Good morning everyone. Starting next month we're doing our two-month spring practice period and we'll be using as stories to encourage our practice for that. Four different stories from the Lotus Sutra, one of the Bodhisattva scriptures that's very important in East Asia, it was very important to Dogen. I'm going to talk about one of the other stories that we're not going to be focusing on. So whether or not you're formally doing that practice period or not, some of you will and some won't, we'll be talking about these stories during that time and using them as ways to encourage our practice and support our practice and inform our practice. The story I want to talk about today is about a particular Bodhisattva. So we often talk about some of the

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particular Bodhisattvas, especially Kanzeon, who we'll be chanting about in our midday service today, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. But this is another Bodhisattva, there's a story about him in chapter 20 and his name is Never Disrespectful Bodhisattva and it's a kind of funny character. So I'll start with some of the things that says about him in this chapter and the chapter begins with the Buddha speaking to the Bodhisattva, a different Bodhisattva called in English Great Strength or in Sanskrit Mahastamprapta or in Japanese Seishi and encouraging him and telling

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him about a previous age countless eons ago when there was a Buddha named Majestic Voice King Tathagata. So in the Lotus Sutra and in the Bodhisattva teachings there are many Buddhas, many Bodhisattvas and many ages past and future and in various different strange Buddha realms. This Bodhisattva Great Strength, Mahastamprapta, is interesting because he's a companion to the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Kanzeon or Avalokitesvara. So particularly in Pure Land Buddhism where they focus on Amida Buddha, the Buddha of Pure Light, the two Bodhisattvas who accompany Amida Buddha are Kanzeon of Avalokitesvara or Bodhisattva of Compassion and this other Bodhisattva Great Strength, Seishi in Japanese. So this is a Bodhisattva who's kind of a companion Bodhisattva

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with a Bodhisattva of Compassion and the Buddha is telling him Great Strength long ago innumerable unlimited inconceivable on countless eons ago there was a Buddha named Majestic Voice King one worthy of author offerings truly awakened fully clear in conduct well gone understanding the world unexcelled leader trainer of people teacher of heavenly beings a Buddha world honored one and his eon was named free from decline and his land was called Great Achievement. So there are throughout this and other Mahayana Sutras descriptions of these other Buddha realms and other Buddhas. Anyway, so the Buddha is talking to Great Strength Bodhisattva, our Buddha Shakyamuni and he goes on about that that Buddha realm and he adds

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um that after the Buddha that that Buddha passed away there were other Buddhas with the same name Majestic Voice King Dittakata and two trillion Buddhas in succession all with the same name appeared. After the extinction of the first Majestic Voice King Dittakata and after the end of the true Dharma period during the period of the merely formal Dharma the Buddha says extremely arrogant monks had great power. This happens sometimes at that time there was a Bodhisattva monk named Never Disrespectful and Buddha says Great Strength why do you think he was named Never Disrespectful? Well that monk bowed in obeisance before everyone he met whether monk, non-layman or laywoman all beings he met and praised them saying I deeply respect you I would never dare to be

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disrespectful or arrogant toward you. Why? Because all of you are practicing the Bodhisattva way and surely will become Buddhas. This monk did not devote himself to reading and reciting sutras but simply went around bowing to people that was his practice he went and bowed to everyone and and respected everyone and said I would never disrespect you you will be a Buddha and he and when he saw the monks or nuns or laymen or laywomen or Buddhist practitioners even at a distance he would go up to them and bow and praise them saying I would never dare disrespect you you surely will all become Buddhas. So a lot of them got angry and enraged and mean-spirited and cursed him. I mean imagine some some some guy coming around bowing to you and saying I'm not going to disrespect you. Anyway it's kind of an odd character. So some of them said this ignorant monk who takes it on himself to announce he does not

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disrespect us and assures us of becoming Buddhas where's he come off? We have no use for such empty false assurances. So this I don't know I'm sure that never disrespectful meditated sometimes and but he didn't devote himself to reading and reciting sutras. He just went along and he was always you know he was always being cursed and put down and but he always he never got angry. He just said oh you you too will surely become a Buddha. When he spoke this way some would hit him with sticks or tiles or stones even if he ran off and slithered a distance he would continue to cry out loudly I don't disrespect you surely you will all become Buddhas. So these um these other other practitioners because he spoke this way called him never disrespectful. So this is kind of a strange character to be mentioned as you know have a whole

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have a whole chapter in the Lotus Sutra devoted to him never disrespectful Bodhisattva. So the point of these stories is you know that they teach us something about our practice and how we can practice and so um how can we imagine and understand someone respecting everybody in all things never disrespecting any anyone. I mean it's you know it might be difficult you might be able to imagine I don't know some people who give you a hard time or seem to act badly and you might not respect them or you might hear people I don't know politicians or somebody who you know it's you have trouble respecting but this Bodhisattva he just went around never disrespecting anyone respecting all people all beings.

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Well the sutra goes on when this monk was nearing death from the sky he heard 200 million billion verses of the Dharma flower or Lotus Sutra which majestic voice King Buddha had previously taught and he was able to receive and embrace them all. This is a funny thing in the Lotus Sutra we'll be talking about it more in the practice period but the Lotus Sutra talks about right in the Lotus Sutra about the Lotus Sutra being preached in other times and how it's and how it talks about majestic voice King Buddha this ancient ancient Buddha who had previously taught this Lotus Sutra that this story is in. Anyway so it's a little interesting anyway this Bodhisattva never disrespectful was able to hear receive and embrace all of those verses from the sutra and again this was as he was nearing death and immediately he obtained

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purity of vision and of the faculties of ears nose tongue body mind and having obtained the purity of his six senses his life was extended for two million billion myriads of years and he taught this Dharma flower sutra everywhere for people so here's never disrespectful Bodhisattva for long long long long time teaching this Dharma flower Lotus Sutra that he's that includes him as a character. Anyway then the extremely arrogant monks nuns and laymen and laywomen who had slighted and shown contempt for this guy and given him the name never disrespectful seeing him with the power of great divine faculties powers of joyful and eloquent speech and powers of great goodness and tranquility and hearing his teaching of the Dharma they all believed in him and they followed him and they became the students. So

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and then the Buddha goes on talking about this and then he says to great strength Bodhisattva what do you think can never disrespect disrespectful Bodhisattva who lived at that time be unknown to you? And the Shakyamuni Buddha says he was really me if I had not received and embraced and recited this sutra and taught it to others in previous lives I would not have been able to attain supreme awakening so quickly because I received and embraced read and recited this sutra taught it for others under previous Buddhas before I'm teaching it now as he's saying I attained supreme awakening quickly. And then the Buddha also says great strength Bodhisattva what do you think those four groups of that time who who were contemptuous of that Bodhisattva are they unknown to you? They're now in this assembly and he identifies Bajapala and a group of 500 Bodhisattvas Lion Moon and her group of 500 nuns thinking of Buddha and his group of 500

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laymen all of whom will never regress in their pursuit of supreme awakening. So again this Bodhisattva never disrespectful would always go up to people and say I will never disrespect you for you are following the way and surely we'll all become Buddhas. So you know in some ways this is a simple story a simple practice just to not disrespect and we could put it positively he was not he was respectful Bodhisattva respecting and bowing to everyone this practice of bowing is kind of strange in our culture I think a lot of people people who first come to practice here or in other Zen centers you know the thing that most puts them off are the prostrations you know and in our our western monotheistic traditions you

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know one of the I think it's the first commandment is to not have any graven images or idols other than you know the one supreme western god anyway but you know when we do prostrations we are bowing to the Buddha in all of us and in all things of course we're bowing to the image of the Buddha on the altar but this we sit like the Buddha calm upright relaxed hands folded together enjoying our breathing expressing Buddha in our body in our own way so to bow to Buddha and then also to see you know so it's not that everybody has

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on some in some ways it's not that everybody is Buddha right now we know of people who act in ways that are not helpful that don't seem awakened and you know within ourselves we can you know some of us sometimes have parts of ourselves that we have trouble respecting but even in in those terms to not disrespect the parts of us that maybe are arrogant or unkind this bodhisattva never disrespectful just bow to everyone and everything so how do we do this practice of respect for all beings so you know our 16 bodhisattva precepts we talk about taking refuge in buddhadharma and sangha about benefiting all beings embracing and sustaining right conduct doing good

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not killing not taking what's not given not intoxicating mind or body of self or others um and so forth not misusing sexuality not speaking of faults of others or not turning our anger into ill will but in some sense all of you know so we don't have a respect is not in the list of the 16 bodhisattva precepts we do it's not in the list of the 10 paramitas but i think it underlies all of them so you know the precept soul and the transcendent practices you know all our ways of well first not harming but being helpful instead of harmful and encouraging others to be helpful rather than harmful and then respect so i like the holiday of thanksgiving because it includes gratitude and generosity these are other

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these are expressions of deep respect part of what we learn as we practice doing this regularly is this quality of deep respect this is part of the practice of sangha that we learn to respect each other you know it's it's natural human nature some people we you know hit it off with right away other people maybe rub us the wrong way this you know this happens but fundamentally how are we never disrespectful that's what this bodhisattva and the story is encouraging how do we it's it it's respecting people but it's also respecting the process of never disrespecting dogen talks about experiencing the vital process on the path

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of going beyond buddha of buddha always going beyond of buddha always helping others to awaken and all and all and also learning how to awaken him or herself so this ongoing practice of that this bodhisattva exemplified and you know one of the things the lotus sutra does you know there are various aspects of this sutra some of which are kind of kind of seem strange or even unappealing at least at first depending on how we interpret them but it talks about a lot about how you should venerate the lotus sutra it says it right in the lotus sutra and uh how um and it praises being you know in in this chapter two beings who who praise the sutra or remember the sutra or recite the sutra or share it with others um or or copy parts of the sutra or the whole sutra and so it praises itself a lot

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which you know might seem like a kind of arrogance or something in fact uh you know if a person did that we have this precept not to praise self at the expense of others so you know anyway there's there are various problematic ways that the lotus sutra can be understood but the point of this this particular bodhisattva never disrespectful is just that he went around and bowed to everyone and respected them um and intentionally consciously knew and said that he would not disrespect anyone and people gave him a hard time so that's also part of it and the lotus sutra talks about how how you will you know you will be protected if you if you take care of the sutra and for people who who don't respect the sutra they will have a hard

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time um so part of part of this this um character never disrespectful or always respectful bodhisattva is that he doesn't care he continues in this practice even when he's not respected or even when people think he's foolish as they seem to this was his whole this was his whole practice he wasn't you know otherwise a notable practitioner there are numbers of figures like this in buddhist history kind of foolish in some way or another so you know this this is not this this bodhisattva practice is not necessarily about being intelligent or skillful or shiny or you know it's just ordinary ordinary folks but this is one way to do this practice never disrespecting

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so one example in history is um one of my favorite japanese buddhist figures was named ryokan he lived 1758 to 1831 he was a soto zen monk he was his name his dharma name meant great fool because he was kind of foolish um he's also a very great poet and his poetry is still um you know appreciated today in his own time he was a famous calligrapher people uh appreciated his calligraphy and it became very valuable but he lived this very simple life he was he he was trained fully trained in a soto zen training monastery could have become a teacher and abbot and all that stuff but he he just went back to his hometown and built this little hut on the outskirts of town and supported himself by doing begging rounds which was a practice common in in asian buddhism receiving alms from people around him he also liked to play

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with children so he was very foolish uh and there are all kinds of wonderful stories about him um but he particularly he liked the lotus sutras dogen did and he particular his particular favorite bodhisattva was this bodhisattva never disrespectful so he wrote um and so there are poems by ryokan about this this um bodhisattva and uh so i'll read you a few of those one who is a monk needs nothing only never disrespecting anyone for this is the unexcelled practice of all bodhisattvas so he wrote poems on every chapter in the lotus sutra but uh a couple few more day and night you practice bowing and bowing again you live your life simply practicing bowing i take refuge in you never disrespecting anyone

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you stand alone without a peer above or under heaven another poem to this bodhisattva ryokan writes some throw stones some beat him with sticks he retreats then stops and calls to them aloud since this fellow has left the world no one has heard from him but the wind and moonlight that fill the night for whom do they reveal their purity there was no one like another another one there uh there was no one like you in the past there will be no one like you in the future never disparaging never disrespecting anyone your pureness makes me forever adore you so ryokan was this you know kind of simple not so simple he was actually you know he read dogen uh at a time when very few people did even even soto monks he studied the sutras

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um and uh wrote all this amazing poetry very warm poetry um like to wander around and he would uh forget his begging bowl when he was got involved with playing with the kids and there's all kinds of stories about his foolishness um one time he was playing hide and seek with the kids and the village children and um he hid in a barn and he stayed there and they didn't find him and the parents called the kids into dinner and the next morning the farmer came and saw him in the barn he was still still sitting there and and and the farmer said ryokan what are you doing there and he said the children will hear so i don't know maybe he was just in samadhi all night i don't know anyway and people were always trying to trick him to um

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to get copies of his calligraphy because his calligraphy was very beautiful and delicate and and valuable as a commodity uh there's lots of stories about people tricking him but uh one time he uh ryokan liked flowers you know one time he couldn't help himself and he picked some flowers from a tree and the farmer saw him doing that and said i'm going to send you to put you in jail unless you write some calligraphy for me so so i did um anyway there's lots and lots of stories about ryokan um and his own practice of not disrespecting there's one story um um uh ryokan's nephew um um his his brother's first son and heir to the declining motoclan had begun to indulge in a life of dissipation would not listen to anyone's advice

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he was falling into bad ways which happens sometimes to young people in desperation his mother asked ryokan to admonish him ryokan went to the family's house and stayed there for three days yet he remained speechless not knowing what to say to this to his nephew didn't say a word to him finally when the time came for ryokan to depart he called the nephew to help him tie his tie up his straw sandals uh the mother thinking ryokan was at last going to preach to her son hid behind a screen to listen as the nephew was tying ryokan sandals he felt a cold sensation on his neck looking up he realized it was tears falling from ryokan's eyes suddenly the nephew recovered his senses ryokan stood up and still silent departed and

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the nephew mended his ways and became a good guy so these are stories of respect how do we express respect to all beings maybe especially how do we risk how do we express respect or lack of disrespect to people who maybe don't respect themselves or don't respect others you know we have all of this hate speech in our society now how do we not even hate the people who are spreading hate speech how do we speak kindly how do we speak respectfully how do we recognize the possibility of people awakening reforming changing this happens so this is an example of a story you know it's a very simple story really this figure but

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what does it mean to never disrespect anyone what does it mean to never disrespect any part of ourselves so you know one of the things that happens in zazen is we start to see uh and when we practice regularly we see it more we see our own patterns of grasping or aversion our own um you know the stuff that we maybe don't like and you know we can feel lack of self-respect of course it applies to others as well but how do we um see that all of all of these situations are like the dharmagates that are boundless that we will vow to enter at the end of this how do we see each difficulty as an opportunity

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how do we not disrespect the process of caring about the quality of the world and all the all the beings in it and seeing that each situation is difficult is an opportunity to learn respect and lack of disrespect so maybe that's all um i need to say about this bodhisattva except that uh you know our he's one of the bodhisattvas who has a special chapter in the lotus sutra and the shakyamuni buddha said that that that was that he was that bodhisattva in a past life

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and that the great um soto poet and monk ryokan um you know ryokan was also a great meditator he would sit up at night in his hut he would he would sit out in front of his hut and look at the moon anyway he was a character um he liked sake too and uh there's so many stories about him i could tell more and more stories about ryokan he he uh one time of a friend came uh and uh uh let me go down and he was sitting in his hut and he said let me go down and um get some sake from from the village and he didn't come back for a very very long time and the guest wondered where he what happened to him and he went started wandering down the hill and there was ryokan sitting in a field looking up at the moon he'd forgotten all about the subject so uh anyway uh so this practice is about

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learning how to respect in very deep ways respecting and not disrespecting all the difficulties and situations so um we have time for some questions or comments or discussion if anyone has any reflections to share about this bodhisattva or about respect and i'm sorry that aretha is not here to belt out her song r-e-s-p-e-c-t kathy so

[32:52]

because of course there are negative there are phenomena in the world that we respond to positively and negatively and you know there are people who cause harm and so forth and yet that's this this bodhisattva never disrespectful might be helpful to remember um other thoughts oh good at all yes thank you very much for that so um one of our 10 precepts is not to speak of the faults of others that doesn't mean that we don't notice problems and that we don't respond to them

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and when we see problems in the world it doesn't mean we don't respond to situations in the world but we don't have to get caught up in fault finding and name calling and and hate speech and so forth um but it but also one of the precepts is to speak truth one of the precepts is to not kill which means to support life and to support others not to kill so when we see harm the precepts don't mean to you know just to ignore that and we might um you know disrespect the activities or the speech even of someone but this idea of buddhan nature everyone having this capacity to change to awaken so one of the major disciples of um shakyamuni buddha had been a serial killer anguli mala um actually the story is he he had you know when one of the stories says that he

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would been persuaded that he that he would his family would be better off if he killed 100 people and he had um um anguli means fingers and mala he had a mala of made up of fingers of people he'd killed trophies you know it's serial killers on tv like to keep whatever uh and he and he had killed 99 people and he saw the buddha and he was going to kill the buddha and the buddha just kept walking and he walked after him and in the and the first of the first the faster the anguli mala walked the further away he seemed to get even though the buddha was just walking very calmly maybe not quite kin him but walking regularly and and anguli mala called out to him stop and the buddha turned around said no you stop so how do we get people who are doing harmful things to stop causing harm

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well you know it's this is challenging so yes it's important that it not not disrespecting doesn't mean to just accept whatever is happening it means how do we respond skillfully to help people see their own lack of self-respect or lack of respect for others trying to build walls to keep out certain kinds of people you know we face the wall as i've been saying to see ourselves and just and to see the wall as a window to see other beings and so we don't you know build walls on our borders to keep people out um yeah and anguli mala eventually became an arhat a perfected one so uh anyway this is an example in buddhist history of you know a huge reformation other comments or responses yes brian um i was interested how

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let me link together not disrespecting and also saying you will become a buddha because i i think it it has to do with when i feel disrespect i've somehow made a conclusion about who that person is or if i disrespect a part of myself this is myself it's like well this i'm this kind of person and i can't respect that kind of person and i think of children and how when my kids were little um if they were doing something i didn't like or was harmful it wasn't a matter of disrespecting them when i stopped them i still saw them for who they were it's a it's a whole person was a good person i related to that in them and didn't conclude that there were

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this kind of person because there were such institutions so for me it has to do with maybe dropping my conclusions about what kind of people people are right and looking for something because there is word of nature there's something there perhaps i can relate to that yeah good so to not so prejudice is about pre-judgment that we have judgments about certain people to certain kinds of people and we get stuck on that and to be open to seeing this possibility as never never disrespectful bodhisattva was he saw so you know one of the one of the uh skillful uh approaches when there's somebody you're having a hard time with is to look and see well what are the positive qualities there and to to appreciate that to actually see oh yeah this is a there's this positive quality there

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or to see uh or with when there's uh acting it from in a harmful way in a hateful way to see well what is the uh fear or sadness or pain that is provoking that kind of and misunderstanding that is provoking that kind of harmful speech harmful action or hate speech or whatever so to actually look and listen deeply and and then we have this idea as you said of buddha nature that there's this uh all people and in some ways all of reality has this potentiality or quality or aspect of insight and caring so uh well then it doesn't that doesn't mean that we just ignore and and accept harmful action but how do we respond to it in a way that's not just more hatred yes

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and uh and it's an example of seeing people who are in prison to stay respectful of that either right so sometimes it's appropriate to put somebody away to prevent them from causing further harm to others or themselves but uh you know there's this topic of mass incarceration in our society now

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where it seems to be pretty much all about punishment and people who uh after they serve their time uh it's very difficult for them to find a way to be present without going back to criminal activity for many so yeah this is relevant to that very much so see i noticed you were shaking your head did you have any comment or reflection well um well uh well i actually was thinking about and i have read some of his poems and he just gets drunk he loves getting drunk um and they seem really excited about it too the poem is oh good god how fortunate now i get drunk with my buddy i haven't had anybody and i just thought it was you know very curious because that wasn't the way i pictured you know a buddhist poet

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yeah and he would also get drunk just looking up at the moon or look or smelling the flowers you know so yeah so part of our practice is to get drunk part of our with all due respect to uh the recovery group or part of our practice is to you know when we sit to just enjoy this field of you know this circle of being present and breathing and uh that there is this capacity too so we can get drunk and enjoying our inhale and exhale yes katie um yeah ourselves yeah yeah and not knowing you know when we make when we make what prejudice is about we think we know

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something you know those those kind of people are all bad they've got to build walls to keep them out or you know whatever it is stuff about ourselves too that we want to build walls against so to know that we don't know what's going on completely we don't know how the good the good aspects of people we think are causing harm and so forth yeah

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