lovely day thanks to everyone for coming

from the seat where i'm sitting knowing that i'm going to be leading the class tonight i took a look down and i saw a little pixelated picture and so jen was looking at me and i thought for a second how nice for surgeon to be here

stand here andrea i'm sorry he's kind to here used definitely here
hi
although normally think of looking up and seeing him looking back at me

did anyone have a chance to look at the email that i sent out finally yesterday
and i don't know if you had enough time to reflect on it a little bit
i had thought maybe we would do breakout groups it just depends on how this all goes it's never clear to me ahead of time how a lecture how a classical go so we'll see what we feel like
and i'm just waiting another minute
i guess do we normally start pretty on time
i think so
wait while we're almost there people as the instructor as late like last time was that way that happened that way

well maybe i'll just give everyone else another minute to settle by suggesting that we all just settled together for a minute come and sit a moment of saucer and we'll get started

so good evening everyone thank you again for coming from the i think the third of our for classes that will be held as part of our practice period on the fundamentals
ah and it's ah this will be on one of a different topic slips hassan is chosen for us to touch it on as part of the for the fundamentals class should stop just by saying that gary artem is our tech home
austin he will be monitoring for hands and calling on people and and doing all that and also you can communicate with him in the chat if you have any technological problems that go honor
can't hear me loud enough for whatever
so this is the the third of our classes and i think you're already beginning to get a sense of how all the different themes that were talking about all the different fundamentals are related to each other they feel like we pick up one piece of the three refuges and we see how that's related to how we
practice ah throughout our practice how we practice the eightfold noble path and how we approach the parameters and you'll certainly see them reflected into tonight's talk on the precepts
oh i it's like you pick up one and you get all the rest of them are related and on this talk is a natural of has a natural relationship to the the triple treasure into the fold path also
so usually we don't spend a lot of time and the zondo talking about precepts
have you will have you thought about that as i was doing wilson and i'm one of several people who taught precepts a lot over the years that for poison center and was a certain way in which most of us do that and ah we don't really talk about the precepts a lot on saturday lectures or otherwise
we usually com and we sit saw sad and we learn how to sit and get used to the pasture we learned the forms and one to bow and how to chant we memorize the chance we learn how to sit says shane and and we begin to eat meals in the zendo and learn how to do the daunting task of already
aoki and then after a while when we've been practicing usually for a couple of years smell used to say a a used to say that people did become and sit for two or three years and really get settled in practice and then ah we study the precepts of we received the precepts and that's usually held dumb
and i think that's usually how ah it's taught
the think the idea of precepts to too many of us who have come from a christian background or a jewish background we relate to them as being a something really serious and something that we only do when we get when we get really serious because our we
we want to learn right from wrong and how we're supposed to conduct ourselves as worse
but i i wanna turn that upside down a little gut tonight
as i as i was kind of reading from different perspectives and thinking about some of the poly teachings this week or last two weeks feel fronds doll has done a wonderful series on on on
basically wholesomeness and unwholesome us in practice and i just got clear to me that precepts is really what practices all about and one way we know that but so used to say there is a time in the sender one the someone said to him why don't we ever talk about
love and he said all we ever do is talk about love
i'd say if we don't talk about precept so much in the santa but are you might say that you know we don't really talk about this so much we wait for precepts class before we do to chi but actually everything we talk about his precepts
how we conduct ourselves in the world
the expression of our sincere wholehearted wish to live in harmony and be of help which is what a bodhisattva wants to do what you want to do what i wanna do is how we live our and how we live our lives is the precepts
so i thought it would be interesting it's so funny to talk to you like this and talk on like this for on what i want you to think for a minute about your first up
recognitions of right and wrong kind of understanding what that was like for you where that came from and how it landed on you somehow that seems very important to part of how the buddha taught what precepts is about am ah
hum
and for myself i can think of to fundamental some just throwing this out to have you sit back for a minute and think for yourself
what's good
my grandmother who grew up porn was a sharecroppers daughter gave anything she had to anyone in the neighborhood who needed it
that's how she was that was my idea of what it meant to do good
and ah i remember when i was somewhere whenever kids do these things somewhere may be in third grade i went and shop lifted i went went to other people and we went to the wall worse a few blocks away and i picked out a little blue bottles fake french
perfume i don't know why mike the stuff particularly and i knew it was the wrong thing to do and i went immediately to my parents and showed the one i did and we walked back to the wall wars and i presented it back and that feeling can tell i still remember the story was really
seminal for me and some understanding of how i wanted to be the world and what was important to me
so i'm saying this because we have this innate sense of how to relate to each other in the world what feels good to us and what doesn't feel good to us
that is i think with
how the buddha was oriented how he taught about precepts will get thirty minute
so just take a moment
it's also really interesting i think to think about where you bump up against the place in what you think is a good thing to do that you can't go
some years ago i was a in a a base group with with when we were talking about wanting to do good things but having a limit to where we could do them he was talking about being in a meditation retreat and walking back and forth had been raining out and he walked along
our a concrete path and on that concrete path that was his walking place for this retreat there were a bunch of earthworms and every little quarter step he took he picked up the earthworm and moved it out of the way picked up the earthworm moved it way picked up the earthworm as
and at some point after he had done that i don't know how many dozens are scores of time he just walked
and he brought the question of what was that what what how did i reached my limit and what how do i relate to the fact that i have old omid
this is one of the challenges of our priests up practice are those edges and it's really really good to know what these edges are
we talk about right speech but the most important place where we speak the truth is to ourselves what was i doing their what was that about
dogan says that when we are sitting zazen all the precepts are kept in bend bender what he says even though it may be merely for a moment when someone while sitting upright and meditation quits the mark of the buddhist
seal upon his three volitional actions or her three volitional actions namely those of body speech and thought the whole physical universe and everything in it becomes and is the buddhist seal all the space throughout becomes
and his enlightenment
so on
that enlightenment is our activity readily touch when we sit zazen
and you may have noticed if you'd had the opportunity after you sit
war after you've had a chance to sit for several periods like on sundays beginners machine up coming
for especially if you ever sent a longer session is so much easier to be in harmony with things maybe not during says shane but when you get up when you go home
it's so much easier not to react to see beyond our usual ways of sitting we touch preset practice when we sit
are the rewards of precept practice for moral conduct the buddha and a nanda had a conversation
ananda who was the chief disciple as said nanda was a the attendant for buddha his cousin who attended him for for twenty years
ananda says arm
what's the reward and blessing of wholesome morality and the buddha says freedom from remorse
and what about freedom from remorse buddha says it's joy ananda
and freedom of joy is rapture
and freedom of rapture is tranquility
freedom of tranquility results in happiness
freedom of happiness results in concentration
envisioning knowledge and freedom
freedom of tranquility results in the vision and knowledge according to reality
a turning away and attack detachment
and from that enlightenment
so
complete freedom begins with moral behavior
now to talk about morality in buddhism
so i'm gonna give you some of the history and background about
sila or moral practice
our precepts and soto center just one particular expression of that one way of doing it but i i hope that tonight if nothing else she come with some kind of sense of grounding or appreciation of the importance of morality or sila and practice as we don't really talk about it so it
explicitly it's embedded in everything
i'm
it's kind of like a glittering out for yourself you have to see how your how your conduct for merges out of an understanding of practice
so oh and if in buddhism there are three a different teachings are three different areas of teaching called the tropica now that tropica is i think the sanskrit word for trip before basket or volume and three those three two
divisions are those suitors are that just courses that buddha taught traditionally it's what we read in the pali canon or the matthias ah
the rb dharma which is the philosophical teachings of the buddha that explain the mental and physical workings of our experience not just have our own minds but of our in tire experience which course is the manifestation our minds to a buddhist way of thinking
and the vinaya the vinaya is the moral teachings including the monastic code so you think about it the teachings of buddha is one third or one big piece of all of a ocean the teachings of the morality or one big piece
i have three pieces of all the teachings
morality has two different definitions and i thought this was interesting sometimes we think about it or get caught up in it or on a quiver a little bit when we think about preset practice when we think about it as of the principles console
learning the distinction between right and wrong are good and bad behavior and that's kind of the traditional way that we think about precepts
am ah ha that may be one of the reasons that it feels or
we're not so appealing
another definition is this the values and principles of conduct
when seems more intuitive doesn't it just seems more like what we're here for
i
it's interesting to think about why you came to practice to i think maybe we all we have different reasons of often times are some way in which we want to feel better or suffer less than i i know ah sometimes it's because we're making lots of messes in the world and
in our lives and creating problems and we want some how to a not that for ourselves
so these principles are distinctions between right and wrong we might say it's really distinctions between wholesome or unwholesome behavior or beneficial and non beneficial behavior and again if you if you remember one thing about what
i were talking about tonight my hope is that you'll see
how we think about the precepts how we think about the cannot bliss of how we want to be in the world of a vows that we take to follow them as a request for us to examine our activity in terms of whether what we're doing as wholesome or unwholesome or beneficial
or non beneficial course that's always hard to sort out in the moment to but let's just raise that is kind of our gold standard instead of getting it right or not
sila or about morality is fundamental come it's an a lot of the different lists of a buddhist qualities and and factors it's one of the three pillars of the dharma for gaining merit along with generosity and meditation it's one of the sick
keith para meters or perfections of our actions which peter overturn will be talking about an upcoming saturday election and it's one of the seven factors of enlightenment
we said last week virtue or moral conduct is is the cornerstone of the eightfold noble path
the practice of sila is defined by the middle three of the eightfold normal path right speech right action and right livelihood and you see how the other factors compliment that right intention and right attitude or vow is how we orient ourselves towards the
wholesome it's how we express our of our desire our our intention to live in l a live in a way of moral conduct
and we help cultivate the focus and new awareness or mindfulness with right concentration and right meditation
so said are taking what dogan said another way it serves as and manifest in activity from a place where our activity is not obstructed by our thoughts or ourselves as separate spacious and open we move in the world
in a very real sense the purpose of the and nya where the moral code is for an individual to actualize the buddha's teaching in daily life through proper conduct
study of the sutras ah helps with a sign posts on the map of the way you know oh i'm i'm on target oh i understand how this is working in my wife
sitting reveals the tama and the precepts guide us in every or every everyday activity so just to say that again study helps like signposts on the map of the way sitting reveals the dharma and the precepts help guide us in our daily activity
so that may be a natural a just break for a moment to see if there are any comments that you have anything that she want to relate
anything that's come up
for you in this little introduction
and i don't think i can see the hands and all but you can type it in the chair if you want your on reaction button and the lower right-hand corner and put your hand on that way or are going to the percent purchase
tuppence was to raise your hand that way a you
love anything that you want to add her
seem pretty obvious to everyone what i'm saying over experience experiencia
the ron and from leslie can with bridges raise their hand
so please go ahead leslie well it's actually jake the fifth if he had brought my computer
well thank you creation up
when i was small living in remote area on a ranger station
the summer between my second and third grade i very few playmates on the ranger station there was a ten year old was twelve year old there was a four year old i was seven and a half
and danny the ten year old said
the bar was invited to on palm
an experiment and the experiment was to put a scorpion in a jar filled with red ants iran's and see who would come out as the survivor
and on i was intrigued i do not like scorpions and i didn't particularly like as but i watched and i felt
am i didn't know the word sadist
but it was suggesting
and i felt that in my heart
oh as i saw
the scorpion succumb to multiple tax by the hats i was sickened and i never played with them again basically as revolted and i didn't know
how to explain it to myself i didn't tell my parents with them
but from that moment on i knew that i couldn't kill things i didn't want to kill anything
any bugs or well no i purchase it was a turning point my wife of seven and a half to experience that to see life taken needlessly just as an amusement as an entertainment which it was for them
so
that's how i wanna say thank you always stuck with me like eugene
if there's someone else who had had a hand up and gary i'm wondering if when someone speaks if you wouldn't mind can new heights spotlight them also so everyone can see as i could do that sure thank you
so wrong i think your next home alesis could ask exactly where jake
exactly what jake went to which is i like to hear a couple more examples of people's experience the first to experience they can remember
just what jacket mentioned in a few mentioned as well that your first experience where you remember that this is wrong or this is right either way but you know what's your first experience of them because the season me i have something like that but it's very vivid
and i'd like to hear a couple more examples
so i see heiko spin gesturing and a get an ellen web to yeah is i couldn't raise my hand but thank you i am
recalled not so much i had plenty of times to realize with my friend who is kind of a sadist with bugs and birds but
when i was just a tiny time i remember hearing that that right and wrong was measured by god and that he would keep track of it until the end of your life and you would pay for you since right
and i contemplated that deeply know that well if i buried myself in a whole how would he know for how you know and i finally realized that came good and about six or seven i was the reporter and the decider of the right and wrong that would be reported and
and so easy
add the precepts and the guides are
what a report from perhaps but i know it's me and as well i i took out a very young age and have worked with that in all kinds of ways and has got all kinds of detail but the knows my earliest
right now thank you very much shaker
huh
can you wanna go next to sue and maybe we'll move on after that
and ellen you need to unmute if you would
oh i think my parents were extremely permissive and my first serve memory of this was when i was hum
spending time with a cousin of mine and own we had done something and i'm not sure what it was i think we rated somebody's orchard or something in and we brought this fruit back to the family and in my cousin said what are we gonna say with that we got it from and i said well we'll just lie
and own
my cousins in i said wait we can't lie and i remember back closing why not
that's my
it was reserved for will
oh i had a first term memory while jake was talking on phone
i will i'm an older sister anne martin had a friend over running around in the backyard with a little easter ships that my parents had got us and she's four and a half years younger and i can imagine i was more than eight or nine may be
and ah leslie's that friends stepped on the tick and the guts came out the back
and this creature was in pain and suffering
and i went in the basement and got a hammer out of dad's work bench and i killed the chick because i wanted it to stop suffering
and i don't know if that's right or wrong
thank you so much so
clay i see your hand up i'm wondering though if you if you mind if we went on i'm just not i'm okay
we'll have another pause point in a moment if you're still at stuff
so i'm
wanna talk a little bit about the history and evolution of our buddhist precepts
so ah the the way the buddha taught as most of us know was on from experiences are questions that people brought to them from the problems of their everyday life and he would he would have some insight his responses were really about how to live life
to get along with each other he was a meditation master and terms of observing the workings of have a mind and meditation an astute psychologists and sociologists and a wise man he was a doctor of human distresses and disease
and in one of these ah conversations he he was caught
roaming the countryside and teaching as he did and he came upon or he was approached by the kamala people kamala people were in some kind of argument with a with others about how to how to decide what was wholesome and what was unwholesome and
they went ah they weren't there are monks are traveling monks and aesthetics and local malls were there and they were having their disagreements and so they went to the buddha and they asked the buddha how to know what is true
how do you know what is true and what is virtuous to look to your teacher you look to the authorities
do you look to your own ideas about things in your own opinions about things and the buddhist said no
what you do as you look at its effect you look at the effect of your activity and you asked this have some good did it lead to something beneficial or it did it lead to something not beneficial
is it something that the wise would say is harmful or beneficial didn't have that impact and with the wise indirect or reprove it that's the gold standard that's what the but buddha taught basically about morality
for the first twelve years of the forty five that he taught there were no precepts there was no code contact conduct maybe that's because the early students were such a depth maybe it's because they practiced around him and he was so actualized kind of rubbed off on him
good teachers can have that impact maybe the community was small enough and people could model after each other the potatoes could shake clean that much faster
but over time in the monastery there were problem since of the buddha made rules for the behavior for the monks to follow the teachings and to stay on the path for generating wisdom and kindness and in those forty five years of the buddha taught the wound up being two hundred and fifty precepts for the monks and three have
hundred and forty eight precepts for the nuns
those all taken together are considered complete nya or the loop while the rule of conduct of specifically for monastics
as the buddha was dying he told ananda that the some of the precepts needed to be preserved and passed along but the minor ones weren't so important so you didn't need to keep the mindfulness of the minor ones but ananda was so distressed a buddhist die
that he didn't ask which was which
so not long afterwards when all the disciples got together all the major disciples got together while polly who was the disciple who was considered a foremost immoral contact recited all the precepts and then there was an argument between the original as that didn't want to say
decide anything and ah the pragmatic or the the contemporary ones who said no i i think we can tell the difference here and so the original is one and the vinaya is still considered that large number or mainly that large number of precepts and in so
monastic practices most of those are still kept today though in les practices of around the world it's usually five the five basic precepts not to kill not steal not to use and misuse sexuality not to cloud the mind with intoxicants not to speak
falsely or eight there are three others that get ahead of on for a retreat practice that encourage one not to indulge oneself for to raise the sense
since our desires and soda then we have sixteen all totaled
ah
in china and dogan stand before that pursuit our practitioners generally receive the for naya and the bodhisattva precepts both of them out i'm about to get to the bodhisattva precepts but i'll just get you some background first buddypress bodhisattva precepts probably originated in china and
dogan brought these along and then maybe addition of three others the refuges which altogether bank are sixteen hot precepts
ah say ciao who's the founder of japanese tendai decided that it was necessary only to confer the mahayana precept so primarily those are thirteen and knocked a banana
a dogan or so in doesn't only receive the thirteen precepts a ten day monk at age twelve and so when he went to china he wasn't allowed to sit in the chinese monasteries as a full priest even though he had been ordained as a ten day monk because he hadn't received the former for naya
oh that's an interesting little side fact
hum
dogan gave only the sixteen precepts which are called the bush shoe then po sa tzu chi the bodhisattva precepts that have been currently transmitted by buddhists and ancestors the nature of these precepts is very different from that of the nya they're not meant to be was was the body
i was there are meant to be the essence of the precepts
on the precepts of the same as the true dharma that was transmitted by buddhists and ancestors and as on mentioned last week at the very bottom of our lineage papers there is a little story that gets written out that basically says your preceptor who is a true preceptor so whether it was
or may leave for some of us or a hose on for some of us your precept had been had rightfully receive the truth the precepts of they really understood it they were empowered to pass them along to you and that that is the true dharma it's all of the true dharma
because it's all of how we conduct ourselves in life
ah so that's what's meant by the line on the end of the lineage picked praise papers that of for those who have received lay or priest ordination it's the one great cause the one great on
man of the one great manifestation of your life that causes the marks of existence the import of of are you go business and impermanence that we live as a part of inner being as our experiential understanding ripens we
cannot help but live like the welfare of each being as our own and so express the true meaning of the bodhisattva precepts
when i think that's in in a current being and tick not hands teachings over all that's really what he is he is pointing at his are deep into relationship and related ness and the more intimate we become with that the more ah art
the more that we really experienced that out of our saw and and understand our life is being deeply connected the more naturally oh we react like how one way of saying it is that one on your hot when you're right hand touches of flame
the left-hand doesn't stand back and say or what's that all about the left hand grabs it to take care of it because it recognizes it's part of itself presa practices like that
and as for schrader says the precepts or how i promised to take care of you
how i promised to take care of you
and so you see precepts in everything we do as a way of ordering and taking care of our life and all of our activities and so in avoiding evil that's the precept of fulfilling than the rules and laws suzuki roshi and wrote about this and a wonderful lecture that was a link i sent
our on if you saw it called how to observe precepts and i just want to read the very first part of that to you as you know the real meaning of precepts is not just rules but rather a way of life when we organize our life you see something like walls even though you're not intending to observe a pet
particular rule the rules are always there as soon as you get up in order to wake up completely you wash your face what's the precept one of the precepts
rented a certain time you eat breakfast when you're hungry that is you are observing some rules when you eat breakfast at a certain time is actually the way of life you follow naturally when you're hungry you eat it's time to do at when you finish eating you wash your face
brush your teeth and gather up your things to head to work or move out or to the next thing that you have to do
so if you practice us and there will be rules in your practice so at the same time saw as an practices precepts
one of the precepts and all of the precepts if you really understand how buddhists come to the idea precepts you will understand the relationship between zen and precepts precepts are just our way of life
so i think i'm saying the same thing over and over again here so maybe i'll skip on
here just can scroll down on good
so
i am about to launch and talking about the sixteen precepts when i'm wondering if before i do that if anyone has any comments or thoughts about their experience of of practicing zen and the relationship to precepts
the other stories that they want to share

so the sixteen precepts will move on
the sixteen precepts are part of every ceremony that we do
whether it's on
marriage or funerals a baby christening ceremony when we receive our lay rock asu's when receive a priest rock assist when every month we do the body sought the ceremony together it's all about this particular sir
ceremony of
preparing to read receive the precepts
and received in the precepts and then reaffirming our our bodies soft about
the very first part of that excuse me the very first part of this is atonement
we really don't talk about that are consider it part of the sixteen precepts but it really is like washing the cloth clean no washing the stains of the cloth and making a pure again before you make the ground
of of cup of receiving the precepts so the very first part of a of all of these ceremonies just as is to a tone to say all our ancient was to karma from beginning lists greed hate and delusion i
now clearly of al
it makes it personal because we all know and we've heard with some of the story scare we all know on our life even though we we try hard and we and ten well we fall short and even sometimes when we think we're doing good or we and ten good we can create harm
okamura roshi tells his story about working to start a new practice center in western massachusetts and there's these young monks from japan worked so hard to break the ground into ah build the sandal and ah he spent a particular time digging a well and why
morning he came out after a rain to work on the well he was so are happy that he was able to bring water to this new practice community in the bottom of a well was a dead raccoon that had fallen in overnight and drowned so even though we we intend ten good bad things
happen for our actions
so it becomes very personal we touch our humanity and the fact that were continually up
making inevitable mistakes and we start all over know i find this really encouraging i don't know if you do too it's like i'm never gonna get it right it's kind of like the bodhisattva vows
you know that you're never gonna be able to save all beings i'm i'm never not going to mess up and create karma that i wish i didn't even though i'm gonna try really hard not to and so i have a way of expressing that
i'm and are forgiving myself
for it and offering it up as an expression of my humanity we have an opportunity to offer an opposite expression of our humanity not because we're so unique but because it's really part of the human existence as part of the nature of our lives to
to ah to have a shortcomings or to mess or to step on an earthworm because you just can't pick up one more or on
whatever it is that seems a trivial or not so trivial
so here we find the beginning of our right view including the causes and conditions of our lives that lead to this moment in our volitional action at which creates karma was our volitional action it's are one pervading possession that is the fabric of the
the next moment of our lives but do we want to be
by availing our ancient karma we acknowledge the unknowable extent of those influences on us and of the impact of our influences on the next moment and we commit to the impossible task of seeing through seeing through it and acting free from
it's unwholesome influences so you know it's impossible that we commit to that action by availing our karma and there's something that's very heartening about about recognizing all of that and diving in a splash hartman said you just throw yourself into the house of buddha
a you just throw yourself into this impossible activity
acknowledges the three marks of existence and the first as impermanence that is everything changes including our karma based on our intention and effort our karma changes and as i remember hose on saying one time years ago and sender he says karma can change on a day
you feel like you've had a history of karma has gone a certain way for a long time it's hard to imagine yourself as any different a karma really can change on a dime
the second is of the unfathomable nurse of are interconnected life of being that there is no separate self
and the third is that sam sora and nirvana or both parts of the human condition and at any time we can experience one or the other of them
that's what i think it means to a tone to our ancient twisted karma to be open to that a reality to permit our lives to manifest in that reality to not hold on to any ideas of what they might be or not to give ourselves for permission to meet this moment
the very best way of the the most wholesome most aware way that we can and of the possibility to move freely within these truths that is nirvana and despite our humanity that is the mammalian or human condition that priests disposes of
us to stuff when this is the repents and we know of a recommitment to the boy thought the ceremony
like taking all beings constantly crossed we are constantly taking ourselves across the precepts are boat and ors to keep paddling we connect with all beings all unit humanity our desire to be free and by the ways in which we're a pound
so we've watched the cloth to clean with are pure intention and that we're ready to take refuge so this was who was as duggan's addition to the standard precepts he added the refuge in swoop
i think it was one of the early talks that hassan didn't talk about refuge so all i'll talk on them a little bit and then maybe i'll pause at that point to see if there are other comments or insights are other ways of looking at this that you all have had
so for dogan the for dogan i think the most important teaching was taking refuge taking refuge or having complete trust in buddha nature complete trust in our inherent wholeness or an inherent light
our inherent goodness is not quite the right word but i like the word wholeness
ah to take refuge in dharma which is the truth which is things as it is to see things as it is and to have is mainly scott said deep understanding that nothing is ever out of place the way it is that's taking refuge in dorm
a you can completely trust this moment as it arises for what it is
i'm taking refuge you saw and stronger as i'm so grateful to be practicing with all of you i'm so grateful that we walk this path together that we have the support of each other just help each other see each other and to support each other and realizing the way
as the buddha said to nanda dharma friendship is all of a holy life and song of practice together ms am
how does this line go there's one way of saying with the the refuges three times
oh where are
a recognition that a song a life is the best life possible there is no there is no better life than saga life is taking refuge in saga
so
title lori this a very wonderful book that i didn't know about maybe some of you have called on
invested think it's investigating reality by dido laurie does anyone know that ah i am so grateful to have run across it up a chest to add in recently but i just find his insights really deep and simple
so these are on his ways of talking about our refuges taking refuge is the essence of the trance transmission of bodhisattva precepts
taking refuge in buddha is the other name for intimacy with all things that we seem to be another name for turning towards the world
recognizing our on our inter being interdependence and it plows the field for experience science our actions as with and for everyone
taking refuge in dharma is the manifesto treasure or teachings of the truth of the inside of the three marks of existence and are interdependent nature taking refuge in sanga is the maintained treasure the way in which the dharma is maintained over time the dharma of friendship of all
of the holy life we live our lives and community and rely on a supportive community in order to live and to practice
so maybe i'll just stop here for a bit to see if there are any reactions or thoughts or experiences that you've had and for those of you who have the opportunity to do a boy
he sought for ceremony at which we have take the precepts and go through the bows all the bells that we do in the about availing of of of karma i'm wondering if anything's coming up for you and your experience of this portion of the ceremony
oh i see mary best hand please go ahead and unmute yourself
oh i remember the first time of i participated in a boat he sought to ceremony and i recognized the ceremony in which i received my rock sioux and i mean i hadn't known that there was anything more and it felt so good to be able to
to feel like i was starting over again but the feeling that i had that ah i could take a step forward once again and be renewed so to me i love doing the bodhi sought for ceremony because of that
thank you mary beth you're a wonderful tokyo for and also
anyone else any other experiences or reactions when it's like to do the body sought the ceremony or two
particularly the first part

zoo
hello
i don't want a hug the time here but that was a really important experience for me it's the way i learned the precepts
and i also decided i was supposed to do it without using my hands to get up and down so i got pretty aerobic and i kept huge i don't think that's what your slip to do but i i had that exercise part of it in their on
but i found it fascinating it was totally new in my life him on
it's it's how i knew the precepts
so i really appreciated when i took layered nation that i got to study knows a little more deeply and
gap that i could never actually keep the precepts foot that it was a and practice in an effort that was
continual
karen or nancy
hi
i really loved the body sought for ceremony and one thing about it that i love is the very beginning where we chat all my ancient tangled karma from be getting less read hate and delusion it's the word beginning list that i
appreciate so much because i feel that i'm not blamed for all my mistakes yes i've made mistakes and i'm going to start over
but
the big to just the word beginning with this has gone on on before i was born in my life ah
just that it's not all just me
thanks very much karen

new one else

all right let's move on to to of the three pure precepts
musa the the next part on
ah the next precepts that we take him they really lay the groundwork receptor good
they set the attitude i wasn't gonna do this for this particular presentation but oftentimes the way the clear minded her grave precepts the list of ten the list of the ten burqa precepts that we focus a lot on what we study them for leeward name
songs from the prohibitory stamp or him with a negative a standpoint the way in which you gonna see the little the limits you explore the limits of what's not good about the behavior or the the admonition that behavior you're supposed to not go by
and then we have the other side which is to a to i'll look at the way in which the opposite of that actually creates possibility so it's the affirming or clear clear mind inside and then the third side is considered the bodhisattva side
and that
is the the point of view of how do i act in the way how do i actually is this good and bad this avoiding good and do it avoiding bad and doing good how do i actually that an activity in any given situation in a way that doesn't know a strict right or wrong and isn't bound by
by particular walls but takes into account the moment the situation of what's happening in our response the three pre pre or precepts really set back ground for studying the rest of the of the bodhisattva precepts
so they're called the fear three pure precepts pure refers to untainted by self consciousness or self-centeredness as the definition sojourn used often and i found it's it's really helpful it also means supported by the boundless nature of things
so untainted untainted by
untainted by the arm
ordinary aspect of things but supported by the boundless nature of all things
describes the right view and right intention of precept practice
use pure precepts are originally from the dollar pata so they're the very very early teachings of the buddha's and though the foundations of all sixteen but bodhisattva precepts
once again pure because they encompass everything and they hold no point of view i think you know we usually start out by saying avoid all it's evil do all this good and so that sounds like a really strong point of view doesn't it is the right in the wrong but actually the pure means they encompass
everything they hold no point of view good and bad or relative to the moment
that's really hard not to have strict rules they're dependent on perspectives on culture on historical circumstances pure means no idea of good or bad it's not kneel dick it's steeply relational steeply relational as we can say
ng throughout the our study together here the key is that it's not self centered but beyond our ideas of what i think are you think is good or bad beyond what we know to be the best of the right way and as responsive for our implicit intention to avoid harm and to respond in a wholesome or solve
suntory way
that's that's what i'm
pure precept practice means pura means that we don't really know what the impact is but we act out of a wholesome intention with the wisest clearest and freest of ideas in response in that particular moment quanyan has a thousand eyes and on her thousand hands and
our thousand hands to respond but she's blind and seeing and she's deaf and hearing and she's insensate and touching to the cries of the world but she acts so she doesn't him that way it's not a personal seeing or touching are hearing it's beyond that
we might think of them i think are well thought of as a kind of vow not an admonition maybe i should have looked up ammunition before i said that but a kind of val like it's deeply my intention not to kill it's cheaply my intention to do good
should i know i'm gonna fall short but that's really what's in my heart
one way suzuki roshi translated a is with purity of heart i vowed to refrain from ignorance with purity of heart i vowed to reveal beginner's mind with purity of heart i vow to live and be live for the benefit
a of all beings
then that beautiful so normally their thought of avoid all evil do all that's good live and be lived for the benefit of all beings he says with purity of heart i vow to refrain from ignorance with purity of heart i fell to reveal beginner's mind
with purity of heart i vow to live and be lived for the benefit of all geeks
so did dive a little bit more deeply and these as the foundation of the
clear minded grave precepts avoiding evil
it's also called the precept of fulfilling laws and rules are as read says in his wonderful book being upright of upholding forms and ceremonies
the way of training the mind and ah particularly i think this is really threw out a buddhist teachings in the pali canon at least as i know them the first place he starts as really think about what the negative impact about this is really think about what the potential harm of what you're doing it
as let that a verse of influence of the ants consuming the scorpion be what causes you to wake up and really want to avoid that behavior so it's a way of training the mind to avoid harm to the practice of a himself that quintessential foundation of
buddhist practice
and maybe i don't need to say there are myriad ways to create harm a harsh word or look ignoring someone or avoiding contact it can be so subtle
occurs sometimes even when we're just trying hard hard to do good to study harm and to look at what motivates you inside is very very helpful practice it says gill was saying
speak truth to yourself don't be afraid to turn towards that which feels uncomfortable and and see what it's about for you
the suffering of others that we create might be the medicine that draws you to practice
it is james baldwin was set says it's a terrible and exalt inexorable law that one cannot divide the humanity of another without diminishing one's own i think that that's a very strong motivating practice firth for all of a
us i know it's a motivating practice for people who are waking up to trump
triumph transform our society scuse me i seem to be a little horse for talking so much
and the rebs one a rendering of a avoiding all evil and he calls it upholding forms and ceremonies forms or away of physically containing training our energy to harmonize with the environment and to others
for those of us here who haven't had a chance to be in the zendo together very much in practice the forms it's a really wonderful revelation but when you're on a one-year trying to do what everyone else is doing you really get a chance to see the workings of your own mind in everyone else's to
and to try and contain ourself to see the places in which way i don't want to or we can't or we have resistances is a wonderful way of of of seeing our resistances and other places where our sense of who we are wanna be comes up
another definition of the word of sila think this is right is restraint or discipline so that is the point specifically to this particular precept
ah and you might for a moment stop and think for those of you who've been practicing for a while or for those of you who've spent a little bit of time with the forms you might think about some of the ways in which some resistance came up when you and what it revealed about yourself and i thought
inc common ones have to do with bowing either bowing down or bowing to a buddha statue
wherever there's resistance there's something to learn about how to avoid evil i think
doing all it as good as the second pure precept is the precept of fulfilling wholesome dharmas ah light died a laurie says it's the ground of brown looseness that is we don't know it is good before we act we act in response to a situation without obstruction
occurred because something positive has been put emotion that was on something really important that the buddha was saying who says look at the impact mrs beneficial is something good come of this or something bad come up with something unbeknown
official that's how you know whether it's good that's how you know whether it's evil at least in part we can parse that a little more finally but probably not right now as dogan says all that is good is the good of the three nature's good bad and neutral although
good exists within the nature of good it does to mean the good has a it doesn't mean that it has a previous independent existence and is waiting to be accomplished that is glued accomplished in the moment out of the circumstances and it appears as such
because of that oh because of that interaction
when it when good as done it contains a good and when done in new tracks more good faster than magnet tracks iron it's power stronger than the strongest wind all the accumulated karma throughout the earth mountains rivers and worlds and lands can't obstruct the power of good will that
beautiful that something of tokens i hadn't run across before but that's just so encouraging and i think it's interesting to observe maybe you've all had that experience in life of having especially when something has happened that you have participated in that you've been a of
part of the catalyst for and something clearly shifts or happens that is wholesome that is helpful and you don't even necessarily recognize that it's like something that you were a part of but you you see the energy and you see how it affects other people
you see how it has momentum throughout your day that's the kind of good that is being talked about here
i see one hand and i'm just gonna say i'm gonna go through this section and then i'll stop for for questions so i see you and i want to hear from you in a few minutes
within be live for the benefit of all beings or actualizing good for others is the three of is the third precept is the precept of fulfilling all beings transcending profane and holy taking self and others across its are fundamental bodhisattva vow
dawkins fundamental insight here was that practice is enlightenment that we when we act in these ways when we act out of a or zazen that is enlightened activity
dogan says there's no morality without enlightenment that there's ah there's no enlightenment without morality that the to are completely dependent upon each other they both function a said
dogan describe the ways in which a body sought the acts in one of his festivals she show both a hassan has written a book on this and has given many many lectures around the body sauces for methods of guidance but just to touch on them briefly
lee we actualized are bodhisattva vow by are giving generosity are kind speech are helpful acts
ah an identity action identity action is that activity ah that arises as of self and other are one in there is no self or other
so on maybe i'll stop there and see if there any questions still and ah
before we go on to the grave precepts
jeff please ask your question please make a focus question and a look for my focus comment look forward to hearing it
a focused comment what it was a dept whatever it is focused around focused so there's been something i've been itching to get out while you've been talking
and i didn't i didn't quite know how to capture it is kind of rooted in in my experience when i was sorting my rocker suit
and there was something that happened for me as i was beginning to have my first experiences of of of emptiness of stillness and motion of the quiet space where i see something out of the corner of mine alone that's both me and not me
in in the way that manifested for me in the precepts is there there's a reflexive relationship here really you have lots of definitions of what you're talking about in him him and lots of of of descriptors about what the precepts mean and what they are in and but one of the things that i took out of isn't and is probably not so career
but it's it's that am
i can't put the precepts own has a list you were just talking about committing kindnesses and good is and doing all these wonderful things that are accelerants for the journey goodness in the world i don't commit those things as if i were going to look for some woman to help across the street or some
good thing to do that's not how it works for me
i think you have it i think that's what what i've been trying to point at which your peers were i'm going with this spout which reflects of relationship is a breeze a result of practice it's not that i i have i can you tell you what the precepts are but here's what i know about them when i sipped they inhabit me
when i listened to that when i hear them as they inhabit me and commit them it reflects his back into them
and so there's a process of being in practice boat with myself and with other people that causes the precepts to come alive
dirt they're not dusty and they're not dry and there's no bishops to them it is the warm living a lot of practice free i can no more i mean old all the wrong things like down to this a long list
there's still here
right thank you thank you jeff i think you've summarized really nicely when i was trying to point out but you you've said it really really nicely thank you know sure thanks

anyone else have any responses or
experiences especially people who haven't spoken yet
people who are coming across as anyone here coming across the precepts for the first time tonight are relatively new houses landing on you how how are you relating to it in terms of other things that you've you've done my first exposure to information like this was one
was a protestant confirmation that make all of us have had exposure to a way of trying to orient to morality how's it for people who are are not so familiar with this
all your comments are welcome was this like how do you relate to it

nathan make you
progression
i have to say i was doing the reading home
and i found myself whistling a little bit hung that nothing in anything but i read trip up to this point bed the engaged my reflexive fall rebellion against being told what to do and have to say that there's you know on
groupon
i am aware that to damage my body or my consciousness with these poisons is to betray my ancestors my parents but society and future generations but what that's a pretty heavy
kinda goes in the guilt direction that like i got a lotta was occurred and i just reflexively and really don't respond to her well and so on
open that hasn't been my experience of any dream that i read within our tradition home but i did have that response to wrong to come across that immersive i was reflects on it and it doesn't need to be sure it doesn't that's not what i'm getting from new
i'm describing this home but that was my initial reaction and during the meeting
and just oh where did you come across that before i make a comment or where did you come across them oh sorry that you suggested that we read chapter thirteen re action from the heart of the buddhist teaching her right yeah i am
that i think that's that's one side of the motivation that's the that's the sign that says let me get in touch with as a fundamental motivating force that i can create harm that's helpful to some people it was often the buddhist first instruction to people
but i think the mahayana balances out
that's one side the reason that there are three pure precepts is that there's also the doing good and the recognition that that energy generates it's own positive karma and then ah set in the in the context of you don't always know the impact of what you do and you can't or
always call it and any call it something and spa's specific before that happens but yeah i understand i understand the aversion to the idea of of being bad or being ah i'm having some idea of being almost a
on a on redeemable in some way which is what that what that smacks of i don't think that's what the intention is it's just to say tackle because the basic buddhist teaching is that we are buddha that that is what we're made of
but what happens is that we we forget or we get caught up in our own stuff and so we don't see clearly so it's kind of a wave shaking us a little been sitting now wait a minute wait a minute take a look at what you're doing here that's not really what you need of
peter you had your hand up did you mean to keep it up
and if you are mute i'd love to hear what you have to say
okay can you hear me now yes thank you so the previews for good in this talk about
the impossibility for filling browser
he referred to this several times actually indians
ah
yeah is a of this this aspect of our practice sometimes i ah
i wonder what purposes
which was to do that
it seems to me those kind of liberation
liberation from measuring judging
and that's on there then also europe kinds of not that time myself up and do know ah gisele those chances for finding activities
he's really inconsistent with
the device is will be explain them so to kind a wonderful detail get it is sir
can we have been doing southern the urges really hard wearing way on their capacities from speaking
well i'm leaving know that actually
the little moments maybe not yeah i'm living out he knows ah he
he thought judge what's right and wrong
is on
this is very limited
hey
seems like the best we can do is just punch in the leave the rest
i think that you've just very very nicely appointed again why dogan stop the the triple trove that taking refuge was the was the most important thing that that was a that was such an important addition to him is that when you take
take refuge you're taking refuge in your enlightened nature we're taking refuge in everyone's and like nature and you in a way you can trust in that so when you mess up when you fall short when you can't fulfill your vow you can still trust in that that
i'll bet inherent am
that that inherent quality and probably even wrong to call it a quality but that inherent essence of of what we're made of so not thank you and at way it's very freeing way it's very it's very freeing heather and then hassan
well this is such a great topic and i and love the precepts and i i love them for a lot of different reasons but in at a certain level they just make my life easier bitch
cause eighty to ninety percent of the time it's just like yes no yes no do that don't do that and i just it saves me time and energy and debate like a litmus test straight
and then there's like say ten to twenty percent of the time where there's this great ambiguity about
which bucket it falls into an earlier you said something about look at the effect of your actions and the area that is so rich and interesting and challenging for me is that
the effect of my actions to one person can land so differently than another person and i have really live examples of saying one thing to one person where they go gay and saying the same thing to another person and they're like you're a horrible person so it's just it's an ongoing riddle for me
that's right they're very relational they're very situational and we're constantly learning from how we practice with them
thank you rosanne and then neither helen or preston most of ever next
i come back out who is speaking with ross is afternoon and was reminded of suzuki roshi his expression we live in a yoga practice with mahayana mind
and one the things that were doing in this practice period which is very difficult is is actually
ah moving between those perspectives
so hum some of the the teachings that that we're looking at in the context of early buddhism
or to me flat out dualistic they say right and wrong wholesome wholesome
ah whereas on
the my a perspective is
not so clear even though those classifications still exist so ah the early version of the what we my on as a pure precepts is void we will do all good purify the mind
the my introversion is void we will do all good save the many beings so if he could be it just as what what he was just seen and and vision was affirming is that how pointing towards relationality
is the essence of my young mind
and recognizing that com even what even where your intention is wholesome in this moment the effect of it actually can be otherwise and so then you if you're a buddha you actually have to be able
to correct your course
and we're constantly being asked to examine ourselves and correct your coordinated that's the mission of of the precepts has your as you're laying them out ah not as not
not as commandments
not as the dharma as law good as ways to point us towards what connects people
but it's but it's true that you know you all the things that than we've been talking about ah
i can and i understand that the
the the thrust of the original teachings can appear
a dualistic thank you hose seven thousand really important point thank you
ah helen or preston
tangier can just say something about the role of sanga
of a friendship in helping us to follow precepts
oh my goodness
i'll tell you a little story maybe that's it
hopeless isn't talking about myself too much i'll tell you a little story
i can't tell you how important i think it is berkeley said center has such a such a me mature community and i know for myself i recognize that the stability of people's practice and their willingness to be honest with themselves and each other was essential to my growing up and my under
outstanding standing the working of my mind i could see it by how people related to each other i can see it by of the kinds of spoken and unspoken feedback i got i felt like i was held accountable and away and i just i felt feel i still feel very inspired by each of you and your
so you don't like company be careful who you hang out with because that sweeter app to become i think there's a good component of that that goes on in our practice together
let's hide answer that but i bet there are a lot of other responses to that maybe that's a wonderful way to kind of spend our last minutes was hearing how other people would answer preston's question what's the value of sanga practice for you

or did i cover it

where are there any other questions we have only a couple more minutes so i'm
i haven't talked about the the pure minded precepts but indirectly but i think i've given you the background for studying them last part of this time was gonna be to break out into small groups and talk about grappling with them from the perspective of the three pure precepts any one of them but i will
we want to encourage you to do that on your own hannah did you have something you were gonna say
i mean her for me the sound is so important that precepts
are so important to me and i look at you all and i know they're important to you to and that knowing is very very helpful and important

that's what i see i see that some heiko has his hand up but i wanna give a moment to see if anyone else would let who hasn't spoken would like to speak

okay he got to thank you
i just wanted to say how much should the momentum a saga is what i ride in keeping my effort going
everything else everybody else said applies but i really it really gives me strength to see people practiced and to know that that as i wave robbed the train the momentum is still going and i can get back down and that's how i practice today with bcc and
am so grateful
thank you
well
we're just about out of time song
i think will end here and know that will be continued to practice precepts forever and they'll be lots more conversations to be had
thank you all for attending thank you all for your input thank you for the opportunity to share the teachings together on the opportunity to think about precepts a new in the context of this