So this is Rohatsu week. December 8th, which is two days from now, is the day that we commemorate the great awakening of Shakyamuni Buddha, about 2,500 years ago. So for several years now on this day, come on in. to commemorate Enlightenment Day. I've talked about Enlightenment, so I will today as well. So, if you want a chair, Rosanne, you can turn one of these around, or you can welcome to a cushion. So, actually, in Siddhāpurāṣi lineage, often don't talk about enlightenment.

[01:06]

Because it's kind of a dangerous idea, because people think it's some thing, and sometimes they even think it's some thing to get, or that they could get, or that they should understand, or like that. or they think it's something they can't get, and that's equally pernicious. But whether or not you got it or you ain't got it, it ain't an it. So there are ways in the tradition of talking about it, about this awakening of Buddhas that we are practicing here today. So I want to talk today about one prominent way of talking about what can't be talked about in the Mahayana tradition.

[02:14]

And this is from the Flower Ornament Sutra or scripture. And this is the sutra that Buddha spoke immediately after his enlightenment. in the English translation, it goes on for 1600 pages, so we don't know how long it took for him to say it. And it's said that almost, that maybe nobody then could understand it. So then he found all kinds of other ways to talk about it. But still, here we have this, in Sanskrit it's called the Avatamsaka Sutra, which is what? a description of what Buddha understood when he was awakened. So there's a koan case that describes one important aspect of this.

[03:15]

And it goes, the Flower Ornament Sutra says, and this is what Buddha said at the moment of his awakening, Now I see that all sentient beings everywhere fully possess the wisdom and virtues of the awakened ones. But because of false conceptions and attachments, they don't realize it. So when the Buddha was awakened, what it was he was awakened to was the awakening of all things, of all beings, of everything, fundamentally. So from the point of view of Buddhas, there's no difference, except that we don't take it on. We don't let go of the things that we think keep us from this wisdom and virtue. So we do have false conceptions and attachments.

[04:29]

We do have delusions and conditioning and various ways of seeing the world and ourselves that get in the way of our just being here right now, of our just sharing this wisdom and virtue, of our expressing this right now in this body, in this mind, on this foggy, misty day. Is it raining out there now? Just misting. Yeah. It's lovely. It's a good day to sit. So here we are in the midst of the mist. And all there really is, is this wisdom and virtue of all the Buddhas right now. And yet, because we are conditioned, because we are born and getting ready to die, we have particular viewpoints.

[05:41]

So it looks a little different depending on where you're sitting. It looks a little different from Patty's cushion and from Liz's cushion. It's always this way. we actually are willing to be the person we are. So how do we take care of being the wisdom and virtue of the awakened ones? This is really the question. It's not about what is it, how do I understand it, do I have it, do I not have it? in that chapter of the Flower Ornament Sutra on the Manifestation of the Buddhas, it also says, then the Buddha observed all the beings of the cosmos with his pure, unobstructed eye of wisdom and said, how wonderful, how amazing, how strange.

[06:48]

How is it that these beings all have the wisdom of the awakened ones, yet in their foolishness and confusion they don't know or see it? So first he saw that it was everywhere and then he realized that we are caught by our family dynamics and habits and patterns and all the ways we've been damaged by being a particular person. All of the ways we think we can't be a Buddha. So he said, how is it that these beings all have the wisdom of the awakened ones, yet in their foolishness and delusion don't know or see it? I should teach them the right path to make them abandon illusion and attachment forever so that they can perceive the vast wisdom of the awakened ones within their own bodies and be no different from the Buddhas. So the Buddha not only saw the reality that all things are Buddha nature,

[07:52]

But he saw that there's a little bit of a problem, just a little problem, just a little bit of confusion, just a little bit of greed and corruption and anger and vengeance and warfare and cruelty in the world. And it gets in our way. So the Buddha said, OK, I'll show beings how to let go of that and find the path towards accepting and realizing they're awake in this right now. So there's these two sides. There's just seeing this wonderful, amazing reality, and then how is it that we can help each other to not be afraid, to be who we are, to be just this? How is it that we express this in the world?

[08:57]

So those two sides come up together. So recently I've been expressing this in terms of this writing by Dogen about active Buddhas, about practicing Buddhas. And he says that all Buddhas are active Buddhas. All Buddhas are practicing Buddhas. There's no such thing as a dead Buddha, actually. And he says, First of all, it says that Buddhists do not wait for awakening. So awakening is not something that happens somewhere else in the future. We may know that we're confused and blocked and obstructed by our greed and confusion, but awakening is not about, well, if I just wait around long enough, if I sit enough periods of zazen, if I go to enough sesshins, if I hear enough Dharma talks, If I drive to Balinas enough times or wherever, then there'll be some awakening some other time.

[10:00]

No. It's always just right here. It always has been and always will be throughout the reaches of the past and future and present. So what this 13th century Buddha said was that active Buddhas alone fully experience the vital process on the path of going beyond Buddha. So when Shakyamuni Buddha awakened 2,500 years ago, Monday, that was not the end of Buddhism. That was not the end of his practice. That was just the beginning. And he didn't stop awakening. He didn't get it. He didn't have some awakening and draw a picture of it and put it on the altar and that was it. In fact, he continued to practice asana. He continued to wonder, how can I teach all these foolish and confused and greedy people how to let go of attachments and enjoy being Buddha and enjoy helping each other let go of attachments and continue this active process of the path of going beyond Buddhas.

[11:14]

So what the Buddha said he would do when he saw this awakening all around is just to help people fully experience the vital process on the path of going beyond Buddhas. There's no place to get. It's not about reaching the end of the journey, as T.S. Eliot says, the end of all your wanderings, you'll come back to the place you started in, fully know it for the first time. So how do we... find our own seat, our own way, our own expression of fully experiencing the vital process on the path of going beyond Buddha, which means helping others also fully experience the vital process on the path of going beyond the path of going beyond Buddha. This is what it means to be living Buddha, active Buddha. And there's a transformative quality to this practice of being willing to just be oneself.

[12:27]

So it means not running away from the Buddha sitting on your cushion. It also means not running away from the folly and confusion and greed and anger and frustration and all of that stuff. So as Dogen says elsewhere, enlightened people are enlightened about their delusions. Deluded people have delusions about enlightenment. So this is why we don't talk about enlightenment so much because then you might get some notions. You might think you've heard what enlightenment is from my feeble Dharma talk today. Still, here it is. So my job is to not be afraid to talk about enlightenment and to know that you will all continue to have delusions and to look at your delusions. I trust you enough that I'm willing to talk about enlightenment. I trust you all enough to know that you know that you are deeply deluded.

[13:29]

Me too. This is our practice, just to watch that. And yet, we shouldn't forget that we do this sponsored by the vital process on the path of going beyond Buddhas. This vital process includes that we enjoy the mist and the rain when it falls, and the next inhale and exhale, and allow ourselves to relax into being the person we are, and maybe even get a glimpse of this reality, of this path, of turning towards Buddha, of taking refuge in Buddha. of not getting stuck in any particular Buddha, of just seeing this wisdom and virtue that's here. So in the Flower Ornament Sutra, the last section of it is a long sort of separate sutra that I've been studying recently.

[14:39]

And it tells the story of one person's path towards going beyond Buddha. And that person was a young Indian I guess a nobleman anyway. He was a son of a good family named Sudhana. And he somehow came across Manjushri, the great Bodhisattva of Wisdom. And he had a vision of a Buddha and he was greatly inspired and he decided to set forth to learn how to be a Bodhisattva. How to put this vital process to work in the world. And Manjushri sent him to a teacher. And that teacher sent him to another teacher. And he continued on his journey and visited 50 different teachers. Some were women, some were men, some were monks, some were lay people, from all different kinds of situations. But eventually, at the end of all his wandering, he found the future Buddha, Maitreya,

[15:45]

because when we see that this possibility, maybe first we have to see that there's a future Buddha, that there's a part of Buddha that we haven't yet activated, even though we have the wisdom and virtue of Buddha. So I thought I'd tell you a little bit of this story of what happened to Sudhana at the end of his wandering in honor of Buddha's enlightenment day. So he came to Maitreya and Maitreya's There's a picture of Maitreya on the altar in front of the flowers, a wonderful statue of Maitreya in Japan. And Maitreya had done a lot of practicing over many, many lifetimes, even though at each moment still there was the wisdom and virtue of the awakened ones. He had practiced very hard for a long time, and now he's the one who Buddha said would be the next future Buddha, which is kind of a joke. But anyway, We appreciate Maitreya because he's very kind and because he believes in loving kindness, so we chant sometimes the Metta Sutra, which is the scripture of the sutra about Maitreya and his loving kindness.

[17:01]

Anyway, Sudhana came into the presence of Maitreya and he saw this huge tower, immense, this great tower of Maitreya. And he asked Maitreya about it, and Maitreya, after going on for many pages talking about how wonderful it was, and I'll kind of give you the short version today, the quick notes version. Maitreya said to Sudhana, you ask how an enlightening being, halabodisattva, is to learn and carry out the practice of enlightening beings. So this is what Sudhana had asked to 50 different teachers and all of them had told him wonderful things and then said, but actually I don't really know so well how to do this, so please go see so and so. Anyway, here he'd come to Maitreya and Maitreya said, please go into this great tower containing the adornments of the Buddha and look. Then you will know how to learn the practice of bodhisattvas, of awakening beings, and what kind of virtues are perfected in those who learn this.

[18:04]

So at that point, Sudhana respectfully circumambulated the Bodhisattva Maitreya. He walked around him in great respect and said, please open the door of the tower and I will enter. Then Maitreya went up to the door of the tower containing the adornments of Buddha and with his right hand he snapped his fingers and the door of the tower opened and Maitreya asked Sudhana to enter. Then Sudhana, in great wonder, went into the tower. As soon as he had entered the door, shut. So he saw the tower was immensely vast and wide, hundreds of thousands of leagues wide, as measureless as the sky, as vast as all of space, adorned with countless attributes. And here the text starts to list some of the countless attributes. canopies, banners, pennants, jewels, garlands of pearls and gems, moons, half-moons, multicolored streamers, jewel nets, gold nets, many things.

[19:10]

And besides all of those, inside the Great Tower, Maitreya, Sudhana, saw hundreds of thousands of other towers, similarly arrayed. He saw those towers as infinitely vast as space, evenly arrayed in all directions. Yet these towers were not mixed up with one another, being each mutually distinct, while appearing reflected in each and every object of all the other towers." So this is a basic vision of what this enlightenment, what this reality is like. It's a vast, vast tower, as big as all of space, as big as this room of St. David's Church. It extends everywhere in all directions and is beautiful and is beautifully arrayed and bedecked with pianos and chairs and tile floors and cushions and canopies and gems falling everywhere and flowers and all kinds of things that you maybe can't see.

[20:15]

And yet, here they are. It's vast. And inside it are also other vast towers, equally vast, equally immense. And yet they don't bother each other. So this is the realm of the Buddha's awakening, of going beyond Buddha. And this is why we can't really talk about it, because how can you even say something like that without people laughing? What? What? How do we imagine such a thing? St. Aidan's Episcopal Church, as vast as all of space, filled with other St. Aidan's Episcopal Churches, each one also as vast as space. And then it goes on to say that, well, first I'll read the next part. Siddhanta, seeing this miraculous manifestation of the inconceivable realm of the great tower containing the adornments of all Buddhas, was flooded with joy and bliss.

[21:20]

His mind was cleared of all conceptions and freed from all obstructions. Stripped of all delusions, he became clairvoyant, without distortion, and could hear all sounds with unimpeded mindfulness. He was freed from all scattering of attention, and his intellect followed the unobstructed eye of liberation. With physical tranquility, calm body, relaxed muscles, seeing all objects without hindrance, by the power of production everywhere, he bowed in all directions with his whole body. What else could one do at such a time? So this may seem like some George Lucas fantasy or something, although George Lucas can't do this yet. But anyway, this is the way reality is. And according to the latest reports from physics, they have different stories, but it's a little similar. The string theory people have been looking at a little bit, and they say that

[22:24]

this universe is just a membrane and there are 11 dimensions. The formulas they now have, which explain everything, almost, say that there are 11 dimensions, not just three or four. And so there's another membrane that's right, you know, there's another St. Agent's Church that's right next to this one. And anyway, somebody's giving a Dharma talk there. And so on. They describe it as slices of bread. And this whole universe is just one slice of bread. And sometimes, you know, they bump up against each other and there's a big bang. And it starts all over again. Anyway, I don't know. That's what the scientists say. Not the poets and philosophers, just the scientists. So it's a little bit like this. There's this huge, vast tower called the universe are called St. Nathan's Episcopal Church, are called the Saha world. So the world, the Buddha field that Buddha made that day when he awakened and saw that everything was awakened, we call that technically in Buddhist history, the Saha world, the world of endurance.

[23:32]

Because there's a lot that we have to endure. It's a very good place to learn the practice of patience. We all know that. Anyway. What can one say in the face of something this vast and wonderful? But that's only half the story because Sudana saw this tower and then he saw in each of those different towers and they were not just where it was each of them immense and vast as all the space, but there was an inconceivable number of them. There were so many towers. And he looked and he saw in each of them, he saw different stories of all of the wonderful past practice of Maitreya. and all the past lives and all the wonderful things that Maitreya had done. And he saw that this is actually the way our world is. And, of course, we don't see it because we're confused.

[24:33]

And, of course, our friends are confused and greedy and angry and frustrated and they make war and, you know, tell lies and things like that. So this is the world we live in and yet it's not about making it into something else. It's about how can we see our own confusion and the confusion of the world around us and see that actually this is this glorious vast immensity filled with other vast immensities. Anyway, this is one story about what it is that In this case, Sudhana saw as he was working his way back to Buddha when he got to Maitreya. But then Maitreya sent him on too, and he got to... Oh, before that, a little bit more about what happened in the tower. So it says that by the inconceivable direction of the magic of the body, the enlightening mystic knowledge of Maitreya, Sudhana saw all of those miraculous displays, bringing forth the power of magic of the knowledge of truth by the power of mystic knowledge mastered by the Bodhisattva.

[26:03]

When the Bodhisattva Maitreya entered the tower and relaxing his magical force, he snapped his fingers and said to Sudhana, arise. This is the nature of things characterized by impermanence. All things are stabilized by the knowledge of Bodhisattvas. Thus they are inherently unreal and they're like illusions, dreams, reflections. Then with another finger snap, Sudhana emerged from that trance and Maitreya said to him, did you see this miraculous display of magical power of enlightening beings? Did you see the results of the power of Bodhisattva's preparations for enlightenment? And other things he asked him about. And then Sudhana said, I saw number one by the empowerment and spiritual force of the benefactor. What is this liberation called? This liberation is called the sanctum of supernal manifestations of unconfused recollection, entering into knowledge of all objects of past, present and future. An enlightening being assured of enlightenment in one lifetime attains untold liberation like this.

[27:04]

And then Sudhana said, where is it that that magnificent display has gone? And Maitreya said, it's gone where it came from. And Maitreya then says that it came from this magical power of Bodhisattvas. So, what does that have to do with us here in the 21st century or whatever it is? This wild vision, and I just barely touched on all of its psychedelic wonders, is a description according to this scripture of the Buddha of the way things really are when we see, when we allow the transformative function of just sitting upright to express itself fully in the world. Well, what do we do? How do we do that? It sounds like a nice fairy tale, but what do we do? So the next thing that happened to Sudhana is that he went to see Samantabhadra, the last thing that Sudhana did.

[28:15]

Samantabhadra is the universally worthy or virtuous Bodhisattva. He often rides an elephant. There's a little image of him here. And Samantabhadra showed him all of the activities of Bodhisattvas. And so Bodhisattvas are the ones who do the work of Buddha. Once they have seen this possibility, this possibility of actually not running away from enlightenment, being willing to say the word. Don't tell anybody it's censored. But Samantabhadra is very practical. Samantabhadra is the one who goes into the world, into the mud and water, into the mist, into the confusion, into the realm of greed, anger, and confusion, and takes action.

[29:16]

And he talked about, he told Sudhana 10 different vows that he acted from. So these are practical guides to the kind of things that we can do as whatever we are in this body and mind, in this world, in this lifetime. And, you know, this exists, Samantabhadra lives in this very lofty realm and he also is in the world in many ways. So he sees these towers of Maitreya. He sees how wonderful it is to be sitting in the middle of St. Aidan's Episcopal Church, transformed. As you may notice, those of you who have been here before, things have moved. The red obelisk over there, it used to be back there. It used to be a piano, but we don't know what's underneath the red.

[30:19]

Anyway, so some of those vows of Samantabhadra are simply to bow to all Buddhas. So when Maitreya entered the tower and saw how wonderful it was and saw other towers all around, what did he do? He just bowed in all directions. So I was talking at the Wednesday groups a week or so ago about Thanksgiving. And Thanksgiving is the holiday in the Buddhist calendar that comes right before Enlightenment Day. Because Thanksgiving is what we do when we start to see this possibility. We are grateful and we make offerings. This is what Samantabhadra does. First, bow to all Buddhas. With as many bodies as atoms in all lands, I bow to all Buddhas, with a mind directed to all Buddhas, by the power of the vow of the practice of virtue. In a single atom, Buddhas, as many as atoms, sit in the midst of Bodhisattvas, enlightened beings. So it is, of all things in the cosmos, I realize all are filled with Buddhas. So this bodhisattva, this awakening being, sees Buddha, or the possibility of Buddha, or the vital process of the path of going beyond Buddha everywhere.

[31:36]

It's everywhere, actually. This is what Buddha saw 2,500 years ago. So when he praises all the Buddhas that he sees, in all the languages that he finds, in endless oceans of manifestations, and then he also makes offerings to those Buddhas. And then one of his vows is very interesting. It's something that we sometimes chant. The translation here says, whatever evil I may commit under the sway of passion, hatred, or folly, bodily, verbally, or mentally, I confess it all. So the version of that that we have in our chant book says, all my past and harmful karma, from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, one through body, speech, and mind, I now fully avow. This is a regular practice in Buddhism, which you may not have heard of, the practice of repentance or confession. And Samantabhadra, who is this great Bodhisattva who puts into action all of the wisdom and virtues of the awakened ones, one of his vows is to chant this and to see this and to acknowledge that we all have past harmful karma.

[32:46]

Not just past harmful karma, it's conditioning that may, I may say something in the middle of this talk is unpleasant or harmful, and if so, I'm so sorry. It is my past harmful karma coming to fruition. So we do things that hurt each other, even though the basic Buddhist precept is just non-harming. Ahimsa. We try to be helpful and try not to hurt others. We try to help others not to hurt others. And yet, we have to acknowledge that in our body, in our speech, and in our thinking, beginningless greed and anger and confusion, we do have the possibility of harming others. So that's another one of his vows. But then he has this other vow, whatever the virtue of beings everywhere, in all of them I do rejoice. So to actually be happy when you see the goodness of others, to actually be happy when you see the good fortune of others,

[33:57]

So, of course, you might think, well, sure. But, you know, there's that little voice that might say, how come he gets to whatever? Has any of you had that kind of thought? Everyone but Colleen. So, this is a vow. These are not things that Samantabhadra automatically does. These are his commitments. So it's good to have practice commitments. It's good not to try and do more than you can do. In fact, these are all things that all of us can do, but to actually consciously try on, okay, I'm going to notice when I don't rejoice in the happiness of others, you know, in the next week, in the next lifetime, whatever, just to see, can I say hello to each person I meet? Can I see their goodness and enjoy it? I may also have thoughts of critical mind. I may also see ways in which I think, that's not a Buddha.

[35:08]

How could that person? So we have those kinds of thoughts sometimes. But Samantabhadra's vow is just to rejoice when they see goodness. So we can try that. Doesn't mean we have to pretend that the past, that the harmful karma of people we see is Buddha's enlightenment, we can see harmful karma and try and respond and help it not cause so much harm. But still, we can see the possibility of goodness. So there's ten of these, and I may not get to all of them. But one of them is just to do what Sudhana did, to seek guides to turn the supreme wheel of teaching. Look for the teaching. And of course, we have all these scriptures and Buddhist teachers and all kinds of wonderful New Age spiritual advantages that weren't there for some of our ancestors.

[36:13]

But still, to keep looking and to see the teaching in many things. Can you receive the guidance of the mists of fullness? So Samantabhadra also vows to share the teaching, to study this, to study it and to share it, to expound it to all beings, to help all. And basically this just comes back to helping all beings find their own path towards this vital process of going beyond Buddha. How can you help others? And it's not about being enlightened or not being enlightened, it's about can we find our own path, our own process, And we really experience that and help others to see their own process. So, you know, Stephen and Janine might not see it the way I do. Their process may be different from mine. But still, can I encourage them to find their way?

[37:15]

This is what Samantabhadra vows. And then another one is just to act for the welfare of all beings. to, and then the one after that also, to dedicate one's own virtue to all beings, to act not from just caring about getting what I want, but actually, and not even just caring about what, you know, making happiness for all the people in Bolinas or in Mount Asura Sangha or, you know, but actually to see all beings as part of this vast tower of St. Aidan's Episcopal Church, or whatever. So these are kind of practical intentions. And Samantabhadra, who is the Bodhisattva who has thoroughly seen and expressed this, emphasizes this practice of

[38:25]

dedication or vowing or commitment. So I want to encourage each of you on this Enlightenment Day to think about in the next year, before the next Enlightenment Day, of course every day is Enlightenment Day, but still, can you take up some particular vow or commitment? And it doesn't have to be one of the ones that Samantabhadra said, but can you direct yourself on your own process, can you see some practice that you can take up? And it might be something very, you know, specific and practical. Just to help one person or one group of people or to take on some project, to actually take on projects of helping beings in the world. This is part of this vital process of the path of going beyond Buddha that actually includes all beings and that recognizes that All of us are completely endowed with the wisdom and virtue of the awakened ones and yet we do have this past and harmful karma.

[39:33]

So how can we acknowledge and not run away from our particular pattern of conditioning and anger and grasping and frustration and so forth? How can we be willing to be present with that and commit ourselves to taking on some some vow, some act of being helpful for other beings to find their ways of being helpful, for other beings to find their way of being helpful. So this is something we actually do together. So maybe there's time for a couple of comments or questions. responses. Colleen. Not good for the snails, but it's good for your garden.

[41:04]

So we should be willing to enjoy all the repercussions. But yes, the Samantabhadra is the ecological Bodhisattva. And this same sutra has this image of Indra's net. Have you all heard of that? Another way that this sutra, this flower ornament sutra, describes reality has many ways of describing it. These huge towers inside the huge towers is just one. It also describes the whole universe as this network. And at each place, where the meshes of the net meet, there's a jewel. And that jewel reflects the light of the jewels reflected in the jewels around them. And those jewels reflect the light of reflected in the jewels around them, kind of like there's another. I was just going to echo what Ed was telling you, the power to reflect the light of the jewels reflected in the jewels around them. There certainly is. Liz? Well, I had this vision when we were talking about the power system. I can hear you guys saying the same thing. And as you said, my perspective is that this is a necessary moment of life. and they're all in there together.

[42:22]

Right, exactly. And there's even more than that, because even if we only talk about living beings, and Dogen says that it's not just human beings who are Buddhas, and I would say it's not just the beings that we think of as living beings who are living beings, but anyway, I would bet, if we look far enough, we could find other living beings in this room right now. Even, what? What? And there are these mighty wind chimes. OK, so there are many beings. Yeah. So happy Enlightenment Day. Please enjoy your practice. Please be willing to be yourself. Please enjoy finding your seat on this endless path. Be kind to your own muscles. And if you have to get up and go for a walk in the mist, that's okay.

[43:26]

So we'll close with the bottom of page eight with the Four Bodhisattva Vows. And in honor of Enlightenment Day, let's say them three times today. Bottom of page eight. Yings are number one.

[43:49]

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