Good morning and welcome. We're in the middle of a practice period and we've been looking at some of the major bodhisattva figures and their practices. I want to talk this morning about how to use these bodhisattva stories in practice. And I want to talk about this in terms of the balance of wisdom and compassion. And since we're, some of us sitting all day today, sitting in zazen all day, I want to talk particularly how this applies to zazen and meditation practice. So studying, we've been studying six major bodhisattva figures, but the point of this is not to learn some esoteric knowledge about Buddhist teaching, but to see aspects of

[01:23]

how we can study ourselves, how we can study our own reality in our own practice and deepen that. So, Each of these different bodhisattva figures is worthy of more detailed studies. So for the people who are formally doing the practice period, I've asked you to focus on one or more of these figures and look at them more deeply. And that's a way of looking, again, at aspects of our own practice, because they each have their own Combinations of bodhisattva practices, things like wisdom and generosity and patience and skillful means, they each have their own strategies and approaches.

[02:26]

But I want to look at them today in combination. So, and again, in terms of kind of balancing of these two sides of practice, wisdom and compassion. And, and I want to talk about, so I'm going to focus on four of them today. And, and they each have some aspect of zazen that they represent. And I want to start with wisdom, and that's the starting point, actually, for bodhisattva practice. So the bodhisattva of wisdom or insight is Manjushri, who's sitting in front of the Buddha on the altar. often holds a sword, sits on a lion. He's often in the center of meditation halls and Zen, and is carrying a teaching staff like this.

[03:28]

But the point of Manjushri is to teach insight. Another word for wisdom, but it's looking into the self, looking into the self and looking into emptiness, or sameness, looking into the way that our ideas about ourself and our ideas about the world are empty, which is to say, do not have ultimate reality. They're empty of some fixed substantial self. So how we function as human beings includes that we have ways we identify ourselves, ways we identify aspects of the world. But when we look closely, we see that these do not have ultimate

[04:36]

truth to them. So this practice of insight, this practice of wisdom, is to look at what's really important right now. It's not about some body of knowledge. It's attention. So in terms of meditation, it's the practice of paying attention to what's important right now. How do we, insight implies looking into oneself. So we sit upright facing the wall, facing ourselves, and whatever comes up is What's here? How do we look into this? So this is the aspect of meditation that Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, is expressing. And part of it is cutting through.

[05:41]

So carrying the sword is to cut through all of our delusions, all of our ways of seeing things that are that we hold on to as cherished ideas. So seeing reality or bare attention, what is it? What is this? We can't exactly say. I was teaching in Indiana last week with Shohaku Okamura and this Shobo Genzo, week-long teaching, and one of the parts of that is a story which I'll tell briefly about the sixth ancestor. A student came to him and he asked where he was from, and he said he came from the National Teacher, and the sixth ancestor said, what is this that thus comes? And that's a kind of wisdom teaching, an insight teaching.

[06:45]

What is this that thus comes? Funny way of asking, who are you? But really, it's Manjushri's way of saying, what is this? So you can ask that as you look at the wall. as thoughts and feelings arise. What is this that thus comes? What is this that comes in suchness, as such? What is arising now? This is what Manjushri is doing. He's looking at what is it? So paying attention to our experience, paying attention to all our ideas about self and others, subject and object, cutting through that. cutting through our sense of separation. So the student in that story didn't know what to say. And in a lot of these Zen stories, it looks like they're talking back and forth very quickly. In that story, we know that it says that the student went and sat in the Zendo like an iron pole for eight years. And then he came back to the sixth ancestor and said, now I can respond to your question when I first came after eight years.

[07:54]

He said, you asked me, what is this that thus comes? Now I can tell you, anything I say misses the mark. Took him eight years to say that. But really, this is important. Anything you say misses. And Dogen's commenting on it, talks about making mistakes, that we can't pin it down. We can't pin down our experience. Any formulation misses. This is why Vimalakirti, who I'm not going to focus on today, but just remain silent when asked about non-duality. So all of our ideas about reality are Just that, just ideas. So cutting through, cutting through our ideas of self, cutting through our ideas of separation of self and others. I'll just mention, the story goes on, the sixth ancestor said, well, is there practice realization or not?

[08:59]

And the student said, it's not that there's no practice realization, just that it can't be defiled. And the sixth ancestor said, Just this non-defilement is what all the Buddhist ancestors in all the times take care of. So practice realization, this practice realization that is happening here on everybody's seat today is can't be defiled. You might think that your practice is so bad that you're damaging practice realization. You can't do it. And yet, our practice is to look and see, what's the most important thing? What's happening here? What is this that thus comes? So this is the practice of wisdom, paying attention. This is a central part. This is the starting point for Bodhisattva practice.

[10:01]

this insight, this practice of wisdom. The other side, the side of compassion, is represented by several of the different bodhisattvas. So I'm going to talk a little bit about a few of them. So part of what I'm doing today is talking about how these different bodhisattvas that I've asked you to focus on one of or two of, how they work together. part of the point of these bodhisattvas is they do work together. There's lots of overlap. But it's also good to focus on just one and really learn about them in detail. And there's a whole body of ways of studying them in terms of their iconography, in terms of their, the sutras and schools they're associated with, in terms of the folklore about them, in terms of people who exemplify them, in terms of the different practices they do. But the other side of wisdom traditionally in the Buddha way is compassion.

[11:06]

But we start with looking into, what is this? What is this reality? And you can't pin it down. But still, we We focus on this. We look at this. And then compassion, I'm going to talk about three different aspects of compassion through the Bodhisattva of Compassion, who's called the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Kanon, Kanzeon, Avalokitesvara, Samantabhadra, who represents a different aspect of caring for people in the world, and then Jizo. So these other Bodhisattva figures represent different aspects of the other side of the Bodhisattva work, which is caring for suffering beings. So there's the side of wisdom, of looking into emptiness or sameness or what's real or what's important.

[12:10]

And really, you know, this is in some ways what our Zazen practice is about. But each of these other bodhisattvas who are caring for beings, you know, we can say that they're part, that that's what happens when we go out from the the meditation hall, but they also have aspects of meditation they represent. So talking today, as we're sitting all day in Zazen, you can explore all of these aspects. So the first one is in Sanskrit, Avalokiteshvara Kanon or Kanzeon, so we're gonna chant the Kanzeon at the end of the day. His name or her name means to listen to the sounds or the cries of the world. So the practice of listening, in many different ways, is what this Bodhisattva is about, or a good part of what this Bodhisattva is about. And this is also part of our zazen, just to listen.

[13:11]

So we sit with our eyes open in this tradition, which means also that we sit with our ears open. So we sit with our eyes open to listen closely to what the wall is saying in front of us. with our ears open to listen to the world, but also to listen to ourselves. As Dogen, the founder of our tradition in the 1200s in Japan says, to study the way is to study yourself. So part of doing zazen, part of sitting here for a period or sitting here all day is to listen to yourself, to get to know And all of you have some experience of this already, but more and more deeply, what is it that is important to you? What is it? Who is this? What is this? What is this that's sitting on your seat today? And to really listen to that, with kindness, gently, without judgment,

[14:22]

Or if you are making judgments about yourself in various ways, positive or negative, don't make judgments about that. But know what you're up to. To listen to your own patterns of greed and anger and confusion. To listen to your own wishes for kindness. To really listen. to yourself and to the world. But that's not all that the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Kanzeon, Guanyin in Chinese, implies in terms of meditation. So there's also the practice that is attributed to this Bodhisattva of really just listening to sound, ambient sound. the people walking in the apartment upstairs, the occasional sounds we hear in the streets, the sounds from the kitchen occasionally, the sounds of people, other people in the meditation hall, shifting maybe, even while they're trying to sit still.

[15:42]

So actually listening to sound is another practice that is considered a practice of this bodhisattva and is a helpful practice. So that's a practice you can do to help settle into just sitting, into being present and paying attention. And of course, as a bodhisattva of compassion, Kanzeon of Alakiteshvara doesn't just listen passively. There's also responding. So this bodhisattva is associated with the practice of skillful means, and that is a practice. That's not a practice where we know what to do exactly, but it's a practice of trying to respond when we see some difficulty in ourselves or in the world to try and be helpful. to use whatever we have at hand to try and respond and help out, to try and be harmonious with ourselves and with others and with any situation, to try and help where there's harm.

[17:07]

So again, I'm suggesting that these practices of compassion are internal as well as external. There are ways of working with situations in the world, but also as you sit, studying the self, how can you be kind to yourself? How can you respond skillfully to some difficulty you feel in yourself? So listen. Here, your own frustration or anger or confusion or grasping or whatever it is. How can you respond with kindness? So that's the Bodhisattva, officially the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Kanon. There's an image of him on the back above my court, an image here with eleven heads. This Bodhisattva has many different forms because there are many different forms of beings.

[18:09]

So, this Bodhisattva focuses on differences rather than sameness, how to see the different beings and all their different needs. So that's one of the Bodhisattvas who represents outreach, compassion, kindness. Another one, and you can see there's not a lot of overlap, but different aspects of this side of compassion. Another one is Samantabhadra. who I'm going to talk about in more detail tomorrow evening. But Samantabhadra is a bodhisattva who rides an elephant, as opposed to Manjushri riding a lion. Samantabhadra is about particular vows and dedication, so a very devoted bodhisattva. His vows include

[19:17]

asking Buddhists to teach, making offerings to Buddha, but also confessing his own mistakes, also studying the Dharma to share it with others, and benefiting all beings. So Samantabhadra's, and we say in our meal chanters, the shining practice Bodhisattva. Samantabhadra's the act of Bodhisattva. He's also the Bodhisattva connected with teaching of interconnectedness, So the Bodhisattva who sees the way everything is connected, sees the environment, who sees the beauty of the world and the connectedness of the world, and then tries to protect that. So I think of this Bodhisattva, it's not the way he's usually presented in Asia so much, but I think for us, it's very clear that this is kind of the activist Bodhisattva, taking on situations of difficulty in the world and acting deliberately.

[20:27]

I think of riding the elephant as riding very slowly, although I'm told that sometimes elephants can move very quickly too. But anyway, a very kind of deliberate pace, a very focused response to systemic problems in the world. So this is another aspect of a balance to the practice of wisdom, how to take on problems in the world, whether this is problems of societal problems or, you know, if there's some problem that's happening in your family or in your workplace or how do you patiently, slowly look at this with dedication, with an appreciation for how systems are interconnected, how everybody is related in the situation. So this is, again, a way of talking about not being judgmental, to realize that the whole situation is connected.

[21:35]

And so how do we pull at the places where we can make changes. So there's a kind of subtle appreciation for the way things are connected and then how to act in ways that might change the balance there. All of this is about balance, balancing insight and wisdom with action and compassion and kindness. And then within Samantabhadra, balancing different needs. So another bodhisattva who is about sort of the compassion side is Jizo bodhisattva we've talked about. Jizo is the bodhisattva who, goes into all the realms, the six realms that are talked about in Buddhist cosmology, human realm, heavenly realm, titan realm, animal realm, hungry ghost, and even hell realms, particularly into hell realms.

[22:46]

Jizo, whose name means the earth womb bodhisattva, Dzong in Chinese, witnesses to beings having a hard time. I'm using the Japanese name because it's very popular bodhisattva in Japan and in China. just to witness as a practice, as a practice of kindness, to see beings in trouble. So this is the Bodhisattva who in some ways stands outside of the usual realms of the world, but goes into all of them and watches and is there as a witness. helper in all of them. So this is the Bodhisattva who would be represented by hospice or chaplain work, by people who go into prisons and help people meditate. A kind of person, being who protects beings in all realms.

[23:51]

So this is yet another kind of compassionate kindness, this witnessing practice. And there's a lot more to say about Jizo. Jizo protects particularly children and women and beings, all kinds of beings who are threatened or in difficulty, and yet is not really part of any particular realm itself. So, As a, in terms of Zazen, so I didn't really say for Samantabhadra, the aspect of Zazen that's looking at how things are interconnected, how systems are interconnected, and the beauty of that. There's a kind of aesthetic quality to Samantabhadra, to seeing how things are,

[24:59]

the aesthetics of things, beauty of things. For Jizo, it's this witnessing practice to actually really be willing to look at the beings in difficult places, within oneself as well as in the world. So all of these imply a kind of aspect of that might come up for you in the middle of just sitting for a day, or that you could actually intentionally invoke. But there's this balance, there's this side that Manjushri represents strongly of, what's important? What is this that thus comes? And then there's these sides of helping out. And, you know, just to say briefly, Maitreya is the Bodhisattva who will be the next future Buddha, who represents loving-kindness, and will chant the Mettā Sutta at the end of the day.

[26:07]

So loving-kindness is another mode of helping out. Vimalakirti is very complicated, in some ways represents the wisdom side, seeing, the magical, inconceivable side of this great insider wisdom. So he does that in various startling ways, wakes people up. So that's just a little kind of survey of how these different bodhisattvas can work together. And again, trying to talk about this in terms of how they may appear, maybe employed even, in our practice of just sitting and sitting together for a day. And then finding the balance, the way that they work together.

[27:09]

And that balance shifts and changes in terms of the different aspects of compassion or reaching out, and also how that balances with coming back again and again to seeing clearly, seeing what's important. So this works in our sitting and also in our everyday activity as we extend Zazen mind into how we take care of our lives, in our everyday lives. So I wanted to introduce that way of thinking about these Bodhisattva figures and open this up now for comments, questions, responses. please feel free to ask me questions, responses. Isha.

[28:26]

Thank you, Taigan. I have been thinking about these Bodhisattvas from the perspective of both giving and receiving, that for each of them, they bring a quality to the world, but at the same time, or they bring a quality to us, but at the same time, I wonder if they need us to give or participate in order to enact that quality. And the one that comes to mind most clearly for me is eleven-headed Avalokiteshvara. because I was reading about how this representation of Avalokiteshvara has sort of three sets of three heads. So you get nine and then there are two on the top, but the front three faces are smiling and look peaceful and compassionate.

[29:29]

I read that one side is really sort of looking very wrathful, which is intended to sort of, wake up beings that need, you know, sort of a little bit of a shaking. But then the other side is depicted as sort of grimacing. And that side has really puzzled me because I've been wondering what that is. And I wonder if it maybe kind of represents the ways in which sometimes we can wake up to compassion when we realize that we've actually stepped on someone's toe or have hurt someone in some way. And so I felt like it was like a giving compassion and also awakening it in us, in ourselves. I don't know if that made a lot of sense. Good, yeah.

[30:29]

Comments on that, anyone? Questions? Yes, Michael. It's a little bit of a stretch, but because it was already on my mind, I was thinking that, you know, often, maybe it's just an explanation, but often when I hear a sound, myself in, or that I'm creating myself, or feeling that way, or some sequence of things, rather than just, like, actually listening. And then, to some extent, you're losing the concept of discernment of where the sound actually came from. You're just trying to hear the sound, raw as it is. As opposed to, you know, there's some people in our Sangha who came to Zen through John Cage and one could hear just sound as sound and without even imagining what is causing the sound anyway.

[32:29]

In terms of the grimacing, one story about those bodhisattvas is that they're kind of fierce and protecting. But I like the grimacing side too. Maybe we need to be kind to our own grimaces. I don't know. I think we have this material of these images and these stories, and each culture and each time has played with them in its own way, so it's all here for us to work with. Yes, Michael, again. In all the challenges, there is still some teaching in this context. It's easier to practice that instead of, like you said, something that has some difficulty, don't compound that with difficulty and reaction to the difficulty.

[33:50]

So in the same way, you might have some premise, Yeah, how could you enjoy the grimaces Other comments or yes, don't yes, you can ask a question. I Well, that's a huge question.

[34:54]

So I don't know. Dogen has a whole essay called Being Time, and he says that He doesn't say, does he say that time is outside human control? He says that time is our being. So time is not some external, is not some external real container. Time is not some objective event. Time is flexible and moves in various directions. He says things like that. And I think physics says something similar, or some physics. I don't know. I don't know anything about physics, but I pretend to sometimes. But when does Zazen start and when does it end is a good question. So sometimes there's three bells to begin zazen.

[35:57]

Sometimes there's one or two bells to end it. And the time in between that can be very long or very short, depending on your being or experience. But another way of seeing it is that Zazen began with the Big Bang, or maybe it began before that, or maybe it began with the Buddha. But which Buddha? The Buddhas before Buddha? I don't know. So maybe Zazen is time. Maybe zazen, so there's zazen that we do formally in the meditation hall, but then people tell me sometimes that zazen is happening while they're at work in some ways. Now, maybe you shouldn't do zazen when you're operating heavy machinery. So that question is something that you should study.

[37:02]

you know, for the rest of your time. Thank you. So we're almost out of time, but if anybody has another question, or especially one like that, or, you know, one that's more whatever, anyway, any questions or comments further? Because I've learned the hard way, with a table saw, that if I'm not really as attentive as I am as a medical, I'm cutting with a table saw, I might cut off my finger. If I'm just, if I'm thinking about something, I'll cut it off. There is a famous koan about a Zen master cutting off somebody else's finger. But I don't know if there was zazen there or not. There was blood.

[38:05]

So yeah, I take it back. You should practice zazen, especially when you're operating heavy machinery. Brian says so, and he knows more about this than I do. Any other comments? So please continue, those of you who were here for the whole day, please continue enjoying your zazen and you might try on any of the modes of meditation that I've suggested. And those of you who are only here for the talk, too, when you go out into the world, into Chicago, you might try on any of those modes of meditation, seeing how everything is interconnected, or listening to sound, or seeing what's really important right now, or so forth, as you're just sitting or walking or whatever.

[39:12]

So thank you all very much.

[39:16]

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