Good evening, everyone. I would like to talk this evening about bodhisattva stories. And I'm going to start with the ending of Rebecca Solnit's talk yesterday. So some of you were here, some of you weren't. She spoke about, well, I think it was called The Same Sky or The Spreading Sky Climate. connects and demands from us, something like that. So she talked about how, well, she talked about climate chaos, climate damage, and how dire that is and how, you know, it's the greatest threat, really, to human beings. maybe in our history anyway, we have a chance, though, to respond and to make things more or less dire coming up. She talked about the sky as an image that connects us.

[01:03]

We all are under the same sky. We all have faced the same situation. So she talked about interconnectedness. She also talked about change. She was speaking from kind of Buddhist context and she also talked about how we have enough, which is a basic kind of Buddhist idea of Buddha nature, that we already have what we need. But actually, in this context, we don't. We didn't 15 years ago. The changes in technology and availability in terms of sustainable energy, wind and solar energy really means that we have enough technologically. We just need the political will. But the last part of what I wanted to talk about tonight is the last part of her story where she talks about bodhisattva attitude.

[02:06]

So I'm going to read from her notes. Particularly in the early days of discussing climate change, people thought that personal virtue was going to be enough. Personal virtue is something Buddhists are seduced by. For climate, this meant framing the situation as, for example, oh, I have compact fluorescent light bulbs, or I'm a vegan, or I drive a Prius, or I don't even own a car, but ride a bike. And thus, I'm not the problem. I am pure. I am standing aside from doing bad things. So that attitude is kind of like saying, I watched someone get beat up, but since I wasn't actually pummeling him myself with my own fists, I felt awesome about me. Or the house was on fire, but I didn't actually light it. What's that song? We didn't light the fire. Anyway, I evacuated myself alone, so I'm clean and unburned. So she said, this is bystander behavior at its worst, and it assesses each of us as nothing more than our habits of consumption rather than our roles as citizens of rich and powerful countries, as powerful people with a responsibility to intervene in the systems of destruction and transformation, as people whose power comes together and not alone.

[03:19]

So she talked about the movements today around climate and around basically keeping fossil fuel in the ground and changing our system of energy, which is what's going to be required rather than just personal responses. She read a quote from Kwame Anthony Appiah, moral narcissism is about being more concerned with the cleanliness of your hands than with how your conduct shapes the lives around you. And then she read a little excerpt from My Faces of Compassion, a book on bodhisattvas. Checking out of the realms of suffering into personal enlightenment is seen as the fundamental violation of the spirit of bodhisattva ethics. The intention to save all beings is the primary moral imperative, as in our vow, our huge vow to free all beings. So she said, the bodhisattva vow is not beings or numberless. I vow to save me and excuse me. The world will not be saved by individual acts of virtue.

[04:24]

They do not add up to enough. It will be saved by collective acts to change the fundamental conditions of how we live on Earth. Only collective acts will bring about the systemic change we need in order to ensure a future, a future for the immense variety of life on Earth, the numberless beings. And she quoted Bill McKibben of 350.org, who said wearily as they sat together on a floor at an activist center in Paris during the climate summit in December, when a young woman came up to Bill McKibben and asked him what was the best thing an individual could do about the climate, he said, stop being an individual. So that's by way of introduction to talking about the Bodhisattva stories we're going to be talking about. And we've already started talking about in the practice commitment period that's starting Sunday.

[05:26]

So some of you are participating in that, some aren't. But whether or not you're formally participating, we're going to be talking in the next couple of months about Bodhisattva practice, how we in some sense, how we stop being individuals but respond collectively. So we're going to be, there's many ways to talk about bodhisattva practice. We have the bodhisattva precepts, we have the paramitas or transcendent practices. But the Lotus Sutra is a very strange scripture that is arguably the most important in East Asia. It was very important to Dogen, the founder of Japan, of Soto Zen. So, we're gonna be talking about four different stories. And the point of these stories is not to, you know, memorize some doctrine about a particular scripture, but to use them as stories.

[06:31]

As stories about, well, what does it mean to do bodhisattva practice. So I'm going to be talking about these Sunday too as introduction but and those of you who aren't sitting all day next Sunday are welcome to come to the dharma talk in the morning but these stories all have to do with how do we act responsibly and collectively and in the context of what Rebecca spoke about this weekend, responding to this serious threat of climate chaos and how do we do that collectively. So part of that is I'll be announcing collective actions happening in the Chicago area during the next couple of months. and how we can contribute to that. But I want to say a little bit about these four stories that we're focusing on. So they're from four different chapters in the Lotus Sutras.

[07:32]

The first is from chapter two about skillful means. Skillful means is about how do we respond effectively? How do we respond helpfully? How do we help instead of harm? in whatever situation we're in. There are many different things in this story about skillful means, and in the other section of the sutra after this, there are numbers of different stories or parables about how skillful means works. In some ways, Skillful Means is about this interaction of the individual and the collective.

[08:33]

It's about recognizing that we each have our particular way of responding in any situation. And part of responding is that there's not one way to respond. So it's not that we're individuals, but we each have a particular context for how to respond collectively. So one of the things that this chapter talks about is the one Buddha vehicle. And this is a way of seeing how we can act collectively. That there are many different responses, perhaps. There are many different ways in which we see the world and our life, but each of them can be part of what is called the one great cause.

[09:37]

So in this chapter, the Buddha says, there's one great cause alone for Buddhas, or world-honored ones, appearing in the world. They appear in the world because they want living beings to open a way to the Buddha's insight. to awaken. They appear in the world because they want to demonstrate the Buddha's insight to living beings. They appear in the world because they want living beings to apprehend things with the Buddha's insight. They appear in the world because they want living beings to enter into the way of the Buddha's insight. This alone is the one great cause for which Buddhas appear in the world. So another way to say that is that Buddhas appear to help relieve suffering. And in Buddhism, from the point of view of the Buddha's insight, the way to relieve suffering is to enter into this way of seeing, enter into this way of awakening. And Buddhas demonstrate this and help beings to see this.

[10:49]

This is called the One Buddha Vehicle because all the different ways of approaching this are part of it. So, again, it's, you know, Bill McKibben says stop being an individual, but part of that is to recognize our particular place, our particular context, each one of us, and, you know, each part of the situation of the problems of the world and the problems of our lives. And to go beyond thinking only about our personal problems, although they're connected to the problems of all beings, but again, beings are numberless, we vow to free them. How do we see our own life, our own context, our own problems in the context of something that goes beyond the individual and yet honors that we each have our particular way of seeing it?

[11:58]

So, this teaching of skillful means is subtle and difficult and times has been controversial. How do we acknowledge the variety of beings? How do we respond helpfully? So, in terms of climate chaos and what Rebecca was talking about, she talked about how in The climate conference in Paris, there was basically a discussion between the rich countries, the wealthy countries, and the poor countries. And the poor countries were saying, please don't kill us, please help save our lives, because climate is killing the poorest. And the countries that have the least, and the countries in the tropics, and the countries in the Arctic zones where the damage of climate is happening most quickly, although it's happening everywhere. Whereas the people in the wealthy countries, and that's us, relatively, all of us, we're saying, well, we don't want to give up our wealth.

[13:10]

So that was, you know, so, okay, how do we recognize the different positions that people are in, but also act collectively. This is the challenge of skillful means, and there are many stories in the Lotus Sutra about how to respond helpfully. But just the idea of seeing the range of beings, and then how do we act collectively? So that's one of the four stories we're going to be talking about, and there's much more to say about all of them. The second story is from chapter 11. This is a strange story. This is a story about the treasure stupa, the stupa, the relic of an ancient Buddha from a distant world system in space and time, the Buddha Abundant Treasures. This story in chapter 11 says that whenever the Lotus Sutra is being preached, it says so right in the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha, abundant treasure, shows up in his stupa and floats, and so he shows up above Vulture Peak where Shakyamuni is giving one of his last teachings, and it floats in the middle of the sky, and the Buddha explains to all of the assembly that

[14:37]

This is the distant Buddha, abundant treasures from a different world system, and he always comes whenever the Lotus Sutra is being preached. And if you want to see him, maybe we can get him, maybe he will open his stupa, the doors of the stupa and you can see him. Just to make a longer story short, the stupor doors open and you see this mummified body of Buddha, abundant treasures. What does he say, this mummy? I think he says something. I think he just tells Shakyamuni that, you know, he's doing a good job, something like that. Yes, he says, well done, well done, Shakyamuni Buddha. You have preached this Dharma Flower Sutra gladly, which is what I have come to this place to hear. So this, so this is a, is a kind of,

[15:40]

exotic story. Let me just to go further what happens is that the Buddha Shakyamuni goes and sits next to the Buddha Abundant Treasures and then a whole long section of the sutra happens floating in mid-air and the assembly also joins, arises into mid-air and they all are listening to the Buddha speak while he's sitting next to Abundant Treasures. So whenever you see an image from East Asia of two Buddhas sitting together. This refers to this story. And it's also kind of a model for what's going to happen in the practice commitment period, because we're going to have a head student, Douglas, will be sitting next to me. So we'll both be sharing the teaching. So this is, you know, I don't know how much will float up above the Zendo floor. We'll see. But anyway, The idea is, so the strange story, what does this have to do with Bodhisattva practice?

[16:44]

Well, I want to explore this during the practice commitment period, but part of it is just that the usual way we see things, is just the usual way we see things. It's not all that's happening. So we don't see the carbon dioxide in the air that's damaging climate and that's already caused extinction of species. We don't see the methane coming up from the fracking that's also damaging things. There are many things we don't see in our usual way of seeing. But it also has to do with seeing the range of time and space. There are Buddhas in Buddha fields in different world systems, in different galaxies, or in different time dimensions, or I don't know. It's just here's this mummified Buddha, and yet, somehow the Lotus Sutra says that he always appears when the Lotus Sutra is being given.

[17:49]

So, something about the way Buddha's teaching appears is at play in this strange story. So this is, again, another story about bodhisattva practice, that it happens in ways we can't see, and that, you know, related again to what Rebecca was saying, There are many possibilities, and to think that things are hopeless in terms of all of the problems of our society and our world is not realistic, actually, because we don't really see all the possibilities that change is possible. in ways we don't realize. So that's just a little bit about that second story. The third story from chapter 15 is about bodhisattvas springing out from the earth. So part of the background of this is the Buddha has been asking who will come back in the future evil age and we can maybe identify with that and help keep alive this teaching and some of these bodhisattvas who've come from a distant world system say, okay, we'll come back and

[19:00]

Um... Um... But then the Buddha says, there's no need for you to protect and embrace the sutra. Because in my world itself, there are many bodhisattva great ones, as there are sands and 60,000 Ganges. And each one of these bodhisattvas has as many followers as there are sands and 60,000 Ganges rivers. They will be able to protect and embrace, read and recite and teach the sutra everywhere. When the Buddha had said this, the earth of this 3,000 great thousandfold world trembled. and split open, and from its innumerable, and from it, innumerable tens of millions of billions of Bodhisattvas, great ones, sprang up together. They had all been living in the world of empty space below this world, and when Bodhisattvas heard the sound of the voice of, when they heard the sound of the voice of Shakyamuni Buddha, they appeared from below, and it goes on about them. So this is a really rich and wonderful story about

[20:04]

about bodhisattvas and about bodhisattva practice and about how in the ground itself, in the soil, in the earth, there are resources to help keep the teaching of awakening and the practice of awakening and the practice of collectively responding alive. So there are many aspects of this story that I think are very encouraging. And there's more to that story, but I'll just mention that much for now. And then that story leads into the fourth story, which is in the following chapter, because Maitreya, who's supposed to be the next future Buddha, says, well, who are all these bodhisattvas from under the earth? We don't know about them. Where'd they come from? Who was their teacher? They're obviously great ancient bodhisattvas. And the Buddha says, oh, I taught them. And they're all puzzled.

[21:09]

And so then the Buddha gives this revelation, which this is sort of halfway through the sutra, but one of the key points of the sutra. and an interesting story about what it means to do Bodhisattva practice. The Buddhist says that actually, even though you all know the story that I left the palace and wandered around and sat under, and eventually sat under the Bodhi tree and awakened, that actually I have been, since I started doing Bodhisattva practice, it's been, Since I became a Buddha, a very long time has passed, a lifetime of innumerable countless eons of constantly living here and never entering extinctions. From the beginning, I have practiced the Bodhisattva way. That life is not yet finished, but will be twice as long as what has already passed." So he's been around, the Buddha says, for a very long time. even though in two Sundays we'll celebrate his birthday, and we also celebrated a month before last his passing away into nirvana.

[22:20]

At the same time that we have that story, we have this other story, that in some way, the Buddha has been around for a very long time and is still around. And what does that mean? And so this is another story about bodhisattva practice. How do we support the life and practice and teaching and wonderful benefit of Buddha's being around and present, how do we help that to be? And Dogen talks about this story in various ways in terms of our own practice. So this is something, again, that we do collectively. This is about Sangha. In some way, this is about community. It's not about being a great individual. It's not about some, you know, some great person who's going to come and save us.

[23:24]

It's not about electing some perfect leader who will fix everything. That's not the way it works. We all have a part in taking care of our life and this world and all the suffering beings. And of course we have to, even though Wilma Keppen says stop being an individual, we do have to look at our own situation and our practices to find our find some measure of calm and settledness and then to use that to be helpful in the world. So we'll be talking in the next couple of months more about these stories as ways to see how it is that we can be helpful in the world together. Maybe that's enough for me to say for now. I'm interested in your responses or comments.

[24:25]

We'll be talking about this, whether or not you're formally doing the practice period. We'll be talking about this together and using these stories as ways to talk about it for the next couple of months. But does anyone have any comments or questions or responses, reflections to share this evening? Please, feel free. Dear ship. Thank you.

[26:08]

Wonderful question. Helpful question for everyone. Yeah, so formally for the practice commitment period, it's requested that people choose one of the four stories to focus on. But you don't have to choose one immediately. For those of you who have copies of the Lotus Sutra text, in any translation you can use that. We do have copies of those stories available. If you want to focus on one, we can give you copies of that chapter. You know, what you said, to just keep a copy of the text by your bed or where you read, and just look at it. You don't have to read the whole chapter. So chapter two is longer than the others that we're focusing on. But just to read a little section of it, read a page.

[27:09]

Read it aloud, actually, is one way to do it. that's very traditional to recite it. Another traditional way of practicing with these texts is to write them. So you might want to copy, you know, part of the chapter you decide on, or more than that. So one of the things about writing, maybe it works if you type them into a computer, but I think if you handwrite them, It enters your hand in some way. So in East Asia, calligraphy is a practice for learning something physically, learning it with your hand. If you recite it, you're learning it with your voice. The point of studying these isn't to have some It's okay if you have some understanding of the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, but more than that, the point is to encourage our practice, to encourage our zazen, to encourage our practice of bringing this one vehicle mind into our lives and into how do we respond to the difficulties of our society and how do we function together.

[28:28]

So these are stories. They're not, you know, kind of commandments or their stories. So a big part of Zen practice is playing with stories. It's not about trying to figure them out or get some response to them, but you using them. So there's, well, I can say more of the story that Dogen talks about, about the Lotus Sutra that I think I've mentioned here. But how do we actually use the stories to help inspire us? So the instructions for those of you doing the practice period is to, you know, you don't have to immediately, but to look, you might consider the four stories and then choose one that appeals to you. You don't have to learn all of them, but which one kind of helps you to practice? So I don't know if that's a little bit about your question, but it's a good question.

[29:30]

It's the right question. This is not about memorizing texts or having some understanding or figuring something, some strange story out, but actually using them, playing with them. Other comments or questions? Yes, Douglas. It gets your attention, just close it and say it with a phrase you like.

[30:33]

For example, in a better way, the Lotus Sutra was a picture, it's an expression that's so inspiring to me. Let's see. Yeah, and there's a difference between, a difference and a similarity when we talk about the Zen koans, those very short Zen dialogues. Same thing, to pick one and maybe to remember a phrase from it, just a, you know, everyday mind is the way or whatever. And I think the same with these stories as Douglas is saying. One practice is to, you know, if you find just one line that kind of appeals to you,

[31:36]

memorize that or just be with that. And the Lotus Sutra ends up saying that anybody who just really appreciates one line of the Lotus Sutra will eventually be a Buddha. It says that very strongly. So if that's encouragement. Yes, Howard. where symphony with poetry, you try to read which is a much slower, more sort of reverent even attitude toward it, I feel has helped me to relate to the Zen dialogues and the Zen koans more than when I just try to cram them down my throat.

[33:17]

Because that didn't do anything. Good. Yeah, thank you. That's very helpful. So, this is about reading stories and, you know, playing with the stories. But also, poetry is a good, you know, it's not that you, I have trouble reading poetry because I want to stop and kind of chew each line sometimes, but I also want to see the whole. For me, reading a poem is you read it, then you have to go back and read it again, and then you have to kind of read it line by line. And it's that kind of reading. So to actually get into these stories, some of these stories, there's a lot of kind of rhetoric that's common to Buddhist scriptures, and there's a lot of repetition in some of them. There's more of that in the chapter two.

[34:17]

That's okay, just to appreciate a line. Yeah, so thank you, reading poetry, reading stories. Other reflections or responses or questions or whatever? Skulls! Thank you very much.

[35:49]

Yeah. age. Let's figure it out. Good, so that's the story, I think that's in chapter three. It's one of the many stories in the sutra about skillful means, these various parables. And it's okay if you want to read those too. We're not going to be focusing on those stories exactly, but whatever can come up. But yeah, I think leading us to the same thing Bill McKibben said, stop being an individual. We are connected.

[37:17]

And we're connected to something that's Time, you know, that's been going on for a long time. Maybe it's timeless, this practice of awakening. And it's connected to how each of us can find our way to be helpful and to respond. And it's also about honoring the different ways in which people find their access to the path. We each have different stories. Maybe some of, maybe, you know, if we sat around and talked, and there'll be chances to talk together in the practice period with others. But, you know, we each have somewhat different stories, and there's commonalities. What is it that brought us to care about how we're living in the world, care about not just humans, but other species that are endangered, and so forth, you know? How is it that we entered into this Great vehicle, and we can appreciate and honor and respect all the different approaches.

[38:25]

And ultimately, here we are, supporting Buddha to be alive here. So thank you. I'm really looking forward to the next couple of months and appreciate everybody's comments.

[38:43]

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