Good evening. So due to the Japanese art seminar we have our Wednesday night talk tonight in the Zendo and that naturally changes the formality of it. But I think for the last weeks we've been meeting more informally and then breaking into small groups to talk about the precepts one by one. So even though it is a little more formal, I thought I would talk a bit about the tenth grave precept and then we'll see how long that goes and then break into groups again

[01:03]

to discuss this. So the tenth grave precept or prohibitory precept is a disciple of Buddha, no it isn't, a disciple of Buddha does not disparage the triple treasure is one translation or a disciple of the Buddha does not abuse the three treasures or a disciple of the Buddha does not defame. I've seen all three translations, abuse, disparage, defame and I also found a translation does not speak ill of, so it's all pointing to a certain attitude towards the triple treasure. So just to review, the triple treasure is the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha and

[02:06]

I think the last of the precepts, the disparaging the triple treasure goes along with the first three precepts of the sixteen Bodhisattva precepts which is taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, so we start with taking refuge and the last one is not to disparage that which you have taken refuge in. So in thinking about this, how would you go about disparaging or abusing the triple treasure, how would one do that and just reflecting on the ten commandments from the Judeo-Christian tradition, there's that one commandment, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain and I remember not understanding what that meant, what was vain, what was taking someone's name in vain, I didn't quite understand it, but as I grew up, when my mother said

[03:09]

don't say that, like I remember in eighth grade, everybody just would say, oh God, oh God, you know like that, that was kind of like she'd hear me on the phone with my girlfriends, oh God and then he said this and then he said that and she said don't say that, don't say oh God, so then I thought, oh that's it, that's taking the name of the Lord thy God in vain, kind of vainly using it, so I think in our culture, Judeo-Christian culture, there's over the millennia, we have profanity, right, or swear words, or like when I was growing up, when I was in Italy, I remember one of the swear words, the profanity was to say porca Madonna, you know, which is pig Madonna, you know, and that was like, ooh, that was really a big one and other things with Madonna that you'd say, anyway, pig Madonna, I remember that was shocking, you know, and you could probably think of your own ways, various ways

[04:14]

of abusing or taking the name in vain, but in Buddhism it's like, I just don't think we would say, you know, pig Guanyin, you know, it's like, it doesn't, we're not there yet, you know, it's too new, you know, or we just haven't developed that, we're too happy to receive this new religion, and we haven't quite gotten to the next phase. So then how would you, what would be disparaging or defaming, and why is that at the end, you know, why is that the kind of capping phrase? So, just in reading, you know, I was reading I read today, Akin Roshi, Daido Lori, Maizumi Roshi, Suzuki Roshi, Reb, Sherry Huber, just

[05:21]

kind of looking at how they all dealt with not, a disciple of the Buddha does not disparage the triple treasure, and Sherry Huber's was interesting, hers was, Sherry Huber is a Zen teacher who teaches in Mountain View, I think, I've never met her, but she has books, lots of books out, and there's one book on the precepts that's basically a retreat she led on the precepts, and it's a dialogue between this group of students and herself, so it's conversation and questions, and she translates this and deals with it as not speaking ill of other religions, and they got into this discussion about Christianity and stereotypic ways people felt about how their origin, their religion of origin and so forth, and so not disparaging the triple treasure was not to put down other religions, was basically how

[06:25]

they were discussing it. So Suzuki Roshi has some lectures, these are all by the way in, I think it's in the library, a notebook, a precept notebook with a lot of these different lectures in it that have been gathered, it's a big thick binder, three-hole, loose-leaf binder that has some of these lectures if you ever want to look at them, but there's this one lecture by Suzuki Roshi that I remember Reb saying was so, it was very boring, it's like he began to talk about the three treasures and people would go to sleep, and so I was trying to really focus on it to see what, and it's very hard, it's not very juicy, you know, in some ways for us. So Suzuki Roshi talks about, and this is Dogen as well, this is Suzuki Roshi I think commenting on Dogen's teachings on the precepts, and he talks about,

[07:34]

we can think about the triple treasure in three different ways, probably more than that, and this is where I can almost feel the room go, oh no, I'm starting to go to sleep, but anyway, it's the indivisible triple treasure, the manifested triple treasure, and the main contained triple treasure. So the way we can remember it is the IMM, that's how I'm remembering it. So the IMM, the indivisible triple treasure, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha as one indivisible truth or one precept, the one precept, which is before Buddhism or before we begin to divide it up into Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, the indivisible one precept of what you might say emptiness or the truth, which existed or was not invented by the Buddha, Shakyamuni

[08:39]

Buddha, but was more realized by him. So it existed, you could say existed, or it was there to be discovered before Shakyamuni didn't create something. So this indivisible, and the indivisible triple treasure is that, this is how Maizumi Roshi was talking about it, that everything exists right here, right now, you probably heard this before, right now, everything is here, there's nothing lacking, that's the indivisible, including us. So one single body, in the midst of the myriad things, one single body revealed, so this one single body is the indivisible Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. And then the next is the Buddha, that's I, M, M, so the next is the manifested Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. So

[09:40]

what manifested or came forth was Shakyamuni Buddha, as a teacher, who realized the indivisible Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. He manifested this and he spoke, his teachings are the manifested Dharma, so these teachings are the truth, or the law, sometimes translated as law, is what was manifested from Shakyamuni Buddha, and then those disciples, those people who wanted to practice that way and who followed this particular teaching were called the Sangha, or is called the Sangha, the manifested Sangha. And then the maintained, this is the second M of I, M, M, the maintained Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha would be these Buddha figures, for example, in this room, made of wood and bronze and brass and whatever, stone, these

[10:47]

Buddha figures are called maintained, the maintained Buddha, and then the sutras and the written words in the libraries full of the teachings, the books, the written things is the maintained Dharma, and then the just community of practitioners and priests and lay people who all follow this teaching are the maintained Sangha, and they basically maintain this teaching through time, you might say. So that's one way of kind of looking at what Buddha and Dharma and Sangha are, this indivisible, and then the manifested, and then the maintained. So this is from Dogen about this precept, the body is manifested, the Dharma is unfolded,

[11:52]

and there is a bridge in the world for crossing over. So the body is manifested, the Buddha body is manifested, the Dharma or the truth is unfolded, and there is a bridge for crossing over. The bridge is the Sangha. There is a way, and you can actually see people following that way, and you too may want to follow that way. This is the bridge. The Sangha is also talked about as the harmony between Buddha and Dharma, the harmony between awakened, the awakened one, or awakened beings, and the teachings. The harmony between that is Sangha. So you know for the full moon ceremony, at the end we take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and there's those little verses. So the first one is, the way I always remember this, is I before E. I'll just give you all my mnemonics tonight. So I take refuge in

[12:57]

Buddha, and then it's I before E, so it's immersing body and mind deeply in the way. Immersing body and mind deeply in the way is taking refuge in Buddha or awakened nature. And then the second, I take refuge in Dharma, entering E, entering deeply the merciful ocean. So entering this fathomless ocean of truth. And then the last one is, I take refuge in Sangha, bringing harmony to everyone. So the Sangha kind of conveys this awakened beings conveying the truth, bringing harmony to everyone. So this Sangha is harmony. Let's see, just to go a little further, Thich Nhat Hanh's translations are, I take refuge in Buddha, the one who shows me the way in this life. I take refuge in Dharma, the, let's see,

[14:04]

I take refuge, there's a song, in Buddha, the one who shows me the way in this life. I take refuge in the Dharma. The teaching of understanding and love, and I take refuge in Sangha, the community of mindful harmony. So this harmony comes up, this, the harmony of the Sangha. So what would be disparaging or abusing or defiling Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and why is it one of these, why is it a grave precept? And it's considered to be actually, if you're following the other nine, you are following the tenth. And if you are disparaging the tenth, disparaging the triple treasure, you could not be following the other ones. So they're very intertwined. The nine are seen as nine limbs of this tenth

[15:14]

one. So if you understand your awakened nature and the teaching and are in harmony, then all the other precepts fall into place. Not lying, not taking what is not given, not killing, not misusing sexuality and so forth. So they're all bound together, just like all the precepts actually are bound together. You find that you're not observing one, and just so happens you're not observing many. But I found this interesting that if you're not completely following the nine, then for sure you're disparaging the awakened mind, the teachings, and this harmony. So one way, one big way of breaking this precept would be causing disharmony in the Sangha. That's one of the big ways that this is, one might be breaking

[16:22]

this precept or not observing it, is causing disharmony or divisiveness, which was pretty serious in the old Vinaya, to cause a break or a schism or division in the Sangha was very serious. I think it might have been worthy of expulsion if you caused a vicenness or a schism, but I'm not sure if that is too harsh. But I think it might be. Does anyone know for sure? I think it is. I think that's one of the ones. There's just a few where you get expelled completely, and that's, I think, one of them causing divisiveness. So I see the gravity of this one. Also, well, let me just finish my sentence. So when we

[17:27]

take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, often we are in, we need a place to go home to. We need a place, refuge means to fly back to. We feel like we're separated or far away from our own true nature, our own true being, alienated from our true self, and we long to come back, to take refuge, to go home to our own true self. So if we are fortunate enough to be exposed to Buddhist teaching, to these teachings, and it arises in us that we want to take refuge, we want to actually return to this. At Question and Answer on Sunday someone was talking about a twelve-step program and that it had been very helpful for her to have this higher power, to ask help from her higher power, and to take refuge,

[18:36]

I guess, in her higher power, and she was wondering if there was anything, she's very new to Buddhism, is there anything in Buddhism that's like that? And I said, I talked about taking refuge and also calling out for help. So the refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, refuge is the triple treasure of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, can be a turning point for people in terms of the suffering of their life to have found the triple treasure, and to have found a practice, and Zazen is a manifestation of the indivisible triple treasure. So to have found a practice of Zazen, and then as it divides and we look at it in different ways, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, to feel amazing grace, as someone said to me, to feel

[19:43]

like they were home, and to have great gratitude rise up to have been exposed to the teaching and to take it up, and to not only that, but have a place where it's being maintained, having the conditions, the right conditions so that you can practice. This is precious, this is very precious. So to do something that would destroy that, divide that, make it hard for people to find their way, this affects people deeply, and to destroy the conditions for someone's liberation, or awakening, or realizing their true home or their true nature, has enormous consequences for the person. You could say that the indivisible Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha is not touched, how could it be touched or abused in any way?

[20:43]

And I think that's maybe true, but in the manifested, in the made, excuse me, in the maintained, you could say there is disharmony, there can be disharmony. So to feel our ancient twisted karma sets up the world as self and other, and then we act in such a way that we believe in that, and we do actions that then further separate us, further alienate us, further cause problems. And then to be shown a way, to be shown a path, the Buddha Dharma, this is saving all sentient beings. So disparaging the triple treasure, this,

[21:59]

you know, you could say wish-fulfilling gem, it's called a gem, it's a treasure or triple jewel, this is a jewel for beings, for the many beings, and to treat it disrespectfully, and you, we are also part of this indivisible triple treasure, so to treat ourselves disparagingly, to treat, to abuse ourselves, or to abuse any other being, or plant, animal, or the earth, can all be, you know, you can, I'm just giving us a kind of wide way of looking at this in all different ways, this is also abusing the triple treasure, or disparaging. So, maybe that's enough for seeding the conversation, for seeding the discussion, and I guess what

[23:10]

we've done these last Wednesdays is count the practice leaders and then count off, is that right? So how many manifested practice leaders do we have? One, two, three, four, five, maya, six, okay, so why don't the practice leaders count off, do we count off the practice leaders, do we count off, no we don't count off, why don't we start down the rows, just counting, do you want to start Renee, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,

[23:56]

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