Such an assembly, I feel, is overwhelming, overwhelming the interest in the Lotus Sutra, overwhelming the interest in studying the Buddha Dharma. One of the ancestors who has deeply inspired me is named Hakuin. Hakuin, the Japanese so-called Zen teacher, the Japanese bodhisattva. When he was 70 years old, arrangements were made for him to give

[01:13]

a series of talks on the Lotus Sutra, to have a Lotus Sutra assembly like this. And he said over and over, what a wonderful and rare opportunity it is to have such an assembly, that he might never have such a chance again in his lifetime. And I feel the same way. I don't know if we'll be able to have such an assembly again in my lifetime. I would like to also at this time suggest that we dedicate this wonderful study of the Lotus Sutra together to our dear friend and teacher, Sojin Mel Weisman Roshi, who passed away last Thursday.

[02:24]

I actually originally thought I should start these meetings, these assemblies, with warnings about the amazing and vital process of studying the Lotus Sutra. But I'm not really starting with the warnings, I'm starting with the assembly. I want to suggest that this assembly will be our resource and our support and will be something that we can support our study so that it stays on the middle way. But the Lotus Sutra is such a lively and revolutionary event

[03:44]

that it requires a lot of support to study. And again, let me say that the Buddha, the Buddhas are born together with the Great Assembly. And the Great Assembly is born together with the Buddhas. The Sangha is really the Buddha in the form of the Great Assembly. And the Buddha is the Sangha emphasizing the awakening that is possible for all the members of the Sangha. I hear the Lotus Sutra saying that the teaching is for bodhisattvas.

[04:56]

And the bodhisattvas in this sutra are encouraged to be teachers. So I now invite you to share in the responsibility of the study of the sutra in this assembly. I invite you to not only be taught, but to be teachers. Don't just see one teacher, see hundreds of teachers in this assembly. And be one yourself. Share in the work of teaching and being taught. For me, the Lotus Sutra is saying that we awaken to our own nature by teaching and being taught by others.

[06:14]

By teaching others and being taught by others. This is not, you could say, how we are awakening, but it is our awakening. Our awakening is teaching and being taught. The content of our awakening is being taught and teaching. You are invited, you are encouraged to join this. In this assembly, you are invited to investigate the Lotus Sutra. to question the Lotus Sutra and to be questioned by the Lotus Sutra, to question the Great Assembly and ask questions for the Great Assembly. In the sutra, in the assembly, celestial flowers rain down upon the assembly.

[07:43]

In the sutra, that the flowers rain down, not just on the Buddha, The flower rain isn't like focused on the Buddha. All the flowers funneling down on the Buddha. The flowers fall equally over the whole assembly. The whole assembly is equal to the whole assembly. The whole assembly is equal to the Buddha. This is the Lotus Sutra's vision of our practice together. We are in the same flower storm. We are in the same boat. There's no inferior or superior. We're working on the same thing.

[08:54]

And all of us are responsible for this Dharma, for this Lotus Sutra. It seems to me that the Lotus Sutra is a revolutionary text. It is a text which turns the wheel of the Dharma. in ways that were not turned before. And if we are practicing this teaching, then it seems to me that we too should, each of us, turn the wheel of Dharma. For this Dharma to be alive, It needs to be turned.

[09:58]

It needs to be revolutionary in a way not to destroy, but in a way that reveals new, fresh meaning and understanding and relevance of the ancient revolution. We are all in the great orchestra and we all have the opportunities to be sharing in the conduct of this orchestra. A long time ago when I was serving as abbot, At Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.

[11:00]

In the summer. The guests came down as usual. And one morning. I had breakfast in the dining room. In the guest dining room. And I sat with one of the guests. And she said to me. Do you live here? And I said. Yes. And she said, are you one of the students here? And I said, yes. And I wasn't being humble. I was just stating the facts. I had been a student at Zen Mountain Center for more than 50 years. And later she found out that I was the abbot of the Zen Center of Tassajara.

[12:04]

And she was very happy that I answered the question, are you a student, by saying yes. It seemed good to her that the abbot saw himself, saw herself as a student. I offer to study the Lotus Sutra with you. I also will teach it to you, but also I will learn it from you. You are teaching me the Lotus Sutra. By the way, I see Vivian. Welcome, Vivian. So these meetings, again, our meetings where you have the opportunity to speak, to raise your hand, to smile, to frown, to sing, to make a contribution to this great assembly, to question me

[13:27]

and your friends, and the Buddhas, to be curious. But please do so as a gift, as a teaching, as an offering. And even if you don't think it's an offering, it will be. The Lotus Sutra tells a story that the Buddha gave this teaching in the sutra at the end of her life. Towards the end of her life. She was about to go away. And she wanted a vast assembly to receive the Lotus Sutra.

[14:30]

To receive it. To care for it. to uphold it, to embrace it and carry it forth into future generations. And now becomes a little hint of the warnings. The Lotus Sutra wants us to receive and embrace the teaching and care for it for future generations. And it also, Lotus Sutra tells us that this teaching, over and over, it says this teaching is difficult to trust and difficult to understand. And so this assembly can encourage us, and the Lotus Sutra encourages us to do the difficult work of receiving and studying and conversing and understanding.

[15:34]

this great teaching. I now invite the Great Assembly to come forth and offer your contribution to the study at the beginning of this intensive... Karen, Karen had a question. So I guess that's me running under the name of Karin.

[16:43]

Karin. Thank you very much, dear Reb. Can you hear me? Okay. When you talk about the Lotus Sutra, it really sounds very attractive and appealing. And when I read it, it actually sounds the opposite. Like when you said there is no high and low, that really sounds appealing to me. And yet when I read it, there's just pages over pages about high and low. about like looking down on paths that are not like the highest path and looking down on people. That's what I read, what I hear. And when you said, you know, it's the end of the life of the Buddha and you refer to her as she.

[17:52]

And just today I read a chapter where it said that a woman never can be a Buddha. in the Lotus Sutra, and that, yeah, that's really difficult to hear. And I'd like to hear how you, how to perceive this in a way that's helpful. Because when I read it, it's hurtful. Thank you for your contribution. So I thank you for your contribution.

[18:56]

you are saying that when you read certain parts of the Lotus Sutra, you feel pain. Yes. And you are invited to turn that part of the Lotus Sutra. I'm saying to you that the Lotus Sutra says, turn every part of the Lotus Sutra. So you received it. You received part of it. You felt pain. Now, what can you do to teach when you feel that pain? Well, the first thing is I question the text. Yeah. That's right. You're kind of questioning it right now, right? Yeah.

[20:07]

Yeah. You're questioning the text is what is appropriate. When you hear something that hurts you, you question the text. And so now you're questioning it. And I question too you in what can you learn about something that you feel to be unkind? You feel such words are unkind? And you see something in the Lotus Sutra that you think is unkind. What can you learn from that? Well, one thing is I learned that's how I want to respond. Yeah, you learn how you respond, right?

[21:10]

That's what you learn, yeah. And I learned how I don't want to respond to people. Yeah, you learn how you don't want to respond. There you have it. Maybe you haven't really learned it, but you see a possibility. You see a possibility. of learning that that's not the way you want to live. You don't want to talk like that. Yeah. Sometimes we're taught by something that shows us what we don't want to do. So the Lotus Sutra teaches us some things we do want to do. And the Lotus Sutra also teaches us what we don't want to do. But Donald Trump does as well. Pardon?

[22:11]

Donald Trump does as well as the Lotus Sutra in that way. Yes. And if you feel like he's showing you the way you want to live, then you're turning the wheel. When you see someone and they show you, oh, that's not the way I do want to live, I want it the way I do want it. That's not the way I want to live. I want to live another way. So the Lotus Sutra is not a text full of just examples of the way we do want to live. That's not the kind of scripture it is. It's a scripture like the world. It has things in it which show us this is not the way I want to live. However, when it shows us these things, sometimes our response to what it shows us, which is not the way we want to live, our response is another example of the way we don't want to live.

[23:14]

So we see this, we don't want to live that way, but then we just do it again ourselves rather than turn it into the way we do want to live. Yeah, I can be very arrogant about the way, how arrogant the Lotus Sutra is. Yeah. You don't want to be arrogant, right? Right, you don't want to be. And then the Lotus Sutra shows you what, the Lotus Sutra actually is something where you see arrogance. I don't know if the arrogance is actually in the Lotus Sutra, but it reveals these things which then slap us in the face. and say, can you stay on the Buddha way when you get slapped in the face? And your answer might be, I want to. So the Lotus Sutra not only challenges us, but it also says, please respond to that challenge the way you want to.

[24:27]

And yeah, maybe that's enough for now. This question, this issue, this is part of the warning, is to turn the Lotus Sutra. When you think that's the way I want to be, if the Lotus Sutra shows you something and you think that's the way I want to be, okay, that's fine. And then you feel comfortable and encouraged, that's fine. But don't just sit there. Turn it. Turn it over. And if it's not fine, don't just sit there and be not fine. Turn it to what you want your life to be. You want your life to be turning it. So all these examples are being brought up and we have opportunities to see in each case what happens. Are we learning from these? How is this a learning experience? How are we being taught by the other, the arrogant other?

[25:32]

How does the arrogant other teach us? Thank you very much. Thank you. There's a question from Kim. Hi, Rob. Hello, everybody. Good morning, Kim. Hi. I just wanted to back up a little bit and make a comment about the introduction of everyone's names, which was a lengthy list, but it sort of mirrored for me the introduction in Chapter 1 of all of these mysterious names. to me, creatures like Yakshas and Gandharvas and Asuras and Garudas, Kimnaras, Maharagas, monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen. And, oh, I don't know, and there's lesser wheel-rolling kings and greater wheel-rolling kings.

[26:37]

And it occurred to me that I don't know all of the people of this particular assembly, but the sort of the poetry of the Lotus Sutra And the introduction of all of these people's names is kind of similar. And I'm curious to know people better, I guess. But I'm also aware that I may never get to know everyone terribly well. So it's just a thought. Yeah. Now and then I might mention a little bit of my history of studying the Lotus Sutra. And when I first read it, I read actually this translation. This is a translation from... Sanskrit.

[27:42]

This is the one I read at first. And it begins with the assembly of saying the names of the bodhisattvas in Sanskrit, with Sanskrit, and also the names of these other creatures in Sanskrit. And I couldn't stand it. I closed the book. After all these years, I can now stand saying all your names. And I'm uplifted by it. But when I first was confronted with all these creatures, I just lost interest in a page and a half. And a number of people in this assembly have also started to read this sutra and have lost interest in a page and a half. But I went back to it.

[28:43]

And I went back to it. And I went back to it. And I went back to it. For 50 years, I've been going back to it. Because I got the impression that the people I trusted went back to it and went back to it and went back to it. for example, Suzuki Roshi and Dogen and Hakuin. However, they had trouble with it too. Not exactly the way I did, but they didn't give up. They didn't give up on this difficult, difficult, difficult sutra because they heard other people that they respected didn't give up. but they had trouble with it. It was hard to study. And when it's hard, it's okay to take a break.

[29:47]

And it's also okay to say, I'm having a hard time. I often think a story which many of you have heard me say is, I used to have two grandsons and Now I only have one. One of them died. And one day I was in Minnesota with my grandsons, and the younger one was walking into the water of a lake. And a lot of the lakes in Minnesota have a lot of seaweed along the shore. So when you walk in, you have to walk through kind of a little forest of seaweed. So your legs kind of stick on the seaweed. You have to walk carefully. And he was walking into the water and he stopped. And his mother said, what's the matter, Gabe? And he said, I'm having trouble with the plant life.

[30:48]

So part of the deal of studying Buddhism is to have trouble with it. And part of it is to be uplifted. Looks like you're in your studio, Kim. I am. I cleaned it all up on purpose. Yeah, so I'm getting to see your studio. That's nice. Any other offerings? From G. Renz. I can't see you, Reb, when I'm talking, so it's kind of odd. But I have two things, actually. One is a question and one is a teaching or an observation of how I do something. And the first question has to do with, first off, the fact that you say something

[31:56]

we're all teachers and we're all students really answers to my sense of reality and really speaks to my heart. And I'm really appreciative of the generosity in that. And in my life, I have proceeded oftentimes with power in that way of like finding the humanity there and the equality and the learning from each other. And at times I've had situations where there's really beautiful learning happening and a lot of trust and respect. And I've also had, not in San Francisco, but in other organizations where power over came down on me When I was opening to allowing a kind of learning that is very reminiscent of a theater learning, a creative learning where everybody has a role to play. And even a director is involved with that. who's in charge of the play, is still watching the actors and drawing from them what he's seeing.

[33:02]

So anyway, so I guess the question has to do with the fact that power does exist, and not everybody's as comfortable with that model, and it can be very hurtful. that's the question, some feedback on that. And then the other thing about the sort of the gender issue that come up in this thing, I just, I read a lot of like the Tao Te Ching and a lot of the I Ching and I've really, and I do Tai Chi and I've really pivoted that in my mind. And they all do teach that yin and yang, they, They're not really man and woman. They're male energy and female energy, but they're just different kinds of energies. One's associated with light and inspiration, and one's associated with earth and darkness and the nurturing that happens in the dark. And how I deal with that is when it says that there's... It's women can't.

[34:04]

What I say is it's not enough to just be in that the upright energy of Jan is required from all women, too. And so we should just feel emboldened and challenged and awakened to like. be yang energy without apology, which is really kind of still hard to do in the world if you're a female. It often is treated with disrespect. So I think of it's always a blend. And if I didn't have a mind struck that allowed me to see that, I would toss out all the ancient, every old, every book forever. before you know the women's movement and that's just stupid because they are these books are filled with the deepest of wisdom so that's my teaching on how I've how I know from a deep Tai Chi place that yin and yang go hand in hand and different 90 10 10 90 they're never equal they're always changing anyway would you respond to the first question about power what's what's the question about power

[35:12]

Well, like you say, you know, you say it's an open invitation, but in the world, you know, power comes down on people if they challenge. If there's an invitation for an open-hearted learning from each other, power can come down. What's your thought on that? Have you seen that happen? Yes. Mm-hmm. There's an allowing and then a power saying, you know, you're bad or you're... Yeah. I've seen it. Well, what do you think? And I feel when it happens, I wish to accept responsibility for it. That I'm sharing in responsibility for this. And I aspire... to turn it, to turn it, to liberate it, to be creative with it.

[36:21]

And if I feel demoralized by it, to turn and be creative with the demoralization. And I hear in the Lotus Sutra how to be creative with demoralization. how to be compassionate with demoralization so I can enter into a creative relationship with it. But in order to turn it, I have to accept responsibility for it. So if there's any misuse of power, then what I aspire to is to be compassionate to that misuse so that I can participate in the turning of it. in the disarming of it, of the rectifying of it. Just honoring the word demoralization is very empowering, the acknowledgement that that can happen.

[37:31]

Honor the word demoralization, honor the feeling of demoralization, honor the appearance of demoralization, with great compassion, and then we can enter into a creative, liberating relationship with this phenomena of being demoralized. Again, as I referred to earlier, when Hakowin, the great teacher, was preparing for and involved in the Great Lotus Assembly back in 1757 in Japan, In describing the situation, he used the word discouragement, great discouragement, extreme regret. He was having a very hard time in the process of these talks and the way people were kind of hindering him. He was having a really hard time.

[38:33]

giving talks on the Lotus Sutra. He was discouraged and sad while he was giving talks on the Lotus Sutra because of the way human beings were acting. So we can be that way too and find a way to turn the situation. Okay, for now? Margaret has an offering. Hello, Reb. I'm wondering about assembly and is our sangha, our sangha's assembly. I come from the Bozeman Zen group and I've been thinking a lot about sangha and our connectedness, what we bring to it. And I jotted down when you said there is no Buddha without the Great Assembly and the Sangha is really the Buddha in the form of the Great Awakening.

[39:52]

Did I get that correct? Well, I think what I meant to say was the Sangha is the Buddha in the form of the Great Assembly. In the Great Assembly. The Buddha is the Sangha in the form of Great Awakening. I did get it. Great Awakening has no life aside from or outside of the Great Assembly. And also the Great Assembly has no life outside of Great Awakening. So we say three jewels, but really it's one jewel. it's the Great Assembly, or it's one jewel, it's Great Awakening, or it's one jewel, it's the Dharma. But to help us, the Buddha is presented as three, or to help us, this assembly is presented as three. This assembly isn't just a bunch of beings, it's a bunch of beings which are Buddha. And this assembly needs to exercise

[40:57]

and be exercised in order to realize Buddha. And Buddha needs to be exercised in order to realize the great assembly. So each person has a responsibility to exercise their position in the assembly. A responsibility and an opportunity. And you said we are all each other's teacher. We are always with this teacher, yes. Yes. And that's how the Dharma comes forth and the Buddha comes forth. Yes. And we can watch and see how... If we have any resistance to the Lotus Sutra, if we have any resistance to anybody in the assembly, I say the Lotus Sutra is saying, that the resistance is to be studied, is to be honored.

[42:04]

Honor the resistance, study the resistance. Studying the Lotus Sutra is to study your resistance to the Lotus Sutra. Study the Lotus Sutra is to study myself. And if I have resistance to the Lotus Sutra or anybody in the Sangha, Sangha means actually assembly or gathering. If I have resistance to anybody, then the Lotus Sutra is for me to study my resistance to anybody in the assembly. And most of us sometimes have some resistance to somebody in the assembly, especially if it's a really big one. There's somebody we have resistance to. Well, the Lotus Sutra is saying, honor that resistance, study it, be creative with it. Be creative with your resistance to Lotus Sutra. Be creative to your resistance to every being in the Sangha if you do resist them.

[43:07]

And if you don't resist them, be creative with that. Again, sometimes you might feel like the Lotus Sutra is so wonderful. I have no resistance. I'm just totally embracing it. Okay, that's fine. But don't just stop there. Turn it. Question it and invite other people to request your enthusiasm about this sutra. I'm being careful not to get too inspired by this sutra. I could be intoxicated if I get too much into how wonderful this sutra is. And how wonderful the sangha is. I could get intoxicated by how wonderful the sangha people are too. And you can help me not You can help me if I become intoxicated. Calm me down. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. There's an offering from Susan.

[44:10]

Thank you. And thank you all so very much for this opportunity to be together and study together. I'm truly so grateful and honored. Thank you, Rip. I'm just thinking more about the arrogant other in myself and outside and how we meet that with and acknowledge being demoralized and feeling heartbroken at the circumstances as they are now, for example. And in myself, like I was just thinking about, I remember when my son started playing basketball and I was not very familiar with like team sports and the energy around it and didn't really care until my son started playing and I would walk into the gym of the other and just how you know, amped all the moms and parents would get about the other when they were winning and losing.

[45:23]

And I really couldn't believe in myself that I was getting so riled up and really, you know, sort of like didn't really like the other team while they were playing, especially if they were winning. And over the years, I really, it was such a sort of, I sort of couldn't believe my response and then started studying with that response to whatever else that came up that was a little bit more complicated, riskier, more vulnerable, had different consequences. But it doesn't seem very different than what we're talking about here. It's exactly the same. So... I would like to know or I would like to study more about how to turn the wheel in the midst of all of those feelings and that resistance.

[46:35]

And are there steps or is it a, you know, just any instruction would be extremely helpful. Thank you. Well, you noticed in yourself this gradual encroaching upon your being of having some preference for your son's team. You noticed something happening to you that you started to feel less generous towards the team that was opposing your son's team. You noticed that, right? Yeah, so here we have a chance to be upright with that feeling. So I don't see the Lotus Sutra or I don't see our tradition as saying get rid of that feeling of preference for your own children's basketball team.

[47:42]

I do hear the tradition saying liberate that feeling of preference for your son's team. But in order to liberate your preference for your son's team, you have to honor the preference for your son's team. In order to liberate your lack of appreciation of the other team, you need to be upright and compassionate with your lack of appreciation of the other team. And without getting rid of your lack of appreciation, without moving it or pushing it down or denying it, you can realize the turning of the Dharma wheel. And everybody, and when you do that, that's liberating the others, both teams and all their parents

[48:47]

They are included in you working on liberating yourself from your preferences for one team over another. Many years ago, there was a Super Bowl game, and the two teams that were playing were both my home team. Mm-hmm. My home team in Minneapolis of the Minnesota Vikings was playing my home team in the Bay Area of the Oakland Raiders. So both were my own teams were playing each other. Like my two grandsons playing each other. So I had no preference. I could appreciate both teams. So I decided to do an experiment. of watching the game and then switching to which team was mine. And when I switched to one side, I noticed I started to not like the other side as much.

[49:56]

And then when I noticed that, I would switch to the other side again, and then the same thing happened in the other direction. And everybody in the room where I was watching this game was rooting for Oakland. Nobody was rooting for Minnesota. And when I switched to rooting for Oakland, I thought these were perfectly reasonable people. But when I switched to Minnesota, I thought the people who were rooting for Oakland were really obnoxious. Yes. And I saw that in myself. This is the way our mind works. When we resist seeing everybody as equally important and equally precious. When we do that, when we resist anybody in the Great Assembly, this is an opportunity for us to use our creative imagination to liberate the process, but we have to be kind to this kind of this defilement or this

[50:59]

inclination or this prejudice we have to be kind to it in order to liberate it not like it but meet it uprightly with kindness and gentleness and honesty and and us working on that we realize who we are by attending to who we are but everybody else is included in that too Us waking up to ourselves is teaching and being taught by others. Just like the two sides of the game are teaching you. They're teaching you about yourself. But also, you're teaching them by the way you watch them. And you're the linchpin. You're the center of the pivot system. That's some instruction. 15 more sessions will follow. Thank you. We have an offering from May.

[52:04]

Somehow I'm supposed to be speechless, but I managed to be able to speak. And I'm still in a state of denial. My mind is saying, can you believe this? Because I just overwhelmed. Maybe this is a conditioning. This is part of my cultural conditioning. I come from China, you know, this Lotus Tusha in China is like, oh my God, it's like Himalaya, you know, whatever, you know, it's like highest, highest. And then often the perception I got is, oh my God, it's too hard. You don't, don't even expect it to learn in this lifetime. So I just, I just, okay, you know, there's not something for my, for me, for this lifetime. But for somehow I, I'm here, you know, I'm still, you know, this small mind is still this monkey, still kind of like, really, really? You know, so then when I learn your, listen to your lecture about turning the wheel, I'm just questioning what does it mean by turning the wheel?

[53:23]

Does it mean that... That question turns the wheel. That question you asked, that's turning the... What does it mean? You're questioning what the Lotus Sutra is saying. Turn the wheel, students. And then you say, what does it mean? When you say, what does it mean? You turn the wheel. But, you know, that's one turn. Let's turn it in. Every time you question the Lotus Sutra, every time you question me, every time you question yourself, you turn the Dharma wheel. Can I turn a little more? Yeah, you just did. My question is, can we question more? Which is, I also question, where are we right now?

[54:24]

Are we in this 3D? Like, you know, 3D is this space. 4D is time. And are we in 5D or beyond? know five dimension or beyond are we beyond the heisenberg's word you know um or even beyond which is no science current scientific whatever discovery is able to to maybe elon musk beyond your own mouth or um so why are we right now and then uh But does it mean that we have to travel back and forth, back and forth from this 5D into 3D? 3D is relative. 5D is absolute. Does it mean that we have to constantly traveling and then, oh my God, that was so exhausting. Yeah, I just don't know. Where are we right now? Thank you.

[55:26]

Thank you. Your questions have registered on me. There's a question. There's a turning in the chat window here. I'm going to read it aloud. Please advise those of us who have never even read this sutra, what should we do now? Sit down and read the whole thing by tomorrow? Or what? I hesitate to tell anybody in this assembly what they should do.

[56:39]

But I am happy to suggest that you ask yourself, what do you want to do now? Do you want to read the scripture? No one is requiring you to read one page of this sutra. You're not required to be in this assembly. But you're all welcome to be in this assembly. And being in this assembly is studying the Lotus Sutra. This is a Lotus Sutra assembly. You're in it. You're in it. We're in it now. and you can read the scripture also, and you can bring your experience of reading it to this assembly. And you can bring this assembly to your reading of the scripture, and your reciting of the scripture, and your making a copy of the scripture.

[58:00]

So the sutra says, The sutra talks about reading the scripture and reciting the scripture, chanting the scripture, making copies of the scripture. It talks about that. The sutra recommends it. But I'm not actually recommending that you be in this assembly. I'm not actually recommending that you practice the Buddha way. I'm asking you, I'm suggesting you see if you want to. And if you want to, there's nothing I would rather do than support you to practice the Buddha way which you want to. But I'm not telling you to practice it. However, some scriptures do tell you. And I'm here to support you to study the scriptures which are bossing you around. But I'm not telling you you should read the scriptures that boss you around.

[59:03]

I'm saying I feel inspired to support you to treat scriptures that boss you around and people who boss you around. I'm here to support you to meet them and to embrace them and turn them into liberations. That's my long answer to that chat. Next. Thank you. Um, an offering from Patrick Woodward. Hi, Rob. Hello, Patrick. Uh, what she said, uh, a few days ago in your talk, no load regarding the Lotus Sutra has been liberating for me. Um, as a former literature teacher, I realized that all the while that I was venerating texts, in other words, saying, wow, this is really a great piece of literature, you guys, let's read it.

[60:18]

I ignored, and I'm confessing now, that actually what we were studying was ourselves I thought we were studying the text, and that's true. I don't want to belittle that process of studying the text. So when I read the Lotus Sutra, as I have been for weeks now, and reading commentaries and reading various ways, I realized what I'm doing is I'm trying to work with My desire to venerate a text. I would like to venerate a text. I think I do venerate the Heart Sutra. I think I do venerate the Psalms in the Bible. And they seem to be worthy of my veneration. And now suddenly I'm presented with a text which I am repelled by. I'm repelled by its extravagance. I'm repelled by what the first person, maybe that was Mikhail, I don't know.

[61:22]

talked about, about the almost advocacy of injustice and unfairness in the sutra. And now I'm understanding, and I began to understand the other day when you talked about us as an assembly of treating this as life, this is life itself that we're seeing here. This sutra is life and life is filled with contradictions. It's filled with extravagances and with people's desires to make themselves better and to impress others and et cetera, et cetera. It's filled with that. That's what I've lived with my entire life. And then I have a sutra that I would like to venerate. And it's telling me that. And I remember Linda responding the other day to you. And I thought, oh, thank you, Linda, for saying what you're saying about the contradictions that you're observing here.

[62:24]

And then you saying, yes, OK, they're there. Don't ignore them. And also, explore and question. And so that's what I'm doing. And, you know, it was with hesitancy that I wanted to have the sutra be what we were focusing on, this sutra, in what I consider to be the most precious three weeks of my life, which is the January intensive. I was apprehensive about doing that, but then when you spoke the other day and now when you're speaking, I realize this is my opportunity to be fully engaged with a group of people, with this assembly, in questioning our lives. And accessing what is really alive in our lives and how do we want to live. When I'm repelled by the extravagance of this sutra, I realize, oh, now not, I shouldn't, I don't need to accept the extravagance of this sutra.

[63:31]

What I need to look at is my own desire and turning to, towards simplicity, towards towards a simple honesty, towards integrity, towards what you call being upright. That's what I'm turning towards. And if this sutra and its extravagance and its apparent desire to impress with eons and multitudes and so forth, if it turns me towards the simplicity and towards a a desire to question how can I live simply and honestly and be with my everyday life in a way that benefits me and everybody around me. If that's what it turns me towards, and if I get the support of the assembly to do that, then yes, I can bow to this sutra. not because it contains what I wanted to say, but because it turns me towards what I do want to express.

[64:39]

And I'm expressing it right now. And so as an introduction, as my introduction to the assembly, as my introduction to myself in this assembly, I just want to honor that I'm beginning to discover something that I've had as a question for 60, 70 years now. And so in that spirit, okay, I can be with this. I can be with this sutra, which at times it seems to me completely absurd, completely unnecessarily extravagant and actually ugly. Ugly, really ugly. But then this morning I've had the image of a dragon. This is a dragon. This is a dragon writhing in the sky. I mean, this is a monster. This is monstrous.

[65:40]

And how do I approach monstrosity? I mean, we're dealing with that in the culture at large right now. How do we live with monstrosities without turning from them? And so I just want to honor in response partly to the last person too, I just want to honor where we are. This is where we are right now. This is where we are. This is where I am. And in that sense, the sutra is really appropriate to what's happening in the world right now and in us. So thank you. Thank you, Patrick. I think everyone maybe is almost ready to accept what you said, Patrick, that this is where we are. We are trying to help each other face monstrosity. We have monstrosity in our face, and this assembly is trying to help us find skillful ways to respond, skillful ways to respond.

[66:51]

to things which we are repelled by, namely monstrosity. How can we accept our repelling and respond to it simply, very simply, with great compassion? Very simply. Next. Before we move to what will probably be our last offering for the hour, I wanted to just review something logistically for you. For staying on for Zazen, we will be in this Zoom room. So if you do happen to leave the Zoom room during the lecture break between 11 and 11.15, know that you can use the same Zoom link that you used for lecture at 9 AM this morning. And those are all Pacific times. I think that's it.

[67:53]

Somebody was also asking, what is the lecture scheduled during the week? It's Monday through Friday. And our last offering will be from Justin. Can I make an offering? Please. So I think there's going to be a chance to sit together online. I don't know what that's going to look like, but anyway. And that's going to happen. Then there's going to be a service. And the topic of the chant in the service is a text written by our ancestor Dogen, which is called Self-Receiving and Employing Samadhi. And this text is a picture of the Lotus Samadhi, the Lotus Sutra Samadhi. And I don't feel we're quite ready necessarily as a group to actually recite the Lotus Sutra in noon service, but that's coming up on the horizon, is to actually, at noon service,

[69:01]

chant the Lotus Sutra. Is the noon service something that the whole assembly can watch? Yeah. So I would prepare you for the Lotus Sutra recitations. They'll start in a few days. I am aware that we're studying something which repels people sometimes. And so I'm also trying to, to some extent, mediate the repulsiveness of the text so we don't lose too many of you. Okay, next question. Next offering. Offering from Justin, and that will close this out today. Hi, Reb. Welcome, Justin. I want to read the Lotus Sutra, and I've had several stops and starts.

[70:09]

And I was wondering if I could ask you a couple of questions about just practically approaching the text. You know, as I believe and I want to... I want to experience the benefit that clearly so many in the past have from reading the text and practicing the text. As a lover of literature, sometimes my attitude or approach is sometimes the thicker and the harder it is to get through, the bigger payoff if it's well-written. But I also have a and I trust that this is well-written, but I also have a very hard time moving through the first few pages. And I wonder a couple of things. One is, you know, is it, is it in large part just due to the lack of cultural context that I have, because I can't picture a lot of these, um, references to mythological beings, you know, just based on the fact that I I'm not first and, and the context of the time.

[71:12]

Um, And then I also wonder if, you know, I find myself wanting to jump ahead to look for kind of, if you will, the meat of the text, if there is such a thing, or the kind of direct teaching in the text. And I trust that in these introductory pages or chapters that I'm being taught, but I am struggling, you know, to maintain my attention and want to continue. And I want to know if you recommend, like, how important is the cultural context? And though you just said you don't want to recommend anything, I'm asking for your advice on how important is the cultural context and understanding it? And is it wise to spend the time learning that cultural context? And also, is it okay to skip around? Or even do you have any specific advice on, you know, if you're having a hard time getting through what I consider the introduction to move forward and move back.

[72:13]

And just if you could speak to that, I would appreciate it. As I said earlier, when I first read the Lotus Sutra, after a page or so, I closed it. So I'm not telling you what to do. But I didn't force myself to keep reading it. I also didn't tell myself that I had to read it in a certain way. I'm not going to tell you you have to read it in a certain way. I think what I'm basically saying, for starters, is if you read the scripture and are having trouble, the trouble you're having, if you study that, that's studying the Lotus Sutra. to study the resistance or difficulties you're having with your understanding, with your experience, studying that compassionately is studying the Lotus Sutra.

[73:19]

And if you study what's going on with you when you're having trouble studying this scripture, and also in these talks, in these meetings, if you're having trouble with these meetings, the problems you're having are the opportunities for study. And if you study them thoroughly and compassionately, you will have the same revelation from which this sutra is offered. You will realize the ultimate truth if you deal compassionately with the relative truth of your problems with this sutra. That's my short answer. And my long answer has no end. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, everybody. We have had our first meeting.

[74:20]

Yeah, it happened. Maybe we'll have another one tomorrow. I intend to come. I hope you will continue your study of the great teachings of the Buddha. And who knows what they are. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to cut through. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. May our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way.

[75:22]

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