field is Chinese. What has struck me is that power...

[18:18]

However, I'm fully willing to admit that my relatively greater sense of harmony Pertaining to salvation, soter, savior, locus, word, soteriology designates a field in which it is impossible to separate practice from philosophy or doctrine or theory. In Buddhist terms, liberation from suffering. And I prefer this designation to religions or spiritual.

[19:50]

I'm interested in the ways that particular On the other hand, Zen appeals to American practitioners in part because it seems like it should be immune to this critique.

[21:00]

It's not about God. It's iconoclastic. It's just sitting. In both practice groups and classrooms, I often hear people expressing the desire to separate religion, institutions, hierarchies, priesthood, et cetera, from true or pure spiritual aspiration. And Zen becomes a focus of this desire. Sure, and why even bother just saying it's non-dual? How sure? Just to put in place what we all know, Buddha's salvific work is called the Paya of skillful means.

[22:08]

It means that those no longer bound by appearances work with appearances in order to help other beings overcome the illusions that give rise to suffering. It is skillful engagement of illusion, evolution, deployment of illusion. Because conditions change, there will always be new means. It's probably fair to say that Americans and temples all practice some forms of devotion and vows, but there are many variations of these themes. As I describe medieval Chinese attitudes, I would imagine that each member of this audience would find points of contrast with his or her own practice.

[23:13]

The picture I'm presenting here of medieval Chinese practice is largely based on my studies of some of the 8th century texts. In early Chan, from the mid-8th century onward, there was a reaction to and reinterpretation of 6th and 7th century devotional practices, merit practices, including bodhisattva precepts and repentance rituals, visualizations, and specific samadhi or meditation techniques. It is interesting to me that American Buddhists have by and large accepted the notion of karma. We seem to be able to accept the notion of consequences better than we can accept the efficacy of deliberately trying to create beneficial consequences. The latter seems self-serving to us. Merit is self-serving, yes, but it was also considered to be self-transformative.

[24:15]

Merit isn't pure gift or ultimate truth, but neither is it separate from these. It is the key upaya, the most important After all, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas were also self-evident illusions. This is why it is said that their bodies are made of merit. They are illusions working with truth, and also truth working with illusions. In medieval China, merit-making was actually a web of related practices. Making images and making offerings to images was linked with the practice of visualizing and calling on the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas so that they might act as witnesses, real live, real live witnesses of one's vows.

[25:37]

Even if not all image donors attempted to visualize a Buddha, It's a good question. faith, both the Cosmic Buddhas and the images that we're

[27:05]

was linked. So now we turn, briefly, to the Chan reinterpretation of this very important practice in medieval China.

[29:52]

Chan could be said to have been born on the bodhisattva precepts platform, the ritual space designed for conferring these precepts on these traveling precepts platforms performed by particularly effective priests. Now, as bodhisattvas in the dark time. It's the context of the subconscious.

[32:53]

By the time the platform signature was completed, Within this context, it becomes possible to see how and why devotional practices and merit practices continued and still continue, of course, in East Asian Chan, Zen, and Song temples and practice communities.

[35:02]

Merit practices flourish under the sign of no merit. The flow of offerings and vows to images is interwoven with the iconization of antinomian playing and antics. The point is that the interplay of these The antinomianism and iconoclasm in Chan stories is not seized upon as uncritically as it was back in the day. We tend to assume that meditation is and was and should be the of the Hail Mary Pass.

[38:42]

Where's the bread? This is a miracle. drugs.

[49:15]

See ya. Thank you, Ed.

[56:44]

I often say that I feel that Ed can evoke the spirit of Suzuki Roshi better than anybody, and he didn't disappoint me today. So thank you very much. Turning to Yvonne. and time to grab.

[60:22]

Yeah. Especially after Zinzinger moved here, we'd have a seven-day sashim, and on Sunday night, everybody would go out and party like crazy.

[65:05]

And one of the things So, it was a... He also...

[67:27]

I wanted to Some of the methods in Zen in Japan, for example, for working with some trouble that arises, for example, around the teacher, they're not exactly secret, but they're not written down anyway.

[71:53]

kicked out but there are ways of in the early stages.

[75:17]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ