Good morning, everyone. Welcome. Usually on Sunday mornings, I talk about kind of fundamental Buddhist teachings, more basic Buddhist teachings. But this morning, I'm going to be talking about a short story that's in the Lotus Sutra. And I've given a few talks on the Lotus Sutra this month already, partly in preparation or in honor of our guest speaker tomorrow evening, Gene Reeves, who's a scholar and practitioner of the Lotus Sutra from Japan, who's going to be speaking at our regular time tomorrow evening, who has a wonderful new translation of the Lotus Sutra. So I'll refer to his translation. And the story I'm going to talk about this morning about the Naga King's daughter achieving Buddhahood rapidly is maybe one of the most challenging of the many challenging parts of the Lotus Sutra.

[01:13]

So even though we have a few people who've sat zazen for the first time this morning, which is wonderful and auspicious for us, thank you. I hope it went OK, and we'll have a time for discussion after the talk. Still, I'm gonna go ahead with the announced talk subject. The Lotus Sutra is probably the most important sutra or Buddha scripture in East Asia. And the whole sutra is quite challenging. There are other scriptures and sutras that are important. The Heart Sutra we chant sometimes, or other perfection of wisdom sutras like the Diamond Sutra that emphasize emptiness. The Lotus Sutra more appeals to the imagination. It has many parables, teaching stories, and basically it points to what we call the Bodhisattva way. Bodhisattva means enlightening beings.

[02:14]

So the branch of Buddhism in North Asia, including Tibet, Mongolia, China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam also, that Zen is part of is called the Mahayana or greater vehicle. And this talk focuses on universal awakening or universal liberation. The older Buddhism of the Pali Sutras, the Theravada school is more in Southern Asia, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand. Anyway, they will not be a test, but the idea of the Bodhisattva is universal liberation, that we all awaken together, that true awakening means that we are practicing for the sake of relieving the suffering and helping the awakening of all beings. the Theravada form, more is focused on working on oneself. That's also part of our practice. But we see that our practice of working on ourself, focusing on unsettling our own hearts and minds, and helping to stop causing suffering ourselves or to see through our own patterns of greed, hate, and delusion,

[03:29]

That work is part of the work of seeing how we do this together, how we support others to do this. So this is the main idea of the universal vehicle, or Mahayana, and the Lotus Sutra, again, is one of the most important sutras, Buddhist scriptures, about bodhisattvas. And actually, the story that I'm going to talk about today is one of the key stories that highlights the differences between the Bodhisattva idea and the earlier idea of focusing on working on oneself. This is a story about the Naga king's daughter. It's often translated as Naga. A gene reads in this translation that I'm going to be reading, translates it as dragon. I'm not sure exactly the Indian Naga and the Chinese dragon, what the difference is biologically in terms of species and genus and all of that, or if there's a difference.

[04:34]

The Nagas are more under the water, the dragons fly more. But anyway, this is the ancient dragon Zengate. Part of that name comes from an old Chinese story that there's a gate. deep in the bottom of one of the great rivers in China. And if a fish swims through it, it becomes a dragon. Anyway, so this is a story about dragons. It's also a story about universality of the Bodhisattva idea. OK, so I'll start with the first part of the story. And this is towards the end of the first half of the sutra. It follows, in the early part of the sutra, Amongst other things, the Buddha Shakyamuni, this is supposed to be one of his last sutras historically, one of his last sermons or talks. It's a long sutra, but he actually lived in northeastern India, what's now northeastern India, 400 or 500 BC.

[05:37]

I don't know the exact dates. The Lotus Sutra, as I said, appeals to the imagination. It has a mythic quality. It has a fantastic quality. It appeals to, and I've talked about this in other talks about the Lotus Sutra, that it appeals to this kind of cosmic, vast view of reality. One of the things that the Buddha has been doing in the first half is saying to various of his disciples and great bodhisattvas who were in attendance at the scripture and at the sermon in the future, in some future age, very, very distant in the future, and the Indian sutras appeal to great numbers and vast stretches of time. But, for example, Mora, you will be the Buddha, such and such, in a future Buddha age, and such and such. And the idea of the, the basic idea of the Bodhisattva practice is that we practice over many, many lifetimes.

[06:37]

and eventually doing this enlightening practice, helping others to relieve suffering, clarifying our own patterns of response and reacting and thinking, we eventually can become a Buddha. This is this idea of Buddha nature, which is so fundamental to Buddhist ideas. So this is just setting the scene. that the Buddha's been talking about these stretches of time and this diligent work of the bodhisattvas. OK, so this part of the story, and it's just a few pages, but it's an important story in the Lotus Sutra. One of the other bodhisattvas asks Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom. He's sitting, there's an image of him sitting in front of our image of Shakyamuni Buddha on the altar. He's sitting on a lion carrying a teaching scepter. Often he carries a sword. He's the Bodhisattva who teaches wisdom and emptiness and cutting through our delusions.

[07:39]

So often the people on sutras will ask him questions. And this Bodhisattva asks Manjushri, this sutra, this Lotus Sutra, is very profound, fine, and wonderful. The jewel of all the sutras, a rare thing in the world. Is there any living being who diligently and devotedly practicing this sutra can quickly become a Buddha? So that's the question that starts this off. Then Manjushri replies, yes, there is the daughter of the Dragon King Sagara. Just eight years old, she is wise and has sharp faculties and is well acquainted with the faculties and actions of living beings. She has mastered incantations. So sometimes we chant these dharanis that are supposed to help develop the memory as a Bodhisattva tool, these chants. She has been able to receive and embrace all the profound inner core treasures preached by the Buddhas. She has entered deeply into meditation and gained an understanding of all things.

[08:42]

Within a moment, she aspired to become awakened and reached the stage of never backsliding. So that's one of the stages in the early Theravada path of never regressing, the various stages towards becoming self-enlightened. She has entered deeply into meditation, Oh, OK, I read that already. Her eloquence knows no bounds, and she has compassion for all the living things as if they were her own children. She is full of blessings, and the thoughts in her mind and the explanations from her mouth are both subtle and great. Compassionate and respectful of others, kind and gentle, she is able to attain awakening. Then this other Bodhisattva said, I have seen how Shakyamuni Tathagata, this is a name for the Buddha. Tathagata is a common name for Buddhists. the one who comes and goes in suchness, in reality. Shakyamuni Buddha has been giving a sutra. This other bodhisattva says, I've seen how Shakyamuni carried out arduous and difficult practices for innumerable eons.

[09:45]

accumulated blessings and piling up virtue by following the way of the Bodhisattva. Without resting, I have observed that in the 3,000 great thousandfold world, there is not even a spot as small as a mustard seed where he has not laid down body and life as a Bodhisattva for the sake of the living. Only after that did he attain the path of the awakened. It is unbelievable that this girl in an instant can become truly awakened. But before he had finished talking, the daughter of the Dragon King suddenly appeared, and after reverently prostrating herself at the Buddha's feet, withdrew to one side and praised him in verse, and this is the verse praise of this Dragon King's daughter. Profound in insight into the nature of good and evil, he illuminates the universe. His fine and wonderful pure Dharma body has the 32 characteristics of Buddha's. The 80 different attractive features adorn his Dharma body. Human and heavenly beings look up to him. Dragons and gods revere him and all kinds of living beings hold him in reverence.

[10:47]

Having heard him, I can become awakened. Only the Buddha can bear witness to this. I will reveal the teaching of the great vehicle, the Mahayana or Bodhisattva Way, to save living beings from suffering. So I'll pause there. There are various things about this story that are extremely radical. So one of the aspects of Buddhism is that it's a living tradition. It evolves. In the Buddha's own time, 400 BC or so, in northern India, it was an extremely patriarchal culture, first of all. And also, They had, and there still is this problem in India in modern times of the untouchables. They have this very rigid caste system. And the Buddha was very radical. He welcomed people from all classes, as Gandhi did in the last century, to his community.

[11:49]

including untouchables. And so he said that status in the community, the monastic community of the Buddha, in his order, was based on periods, time since ordination, not time since beginning of practice, not on one's class, caste, background. He also founded an order of nuns. And it took him a while to do that. His stepmother, Maha Prajapati, whose name we recite in our dedications in all of our services Monday night and during longer sittings, founded the Order of Nuns. And Buddha had to be kind of prodded by her and by his other disciple, Ananda, because at that time there was strong prejudice against women. Of course, there's still You know, women still earn less today for the same job as men do, but women can vote now, which wasn't true a century ago anyway.

[12:51]

Yeah, maybe a century ago. Yeah, so this is, so partly the story has to do with women and how women have the equal capacity to awaken. But it has to do with other things too. One of the most radical, so I'm gonna come back to gender issues, but one of the most radical pieces of this story, well, there are a number of things. One is that she's a girl, but also that she's young. She hasn't gone through years of practice and study. She's eight years old. So, you know, there's this idea in Asian culture of respecting the elders. Maybe that's not such an important idea in our culture. Anyway, but, It's very important in China with filial piety of respecting elders and respecting experience. Here's this eight-year-old. quickly attaining awakening. Now, one of the biggest differences is simply that this idea of quickly attaining awakening, Buddhahood in this very body, this is something that Dogen, who founded Japanese Soto Zen that we follow in the 13th century, emphasized, but also in Japanese Buddhism before him, Kukai founded the Vajrayana or Tantra Buddhism, emphasized.

[14:15]

But in the traditional path that's still part of most of Tibetan Buddhism, there's this idea of lifetimes and lifetimes and lifetimes, many lifetimes of practice. This idea of rebirth and lifetimes is another thing we could talk about in the discussion. In terms of a modern practice, Western Buddhism, we can understand that, either metaphorically or literally, and it doesn't really matter. You don't have to take it literally. But the point is that the earlier view of the Bodhisattva path is kind of a break, and the Lotus Sutra kind of marks the break. The Lotus Sutra is not very important in Tibetan Buddhism. It's hardly known in Tibetan Buddhism, even though it is a sutra from India. But in China and even more in Japan, it's very important. And the Lotus Sutra is one place you can see a break between this idea of lifetimes and lifetimes, or you can think of years and years and years of practice, and then this possibility of quickly or suddenly realizing Buddha nature, realizing this possibility of awakeness, this possibility of kindness, the possibility of sharing kindness with others and helping others leave suffering and seeing through

[15:27]

Our own and the world's and our friends' family are patterns of attachment and greed and grasping and anger and frustration and just confusion. These are the three poisons, it's called in Buddhism, greed, hate and delusion. In the Lotus Sutra and in other early Mahayana teachings, and particularly as Buddhism evolved and moved from India and Tibet to China and Japan, there's this idea of this possibility of quickly realizing awakening. And the story of the Dragon King Daughter is one of the important places where this appears early on. The Lotus Sutra, we don't know exactly. Indian history is kind of a little fuzzy, more than a little fuzzy. But parts of it maybe go back to a century BC or so, and up until a century or the second century in the Common Era, current era. the Lotus Sutra was being put together, it's supposedly the words, though, of the Buddha.

[16:35]

We can talk about that more, too. But the point is that this poses this idea, which is part of Zen, too, of seeing into Buddhahood, seeing into awakening, seeing into Buddha nature, realizing that and being able to apply it in our world, in our lives. So, this is one part of the story that's extremely radical, and it was extremely radical for the disciples and bodhisattvas and other beings listening to this sutra. So, she's young. She's a girl, I'll come back to that, if she realizes Buddhahood quickly. Also, she's not even human. I mean, she's a dragon. Now, in some ways, dragons as an image in Buddhism, dragons are highly respected as enlightened beings still. there is an emphasis, and it's appropriate for us as human beings to think about our own situations.

[17:38]

This is not a practice for super beings. This is a practice for people. And how do we find our way to establish this practice for ourselves to be helpful to each other? But still, for some people listening, hearing the sutra, for this dragon, King's daughter, not only is she young and a girl, but she's not a human being, so that's also radical. This is one of the, maybe one of the biggest differences between Buddhism and Western religions, the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam. Of course, practically, Buddhist teaching focuses on what do we do as human beings, but it's very clear in Buddhism that we're also talking about all sentient beings. We're talking about animals and plants. Dogen particularly talked about grasses and trees and even fences and walls expounding the teachings.

[18:41]

So this is, the Buddhism is radically, to use a technical term, non-anthropocentric. It's not focused just on human beings. even if we may think about how does this affect us. So all of these aspects are very radical in this story, which I've read half of, and I waited to read the other half because I'm going to ask you to bear with me as I read it. I mentioned this in one of the other talks. I remember this is maybe 30 years ago almost. You've been at morning service at San Francisco Zen Center. It's a very formal, much longer service than we do Monday night. Not as long as they do in Japan, but maybe a half hour service. We, at one point, were reading from the Lotus Sutra, and half of the people there walked out in the middle of service, just got up and left.

[19:42]

This happened. We have all these fancies and forms, and it's not that you have to do all the forms perfectly, but part of the forms are to be respectful to the Buddha and to the Dharma and to each other. I didn't join them, I confess, but I almost did. I think almost all the women present walked out, and maybe a few of the men. So I'm warning you about this before I read the next part of this sutra. And this is actually, the context of this sutra is challenging the ancient patriarchal sexist views of early India and early Buddhism. but it's done in language that's pretty offensive. And so we can see this story as challenging sexism and patriarchy, or we can see it as in some way enforcing it, but some scholars argue both ways.

[20:47]

I wanna talk about it in terms of how we see our practice and Buddhism today in our context. But I have to read what it says, excuse me. I apologize ahead of time. Shariputra, who's one of the great monk disciples of the Buddha, upon seeing this dragon girl appear and say these verses and make offerings and prostrations to the Buddha, Shariputra, this monk of the old school, says to the dragon girl, you think that in no time at all you will attain the unexcelled way? This is hard to believe. Why? Because the body of a woman is filthy and impure, not a vessel for the Dharma. How could you attain unexcelled awakening? The Buddha way is long and extensive, only after innumerable eons of enduring hardship, accumulating good works, and thoroughly carrying out all the practices can it be reached. Moreover, a woman's body has five hindrances.

[21:49]

First, she cannot become a king of a Brahma heaven. Second, she cannot become King Indra. Third, she cannot become a devil king. Fourth, she cannot become a wheel-turner, saintly king, and fifth, she cannot have the body of a Buddha. How then could you, in a woman's body, so quickly become a Buddha? So that's Shariputra. Then, after he says this, the dragon girl took a precious jewel that she had with her, worth as much as a 3,000, great thousand-fold world, and presented it to the Buddha. The Buddha immediately accepted it. The dragon girl then said to this other Bodhisattva and to Shariputra, I presented my precious jewel, and the world honored what accepted it. Was that not done quickly? Most quickly, they answered. The daughter told them, use your holy powers to watch me become a Buddha even more quickly than that. Then the entire congregation saw the dragon girl instantly transformed into a male, take up Bodhisattva practice, and immediately go to the world named Spotless in the southern region, where, sitting on a precious lotus blossom, she

[22:52]

instantly attained impartial, proper awakening, with the 32 characteristics and 80 different attractive features, she proclaimed the wonderful Dharma to all living beings everywhere in the universe. Then from afar, Bodhisattvas, gods, dragons, the whole assembly, humans and non-humans, watched the dragon girl become a Buddha and teach the Dharma to all the gods and people in the assembly. Their hearts filled with great joy, they paid their respects from afar, And it goes on to say how they benefited in many ways. And this other bodhisattva in Shariputra and the whole congregation silently believed and accepted this. Well, you might understand why the women at San Francisco Center got up and walked out when they heard this. And I sympathize. So part of what this story is doing, though, This sutra was written 2,000 years ago, more or less, and still we're working on this.

[23:53]

This sutra is in the language of the older form of patriarchal Buddhism that says that a woman cannot attain Buddhahood, and that women's bodies are filthy and all of that garbage. So again, The challenge in hearing this for us is, what is the practice in the Dharma? Dharma is a word that means the teaching. It means reality. It means the way towards that. What is our practice today, 2009 in Chicago? And of course, in post-feminist American Zen, there are many, many women teachers and many, many women Zen priests. And we understand that this is not true. that there are women Buddhas and there have been great women figures in the history of Buddhism all along and we have a chant to women ancestors. But I wanted just to go back a little bit to what it says in this sutra.

[25:05]

One thing is that it says she transforms into a male, and this is because in the old teachings, only males can become Buddhas, and she becomes a Buddha. But she's still called the dragon girl, even afterwards. They don't give her name, which is pretty disrespectful. Anyway, this sutra can be challenged a lot about this, and yet we can recognize from our perspective that it's making an effort to realize true Bodhisattva way, that this is a universal practice. Of course, not just men and women, but people of all sexual orientations, old and young, of all ethnic backgrounds. This is a story that is a kind of entry to a modern teaching of diversity. I talked about the Lotus Sutra teaching of skillful means, that there is one vehicle and that all the different practices, if they're helpful to the main purpose of Buddhism, which the Sutra says is to help everyone onto the path of awakening, that's the point.

[26:10]

So again, I hesitate to read this story, and yet it's important for us. The whole idea of, well, one of the things that the dragon girl does is to make offerings to the Buddha. This whole idea of offering ourself, male, female, old, young, sexual orientation, whatever, to Buddha, to awakening, is part of this idea of the Bodhisattva, of awakening beings. How do we help, how do we investigate and realize our own way of being Buddha? So the idea of skillful means is that each of us has a way of being Buddha. I can't tell you, nobody can tell you how you should be Buddha. This is something we find for ourselves, and yet, the idea, in India and in Tibet, they usually do meditation on their own. They sometimes come together for ceremonies. Starting in China and in Japan, we have meditation halls like this, and we meditate together.

[27:14]

We each sit uprightly, relaxed, aware, maybe drifting off at times, maybe our mind wandering at times, but then we gently bring ourselves back to facing ourselves, facing this body and mind, our actual experience of our physical sensations, our feelings and thoughts, paying attention to it, seeing what it's like to be Upra, to find our own inner dignity. This process, the first time you sit, we say in Soto Zen, Dogen says, the very first time you sit, in some ways you connect with the whole universe, you connect with this idea of Buddhahood. So we're very lucky to have three people who did their first period of meditation this morning. As I said, this is very auspicious for us. This practice is about realizing this possibility of awakening in ourselves, but we sit together because by being present, as you probably felt, in a room with other people doing this, we support each other.

[28:16]

So again, this is something that I encourage you to do on your own at home in between coming to Ancient Dragon or other meditation places. And actually, even at home, you can't really sit alone because always all the people in the world who are part of who you are right now, sitting on your cushion, are part of you. Still, it's helpful to come together, to do this together. So how do we do this together and realize that all of us, all beings, and the people who aren't doing formal Buddhist practice, maybe even two, that all people, part of what our Dzogchen is about is learning each of us in our own way how to express something of this spirit and reality of awakening. How do we do this, each of us in our own particular way and in cooperation and support of others. So there are friends, family, spouses, co-workers, neighbors who maybe don't do this kind of meditation practice, but we can support and recognize their own creative expressions of kindness and awareness.

[29:33]

All of this is part of what this teaching is about. And this is one of the places in early Bodhisattva teachings that is trying to break free of these kinds of prejudices, which were very, very strong in that culture and still we have in our human culture. I thought I'd also read a little bit from Dogen, our founder of Japanese Soto Zen in 13th century Japan. One of his writings that is very much about the equal capacity of women to awaken. And in this case, I think we should think about all beings awakening. But this is from one of his essays in Shobo Genzo, Paying Homage and Acquiring the Essence. And he mentions the Dragon King's daughter. He says, even an eight-year-old girl who practices the Buddha dharma and is enlightened is the leader and guide of the fourfold community of Buddhists, the compassionate parent of living beings.

[30:40]

For instance, the Naga maiden in the Lotus Sutra achieved Buddhahood. Giving respect and homage to someone like her is the same as giving it to all the Buddhists. That is, it is the ancient etiquette of the Buddha way. If you cannot understand this, you will regrettably be unable to transmit the Buddha way. And then I'm just going to read a couple little excerpts where he very strongly attacks sexist ideas and prejudices. Again, this is now 13th century Japan. Dogan says, nowadays there are some extremely stupid men who think women are nothing but sexual objects and providers of food. They neglect to consider that this kind of thinking results from wrong views. Women as children should not be like this. If you detest women because they are objects of desire, shouldn't you also detest all men? When impure conditions occur, and we could question whether sexual orientation, whether these are impure. objects of desire, and women become objects of desire.

[31:45]

And those who are neither men nor women become objects of desire. Things in dreams and mirages become objects of desire. So it's not the attitude of prejudice, it's the prejudice itself. He goes on to say, what demerit is there of femaleness? What merit is there of maleness? There are bad men and good women. If you wish to hear the Dharma and put an end to pain, and turmoil, forget about such things as male and female, as long as delusions have not yet been eliminated, neither men nor women have eliminated them. When they are all eliminated and true reality is experienced, there is no distinction of male and female. Moreover, if you hate women because in past lives they violated the precepts, then since all bodhisattvas violated the precepts in past lives, shouldn't you hate them too?" And he goes on like this. Again, this is This is a challenge to Buddhism itself, but it's also a challenge to how we all think. And it's a challenge to us in 2009 Chicago.

[32:50]

We have this center as a storefront zendo that everybody can come into. How do we recognize that we all, totally, beyond whatever prejudices are out there, Arabs, even Muslims, even whatever we might think of as lesser in our culture, all beings have this capacity, this Buddha nature, this reality of being present, seeing this possibility of awakening, of awakening as kindness. The Dalai Lama says that this religion is kindness. That's enough. How do we express kindness and awareness and insight in our lives How do we support each other? That's the challenge for modern Western Buddhism. But part of that is also recognizing that there are prejudices and that we do have problems in our society and problems in our own ways of thinking and of those around us.

[33:53]

How do we look at that, see through such prejudices? So this is, in some ways, a very simple practice to say. Breathe, be present, feel your posture and your uprightness. Thoughts and feelings come, let them come. Don't try and get rid of them or do anything with them. Just be present and see what it's like to actually be this person on your cushion. And yet, this challenge from this story in the Lotus Sutra, and from others in the Buddhist tradition like Doga who spoke against prejudices, how do we see this today in our world today? How do we encourage others to, to encourage others to help everyone be present and see themselves and see awareness and kindness in ourselves, whether young or old, or sexual preferences, male or female, ethnicity, part of

[34:57]

The idea of compassion in Buddhism, so I've also talked about this in connection with the Lotus Sutra, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, we have images of on either side of the meditation hall, recognizes the diversity of beings and that all beings have different ways of awakening. Compassion in Buddhism is not just recognizing, but appreciating differences. Wisdom is seeing through to our sameness. seeing the emptiness and the sameness and wholeness of all beings. But compassion in Buddhism is seeing and appreciating our differences, honoring that, seeing that we each have a different way of expressing Buddha. So I want to leave some time for questions or discussions. And for those of you who sat for the first time this morning, if you have just basic questions about meditation, please feel free also. As I said at the beginning, usually on Sunday mornings, I talk about kind of basic Buddhist teachings. But in preparation for Jean, Jean Reeves tomorrow evening, I want to be talking about the Lotus Sutra.

[36:05]

But I think this is an important teaching for us just in terms of how to see what our job is as Zen practitioners, as Sangha in our world today, to not get caught by our society's views and prejudices about what reality is, but to see deeply. So please, if you have comments, responses, questions, feel free. Thank you for not walking out, as I read that. Well, it did take me back. I've never heard that before. It made me think, as you were reading that, I was thinking about, you know, Shakyamuni was so far ahead in that he saw everyone as equal. So for his disciples to see women as not equal took me by surprise in a sense that

[37:07]

you can have blind spots, even if you have an insight, if you have discovered something that is important, that is true, that you can have blind spots, and they clearly did. And so it does make me think about, currently, what blind spots do we have? And quite frankly, when I first started coming to Buddhist sittings, I was very much trying to sort out whether there was a patriarchal attitude before I got completely invested in it because I have encountered that in other religious traditions. And it does feel even to me, I think, having been around women teachers as well as men teachers has been important to kind of realize this tradition is not sexist. So, but anyway, it also makes me think about when new people come here, what they might be wondering.

[38:12]

You know, it's like any time you enter a new group, there's a sense of, are there prejudices, or will they accept me, or are there ways they are critical of things that, and so I think it's important for us just to be aware of that. Because we don't always know what our blind spots are. Yes, good. I have some responses, but first, people who are new to sitting this morning or new to this group, if you have comments or anybody, responses to Kathy Singh. Please feel free. I haven't been to this group in quite a while. Welcome. I haven't been to this group in quite a while. Welcome. I haven't been to this group in quite a while. [...] I haven't been to this group in quite a But for me, I have a problem disassociating the cultural influence, the pure message.

[39:17]

The pure message is what we all get wired down by, whether it's for gender, whether it's for race, whether it's for religion. That's what I found wrong, which is they all have Yes, yes. What's your name? Marlene Hyatt. Yeah, yes, very much so. And I teach college courses in religion and I always talk about the difference between the teaching and the history of the institutions. The history and the institutions are, as are all human, almost all, I don't know, maybe all human institutions in history, full of corruption. But then there's the ideals.

[40:20]

Well, how do we check that together? I'm also a Buddhist scholar, and most of modern Western Buddhist scholarship is historical study of the way that institutions are, even current Buddhist institutions are, subject to prejudices and corruption and sexism and so forth. So I appreciate what you said, Kathy. And I will confess, as an American male raised in the 50s and 60s, I don't, I think I'm not prejudiced against women or, you know, other ethnic groups or whatever, but if I assume that I'm not, that's a problem. So we have many, in this particular Sangha, along with Cathy, we have other Sangha leaders, the other priest here, Hogetsu, who are women. I need you to tell me if I, in some way, don't realize that I'm expressing something that's patriarchal.

[41:23]

I certainly don't intend to. But that's part of our working together, all of us, to admit that we do have prejudices. We are raised in historical institutions. We are victims of that, or we are conditioned by that, and Buddhism is about seeing through conditions. So part of the idea of Buddha, very much in Soto Zen, but I would say in Mahayana, is not that once you realize awakening, realize Buddhahood, see through conditioning, that that's the end of the practice. That's just the beginning. Shakyamuni Buddha continued sitting every day and awakening after he became the Buddha. So part of the point of this, why this is a living tradition in history, is that we are constantly confronting new historical situations, new social situations, new psychological situations, and constantly, it's like the ideal of America being a more perfect union.

[42:26]

Well, that means obviously developing that in history, and we're far from that still. So how do we, help each other to see through conditioning. So I appreciate, thank you, Marlene. Marlene and Kathy. Again, this is about how do we find a practice and a way of awakening, an ongoing awakening in our world. Other comments or questions, or again, if you have just basic questions about the practice of meditation. Of course, in celebrating that women, of course, can realize Buddhahood and realize awakening, we should also say that men can, too. Even men can realize awakening.

[43:28]

So we're in this together. Sangha is the challenge, and our sangha is, for new people, we have three jewels in Buddhism. Buddha, the awakened one, or awakening. And what Buddha means is very much at issue. in the Lotus Sutra and in Zen practice. Who is Buddha? What is Buddha? Is the basic question we are exploring as we sit. But then, so then there's Dharma, which I refer to, which means, an old Indian word, which in Buddhism means the teaching or the practice of reality. It means all those things together. Reality, the truth as it is, and the teaching of that. And then Sangha is the third jewel. Sangha means community. How do we come together support each other in our own way to find, each of us in our own way, our awakening.

[44:19]

@Text_v004
@Score_JI