It might be helpful for me to say that if you look at the whole ocean of views about what the Buddha way is, not to mention everything else that people have views of, just in this thing about the Buddha, there's so many different points of view on it. And also within the particular tradition of the the bodhisattva way, the great vehicle of the bodhisattva, the way it was understood is different from the way it's understood now. And the way it will be understood tomorrow will be different again. Our understanding of the way of the bodhisattva is evolved into And I think I feel called to bring up some points of view which are different from some other points of view, rather than going over all the points of view, which I kind of agree with, maybe.

[01:12]

But I feel like I want to point out some perspectives on the path to Buddhahood. which are not so commonly circulating in some universes. One particular example of that is that in some Buddhist texts, it seems like The language is something like, sentient beings should have a mind of enlightenment. Or you should arouse the mind of enlightenment. You should arouse the determination to become a Buddha. An individual like you and me should

[02:20]

Many texts talk like that. But what I'd like to emphasize is that the determination to become Buddha for the welfare of all living beings is... It arouses in the living being, but the living being doesn't arouse it themselves. And nobody else arouses it in them. So again, some people talk like an individual person can arouse determination, the resolute wish and commitment to realize Buddhahood for this world.

[03:30]

But I'm suggesting another point of view, which is only in the communion and Buddha does this great Bodhi mind arise. Actually, all the intentions in your mind, you do not yourself make them. Even though one of the things that arises in the mind is that you make things that are in your mind arise there. That's one of the things that arises. We don't make what arises in our mind by ourselves. We make it together with many other beings and things. And the particular intention to become Buddha, that actually requires working together with Buddhas.

[04:34]

And Buddhas do not necessarily... The Buddhas with whom we are in communion do not necessarily look like we might think a Buddha would look. It might look like an old Zen or a young Zen priest or an old rabbit who's behaving in such a way that you feel like, that's the life I want. I want to be like that rabbit. I want to learn how to hop like that. So freely and generously and fearlessly and compassionately.

[05:38]

So in the communion, this magnificent, wonderful communion, thought arises in human minds. And when it first arises, we're talking about it arising in your consciousness, where there can be awareness of it. In a consciousness where you are, and where there's awareness of this thought, it's a thought. Now the Buddha mind, before it arises as a thought in your mind, in your consciousness, Because the Buddha mind is the intimate relationship between us and all beings. That relationship, that intimacy, is always present. Dharma is always present.

[06:41]

Because of a meeting with the Buddhas and an openness to the meeting, this thought arises I wish to realize Buddha. I wish to create, to realize the Buddha in the world for the welfare of all beings. What I'm saying to you, you can say, is the teaching of suchness, the teaching of the way things are. Is somebody waiting out there? No. The wind gods. The wind gods are waiting. The wind gods. The wind is waiting out there. But it's patient. So the teaching of suchness is a teaching which, as we said in the Persian . The teaching of suchness is intimate transmission.

[07:45]

The teaching of suchness is always present. Suchness is always present, and also the teaching of it is always present. So the way things are is one thing, and then along with that is that one thing is being taught, is being demonstrated, the teaching of suchness. And it is intimate communion. Dare I say, it is a holy communion Could you add to that? Because I think it can happen before consciousness, meaning we can get plucked by the ancestors, by Buddha, by the desire to become Buddha. That's what's happened. Remember, now it's just like this was. And then finally, I realized what was happening.

[08:51]

I'm talking about when you become aware of it. When it arises in your consciousness, say yes to it. It could arise in your conscience when somebody else mentions it, but you say, no, no, no. A lot of people are saying, no, forget this Buddha thing. Why Buddha? What do you mean by Buddha? Well, I mean by Buddha, again, something that you can see, and you think, this is the point of life for me, in your consciousness. Before that, it's okay. So another version of bodhisattva, another version of variation, is that some people say that those who have this thought in their conscious mind, I think you're bringing up that some other bodhisattvas do not have this thought in their conscious mind.

[09:51]

They do not think, I wish to give my life to the realization of Buddhahood. They don't think that in their conscious mind. They're still on the path to Buddhahood, and they're on the path to, at some point, thinking that in their conscious mind. That will come. We sort of need that thought. as part of the process. But even the people who don't have the thought, including the people who say, no, I do not want that thought. I'm just going to get out of here. Or I'm not, that's not my thought. Both people are also Bodhisattvas. So this is one view, is that everybody is a Bodhisattva. This is the lotus tree. everybody's a bodhisattva, but the scriptures say some people are, and some people aren't. Not everybody, and you can talk to people, they say, I don't want to be a bodhisattva, so those people maybe say, those aren't bodhisattvas, they're the ones who don't want to be.

[10:54]

The Lotus Scripture says, even those who say, no, thank you, I do not want to be a bodhisattva. innumerable times in order to benefit all beings. I want to get out of here right now. That's all I care about. Leave me alone. And that view of... And I understand if some people do want to become Buddhists, fine. But some people want to become Buddhists, and they're wonderful, but not everybody wants to be that way. And then another version is, some people are, and it would be good if you were too. Another version is, some people are, is everybody. You are a bodhisattva. And if you disagree with me, that's the kind of bodhisattva you are. So we have this, in the Lotus Sutra, that famous story of the

[11:58]

The monk, Bodhisattva, his name was, never disparaging Bodhisattva. And everybody he met, he said, I will not disparage you. I will not disrespect you. You will become Buddha. And he said that to people. And some people found that quite irritating. Some of them thought, no, I don't want to be. Don't tell me I'm going to be. And some other people said, yeah, I want to be, but I don't need you telling me, et cetera. People were mean. But he just kept not disparaging them and kept telling them, you're going to be Buddha. And that bodhisattva that month became Shaktimuni Buddha. That's the kind of bodhisattva Shaktimuni was sometimes. But even Shakyamuni in historical India didn't know about that for quite a few centuries until the Lotus of Jikin.

[13:11]

Anyway, this is the Bodhisattva. vow, I vow to realize Buddhahood in order to help this world and all the beings in it. In order to bring these beings to maturity in Buddha's wisdom. That's what I want to do. I got that thought. And then the next, and again, this can arise in what you think is a Buddha. When I first, the people who first I think Gabe Rice made me want to be a Buddha. It didn't look like Buddhist to me, and I heard about Buddhism, but I was not particularly inspired by Buddha. But I was inspired by some stories of Zen monks, and I was inspired by my neighbor who was, when I was 12, he was a 40-year-old man, came to me and he said to me when I was being a juvenile delinquent, he said, you know, it's easy to be bad.

[14:29]

He knew it was easy to be bad, relatively speaking. He said, what's hard is to be good. I said, oh yeah? Wouldn't it be good? I'm not here to harp, but I didn't think he was a Buddha, but he was somebody who made me aspire to somehow find a way to do good, rather than the easy thing of being selfish and losing attention by being a rebel without a cause. Now I see that I met Buddhists who inspired me. That they were demonstrating Buddha activity. And at that time, after I heard about how hard it was to be good, I tried, but I had a really hard time. It was hard. So once the Buddha mind has arisen, it could be in the form of, okay, I'm going to try to

[15:39]

or, okay, I'm going to give my life to Buddhahood. I'm going to go for revision Buddha wholeheartedly. After that arises, then it's the ongoing job of protecting that and taking... Jack, could you turn that light on, please? Could you turn that light on? So, again, the teaching of suchness, it's here, and it is intimate transmission. Intimate transmission is here, and you have it. Now you have it. Now you have it. So please take care of it.

[16:45]

Did you hear that recently? This is in the Jewel Mirror Samadhi, right? In the song. We'll chant this. Teaching of suchness, intimate transmission. Oh, excuse me. Teaching of suchness, intimate transmission. Buddhas and ancestors. Buddhas and ancestors are the teaching of suchness. Buddhas and ancestors are the intimate transmission. That's what they are. Now you have it. Now we have it. And the Buddha Samadhi, and we have a text to that which we have been chanting at noon service, Samadhi is also called self-receiving and employing Samadhi.

[17:48]

This is a teaching which is describing Zazen. Zazen of our school has this quality of receiving itself and employing it. The zazen that we're talking about in this particular school is receiving intimate transmission and is passing it along. That's the criterion of the sitting meditation, trying to be encouraged by the zendos around the world. That is Buddhist ancestors. That is Buddhist Samadhi. And then the song goes on to give some instruction about how to protect this intimate transmission. This intimate transmission, this satsang practice, is like a massive fire.

[18:58]

So we're instructed not to touch it. Don't touch it. Don't tamper with it. Because it's a massive fire. Don't turn away from it. Because it's a massive fire. So be with it. Be devoted to it. Take care of it without touching it or turning away from it. It also says, in one translation it says, move, fall into a pit. You've got this, what do you got? You've got this intimate transmission. Move, and you fall into a pit. Or another translation, get excited about it, and you fall into a pit. and you'll be lost in regret.

[20:06]

How can we not hesitate, be right there, not hesitate, and also not move? Be right there in that intimate depth. Perfect. All right. All right, yeah. bringing this up with some people, we have in the U.S., we have a game that children sometimes play, and one name for the game is Captain May I. Another name is Mother May I. So, as I remember the way the game goes, somebody gets to be mother of captain, and then the other kids standing some distance from the mother to become the goal. And you get to be the mother by getting up close to the mother. But you start quite a few steps away from the mother.

[21:08]

Fifty or something. And then the mother says, Tillman, you can take five steps forward. And then if he gets excited and moves and takes five steps forward, then I said, tell me you have to take five steps back. Because after you get invited to take five steps forward, you have to say, Mother, may I? You can take five steps forward. And if you get excited, you'll fall into a pit and move farther from Mother. And can you believe that kids actually have a hard time. They get like five steps and they can't remember to say, may I? They just jump five steps. Not too many kids just run ahead all the way up to the mother. This is a game often played by kind of respectful kids.

[22:11]

So, even though you've been invited, you still say, may I? Here's a wonderful scripture for you. It's for you. And then, if you reach out and grab it, oh, too bad, I was going to give this to you, but no, you can't. It was for you, too, but because you didn't say, You fell into a pit. You got excited. You jumped ahead. It was going to be given to you, but since you didn't say, may I, and put the hand out to receive it. So how do we protect? So here we are trying to protect and care for this intimate transmissions. to be mindful that we're here in the right spot to receive intimate transmission.

[23:19]

And then maybe we feel angry. And then we feel like, oh, this is dangerous. And it's true. Anger is dangerous. But there's a lot of others. For example, hot water is dangerous. Knives are dangerous. Emptiness is dangerous. So you've got anger. You want to not this bodhi mind, this precious mirror samadhi. And there's this dangerous thing here called anger. And as you know, many people... This is a dangerous thing, so I want to protect the Bodhi mind, but I also want to protect myself and other people from this anger.

[24:29]

So, let's crush it. Let's push it away. Let's suppress it. That's touching it or turning away from it. And then it flares up. So this is, again, maybe a little bit different perspective on the Buddha way. I'm suggesting that this is dangerous. It's not asking to be suppressed. It's not asking to be killed. It's not asking to be restrained. It's asking to be cared for with great compassion. That's what it wants. If it doesn't get great compassion, again, then it has a tendency to, apparently, enslaved the person who's not taken care of.

[25:34]

Yeah. So the real danger, not the real harm, when this anger comes, is the real harm is not being kind to it. That's the real harm. And part of being kind to it is to acknowledge it and say, I kind of regret that this anger is here, especially towards somebody I really care for. I'm kind of sorry. And that way of relating to it, this confession and repentance, is a compassionate response. Right now, anger wants confession and repentance. It wants compassion. And it gets it, and the compassion grows, and the anger feels cared for.

[26:37]

It doesn't necessarily go away. It will change. It will change anyway. Will it become more subdued? I don't know. Will it flare up if you squash it? Actually, sometimes when you squash it, it seems like it doesn't flare up. But it's just really like you're just building up pressure morally. So again, that which we are not kind to, no, I would say it from, it's not that which we're not kind to that enslaves us. When we're not kind to that, that unkindness enslaves us. Whatever that is, if I'm not kind to it, my lack of kindness enslaves me. In a way, it enslaves me to that. But I become enslaved to that which I was not kind to. But not really. It's my unkindness that enslaves me. The thing which I often mention in Chinese has this wonderful compound which is made of two characters.

[27:47]

One is danger. There's opportunity. Anger is dangerous. Hot water is dangerous. Knives are dangerous. Emptiness is dangerous. The Mahayana. Buddha is dangerous. All those things are opportunities. How could Buddha be dangerous? Well, if you see a Buddha, it might be dangerous because he might try to touch it or turn away from it. It's not that it's dangerous, but there's a danger that you might not treat the Buddha properly. You might try to possess the Buddha. That would be harmful. So the Buddha is dangerous. Emptiness is dangerous. The highest truth is dangerous because it's an opportunity for you to not be kind. It has that danger to be possessive of it. But it's an opportunity, too.

[28:51]

It's an opportunity to be kind to Buddha, to not try to control Buddha or own Buddha. It's an opportunity to be kind and careful with the night. It's an opportunity for Buddhahood, and it's an opportunity for harm. and people are bringing so many things that they just cannot believe that these dangerous things in their minds are opportunities for compassion. But I happily go over and over, yes, that too, that too, that too, yep, that too, everything is calling for compassion. One, I think you're getting the picture, but you can get it more clearly. You can get it so clearly that that's all you see. If you get it more clearly, you'll see that's really the way it is all the time.

[29:55]

And that may require me saying it a few more times. And I thought a couple days ago, I said, are you calling for compassion? I didn't really hear myself calling for compassion. I protected that thought. Are you calling for compassion? I feel like that thought's calling for compassion. Are you calling for compassion? That thought is calling for compassion. That's not really me. My thoughts are calling for compassion. They're not really an evil. Am I? Is my karma calling for compassion? Oh, yeah, it is. I don't feel like I'm calling for compassion, but everything I say and think really is. Like, for example, when I read these teachings, when I'm reading, I'm calling for those teachings.

[31:02]

I'm calling the teachings. I'm singing the teachings. And I'm all calling for those teachings. The meaning is not in the words that I'm saying. The meaning is in me calling by those words. So when we chant these, if we are understanding that our chanting is not just Yeah, it's not just words, it's us calling, us calling for the teaching we're chanting. So the meaning is not in what we're saying, the meaning in us is in our... And the meaning comes forth as we call through our speech. We sort of need to notice that we're actually, what we're asking for by everything we do. So we'll be doing these chants over and over and you may be getting up you may get more instruction about how to protect the harmony of difficulty of unity of how to protect the precious mirror samadhi by the instructions in the poems.

[32:14]

The wonderful guidelines of how and remember to be still with dangerous things. In the sense, everything. And this compound that I'm referring to, danger and opportunity, the compound means crisis. And the definition of crisis is turning point. So when we are aware that everything is a danger and an opportunity, we're at the turning point. Things that are not cared for can disturb and harm. Things that are cared for are cared for. We have the opportunity to keep turning towards the opportunity in the face of ongoing dangers. We have so many dangers. We people in California right now are walking on thin ice.

[33:26]

We're walking on thin ice. Any moment, we may become powerless. Any moment, we may be flooded. Any moment, a tree may fall over on us. We're in a situation here where every moment we have opportunity. Being there is where it's at. The teaching of substance is at the turning point between danger and opportunity in the Buddha way. Okay, thank you for listening to my authoring. I was calling to you. And you were listening to me. So you were listening. Did you also notice that you were calling? You were calling. You asked for these words.

[34:29]

You called for them. I couldn't have said them without your call. And you listened. And I also listen. And now I'm going to listen. Yes. Thank you. What about the danger of thinking there's an other in those words? Say again? Or is it changing self? Well, like, recalling and It might come to the idea that there's an other to call to. You might, yeah. Or that there is a... Especially if you've heard about that practice of exchange of self and other. But it's more like thinking that suchness can be divided, that there's actually things to go through. Having a thought like suchness can be divided, that thought is calling for compassion.

[35:33]

And if we give that thought compassion, it works as suchness. And we have self and other. But in the teaching of suchness, you do not have the teaching that self and other are separate. You don't have that teaching. But you have the idea that self and other are separate. But an idea is not separate from suchness. It's a false idea, but it's totally embraced by suchness in connection. And practicing together is a good way to become free of the delusion of separation. Also, when we do prostration, we have a prostration verse. When we're paying homage to the Buddha, we have a prostration verse, which is a person bowing and bowing to their nature, no nature.

[36:43]

This body, the other body, nothing. So we do these exercises to overcome separation, the illusion of separation. But one way to get kind to the illusion of separation is doing prostrations. That's the kindness we do for that illness, for that appearance, actually. The illness isn't the occurrence, the illness is believing in the occurrence. So the fact that people are clearly separate is not an illness, it's just a nice old delusion. And it's that delusion of occurrence, occurrence of preparation, compassion. We've got delusion, then we have anger, we talked about that.

[37:46]

Same with lust. Lust is called compassion.

[37:50]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_84.56