I vow to taste the truth of the Tathāgata's words. Good morning. Well, I'm amazed you came inside on such a beautiful day. We've been living in a cloud here at Green Gulch for a long time. So I want to begin today by reciting the sixteen bodhisattva precepts. But before I did that, I wanted to say a little bit about them. I was thinking that the precepts are kind of like a star map or a navigational system for Buddhas who find themselves in the world of human beings.

[01:02]

Without the precepts, the Buddhas don't know how to have a relationship with a human being. And likewise, human beings don't know how to have a relationship with a Buddha. I think many of us have spent long years in the company of Buddhists of various stripes. And I don't want to say we've avoided the precepts, but I think we may have avoided ingesting them or avowing them. And when you hear them this morning again, or maybe for some of you for the first time, I think you'll remember why that might be so. They're a very tough course. But I also wanted to try to reassure you anyway about my motives,

[02:07]

that I'm really not wanting to convert you to some set of ancient Asian prohibitions, but rather to share with you some of my struggles to understand and practice with the precepts. For me, these rules sit kind of like a great oxen right in the center line of the Buddhist path. There's no way around and there's no way through. Years ago, I had a very vivid dream about a buffalo in the middle of the road. I was living in New York City at the time. And seeing a therapist, which was a good combination. One night I had this dream about a buffalo. It started with me driving along in a convertible with a friend who actually, she was driving.

[03:14]

And we were in the countryside. And more and more, my friend began to look like a zombie. And then there was this buffalo in the road. And she, of all things, slowed down and stopped next to the buffalo. And the buffalo put its huge head into my lap. So I kept pushing this thing back and saying to my friend, Could you please drive around? But by then she was completely in a coma. There we sat and then I woke up. So I told my therapist about this dream and she was pretty interested. She went to her bookshelf and took out a book of symbols. I was convinced myself that it had to do with failed relationships. So she looked at buffalo and it said there in the book that the buffalo represents reality itself.

[04:22]

And then she asked me if there was any truth to the fact that I might be avoiding reality. Which of course I was, but I didn't want to tell her that. So, 60 minutes ended, fortunately, and I moved back to California. Oh yeah, I wanted to tell you another thing. Before I moved back to California, as I was driving home that very day from this therapy session, just before I got on the expressway to go back to Long Island, there was a huge billboard for an airline, local airline, and it said, you know, giant letters, The Shortest Way to Buffalo. So I took all of this as a sign, basically, that I needed to find out just what reality it was that I was trying to avoid.

[05:29]

And what I've discovered over the years is that, basically, reality changes, depending on my notions and my understanding and the meaning that I ascribe to the world. So at this time, I am a Buddhist priest, and the reality for me is kind of simple. And that is the Buddhist precepts, which I need to confront like this buffalo and decide whether or not I'm going to be the buffalo or continue to struggle with it on the end of a tether. Some of you may know about the Ten Auxerting Pictures. They're kind of a famous sequence of drawings that depict the spiritual journey. And in these pictures, there's a young herd boy and a buffalo, a water buffalo.

[06:38]

Actually, in the first picture, there is no buffalo. There's just the boy looking for it. And then, the second picture, there's the tail of the buffalo. And pretty soon, there's the boy chasing this animal all over the hills. And then, eventually, he's able to take his tether, his rope, and hook the buffalo in the nose. And then, a long sequence of struggling and pulling and yanking until finally, the buffalo becomes calm. His heart grows mild. And then, there's a picture of the boy and the buffalo wandering through the hills, stopping to drink or eat grass and play the flute. And then, the next picture, the boy is alone and the buffalo has disappeared.

[07:44]

And the boy is standing there in the full moonlight, clapping his hands and singing. He is free at last. And then, picture number ten is called Both Gone. And there's just a picture of a circle, empty circle, with this verse. Of ox and boy there is no trace. Moonlight holds a world of space around. Who asks what this means? Sweet grass and wild flowers grow. So, these precepts are like the rope or the tether that the boy uses to hook the wild animal. And that's why we're interested in them to this very day.

[08:47]

So, here they are. I take refuge in the Buddha, the teacher, the teacher of awakening. I take refuge in the Dharma, the teaching of awakening. I take refuge in the Sangha, the community of awakening beings. I vow to refrain from all evil. I vow to do all good. I vow to save all beings. A disciple of Buddha does not kill. A disciple of Buddha does not steal. A disciple of Buddha does not misuse sexuality. A disciple of Buddha does not lie. A disciple of Buddha does not intoxicate mind or body of self or other beings.

[09:53]

A disciple of Buddha does not slander. A disciple of Buddha does not praise self at the expense of others. A disciple of Buddha is not possessive of anything. A disciple of Buddha does not harbor ill will. A disciple of Buddha does not abuse the three treasures, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. So there are many ways to understand these precepts and to study them, many levels. But I think at the most basic level, they're pretty easy to understand. It's the same thing we've been hearing since we were children. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and what goes around comes around. But then I was thinking that probably not too many of us have a clean scorecard when it comes to the precepts.

[11:13]

Just not killing, for example. I have not knowingly killed another human being. However, the exhaust from my automobile is contributing to killing us all. And then I thought about all the fish and chickens and broccoli and carrots whose lives have ended so that I might go on living. Not stealing. For me at Zen Center, mostly it's been postage stamps and chocolate chip cookies. But there's a deeper level of understanding these precepts, and there's another kind of stealing that comes from a lack of realization. And I want to read to you from the Avatamsaka Sutra.

[12:19]

What could this treasure be that one wishes to steal? The treasure is the entire world in the ten directions is one bright jewel. When we accept that this bright jewel is the treasure, then there is no thief, there is no stealing, there is no face. There is only treasure. So each of these precepts is kind of like this. There are different levels that we can look into our lives. Kind of dig down deeper and deeper. And what I'm beginning to find is that as I go through the day, if I really take this effort to heart, that constantly I'm being requested by circumstances to respond from the precepts.

[13:24]

I'm being asked not to steal. I'm being asked not to lie. I'm being asked not to kill. And the tricky part is, how can I respond without falling into excesses? You know, the same Buddha who taught the precepts also taught the middle way, between the extremes. On one hand, the extreme of purity, and on the other hand, the extreme of debauchery. So in his first sermon, The Turning of the Wheel of the Law, the Buddha says this to his disciples, the five ascetics, who become his first students. Monks, there are these two extremes that ought not to be cultivated by one who has gone forth into the holy life. What two?

[14:26]

There is devotion to pursuit of pleasure, and sensual desires, which is low, coarse, vulgar, ignoble, and harmful. And there is devotion to self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble, and harmful. The middle way, discovered by a perfect one, avoids both these extremes. It gives vision, gives knowledge, and leads to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to nirvana. So I think this is one of the most important passages in all of Buddhism, as far as I can tell. It's the foundation for the great philosophical schools of non-duality. Avoid the extremes. They're all over the place. Good and bad, right and left, inside and outside, me and you, alive and dead.

[15:28]

And find the middle way, which is right there, in the present moment. So as students of the middle way, we have to develop the skills of an acrobat. There are no static events or moments of our life. There's just a kind of continuous reassessment of how it's going and whether we're in balance or not. I think that the precept practice requires of us a great deal of patience, and courage, and devotion, and so on. But it also mostly requires of us tremendous compassion for ourselves. Oops. Oops. Just now I offered incense, and I was a little nervous.

[16:32]

So there was an oops right there in the bowl. Incense is sitting right about like that. So compassion for ourselves. But I think if we reflect a little bit, we all know that it's the moments when people try to avoid evil, do good, and save all beings that are so touching to us. You know, sometimes we're just moved to tears by the sweetness of it. I think it's hard for us to accept that this clumsy juggling act is the middle way. We can imagine some higher aspirations for ourselves. But the Buddhas didn't come here to live with us because we look like them or act like them.

[17:33]

They came because our human hearts can open and turn. And when they turn, that's when a Buddha appears. So the precept that I want to focus on this morning is the most delicate one of them all, and I thought might get your attention as well. A disciple of Buddha does not abuse sexuality. I have a six-year-old daughter who has been asking her parents and everyone else in her life for a while now, what is sex? And mostly we've been ducking. So it all kind of started, well, it all started, I'm sure, in the womb. But anyway, she's been watching Walt Disney classics like Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, The Parent Trap.

[18:42]

And in all of these movies, there's kissing going on. Mostly there's men kissing women, and then there's a big wedding, and then they go and live forever in a palace. So there is no mention of babies or colic or diapers, irritability, divorce. Actually in Parent Trap, that's kind of the focus, but anyway, they get back together. So it seems that this romantic vision is pretty sanitary and, of course, false. So recently we were visiting the grandmother's house, and the rest of us wanted to have an adult conversation, so we gave Sabrina permission to watch television for a while.

[19:47]

So time was going along, and I started to realize that my daughter had been uncharacteristically focused on the TV for a long time. And the screen was turned so I couldn't see what she was watching. So I got up and I went around, and I've been told I overreacted, but that's a mother's prerogative. And there on the screen was this lovely young woman in her underwear. Doing erotic dancing with a chair. So I snapped off the television and said, no, throwing my body between her and the screen. And then I said these things like, you know, you're not old enough yet, dear, and this is something later on that you'll understand, and so on. And she got really mad at me, and she said, why did you turn off the TV? I like that show, you know.

[20:50]

And I said, you know, but sweetie, this is not something you understand right now, that maybe later you will, and that's okay. And she said, I do too understand it. She was very indignant at that point. So then I got curious. And I said, all right, so what is it you understand? And she said, that woman was doing yoga. So I have my doubts. But anyway, her sweet response got me thinking again about sexuality, you know, and how fraught that seemingly unchartable water has been in my life, certainly through my childhood, my teenage years, my young adulthood, and up until the day before yesterday. So I wanted to think about it, to reflect on it, you know.

[22:01]

What is there that we can offer our children that's a little different than maybe what happened for us, you know. I certainly wish her that. So then I was thinking about the middle way. What is the middle way between this pleasure that we can receive and give with our bodies and the disillusion of relationship after relationship, you know, if you haven't been one of the lucky ones. Lots of children without fathers, and mothers without help, and lovers without lovers, and loneliness, and so on, so on, you know. And then there's also our cultural obsession with the desirability, multi-skillion dollar industry. So it's fortunate for us that these precepts, each of them, doesn't stand alone.

[23:08]

They actually come as a set. You know, this oxen, these are aspects of the great white oxen. So in order to find the balance with your sexuality, you look at the other precepts. Am I lying? Am I stealing? Am I slandering? Am I taking what's not given? And so on, you know. It's a pretty handy checklist. And even if you find yourself at the short end of the checklist, and it doesn't change the behavior, still at least you know what you're doing, and that you're out of balance, most likely. And it seems that in the great law courts of the universe, this out of balance invariably comes back around and harms us too.

[24:10]

What goes around does come around. I think we all know this. We know this very well in our hearts. And we really do know how this all works. You know. So renunciation, as my Dharma friend and teacher Pema Chodron once said, is renouncing what doesn't work. And I really think that's a good definition of renunciation. Renouncing what doesn't work. And it doesn't seem to work to have a world filled with people who are primarily concerned with themselves and their own desires. It doesn't seem to work. You know, we know what a world like that would look like. There are six billion people on our planet as of next month,

[25:15]

according to someone's count. And we are rapidly consuming all of the resources of this planet. We know that. It doesn't work. Is there truly anything that you lack? Is there something that you require to make yourself whole? Who or what could that be? Who or what could you bring in from outside to complete the perfect present moment? Desiring nothing, rejecting nothing, this is the way the Buddhas live. And as I'm getting older, I am beginning to think that that sounds like a big relief.

[26:17]

So what is the difference between yoga stretching in the morning and erotic dancing in the late afternoon? Hmm. A hair's breadth deviation will fail to accord with the proper attunement. It's as different as the distance between heaven and earth. So what I'm proposing this morning is that the precept checklist can illuminate this gap that separates heaven and earth. And I am not suggesting that erotic dancing cannot pass the checklist, because it can. It certainly can. But I am proposing that the dancer in each of us and the audience in each of us may be disinclined to look at the list during an erotic episode.

[27:26]

And sexual trance, along with rage and ignorance, are the great intra-psychic forces of our lives. They're like the Hurricane Floyds of our emotional world. And we good people are easily swept away. You know, checklists flying in the breeze. So the only hope is to go over your checklist before you uncork the bottle of Chardonnay. You know it's true. You know it's true. I actually heard from someone, this is, I don't know if they're right or not, but someone told me that some people come to Green Gulch, not the only reason. But one of the reasons is to meet other people. You know, like for a date. And I thought that was wonderful.

[28:34]

Because I really like doing weddings. And so then I thought, I will just suggest to you all that while you're out there drinking tea and chewing on muffins, that you consider the precepts. Consider the precepts. Yeah. And then I want to encourage you to bring forth your true self. The one that fits perfectly, balances perfectly in the present moment. Like a pearl rolling in a silver bowl. The one inside of you that lacks nothing. There's no one to lie to. There's nothing to steal. There's no faults to defend, or accomplishments to praise. You have just received a great gift of life,

[29:37]

and you are continuously opening that gift with wonder and gratitude. And no one deserves that gift more than you do. Each of you. Just like the rain that falls evenly on the ground, this gift has been given to all of us. The gift of this one great life. One path of spiritual light has never been concealed from the first. Transcending precept and objects, it's so. Yet, nothing is so. Going beyond emotional assessment, it's met. Yet, nothing is met.

[30:41]

The scattered flowers on the crag in the bees' houses, they make honey. The richness of the wild grasses in the musk deer, they make perfume. According to kind, three feet, or ten and six. Clearly, wherever you contact, it is abundantly evident. Thank you very much. May all of our intention ♪ shine. May all of our intention shine.

[31:23]

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