Good evening, everyone.
So, we're in the last week or so of the practice commitment period.
We've been looking at the Thermology of the Sutra.
The chapters that were highlighted and selected for us to focus on, we've talked about sometimes
a couple times.
I want to go to one of the other chapters tonight, which wasn't assigned for the practice
commitment period at all, but we've got 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 of the Saha world, the world of endurance, where we all can recognize
that there's a lot to endure in this world.
But there are many Buddha worlds, the Mahākīrti Sūtra says, in many world systems, flowering
Sūtra says that in each atom there are many Buddhas, many Bodhisattvas for each of them.
And this chapter 10 focuses on a, well, to what seems to us a strange Buddha world.
This is a world, okay, I'll try and say it, Sarvagandha Sugandha, that's the name of this
Buddha world, far away, and this is a wonderful Buddha world.
The trees there emit a fragrance that far surpasses all the fragrances, human and divine,
of all the Buddha worlds in the seven 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 wants to ask about it.
In this translation it says they're restrained by the spiritual powers of Manjushri, the
Bodhisattvas in Russia.
The translation says they don't ask about it in deference to Manjushri, but anyway,
the 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.
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, Bodhisattvas,
in the Mahākīrti Sutra, there's this incarnation Bodhisattva, and this incarnation Bodhisattva
shows all of the Bodhisattvas in this wonderful world of frankness.
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 among the beings
in the Mahākīrti's room, which is a room smaller than this one, and yet filled with
tens of thousands of Bodhisattvas and disciples.
It's a theological discipline that happens earlier in this 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 the next weekend.
It's the first multiple-day sitting that we've had since Rohasya in 2019.
So we are regathering our Dharma equipment.
But one of the things that happens, and it's a shame, is that the senso system is built
for the evening meal, which is not considered a real meal.
It's a medicine meal, because the early monks were not supposed to eat in the afternoon.
So when they had to feed people in China, it was colder, and they didn't want to go without
their evening meal.
And then they had what was called yaksiki, which means a medicine stone.
And actually, originally, in China, what they would do was they would heat up stones,
and they would put them in their rooms by their bellies to warm their bellies for the evening.
It's what at the time was an evening meal.
But in the Japanese Zen tradition, we do have an evening meal, but there's no chance,
and it's a smaller meal.
But the second bowl, the two bowls in the evening meal,
falls on Tensho, right, who provides for us during the three-day sitting,
is often made of leftover soup.
It's cold, and put together.
When I was at Senso City Center, my favorite thing was to make the gruel,
it's just to put together the leftovers from the previous meals,
and to make the gruel with grains, vegetables, or whatever.
Anyway, so basically, Shivalika 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, and so it was.
And the incarnation, Bodhisattva,
wanted to cool down from this ordinary world,
and provided the leftovers,
so that when I'll give to you,
well, Senso could make,
probably maybe a small gift for himself,
but doesn't want to make the gruel for the Bodhisattvas in his house.
Anyway,
now the Buddha in that world of fragrance,
and all the Bodhisattvas in that world of fragrance,
were very interested in seeing the volunteer team,
Shakyamuni, coming to our world of endurance,
because they were impressed by this incarnation,
Bodhisattva, that the volunteer team sent.
So one thing the Buddha there did was to warn the 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 hide your feet,
please,
maybe even hide your sides,
just don't show off your full swagger,
he said to all these Bodhisattvas,
and also please do not conceive ideas of contempt,
or an aversion for that universe.
Why?
Because the Buddha's 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 Buddha said.
If we don't reveal at once,
how wonderful,
it would be kind of shocking.
And he tells his Bodhisattvas from this fragrance world,
please don't fall on the disciples of Bodhisattvas,
the volunteers in contempt,
because they're so,
they're so limited to the Bodhisattvas in the fragrance world.
So he also says,
do not compare what are at once your own wisdom and merits,
with wisdom and words 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 Kalam Sarathi sang
when he was here several Sundays ago,
our hero about the Bodhisattva from Lotus Sutra,
who says,
it's called the Bodhisattva never disparaged,
and never despised,
because even though his 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 were the temple of bliss.
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 world.
Because, and it's also revealed that
in the well-sought abundance of Garbha,
where these Bodhisattvas and buddhas are coming,
this, the Bodhisattvas are disciplined
only by means of perfumes,
only by means of fragrance.
All of the teachings are done in fragrance,
in our Dharma talks,
in our sutras, our texts, our story.
They learn about the wonders of awakening,
by receiving teachings through fragrances.
There's a, when I was studying in Japan,
in Kyoto, there's a place where they make incense.
So, you know,
I think maybe some of you have seen that incense,
and they have a big building in Kyoto
where they produce these fragrances.
And one time, actually,
there was a fellow English teacher
from the university I was teaching at,
who had been in Japan for a long time,
and knew Japanese, Persian things very well,
invited me to join him.
It was kind of like the tea ceremony in Kyoto,
because it was a fragrance ceremony.
It was the most elegant thing I've ever seen.
Some of you may have heard me talk about this before,
but, so it's in a tatami room,
like a tea room,
well, 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 and bridal,
and some of them were just regular Japanese street clothes,
but, well, street clothes.
And the way it works is that there's an incenser
with a cauldron of ashes,
and there's an incense on this one,
and each person takes the incense,
and smells, and it makes sounds
and decides it won't blow all of the incense,
all of the ashes everywhere.
But you have this, you cut this up,
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 three.
So these were probably not these women who did this work.
It's just amazing, it's just like,
it's just like, it's not trained
to appreciate incenses so well.
But anyway, and then once they decide which is 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 these were based on classical haiku that they studied,
and they had to write it down in comics.
So it was this amazing, elegant event.
I mean, the most elegant thing I've ever seen.
All based on fragrances.
Anyway, but that's not in this section of the Sutra,
but I just, you know, was reminded that.
So, so again, these, these,
these women, these women,
are coming and visiting the volunteer team,
and seeing the Bodhisattva's Shambhala cycles.
And they asked the volunteer team,
how does Shakyamuni teach us the Dharma?
Because that's what it teaches,
but just making famous as it is.
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 Shambhala world.
We have to give discourses.
Some of you think these talks are too long,
but these are all for the point, for the purpose of,
hoping to clarify and discipline, purify,
you know, your heart and lungs,
so that you can talk to the Ashramas anyway.
That's, that's what it says in the Sutra.
So, and following that up,
the Bodhisattva said,
this is established by the greatness of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
It is marvelous how concealing the miraculous,
his miraculous power,
he civilizes the wild living beings,
all are poor and inferior.
And if Bodhisattvas have settled in a Buddha field
with such intense hardships,
must have inconceivably great compassion.
So this is the other side of this.
Bodhisattvas,
like all of us who live in the Saha world,
are so difficult.
It really is.
I could start to talk about all the difficulties of this,
this world we're in,
but I don't want to bring it down on you all,
I don't want to bring it down on you.
But this is a wonderful place to be a Bodhisattva.
Even though it's in the point of view of the Sages,
Bodhisattvas, it's kind of wild and weird.
But we have the opportunity to pacify and discipline and clarify
and support our own wicked parts and others in this world.
So it's really a great opportunity.
Yeah.
So, you know, this is,
this is not an important teaching of the Lama Kirti 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,
I'm not going to reference some of them,
but just to talk about how do we apply all these
strange teachings to our own lives in this Saha world,
in this difficult world,
in the glad states of America or wherever we are in the world.
So how do we do this with great compassion?
Another story that's told is that
there are Bodhisattvas from all the other worlds who are lined up,
just waiting to be born in this world at this time.
Because they know this is where they can do the most good,
where they can help beings the most.
Anyway,
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 supremacists, terrorist policies and systems
without hating
or the politicians who are talking about personal hate and lust people.
We don't need to.
We can oppose
the difficulties of the world
without falling into personal hatred.
Even people who are causing great harm are just very serious and deluded.
So I don't know if it's a good sense of 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 a job.
And, you know, just as in this subtext about the world,
beings are awakened by fragrance.
When we consider all of the myriad Buddha fields,
we should hear that in other Buddha fields,
other phenomena are used to teach.
Some Buddha fields, beings are awakened by music.
That happens in our world, too.
Some of them are awakened by clouds.
Some by poetry, even I could.
Some by birds.
Some, in some Buddha worlds, beings are awakened by mountains or rivers or fish
or trees, anywhere.
So we tend to think of teachings in one formative way.
But the whole world, all the flowers,
if you just go back in the garden behind yourself,
you'll see flowers and can be teached also.
Anyway, I'll close by reading
the eight qualities
of Bodhisattvas that help them to reach pure Buddha fields.
So it says the Bodhisattva must resolve to themselves
by most beneficial all living beings
without seeking even the slightest benefit for themselves.
So, I must bear all the miseries of all living beings
and give all my accumulated roots of virtue to all living beings.
I must have no resentment towards any living being.
I 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 of the light.
I must truly undertake false virtues.
So those are the eight qualities of Bodhisattvas,
the practices of Bodhisattvas that help them to reach pure Buddha fields.
So, maybe that's enough
of talking about the sutra for tonight.
But any questions or comments or responses, please feel free.
Oh, hi, Gershon.
This is Gershon.
That's eight qualities of a Bodhisattva.
Are those from the Amalakirti Sutra?
It's in the Amalakirti Sutra.
Towards the end, I was reading from Dharmin's translation.
At the end of chapter 10, it allows you
including not to find fault with others.
So some of them are like some of our precepts.
It's not to blame others.
And to, you know, look at our own shortcomings.
This is all part of, you know, another way,
all of these are what are available to us.
So in our world, we could say we
are taught and awakened by sutras and books and so forth.
But really, it's just something, just sitting in presence, seeing ourselves.
Other questions or comments?
Ben.
Ben, hi, welcome.
Good to see you again.
I'm really struck by this contrast between a little sense, a little native sense, right?
It's not just the teaching or something, it's like a little compulsive sense.
Well, all the beings, all the Bodhisattvas and all the trees,
are, they emit, and I guess they're also composed of praises.
Yeah.
I don't know if that's understandable.
Right.
And the wild and uncivilized world of discourse and language.
And so I have a dog who's listening to me at a house.
And she's a sweetie, she can't hear anything.
Her eyesight is starting to fade.
She walks very, very slowly.
But she smells everything.
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 trust,
and I have to email, and I'm worried about the texts that I have to send.
And, but then I always try to remember that, like, for her,
that's her world is a world of scents 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 the world.
The scents are all going to mingle into each other.
Well, she'll stop and smell some places, and some places she really likes.
She'll pass by other places.
The animal neurobiologist wrote this book about canine brains and said that dogs
not only can 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 you're getting closer to a scent.
So I guess a world of scents really would get us to really rethink how we perceive things.
And if you're lucky enough to live with a dog,
we can also live with a dog to inhabit a world in a very significant way.
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.
And she gets exercise other times.
But when I take her to walk for walks, she stops.
Yeah, so thank you.
Other comments, responses?
Yeah, so Laurel did a wonderful talk recently about how she learns from birds.
So they're all, you know, as you were talking, though, you know, in our language,
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,
or over, I don't know, anything, but we don't know.
Kiosha, do you want to say anything else about how birds...
Oh, so birds, like, for example, find their food by smell.
So, I don't know about all birds, but I was actually thinking,
I've been reading Richard Feynman, and I don't know, he's kind of a
crazy logo laureate physicist, and rats, I'm sure.
Kate, can you hear her?
Anyway, he was interested in how, he was interested in mind 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 was thinking 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 the sounds,
and I've actually been thinking about it after reading it, I think we should all think about
whether we could do more with this sense we have, which I think we under-appreciate,
so maybe that's one of the lessons in there, is 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 myself. Thank you. Other comments or responses, questions?
Yeah, the people who trained particular senses, so chefs, yes,
I don't know what sense of taste, for example, and I think a lot of it comes from smell, too.
The head chef at Olivia, whose name I forget, but think of saints,
atheists, 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 re-taught 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 through that. It reminds me of Lou Richmond,
our senior teacher, on a stroke, and he was actually in a cohort,
I think that's for black folks, animals or something, but he didn't have a lot of
discordant abilities. He couldn't, I forget, but he had trouble using language,
and he regains his cognitive abilities by sitting in class,
and just in a slow movement, and so he was able to perhaps appear in a certain way,
returning to what was lost.
Anyways, the brain is turning up things in our various senses.
And how we perceive the world,
it's quite a long picture to synthesize, is that our sense of the world, our perception of the
world, is not what we think it is. Any other questions or comments?
It's so important that I think we can learn from people who have lost their sense or don't
have a sense. I think that we don't attend enough.
Well, it makes me think of the phrase differently abled, which we can't use as a politically
correct thing, but I think it really is. When someone steps outside the margin of what
they deserve, normative, they do become differently abled.
Yeah, and each of us has our own social biases, and 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 learn poetry, some people can identify different birds of a feather.
So, the particulars of how we perceive the world, it's interesting, and different.