I'd like to try to give you some wider sense of what the presets can mean for us. I talked about that a little bit last time. The precepts are... I have my own. Let me say it first. The precepts are the coleslaw of Buddhism. What I mean by that is, for years I ate in those diners and they always throw some coleslaw down. When you cease to think of it as food, it's just something they throw down on the plate, you know, in the diner. And then one day I realized it was actually food. It was quite good, you know. could be prepared well, etc. I think it's pretty hard to, one of the hardest things for us is to make sense of the precepts for our practice.

[01:24]

feel as a, you know, you have some feeling for it and it's difficult. So as I said, you know, last time, initially zazen being a contrast between our coarse mind and our more subtle state of mind, prepares us to practice the precepts. And the precepts then prepare us for real zazen or samadhi. But I think we have to go back. It might be useful to go back before that. before you even thought of practicing Zen, you've had some preparation for practicing Zen. And sometimes that preparation, because it's not thorough, adds to or creates some confusion. Anyway, all of you,

[02:59]

I'm sure, I hope, must have grown up with some kind of precept that your family and your society, your social situation impressed on you. Of course, don't kill, etc. Anyway, we had some rules from the time we were kids about how to behave. And those rules get... Because they're just presented as a kind of itemized list or just admonition, at some point we begin to see that they're too literal or too strict

[04:05]

that actually no one follows them or everybody only follows them a little or in spirit or in letter. And so you begin to question them and you abandon them for what makes sense to you as precepts. For each of us that's a little different. But society itself doesn't fool around with disobeying the precepts. You know, if you disobey them, they'll kill you, or make you go crazy. And the taboos, are very heavily enforced in society. Killing or incest or stealing. It's pretty difficult to do anything even close to that.

[05:30]

without having some, even thinking about it, thinking about killing instead, some powerful taboo in our society, without having some deep disorder in your life occur as a result of it. And so although you may abandon our society's precepts and make up or adjust your own, society doesn't stop punishing you for your infringements on its rules, even though it has its own sanctioned infringements. So actually a lot of our mental suffering comes from confusion about the precepts and a discontinuity between the precepts that we actually hold somewhere in our gut and that we are punished for and our idea about how to live and how to function practically.

[07:02]

And until you bring your actual precepts together with your actual functioning, you'll have a great deal of mental suffering and confusion. So partly because of this confusion that results from our disordered sense of the rules by which we both have to live and that our society says we have to live by, we start to practice zazen. And since zazen helps us refrain from doing and refrain from thinking, it's almost the same as practicing the precepts. because the precepts also help us refrain from or harmonize our doing. So if you practice Zazen, you're practicing the precepts. And so your state of mind is better. And then you notice the contrast between that state of mind and your usual state of mind. And perhaps this contrast makes you

[08:29]

wise enough to begin to practice the precepts thoroughly and in a harmonious and deep relationship with your life. Then you can start practicing undisturbed deep zazen. So, but still the precepts as they're presented to us as a list, don't make much sense, I think. Do not kill, do not steal, do not lie, do not indulge your senses, do not, etc. and it's a list which is nearly the same as a list of do-nots in any society. The differences are very important and give you some clue to how these precepts are Buddhist and Oriental and non-Indian.

[10:10]

Actually, the precepts, as we have them, reflect Japanese and Chinese way of practice and are slightly different from Indian Buddhist precepts. And our way of practicing is Zen and is somewhat Chinese and Japanese. So it's important for us to understand the precepts from this point of view. Anyway, as a list, Similar to bliss, which you'll find in most religions or in most cultures, it's rather commonsensical and not very helpful, because it sounds too generalized or taken literally too strict, because you can't even eat a vegetable without killing it. If you eat a vegetable that's cultivated, somebody cleared a field. Clearing the field, they killed something. Even if you refer only to killing as to non-plants. So what do the precepts actually mean for us? Well,

[11:38]

One of the ways to find out why Buddhism for so many centuries has preserved this list, and in the ordination ceremony, as you saw, the giving of the lineage was synonymous with the giving of the precepts. All Buddhism patriarchs have practiced these precepts. So what does it mean, this rather obvious list that's been passed to us? Well, it's helpful to look at the relationships within the list of one thing to another. If you look at it just as a list with no relationship much between do not kill and do not lie. But what is the relationship? Now there are lots of backgrounds in this list. I want to give you some idea of some of the relationships. And ways of looking at

[13:10]

the list. First of all, each precept can be looked upon in terms of what it says to not do and what its opposite would be. For example, do not kill yourself or do not kill others or do not kill your bodhicitta, your ultimate The actual desire from the point of view of Buddhism, the actual thing which life is, is the desire for enlightenment, the thought of enlightenment. The opposite would be to encourage the thought of enlightenment. That's one way of looking at each precept from the point of view of its opposite. Another way is to look at each precept as it affects you and as it affects others. And another way is to look at it from the point of view of greed, hate and delusion. And another is from the point of view of practice, how each one relates to practice. One to five are rather personal recommendations that you

[14:38]

For you personally. And one, two, and six to nine are more social. Emphasize social relationship. And ten is your relationship to Buddhism. You don't know which one to find. I'm just giving you numbers. It doesn't help you. Do you all know roughly what the precepts are? Do I have to recite them? All right, I'll try. But you see, the reason it's hard to recite them, if I just recite them as a list, it doesn't have much meaning. If I recite them as a... Actually, what the general thrust of them is, it takes some little time for each one. So I'll just use numbers. You can go look them up later. And then I'll talk about... Several of them, anyway. One thing is that all ten of the precepts are about doing. They recommend something about what to do or what not to do. They're not about your state of mind, particularly, or yourself independent of others. They're about how you create karma,

[16:07]

in your relationships with others. So that's very important, because one side of both zazen and the precepts is how to stop yourself. But the precepts are not about realization, but they're about the base for realization. So there's two aspects of practice always. One is preparation, and the other is to be ready. And realization doesn't need a base, but it's very helpful. Realization is beyond preparation or no preparation, but still, actually, for most of us, we need some base in order to practice, in order to realize. And that base requires stopping, limiting our doing, stopping or limiting our thinking.

[17:07]

One, let's see, just give you some more quickly ideas that you can use later, thinking about it. One to seven emphasize the present situation. Eight and nine represent the past and future. and can represent the untapped past, present, and future. So in this kind of way, there are other ways we can look at the relationships. You can begin to see a fuller, wider meaning for and usefulness for the precepts. Okay. Another way of defining the precepts, instead of do not do such and such, would be do not mess around. So the first one, do not kill, means do not mess around with other people's person, other people's bodies. And do not steal, do not take what is not given,

[18:47]

It means don't mess around with other person's space or the extensions of other persons. Two very important rules in which we don't interfere with what other people are. And it doesn't just mean do not kill and do not steal. It means don't injure that thing which they physically are. And don't injure what they think of as their extensions. And, do not take what is not given, emphasizes, means that you know, if you steal, if you take what is not given, means you know ego, but you don't know the true value of things. It means also, don't count your

[19:55]

chicken before they're hatched. You can't take something, actually. You can only be given something. Very important in relationship to Buddhism and your teacher, too. You don't anticipate enlightenment. To anticipate enlightenment or to take yourself That means a kind of law that you can no longer be given that. And to take means to take only part. To receive means you can take that, accept or receive that which is beyond your ability to know. Anyway, this one, the second one, is very important. The third one, usually what says don't commit unchaste acts, means don't, we can say don't indulge your senses. Don't mess around with your body, your body in relationship to other bodies. Be careful.

[21:39]

And these three here, do not indulge your senses, do not lie, and do not take drugs or alcohol. That's how it's translated in a very limited sense. Those mean body, speech, and mind. Do not mess around with your body and your body in relationship to others. Do not mess around with how you speak. Be careful in how you speak. And do not cloud or alter your mind or body or sell intoxicants or cloud or alter somebody else's mind or body. This emphasizes actually. Don't mess around with your mind or your mind in relationship to others. Anyway, these first five emphasize the physical world and the fact that everything's changing. The next two, six and seven, I hope this isn't too technical for you,

[23:16]

I feel funny getting numbers from you. It's actually rather interesting, I think. Anyway, six and seven mean... emphasize everything is mine. The first five emphasize everything changes. The next two emphasize everything is mine. The next two are interesting because they're very difficult to distinguish exactly what the difference is. One is do not slander or do not criticize others. And the seventh is do not be proud or do not praise, do not criticize others in order to elevate yourself or don't put others down to put yourself up. I think, more simply, you can say, one means, do not criticize others, and the other means, do not blame others for your own situation. So if you criticize others, of course, you can be doing it for any one of reasons, because you're greedy or you're hateful or angry or you're deluded,

[24:55]

about the actual nature of reality. With these two, six and seven, having the idea that everything is mine, are guidelines for something you may have noticed in your practice. First of all, they're based on what I've talked about recently, that we have to give up the idea of a substantial reality. So,

[26:02]

Actually, in your thinking about people, the way you think about people, actually creates people. That may sound funny, but... Either it's creating or weaving, whether you're talking about time as continuous or discontinuous. But actually, the way you think about another person helps another person. One way we show our mercy, our compassion in our practice is to notice what's good about that person. Actually, it may be that it doesn't matter whether, of course, we don't criticize. In ourselves, another person, though we may criticize another person for themselves, we may help them criticize themselves, but within ourselves we don't criticize another person because there's no value or meaning to it.

[27:36]

And what you do is you disturb a fundamental creative process in yourself and in the other person. Because the way you feel and think about another person has a great deal to do with their own ability to feel and think about themselves. So when you criticize another person, you interrupt this process. And the more you practice, the more you'll notice this. Sometimes you may have to criticize another person. It's necessary for you to help them. But it feels disturbing because it disturbs that creative process. Of course, a person practically may criticize another person because they are unsure of themselves and they want to reinforce or give themselves some encouragement. Because you can criticize somebody, it may mean that you're good. But the second one then, you see why they're so similar, is because the second one

[28:59]

When you describe it, it sounds like the same thing, just in words, but when you see that the second one is related to that creative process within yourself by which you create yourself and the world. So if you're criticizing others in order to make yourself feel better, you disturb that process in yourself. I think intuitively you realize the degree to which the actuality of that we are creating, everything is creating, the world on each moment.

[30:02]

So when you criticize others or criticize yourself or criticize others in order to adjust some idea of yourself or protect some idea of yourself, you interfere with the most fundamental process in your practice. And this is the real meaning of these two precepts. From some point of view, it's inconsequential whether you criticize. From an absolute point of view, it's inconsequential whether you criticize another person or not. And as I said, you eat cake and get a stomach ache, you know, everything balances out. In the usual world of karma, you do something and you suffer for it, that's okay. But from the point of view of Buddhism, the problem is that you lock yourself into that room, and you don't know what realization is. Transcendental wisdom, however we translate to English, is this way we try to suggest

[31:41]

The full working of practice. Eight and nine. The first emphasized everything changes, and the next group emphasized... The last two emphasized everything is mind, and the next two emphasized emptiness. Time as discontinuous. And eight is, do not cling to the teaching. Or keep it from others. This synthesizes the future. Don't try to retain good things for yourself. An actual fact, you can't retain anything.

[32:43]

There is no way to retain everything. Each moment, the world disappears. And the ninth one is, do not harbor malice, evil, hatred, etc. In other words, don't retain from the past attitudes. and an actual fact you can't retain. You can only distort your own existence in the present. And ten is don't misuse or abuse the three treasures.

[33:48]

Don't speak carelessly or detain the three treasures. I wish we had some better way in English of stating these. This last one means faith. So we've gone from everything changes to everything is mine to emptiness to faith. And all of the others, one to nine, emphasize don't do, don't do. Ten is the only one which says, do something. It says, take refuge in the three treasures. Have faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. The first nine say, you cannot take refuge in yourself. There's no self to take refuge in. Ten says, take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Not in some substantial reality. not in an idea of yourself or an idea of others. Instead of, oh, my situation will help me, or I will help myself, Tim says,

[35:26]

Buddha will help you. Sangha will help you. Dharma will help you. And they're here now, not past, present, or future. What was Buddha but his Sangha? Those people who came before him, and those people who practiced with him, and the continuation of that practice now. There's no difference between Buddha's Sangha and this Sangha. You are extremely fortunate. to be a continuation of Buddha's Sangha? And what is Dharma but this actual situation we live in? And it's the same as Buddha living. And what is Buddha, you know? Just you. So this is where the nine do-nots, the disciple of the Buddha does not bring us to. And prepare us for our actual practice of realization. If you can have confidence, if you don't follow the precepts, you always feel some uneasiness.

[36:59]

you have fear or you have hope that you'll get better. But if you have fear or hope, you can't practice Buddhism. An absence of fear and hope are the conditions, actual conditions for true practice. So until you have some confidence that you're doing right in a very practical sense, that you're following some precepts, are meaningful to you, integrated with everything that you do and think, that make complete sense to you. Then you can have that absence of fear and hope, which allows your practice of realization. Do you have any questions?

[38:45]

What is that? Anything that's nice, or it's inappropriate? I don't believe in God, or God. What can you stop? I don't believe in God. I don't believe in God. I don't believe in God. I don't think you could hear what he said, is that right? I'll try to restate what you said to see if I understand what you mean, okay?

[40:10]

He says he can understand why having a particular view, like encouraging bodhicitta, helps our practice. But then the second precept says, do not take what is not given. Isn't this attitude, this view, something that we've taken, something we've added? Is that what you mean? So the ensuing state of mind is something we've created. Actually, this is a real problem. You could hear what I said and understood what I said. There are two ways around this. But anyway, Buddhism is a self-destructing system, you know. Hopefully. It's destroying Buddhism, not just you. It's going to go down with us. So there's two ways, you know.

[41:37]

You can't just... You have to use expedient means, like words. So Buddhism tries all kinds of expedient means, like words. And in the presence of Buddha, you can wipe away the expedient means. In the presence of Suzuki Roshi, you can wipe away expedient means because of his presence, which transcends expediency. But through most of Buddhist history, we depend on various expedients. And those expedients catch us. So the two late developments in Buddhism, one tries to organize the expedient means so completely that they answer all the problems. It's the most complete program. You might say that is Tantrism.

[42:38]

And it's almost exactly the same as Buddhism, except it completely programs. Instead of suggesting, maybe, you'd think of yourself as Buddha, it gives you one visualization and practice after another until you would totally identify yourself with Buddha. But Zen takes the other point of view, which is it's best to have no program at all. But still, actually, Tantrism uses meditation and an unprogrammed approach, and Zen uses certain views. So our practice generally falls into sort of four categories. views, preparation, practice, and wisdom, realization. So we do have some views, but Zen tries to have almost no views. I mentioned three views that are in the, four views that are in the

[44:10]

precepts, you know, everything changes, mind only, emptiness, faith. But everything changes is taken as the only view, maybe, that is a given. You could say nothing changes, but you might have to die to support your view. But we also say, to get around what you have just stated, that you are already enlightened, that you have Buddha nature, or that actually the Real desire in our life is not to be alive, but to be enlightened. And when you take everything else away, you see that everything else is a halfway version of the desire for enlightenment. This is taken in Buddhism as fact.

[45:44]

which if you can't accept it first, you'll find out through meditation. Possibly it's not a fact, but I can't think of a better alternative myself. And we are inadequate beings in an inadequate world. So you have to accept some inadequate practice in the end. This is the best inadequate practice I've found. So I'm doing it as completely as I can. Some other inadequate practice may work for other people. have given the fact that I've accepted this inadequate practice completely as a decision, but based on knowledge and practice. I accept as an observable fact that

[47:17]

everything is enlightenment. Now, the second precept is, do not take what is not given. The opposite of that is also true, do not throw away that which you already have. So if you have lust, as we talked about before, it doesn't say get rid of lust, it says know that you have lust. If you don't have lust, know that you are a person or your mind or being is a being or mind without lust, or with anger or without anger. It doesn't suggest you go out and satisfy your lust, or hit the person you're angry at. It just says, know that your mind is angry. Know that your mind is not angry. So, in that way, we don't throw away what we already have. And if you find, actually, that you're practicing this practice because you have noticed you have a desire for enlightenment, that's maybe a fact, then. It doesn't mean that you try to achieve enlightenment.

[48:46]

And you'll see as you practice how close or identical the desire for enlightenment and enlightenment are if you can stop yourself with the precepts and with zazen and practice realization. Thank you very much.

[49:21]

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