I vow to taste the truth of the Tathāgata's words. Good evening. I don't want to put anybody on the spot, but more and more I notice that there's sort of open spaces here and that the benches are crowded. I think it's a good idea for everybody to get a sāphu and sit zazen during Dharma talk so then even if I don't say anything very interesting you still have the benefit of sitting a period of zazen. Really, this is all about sitting and considering the Dharma together and as some of you I know

[01:04]

sit on chairs even in the zendo and that's fine, please use the bench, but those of you who are accustomed to sitting on sāphus, it's probably good to take this opportunity to sit. It's much harder on the bench, particularly when you're close together, to attend to breath and posture than it is sitting on a sāphu. So we've been talking about arousing the intention to practice and entering the bodhisattva way. This practice period will culminate in a jukai ceremony, in a receiving the precepts ceremony, and the beginning of the ceremony, just to go through the elements of the ceremony, the

[02:17]

beginning of the ceremony is the invocation. The ceremony opens with, in faith that we are Buddha, we enter Buddha's way. And we invoke the spirit of compassion by chanting homages to all of the Buddhas, inviting them to be here with us and support us in entering the Buddha's way. And then, and then we have the repentance, which Paul and I have talked about for the last two weeks, which is, in a way, as, as Kovacinoroji said, when you realize how precious this human life is, and how we are completely responsible for how we live it, he says, naturally,

[03:28]

such a person sits down for a while, it's such a big responsibility, we naturally sit down for a while. It's not, it's not an intended action, it's a natural action. So because this life is so precious, and so brief, and we are completely responsible for how we live it, we arouse the intention to practice, and this is repentance. And the next thing is, having purified our mind with repentance and confession, we then purify our bodies with a ritual purification with wisdom water. The next aspect is taking refuge, and that's what I want to talk about tonight.

[04:36]

We take refuge in the triple treasure, the triple treasure of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. This taking refuge, the English word we use, refuge, means to flee back. Fuge is to flee, but with the return on it, refuge, it's to flee back, to flee back to our original nature, to flee back to a place of safety, which is our original nature. The Japanese word that we translate as refuge is kie, kie is a compound, kie means to throw yourself into without reservation, just to dive into, and e means to rely upon.

[05:41]

So just as Dogen Senji says, to throw yourself into Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha as a child would throw itself into its father's arms, a place of safety. And this triple treasure has, can be understood in a variety of ways. The Buddha, whom we honor as our original teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha, a person just as we are, who lived some 2,500 years ago. And the Dharma, which was his teaching, and the Sangha, who were his following, those

[06:47]

people who practiced with him, are known as the manifested triple treasure. They appeared in the world. But the Buddha didn't invent the truth of the universe. The truth of the universe preceded the sort of beginningless and endless. And that is sometimes called the indivisible triple treasure, the truth of the universe from the beginning, the teaching of the universe from the beginning, the harmony of the universe

[07:49]

from the beginning, beginningless beginning, and is called sometimes the indivisible triple treasure. And the Buddha that each of us is, and the truth that each of us comes to understand within ourself, and the Sangha of those of us who are companions in practice is called the maintained triple treasure. This is, this is what continues the life of the Buddha here in our everyday life, in the

[08:50]

world today, continues the teaching of the Buddha, continues the peace and harmony of the Sangha in our daily life. So this is the maintained triple treasure. And the symbolism of this is in the Kechamiyaku which one receives at the time of receiving precepts. Kechamiyaku means literally blood vein, and it's a symbolic representation of receiving the precepts from the indivisible triple treasure is represented as a circle in red.

[09:55]

And from the circle comes a red line that goes through the name of Shakyamuni Buddha. And from Shakyamuni Buddha the red line goes through all of the teachers, all of the ancestors. From Shakyamuni Buddha through your current teacher to you, and returns to the empty circle. So on the Kechamiyaku we have the indivisible triple treasure in the empty circle, and we have Shakyamuni Buddha, the manifested Buddha, and we have the precepts which the blood vein of the precepts which connects all of the practitioners of the Buddha Dharma through the present day practitioner, you yourself, maintaining the teaching of the Buddha, maintaining the harmony

[11:00]

of the Sangha, maintaining the life of the Buddha as your own life in this present moment. And this practice then circulates back and is the heartbeat, the practice of the present moment is the heartbeat of the Buddha and maintains the life of the Buddha from generation to generation. Dogen Zenji in his fascicle in Shobo Genso, on taking refuge, extols taking refuge as the most important thing that any of us can do.

[12:02]

I'm often impressed with the fact that almost whatever fascicle of Shobo Genso one reads, it's the most important thing. And I've come to appreciate that what you're doing at this moment is always the most important thing. To be alive and present in this moment is the most important thing. So when you're taking refuge in triple treasure, this is the most important thing. But he brings up many stories about the miraculous efficacy of taking refuge in triple treasure to alleviate suffering and save us from lifetimes of woe. So, this throwing yourself completely into this present life with utmost sincerity,

[13:17]

with full attention to the completeness of you yourself as you are, to understanding this in faith that we are Buddha, we enter Buddha's way. Throwing yourself without reservation into that understanding, into the understanding of this very one, this very one as it is, is complete and is Buddha. It's what our practice is. And our zazen is an expression of that faith that we are Buddha.

[14:27]

Dogen Zenji says, if we are Buddha from the beginning, why do we need to practice? And essentially what his final answer to this was, we practice, we sit zazen because we are Buddha, and that's what Buddhas do. He says, practice realization, all one word. This is the practice of our realization that we are Buddha, that we sit zazen. But it's also the vessel or the container within which we realize that we are Buddha and we actualize our fundamental nature. And we bring it, we maintain it, we bring it into the world, into our daily activity.

[15:32]

This taking refuge in Sangha is for us very important. Our style of practice is not an individual practice. It's very much a practice in which we join with others and support each other in practice. When we speak of the three treasures, as we practice together we really begin to realize what a treasure Sangha is. How much we feel supported by those with whom we practice. And how much those with whom we practice help us to see ourselves. How much practicing with others is like practicing in a hall of mirrors. And how helpful it is for us to be able to see ourselves more and more clearly,

[16:39]

and more and more completely. And we have, since we practice in faith that we are Buddha, we have a, our sort of basic intention is to embrace and accept all that is here. Everything that is here is Buddha. So that whatever we may see in this hall of mirrors, we need to accept it and embrace it. And perhaps we may need to tame it. We may need to polish it a little bit. It may have gotten a little dusty and rusty, not being noticed, and we may need to do a little work on it.

[17:41]

But we need first to embrace it and accept it, and appreciate it, as Buddha. And each one of us, since each one of us is Buddha, and we are all together Buddha, we begin to recognize the inseparable bond that exists among us all. And we begin to build the kind of intimacy that will help us to meet ourself wherever we turn, that will help us to see ourself wherever we look. Sangha is, most importantly, a harmonious group of practitioners

[18:52]

bringing the Buddha Dharma alive right where we are. And we depend on each other and allow ourselves to be dependent upon by each other in order to manifest and maintain the Buddha Dharma here where we are. Our Sangha is unusual in that in the olden days the Sangha was thought of as those who had left home and become monks. But our Sangha here is much wider than that. The Buddha Sangha became much wider than that and included laymen and laywomen also.

[19:54]

But in the early days, the laymen and laywomen's major activity was supporting the monks in their practice. It's unusual here that laymen and laywomen and monks all sit sasan together, chant sutras together, do all of the functions of taking care of the temple and ringing the bells and all of these functions that have more traditionally been the functions of monks, we all share. We have many discussions here and there about what's the difference between priest practice and lay practice. And it's pretty hard to put your finger on it.

[20:55]

Most recently someone has said, well, priest practice is sort of the ritual path. Those who really appreciate the ritual path tend to move in the direction of priest practice. Tentatively, maybe, it's very hard to say. We practice so much together and so similarly. It's very hard to draw any line and say, well, this is what is priest and this is what is lay practice. It's very hard to come to some conclusion. There was a session here which Suzuki Roshi said, who is priest and who is layman? Everyone should just wake up. Everyone should just wake up.

[21:58]

So it's not so useful to think of Sangha in terms of priest or lay. Sangha is all of us practicing together, all of us taking care of the practice together and supporting one another in practice. Sometimes supporting one another in practice may mean saying kindly and gently, ouch, you're stepping on my toe. This is how we find out about where our prickly parts are when someone says, ouch. In traditional Japanese monastic practice, everyone has one tatami mat of personal space to sleep in, to sit on, to eat at,

[23:05]

and a little cabinet for storing your bedding and robes. And another space about that much in the common room for storing your books and study material and other personal things. That's a very intimate way to practice. It's a very interesting way to practice. I've only done it for one month and it was very intense and it was very wonderful. There were lots of ouches and prickles. And all those ouches and prickles helped to build a tremendous bond among the people who were doing it together. Here our monastic practice gives us a little more personal and private space than that. And I'm not sure that's altogether as helpful.

[24:11]

It's more comfortable for us. But I'm not sure it's altogether as helpful as that period of time when there's no personal space and no private space. It's like pebbles in a tumbler. You put some pebbles in a tumbler and you put some grit in there with them. And then you tumble them together and they keep bumping against each other with that grit to smooth the edges. Or as Suzuki Hoitsuroshi says, it's like potatoes, cleaning potatoes. He calls it potato practice. You dig up a bunch of potatoes out of the ground and they've all got dirt sticking to them. You don't pick up each one and scrub it. You put them all in a bucket.

[25:14]

You put some water in there and then you stir them around and they bump each other and they knock the dirt off. This is Sangha. This is taking refuge in Sangha. Allowing that kind of closeness and intimacy and bumping into each other and giving and taking feedback in a very kind and supportive way. Knowing that we're all making our best effort to practice the Buddhadharma and we all come with whatever accumulated bumps and prickles or clods of dirt or whatever you want to call it stuck to us and we're all helping each other to smooth it up. We're all helping each other to get down to the original Buddha that's right here. And each one, when you put a bunch of pebbles in a tumbler and tumble them,

[26:19]

each one comes out beautiful and shiny, but they're each one different. They're all different colors and all different shapes and all different sizes. And they're each one beautiful. And this is how we are. We're each one different. We each one have some different beauty to contribute to the Sangha. We each one are a particular Buddha, particular manifestation of awakening. And our practice in practicing together as Sangha is to help reveal the beauty of each other. There was a story I read recently and I told you I've been reading this book of ours

[27:25]

that someone gave him by birthday that Brother David wrote, speaking of the various chants during the seasons of the day in a Catholic monastery. And he's talking about the common meal that happens at noon in the monastery and how important it is that the monks serve each other. They don't serve themselves. And all of the monks take their turns at serving, including the abbot. And one of the rules is that you don't concern yourself with your own needs. You concern yourself with taking care of your neighbor. And this has interested me because this is true also in our monastic practice.

[28:35]

We serve each other. We don't serve ourselves. And our oryoki meal is very much, has this feeling of serving and being served. And I mentioned in my small group there was a funny story in there about this admonition for each one to take care of their, be concerned with the needs of their neighbor and not be concerned with their own needs when the serving happens. And the story is that at one meal one of the monks received his bowl of soup and it had a mouse in it and he didn't quite know what to do. So finally he said to the server, excuse me, my neighbor didn't get a mouse. And so he could take care of his own needs as well as his neighbor's needs by that means.

[29:42]

But the harmony of the Sangha is very important and appreciating each one for the particular beauty which they bring to the Sangha is very important. And I noticed from talking to people, it's very important also to appreciate the particular beauty that each one of us, for us to appreciate the particular beauty that we are, the particular Buddha that we are, as well as appreciating all of the other Buddhas around us. Thank you.

[31:12]

As Rev. Anderson says, for Dogen Zenji the first step in practice was to take refuge in the triple treasure. Before we practice ethical conduct, concentration and insight, we take refuge. And after we have accomplished these practices, we take refuge again. After we have accomplished these practices, really. This pattern is demonstrated in Dogen Zenji's life. Toward the end of his life, he wrote the Shobogenzo Phaskal, taking refuge in the triple treasure. He hoped to revise it but due to his ill health he was unable to do so. As he was preparing to die, the practice of this great and learned Zen master, this ancient Buddha, was to write Buddha Dharma Sangha on a pillar in his death room

[32:15]

and then walk around the pillar taking refuge. He said, I take refuge in awakening, I take refuge in the teaching, I take refuge in the community. This is what the old Buddha did as he was dying. A Buddha is constantly taking refuge in Buddha. So a Buddha is constantly taking refuge in him or herself. Doesn't that make sense? At the beginning of our practice, we also take refuge in Buddha's mind, in Buddha as our own mind, and in our mind as Buddha. When you feel like you're beginning to practice or entering the way through initiation ceremonies, you rely on and return to this mind as Buddha. When you've become accomplished in the way, you take refuge in no Buddha, no mind.

[33:21]

So taking refuge in the Buddha, we take refuge in all beings, since all beings are Buddha. And we take refuge in our own true nature, since our own true nature is Buddha. And as we sit, we see that we and all beings are not different. We and all beings are one Buddha. One Buddha with many facets. One Buddha with many voices. One Buddha with many bodies.

[34:49]

One Buddha with many bodies. [...] May our intention...

[35:40]

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