Good morning. Can you hear me okay? Yes, no? I'm going to keep my mask on because as we all know, there was the breakthrough infection here and I'm one of the people who is part of the contact tracing. And I'm waiting for my second test to come back. The first rapid test was negative, but I took the PCR test and haven't gotten the results back. So I'm going to talk to you with this mask on it. But we're used to this now, so it's not that unusual. If you can't hear me or understand me very well, just Put up your hand, because I think it is a little muffled.

[01:06]

Yeah. I realize this is the first talk I've given live, not on Zoom, for quite a long time. And the first one I've attended, actually, or maybe I went to one other one, but it feels very alive. and friendly to have real bodies together, listening to the Dharma together, including me. So for the One Day Sitting talk, it's just a simple talk, really, that I wanted to offer that is part of something, bringing up part of something I've been studying and looking at, and it goes along with the precept Bodhisattva initiation, Bodhisattva precept ceremony, which will be tomorrow afternoon.

[02:15]

And there will be two practitioners who are receiving Buddhist precepts, and Roy C., and Jenny, where's Jenny? And Jenny Hernandez, some of you may know these wonderful practitioners. And they've been studying the precepts and sewing, and then COVID came. So it's been quite a while. And the ceremony would have happened a while ago, months ago, a year ago. So we'll be performing. this ceremony tomorrow afternoon at 3 o'clock, and I wanted to say something about the precept ceremony and something that for me is I'm turning, and that's not easy for me to understand, actually, about our precepts.

[03:19]

The name of this ceremony in Japanese is Zaikei Tokudo. which translates usually in English as staying at home and attaining the way. And that word attaining can also be translated as realizing maybe or touching, but staying at home and realizing or attaining the way. So the receiving of the 16 Bodhisattva precepts, we don't have separate precepts for those who ordain as priests and those who are lay ordained. It's just 16 bodhisattva precepts. Bodhisattvas come in any form, in any form that's needed. So that's this ceremony that will happen tomorrow. And the ceremony has various parts to it.

[04:25]

It's usually divided into two main parts for the ordnance. And we were using the word ordnand, which is before you're ordained. And then ordni is after you've been ordained, then you're an ordni. But I think ordnand is kind of an unusual word for people. But the ordnance before ordnance they come into where the ceremony is going to take place, walk around the practice place, the temple, and offer incense led by the Tanto, usually, and offer incense at different altars, the main practice place altars, including Suzuki Roshi's Kaisando Founders Hall and the Bath Altar. which is a traditional place that's offered every morning, actually. The kitchen, a main practice place.

[05:28]

And then sometimes we used to have the library, but we do the Cloud Hall or the office. Different practice places acknowledging that not just the zendo is the practice place, but all throughout the temple is a place of practice. And all throughout the world, all throughout your life, all throughout where you live in your own individual room, there's no place that isn't a practice place. But we have certain altars, so that's how the ceremony begins for the ordinands. And then they come into the ceremony, and it'll either be here with all the windows and doors open or outside. We haven't landed yet for sure. This seems pretty airy and nice. But we're going to be talking about that tonight at the rehearsal.

[06:31]

And then there's incense offering here. And then the The first thing that happens, or one of the first things after chanting the names of the Buddhas and ancestors, is the Ordinands receive a new name called a serene name, also called a dharma name or a way name, and their new clothing, which is their raksu, the small Buddha's rogue that's worn around the neck, which they have sewed themselves. with the help of the sewing teachers. So they're preparing in this first part of the ceremony to receive Buddha's precepts. So first they get a new name and then new clothing, this Buddha's robe. And then it's time to receive the precepts, which is the second part of the ceremony.

[07:38]

Before receiving the precepts, we start, just in the same way as we do for the full moon and the new moon ceremonies, we start by avowing our ancient twisted options of body, speech, and mind, our ancient twisted karma. And we just chanted the ehe kosuhotsu ganmon, which is... the vows of the high priest Dogen, that's the Ehe is Dogen, Ehe Dogen, the high priest Dogen's vows. And at the end there, just to remind us all, he talks about confessing and repenting a lack of faith and practice before the Buddha. We melt away the root of transgression by the power of our confession and repentance. This is the true and simple color. This is the pure and simple color of the true mind of faith and the true body of faith.

[08:43]

So the importance in our practice of acknowledging, avowing is really acknowledging, admitting our unskillful actions of body, speech, and mind that are not in accord with Buddha's teaching, with Buddha's way, with Buddha Dharma. this practice of acknowledging is really a central practice, not just for precept ceremony or full moon, but we do it every morning, right, after zazen. We're now including that in the last, well, it's about 20 years now, maybe. But we didn't used to do that every single morning at service time, but now we do. So this, in the Zai Kei Tokudo ceremony, before you receive the precepts, you acknowledge and admit and avow unskillful actions. And part of that avowing included in that is, I understand this, I fully avow, and I see, all wrapped into that, all my ancient twisted karma verses, I see these unskillful actions and I vow to

[10:02]

let go of these and come into alignment with Buddha's way. So that's the first section before receiving the precepts. And then there's incense offering, which is basically saying, I want to receive these precepts sincerely. And then the precepts are recited And those of you who do full moon and new moon ceremonies, it's the 16, the three refuges, the three pure precepts, and the 10 prohibitory precepts are given in a call and response way. And after the precepts are given and bows are made, then the last part is the ordinees at this point, if they've received the precepts, they receive the lineage paper, the kechimiyaku, which translates as blood vein.

[11:17]

So the family of bodhisattvas have the same blood. We use the word blood. And that blood is precept blood. The precept blood runs through the veins, and it's a shared precept blood. So that's the family. And the lineage paper shows this graphically, a red line going through all the names, starting with Shakyamuni Buddha, all the way through all the Buddhas and ancestors that we know, and some that we don't know because The red line goes through the sixth ancestor, Huinang. And the sixth ancestor had so many disciples. Some became Soto Zen, some became another school, Rinzai Zen. And it shows this on the lineage paper. The red line separates and goes through Rinzai teachers and Soto teachers.

[12:23]

And then the line comes up and goes Both sides go through Dogen because Dogen had both transmission of both Rinzai and Soto. And then it comes down from Dogen through Suzuki Roshi and through Zen Tatsu Myoyu, that's Richard Baker, and for me, Tenshin Zenki. And then my name will be there. And then after that, the new or Ni's name will be written on the blood vein lineage paper. So it's written in. And then the red line comes out from the name and goes all the way around and back to Shakyamuni Buddha. So it's a circulatory system of precept blood from Shakyamuni, 2,500-plus years ago, all the way to the present day, to the newest ordinand, or knees, and back up to Shakyamuni.

[13:37]

And this precept blood keeps circulating. So that's a kind of schemata of the ceremony, and there's various words that are spoken. kind of the commentary about the precepts. Now, one might think, and there's a big misunderstanding, I think, about this that I think I shared as well. One might think that the precepts are something like the Ten Commandments, where you do these... moral actions, not killing, not taking what is not given. Those are the 10 prohibitory precepts. And if you do those things, you will then be a good person or in line with Buddha Dharma.

[14:41]

So you start out not in alignment and then you take these precepts and then you will, you restrain from doing things, you abandon things. And then you will be part of the Buddha family, something like that. And this is... It's very easy to think that way. In fact, there's many people who say they're thinking they want to take the precepts, but they don't think they can do these things. Like, I don't know what it is. But they have some sense they can't do them. This is a kind of topsy-turvy understanding of precepts, and I'm going to try and turn that right side up for my sake and for everyone's sake. So I'm studying with a group with Tenshin Roshi a particular commentary on

[15:54]

the precepts, by a teacher who had a disciple who was Suzuki Roshi's teacher for Dogen. So the teacher is Okasoten, and his disciple was Kichizawa Iyan, who taught Suzuki Roshi about Dogen. So there's this very direct connection with Suzuki Roshi and this teacher. In this treatise or essay, he quotes different places where the precepts are brought up and makes a point over and over again in the section that I've been studying with people that the precepts are not these 16 precepts. That's one explanation.

[16:56]

But the true precept comes before and predates Buddha, even. The precepts are actually the way things are, the reality of how we exist. So in this... I wanted to read you... So there's certain phrases that are used to describe precepts. One is treasury of the true Dharma eye, which is a translation of Shobo Genzo, Dogen's masterwork. Another is the great matter of birth and death. Another is the mind of nirvana.

[17:58]

Another is Zen and precepts. And the teaching is that Zen and precepts are one thing. It's not, I will do the precepts and try very hard to live and observe them, and then the result of that will be, you know, living out my Zen life. But this teaching is Zen precepts is another name for this one reality of our existence. That comes before the precepts are even written down or talked about, this one reality. And you can't actually, it's beyond words. So if you read Suzuki Roshi, he has a number of lectures on precepts, and he brings up Now I understand better what Suzuki Hiroshi was bringing up when he says Zen and precepts are the same thing.

[19:10]

Because the teaching is that the precepts are a kind of in-words explanation of how we act. because this is the reality of how we exist in this one mind. So this is not very ordinary way of thinking, and it's very hard to grasp because this idea of taking these precepts and living in a certain way with restraint and abandoning unskillful activity, that that's how we're supposed to be observing precepts rather than we already are in our nature Zen and precepts.

[20:18]

So I'll read you this quote. The precepts regarded in this way are out of the ordinary. That is, precepts and Zen are not separate. They are not the rules of restraint that are practiced concerning the seven evil or unwholesome physical and verbal acts. They are not an itemized expression of Buddha's morality. Isn't that interesting that they're saying they're not those things? Not an expression of Buddha's morality? Thus, what can be explained is not the Buddha's and ancestors' correctly transmitted precepts. Zen is the precepts. The precepts are wisdom, and thus to uphold it is the Zen precepts.

[21:24]

Therefore, they are the womb, that gives birth to Buddhist morality rather than the other way around, that you have these precepts that give birth. There's something that comes before, which is beyond our understanding, actually, or beyond our ability to talk about. They are the driving force of the practice of the rules of restraint. They're the force behind it rather than the rules themselves. I'm not sure this is coming through because I feel like this, it really goes against our usual way of thinking. So basically, Suzuki Roshi is saying that zazen is precepts, our practice of zazen. to observe the precepts, how you really observe them is to practice Sazen without gaining idea.

[22:35]

And the gaining idea of trying to get something or have special experiences, it's based on a delusive, a delusion that we are separate from something out there that we're trying to get. That's the most basic delusion. So if we're practicing in that way, with trying to get something for ourselves, it is out of alignment. And as Sincere, she says, far from the truth. So what's a person to do, you know? Just sit. And, you know, be yourself. Your true self. Now, I'm sure some of you are thinking, I don't want to be my true self.

[23:37]

I'm kind of a rascal, you know, or I'm, you know, there's all sorts of trouble. This trouble that we call good or bad or have names for, This is all part of this one reality of our existence. If we try to get rid of parts of ourselves in order to get something better or more practice-oriented, that very act of kind of trying to get something else brings us far away from our practice. So this is Suzuki Roshi. And so dreaming of some attainment, aiming at some selfish goal to practice zazen is, you know, not at all our practice.

[24:44]

It is far from our practice. So it brings us back to here we are for our one day sitting. How do we just sit being ourself? And we don't even know what that is. Because any explanation or verbal description of what ourself is doesn't touch it. Because our true self, the reality of how we exist, is beyond. our ability to name it. As soon as we say it's this, it's already, we're apart from it, calling it something. So, so here we have a day before this precept ceremony, a wonderful day to just sit in the right, the beginning of autumn, we just had our

[25:50]

autumn equinox ceremony. One of the maple leaves in the yard where I live has turned bright red, and that's the first one I've seen in the Japanese maple. To give ourselves this gift of just sitting without passing judgment on ourselves without putting ourselves above or below anybody else. However it is that we're sitting, if we're sincerely just sitting, even if we can't sit up straight even, there's reasons. There's karmic reasons why we may not be able to sit the way we think we'd like to. Doesn't matter. just sitting with sincere heart is enough.

[26:55]

And this letting go of trying to get something else, some bliss state, some special concentrated state of body-mind. So to To put together Zen and precepts as non-dual, as just one thing, to me is a kind of koan, you know? What is that which comes before we say anything, before we're able to say anything about Anything. And having a confidence in that I think arises when we sit.

[28:14]

So So today, I wanted to just, in support of our one-day sitting, bring up the third case of the Book of Serenity, which is Bodhidharma's teacher, Prajnatara, who is an Indian teacher. The koan is really, I find, very helpful for one day sitting. Prajnatara was invited to, this is in India, to a raja's home or palace for a meal. Often people would provide a meal for the monks and nuns.

[29:24]

And then the monks and nuns would give teachings or chant scripture. So Prashnatar was invited to the Raja's house for this meal, but didn't do any chanting of scriptures. And the Raja asked, you know, how come you don't chant scriptures? after this meal. And Prajnatara said, this poor wayfarer does not dwell in body or mind when breathing in, does not get involved in the myriad circumstances the married things when breathing out. I always chant this scripture, hundreds, thousands, millions of scrolls.

[30:35]

This is a Zazen instruction. This poor wayfarer, meaning wayfarer is like, you know, mendicant. Parashnatara, this poor wayfarer does not dwell in the realms of body and mind, meaning the five skandhas, getting all involved in thinking about stuff or emotional involvement, does not get involved, does not dwell in body or mind when breathing in, does not get involved with the myriad things everything going on with the world and your neighbors and your families and just not get involved in the myriad circumstances when breathing out. I always chant this scripture, hundreds, thousands, millions of scrolls. The scriptures were written on, you know, scrolls.

[31:45]

So This is breathing in. I know I am breathing in. Breathing out. I know I am breathing out. And this reminds me, you know, from Zen by Beginner's Mind of Susan Thurushin talking about the swinging door. You know, the self as the swinging door that when you breathe in, swings in when you breathe out. That's it. The swinging door. Staying with that swinging door, breathing in, not dwelling, breathing out, not getting involved. Breath after breath, hundreds, thousands of scrolls. This is scripture. This is, you know, this is Dharma. This is Zen and precepts as non-dual. So allowing ourselves to sit just like that, so simple, letting go of the myriad things, that we should be different, that we shouldn't... Just all of the judgments we have about how we should or shouldn't be or wish we were, can we let it go?

[33:15]

And just... come into our own bodies and belly, dropping our shoulders away from our ears, bringing our attention down without churning away thoughts about this, that, and the other. And when you notice there's churning, relax and come back to breathing in and breathing out. And I would venture to say that this is precept practice. This is hundreds, thousands, millions of scrolls of dharma. This is how we express it.

[34:21]

So I feel very, it's just so rare to be able to have this peaceful situation, to be together. To be able to sit like this for a whole day supporting one another. This is rare, and I have great gratitude for this time together. Thank you very much. Please put your masks on again for the closing chant.

[35:31]

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