I vow to face the truth with a blood that conquers death and war. or know where the four Bodhisattva vows come from?

[01:06]

Okay, good. What? The Four Noble Truths, which constitute the first part of Buddha's first sermon, are variously described. The first one is life is subject to suffering of one form or another. We use the term suffering to cover a lot of different things. So the first noble truth is, simplistically speaking, life is suffering.

[02:21]

The second truth is that there is a cause for suffering. And the cause is, simplistically speaking, inordinate desire. And the third truth is that there is a way to deal with suffering. Sometimes it says escape suffering. We can use that word. to deal with suffering. And that is to turn away from inordinate desire. And the fourth truth is The way to do that is to follow the Buddha path, the path of Buddha, which is the Eightfold Path or the Six Paramitas or the whole range of Buddhadharma.

[03:33]

It's all laid out. So the four bodhisattva vows are a response to the four truths. The first vow is sentient beings are numberless. I vow to save them from suffering and delusion. The second vow is desires are inexhaustible, I vow to put an end to them. That's the response to desire as being the cause. The third bodhisattva vow is that dharma gates are endless. Or the dharmas, we say, are endless. I vow to attain them.

[04:35]

Dharma, in this case, means the various ways of entering truth. are endless, I vow to enter them all. That's the response to the third truth. And the fourth vow, the Buddha's way is unsurpassable, I vow to attain it, is a response to being one with the Dharma, being Buddha yourself. And so recently, well, I just want to say something else about the truth. The first two truths express the problem. And the second two truths express the solution. Sometimes people say, oh, Buddhism is so pessimistic because they say that life is suffering.

[05:37]

Completely. But actually, Buddhism or Buddhadharma expresses things as they are. The reason for Buddhadharma existing is to express reality as it is, to see things as they are. So, first thing is to see things as they are, which is life. If you look at it, it's got a lot of suffering in it. to the extent that you can say, all life is suffering, even the joyful part. And then it tells you why. Because we want so much. When we can't get what we want, we suffer. And we're always looking for something that we want, either that we can't get,

[06:43]

Or, when we get it, we want something else. That's kind of what life is like. And the second part is the solution, the way out, the way to deal with it, with the problem. And there are various ways of dealing with the problem in Buddhadharma. One way is to try to escape suffering by getting rid of all the things that cause you suffering. And the other way is, without being attached to anything, to engage and accept your suffering completely. So recently, Zen Center changed their wording of their Bodhisattva vows, and we changed ours to be consistent.

[07:54]

The first Bodhisattva vow says, instead of, um, sentient beings are suffering, I vow to save them. We say sentient beings are, I mean, sentient beings are numberless. I vow to awaken with them." So that's pretty nice, isn't it? It's not that saving them is wrong. It's not the wrong way to say it, actually. But to express it as awakening with all sentient beings is another way of saying saving. How do you save people? Religions are a little bit messianic. Most religions will ask the creator or the deity to save all sentient beings.

[09:04]

But in Buddhism, we say, I will save all sentient beings. Here's this colossal stone that's put in our, around our neck, you know, to save all sentient beings when we can't even, you know, we hardly know what life's about ourselves, right? So it's a big, in a way, it's a kind of wonderful koan for us. It is a wonderful koan for us because if we pursue that, then we have to realize what is myself and what are sentient beings? Who are others? Who is myself and who are others? We have to come to that understanding. And, of course, that's the number one thing in dharma, to understand who am I and who are others.

[10:14]

So if I say, I vow to save all sentient beings, not only that, the vow implies to save all sentient beings before I save myself. Well, from what? That's the other question. Save from what? What's wrong? What's the matter? So it brings up all these wonderful questions. That's what's nice about a radical problem, is that it really stretches you. And Buddhadharma is a kind of understanding that's beyond our reach, really. And so in order to really understand, we really have to stretch and turn the inside out. So it's wonderful for us that way. But the other side of this question about saving all sentient beings, the sixth patriarch, Hui Nung, talks about saving sentient beings.

[11:34]

And he says, it's not that I, Hui Nung, am going to save all sentient beings up there. But saving all sentient beings means to save the sentient beings of my own mind. The deluded mind, the angry mind, the avaricious mind, the jealous mind, crazy mind. These are all sentient beings. When we think of sentience, sentient beings, we tend to think of human beings or animals, but in Buddhadharma, insentient beings are also sentient beings. It includes everything.

[12:37]

Sentience is just a way of talking about whatever exists. So not only other people, but you have to save the whole universe. From what? Suffering and delusion. So it's a big, big order. But Huineng, you know, reduces it. He says, whoa, wait a minute. He says, what, just ascension beings of my own mind. interesting viewpoint. Suffering is largely something we create from our attitudes, but no matter how we deal with it,

[13:44]

it's impossible to really find a place where there's no suffering. Even if we're in one of the wonderful heavens, eventually we have to leave the heavens because everything moves. Nothing stays anyplace. One of the facts of life And the fact of suffering, one of the factors of suffering is that everything moves. I often think when I'm driving down University Avenue and I get to the bridge, to the approach of the freeway, that little overpass there, always people hitchhiking, you know, and every day somebody hitchhiking. When I come back an hour later, they're all gone.

[14:51]

No matter where you are hitchhiking, out in the middle of the desert, you can see somebody hitchhiking there, but when you come back the next time, they're gone. There's something about that image. Where did they go? Where did they come from? And why aren't they still there? They're always gone. And that image really gives me the feeling that there's no place that we stay. We're always gone from where we were. And the fact that we have to keep moving, things are always moving in an unstable, Life is one of the big causes of suffering.

[15:53]

So desire, of course desire is natural, you know. So we say, desires are inexhaustible. I vow to put an end to them. And then we say, well, desire, wow, that's pretty radical, right? Because without desire, what's the life? We identify life with desire of one kind or another. It's not necessary to identify life with desire, but There's nothing wrong with desire. So desire is a little bit radical. So the four vows were changed to delusions. Delusions are inexhaustible, I thought. But then we say, yeah, I really don't mind getting rid of delusions. That's great, you know. But really, the under,

[17:12]

belly of delusion is desire. The source of delusion is inordinate desire, if you really think about it. So, you know, the Buddhist stereotype is that suffering comes from various causes. When we can't have what we want, And when we have something that we don't want, and when we're with people that we don't want to be with, and we're not with people that we do want to be with, and, you know, pretty much when we have what we don't want and we don't want what we have, we're constantly going back and forth and adjusting it, you know, and trying to keep up with the changes. And when the changes are fast, we move very, very fast.

[18:17]

When the changes are slow, we move more slowly. But still, we're always trying to get comfortable. We're always trying to get in the position where we can be comfortable with our life. But no matter how comfortable we get with our life, even if we get everything that we want, because everything is changing, slowly changes into something else. And then we have to adjust to that. So being able to adjust is one of the ways of dealing with suffering. Being able to accept change and being able to accept the way things change moment by moment. So You can also say the cause of suffering is attachment. Attachment is one of the factors of desire.

[19:21]

It's one of the more, you know, there's desire, and then there's touching, and then there's holding on, and then there's grasping, and then there's clutching, right? In various increments. And we get, that's called attachments, and being caught. So Buddhism is always talking about teaching non-attachment. Don't cling to anything. Don't become attached to anything. And at the same time, if you take that to its logical radicalism, you won't be able to touch anything. You won't be able to deal with anything. So that's an extreme position, is to escape from the world. And that's what Buddhist monks did for a long time, and some still do.

[20:26]

So Mahayana came up with the idea that you could still be in the world and deal with life, but at the same time realizing what life is about. that life is suffering, that it's caused by grasping. Suffering is caused by grasping and attachment to desires. The way to deal with suffering is not to try to escape from it, but to be careful about what you do. for one thing, to have some wisdom about what's important and real in life. And to, when there is suffering, to accept it completely.

[21:33]

Or when there's pain, to accept the pain of life completely. rather than trying to escape from it, because whenever we try to escape from it, it becomes suffering. This is a big problem. Of course, you know, we try to avoid whatever we can, but you can't really avoid the pain of life in a deep sense, because life is painful. But painfulness is a little different than suffering. I think we have to make a distinction between painfulness and suffering. Painfulness is something that is an intrusion into our calmness. And when we

[22:38]

If we can't get rid of it easily, then we have to be able to become one with it, one with our painfulness. If we try to escape from our painfulness, then life becomes suffering. So our natural reaction is to escape from our painful situation. And as we try to escape from our painful situation, it turns into suffering. And since we don't know that, we create suffering for ourself in our own mind. Because as long as we live in this world, we can't escape from pain, the pain of this world. All you have to do is think a little bit outside of the realm of the space, and you can see how much pain there is in this world.

[23:44]

So we have our own pain, and we also have the pain of others. So if we want to know who we are, because we have the ability to feel or sympathize with the pain of others, the reason we can sympathize with the pain of others is because others are ourselves. So, how do we save all those beings which are really ourselves? So, instead of saying Save all sentient beings. Say, I vow to awaken with all sentient beings. To awaken with all sentient beings gives us a way.

[24:53]

To say, I vow to save all sentient beings states the problem or states the the subject, but to say, I've got to awaken with all sentient beings gives me a way of doing something. How I'm going to do it? How am I going to do it? How am I going to save all sentient beings? Well, I can awaken myself. And when I awaken myself, I awaken So how do you save people? Impossible. But in this impossible situation, there is a way. What is the way? The way is to just be awake with people. It also comes from Shakyamuni Buddha when he became enlightened sitting under the bow tree after sitting all night and he saw the morning star and he said,

[26:26]

Something like, I and all sentient beings are awakened together. I am awakened with all sentient beings. If you think I have enlightenment, but you don't, you're not really yet awake. So, the ability to see everyone's true nature and to identify with everyone's true nature And to treat everyone as Buddha is to awaken with everyone. So, in a sense, awaken with everyone implies education, I think. If I'm going to awaken, it implies my own education. And if I'm going to awaken with you, it also implies your education. But education doesn't mean to put something into your head, but to bring something forth.

[27:45]

That's, I think, a deeper meaning of education, is to bring something out, to bring forth something from inside. So, how do we educate ourselves and educate others? First thing is to save the sentient beings in our own mind, right? Save all the sentient beings of our own mind. If we really work on ourselves, then we're really helping other people. There's a way, there's always a way. If you can't see all those beings out there, Just save yourself. Work on yourself. So Bodhisattva's practice is to continually work on yourself.

[28:45]

To continually find your own true mind. Know what your hindrances are. means. But find yourself. And when you find yourself, you can also find others. And others can find themselves. So it's like lighting a candle with another candle. But if I go out and try to save everybody, what would happen, but not much. So, delusion, you know, second about changing that delusions are inexhaustible.

[30:00]

Delusions encompass desires, but we need desire. is necessary to operate in the world. So when in Buddhism we talk about desire, it doesn't mean all desires, it means inordinate desire or desire that goes beyond just what's necessary and goes into grasping, clinging, clutching, and so forth. But desire itself is necessary. We all, we can't really live without desire. So knowing our limitations, knowing what's good for us and what's not is important.

[31:03]

But life is very complex and someone was talking to me about how can I help people that are really suffering. that I'm dealing with all the time when they're beyond help. How do you help people when they're suffering? And I think they're beyond help. Well, I think the main thing is to know yourself. Not try to save But be compassionate and always know where you are yourself.

[32:14]

Then the response will always come out of your deepest place. If you get out of your own deepest place and try to help people, then that's for you. into where they are. So anyone that's dealing with helping people has to be able to really stretch. But if you're not grounded in reality, then you get pulled to the other side easily. Suzuki Roshi used to always say that, just take care of yourself. Just do your practice completely, wholeheartedly and fully.

[33:26]

And then, without trying to help people, you will help people. And I really feel, you know, that we have to trust our own practice that way. We do it for ourself, and what we do for ourself is also for others. And what we do for others is also for ourself. So we can't separate, you know, ourself and others. And if you are practicing sincerely with yourself, for yourself, you're also practicing for others.

[34:30]

But if you're only practicing for yourself, that's just delusion. That's just in the realm of desire. So I just wanted to talk a little bit about the difference in the wording of the four vows. a little bit about the four truths. So we have changed the four vows for now. It may change again. In all of this, you know, our American Buddhism, we're always finding ways to express these things. So for now, we say, sentient beings are numberless. I vow to awaken with them. Delusions are inexhaustible.

[35:34]

I vow to end them. The Dharma gate is boundless. I vow to enter it. And Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. Be one with it. Be it. Thank you very much.

[36:01]

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