Did it happen this morning that we completed reciting the eighth chapter of the Samdhinirmocana Sutra? Congratulations. When I was at service and the text was being recited, I did not recite it myself. Please accept this. The reason I didn't is because I wanted to listen to it. So thank you for reciting the text so I could listen to it. For me it was really so beautiful to hear you recite the text. I spent quite a bit of time with this chapter already, so having some familiarity with it, I still think it's difficult, and I haven't really fully understood it, but still, even though I have not fully understood it, I think, wow, this is really good stuff.

[01:31]

Oh, how cool. This is the greatest. So thank you for delivering this message to me. At the end it says, then the Bhagavan spoke these verses. Whatever doctrines are designated and posited for the great purpose of diligence in yoga. Those who rely on these doctrines and work at this yoga will attain enlightenment. Those who, seeking flaws, dispute these words and study all doctrines seeking liberation are Maitreya as far from this yoga as the sky is distant from the earth.

[02:45]

Those wise ones who benefit sentient beings do not seek rewards when striving to aid all beings. Those who hope for rewards will not attain supreme joy free from all materialistic concerns. Those who with desire give Dharma instructions have renounced desire, those who with desire give Dharma instructions, have renounced desire, will still cling to it. I don't understand that.

[03:55]

Those who with desire give Dharma instructions have renounced desire but still cling to it. These deluded ones obtain the precious priceless Dharma but wander in destitution. Therefore vigorously abandon disputation, worldly commotion, and conceptual elaboration in order to liberate worldly beings, including gods. Make great effort in this yoga." Then the Bodhisattva Maitreya asked the Bhagavan, of this form of Dharma discourse that explains your thought.

[04:59]

How should it be apprehended?" The Bhagavan replied, Maitreya, this is the teaching of the definitive meaning of yoga, apprehended as, quote, the teaching of the definitive meaning of yoga, unquote. Then this teaching of the definitive meaning of yoga was explained. When this teaching of the definitive meaning of yoga was explained, 600,000 living beings generated the aspiration towards completely perfect and unsurpassed enlightenment. 300,000 shravakas purified the dharma eye that is free from dust and stainless with respect to dharma.

[06:06]

150,000 shravakas liberated their minds from contamination such that they would not take rebirth Seventy-five thousand bodhisattvas attain mental contemplation of the great yoga. This completes the eighth chapter of Maitreya. The concluding stanza, therefore vigorously abandoned disputation worldly commotion and conceptual elaboration. In other words, discursive thought. And do this in order to liberate worldly beings, including gods, and I may add, ourselves. Make great effort in yoga.

[07:10]

And this last paragraph sounds to me fun to first of all make great effort in the practice of tranquility in order to liberate worldly beings as a practice to facilitate the vows of compassion. This session, in talking to people in individual interviews, almost no one has told me about their pain. Usually during the first—this is the third day—during the first three days people talk, especially second and third day, people talk about pain. But mostly, I haven't heard much about that. And I thought maybe it's because we warmed up to this asheen by having quite a bit of sitting.

[08:16]

I'm not saying there's no pain, but I haven't heard a bunch about it. I've heard more about, actually, difficulties in meditation. People are awake enough to have, like, problems staying awake. And some people are awake most of the day. And their problem is that they're having trouble being awake all day. But you've got good problems. Some people are awake in the morning and sleeping in the afternoon. Some people are sleeping in the afternoon and awake at night. Some people are awake all day and tired at night. There's different patterns. We have different bodies. It's kind of nice, actually, that we're not all asleep at the same time.

[09:19]

So that somebody's awake and witnessing silence somebody's, you know, keeping their eye on the ball while the rest of us sleep. When I was a kid in Minneapolis there was this kind of bread and they said, blah blah bread baked while you sleep. When I was a teenager I worked at a bakery and I used to get up at like two or three in the morning and walk in the freezing cold to work at the bakery. and I'd bake while you were asleep. And then I'd go home about 11 o'clock and take a nap. So you were eating while I was sleeping. People are struggling to give up discursive thought. Some people are like not giving up much discursive thought, but they're noticing that they're not.

[10:26]

Some people are giving up enough discursive thought to get scared that they actually might give up discursive thought. People are noticing, as I mentioned yesterday, that our thinking, our discursive thought, is one of the main ways we keep in touch with a sense of self. And we need a sense of self to, like, follow the session schedule and, you know, serve meals like Meal server is to leave. Well, who's that? Oh, it's me. Or like, you know, so-and-so, clean the zendo. That's me. I'm so-and-so. It's kind of a sense that that name goes with you or something like that. We kind of need it. but also we feel like this self is isolated sometimes, and that if we don't keep up the sense of it, it might be lost.

[11:37]

There's a sense of a self, and it's not clear that the self is supported by everybody, including supported by our memory, so that if somebody says, Reb, I'll remember. Oh no, who is that? That's me, right? Yeah. Yeah. But even if I forget, you know, and somebody says, Reb, come over here, and I don't move, people say, they called your name, go. So what if I'm not in a group? Who will remind me? Well, that might be a problem. So anyway, people are getting close enough or into enough this giving up discursive thought that their opening to the possibility of perhaps, and the danger that they might forget and lose touch with their sense of self. And this desire to have contact with that stimulates them to stop giving up discursive thought and say, this is dangerous.

[12:40]

And I would say, yeah, that's right. It is dangerous. Someone said that when he calms down, he hears his voice saying, that's enough. Other people, again, as they calm down, and the discursive thought quiets down, they also, again, sense a losing contact with the self, and some kind of like, often people feel this big abyss opening up, and then they tense up. So I would say respect those warnings. The word precept, by the way, the root of it means the first part, prae, that goes pre, the prae means beforehand. And the sept or septus comes from the word, you know, like carpe or cape, to grab, to take.

[13:52]

So precept literally means to take beforehand. It's a warning. So there's ethical precepts, which are warnings, but also teachings. So there's a precept that before you start practicing, a precept of practicing shamatha is give up discursive thought. It's a warning about discursive thought. Watch out for it. If you get involved in it, it will be hard to become. But also there's another precept which is respect your fear when it arises. Don't necessarily wallow in it, but if somebody says stop, If you hear a voice saying that's enough, if you feel scared, respect that feeling. Disrespecting it also would be a more discursive thought. At that point maybe talk to a teacher about whether you're opening up too much.

[14:59]

Don't force yourself to give up discursive thought too quickly. Another experience quite a few people are reporting is that as they start to give up discursive thought, certain kinds of thoughts start either rushing in or popping into their awareness, disturbing thoughts, thoughts which ordinarily don't come up when you're tense and defensive. So that's another thing that happens. as you become calmer, you may become overly open. It's possible. So if you feel worried about it, it's okay to lighten up, maybe do a little discursive thought and go talk to a teacher and say, I feel kind of shocked by certain images or something that's coming up. So be careful.

[16:06]

as you practice tranquility. And again, I'm kind of amazed how well some people are doing that they're calm enough to have these problems. These kinds of problems are problems that people have when they calm down. People that are really agitated, they're agitated by what they're thinking of, not what's coming to them. I shouldn't say, they're agitated by what they're thinking, whereas people who are becoming calm are more, what is, I think they're getting, their calm is getting tested. It's not really agitation, it's getting tested. And it's getting balanced by other processes in the body and mind which are saying, you know, don't go too fast.

[17:08]

Don't get calm too fast. Be careful. Don't do this alone. Check it out with the teacher. And when I also, when I try to practice Samatha myself, sometimes I really, you know, I'm really surprised how powerful the discursive mind is and how much it tests me and sneaks in there and gets its little, gets its thing in there, gets its story in there. So quick and so strong and so, yeah. kind of unseen. It comes in and gets its going there, right in the middle of silence. It's silent and then it's not. But it doesn't say, I'm going to disturb the silence now. I recently had a procedure at the hospital and they gave me a sedative and I was awake, you know, looking around the room and looking at the monitors and stuff.

[18:22]

And then And I said, is that the sedative I feel now? And he said, uh-huh. Did you just put it in? And he said, uh-huh. I said, hmm. And then I was looking at the monitors. And then they said, how are you feeling? And I said, fine. And I said, I'm watching the monitors. And I thought it was like that. But actually, I had been out between when I said, is that the sedative? And... And when I said, I was actually watching the monitors. I had been on quite a bit, but I didn't notice. I just noticed, is that the sedative? And then I was awake looking at the monitor again. But I didn't know it was again. I thought it was like looking at the monitors, is that the sedative? Looking at the monitors. And discursive thought can get in there like that. You're just like looking at the floor or looking at the wall and then looking at the wall and then

[19:23]

And then, hey, da-da-da-da is going on. Where did that come from? How did that get in here? It's not silent anymore. It's the floor plus a floor show. And then again, I listen to people saying how hard it is to practice this. And I think just a couple days ago, I think either yesterday or the day before, I thought, maybe we should just practice Pure Land Buddhism. Please, Amida Buddha, take us to the land of tranquility. Calm our minds. It's too hard for us to do it. Anyway, help us. This is like too much. for poor little me." And then I thought of this poem. It's written by a Chinese poet named Li Bo.

[20:40]

And he's called the... he got the nickname among all the great Tang poets as the Poet of Darkness. And this is called, The Road to Shu is Hard. Want to hear it? It's kind of long. Who said yes? Okay, if you say so. Alas! Did that wake you up? Behold! Behold! How steep! How high! The road to Shu is hard, harder than climbing to the heavens. The two kings of Cangcun and Yufu opened up this land in the dim past.

[21:43]

48,000 years since that time, sealed off from the frontier regions of Chin. The great white peaks block the western approach. A bird track just wide enough to be laid across the top of Mount Ome. The earth tottered, mountains crumbled, brave men and women perished. And then came the hanging bridges, sky ascending ladder interlocked. Above, on the highest point, Six Dragon Peak curls around the sun. Below, the gushing, churning torrents of the river around.

[22:46]

White geese cannot fly across. And the gibbons, in despair, give up climbing. Now the mud mountain twists and turns. Nine bends within a hundred steps, zigzagging up the cliffside to where one can touch the stars breathless. Beating my chest, I heave a long sigh and sit down. May I ask if you expect to return, traveling so far west? Terrifying road, incessant mountain peaks lie ahead, where one sees only dismal birds howling in the ancient woods, where the male and female fly around and around.

[23:56]

One also hears cuckoos crying beneath the moon at night. Grief overfills the empty mountains. Sadness fills the valleys. The road to Shu is hard, harder than climbing to the heavens. Just hearing these words turns one's cheeks pale. Peak upon peak, less than a foot from the sky, where withered pines hang inverted from sheer cliffs, where cataracts and roaring turrents make noisy clamor. gnashing upon rocks, a thunderclap from 10,000 glens, an impenetrable place like this.

[25:05]

I sigh and ask, why should anyone come here from so far? Where the dagger peak stands erect and sharp, with one man guarding the pass, 10,000 people cannot advance. Should those on guard prove untrustworthy, they could have turned into leopards and wolves Mornings, one turns away from fierce dragons. Evenings, one runs away from long snakes. Evenings, in the Kan-an-gyo it says, evenings, mornings I think of Kan-ze-an, evenings I think of Kan-ze-an. They gnash their fangs and suck human blood and maul people down like hemp.

[26:18]

The brocade city might be a place for pleasure, but it's far better to hurry home. The road to Shu is hard, harder than climbing to the heavens. Sideways I look westward and heave a long sigh. And yet we go on. Hsu, by the way, is an ancient name for Shetron. And Ome is Ome Shan, which is on the western part of Shetron. It's the frontier of Tibet, the main frontier between China and Tibet.

[27:27]

So this is like trying to practice Samatha, in case you didn't get the analogy. The Buddha way is wonderful, but it's also difficult because of all these slippery habits which are concerned with keeping us alive. And they do for a while. But they also distract us sometimes from our bodhisattva vow to practice yoga in order to liberate beings. Now we're approaching the middle of this retreat and we're also approaching the end of this retreat.

[28:44]

Or I should say we're approaching the middle of this session and the end of this little retreat, at which time we will have a bodhisattva initiation ceremony. a ceremony where people will commit to the bodhisattva vows and precepts together with each other and with us. We will witness their commitment. We will witness them entrust themselves to these precepts and these vows. I proposed to you and this is something I I don't know if I heard about this first or saw it and then heard about it but this is something for which I have some evidence and that is that wanting to practice the bodhisattva precepts and bodhisattva vows is wonderful truly wonderful

[30:14]

However, without committing to them formally, without entrusting our body and mind to these practices, we tend to stay on the surface of this wish to practice. So making this commitment is necessary in order to go deep into the practice. And once again this commitment is another turning point, another crisis. There's dangers and there's opportunities. So in myself and others I see that we go deeper into these practices when we commit to them.

[31:36]

We become initiated into them. We go into their inner precinct by this commitment. Doesn't mean we're suddenly perfect. just means we're initiated into the practice more deeply. And these precepts support the practice of the bodhisattva yoga, and the bodhisattva yoga makes us more ready to practice the precepts. And the first part of the ceremony, the way it's done in this practice place, and as far as I can tell the way it's been done for many centuries throughout the tradition, the first thing that's done is to make offerings

[32:57]

and prostrations to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. And then the next thing is the invocation, the calling up, calling up, verbally inviting, aligning ourselves with the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Align ourselves with great compassion free of all conceptual clinging. And by verbally aligning ourselves this verbal expression of our alignment with the Buddhas and those who wish to be Buddhas for the welfare of the world, the Bodhisattvas, this verbal alignment and this physical alignment is an invocation, an invitation for them to come and be with us in the ceremony.

[34:12]

People who have heard the Dharma have said that the Buddhas are with us, the Bodhisattvas are with us, But when we invite them we may be able to feel their presence more fully. So that's how the ceremony starts. Offering incense and flowers and candles and prostrations and then invoking the presence of these beings. These beings for which we may not have evidence for these beings which I hope we are not dogmatic about. I hope we entertain the possibility that there may be no such beings. I hope that we are not arrogant about

[35:22]

these Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who we align ourselves with. And if we don't align ourselves with it, I hope we are not arrogant about not aligning. I hope we are not arrogant and attached to not aligning ourselves with the tradition and all the other traditions that we may not align ourselves with. So that's the beginning. And there is a teaching there that in this calling to them to come, and in their coming, in that call and response, in that meeting, that's where the ceremony really lives. Part of the ceremony is called Jukai.

[36:46]

And Jukai could be made of two characters, one receiving and the other precepts. But actually the character used in Jukai is the character which means to give. But the character to give is made of a hand radical and another radical which means to receive. And the character which means to give is giving, handing over, and receiving. The giving is a giving and a receiving. And the giving and receiving goes in both directions. When you receive the precepts, you give the Buddhas your heart, your dedication, your commitment, your alignment with the precept.

[37:55]

And the Buddhas give you their heart, they give you the precepts. So, in the process, Jukai means giving and receiving. So maybe it's better to use the word, the Chinese character for giving, because the character for giving has the hand which gives and the character for receiving. Whereas the character for receiving just means receiving. But I think I'm going to write on the back of the people's robes the character for receiving and the character for giving. Receiving, giving, receiving the Bodhisattva precepts. This giving to the Buddhas, receiving from the Buddhas, the Buddhas receiving from us and giving to us, this is the place where the practice has been said by the ancestors to really live.

[39:02]

It's not from them giving to you and you're not giving to them. It's not from you giving to them and them not giving to you. It's mutual giving and receiving. Also, the character for receiving also is a means to experience. And it's also the character that they use to translate the Sanskrit vedana, which is the second skanda, the skanda of feeling or experiencing sensation, the actual feeling. So it also can be said to give and feel or give and experience the precepts. And by experiencing the precepts, give the precepts. That's another dimension of the character. That's the beginning of the ceremony, which is a way to be initiated into the bodhisattva path.

[40:13]

And many people wish to practice the bodhisattva way. And that's, I guess I said, that's really wonderful. But without the formal commitment, without being without entrusting to yourself and in some sense trapping yourself in that intention, it's pretty difficult to train yourself into that path if you're doing it all by yourself, just according to your wonderful intention, wonderful aspiration. Without telling other people about your intention without saying it in public to people who can see you and hear you and then help you afterwards follow through. It's pretty hard. And it's pretty hard, I mean it's pretty hard to be successful I should say.

[41:20]

It's actually easier. In a way it's easier if you just have good intentions and don't tell anybody about them. In some sense it's easier that way. But it's harder to be successful if you don't tell people that you want to practice these vows. Because then they don't feel invited to assist you. Whereas if you tell them and make this commitment and put yourself in that container of them knowing you want to practice this, then they can help you. So then it's harder because they're all helping you. They're all saying, well, how is that the precept? How is that kind? How is that helpful? That doesn't, you know, they help you. It's harder that way, actually. And also, yeah, it's harder, but it's more successful. It's a path of liberation. The ceremony is called pokudo, which means attaining or touching liberation.

[42:29]

to attain do. And this do is not the do of the path, it's the do of crossing over samsara and realizing freedom. And strictly speaking, the form of this ceremony coming up here is called Zaikei Tokudo. Literally staying at home and attaining liberation. It's slightly different in form from the leaving home ceremony which we also do in this temple. Tomorrow I'll talk about the difference between those two. But in both cases it's a tokudo ceremony. It's a ceremony of attaining liberation And the first part of both ceremonies is making offerings and invitations to the Buddhas to come.

[43:36]

And it's the first part of the ceremony to enter the Buddha's way. And in a way it's also the first part of all Buddhist practice is that you invite the Buddhas to practice with you. You say, It seems funny, you know. I'm going to practice Buddhism. I'm going to practice the Buddha way, but I don't want any Buddhas around here. And that's kind of cute, actually, I think. Especially if you would tell the Buddhas that. Okay, okay, Buddhas, I just want you to know I want to practice your way, but I want you guys to back off. Leave me alone. Come on, leave me alone. Come on, leave me alone. Don't come near me. That's pretty good, actually. It's almost like, come here. They don't exactly feel invited, but they do kind of wonder why you're telling them not to come. So they might come around and wonder.

[44:40]

You're making a lot of, oh, he thinks thou does protest too much. You get my interest. But maybe that's too, I don't know what, ironic. And maybe it's just go ahead and whenever you practice, whenever you want to do some good, invite the Buddhas to be with you while you do it. I don't want to exactly suggest that. I would just say that's actually what the tradition says is the practice, is you start the practice with the Buddhas. Before you practiced, you didn't think you were practicing with the Buddhas. Now that you start practicing the Buddha way, you are practicing with the Buddhas.

[45:44]

So be aware of that. Be mindful of that, please. And I wanted to tell you that one of the members of this, well, I just want to also say that I think you've noticed that during this retreat people have lost grandparents, mothers-in-law, fathers-in-law, I don't know if anybody's lost a brother or sister, but there's been deaths among our group of close family members. There's been many friends who are ill. And so we have gone through all this together. And one of our members, I don't know exactly how to describe it, but maybe she opened up too fast.

[46:50]

Maybe she did too much opening too fast because she has become quite disoriented and I believe is now in the hospital. And that's Katrine. So we tried to find a way for her to stay here. After a while she couldn't be in the zendo because being in the zendo, her disorientation became more severe. If she was walking around or resting, it wasn't so bad, but it just seemed to be getting more and more disoriented. We tried to have her work in the kitchen, and the kitchen people were very kind to support her to work in the kitchen. We thought that would ground her. But she only could go one time, and then she couldn't go back to the kitchen. She just couldn't bring herself to do it. and she was getting more and more disoriented. So she agreed to go to the hospital to have some kind of check-up in and so that they thought, I guess they thought she should stay for her own safety.

[48:05]

So currently she's in the hospital. So we can do services for her tonight and others. but I want you to know about that. So we have an example that tranquility meditation can come on too strong sometimes and maybe that's what happened with her. I don't know. The road to shoo is hard. There are dangers and we shouldn't take this effort lightly and that's why we should keep in touch with each other while we're practicing and keep an eye on each other, which we do. And so we noticed that she was having a hard time and we noticed that she wasn't here and her roommate kept us informed, which is very kind and so at the same time we couldn't whisk her off as soon as we saw the slightest

[49:15]

disturbance because she wanted to be here, and we have to respect that too. But this is part of the quandary of practicing with our very fragile bodies and our very fragile minds. And I haven't talked about the body, but the same with that. Don't push your body too much either in this practice. Respect the messages from your body. Respect the messages from your mind when it says, maybe you should rest. Maybe that's enough. Maybe this is too much pain. Listen to that stuff and seek guidance about how to respond to it. The road to shoe is hard. It's dangerous. But there is the opportunity of learning this yoga practice and being able to really help people more and more. So we have also illness and tiredness and we have children who are sick or keeping parents awake at night.

[50:53]

People are having a hard time here and I'm deeply grateful and impressed by your great efforts so far. And may we together move joyfully and peacefully through the rest of this retreat and support these friends who are going to go through this initiation process and carry forward our intention to benefit this world. Our intention may be bent to every being and place.

[51:55]

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