Today, our Wednesday sitting opens our spring practice period, which will last until nearly the end of June. So today, I think it's very appropriate to have a Bodhisattva ceremony. where we acknowledge our shortcomings, our ancient and eternal, and renew our vows of practice. That's what's going on there. We honor all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and renew our vows. So we start with a fresh beginning. And this afternoon we will install our head student, our shuso, Andrea, at Ryushen.

[01:10]

Dragonheart. Good beginning. I know that this dragon has in her heart to take care of everyone compassionately. And it's a wonderful experience for her. And she's very excited about it. And I would like all of us to take care of her as well. The purpose of having a head student, Shuzo. Shuzo shares the scene of the abbot for this period. And the main task of Shuzo is to be an example.

[02:15]

Just be a good example of how we practice, how we maintain precepts, how we act compassionately, how we are sensitive to everyone's position, and exercise humility, because it's a very wonderful position. Everybody's looking at you in some way. how you deal with that is very important. It's kind of like unstaged, and how you actually act in a manner that is encouraging and inspiring and humble. So balancing these characteristics, also a very strong person, very strong-minded person, a doctor,

[03:20]

In this case, someone who is well-educated, intelligent, and well-experienced in many ways. In Japanese monastery, the shuso is usually 20, 21. In our practice, they're older. And experience is much greater, much deeper. So, at the end of the practice period, we have a shuso ceremony, in which the shuso sits in that seat and asks everyone to offer a question. So, people in the practice period And I would like to invite all of you who are in the practice period to save that day for that event, not do something else on that day.

[04:34]

So this is a kind of testing of a few cells' understanding, not just understanding, but you relate to each other. So, during the practice period, Geshe-la will be having teas, and you can sign up for the teas, and you can discuss the Dharma, Geshe-la, in a kind of relaxed way. So, one of the main things about practice period is, you know, because this is not a monastery, and we all live at home and have our own individual lives, every one of us who is

[05:49]

attends the practice period, creates their own schedule, given the responsibilities and the time that you can actually give to that. So we ask everybody to make a sheet, a form, that says what you're going to do. But that promise is for you, mainly. for you to honor your own commitment. If you don't honor your own commitment, it does affect everyone because we're all practicing in a certain way together. You and I, we all each have a different schedule. But it works if we all keep our commitments to ourselves. That's the most important thing. So you should be careful when you make your commitment to not overextend yourself, or just pick and choose.

[06:55]

Those are the two extremes. Well, I think I'll do this, and I think I'll do that. You should want to, I would say, should want to do the whole thing, completely, but then you subtract all the reasons why you can't, and then you're left with what you can do. But if you just kind of pick and choose what you like, It's not quite committed. So, anyway... So, in practice, we all add our strengths and our intentions to doing this thing together. Even just extending yourself a little bit more than you do ordinarily, for most people, makes the practice period, period, gives it an edge.

[08:01]

So be careful. If you overextend yourself and then you feel you can't do what you intended, then you feel discouraged. So you have to be very careful. A practice period is the reason why we have it in the spring, for me, is because it sets the tone for the rest of our practice for the year, how we practice the rest of the year. We used to have it in the fall, but then it's a little different. This kind of helps you to adjust yourself to practice for the rest of the year and sets a good tone. doing that. So every once in a while we have to gather ourselves together and renew our practice. So this is what the bodhisattvas command, that every month we come together and renew our practice. And for a practice period, once a year we come together. We also have aspects of practice in the fall, which is a kind of practice period as well.

[09:06]

But the spring practice period brings us together to renew our practice together and set the tone for the rest of the year. So I have a. Come on. And I have a column to set the tone for our practice period. And this is from the Moomin Khan. That's a collection of columns. And the principal monk here is Mutsu, who was a great grandson of Mr. Moon, or actually a great grandfather.

[10:17]

Dharma grandfather, Master Bhuman. And the koan goes like this. Mutsu said, Shakyamuni and Maitreya are servants of that one. Tell me, who is that one? And then Master Muma has a comment, and he says, if you can see this one and distinguish this one, of this him or her, clearly, then it is like encountering your grandfather at the crossroads. You will not need to ask somebody else whether or not you are correct or right. Don't draw another's bow.

[11:23]

Don't ride another's horse. Don't discuss another's faults. Don't explore another's affairs. So this is kind of like in two parts. Let's go on. So Master Wudzu says, Shakyamuni and Maitreya are servants of that one. There's a character That means both this one and the other. Another. So sometimes it's used to mean another. And sometimes it's used to mean this one. And fusion both senses in this column. Sometimes the translator will use this another all the way through. But I think it's better this one and another because. This one is non-dualistic, and another is dualistic.

[12:30]

So these are the two sides of our practice, duality and non-duality. Shakyamuni and Maitreya are servants of that one, or this one, or this, or one. But you can say it in many ways. In the there was a time in the early part of the like, I don't know what century, but sometime after the first century where the Mahayana needed to create three bodies of Buddha in order to differentiate the various aspects of who is Buddha. I've talked about this a lot, but it's very important to understand the three bodies of yourself.

[13:34]

So, who is that one? Who is Shakyamuni and Maitreya servants of? You know, we think, well, Shakyamuni, if you're a Buddhist, you think, well, Shakyamuni is the highest Buddha, right? Well, not exactly. Shakyamuni is a nirmanakaya Buddha. But he's also an attribute of Dharmakaya Buddha. And his expounding is Sambhogakaya Buddha.

[14:34]

These are his three bodies, which are also your three bodies. So, who is Shakyamuni? Who is Maitreya? Shakyamuni is like the Buddha of the past. Maitreya is the Buddha of the future. In the old days they said Maitreya Buddha was sitting there in Tushita Heaven and after some number of kalpas he will descend and become the next Buddha of the next aeon. Whereas Shakyamuni is the Buddha of the last aeon. But who is the Buddha of the present? So, you know, in the old meal chant, our original meal chant, which is close to

[15:39]

So when we talk about Shakyamuni Buddha, we think of the Buddha of the past. But actually, when one has realization, they are Shakyamuni Buddha. So there are many, many Shakyamuni Buddhas all over the world. As a matter of fact, all the Bodhisattvas are Shakyamuni Buddhas. So this is extending this kind of understanding that there's not just one Buddha. This is my understanding. So who is Maitreya? The Buddha of the future. Is there such a thing as Tushita Heaven? Come on. Tushita Heaven is here. Heaven and Hell are in our own minds. Matter of fact, the whole thing is in our own minds. But it's meaningful.

[16:57]

You say, oh, just in our own mind. Well, what is our mind? Our big mind is Dharmakaya Buddha. This is the source of mind. We call it Dharmakaya, the Dharma realm, which we also call it Buddha nature. We call it big mind. We call it Divine Light. Usually you don't hear that so much. Radiant Light. But actually, when you study Buddhism, or Zen, it's all throughout the literature. Dharmakaya is Divine Light. Your true nature is Divine Light. Sometimes it's called Radiant, brightness.

[18:03]

Brightness is kind of like an attribute. Radiance is like a projection. Divine is like, the actual meaning of divine is like a deity, from a deity, which causes a little problem in Buddhism because there is no deity in Buddhism. And yet, and yet, Buddhism leaves it undefined, non-defined. When Buddha was asked, when Shakyamuni was asked, is there a deity or not? a deity, and he says he didn't answer. He didn't say yes and he didn't say no.

[19:07]

This is one of those questions that he would not say yes or no to. So Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, means toward deification, even though Buddhism will not admit of a deity. Esoteric Buddhism has many deities. Tibetan Buddhism, Shingon in Japan, has many demigods, and I don't consider the gods, the spiritual, the aspects of our own spiritual being So it's not like it's something up in the sky, somebody in the sky. It's like our own innate... The right word, you know.

[20:19]

I don't want to misuse the word. Um. Divinity, you might say, even though that's not an appropriate word, but it comes as close. Closest. So and these are all expressions of Dharmakaya. So it's fine to say Dharmakaya because it doesn't there's no connotations of Dharmakaya. be defined, non-definable. So, but light is a kind of, gives us something to, tangibility. If you look at the Buddha on the altar, he has a halo. So, that's light. And he also has a little glass beam in his forehead, which is that beam

[21:23]

So this is all throughout Buddhism. And luminosity is another word for enlightenment. So, enlightenment comes from luminosity. So, we're always concerned in Zen, and especially, I thought, enlightenment is the big deal in Zen. So, luminosity. How is it expressed as luminosity? So, don't hinder it. This is, you know, the main practice in Zen is don't hinder it. Don't cover it up. So, Wudzu said, Shakyamuni and Maitreya are servants of that one. Tell me, who is that one?

[22:28]

Well, you had to show. Who is that one? So it all comes down to, who are you? Where is your essence? Where do you find your essence? So then, Master Bhuvan says, if you can see this one, and distinguish him or her clearly, that it is like encountering your, this is translated in various ways, your father at the crossroads. It's also translated as seeing your grandfather in the town. You will not need to ask somebody whether or not you're right. You know. You just know. Which doesn't mean you shouldn't check it out. Even if you know. Dogen's prime dharma successor was Angel.

[23:38]

And Angel wrote one essay, I guess you'd call it, called Kōmyōzō Zanai. Kōmyō means radiant light, or bright light, or divine light, depending on how you want to translate it. And there's a little excerpt from Komyo that says the same thing. He talks about... Komyo means light, so he's talking about the various aspects of light, which is of course, the expression of zazen, and the expression of all of our dharmic activities. So he says, I have to find a place to start here, because I'm breaking into his thinking.

[24:50]

He says, when you are born, the light is not born. When you die, the light does not die. It does not increase in Buddhas. It does not decrease in sentient beings. Neither is it diluted, even if you are. Not enlightened, even if you are. It has no special position, or appearance, or name. This is the whole body of all phenomena. You can't grasp it, and you can't throw it away. is unattainable. Although it is unattainable, it penetrates the whole body, the whole universe. From the highest heaven down to the lowest hell, all places are perfectly illumined in this way. This is the divine, inconceivable spiritual light. If you trustfully open yourself to and believe the profound meaning of these words, you will not need to ask someone else what and their grandfather in a town.

[26:00]

They're the same. But I think that a joke out of his car because he doesn't talk about this. Come on. It is. Call me. So which we will be studying in our class. So then. I want to go back a little bit to Maitreya. You know, when will the, in Judaism they have the same thing, you know, the Messiah, right? Waiting for some great being to come and save us. Well, the great being that comes to save us has to be ourself. Each one of us is Maitreya Buddha. Maitreya Buddha lies somewhere inside of each one of us.

[27:02]

And little by little, Maitreya comes out. When you're enlightened, Maitreya is there. We don't have to worry about the future. So, in Bhuvana's verse, he says, don't draw another's bow, don't ride another's horse, don't discuss another's faults, don't explore another's affairs. So he's giving us practice instructions. He's saying, this is how you, this is fundamental practice. And if you practice this way, you won't obscure your nature. So, don't draw another's bow, means draw your own bow. Drawing another's bow means doing another's work for them, or doing something that's not your own.

[28:13]

In other words, stealing something else, stealing somebody's virtue. You can't do that. You have to find your own. This is the basis of practice. Drawing your own bow means do your own practice. Don't ride another's horse. Well, find your own way of conducting yourself. Find your own way. These two go together. Don't draw another's bow. Don't ride another's horse. You have to find it yourself. Don't discuss another's fault has to do with... it's a precept, right? Don't discuss the fault of others. This patriarch has a very long poem about don't discuss the fault of others. Don't... no fault finding.

[29:13]

This is a practice that I want all of us to pay attention to during this practice period. No fault finding. As soon as you see yourself fault finding, you know, it goes on in your head. You may not say something, but if you think about how, what the conversation in your head is, when somebody does something you don't like, or when you see something off, or some stuff is going on in your head, you know, criticism, right? How do you avoid that? How do you avoid, how do you turn criticism into something constructive? How do you transform criticism into something that's constructive or that's supportive? How do you do that? Just simply to dwell on criticism or fault finding is poison. So how do you turn poison into nectar?

[30:17]

And don't explore another's affairs. In other words, no gossip. You may see people and you may want to talk to your neighbor about so-and-so. No gossip. We see how everybody is. How do we turn that desire to talk about somebody into something positive or supportive or trying to understand how do you turn something that is poisonous like gossip into something positive like trying to understand how people do things and why they do them

[31:24]

and not be so quick to share the criticism with others but to look at your own faults look at your own shortcomings and deal with those and be able to ask for help But it's good to be able to figure something out for yourself. If you see your own shortcomings, then how do you work on that? Because when we're ready to criticize somebody, it usually has something to do with our own shortcomings. So how do we express compassion instead of criticism? I have a thought.

[32:27]

This is promoting the practice. This is how we illuminate the practice. As soon as we stop doing these kinds of destructive practices, Sometimes we get very angry at people. And it's normal to get angry. You should get angry. When somebody doesn't, you should get angry. But if you carry that around with you, then it's poison. How do you allow yourself to get angry and then turn that into something positive? How can you allow your anger to transform into compassion?

[33:33]

I don't mean feeling sorry. Compassion means I'm trying to understand how things happen and why they happen. Then you're on top of it instead of underneath it. So how do you stay on top? No matter how angry you are, Otherwise, you lose your friend. I'll never see that person again. You're just cutting off your nose, despite your anger. How do you stay on top of things without being inundated or victimized by your own emotions? I wrote down, where does our authority come from?

[34:46]

Where does our authority come from? Where does Buddha's authority come from? Where does Shakyamuni's authority come from? The wealthy has his own authority. What does that mean? Personal authority? Divine authority? What kind of authority? This is why religion originally originated. There has to be some authority more than you. There has to be an authority above you. This is a 12-step program. There has to be an authority above you, otherwise you become the authority. And then you can do whatever you want. You can start a war. You can persecute people. You can do whatever you want. If you don't know that there's an authority over you, which you are subject to.

[35:46]

So that's a big question mark. And very good. Come on. That's this corner. Shakyamuni and Maitreya are servants of that one. Tell me who is that one.

[36:09]

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