Evening, everyone. So, we're in the last week or so of the practice commitment period, we've been looking at the volunteer to suit truck. The chapters that were highlighted and selected for us to focus on, we've talked about sometimes a couple of times. I want to go to one of the other chapters tonight, which wasn't assigned for the practice commitment period, but I'll talk about it anyway. And this is about a feast of fragrances. So we were talking yesterday about various Buddha worlds, we are in the Buddha world

[01:07]

of the Saha world, the world of endurance, maybe you all can recognize that there's a lot to endure in this world. But there are many Buddha worlds to volunteer to suit the chest in many world systems, flower to suit the chest, that in each atom, there are many Buddhas, many Buddhas for each event. And this chapter 10 focuses on a well, to what seems to us, strange Buddha world. This is the world. OK, I'll try and say it once, Sarvagandha Sudanda, that's the name of this Buddha world far away. This is a wonderful Buddha world. The trees there emit a fragrance that forests your passage, all the fragrances, human and divine,

[02:18]

of all the Buddha worlds in the same directions. In that universe, all the houses, the avenues, the parks, and the palaces are made of various perfumes, and the fragrance of the soup eaten by the bodhisattvas there pervades immeasurable universes. So this is a world of fragrances, a world of wonderful smells. And as the story goes in the Mahākīrti Sūtra, the bodhisattvas in this world see that, but none of them want to ask about it. In this translation, it says they're restrained by the spiritual powers of Manjushri, the great

[03:18]

bodhisattva of eastern Russia. Translation says they don't ask about it in deference to Manjushri. At any rate, Mahākīrti, without rising from his couch, magically emanated an incarnation bodhisattva. So this is something you may not have heard of, but in various sutras, various Buddhas emanate, produce incarnation bodhisattvas, bodhisattvas who are magical incarnations. And there's a sutra where there are many Shakyamuni Buddhas who are magical incarnations of our Shakyamuni Buddha who lived 2,500 years ago, more or less in what's now northeast India. So from another point of view, all bodhisattvas are incarnation bodhisattvas.

[04:23]

From the emptiness teaching, of course, there's no such thing as a bodhisattva, and no such thing as a thing. But anyway, in the Mahākīrti Sutra, in the assembly of all these beings of bodhisattvas, in the Mahākīrti status, there's this incarnation bodhisattva, and this incarnation bodhisattva shows all of the bodhisattvas in this wonderful world of fragrance. And the Mahākīrti asks the Buddha of that world, who in some versions is Samantabhadra, to give the remains of their meal, their leftovers, to feed the bodhisattvas and all the beings in the Mahākīrti's room, which is a room smaller than this one, and yet filled with

[05:26]

tens of thousands of bodhisattvas and disciples, through a magical display that happens earlier in the text. So basically, the Mahākīrti is asking for the leftovers of this world to feed his assembly. So we're going to be having a three-day sitting session next weekend. It's the first multiple-day sitting we've had since Ohasho in 2019. So we are regathering our equipment. But one of the things that happens in this session is that the census system is built for the evening meal, which is not considered a real meal. It's a medicine meal. It's not because the early monks are not supposed to eat afternoon. So when they

[06:33]

had to feed people in China, it was colder, and they couldn't go, didn't want to go without their meal. They had what was called the yaksiki, which means a medicine stone. And actually, originally in China, what they would do was they would eat up stones, and they would put them in their rooms by their bellies to warm their bellies for the time of the evening meal. But in the Japanese Zen tradition, we do have an evening meal, but there's no chance in it. It's a smaller meal. But the second bowl of the two bowls in the evening meal, and it's our Tenzo right to provide for us during the three-day sitting, is often made of leftovers. It's cool and put together. When I was Tenzo at the city center, my favorite thing was to make the gruel,

[07:37]

just to put together the leftovers from the previous meals and to make this gruel with grapes, vegetables, and whatever. Anyway, so basically, Shambhala Kirti is asking this Buddha from this world of fragrance, oh, can we please have your leftovers? They smell so good. I want to make a gruel out of them. So it is, so it was, and the incarnation Bodhisattva flew down from this other world and provided the leftovers so that Shambhala Kirti will make the gruel for the Bodhisattvas in this house. Anyway, now the Buddha in that world of fragrance and all of the Bodhisattvas in that world of fragrance

[08:41]

were very interested in seeing Shambhala Kirti and Shakyamuni coming to our world of regards. Because they were impressed by this incarnation Bodhisattva that Shambhala Kirti sent. So one thing the Buddha there did was to warn Bodhisattvas from this fragrance world. So he warned them, please, when you go down to see Shakyamuni Buddha and the other beings of Bodhisattvas in that world, please, please, maybe even hiding signs, just don't don't show off your full

[09:46]

sparker, he said to all these Bodhisattvas. And also please do not conceive ideas of contempt for an aversion for that universe, our universe, our world. Why? Because the Buddha field is a field of pure, great space, but the Lord Buddha said in order to develop Shakyamuni Buddha, in order to develop living beings, please do not reveal all at once the pure realm of the Buddha. That's what Buddhas do. They don't reveal at once how wonderful Buddha is. It would be kind of shocking. And he tells these Bodhisattvas from this fragrance world, please don't follow the disciples of the Bodhisattvas in the

[10:48]

volatilities world in contempt because they're so, they're so limited compared to the Bodhisattvas of the fragrance world. So he also says, do not compare, venerable ones, your own wisdom and merits with the wisdom and merits of the Tathagata of Shakyamuni Buddha. Don't compare, and don't compare yourself to the Bodhisattvas and disciples there. And that reminds me of the song that Alan Sinopoli sang when he was here seven Sundays ago, about our hero, about the Bodhisattva from Lotus Sutra, who says, never disparage,

[11:49]

never despise. It's called the Bodhisattva never disparage, never despise, because even though this fellow monks at this time in the Lotus Sutra were kind of, well, maybe a little corrupt, or they were vain, or they were arrogant, but he didn't despise them because he knew they would become Buddhas. Anyway, it's kind of like that. These great Bodhisattvas from this great fragrance world were advised to please don't compare yourselves, don't compare your Buddha to what you see in the sangha room. It was and it's also revealed that in the well-sought abundance of Dharma, where these Bodhisattvas and Buddhas are coming, the Bodhisattvas are disciplined only by means of perfumes, only by means of fragrance.

[12:50]

All of the teachings are done with fragrance. In our Dharma talks, in those sutras or texts to study, they learn about the wonders of awakening by receiving teachings through fragrances. There's a, when I was studying in Japan, in Kyoto, there was a place where they make incense. So, you know, I think maybe some of you have seen that incense. They have a big building in Kyoto where they produce these fragrances, and one time, actually with a fellow English teacher from the university I was teaching at, who had been in Japan for a long time, knew Japanese portrait things very well, invited me to join him. It was kind of like a tea ceremony in Kyoto, but it was a

[13:58]

fragrance ceremony. It was the most elegant thing I've ever seen. Some of you may have heard me talk about this before, but yeah, so it's in a tatami room, like in a tea room, maybe half the size of this room, and there were all these, we were the only men there. The teacher was, the sensei was a woman, and the other participants were women, and some of them were very fancy kimonos, embroidered, and some of them were just regular Japanese street clothes, but well, street clothes. And the way it works is that there's an incense here with a cone of naturalism, and each person sticks the incense in his mouth, and it will exhale to the side, so it won't blow all of the incense on the axis everywhere, but you have this,

[15:03]

you've got this snot, and then everybody has that and it's passed around. And then there's a second and third incense that are passed around, and one has to, it's a game, one has to identify which incense of the second group of two or three is the same as the first incense. So these were probably not these women who did this, but just amazing, it was just like, just as a, you know, a woman gaijin who's not trained to appreciate incenses so well. But anyway, and then once they decided which was the, I forget if it was two or three second incenses is the same as the first, they responded, and this was amazing, by writing a haiku describing the incense that was the same, except that these were based on classical

[16:15]

haiku that they said, and then they had to write it down and comment. So it was this amazing, elegant event. I mean, the most elegant thing that I will ever see, all based on fragrances. Anyway, but that's not in this text of the sutra, but I just, you know, was reminded of that. So, so again, these bodhisattvas should miss fragrance, are coming and visiting the Mahakirti and seeing the bodhisattvas tomorrow, the disciples. And they asked the Mahakirti how the Buddha Shakyamuni teaches the Dharma,

[17:16]

because that Buddha teaches by just making fragrances available. The volunteer team replied, good people, these living beings here are hard to discipline. Therefore, Shakyamuni teaches them with discourses appropriate for the disciplining of the wild and uncivilized. So this is, this is what we're doing. This is how it works in our shahal world. We have to give discourses. Some of you think these are too long, but these are all for the point, for the purpose of helping to clarify, discipline, purify, you know, your heartlines, because you can help do that for others. Anyway, that's, that's in the sutra. So, and following that up, the bodhisattva said, this is established by the greatness of the Buddha Shakyamuni.

[18:19]

It is marvelous how concealing the miraculous, his miraculous power, he civilizes the wild and uncivilized beings. And the bodhisattvas who settle in a Buddha field with such intense hardships must have inconsiderably great compassion. So this is the other side of this. Bodhisattvas, like all of us who live in the shahal world, it's so difficult. It really is. I could start to talk about all the difficulties of this world we're in, but I don't want to bring it down. And you all know already anyway. But this is just a wonderful place to be a bodhisattva, even though from the point of view of the fragrance bodhisattvas, it's kind of wild and grueling. But we have the opportunity to pacify and discipline and clarify and support our own

[19:26]

weakening parts and others in this world. So it's really a great opportunity. Yeah. So, you know, this is an important teaching of the Vimalakirti Sutra. I'm not going to, my intention anyway for the three days today is not to focus on particular parts of the text of the Sutra or reference some of them, but just to talk about how we apply all these strange teachings to our own lives in this shahal world, in this difficult world, United States of America, wherever we are in the world. So how do we do this with great compassion? Another story I've told is that there are bodhisattvas from many other worlds who are lined up just waiting to be born in this world at the

[20:31]

start, because they know this is where they can do the most good, when they can help beings. So, you know, to me, this implies that we can oppose harmful systems or events happening in our world without hating or despising personally those who espouse these harmful policies. We can oppose white supremacist terrorist policies and systems without hating, you know, the politicians who are talking about personally hating those people. We don't need to. We can oppose the difficulties of the world without falling into personal hatred.

[21:35]

Even people who are causing great harm are just very seriously deluded. So I don't know if we said in the mid-search what we do to help them see the possibilities of beauty and wonder and kindness in the world. It's a big job. Anyway, that's our job. And, you know, just as in this Sarvadantas about the world, beings are awakened by fragrance. When we consider all of the myriad Buddhafields, we should hear that in other Buddhafields, other phenomena are used to teach. So in some Buddhafields, beings are awakened and illuminated by music. That happens in our world too. Some of them are awakened by clouds, some by poetry, even I too. Some by birds. In some Buddhafields, beings are awakened by mountains

[22:46]

or rivers or fish or trees, anyway. So we tend to think of teachings in one limited way. But the whole world and all the flowers, so you can just go back in the garden behind yourself there and see flowers, that can teach also. Anyway, I'll close by reading the eight qualities of Bodhisattvas that help them to reach pure Buddhafields. So it says the Bodhisattva must resolve to themselves, I must benefit all living beings, without seeking even the slightest benefit for myself. I must bear all the miseries of all living beings, and give all my accumulated roots of

[23:51]

virtue to all living beings. I must have no resentment towards any living being, and must rejoice in all Bodhisattvas as if they were the teacher. I must not neglect any teaching, whether or not I have heard them before. I must control my mind, without coveting the gains of others, and without taking pride in the gains of my own. I must examine my own faults and not blame others for their faults. I must take pleasure in being consciously aware and awake, and must truly undertake all virtues. So those are the eight qualities of Bodhisattvas, the practices of Bodhisattvas, that help them to reach to Buddhafields. So maybe that's enough.

[24:52]

And we'll end talking about the sutra for tonight, but any questions or comments or responses, please feel free. Ah, hi Gershon. Just a quick question, those eight qualities of a Bodhisattva, are those from the Mahakirti Sutra? Yes, it is the Mahakirti Sutra. Towards the end of, I was reading this translation, at the end of chapter 10, 11, including not to find fault with others. So some of them are like some of our precepts, and not to blame others, and to, you know, look at our own shortcomings, examine those. This is all part of, you know, another way, all of these are what are available in Satsang. So in our world, we could say we are

[26:02]

taught and awakened by sutras and books and so forth, but really it's just Satsang, just seeing it in presence, seeing ourselves. Other questions or comments? Hi, welcome, good to see you again. I'm really struck by this contrast between a world of sense, a world of native sense, right? It's not just the teaching or sense, it's a world of compulsive sense, where all the beings and all the Bodhisattvas and all the trees are, they emit, and I guess they are also composed of Yeah, I don't know if I can understand it, but right, and the wild and uncivilized world of discourse and language. And so I have a dog who's 15 and a half, and she's a sweetie,

[27:09]

she can't hear anything, her eyesight is starting to fade. She walks very, very slowly, but she smells everywhere. And I take her on walks every morning for two blocks, and it takes us half an hour. It's sort of like walking meditation. And I get frustrated because I live in a world of language where I have to teach class, and I have to answer emails, and I'm worried about the texts that I have to send. But then I always try to remember that, like, for her, her world really is a world of sense and a world of smells. And I wonder what that world is like. So it was a world without the divisions that language and discourse tries to impose upon women. The scents are all going to mingle into each other.

[28:11]

While she'll stop and smell some places, and some places she really likes, she'll pass by other places. A animal neurobiologist wrote this book about canine brains. And so the dogs, not only can they recognize all the scents, but they can, she said, they can smell time. So they can tell, like, how long ago a scent was put down. And they can smell space. So they can tell, like, how they can smell as they're getting closer to where a scent was put down. So I guess this world of the scent really would get us to really rethink how we perceive things. And if you're lucky enough to live with a dog, like, you're also in a world where those dogs are inhabited in a very significant way.

[29:14]

Well, thank you very much. We have a puppy who's going to be a year old in a month or two. And so I've learned to, when I take her on walks, go slowly and let her smell. But she gets exercise other times. But when I take her to walks, she stops. Yeah, so thank you. Other comments, responses? Laurel did a wonderful talk recently about how she learns from birds. So, you know, as you were talking, though, you know, in our language,

[30:17]

in our verbal discourse, we separate the subject from the object. I wonder, do dogs think of smells as something out there or as part of just their own? Kyosha, do you want to say anything else about how birds? Like vultures, for example, find their food by smell. I don't know about all birds. I was actually thinking, I've been reading Richard Feynman, I don't know, he's kind of a crazy laureate, physicist, and rapporteur. Anyway, he was interested in how about, he was interested in mind

[31:21]

reading. So he went to a mind reading performance and talked to the mind reader and found out from the mind reader that he actually did it by smell, which is a little complicated to explain and I won't go into it. But what I'm speaking about was that so he decided he would investigate whether he could smell things. And his experiments, I guess, showed him that if he tried, if he really did put his mind to it and pay more attention, he could train himself to do a lot of things by smell, the way blind people do a lot of things by hearing and touch. So after you did this talk, and I've actually been thinking about it for a year, I think we should all think about whether we can do more with this sense we have, which I think we underappreciate. So maybe that's one of the lessons in there,

[32:27]

appreciating something more. You know, we are so dependent on our eyes. When I had hearing loss, I realized how dependent I was on my eyes and ears, not my nose. So that's what it's for. Thank you. Other comments or responses? Yeah, and people who train particular senses, so chefs. Yes. And I think a lot of it comes from smell, too. The head chef at Elizabeth India, whose name I forget, but I think it's

[33:30]

Abbotts. Abbotts, yeah, had cancer and recovered, but totally lost his entire sense of smell and taste. Couldn't taste a single thing. And so he just put himself through his own sort of boot camp and retaught himself how to taste, which is pretty remarkable. I don't know what that would be like to rely professionally on a particular sense and then suddenly have that taken away from you. And to be well known in your field for that. It reminds me of when I was in Richmond. Our senior teacher had a stroke and was actually in a coma. I had much report about 10 months or something. And he recovered, but he didn't have a lot of his cognitive abilities. He couldn't, I forget to discuss this further in class, but

[34:39]

maybe he had trouble using language. And he regained his cognitive abilities by sitting in a chair. And so he ended up being a concert pianist. Anyways, the brain is a strange thing. It senses how we perceive the world. It's part of what the denominator emphasizes is that our sense of the world, our perception of the world is not what we think it is. Any other questions or comments? Just a comment, but I think we can learn from people who have lost a sense or don't have a

[35:47]

sense. I think that we don't attend enough. It makes me think of the phrase differently abled. We kind of use this as a politically correct thing, but I think it really is. When someone steps outside the margin of what is normative, they do it differently abled. And each of us has our own special gifts. So we all have different skill sets, to put it that way, and perception as well. Some people can paint, some people make music, some people are coaches, some people can identify different birds. So the particulars of how we perceive the world are interesting.

[36:54]

Thank you.

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