Good evening everybody. I'm going to send around this tablet and little pen for people to sign their names. This is everybody who's taking the class for the whole six-week period. I know there's some visitors tonight. If you're a visitor, please don't sign. Just sign if you're intending to come for the whole class. And put your phone number on there. And residents of Green Gulch, I don't think you have to register other than signing this. But if you're not a resident, then you have to register in the office and pay a fee. So note down whether you're a Green Gulch resident or whether you have registered yet or not, please. So I forget what it said in the, it's a little hard, you know, because you have to, long

[01:14]

in advance of the time when the class starts, you have to define the class. And then, you know, you're alive in between the time that that happens and the time the class starts. And you may have a very different feeling. And I actually forget exactly what it said. But I think it had something to do with the reading through Shantideva's text, Bodhisattva Charyavatara, which I taught from several times before. And my feeling now is not to kind of stick to the text, but to speak maybe a little bit more generally on the subject of the Six Paramitas and discuss about the Six Paramitas. And then, you know, we can all read the texts on our own. And maybe I'll highlight or refer to something. Partly the reason why is because I'm going to try to touch on the Six Paramitas.

[02:16]

And it would be really easy to spend a whole, and I have done this before, do a whole class on any one of the Paramitas. Because if you go through Shantideva's verses, there are lots of them, and there might be 130 verses on patience. And each verse is really pithy, and you could talk a lot about it. So it would be easy to spend several months on any one of the Paramitas. So, but I do want to kind of discuss the whole of the Paramitas and how they fit into the Bodhisattva path. So therefore, I'm not going to nail myself to the, nail us to the text. So here are the books that are, that we can look at. And so this is the, this is published in India. It's the original, it's the English translation of the, I think it's ninth century text by Shantideva, which is called in this translation, A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. This book might be out of print. It comes in and out of print. It isn't really necessary. I mean, this is a great book to own and to read, I

[03:19]

think. But we're not going to be, you know, reading along every, we don't need to necessarily get this book. If you can find it in the library here or somewhere, it's nice to have. This book here is a really great book. It's called Meaningful to Behold, and it's by, it's by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. And what this book is, is a line-by-line commentary to this book by a modern Tibetan Lama. It's very good. The Tibetans, you know, are, Tibetan Buddhists, you know, really are masters of system and systems. So he kind of tells you all the different very complicated systems of practice that they've created on top of the Shantideva text. So it's wonderful. These are two of my favorite books. I go back to them all the time. The books that will, so these are kind of background books. I'll be using these books myself, you

[04:21]

know, every week when I study each one of the Paramitas. But the books that I think are more primary, and I think these are the books that I listed in the write-up. This is a new book by the Dalai Lama called A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night, which is a line from Shantideva's poem. And it's, and it's a commentary on Shantideva's poem, which is this one here, Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. I'll tell you a little bit more about what this book is in a moment. This is a commentary to that, in which he does something like what I'm going to do these next six weeks, which is to say, he doesn't go through everything. He kind of picks and chooses and gives you the highlights and says a little bit about each chapter. So this is a pretty good book, I think. And this is, you can purchase this in the bookstore. There are some copies. If they run out, they can order some more. And then this one is a new book by Robert Aitken, Roshi, called The Practice of Perfection, which

[05:26]

has nothing to do, these three all have to do with Shantideva's original text. This is a totally different book of talks that Aitken, Roshi is giving on the Paramitas. So in that sense it's related, you know, but it's not following along the same text at all. It's his independent take on the Paramitas and from a Zen perspective. One of the problems that we'll have as we discuss this is that there's some difference between the Zen perspective and the perspective of Tibetan Buddhism. Fundamentally they're the same, but the tone and attitude is a little different. So this one brings you back to a Zen style of understanding and presentation. And this is very lucid. So if you were going to buy one book, I would say get this one, because I think you'll enjoy it the most and it'll be the most immediately kind of hit you, you know. You have to do a certain amount of, what's the word, not exactly translation, but stretching, you know, the mind a little bit to, because so many

[06:31]

things that are just obvious to Tibetans are not so obvious to us. So Dalai Lama will say things like, well, of course, you know, blah, [...] blah. And then you say, what? You know, not of course, not at all. You know, I don't, that doesn't make sense to me at all. For example, past lives are just, it's assumed, you know, and for us we have to think, well, do we really believe in that? And blah, blah, you know. So there's some kind of stretch. But Akin Roshi being a contemporary Western Zen teacher, we don't have that difficulty. So we won't have problems reading this, I think. We'll find it pretty easy to read and pretty meaningful. So those are the books. Now usually when I give a class, I tend to work very hard for the first week or two and do a lot of studying and give a lot of context. So I'm very likely to talk a lot tonight. But that's not the way that it usually goes after that, because first we're setting the

[07:32]

context and sort of setting up the structure and the basic ideas. And then in subsequent classes I think we'll go more slowly and there'll be more dialogue. So don't be impatient with me tonight if I tend to go on, because I do want to give you the background and the setting for this important text and study of the Paramitas. So let's see. This is a, just to kind of set up this difference between the Zen approach and the Tibetan approach or the approach of Zazen and the approach of the Paramitas. I will quote a little line that you all know very well, I'm sure, from the Sandokai that goes like this, Now there are sudden and gradual. Did you ever wonder about this? Now there are sudden and gradual in connection with which are set up basic approaches. Once basic approaches

[08:37]

are distinguished, then there are guiding rules. But even though the basis is reached and the approach comprehended, true eternity still flows, which we chant a lot in the service. So, did you ever wonder what that referred to? Yeah, well, it refers to the two sort of great and almost opposite approaches to Buddhadharma, the sudden approach and the gradual approach. Now there are sudden and gradual in connection with which are set up basic approaches. There are two very different approaches to studying Buddhadharma, a sudden approach and a gradual approach. The sudden approach has to do with having a personal, visceral experience of emptiness, of the insubstantial nature of one's own body and mind and of the insubstantial nature of the bodies and minds of others and

[09:39]

of all things in the world, including thoughts and consciousness. And this is sort of a specialty of the Zen school. The Zen school is famous for an experiential kind of assault on this insight and that's all the koans and the satori experiences that you read about in the text and so on have to do with people making an effort to put tremendous energy into having a vision, in a way, of this truth. So Zen is very, you know, the characteristic of Zen is that it's sudden. But the Sandokaya, I think, indicates that actually along with this, there's the gradual approach that's not foreign to Zen. Although Zen is not so famous for it or you don't read about it as much in the Zen literature, it's also in Zen. And the gradual approach has to do with what we might call in our ordinary way of looking at things refining our character, working on our life, refining our life. And Soto Zen, I think, tends to

[10:43]

emphasize this more than Rinzai Zen. We do have, you know, I think Dogen's, many of Dogen's works emphasize careful detail and how to work on your life through careful physical detail and then there are also many teachings about how to cultivate thoughts and attitudes that are gradually going to lead us to perfect our character, bring all of our emotions more and more into awareness and have some sense of managing and channeling our thoughts and emotions in the direction of enlightenment or some kind of human perfectibility or anyway some approach to that. That's a very different thing from, you know, sit on the cushion, get hit with a stick and, you know, get enlightened. It really feels different. And yet, in Zen, there are both of these approaches are really important and they complement each other. So Sandokaya is saying, you know, now there are sudden and gradual in connection with which are set up basic approaches. Once basic approaches are distinguished, then there

[11:45]

are guiding rules so you practice each one of these practices differently. And even though the basis is reached and the approach comprehended, even though you manifest the sudden way or the gradual way and you learn it and you develop it, either way, true eternity still flows which is to say the actual enlightenment of the Buddha Dharma is the same no matter which way you approach it. And even though these approaches look very different, they both are hitting at the same thing. And in a certain way, they both disappear in the flow of true eternity. And I think that's one of the points that the Sandokaya is making. Don't get hung up on the sudden way and don't get hung up on the gradual way. Appropriately, we use both. And I really think that particularly for our style of Zen, it's really crucial that we understand and appreciate both the sudden way and the gradual way. And that we sometimes, so a lot of times, the reason I'm bringing all this up is because the Shantideva

[12:47]

and the study of the Six Paramitas is more or less characteristic of the gradual way. And a lot of our Zen teaching flows out of the sudden way which is a non-dual way. So a lot of times when we start talking about the Paramitas, people will raise their hands and say, what about this and what about that? Looking at the gradual way from the perspective of the sudden way. So I think it's just simpler to keep things separate and straight. When we're studying the gradual way, let's study the gradual way. It's the only way. And when we're studying the sudden way, let's study the sudden way. That's the only way. Let's let go of one when we're studying the other. Ekin Roshi, I think, does a nice job here of kind of combining them in a way that he talks about them. And he kind of goes from one to the other and always hits both sides of it. But this is the kind of problem that we may have in discussing this, and I just wanted to bring that out in the beginning. So what is this true eternity that still flows? This is, you could say, the mind of Buddha,

[13:52]

maybe. Or the true reality of existence apart from our concessions of existence. And one important way of defining that true eternity or that mind of Buddha is, that's very important in the Mahayana path, is this word that you may know called bodhicitta. B-o-d-h-i-c-i-t-t-a, bodhicitta. Or sometimes people pronounce it bodhicitta. And the word bodhi, I'm sure you all know, means to awaken, to clarify, to bring to light what's actually there so that it's not obscured and confused by our conceptions and our wishes and our dreams. But what's there is really alive and awake in our lives and all around us. So that's what bodhi means. It's the same root for the word Buddha. Buddha means the one who has achieved bodhi, awakening.

[14:58]

And then citta is an interesting word. It means consciousness. Sometimes it's translated as thought. But more it means, it means almost the light of consciousness. If our mind is like a room, the room when there's no light turned on, nobody sees the room, right? When you walk in and you turn on the light, that's citta. The room appears all of a sudden. Light is not the room or any of the things in the room, but it's what enables you to see what's in the room. And so then there's another word called caitasika, which refers to the objects in the room. So there's a general mental state, and then within that mental state there's specific arisings. So you could have a consciousness that has, in a concentration to some degree, greed, attention, avoidance, various kinds of mental phenomena can be in the mind at

[16:04]

any given moment. Citta refers to the general state of mind. So we could, a great, great English word, maybe the best word that I could think of tonight that would maybe describe that would might be attitude. So you can have a general attitude about something, and within that attitude you could be sad, happy, a variety of mental states you could have, but you have a basic attitude that may remain fundamental through different changes of mental state. So that's what, so maybe you could say the awakened attitude is what bodhicitta is, the awakened attitude. And the Mahayana path is basically the working on our practice in such a way that we would nurture and produce this attitude of mind, and then we would hold it, because like any attitude it comes and goes, right? So we would work on it in such a way that we would be able to raise it up into our mind, maintain it, develop it into

[17:10]

its full fruition, which would be full enlightenment. If we had, if bodhicitta was through and through what our mind was, we would be the equivalent of a Buddha or a Bodhisattva. So taking care of this attitude of awakening is what the Bodhisattva path is all about. And so there are these three aspects, you know, first of all giving rise to it, secondly when we give rise to it, maintaining it so that it doesn't immediately go away, and then when we can do that, developing it further in all its aspects and its fullness. And that's where the six paramitas come in, because the six paramitas are the way that we maintain and then develop, widen and broaden this attitude. Now it's interesting, you know, for I often say this, it's interesting for us as Western people, we don't much have an idea of the cultivation of mind. We have an idea of the cultivation of, you know, like we work out

[18:15]

in the gym and we have very scientific about how to develop this muscle or that muscle. And we have some sense of occupational training, you know, you can get a Ph.D. or an M.D. and there's training, occupational training. But the idea of training the heart, training the spirit, is not something that we really have any idea about at all really, I think it's even possible. So the idea that we would cultivate an attitude, cultivate a way of thinking, cultivate a way of opening our hearts, is something that we don't really exactly believe in. And that's one of our problems, I think, in practicing Buddha Dharma, is that we constantly forget that, in other words, we lose faith in that possibility. It's not something we're brought up with. So we're practicing, we often, you know, feel discouraged in our practice because we don't really have faith that, yeah, if you do these kinds of things, if you build up kind of practices and attitudes and ways of doing things, it has a result in the mind. The mind becomes trained and cultivated. So I find that we

[19:17]

are always having to remind ourselves of this, and over and over again. And I have found that it is really true, that although certain things in our lives don't change, I think we have unrealistic… On the one hand, we don't believe that cultivation is possible, and on the other hand, we have an incredibly romantic and unrealistic idea of what's possible. So we think of enlightenment as like, boom, and all of a sudden I'm a different person. I don't have any of the same attitudes and thoughts that I had before, so we're trying for that, and after two weeks that's not happening, so we say, you know, it's all for nothing. So in other words, it's kind of this funny thing, where on the one hand we have a way of overestimation of what's possible in practice, and on the other hand a tremendous underestimation of what's possible. So this is about cultivation, of this attitude of bodhicitta. It is possible to do it, and that's what the Mayan path is all about, is to do that. So in the beginning of Shantideva's text here, the first chapter is kind of a…

[20:25]

This is a poem, it's a wonderful story of the legend of the Tibetans, and Tibetans have wonderfully colorful stories. The story of how Shantideva came to write this text is quite funny actually. He was in this big monastery, and the story goes that nobody thought very highly of him, because what he would do is practice diligently. He didn't want anybody to see how hard he was practicing, so he would do it all night long. He would practice at night, which meant that during the day when everybody else was doing their practice and their work, he didn't look like he was doing too much, because he was… They used to call him three-practice Shantideva, the practices that were sleeping, eating and shitting, because that's all they ever saw him do, because that's what he did during the day, and at night he was practicing. So they didn't know how to get rid of him though, you know. They figured he had no business being in a monastery, and they wanted to try to find a way to get rid of him. So to humiliate him, they decided to invite him to give the

[21:26]

sort of graduation talk at the graduation of the monastic class, thinking that he would get up on the dharma seat and would be so humiliated by how little he understood and knew about Buddha-dharma that he would slink away and they would finally get rid of him. So he sat up on the dharma seat and began speaking in perfect Sanskrit poetry, which was this text, supposedly. And it was so profound that as he got to the 9th and 10th chapters, he began to levitate. And he went way out of sight. And the miracle was that as he was speaking the verses of the 9th chapter, even though he was beyond the clouds, his voice could be heard coming from far away perfectly clearly. And then there's more to the story after that about how he goes to a kingdom and this and that happens and so on, but I don't really remember that part. But anyway, I've always been amused by that story. So that's how Shantideva wrote this text. And so it's a poem, you know, and it has all the characteristics

[22:26]

of poetry. It's very enthusiastic and I don't know that we can tell, you know, how beautiful it is in English, but I'm sure in Sanskrit it's very elegant. The Sanskrit verse is extremely elegant. It's like, you know, Alexander Pope or something. And so we can't tell that. But here's some of the things that he says. I'll read you some of the verses where he's praising. The first chapter is in praise of Bodhicitta. So I just want to give you a little flavor here. All the Buddhas who have contemplated for many eons have seen it, Bodhicitta, to be beneficial. For by it, the limitless masses of beings will quickly attain the supreme state of bliss. Those who wish to destroy the many sorrows of their conditioned existence, those who wish all beings to experience a multitude of joys, and those who wish to experience much happiness should never forsake the, and he translates it as, the awakening mind. The

[23:26]

moment an awakening mind arises in those fettered and weak in the jail of cyclic existence, they will be named a child of the Sugatas. Sugata is an epithet for the Buddha. And will be revered by both men and gods of the world. It is like the supreme gold-making elixir, for it transforms the unclean body we have taken into the priceless jewel of a Buddha form. Therefore, firmly seize this awakening mind. Since the limitless mind of the sole guide of the world, another name for Buddha, has upon thorough investigation seen its preciousness, all beings wishing to be free from worldly abodes should firmly take hold of this precious awakening mind. All other virtues are like the plantain tree, for after bearing fruit they simply perish. But the perennial tree of the awakening mind unceasingly bears fruit, and thereby flourishes without end. So the benefit of this goes on lifetime after lifetime. You see, it's not

[24:30]

just, we can't imagine, you know, the limitless benefit that flows from producing such a tree. Such a thought, or such a mind. Like entrusting myself to a brave man when greatly afraid, by entrusting myself to this awakening mind I shall be swiftly liberated. Even if I have committed extremely unbearable evils, why then do the conscientious not devote themselves to this? See if I can find a line about a flash of lightning. I can't put it right here. Anyway, this is all to say that the benefits and the power of this mind are great, tremendous, you know, beyond anything we can compare and understand. Now the thing is that the characteristic of this mind is that it's a mind of limitless

[25:35]

compassion. It's a mind that is dedicated to the awakening of other beings before oneself is awakened. Now the reason why this is so is not because necessarily the person who arises this mind is a nice person, nice guy, you know, and wants to favor everybody, but because the characteristic of the awakening mind is that it sees through the nature of emptiness, the nature of insubstantiality, and knows that there's no real boundaries between the flow of our being. So it wouldn't really make any sense to think that I could become awakened without all of us becoming awakened. So my self-interest becomes the awakening of others. So this is the characteristic of the bodhicitta, that it's the mind of compassion, and it has

[26:40]

these two ways in. One way is kindness and generosity and sharing, and the other way in is understanding, because they both end at the same place, understanding that we're not unconnected from each other in a radical way. You know, I mean, we say how we're all one family or we're all connected, but imagine really seeing that one's own body is insubstantial, impermanent, and not who one is, and who one actually is, is this flow of being that is not limited to this skin. Imagine, you know, having that identity. Having such an identity, one would very naturally be concerned for every creature that one encountered, as if it were one's self. So we very naturally, if something is about to hit us, you know, we right away, we put our hands up, we protect ourselves, we don't have to think about that, because we automatically really want to take care of this body, which we think is our self. So it's very deeply ingrained, and we all imagine if we felt that way about everything

[27:44]

that we encountered. We actually identify viscerally, you know, with everything we encounter. We would have this feeling of, oh my God, you know, this is about to be, this precious leaf is about to be crushed, or this insect is about to be harmed, or this person is about to have their feelings hurt. This hurts me. I don't want that to happen. And so naturally, the best that we could wish for someone else is that they become liberated themselves and awakened, because otherwise they're going to suffer. You know, even if we give them food and clothing and so on and so on and so on, and give them hugs and kisses and we're nice to them, all that won't really help fundamentally, as long as they're bound to their limited view of who they are, they are going to suffer. And since we love them and we identify them with ourselves, it's a part of us that needs liberation and needs to be made happy and made whole. So we're very concerned about their awakening. So that's the characteristic of the awakening mind, is the bodhisattva, the person who carries such a mind, is a person who is really putting a lot of effort and energy into seeing what can be done for other

[28:49]

beings. How can we help others? What can we do to help others in the most fundamental way, which is to help them become awakened? Dogen Zenji also has a chapter in his Shobo Genzo called Hotsubodai-shin. Bodai-shin is bodhicitta in Japanese. Bodai is bodhi and shin means mind. That's the translation of citta. So Hotsubodai-shin means to raise up the mind of awakening, or raise up the bodhicitta. And he says, here's Dogen's praise of the awakening mind. He says, once this mind is awakened, our perspective of all things will be completely changed. The earth will become gold and the oceans nectar. Even the earth, stone and sand will manifest the bodhi mind as will the oceans spray in

[29:51]

flames. And then he goes on to talk about this compassion side. He says, putting another's enlightenment before one's own is the way of those who have themselves awakened bodhi mind. Although they may be humble in appearance, these people are already the leaders of all sentient beings. So we're more concerned about other people's awakening than we are about our own. So rather than think, oh, I can't really help so-and-so do this because I have to go and practice and get enlightened, we think, no, it's much more important that I help so-and-so to become awakened and happy than it is that I take care of myself. So this is almost a reckless, impossible mind of love and concern for others. And then he goes on to say something very interesting about the fundamental nature of awakening mind. This mind, he says, is not innate, nor does it arise through experience. Neither

[30:55]

is it singular nor plural, definable or indefinable, within ourselves or universal. It bears no relation to the future or past, and neither can we say it is or it isn't. Nor is it the essence of ourself, others, or both ourself and others. Nor does it suddenly appear. But it arises as a gradual result of a spiritual link between ourselves and the Buddha. This mind cannot be transmitted by the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, nor can it be induced through our own efforts. Only a spiritual link between ourselves and the Buddha can awaken the Bodhi mind. It's interesting. I'm not sure what that means exactly. And also, the only translation in English that we have of this particular chapter is not a terribly good translation. So I don't trust that so much. I wouldn't like to make too much of that in a way. But it's very kind of interesting what he's saying. In other words, the bodhicitta is not so like

[32:01]

we don't want to think. Look at the bodhicitta, in other words, as something that we could get and possess. We don't want to objectify it. That's what he's saying here. It's not an object like something that we could get, something that we could work toward and then achieve. Because it doesn't come by achievement and it doesn't come from inside of us already. We can't even really say it is or it isn't even present. It's something much more mysterious than that. It's like this phrase, true eternity still flows. It's in a way maybe defined negatively. It's the letting go of or getting rid of false conceptions so that a heart of caring and of accuracy arises, which isn't anything more than the letting go of false conceptions. And we can't even say, oh, I have now produced bodhicitta. Can you see how silly that would

[33:05]

sound? You know what I mean? Because then we would automatically be, if we said such a thing and believed it, automatically be misunderstanding and misperceiving. Because the bodhicitta is an underlying attitude of kindness and concern and stepping forward into the unknown moment of our life. Next minute bodhicitta is gone. We don't know what it is. We can't see it or hold it. So this is a very thorough going kind of description of it and analysis of it. But anyway, the point is, it's the mind of awakening and it's the mind of compassion and that developing that mind is why we bring up and practice the six paramitas. The six paramitas are a way of nurturing and developing that mind. Now I want to give you a very brief overview of this book. It's interesting how Shantideva organizes this book. I mean, in this book, in Eken Roshi's book, he says this book is

[34:05]

about the six paramitas. Actually, it's about the ten paramitas because later on they added four more, but we're going to just talk about the six. And then he says, okay, now here's the first one, and he has a chapter on the first one, and a second chapter on the second one, and so on. But Shantideva doesn't quite do it that way. Shantideva focuses all of his study of the paramitas on this issue of bodhicitta, and that's why I'm emphasizing it tonight. What he says is that, first of all, he begins the first chapter with the importance and the power and the beauty of the bodhicitta, and then in the second chapter, the second chapter is called repentance or confession, and I'll get back to that in a second, why that's important and why he puts that in there. The third and fourth chapters are called full development of the awakening mind. So the first three chapters are about raising up the bodhi mind. So the first one is getting us psyched up so that we'll aspire

[35:12]

to it, raising our interest. The second one is repentance and confession, which is how we clarify ourselves for it. And the third one is taking the vow that we will achieve the bodhi mind. So the first three chapters are about raising up the bodhi mind. And then the fourth chapter is called carefulness, and the fifth chapter is called something like alertness or discriminative awareness. And those two chapters are about how we maintain, once we arise in this mind, how we have to practice carefulness and restraint so that we can maintain that mind. And then the next chapters actually do go to the, and those two really are about morality, although he doesn't talk about it, he doesn't use the usual term for morality. And then the next chapters are the other paramitas that we are familiar with, patience, then energy, then meditation, then wisdom. That takes us up

[36:14]

to chapter nine. And then the tenth chapter is a chapter of dedication, where he turns over the merit of this development of bodhicitta to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas for the benefit of everyone's enlightenment. So that's a little bit different approach than just talking about the six paramitas. So that's the way that the book is organized. And if you do have a copy of it or want to read it, you'll notice that that's why it doesn't go. It actually doesn't at all discuss the first paramita, which is the dana paramita or the paramita called giving or generosity. He doesn't discuss that at all because he embeds that in the dedication part at the end, giving over all of this effort of bodhicitta to all sentient beings. And also in this chapter on disclosure of evil or repentance or confession, the practice of giving is embedded in that. And I want to just talk a little bit about that

[37:14]

chapter because it's kind of interesting. And we won't be talking about this sort of thing in the rest of the class. So I wanted to bring that up in the beginning and then we'll go on. I hope by the end of tonight to plunge into the first of the six paramitas. I'm leading up to that slowly. So this here chapter, this chapter two, is called Disclosure of Evil. When you think about it, you have to clean house a little bit before you can even begin authentic spiritual practice. You kind of have to take stock of your life, you know, and sort of straighten things out a little bit and see what's actually there in your life and what's not there and be honest about it and own it and confess it. That seems to be, I mean, the Zen approach is just go sit, you see. And then you sit and little

[38:20]

by little, you know, as you go along, it dawns on you that you have to do that work and you do it. But Shantideva is coming from the gradual side and he's saying now step one is do this work and he calls it the Disclosure of Evil. Now it's interesting how it's done. The first thing you have to do is you have to make, and this comes out of the Mahayana, Sutras, I don't want to go into this, but it's a whole literature, you know, which stands behind our daily service that we do in the Zen-do every day. And the literature has to do with this process of cleaning house and how it's done. How do you prepare yourself psychologically on a very deep level to be able to actually take in radically new information, so to speak, and radically rearrange the way that you live your life. Because we can

[39:21]

get all kinds of information, but we don't necessarily, it doesn't really, unless we are fertile, what comes in doesn't really mean much to us. If you throw a seed, a perfectly good seed on rocks, nothing will happen. Even though the seed is really good, you can throw water on it and everything, but nothing happens because there's no soil. We have to make ourselves soil, and that's what this process of disclosure of evil is about. So the first thing that you have to do, and I'm kind of telescoping this because I don't want to spend so much time on it, the first thing you have to do is make offerings to the Buddhists. So you have to have some confidence that there is a path, and you have to invest yourself in the path. And you have to give up something of yourself in that direction. So there has to be some sense of relinquishment, and this is where the giving part comes in. And so, like in our service, that's what we do every day, right? I mean, we do it very matter-of-factly,

[40:23]

we don't even talk about it, but what we do every day is we make offerings of fragrant things and beautiful things and meaningful things to those aspects of ourselves that we want to cultivate. So we embody, we say, well, we want to cultivate wisdom and compassion. So we embody wisdom in the figure of Manjushri Bodhisattva. This represents our own capacity to really be able to see reality and live according to the way things really are, instead of our own confusion. We embody that possibility, and then we prepare ourselves to approach it, or be approached by it, psychologically, by making offerings to it. Incense, bowing, flowers, beautiful lights, we clean the altar and so on. And then we offer our entire body, which is what we do when we bow. We make prostrations. Prostration is one of the most ancient practices in Buddhism. Because we're offering, we're saying, I now throw away my whole body toward

[41:31]

this possibility. I humble myself in my own confusion and arrogance in front of this possibility, this kind of wisdom and compassion that could come through from my life. So that's important. If we sang songs about this and chanted about this and did these things, as they do in Tibetan ceremonies, then I think it would begin to really sink in and dawn on us. And in fact it does. If you bow enough, believe me, it has an influence on your life. If you bow enough, it really changes your life. It doesn't seem like much, but if you just bow and bow and bow. Once someone told me that they were completely a mess, practicing a long time, they were completely a mess. They didn't know how to get out of their depression and so on and so on and so on. And they tried everything. I said, well, you know, you should just bow a lot, like bow 200 times every day, before zazen or after zazen or something. So they

[42:35]

went and they did it. They bowed hundreds of times every day. And they came back and they said, it worked. I said, you have to bow. But I didn't just, not just bow. But I said bow, and as you bow, bow to, you know, whether you have a figure of Buddha there or not, as you bow, you should think, I bow to the great teacher Buddha who knows the way to live. You know, something like that. I forget what I said. Something like that. In other words, to bow to Buddha, you know, not just throwing your body down, but throwing your body down with this sense of aspiration. And he did that, you know, and every day for about a month I think I had him do it. At the end of the month he said, I don't feel that way anymore. And as far as I know, he's never had that same problem again. Now, not to say that he hasn't had ups and downs in his mental state, but he's never again been in that lost place where I'm completely lost and I don't know what to do. So bowing is powerful. So that's what we do when we're bowing, is we're offering our whole body to this possibility.

[43:37]

So then, when you have done that, you've offered many things, and the Tibetans have wonderful ways of doing this, you know. Shantideva actually writes about this in his poem, where he says, See, where there's no trees, like in Tibet, you know, the trees, and you have a big sky, imagination. So the Tibetans could sit there and imagine things, you know, and they would imagine, this was their usual practice, to imagine jewels and marvelous things that they would offer in their mind to the Buddha. You can offer giving, the practice of giving, to this possibility. And they would do this, and anyway, this whole process was a way of preparing themselves then to look honestly at what was in their lives and to own it and admit it and confess it. And then, I thought it would be interesting to tell you about the traditional sense of the four elements that go into this kind of confession. The

[44:45]

four elements of confession are, you need support, regret, resolve and antidotes. Support, regret, resolve and antidotes. That's tremendously imperfect, and to have the ability to understand that you are. So therefore, anybody who looks at their own life has grief. And we don't want to open ourselves. That's the first one, support. And the support basically is your resolve and faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. In other words, the possibility, the reality that this teaching of the Buddha is helpful, that it can really help you, that it is trustworthy, you know, the teachings are trustworthy, that it can be helpful. And then, living examples and embodiments of that. So that means, in your heart, having some faith and confidence, even though it may be a little bit of a leap at times, but having

[45:49]

that faith and confidence, and also knowing people who you feel can really actually support you, who you can trust, who will help you, you know, Sangha. So, that's the first thing, you have to have support, because without support it may be too devastating to actually go through this process. And the second one is regret. Regret means you have to really admit and look and see the ways in which your life has been difficult and troublesome. And that doesn't mean feeling guilty. In fact, guilty is a counter-indication, because feeling guilty is putting yourself down and assuming that someone else is perfect and you're not, or that you're making somebody else unhappy, or that you're unworthy. All those kinds of feelings that are characteristic of guilt will militate against your ability to do something about your behavior and your grief. So it's just a matter of sincerely regretting the behavior, but not taking it personally in a way, if you know what I mean. In other words,

[46:51]

this is there, these things are there, but it doesn't mean I'm a bad person, or it doesn't mean I'm a hopeless case. It just means that these things are there. And I'm really sorry that they're there. I'm really sorry that I said such-and-so to so-and-so, or that I had such a relationship with such-and-such a person that's now gone. I'm really sorry about that. I really am. I cry over that and I'm upset about it. It doesn't mean I'm a bad person, though. It means that actions that were produced by me were negative actions, not wholesome actions, and I really regret that. But right now, I absolutely have the potential to turn that around. So if I think I'm a bad person, then how can I think I have the potential now to turn that around? So you have to skillfully have regret, but not guilt. Big difference. And we're very conditioned to guilt. That's why we have so much denial. Because the alternatives for us, in our usual way of thinking, is either I'm an awful person or everybody else is wrong. It's one or the other. So you're all wrong and that makes me okay. If I were to admit that I'm wrong, then I'm a lousy person and how can I live?

[47:55]

So I better deny it. That's how we think, I think, usually. So this is a whole different thing. And yes, I know the things that I've done that are really bad. I know that and I regret it and I'm crying about it. I'm really ashamed and I'm crying. But I also know that it's not me. I have the potential now, having done that confession, to turn it around. So it's regret, but not guilt. Okay, so that's regret. And the next one is resolve, because to have support and to have all that regret, but not to say, I vow now to do differently. What good is it? Confession without resolution, the resolution to change and actually have energy to act differently is nothing. So we have to actually have a strong resolve now. Yes, I had that kind of relationship with that person that was very bad and they're gone. I can't fix that. But I can fix it in my heart and I can be resolved that the next person that I meet is not going to be like that. I'm not going to do that again. And

[48:58]

so that resolution is crucial toward the fullness of my disclosure of evil or confession, right? And then the last one is the antidote, which means basically tools, so that the resolution can be actualized. Again, you can have support, you can have plenty of good regret, you can have lots of resolution, but you don't know how to do it and you keep screwing up because you have no idea what to do. How am I going to be kind? I'm resolved and I want to be kind, but how do I do it? Well, you have to have specific tools and practices and ways that you're going to behave and act and practice so that you can begin to cultivate what you have resolved to do. And Buddhism is full of such tools and once you get the hang of it, you can make up your own, like software. You can program your own way based on what you learn about the traditional ones. So those are the elements of confession. So this is

[50:00]

what Shantideva sets out in Chapter 2. And then in Chapter 3, he resolves with us to bring up the mind of awakening, this compassionate, limitless. This is the characteristic of it, is that it's limitless, absolutely limitless. That's why in terms of bodhicitta, it does make sense for us to say beings are numberless. I vow to save them because a limitless mind can save numberless beings, right? So when we give rise to bodhicitta, it makes sense to say beings are numberless. I vow to save them. And so in this chapter, Chapter 3, he fully accepts the awakening. Having gone through this whole process of giving and offering and frustrations and so on and so on and so on, then he takes this vow to actually raise up this mind. And the Dalai Lama, this book is from a series of talks that he gave, like a teaching that he gave somewhere, I think in the States. And he actually had everybody

[51:04]

take the pledge, like Billy Graham or something. Everybody stand up and take the pledge. So in the book, you'll read it where he says, okay, now repeat after me, kind of. And he has them repeat these verses, after which he tells them how, and Shantideva goes on to in the next chapter to mention that now that you've taken that vow, you'd better carry it through or it's going to be much worse for you. Yeah, he didn't tell them that in advance, I think. Maybe he did, I don't know. But in the text, it doesn't sound like he did. I would have told them in advance myself. And he tried to dissuade them in a way. Let's see. Here's just some of it. Some of the vow. This would be, I guess in a ceremony in Tibetan Buddhism, they would repeat these verses, chant them. May all who say bad things

[52:09]

to me or cause me any other harm and those who mock and insult me have the fortune to fully awaken. Because you've got to want to save the nasty rotten people that are after you. That's the hard part. May I be a protector for those without one, a guide for all travelers on the way. May I be a bridge, a boat and a ship for all who wish to cross the water. May I be an island for those who seek one and a lamp for those desiring light. May I be a bed for all who wish to rest and a slave for all who want a slave. That's my intention. If somebody wants to walk all over me, may I let them. May I not be upset with them. May I be a wishing jewel, a magic vase, powerful mantras and great medicine. May I become a wish-fulfilling tree and a cow of plenty for the world. Just like space and the great elements such as earth, may I always support the life of all the bodiless creatures. And

[53:13]

until they pass away from pain, may I also be the source of life for all the realms of varied beings that reach unto the ends of space. Just as the previous Buddhists gave birth to an awakening mind and just as they successively dwelt in the Bodhisattva practices, likewise, for the sake of all that lives, do I give birth to an awakening mind and likewise shall I too successively follow the practices. So imagine, you know, if we had a ceremony where we would fast and offer prostrations, chanting, and at the end of that we would say these verses having prepared our mind and really mean it. Think of how that would be. And that's the intention here. Anyway, so that's the part that you'll read in. If you read this book, the Dalai Lama has everybody repeat these verses. So that's chapter three. And then chapter four and five I won't talk about tonight. I gave you the basic outline

[54:16]

of how the book goes. So that's, anyway, that's an overview. So in case you get this book and read in there, you'll see how it goes. Now, I want to finish up by talking about the six paramitas, giving you an overview of all of them and how they work together. And then zero in on the first one, giving, paramita, giving, which we talked a little bit about just now in terms of confession, and make some suggestions for practice. And then maybe there's a little time for some questions. And then next week, believe me, I won't rattle on like this. It's just the first time I want to get all this out. I feel better, you know, like I did my duty. So the word paramita, mita I think means

[55:18]

like to go or travel or something like that, and param means beyond. So to go beyond, that's why when we say in our dedication, we say, we're dedicating the merit of this to all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Mahasattvas, and we say at the end, and dedicating it to wisdom beyond wisdom, which is an English translation of prajna paramita, the paramita of wisdom, wisdom beyond wisdom. So all the paramitas are like that. It's giving beyond giving. And these are the six paramitas, giving beyond giving, morality beyond morality, patience beyond patience, energy beyond energy, meditation beyond meditation, and wisdom beyond wisdom. These are the six paramitas. And so on a kind of common sense way of looking at this beyond

[56:23]

is the perfection of it. Wisdom, like at the end of wisdom, the perfection of wisdom, or the perfection of morality, the perfection of giving. But a more, a deeper way of looking at it is that it means, and I like to think of it as like, imagine practicing giving and then climbing out to the end of giving and then leaping off beyond giving. That's how I like to think of it. Or, so, because, you see, these are ethical practices in a way. They're like, you know, I mean, they're common sense sort of, you know, generosity and all these things, you know, patience. These are the, you know, ordinary ancient virtues that anybody would bring up. But the paramita of patience is different from patience. Patience is, you know, opposed to impatience. But the paramita of patience is beyond patience. It's

[57:25]

perfecting patience beyond patience and maybe diving into this true eternity that we talked about in the beginning. In true eternity there's no difference between patience and non-patience, between patience and wisdom, between patience and giving or non-giving. It's just true reality. So to practice patience until we come smack up against true reality and go beyond patience. So patience, we don't know what it looks like. So we start with ordinary patience and we kind of develop it until we get to beyond patience. And this is a very important point because, I mean, it's colorful but it's also practical, you know, because if we have patience with attachment to patience, see, then patience becomes a hindrance rather than an aid to bodhicitta. So like, why are you in my face? I'm practicing patience, you're ruining it. Or I'm practicing patience and, you know, she has no patience but I have patience. That's

[58:31]

ordinary patience, see what I mean? That's the practice of patience that I have developed and you have it. But patience beyond patience, I can't say that anymore, see. I can't be attached to the practice of patience. So I have to know that there's no difference between me and you, there's no difference between patience and non-patience. You see, that's the only way that I can practice the perfection of patience, patience beyond patience. So we start out simply but we have to keep that underlying attitude about each of these paramitas. So that's why it's not just patience but it's patience paramita, patience beyond patience. So those are the six paramitas. Now, I'll just mention that the four more paramitas that Eken Roshi talks about, but we're not going to deal with in the class, were added later on. It seems to be a later development for a variety of reasons but that's, and they're interesting and important so I don't want to say that they're not but let's just stick

[59:31]

to the six. We're lucky if we get anywhere with that. So they are skillful means, vows or aspirations, spiritual powers and knowledge. Those are the last four. So having said that we'll put them aside and you can read about it in Eken Roshi's book. Now, a word about, now it's interesting, the six paramitas, they're kind of balancing. Each one balances the other. They come in pairs. Giving is, and I'll just briefly because I'll come back to this in a second, giving is a kind of openness, right? Giving, we can be a little wild. It's like give away everything. Just give it all away, whatever it is. Unbridled, you know, unbounded generosity and reckless, you know, just throwing ourselves and everything

[60:36]

we have at the world. So that's, and that's good, that's the practice. But the other side of that is the second one which balances that is morality. Morality is all about awareness and restraint. So the practice of morality counterbalances the practice of giving. You see how they work together? On the one hand we really are completely giving, recklessly giving and we're also practicing with morality which has to do with being aware of our actions and having some restraint in our actions. Patience has the sense of, it's often translated, the word in Sanskrit is kshanti which is often translated as forbearance or endurance sometimes. And it has a sense of being able to bear weight, you know, to hold something for a long time without dropping it. So it's weighty, it's kind of like solid and has to do with, you

[61:42]

know, grave and gravity and that kind of sense. But the next one, energy or virya paramita is just the opposite. It's rising up and a kind of rising up energy. If patience is like holding down, you know, under the weight of what we need to deal with or wait for and not react against but endure, virya paramita is rising up lightly with energy and zest and vigor in our practice. So you see how these balance each other too. And then the last two, meditation and wisdom also balance each other. Meditation is focusing the mind, being secluded, being quiet, being really focused on one thing. And meditation is through that one thing opening up to the whole universe, seeing the interconnection of everything, seeing the boundlessness of things, having an insight into that boundlessness of things

[62:45]

through this tiny narrow eye of the meditation. So it's this odd thing, you know, we do sasheen and zen where we sit on a little, basically we live on this little square place there, which is our entire universe. It's very tiny and very narrow. And we're just sitting there, you know, with our thumbs and our breath. And our life, I mean, we're worse off than most prisoners, you know. At least they can pace up and down on their cell, you know. We have to sit there without moving, right? And yet, through this very narrow opening and very narrow life, that's, you know, a hideous kind of way to live, really. But actually it doesn't feel that way. It feels very open, you know, at least to me. I hope to you too. It feels very opening. It feels very much as if our experience is way open up. So meditation is very restrictive and wisdom is very open and they go together. Zazen is meditation and wisdom, both. So anyway, this is a little kind of flavor of the six paramitas and now

[63:52]

I want to, my kind of idea here is that I want to every week take one of the paramitas and ask you to contemplate it, study it and practice it that week. And then what we're going to do is the next week when we get together, so now I'm going to talk about giving and I'm going to ask you, I'll make some suggestions and ways that you can practice the giving paramita, dana paramita, giving. And then next week when we get together, I'll ask you to talk to each other about how you practice with that. So you have to report to each other, have a buddy and see what did you do? How was that practice? What did you learn? Maybe you say, well I couldn't get with it, you know. Whatever. Happens, happens. But you make an effort. That's the idea. So dana paramita is the paramita of giving. And I would really recommend that you read Akin Roshi's chapter on giving. You won't find it in Dalai Lama's book, as I said, because it's only discussed in the context of disclosure

[64:55]

of evil or confession. So you can read about that part of it. It won't be quite the same. So there's two different sides to giving, I think. They're pretty much the same, but also, in a way, quite different. One side is generosity, as I said a moment ago, which means literally giving things. Giving, you know. I remember I studied with one Tibetan teacher and he had this great idea. It must be a traditional Tibetan thing. He said, here's a good way to practice giving. He said, practice giving to yourself. Give yourself. And he had like that, you know. And then give it. Thank you very much. And actually, it seems silly, but actually it's a pretty good thing. You can practice like that. So you can practice giving to yourself. Or you can practice giving to other people. I practice giving sometimes

[65:56]

and I notice something. I'm kind of stingy, actually. I have to admit. I actually have a problem with being stingy. So sometimes I think, well, we have precepts against being stingy and we have this Paramita about giving, so I should give. So I try to give things. And I try to give things that I really want to keep. So lately I had a couple of experiences of giving things that I really wanted to keep. And I realized that what I really wanted was, I wouldn't be so bad if I knew that the person appreciated it and loved it. Then I would feel great. But if I don't know that, I'm still hanging on to the thing. So this is my practice of giving. And I'm working. This next step is, can I just give it away completely? Who cares if they like it or even notice that they got it? So that's pretty hard for me. I'm not there yet. I would like to develop such a thing. But I'm honestly disclosing to myself, well, that's really how it feels. And I manage to give it wholeheartedly. But

[66:58]

I'm still, probably for the rest of my life, be looking for an opportunity to say, did you get it? I think. And it hasn't abated so far. So that's one side, is actually giving. So you can do it. You can give things to people. But then the other side of it, that's a little different, although you can see it's the same, is giving up, letting go of. So giving is also a kind of relinquishment or renunciation. So to really give to somebody, you really have to give up the giving, the credit and the thing itself. So that's two slightly different flavors to giving. Now I think in meditation itself, there is the practice of giving. You

[68:00]

know, giving yourself to your meditation, not holding back. So giving has that sense of letting go of, not holding back. So in Zazen, I think you could practice in that way, the spirit of, can I let go of everything that's in my mind and let go of everything in my life? Can I start with, say, for example, you could practice like this. You could begin sitting and find your breath, breathe into your body with the breath, and then you could just let go of and completely renounce the different parts of your body. Just let go of your shoulders. Let them go. Let go of your upper body. Just let it go. Let go of your arms. Let go of your mudra. Can you see how that would be, if you breathe into those parts and then let go? It could be an interesting practice. So I suggest that's one possible

[69:02]

way of practicing giving. The other way, of course, is to give things to people. Another way is to give up your ideas that separate you from people. So Katie wants to do it this way, I want to do it that way. Usually I fight with her about it, or we negotiate. I'll practice giving this way. I'll give up my way of doing it. That's on tape. Give up my way of doing it, and I'll do it her way. I'll really try to see what happens to me. How will it be? Can I do that? I'll do it, but how will I feel about it? So that's another way, to practice giving up our ideas, giving up our notions about who we are or the way things have to go. So you can try that. That's another way to try. They say traditionally that there's four things that you can give, or four modes of giving in the dharma. The first one is giving teaching, and traditionally this was the function of

[70:09]

the ordained clergy in early Buddhism. When there was a big separation between clergy and laity, the laity would practice giving by giving alms to the clergy, who they would not eat otherwise, and the clergy would give back to the laity dharma, which is giving a good way to live, to produce happiness, skills and attitudes and teachings so that the lay people would be able to live their lives in a more happy way. So we all have this gift to give to each other, the gift of dharma, good advice, skills for how to work with our mind and heart. So that's one way we can give. Second way we can give is material things, literally give something to someone. Also you can give, like I was showing you to yourself, give yourself a present, and you can also give imaginatively, like the Tibetans do. You could imagine, and this is more powerful

[71:15]

than you would think. Suppose you have someone that you don't really like much, and it's too much to go to them and give them a present, it's like you can't do it. But in the privacy of your own room or on your own cushion, you can imagine them and you can imagine a gift, a fabulous gift that you could give to them in your mind. Then you could sort of work through all the difficulties that this would entail on your own, and maybe you could eventually come to the place where you could give them something. So you could give a lot of things to the Buddha if you wanted to, that would be a great thing. You could sit on your cushion and give many things to the Buddha. Dogen said something like, you should give flowers on a distant hillside. That's a beautiful thing, isn't it? You could imagine the hillsides here, and we could be reckless, let's give green gulch away. We could give green gulch to somebody. Give green gulch to, I don't know, Barbara Boxer, she's such a nice person. Give her green gulch. We could sit on our cushion

[72:20]

and we could visualize green gulch and present it to her. It would be nice having such good politics and standing up for the rights of the downtrodden and all that. Give her green gulch. Give Buddha green gulch. And the ocean, give Buddha the Pacific Ocean. See, there's a lot of imagination in Buddha's practice. There really is. No, really, imagine that and really put your heart and soul into it, you know? As if it really mattered, it was really real. The ocean is so beautiful, you know, when the sun shines. Can you imagine that? And then give that to Buddha? And present it to Buddha while you're sitting, zazen, make that gift. So these are all different ways that you could practice giving, and this is the second of the four modes of giving, material giving. The third one is usually called the gift, giving the gift of fearlessness. This is an interesting one. On a concrete level, the way they talk about this sometimes is, if you see a creature, you know, like releasing animals in captivity, or like saving a fly

[73:28]

from a spider, that sort of thing. So if you have an opportunity like that during the week, you could practice giving like that. Another way of looking at this one is to give someone confidence, to have confidence in someone to the extent that without your making a big deal out of it, they would have confidence in themselves. Can you pick someone to have confidence in and meditate on how much confidence you have in that person to the extent that they themselves would begin to have confidence? This is a wonderful kind of gift, a very special kind of gift, a precious gift in the Dharma, to give confidence and fearlessness to a person by virtue of your attitude. I think this is what we find in great spiritual teachers. This is why we love to hang around with them. This is why I think people love Suzuki Roshi so much, because he gave that gift. People

[74:29]

would feel, gee, I feel like a good person around him. I feel like a really worthwhile individual when I'm around him. He didn't say anything to me. He didn't go around telling me how great I was all the time, but that's how I feel when I'm around him. So that's I think a gift that developed practitioners can give. And then the last one is the gift of love, the gift of warmth, and a wonderful practice in this regard is kind speech, smiling at somebody. See, this is the thing. It's a practice. We think, what if I don't feel like smiling? I'm in a good mood. Besides, I don't like that person. Well, that may be true, and it may be that no matter, you're so convinced of all of that, that it's impossible for you to practice kind speech vis-a-vis that person.

[75:35]

So try somebody easier, or easier, something that will work for you. But in reality, that's a very lame kind of excuse, right? Because what do you mean you don't like them? What you mean is, afflictive emotions arose in your mind in regard to that particular person, but why should that push you around, right? Why should that be the controlling factor in your life? Why don't you just let go of that? Practice giving. Then, smile at them. It's possible to smile at somebody that you don't like. In other words, to have some space around your dislike of somebody or something. It's possible. And you have to cultivate that. So you smile as a way of creating space. At first, it might be, but you know, you try. Little by little, you get better at it. If people go around like this, it's kind of like

[76:41]

an in-joke in the class, you know, as you're walking around Green Gulch, somebody goes like this. You'll know they're practicing. And they don't really like you. But no, I mean, one of the things about cultivating bodhicitta is exactly that. Just like I was saying with this person who bowed, you know, these hundreds of times, is, are we going to go through the rest of our life being victimized by whatever mood comes down the pike as a result of causes and conditions of the past? Is that going to be like the controlling factor of our life? No, in dharma, it's not the controlling. And the controlling factor in our life is our commitment to bodhicitta. That's the control. And we have all kinds of ups and downs, of course, but they don't make us, they don't control our life. They're like the weather, you know. I mean, you go to work anyway. If it's a nice day, you go to work. If it rains, you go to work. If it snows, you go to work. I mean, there's limits, but you go to work, you know. So why should it be that you can't practice Buddhadharma even with the different weathers, you know, in your mind? So you can cultivate these things

[77:44]

and practice them. These are practices and cultivations and efforts that we make to open up and change our lives. So those are the four kinds of giving. Giving dharma, giving stuff, giving fearlessness, and giving love. And I'll close this lengthy, rambling speech with some things that they can rotate, and some of the Akin Roshi quotes from Dogen. Dogen has a wonderful, if you're interested in your studies here, it's in Mudanadudra, the book that we did at Zen Center, called the Bodhisattva's Four Methods of Guidance. And in there, Dogen speaks, one of the four methods is giving. And he speaks about giving in there, and Akin Roshi quotes him here. But you can look that up and read it with your study this week of giving. He says, one should give even a single coin. Oh, and he quotes wonderful stories about Buddha in past

[78:46]

lives giving a grain of sand, how wonderful things happened in future lives because of just giving this one grain of sand. As a baby on the beach, saw a wonderful Buddha pass by and didn't know what to give, and gave a grain of sand. So anyway, he tells lots of great stories. But one should give even a single coin or a single blade of grass of resources. It causes roots of goodness in this age and other ages to sprout. Teaching too is treasure. Material resources are teaching. It must depend on the will and aspiration, so the intention to give. When one learns well, being born and dying are both giving. Isn't that wonderful? Being born and dying are both acts of giving. All productive labor is fundamentally giving. So this is the secret of work. Work is either drudgery or it's an act of giving. And that's another way that you can practice giving, is this week when you work, work as

[79:53]

if you were practicing giving. Give. Don't get paid, just give your work. And then later on, at the end of the month, if they give you something, great. But don't work for pay, see? Just give freely. And in the work that we do here, when you work in the kitchen or whatever you're doing, see if you can see that as an offering, as a gift. Entrusting flowers to the wind, birds to the season also must be meritorious acts of giving. It is not only a matter of exerting physical effort. One should not miss the right opportunity. Giving is to transform the mind of living beings. He talks a lot about the power of giving to transform other beings. One should not calculate the greatness or smallness of the mind, nor the greatness or smallness of the thing given. In other words, the attitude of the spirit doesn't matter what you give or how small or large it is. Nevertheless,

[80:56]

there is a time when the mind transforms things, and there is giving in which things transform the mind. So, that's a lot to say. And again, I apologize for going on, but I did want to give the whole field. And next week, what we'll do is we'll start out by telling some stories about our practice of giving. And I gave you at least 25 different ways to practice giving. And we'll talk about that in the beginning, and we'll see what we came up with and how that's been. And then after that, we'll start talking about morality. And I'm going to try to see if it will work out that each week we'll talk about one. There are six weeks, right? Six Paramitas kind of works out nice. So, let's go like that. Unless that becomes impossible, we feel like we're rushing through, we want to save or something, and we get stuck on one, we'll slow down. We won't nail ourselves to that plan, but that's what I'm going to

[81:58]

try to do. So, you can study about giving, and also if you want, go ahead and read about morality also, because I'll try to talk about that next week and have some more dialogue. So, we're at the end, and I think we should just chant now. And then, those of us who are in the practice period are going to go over to the zendo and offer our entire bodies to Manjushri Bodhisattva and Shakyamuni Buddha, their depictions of those qualities of our life in the altar, and then we're going to repeat the refuges. That's our way of ending the day, every day, in the practice period. So, anyone who likes, can come and join us, and you're also welcome to. Let's go home, it's not part of the class. But we'll chant the Bodhisattva vows to make it appropriate, don't you think, at the end of the class. May our intention...

[83:03]

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