As you probably know, this is the last day. And I think, you know, talking about the, maybe a little change of feeling in the lectures and kind of re-entering our more ordinary kind of circumstances, It's customary to, during Rohatsu Sesshin, to read the admonitions and sometimes to emphasize the precepts, since they're the root mind of Buddhas and ancestors and Zen teachers and monks and ordinary people and so forth. And Rohatsu, which actually means the eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, which isn't exactly the Christian calendar, but anyway, it's been celebrated on the Christian calendar, December 8th, for Buddha's Enlightenment Day.

[01:17]

And in a way, it's the beginning of the... year for a Zen Buddhist because we measure our year from our life from when we started to practice or when we took the precepts. So your Buddhist age is from when you took the precepts. In a way we're talking about the precepts during the first part of the Sashin, talking about how Sashin is conceived and the serving and the meals and so forth. I think I a little too strongly said, you know, you just hold the tray and the sense of making a connection. It's okay to turn toward the person to your right or your left. You're not frozen in place. I meant that you don't kind of try to find, you know, like the Russians, a toast, you know.

[02:28]

The important thing when you're in Russia to toast, at least when I was there, and I think it's common, is to have your glass under the other guys. So everyone tries to lower the glass, you know, so you're pretty soon on the floor. You know, if you want to be exaggerated. But it's just a sense of Presenting yourself, here I am, and opening yourself to the other person. And if anything guides the, conceptually, the oryoki practice, it's this serving of the food. And of course because it all comes down to these links of the farmer and the person who brought it to the market and the market. So in the end the food is a kind of all the way along from the garden to the consumption is there's a serving each other.

[03:32]

And that sense of recognizing our interdependent nature is the precepts. And also, allowing each thing to speak to you. I think of a story, Sigur, she told about a guy who about a hundred years, I think about a hundred years ago, who wore this tabi, or tabi are these little, usually white, they don't have to be white, kind of stockings, socks, that go in geta and Japanese-style shoes. They'd have one little toe mark. You probably know what they look like. You know, they're called tabi. And this guy, Goen Roshi, I think, When he was a monk, through his life, he for 13 years wore one pair of tabi.

[04:35]

A little excessive. But anyway, she said the tabi still existed. He'd seen them. And they'd been patched so many times, they didn't look like tabi anymore. It makes me think he must have walked very carefully, too. A friend of mine loaned a pair of shoes, actually when I was in Moscow, loaned a pair of shoes to somebody because he forgot to bring shoes and it's very hard to buy shoes and things like that in those days in Moscow. And this was 1980 or so. And a friend of mine loaned his shoes, he had a pair of shoes, an extra pair of shoes to this other guy and he'd had them about two or three years and they looked nearly new. I mean, virtually new. And then after two weeks when he got his shoes back, they looked like the dog had had them. They were bent and twisted and, I mean, unbelievable.

[05:38]

I couldn't believe that the shoes had transformed so fast. So I imagined that Goan Roshi actually not only patched the tabi, but used the world lightly. So Sukershi told this story, remember, as an example of a certain kind of careful relationship to the world. Go on, Roshi, I'll tell you one other story about him. This is a typical kind of Zen secret practice story, but anyway, just remember it, so I'll tell you. Anyway, in those days, not only was it hard to get tabis, everybody was quite poor in the 19th century in Buddhism. In Japan. There was very, very little food, so every night this guy... They noticed there was so little food to go around that it was quite strenuous, and they noticed that...

[06:47]

he was cooking something at night. And they kept telling the roshi that this guy was cooking something at night. So the roshi kept saying he's not that kind of person. So finally, after the monks had a meeting about this guy, he was the tenzo, who was cooking something extra, saving something aside. So finally the roshi went and saw him And at night, after the goodnight bell rung, he went in and, what are you cooking? Oh, it's not for you. But he insisted, so I gave him some. And it turned out he was cooking the scrapings and spoiled food. And he was eating less during the day and giving it to the other monks and scraping up the stuff and then eating it at night. So this is another example of the precepts of being very careful with things and not making it known that you're following the precepts so carefully.

[08:01]

Now taking the precepts, you know, it's a little hard for me to talk about it because it's really something you do. And taking them is doing them, and following them is doing them. And I don't, you know, I, certainly for me to take the precepts, I remember, I think I did it in 61, 62, 61, I think, was, you know, I actually can date my, in fact, date my life, not in some kind of official Buddhist sense, But when my life began to have a common history, was when I decided to do it. But I just decided to do it, and I actually had no idea what it was, because it was all in Japanese. The ceremony was in Japanese, the description, everything was in Japanese. And I had no idea what I was vowing to do, really. Quite a big ceremony.

[09:07]

I said, yes, I'll do it. And it was fun. I got my first Buddhist name then and things like that. But it felt tremendous to do it. So, simply the precepts are to, the way we take them is, for lay people is the first you take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. And that means that you, again, very simply, Buddhism divided into the person who realizes the Dharma, the Dharma, the teaching, and those who practice it. And the hardest part is probably the Sangha. I mean, it's the best part and the hardest part.

[10:09]

It's so important to practice with others. and have a feeling of going through this with others. And the Sangha includes not only the people you practice with and who you support. Even in athletics, my daughter, I watched her play a basketball game, that the spirit of the team has a lot to do with people genuinely supporting each other, not just playing with each other. It's... you know, hard to come to. And usually at the core of any Buddhist group are actually a few people who genuinely support each other. This place is mostly carried by four people. So somehow you you recognize the people you practice with.

[11:11]

And taking refuge in the Sangha means also you try to open the Sangha to anybody who wants to be part of it. And also the sense of Sangha continues from past to future. We've been talking about Jujji's finger, you know. part of our Sangha. And the nun, true reality, Shiji, who circled his cushion, is part of our Sangha. And those who come after us are part of our Sangha. And the sense of the Maitreya Buddha, Maitreya means something like loving one, the Buddha of the future, is also part of our Sangha. So when you take the precepts, you're also anticipating.

[12:14]

It means at root that you think a Buddha can appear in the future. So it's a kind of profound hope for our society. Now, if you want to think of the Buddha in a more practical way, not necessarily as enlightened through the Dharma or realized the truth of this existence. You can also just feel, you know, as I've often said, what kind of person do you want out there in the world? I mean, I think all of us have some imagination, some person, we wish human beings, I mean, we all, you just watch the television news and you can wish human beings were like this or you can wish politicians were like this or you can wish people were a little more the way you think they could be or should be. And to take the precepts is to actually recognize that you have that desire.

[13:23]

Somewhere you wish there was somebody out there and that feeling is really in the end you wish somebody was a Buddha I Mean at least a partial Buddha and so But once taking the precepts means that once you've recognized that you wish somebody was like that You have to say why not me I Why should it be someone else? It's got to start somewhere. So this is a kind of, you know, a simple thing to do, but an extraordinary thing to do because it means you are willing to try at least. So it means you believe in this world. Not only is Maitreya Buddha needed, but it's possible. I like Maitreya, too, because I think too much of Zen, anyway, is a kind of adversarial wisdom.

[14:33]

And that's okay for lawyers. But I think loving acceptance could be emphasized a little more in Zen practice. And, you know, the precepts, the sense really emphasize loving acceptance. Including everyone in this practice, in the Sangha, in recognizing our fundamental mind. And so, the first is taking refuge in this possibility, this, what, human potential, that we can feel in ourself and wish for our society and our world.

[15:41]

So, to take refuge in the Buddha. To take refuge in the Sangha means there must be a way, there must be some truth or path that can be realized. At some point you say, well, there may be other teachings, there may be, et cetera, but this is what I'm doing. I'll do this 100%. And again, to take refuge then in those who do it now and will, could in the future. And it's also to establish a Buddha field. not only to anticipate the possibility of a Maitreya Buddha, but to establish a Buddha field, which means to live in such a way that it makes it possible for a Buddha to appear. And to live in such a way that you could recognize a Buddha if they walked by.

[16:51]

So a Buddha field allows a Buddha to appear and allows, develops the possibility among people for one to recognize a Buddha. Then the second part of the precepts is very simply to avoid doing harm, to avoid harming, and to do the best you can, to do good. I mean, it's like children's stuff, and to live to benefit all beings. You know, there's a famous story of a roshi who's up in a tree, and again, I'm going to forget, but I think it's Pojui, the poet, who goes to see him and says, what are you doing up in the tree? And he says, what is it? He says, and actually says, what is the truth of Buddhism? And he says to do good and avoid evil. And he says to him, but even a child knows that.

[17:59]

And this old man in the tree says, but even a man as old as me finds it very difficult. So I always imagined he was sitting in the tree to avoid problems. That makes me think of another story, the one that's in the Blue Cliff Records of Jujie's Finger. This sense of just doing it, wearing your tabis for 13 years, just with patience allowing the world. And to practice with that kind of constancy, like Jujie's Finger. And if you don't get it, you plant bamboo. Anyway, there's a guy called Mimo, and he always had a forked stick, rather like a dowsing rod that he used for a walking staff and a staff.

[19:06]

And when anybody would ask him, we can presume he gave lectures and did other things, but when anybody asked certain kinds of questions, it can't be answered. He would just hit the ground with a stick. He was called the ground-thumping Roshi. So one day, some guy... hid his staff and then went up to him and said what is Zen and he just went he said nothing but he opened his mouth very wide that's how I feel about the precepts you ask me what are the precepts I want to know so then the You know, there's also the sense that the precepts that we say form itself are the precepts. And the best way to illustrate that is, you know, like when you drive a car, you're observing the precepts.

[20:10]

That car ahead belongs to somebody else, not you. You drive carefully so you don't harm people. and so forth. And so in that sense, the car, just how we do something, are precepts. How you pick something up, how we serve, are the precepts. And the five precepts, and I emphasize for lay people, not so Buddhistic, really, as I said, are just the root of our human mind. Dungsan calls taking the precepts succeeding to your inheritance. So it's don't kill, which means don't harm. Basically, the root precept is don't harm. And don't lie.

[21:16]

Don't take what is not given. And don't, we usually say, don't sell intoxicants. Or don't sell weapons. It means maybe you have a problem being a bartender. You take the precincts. But even legally it's now, at least in I think most places in the United States, if you get someone intoxicated, you're responsible for their actions. So Buddhism has that feeling. If you sell somebody something, and you shouldn't sell anything, really. I shouldn't present Buddhism I shouldn't sell you Buddhism or try to convince you of it. Just, as much as possible, just present it. So these just mean you respect how our mind works and how our... and you respect others. Really, as I said, it's not much to do with Buddhism. It's just our human endowment.

[22:19]

But to take the precepts is interesting. Because it's so obvious. I mean, you're doing the obvious. You're taking, vowing the obvious. But it's interesting, the effect on you, because you immediately start examining, is this killing? Or does this lead to killing? And if it's unavoidable killing, like even making our garden, we kill something. Even if we eat vegetables. So is it, and then you ask, when there's unavoidable killing, do you still have karma? And when you recognize that these basic human precepts are at the root of how we look at things, take responsibility for our actions and so forth, it's an interesting effect because you don't end up in quandaries that you often do otherwise.

[23:26]

For one thing, you feel responsible for your decisions in a way. You don't feel forced. I mean, if you allow the world to force the precepts on you because of the laws or people's customs, etc., and it's not rooted in your mind through taking these vows, you actually feel kind of pushed around by the world and you don't feel responsible in the same way for how you got there. Then you complain, you feel resentful of what the world forces you to do. And much of it is that your initial actions weren't rooted in the precepts. So it's actually a quite interesting chemistry to actually vow what is obvious, that we all You know, when you drive your car, you're following the precept to don't kill. But when you vow for this lifetime, not to kill, not to steal, not to take what is not given, not to lie, not to misuse the senses or misuse people sexually, and not to sell intoxicants.

[24:46]

or take responsibility for how your actions affect others. It has some unexplainable and wonderful chemistry. And it allows our mind to be much more settled. It allows us to practice the three beneficial precepts of benefiting others not harming it, doing good. And it allows us to take, really take refuge in Buddha Dharma Sangha. And when you look at it too, if you look at the paramitas, to practice generosity and patience and conduct and vigor or energy or effort and mindfulness or meditation Wisdom.

[25:49]

The operating arm of the paramitas, which are the bodhisattva practices, are these precepts. And built into the eightfold path of intentions, views, etc. Underlying the eightfold path are having taken the precepts. Not just said, oh yeah, naturally. Vowed in this lifetime to follow these precepts. Then allows you to really practice the Eightfold Path and understand the Eightfold Path. Summarizing this all made me think of a Japanese Zen teacher named Kosen Sowa. And he lived from 1816 to 1892.

[26:52]

And he was the first Rinzai Roshi to want his monks and priests and Rinzai school to get a university education. And he was also the emphasized lay practice. emphasized the feeling that Buddhist practice is not just for monks, but for lay people, and through that, extended to everyone. And he's the root of, really, Buddhist practice in the West. Because his spirit of Buddhism should be for lay people, and it wasn't very far to say, well, if it's for lay people, it might even be for Americans. This was the New World. Hokkaido was settled about that time. It also coincided in a very interesting way with one of the real shocks to Christianity came when science said that human beings were much older than the Bible said.

[28:06]

In the world, the planet was much older than the Bible said. This was a tremendous shock in the 19th century to people, as were simple things like the telegraph and stuff like that, and the sense that we could extend our powers. So there was an emphasis at that time to see if science, religion, could become scientific. And Mary Baker Eddy, no relative, founded the Christian I always liked looking at the church. It says, Church of Christ, scientist. They're not very scientific, their approach to medicine, but anyway, it was that spirit. And Mladen Blavatsky, who founded the Theosophical Society in New York, a Russian woman, in 1875, emphasized that religion was not miracles, but a kind of laws, rational laws.

[29:20]

And she led to, Madame Vosky led to Krishnamurti. Krishnamurti emphasized a freedom from religious doctrine and a kind of conscious, rational, scientific enlightenment. And that's, you know, Lennon Blavatsky and the Theosophy and Krishnamurti are all part of the cultural lineage that allows us to be here doing this. Anyway, Kosen Soen's disciple was Soen Shaku. And he went to the... Both of them went to... One went to Ceylon and one went to Siam and China and they studied there. And Soen Shaku came to America and went to, in 1893, the World Conference on Religions, I think it was called.

[30:27]

And then his disciple, Sokatsu, came and tried to found a Buddhist center in California in... for several years and he thought it wasn't ripe, so he went back to Japan. But Sokatsu's disciples were Goto Roshi, who was Gary Schneider's teacher, and Nogin Senzaki. No, I think it was Sasaki Roshi who founded the first Zen Institute in New York. And also, Shaku Soen Roshi's disciple was D.T. Suzuki. And I'm a little mixed up.

[31:32]

I figure it was New York and Sasaki's part of that lineage, too. So Nyogen Zazaki, and in San Francisco, when we were there, the buildings, like one of the buildings down the street that people lived in, had been lived in by Nyogen Zazaki. And D.T. Suzuki, like Soyen Shaku, taught Zen in a very rational, scientific way. And his teacher, Kosen's motivation to see through the precepts, basically, and through the sense of Sangha, that Buddhism wasn't just for monks or for Japanese people. The precepts actually freed him from Japanese culture. And he made this effort. this one person, to have his students have university education, and to emphasize teaching lay people, which then extended to the United States and the West, and so on.

[32:42]

Shako actually went to Europe, went around the world at one point. He came to the United States three times. So this one person's not just practicing Buddhism, but to look at these precepts of our basic humanity led to D. Suzuki and Gary Snyder and so forth, and to finding a way to teach Buddhism, which historically connected with the West's deep desire to kind of bring religion into a more rational or scientific. And when they weren't at first able to do it with or imaginatively re-read Christianity, they turn to Buddhism. And we're actually still part of that lineage. Although Suzuki Roshi and Deshimaru Roshi have a somewhat different lineage, they're definitely influenced by and were part of the ground-laid

[33:53]

by these disciples of Kosen, So and Roshi. So we, you know, we're still definitely in the pioneer generation of Buddhist practice in the West. And taking the precepts, deciding with your life to do this, and put your responsibility in it, is to continue this dialogue with your own life. And now to look at Buddhism more deeply than just is it scientific or not. But what's amazing is that the dialogue still with science, still continues and evolves, and the most newest science still seems to be in an intimate dialogue with Buddhism.

[35:06]

So taking the precepts, you're bringing your life into this dialogue, Is the Dharma, is the truth possible for all of us on the planet? I think it is. And if it isn't, I don't care. I'm going to try. Thank you very much. May our attention equally perpetrate every human place.

[36:00]

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