The root of transgressions by the power of our confession and repentance. This is the pure and simple color of true practice, of the true mind of faith, of the true body of faith. Welcome, Great Assembly, to another week of Lotus Sutra study. We have been

[01:03]

heroically striding forward through this great teaching, we reached, last time, Chapter 9. And in a sense, I feel like as we approach Chapter 10, there's a turning of the dharma flower. And so I wanted to pause for a moment and give one overview or one view of the ocean of the sutra, or actually to give a view of a circle of water in the ocean of the sutra. And in this circle of water, I see the Lotus Sutra, in a sense, in accord with some traditional interpretations, having a first and second half.

[02:20]

And I'm not really sure when the second half starts. And yet, I see that in what we've studied so far, I see chapter two as the center of what we studied so far. And in chapter two, we have been given a teaching about the relationship between skillful means and ultimate truth or the relationship between skillful means, or maybe not or, and the relationship between skillful means and the one Buddha vehicle which is really all that Buddhas teach according to this sutra.

[03:29]

And we're also taught who knows what. We're taught that only Buddhas and the real Buddha is only a Buddha together with Buddha know the ultimate truth of all things. In the second half of the sutra, And again, I'm not sure exactly when it starts, but maybe chapter 10, we're starting to get ready for it. In the second half of the sutra, which is centered, in my view, it's centered around chapter 16, which is called the long life or the eternal life.

[04:40]

Literally, it's called the long life. of the Tathagata, understood as the eternal life of the Tathagata. In this chapter 16, I wanted to say that this chapter actually gives a vision of the real ultimate truth. And I wanted to start bringing that up today because I don't want to bring it up, I don't want to wait much longer to bring it up because for me it's a really, yeah, it's a difficult to accept chapter.

[05:42]

And so I wanted to give the assembly time to get used to it rather than giving it the last day or two. And then we can't help each other absorb the teaching of Chapter 16. So I'll just say a little bit about chapter 16 at this point, which is that in chapter 16, one of the things which we've heard about before, but it's stated in kind of a personal way that the Buddha, the speaker of the chapter 16 is this Buddha Shakyamuni. And this Buddha is looking at, all the world of samsara, the world of suffering beings.

[06:46]

And he's seeing that they see everything burning up and all kinds of suffering. And the Buddha is saying, I see that, I see them. And I actually also see a pure land my pure land, my peaceful awakening. And my, this peaceful, serene, wondrous pure land is not destroyed. Simultaneous with being, seeing, world, arising and being destroyed, full of suffering. The possibility that these two coexist, and also that these two, Buddha's Pure Land and the world of suffering coexist and are actually identical, is a teaching which we find in the Prajnaparamita.

[08:12]

Because all things are empty, they are non-dual. And so samsara and true nirvana and also provisional nirvanas and true nirvana are identical. That's one of the messages of chapter 16. That's one of the implications of the teaching of emptiness. The other teaching, which is really new, which we do not find in the Prajnaparamita Sutras, is a new image of what Buddha is.

[09:21]

And Buddha says, I actually was awakened a long time ago and I also have a never-ending life. So now we have the earlier Mahayana teaching that samsara and nirvana are identical. We have a new presentation of the Buddha. And part of what, part of the ambiguity of this teaching in chapter 16 is about what is the ultimate truth. Is the ultimate truth emptiness? Or is the ultimate truth the eternal Buddha? which has an expression, which expresses itself, this eternal Buddha expresses itself in the teachings of emptiness, or it expresses itself as emptiness.

[10:40]

Today, I think maybe at noon service we will start chanting the verse section of Chapter 16. In the Prajnaparamita literature, and in particular in the Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines scripture, Asta Sahasrika Prajnaparamita Sutra, the object of veneration is emptiness. some of our ancestors, looking at that statement from that 8,000-line perfect wisdom scripture, seeing that it recommends that emptiness is the only thing we should really worship, the thing we should really venerate.

[12:19]

The most appropriate object of adoration is emptiness, not the form body, the physical body of the Buddha. People had been worshiping, since the time of the Buddha's death, people had been worshiping the relics of the form body of the Buddha. the wonderful perfect wisdom teacher says, really, the true object of veneration is emptiness. The true body of veneration is the dharma body, the truth body of the Buddha, not the transformation body, the illusory body of a human being. But some people look at that teaching in the Perfect Wisdom Sutras and say, no, really what it means is we should venerate the wisdom which realizes emptiness.

[13:35]

The Lotus Sutra now comes and says the real object of veneration is the Buddha. and the Lotus Sutra. And in a sense today, if we chant the verse section, we are venerating this new image of the Buddha, which we may come to see is a new image of the ultimate truth. And this new image of ultimate truth demonstrates emptiness.

[14:41]

So this is a little bit on chapter 16. Now I'd like to, again, go back. Yesterday, the Guingach Abbas Fu reported on reading the Sutra of Innumerable Meetings, innumerable meanings, and she told us that these innumerable meanings come down to one thing, that all phenomena are empty and non-dual. And she told us about other places in the Lotus Sutra itself where the teaching of emptiness is given, We looked at chapter five and we didn't mention that in chapter five the Buddha says that all these things, all these grasses and trees and other forms of plants, they all have one

[16:26]

taste one mark which is nirvana, peace. And it all comes down to, in the end, emptiness. Now, beginning to look at the next chapter, chapter 10, is called Dharma Teacher or Dharma Teachers. And here again, getting ready. for chapter 16, setting up the temple to study chapter 16.

[17:36]

Chapter 10 tells us that from the beginning, it turns from the Buddha predicting the Buddhahood of people in the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha now turns towards us, the people who are studying the Lotus Sutra, the people who are hearing the Lotus Sutra. And it says that if we hear, not we, but anyway, anyone, including us, who hears one phrase or one verse of the Lotus Sutra, which we have heard. Anyone who hears it and feels joy, such a person will realize anuttara samyak sambodhi.

[18:48]

Unsurpassed, complete, authentic awakening. So in chapter 10, the Buddha predicts all of us who have listened to and heard the Lotus Sutra and felt some joy even for one word and one moment we will attain Buddha's wisdom. Then it goes on to say that anyone who also recites, reads, copies, and teaches the Lotus Sutra will be someone who deserves great veneration.

[20:08]

So this chapter is beginning to emphasize the Buddhist interest in having successors among the readers of this sutra. The Buddha is going away. At the same time, the Buddha told us that the Buddha is eternal. He hasn't told us yet, but will tell us. So before the Buddha tells us of this eternal life, the Buddha is talking about going away, and the Buddha wants successors. someone sent me a wonderful question, which was referring to chapter four, where the father who had lost his child was, I think maybe she said that I said he was in agony, or he was agonizing about perhaps not having an heir, a successor.

[21:32]

And she wondered if he really was agonizing. In this sutra, the Buddha, up to this point and beyond, doesn't seem to be agonizing about successors. The Buddha seemed to be It doesn't say that the Buddha is joyful, but the Buddha is saying things which make other beings joyful. And the Buddha sees that the Buddha is going to have many successors, many wonderful successors among many wonderful students, among many wonderful disciples. He's going to not just have disciples, but successors who will inherit the entire treasury of true dharma eyes. So the Buddha doesn't seem to be agonizing, but the man in the story was quite anxious about that.

[22:52]

And Hakuin comes to mind. he was quite anxious about having successors. And he was quite anxious that his successors would come back and help him with his great responsibilities for the transmission of the teaching. And I also think of a story about Kadagiri Roshi, He went to a flea market in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and he met a woman who was, I think he said she was 95 years old, and she was selling greeting cards that she made. And Kadagiri Roshi was really impressed with how wonderful these greeting cards were.

[24:04]

And he asked this woman if she had a successor. And she said, no, she did not. And I... I saw Kadagiri Roshi being very grieving, grieving, very sad about this beautiful art that this woman was offering and that she had no successor in making this art. And at that time, he had not yet had a Dharma successor when he told that story about this woman. And he looked like he was also really in pain about the possibility of not having a successor or successors.

[25:30]

I personally am not in pain, I'm not agonizing over not having successors, because I do have successors, wonderful successors. And in this tradition, When we become a successor, our teacher says to us, do not let this succession die out. And we indirectly say, because of your kindness, it won't die out. I promise to reproduce. And then that successor has this problem, how to reproduce, how to work together to create another generation that will also commit to this responsibility.

[26:53]

And so, chapter 10, the Buddha is starting to invite us to become successors. And also in chapter 10, the Buddha says something very similar to what's been said before. which is that this teaching is difficult to believe, difficult to understand. And before it said difficult to understand and enter. But this time in chapter 10, the Buddha says, this teaching of this sutra, this sutra, Oh, the Buddhist says, I have innumerable sutras, innumerable Mahayana sutras, and among all of them, the most difficult to believe and the most difficult to understand is this wondrous Dharma Flower Sutra.

[28:27]

So the Buddha is saying, anybody who reads this and feels a little joy at one moment will attain anyotarasamyaksambodhi. And anybody who then starts taking care of this teaching will become someone who really will receive great help and is worthy of great support in this work of taking care of the sutra. We are taking care of the sutra. We have felt joy at one word at one time. So we will attain Buddha's wisdom and we will receive support the Buddha's robe will come and wrap around us and protect us and support us so we can do this work and then the Buddha goes on to say that even while the Buddha is still alive even while this Buddha is still alive

[30:02]

This sutra is resented and envied. So how much more so will that be the case once the Buddha enters parinirvana, enters extinction? So part of what we're getting ready for is a very challenging responsibility, which, yeah, it's up to us whether we want to accept. If we've experienced joy, then can we accept responsibility for this awakening that we are at the moment we read and hear and feel joy? And then start to do other things to take care of this teaching.

[31:08]

And realizing that we're going to have some difficulty. At the end of last session, I said I'm having some difficulty. I'm having some difficulty with... the responsibility of caring for and worshiping and making offerings to and praising and paying homage to the Lotus Sutra, I'm having some difficulty with the most difficult teaching to believe and to understand. I'm having difficulty believing it and understanding it. I am believing it, I am trusting it, and I am understanding it, and it's difficult.

[32:14]

And this difficulty, I don't see, I'm not expecting the difficulty to end. And as I said, with your support, I feel encouraged to continue to do the most difficult thing, to study this sutra, which is very similar to the most difficult thing, to study myself. And the most difficult thing, to study you. to study myself, future Buddha, and you, future Buddhas. Do I feel joy at a word, in a moment,

[33:36]

of this teaching, of this sutra? Yes, I do. And I see that some of you do too. Do I take care of this sutra for 52 years? Yes, I do. And some of you do too. Some of you are copying it. Some of you are venerating it. And this is also to venerate ultimate truth. Are you willing to accept the responsibility to teach the ultimate truth of the Lotus Sutra? Buddha says, if you want, anyone who wants, those who want to teach this Lotus Sutra should enter the room of the Tathagata.

[35:13]

Thus come one, the Buddha. One of the titles of the Buddha is Tathagata. Those who wish to accept and care for the responsibility of being Buddha's successor and teaching this sutra should enter the room of the Tathagata and put on the robe of the Tathagata. and sit on the seat of the Tathagata. And then again, the Buddha says, to enter the room is to enter the room of great compassion.

[36:17]

To wear the robe of the Tathagata is to put on great gentleness and tenderness and patience. And to sit on the seat of the Tathagata is to sit on the seat of emptiness, to sit in your dharma position and realize It's emptiness. Have we entered the room of great compassion?

[37:30]

Maybe so. Have we put on the robe of tender care and patience with all beings? Maybe so. Have we sat so wholeheartedly that we've realized emptiness? Maybe so. And if so, we're also warned that it will be difficult. our continued practice in the room of great compassion for all living beings and kindness and gentleness and patience with all living beings and realizing emptiness of all things, this ongoing work will be difficult.

[38:47]

It's difficult with the Buddha still right in front of us, and even more so when we can't see the Buddha. But we are asked to do this even more difficult work of continuing after the Buddha disappears. Again, as we will hear soon, the wind of the Buddha's work is permanent. It's always blowing. And it reaches everywhere. And the meaning of it reaching everywhere is our practice.

[39:52]

And the meaning of it reaching everywhere includes everyone. And that's our practice, our personal practice of reaching all beings. We're getting ready for Chapter 16. Accepting our place in the Buddha way and our responsibility for that place. Hearing that it's going to be difficult and that we're going to receive support and that we deserve support and also being ready to support everyone else who wants to do this work. Really appreciating all the other future Buddhas.

[41:03]

and supporting them if they are ready to do their work of being a Dharma teacher. And this includes the four groups, the monks, the nuns, the laymen, and the laywomen. We're teaching all of them and helping all of them to be teachers. And again, who's doing this? who's doing this work, this work is not being done by me.

[42:09]

I'm a future realization of Buddha together with Buddha. Our conversations about the Lotus Sutra is who knows what. And this conversation together with others is difficult. This conversation is being a Dharma teacher. This conversation includes others calling us into question.

[43:18]

My devotion to the Lotus Sutra is my devotion to conversation. And that includes all of you questioning me And if you want your questioning of me to be teaching the Dharma, then enter the room of the Tathagata. Put on the robe of the Tathagata and sit on the seat of the Tathagata and question me. In other words, continue what you've already been doing for a long time already.

[44:29]

And allow yourself to be questioned in the room of great compassion. This conversation cannot be genuine without us being questioned and without us questioning others. So this is again getting ready to enter the second part of the sutra where the real teaching will be revealed. All of the Lotus Sutra is skillful means, but the skillful meaning of the first part and the second part are different.

[45:41]

The Great Assembly is welcome to make offerings now to the Great Assembly, to make offerings to the Lotus Sutra, to make offerings to the true Buddha. We have an offering from Lorenzo. morning red good morning good morning good evening good evening or good morning great assembly thank you so much thank you so much red for offering these teachings um and opening up the lotus sutra in this wonderful way and um

[46:52]

for the whole great assembly to participate in these teachings so generously. I'm particularly happy to be speaking, to be showing my face today because today has a particular meaning for me. It's 15 years to this day that you transmitted the presets to me. congratulations thank you thank you for the gift you have given me among the many other gifts and it's also wonderful to celebrate this day with the great assembly and with my Dharma sister Tracy who might be somewhere in these windows who was kneeling in front of you with me that day and received the precepts also that day.

[47:58]

And it was quite wonderful actually that Tracy and I happened to be in the same small group two Saturdays ago. I thought it was a very auspicious reunion after many years. So the very auspicious day in many ways. well I must confess that I'm progressing very slowly through the Lotus Sutra I find myself really wanting to linger on certain sets of verses or images for a long time so I have not been progressing as quickly as you have. I'm a little behind. Excuse me for going ahead of you.

[49:02]

Yes, yes. Please do. And I'll fall behind. Really, for the first time, I find that reading it warms my heart. There is a connection between the Lotus Sutra and my heart that I had never experienced before. And that's a beautiful, beautiful thing. Congratulations. Thank you. So thank you. So there are a couple of images or, yeah, a couple of images that I would like to bring up today and see if you can, I don't know if I have questions or maybe observations that you might like to comment on.

[50:03]

One actually links up with something you said today, something, I mean, what you said today about chapter 16, but it's actually on chapter two and it's, And I wonder if you can say a little more about the list of devotional practices that the Buddha speaks about in chapter 2. So we have not seen chapter 16 yet, and yet there is this long list of devotional practices. And he says, if I remember well, people who engage in these devotional practices all have already attained the buddha way and i wonder i wonder if you can say a little more about those devotional practices and what that means at that point of the sutra well when you read the lotus sutra and you feel joy as

[51:14]

or your heart is warmed, at that moment, that is unsurpassed, complete awakening at that moment. That's the way Buddha's wisdom is at that moment, with that devotional practice, which your heart responds to. Now, going back to what you're referring to, do you want to give an example of some other devotional practice? Yeah, like... like honoring the relics or building towers for the Buddha. I mean, there are a number of bringing flowers, bringing gems, painting the image of the Buddha, et cetera. All those practices that I imagine were entertained, especially during those times. And I think where my question come or what I wonder about is there is an unqualified characteristic of the people that are engaging in these practices.

[52:35]

So it seems to me, if I remember well, it says people who engage in these practices without necessarily indicating what category of people say or what these people have done up to that point. Just by doing that, they have all attained the Buddha way. So it seems that the devotional practice in itself has a power that I'm not, I don't think I'm grasping. I'm not, I don't think I'm getting. You could say the devotional practice has the power Or you could say that the Buddha way has the power that it reaches all devotional practices. It reaches every place. The places aren't really the Buddha way. They're places to realize the Buddha way.

[53:36]

So when a person does these devotional practices, at that point the Buddha way reaches that time and place and person. But if you don't do a practice at a time and a place and a person, then it's kind of like you don't get it. So again, this can be seen as the sutra trying to get you to become devoted to the Lotus Sutra. so there is an element there that whatever you do whatever you do the way reaches you right but if you don't do this as a testament to the way reaching everywhere then it's like it doesn't but if you make a scratch you know in the ground and say buddha Right.

[54:39]

Then that action realizes the Buddha way reaching that action. But if you don't mean your actions to realize the Buddha way, you can miss the reality that it does reach your time and place. Yeah. Just like you said, this is the 15th anniversary of you doing the practice of receiving the Bodhisattva precepts. In a face-to-face meeting, you received the precepts 15 years ago. These precepts are reaching you all the time anyway. These precepts are the reality of your life. The reality of your life is not killing. So you receive the precept and you vow to observe it from now on until realizing Buddhahood.

[55:40]

And at that moment, you realize the Buddha way. And you say you're going to continue this even after becoming Buddha. So if you're going to continue it after becoming Buddha, maybe you're now continuing it after becoming Buddha. And you're doing it together with another future Buddha. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's interesting how that Teaching is presented in chapter two for me because it's very easy to be hooked by those particular practices as being sort of an exhaustive list. But in fact, it could have been when you offer a meal as a practice of devotion, the Buddha way reaches you.

[56:48]

It's not relics or the drawing or the mandalas or whatever it might be. It's the spirit with which one does anything that is reached. Yeah, and one theory of the evolution of this text is that people were doing these practices, and the Lotus Sutra comes along to teach them how they should do these practices. And these people who were doing these practices perhaps were having some difficulties. And so the Lotus Sutra is now saying what you're really doing is not just worshipping some other Buddha. And for example, you're not worshipping just the historical Buddha who died. So the Lotus Sutra is partly for people who are doing those practices, but it's also partly for people who aren't doing them and telling them that basically anything you could do, you could devote to this practice.

[57:58]

to this teaching. Thank you very much for bringing that up. Thank you. Is there time for another small observation? Another image that's really been with me since you began to talk about it and I've read about it is the image of the joyous father who is joyous to be with the sun, to see the sun no matter what defilement the sun is engaged in. It's a beautiful image. And it's a beautiful image. I don't know if it's even more beautiful because I don't recall having had any experience of that with my father. but it also connects in my mind with another teaching I've heard from you several times, which is the difference between being with and being in a story.

[59:09]

And it seems that the father is very joyful all the time in being with the story the son is engaged in and seems to help the son being as fully engaged in the story as he can possibly be. And I wonder if that's the expedient mean. Somehow by doing that, it seems that almost miraculously the son might realize that the gate of this cage he's in actually opens and the son gets somehow the courage or the wisdom to take the step to cross the threshold and not being in this story anymore.

[60:13]

Is that right? Is that, is that the correct understanding of expedient mean? the skillful means is offered, and the support to exercise the skillful means completely is supported, and in doing that, you become free of the skillful means. And if the son feels, what's the word, has no confidence, so a skillful means is offered to him who has no confidence, And by fully engaging in the skillful means, he becomes free of his level of confidence and is opening to the next challenge, the next skillful means. And when he becomes a successor to the administration of skillful means, he doesn't throw them away. Now they become his responsibility to give to other people. He's going to take care of the vast estate of skillful means to help other people become free of their limited ideas through using these limited ideas wholeheartedly.

[61:35]

It's really a wonderful teaching, and it feels almost counterintuitive to me in the sense that More naturally, I tend to think of the Bodhisattva vow as trying to take people out, to help people to get out of their story, to get out of their difficulty. And this seems to suggest the intent is that, is actually to help people end suffering. But the skillful mean is to help people fully engage in the suffering so that they can actually liberate themselves from suffering. Is that right? Something like that. Spiritual means is to help them, give them a way to engage. Right. And the skillful means within it is the real Buddha.

[63:06]

And we need to have an opportunity to be encouraged to exercise the skill and means wholefully. Right. It's beautiful, yeah. And then we realize what it was, but we also realize the Buddha's ultimate truth and realize that they're never separate. Through infinite lives, right? Thank you so much. Thank you so much. We have an offering from Camille.

[64:14]

Hi, Rob. It's good to see you. Hello, Camille. Yeah, I'm practicing at Ancestral Heart, which is... Where are you? Which is Brooklyn Zen's monastery. So if you don't see my calls, I'm actually... I am following along, but... uh my friend also followed the uh monastic schedule so today's my day off so i get to see you live um you may have just answered my question actually with uh what you said to lorenzo but um uh last time we talked about um a buddha and a buddha and you said sometimes um uh people who you're closest to um you might uh like have difficulty with or um uh so i guess i wanted to maybe ask you about that like maybe it's a silly question but um in case like let's say uh you're a buddha recognizing that you're in front of another buddha um

[65:30]

and uh you suddenly have fear or um you're suddenly not able to uh uh communicate as you used to whatever um and race could be a factor in this i'm not sure um And I just wondered if you had any, I don't know, anything to say about that. I mean, I could get more specific, but I'd rather not. But yeah, just wanting to connect. And you did have a connection. But then suddenly, I don't know, maybe some awareness of the fact that you are Buddha suddenly makes it very difficult to face somebody who you do realize is you. Does that make sense to what I'm trying to say? I mean, you recognize that you are looking at yourself, and suddenly you're afraid. Yeah. Or you're looking at yourself, and you don't want anybody to see that, what you saw, because it's you.

[66:37]

But you do have fear to work with. And when I was with Suzuki Roshi and I was kind of afraid of him, I was afraid that the person who I most wanted to see me would see me. At that moment, I did not tell him. I did not tell him. There's funny things happening, Roshi. I'm feeling fear of you. I didn't tell him that. But I was aware of it, and I was aware that I wanted to be in a less frightening situation, which would be not to be with him, or to not be showing myself so nakedly in front of him. And now we can maybe tell each other, I feel a flicker or a flame of fear with you right now.

[67:49]

And I think I'm afraid that you'll see me, even though I kind of want you to see me. I think that's what we're doing is seeing each other. And now that I see the possibilities, you will see me. I'd like to be someplace else. Did you ever feel like that with me, that you were afraid I would see you? With you? No, even though I feel like you can, but maybe it's less scary somehow. Yeah. Maybe if you or I were trying to learn a new song in front of each other, we might be a little embarrassed. Because we don't know how to sing it. Yeah, I could see that.

[68:54]

I could imagine maybe not wanting to make a mistake in front of you or something. Plus not wanting me to see it. Because if I see it, who knows? Maybe I would care for you or something. Who knows? Maybe I'd, you know, make you take two steps backwards. And also, if I'm playing the role of teacher, maybe I don't want you to see, maybe I don't know some things. And can I learn to show you, oh, I don't know about that. Oh, I just did something foolish. Did you see it? But the first thing is to enter the room of compassion and be tender and patient with the fear, which may be difficult to do in the middle of a conversation, but we're being invited to do that.

[70:05]

And then we can sit on the seat of emptiness and realize the emptiness of the fear. I just thought of something. Also, if it's ancestors, you can do ancestors. It's actually not so bad, right? Well, not so bad is kind of an understatement. Yeah. It's one less. Yeah. You're great. Yeah. So thanks for doing this. I've been really enjoying them. I'm so glad you can come. Yeah, it's good to hear you and to see all these other people I've met at the Zen Centers. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. We have an offering from Steele. Hello, Reb.

[71:11]

Hello, Great Assembly. Hello, Steele. Today I've been putting together some of what you were talking about with something that you'd said early on in the class, and I'm trying to make... Well, that makes sense of it, but trying to really feel into it more deeply. And I was thinking about skillful means and something you were saying earlier. And I thought of an example like two weeks ago where Arthur Schindler was in the midst of the Nazis and that the Nazis themselves were not individually, personally using skillful means to teach Arthur Schindler. And yet the whole situation became a skillful means for him to develop great compassion for the Jews that he was able to save.

[72:21]

And so what I'm wondering about is it seems like what you're saying is that really pretty much any difficulty, any situation, any person, any encounter can become a skillful means to be able to help us develop great compassion and great understanding, greater compassion, greater understanding. And I have to admit that most of the time that I've been practicing since I was young, that I've really been much more focused on personal liberation and compassion almost seemed like kind of an add-on, kind of an extra. And so here I am looking at all this and at the understanding that All beings are looking for happiness, but don't realize that it's Buddha's wisdom that brings true happiness.

[73:28]

And so any action that anybody engages in, that the underlying desire is to be able to be non-separate, to be within the non-separation of Buddha's wisdom, but that's hard to recognize. And so we all end up doing things that are not necessarily in accord with that, but nonetheless end up bringing each other to greater and greater, deeper compassion and understanding nonetheless. So I don't know. I'm just kind of throwing that all out there as kind of this half-formed or... understanding and with a lot of question. And I'm wondering what you have to say to that. Well, the present level of formation that you're in is the way that you are currently becoming Buddha.

[74:44]

And that's what I think. That's my understanding. And that understanding is the way I'm currently doing Buddha's work, is to have that thought about what you're doing. And if you think you're doing something that's not in accord with that, that thought that you're not in accord with becoming Buddha, that's the way you're becoming Buddha at that moment. If you think you are in accord, if you think your behavior is in accord, That also is the way you are progressing. That is the way you're realizing. I feel joy at this teaching. This is your current moment of awakening.

[75:44]

And you are evolving. That's what you're really doing. But if you don't attend to this moment of evolution, you miss an opportunity. But missing an opportunity is also the way you're evolving. Thank you. Thank you. We have an offering from Vivian. I mute myself. Okay. Hello, Rev. Hello, Vivian. I am so grateful to be able to participate because the timing and the freedom to be an outsider who comes inside and to be inside and to be able to go into a faculty meeting and come back inside.

[77:14]

And I thought I was really catching a lot And then on Friday I had to leave early. So then I listened to your recording and I listened to the whole thing. And I realized that in spite of all my notes, it was, uh, it's amazing. Like I could hear it all over as almost like if I wasn't there, but I was there and it was fresh. But I raised my hand today because when Camille was talking, it jumped in my heart. I had an answer. When you said about fear rising, and you said something about in the interaction with you, and I answered for her in my heart, I don't feel afraid with you.

[78:19]

Because you are safe, you are inclusive, you're consistent, you are friendly. And then I thought of all the other opportunities that I have with others who are not really others, but they feel somehow I become another. from a memory or from the present moment, from something, some energy. And the skillful means kind of melt away something. So that's, I think that's all I have to say. And if you have any feedback, I would appreciate it. Could you tell us a little bit more about When skillful means melts away? Like it's there and then it melts?

[79:25]

Like my intention is for it to be with me, but then I go along in the world and most of the time I don't have to think about skillful means. It lives in me and the devotional practices enhance it or the readings enhance it, the meetings enhance it. But then there are these moments when othering happens, like the separation with beings. And it's almost like I'm a child remembering a trauma or when I used to be a A person who was battered or somebody who was insulted or something. And that's the melt. It's like I lose the present moment is not that, but some memories or some scar or something.

[80:29]

Garbage. Garbage. Garbage. Yeah, garbage. Garbage. That's the opportunity. The garbage isn't melted skill and means. The separation isn't melted skill and means. Skill and means is applied to that garbage. And right now, you're applying skill and means to the garbage. No. We are. We are. We are together. Our conversation is being applied to garbage, to trauma. And I cannot myself, by myself, apply skillful means.

[81:36]

I mean, I can try, but the actual... For a publication of skillful means to the trauma is something I need to do with you, which I'm doing right now. I'm working with you to apply skillful means to trauma. I'm talking to you and we're changing in the process. We're discussing applying a skillful means to trauma. You're bringing it up, I'm responding, I'm talking, you're responding. I'm bringing it up, you're bringing it up. We're working together. That's the real way to apply the skillful means to whatever kind of garbage it is. That's what we're really doing, is learning how to do that.

[82:43]

And there's moments where we feel like, I'm not doing that. Well, then we apply skillful means to, I'm not doing it. I'm not applying skillful means. I wasn't skillful with that garbage. Yeah. Ouch. Ouch. Yeah. Ouch. Thank you. We have an offering from David Greenaway. Oh, can that be?

[84:02]

I can hear you, David. Good, good. I don't know how to get rid of the big thing in the window. The host later. Got it. Hello, Rep. Hello. Hello, Great Assembly. What an absolute pleasure. Thank you. I'm so grateful for all that has been offered to me to support me. I will continue as I believe Lorenzo, Camille, and Vivian have.

[85:03]

And begin with a confession that as ever, Rep, I've let a few judgments come between me and you. And witness the fear arise. And I'm struck that Camille, I mean Vivian, said that she realizes that you're about as awakened as I have ever known. This is my story of Europe. I have stories about everybody, everything that I meet. I now understand more than I have that these stories separate me from everything that I meet, including

[86:28]

Well, especially those that I love. And... I have a question. I welcome your question. You said the stories separate you. And I could offer another point of view, which is the stories are an opportunity for you to actually meet the other that's represented by the story.

[87:44]

If we don't examine the story, it's not the story that separates me. It's not my story of you that separates me from you. It's my half-hearted engagement with my story of you that separates me from you. but it doesn't really separate you. It just, the half-heartedness keeps me from realizing what's really right here. But it's half-heartedness with the story. And if I'm wholehearted with the story I have of you, I will actually be able to really meet you. But we do have stories of each other. And if we go around them or skip over them, we'll just go to another story. Which hopefully we'll be wholehearted with that one.

[88:54]

And then that story will be the way that we actually meet each other and actually become Buddha through that meeting. Thank you, Reb. You're welcome. You have put me back on the path, as it were. The enormity of the Great Assembly. The enormity of this meeting. No, my causes and conditions derailed me. What I was going to go on to say was that By confessing, by relating with my stories, by engaging with the Bodhisattva practices, I wake up to the indescribable nature of the meeting.

[90:25]

and wake up to, I trust the meeting. I shared with Catherine's, not Catherine's group, but a group of people on Saturday that I have always struggled with the expression, I love you. As soon as I hear those words, it just doesn't feel right. I feel like I'm being duplicitous.

[91:33]

And that's because what I'm engaging with is my story. I don't know whether it's because of it. But what I can say and delight in saying ever since last Friday and actually before, I love this. What do you do, David? I do this. This is what I live for. And I really cannot express how skillfully you have been inviting me along with many others every day of the intensive and every moment I've spent in your company, inviting that engagement. Well, I'm glad I worked so hard to get to this place.

[92:40]

I love this too. And because I'm devoted to this, this, I can say, as a skillful means, I love you. Yeah, I'm nowhere. I'm nowhere. I'm not anywhere. I shall enjoy every time that I find that coming out of my mouth because there will be work to be done. Now, can I just ask you a little? I've heard you say it. that Buddha activity is in the meeting. Or it is the meeting. It is the meeting. That Buddha activity is not something in addition to the meeting.

[93:54]

And the meeting is not something in addition to Buddha activity. Would you say reality? No, I'll leave. I was having a discussion with somebody this morning. I will leave that person to ask whatever question that is. So not to, look, I just want to thank you. Whatever I wish to discuss with you, I have discussed with you. but I'm sure it wasn't what I was going to discuss with you. It wasn't. It was much more. So Buddha's robe wrapped around the children.

[95:01]

Did I hear something about Buddha's robe being wrapped around people along the way? Yeah. Those who are taking care of the teachings, His robe comes and wraps around us. So, and auspicious signs. Just a week prior to this intensive began, I was buying my cheese in a little cheese shop in Ticklemore Street, which is a copper plate of street. Ticklemore? Ticklemore. And this is in Devon in the UK, and winter in Devon in the UK is not like winter in Green Gulch. The sky is not the same colour. I come out. The rain is coming gently down. The streets are emptied with lockdown.

[96:03]

And lying in the middle of the cobbled street is a book. And I wonder what that is. And I pick it up. I apologize. It's a mirror image. Oh, no, it's not. The Diamond Sutra and the Sutra of Wei Nen. Wow. Thank you. This is the kind of thing that Zen students think is fun. We have an offering from Ira. whose video is coming on in just a moment.

[97:09]

Hello, Reb. Hello, Ira. I don't see myself. I see you. So hopefully I'm all there. But anyway, I wanted to thank you. And I also wanted to honor... your request that we speak. So over the days I've been, whenever I could figure out how to put up my hand, I would put it up. And because that request was important. And so the trouble with this whole scenario is that you don't know by the time You're called whether it will be fresh or whatever, but it feels fresh. And I wanted to say several things, I think.

[98:18]

One is that when you mentioned that your mother-in-law died on January 6th, I was reminded of my father's birthday, which is January 8th. And so there was this sense of opening in that moment. Before then, I felt like, am I open? You know, am I open? So at that moment, I opened to your offerings. And I felt there was something a little shut down until then. And then after that, I would open and close, depending on what was happening. So thank you. And In one of the small groups where I have had chances to talk just last weekend, somebody asked a question that kind of was directed to, it seemed like I was one of the people who could help answer it.

[99:22]

And I thought, well, I offered my answer and kind of really not for myself, but for the other person who asked. So I didn't need to answer it for myself. You know, it was old material, but I thought it could help because the person asked. And then the days that followed, like the day or two, I felt like all this conflicted feeling about you know, maybe it would be misunderstood or judged or maybe I said too much or didn't, I didn't say it skillfully. I was trying to present the complexity so the person didn't feel like there was a simple answer to, for example, engaging in one's own mental health.

[100:25]

It's not simple. And I answered as a, doctor as well as a patient so today in the morning you know I realized I felt so vulnerable since that time and today in the morning I was thinking about it and I thought well I really didn't answer it for myself I answered it for them and I don't know how the universe is going to receive that But I did it and I might have felt a lot worse if I hadn't said anything. So that was a little freeing to just say, well, you know, you offer it for the universe and you may be judged or you may be or it may really be helpful. And not much I can do about that. And I can't always be super poised and skillful and Buddha-like in how I speak, you know, but it's offered.

[101:32]

It's not perfect, but it's offered. So that was kind of freeing to like just let it go into the universe and to know my own intention. I have to say there was also something else that was very powerful for me, which is when we were talking to Linda and I did mention this in the group, but it's still sort of fresh. Cause I don't want to be stale. That's, you know, who wants to be stale? It's like the idea that the past and the future are right here. And I'd be, First, I was confused. And then I began to think of, you know, every Dharma gate. It's like there are countless Dharma gates. And I thought, well, yes, it's every moment. And so if I think if I'm thinking of the future or I'm thinking of the past, when I realize I'm thinking of the future, I'm thinking of the past.

[102:42]

Well, that is the present moment. And then a little bit later, I felt kind of proud of myself. But I come back to how useful that is. So the other thing is this sweater my mother knitted. It kind of relates. She knitted 60 years ago for my father. She was in England and I was in India as a little girl. my mother gave it to my son and I asked for it from my son because my mother doesn't give me things directly she gives them to other people and I told my son you know it probably won't fit you let me wear it and he happily gave it to me and I realized like what was knit into this sweater in the past you know thinking of me her daughter in India who she

[103:45]

wouldn't see for a year and a half. The love of her husband. And here I am wearing it now. So like the present, the past is in the present. I was like a symbol of what we were, I mean, of what we're talking about. The present has in it the past and it has in it the future. So I also don't have one of those bibs that everyone else has, so maybe one day we could do that. My son is getting much older, and he's getting very independent. In the meantime, you can use the sweater as the banner for the universe.

[104:47]

being given to you, and you giving this sweater to the universe. You can wear it as Buddha's robe until you saw a traditional one. But for now, this sweater can be your Buddha Dharma sweater. So please take care of it, okay? Okay. And please continue to let the universe use you to give gifts to the universe. Thank you. Allow it. Thank you for your gifts. Thank you universe for this gift. Thank you, Rep, for your gift to the universe.

[105:54]

Universe, you're welcome. Nice to meet you, universe. We have an offering from Clara. Clara. Can you hear me, Red? Hi, Red. Do you remember me and Federico? Federico sends you a gusher full of gratitude and love. Thank you, thank you. It meant so much for him to begin a new life at the Green Gulch. Thank you so much.

[106:57]

He's now living in a Zen monastery in Extremadura, Spain. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your dedication, your commitment, and your generosity and patience to share your presence with us. And thank you to the great assembly. Now, in the light of your teachings and your precious words, I was thinking about the experience that I lived when I was 19 years old and 44 years ago. And when I spoke about that at that time, I mean... People thought that there was a chemical reaction, now I'm telling you what, or maybe kind of hallucination. I had a concussion, a severe concussion, and I went into a coma.

[108:02]

And at a certain point, I found myself in another dimension. When you live it, you know it, it's true. It's not a chemical reaction of your brain because you're dying. It's the so-called near-death experience. I mean, I don't think it's a near-death experience. It's kind of saying a near-eating experience. If your stomach is empty, you didn't eat. If you don't have the glimpse of the hereafter, you're not dead. And one day I was reading, by the way, It was a skillful means. I didn't think about that when I was 19 years old because I lost my smell and my taste, a lot of physical pain and impairments. But I understand now that it was a skillful means in the light of your words to, for instance, accept, to learn how to accept things as they are or to live

[109:16]

Suffering is one of our means to cut through suffering. But when I read in the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche, remember of that clear light the pure and clear white light which all the universe comes from and to which all the universe return let yourself get in the clear light trust it merge with it if your true nature is home i found it at a a good description of what I experienced. And that was the beginning of my interest towards Buddhism because I was born Catholic and then Zen Buddhism, but also Tibetan Buddhism. And, uh, well, it was quite important as a skillful means, very painful by the way.

[110:24]

And also, It was functional to understand better what Federico lived due to the cerebral aneurysm. Can we just do that last part again? It was very, let's say, functional. A skillful means also, because you don't know what's going on in your future. So at the moment, when I was 19 years old, well, I accepted it. It happened. But it enabled me to better understand what Federico was going on due to his cerebral aneurysm and to have the skills to help him better. But I also thought that nothing happens by chance. Even at the moment, we don't understand what's going on in our life. There is always a reason. And at this point, I would like to consider what you said about

[111:26]

the second chapter, the son that you said by chance arrived in the village where his father was living. Do you really think by chance or is the way that I call the Tao, I mean, the Dharma mind, the Buddha's mind that offers us an opportunity to change the course of our life and open a new chapter. also because his father looked for him for years unsuccessfully. And in that precise moment, the Buddha's mind gave the son the opportunity to arrive in his father's village. I might have said almost by chance. Okay, I didn't guess it. Almost by accident. But the point is that the son was not intentionally looking for his father.

[112:32]

Exactly. He wasn't intentionally looking for the treasures of his family. And even though we're not intentionally looking, even though we're not seeking anything, it comes to us. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. That's true. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. So it's not really saying anything about causation. It's talking about basically generosity and what comes to us without us seeking it. And yet, we're on the path to receive it. We're on the path to receive it. And to use it in the right way, because some people maybe reacts badly to the suffering, and they don't take the opportunity to learn something through the suffering.

[113:35]

Yeah. And then if we take care of the suffering, again, we receive something that we weren't trying to get. Sure. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. That's all the time we have for offerings today. Thank you very much for taking care of us, Brendan. You're welcome. Thank you, everyone. May our intention equally extend to every being and place with true merit of Buddha's way. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Afflictions are inexhaustible.

[114:36]

I vow to cut through. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to master them. Buddha way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it.

[114:51]

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