I have a few things I want to bring up today. Some continue with our study of the Lotus Sutra, and also I'm going to be going up to the city tomorrow, I'll be gone the 4th, coming back on the 11th. So I just wanted to talk about a few things before I go. And also, I know some of you know, but some of you don't know, that Kerry lost the election. Kerry lost the election. Bush won the election. So, we may be feeling various things, some of us may be feeling one way and others of us feeling another. I'm not exactly sure how we might want to process that or make some space for that.

[01:06]

I actually thought maybe at the end we could just go into twos and just talk to each other, something like that. I don't know exactly what. I just, I feel great, great concern and, yeah, great, great concern for this world. I wanted to thank everyone for all the work they did for the ceremony last night. I felt that the effort of all of Tassajar to make a, to meet the ceremony happened, and I want to especially thank the Eno and the Doans for all their work practicing the instruments and the beautiful altar.

[02:06]

I hope everyone raised their eyes during the ceremony and looked at the altar. It's really beautiful, and I appreciated it very much. A couple things I just wanted to say about practicing with the cold. I think we're right at that point where it probably will be getting colder and colder. It was 34 the other morning. There was ice on Nancy's car when she drove out, or frost, right, wherever you are. So there is, those of you who don't have heat in your room, I think it's important to keep your body temperature even. If you can, use the dining room for breaks or after supper. Come in here and read, have tea. Wearing layers is a good idea.

[03:09]

I know some of you have warm under robes and others of you don't. And if you don't, you can wear a skirt or pants under your robe. Wear layers of underwear. You might have a set, but wear two or three, you know. Just layering is good. Some of you know the story of my first practice period where I had a very thin robe. In fact, it wasn't even a robe. It was a skirt and kind of a top that tucked in and looked like a robe, but it wasn't really a robe. It was a skirt and top. And it was very thin cotton, and so I had a skirt under it. And then I didn't like long underwear because I didn't like to sit cross-legged with long underwear. So then I wore other layers and then sweaters. And I still wasn't warm, so I added more and more until I was sort of like, really, I was just, I could barely get the skirt around and button because I was like a penguin. That's what I thought.

[04:09]

I looked like a penguin kind of walking to the Zendo. And still I wasn't warm. And I realized that my inability to warm up was that I was not relaxing my stomach. And I was tense, fighting the cold, bracing against. And that very action, which was all day long, made it impossible to actually warm up. I was constricting myself unless I was right next to a fire. And even if I moved a little bit away from the fire, I would be too cold. I'd have to be right next to the fire. It made it very hard to be here. So what I learned that if I just relaxed my stomach, it's like the cold was different. So also keeping an even temperature. People have gotten chill blades. I'm one of them. These sores on your hands. So be careful to not go from very, very cold to very, very hot. Warm your hands up in the shower before going into the plunge, hands and feet, or, you know, warm.

[05:16]

Don't dip your hands, freezing cold, into the hot water. The capillaries, my understanding is they, if you have circulation problems, they don't open fast enough and they burst. I don't know if that's exactly what happens, but that's what I've been told. And I'm sure you have tricks, other tricks that you please share with each other, your tricks of what to do, how to keep your hot water bottle warm all night long and that kind of thing. So please take good care of yourselves with the cold. And also it is a usual thing for the leader of the practice period to leave during the practice period for a week here or there. And there's, you know, most of the contact that you have is with each other throughout the day at work and in the Zen Do and serving and all the other activities, not necessarily with who's ever leading.

[06:19]

There's that kind of contact in Doksan and seeing someone around or class and lecture and so forth. But most of the time you have contact with your fellow practitioners, right? And the image of that is polishing, polishing rocks, you know, rocks that become jewels in the jewel polisher, in the rock polisher, where they're tumbling around and they're rubbing up against each other. And in the course of doing that, all the rough edges get polished away and shine forth with your jewel-likeness. So you, we polish each other, but that practice goes on, mostly that's what's going on, polishing. I was reading this account of a different practice center, I think in Korea or Japan maybe, where in this polishing process, they hardly have any contact with the abbot.

[07:21]

And they're never supposed to speak directly or ask a question directly and eyes cast down. And they have Doksan, but not so much daily interaction. And the senior practitioners train the newer people, just like is happening here. But in this system, if you make a mistake or do something not the way you were trained, it's not like afterwards they call you and you do a little review and how did it work and oh, I forgot. Oh, well, be sure. They just yell out, mistake, right in the middle of service or a meal. Whoever you're training person is just yells, mistake, and then you have to figure out what it was. You know, what did I say or not say? So that's a different method, you know, a different training method. And it's probably, some of you may really like that type of very direct, very instantaneous,

[08:26]

none of this checking in and let's work it out. How can I help you? No, you just mistake. So we happen to be doing the other type. I don't think we yell out at each other, but we do point out. And that's part of this polishing practice. So please, I really understand it in that way, how we learn and develop and refine ourselves, refine our practice. Also, in other practice centers, there may be a different cultural sense of sort of body. We were talking about boundaries the other day in Tova's lecture. When I visited a heiji for this big ceremony, I was Rebs Jisha for the Dogen Memorial Ceremony. And the nun in charge of telling me where to go and what to do just sort of took a hold of me and shoved me, you know, like, go here.

[09:35]

No, here, like pulling me back and forth. And for her, it was, I just, it wasn't anything. I don't think she thought twice. You just, that's how you, you get someone to do what they need to do who doesn't know what they're, you just push them. And my feeling was, I watched this arise in me, it was like, get your hands off me. I thought, whoa, where did that come from? I really had this thing arise. So culturally, there's different cultural understandings of body contact and boundaries and touching and so forth. So I think our understanding, it's pretty unusual to push somebody here or shove them or touch them actually to show them. Usually we use our words, right? And if we have trouble using words, we ask somebody to help us to say what we need. But I'd like us to just be aware of that. On occasion it happens, or if you're working with somebody closely, they may. And traditionally, you know, hitting, I mean, all the stories include kind of bodily events.

[10:44]

But culturally speaking, Tassajara culture anyway, it's unusual. It's really unusual to shove somebody or move them around or touch in order to polish. Okay, so any question about anything that I said there? Or anything you want to bring up about the ceremony, the cult, polishing each other? We'll wait on the elections. Is there a hand over here, somebody? Is that a hand? No, that's a stretch. Kathy? I noticed when you said, relax your stomach, that you touched your stomach. I just want to mention that there is a Qigong exercise of putting the hands on the stomach and doing 36 revolutions one direction and 36 the other direction. With a little bit of pressure, you know, so you really feel your hands. And I sometimes do it before I get out of bed in the morning.

[11:45]

And when I get into bed, I do it too. And if it doesn't seem to relax me, I do it again and again. Eventually it does. And it also is good for chanting. Because you get to feel that part of your body. Thank you. I know when I swim in the bay, before I go in, I rub my stomach. I never thought exactly what that was, but it's just relax, relax, going into the cold. Yes? This is just about physical corrections. Yes. When I was doing kin-hin in Texas and cutting the corners because I couldn't keep up, this priest picked me up from behind and stuck me in a corner and said, don't ever cut corners. And I can't watch. It's like I watch people make, like, cut the corners, and they know what I think about that all the time. It's like when you have that kind of immediate physical correction, it's something you never, ever forget. Yes. Yeah. I don't mean to say never, never, ever.

[12:48]

I think there is the right moment, you know. No, I knew you weren't. Yeah. I knew you weren't saying never, never. I just like that story, actually. Yes, I do too. I like the image of you being raised up and sort of plopped down. Yeah, it was totally a shock. Yeah, yeah. I didn't even know he could lift me. My yoga teacher, Judith Lassiter, over the years, has developed a way in class where she says, may I touch you before she does corrections, which used to be unheard of. I think the teachers used to just do things, and you expected that. But for various reasons in this, with the culture of the people who come to her classes, she asks every time, even if you've been her student, even for 30 years, she says, may I touch you. It feels very respectful. But there are times, like posture suggestions, that's a touch. Sometimes moving someone's mudra and kin-hin or whatever.

[13:50]

So it does happen. Yeah. I just wanted to make a comment about the ceremony last night because I was Jikido last night, which means that I got to sleep in the window after the ceremony. And going into it, I had a little bit of apprehension about that. And I just wanted to share with everybody that the feeling in the zendo last night was like when you've had a party at your house and all the guests have gone home fulfilled and satisfied. There was this sort of buoyant emptiness of the zendo last night that felt very light and quite lovely, quite wonderful. Thank you. Actually, it was a wonderful place. I wish you could have all attended. Because it was a wonderful place to spend the night after that ceremony. Did you all go to sleep okay? Anybody have trouble getting to sleep due to energy of the ceremony? There was a yes? You had trouble getting to sleep? Yeah. I was a little concerned about that.

[14:51]

The ceremony supposedly is to be done at twilight, which gives you a little more time to wind down. But we need a buddha hall at Tassar because we do everything in the zendo. And, you know, the doans totally set up the altar, totally took it down for dinner, totally set it up. So it didn't work out logistically to have it early and then have dinner. So it was a little bit later than usual. But I think if everybody slept okay, I'm glad. Okay. Well, shall we move on into the Lotus Sutra? We have two people. One person who had volunteered asked to recite later. So I have Kate and Everett. Are you ready to recite? Sure. Sure? And where's Everett? Are you ready? Good. So whichever wants to go first. I'll try.

[15:54]

At that time, the world-honored one, surrounded by the four different kinds of believers, received offerings and tokens of respect and was honored and praised. And for the sake of the bodhisattvas, he preached the Great Vehicle Sutra entitled Immeasurable Meanings, a law to instruct the bodhisattvas, one that is guarded and kept in mind by the Buddhas. When the Buddha had finished preaching the sutra, he sat cross-legged in lotus position and entered into the samadhi of the place of immeasurable meanings, his body and mind never moving. At that time, the heavens rained down mandarava flowers, great mandarava flowers, manjushaka flowers, and great manjushaka flowers,

[17:01]

scattering them over the Buddha and over the Great Assembly. And everywhere, the Buddha world quaked and trembled in six different ways. At that time, all the nuns and monks, the laywomen, the laymen, the heavenly beings, dragons, yakshas, gandharvas, asuras, kinaras, gangarudas, maharagas, human and non-human beings in the assembly, as well as the petty kings and the wheel-rolling sage kings, everyone gathered in the Great Assembly, having gained what they had never had before, as filled with great joy and pressing their palms together, gazed at the Buddha with a single mind. At that time, the Buddha emitted a ray of light from the tuft of white hair between his eyebrows,

[18:03]

one of his characteristic features, lighting up 18,000 worlds in the eastern direction. There was no place that that light did not penetrate, reaching downward as far as the Avici hell and upwards to the Akanishta heaven. I rained down the rain of the law, filling the whole world. The one essential law to be practiced according to ability. Just as those thickets and forests, herbs and trees, according to their size,

[19:06]

luxuriantly develop, the law of essential oneness, the law of all Buddhas, ever its essential oneness, causes all the worlds universally to gain perfect well-being. Gradually, by its observance, all attain the way's fruition. Shravakas and Pratikabuddhas who dwell in the mountain forests are in the final bodily state,

[20:08]

who, hearing the law, reach fruition. These are named herbs that flourish and gain in growth. As to Bodhisattvas who are firm in wisdom, who penetrate the triple world, and seek the highest vehicle, these are named shrubs and gain increasing growth. Those who practice meditation

[21:14]

and gain transcendent powers, who, hearing the doctrine of the void, rejoicing greatly in their minds and emitting innumerable rays, save all living beings, these are named trees and gain increasing growth. No Kasyapa. I preach the law of the Buddha. No Kasyapa.

[22:21]

The law of the... No Kasyapa. The law of all Buddhas is just like a great cloud which, filled with the same rain, enriches men and women and blossoms so that all bear fruit. It is like this Kasyapa. By numerous reasonings and various parables, I preach the law of the Buddha. I preach the Buddha way. This is my tactful method.

[23:22]

It is the way of all Buddhas. What I have said to you all now is the various truth. All Shravakas come to attain nirvana. The way in which you walk is the Bodhisattva way. By gradually practicing and learning, all of you will become Buddhas. Thank you. Thank you very much. Would anyone like to volunteer for the next time? So I have the one person from last time and this Judith.

[24:27]

That will be three for next time. That poem that I read and I think was posted about how delightful mountain dwellings, so solitary and tranquil, I wanted to read another translation of that. Joyful in this mountain retreat, yet still feeling melancholy, studying the Lotus Sutra every day, practicing zazen single-mindedly, what do love and hate matter? When I'm here alone, listening to the sound of the rain in this autumn evening. Joyful in this mountain retreat, yet still feeling melancholy,

[25:34]

studying the Lotus Sutra every day, practicing zazen single-mindedly, what do love and hate matter when I'm here alone, listening to the sound of the rain in this autumn evening. So during the Seshin, we went through a number of chapters including chapter... I think we talked about the parable of the herbs, we did the magic city, parable of the magic city, and not that we did it, but we brought it up, we tasted it. And so I'd like to move on to chapter 8, which is called

[26:36]

The 500 Disciples Receive the Prediction of Their Destiny. And in this chapter, there's a few things to watch for. One is the parable of the jewel, which I think we're familiar with, the jewel hidden in the clothing, that's in this chapter. And there's also the point where those 5,000 people who left earlier get predicted, so that's an interesting part of this. And a few other things I wanted to bring up. So it's on page 170 in the Cato translation. There's some problematic things in here as well, which I'll bring up. So it starts out that Purna, who was one of the disciples,

[27:37]

son of Maitrayani, that's his mother, and Maitrayana means the fullness of loving-kindness. And he had heard about the prediction of the four great disciples that were predicted in the chapter before. Yeah, the chapter before. So Kashyapya and Sabuti and Katyayana and Maudgalyana were all those four very foremost you know, very famous disciples. They were all predicted and he felt ecstatic joy, one of those sympathetic joy moments, or Purna, and he circumambulated the Buddha and put his hands together and bowed down and went near to the Buddha. And then the Buddha began, he was gazing at the Buddha, you know, this thing, O you of the pure gaze, of the broad gaze, anyway, this gazing, he was gazing at the Buddha

[28:38]

and the Buddha then speaks to Purna, to the assembly and says what a wonderful student Purna's been. Purna was the foremost in giving Dharma talks, preaching the Dharma. And he said, except for the World Honored One, you know, who, the way Purna speaks about the Dharma is really just the best. His is, he preaches with, it's equal to the Buddha's. No one equals his lucidity aside from the Buddha. So his lucid explanation of the teachings. So he tells how wonderful Purna is to everybody and then he says, for a long time, Purna's been practicing with seven Buddhas of the past and then he predicts Purna. And he says that Purna will continue, Purna's name will be Purna will continue preaching

[29:38]

and his 500 disciples who were with Purna were also predicted and those 500 will also be named Radiant Self of the Law. So there's this prediction of that particular Bodhisattva, I mean that Shravaka. Now, on the top of page 177, let's see, so then he does it in verse again telling how wonderful Purna is and, and this prediction and then, and how long there, you know the Righteous Law and the Counterfeit Law, how long those will all last in these lands and so forth. And then at the top of 77, he says, the 500 Self Reliant Ones, that's the 500 that he just predicted who are Purna's, you know, study with Purna

[30:40]

and then he says, the other band of Shravakas will also be like them and this other band are the 5000 who left. To these who are not in this assembly, do you proclaim my words. So he says, they're going to be also predicted. Would you please let them know about that because they're not here in this assembly. So he, you know, sends Kshatriya to tell them that other band of Shravakas will also be like them. So that's part of this inclusiveness of the, the Lotus, this, including those 5000 who left. Now, yes. I just want to ask a question. I'm thinking that Shravaka is the word for disciples. Is that true? It's, it's the hearers, I think it translates as the hearers, the ones who actually heard the Buddhist word. Yes, disciples. Yeah. So in this description of the Buddha land

[31:43]

that Purna is going to have, there's some problematic things. For one thing, in this Buddha land, there's no women, no evil ways and no womankind, gulp, you know, when I read it, but all the beings will be transformed and have no carnal passions. So there's, it's a pretty calm scene up there in the, in Purna's, wherever Purna's place is. But, you know, my sense is in these scriptures, you know, as Dr. Kansa said, celibate young monks in hot countries, then you talk about certain things that would be very calming. That, that's a kind of joke,

[32:43]

but anyway, I imagine to a particular audience that may be some, something that would be seen as a tranquil, wonderful place and with no problems or something. Include that in your thinking, that maybe to that audience at that time, that's what they were trying to create in their minds and not forgetting androcentrism. So I just wanted to mention that because that is in this chapter about Purna. Not all these worlds, these Buddha lands that they describe say that, but Purna's does. Also in this land, there's two kinds of food there that they eat, that they're nourished by. One is called Dharma joy or joy in the Dharma

[33:44]

as food, as nourishment. And the other food is called, I'm giving two translations, joy in the law is Keto and Dharma joy, law, he uses law, you know, instead of Dharma all the time, which he sometimes uses Dharma, but mostly he says law. So Dharma joy, which is I think Christina Lenher's name is Dharma joy, I think her second name. And then gladness in meditation is one translation as a food and another translation is meditative delight. So these are talked about as food and it's interesting because our ceremony last night in giving Dharma food, the food, yeah, the food of the Dharma was given and we partook of it. And in Thich Nhat Hanh's commentary, he described Dharma joy, the feeling of joy when we hear Dharma talks

[34:45]

or study the Dharma or ask about it, discuss it, there's a joyful feeling often. And this idea of food, I know that sometimes when you've heard or talked about the teachings or studied for a while, you get hungry. I think that's an apt expression. You want to hear the teaching. You can't wait to hear, oh good, there's a Dharma talk. You want to, and it doesn't, just like food, it doesn't last forever. We take in food at various intervals. We become, Dharma joy from listening to Dharma, talking about it, discussion, studying the teachings, joy and nourishment. And this is in the realm of study. And then the gladness, the food of gladness in meditation or meditative delight is

[35:45]

the nourishment of practicing itself, just the daily practice. And then when you combine the two, for example, for a Dharma talk, usually the understanding is you sit zazen, you're sitting in a posture, a meditative posture, and having the words come in with a concentrated, focused body-mind. So in that way, you combine the two of meditative delight and Dharma joy as one event of the right meditative zazen mind. So I'm just curious in that posture, listening to a Dharma talk, where are our eyes? Yeah. Well, the first time I ever attended a Dharma talk was at Sokoji and Suzuki Roshi was speaking

[36:48]

and everybody, I was very, very new, extremely new, and I couldn't understand a word of the Dharma talk. I was straining. It was either Suzuki Roshi's English at the time, this was in 68, or that whatever he was saying was just over my head because I hadn't heard much Dharma at all, just read some. So I just noticed everybody was just sitting there completely. So that was always my, that was my initial imprint of what a Dharma talk was, you said zazen and just heard. I do feel though on occasion there is eye contact, you know, and the speaker themselves is not looking down, often they're looking and there is something about eye contact with the audience that makes a reciprocal energetic field. So I think you can do both actually, I do. I think I do mostly

[37:49]

just listening and then on occasion I'll look up especially if there's a joke or something or they're doing something, I'll watch. But I know sometimes there's a sense of a Dharma talk maybe being a rest posture time or something, and I think to make the effort and also for study, you know, to take an upright zazen posture for study, feet planted on the floor, getting a comfortable, you know, I think it helps with receiving the teachings through study, through the eyes and the ears. So I appreciated that this chapter had this food because we have been, centered around the food of the Dharma and how we are nourished by the food and need nourishment

[38:49]

on a regular basis. We get hungry for it. So let's see, after that prediction of those 500, then there's 1,200 more arhats who are thinking in their minds, wouldn't it be wonderful? Wouldn't it be wonderful if we all were predicted too? And the Buddha understood what they were thinking about and he mentions one of his disciples, Kaundinya, Kaundinya, I think that's how it's pronounced, one of the arhats who are Kaundinya's, working with Kaundinya, Kaundinya represents, Kaundinya was one of those five ascetics

[39:50]

that the Buddha practiced with when he was doing all those ascetic practices before he sat under the Bodhi tree and when he decided to wash and have rice pudding, they said, see you later, you know, you're slipping, backsliding. Kind of the oldest, the oldest of the disciples are being predicted and those 500, when they heard they were ecstatic, also everybody's always ecstatic and dancing for joy sometimes and they rejoiced and then these 500 kind of confessed that before this time they had been thinking that as arhats understood nirvana and that they had been satisfied but now they realized

[40:51]

they had attained nirvana but now they know that the Buddha had taught about perfect wisdom or perfect enlightenment and they hadn't taken it up, they should have and they kind of confessed this but they settled for less and this is this whole theme of the different paths that the Buddha did teach in such a way that it was all there from the beginning but people could hear what they could hear or he taught tactfully according to the audience what, you know, like the parable of the burning house what would help them so they realized this now it was this big discovery that when they were predicted too that oh they had heard about this but they hadn't taken it up and so Kshapya about go tell that band of Shravakas that they also are going to be like

[41:52]

the 500 and this next paragraph is how the 500 are ecstatic with joy and then they tell the story of the jewel so this story is very similar to the destitute son a similar motif of already having you know being a well endowed but not knowing it you know having everything you need but not knowing it so in this story a friend goes to visit another friend and at the friend's house he's wined and dined and they have a lovely evening together but he gets drunk the friend who came to visit got drunk and went to sleep and the friend who lived in the house was called away on business so he thought gee I can't wake my friend up I can't leave him here in this state I'll give him these jewels that I have I'll sew into his robe

[42:53]

or his garment tie into his garment or sew into the hem of his garment sometimes they say some jewels and he'll be well taken care of I've got to go so he left him there and went off on business well morning time came and his friend was gone so he just kind of went on his way he didn't realize that there was anything in his clothes any jewel and he just went off to find work as best he could he went to another country and he needed to work to get clothing and food and shelter and it took a lot of effort he wasn't doing all that well in the world but he scraped together a living from all the difficulties and years went by and he bumps into his old friend and there he is kind of

[43:53]

tattered still wearing the same old cloak and looking rather disheveled and his friend said friend what's happening what's going on with you didn't you know I put precious jewels into your robe to take good care of you and here I'll show you and he undid found the place in the robe where they were and showed him that he had had this precious jewel all along and he could have satisfied all of his desires and now he can in fact he says to his friends the old friend who had given him the jewel he says I had this here but you just didn't know it I had been wanting to give you comfort and take good care of you and gave you this jewel for that purpose but you didn't discover it

[44:55]

so please now you're free from poverty so how do you what do you think about that story I have a couple of questions in relation to this chapter first of all it sort of sounds like that this is a metaphor for that we already have the equipment within us or the jewel within us to although we don't see it and we don't really know it all of us to reach perfectly maybe someday we'll realize that jewel and we'll reach it do you think that's I think that's pointing to that and then I was wondering if you could talk to us a little about what you know of the three clear views and the eight emancipations is that in this chapter I don't I can't see is it in the description of the worlds

[45:56]

or I think it was on one of the let's see if you can find it and then okay any other thoughts yes I have a question about the word tactful tactful I thought men with tact that you don't insult someone like you're being tactful but then I realized that it may be tactics that he's using a tactic in order to yeah interesting tactic I think the other translations are skillful means or expedient means that's more like the right tactic but I think tactic as manipulation

[46:59]

or finessing or what would be other words for tactics and you know what kind of tactics can I use but for the benefit of somebody to use the exact right tactics is often tactful you know but I often use skillful means myself I like that particular translation it hits home for me rather than tactful but anyway this tactfulness is what any other thoughts on the jewel the way like for the normal person having this precious jewel hidden in their robes that how it was hidden like it wasn't sort of readily apparent where it was it's like hidden somewhere where you know the wealthy jewel owners admit wisdom I guess you could kind of

[48:00]

do the math that this person isn't going to figure out so readily that when he wakes up it might not be so obvious it seems like it's purposefully not placed between you know his eyes when he wakes up you know I thought of that if you had an outfit let's say and then somebody tied something in it would you notice you know I mean if it's your favorite sweater and it's got this funny thing sticking out the side would you notice that is it heavier down there I mean to have some jewels to have some addition to your outfit would you notice and you know the story of the princess and the pea so the princess and the pea she was so sensitive that even on a big stack of mattresses if there was that uncooked pea it wasn't a cooked pea an uncooked pea underneath

[49:03]

you're wondering me I don't know what it was so there's a kind of very sensitive very aware to any you know change in your situation so would you notice if your cloak was heavier on this side you know or not but I think you're right it wasn't smack between it wasn't so apparent so where he couldn't it wasn't left on his pillow or you know Buddha nature being present it's in each of us already it's not introduced from someone it's already there from the start yes so it's not something that like comes in the front door uh-huh and how since it's already there this idea of being given from the outside given it sort of like this one I also say something about the awareness of that which

[50:08]

is already there is like it all comes up together like the recognition of that which previously through the sensitivity or through the awareness it's not something it's not given to you it's not pinned on you from the outside yeah so if I understand what you're saying the this is where the the kind of analogies where the parables break down you know so so the parable of the teaching that you are there's a teaching that you hear that's given that I suppose Pratyekabuddhas are not given that teaching they on their own realize you know but most beings Buddhas appear in the world to open and display and realize and enter so they they demonstrate and give teachings around this so the jewel the jewel

[51:09]

you could sit I don't know in this case I guess the jewel is both it represents both it's the teaching and the jewel itself of Buddha nature you know in the parable you could say it's both the teaching does it actually come from outside because really only a Buddha and a Buddha you're just hearing your own hearing your own wisdom being outside but that what they're actually saying is this is who you already are so anyway I'm sorry just in closing because it's broken down for me just like conjured up the image of the price is right the price is right yes just does everyone know that that show on TV the price is right yes do you know who doesn't know the price is right the price is right is they

[52:09]

they have these material items and the contestants have to guess how much how much it costs and the person who comes closest wins the item right in words that are like skillful means like in words that will only speak to one specific person your name is called out the recognition of you here hearing your name being called and you're asked to come on down you're overjoyed and the people in this overjoyed come running up like it's ecstatic getting to be a contestant you mean yeah well realizing that it's they've been chosen chosen what yeah then you've got to play the game right so so just one second Chris okay so so that's skillful means that you hear it's me they're talking to me and it's my

[53:10]

turn well if I said if I meant you but I said like Greg's name you wouldn't know to come on down I have to say the name that is the person who used the words and that's the skillful means yeah because if you just call me hey Buddha yeah you wouldn't who is it talking to me is so we for skillfulness we say Greg or Linda are we it's a nickname for Buddha does it require you being human like by having through well they do say that in animate objects you know in animate objects speak the Dharma too but we can't hear it right so I think this thing we're

[54:11]

talking about is is maybe particularly set up for sentient beings you know who have this kind of apparatus I think honeybees and tarantulas do different they realize themselves differently we just saw tarantula yesterday which prove gathered up lovingly and brought to the sunshine okay I saw some different hands but Chris you wanted to bring up something right yeah it's on that page 172 in the lower part of that paragraph most of the bottom of the page says and all will attain perfection of the six transcendent faculties which I was curious about the three clear views and the eight emancipations yeah well we could look up in various lists I imagine the six transcendent faculties would be perhaps purifying the six senses I'm but we can look that up what the eight emancipations would

[55:12]

be in the three or three clear views sometimes in the back in the glossary they have you could probably look it up in the glossary but the three clear views are not anybody know what the three clear views are there's lots of threesomes you know in Buddhism we once had a book of the list the list of lists you know we still have it in the library yeah the list of lists you know just a catalog of all the different the five this that you know there are some more hands yes on 177 wishing you to be in comfort and able to satisfy all your five senses I did this for you yeah and it's interesting or five desires it's interesting to me that Buddha or

[56:15]

the teacher maybe that's what's given that is he saying somehow on the way to realization giving you satisfaction well I think you know this is still the parable of the businessman and his friend right so in that way what what would a friend maybe who's not practicing particularly he just wants him to be able they just got drunk together you know he wants him to just be able to satisfy his five desires whenever you know so I think that's the parable teaching and if you what it means for the Buddha what would the Buddha want you know I think we have to make that distinction there what would be thoroughly utterly satisfying for the world honored one you know to

[57:15]

give us what would so maybe the purifying of the five senses not the getting rid of but whether but I don't think it would I think the story is based on it's the story has its own internal logic to it right as it's story I think it's Suzuki Roshi talking about giving someone a wide field and I remember one of Rev's students telling me that he the student thought he ought to come and be here and live this life and do this but he had this other not yearning but draw to travel and to practice his and Rev said go do it and

[58:16]

it's something like that feels like it might go on here you might actually find yourself saying do that go build that meet that passion yes explore that because he came here would be there right skillful means does there's nothing that skillful means you could imagine skillful means suggesting any of the 10,000 things if it's if that's what meets that person in and will allow them to open and enter you know so yeah go to culinary Academy be a chef that's what you always wanted to do you know what are you hiding off in the monastery for if that's not what you really want yeah might be hard for a teacher who might see beyond that knowing that in the end that won't be

[59:17]

necessarily the fulfillment but go ahead and go well often you know I know that Mel says to people when they ask about ordination one of his students can correct me if I'm wrong but I think he says is there anything else you want to do anything in this world travel get your master's degree have a family that do it do that you know rather than do this other thing and then be pining for this just do those things and then come back maybe later or something so I think it's when you say it might be hard I know sometimes especially with a wonderful eager student you know someone may want it may arise they want to keep him there you know I remember somebody once saying at a departing student student ceremony to someone they said goodbye to the best student I never had as they left interesting house

[60:19]

well I'm I was thinking that we wouldn't go on and on this one that we would actually sit but this thing about and I just noticed the kitchen left just wanted to finish this parable and then do you want to have a few minutes to just talk about the election together just with people next to you is that something that would be useful or for those of you who don't want to would you be willing to just listen while people talk okay let's let me just finish what I I this parable thing about the jewel which I think is it's brought up a lot you hear about the jewel and you know children of riches and it's this destitute son and this jewel parable that that are used a lot for the Buddha nature that's already there but we don't realize it so in this

[61:25]

the idea of perfect wisdom so was was the Buddha put it out there it was taught and the shravakas or those early students didn't necessarily pick up on it but that's one way of talking about this and they were contented with extinction or nirvana and then the but now the Buddha in the talking again and teaching the Lotus arouses people again with tactful reasons and displays this new possibility so now we know we're really Bodhisattvas predicted to perfect enlightenment so it's it's they've been practicing for so long and hearing the teaching and it was within it but they didn't get it and now in this time where the Buddha is

[62:27]

teaching the Lotus right before he dies right they now have this they see it now they have a chance to see it now and Thich Nhat Hanh's commentary is we've been given many precious teachings but we and I think that's true that maybe years later you think oh they told me about that or somebody mentioned that to me or there's so many practices that we don't take up you know that we don't hear or we choose not to or it's not for me or like you know surrounded by water and not they're up to drink sometimes that feeling kind of spiritual poverty and yet there is teachings out there in all different forms you know beings teaching and books and and yet we don't take it up but then there comes a time when you see that that those jewels have already they've been there

[63:28]

they've been there all along so the next chapter I've been thinking about the 28 chapters and think we this is now the beginning of November and we've got two sessions and we'll see how we go but chapter nine is the prediction of the destiny of Arhat's training and trained so it's the younger students and those who aren't quite fully trained they get predicted to you know this wide prediction and so that's number nine so just those of you who are reading along with this let's just keep reading when I come back we'll take it up from there okay and they'll also be Tova will be leading reading and copying the sutra on for nine days or less you said you would do the chanting tomorrow on the fourth tomorrow well in the

[64:29]

morning we'll do his recitation and I thought I would leave the copying on both days but not do the chant not do the chant okay so they'll be reciting tomorrow morning and then copying will be on the ninth the fourth and the ninth as well okay well thank you yes sorry just carries my mind a question certainly seems just wondering what was this all about it's seems like the emphasis is really on the goal of perfect enlightenment throughout the whole sutra and not so much about the practice of all these people that pertain nirvana maybe I'm confused with it doesn't seem like there's would be such a big difference between the two why are we it's a lot of emphasis on some goal and not very much on the practice of these thoughts and these sabbaths it seems like it's just about this great goal that I think sister Kiroshi I heard said that in the end it

[65:29]

doesn't matter so much if you attain perfect enlightenment it's the practice that counts that counts something like that yes I think the underpinning of that perfect enlightenment prediction thing is if we get back to chapter 2 which is you know the one reason Buddhas appear in the world the one reason that that Buddhas who retain this perfect enlightenment appear in the world and that one reason is to help beings so it points to the bodhisattva way of helping beings and compassion wisdom and compassion so that those practices are the kind of flow through maybe of the of the whole sutra and so this this turn from the arhats who have marvelous wonderful practices and the

[66:32]

the emphasis or the ideal was more self-realization not it wasn't emphasized although I'm sure they're very very very helpful beings but the emphasis wasn't on helping all beings as the main thing you know the main that's what perfect enlightenment is the emphasis to help all beings yes the arhats have the emphasis on helping or enlightening self-realization yeah so I think they're making that distinction over and over again just sounds to me like individual like you will attain enlightenment you know and I guess I forgot that that meant that the bodhisattva vow taking it all across yeah yeah okay thank you thank you all for studying this together with me and appreciating your questions and comments so why don't we dedicate the marriage what Barbara

[67:33]

Greg and Aaron do you know what to say it was close but Bush clearly won and Senator Kerry conceded the case no I don't think this will come because Senator Kerry has conceded electoral and and you said that that happened the conceding that's what he said so that's that's what we know shall we

[68:42]

dedicate the merit of our work with the Lotus Sutra and then talk or talk and then dedicate the merit of the whole thing okay let's talk and then dedicate the merit of the whole thing okay so please just turn to whomever two C's or three C's whatever you want to do and if you don't want to talk about it just so I'm sure we'll continue our discussions later let's see what time is it 1035 is it so that's in it 1050 okay you so thank thank you so

[69:25]

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