I love to taste the truth of the Tathagata's grace. Shri Aroku, Book of Serenity, Case 67, The Flower Ornament Scripture's Wisdom Case. The Flower Ornament Scripture says, I now see all sentient beings everywhere fully possessed the wisdom and virtues of the Enlightened Ones,

[01:08]

but because of false conceptions and attachments they do not realize it. So this is from the Flower Ornament Sutra, Sanskrit, the Avatamsaka Sutra. And this is said to be the utterance, the realization, the statement of Shakyamuni Buddha when he awakened. What he awakened to was that all beings, every one of us, fully possessed the wisdom and virtue of the Buddhas, of the Awakened Ones. But because of our habits, our conditioning, our attachments, our delusions, we forget it, we don't realize it. So, as Shantideva said, we have everything we need already.

[02:29]

It's just that we have these clouds passing in front of the moon. The Sutra itself says it this way, There is nowhere the knowledge of Buddha does not reach. Why? There is not a single sentient being who is not fully endowed with the knowledge of Buddha. It is just that because of deluded notions, erroneous thinking and attachments, they are unable to realize it. If they would get rid of deluded notions, then universal knowledge, spontaneous knowledge and unobstructed knowledge would become manifest. Then later, the knowledge of Buddha, infinite and unobstructed, universally able to benefit all, is fully inherent in the bodies of sentient beings.

[03:35]

The ignorant, because of clinging to deluded notions, do not know it, are not aware of it, and so do not benefit from it. So, as Suzuki Roshi used to talk about our practice as being Mahayana understanding, and Hinayana practice, we actually have to practice to clear away the clouds in front of the moon. Hongzhe, who I've spoken about before, is also the person who selected and worded the cases and wrote the verses in the book of Serenity. He says it himself at the beginning of his practice instructions, this way,

[04:39]

The field of boundless emptiness is what exists from the very beginning. You must purify, cure, grind down or brush away all the tendencies you have fabricated into apparent habits. Then you can reside in the clear circle of brightness. Later, he says, our house is a single field, clean, vast and lustrous, purely self-illuminated. When the spirit is vacant, without conditions, when awareness is serene, without cogitation, then Buddhas and ancestors appear and disappear, transforming the world. Amidst living beings is the original place of nirvana. How amazing it is that all people have this, but cannot polish it into bright clarity. In darkness unawakened, they make foolishness cover their wisdom and overflow. One remembrance of illumination can break through and leap out of the dust of Kalpas. Radiant and clear white, the single field cannot be diverted or altered in the three times.

[05:43]

Four elements cannot modify it. Solitary glory is deeply preserved, enduring throughout ancient and present times. As the merging of sameness and difference becomes the entire creation's mother. This realm manifests the energy of the many thousands of beings. All appearances, merely this field's shadows, truly embody this reality. So this reality, this Buddha nature, we are told, is what exists fundamentally. No matter how bad we think we are, we can't put a dent in it. No matter how good we think we are, we can't increase it. From the very beginning, all manifestations are just shadows. All manifestations are just shadows. So how do we practice with this? What does it mean?

[06:56]

What do all these words mean? Well, first, Buddha himself says, after realizing that this is the case, that this knowledge is inherent in the bodies of all beings, then the Buddha, with unimpeded pure clear eye of knowledge, observes all the sentient beings in the cosmos and says, How strange! How is it that these sentient beings have the knowledge of Buddha, but in their folly and confusion do not know it or perceive it? I should teach them the way of sages and cause them forever to shed deluded notions and attachments, so they can see in their own bodies the vast knowledge of Buddhas, no different from the Buddhas. Then Buddha teaches them to practice the way of sages, so they get rid of deluded notions, after which they realize the infinite knowledge of Buddha

[07:58]

and aid and comfort all living beings. So it seems we have to work on our habits and tendencies and conditioning that gets in the way of our just being here. But the first way of doing that is just to recognize, in ourselves and in everyone, that this is so. I mentioned before the line of Bob Dylan's line, Each of us has our own special gift and we know this was made to be true. And if you don't underestimate me, I won't underestimate you. So, looking around, see how all the other people you practice with are Buddha, have their unique, their own special expression of Buddha nature.

[08:59]

Maybe we might see the clouds getting in the way sometimes too. We might see habit energy and conditioning getting in the way. But I think what really helps to encourage all of us to be more fully the Buddha nature we are is to recognize this in each other, to encourage this, to help support each other. Sometimes people see their own faults, their own habits, their own clouds very clearly and very painfully. They don't know what to do and it takes a long time to brush them away. Sometimes you can just say, oh yeah, simply drop it. Then maybe it will come back.

[10:07]

Sometimes people need to be shown Sometimes people need to be shown, encouraged to see what's getting in the way from them being fully the Buddha nature they are. So it can be very painful It can be very painful to see how when everything kind of clicks you can see, oh yes, today I can just be here and then my habits come up. So, Hongzhe's verse commentary

[11:22]

on this case is very interesting. It goes like this, Sky covers, earth bears, breaking a clump, pervading the universe without bound, breaking down subatomic particles with no inside, getting to the end of the mysterious subtlety. Who distinguishes turning towards and away? Buddhas and ancestors come to pay the debt for what they said. Ask old teacher Wang of Nanchuan. Each person just eat one stalk of vegetable. So the first part, let's look at first. Sky covers, earth bears, making a mass, making a clump, pervading the universe without bound, breaking down subatomic particles with no inside. So this is the side of the wisdom and virtue of the awakened ones. Beneath the sky, born from the earth,

[12:24]

this mass, this clump, this one Buddha nature, pervading the universe, boundless, vast, breaking down subatomic particles with no inside. This is a reference to, in the Flower Ornament Sutra, right after Buddha says this, he talks about, as an example, this teaching of subatomic particles, that within each atom is a sutra. Within each atom are all worlds. This is the Buddha's emptiness. During Khyenten maybe you can, you may have some feeling that when you take the next step, you may have some feeling that when you take the next step, the ground will be there.

[13:26]

But what is your foot? Your foot is just a collection of atoms. And modern science tells us that each atom is made up mostly of this space. What about the ground? Same thing, just atoms. It happens that our foot and the ground happen to be of the same relative density, so that they meet and we end up taking another step. But within each atom, within our fingernail, within each square inch of ground, is vastness,

[14:32]

all the space that's within an atom. So, here's this ancient sutra talking about subatomic particles. Somehow Buddha knew about atomic energy, and he knew about subatomic particles, long before modern science did. Maybe he knew more about atomic energy. We see only a tiny, limited slice of what is right here. So it's said that the omniscience of the Buddha can see everything, it can see all the worlds, all the dimensions. This is the wisdom and virtue of the awakened ones that is spoken of here. It is so close, in our own bodies.

[15:36]

We all are it. It's so close we can't even see it. I sometimes think of the structure of the atom is the same basic structure as the structure of the solar system. I wonder, an atom in my fingernail, is that somebody else's solar system? Or our solar system, going out to Neptune and Pluto? Is that somebody else's atom in their fingernail? This is the vastness of the knowledge of Buddha. So, the Avatamsaka Sutra is quite psychedelic, quite amazing, and talks in terms of these vastnesses.

[16:42]

It would be a very entertaining reading, but what does that have to do with how we live our lives? Hongzhi's verse goes on, Getting to the end of the mysterious subtlety, who distinguishes turning towards and turning away? Buddhas and ancestors come to pay the debt for what they said. Ask all teacher Wong of Nanchuan. And just eat one stalk of vegetable. So, there's a reference here to a story. We know that turning away and touching are both wrong. It's like a massive fire in the dual merit samadhi. This is also talking about Nanchuan and his student Jiaozhuang. Nanchuan is not sent in Japanese. Jiaozhuang is Joshu. He actually said Wu, because he speaks Chinese. Two very great Zen masters.

[17:48]

And there's a story that Jiaozhuang came to his teacher Nanchuan and said, What is the way? How do we actually live this life? And Nanchuan said, Ordinary mind is the way. It's a plain old ordinary mind. So Jiaozhuang, very reasonable, said, How can we get there? How can we go towards that? Nanchuan said, If you try and approach it, you move further away from it. It's so close that we can't get there. It's like trying to see your own nose. So Jiaozhuang said, How do we know whether we're on the way or not? How do we know? So Nanchuan says, It's not a matter of knowing or not knowing.

[18:54]

Knowing is just some illusion and not knowing is just blank consciousness. When you reach the way beyond that, it's vast like the empty sky. So we have these two sides, right in the middle of this one story, right in the middle of this case. This vast emptiness, this wisdom and virtue of the Buddhas. And somehow, ordinary mind, just ordinary, ordinary, ordinary everyday life is the way to get to, not to get to, to be this wisdom and virtue of the awakenings. So the Atatamsaka Sutra with all its vast, mysterious, psychedelic imagery

[20:05]

can show us this emptiness, this vastness. But how do we live it? A monk later asked Jiaozhuang, What is the mystery within the mystery? Jiaozhuang said, How long have you been mystified? The monk said, I have been into this mystery for a long time. Jiaozhuang said, Anyone but me might have been mystified to death. So, Jiaozhuang is pointing to, again, just this ordinary, there's this mystery, there's this vastness, but we don't have to look for it, we don't have to do anything about it, it's already exactly us. The atoms of our fingernails and the whirls that are happening amongst the bacteria in our intestines,

[21:07]

there is just vastness happening all through and around us. So what do we do? Commentary, in the verse it says, Ask all teacher wang of nongshuan, each person eat just one stalk of vegetable. Each person eat just one stalk of vegetable. So there's a story, another story about nongshuan. In the commentary there, as nongshuan and shashan, I guess one of the students were working, picking bracken for vegetables, nongshuan picked up a stalk and said, This is a fine offering. Shashan said, He wouldn't take notice of a feast of a hundred delicacies, let alone this. This is the, he, it feels to me, he's talking about vairocana buddha, or the great cosmic buddha, the vastness. He wouldn't even notice a feast. Nongshuan said, Even so, everyone should taste it before they'll realize. So until you've tasted kale, you don't know what kale tastes like,

[22:16]

nobody can explain it to you. When you've tasted kale, you've tasted kale. Until you've tasted a carrot, no one can explain to you what a carrot tastes like. Once you've tasted a carrot, you taste it again, you'll know it's a carrot. Immediately, you don't have to think about it, you don't have to analyze it, you don't have to deliberate about it. Oh, carrot. That we already have the wisdom and virtues of the awakened ones means that we don't have to do anything special. Just ordinary, everyday life is it. Hard to believe, you know, we want to do all kinds of special practices and learn all kinds of abstract things, and we want to do all kinds of special practices and learn all kinds of esoteric teachings.

[23:19]

It's hard to just be very plain and simple. Just go about your daily business, follow the schedule, whatever the schedule of your life is. It's so simple we can't even see it. It's like the nose in front of our face. How does it express itself? I think it's just... just indulges in random acts of kindness. One of my earliest memories, I don't know, I was two, three maybe, I was with my parents and we were visiting a colleague of my father's somewhere. What I remember most is the quality of the light. There were no... it was indoor somewhere, and there were no light bulbs on somehow, but there was just this light coming in from outside.

[24:23]

Shadows. And I don't remember who it was, whether it was a man or a woman, but somebody was looking, and my shoe was untied, and somebody, who I didn't know, said, oh, and bent down and tied my shoe. And I had this feeling of... you know, it's just such a simple thing, but... I really felt their kindness. So ordinary. So the one who's not busy can be very ordinary. She doesn't have to be quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. It's just... just everyday kindness. Just simple... seeing what's in front of you. Okay, so what about these afflictions,

[25:34]

these habits, these... tendencies and conditioning and... all the flaws that we see in ourselves that can be so painful? What does that have to do with it? Another thing the Avatamsaka, the Flower Ornament Sutra says, talks about this non-duality, this... which moon is this? Mind is in the world, world is in the mind. About this, the Bodhisattvas, the enlightened beings, do not wrongly create discriminations of duality and non-duality. Beings, worlds, ages, Buddhas and Buddha teachings, all are like illusory projections. In the reality realm, all is equal. Throughout the lands of the ten directions, the enlightened beings move in the same direction. They manifest infinite bodies. Knowing bodies arise from conditions,

[26:36]

they have no attachments at all. Based on non-dual knowledge, they manifest the Buddhas without attachment to non-duality, knowing there is no duality or non-duality. So, the non-duality of yunyas, which moon is this? It's not even the non-duality of non-duality and duality. Just forget it. One moon or two moons or millions of moons. So, in the Flower Ornament Sutra, it says this amazing thing. It says also that the fundamental affliction of ignorance is itself the immutable wisdom of the Buddhas. All of these habits and conditioning and tendencies and flaws that we think get in the way of our Buddha nature,

[27:39]

of our being fully who we are, of letting our life push through, are not separate from that Buddha nature. This is kind of mind-boggling. It kind of upsets a lot of what I had imagined practice was. Right before, in the Avatamsaka Sutra, right before where it talks about the Buddha saying, now I see all sentient beings fully possessed of the wisdom and virtues of the awakened ones. This is in the chapter of Manifestation of Buddha. It talks about how Buddha has two winds. He has, or she has, a wind called extinguishing wind, which totally,

[28:42]

wind of knowledge, which totally wipes out all of our afflictions, habits, conditioning. This wind, the Buddha's knowledge, includes this wind. But also, Buddha similarly has a great wind of knowledge called skillful sustaining, which skillfully sustains the enlightening beings whose faculties are not yet mature, not letting the extinguishing whirlwind totally eliminate all their afflictions and habit energies. Without Buddha's skillfully sustaining wind of knowledge, countless enlightening beings would fall into the states of those content with individual salvation. By this knowledge, enlightening beings are enabled to transcend the stages of the two lesser vehicles of individual salvation and abide in the ultimate rank of Buddha. So I find that rather powerful teaching. You know, we all think, oh, if we can just get rid of our bad habits of our greed

[29:45]

or of our anger, then we'll be happy, then we can really be Buddha. But I think that Buddha, in fact, maybe real Buddha, doesn't want you to get rid of those habits. We actually need those habits to really mature our Buddha nature. I don't know about you, but there are times when I wish I could just sort of, oh yeah, get it all now and just check out and, you know, go live in some nice house in the country somewhere and forget about all this hard practice stuff. And that's what this is talking about, to really fully awaken Buddha's awakening. We actually need our greed.

[30:48]

We actually need our anger. We actually need our confusion. That's what actually fully develops our total Buddha nature. So in the book called the Vasudhimagga, The Path of Purification, which is an early Theravada meditation manual, it talks about three types of temperaments, greed, anger, and confusion types. These are the three positive practices that people can do. I guess we all have some of all three of those, but people tend to have one more than another sometimes. But these qualities, which are our bad habits, actually have transformative positive qualities, have Buddha qualities. Deep faith and devotion. Anger transforms

[31:51]

to penetrating wisdom that can cut through and see the emptiness of things. Confusion or delusion transforms to very precise, intelligent, analytical knowledge to understand the phenomenal world. So, we have these habits and conditioning which get in the way of how we deepen and learn our Buddha nature, how we learn to express our Buddha nature. It says in some of the Mahayana sutras that bodhisattvas eventually will have a Buddha feel based on the kind of beings that are attracted to their practice. So, if you have a lot of anger, very wise, beings will be attracted to your Buddha feel eventually when you learn how to use your anger

[32:53]

as Buddha. That's what it says. Still, we have to work at what this means is we have to work at seeing our habits, seeing our flaws, seeing our conditioning and how it gets in the way of our Buddha nature So, I think that's all I wanted to say this morning. Does anybody have any comments or questions? It's a teaching that I find rather unsettling myself. We all think that if I could just get rid of all my greediness, then I'd be perfect. Can you read again about the two winds? It's right before the manifestation of Buddha

[33:56]

chapter of the Avatamsaka Sutra Volume 2 of the Dharmi translation. It's right before it says there is nowhere the knowledge of Buddha does not reach. Why? There is not a single sentient being who is not fully endowed with the knowledge of Buddha. Right before that it says I'll read a little bit more than I read before. Buddha has a great wind of knowledge called extinguisher which can extinguish the afflictions and habit energies of all great enlightening beings. And she also has a great wind of knowledge called skillful sustaining which skillfully sustains the enlightening beings whose faculties are not yet mature, not letting the extinguishing whirlwind totally eliminate all their afflictions and habit energies. Without Buddha's skillfully sustaining wind of knowledge countless enlightening beings would fall into the states of those content with individual salvation. Individual salvation doesn't sound so bad to me but that's not complete.

[34:58]

By this knowledge enlightening beings are enabled to transcend the stages of the two lesser vehicles of individual salvation and abide in the ultimate rank of Buddha. I think I've said this before but I know there's like whenever I look at my course of stuff and I'm like oh yeah that's the kind of person I am. And I did this thing and I suddenly realized I was doing that. And I thought oh this is the kind of person I am rather than this sort of added thing. And I started to think that there are two ways I can try to see it. One is that I can see myself as a person. And the other is that I can see myself as a person. And [...] I can see myself as a person.

[36:00]

And I can see myself as a person. [...] And I can see myself as a

[37:01]

person. And I can see myself as a [...] person.

[38:02]

And I can see myself as a person. [...] I think if you understand your own I think if you understand I think if you understand I think if you understand your own excitement, you understand you understand enough about enough about

[39:03]

yourself for that comes from... where that comes from, and wanting to love everyone, wanting everybody to be happy, and being greedy for that sometimes, and sticking on to particulars as how to do that or something. There's a way to see that everything is okay. And then from seeing that everything is okay, comes the faith, we can say, to just keep going. I think there's also an aspect of... I guess where our work is to understand more and more what does it mean to work with these bodies that we lose?

[40:07]

Or in our mind, what is it that... how is it that when a bodhisattva matures in these bodies, how are these bodies transformed? How is that transformation? How is being transformed? And I'll sort of keep noticing, as these things arise, the dark gates, so that our actions of bodies which might not come from those groups, may be more primary, even as opposed to primary. Somewhere there, to learn what it means to work with them, what it means for them, actually. It doesn't mean greed or indulging in anger, or sort of being satisfied with confusion.

[41:14]

It means really studying what is this greed coming up, what is this anger coming up, and respecting the power of those. And I think for me, one of the helps in this is to see, when we do indulge in greed or anger, to see the consequences of this, to see how it hurts ourselves and others. So, to study that very closely. And as soon as desire comes up, as soon as anger comes up, to say, oh yes, this is desire, this is craving, oh yes, this is anger, I'm furious. Because when you say it, it sort of loses its power. You can't be angry if you say, I'm angry. And then it goes away, and then it might come right up again, very powerfully in the next moment.

[42:19]

But to stay with it, to say, oh, this is just me getting angry. I don't have to blame it on whatever X person or X incident. This is just me arousing desire. It has nothing to do with whatever it is in the second bowl that you want to have, that you want to have seconds and thirds and fourths of. So, in the old meditation manuals, there are particular suggestions as to how to work with all of these things. And generally for greed, it suggests being aware of impermanence, that whatever it is you think you want, you're changing, it's changing, your feelings are changing. For anger, to recognize gratefulness.

[43:24]

Whatever it is that you don't like, that's appearing before you, to be mindful of all that there is to be grateful for. But not to try and get rid of your anger or get rid of your greed, but just to keep studying them, keep working with them. I think that's the point. For confusion, just detailed analytical studies, speculative studies, to actually maintain an attentiveness to the details of what's happening. So, Abhidharma is a branch of Buddhist teaching that studies the way things are in great detail.

[44:28]

So, that kind of study, to study the way the mind works in great detail, so that you can see. So, actually, that kind of confusion. Confusion, I guess, when it's indulged, it becomes kind of laziness or kind of just sleepiness, not caring. But to actually pay attention to the details of what's happening. ...dealing with it, whatever... ...to know how... ...how it is, the process of...

[45:31]

...how it is... ...how it is... Sounds like you need to stop the measurement. Absolutely. For me, I think it's been sort of helpful to kind of have a sense of... ...and taking it seriously in a certain way. Practicing so hard, you know, something... ...find the lightness of it. The fact that we're always doing it, you know. I mean, all of us are self-conscious.

[46:33]

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