder, do we reflect on our worthiness? Do we know how our food comes to us? Really? I don't. I really don't. You know, we're oval-lapto-vegetarians at that center. That means eggs and dairy. And vegetables. But where do eggs come from? And dairy. And how about the wages and nationalities and the living conditions that those who are cropping are vegetables? In Salinas. I've been thinking it might be really good for us all of us, to go visit egg ranches and dairy farms in Marin County and Sonoma County. Ask lots of questions. What do you do with the calves?

[13:08]

Or the old chickens? And I don't want us to do that so we stop eating eggs and dairy. That's not quite for me at all. I won't. I'm probably not going to do that. I know where they come from. I've seen movies about it. But I think more to stop us from being ignorant, we should know how it comes to us. The real cost of sustaining our own lives. At the turn of the century, Upton St. Clair authored a famous book called The Jungle, which... It was an expose of the meatpacking industry in Chicago at the time, the largest industrial meatpacking facility in the entire world. In fact, thousands of people, including school children, were taken there to watch the killing floors.

[14:08]

They were so efficient. Millions of animals a week processed in Chicago. And so he worked in the factories as an underground to see what was going on in there in order to write this book. And he described it as the pig squeal of the universe. They shut down those factories now and most of the slaughter takes place outside of urban areas because it is really noisy and it doesn't smell good. Maybe some of you also know the name of Saul Alinsky. I hope you do. He's basically considered the founder of community organizing. And he started, or maybe supported, and very effectively was part of an organization called the Back of the Yards. The Yards were the stockyards in Chicago.

[15:11]

The Back of the Yards were where they built the houses for the workers. That was downwind. The smell apparently was... All they want was thick, like fog. Anyway, Saul Alinsky gathered the clergy and the public school teachers and the unions together in order to speak to power and to expose the conditions of the workers in the slaughterhouses. And he was very effective. And he still is. His organization is now called the Industrial Areas Foundation, like IAS, and there's a branch in the rent called the MOC. Morin Organizing Committee, a direct descendant from Saul Alinsky's brilliant creative mind. And they still work in the dark shadows of American prosperity. They go where people have very little and are being taken advantage of, immigrant populations. And yet I am not separate from the world of killing.

[16:20]

or meat packing, or egg laying, or vegetable farming, because I am not separate from anything. There's no such I separate from the world. So we have to acknowledge the truth of our responsibility for all that happens in this world. What we know it or not. And what we don't know tends not to hurt us. I think we need to feel it and to know it, and then we will sit in the pain of it. where we belong. It's our vow. And at the same time, I think we all have to ask for help from each other, from people like Saul Alinsky, the people of the world who are not turning away. And we have to ask of the great compassion, which is the constant companion of the great suffering. As we know, because the great compassion is in each of our hearts.

[17:22]

Right there with the pain. When one side is illuminated, the other side is dark. You know, if it weren't for this upwelling of compassion, we wouldn't care at all. And sometimes we don't, because we forget. We stop looking. Or we look the other way. you know, silence and lies. But I think when we remember, or when those who care about such things remind us, then this small hope of dogens might actually come to be, you know, that the Buddha tree seed will be able to grow, and that nurturing life and taking life will co-arize together as the natural order of things. Killing for food is our inheritance as human beings. We have no choice if we are going to live. Our ancestors were extremely well adapted to finding food in almost every ecosystem of our planet.

[18:32]

The tundra, the arctic, the mountains, on the waters, by the rivers, people everywhere finding food and ways to get that food, you know, clever. Nets, hooks, rifles, arrows. I saw an amazing documentary, BBC series on the human planet. And they had these different ecosystems where people lived and how they eat and so on. And the last one they showed was these really ancient hunting practices that were done. Not so much anymore, but... the Bushmen in particular, sort of first peoples, first first people of all people. And they do something that's called persistent hunting. So basically these three men set out toward a herd of very large, I think they're kind of antelope, I'm not sure, big.

[19:36]

And they pick out the biggest male with the biggest rat, heavy. And they start to chase him. And the animal easily gets away. But they keep going. They keep chasing him. Again, he easily gets away. But they don't let him rest. He can't stop. He can't rest and he can't get water because they keep chasing him all day long. And finally, the last saint, you see the large animal kneel down on the ground and then lay down on the ground. And the bushmen come up to him and they're petting him. stroking him and praying and then they cut his throat and then they go to sleep next to him and the next day they carry the food back home there was nothing disturbing about that to me it was rather a family way something connected

[20:42]

When killing of this sort of animals is done not for food but for pleasure, for fun, for trophy heads, for excess profit, for cruelty, you know, the line is crossed into barbarism. Not so human. I don't think that's human. And the hunting that I've seen done when I lived in Wyoming for food was not barbaric. The people were very skilled. They hunted for meat every year. They took good care of the animals, and they were careful. They took older animals, protected the young, protected the herd. And we're very grateful. They weren't drunk, and they weren't laughing, and it wasn't fun. It was just something they did for their families. A lot of respect. So I think we know the difference between these two types of killing. You can't really feel it.

[21:55]

So on the other end of the spectrum from food is this killing that we call murder warfare. The killing of our fellow humans. Not to eat. Just to kill. Slaughter. That kind of killing is a monstrosity and it opens its doorway into unbelievable pain and sorrow and grief for generations and generations of humans. And all of the Buddha's precepts are broken at once. There's lying and raping and praising oneself and banners and flags and great parades, victories, trophies, rape, arrogance, hatred, drunkenness, murder, all at once. times like that, we need to even remember more that we are not free.

[23:02]

I do not kill. We can't think like that. I'm not a killer. I don't kill. Nothing to do with me. There's no separate self. We've been taught that. There's no way we can step back. There's no one here that's not responsible for all the killing that's taking place in the world. including our own military right now, which is planning a new strategy and a new weapon to keep us safe here in America, California, Cornell Valley, and Mountain on the stair. We're safe. We don't really need that budget with the gatehouse, little toy. We've got the National Guard The Highway Patrol, Monterey Police, they're all armed. Real guns.

[24:04]

Real people with real guns protecting us. Today, on call. When we feel the pain of our shared responsibility for this monstrosity of killing, It brings us to the very wellspring of compassion, you know, for all beings, through all time, all killing, all suffering. Because compassion is everywhere for everyone if we allow ourselves to face this suffering. For Syria, Iraq, for Oakland, California, Belgium. whatever happened today. Awakening lights the darkness and the forgetfulness of the three poisons and it lets us sit in the middle of this terrible pain so that we can feel and be tender and patient with it and we can touch those places in our own bodies where it hurts.

[25:17]

Protecting life is not accomplished by restraining that inborn impulse for violence, but by bringing that impulse out into the light, prohibitory means to hold it in front, look at it. By observing our karma conditioning, perhaps we'll come to realize a mind that refrains from such actions, a good mind, a wicked mind. Buddha's mind is not killing, not stealing, not lying, not sexualizing, not intoxicating. Buddha's mind is one precept, no separate self. Buddha's mind is also no separate self from those who kill. And for that reason we should never turn away from Buddha's mind, as though we could.

[26:24]

So these teachings that I've been sharing so far with you this morning have been transmitted to us from India to China to Japan, and then by jet plane from Japan to California in the form of our beloved teacher, Shonriya Suzuki Roshi, a Japanese, a Heiji-trained Soto Zen teacher who we deeply respect and love. And it's for this reason that it was most almost more than I could bear to read some of the citations I'm going to share with you this morning about some speeches that were given by major teachers of Sotuzan in Japan before and during the Second World War, what was called the Great Asian War. These stories, citations, were translated and published by, as I mentioned to you, Brian Victoria in a book called Zen at War.

[27:31]

And some people have said to me, well, this book was criticized because some citations were taken out of context. Well, maybe so, but it'd be pretty hard to figure out what kind of context they could be contained in. After you hear them, maybe you could help me understand. Because I would get it. So the effect... of reading these that had on me showed up at the Bodhidharma memorial that some of you noticed. I touched the place in myself where violence arises. You know, the outrage. And even though I started to arise as I stood in front of this altar, this beloved altar, I also felt this restraining order, internalized restraining order, saying, no, No food.

[28:35]

Stop it. Stop it. But I couldn't stop it. I was shaking. This is pretty powerful, getting near this altar, because all your vows come to life. I said to people, you know, I don't know what it means, but I mean it. And... I think we all mean it. So I want you to please know this is not about Japan at all or about that war or the last war because there's no last war as far as I can tell. It's just an example from our tradition which is where we should always look first. Let's look at ourselves before we look at others. A lot of attention going into Islam right now. How about, let's look at Buddhism. Because we humans can easily forget that very thing that we love most in all the world, which is life itself.

[29:45]

So this first citation was published in December of 1942 in the official Sotazen magazine called Sanchuk. On December 8th, Buddha Shakyamuni looked at the morning star and realized perfect enlightenment while seated under the Bodhi tree. One year ago, on this very day, through the proclamation of the imperial edict to annihilate America and England, our country started afresh toward a new East Asia, a great East Asia. This signifies nothing less than the enlightenment of East Asia. As we now welcome the first anniversary of the outbreak of the Greater East Asian War, we realize that the future will not be easy. We must therefore renew our conviction that nothing else but certain victory must lie ahead. Hata Esho, A. Heiji's chief abbot.

[30:52]

This one is by another A.H.G. abbot and former president of Komozawa Buddhist University, Yamada Rerit. It was written to console the thousands and thousands and thousands of parents who were losing their sons in senseless battles. He makes use of the 12-fold chain and karmic transmigration through the six realms in this teaching. The true form of the heroic spirits of the dead is the good karmic power that has resulted from their loyalty, their bravery, and their nobility of character. This will never perish. The body and mind produced by this karmic power cannot be other than that which has existed up to the present. The loyal, brave, noble, and heroic spirits of those officers and men who have died shahri, may the emperor live for ten thousand years. will be reborn right here in this country. It is only natural that this should occur. He also pointed out that the virility one achieves in Zen training makes possible an adamantine mind and the welling up of a pure and fiery spirit.

[32:14]

If one would but annihilate the ego, an absolute and mysterious power and radiance will fill one's body and mind. together with an unlimited gratitude to the imperial military for its wonderful fruits of battle. This is by Harada Dayon Shogaku Abbot of Hoshinji, a monastery made famous as a rigorous Zen training temple. Dayan was admired by Taizan Maizumi Roshi, founder of ZCLA, who said that thanks to him, Hoshinji is known for its harsh climate, strict discipline, and its abbot's keen zen-ai. This particular teacher, Dayan, was quite influential here in the United States, being in the lineage of Philip Capital Roshi. And he wrote this article in 1939 entitled, The One Road of Zen and War.

[33:20]

If ordered to march, track, trap. Or shoot, bang, bang. This is the manifestation of the highest wisdom of enlightenment. The unity of Zen and war of which I speak extends to the farthest reaches of the holy war now underway. Here is my verse. I bow my head to the floor. and reverence of those whose nobility is without equal. Shakyamuni Bodhi himself had to conquer demons in the course of realizing enlightenment, and thus, without plunging into the war arena, it is totally impossible to know the buddhita. In all phenomena of either the ordinary world or the spiritual worlds, there is not one where war is absent. How could Zen alone be free of this principle? It is impermissible to forget war for even an instant.

[34:26]

This is the last one I'm going to read. This one was written to encourage the fighter pilots to crash their planes into enemy ships. Young men were called kamikaze. The source of the spirit of the kamikaze lies in the denial of the individual self and the rebirth of the soul, which has taken upon itself the burden of history. From ancient times, Zen has described this conversion of mind as the achievement of complete enlightenment. Sounds exactly like what these young men who flew planes into the Twin Towers believed they were doing. Doesn't it? Anyway, this book is filled with citations, and again, I'd love to know how they're out of context. The main point I'm trying to make actually is, along with how painful this is, that humans are really dangerous.

[35:27]

And no matter what our profession is, or our rank, or what we claim to believe, or what we value, or no matter what words we speak or hear from others, we are dangerous. for greed and hatred and delusion has run rampant and unabated throughout the history of all nations all people and all religions including our own and I think it's there's no doubt that we're not done which is why I'm having a problem with the sword on the altar You know, we can say, oh, it's a symbol of cutting through illusions. It's a symbol of, you know, fighting back the invisible demons that are coming to our minds. And certainly that's what I've said for many years, and what I guess I believed. And these are found on Zan temples everywhere you go.

[36:34]

You'll find them on Jushe with a sword. Although, for some reason, wrinkle, she has a mushroom. I'm not sure why. I hope you do know why. Go hippies. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, this is a warning line in Dash Ward. These weapon icons we have on our altars, saying the one at the gatehouse with the bludgeon. I don't really like offering incidents there anymore. I really don't want to admit I won't. I tried to take the sword off this guy, couldn't get it out. with some shears or something. Anyway, I asked Aaron to look if he could find one without a story. There's one with a lion that might be beautiful, which I'll see if I can get the other abbots to talk with me about it. Because these images, you know, that we imagine are for creatures of mind, but actually could they be used for other purposes?

[37:43]

Is it possible? Maybe so, because they have been. Forty years after the end of the Second World War, it was when the first of the Japanese Buddhist sects made any comments about their participation in war, including Siltuzent. And although, finally, some apologies and acknowledges came and were appreciated around the world, I remember reading the ones that Siltuzent published, It was back in the 1980s. Very powerful, beautifully written, long. And I thought, wow, that's great, you know. And yet there was kind of a limit to the scope of their acknowledgement. And many of the sects, I don't think Rinzai said Zen has said anything, as far as I understand. Maybe they have by now. But what they didn't acknowledge was the much-vaunted historical relationship between Zen and Samurai.

[38:47]

martial art tradition called bushido, the way of the samurai. Bushi were the nobles, the aristocrats, and the do was the way of protecting and honoring and serving the aristocrats. So they were the kind of foot soldiers of the emperor and the nobles, and they had a code of honor, like our marines, perhaps. You know, our head monk is scripted to say, sometimes it's a dragon swallowing heaven and earth, and sometimes a vajra sword giving and taking life. And yet this very phrase, the sword giving and taking life, was repeated again and again by the Zen abbots and scholars as they invaded China and Korea for the outbreak of their attack on Pearl Harbor. The holy mission being to bring back the true Dharma to East Asia by punishing the unruly heathens.

[39:51]

The Chinese Buddhists were considered inferior. Their Buddhism was no longer pure, unlike Japanese Buddhism. So that was the justification. We're going to punish the unruly heathens, bring purity back. D.T. Suzuki, in the way of the sword, What is most essential to attain besides its technique is the spiritual element controlling the art throughout. It is a state of mind known as munyan or musho, no thought or no reflection. It means letting your natural faculties act in a consciousness free from thoughts, in a consciousness free from thoughts, reflections or affections of any kind. No affections in your consciousness. when you hold a sword. When this is understood, your art is perfect.

[40:55]

Finally, Zen and the sword's way are one. Both ultimately aim at transcending the duality of life and death. Just metaphors. I don't think so. And yet as Pope Francis said recently about his views on homosexuality, Who am I to judge? Judgment is always limited and flawed and I don't have all the facts, so who am I to judge? You know, but I do. I do judge the use of the Buddhist teaching or the Christian teaching or Islamic teaching to call forth the slaughter of our fellow humans. But also to call forth the slaughter of sea creatures or rainforests or animals for profit, for grooming, fashion.

[41:56]

One of the leaders of the Shin sect read aloud at a memorial service for the war dead in 1987, when we who are priests think about this sin, we can only hang our heads in silence before all who are gathered here. And no matter how much I might personally despair of there ever being medicine for this terrible crime against humanity that's repeated again and again, generation after generation, I don't think there's any choice but to keep trying to find the medicine. Where is it? I thought I had it. But I don't think the answer is to hang our heads in silence. I think it's to make a lot of noise, to speak up and to say, no, no, not this time, not again, not in my name, not with my knowledge.

[43:01]

So the last thing I want to share with you is some words that I spoke at the mountain sea ceremony when Ed and I were installed. as leaders of our community, one of the assignments is to write a verse about a koan that you want to express some understanding. And I knew that of all koans that I didn't want to talk about, it was this one. Case 9, Book of Serenity. This was written hundreds of years before the Second World War, so this strain has been within the Buddhist tradition for a very long time. hate being confronted by this koan I have for many years and therefore there's no escape. I have to answer to you and to myself. For all of those times in my life I have stood frozen like those poor monks gazing at horror right before their eyes and yet there's no going back and there's no second chance.

[44:11]

One day at Nanshwan's the eastern and western halls were arguing over a cat When Nanchuan saw this, he took the cat and held it up and said, If you can speak, I won't cut it. The group had no reply. Nanchuan then cut the cat in half. If I had been there, I would have said, Teacher, that is not a cat. And to the monks, I would have said, Do something. But still, you know, this is not a mountain seat. And I am nothing without all of you. So, let's do something together. Is there anything anyone would like to add or say?

[45:21]

When I look down, there's too big water on the ground. Mm-hmm. And the bread is there. You said before that you asked her, is this fast enough? What do you think? I think I don't know. And I have no other choice. It's too late. You too. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[46:55]

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