I think it's just the brightness of the phone. Yeah, I've been keeping the screen turned all the way down to preserve the battery. The wall. As they're using the other white balance. You can see here. By the way, we are broadcast. There's no way. If you think everybody, we ask that everybody either turns off their cell phone or turns their cell phone to airplane mode because it interferes with the bandwidth we have available for streaming as well as the audio.

[07:22]

So if you could do that, that would be most appreciated. Thank you. Sure.

[12:19]

I begin to see and listen to you to remember and accept. I bow to grace the truth, the blood to talk to us first. Good evening, everybody. Good evening here. Good evening there. Good evening everywhere. Tonight we're going to do something a little bit different than usual because we're really in a state of transition here at San Francisco Zen Center.

[19:02]

So you may have noticed that the entry was a little bit different than usual and that we're in a little bit of a different space. And we have been in a little bit of a different space for the past month. And, you know, usually we have, you know, bathrooms and kitchen, coffee tea area, dining room, rooms. You know, usually we have And now we have a different kind of mandala. So we might think that we've lost something because everything's a little bit different. So tonight I actually want to look at some of the universal teachings that are present in this room.

[20:03]

And just... unpack what's here a little bit more so that we can feel the wealth of Sangha resources to take refuge in right here in this room. And so I want to go into a little bit of the subtle teachings or the secret teachings that are behind how this room is set up. And so during this lecture, you're actually going to get to be able to stand up and walk around and look at stuff so that you can see it too. But you don't have to. And there's actually a PDF where you can see these things in print if you don't feel like standing up and walking around. And if you don't want to be on camera, you should know that this central axis

[21:06]

from the equipment there to the equipment here is what's on the camera. So you can be in a different place if you don't want to be visible to the camera. Okay? Is that okay with everybody to do that? Is it okay with the people online? Thumbs up if it's okay with you. Tanuka is okay. Dan, is it okay with them? Thanks. Okay. So... talk a little bit about transformation from the point of view of Dogen Zenji, the founder of Soto Zen in Japan, the founder of our tradition in Japan. I'm just going to use a few words because tonight I'm not depending on scholarly resources. I'm only going to speak from what has actually been transmitted to me. Okay? So it's not going to be a scholarly talk. So we get to be in ourselves and feel the emotional impact of what we're seeing and how we are together.

[22:13]

And then we get to discuss it. So I do want to leave about a while for discussion. So can you stop me at about, or give me a heads up at about five or ten after eight? And then I might go for another five minutes, but then we'll have some time to actually register what we're seeing. And there's an infinite amount of this to do. So what Dogen Zenji said, this is from a document called the Kyoju Kaimong, a Dogen's essay on conferring and receiving the precepts. And so this, The document is a fairly long document, but one of the big pieces of it is an understanding of how we take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

[23:18]

So there's three levels of taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. There's the single-bodied way of taking refuge, which means from the point of view of everything is one. There's the manifested way of taking refuge, which is our historical or conventional way of taking refuge, like I take refuge in this. And then there's the skillful way of taking refuge, or responsive, in a situation, how do we take refuge? So that's called single-bodied, manifested, and maintained. Another way to speak about it is as different ways that Buddhas manifest. So Buddhas can manifest as Dharmakaya, including everything, equally. Or they can manifest as Nirmanakaya, like Mr. Buddha. Or they can manifest as Sambhogakaya, like practice.

[24:21]

So Nirmanakaya means when we become awakened, that's Buddha in action. And that's Nirmanakaya, historically, that moment happened. And Sambhogakaya is... when we practice skillfully and respond to a situation, that's shining practice. And that's a different form of Buddha manifesting in the world. So it goes with different understandings of the yogic side of Buddhism that's much more ancient than the Buddha. So this was part of Buddha's yoga practice as well that he learned from his yoga teachers before he sat under the Bodhi tree. But when he became a Buddha, his way was so powerful, particularly his teachings about the middle way and kind of staying in the middle of what we need and a moderate enough way of feeling that we can actually be aware.

[25:28]

and moderate ways of speaking so that we don't stifle ourselves. But we do get across what we have to say in gentle terms. So the Buddhist way was so striking that it became Buddhism. Buddha was not a Buddhist. Buddha was a Hindu. And his followers were Buddhists. So what Dogen Senji said was that Sangha treasure is skillful because it can appear equally in the vast openness of being or in a speck of dust. So it can appear in vast openness or within the dust. And to help people, it can transform into an infinite ocean storehouse. Or it can transform into teachings that are written on shells and leaves. And it doesn't mean that they have to be written in tiny writing.

[26:31]

It means that shells and leaves themselves are reality writing a message to us. So what is Sangha transforming to in this room? So this is called the Three Treasures Seal. And it says Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. And so it's given when somebody receives the precepts. So do you want to see something about Buddhist cosmology, about how the traditions of Buddhism see the universe? You want to see it? It's not far away. Okay, so just for a moment, just look at this room right now. Okay, and... See how it's set up. You see there's a speaker, supposed to be awake.

[27:34]

And then there's some more people who are supposed to be awake. Tanto Tim is supposed to be awake. Abbot David is supposed to be awake. And if Abbot Mako were sitting in the city center abbot's seat, that is Zafu, she'd be there and be awake. But she's awake both there and there. Okay, so you see there's four corners. And you see there's four corners on this bowing mat and four corners on this bowing cloth. You can get up and see if you want. And if I were to open this robe up, you would see that there's four corners on it, but you can see it better on, let's say, Shoko, could you come up here a second and show them the four corners on your robe? So that robe that Shoko's wearing is like an abbreviated version of this one. So Shoko is modeling a rakusu, or a small robe.

[28:39]

And Shoko, could you point out the four corners on the robe? Two. Two? Two, yeah, okay. Just four corners on the robe. Thank you very much, Shoko. So this four corner... is a depiction of the universe. And so it's holographic, each one of these, what's on the person, what we're bowing on, the bowing mat, and the setup of the room is all four-cornered like that. And the altar in the middle is a depiction of Mount Sumeru. the center of the universe, with the four corners being guarded, are the guardians of the north, south, east, and west. And our continent, according to the cosmology or cosmogony of the tradition, the early one, is that...

[29:51]

All of our practices originate in a continent called Jambudvipa. Jambudvipa is a jambud tree. It's a particularly kind of tree that grows in South Asia. And so it's called Jambudvipa. And the conditions there are said to be mild and conducive for practice. And there's also different beings in the north, in the west, and in the east who... can practice in different ways because they have different makeups and their continents are different temperatures and of different conditions. And in that square, guarded by the north, south, east and west, there's a center. So there's a center of the room which is the altar. There's a center of the bowing cloth, of the bowing mat, which is the bowing You know, that this woven bowing mat has a bowing cushion on it, which has a bowing cloth on it, and each one of those has a center.

[31:01]

And the center of the robe is here. So this robe is made of seven panels. Each panel has one short and two long piece. And the center of the robe is at about heart level. And the rakasu, the small row, which you can see many people wearing here, the center is the upper middle piece. That's the centerpiece. And so it's all constructed that way. So that altar, let me show you a picture of a stupa. Well, you know, so I have this, you can't really see it, but there's a circle with four continents and a stupa. But I've broken down the stupa a little bit. This is not a very good picture of a stupa, I'm sorry. But the stupa has different meanings. So it has different shapes that lead to a top.

[32:07]

Okay? So most altars are, there's a tradition of how altars are constructed that I won't go into because I'm not a woodworker and I haven't been trained in it. But the stupa has a shape, and this shape is meant to evoke the shape of the Buddha with a head, a body, and legs. So the square is the legs, the circle and triangle is the body, and then that moon and the circle on top is the head. So that's what a stupa is meant to do. And the head of this stupa is the Buddha's face. And the Buddha's face is at eye level. Just take a moment and look at Buddha's face and look at eye level. It was actually not measured to me, so it might be a little higher than eye level for me. But it might have been measured for Paul or for Mako. who are both taller than me. So I don't know.

[33:10]

But let's look a little bit at what's here. Okay, so I'm going to bow. And you'll see what I do when I do a full bow. Okay, so you can stand up and you can see this bow. If you wish, just come around. And we'll also be looking at some of the things on the altar. So take a look. This is what's called a five-point prostration. Okay? So it starts with a bow. This is ga sho. And I do a little ga sho. And I don't want to put my feet or legs on this robe. So I'm picking it up. And then I, less gracefully than some, but... you know, more gracefully than I've been in the past. I put down two knees and two elbows like this. And the arms and legs are the four guardians of this bow.

[34:16]

And see what's in the middle. You see how my hands go up? These hands are for Buddha's feet. I'm lifting the Buddha above my head. So the Buddha is in the center of this bow. Okay? So that's how the bow goes. You create a little, you go down into the unknown, you guard it with the four limbs, and you lift up the Buddha as what you're bowing to. So that is also in the same form. as the rest of the universe. Now, here I have a picture of the zendo, but you can also just look at the zendo. So in this zendo right here, you see that there are people who sit at the bells, like you sit at the bell, and you look in the middle.

[35:18]

And so you might have noticed that, and this position is called the douan, you're the douan. When the doshi, the person, doing the service or the lecturer bow, the doan responds. So the doan has to be looking. There's another instrument where the eno is sitting that's used in service. So those people are facing this way. The person in this seat faces this way. The person there faces this way sometimes for various roles. But everyone else faces the wall except for these four people, the guardians. The guardians see. They're facing the room so that they can see everybody. And if something happens, like for instance, if somebody is hitting zazen and they suddenly go, ah, and fall down, one of these guardians will jump up and run to them and see what's going on.

[36:23]

That's the beauty of having people who can see. Yes, sir. 807? Okay, I'll go faster. Okay, so that's Buddha's cosmology. Now come and see what's on this altar, okay? So we usually don't cross the middle, so you can be on one side or the other. And I'll show you what's on the front and what's on the back. Okay, so why don't ecologically sized people stand in front and... tall people who can see stand in the back, okay? And you'll see that there's a Buddha here and there's a smaller bodhisattva or awakening being here and that there's three kind of plaques on stands which are called ihai. They're memorial plaques or commemoration plaques. And you also see offerings of fragrance, light, and flowers. And this is traditional. And you see it's on different levels, like a stupa.

[37:26]

This level has an offering. This level has more offerings. And this level has Buddha. So it's on different levels. That's part of the stupa arrangement. So this Buddha is Shakyamuni Buddha. And you can tell it's Shakyamuni Buddha. And people at home can look at the PDF if you can't see. But you can tell it's Shakyamuni Buddha because... He has an ushnisha or top knot and his hair is curled. Those are some of the signs of the Buddha. Is there anyone who can't see? Should I get out of the way? Okay. And you can also see that his hands are in one of the forms of jnana mudra and that he's wearing a robe like the priests here who are wearing robes. That's how you can tell he's a Buddha. But in front of him, look who's in front of him. What do you see? This is Manjushri Bodhisattva.

[38:31]

And see how Manjushri holds a sword and a scroll. And sometimes from the scroll you see a lotus, like the one at Tassajara. You see a lotus coming from behind the scroll. So it means a lotus that grows in muddy water from the wisdom. of the Prajnaparamita. That's what it means. Prajnaparamita is the heart of the Heart Sutra. Okay, it's our... And this Gatte Gatte Paragatte Parasamgatte Bodhisattva relates to the pieces of the stupa in a way that I'm not going to go into right now because it would take too long and I have to stop because the Eno said to. But I'll be fast here. Okay. Now... This one is Bodhidharma, the bringer of Zen from India to China.

[39:32]

This one is Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. So you see Shogaku Shunryu Daio Shou. So it's the Kaisan, the one who opened this place. Shogaku Shunryu. Dayosho. And so he's named for Vulture Peak, where the Buddha was enlightened. And this is Daigenshuri, practice protector. Okay, practice protecting Bodhisattva. So he's always in the background protecting us. Okay, I'll go more quickly. Okay, so there's ways that we came into the Zendo today, which you can see. So... you saw that everyone is part of the world. Everyone's part of the representation of all the many beings of the world. There's the guardians of the north, south, east, and west. When we come into this space, we come in a certain way, and then we bow.

[40:33]

And this is the moment of entering this space of the world, of all beings, with this heart and mind of Zazen. And then it is said that we bow to the seed, and away from the seat, but actually we're bowing to the seat of awakening, just like Buddha, and we're bowing to the entire universe. And everyone returns those bows. So I think what I'm going to do is stop now and sit down so that we can have a conversation. And while you're getting into your seat again, I'll just say what Bodhidharma said about zazen that includes the different levels of refuge. So he said, not to attach to external objects and not to attach to internal objects. So not to attach to these things, not to attach to our ideas of them or what they mean, with no coughing or sighing of the mind.

[41:42]

So no stuttering of the mind. Sit like a wall. Sit facing the wall. So whatever our wall is, thus we enter the way. So without glomming onto external objects or how we appear, without glomming onto internal objects or the meaning of all of it, We sit like a wall, that's our response, without coughing or sighing our mind. And so we enter the way. Okay, so that's what I wanted to say. And, of course, I've got many more pieces of paper that I prepared for this, but I'm just gonna not be attached to that. Thank you for your attention. I think we can... we can speak.

[42:45]

I'll just sit down once again. Oh, and yeah, I wanted to say that you had a couple of comments which were really interesting about the Chinese tradition. And we could go into that a little bit and why Tendai is associated with the tradition that you're talking about, if you wish. Anyone want to say anything? I'll be sitting here then. Hold it like an ice cream cone. Hold it, hold it sideways so that you really know this way. Yeah, it's green light. Go ahead. Okay. And I've noticed that our altar is different now, that the zendo is functioning as a ceremonial space and not exclusively as a zendo.

[43:56]

The two things I've noticed is that typically the zendo altar only has manjushri, and I remember there never being flowers. And I wonder if there's anything else you wanted to say about that. Yes. Yes. Typically the zendo has manjushri because that's traditional for the sitting space of the monastics. Usually it's not a manjushri like this. In Japan it would be a shoho manjushri in the shape of a regular monk, just any old monk. But we use this manjushri because these statues are much more available. And the tradition also in the zendo is to just tone it down. So we usually have greens and we usually have evergreens. So it's just like boom, da-dum, da-dum, which symbolize faithfulness and just staying with it. And the flowers are more like the Dharma is going, you know, and that's what the Buddha hall is meant for.

[45:03]

So this room is now doing both. So we're using Tassajara's tradition, right? and Green Gulch. Thank you. And thank you, Heiko, for taking all these photos that are used in the PDF. Behind you. Thank you, Vicki, for your talk. Who is Manjushri and why is Manjushri so significant? Oh, Manjushri is significant because Manjushri is the bodhisattva or awakening being of wisdom. So Manjushri and Avalokitesvara are held up as kind of a pair.

[46:04]

Manjushri is wisdom, Avalokitesvara is compassion. But Manjushri is typically for the Zendo because the Zendo is where insight happens. But I kind of feel like in the West we also need to put Avalokiteshvara either in the Zendo or right here because we need to not overdo or underdo. We need to Sitsazen in a way that gives life and doesn't attach to some idea of the form. while respecting and actually doing the form, which is difficult. So we need both wisdom and compassion. Is that OK? Thank you, Vicky. I had a question about sometimes you'll have a Kuan Yin in the back of an altar,

[47:07]

And I'm wondering if you could say something about having the female Avalokiteshvara, where I think in this case we have Suzuki Roshi's memorial there, like a Kaisando, but sometimes... Like a Tassajara? Yeah. So can you say a little bit about that? Yeah, I'll say how that happened. Okay. So we were going along this San Francisco Zen Center, and suddenly... Linda Ruth, Blanche, a couple of other women, Jakku, and a couple of other women and I noticed that all the images were male. And in the 70s, Linda Ruth was pivotal in getting the Tara in the Buddha Hall. And I used to do... women's retreats in the Buddha Hall where we sat in a circle and recited Tara's mantra and did all kinds of things.

[48:14]

Anyway, there's a whole lot that we can say about that. But then Blanche and Linda Ruth and some other people got us to start chanting the names of the foremost women, which turned into the names of the women that we recite now. And there were... fights and drama and so on, which I won't go into too much. But when it came time to build the altar in the Tassajara Zendo, we wanted to enshrine the Buddha that had been in the Zendo that burned down. That Buddha was precious to us because it had shattered into a million pieces and one of our members stuck it back together and restored it. So if you look next year, look at our Buddha here and then look at the one at Tassajara and you'll see that they're almost exactly the same except the one at Tassajara has been broken and put back together, which to me is just so apropos of the world.

[49:24]

But it meant that with Bodhidharma on one side and Daigenshari on the other side, there was only one side left. Now that was the back. But you're an abbot. You and David. And, you know, and Jiryu can speak about it. And you can decide or discern where to put Avalokiteshvara. and where to put Jizo, and where to put our other bodhisattvas. You can decide. But traditional transmission starts with our original teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha, then great Bodhidharma, and the practice protector, Daigenshari. So that's our tradition that's been handed down to us. So that's why we do like that.

[50:28]

Tassajara has a kaisando. We have this kaisando. So that's why it's not here. It is a Tassajara. And that's how it happened to be there. Thank you. How are we doing for time? Good. We've got more. Thanks for your talk and explaining so many of the things that we may take for granted. I wanted to comment on the Quan Yin in back of the Buddha. When I went on a Quan Yin pilgrimage to China with Linda Ruth and Rusa, that was 2005, we visited a number of temples in China where the Buddha was the main

[51:36]

figure on the front of the altar, and Kuan Yin was in back. And at that time, the Green Gulch altar with the big Manjushri didn't have a Kuan Yin, and we bought a Kuan Yin. Linda Ruth looked very hard for the appropriate one. So I think that that's a tradition that's very old. Yes. And to have both the male and the female. Yes. While in China, Quan Yin was often depicted as female. Yeah. And it also honors the original story of how Quan Yin was born. So Quan Yin was born from Buddha. So I think that that honors that tradition as well. Well, I always get these stories confused about Tara and Quan Yin and who was born from a tear and who was born from the side.

[52:44]

So I'm not going to comment on it because I haven't studied the story. But somebody will correct this story, okay? Does anybody know this story? You do? Do you know this story? Okay. So let's save that for when we do know this story. and have read it recently. So, yeah? Is there time for one more? I was wondering if you could explain a little bit about the orientation of this room in space, in reference to the cardinal directions. Is there a reason why the altar is facing this way and not the other way? Yeah, and actually it's faced several different directions in its history, so that's a really good question. So when Suzuki Roshi first started this sendo, it was very different. So this floor was linoleum, and there was like a basketball hoop on one end, and this was a stage.

[53:51]

And I didn't include the drawing and the photo in the PDF, but that's what it was. And so he made it so that that was a doshi door and he sat there and the altar was on this side. And then Paul Disco and some other people found this gym floor that was used and they laid it upside down and that's the floor here and Paul built the tans and Suzuki Roshi decided that it was going to be I guess it was after Suzuki Roshi, but they decided that it was going to be in a more traditional direction. So traditionally, north and south are directions that the Buddha faces. And sometimes in Hinduism, it's in the corners, not in the center. But you'll notice that's north-ish, that's south-ish, right?

[54:58]

And this is how the room is set up, with the Buddha facing south and sitting at the north. So it's a little bit more that way than it is this way. And that's another thing about the cosmology being built into the room, is that the Buddha doesn't face east and west. except sometimes it does, he does, and then we just say, that's north. Because sometimes we have to, because that's how it was built. In the Japanese temple, Japanese monastic centers are built in the form of the Buddha. So not only is there a stupa, but the buildings are arranged in the form of the Buddha, with the kitchen and the baths being the legs, and then there's the arms, the head is the Buddha.

[56:01]

So they're built in that form and often as a hill, so it's physically higher as well. We don't have that luxury, but that's how it's done. Tassajara actually changed the orientation of its Buddha in its history as well. So it used to face the road. And now it faces the stream. Yeah. Thank you, Vicki. Thank you so much. Are we good? We're good. Time? Okay. Better get untangled here. Excuse me. different things you're not supposed to do in the Zendo and messing around too much with your clothes.

[57:20]

Please excuse me. The true merit of God's way. Beings are not with us. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to amend them. Our bodies are boundless. I bow to victory. Buddha's way is not surpassable. I bow to becoming. I should say one more thing.

[58:57]

These bells that we do here are an enactment of the Lotus Sutra. So there's a chapter on the appearance, the universal lifespan, the Buddha that I highly recommend. Thank you, everybody, for coming.

[60:42]

If a few people can stay behind to help themselves go back together, that's very much appreciated.

[60:47]

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