So welcome everyone to the call. Mark Broussard and Tish, you're online from afar. Everybody else is here in Southern Utah in person. Thank you for joining us for session. I think it's been a beautiful week. And I think it's also very special to actually receive this Dharma talk right at the conclusion of a period of practice. And I'm really both honored and privileged that we have Taigan Dan-Layton with us, who in my mind is one of the more enlivened voices in contemporary Zen. He's a Zen teacher, as everyone knows, a transmitted teacher, the founder of the Ancient Dragons Zen Gate in Chicago. And he is also the author of several books, including a new one that will be coming out soon. And he is going to be working with us today from his book called Faces of Compassion, which is a really beautiful journey through the Bodhisattvas in the Zen tradition. And with that, I'll turn it over to Dan.

[01:01]

So enjoy, everybody. Thank you, Diane. So there's a lot I want to talk about today. So I think you all have available the Bodhisattva chart, which goes over some of the aspects of this. I spoke last time, last week, about Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of wisdom or insight who expresses the insight into emptiness or the ultimate truth, the sort of starting point for the bodhisattvas. And today I'm going to talk about the three bodhisattvas that sort of balance that. You could say the compassion side or the expressions of bodhisattva insight in the phenomenal world. So Samantabhadra, Avalokiteshvara or Kanzeon, many names, and Jizo, the three bodhisattvas I want to talk about today. And each one of them I could spend the whole hour and a half on, but I'll try and give a summary of each and pause after each one for some discussion.

[02:13]

And in the Faces of Compassion book, there's much more information on each. But I'm just going to dive in. Samantabhadra is the first one. Probably less familiar than the others to most of you. Samantabhadra is the Sanskrit name, Fugen in Japanese, Pushan in Chinese. And I think of this Bodhisattva as kind of a visionary, devotional, activist Bodhisattva. All three of these could be seen as balances to Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Insight, who rides a lion and carries a sword, and is the Bodhisattva in the middle of meditation halls, we talked about last week. Samantabhadra rides an elephant, so sometimes on altars in Asia you see Shakyamuni in the middle and then on either side Manjushri on the lion and Samantabhadra on the elephant as balances. Samantabhadra expresses the wisdom of Manjushri in the phenomenal world

[03:17]

And writing this elephant is one way we can see that elephant is slow, deliberate. Elephant represents knowledge. So whereas Manjushri represents the wisdom, the insight, his immediate insight into that which is most important right in front of us, Samantabhadra represents knowledge, which is a different Bodhisattva practice than wisdom. Knowledge is about how things work. Samantabhadra takes on things in the world. So, knowledge and wisdom are two different paramitas in the system of ten paramitas from the Flower Ornament or Avatamsaka Sutra, which is the main sutra that Samantabhadra represents. Well, that sutra has many, many, many bodhisattvas in it, but that's a massive sutra. So, Samantabhadra is also important in the Lotus Sutra, but I want to say a little bit about the Flower Ornament Sutra and then talk about qualities of Samantabhadra.

[04:27]

So, each of these bodhisattvas, as I talked about last week, represents an image or a figure that can be venerated, that is a force or energy in the world, but also aspects of ourselves, aspects of approach to Bodhisattva practice, so we can see these three, the three I'm talking about today, as aspects of compassion, or aspects of how to, approaches to how to express Bodhisattva response in the phenomenal world, in the world of suffering. So, each of these seven Bodhisattvas also is a way, as I said last week, a way of seeing the range of of the Mahayana teachings, of the Buddhist teachings. And so each of them represents a particular school or sutra, or there's a lot of overlap, but Samantabhadra particularly is, again, important in the Lotus Sutra, but particularly is the most important in the Flower Ornament Sutra, which contains many of these bodhisattvas.

[05:38]

The Avatamsaka Sutra is the Sanskrit name, in Chinese, huayen, in Japanese, kegon. And this is important doctrinally in China, this, the Flower Ornament Sutra itself is this very visionary psychedelic text. It's the most psychedelic text I know. It's just full of these, it's a guide to bodhisattva activity, but it's full of, as the name would infer, of very flowery images of Bodhisattva activity, and it's a huge text. Thomas Cleary's translation is over 1600 pages, and that's supposed to be this kind of small Reader's Digest version of the whole sutra. The story about it is this is what Buddha said immediately upon his awakening, and of course it was, nobody could understand it, so then he decided to teach the Four Noble Truths and so forth, basic teachings.

[06:41]

But in China, this very flowery text was presented as the Huayen school, one of the two main Chinese Buddhist schools, along with the Chiantai, which is the Japanese Tendai school. So this is very important in terms of understanding that, especially in East Asian Buddhism, the philosophy or doctrine of Buddhism and the Huayen school and this sutra and therefore Simón de Badr is very, very important in Chan or Zen. It's very much a background to Soto Zen. So that's a little bit about the theory behind it. The Huayen school emphasizes particularly the action between the ultimate, the universal, and the particular, which is sort of the background to the Five Rags and of the Soto philosophy, Sado philosophy of Dongshan, my newest book is about.

[07:47]

But, okay, going back to Samantabhadra as representing a particular approach to bodhisattva activity, one aspect is just his visions of interconnectedness. So part of what the Flower Ornament Sutra is doing is giving a display of how everything is deeply interconnected. This is another way of talking about the emptiness or sameness, oneness that Manjushri represents, but this is, and this goes also to the aspect of meditation that Samantabhadra represents. Each of these Bodhisattvas offers a different aspect of meditation. So Manjushri is the sits in the center of the meditation hall and with his sword cuts through delusion. But Samantabhadra, there are many, many of these visions of these Samadhis, these profound Samadhis, in both the Lotus Sutra and the Flower Ornament Sutra, and they depict this great sense of deep interconnectedness.

[09:05]

So Samantabhadra I think is also very important too, the deep environmental, deep ecology awareness that the Bodhisattvas present to us. So just for some brief examples, and there are many of these, but the Ocean Seal Samadhi, for example, Dogen writes about this also, is associated with Samantabhadra. This is the, this Ocean Reflector Samadhi is, an illuminated consciousness like the surface of the ocean that fully reflects everything in the cosmos, confirming and feeling it with authenticity. The winds of delusions cause the waves of phenomena to arise on the surface of the ocean, forming thoughts and perceptions, but as soon as the mind settles and the water is calm and clear, the ocean mirror awareness again reflects everything perfectly. Another one of these Samadhis that, um, Samantabhadra is involved with is the Aliyan Emergence Samadhi, which reveals the assembly of assembled Bodhisattvas in the vast arrays of Buddha lands, showing their enlightening, these many Bodhisattvas and their powers of Samadhis and the manifestations of their teachings from past and present and future that all exist within the oceanic Buddha lands on the tip of every single hair.

[10:33]

So this Flower Ornament Sutra is filled with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas everywhere, on the tip of every blade of grass, on the tip of every hair, in every atom even. There are myriads of Bodhisattvas and Buddhas. It's this very amazing vision of the world as an expression of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, reality itself as filled with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. So as I said, it's quite an amazing, psychedelic text, and so you might try just, there's some other chapters in the Flower Ornament Sutra that are quite short, so you can just read a little bit of it, and reading it aloud is one of the ways to get into it. It's a samadhi text, it's not an instructive text, it's a text to just kind of settle into. So one more of these samadhis that Samantabhadra represents, is called the immanent body of the illuminator of thusness or suchness.

[11:37]

It's described as being in all Buddhas, in all awakened ones, and containing all worlds in the universe and producing all concentration states. It contains the teachings and liberations of all Buddhas and the knowledge of all Bodhisattvas and develops enlightened riches and vows. When Samantabhadra enters this Samadhi, these vast numbers of Buddhas in all the worlds and all directions, and also these Buddhas within every atom in all of those worlds, and in front of each one of those Buddhas sit other Samantabhadra Bodhisattvas who immediately also enter into this samadhi of the present body of the illuminator of thusness. Buddhas in all of those myriad realms immediately praise each Samantabhadra Bodhisattva for their great enlightening abilities. fostered by the power of the Cosmic Absolute, Dharmakaya Buddha, who's the main Buddha in this Flower Ornament Sutra, then the Buddha bestows upon every Samantabhadra omniscient knowledge of all the different worlds, and their workings, and the various enlightening teachings.

[12:44]

And as soon as this happens, all of the atoms in all of those worlds, the Buddhas in all of those places, reach out with their right hands and pat each one of the Samantabhadras on all the realms on their heads. That's kind of mind-boggling. We can't, you know, even George Lucas or Steven Spielberg couldn't possibly portray that. You know, it's just, we can't even imagine it. Anyway, so that sutra is filled with that kind of visions of this incredible interconnectedness. So that's part of the, so that's, you know, one aspect of Samantabhadra. So there's a kind of aesthetic, visionary quality to Samantabhadra. The other, another aspect of Samantabhadra is his Ten Vows. This is, it comes at the end of the Flower Ornament Sutra. When the pilgrim, there's a, the last chapter in that sutra is called the Gandavyuha Sutra.

[13:46]

There's a pilgrim who visits 53 different Bodhisattvas, each in turn, each one of whom is amazing. He finally ends up at the, palace, the castle of Maitreya, who we'll talk about next week, the next future Buddha, which is also this amazing visionary event, but then he goes to Samantabhadra, who has this set of ten vows. So the vow is one of the paramitas, this practice of vow, and we probably, you have some version of the four bodhisattva vows, that beings are numberless, we vow to free them, that delusions are inexhaustible, we vow to cut through them, Dharma gates are boundless, we vow to enter them. The Buddha way is unsurpassable, we vow to realize it. There are various different translations with those four vows are common to all bodhisattvas, but some of these different bodhisattvas have their own sets of vows. Jizo, who we'll talk about towards the end today, also has some, but Samantabhadra has a set of ten vows.

[14:51]

Very interesting. there to venerate Buddhas, to praise Buddhas, to make offerings to Buddhas, confess one's own past misdeeds, rejoice in the happiness of others, request Buddhas to teach, request Buddhas not to pass away into nirvana, to study the Dharma in order to teach it, to benefit all beings, and to transfer one's merit to others. So, these are interesting, uh, just to comment on a few of them. To rejoice in the happiness of others may seem obvious, but sometimes, practically speaking, we sometimes wonder why something good happens to somebody else and not to us. These vows are all things that we could think about taking on ourselves, to actually praise Buddhas or teachers, to make offerings to Buddhas, to confess one's own past misdeeds. However, we do that to someone else, to ourselves, to acknowledge them. Ask Buddhists to teach. Study the Dharma in order to share it with others.

[15:55]

To transfer one's merit to others. So this is one aspect of Bodhisattva practice that's the basis for a lot of kind of formal activity, ritual activity in Asian Buddhism that this idea of transferring merit, and of course this is what Bodhidharma the famous story of him visiting Emperor Wu, he kind of cuts through that and says, there's no merit. But this idea of merit, or we could see that just as energy, that there is a kind of energy. You know, you've all been sitting, or many of you have been sitting sashin, and you recognize that there's a kind of energy that arises in the course of doing, of all the effort that you've all put into that. But what happens to that is you kind of hold onto that for yourself, Or do you, our practice is to dedicate that to others, so that, this comes from Samantabhadra's vow, or this is an expression of that, to share one's merit, or we could say the energy of one's practice, with others.

[16:57]

Dedicate that to others, so this is part of the dedication at the end of chanting ceremonies. Then there's also this vow to benefit beings, to benefit all beings, a sense of inclusiveness about the Bodhisattva idea that it's not just for some particular group, it's not just for, you know, people in Utah as opposed to other states, for example, that our practice is not just about ourselves, although of course it are positive effects that we all experience for ourselves, but that we they were actually the Bodhisattva practices about universal liberation, not just personal liberation. Universal liberation includes ourself, but that we're dedicated to all beings. So that's very, very important. And that's an important aspect of what Samantabhadra is about.

[17:59]

So again, to these meditative Samadhis, these visions of interconnectedness and Buddhism, Bodhisattvas on the tip of every blade of grass or every hair, this sense of this really, I don't know, cosmic interconnectedness and vision of the Buddha world in this way, that effort of practice is to benefit all beings, to study the Dharma and share it with others. So there's an aesthetic quality to this. And this isn't part of the Asian tradition about Samantabhadra explicitly, but I see Samantabhadra as kind of the visionary activist. So I think, as I said at the beginning last time, part of studying these bodhisattvas is that I'd like you all to think about each of these bodhisattvas as an approach to bodhisattva activity and to see which ones particularly resonate with your own practice.

[19:08]

see which ones may be part of what you aspire to in your practice. For Samantabhadra, there's this aesthetic quality and there's this sense of the visionary activist. We talked at the end last time about Manjushri speaking truth to power. Each of these different bodhisattvas has their own way of responding to the suffering of the world. Samantabhadra again, with the knowledge of how things work, so knowledge is one of the practices he represents, along with patience and this aspect of meditation, but also, again, riding this elephant, this great dignity, and this deliberately addressing the systems of suffering in the world. So I think a visionary activist like Gandhi or Dr. King taking on some systemic suffering in the world and developing some program of response and patiently taking on how to respond to that.

[20:12]

That's one aspect of examples of Samantabhadra as an approach to Bodhisattva activity in the world. But I also think of other visionary figures. So, artists in various ways to express interconnectedness. I think, you know, Vincent van Gogh is one of my favorite artists, just because of the way his brush strokes kind of bring alive his landscapes, to see the vitality in the world of nature. Again, this sense of interconnectedness is a model for how we see ecology and the environment and ourselves as expressions of that and our interconnectedness with that. There's also, you know, there's the seeing of interconnectedness and then there's the response to that, this deliberate taking on a kind of protector role that I see Samantabhadra expressing.

[21:18]

So, to me, one of the great modern figures who expresses Samantha Barger is Rachel Carson. I don't know if you all know who she is, but she was kind of the mother of modern environmentalism. She was a marine biologist who wrote books like The Sea Around Us, talking about the beauty of the world of the oceans and their, as a system, as a biosystem. But she was the first to warn about the dangers to the oceans, which are now in dire straits in terms of uh... all kinds of things overfishing and acidification but she talked she talked about the dangers of dvd it was really vilified for it by the uh... fame polluters who are now denying climate change anyway she uh... uh... she thought not just the the beauty of uh... the interconnectedness of the ocean but also uh... the need to protect it and to respond to that so there are many aspects of uh...

[22:24]

how Samantabhadra works. Again, just seeing this interconnectedness that the Flower Ornament Sutra presents in this really amazing, interconnected, visionary, psychedelic way. And then knowing how things are connected in the world and devout to share Buddha's understanding of that. So acting in the world, and a very kind of programmatic, deliberate way to take on systemic problems of suffering. Oh, maybe that's almost enough. What am I missing from Samantabhadra? Oh, just to say a little bit more about the elephant. This elephant is very colorful. So in the depictions of Samantabhadra, Samantabhadra himself is usually kind of just depicted very plain, stately bodhisattva.

[23:26]

The elephant, though, in the Lotus Sutra chapter on, and closing sutra in the Lotus Sutra describe the elephant more dramatically, but this elephant has six tusks. It's a white elephant. It's a very magical being. There's a kind of visualization practice in one of the sutras associated with the Lotus Sutra. And every step the elephant takes, a lotus grows out of the ground to meet his feet. It has six tusks to represent the six senses, or maybe the six paramitas. And often in the depictions of Samantabhadra, Samantabhadra is this very calm, stately, elegant figure. But the elephant is sometimes shown laughing uproariously. So anyway, it's a very special elephant. As I said in the beginning, I don't know if you, it's very likely that you do not have an image of Samantabhadra in your temple.

[24:26]

Maybe you do, but it's not as common an image as some of the others. And partly that's because Samantabhadra is kind of hidden in the world. There are many, many exemplars of Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra is acting in the world in all kinds of ways just to express this, deep interconnectedness and visionary sense of the beauty of the world and the need to protect that. So that's a little bit about Samantabhadra. Again, I could talk the whole time about each one of these, but there's more in the book. At this point, I'll open it to comments or questions about Samantabhadra. And Diane, if you could call on people if anyone has comments or questions. Well, questions about anything that's in the book that I didn't get to about Samantabhadra? Maybe we could take a little pause for comments or questions now.

[25:29]

And I hope I was audible and not talking too fast. You're correct. We don't have an image of Samantabhadra in either of our practice centers, but we do have Manjushri in the main sitting area on the lion, and then we have several Kambhyans in both of our retreat center. So, we're going to open it up to questions right now. Um, who has a question for Taigan? Lila, go ahead. Good morning, Taigan. This is Lila. Lila, hi. Um, thank you for this teaching this morning. I have some practice in the Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism, and so I have a picture of Samantabhadra, I didn't have this connection until I heard you speaking this morning about this sort of magical quality and just thinking about it's putting together in my head a couple of things about Trimper and Pache talking about magic as being nowness, as being right here in the phenomenal world.

[26:39]

In fact, in one of the chants He says, the phenomenal world is all the books we need. And the other piece that's kind of going along with the magic is this sense of, gosh, I'm kind of losing it now, but you talked about the beauty of these individual little occurring Buddha's on the tips of things. In other words, they're constantly around us and we're not actually seeing them. And so there's this sense of, he also talked about this sense of what he called sacred world, and he said it was ordinary magic. And Thich Nhat Hanh says people think, well,

[27:40]

it's magic to walk on water or to walk on air, but he says, I think it's magic to walk on the earth. So all this sort of coming together with speaking about Samantabhadra when you did that, and thank you so much for that, for those images. Yeah, a couple responses. Yeah, Suzuki Roshi, my teacher's teacher, said, the world is its own magic. So the same idea. And yeah, I agree. And you know, all this stuff in the Samantabhadra context about Buddhism, Bodhisattvas, and every atom, I mean, this kind of way of seeing things is also expressed in modern physics, very much so, and in the way that modern physics talks about multiple dimensions and parallel universes and, you know, from the point of science. One just footnote about Samantabhadra and Tibetan Buddhism. There is a Buddha named Samantabhadra in Tibetan Vajrayana, who's actually a different figure, same name.

[28:46]

However, the Tibetan Bodhisattva named Vajrasattva, who I'm sure you're familiar with, is actually a version of this Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. So in terms of Tibetan Buddhism, Bajra Sattva is related to, at least closely related to, or some say a version of Samantabhadra. Okay, that's good. It's a different context. I think the Atamasaka Sutra was not so important in Tibetan Buddhism. So, as I said last time, in Tibetan Buddhism, there's a whole range of different bodhisattvas that are important. The ones that I'm talking about in the Faces of Compassion book are the seven that are most important in East Asia, but obviously there are many, many, many others also, and particularly the Flower Ornament or Avatamsaka Sutra contains, you know, pages and pages and pages of names of various Bodhisattvas.

[29:49]

Great. Well, thank you for changing the image on that because that actually is more congruent for me because it's more the image of compassion and Also, you know, you were having me also thinking about a Native American walking on the earth as on the belly of the pregnant mother. So... Yeah. Well, these visions... Thank you. Yeah. You're welcome. And these visions that are in the Flower Ornament Sutra and that Samantabhadra represents in his Samadhis you know, are about, so I, you know, again, I want to emphasize that Samantabhadra is kind of the environmental bodhisattva, that this sense of Buddhism bodhisattva is everywhere in the environment, in the natural world, you know, the natural world includes everything, including, you know, what we think of as artificial. We are products of the natural world.

[30:51]

We're not, you know, and cities and Anyway, that's a whole other course, but this world itself is replete with bodhisattvas and sacred beings and spirits, so I think the Native American sense of spirit is very much congruent with this flower ornament vision and the vision of Samantabhadra. I do want to move on to the Bodhisattva Lakshmipriya Shvarakamsayana, but if there's one more quick question or comment about Samantabhadra, I'll take that. Anything? There's one question. Um, the... Hello? Is baby right? Can you hear me? It's Diane again. Yes. Now I can. Yes. Okay. Sorry about that. So, yeah, there's a question that's coming in from one of our participants. And he just would like to know if you were to advise someone on cultivating these particular qualities, is there anything specific to practice as we do it that you think supports sort of a Samantabhadra-like way of being?

[32:03]

Excellent question. Exactly. Good. Yeah, there's various practices that are involved with each one of these figures. One of them is mantra. So each one of these figures has a particular mantra mantra. I'll talk about that more with Kanzeon. But also, the particular visualization practices, there's a closing. So, Samantabhadra's challenging that way. Samantabhadra, there's a closing chapter of the Lotus Sutra, which has this very intricate, complex visualization exercise. But what I would recommend is just reading the Flower Ornament Sutra aloud. And it's a good practice to do in a group. And you don't have to feel like you have to read the whole 1,600 plus pages, but just to take any little bit of it and start and just read it aloud. And you can pass the book around in a circle and read aloud. And just reading it aloud, just even a few pages, or read it aloud to yourself a page a day

[33:14]

or half a page a day, it's a Samadhi text, which is to say that it's not about something else, just to read it and maybe try to visualize it, although it's so beyond anything that you can see exactly. But that's one good way to cultivate Samantabhadra. But also just to see the, as the last question, person was saying, to see the wonder in the world and see how to take care of it. And to see what the environment needs. You know, this is Samantabhadra activity. To see beauty and to see how to take care of it. So I'm going to shift. We can talk more about all of these. And again, I want you all to think about which of these Bodhisattvas, and it may be more than one, it may be all of them, but which of them particularly speak to you? Next, one of the most important Bodhisattvas is Dvalakirtishvara in Sanskrit, Guanyin in Chinese, Kanon or Kanzeon in Japanese, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, probably very familiar to most of you.

[34:27]

It's what may be the most popular Bodhisattva. And her name itself means to hear sounds or to hear the sounds of the world. There's other translations for the name, but but that's the main one, or to hear the cries of the world. So this is another, a different aspect of expression of wisdom in the phenomenal world. This is explicitly the Bodhisattva of Compassion. All three of the ones today are different aspects of compassionate response, but empathetic listening, just to listen, just to hear the suffering of the world, to stay open to the suffering of the world, in some sense is the definition of suffering, the Bodhisattva said, as this is the Bodhisattva of compassion, to hear the cries of the world, to just be open and listen. So, in terms of meditation, this Bodhisattva, there's a sutra that was important in East Asia, the Surangama Sutra, which was actually, we now know, written in China, but it,

[35:37]

It recommends meditation on sound, so for when I do meditation instruction, along with meditating on breath, if people want to have some object of meditation, I encourage just listening. So this is a kind of meditation that this body sounds like. I'm hearing some sound. Can you hear me okay? Not exactly. For some reason, your line is getting a little bit garbled. Julia, any suggestion? I realized this happened last week. My cord was dangling. Is that better now? It is. Okay, I'm sorry. Let me know if that happens again. Okay, I'll do. is listen to the sound of the world. So just listening is compassion. Empathetic listening, the practice of counselors or therapists. And so we all know to feel heard, to actually have someone listen to us and hear us and hear our suffering is effective, is a response, is compassion.

[36:55]

The other aspect of, but there's also this aspect of response from Avalokiteshvara, from Kanzeon, and that has to do with the practice of skillful means. And so that's, so this, in terms of schools of sutras, this Bodhisattva is very important in the Lotus Sutra and represents the practice of skillful means, which is one of the main teachings in the Lotus Sutra, not the only one, but important there. And this is represented in the iconography, the way that this bodhisattva is depicted. So there are many, many, many different forms of this bodhisattva. As you probably know, there's the kind of straight goddess of mercy kind of figure that you see in all Chinese restaurants. But there's also the multi-armed figure. and multiple faces. There's the 11-faced, 11-headed form, Chenrezig in Tibetan, but also in Kuan Yin or Kanzeon.

[38:03]

And there's the 1,000-armed form. Sometimes it's depicted as 25 arms, and they each represent multiple arms. But literally, if you go in Japan or China, you can see figures of this Bodhisattva literally with 1,000 arms. And so there's like seven main forms of this Bodhisattva. And there's also 33 other forms based on a chapter in the Lotus Sutra. So all of these are described in detail in the Faces of Compassion chapter. But part of the point is that this Bodhisattva appears in multiple forms precisely because of the practice of skillful means, which is to respond to different beings according to their needs. The skillful means is, so, you know, from the point of view of magistry, there's just this one ultimate truth of emptiness or of the ultimate truth. But from the point of view of compassion, the teaching needs to be offered to each being in the particular, in terms of the particular needs of that being.

[39:15]

So this is why this Bodhisattva has so many different forms. And the Thousand-Armed form has, each of the arms has different implements in it, all kinds of different implements. And so, lotuses and teaching scrolls, and the moon and the sun, but also daggers and swords, and lassos to corral, difficult customers, all kinds of different implements. And each of the hands in these multi-armed figures has an eye in it to see from different perspectives. And then there's the 11-faced version of Avalokiteshvara, and that's partly also to see from different perspectives. And one story about that is that Avalokiteshvara had just released all the beings in hell, And she looked down and saw them all again, all the spaces in hell being filled up with new suffering beings, and her head split apart in grief.

[40:21]

And then she got a new head, and this happened 11 times. Finally, she was crowned with the head of Amida Buddha, and she could continue. So that's the 11 heads. Not all versions, but many versions of Balakiteshvara or Kamsayon have that. But almost all versions of Kanzeon, you can tell when it's Kanzeon Bodhisattva because there's usually Amida Buddha in the crown. So if you see above this Bodhisattva, in the headdress there's an Amida Buddha. So this is one of the two main Bodhisattvas in Pure Land schools as well. But again, this idea of skillful means and responding to The suffering of particular beings, in terms of how this works in practice, and in terms of the exemplars that I talked about, I mentioned Mother Teresa.

[41:25]

This is, as opposed to Samantabhadra, who, and people like Gandhi and King who take on systemic sources of suffering in the world. This is more this immediate response to the suffering right in front of one, right in front of you. This is this kind of just responding to the immediacy of suffering, just taking on, caring for the suffering one right in front of you. A number of things to say about, many other things to say about this bodhisattva. Again, there's all the different forms. Doctrinally, this is, again, one of the main bodhisattvas of Pure Land Buddhism. It's also very important, comes down in the Lotus Sutra. So all of the schools that are associated with the Lotus Sutra, this bodhisattva's important in.

[42:27]

So I mentioned Huayen Buddhism. in terms of Samantabhadra, the other main Chinese Buddhist school before Chan or Zen was the Chiantai school, which was the first great Chinese Buddhist school that really, for all of East Asia, kind of synthesized all of the different aspects of Buddhism that came from India to China. So I spoke last week about how seeing these different bodhisattvas is a way of kind of seeing how all of the different aspects of Buddhism fit together. this Chianti school and Huayan also, they developed their own systems of classifying all of the different teachings, but then they would take their own favorite sutra and consider that, you know, hierarchically the most advanced or the highest. But, you know, we can see these different bodhisattvas just equally as aspects of the different teachings, but Chianti was very important in China, and then that came to Japan as Tendai Buddhism,

[43:28]

And then, and that was the, actually all of the later Japanese Buddhism came out of Tendai. The Pure Land founders and Nichiren himself and Zen founders, including Dogen and Eisai, all started out as Tendai monks. So, in some sense, the Lotus Sutra is the most important sutra in Japanese Buddhism, arguably in East Asian Buddhism. And so, it's very important in Nichiren Buddhism. So, Kanzeon is very important for Nichiren, but also for Zen. Both for Dogen and Soto Zen and for Hakuin, who founded modern Rinzai Zen, both of them took the Lotus Sutra as, you know, kind of the highest sutra, or talked about it as the most important sutra. so uh... uh... in that sense uh... conflict comes out of common is very very important and also uh... many other things to say uh... in china uh... guan yin is almost always female and that uh... partly i i think uh... because the they identified compassion with the dallas uh...

[44:49]

maternal figure, so mostly Guanyin, after a certain point historically, is female in China. In Japan, it's sort of androgynous, Kannon. In India and Tibet, Avalokiteshvara is male, but then there's Tara, who's also very popular now in the West, who is the female version of Avalokiteshvara. and came from a tear from the Balakiteshvara. So, again, there's a great variety of how this Bodhisattva is depicted. Again, very, very popular Bodhisattva. I could talk more about the different topography, many different forms, but the point of that again is to respond with skillful means. So let me say a little bit about skillful means.

[45:53]

That's a kind of controversial teaching. In the Lotus Sutra, it says specifically that there's the story about the burning house and the father comes home and sees the children playing in the burning house and wants to get them out and tells them that there's all kinds of different carts and various things outside. They don't want to come out initially because they're busy playing with their toys. Anyway, there's a whole thing about how he kind of misleads them to get them out of the house and explicitly compares the father to the Buddha and says that this is not lying or dishonest speech because it's done for the sake of saving the children from the house. So some people find skillful means as problematic because it can maybe justify being misleading.

[46:59]

But the point is that what's really important is how to save beings. So whatever is helpful to save beings is what's important. So, you know, I was talking a little bit after the class last time with Michael and with Diane about, well, do we see the Bodhisattvas as psychological aspects of ourselves or as beings in the world? And, you know, whatever's helpful is what's important. Whatever is helpful to, you know, from the point of view of skillful means, whatever helps you to see how to express Bodhisattva activity for the sake of others in your life, in your way, in your practice is what's important. That's what this idea of skillful means is about. So one other aspect of all of these bodhisattvas is this tremendous, tremendous folklore about them.

[48:06]

So part of seeing, each of these bodhisattvas appears in many different cultures, uh... so obviously uh... volunteers for an india and uh... chairman of the in the fall of tibet and of one in in china and uh... content on that one thing i mean korea on on content in japan and now as this point dot gov uh... takes form in america at different aspects of how the that because they're archetypes because they live in different cultures but uh... the folklore of the very very rich body of folklore about especially about Kannon and also about Jizo, who we'll talk about next. But some of the folklore about Kannon is, I really like, so there's a number of stories in the book, but the one that I'll mention is from, actually contemporary with Dogen from the 13th century Japan, about a town, and they tell you exactly where the town is and so forth, where there was medicinal hot springs,

[49:12]

And one of the townsmen had a dream about, in which a voice announced that Kannon was going to be coming to the town square the next day. The dreamer told everybody, and everybody got all excited, and they all gathered the next day to welcome Kannon, because Kannon was coming to town. So this is also a story about dreams and how dreams were seen as, you know, kind of the harbingers of what he thought was uh... anyway the next day they all gathered and and that kind of uh... scruffy samurai showed up and they all said they uh... oh and the in the dream the uh... the dreamer asked how this what the what kind of what looked like it would end and it was described as the uh... this kind of uh... a kind of low-class samurai so when this guy showed up they all figured it was khan on the mail started bowing down to him prostrating himself to him and uh... And he was perplexed, he didn't know what was going on, and he said he'd just come because he heard they had a medicinal hot springs, and he had a fall and was injured, and he needed healing.

[50:20]

But they just kept prostrating themselves to him, and a priest there finally told him about the dream, and he said, no, I'm not Canaan, I just came here for healing. But then they kept just prostrating themselves to him. So, finally, he said, well, maybe I am Canaan. And he gave up his sword and his warrior armor and became a monk. So history doesn't tell us anything more about him except for that. So anyway, that's an interesting story about Kannon, I think. And again, my phone is low battery, so I'm going to switch phones. But this is a good time to pause and call on questions or comments. So hold on a second. I'm going to switch phones. Can you hear me, Diane? Yes, I can hear you. OK. So there's so much to say about kanon.

[51:25]

And in terms of the question about how to practice with kanon, chanting the kanzeon is one. Or even using that as a mantra is one way. Listening to sounds is another way. Just listening to others is another way to practice with this. But comments or questions? Maybe taking different perspectives as well, huh? Yeah. Seeing from different perspectives, absolutely. So questions? Let's see. You have a question. Hold on. I'm going to switch phones myself just to see who has a question. One moment. Okay. Hi, this is Jennifer. Okay, hold on a second, Jennifer.

[52:32]

I just saw your note, Julia, that my sound is garbled. Is it better now? Can you hear me okay? Yes, it's better. Yes, it's just like... Okay, good. Okay, Jennifer? I just have a comment versus a question. Okay. The comment, what caught my ear when you were talking about how in Japan that Kanon is androgynous. I really like that because, to me, it really represented the integration of the masculine and the feminine. So, I think before, I'd always seen it as more of a feminine energy, but the integration of the two and then bringing in the skillful means as a way to implement it in practice, that really struck something with me. So, thank you for that distinction. Well, I think that's... I mean, that's just true historically, but I think it's also true in practice that my impression from seeing many practitioners over 40 years of practice is that over time in practice, men tend to become more sensitive and women tend to become more assertive.

[53:42]

Uh huh. Any other questions about campaigning? I can't hear. Is someone speaking to me? Yes, I'm sorry. I couldn't hear that last part. Oh. Jen, do you want to repeat what you said, the last part? Sorry. I cannot hear. I have a question. He's just not hearing well from that line. I think she just said, thank you, basically. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yes. So one thing about our practice, because I studied, Michael and I both studied with Genpo Roshi, his center was called the Kanzeon Zen Center. Yes, that's right. Do you remember that in the Kanzeon Sangha? So I think we have a kind of, quite a nice ongoing relationship with this particular Bodhisattva.

[54:46]

So it's good to get a fuller version of her, him, and also the other bodhisattvas. I have a technical question that I would love to hear your answer to, Taigen, if you're willing. So this question of the relationship of buddhas to bodhisattvas, because sometimes there seems to be a hierarchy, like Kanzeon is a bodhisattva who is supported in some way by Amitabha or Amida Buddha. What exactly is the relationship of buddhas to bodhisattvas when we chant to all buddhas throughout space and time, all bodhisattvas? I'd just like to hear your response to that. Well, I think it's complicated, and I don't think there's just one relationship. I think, on one level, bodhisattvas are practicing in order to become Buddhas in the future. That's one version of what a bodhisattva is.

[55:48]

That's like Shakyamuni was a bodhisattva before he became the Buddha. On another level, Bodhisattvas are Buddhas who enter into doing the Bodhisattva work, doing the Buddha work as Bodhisattvas. So, on some level, there's no difference. So, I think there's various different ways to see it, and it varies. So that's why I've been a little confused about it. is because it varies. Okay. Great. Yeah, I think it does vary. Okay. All right. So, it looks like that's it for Convian. Oh, no other comments or questions? Or anything. So, I guess I'll start on JISO. And then, at the end, I'll take questions on JISO, but also on any of them. And again, one thing to do is to think about other exemplars from your own life or from other culture figures in the world besides those I mentioned in the book that exemplify this particular approach.

[57:03]

And so again, the three today are all modes of expression in the phenomenal world that balance out the insight into emptiness or ultimate truth of Manjushri. Jizo is much less important than the previous two doctrinally. He's not particularly associated with any particular schools or important sutras. There is a sutra, The Past Lives of Jizo Bodhisattva, that is not, you know, a doctrinally important sutra, although it's popular, maybe particularly in China. But Jizo, I'm using the Japanese name, Jizo.

[58:04]

Jizong in Chinese, Kshitigarbha in in Sanskrit. His name means Earth Womb, and I'll come back to that. I realize I forgot to say that Samantabhadra's name means universal virtue or universally worthy. So, Jizo is, although he's not important doctrinally, is extremely popular. Maybe almost as popular in Japan as Kannon was popular also in China. Um, and, um, Jizo is almost always, unlike Avalokiteshvara or Kanon, who has all these different, many, many different forms, Jizo is, um, almost always depicted very much the same as a monk, with a shaved head and a staff, sometimes standing, sometimes sitting, but he has a staff, a shaved head,

[59:10]

sometimes holding a wish-fulfilling gem, which is one attribute that one of the versions of Qanon also carries, which is just giving. So one of the six main forms of Alik Yishpora carries this wish-fulfilling gem, just giving people whatever they want. So this is a kind of commentary on the practice of Dana, or generosity, that one can practice giving in a kind of strategic way, to see what's most effective, but one can also just give whatever is asked for. And that has a value, too. But Jizo always appears as a monk. Part of what Jizo is, is that he appears, that he goes into all six realms. He kind of is the liminal figure who goes into you know, the six realms.

[60:11]

Does everybody know about the six realms in Buddhism? The heavenly beings? Most of us are familiar with the six realms, but it would be okay to repeat them if you like. Okay, well, just the heavenly realms, these are all worldly realms. These are in samsara, in the realms of suffering. Heavenly realms, the ambitious titan realms, human realms, the animal realm, the hungry ghost realm, which is horrible, and then there's the hell realm, which is even worse. So, Jizo is in all of them. So often you see groups of six Jizos, often by the sides of the road. And Jizo's also a guide to the afterlife. But Jizo especially goes to hell. And in the story of, that's in the Sutra about him, The main source, he's also a minor figure in a lot of the other sutras, and so in the lists of bodhisattvas, in a lot of the sutras, like in the Lotus Sutra, and in the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, and the Flower Ornament Sutra, he's in that list somewhere, and in the mandalas in Tibetan Buddhism, and in East Asian Vajrayani also.

[61:26]

But in the sutra about him, there are a couple different stories in which In a past life, Jesus was a daughter whose mother, because of various impurities, the mother, when she dies, goes to hell. And the daughter knows it. And the daughter goes down into hell to save the mother. So it's kind of the reverse of the Persephone story, where Demeter goes down to save Persephone in the Greek story. The daughter goes down into hell to save the mother, and in the course of that, she saves all the other beings in hell at the time. And she vows then to become a great Bodhisattva, to save all beings, until Maitreya, who we'll talk about next week, will come. So, there's this vow of Jizo to be available to all beings. This is part of the popularity of Jizo, is that

[62:31]

Jizo is kind of down to earth and present and available to help beings and particularly to help beings in very hellish situations. So, you know, in terms of modern figures, people who work in hellish situations, people who help people practice in prisons or who work as chaplains or who help in inner cities who help the very poor, or who help people in rehab, or who do hospice work. This is all kind of Jizo practice. I should say something about Jizo's name. Chitta-garba, or Jizo, means earth womb. And this word garba, which is also into Tagata-garba, which is the basis of Buddha nature, is very interesting, because it means both womb and embryo. So this is the bodhisattva who represents the earth as the womb of Buddhism bodhisattvas and also is the womb for the earth as kind of being a place for people, to save people.

[63:50]

Jesus especially connected as a protector for women and children. and is especially considered a guide to the afterlife. And particularly in Japan, any place where a child was killed in a roadside accident, they put up a Jizo. But there are Jizo statues, stone monk, shaved head monk, stone statues, all over Japan, even in big modern cities, all over the place you'll see them still. And so the sense of being down to earth and helping common people is part of what makes Jizo very popular. And the practice of Jizo is really about witnessing. So this idea of Jizo as a monk has to do with the role of the monk.

[64:56]

There's a passage from Thomas Merton that I think really captures what that's about. So Thomas Merton talks about the monk as the marginal person. Let me read some of what he says. OK. Merton talks about the monastic as the marginal person. And this really fits Jizo as kind of the liminal person, the person who's outside. And this is really the point of monks as home leavers, who are in all kinds of realms, who can move in between different realms. And it's not just for monks, it's, he talks about this as, well, let me just read some of what he says. The marginal person accepts the basic irrelevance of the human condition, an irrelevance which is manifested above all by the fact of death.

[66:00]

Marginal person, the monk, the displaced person, the prisoner, all these people live in the presence of death, which calls into question the meaning of life. The office of the monk or of the marginal person, the meditative person, or the poet, is to go beyond death, even in this life, to go beyond the dichotomy of life and death, and to be, therefore, a witness to life. So, for Merton, the monk is marginal on the fridges, outside, and irrelevant to the common stream of social goals and conventions, just like Jizo stays kind of apart from that, but is always there as a witness. And Merton clarifies the essential humility of the monk. Monks are not better than ordinary people in the world. Monks do not possess an unusual capacity to love others greatly. They understand that our capacity for love is limited and has to be completed with the capacity to be loved, to accept love from others, to want to be loved by others, to admit our loneliness and to live with our loneliness, because everybody is lonely.

[67:07]

This humility of the archetypal monk is described by, um, Merton kind of expresses this humble aspect of Jizo that is why he's so beloved. But also this practice of witnessing, I also mentioned exemplars of this, Elie Wiesel talking about the passion for witnessing, his own witnessing to the effects of the concentration camps. uh... and the people who who survived in his own wanting to talk about that uh... to talk about uh... tony morrison's book beloved which is uh... really a cheeso book uh... talking about the horrors of slavery but we're witnessing to what's happening in gaza now so it would fit that anyway uh... uh... So there's a lot, there's a huge body of folklore about Gizo, also a story about a person praying to Gizo, a farmer praying to Gizo to help with his harvest and waking up the next morning and finding a big part of the harvest finished and then walking over to the nearby, to the roadside where the local Gizo has his, Gizo statue has his feet all muddy.

[68:36]

or another statue, another story about a monk, a laborer on Mount Koya, the big Shingon Mountain Temple Monastery, where the abbot had told the laborer that he has to clear the snow away from the little Jizo shrine, because Jesus goes out early every morning to help the suffering beings, and the laborers said, I wish one morning Jesus would just clear the snow himself. And the next morning he gets up and the snow is all clear, and he goes into the snow hall, and steps back to the Jesus statue. That kind of story, you know, you don't have to take that literally, Michael, but anyway... Can you hear me? Yeah. For whatever reason, you cut out right as you were telling us what happened after the snow was cleared.

[69:40]

Oh, he went back to the hall where the Jizo was and saw there were wet footsteps on the tatami back to the Jizo statue. Oh, OK. And the Jizo statue's legs were wet. And I heard you say, Michael, you don't have to take that literally. You can. But the point is, these stories show how these figures are seen in Asian Buddhism, is the point. All of these stories may or may not be literally historical stories, but the folklore shows how these figures are seen. That is, you know, the point. Anyway, so Jizo, this very popular figure, is very beloved still, and not important primarily, but it represents one approach to Bodhisattva practice that is

[70:49]

not necessarily about fixing things, but about being present and witnessing to the suffering of beings, and going down to hell. And I'm reminded of Zhou Xu, Zhou Zhou, being asked by a monk, where are you going to go after you die? And Zhou Zhou said, oh, I'm going straight to hell. And the monk saying, well, wait a second, you're a great Zen master, how come you're doing that? And Joe just said, well, if I don't, who's going to be there when you go? There's a lot of laughter in that. So maybe that's enough about JISO. So we do have some time. I mean, as I said, I could talk for an hour and a half about each one of these. But I'm interested in responses to and responding to comments or questions. about these, or any of the three, or even, you know, about seeing, comparing the three, because again, these three represent three different approaches to expressions in the phenomenal world, in the world of suffering, of the insights of Manjushri, in the other particulars.

[72:13]

One of them is a different, you know, there's a lot of overlap, of course, but there's, they also represent a particular different pattern of how to respond. And in terms of how to express Jizo in the world, again, just this idea of witnessing, just this idea of being present, going to hang, you know, just to be present and spend time with prisoners or people who are dying or people in difficult situations. So, Diana, if you would call on people, please. Questions or comments? All right. We're open to questions about JISO, these two body samples, or any other questions. So, this is Neal again. Hello, Tygen. I learned about JISO in Tokyo, where I visited these cemeteries that are for children that died.

[73:17]

through abortion and there are thousands of sticks with their little names and many of them didn't have names so they just were called chisos and so I came back to America and I started salting little chisos and I really put some effort into wanting to create and pass out this, like you said, the witnessing and the compassionate aspect of presence for dealing with abortions for mothers and having a place for the unborn children to be acknowledged in the underworld, which Tissot is very strong about that in Japan where abortions are dealt with in a much more open and natural way, and I tried to put them to market, and I was not very successful, but they were beautiful sculptures, and I just wish that our society would have a saint or a deity, a bodhisattva like Jizo, in that realm of

[74:41]

unacknowledged and unnamed children. Thank you for mentioning that. That's an important aspect of Jizo that I should have mentioned. So Jizo particularly is involved with children and with spirits of children. So this is Miseko ceremonies that are called in Japan. And there are people in America who've done these. There are Yvonne Rand in the Bay Area and my lineage has done these regularly. So there are a number of people in California who do these ceremonies and incorporate other aspects of acknowledging the spirits of either children who have died or the spirits of aborted children. And I think that it is healthy and helpful. and i think uh... chosen days up at great value they very much uh... uh... veteran cheeto and i think they've done those ceremonies to so that they are being done some in this country uh... and to actually have ceremonies around uh... cheeto and uh... spirits of children uh... and and this is again apartment popular important part of cheeto popularly in japan and china

[76:10]

uh... i think we it's something that can be developed to honor you know i i think it's partly it's a problem because the whole question of abortion is so uh... charged here uh... and there is one way of saying that that uh... uh... from some perspective uh... in japan abortion is almost seen as a kind of motive birth control unfortunately but uh... i thought i think it's very healthy to honor the spirits of uh... you know boarded boarded spirits uh... so i i thank you for the work you're doing and and and uh... uh... it would be good if the public could support you and and actually have ceremonies invite uh... the many women who have had abortions to honor that, you know, in that way.

[77:13]

And Jizo is a traditional figure for that. Thank you, Tygan. We have a practitioner with us. Her name is Shinko. She's from Sao Paulo and her family lineage is Japanese. Her mother is one of the people who came to Brazil after the Second World War, and apparently, in Brazil, the largest Japanese community outside of Japan. And so, she was going to say something about being Japanese. Good. Hello, Taigen. My name is Shinko. And it was really good to hear you talk about the Buddhist Atlas, because although I have Um, I don't know much about them. I just have the images in my head, like when you're talking about Kanon, I can see the images and especially Jisoo or Jisoo-san, which is really brings me a very tender...brings memories of my childhood.

[78:31]

Yeah, I'd like to thank you very much. Welcome. Yeah, I think here in America, you know, many people are practicing meditation and very sincere and really we're developing Zen and Buddhist practice, but this background of these bodhisattvas really can inform our practice so much. So this is why I wrote this book and why I'm teaching about it. So thank you. Thank you. Anybody? Tish, I want to give you an opportunity to ask the questioner, Mark Broussard, since you're online. Do either of you have either a question or a comment? Hi. Hi, Tish. Hi, everybody. Um, so I just wanted to say I appreciate that this whole group of bodhisattvas is grouped under those that have more of a role in the phenomenal world and are based on compassion and I didn't appreciate how they sort of manifest that in slightly different ways.

[79:46]

It's given me a lot to think about as far as... I mean, I'm a nurse and part of what I struggle with is how do you meet people when they're in a dire or stressful situation what are skillful means to address that? And in this sense, I think hearing... Just wanted to comment that I think hearing about these three different body factors is helpful to give me a broad... I'm having a little bit of trouble hearing you. Um, maybe... Yeah, you're breaking up just a little. So, let me just repeat what I did hear you say, Tish, and then if you need to fill something in. So, what I heard you say is that in the context in which you're a nurse and the challenges that come from being, you know, in this relative world of suffering and questions about how to respond, that it's helpful to you to kind of differentiate these three different bodhisattvas in terms of their relative activities. For instance, the difference between listening and acting according to the moment versus

[80:51]

being a witness or working with people in dire circumstances or having a large vision for Mantra Badra and doing long-term projects to affect the long-term well-being of the collective, that somehow those distinctions are helpful to you. Did I understand that? Yes, that's correct. And I didn't know if Tegan had more to say about... I don't know. Maybe how they differ. I know we've sort of discussed that, but are sometimes a little bit difficult for me to understand them as different aspects. Okay. I think I got that. So, how do these three differ? And Samantabhadra is more looking at how things interconnect systemically. And so, I think of that in terms of systemic sources of suffering. to see the overall picture and then to take on, you know, kind of, you know, the elephant represents knowledge about that, but also the pace of, the deliberate pace of patiently taking on some project to respond, as opposed to a Valakiteshvara who just meets the person right in front of her and

[82:14]

and lends a hand, and with whatever implement is at hand. So skillful means is about just responding immediately, not based on some technical knowledge, but just in terms of this kind of sense of immediate response. I didn't get to the, there's a story that I talk about in the book about two Zen teachers asking, what is the bodhisattva compassion do with all of these hands, with all the thousand hands and eyes, maybe some of you know this story, and the other one says, it's like reaching back for your pillow in the middle of the night. So it's not, skillful means is not some instruction manual, it's about this kind of unmediated response. So it's this kind of just instinctive unmediated response, and through practice, through trial and error, one learns what you know, there's all these hands and all these tools and whatever you have at hand to respond immediately to the person in front of you, to the situation in front of you, as opposed to Samantabhadra who will take on some long-term project of responding to the systems that are causing suffering.

[83:27]

And then Jizo is more like just witnessing, just being present, just being willing to be present together with the person who's dying or the person who's suffering through addiction or the person who's suffering through incarceration or whatever. So those are, you know, again, there's overlap, but there are three different approaches to how to be helpful. I hope that helps. That's great. Yes, thank you. So, Diane, I don't know if we have time for any, if there's one or two more questions or comments. I'm happy to stay a little bit longer, but I don't know if you have to stop. This is Mugaku. I just wanted to say to Tish, I highly recommend put a plug in for Teigen's book, Faces of Compassion, which you can download from the publisher. on the Internet as a PDF or at the same time get an e-book for the same price for about $13.50.

[84:36]

And it's excellent at dealing with exactly those distinctions you're asking about, Tish, and does a very nice job of elaborating them. And the thing I was going to say, if I can just observe that it's interesting to me in Buddhism's transmission to the West, so many of these Bodhisattva figures seem to have been left behind, and I wonder if that isn't a product of the fact that it's coming into a culture that has very little sense of myth. Yeah, well, hopefully... Hopefully we can, you know, reinstall, you know, some of this background, because it's there. These things don't, these figures didn't, you know, were not, you know, installed from outside.

[85:38]

They all came out of meditation practice. So they're there as part of our zazen, as part of our practice, all these figures. uh... so you know i i kind of have some feelings of trust that they will uh... you know that a lot of the fact some of them are very much present already in westerns and you know in western buddhism americans and uh... uh... you know certainly come on and she's oh uh... and uh... uh... some of the others uh... my tray uh... we'll talk about next week it's about the budget seem a little more distant but uh... I think they're available, and I think as American Buddhism matures, they will find their way into our awareness. That's my hope, and that's why I'm talking to you about them. Your book is the way that you talk about the many subtle iterations of each of them, which

[86:43]

particularize different ways of approaching elements in our life to which they can be addressed. Yeah, these are all aspects of our practice. Well, Tygan, there's an expression that I like to use a lot, which is, you rock. So, thank you so much. I'm sorry, I didn't hear your expression, Diane. I said, you rock. Oh. Thank you. That's great. It's such a privilege. Honestly, we're so appreciative that you've written this book because it's so accessible. And as you say, these are part of our practice and the articulation and the description. And really, I think your love of these figures is really beneficial to us. So, we look forward to seeing you next week. And I'll stay on the line for a few minutes after we close out the main call. Well, I'll just say, in terms of next week, we will talk about Maitreya, who's maybe the most complicated figure, and really a very rich figure.

[87:57]

And we'll talk about the Malakirti, who's very, as the enlightened layman, is very relevant to us. And I'm hoping that all of you will be thinking about which of these figures particularly speak to you. And I want to talk about how they all fit together and hear from you about that, some of you, at the end next time.

[88:16]

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