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. Good morning. We left Siddhartha Gautama under the Bodhi tree on his Bodhimanda, his seat of enlightenment, having resolved not to get up until he had realized the truth and with that strong, resolute

[01:02]

He had been tested. He had been made to manifest the reality of that vow. by sitting still, by not moving. And so the next part of the story has to do with, one might say, what was the content of the Buddha's enlightenment? and what did he realize?

[02:09]

And I think there's old wisdom school and later sutras that say different things and I think I wanted to go back to the Pali to see what was described and then other descriptions and then how we turn it is for us to combine perhaps these different offerings of teachings and take up what we resonate with. And in this story that's in the Pali, it's in the Majjhima Nikaya section of the Pali. And in this one, he is met by a particular good debater and it's a man name.

[03:20]

In fact, this is the name of the section in the Madhima Nikaya. It's called the Maha. This is Pali, so I think it might be Sa-ka-ka. Let's see. No, maybe. Sa-cha-ka. Sa-cha-ka. Is that true? Does anyone know? If the C is, I think the C is soft, like Chunda the Smith. So I'm going to say Sachaka. And Sachaka was a very good debater and he was a Jain who was well known and, you know, entered into lively discussions and arguments with different teachers and pressed them for their understanding. So in the Mijimandikaya, the Buddha's recounting of some of the stories that I've been talking about comes up in this discussion with Satchaka, the Jain, and one of the other threads running through the story is that

[04:27]

Sachaka is kind of bent on unseating the Buddha. He's kind of maybe a testing kind of person and after the Buddha has done his alms round he's coming back to where they've been staying and Ananda sees Sachaka kind of in the distance and says, Lord, here comes Sachaka, the debater, the jain, who is bent on disparagement of the Buddha, bent on disparagement of the Dharma and the Sangha, would you sit down for a moment out of sympathy for him, says Ananda, and talk with him? And somehow for me, what's in between the lines is, could you please put him straight, you know, or stop this guy from disparaging the triple treasure, but instead, out of sympathy for... No, that's disparaging Ananda. I kind of heard it as, yes, this will help Sachaka and it will help the triple treasure if someone lets go of their disparagement.

[05:34]

And he's a good debater. So the Buddha says, fine, he'll talk with them. And he begins, Sachaka asks some various questions and the Buddha starts by basically saying, kind of talking about the things that he let go of and understood on the night of his enlightenment. But he starts out with talking about these teachers that he studied with who we've talked about, Alara Kalama and Uddhaka Ramaputta, the two yogic masters that he met with and he talks about how he practiced with them but realized that what he accomplished there did not, was not conducive to peace, to cessation, to stillness, and to direct knowledge of awakening.

[06:43]

He accomplished those things but, and then he, this simile arose in the Buddha, in this case the Buddha's mind, the simile which describes the different ways he had been practicing. And the simile is, if someone were to find, this is what he says, a wet, sappy piece of timber lying in water, and someone were to come along and say, well I would like to make fire and produce heat, would this be a conducive, would this wet a sappy piece of lumber lying in water be a good way to make fire. And, you know, I think Satchaya says, Satchaka says, you know, no, that would not work, you know. And it wouldn't, and the Buddha says, it's the same with people who do not relinquish being completely indulging in sensual pleasures and who don't relinquish this

[07:53]

and thirst and hankering and fever for these material things and sensuality. So that was, you know, one part of his life that he let go of. And then the next part is, what if a wet, sappy piece of timber, which we've got a lot of lying around here, was lying on land, not lying in the water, but lying on land, away from the water, and someone came along and said, I'd like to make fire and produce heat, would that wet, sappy piece of timber away from water be conducive? And the answer is no, because it's still wet and sappy. It's not going to make a fire. It's not going to make good, strong heat. And this is like, and this is reminding me of friends I have in AA who talk about something called, I think it's called a dry drunk, where you're not, you're not indulging in alcohol, but your mind is still suffused with the urge and the, you know, you're still indulging in various ways and thinking, those of you who are in recovery maybe can talk about this more thoroughly, but it's, there's still these issues that you're definitely working with and caught by perhaps.

[09:17]

So he says, no. even if you're not lying in the water, if you're dwelling with these things and haven't relinquished them, it's still the relinquishing is the main thing. So then the third question is, if a dry sapless piece of timber lying on land far from water were to be come upon and someone wants to, make fire, would that work? And yes, that would work. This is someone who's really withdrawn from that total indulgent fever, urge, bondage to caught by desires and so forth. Really relinquish that. Then you can make the fire. So the Buddha goes on with satchaka saying, then I I realized this and began doing these austerities and they gave what Tim said yesterday about the transitions and the smoothness.

[10:27]

This is a very clear description of these austerities. Things like, I clenched my teeth and I pressed my tongue up against the roof of my mouth and I beat down with constraint and crushed my mind with awareness. This kind of gritting your teeth and just using concentration to not feel motion and other, yeah, awarenesses. And he said sweat just poured off of him and he used this persistence and this is a kind of crushing of any, you know, kind of urge or any, just using this. And then he tried not breathing and the description of that. But then he said, but I didn't feel calm in my body. So then he tried not breathing in and out and suppressing that in his ears.

[11:31]

There was this roaring sound in his head, his head as if he was bound with leather straps that people were pulling and terrible pains and by this breath, you know, working with the breath in this way, but then he realized in this extreme pain, there was not calm, you know, he realized that. Then he tried not food, which we know about, and he said, when I touched my back, I touched my stomach at the same time, you know, like his stomach cavity and spine were like adhering, you know, and terrible pain, but he realized there was no calm. So he goes on to tell Sachaka, who in the middle of this is very kind of overly friendly a little bit with the Buddha and says things like, I have confidence that Master Kottama has developed in body and developed in mind, and he barely knows him, he hasn't met him, you know, and to say, I have confidence, as if he presumes that he knows the Buddha well and can say this, and the Buddha

[12:43]

says, well, that's a rude and presumptuous thing to say, satyaka, you know. But the Buddha does not lose his calm, you know, he just tells it like it is to this man. So then he talks about this memory that he has of the kind of joy and peace and rapture sitting under the rose apple tree. He's telling us a to talk about this, and he thinks to himself, maybe, maybe this is the road, this is the way to awakening. And then this, this is the, in this sutta, this is where he talks about being afraid. Why am I afraid of that pleasure? And it's, I think, this, having just kind of gotten over and relinquished these kinds of pleasures that lead to unwholesome states and so forth, then that was like conflated with any kind of joy and pleasure.

[13:51]

So he had some fear of, what about this calm, joyful thing that I remember? Maybe I can't go there because then I'll be inundated again or invaded by this and I won't be able to find calm again. He hasn't found it yet, but So maybe it will be unskillful, this kind of unskillful extreme. So he had some fear even though he thought maybe this is the right way. And he examines this and realizes, no, I'm no longer afraid of this. This is nothing to do with this unskillful mental bondage. This is something else. I can trust this. But I need sustenance because I can't go on. in the Majjima Nikaya doesn't mention Sujata and being fed by her, but it does say he eats, which is where we left him sitting there making.

[14:52]

It also doesn't have the fight with Mara in this rendition, so it does have him leaving his sobbing parents, doesn't have anything, no mention of wife or child, which comes from, I think, mostly this long, long poem by Ashwagosa called Buddha Karita, the Acts of the Buddha, and it's inverse, in English it's a very thick book, and it was written in 200 common era, so that's like, the Buddha died in what, 483 or something like that, so that's, you know, 700 or so years after the Buddha died, that poem, which was probably very beautiful, and post-canonical, which has all these things that we know so well. I think that's where the Buddhologists and scholars picked up, well, this is really a neat story, let's take this one from this poem. But in the Majima Nikaya, it says he leaves his sobbing parents.

[15:55]

So, he's settled on his seat, and he settles into similar to this time when he was under the rose apple tree, a kind of pleasure and rapture, and this is a word I don't use that much, this is in the Majima Takaya, you know, an intense joy, but not excited or giddy or kind of destabilizing kind of a thing, but a steady joyfulness, born of seclusion, accompanied by a stilling of directed thought and evaluations. You know, cast aside all involvements in seesaw affairs, do not think good or bad, not gauging, it's just dropping away evaluations and directed thought, thinking about particular things, just settling, and this joy and peace and rapture, which I don't think I even know what rapture is, but that's what they say.

[17:03]

in Majjima Nikaya. And this was the first jhana, which is characterized by joy. And this kind of pleasure, a kind of physical pleasure and joy. And he entered this. And then he continued sitting and entered... The second jhana, which has rapture and pleasure born of concentration and unification of awareness, also freed from directed thought and evaluation. This is the second jhana, which these jhana translates J-H-A-N-A, translates often into English as trance, some absorption, some strong absorption,

[18:04]

trance, I think, in English often connotes something a little different than that. So I think using jhana is maybe good. This absorption in this concentrated, highly concentrated state. And he entered this without thoughts, directed thought and evaluation, and sat in second jhana. And this pleasant feeling both in the first and the second didn't invade the mind and I think that is a kind of like, wasn't caught by, like holding on, clinging to this kind of pleasure. It arose but there wasn't clinging to it. And it didn't remain. It was ungraspable. And out of this awareness and state of concentration and absorption came equanimity and mindful, being mindfully alert and also a pleasure in the body and this was an entering into the third jhana.

[19:34]

And this pleasant feeling also didn't invade the body, but invade the mind and remain as a kind of holding on to. And this third jhana of equanimousness and mindfulness and pleasant feeling was then abandoned. The pleasure and pain were completely abandoned as the Buddha sat and there was, just like in the earlier jhanas, there was neither elation nor pain nor distress and from there he entered into the fourth jhana, a purity of equanimity and mindfulness with neither pleasure or pain. and he stayed in the fourth jhana. So, equanimous, no highs, no lows, no pleasure, no pain, but mindfully alert and even, an even-mindedness.

[20:52]

And his mind was concentrated, bright, pliant, malleable, this kind of soft, flexible mind, steady, and he had an imperturbability sitting there. And with this kind of mind, this soft, pliant, imperturbable, steady, malleable mind, he directed that or began to recollect, and this was in the first watch of the night, and I don't know what the hours are exactly, the first watch of the night, I think they're two hours slots, first watch of the night, he recollected his own past lives, using, you know, with a mind like this, this bright, concentrated, imperturbable, pliant, concentrated, purified mind,

[22:05]

he looked at his own life and his own past lives and recalled, was able to recall, this is what it says in the sutras, and reviewed, you know, life after life after life. He was born here with these parents, he wore these things, he ate these things, he died in this way, he suffered in this way, and he reviewed thousands of these over, you know, one after the other after the other. It says eons, like countless eons of these. This was the first watch of the night. And she remained sitting there with this concentrated, purified, bright, malleable, imperturbable, pliant mind And this looking, this was called the first knowledge in the first watch of the night was his own appearing and disappearing.

[23:18]

And in this first watch ignorance was destroyed and knowledge arose as it happens to one who is ardent and resolute. You know, in the Pali suttas, things are repeated over and over, these phrases which were mnemonic, is that the word? They were for memory, for recall. So, you know, after this is said over and over again, these same things, and sometimes it's dot, dot, dot, you just, you know it, you learn it, because these were all orally transmitted, all these the whole Pali Canon was an oral transmission until much later, so it says, you know, ignorance was destroyed, knowledge arose, as it happens with one who is ardent and resolute. And in the second watch of the night, with his mind concentrated,

[24:29]

pliant, imperturbable and so forth, bright, purified. He directed his knowledge that had arisen to the passing away and the reappearances of beings, so meaning all of us, you know. And he saw, and I think this is depicted in the Wheel of Life, you know, the six realms of existence, how beings through their actions and basically the knowledge that came to him through the second watch of the night was the knowledge of karma and the cause and effect and consequences of actions is what he saw through first he saw his own births, rebirths and then he saw beings and the the consequences of their actions and if they were skillful actions, how they appeared and reappeared in different ways and suffered or didn't suffer from skillful or unskillful actions.

[25:41]

And a life lived skillfully and the consequences that flowed from that. And this was within this absorption being able to direct this pliant and imperturbable mind towards this and he saw the fruit of karmic actions, karmic consequences. With this mind that was ardent and resolute, this knowledge arose about karma. And he continued to sit in this absorption steady and he directed his mind the next thing that occurred in the third watch of the night he discerned very clearly the origin and in this translation by

[26:55]

not Nanamoli, it's Thissaro, uses instead of suffering, stress, the word stress. So the Buddha saw, he discerned the Four Noble Truths. He saw this is stress, is what it says. This is suffering, as we know it more usually. This is stress and dis-ease. He saw, he discerned, this is what stress and suffering is. And then he saw with this clarity and imperturbable mind, he saw that there was an origin to stress. There was an origin to suffering. He saw. And then he saw that there was a cessation. And in this translation it says, a cessation of fermentations. And I'm not sure what word fermentations in English is translating here. Usually we say origins, you know, the cessation of the origins of suffering is the third noble truth.

[28:06]

There's the truth of stress, I like that. The truth of stress or suffering, the origin of it, and there is a cessation of suffering This is a cessation of fermentation. And the fourth noble truth, this is a way leading to the cessation of suffering, afflictions, the cause of suffering. So he saw it, you know, as clear as clear could be. He saw it. He saw. Discerned. And he said, my heart, or mind, heart, mind, my heart, thus knowing, thus seeing, was released from fermentations, was released from this creating of suffering due to greed, hate, and delusion.

[29:16]

And released from becoming and released from ignorance, and he discerned, he discerned that, and this is Pali, that birth is ended, that the holy life is fulfilled, the task is done, there is nothing further for this world. That was this, you know, this nirvana where the that the coolness of there's nothing, there's no more ignorance that generates this kind of suffering and karma that creates new situations of becoming and on and on and on. That was cooled. And my task is done.

[30:22]

And this is, I think, echoed in many poems. In the Therigata, the poems of the women elders that we chant, the acharyas, often they say, I mean, many of them has, you know, it's over, my task is done, I've completed. This is the no more, no more returning, no more rebirth as arhat, I have completed this journey. and it's worthy of great honor and it's a noble endeavor and a difficult endeavor and it takes resolute, ardent effort, steady over lifetimes. So in this story it ends kind of there with, and then I'm going to go to the Mahayana, what might be more familiar to you, or maybe not, but just to say after the Buddha finished this description to Satchaka, he

[31:49]

I think he appreciated that, but during it he had kind of asked certain things. And then he, kind of like that story I told about Mara yesterday, he says to the Buddha, he's talking about deluded, people who are deluded, and he asked the Buddha something about, I saw you lie down in the middle of the day. Master Gautama, and the Buddha basically, you know, he said, I saw you sleeping during the day. And the Buddha said, in the last month of the hot season, after a meal, returning from my alms round, I set myself down, folded my outer robe in fours, set it down, and lay down on my right side, and falling asleep while mindful and alert. Yes, I did.

[32:58]

And Sachaka says to him, some Brahmins and other people would say if they saw that, that you were deluded. I mean, what a thing to say to the Buddha, you know, it's like. And then the Buddha says, this is my understanding of what deluded is, you know. when you do actions that lead to suffering and the causes of suffering. That's how I understand deluded. You know, not taking a nap. So at the end of this discussion with the Buddha he says, when Master Gautama is addressed rudely again and again and assailed by presumptuous speech, his face brightens and he's clear

[33:59]

And he just continues teaching with others when I engage in this way in debate by me and have spoken presumptuously and rudely to them. They have spoken evasively, led the discussion astray, displayed irritation, aversion, and peevishness. But you have just hung in there with me with, you know, your face has been clear and bright and you've continued. So this kind of testing, like trying to unseat the Buddha, that's why I was thinking this Satchaka fellow was a little Mara-ish, you know, like, okay, so you're the great master with all your disciples, let's see how you do with presumptuous speech and rudeness. Can you handle that? And talking, you know, overly friendly and saying personal remarks like, oh, you've developed your mind and body quite nicely. But the Buddha did not take the bait and just... you know, continue to teach. And it reminded me of a Thich Nhat Hanh story during the war, during the Vietnam War, maybe you've heard this, I think it's in one of his books where he talks about working with anger.

[35:09]

He was doing a speaking tour in the States for the peace movement, speaking about the horrors that were going on in Vietnam and, you know, many of his brothers and sisters in the Sangha were being you know, killed and just horrible. And he was talking about peace and talking to Americans, speaking in this country, and someone in the audience said to him something like, what are you doing here? You know, you should be talking about this in your country. What are you, you know, going around here talking to us about this? And Thich Nhat Hanh describes this anger that arose in him like a fire, like a raging fire, you know, in the middle of what we were doing over there and ravaging this country.

[36:14]

And this guy speaks to him that way and this anger just rose up like a fire. And at the same time he knew if he were to give in to that, everything he was trying to do, would be lost. He would lose everything he had built. And with his mindfulness and breath, actually, he concentrated on his breath to just feel what he was feeling with attention, breathing in, I am feeling rage, breathing out, rage is arising in me, breathing in until he calmed himself down enough to speak to this person in some way that was skillful. And I remember being so, reading that story, being so moved by what it took to not take the bait, especially in those circumstances with what he knew and being spoken to, to me sounded like

[37:29]

presumptuously and rudely, you know, and using his practice and his effort to feel it, not suppress, I don't think he could have, but also not to act it out in any way and find a way. And it reminded me of this, those two stories. The Buddha wasn't, sounds like he wasn't irritated or peevish or he just skillfully I think this is skill and means how am I going to talk to this guy who is bent on kind of getting to me how about this let me talk to you this way so you may want to read it read this it's in you know we have all these books the discourses in the library or you might own it and it's It's a very refreshing, the lilt and the cadence of the Pali canon in English, how it's been translated with these repetitions is wonderful, be wonderful to learn by heart.

[38:40]

So in the stories that we're maybe a little more familiar with is, because this doesn't say anything about the morning star, it does say the Buddha reviews in the first watch of the night, you know, his past lives and karma and Four Noble Truths, which is the first thing he taught, which I'll talk about tomorrow, what happened after. But then it says, when the morning star arose, the Buddha was enlightened in the light of the morning star, seeing the morning star. And what it says in the, I think it's the Mahaparinirvana, the big sutra, upon seeing the morning star, and this is, maybe you've heard this before, the Buddha says, and this is the exclamation upon his awakening was marvelous, marvelous, all beings and the great earth are completely and thoroughly enlightened or completely and thoroughly awake and just except for their delusions,

[39:57]

these clouds, they don't realize it. All beings without exception and the great earth are completely and thoroughly awake. That's their, that's the nature, that's, that was what he came to. So we're all included in this enlightenment, you know, this and I think all, all practice period we've been looking at this chapter two where the Buddha says, what I have realized can't, I can't say it, you know. What he can't say and what is with skillful means he tries to say is the true reality of all beings, the shōho jisō of all beings is that we're already completely, our nature is awakened nature. This is the teaching And, you know, I can verbalize that, and I can say that to you, and my task is, our task is to realize it in this very body.

[41:13]

So when the Buddha sat on his Bodhimanda, on his seat of enlightenment, all beings without exception were with him, were him. because the true reality that he opened to and awakened to is all beings. And Dogen's poem, Dogen has a number of poems about this. This is one of them. Catching the morning star, the world glowed red. His eyes thundered and broke through empty space. He further upheld completion of the way in the Saha world. And this last line, it refers to something I'm not completely sure of. Everyone, everywhere, the wind of a wooden ladle blows towards spring.

[42:21]

I know that there's some stories of a long wooden ladle that dips into the... water. But anyway, it's Dogen. The image is enough. Everywhere the wind of a wooden ladle blows towards spring. This is another Dogen one. On this night, the Tathagata completed true awakening with effort and dropping away body and mind. His eyes became clear. Together with beings, all various living beings in the three thousand worlds smiled. Although this is, what is the situation of a patch-robed monk student, what is the situation of the patch-robed monk student Ehe? So every time I say that particular phrase, you know, marvelous, marvelous, it's even to say marvelous, marvelous, it's sort of like if you were to really say, if you were to really, if I were to really understand marvelous, marvelous, it would be like shouted from flag rock, you know, be like marvelous, marvelous, all beings.

[43:51]

But maybe not. I mean, the Buddha's just sitting there quietly, this arose with equanimity, what he saw. And so, you know, I'm gonna leave him there sitting in the middle, not even in the middle, just sitting in emptiness with full awareness and clear eyes about the true reality of all existence. And I think, you know, this Lotus Sutra, the Pali says, you know, my task is done, it's over, you know, I've done it. And of course the Lotus is saying, takes up the reality of many, many, many Buddhists to come who take up the task forever.

[45:03]

And this eternal nature of Shakyamuni, actually, eternal Shakyamuni who lives in this body of practitioners who continue the practice moment after moment. So tomorrow we'll see what happens. Right now the Buddha's just relaxing in this knowledge of the true reality of all existence. And what's going to happen next? What is it that thus comes? wanted through this story for us to feel close to Shakyamuni, you know, to Siddhartha, kind of close to his struggle and his fears and confusion and trying things that do and don't work, lots of things that don't work, and to be sitting with this awakened one, you know, sitting with Siddhartha.

[46:52]

that's all I want to bring up today. And I want to clarify something I said yesterday. I talked about our edge, you know, working on our edge and not being complacent or making a comfy cozy kind of situation. And someone asked me, do you mean you know, working on the edge of our pain. And I just wanted to clarify that that's, that might be something that is ripe for you. Ripe and right for you. But not necessarily. It can be working with other edges that we have. It's not just pain. It could be, how do we get up in the morning? Do we get up and Do we lollygag or do we just meet our life?

[48:04]

Lollygag? Maybe that's your edge. Or maybe like Satchaka you have, you notice you want to unseat people or challenge their, or something out of just sheer I don't know what, maybe that's your edge of realizing that and allowing for people to take their space without being impinged upon or that it has to do with you. Or, you know, I know people get very irritated with one another and we're very sensitive, some of us are very sensitive to all sorts of sounds, smells, tastes, and touchables. And, you know, maybe one's edge is our irritability and our, and hence our, you know, we talked yesterday about maturity and growing up and being nourished or whenever we talked about it and blaming, you know, blaming others for our discomfort or our problems or, you know, maybe our edges looking at.

[49:26]

Can we find this imperturbability? Where is it? How do we cultivate this and pliancy and what is it that we need? Because we can't change the externals and move them around like chess pieces or something. They will not be controlled, you know. They and other kinds of circumstances, hot and cold. So maybe that's our edge. many, many, many millions of edges, that may be your edge. Afflictions, kleshas of all kinds, maybe that's the edge. And when we... But it might be also fear of experiencing unpleasant sensation and running. So maybe we need to go there.

[50:29]

not be afraid, or if we're afraid, say, I'm afraid, but I want to practice choosing to feel what's there. That might be your edge. So, someone told me a story of, in a session, feeling it wasn't, they weren't getting enough exercise, it wasn't physical enough, and the teacher said, not physical? Hmm, how about sitting full lotus? Want to try physical? So that might be one's edge to move if you're feeling like, hey, this is too easy. Not that ease and comfort, you know, that's fine too. I'm just talking about are we avoiding or backing away from any parts of our life or running away. So I just wanted to clarify that thing about edge. I didn't want anyone to feel I was pushing for something that might end up in hurting oneself.

[51:36]

My inclination today for whatever reason is to not have questions and to just, for all of us to sit as if this was, this is our last night tonight, right? Is that true? No, we have to the next day. This is only the sixth day, yeah. Anyway, to sit these next couple days in this spirit of resolute, with resolve, and ardent is a wonderful word, I think, for me. I like the word ardent. It has a lot of warmth. I think it has to do with blood. There's some blood etymology in there. I'll look it up. But a kind of warmth and resolute, ardent, and also arduous, I guess, is difficult. So some kind of making our full effort but at the same time with pliancy and a bright spirit together.

[53:02]

Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma Talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[53:32]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_96.21