This is the pure and simple color of true practice, of the true mind of faith, of the true body of faith. Good morning, good afternoon to the Great Assembly, the Great Lotus Sutra Assembly. When, again, we chanted the vows that Dogi Zenji wrote just now, did you feel the Lotus Sutra teaching coming through that vow, when he's talking about, we shall be Buddhas, and before Buddhas were Buddhas, they're just like us?

[01:36]

and we shall be like them. This is Dogen Zenji's embodiment and expression of the Lotus Sutra, it seems. Also, when this talks about revealing and disclosing our lack of faith and practice, we can also reveal it before bodhisattvas. Oh, Bodhisattva, Mahasattvas, please concentrate your hearts on me. I, Tenjin Zenki, would like to expose my lack of faith and practice before you. I want to practice confession and repentance in your presence. And of course, Buddhas are also nice to welcome. In our last meeting, as I remember, I brought up and started to look a little bit at Chapter 10 of the Lotus Sutra of the wondrous Dharma, which is called Dharma Teacher.

[02:58]

And then Chapter 16 a little bit. I wanted you to start looking at Chapter 16 because it's so central. so central to our practice. And you have some time to get used to it in these last few meetings so it doesn't come and shock you at the end. And we chatted yesterday at service and we'll do it again probably for the rest of the week at noon service. And I think I also mentioned before that in Soto Zen training monasteries, the 25th chapter of the Lotus Sutra and the verse section of the 25th chapter and the verse section of the 16th chapter are chanted in the regular morning service.

[04:12]

And in both cases, when I heard that and looked at those I was amazed that such things were chanted in Zen temples. I never expected that such teachings would be part of the daily, the daily fare, the daily diet of training monks. But now it's been part of our daily diet here. I'd like you to Contemplate chapter 16 and give the Great Assembly your in our remaining days and beyond, beyond and beyond with no end. I'd like to look now a little bit more, go back to chapter 10 again and remind you a little bit about what's going on.

[05:20]

So the main part I want to concentrate on is where the Buddha mentions that the Buddha has innumerable sutras, innumerable discourses. So in the early scriptures of Buddhism, there were many, many discourses. And then later as the Mahayana developed, many, many more, far more sutras were authored and appeared in the world. So now we have so many discourses and the Buddha says in the Lotus Sutra, they're innumerable. And among all of them, it's difficult to believe And the most difficult to understand is this wondrous Dharma Flower Sutra.

[06:31]

And before Chapter 10, as you saw, over and over it says that this sutra is difficult, hard to understand and hard to enter. Now in chapter 10 it says it's the most difficult. In my conversations with students of the Dharma, sometimes also called Zen students, they often say, having a hard time practicing. They often say, yeah, I like to practice, but it's so hard. And I say, yeah, it is. And that's normal. It's nothing wrong that you think it's hard. It is difficult. And difficult means deep. It's deep.

[07:47]

Now we have this new sport, which I've seen is that people diving with, you know, no oxygen, people diving down, how deep they can go. It's difficult to go deep. It's easy. Even on the surface, it's not necessarily easy, but this Dharma is deep and it's difficult. It's normal. Nothing wrong with you. This is normal. And so now the... is difficult, most difficult. And then the Buddha says it should not be disseminated and should not be taught carelessly. It should not be taught openly. And here we are in this great assembly and it may seem like we're treating it openly. So maybe we got a problem here that we're Maybe we're teaching this sutra too openly because it's so difficult.

[08:54]

We don't want to discourage people, do we? And it also mentions in chapter 10 that this sutra somehow is responded to It's not exactly that the sutra is begging for it. This sutra is responded to with outrage, with resentment, with hostility, with envy. Why does this happen? Particularly, I was thinking, well, part of the envy is, that the Lotus Sutra is so famous. Some of the other people who are studying other scriptures, wonderful Buddhist scriptures, they're studying and they say, how come the Lotus Sutra gets to be most famous?

[09:55]

And the Lotus Sutra says, you know, gonna be really famous. And it is. It's the sutra among the Buddhist sutras is the one that gets the most attention. Maybe not in the West, but in East Asia, they call it the king. And so some of the people who really appreciate the other sutras and teach them and champion them are a little bit envious of the Lotus Sutra. And in the... I remember sometime many years ago, I read in the Hasta Sahasrika Prajnaparamita Sutra, the perfect wisdom in 8,000 lines, it said that around anything really precious, there's usually hostility.

[10:59]

There's a lot of security guards around very precious things often. because people want to steal them or even destroy them out of envy. So the Paramita Sutra was saying that around the perfection of wisdom, there's often hostility. It's so precious. People get really greedy for it or afraid of it or whatever, anyway. Hostile energy around the most precious thing, around the Buddha even. There's hostile energy. And the Buddha pacifies it with great compassion. But it's there. So that makes it difficult. And the Buddha says in Chapter 10, like that when I'm around, imagine when the Buddha departs, how difficult it will be to study this precious Lotus Sutra.

[12:10]

And I mentioned again, I'm getting more messages of concern for my difficulty here in this assembly. But again, it's normal to be difficult. I just want you to know that it is difficult for various reasons. This is difficult. And there will be more talk about difficulty coming up after Chapter 10, the issue of difficulty coming up. And there will be instructions after chapter 10 about how to deal with all this difficulty and how to courageously go forward in the practice of being a Dharma teacher. There's so much headwind, so much hostility, so much resentment and outrage for the sutra that you're taking care of. Once again, after Chapter 10 will be further instructions about how to be a Dharma teacher.

[13:25]

Further instructions for those who wish to uphold and take care of this Dharma flower sutra. More instructions about how to turn it and be turned by it. More instructions about how to teach and be taught. And once again, in chapter 10, the wonderful simple instructions. If you want to teach the supreme Dharma flower wisdom, then enter the room of the Tathagata. Put on the robe of the Tathagata and sit on the seat of the Tathagata, which means enter the room, enter the womb, enter the treasure house of great compassion for all beings.

[14:38]

Put on the robe of gentleness and patience. and sit on the seat of realizing emptiness of all dharmas. So in chapter 10, I hear the Buddha saying, if you want to teach, this is how. And if you want to teach, remember, this is going to be difficult. And you can get the next chapter. And the next chapter starts out saying, at that time, so the Buddha's talking to potential teachers. And then as the Buddha's talking to the people who want to be teachers and telling them how to start getting ready to teach the Lotus Sutra, then suddenly,

[15:49]

Out of the earth comes a great stupa and it goes up into the air and rests high in the air above the lotus suit So here's a sculpture showing Shakyamuni Buddha and another Buddha named Prabhuta Ratna, abundant treasure, sitting together in, actually in this picture, around a stupa. And in this stupa, instead of having those two Buddhas inside, the Lotus Sutra is inside the stupa.

[16:55]

But in the Sutra, the stupa contains the body, the whole body of a Buddha. And it comes up in front of Shakyamuni Buddha and the Great Assembly. Up in the sky, and it's... It's, I think... five leagues high, and five leagues wide, and five leagues, it's rectangular, up in the sky, and it's really huge, and it's made of seven precious materials, and... Yeah.

[18:01]

It's got banners and flags on it, waving in the wind. It's got thousands and thousands of railings, which means it has many terraces. It has thousands of gold from it. It's an amazing thing. Am I featured here? I don't see myself anymore. Not that that's important. There he is. So it's an amazing site. And everyone is awestruck. Except, I don't know, Shakyamuni Buddha may not be so awestruck. But the lay people and the monks and nuns, they're like really awestruck and full of joy and they just spontaneously make offerings to this amazing site.

[19:17]

They know how to express their appreciation and they do. And then there's a bodhisattva in the assembly whose name is great in teaching, as in great delight in teaching the Lotus Sutra. And this bodhisattva can see that the people in the assembly are wondering what, this is an amazing thing, but how come it's happening right now in the middle of you talking about a Dharma teacher? Does this stupa appearing have anything to do with the Buddha's talk about being a Dharma teacher and how to teach? I'm wondering that.

[20:22]

And I think, yeah, I think it does. This shocking upheaval of the earth is very closely related to the issue of of teaching the Lotus Sutra. So the Bodhisattva, seeing that the people are wondering what's going on, he thinks maybe it'd be good for the Buddha to tell him a little bit about this event. So he goes to the Buddha and asks the Buddha, please, would you tell us what's going on here? And the Buddha says, just right away, he doesn't require being asked three times, he just immediately answers that a long time ago, and by now I think you know what a long time ago means, a long time ago, so long ago that it's an exercise of your imagination to get the feeling

[21:30]

how long ago it was, and so far away. There was a Buddha, and the Buddha's name was Prabhutaratna. And Prabhutaratna means, again, abundant treasures. When that Buddha was a bodhisattva, that bodhisattva made a great vow. And the vow was, after I become a Buddha and have gesture of entering extinction, And my body's put into... If anywhere in the universe the Lotus Sutra is being taught, I want my sutra, along with my body, to go to that place for the teaching of the Lotus Sutra.

[23:03]

And I want my body and the stupa to go there as a testimony to the wondrous, this teaching, and also because I want to hear it. So that reminds me that the Buddha After the Buddha became Buddha, the historical Buddha, he continued to do the practices which he did as a bodhisattva. And he was sometimes questioned about that. How come you keep doing the practices that you did when you were a bodhisattva? You aren't attached to them, are you? The Buddha said, no, you're not attached to them. But I do keep doing them and I do them for two reasons.

[24:09]

One is I do them for you, you future generations. I do them to attest to their truth and I also do them because I like to. I don't have to. If I'm not able to, I'm okay. But if I'm allowed, I'll keep doing these practices and I'll do them because I like to and for you. So this Buddha, Prabhupada Ratna, keeps going Lotus Sutra assemblies all over the universe when they're happening with his huge stupa. And he attends to help the people who are hearing the sutra. You're hearing the Lotus Sutra? Well, look who's coming to join the assembly. Into this great assembly, we have this huge stupas in the assembly with this ancient Buddha. And why is the Buddha here? To tell you that this is a great sutra and also I love to hear it.

[25:12]

Hey, by the way, you could... I vow from this life on through our lives to hear the Lotus Sutra. And when it's being practiced, I want me and my stupa to go there and listen to it. So here we are with the Buddha and the Great Lotus Sutra Assembly, and now we have this stupa hovering above the assembly. And this reminds many people probably of various science fiction or books we've read. But usually there, the stupa comes from up high and comes down to earth. This one is coming up out of the earth. So the Buddha comes from far away or from all over the universe.

[26:17]

And instead of coming down from the sky, the Buddha enters the earth and comes up through the earth and then appears before the people and continues to go up into the sky and sits up there having a nice seat. like at those nowadays sports events, they have these nice seats up high, those sporting events, really nice seats up there. And this Buddha's got all the nice seating to herself. And she's watching the great show of Shakyamuni Buddha teaching the Lotus Sutra. So the chapter goes on and

[27:36]

It gets to Shakyamuni that the people in the assembly, particularly the monks and nuns and lay women and lay men, those people, there's a lot of other people in the assembly, but they don't mention them, like the various other strange beings that are there. They're in the assembly, but it mentions that the lay women and the lay men and the nuns and the monks, they actually kind of want to know what's inside that sutra? Oh, I forgot to mention one important point. Inside the sutra, from inside the sutra, a loud voice which says, well done. Well done, Shakyamuni. You are able to teach this lotus flower of the wondrous Dharma, and you're doing it really well for the sake of the Great Assembly. What you say is true. I forgot to mention that.

[28:41]

So all the students of the Buddha, doesn't mention all the bodhisattvas, but all the monks, nuns, lay women and lay men, they want to know what's inside there. They want to see inside. The Buddha know that. Maybe some of you would like to see what's inside. So then the Buddha explains, okay, well, this, who previously made the vow to come here and has come here now, and is inside this wondrous architectural event, this Buddha said also that if people want to see this Buddha's body, inside the great stupa, in order for that to happen, the person that's teaching the sutra, in this case, Shakyamuni Buddha, the teacher needs to, what's the word?

[29:59]

Make some arrangements. The teacher who's teaching the sutra in the great assembly needs to invite needs to send out some invitations to some other people who are not currently... People? No. Other Buddhas, I should say. What other Buddhas? Well, all the other Buddhas who are the embodiment of Shakyamuni Buddha. So we're getting to the beginning of the teaching which culminates and is centered, actually, in chapter 16, the teaching of what is the Buddha's body. And this teaching about what is the Buddha's body might be the truth of this Lotus Sutra.

[31:04]

Again, in the Prajnaparamita, it seems like the ultimate truth is emptiness. And again, The Lotus Sutra definitely accepts and affirms that the teaching of emptiness is an essential expression of the ultimate truth. But is that all there is to the ultimate truth? Now, the Lotus Sutra perhaps is suggesting the ultimate truth the body of the Buddha, which expresses the teaching of emptiness of all phenomena. Maybe in describing the requirements for the assembly to see inside this stupa, the requirement is that the Buddha who's teaching invites

[32:13]

basically her body. She invites her body all over the universe to come to the assembly. What is her body? Her body is the embodiment of her reality, which is in Buddhas all over the universe. The teacher of the Lotus Sutra, the body of the teacher of the Lotus Sutra is the Buddhas all over the universe. And in order to understand what's inside this stupa, which is the body of a Buddha who loves the Lotus Sutra and attests to its reality, we need to invite, actually invoke and invite all these bodies from all over the universe to come here. I saw Shakyamuni Buddha with his handy-dandy light that comes from between his eyes.

[33:19]

When I was a kid, they had this really neat thing they did, which might have been, I don't know. Anyway, sometimes when they had an opening of a movie, they would have these searchlights, and they would shine them in the sky, and you could see all over the city where the movie was showing by following the lights. And I don't know if they had those lights. I think they maybe had those lights before the Second World War. But they also used those lights to search at night for planes. Anyway, the Buddha sends out this light, but this light is a little bit more powerful than any of the lights we've ever had in the world. It goes everywhere. And this light doesn't just go to the east. It goes all over the universe and illuminates all the Buddha lands. And the people can see these lights illuminating all these Buddha lands, billions of billions of Buddha lands. Those lands, there's a Buddha, and the Buddha has billions of bodhisattvas.

[34:25]

And all those Buddhas are illuminated, and the assembly can see them. And what are these Buddhas? These Buddhas are the embodiment of the teacher of the Lotus Sutra. And in those lands, the great assemblies in those lands say to their Buddhas, what's that light about? And those Buddhas say to their assembly, they say, oh, that's Shakyamuni Buddha. He's teaching the Lotus Sutra hometown. And he is inviting us to come to his place. And he says, actually, this is kind of an emergency. I need you to come. And so these Buddhas go, but they don't take their billions of bodhisattvas with them. It's a bit too much. They just take one bodhisattva with them. They take their attendant.

[35:26]

And they each just, they could bring billions of attendants, but they just bring one. And you'll see why they should only bring one soon. So they come, billions of Buddhas come, which bodies come, comes. which means that people can see the Buddha's body isn't just this one Shakyamuni Buddha. Like Suzuki Roshi said, if you think Shakyamuni Buddha is the first Buddha or the only Buddha, you don't understand Shakyamuni Buddha. This is a little crack of looking into the Lotus Sutra. In order to understand the teacher of the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha, We need to understand that the body of this Buddha is the body of Buddhas all over the universe. And so, let's demonstrate that. Okay, come on, Buddhas. And they come. And they don't bring their land with them, and they don't bring all their students.

[36:31]

They bring one attendant. So now you have quite a few Buddhas coming to the land. Why? Well, partly so that the people in the assembly can see inside the stupa, but also, really importantly, I think, to show people who their teacher is. In other words, to show them who they are. Meet the Buddha. This is the Buddha together with the Buddha that realizes the Dharma. This is the whole universe. making us, and us making the whole universe, which is our body. The whole universe makes our body, and our body is the whole universe. This is being demonstrated to the Lotus Sutra Assembly with the aid of the advent of the great jeweled stupa.

[37:35]

So prabhuta-ratna is called abundant treasure. It's a treasure stupa. the precious jewel stupa. Here comes the Buddhas, are you ready? So they start coming and Shakyamuni is, he knows his responsibility and he prepares very nice, magnificent seats for each of these Buddhas. And he puts the seats under very huge jeweled trees. Each Buddha gets a beautiful seat under a beautiful, sparkling, glistening, light emanating and receiving tower of vegetation.

[38:38]

Shakyamuni Buddha makes the arrangements for each one, but he soon runs out of space in this world because there's so many Buddhists. So then he makes some real estate negotiations and arranges to use worlds in the neighborhood of our world and quite a few billions of neighboring worlds to arrange for seating for all these Buddhas. And then they get filled, and then he has to make even arrangements for seating the Buddhas. And this goes on quite a bit. It's a pretty big job. It doesn't say how long it takes for him to make these arrangements, but you can get a feeling for they're pretty extensive. And he's not complaining about how much work it is to arrange He's doing all this so that people can see, so that people can see what's inside.

[39:46]

In this case, the Buddha is the servant of the assembly. And he has to do this because this is what Prabhupada has done, otherwise he's not going to open his stupa. And if you're teaching the Lotus Sutra, this is part of your responsibility. And once again, I remind you, in the previous chapter about the Dharma teacher, the Buddha just talked about what's involved, a little bit about what's involved. He didn't ask anybody, would you please be a Dharma teacher? He just said, if you want to be, this is how to do it. And by the way, it's going to be difficult. Now he's showing a little bit more about the difficulty. If you're going to be a Dharma teacher of the Lotus Sutra, have to do quite a bit of service work. You might have to arrange for seating for quite a few people. And in fact, that is part of our work here, you know, in Zen centers, in various temples around the world.

[40:56]

We put a lot of effort into arranging seating. We make quite a bit of effort arranging seating, making sure that it's, you know, not too close together. and now we're expecting a storm, and we have to make sure that the Zapatons aren't out where they're going to get wet. So we actually, part of our becoming Dharma teachers is arranging seating. In this case, for people in the four groups, monks and nuns and laywomen and laymen. But also, we might have to arrange seating for Buddhas. That's part of our job. And I actually... I'm looking forward to arranging seats for visiting Buddhas. I'm willing to do the work. How about you? Okay. Again, did I lose you there?

[41:56]

The Buddha's arranging seating. He's got all the seating. And these billions and billions of Buddhas have their beautiful seats under their beautiful jeweled trees. And now, now what? Okay. Now, maybe the suit can be opened. So Shakyamuni, once all the Buddhas are seated, once he's arranged for their seating, he was doing all this from his seat. sitting on her seat, she arranged seating for all the guest Buddhas, which are the body of Shakyamuni Buddha, which are the embodiment of Shakyamuni Buddha. Now, as soon as they're all seated, she immediately stands up and ascends into the air up to the stupa, goes up to the stupa, and with her right hand

[43:02]

opens the door of the stupa. And at that time, a large, great sound comes out of the stupa, like the sound of a huge bar door. And the door is open. And we see the Buddha abundant treasures, prabhuttaratna, sitting, zazen posture. The great Buddha sitting zazen in the stupa. Sometimes this Buddha is depicted as a little bit, what's the word, Phantom, looking somewhat phantom-like.

[44:06]

Kind of misty. And then Shakyamuni Buddha is invited in the same seat as Prabhupada Ratna. Please, you can sit next to me on my seat. And Buddha sits on the same seat. In the stupa, the Buddhas, they each have their own seat. But in the sutra, they're sitting on the same seat. In this case, the lotus sutra is sitting in the center. When we have, in Zen, the Dharma flag teacher, the teacher who is holding up the Dharma flag of the Lotus Sutra, or the Prajnaparamita Sutra, whatever sutra she wants to teach, the sutra of the treasury of true Dharma eyes, whatever the sutra, the Dharma flag teacher sits on the seat to teach.

[45:27]

And then we also have a head monk for the practice period. And the head monk basically invited to sit on the same seat, enacting the Lord in the Zen meditation hall. So now the happy Buddhas are sitting together. And again, Prabhupada Radhana says, well done. Well done, Shakyamuni. You're able to learn the Lotus Sutra in the Great Assembly for the welfare of the world. What you say is true. Now, word gets to Shakyamuni from down below on the ground, from the assembly, that they would like to come up.

[46:38]

So they would like to come up. So word gets to Shakyamuni. So he raises the entire assembly up to the level in the sky so they can see better the two Buddhas. I could go over this again and again to make sure you've got the nice picture in your mind and body here. But I'll just keep going for a little while, just a little bit more, which is now everybody's kind of cozy in their seat, close together, everybody can see everything. And so then Shakyamuni Buddha says, this is a new thing. I wonder if anybody would...

[47:42]

would like to actually vow to teach this sutra. Again, in the previous chapter, he says, if you want to teach, then here's how to do it. And by the way, it's going to be difficult. Now, I wonder if anybody in this assembly does want to. And here we get to this thing about Finding the next generation. Is there anybody in this assembly that I can entrust this teaching to? Because I'm going away. Anybody want to do that? And then the Buddha says, well, I think all these Buddhas want to. These billions of Buddhas in this assembly, they want to. And I'm happy about that. So you guys are going to take care of the Lotus Sutra all over the universe.

[48:46]

Thank you so much. I know you'll do a great job. I entrust the Lotus Sutra to you. And you are my body. What about here in this world though? Anybody in this world up for it? Anybody here who wants to be a teacher, who I can entrust this sutra to. So now he's almost saying, please help me. Please help the Lotus Sutra, because I need some people to take over the job. I told you how difficult it was going to be, but still I'm wondering, does anybody want to? Anybody want to? Anybody up for making the vow to take care of the Lotus, of the wondrous He doesn't quite say, please, please be my successor.

[49:48]

He doesn't quite say that. He wants, but he does bring it up. Do you, anybody here want to? I've warned you. Want to? And also I've just shown you, not just I've shown you, but the stupa coming. And what was needed to see the stupa has shown you. It wasn't that I showed you, it's me together with this other Buddha. This meeting between us necessitated that you be shown. This Buddha made me. I made this Buddha. Together, we showed you the true body of the Buddha is all over the universe. Now that you see this, do you want to take care of this teaching and transmit it for the welfare of this world?

[50:49]

Anybody? Anybody? And then he goes on in verse after that. Wonderful verse. Basically asking the question over and over, but also going into more detail of how difficult it is. Like, Compared to this teaching, it would be not difficult to place Mount Everest to a far distant galaxy. And so you can read the wonderful comparisons that would be not as difficult as this work. So after he asks how wonderful it is, Does anybody want to take over the helm here of this great dharmaship and be responsible for this great dharmaship of compassion and wisdom?

[51:53]

And again, warning, it's going to be difficult. And there's going to be several more chapters on how difficult it is and how to deal with that. So that's a brief story about Chapter 11 of the Lotus Sutra about the jewel, the seeing the jewel. Now this great assembly is invited to make offerings to the jewel stupa. You're invited to make offerings to Uttaratna and Shakyamuni Buddha and the Lotus Sutra. And you're invited to consider, do you want to be a Dharma teacher, even though you hear how difficult it is?

[52:58]

Difficult it is for me to study with you, It's so difficult, but not because you're not supporting me. You are. You're supporting me to do this difficult thing, but it's not easy. But I don't mind. I don't mind hard because you're helping me. I love hard, but I just want you to know it is. It's not like I love easy. I don't love easy, actually. I tolerate it. I love this hard work supporting me to do it. Nothing's wrong. This is normal. I'm up for it. Please keep supporting me. Do you want to do this hard thing too? And let us support you? I will continue to without end.

[54:02]

And you're invited again to make offerings to various wonderful things, if you wish. And we have an offering from Audrey. You're muted, Audrey. I'm muted. Hi, Rev, and hi to the General Assembly. very sleepy today, so that's my state, which is I guess. I'm just absolutely thrilled with this opportunity to be with everybody, the General Assembly. This is only my second time with a practice. As far as you know. As far as I know, yeah. That's right.

[55:06]

And sometimes, this is just a question, sometimes are people in the General Assembly and you happy that it's difficult? Am I happy that it's difficult? I'm not happy that it's difficult. I'm happy and it's difficult. Yes. It's difficult and I'm happy. In this sutra, all these people are full of joy and wonder, and they're having a hard time. They have lots of questions. They see all this stuff. It's fabulous. They love it. They're so grateful, and they're having a hard time understanding. They can barely believe it. They hear about it, and they go, can I believe what I'm seeing? Is there actually a jewel stoop? That sound coming out of it. So they're joyful and having a hard time. It's not like a hard time. But the two go together.

[56:10]

Hard goes with deep. Deep goes with hard. Deep goes with hard. And sometimes people love deep teaching. Right. And I totally get, you know, or I somewhat get the joy of deepness, actually. But I just wonder, of course, about it for myself, starting all this at an older age, which is fine. It's fine. In fact, that's joyous, to have this opportunity after a lifetime of looking at different things. But it seems like I wish, not just for me that it was more accessible, at an understanding level, but for everybody, for my friends, for my neighbors.

[57:14]

And I just wish that. Well, the Buddha wishes that. The Buddha doesn't wish that it's more accessible. The Buddha wishes to give people access. Yes. Not to make it more accessible, because it's not really accessible. It's too deep. Something accessible. So that's the skillful means of this sutra. Give people accessible stuff that they can work on, and if they work on the accessible stuff wholeheartedly, The inaccessible will be revealed. Right. More will be accessible. If you want people to have access, give them something accessible. Right. And those are the skillful means. Those are the skillful means. Take a walk with somebody. Right. And if you're walking with them, they may turn to you and say, I'm feeling something really deep and inaccessible.

[58:20]

Me too. The true Dharma is not accessible. Because accessible would be like it's not already here. It's already here, but it's so deep. You can't access it. You can't access what you are. But we can use skillful means. Skillful means we will discover the jewel in the shit. Right. Like in chapter four. Right. So give people all kinds of accessible stuff. So we do. We say, okay, sit here, cross your legs, put your hands like this, be still and quiet. That form. And if they practice that form of sitting quietly and still, they'll discover the profound. But you may have to work hard at the skillful means in order to discover that's inaccessible, was always here because you can't access what you are.

[59:27]

You can just realize it. Can you talk about that just a little bit more? You can't access what you are. Yeah, because to access it would mean that you're not it. That you're over here and what you are is over there. So you got to get access to what you are. Yeah. They seem, you know, that kind of verb seems so connected. But you're saying it's not. I'm saying you have no connection to yourself. You are yourself. You are. However. Just a question about this self. I just wonder if I'm not. This is a situation where the deepness is eluding me once again. And that is face-to-face business that we've been concentrating on now for two and a half weeks absolutely thrills me.

[60:29]

And the skillful means of connecting as well as we can with this huge variety of trees, everything. My issue, my challenge, as far as I can see it, is more my whole life. How can I say this? Of feeling, of worrying about not being seen. I don't seem to worry about being seen much. And that's been the focus here with the face to face as not being seen. And I, and I, I, I generalize from that a little bit thinking, isn't that the case with a lot of women, for example, a lot of, a lot of the world.

[61:39]

So that's really the query. Yeah, and that's really a wonderful query. And let's play with that, shall we? Yeah. So you can feel that you want to be seen. Is that right? And you're even a little bit worried about that maybe you won't be. Yeah. But you do want to be. Right. And that's part of the truth. You do want to be. And you do want to be because you are. But you want to understand that. You want to enact that and live that and have that be lived. That's what you want. Yeah. That's definitely part of only a Buddha together with Buddha is that each Buddha wants to be seen And they want to be seen by somebody who wants to see them.

[62:50]

Yeah. Yeah. And then, so when you find somebody that you want to see you, and then they're willing to see me, then you don't want to be seen. So that's the, that's the deep part there. That's the deep and subtle part. That's what we're working on. We want to be seen. And we want to be seen by somebody who sees people. Suzuki Roshi had a reputation of seeing people. So a lot of people came to see him, have him to see them. And I'm one of them. And when he started to see me, I didn't want to be seen. It's very subtle. Yeah. This is the work. This is the hard. realizing that in reality we are seeing and being seen, and that mutual face-to-face transmission is reality. That is the true body of Buddha that knows the way things are.

[63:53]

And it's very subtle. And you can't get a hold of it. And you can't get people to see you, and you can't stop them from seeing you. You can't make yourself see people, and you can't stop seeing them. You can't make yourself listen, and you can't stop listening. And yet, we think we can, and we think we can't. And this is the jeweled stupa. This is Buddha together with Buddha in the jeweled stupa, teaching the Lotus Sutra together. And everything... circling around this meeting our fears our aspirations our confusion our our discouragements our encouragements our horrors our delights they're all swirling around this meeting all of them are asking to be seen and the whole universe is asking them to speak

[65:05]

And this is the way we already are, but we have to practice this in order to realize it. And who wants to practice this? Who wants to teach this? That's the question that Shakyamuni asked to the assembly. And he said, anybody who wants to, it's going to be difficult, but I'm happy to teach you how to do this face-to-face, Buddha-to-Buddha thing. And all these Buddhists throughout the universe are helping us too. Yeah. Thank you. By the way, you remind me at the beginning that, you know, at the beginning of the sutra, Maitreya didn't know about his past. And Manjushri told him, oh yeah, in the past, you... in the past. So, you feel like you're starting late, and maybe Manjushri will explain to you sometime. that you practiced for a long time before.

[66:09]

You wouldn't be here in this assembly if you just started practicing a few years ago. That's absolutely right. By the way, Audrey, in a past life, you did this, this, and [...] this. You've been practicing a long time. That's why you're here. That's why we're blessed to be here because we've been practicing a long time already. And sometimes when we were practicing, there were shortcomings in our practice. Oh, thank you. And thank you, Brendan. Yeah, thank you, Brendan. Thank you, Audrey. Thank you, Georgia. Everybody. Thank you, everybody. General Assembly. In the UN. United Nations General Assembly, here we are.

[67:12]

United Nations Lotus Sutra Assembly. That's right. Any more offerings today? Pardon? We have an offering from Kodo. Good morning, Tenshin Roshi. Good morning, Kudo. Very happy to get a chance to speak with you. I was ordained in your Dharma family a little over five years ago. And in that stretch of time, we've only had a chance to meet in the same room face to face a handful of times. So this is a delight, actually. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you for coming. I'm regarding the Lotus Sutra now.

[68:15]

The way I'm seeing it is as including some skillful perceptions and skillful ways of skillful attitudes to have for teaching and learning. I think there's quite a bit of value in what the Lotus Sutra presents and I'm having difficulty with it. To put a point on it, it's difficult for me to embrace the sutra and especially to put it in the... like everything that comes after Tendai seems to do in East Asia, this sort of crown jewel of the Dharma of the Lotus Sutra. It's hard for me to place this sutra there when the sutra relegates each tradition and the arhats and the Buddha's Dharma to a secondary position.

[69:27]

and characterizes the arhats in pretty strange or demeaning ways. That's really hard. I'm really glad to have this opportunity to be with you about this topic, because I realize, well, of course, it's never certain, but it's conceivable that 20 years from now, I may be in a position where the Buddha's robe is wrapped around this body, and I'm speaking to an assembly. And I don't, I don't know that I can put the Lotus Sutra in the first place.

[70:28]

And I want to be able to sit on that seat and speak with your support, actually. So this is where I am with the study. I'm very happy to meet. Would you like some response to your things you raised? Please. I do the sutra in the first place. I don't feel required to put it in the first place. I don't put you in the first place. I just meet you right now. And meeting you right now fully, I don't have to put you any place. I don't need to put you in the first or second place. And I don't hear anybody telling me to put you in the first place.

[71:41]

So if you don't feel that it's skillful to put the Lotus Sutra in the first place, then that's what you are now that you bring to this assembly. If you want to put the lotus roots in the first place, that's okay with me. I don't think you have to, but if you feel like you want to or need to, hey, you have my full support. We can work with that. If you want to put it in third place or ninth place or throw it out the window, of throwing out the window, I might say, let's be careful. Now, as for the Lotus Sutra's attitude towards arhats and the early teaching, I have some other perspectives, which are that I think that those people who, some people who really worship the Lotus Sutra also venerate and worship arhats.

[72:54]

in many great Zen temples, not the ones, but in the big ones, they have hundreds of statues of Arhats. Like in the big temples, like a hedge, they have 500 Arhat statues. Wow. Worshiping Arhats is part of Zen practice of Japanese Zen and Korean Zen. We worshiped Arhats. They are saints. They are they are fabulous spiritual beings and the Lotus Sutra wants to be friends with them but issues of like when children leave home they sometimes have some problems with their parents the Lotus Sutra wants to accommodate and have a relationship with the previous form of Buddhism But in the process, there's some rough edges in the... There's some tough points.

[74:02]

But basically, they wouldn't be in there if the Lotus Sutra... I might feel like the Lotus Sutra wouldn't put all this energy into it if it... I'm not saying it wouldn't. I'm saying it's doing this because it wants to make peace with the previous tradition. To be at peace with what came before the Mahayana. In the process of peace negotiations, some strange comments come out, which make people feel like there's a disrespect or something. Maybe there was. But it's also the case, and it was in the early tradition, the Buddha wasn't just an arhat. The Buddha was an arhato. But also, Buddha is some Buddha. Samyak is some Buddha. Buddha is the complete Buddha. And the Tathagata. And an Arhat.

[75:04]

Arhat is one of the things the Buddha was. And the Buddha was a Bodhisattva. So we're saying now, not to put Arhats down. But to realize that really, the Arhats are actually on the Bodhisattva path. They're actually bodhisattvas. But how to say that without saying that we're putting down arhatship, that's, I would like to do that. And when, and in the cases, and yeah, so they just say, you know, they didn't, they just, they never dreamed, these arhats never dreamed of being Buddhas. Now they're, and they're happy. They were just going to be arhats, not Samyak Sam Buddha. So I don't think we should disrespect anybody. And I feel that teaching come to me from the Lotus Sutra. And if the Lotus Sutra looks like it's not respecting, then I would respect that and look at that.

[76:07]

And what's that about? And again, maybe the Lotus Sutra is like us. Maybe the Lotus Sutra is partly... the way the Lotus Sutra was the Lotus Sutra. Maybe the Lotus Sutra is unenlightened as part of what it is. Maybe it makes mistakes. So we can, while we're reading the Lotus Sutra, we can deal with problems. But before we get into looking at all, remember, you do not have to put the Lotus Sutra first and you do not have to deny that you're having problems. with it. What are you supposed to do with it? Well, you're supposed to practice, enter the room of great compassion. And great compassion doesn't necessarily put anything first or second. And I'm not trying to get over your problems.

[77:12]

I'm supporting you to be compassionate to your problems with the Lotus Sutra, and be compassionate to the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra is calling to you and me and the Great Assembly. It's calling to us for great compassion. But great compassion doesn't mean it's calling to us to deny how we feel about it. Our feelings about the Lotus Sutra are calling for great compassion. And if we practice great compassion with our difficult feelings about the Lotus Sutra, we will discover the real Lotus Sutra in the middle of our difficulties without getting rid of them. My problems with the Lotus Sutra were the very door through which I entered the Dharma. Hmm. And in some sense, that's one of the things I value about the Lotus Sutra, is it gives such a wide variety of Dharma gates, not just pleasant ones, startling, shocking, disturbing Dharma doors.

[78:23]

Can you practice with those too, right in the middle of the sutra? with the sutra surrounding you to say, okay, now that this difficult thing's being presented or your difficult feelings are being presented, now practice what it teaches you how to practice. And so you're having difficulty right while you're reading the sutra with the sutra. And the sutra's saying, okay, now we can tell you how to deal with this problem, which we gave to you. We didn't mean for you to have a problem with it. We're just being ourselves. But it turns out you do have a problem with this. about how to deal with this problem. That's a little bit of a comment on this. And I hope you keep having problems with the Lotus Sutra until the doors of Dharma in these problems opens. Thank you so much for your comments. You're welcome. Thank you for your offering of your difficulties.

[79:25]

We have an offering from Deborah. Hi, Rob and Great Assembly. Hello, Deborah. Hey, thank you. I also want to disclose my difficulties. The previous two speakers, it was very helpful. last night I was trying to read the 15th chapter and I got caught up in things like, um, don't show your teeth and your bare chest to women or something that don't hang out with five types of five types of unmanly men. And then shortly below that, it was saying everyone must respect and honor each other. So I was struggling with that contradiction. Um, But I think, yeah, you answered some of that.

[80:33]

But what I'm struggling with now is how to, I'm trying to embody aspects of the sutra. And currently in my life, I'm working on my own grief over a traumatic loss. And as well as I work with people who are, have just had, Traumatic losses, losing their physicality, their moving in the world, their limbs, their to speak. And I would like to be more helpful to them. And so in trying to, at the end of our session, sometimes I feel, I feel like I can't, almost like a hungry ghost in reverse. Like I feel like it's all in my head and I can't embody it. So I was trying to look at artwork around the Lotus Sutra. And I don't know, I only looked at basic things, but it just seemed like there'd be a bodhisattva and then some other people over here getting their heads chopped off for this, some bad thing and some good thing.

[81:35]

Like it felt very dualistic. I only looked at it briefly. I guess I'm trying to, what would be, trying to find, and I'm seeing subtleties in my life. I find myself a little more open-hearted to people who usually annoy me, a little more gentle since we began this intensive. And I don't know whether I'm just not conscious of it being embodied. I guess I'm having trouble utilizing it, and maybe this is just part of it, of finding a way to enter. So I don't know if you have thoughts about that. So I guess it's what I'm trying to say is it's like I can hear it. I can hear it and I can intellectually feel like I can say, okay, I can get this.

[82:35]

I can accept, you know, many aspects that you've shared, but I'm trouble with the connection to my life and helping uh being supportive of of others i guess i'm having trouble teaching it but it is happening in some subtle ways and so maybe it's happening i don't know i guess it's not so obvious in my conscious sense at all If you're having trouble applying or enacting the teachings in your daily life, that you have that little problem, that problem of having the problem of how to apply the teachings to your moment, that's the normal situation.

[83:44]

To those who are studying the sutra, the problem is how to apply the sutra to your situation right now. Right. So, one of the instructions is, enter the room of the Tathagata. Enter the room of great compassion for all living beings. And one of the living beings that seems to be here right now is a living being of having trouble. One, applying the Lotus Sutra to some problem, some person, some feeling you have, some vision you have of another person. Applying great compassion to trauma. And putting on the Buddha's robe, applying gentleness. and tenderness to trauma and patience with trauma.

[84:50]

When you apply tenderness to pain and trauma, you are applying the Lotus Sutra. You're doing what a teacher of the Lotus Sutra is instructed to do. And again, it says, create compassion for all living beings. In other words, whatever perception, impulse, whatever emotion you have, whatever idea you have, whatever your body's doing, those are all sentient beings. And the sutra is saying, practice great compassion. Enter the room. It's not even like... You do the great compassion. You enter the room of great compassion, and great compassion meets whatever's going on in your life, whatever's going on in your body and mind, whichever's going on with who you seem to meet.

[85:57]

And there may be trouble doing that. There may be trouble remembering that. There sometimes is. And when you speak about it, I can hear you. When you teach about the Lotus Sutra, I can hear it. I guess when I read it, when you speak about it, it feels like a lot of other teachings. So I guess, I guess, I don't know. The Lotus Sutra also says to give you some opportunities to practice compassion and you're doing the reading, but you might also switch from reading to reciting. Okay. Or copy it, write it out. And you might notice as you write it out, somehow you might notice, oh, I'm practicing great compassion by writing. When you're reading, you're actually applying the... Notice it tells you to write, to read it.

[87:05]

But you maybe forget that. So then it also tells you to recite it. or to chant it, gives you different aspects. Or to have a conversation, right now you're having a conversation with me. The Lotus Sutra tells you to have a conversation with me, you're doing it. So it gives you various ideas of things to help you realize that when you write the Lotus Sutra, you are practicing the Lotus Sutra. So you can see, oh, I'm doing something which is practicing the Sutra. So when you're kind to people, you're practicing this sutra. But sometimes when you're being kind to people, maybe you're enjoying it, but you might say, what about the Lotus Sutra? Well, you're doing it right now. The Lotus Sutra is saying to you, you are on the path of practicing the Lotus Sutra, practicing the Bodhisattva way. And then it gives you many little examples of what you can do. And sometimes when you're reading, it's time to stop reading.

[88:09]

Sometimes you're practicing the Lotus Sutra by reading it, but the Lotus Sutra says, stop reading me. Take care of your son. Sometimes you've done enough reading. It's time to stop. Because you're losing track that you're reading is not just reading a sutra. You're actually enacting the sutra by reading it. you're enacting the sutra when you chant it. But sometimes you chant and you feel like, oh, I'm doing it. The Lotus Sutra is happening now. And then at a certain point, you've done it long enough. It's time to stop. And the Lotus Sutra says, it's time to stop. This was good. Now time to stop and go to bed. Make dinner. Take care of your son. Do some prostrations. Sit still. So part of what it's teaching you is Take breaks, right?

[89:14]

The magic city. Take a break. Don't just keep doing the same. Don't just keep reading, reading, reading, reading. The Lord is just saying, time to rest. You've done enough of this. You're losing your vitality. Do you see that? It's not thrilling anymore. Time to stop and do something different. Like go practice. with patience. Go practice patience with your patients. And at a certain time, there's enough of that. Time to take a break and go read the Lotus Sutra. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Part of what the Lotus Sutra is saying is you should get a sense of when you need to rest. When you're losing the vitality. That's part of what it's teaching you. It's not a fault in your practice that you stop reading when you lose.

[90:15]

And again, I told you, when I first started reading the Lotus Sutra, I read it and very quickly, my vitality and I stopped. I recommend do it with joy. And when the joy goes, stop. And see what the next form of your practice should be. I think the... He's asking about the cookies he's making. I'll help you in a sec. You know, that's very helpful, Rev, because I guess I've been putting pressure on myself because I feel like it is such a rare tool. Maybe he's the Lotus Sutra telling you to stop. He does that a lot. I think I was, I mean, this is such a rare opportunity to be with you, to be with the Great Assembly. So I have been pressuring myself to read it, even when I dreaded it.

[91:17]

Somebody asked me, you know, I recommend not pressuring yourself to read it. And somebody said, do you recommend the same for Zazen? And the answer is no. I don't know if I recommend it, but I recommend, I guess I'd recommend not pressuring yourself to read the Lotus Sutra. Don't press yourself to memorize. Don't press yourself to copy it. Don't pressure yourself to read it. I mean, to teach it. Don't pressure yourself to practice Zazen. Don't pressure yourself to teach it. Don't pressure yourself. Don't force yourself. Do it out of joy. Do it out of, be an amateur, which means you're doing it out of love. So I'm going to prefer. Zazen person, right? But I don't pressure myself in my profession. It's also my hobby. It's my profession, it's my hobby, and it's my vocation. But I don't press my vocation, I don't press my profession, and I don't press my hobby.

[92:19]

Pressure yourself. If somebody says, should I keep practicing Zazen if I don't like it? I say, no, take a break. Come back when you want to sit. Go back to the Lotus Sutra when you want to read it. Don't pressure. And excuse me for saying don't. I don't recommend it. Do it out of love. And also, when you're reading it and the love seems to be thinning out, The lotus root is telling you, stop and go do something else you love. This is how you can persevere. If you keep forcing yourself, then you're not going to be able to persevere. So don't force yourself. You've done enough. And now wait until you have a hunger for it. And it's going to be wonderful.

[93:22]

And then that is a limited amount of time. And then to the break. Same with all other aspects of practice, I would suggest. Okay. I think it's an aspiration to be further ahead than I am and not being present with where I am. Whether we know it or not, we're heading towards perfect Buddhahood. And we want to go there. But don't pressure yourself to be a Buddha. I'll try. I would like if a large stupa. Thank you. I'll pass the word along for your request for a large stupa. Thank you. We have an offering from Colleen.

[94:22]

Good morning. Good morning. I do not have a camera on my laptop, so anyways. Mine is the yellow screen with a painting on it. Okay. So good morning, Tension Reb. Good morning, Great Assembly. Well, morning, afternoon, evening, and all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas out there. I'm extremely speaking online to a group of people. So forgive me if I Twitter about a bit. Okay. I want to say that, first of all, I love chapter 11. And the first thing that I wanted to know as I was reading it is how big that stupa actually is in terms that I understand.

[95:32]

So I figured that it was 1,100 kilometers high. and or 700 miles 550 kilometers wide or 350 miles wide which is um you could almost say unimaginable so big and and it's this quality of imagination i i have heard You and other teachers bring up this word, imagination, imagine. And for me, that is, it's become almost like a, well, a Dharma gate to all of this. I was really interested in taking this intensive because although I hadn't read the Lotus Sutra before, I'd met people, other teachers who had read it, and I thought, well, that makes it interesting.

[96:42]

You know, either you really, something so polarizing, I'd like to know more about this. And as I started to learn more about it, I thought, you know, human brains like the Old Testament, the Greek myths, so many fantastic, outrageous stories and ways of teaching. That's how this struck me as this wonderful work. But I don't mean fantasy and I don't mean just storytelling. And how do I say this? I'm a person that it's I think it was Deborah said that she has better time pulling out the intellectual understanding of the Dharma and not connecting to the embodiment.

[97:49]

I'm the reverse. It all goes in and through my body and I have a hard time articulating it. So I took, I took about five months ago and As I was taking the vows, it really struck me how incredibly outrageous the Bodhisattva vows are. There I was on my knees promising to the universe that I would be saving all beings in this lifetime and all my future lifetimes and all my past lifetimes. And what strikes me again is the imagination of that. beyond imagination. But every day as I go through my life, bus, as I do my grocery shopping, and I think, imagine you're a Bodhisattva. All those people are Bodhisattvas.

[98:52]

All those people are Buddhas. I'm Buddha. You know, and that man on the park bench, he's Buddha. Um, so that's really what, um, I think that's, uh, that's really what I'm getting. And the other, sorry, the other thing I wanted to add to that was when I started, I was hearing about a lot about faith sutra. And at first I was hearing it from the template of the Western view of what faith is like faith. And I'm not a Christian, but as I understand it in Christianity and things like that, But to me, faith and imagination seem, this kind of imagination seem to be tied together. uh yeah sorry i've run out of words and i also really appreciate you saying deep goes with hard i i love that um i was very early in my zen practice i figured i figured out pretty quickly that this is not a self-help process you know this is something else

[100:10]

And the hard stuff for me goes deep, and I learn a lot. Anyways, I don't know if any of that made sense, but I thank you very much for these teachings. It was easy to receive and made a lot of sense. Would you like me to make a small comment? Please do. Yes, thank you. So, you said something about the Lotus Sutra, and then you said something about Riding a bus? Anyway, something in your daily life, walking down the street, riding a bus? Yes. Things like that? Yes. When you said that, I thought, oh, that's imagination too. You're imagining you're walking down the street. Yes. We imagine a three-dimensional world. If you close your eyes, you don't see a three-dimensional world anymore. When you open them, your wonderful body and my wonderful body, imagine a three-dimensional world.

[101:22]

It just snaps up like that by the power of our wonderful body and mind. It's a thought construction, a three-dimensional world. With your eyes shut, there's a thought construction of a two-dimensional world. So imagination. So we're always walking around with an imaginary version of our life. If we're conscious. And even if we're not conscious, our unconscious process still are maintaining the equipment and the processes to imagine worlds and lives. Lotus Sutra is also helping us use our imagination so we can get to be really skillful imaginers. and using our imagination more skillfully. Not that seeing people as future Buddhas is a better imagination than seeing them as past Buddhas or present Buddhas or as ordinary people or as something maybe not very nice.

[102:29]

That's all imagination that we're working with. Lotus Feet is trying to help us learn how to use our imagination because usually, often, We're caught by our imagination. We think it's something other than our imagination. And we suffer because of that. The Lotus Seed is helping us use our imagination to liberate our imagination, because our imagination wants to be free and peaceful and harmonious with all other imaginations. We're living in a world now where imaginations, as for our clashing, are in conflict. And we want peace. So Lotus Sutra is a course of study of becoming free of our imagination by using our imagination inwardly and interpersonally.

[103:34]

So you told me about your imagination. I'm imagining you and telling you some more virtues of the imagination. Not just to imagine better, but to liberate imagination so that we can be in harmony with each other. Because if my imagination is, if I cling to it, I can become you. Or rather, I can miss the harmony between our imaginations. Because my imagination is created by you and other beings, not by me. And that's another imagination I just gave. Thank you. Thank you, Colleen. I am smiling broadly and my hands are pressed together and I bow. Thank you. Same here. Suffering from Jeff Hunter.

[104:43]

Hello, Rev. Great assembly. You hear me okay? Yes, Jeff. Thank you. Well, it's really wonderful to see you, Rev, sitting at the location secretly known as the Lotus Sutra Abode. Are people, are we having sitting there? Is it open to sitting? Yeah. So after this morning session, A number of people from Green Gulch will go sit in the Zendo, and it will be online. You can see us sitting in the Zendo. At Noah Abode, I'm sorry. Noah Abode is not open. It's not permitted for us at Noah Abode yet. I didn't think so.

[105:46]

We wish for it, but it's not yet time. I remember you had said that it was at one time known secretly as the Lotus Sutra Abode. I heard you say that. I know. Also, by the way, in Chapter 10, the Buddha says that this sutra is the secret pivot of reality. Well, thank you for telling me. I've always loved the Lotus Sutra. I think maybe people have always told me I was strange because I like reading technical manuals. I'm an engineer. So I will read technical manuals and a lot of people find those painful, but I, for some reason, enjoy reading them.

[106:49]

And my first thing I ever read was a book from Gene Reeves, his book on, I think it was initially, it's the stories of the Lotus Sutra. And he says in there right away that he looks at the Lotus Sutra as a technical manual. device, as a technology that was created. So I think that maybe spoke to me initially. And I've always loved reading it. I do, I would like to say I have been, you know, reading, reciting it. And so I would like to vow to teach the Lotus Sutra. And I know you seem to, earlier you had asked if anyone would like to do that, and I would. I spend a lot of time thinking about the Lotus Sutra. I know the teaching is bodhisattvas to meditate on the highest truth. And I see that in the teaching.

[107:56]

The one thing recently that I've been with it, Lotus Sutra talks about, especially I think in chapter 16, is that I had realized when I had certain people talking to me or had seen certain people or, and it talks about it in the Tori Zenji vow too, I don't always see everyone as a Buddha or a Bodhisattva. I didn't see this a lot of times people very close to me You know, I caught myself realizing that I'm not seeing this person as a great Buddha or as a Buddha, as it talks about the Tori Zenji vow. And it's interesting. I was just reading this section right before the talk today. And then you were we were talking about it quite a bit. But it was this section where it says, all the more we can be especially sympathetic and affectionate with foolish people, particularly with selfishness.

[109:00]

sworn enemy and persecutes us with abusive language, that very abuse conveys the Buddha's boundless loving kindness. It is a compassionate device to liberate us entirely from the mean-spirited delusions we have built up with our rumble conduct from beginningless past. And that's just with the Lotus Sutra, that was just something I realized that I was able to see that, you know, I don't, see this person that's being abusive and physically hitting me and saying you know such and such but i as i was not seeing that person as a bodhisattva so that helped then be able to i hopefully you know react more skillfully to the situation um did you say that early on it's that the mind of delusion is turning the Lotus Sutra and the mind of realization is, I'm sorry, the mind of delusion is being turned by the Lotus Sutra and the mind of realization is turning the Lotus Sutra.

[110:15]

Is that correct? Well, kind of like that, or say it is. In delusion, we are turned by the Lotus Sutra. in delusion, we are turned by the Dharma flower. In awakening, the Dharma flower is turned. Okay? Now, then, Dogen also says, Buddhas are always turning and being turned. So, I feel like We're both turning and being turned by it. We're teaching each other and learning from each other. So there is that statement. But that statement is coming from the Zen tradition, from the and Dogen.

[111:22]

That's their take on the Lotus Sutra. Our relationship with it is, we have a diluted relationship and an awakened relationship. And the way those two work together is the secret pivot. So I'm referring back to the sixth ancestor and Dogen for that teaching of how to meditate on the Lotus Sutra. We don't just try to be on the enlightened side. But sometimes we are. And we also don't try to be on the deluded side. But sometimes we are. As a matter of fact, we're always both turning and being turned. Buddhas are turning the Dharma flower and being turned by the Dharma flower. And if we don't clarify the self, don't. I wrote this down.

[112:25]

If we don't clarify the self, then we contradict the meaning. I hear what you said, but I would like to say that you are in the process of clarifying the self. You are in that process. And even if I can't see that you are on the bodhisattva path of clarifying the self, I want to treat you as though you are. Even though I may not see you as a future Buddha, I want to treat you as if you were a future Buddha. And that's quite difficult sometimes. That's my understanding is I should treat everybody as though they were a future Buddha.

[113:27]

But that still might include saying, it's time to brush your teeth, Jeff. Or, you know, time to take a shower. Please take a shower. Please use your indoor voice when you're indoors. I might make some requests of you. But remember, I'm talking to a future Buddha. So I make my requests of you and tell you my needs. Remember to treat you as if you are, because the Lotus Sutra says you are. So I practice that when I'm practicing the teaching. No matter what you're doing, I treat you with respect. But I can treat you with respect and say, you know, I disagree with you. From what you just said, and so on. So really, we should, according to this teaching, treat everybody the way Buddha sees everybody.

[114:37]

Everybody, the Buddha sees everybody as a future Buddha. Other sutras, they see some people as future Buddhas, okay? They don't say everybody is on the bodhisattva path in some other sutras. However, even in those sutras, everybody can see who the bodhisattvas are. So even in those sutras, it says you should treat everybody as though they might be. So whether everybody is or just somebody is, I recommend and aspire to the practice. Maybe I should say, I aspire to the practice treating everybody as a future Buddha. And I also kind of think everybody is. I'm kind of agreeing with the Lotus Sutra. But other Mahayana sutras who don't say everybody is, they recommend the same practice. Treat

[115:39]

as though they're a future Buddha, even though you can't see it. And this is the path to being able to see it. We will become Buddha by treating everybody they may become Buddha. Just like Shakyamuni Buddha treated everybody as a future Buddha when he was never disparaging Bodhisattva. This is the path to Buddhahood. Thank you. This is a great gift of the Lotus Sutra. Thank you, Rob. Thank you, Jeff. Thanks. That's all we have time for for offerings today. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, future Buddhas.

[116:45]

May the merit of our assembly equally extend to all beings and places. We together with all beings become Buddha's way. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Afflictions are inexhaustible. I vow to pass through and liberate. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it.

[117:33]

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