Not too long ago, as a matter of fact, about 15 minutes ago, we finished our bodhisattva, what we call our bodhisattva ceremony. A ceremony of so-called repentance or confession or acknowledgement or many different ways to explain it. The Japanese term is sange. It has all those meanings. But I want to explain a bit about the structure of the ceremony, why we do it, and how it's different from the usual understanding of what repentance is. We're going to read you a little of Katagiri Roshi's explanation.

[01:15]

Katagiri Roshi was Suzuki Roshi's assistant at Sokoji, when Suzuki Roshi was teaching there. And he came to Katadiri Roshi came to Sokoji one year before me. He came in 1963. I came in 1964, and he was a teacher to me. I had five or six Japanese teachers all there at that time, and each one was different, and I had a great variety of the way these various teachers operated, and how their personalities were different, and how their ways of teaching were different, and how they were all the same, at the same time. So, Katagiri Roshi, he became the abbot of Minnesota Zen Center, eventually, after Suzuki Roshi died.

[02:26]

In our ceremony, the ceremony starts out saying, all my ancient twisted karma, from beginningless greed, hate and delusion, born through body, speech and mind, I now fully avow. This is a repentance ceremony. So here we say tangled. I don't like the word tangled. Or I thought I did. Better than twisted. It's sometimes translated as evil. And some people say, well, in Buddhism, there's no such thing as evil. But actually, there is. But I think it's not just our evil karma, because evil is pretty extreme. Sometimes the word evil is used to designate certain transgressions which are not really evil, they're just kind of stinky, you know.

[03:43]

So I think of evil as an intentional act in which one takes pleasure at the distress of others, creating situations like lighting a cat on fire and laughing, that's evil. But all my ancient, tangled, twisted, evil karma, from beginningless greed, ill will, or hate, ill will I think covers more and delusion. Greed and ill-will are aspects of delusion. Actually, they arise as delusion as a base. So we can't really be... We can be sorry for our delusion, but there's not a lot we can do about it because we're too deluded to understand it.

[04:53]

So, and going through our acts, which is a body, speech, which is the way we speak about each other and things, and the way we think, mind. So, fully evolved means there it is, nothing hidden, nothing contained. in our Zen understanding of confession is not, you notice here, it's not saying, I did this and I did that, and please excuse me. And I want your, I want you to acknowledge this and release me and so forth. So this is, this kind of repentance is universal repentance.

[06:06]

It's like acknowledging our ancient karma, not just this present karma or some little thing we did. We have no idea of how much harm we do in the world, even though we do a lot of good and we think we do a lot of good. We have no idea how we destroy the world around us, as well as building it up and so forth. But we don't know. And from the beginning, beginningless beginning. So it's not just my own karma. It's because we do this ceremony together. This is a ritual that we all do together. And so it's a collective I don't like to use the word collective, but I will. It's a karma which we all share. And it's impossible to delineate everything.

[07:07]

And so it's a way of creating a peaceful, free space in the universe, in the midst of the transient universe. I'll read you Katagiri Roshi's way of expressing it. And also, this is a different translation of the Gatha. All the karma ever created by me doesn't say good or bad. Just all the karma created by me. Karma means a volitional action. That's all it means. But then there's the result. So when we talk about karma, we're usually talking about the result. My bad karma just happened to me.

[08:11]

But it's actually what we did. And then there's the result. So all together, it's karma. Sins of old, through greed, anger and self-delusion, which has no beginning, born of my body, speech and thought, I now take full open confession of it." So he says, in Buddhism, repentance does not mean to apologize to someone for an error or mistake. That is also okay, but that's not what this ceremony is about. The ritual of repentance is not to ask forgiveness from someone for what was done. Repentance is not a preliminary stage to enter the Buddha's world or to become a good person. If repentance is understood in this way, we fall very naturally into the trap of dualism. A big gap is created between us and whatever object we try to make repentance for or to, and that will always cause some confusion.

[09:16]

So he says real peace is not found in dualism. The purpose of this profession is to find peace in the world, create a peaceful place in the world. Repentance in Buddhism is to lead us to be present right in the middle of peace and harmony. It is the perfect openness of our hearts that allows us to hear the voice of the universe. beyond the irritation of our consciousness. Repentance itself makes our life perfectly peaceful. So this is like getting beyond the knots and the clots and the blocks of our mind and our hearts, to totally let go of all that.

[10:18]

which is so difficult, which we carry around all the time and we're continually creating. We're continually creating blocks and clots and stoppages that keep us prisoner. So this is our way ourselves to be free. We carry so much, our resentments, our fears, our jealousies, our resentments, all this is carried around, all our anger, and it shapes our postures, it shapes our way of acting in the world.

[11:20]

And all of these negative emotions and feelings and attitudes are transferred to our surroundings. So this sange, this confession, is just simply letting go into the universe. It's personal and impersonal. But it's personal in that the whole universe is our true self. That's personal. We think personal means this entity. But personal means the whole universe. We say the true body, the true human body is the whole universe. I remember Kadagiri once saying, the Bodhisattva's halo is the whole universe. So this is like this act of confession is to purify our body-mind.

[12:33]

Together we do this and find this peaceful place in the midst of So, he says, when contemplating the significance of repentance in Zen Buddhism, there are three conditions to consider. That we should realize the world of the compassionate heart. That the self must readily accept the compassion of Buddha's world. and that we must set in motion the interactive communion between us and the universe. So people say, like, what is my daily practice?

[13:48]

What is the meaning of precepts? I haven't gotten to precepts yet. What is the meaning of precepts? Precepts is compassion. You know, there are three ways to understand precepts. But first of all, I'll introduce us to what we already know, called precepts. The precepts are, when we think of precepts, we usually think of the ten prohibitory precepts, or the ten clear mind precepts, the positive and negative, and then there are sixteen precepts.

[14:51]

The three so-called refuges, I take refuge in Buddha, I take refuge in Dharma, I take refuge in Sangha. So, that's pretty simple. And then the three pure precepts, to do what is good, to avoid what is evil, and to save the many beings. Devote your life to trying to understand how to help people. It's not just help people. It's like, what are people? Who are we? Are we just all separate entities fighting each other or what? All looking for some advantage?

[15:56]

What is the fundamental thing? Everyone is looking for the fundamental thing. Scientists are all looking for the fundamental thing. Religionists are all looking for the fundamental thing. Why do we need to find out the fundamental thing? Why should we do that? Well, so that we'll know how to act in the world. Don't we already know that? Some people act this way, some people act that way. We all have our own ideas. So what is it that ties us all together? Or do we need to be tied together? Or should we just fight each other to the end and the king of the mountain holds forth? That's the way it's been. But how can we all act in a way that's satisfying and real. So that's the third pure precept, is how to find a way to act in the world that is real and is beneficial to humans, to animals, to vegetables, and to the earth.

[17:35]

So, to do what is beneficial, not to do what is harmful, and to find out how to really make that work. Those are the three pure precepts. And then there are the prohibitory precepts. But, not to kill, not to take what is not given, not to misuse sexuality, to refrain from false speech, not to sell the wine or drugs that create delusion, and not to slander, not to praise ourself at the expense of others, not to be avaricious, not to harbor ill will, not to abuse the three treasures, the Ten Precepts.

[18:46]

So there's the literal meaning of the precepts, which I just read. So those are like, I don't want to say suggestions, that's too easy, they're guidelines for our behavior. But they're not the Ten Commandments. the precepts, it looks like this is what you should do. And I'm not saying it's not. But there are three different levels of precepts that we should understand. So these are the literal meaning of precepts. The essential meaning of precepts is Buddha's precepts, Buddha nature precepts, which means there are things, the precepts are beyond our understanding.

[19:58]

The way the world works is beyond our understanding. The universe has its own precepts and follows its own precepts. The universe follows its own precepts and It's beyond our understanding, beyond our desire to have it a different way. So seeing as Jerry Brown just said, things happen. When he was looking at the bridge. Happens. But yes, that's right, things happen. So this is the universal precept that the universe follows. And although we would like to have it in a different way, it's the way it is. But that also affects us. The universal precepts definitely is part of our life and affects us. So this is the way things happen, the way it is, and we have to follow that way.

[21:03]

And then there's the human precepts, which is the literal precepts. But the precepts of compassion is called the living precept for humans. The living precept is not written down. You can't find it in a book. It's how you meet circumstances moment to moment. And how do you meet circumstances moment to moment? How do we do that? Do we meet circumstances of anger? Do we meet circumstances with envy? Do we meet circumstances with love? Do we meet circumstances with possessiveness? Well, for the Buddhists, we meet circumstances with compassion. So compassion is

[22:10]

the expression of wisdom. So wisdom has many facets, but wisdom that is important here is the wisdom of prajna, intuitive wisdom, innate wisdom, not so much learned wisdom, but wisdom that comes up through your freedom. Compassion engenders wisdom, and wisdom is the progenitor of compassion. So, if we meet circumstances with compassion, then we have a basis for knowing how to meet them. We meet every circumstance with compassion. So, when anger arises, when envy arises, when all these feelings come up and arise, people are always asking about this.

[23:27]

What do I do when my anger arises? What do I do when my jealousy arises? What do I do when my avariciousness arises? You come back to compassion. How can I meet this circumstance with compassion? So these precepts are koans. Each precept is a koan because it's like, what is it? How? How can I do that? So that's the living precept. No one can tell you. to know how to do things. But it's up to each one to find that way, and finding that way is called practice. When we talk about practice, there are many facets of practice, but the very most important facet of practice is, how can I do this?

[24:36]

You know, the why question You can go on forever about why it's like this, but you'll never find out the true reason why things are the way they are, the fundamental reason. How is how to be present in this moment? How to act in this moment in the correct way? And there is no correct way. Since there's no correct way, how do I act correctly in this moment? What's the bottom line? It's compassion. We have to find out what that means. We have various definitions, you know, but all those definitions are just kind of guidelines. We have to be able to... this is called improvisation. We have to improvise all the time.

[25:46]

But we like to have rules, you know. Well, I like the rules. But there are no rules. If we start to only act according to the rules, we become very rigid. And then we put a grid on life. But life is like this. It's like a fish. It's like the path of the fish or the path of the bird. We need rules, we need, of course, but it's in between how do we actually practice with the rules so that the rules are not binding us, but freeing us. How do we find our freedom within this difficult world. How do we find that peaceful place within this difficult world?

[26:55]

Sange, sorry, this confession or this ceremony, it's not just something we do once a month and that brings us all together and it's a wonderful... if the whole world was to do this at once, I don't know if it would make a difference or not. But for that moment, just imagine it. We'd all start fighting again afterward, anyway. Look at Gandhi, what he did. And then, you know, India still reverted back to what it is. But if everybody did... Just the point of sage, the point of this is this community does this and doesn't stop other communities from doing this as well. We wish that everybody would do this. But since we have you captive, some of you just walked in here.

[28:03]

Now you're captive. But we all just do it. And it refreshes the whole community. understand what it is that we're doing. The Sangha, the confession is the most important part, because it totally frees us for that moment. Each bow is how we free ourselves. When people come in to the Zen Dojo who don't have the experience, they see us all going We bow to everything. We bow to the gamassio. We bow to the cushion. We bow to the food. It's a little excessive. It's really excessive. But it's like moment to moment we're letting go.

[29:05]

That's why how we bow is really important. That's not a vow. I'm supposed to do this. It's not because you're supposed to do this. We're totally communicating. What are we communicating? The vow is total stillness. Everything is gone. This is confession. Everything is gone. So we're living our life moment to moment with that freedom. So when we put our hands together, you know, this is the six worlds, human world, the animal world, the hungry ghost world, the fighting demon world, the animal world, I may have said that,

[30:09]

and the world of the angels, so to speak. There is Bodhisattvas, Pratyekabuddhas, Arhats, and Buddha. So, this is like the higher realm, so to speak. This is the lower realm. And we just put them together. Put the fingers together, put the palms together, put our thumbs together. Not like this. Wow. So, all worlds come together in the bow. And then you bow. And at the end of the bow, total stillness. If you just go, that's not it. So the whole universe is based on stillness.

[31:16]

This is Buddhist science. Buddhist pseudo-science. The basis of everything is stillness. And it's logical. The basis of everything is stillness. Activity comes out of stillness. Everything comes back to stillness. No matter what comes up, you know, it's down. Everything comes down. Even the spiritual heavenly practices all go up, but eventually they all come down. Everything comes down. So, to always be settled in stillness, no matter what the activity is called settledness.

[32:30]

We say settle the self on the self, which means, on the self means stillness. So that's why we said Zazen. We become really still. There's no separation because, you know, no activity in that sense. But the dynamic, the whole dynamic activity of the universe is present in Zazen. It's called peace. So, you know, there's something called the unwavering pivot. This is total stillness, no activity.

[33:35]

Everything is in perfect balance. We don't like perfect balance because it's not interesting. So everything is in perfect balance. And then as soon as it tips over, this pole, then things start to move. And it's called eccentricity. So we're all eccentric. We are. We're all eccentric. All of our movements are eccentric. And then we come back to this. And we're concentric. Concentrated center. So Sazen is sitting on the concentrated center, where all that energy is contained in this one act. So the whole universe is there in peace, even though all this terrible stuff is going on. But this is how we create peace in the world.

[34:38]

We can't create peace through legislation. Some people are trying. It doesn't work. Right? It doesn't work. Everybody has to calm down. Everybody has to sit at the center of the universe at the same time. All of our minds and bodies and breath and activity can merge as one piece. And then we can understand each other. And then we can all have our individual delusions. But this sanghe, this act of standing in the center of the universe,

[35:42]

sitting in the center of the universe is the most important activity that we can do. We try to figure it out other ways, that doesn't work. We stumble along until we die. So I want to read a little bit more of Kadagiri Roshan. He says, Whatever we feel from our lives, animate and inanimate beings are peacefully embraced by this compassion. This is why we can live every day beyond making mistakes or not making mistakes, beyond failure or success, beyond pros and cons. So this is

[36:45]

called non-dualistic understanding, because this confession is not about I made a mistake or I didn't make a mistake, I'm good or I'm bad, or I'm right or I'm wrong. It has nothing to do with that. Nothing to do with that at all. That's usual confession, but that's not what this means. It's not that we shouldn't do that. Asking forgiveness or giving forgiveness is really important in our life. But that's not what this is. This goes beyond that. It's not dependent on good or bad, right or wrong, what I did or what I didn't do. Everyone is redeemed. You can't work at it, although it's good to work at it, but that's a different level.

[37:51]

On this level, everyone is redeemed without exception. So, Buddhism is a religion of salvation. Maitreya Buddha will come down from the Tushita Heaven someday, but actually Maitreya Buddha is in here, it's not someplace else. This is where it all takes place, in this body, in this mind. So he also says, repentance is to realize exactly the oneness of merging all sentient beings of Buddha, delusion and enlightenment. All sentient beings are allowed to live and are, from the beginning, forgiven for living their lives in the world." Isn't that pretty interesting?

[38:54]

Excuse me, poor. Good. Okay. We're excused. So, then he says, the second condition we have to realize is that the self must readily accept the compassion of Buddha's world. Buddha's world means the truth, or the same in one ground, or that which is beyond good and bad. So, meaning, we have to accept the way things are, and not necessarily think things are good or bad. Not to label everything as good and bad. As long as we're labeling everything as good or bad, we can't see what things really are, because we're creating a dualistic understanding. So whether we like it or dislike it, we have to accept this. What is meant by readily accepting Buddha's compassion? It means we must actualize Buddha's compassion in our everyday lives, and we have to live our lives in the complete realization that we are already forgiven, that we are already allowed to live, and that we ourselves must make our lives come alive.

[40:17]

We are already embraced, so we have to live our life in the realization that we are forgiven. But who is it that lives? We live by our effort, but this is a narrow understanding, so we have to live our lives with the understanding that we are allowed to live. This means we should appreciate our life. So, you know, we give ourselves a lot of credit, but we just happen to be, strangely enough. We're here because we just happen to be. The breath comes, inhaling, exhaling. I don't have anything to do with it. This isn't just universal activity. The blood runs through the veins. It's just universal activity. I don't have anything to do with it. So, what should I do? With all this energy I have, called this thinking mind, and feelings, and desires, What should I do with all that?

[41:23]

Well, we should co-operate with Buddha. Co-operate means, I think I do everything, or else I think Buddha does everything. But actually, it's a co-operation. Since we do have free will, some people think we don't. I think we do. I think everything we do is free will, even though we're compelled beyond our desire to not be compelled. We are compelled, but we're compelled because our free will put us in that position to be compelled. So we cooperate, Buddha and myself, and then there's no big problem. It's just one piece. And when we put the effort out to practice, practice puts out the effort to respond.

[42:37]

Buddha responds. When we respond to Buddha, Buddha responds back to us. The universe comes back and responds to us. That's just an idea. I've always found that that's true. I've lived longer than most of you, but even when I was younger I realized that. That Buddha responds to us. Not just some guy called Buddha, the universe responds to us when we make that effort. So this is what One moment of making effort to practice is one moment of the universe responding to us in a way, in something, in a way called enlightenment. Enlightenment is, my Suzuki grocery used to say, enlightenment is okay.

[43:49]

It's not so difficult. Enlightenment is not so difficult. We put it up here on this big pedestal. But it's not such a big deal, you know. What's really a big deal is practice. It's not what you get. It's what you do that's important. You have to forget getting anything. As soon as you want to get something, you will not get it. You'll get something, but you won't get And the only way to be it is to do it. So, Karnagiri Roshi says, Buddha's world is completely pure and serene, quiet and also dynamic. It is the dynamism and motion beyond our thoughts and ideas. So very naturally, in order to accept it, we have to put aside our understanding, our thoughts, and put our body and mind right in the middle of that dynamism in motion.

[45:02]

This is samadhi, or actualizing Buddha's compassion. So we said the third condition is ritual. I hate to say that, because people don't like ritual. Some people do. I do, but I don't admit it. I do do it. Yeah, I do it. Because it's communion. Ritual is communion. He said the third condition, before he says that, he says, The silence, Shakyamuni Buddha is the person who attains the self as subject, who practices tranquil silence exactly. This is called Buddha. Buddha is exactly the total manifestation of tranquil silence.

[46:09]

Buddha is truth. If you experience this, Buddha gives forth its own light from your whole body. Then people are moved by your experience. The third condition is ritual. Ritual in Buddhism is a teni-kanna-toko, which means the interacting communion of appeals and response. This is what I was talking about. Appeals means, funny word, action and response. So ritual is constantly painting a portrait of our life. between us and the universe. So that's what this confession is. Some communion between ourself and the universe. It's not between just you and me.

[47:10]

It's the whole universe. How we commune with the universe. And it's beyond our understanding. You just do it. But when we do it, something understands. Somewhere, even though we don't understand it, we understand it.

[47:32]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ