of an article by John Tarrant who is an Aiken Roshi Ayer, Dharma Ayer, who has a sangha in Santa Rosa. It's an article that he wrote, which is followed by some poetry that I didn't copy, for Under the Single Moon, the Zen anthology. And it's a very nice article, I think, about the three bodies of Buddha that we talked about last week. And I only made four because If everyone wants them, then you can cooperate in Xerox more, but I don't want such an enormous, so many pages of Xerox material. So, if people are interested in them, how many people would like one? Just take a look at them. Okay. And if anyone else wants one, you can either be under a single moon is here in the library, or you can ask somebody who... Does anyone want a copy?

[01:13]

You'd like to look at one. I would like to get a little feedback about the last class before we begin. The Lotus Sutra is about transmission. It's about anything. It's about direct wham-bang transmission. And so I don't want to I don't want to just teach it, you know, in a kind of totally reasonable, scholastic way. Because I'd like us to be thinking more about what transmission means and what the Lotus Sutra is really about.

[02:24]

I'd like to have all of us really pushing ourselves to ask, what is this direct experience that the Lotus Sutra is talking about? What does that mean in our lives? We don't want to just read through the Sutra. And so, that's why we had the writing exercise, and that's why we had the chanting, and that's why we had the bowing, and as I say in the last class, I think someone will come in for a half hour or so, talk about Soka Gakkai, totally devotional practice. But I don't know how that, is this okay with people? Are you willing to do it? I have some reservations about chanting and banging drums. Banging drums? Oh, I'm sorry. It's all right. The Max Roach of really strong cymbals.

[03:25]

That kind of threw me off a little bit. What does the Lotus Sutra mean to you? Can you say a little bit more about what it's meant to you? Well, over the period of time, years in which I've been reading it, it has... I've been trying to take it as a transmission. What is the perfect background? What's going on? and really use the panorama aspect of it, which is so monumental, to heighten my own drama. I mean, it's just, you know, one sinks easily and rather flatly into the ordinary.

[04:32]

And so it's helpful to have, oh, there's a perfect background. Oh, there's something really going on. So the beating the drum and the chanting is a kind of expression of that. Something's really going on. Bang, bang, bang. But sort of interpretive, though, doesn't necessarily apply to everyone. No, it doesn't. It doesn't. And if anyone does not want to chant and does not want to write, this is not a fascistic club. My feeling about drumming is that if we're going to drum, I'd like to drum for an hour. If we're going to chant, I'd like to chant for an hour, but just five minutes. Because part of it is I think you have to get bored. doing it. That's right. If you don't get bored. That's right. That's right. Yes, it's very different. Actually, I've never chanted intensely for more than 20 minutes, but even 20 minutes, really, you do get bored.

[05:38]

And then when you sit after it, your energy is really altered. Another reason, the reason I'm doing it for five minutes is that we have a lot of material and also I think that it helps, I do want to do the writing because I think that that's very integrative and I think transmission has to do with an exchange of experience and so the writing really helps, it challenges us to jump in and pull our own experience into what we've been talking about. And because many of us get up at five in the morning and we're pushing towards nine at night, I think it's just helpful to have five minutes of drumming and chanting to get a little something going. Can our writing be more to what we imagine our lives to be? It could be anything. Because that's imaginative, creative writing.

[06:40]

That sort of throws me because I don't want to imagine my life. You know, it's not where my emphasis of practice is. It's to take away whatever that is, because that's just extra stuff. Uh-huh. So what would you like the writing to be about? I don't know. I don't know. I haven't thought about that. Uh-huh. Craig? This brings up a question. I'm just curious to know what your... I want to thank the people who are willing to read. Well, that's a big topic. That's a big topic. But I guess the one-liner for me would be that that kind of quick writing just helps explore the brink of the experience that's going on in the moment.

[07:47]

So it connects us to what's going on in a little bit of a wider way. That's my answer, but everyone's response would be something different. So it's fine to have these resistances to what we're doing, I don't know if they're necessarily resistances. I'm not so clear about that. I don't know if we can label them as resistances. Whatever they are. We all have our responses to what's going on. And the livelier, as far as I'm concerned, the livelier they are, better I don't think that I don't have I see what you're getting at and I don't have a problem with that direction but I think that also just traditional talking can get at that same thing and we sort of give up on it after a while because it's we're not quite used to it but

[09:18]

If we aim at trusting our gut feeling about what we're reading, and not what we think we're supposed to be understanding, trust our gut feeling, then probably it'll come out to be pretty lively and real, which is, I think, what you're getting at. Yeah. [...] Right. I agree. Talking can get to it, too. And I hope it does. Okay, did anybody else have any responses about the last class that they want to mention? So, When I got back from the last class last Thursday night, Pia Silo, who's the Malaysian ex-monk who's living in our house, was there.

[10:29]

And he'd been back in Malaysia for about six weeks. And I'd seen him a couple of times. But he came up and he gave me the month's rent. And he said that he wanted to give me the present that his community in Malaysia had decided they would give to me. And he handed me eight tapes that he had made about six or seven years ago on the Lotus Sutra. And I said, did you know that this is a wonderful present? Did you know that I'm teaching the Lotus Sutra? And he said, no, none of us knew. And I said, well, that's quite a coincidence. And he said, no, it's not. It's our affinity. So I've been listening to, I've been just kind of lying in my bed in a dreamy way and I've listened to about half of the tapes. Just a few nuggets to begin with.

[11:30]

I didn't say much about how very influential the Lotus Sutra is in Asian culture. It's probably the most influential sutra. And in Japan, something like 15 million Buddhists have their have their practices built on it. The Nichiren, the Pure Land, and the Sakagakai, those are all... I'm not sure the Pure Land is totally based on it. It draws on it, Amitabha, but it's influenced by, as Zen is influenced by. But it is, it's very, very important. And there's a book here on the art of Lotus Sutra. Why do you think that is? Why do you think of all the sutras and that's the one that they... Well, when we read a little bit more, there are the parables, it's quite accessible. As we said, as I said last time, it's rather short, it's quite accessible.

[12:32]

And these different schools have been based on it. And why Nichiren and... I don't know why. And of course it was very important to Dogen too. It's dramatic and it's psychological and it's colorful. It's less the Avatamsaka Sutra is so long and Baroque. It's just a little more manageable. And the Theravada and the Hinayana usually The Hinayana means lesser vehicle and the Mahayana means greater vehicle and so the Hinayana has a pejorative cast and it's more polite these days to call it the Theravadan which is the school of the teachings of the elders as opposed to the Mahayana. All these sutras were written down at about the same time around

[13:34]

around the first century common era because, probably because, there were invasions. Middle East Turks or whatever they were called then were threatening to invade and there was a feeling that the sutras needed to be preserved. And they were written down then, almost 2,000 years ago, in palm leaves. Palm leaves would be scratched and then scratched with the characters, and then covered with arsenic so that the scratches would turn white. So all these scrolls of palm leaves, I don't know, I have no idea what they would look like, but that was how... What happened to the people who made them? What happened to the people who made them? And then in Japan, the first book to be printed ever was the Diamond Sutra, around 600 in Japan.

[14:41]

And a second very early book was a commentary on the Lotus Sutra, about that same time, to be printed. So, that's just a little bit of aside, because it is nice to remember how very, very old this practice, this sutra is. And so this class is really just a kind of, this is just a little tour of the Lotus Sutra. And I hope that it can be an introduction or a reintroduction to some of the major Mahayana themes. we talked last night about the perfect background and that's a very nice thing to remember Suzuki Roshi's statement that when life is firmly established in the perfect background that we can enjoy it and have no fear of losing it and to just you know as you read and recall the Lotus Sutra as one

[15:56]

manifestation of the perfect background and let it draw you, connect you with what your sense of the perfect background is. You'll have a very nice week. And so we talked about the immensity of the scene which is a very Mahayana element, everything included. Actually, when you give zazen instruction, for a while, I heard from somebody, so I always say it at the end of the zazen instruction, I say, so you just remain in the present, doing all the various things you're instructed to do, nothing excluded, everything included. It's a very Mahayana, including everything, all the levels of experience, up and down, northeast, west.

[17:06]

And then we talked about Buddhist Samadhi, the opening. And Monday morning, somehow, we got in the same talk. Grace gave a talk to talk about wonder. I guess Jo Gobek, in her latest book, talks about the element of wonder in practice and how wonder opens us. And then the very familiar questions of what is going on and who is teaching? What's happening? Who's teaching? Who's the teacher? And we began to encounter what we will continue to encounter more and more buddhas in the past, present, future and we talked about the trikaya, the three bodies of buddha the nirmanakaya, the form body the sambhogakaya, the manifestation body and the dharmakaya, the sheer potential

[18:22]

So, tonight we are going to, I hope, cover two chapters. The second chapter, which is about skillful means. Upaya is the Sanskrit word for that. And then the third chapter, which will be our first parable and which is perhaps the most famous parable in the Lotus Sutra. So, Chapter 2. Now, there are various translations, of course. of skillful means. Some people call it expedient devices, and it is also in another translation called tactfulness.

[19:30]

And it's a very important Mahayana theme. So I'm just going to read the prose. on page 22. And this continues, Buddha has been asked, remember Maitreya, who is often thought, he's the future, the Bodhisattva of the future and also of compassion. Maitreya has asked Manjusri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, what's going on. And Manjusri has explained that the Buddha is going to give a very important teaching. And now, here it comes. At that time, the World Honored One rose serenely from his samadhi and proclaimed to Shariputra.

[20:42]

Now we know old Shariputra. Shariputra is also being instructed again in the Heart Sutra. And at the time, this sutra is said to have, insofar as the historical Buddha preached it on Vulture Peak, it was preached a few years before his death. And Shakyamuni and Shariputra were both rather old men. So here is a Buddha talking to, instructing Shariputra, who was usually thought of as being the smartest disciple. The Buddha's wisdom is profound and incalculable. The gateways of their wisdom are hard to understand and hard to enter, so that no voice hearer or Pratyekabuddha can know them. We talked a little bit about the Sravakas, the disciples who heard the word, and the Pratyekabuddhas, the independent Buddhas.

[21:44]

They are the first two, thought of as the first two vehicles. And why is this? In former times, the Buddha, personally approaching hundreds of thousands of myriads of millions of innumerable Buddhas, performed exhaustively the dharmas of those Buddhas in calculable paths. His fame for bold and earnest exertion, having spread everywhere, he achieved profound dharmas that had never been before. What he preaches accords with what is appropriate, but the end point of its meaning is hard to understand." Well, that's the one-liner about skillful means. Shariputra, since achieving Buddhahood, I have, by a variety of means and by a resort to a variety of parables, broadly set forth the spoken doctrine by countless devices, leading the living beings and enable them to abandon their encumbrances.

[22:53]

Now you see, Ron was just saying that words, speech is important. And we're hearing that. Why is this? The thus come ones, the Tathagatas, expedient devices, his knowledge and insight and his parameters have all been acquired to the fullest measure. Shariputra, the thus come ones knowledge and insights are broad and great, profound and recondite, without measure and without obstruction. His might, his fearlessness, his jhana concentration, his release samadhi have deeply penetrated the limitless. He has perfected all the dharmas that have ever been before. Shariputra, by making a variety of distinctions, the thus come one can skillfully preach the Dharma. His words are gentle, gladdening many hearts. Sharisputra, to speak of the essential, as for the immeasurable, unlimited Dharmas that have never been before, the Buddha has perfected them all.

[24:01]

Cease, Shariputra, we need speak no more. Why is this? Concerning the prime, rare, hard to understand dharmas which the Buddha has perfected, only a Buddha and a Buddha can exhaust their reality, namely the suchness of the dharmas, the suchness of the margs, the suchness of their nature, the suchness of their substance, the suchness of their powers, the suchness of their functions, the suchness of their causes, the suchness of their conditions, the suchness of their effects, the suchness of their retributions, and the absolute identity of their beginning and end. And then this is restated in the poem. So Shariputra, the smartest disciple, is being pretty clearly told that there's a limit to what can be understood.

[25:09]

Concerning the prime, hard to understand dharmas which the Buddha has perfected, only a Buddha and a Buddha can exhaust their reality. and this, this is the principle, one of the principle teachings that the end of practice is not nirvana, it's buddhahood, the buddha and the buddha. So, you know, when I hear, when I read this, my feeling is that something way away from me. I mean, intellectually I might say, well, I know that I have Buddha potential. But the feeling that I get, the emotion that I get when I read this kind of passage is that Buddha is just way off in some other realm, in the realm that I'm in. And I feel kind of inspired, or like

[26:16]

being could exist, but also there's a feeling of separation. Yeah. Well, that's our problem. Well, you're that magnificent being. The separation you feel is with yourself. It's not over there somewhere. It's right where you're sitting. Buddha and a Buddha. Yeah. Well, that's our problem. It's hard for most of us. With that issue, with that question in mind, I'd like to read a little bit from Dogen, who has a fascicle called, Only a Buddha and a Buddha. Buddha Dharma cannot, and just let this wash over, Buddhadharma cannot be known by a person. For this reason, since olden times, no ordinary person has realized Buddhadharma.

[27:27]

No practitioner of the lesser vehicles has mastered Buddhadharma. Because it is realized by Buddhas alone, it is said, only a Buddha and a Buddha can thoroughly master it. When you realize Buddhadharma, you do not think, this is realization just as I expected it. Even if you think so, realization invariably differs from your expectations. I've heard Mel talking exactly this way. Realization is not like your conception of it. Accordingly, realization cannot take place as previously conceived. When you realize Buddhadharma, you do not consider how realization came about. You should reflect on this. What you think one way or another before realization is not a help for realization. Realization does not depend on thoughts, but comes forth far beyond them.

[28:38]

Realization is helped only by the power of realization itself. Know that there is no then, there is no delusion, and there is no realization. When you have unsurpassed wisdom, you are called Buddha. When a Buddha has unsurpassed wisdom, it is called unsurpassed wisdom. Not to know what it is like on this path is foolish. What it is like is to be unstained. To be unstained does not mean that you try forcefully to exclude intention or discrimination, but that you establish a state of non-intention. Being unstained cannot be intended or discriminated at all. I'd like to recall again what we just read at the end of the passage in the Lotus Sutra I just quoted about suchness, falling back into suchness. But that's the unstained position.

[29:42]

Being unstained is like meeting a person and not considering what he looks like. Also, it is like not wishing for more color or brightness when viewing the flowers or the moon. Spring has the tone of spring, and autumn has the scene of autumn. There is no escaping it. So when you want spring or autumn to be different from what it is, notice that it can only be as it is. Or when you want to keep spring or autumn as it is, reflect that it has no unchanging nature. And it's a beautiful fascicle, it goes on for several pages. Only a Buddha and a Buddha. Well, I don't know.

[31:15]

I suppose I'm on the hot seat. And I can't answer it very directly, but the suchness seems to me to be the lead. That there has to be this unstained, very exactly pure connection that's made. Which also, you know, as our way keeps telling us, is very ordinary and available. But does not have intentions and, you know, the clutter. That's what it means to me. It's a funny language, a funny way of speaking. Only a Buddha and a Buddha. I don't know. This is not our language. Yeah. What's your name? My name is Anne.

[32:16]

Hi Anne. It's also in the context of a conversation. And so maybe he's saying only a Buddha and another Buddha could really explain and talk to each other about what this is. Yeah. When he's saying to Shariputra. That's right. Thank you. Yes. Yeah, yeah, but he can't explain it to Shariputra, who's not a Buddha. Yes, yes, that's a nice way of saying it. Also, I thought it could also mean, in this realm that he's talking about, that there's nothing else but a Buddha. So if you have an and something else, There is nothing else. It's only Buddha and you come back to what you already are. So you can't have a Buddha and some kind of consciousness. And a Ron. Or a Buddha and anger, or a Buddha and Hare Krishna.

[33:19]

You just have a Buddha and a Buddha. Yeah, it seems that it's kind of a reminder that we forget about our own buddhahood a lot. That's what it brings up for me. Yeah. Again, Ron's question of it seems so remote, but all one has to do is fall back and it's there. But it's not easy to fall back. We forget, but it's there. Perfect background, right there. Another thought that comes to me is that it's coming from another culture and time. And this is a translation, but we're just translating words to a large extent. We don't know the context, and I certainly don't really understand it.

[34:19]

And so I think that to really understand, and I suspect one really has to understand the historical context and what's happening in the culture in a real three-dimensional way. sort of phrase by phrase, almost. Yeah. Okay, so this interchange is repeated in verse, and then this isn't, I guess, what I'm going through the text, this isn't on your Xerox, and then the question is repeated, and then At that time, Shariputra, knowing of the doubts of the mind of the Fourfold Assembly, and himself not yet fully understanding, addressed the Buddha, saying, World Honored One, for what cause and through what conditions have you earnestly praised the Buddha's prime device, their extremely profound and noble dharma so hard to understand?

[35:27]

In all this time I have never before heard from the Buddha such a preaching as this. And now the Fourfold Assembly all have doubts. I beg the World Honored One to expound this matter. The World Honored One, have you earnestly praised this very profound and subtle Dharma so hard to understand? That is this new teaching. This is a very human kind of situation. You know, the Buddha's here and he's saying that this extraordinary teaching is right here, right at hand. And all these people have their own ways. They thought that they were doing it the right way and now this new business is coming and, you know, is it fair? What's happening? And so this alternation of joy and doubt. and understanding and doubt. It's very human. Our practices cycle in that way.

[36:30]

You have a small, oh, I see, and really kind of feel it, and then you doubt. It's how we move along. And then, at that time, Buddha proclaimed to Shariputra, cease, cease. There is no need to speak further. If I speak further of this matter, gods and men in all the worlds will be alarmed. And it's not the first time, you know, right after Buddha was enlightened, he didn't want to teach. Somebody came up and asked him what he'd discovered, and he said, I don't want to say. It's too much. No one will understand. It's too hard. So, here again, Buddha's reluctance. If I preach this matter, all the gods and men and all the worlds will be alarmed and the arrogant bhikkhus will fall into a great trap, says Buddha.

[37:40]

But Shariputra begs him. And now, on page 29, you do have this. This is quite a famous moment. Buddha has been asked to preach three times. And at that time, the World Honored One declared to Shariputra, since you have now thrice earnestly besought me, how can I not preach? So listen with understanding and with careful thought, for I will say it to you explicitly. Here's one of these moments where we think, oh now, bye now. While he was speaking in these words in the assembly, bhikshus, bhikshusinis, usakas, and upasikas to the number of 5,000 straight away rose from their seats and doing obeisance to the Buddha, withdrew. For what reason? This group had deep and grave roots of sin and overweening pride, imagining themselves to have attained and to have borne witness to what, in fact, they had not.

[38:44]

Having such faults as these, therefore, they did not stay. The World Honored One, silent, did not restrain them. At that time, Buddha declared to Shariputra, My assembly has no more branches and leaves. It has only firm fruit. Shariputra, it is just as well that such arrogant ones as these have withdrawn. Now listen well, for I will preach to you. So, we have here the importance of timing. When people are ready to get it, they're ready to get it. And if they're not ready to get it, it's not the right time. This would be the time to leave. It would, but I don't have a nerve.

[39:49]

It's not you. Who? It's not you. No, it's someone else. It's doubtful, isn't it? Doubtful. Arrogant is the only one who is arrogant. And you are. So we have this big difference between the people from the old teaching and the people from the new teaching. That's partly it. On one level, it's the very accurate, it's another psychologically accurate moment that we do like to think that we know what our practice is about. And we don't like to know that we've really sort of been missing the boat. It's a bit insulting. human response to get up and leave. That's right. I respect you, but enough.

[40:51]

And then, of course, there was great, I don't know what all the Buddhist politics were going on at this time, but of course there was intense deliberation between the many schools. And it also reflects that. That there, you know, in the Theravadan It's a big topic that I don't want to go into very much at this time. The Theravadan school has a kind of reasonableness to it. The historical Buddha spoke and he outlined the Four Noble Truths and the gave the precepts and all of the lists and the rules and there's a reasonableness and an orderliness to it which is very comforting and certainly we need that.

[41:58]

And then And there's also a certain emphasis on solitary endeavor. It's very hard to speak about the Theravada and the Mahayana as separate, because there's so much merging. Last year there was an issue of, what is the name of the Vipassana newspaper? Inquiring Mind. that was devoted to what is enlightenment. And it was quite interesting to hear the different schools talk about what enlightenment meant to each tradition. And as you get towards the topic of enlightenment, it's not too easy to make very clear distinctions. But there is a certain emphasis in the Theravadan

[43:01]

personal effort and on clarity and orderliness. When Pia Silo made these tapes about the Lotus Sutra, he started off with a story about the Mahayana, that in China there is a character called Monkey, who is a little bit like our coyote. He's kind of brash, and arrogant, and unrepressible, and what? Trickster. And trickster, right. And so Monkey comes up to Buddha, who's sitting after lunch, and says to Buddha, you know, there are a lot of things you know, but you don't look to me like you're in very good shape. You have a big belly and I bet that you don't know as much about running as I know and I bet if you and I had a race I'd win.

[44:08]

So Buddha says fine let's race and they agree that they will have a race to a place a few hundred yards off where there's a ruin and there are five pillars. So monkey starts off speeding away and he gets to five pillars. There's nobody there. So he'd sort of known that this would happen. And he lifts a leg and he leaves a mark on one of the five pillars. And he waits around. And he knew Buddha was out of shape. So he lies down in the middle of the five pillars. And just as he's going to sleep, the pillars begin to move and close in on him. And in fact, He is lying in Buddha's hand. And as he realizes that he had run no further than Buddha's hand, of course he becomes enlightened. So, there's a really nice story about the Mahayana.

[45:14]

It's inclusive. And there's a kind of irrelevant, irreverent quality. which could be offensive. all the listeners get up and leave, and Buddha doesn't try to keep them. And in fact, later on in this sutra we probably won't get to it, in fact they do get enlightened anyway, because the predictions of enlightenment are going to grow and accrue and become universal and everyone's going to be enlightened, even the people who got up and left. So, there's a happy ending to this story. All right, and then on page 32, just reading a little bit of this verse, coming back to what skillful means are.

[46:23]

Beakshus and Beakshinis harboring arrogance, upasekas with pride and upasekas of no faith in the fourfold assembly, the likes of these, 5,000 in number, not seeing their own faults, having flaws in their discipline and jealousy regarding their blemishes. These of slight wisdom have already left the chaff of the multitude. Thanks to Buddha's imposing majesty is gone. These persons ill-equipped with merit are not... and so on. Shariputra, listen well. The Dharma that the Buddhas have gained by resort to incalculable expedient means, they preach to the beings. The thoughts thought by the beings, the sundry ways trodden by them, the nature of their several desires, the good and evil deeds in their formal incarnations, the Buddha knows them thoroughly. Knowing them, resorting to various means and parables, and to their powers, and to the powers of phrases and other expedients, he causes all to rejoice."

[47:29]

And I think that there are more I think I've copied a fuller example of these expedient means. But essentially, skillful means, the Buddha has skillful means because the Buddha sees everything. So he knows exactly at what developmental point everybody is and exactly addresses that position. And again, this is different from the Theravadan teaching, which was much more a kind of description of where you wanted to get to, a laying out of the path, and then you entered the path, but the skillful means is much more dependent, is much more focused on where you are right now, much more experienced base.

[48:47]

There's a very nice quote and I think it's in my beginner's mind about skillful means. Suzuki Roshi says, Our way is like Avalokiteshvara, Bodhisattva. the Bodhisattva's way. When he wants to save ladies, he takes the form of a lady. For boys, he takes the form of a boy. A more sophisticated Chinese expression is to be like a white bird in the snow. When people are snow, we should be snow. And always being with them, without any idea of discrimination, we can help others in its true sense without giving anything. Any special teachings or materials. This is actually the Bodhisattva way.

[49:58]

Excuse me, where is it from? I'm not sure if it's from Beginner's Mind or the Trikaya. Trikaya. Who's going to copy the Trikaya? Is it from there? I'll try and track that down. So, skillful means not trying to give anybody anything. Just knowing where they are, being where they are. Being in the presence of, exactly. Again, this unstained kind of intimacy. So, Maybe some of you have some skillful means stories. You know, when you're a parent and you know your child intimately, the good parent just, when you're a good parent, you are just

[51:16]

being with your child. Thich Nhat Hanh has this extraordinary precept in his 14 precepts. Don't tell anybody what to do, including children. Well, I don't know who's been a parent and has not told their kid what to do sometimes. But he suggests it's possible. And that's the Bodhisattva way, you know. That's the challenge. Can you parent without telling what to do? Can you just be there? You said to protect the child. Yeah. Don't let out in the street. Well, I wonder if you do that, knowing you take the risk, you might lose the child. I mean, it's... If you have not that fear, perhaps the possibility would be considerably less.

[52:25]

Children probably get hit by cars more because parents are anxious than anything else. Or not attentive. Or not attentive. Or absent. Well, perhaps in the next week you can, one of the things you can think about is skillful means. And what does this mean? Skillful means, oh, you want us to wait? No. No. Yeah. No, no. Well, the first thing is it seems Like it's kind of a strategy for dealing with somebody else or some other situation.

[53:30]

Oh, there's more. I mean, how do you sit Zazen, for instance? It's a whole, it's a different alternative to rules, you know? You give Zazen instruction, you give it to yourself. And there are certain rules that you follow, you know, you try to keep your back straight, put your attention here and there, and so on, there are the rules. But then, how do you negotiate your Zazen, moment to moment, in an alert way? Skillful means. You know, you can't make rules because each moment is different. So you're always having to know the moment and make a minute or an enormous adjustment to the moment. Now skillful means, I know that there is at least one teacher in here and surely a teacher knows, has had some experience with skillful means. She doesn't have to say, but I bet she does. I'm really taken with this. Don't tell people what to do, even children.

[54:41]

Especially big children, adolescents. It's practically speaking, it would be... You might suggest that someone do something for her. But you suggested it, but in the end, they need to do it. I mean, there's some parameters that just... Yeah. I guess the key is to get them to want to do what works out for everyone else's good. Yeah. Yeah. That's the idea. Yeah. Yeah. And is that sometimes possible? Yeah. Sure. Yeah. It would probably be a lot more possible if we believed in it a lot more too. Well, also, I mean, isn't that a big portion of it? Yeah. The attitude, the intention? Yeah. It's surprising how often, though, they'll really want to do what's going to work out best anyway. If they're not pressured, you know, pushed into it.

[55:50]

But I need to just say what to do sometimes too, I'm afraid. It also, I think it's connected, at least with Thich Nhat Hanh, with what probably was the thing that he said that moved me the most, which is the notion of practice what you preach and start with yourself and work on yourself. And rather than telling other people what to do, you be an example. And if you start with yourself and do hard work, then you radiate out by example. And if you don't truly believe and truly live what you're teaching, you can't really teach it, or the message will be mistaken, or if you put your ideas forward in anger, you don't get anywhere, and so on. And so it's the actual living of it by the parent or the teacher, whoever, as much as

[56:57]

that goes a lot farther than if it's doing it. Right. Especially if you're not doing it yourself. Yes, right. There's no faking skillful means. So what is pure intent? I don't know. I think what Anne said, wanting to just having an intuition that But this particular action is going to benefit everybody. Thinking about it, thinking about the consequences. I mean, what do those precepts really mean? What does it really mean to try to take responsibility for the consequences and really believe in the concept of karma and that everything has a ripple effect? I mean, you can obviously overdo it and get totally paralyzed, but once you think about it and then you see what That's right.

[58:00]

That's right. That's right. It's some combination of thinking about it and contemplating it and trusting your instincts. Yes, and trusting your instincts and manifesting it. Two sides. Yes. My first thought when you asked what skillful means was, so what else is there? Because I think the means is what is the process and that's happening all the time. I think the skillful It's the art of negotiating. I think that it also suggests equality. I know, you know, when I was teaching second grade or when I was working in the mental health field, I came to realize that I was so very equal with with them and we learned together. That's what I used to tell my second graders that I don't know one thing about doing this, you know. Aha, well see that's, yes, that's right.

[59:03]

When you're with second graders, you're a second grader. Yeah, yeah. And so we built a community of love, you know, that was kind of like our goal. Ah. You're equal. Yeah, yeah. Could you just say something additional about this? Skillful means exactly what? I mean, I kind of understand what you're saying about being with people and not telling people what to do and understanding where someone is, but in a more both more general and more specific. What else is skill training? Well, it means, it means being very well balanced. You know Mel talks about turning and being turned. That balanced point where, that point, that very centered balanced point where you're breathing in and you're breathing out.

[60:13]

You're just taking the situation in and you're breathing out in the way that's exactly appropriate. So, but in a very conventional way, it would also just mean be acting effectively within your endowments? Yes, yes, yes. Yes, it's always for that. It's always for that. It's never for me. Yeah. All right. So then... Me is all beings. Yes, yes. Me and all beings. But... Well, doesn't it also just mean that devices that the Buddha used for teaching, like parables and metaphors and all of his, you know, the ways he tried to convey, in addition to the other things?

[61:30]

That's right. That's right. That there's no limit to the devices that can be used in the service of skillful means. There's an old saying about, first you use a net to catch the fish and then you throw away the net. Yeah. Yeah. If you want to catch a thief, also if you want to catch a thief, you ride the thief's horse. There are a lot of, yeah. Alright, I'd like to move along a little bit. So then Buddha is going to go on to continue to talk about skillful means and the great extent of buddha lands and that the point of his preaching in order to preach buddha wisdom the buddhas come into the world again it's only a buddha and a buddha the theme of

[62:43]

well, you could say non-duality, but that you can't reason it out. It's this Buddha and a Buddha. And then there's a put-down of the Hinayana. There's a lot of, yes, yes, this is great-hearted stuff, and then... The very end does not resort to the lesser vehicles. Yeah, right. Those are all people who got up and walked out probably. Yes, there is a lot of putting down the Hinayana. And also somewhere in here, but I can't find it right now, he predicts to Shariputra that Shariputra is going to become a Buddha. And that's what Shariputra after all really wanted to know. And so at this point, now this evening is turning into more talking, we come to chapter 3, the parable.

[63:49]

At that time Shariputra danced for joy. He not only got what he wanted, he got much more than he wanted. and he was happy. At that time Shariputra danced for joy then straight away rose and joining his palms and looking reverently at the august countenance addressed the Buddha saying, now that I've heard this Buddha Dharma sound from the world honored one I have in my heart the thought of dancing for joy. I have gained something I never had before. What is the reason? Formerly, when I heard such a dharma as this from the Buddha, I saw the Bodhisattvas receive the prophecies that they should become Buddhas, but we had no part in this. I was sore grieved that I was to miss the incalculable knowledge and insight of the thus come one. World Honored One, in the past I have dwelt alone in mountain forests and at the foot of trees. And whether sitting or walking, I've always had this thought. We have all entered identically into Dharmahood.

[64:54]

How is it that the thus-come-one chose us salvation by resort to the Dharma of the lesser vehicle? This is our fault, not that of the World Honored One. What is the reason? Had we waited for Him to preach that which on the achievement of Anyatara Samyak Sambodhi, that is, complete perfect enlightenment, is based, then without fail we should have attained salvation through the greater vehicle. However, since we did not understand that the preaching had been based on expedient devices and according with what was appropriate to the particular circumstances, When we first heard the Buddha Dharma directly we had encountered, we believed it, accepted it, and had thoughts about it and based conclusions on it. World Honored One, from of old, day long and into the night, I have been reproaching myself. But now that I have heard from the Buddha what I never heard before, a Dharma that has never been before, I have cut off my doubts and second thoughts.

[65:55]

My body and mind are at ease and happily I have gained peace. This day, at long last, I know that I am truly the Buddha's son, born of the Buddha's mouth, born of Buddha transformation. I have gained a portion of the Buddha's dharma. Namely, the understanding that he is a Buddha. Yes, exactly that. What? Namely, the understanding that he, Shariputra, would be a Buddha. this prediction of Buddhahood, which gradually everybody is going to get. So, this joy in the Dharma, very important message, hear it again and again, the unexpected joy in the Dharma. And we had, some months ago in the Zenda we had, for a while we talked about joy, taking joy in the Dharma.

[67:08]

And different people talked about their different experiences of joy in the Dharma. And as I've been reading Nothing Special by Jocko Beck, there is a chapter on Sisyphus. Poor old Sisyphus, you know, pushing the rock up to the top, having it roll down, pushing it up again. Now on the face of it, that does not seem to be a joyful situation. But if you are, if you enter into our practice, even Sisyphus can be joyful. So at one point, Joko is saying, and again, it's suchness. When we truly live each moment, what happens to the burden of life? What happens to our boulder? If we are totally what we are in every second, we begin to experience life as joy.

[68:12]

Standing between us and a life of joy are our thoughts, our ideas, our expectations, and our hopes and fears. It's not that we have to be totally willing to push the rock. We can be unwilling. So long as we acknowledge our unwillingness and simply feel it, unwillingness is fine. A major part of any serious practice is, I don't want to do it. And we don't. But when our unwillingness drifts into efforts to escape, that's another matter. Our practice is to see that we are just pushing to get that basic fact. Nobody realizes this all the time. I certainly don't. But I notice that people who have been practicing for some time begin to have a sense of humor about their burden. After all, the thought that life is a burden is only a concept. We're simply doing what we're doing, second by second.

[69:16]

The measure of fruitful practice is that we feel life less as a burden and more as a joy. That does not mean there is no sadness, but the experience of sadness is exactly the joy. If we don't find such a shift happening over time, then we haven't yet understood what practice is, the shift is a very reliable barometer. Who is that from? Joko Beck and it's from her latest book, Nothing Special. So, Shariputra's joy. that this prediction of Buddhahood, that the Buddha nature is available.

[70:21]

It's not the same kind of joy as winning the lottery, is it? No. It's not based on conditions. It's unconditional. It's more a sense of accepting, is it? It's a result of accepting. It's a fruit of acceptance. Another story that's told in this context is some Zen master is asked if he's happy and he says, if he's joyful, and he says, my joy is like a jewel in a dung heap. I guess it's here that Shariputra receives the prediction of enlightenment and this is page 56

[72:00]

And here we have a very joyful passage. At that moment, the fourfold multitude, bhikshus, bhikshusinis, upasakas, and upasikas, as well as a great multitude of gods, dragons, yaksharas, yaksharas are the speedy ghosts who can outrun anybody, Gandharvas, Gandharvas are musical spirits, Asuras. Asuras have heavenly blessings but they don't have heavenly authority. Kinnaras. I think that they're half-horse, half-human, magaragas, I don't remember that, and the like, seeing Shariputra receive in the Buddha's presence a prophecy of Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi, danced endlessly for joy of heart, and each removing the uppermost garment he was wearing presented it to the Buddha as an offering.

[73:05]

Sakro, Devanam, Indra, and Brahma, the king of the gods, together with numberless children of gods, also made offerings to the Buddha of their fine divine garments and of divine Mandarava and Mahamandarava flowers. The divine garments they had scattered remained stationary in the open air, then turned about by themselves. Divine musicians altogether at once made music of a hundred thousand myriads of kinds in the open air, and raining down many divine flowers spoke these words. The Buddha, in former times, in Parinasi, first turned the dharma wheel. Now, at long last, he is again turning the unexcelled and supremely great dharma wheel. So, this Mahayana is usually called the second turning of the dharma wheel. And of course the reference to everybody taking off their robe and throwing it in the air is that they are taking off their monastic robes.

[74:13]

There's always this little political undertone that's going on. Because the Theravadan teaching was predominantly monastic. an aspect, a political aspect of the Mahayana was that it opened the teaching up for everybody. So, then Shariputra addresses the Buddha and says, World Honored One, I have no more doubts or second thoughts since I have been personally enabled to receive in the Buddha's presence a prophecy of Anutara Samyak Sambodhi. Isn't his experience of joy, though, a little like the lottery? After all, it was because he was presented with a gift. So we can't say that's an expression of unconditional love.

[75:15]

That's quibbling. I don't want to deny him. Besides, everyone else is going to get it, so it's not like a lottery, unless it's the kind of lottery that everyone wins. So, Mary, how is that different than from, like, feeling joyful because you're expecting something in the future? I find this a little confusing. Yeah. Well, that's a good question. Suppose You would just put yourself in Shariputra's shoes. Suppose that, you know, the person that you most totally believes in tells you that you are going to be a Buddha. How would you feel? I guess I'd feel joyful. It's an ineffable state.

[76:21]

It's an enigmatic, unimaginable state. How can you respond to something that we've already discussed, referred to? It cannot be only to a Buddha, to a Buddha, whatever it's about. Well, if that happened, you know, imagine that you were in Shariputra's situation, the feeling that you would have would be of extreme joy and confidence, and what's the difference? I mean, that You mean what's the difference between that and the realization of being a Buddha?

[77:25]

Yeah. So what he's getting is the experience at that time. Exactly. Yeah. Not just somebody telling you're going to have it in the future. But it's like he becomes open to it at that moment. He's there right then. You know, as when we connect. You know, there we are. And then we forget. My question is about, what was your question? Well, I just, when you said, as when we connect, I mean in those moments, when we're just, when we're really there and everything's okay. Yeah. And when we know that everything's okay. My question was, it seems like, oh, I'm going to get this nice thing in the future, so therefore I'm joyful, and I couldn't connect that with, like Joko was talking about, that shift to joy right here, right now. Well, it's a real question.

[78:30]

It's a real question. Okay, and then on page 58, At that time, the Buddha declared to Shariputra, did I not say formally that the Buddhas, the world-honored ones, by resort to a variety of causes and conditions, parables, words and phrases, and expedient devices, preach the Dharma? That all is for the purpose of Anuttara Samyak Sambadhi. This is because these preachings are all effected in order to convert Bodhisattvas. However, Shariputra, I shall now once again, by resort to a parable, clarify this meaning. For they who have intelligence gain understanding through parables." So this is a repeating theme, you see, that these preachings are for the sake of bodhisattvas.

[79:34]

They're for the sake of bodhisattvas because bodhisattvas are able to listen. Because bodhisattvas are not hanging on to some kind of standard or belief or previous knowledge. So, Shariputra, imagine that a country, a city-state or a municipality has a man of great power, advanced in years and of incalculable wealth, owning many fields and houses as well as servants. His house is broad and great. It has only one doorway, but great multitudes of human beings, a hundred or two hundred or even five hundred, are dwelling in it. The halls are rotting, the walls crumbling, the pillars decayed at their base, the beams and ridge poles precariously tipped. Throughout the house, and all at the same time quite suddenly, a fire breaks out, burning down all the apartments. The great man's children, ten or twenty or thirty of them, are still in the house.

[80:36]

The great man, directly, he sees this great fire breaking out from four directions, is alarmed and terrified. He then has this thought, though I was able to get out safely through this burning doorway, yet my children are within the house, unattached, attached as they are to their games. are unaware, ignorant, unperturbed, and unafraid. The fire is coming to press in upon them. The pain will cut them to the quick. Yet at heart, they are not horrified, nor do they have any wish to leave. Shariputra, this great man, has the following thought. I am a man of great physical strength. I might, in the folds of my robe or on top of a table, take them out of the house. But he thinks this house has only one doorway, which furthermore is narrow and small. The children are young and yet have no understanding, are in love with their playthings. They may fall to the fire and be burnt. I must explain the terror of it to them.

[81:38]

This house is already on fire. They must make haste and get out in time. I must not let this fire burn them to death. When he has had these thoughts, then, in accord with his decision, he says explicitly to the children, get out, quickly, all of you. Though this father, in his compassion, urges them with explicit words, yet the children, attached as they are to their games, will not deign to believe him or to accept what he says. Unalarmed and unafraid, they have not the least intention of leaving, for they do not even know what a fire is, or what a house is, or what it means to lose anything. All they do is run back and forth looking at their father. At that time, the great man has this thought. This house is already aflame with a great fire. If we do not get out in time, the children and I shall certainly be burned. I shall now devise an expedient where I shall enable the children to escape this disaster. The father knows the children's preconceptions, whereby each child has his preferences, her feelings being specifically attached to her several precious toys and unusual playthings.

[82:47]

Accordingly, the father proclaims to them, the things you so love to play with are rare and hard to get. If you do not get them, you are certainly to regret it later. Things like these, a variety of goat-drawn carriages, deer-drawn carriages, ox-drawn carriages, are now outside the door for you to play with. Come out of this burning house quickly, all of you. I will give you all what you desire. The children hear what their father says, since rare playthings are exactly what they desire. The heart of each is emboldened, shoving one another aside in a mad race. All together, in a rush, they leave the burning house. At this time, the great man, seeing that his children have contrived to get out safely, that all are seated in an open space at the crossroads, is no longer troubled. Secure at heart, he dances for joy. And then the children all addressed their father, saying, Father, the things you promised us a while ago, the lovely playthings, the goat-drawn carriages, deer-drawn carriages, ox-drawn carriages, give us now, if you please.

[83:49]

Shariputra. At that time, the great man gives to each child one great carriage. The carriage is high and wide, adorned with a multitude of jewels, surrounded by posts and handrails, little bells suspended on all four sides. Also on its top are spread out parasols and canopies. Further, it is adorned with an assortment of rare and precious jewels intertwined with jeweled cords and hung with flowered tassels, having heaps of carpets decorated with strips of cloth as well as vermilion-colored cushions. It is yoked to a white ox whose skin is pure white, whose bodily form is lovely, whose muscular strength is great, whose tread is even and fleet like the wind. This ox has many attendants serving and guarding him. What is the reason? Because this man, of a wealth incalculable, his various storehouses all full to overflowing, has this thought. My wealth being limitless, I may not give small, inferior carriages to my children.

[84:57]

Now these little children are all my children. I love them without distinction. I have carriages such as these made of seven jewels. In incalculable numbers, I must give one to each of them with undiscriminating thought. I may not make distinctions. What is the reason? I take these things and distribute them to the whole realm, not stinting even them. How much more should I do so for my own children? At this time the children, each mounting her great carriage, gain something they have never had before, something they had never had before, hoped for before. Shariputra, what do you think? When this great man gives equally to all his children great carriages adorned with precious jewels, is he guilty of falsehood or not? So, I don't think that doesn't need a great deal of explanation.

[86:02]

Well, except, do you think that's what he was doing with Shambhutra before, when he told him he was going to become the Buddha? No, he was giving him the one vehicle. So, this is the parable about the one vehicle. the great vehicle. The burning house, which we all know, the ancient, old, twisted karma burning house that has the one narrow door and our situation of being quite heedless about what we're doing, running back and forth with our little playthings. And the father The teacher, even our inner teacher, knowing the extent of this distraction, wants to get us out.

[87:10]

So, you know, we start practice. For whatever reason, we start practice. We have an intuition of something. And there's usually some kind of gaining idea. I would say there is always some kind of gaining idea at the beginning of practice. You want something or other. And little by little, as the years go by, you're taught. If you really stick to the practice, every gaining idea you have punishes you. and they begin to be winnowed out and the practice becomes pure, you know, less attached, just practice for practice sake. And gradually one enters this

[88:13]

this one vehicle, practice. And it's not just the gaining ideas, you know, also the enormous effort that one needs to make in a practice. The very focused effort, the very directed effort. And then also the willingness to give the effort up when the time comes. So, the one vehicle that we may have thought that we wanted peace of mind, the deer-drawn cart, or we may have thought that we wanted better relations, more loving heart, the goat-drawn cart, whatever these things are that we want, But what it is, is that as practice continues, we become more identified with the One Vehicle.

[89:30]

And in our teaching, what is the One Vehicle? It's very clear in our school. It's Zazen. It's the form of the One Vehicle. And I'm going to read just a little from Dogen Zenji's Fukan Zazenji, Dogen's Zazen instructions, which begins, the way is basically perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? The Dharma vehicle is free and untrammeled What need is there for concentrated effort? That's the Dharmakaya. Everything's perfect. Indeed, the whole body is far beyond the world's dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean?

[90:37]

It is never apart from one, right where one is. What is the use of going off here and there to practice? And yet, if there is the slightest discrepancy, the way is as distant as heaven from earth. And then he comes around to a description of the one vehicle. Nidai mentioned the Buddha who was possessed of inborn knowledge. The influence of his six years of upright sitting is noticeable still. And he gives Zazen instruction. The Zazen I speak of is not learning meditation. It is simply the Dharma gate of repose and bliss, the practice realization of totally culminated enlightenment. It is the manifestation of ultimate reality. Traps and snares can never reach it. Once its heart is grasped, you are like the dragon entering the water, like the tiger entering the mountain.

[91:39]

for you know that just there in Zazen the right Dharma is manifesting itself and from the very first dullness and distraction are set aside." So, it's nice to read again and again this Zazen instruction. And this is our instruction in the One Vehicle. Well, Ron has gotten his wish tonight. We've had an hour and a half of talk. And Stephen is probably pleased. So things work out. And I wanted us to write about the one vehicle. And anybody can still write about the one vehicle. Just do a kind of five minute... You're bold enough. and I'll read it anonymously. Okay, so it's nine.

[92:45]

Is there anything that anyone wants to say before we start?

[92:48]

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