I want to talk tonight about an important teaching for actually all of East Asian Buddhism. And it may be seem a little arcane or theoretical, but I think it's actually very practical and important. So I hope I can demonstrate that and we can talk about it. And this is, in Japanese, it's called Ichinen Sansen. And it means each thought or each moment of thought has 3,000 worlds or 3,000 realms. So this is a teaching, I think, as far as I know, first developed, I believe first developed by a man named Jie Yi, who's arguably the founder of East Asian Buddhism, really important figure in Chinese Buddhism.

[01:11]

We might say that about Kamarajiva. Jie Yi was in the 500s. Kamarajiva, the great translator of Buddhist texts into Chinese was also important, but Jie founded the Tiantai School of Chinese Buddhism. So I'm giving you a kind of extended historical footnote before I get into the teaching itself. Tiantai was an important school of Chinese Buddhism that centered on Mount Tiantai in eastern China, founded by Jie. Aji was this amazing mind. He actually synthesized or found a way to include all of the many different Buddhist teachings that came from India to China and developed a system for understanding them. He took as the highest teaching the Lotus Sutra, but also incorporated all the other teachings of Buddhism.

[02:16]

I'll talk about this particular teaching, that in each moment of thought, there are 3,000 realms or 3,000 worlds, and how helpful I think it is. Again, just to finish the historical footnote, the Tiantai school moved to Japan around 800 with the great Japanese monk Saicho, who founded the Tendai school based on Chiantai that was on the mountain northeast of Kyoto, Mount Hiei. And Dogen, the founder of Soto-sen that we follow here, was a monk on Mount Hiei and studied Tendai, as were the founders of all the other great new schools that developed in Dogen's time. the different Pure Land schools, the Rinzai Zen also, the founder Esai was a Tendai monk, and also Nichiren, who continued reverence for the Lotus Sutra. So anyway, this teaching is a kind of background for all of East Asian Buddhism in many ways.

[03:27]

So what it is, is basically that, again, that's very simply that in each thought, ichi-nen. Nen is the same as nenbutsu, mindfulness, to be aware in each moment of thought. And there was this, so in each moment of thought, 3,000 realms are there. So this is a teaching about the complexity of reality. And as such, I think it's very helpful. So just to give it and get into a little bit of the theory behind it first, Giri talked about the threefold contemplation in a single mind. And one aspect of this threefold contemplation was that, was about the original inherent nature of reality. So Giri said, everything from our own speech

[04:30]

To the sound of the waves rising, or the wind blowing, is the threefold contemplation in a single mind, the originally inherent 3,000 realms, which is to say all phenomena. So 3,000 is really an abbreviation for everything. But there are particular ways they got to that number. He continues, there is nothing to cultivate, nothing to attain. The forms of all things exerting their functions and arising in dependence upon conditions is, without transformation, threefold contemplation, in its totality. So it's a way of seeing reality. Now, people took this in different ways. Some people took it to mean, there's nothing we need to do because everything is already pure Buddha nature. Dogen emphasized that we need to express it in our practice to make it real. But this background is very important. So Zhu Yi's complex model for the mutual inclusion of the dharmas and the non-duality of the minds in the phenomenal world is this thought moment comprising 3,000 realms.

[05:44]

There's also, in early Buddhism, this idea of a moment, and they try to break everything down into the elements of reality in one moment. I think the word is kashana in Sanskrit or Pali. I think there are 62 of them in each second. So each moment of thought, as we sit and thoughts and feelings come up, the complexity of the reality we experience just sitting here, this body and mind facing the wall, facing ourselves, inhaling and exhaling, we can't We can't possibly track and trace all these 3,000 realms. So these 3,000, Zhu Yi sets forth 10 modes of contemplation, and one of his commentaries on the great zheguan, the great serene illumination, settling, and awareness. And these are some subtle, some coarse, involving contemplating the realm of the inconceivable.

[06:51]

This single thought moment indicates the briefest possible instant in the thoughts of ordinary worldlings that arise from one moment to the next, while the 3,000 realms indicates the whole of phenomenal reality. In explaining the structure of one mind, being 3,000 realms, what he says, now one mind comprises 10 Dharma realms. But each dharma realm also comprises 10 dharma realms, giving 100 dharma realms. So I'll kind of give context for this. These 10 dharma realms, we talked, last Monday night, we had a sagaki ceremony to feed the hungry goats. That's one of the 10. So there's six realms in conventional Buddhist cosmology. There will not be a test on this, but I want to fill in the context before I get into what the implications of this is. for our practice and how we see our life. So these ten realms are the six that we often talk about, which is hell realm, hungry ghost realm, animal realm, then human realm, then titan or ambitious

[08:01]

God realm, Asura realm, and then heavenly realm. So those are six. Beyond that, there's the realm of the Sravakas, those who listen to the Buddha and study the Buddha's teaching. The realm of the Pratyekabuddhas, who awaken on their own. So these are all categories that are very common in Mahayana sutras. Then the realm of the Bodhisattvas, and then the realm of the Buddhas. And what Juyi is saying here is that each of those 10, there are all 10 of the others. they interface and interact. And that has a very important implication, which I'll come back to. Then he says, one realm comprises 30 kinds of realms. And this 30, Well, it's, again, this is a technical Buddhist theory, but there, well, I'll come back to this, because there's 10 suchnesses and then three realms from that. But let me finish what he says. These 3,000 realms are contained in a fleeting moment of thought. Where there is no mind, that is the end of the matter.

[09:06]

But if mind comes into being to the slightest degree whatsoever, it immediately contains these 3,000 realms. So, although each thought moment is here said to contain the 3,000 realms, Jöyi is very careful to make clear that in his system the mind is not prior to phenomena. So, I'll read a little of this from Jöyi. One may say neither that the one mind is prior and all dharmas posterior, nor that all dharmas are prior and the one mind posterior. If one derives all dharma from the one mind, this is vertical relationship. If the mind all at once contains all dharmas, that's horizontal relationship. Neither vertical nor horizontal will do. All one can say is that the mind is all dharmas and all dharmas, all things, that is, are the mind. So in terms of where, what these,

[10:07]

So I mentioned the ten realms, each interpenetrating the others, and then there's ten suchnesses. So that gets to a thousand, and these are ten qualities of things as they are. This comes from the Lotus Sutra. The suchness of characteristics, the suchness of things' nature, the suchness of their essence, the suchness of their power. Again, there won't be a test, just that there are these ten qualities of the way things are in their suchness. Just to say some more, the suchness of their causes, of their conditions, of their effects, and of their ultimate equality from beginning to end. And then amongst these, so that gets you to 1000, and then all of these can be understood in terms of three realms, the realm of the five skandhas, or the composite things, the realm of sentient beings, and the realm of the land, the space around us.

[11:10]

So, okay, this is somewhat theoretical, but I'm talking about it tonight because I think it's got very important implications for us. And it is a kind of background of all East Asian Buddhism. So, So I'm reading this from Jacqueline Stone's book, a very important book, Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism, a kind of dense academic book. But anyway, she says, the number 3,000 is itself arbitrary. The point is that all of reality is integrated, interdependent unity. The concept of the 3,000 realms in a single thought moment is not, however, merely an analysis of the structure of reality. It is the realm of the inconceivable to be discerned in meditation by the practitioner, who in so doing realizes one's own identity with the totality of all that is.

[12:15]

So the point of this, for me, is that All of this stuff is going on in each moment of thought. The power of our mind to conceive this, Juyi could conceptualize it and talk about it. It's possible to study it intellectually, but the point of it from our practice is about honoring complexity. Again, when we say 3,000, we could say 300,000, but 3,000 is enough in each thought. there are all these realms going on in each moment of our awareness as we sit facing the wall, inhaling, exhaling. So within each inhale and within each exhale, there might be many such moments of thought. And all of these realms are present. So the hungry ghosts we made offerings to last week, you know, that's one kind of

[13:24]

birth that one can have and there are beings who live in those realms and in hell realms, but they're also, you know, our human realm is permeable. So in our human realm we also can, you know, there are people who are in hell realms or in hungry ghost realms or in blissful heavenly realms. They are permeable. And one important point is that Buddha is in all of them. So the Buddha realm exists in all of these different realms and in each moment of thought. So there's this amazing complexity. There is so much going on that we cannot get a hold of it. This is one of the basic axioms of Buddhism, that things are changing, that there's no fundamental self to get a hold of, of anything.

[14:30]

So, our practice is about being willing to face this complexity. Again, the idea that Buddha is present, just the way Jackie Stone says it, specifically because the Buddha realm is inherent in the human realm, ordinary worldlings, as she puts us, can potentially become Buddhas as a corollary. The ontological equality of all beings is established whatever their place in the hierarchy of the ten Dharma realms. Just as the Buddha realm is contained even in the hell realm, so the hell realm is contained even in the realm of Buddha. This is a way of talking about our deep interconnectedness with each other and with beings in all kinds of states, beings in recovery, beings in prison, beings

[15:32]

who are living in exalted realms and in monasteries or in, you know, very high class spaces, all of us beings are deeply connected. And this is true, not just, it's true in the kind of so-called external reality of the world, that there is this deep interconnectedness, but primarily for us in the awareness that We can't get a hold of, but yet we have, so we can get some sense of, or it gets some sense of us when we are willing to just sit upright and be present. We can be present in the midst of the, I would say, awesome complexity of each moment. Now this doesn't mean that we should not use our intellect and our conceptualization and our abilities. Each, everybody in this room, I know you all have extraordinary gifts and awarenesses and experiences and this doesn't negate that at all.

[16:48]

But to be sensitive to this reality that What's going on in each moment of thought is awesomely complex. We can't... get a hold of it through our thinking. Again, it doesn't mean we can't think about this if you want to. It doesn't mean we can't have some experiential connection with it. So, you know, I've said Zhi Yi was the founder of East Asian Buddhism. We could look to the Chan people, Bodhidharma and the Sixth Ancestors and so on as those who wanted to emphasize the point of this in our experience. How do we actually experience this? How do we express it? colloquially in all those Zen stories. How do we interact with this reality of the interactivity of our world?

[17:54]

How does it change us when we hear or sense or consider the ways in which Buddha is present in all these different realms, and all these different realms are present in Buddha. In other words, awakening, full expression of wisdom and compassion is available, it's there, and also hell realms are available in all these realms. the suffering of this world is not separate from the wisdom and compassion of Buddhists. So practically speaking, we don't need to know the theory about where this number 3,000 came from or any of that. Just to hear that in each moment of thought, 3,000 realms, 3,000 worlds, I believe has some power and importance for us and various implications.

[19:11]

One of them is to help us avoid trying to grab on to some simple explanation of things. This is part of what our human mind does. You know, in the midst of the suffering of the world and our own heart and mind, we want some explanation. We want something to lean on, to grab hold of. This is the source of all the religious fundamentalism of the world. Give me that old-time religion. Give me something I can count on. Give me something I can believe in, even if it doesn't make sense. Tell me I should believe in my will. There's this tendency that we all have to want you know, to want something simple and easy. Okay, just do this and everything will be okay, and all your problems will be solved. Well, you know, there are practices we have, and in some ways we talk about zazen that way sometimes.

[20:12]

But the point is that zazen allows us to face this complexity. Zazen allows us to find our own inner dignity and inner uprightness in the world in which Every moment, 3,000 worlds. We can't just get a hold of it. So another implication of this, or one of the things that the fundamentalist tendency towards simple explanations leads us to is wanting to know the answer. I've had Zen students asking me literally for years for some explanation. They want to know what's it all about. And we all have part of this. We do. And what I'm saying tonight is each moment of thought, each moment of thinking about this is the answer.

[21:24]

3,000 worlds. Here, now, all interactive. They're all connected. It's this interactive world in which, you know, all these worlds are buzzing around right now, relating to each other, supporting each other. You know, this is not a simple explanation, but for me, anyway, hearing about this, somehow it's comforting. Now, it may seem overwhelming and perplexing, maybe, but I'm daring to talk about it tonight because, you know, I think there is a way in which it is true and that we can actually face that the world doesn't have some simple explanations. You know, when people are trying to decide, do I do this or do I do that, often they think that there's only two options.

[22:30]

First of all, that's one common fallacy. And they think there's one right solution. I have to figure out which one is the right one to do. Well, they both could be the right one to do. They both could be the wrong one to do. It's not so simple. Can we be willing to be present in a world where we don't have all the answers? So another corollary of this is the value placed in Zen on not knowing. As the great teacher Sokson said, only don't know. Can we be willing to be present and face the world and meet it and engage it without knowing what it is, without having it formulated for us? This is difficult sometimes. Another, I think, important implication of not knowing, and in our lineage we call this beginner's mind, is the great respect.

[23:35]

that this can provide us. If we respect that we don't know, if we respect that there are these 3,000 worlds, or pick a number, it doesn't have to be 3,000, but there's this complexity always going on, then, well, gosh, I don't know everything that's going on, but we can respect the possibilities in everything. Everything is connected to Buddha. So this idea of Buddha nature maybe is related to it. To respect that each being and each of the 3,000 realms of ourself and each moment of thought. So it's not just all the beings out there, it's the beings, you know, going 3,000 realms right now on your cushion or chair. when we don't have the answers, when we're not caught in fundamentalism, when we're willing to honor the complexity of reality and of nature, we can... Well, first of all, there's this feeling just of awe.

[24:56]

The world and reality and who each one of us is sitting on a cushion and chair right now is Inconceivable. It's beyond our idea of ourself. It's beyond our idea of the world. It contains 3,000 realms. With each click of my finger. Wow. So, you know, if you take that seriously, I think the implication is, yeah, wow, the world is amazing and we can feel humble in the face of that and also respectful of all the possibilities. And how we actually implement that in terms of taking care of ourselves and each other and the world is the work of Bodhisattvas, the Buddha work. But I think there's something helpful in this... Just in hearing about these 3,000 realms in each moment of thought,

[26:00]

I mentioned Nichiren before, who venerated the Lotus Sutra itself as Buddha. He says that this 3,000 realms in each moment of thought is, the actuality of it is the ontological basis of realizing Buddhahood. Pretty strong statement. I'm not sure, I haven't, didn't look thoroughly, but I'm not sure that Dogen talks about this explicitly, but it's in the background of his thinking, this sense of the complexity of reality, being willing to face that. So again, you know, sometimes there is some, in some situation, we may have some insight and there's some simple response that maybe works to be helpful in some situation. So I don't think the implication of this is that we should feel like frozen and paralyzed, like there's nothing we can do because it's so complex.

[27:01]

Within these 3,000 realms, yeah, sometimes we have, oh yeah, here's a way to be kind to this person, or here's a way to respond to that situation that can happen. It's not that we need to be paralyzed by this, but to have the sense of, respecting this complexity, which is also part of the way nature actually works. Dawn's husband was here yesterday talking about the complexity of the natural world of the environment. And so it applies on many levels. So maybe that's enough for me to say. And I'm welcome and I'm interested in any questions or responses you have to this idea or this reality. So questions, responses, comments, please feel free.

[28:12]

Early on when you started talking about it, I definitely had this palpable sense of of almost terror, you know, the reality of that. And it's like a kind of amazement that people aren't even more crazed than they are, although it's pretty crazy out there. But you definitely get a, you definitely, compassion can arise from that understanding. Yes. Because when you realize how can understand how your own reactions and those of others maybe are not always skillful. So it seems like a very helpful teaching. Yeah, that sense of terror. I think it's important to remember that, again, as a kind of antidote to fundamentalism. And I don't mean to just label that in terms of the fundamentalist religious institutions, but all of us have some tendency to want to grab a hold of some simple answer that'll take care of everything.

[29:24]

And again, there are times when there is some clear response to something, but even that is in this context of complexity, we can have a deeper sense of ourselves and the world. It's actually, to be able to face, you know, even if it feels like terrifying at first, it's also, oh yeah, this. All of this complexity is what is arising in our minds at each moment. And we do have the capacity as human beings to conceptualize and discriminate and function, you know, in a reasonably intelligent way or not. Anyway, other responses, comments? It takes the struggle out of it. How so? If you don't have to struggle for coherence and just recognize that coherence is intrinsically impossible, that takes the struggle out of it from my perspective.

[30:34]

It makes acceptance much easier. Interesting. You know, I like that word. I've been using that word coherence some lately. I like it. Yes to what you say, but I want to turn it a little further. We don't have to struggle for some... If you don't have to get it right, then it can just be what it is. Yes, good. Good way of saying it. But what I want to add to that is there is a kind of integrity or coherency then to seeing the whole thing. as this complex jumble. So another aspect of this is that each of those 3,000 realms totally, in some real way, reflects the whole thing. In that sense, there's a greater coherence to the whole thing.

[31:39]

some coherence. We don't have to, and as you say, it can take a struggle out. We don't have to get the right answer. In fact, we can't. How could that be possible in a world so complex that there'd just be one? So yeah, yeah, yeah. Can we just be willing to The great Master Zhao Zhou, some of you know, some of his sayings, said, I do not take refuge in clarity. There are times when I'm feeling sleepy or groggy, when I have a kind of groggy period of zazen. And there's something wonderful about that. OK. I'm not going to be clear this period of, you know, right now anyway. And yet I can be here and be present and be sort of upright and keep breathing.

[32:48]

So it's like that. Yeah. I don't have to be some perfect whatever. Yeah. Thank you. Other thoughts? So I guess I'm just trying to get it. Good luck. But let's go for it, yeah. So I've got like 3,000 things going on, right? Me too. Then everybody else does. Everything does. They're all social beings. Yeah. So we're all just crazy. Well, you can call it crazy. It's all because everybody's all about these things. But you don't have to call it crazy. You can. Not crazy, but lots of craziness. Like, lots of things. There's lots of stuff. There's lots. Lots of stuff.

[33:51]

There's a line from Dylan where he says, the stuff we got will knock your socks off. Yes, Jim? Are realms shared? Yeah, I think so. And I think that's the source of controversy between different theoretical schools of Buddhism, maybe. But yeah, there's these, you know, Of course, the 3,000 realms include that we're connected with all the beings in all those realms. So yeah, so that actually is 3,000 times to the 3,000th power or something like that. But yeah, yeah, we're connected in these realms. It's not just going on in your head and then separately over here in my head. Of course, there's this interactivity between all of us and all of these realms. And it's not that there's some objective reality where there's 3,000 realms out there in the front hall.

[35:02]

It's happening in all of us. Hard to get a hold of us. Documents. So there aren't those people, for example. There's always a literary connection. And I think you could have to say there are no real boundaries between the models. In some sense, we penetrate them all and they adhere with us. And they're different, but I'm sure there are absolutely different ways to look at it, too. Differences. It's always there.

[36:21]

And there are lots of quotes that make a big point of that, the connection to... huge universes and realms and spectacular visions, and then the koans tend to be more okay. You know all about that, but remember, coming back right here, this is where you interact with those. That's sort of the thrust of the two differences.

[37:23]

Yeah, the point then for us in practice as Buddha practitioners is that, okay, how do we, in this interactive complexity, it is interactive, we can't, in each moment of thought, enumerate 3,000 whatevers, then there's another moment of thought. And yet, how do we breathe into our life? in the face of being willing to honor the complexity of all of us interacting together in all of these realms. Yeah. So it's kind of, how do we take that on? It's not being terrified or overwhelmed. It's like, okay, I don't have all the answers. I don't know. I've got to respect that the world is much more complex than I can track or trace, and yet, okay, here I am. And then how do we, rather than expressing some simple fundamentalist explanation, live open to the connectedness of not needing to get it right.

[38:44]

And yet, it's not about getting it right. Rick, you had something? How do you take on something so vast as accepting reality just as it is? Yeah, that's good. Thank you for that question, because the 10 suchnesses I mentioned, each of those are ways of seeing this quality of just this. our mindfulness of facing the wall, this moment, here it is. So we don't have to, we can be present and take the next breath and smile at somebody, you know, be friendly, be kind. In the middle of that, why not? It's not about being overwhelmed by it, it's about actually appreciating that we each carry all of that with us all the time.

[40:12]

And so then we're actually, we can be open to new possibilities. It's almost like the acceptance of reality just as it is. Reality is just so vast, and here I am. Here you are. Another way to talk about this, maybe, that you're reminding me of is the ultimate practice of patience. The Sanskrit word I love to say, halepatakadarmakshanti. which is patient, in Sanskrit it's anurpadaka dharmakshanti, but it's the patience with the ungraspability of things, of anything, of dharmas.

[41:21]

We can't get a hold of any of it. That's another way of saying what this 3,000 realms. So the practice then is not just passively accepting, but it's a dynamic active practice of, okay, I can tolerate that I can't have all the answers, that I can't get it right in some ultimate sense, and yet here we each are interactively interfacing with all. And so that requires this kind of forbearance or tolerance or patience. Patience is the heart of our practice, I think. and the ultimate patience, and it's equated with total enlightenment, you know, in many of the sutras, that to be patient with, to be accepting, but not passively accepting, to actually be engaged with, okay, I can't get a hold of it all, and I can't get a hold actually of any one single thing.

[42:30]

Because each thing is, because each thing is so much, you know, whatever, if there's one particular problem that we're, you know, stuck with in our life and we all have problems, whatever that problem is, it's not just one thing. In some sense, we can just meet it, the suchness of it, but then when we stop and consider it, there are innumerable causes and conditions And in some ways, openness to this complexity allows us deeper connection, allows us to not be stuck on one side or another. Maybe taking it out as an act of appreciation for its richness. Yeah, good way of saying it. Appreciation for the richness of reality. Yes, yes, yes.

[43:32]

Thank you. Yeah, what I keep, the image that comes up in my head is this, you know, thought or whatever we're calling this bubble, and there's ten realms of that, and then in each of those ten bubbles, there's ten in that, and I just see this, like, effervescent, ever-multiplying, inwardly vastness that And it seems like it's endlessly explorable. And like, I'm sitting and I think, okay, I'm down to this place that's the essence of something. It's like, oh, no, wait, I can fall further into it. And there's that corner. There's always more to see.

[44:32]

And then what just pops up right there for me is emptiness, too. So that's like, I don't know if it's the opposite, but it's like... That's how we see emptiness. We see emptiness in the complexity of all the different forms. Each one of those forms, each one of the colors and shapes, is a total expression of wholeness or emptiness, however you want to put it. So it's this, again, this interactive dynamic sense of reality. So it's not some passive TV screen out there. We're part of it. It is us. We are it. So there's many possibilities. Yes, Rick? Yeah, we need a wider sense of groundedness, but yeah, Buddhism is an earth religion.

[45:59]

The Buddha touched the earth to testify to, yeah, awake. And yeah, it's a wonderful question. How, and I would say our Zazen allows us the opportunity to be grounded in a world of vastness and total complexity. And what does it mean then to be grounded in that? Well, we have to be open and tolerant and patient with the unceasing flow of change of everything.

[46:31]

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