Good morning. Well, we've just completed the Bodhisattva ceremony, the ceremony of avowing our ancient karma and renewing our vow practice. That's the nature of this ceremony. look at where we don't actually go one by one, like I did this and I did that. Ancient karma, karma of course means volitional action, as you know. As you know, karma is a term which means volitional action, something that you do either consciously or subconsciously with a purpose. or just by accident sometimes through habit.

[01:01]

We don't know that we're always doing something that hurts somebody. But we're doing it. So our karma is there. And then that karma has a result. Whatever we do volitionally has a result. Actually, whatever we do, whether volitionally or not, has a result. So we say that the universe is created this way, although we don't go into how the universe was created. That's not Buddhadharma. But we're self-creating beings. and we create our life through our actions. So our volitional actions create habit energy, and this habit energy creates more of the same, and this is basic Buddhism. We get caught on the wheel, and we can't get off. I've always liked to say that the first time you do something,

[02:07]

volitionally, not always, but mostly, you have a chance of not doing it again. Suzuki Roshi used to talk about this Zen master who liked smoking. I told you this story before. He really liked smoking, and so one day he went up this top of this mountain, And he bit his pipe, and you know, I don't know how Suzuki Roshin did this, because he was not a smoker, but he said, you know when you smoke in the fog, I don't know if you've ever done that, people don't smoke anymore, but we all used to smoke, everybody smoked when I was young. When you smoke in the fog, the smoke blends with the fog and it just, you know, it's wonderful.

[03:10]

And he enjoyed it so much, he said, this is the pinnacle of smoking. He said, I don't have to do it anymore. And he never smoked again. The second time you do something, you have a choice of whether to stop or go ahead. If you go ahead, that's the third time. And the third time, by the third time, that's already a habit. Third time is a habit. This is my philosophy. Third time is a habit. And then it's really hard to stop whatever it is you're doing. So, this is karma. and there's much, much written about karma, and it's one of the most fundamental practicing in the Dharma. So when we have this ceremony, the first thing we do after bowing is we chant the repentance bhagata.

[04:24]

Oh, my ancient, twisted karma from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, born through body, speech, and mind, I now fully avow. So this is a vowel of karma. It's a vowel of ancient, twisted karma. Now, twisted, I've changed that in our practice to tangled, because karma entangles you You get caught, you get, it's like wisteria, you know, twining vines. Bill again talks about twining vines in a different way, but twisted, wisteria gets all twisted around itself, but it's also tangled. So twisted or tangled, there's probably a better word. I'm sure there's a better word, I keep trying to think of what it is. So we talk about karma as, because in Buddha Dharma, every cause leads to an effect.

[05:34]

The karma that we, the effect of the karma that we experience is from beginningless past. Beginningless past can mean anything you want it to mean. It can mean lifetime after lifetime, or it can be moment after moment. Take your pick. But the meaning, basically, is there's no way to research the karmic activity that has led to where your life is right now and who you are. Who we are. I include myself. So it says, oh, my ancient, ancient twisted karma. So there are two kinds of, this is called sange. Sange means confession, basically, or a vowel. And there's two kinds.

[06:37]

One is jisange, ji and ri. You know about ji and ri. I know because I've taught that many times. Ji means, Basically it means form. Re means formless. So we have form confession and formless, a vowel. In form confession, a vowel, you'd say, I'm sorry that I did this, and I repent of doing that, and so forth. So that's a vowel of particulars. Re-sangha is formless repentance, which means not about something, some particular thing you did, but about your whole life, the karma of your whole life that has brought you to this place, this position right now. So this ceremony, Raku-phasat, phasat means that, means the karma that we can,

[07:47]

it was more than we can ever understand or more than we know that has brought it to this place. So Buddha says, Buddha's reported to have said that karma is the most difficult aspect of our life to understand. If you just think about today and yesterday, we don't know how much we've, how much karma we've already performed just yesterday and today. We're not aware. We're aware of some things, like, oh yeah, I did this or that, but we're always bumping into something, always creating something that entangles us. That's why we say tangled karma. or twisted, twisted, I don't know, has different meanings, you know. One way is like, eh, well, twisted, you know, or sometimes called evil.

[08:53]

To me, evil has a different meaning. I don't think we do necessarily evil karma that's bad. We do bad karma, but it's not necessarily evil. Evil to me means you take pleasure in creating suffering for others. To me, that's the meaning of yule. You take pleasure in creating suffering for others. So this is also kind of abbreviated. So instead of confessing all the little things that you did wrong, it's an abbreviated ceremony. That's full thoughts. And then we pay homage to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of our own nature. And then we have to renew our vows, the four vows.

[10:03]

And then we take the refuges. and the three pure precepts and the ten so-called grave precepts. But I just want to talk about this repentance ceremony. So for me, repentance means, I wrote this down a long time ago, it means to let go and unite with all beings and the universe with a compassion for all. This avowal allows you to let go of your ancient karma and renew your practice. You know, Suzuki Roshi used to say that each one of us is half good and half bad. So it's hard to talk about others who are bad because we should look at ourself first, right? And it's so easy to criticize.

[11:06]

We're always criticizing. Which is okay, in a way, but it creates karma, and it binds our mind. Anything that binds our mind is disturbing karma. Bad karma. Bad karma. We talk about bad karma. Yes, in a dualistic way. When we do good things, we create good karma. When we do evil things or bad things, we create bad karma. And so that creates our suffering or our release. So it's all about suffering and release from suffering. That's the fundamental Buddhadharma. Creating suffering and release from suffering. So from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, greed, Hate is a little over the top. Ill will, I think, covers it all more. Greed, ill will, and delusion. And delusion is like the parent because we don't know what we do.

[12:13]

Ignorance. We create greed and ill will are the children of delusion. So when we a lot when we allow ourselves to let go of delusion, it's actually, strictly speaking, called desire. But we like to use the word delusion. But it's really strictly called desire. But we'll use delusion because it covers desire. The one thing that we hate to lose is desire. That's true. I think it's true. It may not be true, but you know it's true. That's one thing that we don't like to give up. So, for most of us, not everyone. But delusion, I think, is important, because delusion means that what we think is right is really not right, and what we think is wrong is not necessarily wrong.

[13:25]

we get caught by right and wrong and good and bad. So how do we rise above right and wrong and good and bad? So then, from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion born through body, speech, and mind. So it's what we do with our body and our speech and our mind, which are all connected. Body is form. Speech and mind is feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. In other words, born through the five skandhas. And then I now fully avow all of this. It's interesting that although I was not brought up Jewish, When I was in my twenties, I investigated that background, and on the Day of Atonement, at one month, the congregation reads through all of the transgressions, and each one, it's a big long list of transgressions, and each one

[14:45]

the sangha says, I did that, [...] I did that. You acknowledge, even though you didn't. It doesn't matter whether you did or didn't. You acknowledge it, that you're capable of doing this, and you may have done this without knowing it. So karma is like that. It's like you don't know what you're doing. You don't know the stuff that is causing your own suffering as well as the suffering of others. So this is ignorance. So when we can let go of ignorance, how do you let go of ignorance? That's a good question. But we make an effort to practice within our greed, ill will, and delusion. If you read the textbook, the textbook would say, look, just get rid of greed, ill will, and delusion. And you say, well, Buddhism is not for me.

[15:51]

So the practice is within your own greed, within your own delusion, within your own ill will, to find your release. That's Bodhisattva practice. And you're always failing. But you're also, by your effort, you find release, even though you're not aware of it necessarily. I always admire, feel encouraged by the practice of beginners, because beginners, they come up against the wall of zazen. if they continue and really make an effort, and you can see the struggles and the difficulties, and yet those who remain continue and deal with the difficulties.

[17:00]

They don't know, when you're practicing in the beginning, you don't know. I remember when I was practicing in the beginning how difficult Zazen was, how much pain and suffering and all that. That's a kind of purification activity, dealing with pain and suffering. In our culture, we want to avoid pain and suffering. We want to be as comfortable as possible. We manufacture comfort and convenience articles. And we just avoid, as a matter of fact, we create more suffering that way. The more stuff we have, the more suffering we have, the more complicated our lives become. And then we're vying I don't want to go into that, that's a big problem.

[18:07]

So how do we break the chain of karma? That's the practice. We have the four bodhisattva vows. which give us some internal leadership. In other words, we can either be led by our karma or we can be led by our vows. So you say, are you a person of karma or a person of vows? When we are sincere about practice, then we live by vow, even though we're still creating karma. So beings are numberless, right? Countless, and I vow to save them all. So last week, when Bhagava Bhakta was giving a talk, the last question was something like, how can we practice universal compassion?

[19:23]

How can we practice universal compassion? It was a very good question. There wasn't enough time to deal with it, so I was gonna deal with it today, and I am. How do we practice universal compassion? That's the vow, the Bodhisattva's vow. And that's what we should always be asking ourselves all the time. The realm of karma is how can I please myself? How can I do something wonderful for myself? The vow of Bodhisattva vow is how can I practice universal compassion? That should be what leads you in your life. How do I practice universal compassion? It's impossible. That's why we do it. We only do the impossible.

[20:28]

What's possible? What's that? Nothing happens in the possible. It has to be impossible. So that's why we're crazy. Our practice is really crazy, because what we're doing is not possible. To actually practice universal compassion, you think about all the people in the Middle East and Africa and all that. Yeah, you can, we can, extend our compassion in that way because we're here. We're not there. But how about with each other? How about the person next to you, or the person that gives you such a big problem? How do we practice compassion with the person that gives us the big problem, who's right here? And what is compassion? You know, sometimes compassion is shooting the horse that broke its leg.

[21:31]

We don't know what it is, actually. We have to keep finding out all the time. So, you know, these four vows are just, as you know, a response to the Four Noble Truths. Beings are subject to suffering. That's a great statement, but it needs some explanation. Beings are subject to what we call suffering. It's called various other things, and delusions. Beings are subject to suffering, and the cause of suffering is delusion or desires. Wanting, not being with those who we'd want to be with, being with those who we don't want to be with, not having what we want to have, having what we don't want to have.

[22:40]

This is all examples of the cause of suffering, which is not counting breaking your bones and all that. Suffering that, also suffering that we cause ourselves through karma. And so there is a way to deal with it. And it's called the Dharma Gates. The Dharma Gate. The Dharma Gate is unsurpassable. The Dharma Gate is how you enter the gate of not being attached to karma, or being aware of how you create karma. Awareness of how we create, that's what I would call it. Awareness of how we create karma. It's not that you're not gonna create karma, or that you're free of karma, but that you're aware of how you're creating karma.

[23:44]

And that awareness itself is enlightened practice. If I do this, that's gonna happen. And if I do that, that's gonna happen. It's inevitable. It's just like, it says in the Dhammapada, the cart follows the horse. Where the horse goes, the cart goes. So this is the, the Bodhisattva vow is the response. Like beings are numberless, I vow to save them. So that's the Bodhisattva's career. Delusions are inexhaustible. They are, as well as all delusions, and I vow to end them as idealistic. I vow to deal with them the best way I can. Dharma gates are boundless. In other words, you can enter the realm of enlightenment anywhere, in any activity.

[24:52]

There's no special gate. People say, well, I've been sitting Zazen for 10 years, but I never got enlightened through Zazen. Of course not. You're already enlightened, dumbbell. Or you have an enlightenment experience washing the dishes or sweeping the floor. You don't have an enlightenment experience sitting Zazen, because Zazen's nothing but enlightenment. It's like standing in the middle of the stream and saying, where's the water? Where's the water? So Buddha's way can't be surpassed. You should try to surpass it. That's a challenge. It's not like the Buddha way is the best. It's just unsurpassable. It may not be the best. You should prove it is not the best. So, yeah, that's Buddha Dharma.

[25:56]

Prove me wrong, please. So we say, I vow to become the Buddha way. That's a little idealistic, too, but it really means to be one with. But when you said to be one with, it doesn't work well in the ghata. So a lot of our language is geared toward the ghata, saying something rhythmically rather than putting the word that you like the best in there, but you understand it. So, you know, we say that not to be self-centered. And so we give a talk, I mean, we give a, not give a talk, we think, well, then I should be other-centered. In other words, I should do everything for everybody else. That's good, but it's not complete.

[26:57]

So we don't do something just for ourself or just for you. I don't wash the toilet for you. I just wash the toilet. That's all. It's not for me, it's not for you. I just watch it. In other words, I just practice for the sake of practice. I don't practice just for me or just for you. I just do it as a practice. Then there's no ego in it. There's no self there. That's called non-self-centered practice. Not for you and not for me. I just do it. And then it's for me and it's also for you. So just for me is ego promotion. Just for you is ego promotion. I'm really doing something wonderful for you. I'm not doing something wonderful, I'm just doing the practice. And then things happen. So the repentance, and then we get, every month, we get to start over again.

[28:07]

because we have avowed all the ancient karma and done a bunch of vows, vows which, you know, kind of make your legs tired. And then we pay homage to the seven Buddhas before Buddha. Shakyamuni, Maitreya, Anjushri Bodhisattvas, Samantabhadra, Avalokiteshvara, and the succession of ancestors, because our practice is not dependent on a sutra or a scripture or something like that, even though we use all of those and honor all of the scriptures. And we find them very useful, you should study in order to connect with the ancestors. But the Indian ancestors, the Chinese ancestors, the sisters, the Japanese, these are all people who have handed the Dharma down, even though they may not have.

[29:13]

So our practice is kind of like an apprenticeship. That's the way it's been in the past. We don't have an apprenticeship. system anymore in the United States so much. Maybe we do. But the true dharma is handed down from one to another through daily practice, basically, over a period of time. you blend with each other. The teachers and the students blend with each other. This is how it happens. So we always acknowledge and pay homage to all the ancestors who struggled so hard with the Dharma, and their practice has been handed down one to the other, and we don't like to lose it.

[30:27]

So then we have something like dharma transmission in which we entrust people to continue the dharma with the hope that they won't do something else. That's your life. If you have dharma transmission, that's what your life is all about. And it's all about this. When we pay homage to the seven Buddhas before Buddha, it's because the lineage is continuous. We say Shakyamuni Buddha is the Buddha for this particular, I don't know what period of time, but since 500 B.C. But there are many Buddhas before Buddha. Buddha Shakyamuni said, I didn't invent this, you know, it's not my creation.

[31:31]

I just looked and found that the ancient path, which had been covered over with brambles, and so I found this path and I just went down the path and that's what I found. And it had been covered over for a long, long time. So these seven Buddhas of the past, this is mythology, right? It's not seven Buddhas, it's an indeterminate number of Buddhas, but we say seven in order to bring it into perspective, and Shakyamuni is the seventh one. Even though we say the seven Buddhas before Buddha and Shakyamuni is the seventh one, that's the way it's stated. So the path is, it's not something that we invent. It's something that has come down to us. And sometimes we don't want to have to find it again and let it get obscured.

[32:34]

So our practice is to maintain the practice so that this will be brought into the world. Whether we can accomplish it or not, or whether we can accomplish saving all beings. Saving all beings is our impossible task. So some people say, well, you know, I can't take the ordination because I don't know how I can save all sentient beings. Well, come on. Don't take it literally. So we pay homage to the seven Buddhas and homage to Shakyamuni Buddha. We say that all of us who are practicing are Shakyamuni Buddha. We're all Shakyamuni Buddha. even though, so, because we're practicing the same practice and we're one with the practice that Shakyamuni is practicing with.

[33:40]

And Maitreya Buddha, of course, is the Buddha who sits in our psyche as potentiality. Maitreya Buddha is sitting in our psyche waiting to be called, waiting to descend into our activity of saving all beings. So Maitreya, Maitri means love, right? So love, Maitreya is the Buddha of love. potentiality of bringing love into the world, universal love through universal compassion. So these bodhisattvas, you can see them as either celestial, so to speak, or imminent. But they're imminent, they're archetypes, but they're imminent as who we are, otherwise they wouldn't mean anything. So Maitreya,

[34:42]

Manjushri is our wisdom. When we allow our wisdom to lead us, then that's Manjushri. And Samantabhadra is the shining practice bodhisattva. Samantabhadra is ourself as the Bodhisattva when we are sincerely practicing. Then we're Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. And Avalokiteshvara is our compassion. So when we pay homage to these Bodhisattvas, we're actually acknowledging our potentiality.

[35:45]

Our potentiality for compassion, for practice, for wisdom, and... Love? Yes. Omaitreya, that's love. Yes, and Shakyamuni for being our Self, being our true Self. So, this is a little something that we can think about, about this ceremony, and I know it's about time, but if you have one question, yeah. about delusion, the way I come to understand it is delusion of self, that being the core of self and we get caught in that.

[36:56]

You were talking about that desire, so I just want to understand. can mean in the sense that you're thinking of it as thinking there is something where there isn't, yes, or thinking where there isn't something where there is. So basically it applies to thinking there is a substantial self when there isn't and acting out as if Desire is kind of at the front. or you will use it.

[38:07]

In other words, you can be pulled around by the nose by your karma or by desire, but desire can go either into practice or into delusive activity, right? When it's directed toward practice, then it's way-seeking mind. So desire by itself is good, neither good nor bad, it's just necessary, even though they say it's not. But what they mean is put it in the right place, do the right thing with it, so that you are in control and not karma, which is, yes. The archetypal ways of being, Maitreya and Buddha, It seems like each one is we step into a doorway, or better yet, a window, and the light comes through us and we shine as that moment being compassionate, or that moment being the practice, or that moment being, and that's just it.

[39:19]

Yeah, when wisdom is shining through your Manjushri, when your practice is solid, your Samadhi Bhadra, So, would ending desires be composting, in other words, the end meets the beginning and there's a turning over and it's useless? I think it needs clarification. A vowel is composting. Yes. All my ancient tangled karma. I now avow, fully avow, that's composting. So it has a use. Well, nothing disappears and everything disappears. In other words, everything turns into something. There's no place you can throw something which is out of the universe.

[40:20]

Everything goes someplace. Everything goes someplace. Oil. Yeah, everything goes someplace. But when you avow your karma, it means that you're paying attention. And so the Sixth Patriarch says, repentance means to acknowledge transgressions or whatever you want to call it, and turn around and go the other way. Not beating yourself or criminalizing yourself or saying you're bad and all this, that, you just turn around. You say, I understand that if I do da, da, da, it's going to lead to this, this, this. So I go turn around and I say, I don't want to do that anymore. I'm going to do this. And that's your effort.

[41:23]

And even though you do that, you're still confronted with your karma. And dealing with that is really making your effort with your karma. I don't mean, you know, clenching your fists, but finding a way to let yourself not be turned around by your karma. Because we always have a choice, and when we think we don't have a choice, that's when we're caught. And when we think about that, I have a choice here. I can either do this or not do that. And practice is to make that assessment. And then if you decide to go this way instead of that way, that creates better karma. It makes your life easier, even though it may make it harder.

[42:24]

Thank you.

[42:27]

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