It's okay to take them home and do it at leisure, but the great hazard is that they never come back. It could be a blessing. Maybe it will be a blessing. And so... So there are these forms. Do you get to do your own self-evaluation? Am I going to show up? If I need to. Oh, you're alive.

[01:07]

could have, there's a one-line optional exam. Exam? Yes, which you can write down on the evaluation sheet. There's the little poem by Dogen about the Lotus Sutra that I read last time. When you grasp the heart of this sutra, even the voices of selling and buying in the marketplace expound the Dharma. So the one line optional exam is, what is the heart of the Lotus Sutra? And you can just take the exam like that and do it tonight or put it in my box later or never do it, but it's an invitation. What is the heart of the Lotus Sutra? So the plan for the evening is that I want to do two more parables and I will go on until at the latest 8.15.

[02:51]

maybe stop before that. And then we will have Bob Eber who has come from the city and who has a Sakka Gokai practice as well as a Zen practice and he will talk about the 16th chapter, the Juryo chapter and explain it in terms of There are two from the, well he'll explain, give a Sakagakai frame. So, the last, last night we talked about the parables of medicinal herbs. and belief and understanding.

[03:56]

And that takes us to chapter six, which is called The Stole of Prophecy. You don't have copies of that. And chapter six is, it's essentially, as the chapters go on, the prophecies of enlightenment become grander and more and more people receive prophecies of enlightenment until it becomes very clear that everybody is receiving an enlightenment prophecy. and we talked about the difference between a prophecy of enlightenment and the statement that you are enlightened now which would be too difficult to deal with and that the prophecy allows us space for work and effort and the effort being so much part of the bodhisattva career not just the effort of one lifetime but the effort of

[05:06]

lifetimes upon lifetimes. I want to read, and this class in a certain way is a kind of a tour of Mahayana terms, which here, out of perhaps the corner of the ear, But reading the Lotus Sutra brings us right up to them. And I want to read a little piece that you don't have that describes a Buddha field. It's talking about Kasyapa. who's one of our ancestors. Can't, I'm not remembering right now where he is in the lineage.

[06:09]

Mahakasyapa, he's after Buddha. Yeah. Kasyapa is just getting, Buddha is extolling Kasyapa's character. And amongst his other ancestors, qualities, Buddha says, his, Kasyapa's, land shall be pure with vajraya for soil, with many jeweled trees in rows by roadsides, and with gold cord bordering the highways, so that they who see shall rejoice. It shall ever produce goodly scents and be strewn with a multitude of outstanding flowers of many varieties and of rare and wonderful beauty, with which it shall be adorned. Its soil shall be flat and even, having no mounds or crevices. Its multitude of bodhisattvas shall be impossible to reckon, their thoughts being tame and gentle.

[07:14]

And they themselves, having reached great supernatural penetration, reverently upholding the Buddha's canon of the great vehicle." So that's just a little glimpse, a little snapshot of a Buddha field. So, what is our experience of a Buddha field? Or how can we draw that in to where we are? I think when we talk about Buddha fields, we talk about the space that we're in. Now, if we're walking around and we are in a kind of clench, of self-criticism or feeling angry with somebody else or in a very self-centered place, the space that we inhabit would not be described as I just described, as this Buddha field was just described.

[08:24]

A Buddha field is a place where the teaching can be received and the space So when we are in a place where we are open and have calm mind, we're in a place where we can both receive the teaching and manifest the teaching. And there's this kind of lovely landscape quality So when Buddha nature is completely understood, when one's own Buddha nature is completely understood, the world becomes beautiful. And it doesn't matter so much what the conditions are.

[09:31]

You know, Jocko R. Beck talks about the transition that we make from self-centered practice, where we think there's something to get, to the practice of just experiencing what comes. Maureen Stewart used to say, no matter what comes, don't take a step to avoid it. that instead of trying to putting oneself forth, one just takes what comes, appreciating it as the Buddha's way. And Dogen says, just understand that birth and death in itself are nirvana.

[10:36]

There is nothing such as birth and death to be avoided. There is nothing such as nirvana to be sought. Only when you realize this are you free from birth and death. This is a very common sort of tricky Zen. What? What are you reading? I'm reading from chapter six, the bestowed prophecy. I guess I'm a little confused about no matter what comes, don't take steps to avoid it. In what spirit does that mean? I mean, what attitude is that? It's attitude of really complete trust that whatever comes is going to be a teaching. that whatever comes is going to be okay, including death.

[11:39]

It doesn't mean though that you don't get out of the way. No, no it doesn't. You meet it. Whatever it is, you meet it. And respond. And you respond, absolutely. It's not a passive position. But it's not a grasping position. Wherever you are in all six realms of existence is the opportunity to practice. That's right. That's right. There's a difference between the opportunity and being receptive to it. I mean, they're two different... There's an opportunity and there's a... being receptive to the opportunity. And that's nuts.

[12:46]

I mean, the Buddhafield is the receptive mind in the presence of the opportunity. But the environment itself is not going to be different. For me, when I heard you describing that, it sounds like that would be something that is very nice and warm and I want to go there because it's kind of cozy. Yeah, as it's read, it sounds very idealized. extremely idealized. And actually the progress of the whole sutra is to move more and more in the direction that you're talking about. That what's going to happen is that the earth, one of the things that's going to happen is that the earth is going to open and there's going to be a stupa come out and there's going to be Shakyamuni and another Buddha and there's going to be a lot of talk about

[13:55]

the Tathagatas, the beings who are just nothing but present here in the Saha world and the Saha, our world of endurance becomes more and more emphasized. So there's a kind of progress within the Sutra from grand idealization to the emphasis that everything is in fact is happening here. So that's an important point. I also think that what Anne says is a good response to it. That we always have some, we always have responsibility for our mind state. And we can meet something and just not be there. Or we can meet something and really appreciate the opportunity and be open and responsive. Because it seems to me that that's a lot of what this practice is about, is getting rid of the stuff that's in the way of being receptive, because the moment's always there.

[15:07]

It's just whether you're there to meet it. That's right. There's so much stuff in the way. That's right. Which is another response to Ross's remark that the moment is always there. The Buddha field is always there. We may not be recognizing it. Stuff is what? Self-consciousness? Is that what the stuff is? Yeah, whatever the small mind. Preconceptions of any kind, really. It's the screen that you put between you and the world so that You don't see it the way that it actually is, you see it through some other kind of lens based on any number of things that have happened. That's right, the cage. So and then we come to chapter 7. which is the Parable of the Conjured City. And I didn't copy the first page of that chapter, but I'm going to read it.

[16:21]

The Buddha declared to the Beaks Shoes, long ago, beyond incalculable, limitless, inconceivable and unutterable asam kalpas, at that time there was a Buddha named Victorious, through great penetrating knowledge. A thus come one, a Tathagata, worthy of offerings, right and universal knowledge, his clarity and conduct, perfect, well gone, understanding of the world. so on. I want to stop here and talk a little bit more about Tagata, the thus come one, the one just come, the one just gone. And I want to read a little bit from Katagiri.

[17:29]

Here's a section that's called One Finger that is about the Tathagata. If you want to learn life, you must simultaneously learn death. If you try to learn only life and ignore death, your life becomes very dry. You have to learn both life and death. This is the Buddhist way. Buddha is represented as the Tathagata in Sanskrit. Tathagata means looks like coming, looks like going. In Buddhism, we say no going, no coming. Buddha is not an angel or some kind of divinity who has just control over your life. Buddha is just coming, just going. Looks like going is a wonderful term to use to express the truth. When you want to express the total function of a thing, say a fish when it swims in water, the function of the fish is exactly one with the function of the water. However, consciousness always sees the fish as being separate from the water. That is why you cannot see exactly the total function of the fish becoming one with the water.

[18:53]

But real fish is no discrimination between water and fish. They are one. But they are not one because they are two. But they are not two. They are really working together. So we say, looks like fish. Life and death means looks like going, looks like coming. When you are about to die, can you say where you're going? We don't know where we are going. But just because you don't know where you are headed does not mean you are not going. So just be here now. This is the Buddha Tathagata. Just going. Just coming. I don't know if that makes anything clearer, but maybe it gives a little more background. Because it's interesting to think about a fish, seeing the fish, and imagining that it's separate.

[20:01]

But the Tathagata is able just to pick up the whole piece. So one's experience is the whole thing, and it can't be articulated, but... and it has to be very spontaneous, but it's a very unobstructed way of seeing, which a little bit addresses what you were talking about. So Buddha is talking to the assembly and now celebrating a Tathagata and he's now going to talk about this trans-historical Buddha because since that Buddha

[21:12]

a Buddha named Great Appearance, passed into extinction in a remote age. That time has been great and long indeed. So now we've had this before and it's a continuation about talking about Buddhas before Buddhas before Buddhas. For example, and now here's a passage about time. For example, suppose a hypothetical man took all the kinds of earth there are in the thousand-million-fold world and ground them into ink powder. And after carrying the powder through a thousand lands, at last deposited a bit the size of a particle of dust. Then after passing through another thousand lands, deposited another particle. And so on, depositing them a bit at a time until all the particles had been exhausted. In your opinion, how would it be? Where these lands are concerned, could an abacus master or his disciple ever reach the limit of these lands and know their number, or could he not?"

[22:20]

And the crowd responds, he could not. O Bikus, if the lands this man passed through whether he made a deposit in them or not, were all ground to dust, and if each grain of dust were to equal one kalpa, the time since that Buddha's passage into extinction would still exceed their full number by incalculable, limitless, hundreds of thousands, myriads of millions of kalpas. Thanks to the thus-come-ones' power of knowledge and insight, I see that time in the remote and distant past as if it is this very day. So this is enormous spread of time which is present. So that everything that we do in the present picks up past future time.

[23:21]

Don't waste time. The article in the latest newsletter was Suzuki Roshi's little talk about don't waste time. Because this time is a very grand thing. And Dogen writes a great deal and it's very difficult about time in this very grand and very present way. So... Oh, there was one more thing. I'm sorry. There was one more thing I wanted to say about the Tathagata. We're not going to get to it, but there's a very beautiful passage about what the Tathagata is in

[24:32]

preachers of the Dharma. And this is a more feeling-oriented passage. The abode of the Tathagata is the great compassionate heart within all living beings. The robe of the Tathagata is the gentle and forbearing heart. The throne of the Tathagata is the voidness of all laws. so this is a beautiful combination of wisdom and compassion in the suchness of the moment so now we get to I think it's the sixth parable which is called the Parable of the Conjured City.

[25:36]

And this you do have a copy of. And this comes in the context of, once again, this very familiar context of the audience rejoicing, the joy of the audience at hearing a teaching which has never before been heard. All this may be likened to the following. There is a steep, difficult, very bad road, 500 yajanas in length, empty and devoid of human beings, a frightful place. There is a great multitude wishing to traverse this road to arrive at a cache of precious jewels. There is a guide, perceptive and wise, of penetrating clarity, who knows the hard road, its passable and impassable features, and who, wishing to get through these hardships, leads the multitude. The multitude, being led, get disgusted midway and say to the guide, we are exhausted and also frightened.

[26:42]

We cannot go on. It is still a long way off, and we wish now to turn back. The guide, being a man of many skillful devices, thinks, These wretches are to be pitied. How can they throw away a fortune and jewels and wish instead to turn back? When he has had this thought, with his power of devising expedience, he conjures up on that steep road, 300 yojanas away, a city. And then he declares to the multitude, have no fear. There is no need to turn back. Here is the great city. You may stop in it and do as you please. If you enter the city, you can quickly regain your composure. If you then feel able to proceed to the jeweled cache, you will also be free to leave. At that time, the exhausted multitude, overjoyed at heart, sigh as at something they had never had before, saying, we have escaped that bad road and shall quickly regain our composure. Thereupon, the multitude proceed to enter the conjured city, having the notion that they are saved and evincing a feeling of composure.

[27:47]

At that time, the guide, knowing that the multitude have rested and are no longer fatigued, straightaway dissolves the conjured city and says to the multitude, come away. The jewel cache is near. The great city of a while ago was conjured up by me for the purpose of giving you a rest, nothing more. O Bhikshus, the Tathagata is also like this. He now functions as a great guide for you all. He knows that the bad road of agonies of birth and death is steep and hard, long and far reaching, but that it must be crossed over and left behind. Knowing also that if the beings do but hear of a single Buddha vehicle, they will have no wish to see the Buddha or approach him thinking the Buddha path is long and far off. It is only by long submission to suffering that one can achieve it. The Buddha knowing this state of mind to be cowardly and mean, by resort to his power to devise expedience, preaches two nirvanas midway for the purpose of giving him rest.

[28:53]

The two vehicles that we've been hearing about. When the beings take up residence in these two lands, then the Tathagata preaches to them, what you had to do is not yet done. The lands in which you dwell are near to Buddha knowledge. You must observe and consider and weigh and measure. The nirvana you have gained is not the real one. This is simply the thus come one's power to devise expedience. Within the one Buddha vehicle, he speaks of threefold distinctions. He is like that guide. who, to give the travelers rest, conjured up a great city. But who, when he knew they were rested, declared to them, the jewel cache is near, the city is not real, being nothing more than a magical creation. Would I assume that the first teaching is the Theravada teaching and the second teaching is the Upanishad? That's right. That's right. That's the political context of most of these parables.

[29:59]

And if we think of this story, this conjured up city, in terms of, in more immediate terms, of our own experience, what can we come up with? What I come up with is our ideas of practice. You know, it's very hard not to have some idea of what practice is about, particularly at the beginning, and even all the way through. It's certainly been my experience that from time to time I figure out, oh, this is the way to sit Zazen. The way I used to sit Zazen wasn't really the way.

[31:04]

Can you explain? What do you mean it wasn't the way? Well, you get a new insight into how to sit. And it seems like what you've been doing before was really sort of not right. How long were you doing it? Oh, I've decided this, I mean I've been sitting for 20 years and I think the last time I decided that I've been doing it wrong was about a year ago. But when you were at that time, that time, that was your practice. Yeah. It was true for you then. Yeah. But I did have an idea about it. That's right. And the idea changed. And the idea changed. That's right, that's right. You have to keep having landing places. You're always on this hard, difficult road. But some kind of conjured city... Why have a landing place?

[32:05]

What? Why have a landing place? Well, what if you don't? Where are you? Just on a long, hard road. Well, hitchhiking doesn't work very well. Hitchhiking is treacherous. Whatever vehicle you want to hop onto. So, how is your sitting now, this past year? This past year? It's a little different. I have a different idea of what sitting is. What is your idea? I'm not going to go into it right now. But it seems quite magical and wonderful. So being willing to give up

[33:15]

to notice what ideas you have about practice and be willing to give them up. Two difficult things. Perhaps the hardest is to just notice what ideas you have about practice to begin with. And this is all part of this business of do you carry yourself forth or are you allowing the many things to enlighten you? How are you negotiating this long, hard road? Are you trying to hop on some kind of good vehicle, a motorcycle, a car, or something, and move ahead? Or are you just listening to what the road is saying?

[34:17]

And I'd like to read something Kobinchino wrote. I was at Jikoji a while back and this was just handwritten on a bulletin board that had come out of one of Kobin's lectures. Dogen said, and it's in Japanese English, Dogen said, to study and to practice Buddha's way is to practice yourself, to learn yourself. And to carry yourself among things and understand things is illusion. Whatever you understand, all are illusions. To let all things come to you and be awakened by them is enlightenment. So difficult problem exists. How to let things completely happen in me, to let things exist in me, So constant practice is to keep complete purest pureness.

[35:19]

That is the only way. Most honest you keep. And at that time you begin to hear a little sound. Everything is talking to you. Completely you offer your mind and body for the true, for the tune of Zazen. and let you be like that and let things, I'm sorry, completely you offer your mind and body for the truth of Zazen and let you be like that and let things happen as they go. So what will happen is not promised. So we think this conjured city is up there. We think that something must be promised. Very hard not to. Oh no.

[36:21]

I thought we were just talking about this promise of enlightenment. That's right. This prediction of enlightenment turns out to be a conjured city. Oh. Yeah. I mean, it's a really difficult problem to have faith and belief in something you can't understand. It's just terribly difficult. But isn't also, I mean, the promise of enlightenment, it seemed to me also that what he was saying in the very beginning to whoever it was, Shariputra, was relax. You'll get to be enlightened. Don't worry about it. Not, not don't, I mean he was saying don't get hung up on the idea of it happening and wait for it, like we were talking about before, but he's also saying just relax, it'll happen.

[37:23]

You know, you will get enlightened. That's right. So in that sense it's not a conjured city. That's right. That's right. How to let things completely happen to me. How to let things exist in me. Yeah. without putting myself forward. How just to completely relax into the perfect background. But if you think you're there, you're not there. So where are you? Yeah. And I'm skipping many passages about how extremely difficult this all is. And how the effort that people, these bodhisattvas and buddhas, in all these incalculable time spans have been making. Eric? Yeah. What's kind of come to me as I listen to you talk, I listen to other people talk, is that I guess in my mind there's a dichotomy between either, you know, we're already perfectly enlightened just the way we are, or we need to make this great effort.

[38:38]

And it seems to me like I'm walking on a tightrope, and always from focusing on one to focusing on the other. And then it just dawns on me that maybe in a way that I don't see, that that's a false dichotomy. That even though it appears to me to be an either-or choice, that maybe in some way that I don't understand, it isn't really. Right. [...] To be in the middle way, that is our practice. and the middle way, there's no dichotomy. How about both and? Both and. I suppose. I think also all the things that I've, all the dialogues that I've seen over the years about Lotus Sutra, it always seems like the footnote on all of them is That's right, that's right.

[39:49]

So I don't try to understand it now. Good, but you can explain. I want to read the last parable that I'm going to read and then... There's yet another prophecy, the receipt of prophecy of 500 disciples. And once again, it's the same theme that, my goodness, what we're getting is more than we ever imagined. And it may be likened to this case. A destitute man goes to the house of a close friend. The house is very rich and great. It is fully stocked with delicacies. Taking a priceless jewel, the rich man attaches it to his friend's garment inside. Then, leaving it in silence, he goes away, while his friend, lying down at the time, is aware of nothing.

[40:54]

The latter, having arisen, travels to another country where, seeking food and clothing, he supports himself. But the maintenance of life is very hard. He is satisfied with the little he gets and has no wish at all for good things. He is unaware that inside his garment there is a priceless jewel. The close friend who gave him the jewel later sees this poor man and having sternly rebuked him shows him the jewel tied to the garment. The poor man seeing this jewel is overjoyed at heart. In his wealth he comes to own various precious objects able to satisfy his five desires at will. We also were thus, for the world honored one throughout the long night of time, ever in his pity teaching and converting, has caused us to plant the seeds of the unexcelled vow. So once again, the lines about he is satisfied with the little he gets and has no wish at all for good things is a dig at the,

[42:05]

the old schools. And this precious tool is the Buddha knowledge that we've had. I just find it so hard to get past the imagery in the sutra, coming all the way through. Even the Buddha field sounds like this very sterile thing made out of cloth or something. And everything put in terms of wealth, You know, in these wealthy homes. And being poor is bad. It's something that no one would possibly... It's really difficult to get past the language. It's like technical. Well, some people, you know, and then the Japanese really turn it over, so there's this wonderful spare quality, which is generally easier for us to take.

[43:07]

So, you know, there's a vast field of Buddhist literature, and some of it, if one doesn't connect, one doesn't connect. I do just want to read a little bit from Dogen's fascicle on this one bright jewel, and this is how the theme gets translated into a different culture. The great master Gensha had a religious name of Shibi. In lay life, he enjoyed fishing and used to ply his boat on the Nandai River, following the ways of the fishermen. It's a nice kind of bare bones story.

[44:10]

He must have had, without expectation, the golden fish which comes up by itself without being fished out. That is. he had some kind of spontaneous enlightenment. He suddenly wished to leave the world. He left his boat and went into the mountains. He was 30 years old at the time. Realizing the peril of the ephemeral world, he came to know the lofty value of the Buddha way. And finally he climbed Snowy Peak Mountain and called on the great Zen master, Seppo, and worked in the way day and night. One time, in order to make a thorough study of Zen, as taught all over the country, he took his knapsack and headed out into the mountain. But on the way, he stubbed his toe on a rock, and as it bled painfully, he suddenly had a powerful insight and said, this body is not existent. Where does the pain come from? So he had his first shot of

[45:14]

of Buddha knowledge and then he went on to mature it and then he had this question. And then he went on to be a teacher. After he had finally attained the way, he said to people, the whole world in all ten directions is a single bright jewel. Then a monk asked, I hear you have a saying that the whole world in all ten directions is one bright jewel. How can a student understand that? The master said, the whole world in all ten directions is one bright jewel. What does it have to do with understanding? The next day the master asked the monk, the whole world in all ten directions is one bright jewel. How do you understand? The monk replied, the whole world in 10 directions is one bright jewel. What does it have to do with understanding? The master said, I knew you were making a living in a ghost cave in the mountain of darkness.

[46:21]

So here we are back in the riddles of death. So at least it's not the opulence and the ritual. But there's an equal amount of puzzle. That tickles something in me, you know? That tickles something? You mean that? Yeah, that kind of puzzle's okay. I'm not going... I'm just going to read one more pass. then there's a lot of this kind of business. Then, hanging it inside the clothing is considered to be the way, that is the jewel. Don't say you'll hang it on the outside. Hanging it in the top knot or under the jaw is considered to be the way. Don't sport it on the outside of the top knot or jaw. There is a close friend who gives the jewel to you while you're intoxicated with wine.

[47:26]

To a close friend, the jewel should be given. At the time when the jewel is hung, one is always intoxicated with one. This being so, then though it seems to go changing faces, turning or not turning, it is a bright jewel. It is precisely knowing that the jewel has all along been thus that is itself the bright jewel. The bright jewel has sound and form, which sounds this way. What is more, it is merely causing resemblance to small measure. Isn't it lovely? Such lusters and lights of the bright jewel are unlimited. Each flicker, each beam of each luster, each light is a quality of the whole world in all ten directions. Who can take them away?" So, that

[48:29]

another way of talking about what is not possible to understand. So, Bob, why don't you pick up from here. Yeah. So, Amelia, you for the last four, this is week four. This is week four. Sutra. Yeah. Yeah. And so you've gone through various chapters? We started at the first, the introductory chapter and Suzuki Roshi gave lectures on this sutra and he talked about the perfect, that this sutra represents our perfect background. And if you're aware of your perfect background you don't need to fear anything that happens to you. So we talked about that and then the second chapter And I didn't talk about laws of appearances, but we did talk about the skillful means, the second chapter. And then we talked about belief and discernment, the father and the son, and the magical cloud, the herbal cloud.

[49:51]

So you've done more than what I've ever done in terms of the Lotus Sutra. I have this copy of the Lotus Sutra and I also have the new Burton Watson's new translation of the Lotus Sutra which I've bought but have not read. But what I've read of the Lotus Sutra is just full of all this magical technicolor Buddhism and stupas jumping out of the earth and arriving in the sky and all this kind of wondrous stuff. I think what I guess I can share about the Lotus Sutra, I think I will, I certainly am not, first of all, from the start I can't say that I'm any kind of expert or, you know, I'm not going to expound on the Lotus Sutra or the Jurial Chapter, but I did bring something that I can share that sort of condenses the sense of the Jurial Chapter, if that's what you wanted to get. But I think what I can share about the Lotus Sutra is my own experience of it.

[50:57]

vis-a-vis the practice of Nichiren's Buddhism. So I'm sort of a unique person. I would call myself a bi-Buddhist, because I'm probably one of the few people to actually maintain two practices. I've been practicing Buddhism for 10 years and started practicing Nichiren's Buddhism through the Soka Gakkai. and practiced for many, many years within that organization, and then stopped, left the organization, and hooked into Hartford Street Zen Center, where I met not only Zen Chin, but also Yi San. So Yi San became my first Zen teacher, and I was with him for a year until he died, and then I'm now practicing with Zen Chin. So I've had this interesting experience of having these two aspects of Buddhism. Nichiren's Buddhism is based on the Lotus Sutra.

[51:58]

So I think what I have in terms of the Lotus Sutra is like a physical practice that emerged that was literally created by Nichiren. Natron was a contemporary of Dogen. They lived at the same time period, although we talked on the phone. As far as I know, there's no record that they ever met. They have two, Zen and Nichiren's Buddhism. That's why it's so interesting I practiced both because they almost have polar viewpoints. Where Bodhidharma says that Zen is a transmission outside the sutras, Nichiren says the Lotus Sutra is Buddhism. So, you have these two different ways of looking at something, and on one level they contradict it, and on another level they don't, in my personal practice. Because what I see, this chant that we're all familiar with, it reads, Dharma gates are boundless, and I vow to enter them.

[53:00]

Always really struck me when I started to realize that there is all kinds of ways to perceive the Dharma. So I think what Nitran did was he took this mystical teaching, this amazing book, which is full of all kinds of imagery, and he studied it, and played with it, and who knows what else he did with it, but he embodied it in the form of what is called a Goansang, which is actually a scroll. And it's about this big, and everyone who practices has one. And what it is, is the physical embodiment of the Lotus Sutra. So, I'm going to pass something around which will probably help us keep focused here. First of all, how much time do we have? Because I really don't want to... Stop about ten of nine. Stop around ten of nine. Okay, we can do that. And then I also want to keep it sort of dialogue-ish.

[54:04]

I don't want to talk and talk and talk. So if you have questions, stop me. So I'm going to pass this around. And this will keep us sort of on track. And I'll explain the basic practice of Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism. And then from that will come maybe questions about the Lotus Sutra. A lot of times people want to know exactly what it is that Nichiren's Buddhism is, because it has this strange reputation. A lot of people, like when I first met Zenshin, he said, oh, that's that Nam-myoho-renge-kupta-vil thing. You chant for money. Whatever. So a lot of people do that, but that is not the basis for this practice.

[55:07]

Nietzsche never taught people to chant for lots of money or material things. That's sort of an erroneous reputation that this has gained. The actual practice of Nichiren's Buddhism is the recitation of two chapters of the Lotus Sutra, excerpts of the Lotus Sutra, Chapter 2 and Chapter 16, which takes about 25 minutes to 30 minutes to recite. It's a book, which I'll pass around, that is this, and the words look like this, very similar to the sort of Japanese chanting that we do in the zendo. I can pass that around. And then, the second part, after you chant the book, then you chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, which I've heard Meili say that you actually chant it at the top, and I'm not sure. Now, it ends up being not Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, really slow,

[56:09]

It does in the beginning when you're learning, but eventually it becomes... It becomes literally a vibration. If we all actually did it, this whole room would be buzzing. It would be literally a vibration, which ends up rendering a very physical effect. So that's the physical chanting part of the practice. The practice is directed toward the Gohonzon, which is the scroll that I mentioned earlier. I don't have a picture of it, but it's calligraphy. And I did explain what the Gohonzon is down here where I said the The Gohonzon represents the spiritual aspect and mystic teaching of the Lotus Sutra. The Gohonzon is the physical manifestation of enlightenment. It provides the correct environment for attaining individual enlightenment, wisdom, and insight.

[57:22]

Nitran believes that the, you might say, the seed or the inherent aspect of enlightenment which permeates the universe was embodied as a mystic teaching within the Lotus Sutra. So his creation was the Gohonzon that enabled, so I think what he felt, I'm sort of like playing with my thoughts about Nitran. You can't dialogue with this guy, it's 600 years ago, but my feeling was that he felt exactly what we feel. The Lotus Sutra is an incomprehensible, amazingly technicolor teaching, which required some sort of focus. I feel like his enlightened step was to create something to enable people to connect with that teaching in a physical way. It would be, to me, I think when people are around somebody who's bright, who has a very, you know, what I would call a high life condition, and you get this resonance or this feeling from this person, and when they leave, you're left with that sense, I think that's what he's trying to do when he created the Guansan.

[58:39]

He was trying to create some sort of an object that we could relate to, that we could actually tap into. At the same time, when people say to me, well, I mean, how can you relate to an inanimate object? Again, that's why I pulled out two of, two of the quotes underneath that said, which sort of negates all the stuff that exists outside of you, because it really doesn't. This is a quote from Nietzsche, never seek the Gohonzon outside yourself. The Gohonzon exists only within the mortal flesh of us ordinary people who embrace the Lotus Sutra and chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. And then in another excerpt, you may think you offered gifts to the treasure tower of Tahoe Buddha. By the way, the Gohonzon is also a representation of that stupa that we read about that arises from the earth. You may think that you offered gifts to the treasure tower of Tahu Buddha, but that is not so.

[59:40]

You offered them to yourself. You yourself are a true Buddha who possesses the three enlightened properties. You should chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with this conviction. I think, you know, I have a very stressful kind of a job. I work with emotionally disturbed kids. I've been working with kids for about 10 years. And I think when we were talking about your Zen practice and sitting in Zazen and having this sort of a transformation within your practice. I feel like that happens to me in Zazen, and that also happens to me in my relationship to this Gohanzon. It's like a mirror. You're constantly looking at yourself, but not in some sort of an egotistic way. You're constantly rearranging yourself in relationship to the universe, because that, in a way, is also what the Lotus Sutra, to me, represents an aspect of the mystical

[60:44]

Wonders of the universe that are a part of all of us so with that kind of relationship going on With a physical practice you cannot help I mean it's not even a it's not even a mental thing to me the physical practice of chanting enables me to in some molecular way, rearrange my body and spirit to the rhythm of the universe. And I know that's kind of a strange, it sounds, does this make any sense? No. No, it's not making sense. It's a way for me to connect to the universe. And I think that's what a lot of people try to do with our Buddhist practice. If we sort of you know, go back to our original thought about why, everyone has a different story about why you practice Buddhism. And somehow, some people start it because they just want to be, they want a spiritual practice and they're sick of what they're doing. Maybe they came from another background and they want to try something different. For me, it was just that I wanted some connection to spirit or to nature.

[61:53]

And I would say that this is definitely one of those Dharma gates. I think that that to me is the essence of the Lotus Sutra. It provides a way in to the universe. And this chanting practice is a way to, on a vibrational level, vocal vibrational level, connect to the universe. Is this making sense? So, what is your chanting practice? I mean, when do you do it? When do you do it? It's very similar, like with Zazen, I mean, you sit in the morning, and you sit in the evening. Isn't that what most people do? With chanting, it's the same way. You do Gong Yu, and before you go to work, After you've had breakfast, the Gohanzon is always enshrined in an altar area.

[62:55]

It would be like this. And there's a Butsudon, and then there's a Gohanzon, and you have a candle, and the whole, you know, just a regular Buddhist altar. And you would open it up and you'd chant. By myself? By yourself. for 20 minutes or however long you have to chant and that would be your practice. That would be your morning practice and the same thing at night. And you chant that whole book. I'm sorry. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. You chant the book first and then when that's finished then you chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo for as long as you want. Excuse me. Are you a bi-practitioner? Yes. So I do both. People ask, well, which do you do more? I chant more than I sit Zazen. And people ask, well, why is that? Does that mean that one's better than the other?

[63:56]

I would never say that one is better than the other. To me, because of my energy and the kind of work I do, the chanting enables me to sort of ground myself. where Zazen doesn't have that impact. Zazen to me is a sort of a, it creates an introspective energy. And the chanting creates more of a, another, it goes, it flows out and in, and the Zazen brings you back in and down. Does that make any sense? It's really a different sort of an energy, and they're very complementary. So I never say one is better than the other. I just say that they complement each other, which is why I maintain both. So. You said that the chat creates a vibration. Absolutely. Do you feel that the words or the sounds could be replaced easily by other sounds that you could then chat?

[65:00]

Or do you have some intuitive So many hundreds of years ago, they have a particular potency, like a power. I think it's important what you chant. I mean, I think, I mean, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, and there's, and people always want to know what that means. And there is, I did provide a translation below. But briefly, nam-myoho-renge-kyo means devotion to, or fusion with, the mystic law, which means the incomprehensible aspects of the universe, of cause and effect, the simultaneity of cause and effect. In other words, what you do, say, feel, think, and whatever has an immediate effect upon the environment, either now or later in time.

[66:07]

And then kyo means sound vibration. It also means sort of the warp of the cloth and the consistency of a teaching. I mean, all these words have, they're sort of, they're loaded. I mean, they've got all kinds of different nuances. But I think that the, I think that it's an invocation. I mean, there is an aspect of this teaching that I just, I don't want to use the word magic, but in a way it's an appropriate word. It's not like, you know, manipulative magic or anything like that. But there is a sort of, I think, a vibrational charge that comes from aligning yourself to a law that is intrinsic to the universe. So I'm not chanting some erroneous thing, like chanting to some It's not like a superstition. Do you know what I mean? I think there's a difference between aligning yourself with the law that is within the universe as opposed to some, you know, something that I just decided to make up, you know, chant Coca-Cola, you know, or whatever.

[67:20]

That would stimulate a vibration, too, if I chanted Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola. I mean, there's a vibration to that, too. But, I mean, what am I aligning with? I'm aligning with some soft drink. You know, so... So I think it is important what you chant. I don't think it's just an arbitrary thing. You haven't then been tempted to improvise? No. To abstract sounds? No. So the meaning of it is something that you're quite continuously aware of? I'm not aware. When I chant, I know what I'm chanting, so I don't bring it up here. to think, well, I'm chanting in fusion with the mystic law of cause and effect. I'm not thinking that. I'm just chanting it. But on another level, I know what I'm chanting. Does that make sense? Most of us probably have heard about the Sotugakai through the rich and famous and their chanting.

[68:27]

Where did that, and that's not what Nichiren was teaching, but somehow another that has come into vogue and where does the traditional essence of the teaching stop and where it's kind of been twisted or manipulated in a way. So you're asking where did the Soka Gakkai come from or where did they step in? Yeah, that's kind of general. Nichiren Shoshu, which means orthodox school of Buddhism, is a long lineage and has existed for as long as 700 years or so. from Nichiren's time. So he passed on a transmission, very much like Zen transmissions, from disciple, so it has a succession of high priests to the present high priest. There is also a head temple in Japan called Taisekiji at the foot of Mount Fuji.

[69:35]

So this is a strict lineage that goes back to Nichiren himself. The Soka Gakkai came in as a lay organization basically around the 50s, and was started by an educator, and his last name was Makiguchi. And then his disciple, Josei Toda, took over when Makiguchi died, and they started what Soka Gakkai means, Value Creation Society. So what happened at that time period, I feel like, is that Makiguchi and Josei Toda really created another philosophy, and they call it sort of a value creation philosophy, and they align themselves with Nichiren Shoshu. It wasn't part of the lineage. It was not part of the lineage. It is, and continues to be a lay movement. And now there's a third president, Daisaku Ikeda.

[70:39]

It's a very controversial organization for obvious reasons, because it begins to blend another teaching. really into a religious teaching, an orthodox teaching. As a matter of fact, this is a whole other issue, and it's a whole other, you know, we could go on and on about this, but to make a long story really, really short, the Soka Gakkai has been excommunicated by the Nichiren Shoshu organization about almost two years ago. So they are no longer officially associated with Nichiren Shoshu. There are now two avenues to practice this particular type of Buddhism. One would be through the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood organization. and they have a temple in Penelope, or through the Soka Gakkai, which still continues to be a lay organization. But the basic practice is the same?

[71:41]

The basic practice is the same. I think where they diverge is again with this so-called value creation philosophy, where you It's a whole philosophy that, you know, I think where the reputation of a chanting for things is Soka Gakkai stuff. Some of it, in all honesty, is not negative. In other words, I really feel that people can use the practice of this Buddhism to actualize physical manifestations in their life, and it can be a positive thing. Does that make any sense? I think it's perfectly okay to chant for things you need. There's nothing bad about that. But I think that it just became out of control. I think somehow that philosophy began to overshadow the spiritual aspect of enlightenment. I mean, you're not practicing to

[72:42]

Who saw Tina Turner's movie? I was just going to bring that up. It really showed in the movie, too, that she really used that practice to gain strength in her life to move out of an abusive situation. Which I think was very positive. I think that's the strength, really, of this Buddhism. Is that it does and it does create some sort of a physical power? To pull people out of a negative situation So thank you, you know sure You mean in a different way things you've experienced in your sauce in Because I think you're just yours it's an energy thing you're dealing with the different sort of of an intention. I think it's more... I know it's very interesting. I think when I sit Zazen, I don't... If I have a hard day, I don't go to the Zendo and think about during Zazen how I'm going to change the situation around.

[73:47]

You're really supposed to let go of that stuff. Everything I've ever read in Zazen, everything I've ever been taught, you're not supposed to sit there and stew. even though you probably do, on many levels, but you're not supposed to somehow come up with some sort of solution. But you're invited to do that in this practice. You're invited to actually direct your energy to the Gohonzon, which really is sort of symbolic of directing your inquiry to some deep level of wisdom within yourself. See, it always comes back to yourself anyway. But it is a physical practice that enables you to get in to yourself. The mystic part of it is that you end up with some sort of result. I mean, as I said, I've been doing this for 10 years and always come up with some sort of answer, which ends up being a positive resolution. There's an interesting quote, and I think that I'll read something from one of Nichiren's goshos.

[75:01]

Nichiren Daishonin wrote volumes of stuff that we still have to his disciples, and they're now compiled as they're called goshos. And I think this explains what Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is in a very good way. What then does myo signify? It is simply the mysterious nature of our lives from moment to moment, which the mind cannot comprehend nor words express. When you look into your own mind at any moment, you perceive neither color nor form to verify that it exists, yet you still cannot say it does not exist, for many different thoughts continually occur to you. Life is indeed an elusive reality that transcends both the words and concepts of existence and non-existence.

[76:04]

It is neither existence nor non-existence, yet exhibits the qualities of both. It is the mystic entity of the middle way that is the reality of all things. Myo is the name given to the mystic nature of life and Ho to its manifestation. So Myoho of Na Myoho Renge Kyo. Renge, the lotus flower, symbolizes the wonder of this law. Once you realize that your own life is the mystic law, you will realize that so are the lives of all others. That realization is the mystic kyo, or sutra. It is the king of sutras, the direct path to enlightenment, for it explains the entity of our minds, from which spring both good and evil. It is, in fact, the entity of the mystic wa. If you have deep faith in this truth and chant Myoho Renge Kyo, you are certain to attain Buddhahood in this lifetime.

[77:06]

So, and there's another one. Whether you chant the Buddha's name, recite the sutra, or merely offer flower and incense, all your virtuous acts will implant benefit and good fortune in your life. With this conviction, you should put your faith into practice. For example, the Jomyo Sutra says the Buddha's enlightenment is to be found in human life, thus showing that common mortals can attain Buddhahood, and that the sufferings of birth and death can be transformed into nirvana. It further states that if the minds of the people are impure, their land is also impure. But if their minds are pure, so is their land. There are not two lands, pure or impure, in themselves. The difference lies solely in the good or evil of our minds.

[78:08]

So the practice of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, from the perspective of Nichiren, would be to purify your life. And there's a concept in this Buddhism called, well there's two concepts actually that sort of interlink. One is called Esho-funi, which means the oneness and connection between your life and the environment. And then there's a concept known as Hendaku Iyaku, which means transforming negativity into poison, or negativity into benefit or into medicine. So how that works is the chanting from the perspective of Nidran again, is to purify your life so that you are able to transform negative karma into something positive. When you change something within yourself, you automatically have an effect on your environment. It's like a body in shadow. So if your body is straight, so is your environment.

[79:14]

If you have a crooked body, so is your environment. You have problems in your life, something is wrong inside. is what this teaching really is all about. If there's something wrong with your karma, you take a look at yourself, change something within yourself. You change something within yourself and that thing out there will automatically respond to you. Part of what I like about Buddhism in general is it really teaches you not to rearrange the furniture. It tells you how to rearrange yourself and your environment responds. So I, I want to stop because it is 10 am, I don't want it. How does Zen practice fit into your life? How does it fit or does it fit? Yeah, how does it fit into your life? How does it fit into my life? I meet with, okay I'm still connected with Hartford Street Zen Center. I go there, and as a matter of fact, I'm a board member over there.

[80:16]

I meet with Zenshin on a fairly regular basis. I sit Zazen, not on a daily basis. I sit, I would say I sit Zazen twice a week in the Zendo and sometimes at home. I mean, how does it complement? Oh, how does it complement? I think there's times when you get Again, when you're dealing with an energy thing, when you're dealing with, if you are involved with problems in your life and you're constantly trying to change them, there's a time when you get weary of battling. And I don't mean to say that I'm constantly battling problems, because I'm definitely not. But there's a time to be introspective. And there's a time to, like, have a different kind of connection. And this is very unique to me. I mean, I think, I'm definitely not recommending this, because I think it would be confusing to a lot of people. But this comes at the end. You're seeing me at the end of ten years of doing this stuff. Five years ago I would never be able to do this.

[81:18]

And ten years ago I would never have sat zazen, period. Now, and that's where I think what you said about that change or landing in different places I think is really applicable here because I feel like, you know, this is where I am now. You know, five years from now maybe I'll be somewhere else. But so far, I mean, right now it enables me to stop and to do some different kind of listening. Does that make sense? Is there not an element in Soka Gakkai of proselytization and ranks and organization? That's changed a lot. My position with the Soka Gakkai, I used to be a leader in that organization, and I left because I had a lot of problems with the way it was set up.

[82:21]

It's sort of militaristic. From the benefit of speaking on their behalf, they don't do any of that open proselytizing anymore. You're never going to encounter, unless they change that back, people on the street. They don't march anymore, they don't have these big... they don't do any of these things anymore. Here, I don't know what goes on in other parts of the country, or world rather, I'm very neutralized. I'm not really a member of the Soka Gakkai. I have friends in the Soka Gakkai and I have friends with the priests. But I'm not an organizational person. I found that there's difficulty aligning with organizations. I almost stopped practicing because of organizational problems. I think it's a challenge for practitioners in any particular region. any particular religion, to maintain their autonomy from whatever body or organization, because every organization will have their problems.

[83:37]

Looking back on the Zen community within San Francisco, it's gone through amazing turmoil in the last 10 years. Scandals exist in every religious organization, and it becomes a challenge for every person to maintain their personal relationship to their own practice, separate from the organizations that originally created them. I think that's a really major, that's a, for me, that's an important thing to keep in perspective. But does that proselytization still exist? in the 60s scared the daylights out of me. Yeah, it does not exist in that aggressive way anymore. I mean, it's a very aggressive campaign. They actually have a name for it. It's called Shakabuku. And it means, literally, to bend and to break. And they're very much into... Well, that's what it means.

[84:37]

It means to... Remonstrate with you until you finally give in You know and it's I don't think it's unique to the Soka Gakkai I think if you look back on them I think it's very much part of a lot of religions and and sometimes even parts of some Buddhist religions to where they in not in this time period but back in earlier times they Different sects would get together and remonstrate with each other and try to prove who was more You know, it's just ridiculous nonsense. Well, thank you very much, Rob, for coming and making up this sheet. I thought that maybe it would help. I'm just giving a little glimpse into a very different way of using the sutra. So, I hope that the evaluation sheets will be turned in.

[85:45]

Do you have any feedback now or any thoughts about how these four evenings have whether they've had an impact on your practice, and if so, what piece of it? What you've been carrying around of the Lotus Sutra in the last four weeks. Or maybe not carrying. Well, the only thing that's been in my mind is just how totally ignorant I am of the whole... I even went to Robert Aitken's book, his glossary in the back, Encouraging Words, and just started writing down the names of sutras.

[87:02]

I mean, I know nothing about the landscape of this tradition. And the Lotus Sutra I absolutely have no desire to read anymore. But I just want to know, I want to get some, it's called forth the, I need to study something. I need to study more about what this is all about. Well good, well I hope we can. I would like to another time teach the Surangama Sutra to read it with people. There's so many sutras and they're so very different. Does it have an English name? I don't know. I don't know, but it's how we are enlightened through different senses. Yeah, there's a huge background. When I was younger I had to understand everything when I first started my path many years ago.

[88:13]

And I thought that was, you know, the way to do it, if you understood it, that you could make progress. But as I'd gotten older and, you know, after coming to this class, not being able to understand so much, but to have it come into another channel. You know, I can enjoy poetry now, whereas before I couldn't enjoy it so much. And the little discourses you've given as we've gone along, the little things you've talked about, off from the things that you've read, have been very helpful. I felt some connection with my own experience. And I couldn't put it into words. Yeah.

[89:21]

Stokin says when you receive the jewel you have to be a little intoxicated, you have to be a little drunk. Yeah, it helps. So we have to have some tolerance for that condition. Yeah. I think you have to begin to feel too, and I know when I was younger I didn't have so much ability to feel until some things happened. And then another whole gamut of experiences opened up. So things came in on another level. Yeah. Yeah. How to open our different doors. Some of them. Does this sutra say anything particularly to you vis-a-vis your psychotherapy work? Anything particular? I guess it addresses that work in terms of the cloud of magical herbs.

[90:28]

The very mysterious and accurate way in which we develop. Something murky? Something what? Murky? You just take on by fate? No, I wouldn't say murky, I would say very clear, but so individualized that, as I said I think in that class, that the idea of making diagnoses and systematizing it seems blasphemous. But this kind of meeting between each particular form of life and the the nourishing cloud. You never know how you or anyone else is going to develop, but there is this wonderful course of development that we know intimately, and we know very well when we're on it, and we know very well when we've missed it.

[91:38]

Does that make sense? What would speak to that? Well, thank you very much for coming to these classes in a very constant way. And we'll meet again.

[91:59]

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