I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. It's a great opening to the class because it is taken from the Lotus Sutra. So I wanted to say a little bit about how this class is going to progress. Since I'm leaving in the late summer, I wanted to give one more class in the Lotus Sutra. I won't say I taught the Lotus Sutra, but we read through it a few years ago together. And it's so much the foundation of our practice. You know, in our meal chant, we refer to it. our ancestors again and again in the Blue Cliff Records, Sixth Patriarch, Dogen, and in reading the Crooked Cucumber, Suzuki Roshi's biography, which I'm about halfway through, reading that as well as reading the Lotus Sutra, it just strikes me again and again how much he is speaking from the Lotus Sutra.

[01:27]

And the Lotus Sutra is extremely difficult to teach. Shakyamuni Buddha says it is extremely difficult to teach. And the listeners of it in the sutra themselves complain of its extreme difficulty. Although I said I'd teach it, I began to quail because it's never been taught to me, and there is something about our lineage which suggests that if you're going to teach something, it's good to have been taught it first. And so I called Taigen Leighton and told him what I was doing, and he said, oh, he has a friend, Michael Ryun. Yui McCormick, who is a Nichiren Shu practitioner. And the Nichiren Shu studies and is taught the Lotus Sutra.

[02:31]

And when I called Michael, he called me. I was very pleased and excited by his understanding and his familiarity with the Sutra. we talked and the more we talked the more it seemed obvious to me that I could sponsor the class and Michael could teach it. So it is very difficult to teach and the Mahayana Sutras are such a different style from our Zen style which is spare. and close to the ground and the Mahayana Sutras are large and Baroque. And so we have to, I hope, suspend our judgment of this difference in style and perhaps come to appreciate it.

[03:38]

I think we may. My hope is that we may as the class continues. And the most important thing is how we study this sutra in a way that really informs our practice. And in reading it and thinking about it and reciting it, how do we integrate it and internalize it? I hope as an aid to that, one of the... there are three parts, three handout parts. Kathy, you could get... the handouts are on that table. And one of them is just a single sheet of questions that as we study this, questions which we can just ask ourselves. we can practice with? I'm not going to go through the questions now, but I hope that you look at them.

[04:45]

And also in that sheet there are a couple of quotations, one from Dogen and one from Suzuki Roshi, that are very rooted in the Lotus Sutra itself. And there's a class assignment, which is, is it possible to write a little paragraph or make a little painting or have some creative response to this sutra which is your own. So Michael will explain the reading. the handout and the readings. And there's also a copy of Dogen's fascicle on the Lotus Sutra, Hoke Tenhoke. And I hope that you can think about reading that fascicle once a week for the next five weeks during the class. And as you read it, just read it and see what happens as you digest it in the context of the class.

[05:59]

So, I think at this point I would like to turn it over to Michael. Oh, I see. How's that? Can everyone hear me? Yeah. Okay. Everyone can hear you anyway. Of course. Yeah. Let's see if it'll clip to my case. Maybe not. I'll just put it next to me. Well, good evening. Before I actually start, I want to thank Meili again for having so much confidence in me after only speaking to me on the phone two or three times and one sort of business dinner.

[07:14]

So I'm very flattered and very thankful that you asked me to come here. I think tonight I will do two things. At first I want to talk about the role of the Lotus Sutra within the Zen tradition. I want to explore some of the uses and comments of the Zen masters to the Lotus Sutra. to show the place of the Lotus Sutra within the Zen tradition. But then, for the second half of tonight's class, I want to give an overview of what I'll be discussing in the next three weeks of talks.

[08:16]

Give you kind of the highlights or things to come, as it were. So let me start with A passage from the Shobo Genzo from an essay called, Taking Refuge in the Three Jewels, in which Dogen is emphasizing the importance of taking refuge in the three jewels and how absolutely vital it is in our practice to understand the meaning of the three jewels in our lives. And to do that, he cites a passage from the Lotus Sutra which emphasizes the importance of the Three Jewels. And in this essay, Dogen feels the need to stress the authority of the Lotus Sutra which he is citing in this regard. And here's what he says. He calls it, in this translation, it's referred to as the Siddharma Pandarika Sutra, which is the original title of the Lotus Sutra in Sanskrit.

[09:26]

So he says, and this is in the handout, let's see, I'll tell you what page it's on so you can follow me. It is on page 8 that I'm looking, the first passage from Dogen. And in this passage, I won't read the whole thing. In fact, I won't be reading all that much of these passages because I'm sure the last thing that you want to do is sit here listening to me read to you. But so I'll just give you some highlights. He says, the Sadharma-Pandarika Sutra explains the purpose of the various Buddhas having appeared in this world. It may be said to be the great king and the great master of all the various sutras that the Buddha Shakyamuni taught. Compared with this sutra, all the other sutras are merely its servants, its relatives, for it alone expounds the truth. The other sutras, on the other hand, include provisional teachings of the Buddha and therefore do not express the real intention.

[10:35]

It is a mistake to use the teachings of the other sutras as a basis for determining the validity of those contained in the Sudharma-Pandarika Sutra, for without the merit power of the latter, the former would be valueless." Well, that's quite a review. Definitely two thumbs up. And one might wonder, what is the big deal about this sutra? Why, in a tradition which emphasizes the Dharma that is transferred beyond the scripture, why would a Zen master say these things about a mere book? But I don't think that he's talking about a mere book, but we'll be getting into that later. But first, I want to look at Hakuin, and towards the end of the Zen section, Let me tell you what page. Page 13.

[11:38]

A few centuries after Dogen, in the end of the 17th, beginning of the 18th century, Hakuin also wondered about the Lotus Sutra. Hakuin also wondered what the big deal was. For those of you who are not familiar with Hakuin, he is considered the reformer of the Renzai lineage, and I believe that most lineage holders of Renzai in America today can trace themselves back to Hakuin. He's quite a writer. He's very dramatic and over-the-top in many ways, so I enjoy reading him. And one of the stories that I most enjoy from Hakuin is when he was a little boy, or rather when he was younger, and he was trying to figure out how he could keep himself from falling into hell. Apparently, in those days, the wandering preacher evangelists liked to give fire and brimstone sermons, much as some people like to do today. I believe this was due to their lack of television and slasher films.

[12:49]

But in any case, this is what entertained the peasants and, I guess, encouraged the children to behave themselves. But Hakuin very much took it to heart and wanted to know how could he escape from falling into hell. And since he grew up in a Nichiren household, he heard over and over again, I'm sure, how important the Lotus Sutra is and how it was the king of all sutras. And he probably heard things very similar to what I just read from Dogen. So he decided, well, I'd better give this sutra a chance and see if it has the answer for me. And this is what happened. He picked it up and read it through and said, when I finished, I closed it with a heavy sigh. This, I told myself, is nothing but a collection of simple tales about cause and effect. True, mention is made of there being only one absolute vehicle and of the changeless, unconditioned tranquility of all dharmas. But on the whole, it is what Lin Chi dismissed as mere verbal prescriptions for relieving the world's ills.

[13:50]

I'm not going to find what I'm looking for here, he thinks to himself. Well, that's very different from Dogen's reaction. But then, several decades later, after much strenuous work on meditation and koans and being battered with brooms by women on the street and shoved off verandas by his master Shouju, Hakuin began to have a different perspective, a different point of view. And at the age of 40, he decided, well, maybe I should take another look at the Lotus Sutra. And this time, things were very different. He says, I read as far as the third chapter, the one on parables. Then, just like that, all the lingering doubts and uncertainties vanished from my mind. They suddenly ceased to exist. The reason for the lotus's reputation as the King of Sutros was now revealed to me with blinding clarity. Teardrops began cascading down my face like two strings of beads.

[14:52]

They came like beans pouring from a ruptured sack. A loud involuntary cry burst in the depths of my being, and I began sobbing uncontrollably. And as I did, I knew without any doubt that what I had realized in all those Satori's I had experienced. What I had grasped in my understanding of those koans I had passed had all been totally mistaken. I was finally able to penetrate the source of the free, enlightened activity that permeated Shōjū's daily life." That was his master, Shōjū. "...I also knew beyond any doubt that the tongue in the World Honored One's mouth moved with complete and unrestricted freedom." Quite a change. It's very interesting how a sutra, a teaching of the Buddha that can be nothing more than some simple matter-of-fact tales of cause and effect and stories about the one vehicle that we've all heard so many times before can suddenly become the king of sutras, can suddenly become something that has such an emotional impact it creates tears of joy, tears of release.

[15:55]

How can this happen? Now notice that he stopped at the third chapter, the one on parables. This has happened before in the Zen tradition. When you go back to the Sixth Patriarch, he, too, commented on the third chapter, the one on parables. And, in fact, the essay that you have here, Hoke Tenhoke, The Flower of Dharma Turns the Flower of Dharma, by Dogen. is a commentary on the Sixth Patriarch commentary on the third chapter. So something very important apparently is going on in the third chapter and in the parable in that chapter. And something very important happened when the Sixth Patriarch in China commented on that because you have Hakuin writing his very important essay on it and you have, I mean you have Dogen writing his very important essay, Hoketan Hoke, about it, and you have Hakuin referring to it here in this very important part of his life. So let's look at at least the highlights of the Six Patriarchs commentaries and encounter with the Lotus Sutra.

[17:03]

So please turn back to page 8. I'm sorry for all this back and forth. When I was reviewing this last night, I decided it was better to talk about it in this order. Now, again, there's a lot of material here, and I don't want to read through all of it. I encourage you to read through this story of the Sixth Patriarch on your own. The version I put in the handout is a little different from the one that Dogen commented on Hoke ten Hoke. It's a little more fleshed out, maybe a little more polemical, but I enjoy that kind of rhetoric. It's a vice of mine. In the story, the Sixth Patriarch is sitting at the head of the congregation, probably up on a platform like this, as I'm pretentiously doing at the moment. And he's fielding questions from the assembly.

[18:04]

And there was one monk in the assembly named Thatha who was very arrogant. He was very full of himself because he had accomplished the great task of reciting the sutra, the Lotus Sutra, 3,000 times. Now, that's a very significant number, by the way. In the Tiantai tradition, which focuses on Lotus Sutra, it's taught that there are 3,000 worlds or life conditions present in every single moment. I'm not going to get into that now, but the idea is that by reciting the sutra 3,000 times, somehow this monk was able to attain the virtue of understanding all things just in the moment. But he really didn't. He knew how to recite, but he did not know how to take it in the heart. And the Sixth Patriarch called him on this. And they had a back and forth in which Let's see if I can find, it's kind of hard to read my outlining here. The sixth patriarch asked him, the monk, if he really understood the sutra.

[19:15]

And the monk had to sheepishly admit that he did not really understand it, that his self-confidence was not very well grounded So the monk asks the patriarch to please explain the sutra to him. And the patriarch replies, this is a little further on, I think on page nine. He says, the sutra is free from doubtful passages. It is only your mind that makes them doubtful. And he then asks the monk to recite passages in the Sutra for him, and that he would then comment on them to help clarify what the Sutra is really about. The monk does so, and after a certain point the Sixth Patriarch stops him and says, the keynote of this Sutra is to set forth the aim and object of a Buddha's incarnation in this world. Through parables and illustrations, though parables and illustrations are numerous in this book, none of them go beyond this pivotal point.

[20:21]

And he says, He then quotes in the Lotus Sutra a little further on the verse that says, that the Buddhas appear in the world to open the eyes for the sight of enlightenment knowledge, to show the sight of enlightenment knowledge, to awake to the sight of enlightenment knowledge, to be firmly established in the enlightenment knowledge. And that is the sole aim and purpose for the Buddhas appearing in the world. You might wonder, well, so what? We know that. We know the Buddhas came into the world to open the way to the Buddha knowledge. But there's really something very revolutionary going on here. This passage is from the second chapter. It is from the theoretical discourse of the Buddha to Shariputra. And Dogen returns to this again, and again, and again, and hoke ten hoke. He refers again and again to opening the eyes.

[21:25]

Or he says, in the translation I have, disclosing, revealing, awakening, allowing people to enter in. The reason this is so revolutionary is because, if you think about it, it's very hard to believe that we can become just like the Buddha. And that no matter what kind of person or people we are, no matter what kind of shortcomings, no matter what kind of mistakes we have made, no matter how much we may have hurt ourselves or others, no matter how short-sighted we may feel, the Buddha knowledge is there for us. And there are no exceptions to this, no exceptions at all, not any based on gender or race or ethnicity or anything else. And this is very hard for people to understand, especially in those days when there were so many biases, so many ideas about, you know, certain people aren't educated enough to become Buddhas or certain genders are not qualified to become Buddhas.

[22:31]

Certain people are so involved in going off into the hills and meditating on their own liberation that they'll never get it. They'll never be able to attain that kind of compassion. What the Lotus Sutra is saying is that the Buddha is trying to convey the very same enlightenment that he had to every single one of us. And all his teachings come back to that point. But this monk, Fatah, had trouble understanding that. And he says, The Buddha, only, I believe you mentioned it before, only a Buddha together with a Buddha can fathom the true reality of all existence. So how can we get in on this? How can we possibly share in this? And this was Fatah's attitude, this monk. You know, well, this is something only they can understand. You know, I just, you know, I'm telling on a different level. And the Sixth Patriarch reprimands him and says, no, no, this is for you. Don't think it's way up there. This is for you. He says, to think that the Buddha's message, the Buddha's teachings are for someone else, that such a misinterpretation would amount to slandering the Buddha and blaspheming the Sutra.

[23:45]

When the monk finally gets it, okay, well, maybe it is meant for me. He says, oh, such a mistake, I wasted all that time reciting the sutra and I never got it. And from this point on, maybe I shouldn't do that anymore. But the sixth patriarch says to him, there is nothing wrong in the sutra, replied the patriarch, so that you should refrain from reciting it. Whether sutra reciting will enlighten you or not, or benefit you or not, all depends on yourself. Now there's a key point of this whole discourse between this monk and the Sixth Patriarch. There's great stuff in the Lotus Sutra. There's great stuff in here. But if you're not opening yourself to it, it's just going to go right over your head, just like Hakuin the first time. If you understand what the intention is, this book will come alive and will become more than just a book. like it did for Hakuin later on, like it did for Dogen, the way he wrote about it. And here's the key thing. The Sixth Patriarch says, he who recites the Sutra with the tongue and puts its teaching into actual practice with his mind, turns around the Sutra.

[25:03]

Turns around the Sutra. He who recites it without putting it into practice is turned around by the Sutra. So the sutra can help you or it can hurt you. You need to know the right way to approach it. And Dogen took this as a theme of Hokke Tenhokke. The flower of Dharma turns the flower of Dharma. And he wrote about it. Further on there's another Dogen quote. Dogen said, No one has grasped the point of the flower of Dharma turning, or mastered the point of turning the flower of Dharma in the manner of our founding patriarch, the eternal Buddha Soke. Further on he says, the reality that exists as it is, is a treasure, is brightness, is a seed of truth.

[26:05]

is mind in delusion, the flower of dharma turning, and is mind in realization, turning the flower of dharma, which is really just the flower of dharma, turning the flower of dharma. And then he says, he gives a verse, when the mind is in a state of delusion, the flower of dharma turns. When the mind is in a state of realization, we turn the flower of dharma. If perfect realization can be like this, the flower of dharma turns the flower of dharma. What in the world is he talking about? What is this stuff? What does the Sixth Patriarch mean by that? What does Dogen mean by that? Dogen doesn't even just leave it alone. Sixth Patriarch was talking about a monk being turned around by this sutra when he's confused by it, or being able to turn around the sutra when he knows how to use it. But Dogen is saying the flower of Dharma is turning the flower of Dharma itself, whether we're in delusion or not. What are they talking about? This is what they're talking about, I think.

[27:07]

The Myoho Renge Kyo, that's the Japanese way of saying the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Teaching, is not this book. This is a book about the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Teaching. And what is that teaching? It seems to resonate throughout the ages. It seems to go beyond the discourse of any one Buddha in history. It is the enlightenment of the Buddha itself. This Myoho-Renge-Kyo is another way of expressing, giving voice to, turning people onto, you might say, the Buddha's enlightenment. Myoho-Renge-Kyo is itself the, as he says earlier, the opening of the eyes of the sight of enlightenment knowledge, showing the sight of enlightenment knowledge, awakening to the sight of enlightenment knowledge, being firmly established in the enlightenment knowledge. That is myoho-renge-kyo, the Buddha's enlightenment.

[28:10]

That is what's being shown and revealed. And that enlightenment, it is not something, some kind of inner little nodule of spirituality that exists somewhere in the pineal gland or something like that. It's not that. It's not some kind of force like in Star Wars, some kind of subatomic field that exists through everything, though many people think of it that way, maybe. It is the dynamic process of life itself, right here, right now. This process is always going on, and we are part of this process. We are an expression of this process. And this Lotus Sutra is an expression of this process. And Shakyamuni Buddha is expressing this process. And as you read Hokke Tenhokke, and I will be, I will stop talking about it in just a minute or two, so I'll leave you to look through it on your own in the week ahead, weeks ahead. But what Dogen is talking about continuously through Hokei to Hokei is that even when we are deluded, even when we don't know what we're doing, and we're just bumping into the walls and creating a mess, that flower of Dharma, that enlightenment of the Buddha, that process that's reality itself is still going on, and it still has you in its grasp.

[29:21]

And it is turning us. And when we realize what it is, then we are fully, knowingly, with awareness, participating in that enlightenment. And then we are the flower of dharma turning the flower of dharma. I'm not sure if I've made that entirely clear. But that's what questions and answers will be for afterwards. Now I can make another attempt at it. Let me move on now. I seem to have lost my outline here somewhere. Here we go. Let me move on now to the parables, okay, because up to now we've been talking about this very abstractly, very theoretically, just the way Shakyamuni does in the second chapter when he's speaking with Shariputra. And Shariputra, of course, has a reputation for being the heady, academic, abstract, scholastic disciple of the Buddha. In fact, he's the one who's blamed, or maybe I should say credited with the Abhidharma So let's get away from that level and move into the parables which follow on the more scholarly discourse of the second chapter.

[30:31]

And the first one, which the sixth patriarch talks about, is the burning house, the parable of the burning house. Now I've outlined, I've given you some quotations or passages from a book called Introduction to the Lotus Sutra. The seven parables in the Lotus Sutra are all in your handout and they're all taken from that book, so you can read through these again after the class or in the weeks ahead. I'm just going to give you a very sketchy outline right now. In the third chapter of the Lotus Sutra, the one the Sixth Patriarch talks about and everybody else talks about, There's a parable of a burning house, and there's this wonderful description in there, especially in the verse section, of how horrible this house is. There's insects, and rats, and monsters, and ogres, and all kinds of stuff. And in the midst of it are these children playing. I got, for some strange reason, I imagine them riding big wheels. Do you all remember big wheels? You know, those little things, and they're all like, they're just racing through the house on the big wheels.

[31:31]

And they don't seem to mind the fact that the house is about to fall down. I live, as a matter of fact, on Sutter and Webster, very close, a couple blocks away from the old Zen Center, the Sokoji, which is on Bush Street, where Sunryu Suzuki first came over. And unfortunately, the house there looks now very much like the burning house in the Lotus Sutra. It's really on its last legs. It's unfortunate because it's such a beautiful building. But so now I have the image of that place in my mind with these kids in the big wheels and all these monsters that have gotten inside, these ghosts of the past. And in the midst of all this mess, a fire starts. So as if things weren't bad enough, now the building's on fire. Now the monsters and rats and dogs and cats and everything else, now they're really upset. Now they're really panicking. And now they're tearing into each other and tearing everything apart and frantically trying to get out of the house. And the children still don't care. They're still riding around in their big wheels. Now there's the old man who owns the house, and he needs to get the children out.

[32:36]

And he realizes that if I just charge in there and try to pull them out, well, that's going to hurt the children, because they'll bump their heads on the door, or the weight of me holding the children will cause the steps to collapse. I just can't go in there and do it with brute force. I have to find a way to entice the children to come out on their own. But they're too involved in their games. So what he does is, he knows that these children aren't just satisfied with the toys they have. They want carts. They want real life carts that they can ride around in. So he calls out to them and says, please come out of the house. I have these carts out here for you. I have goat carts, deer carts, and even a big bullock cart. And the children hear this and all come running, charging out of the house. Where are the carts? Where are the carts? Now, the old man who owns the house is very wealthy, so he does the children one better. He's not only rescued them from this burning house that they weren't concerned about, but now instead of giving them these small little carts they were thinking of, he gives each of them a big white bullock cart, even better than the big bullock cart he had promised earlier, to the more ambitious of the children, I suppose.

[33:42]

So now they each get something better than they had even thought they could get, better than they would have even thought to ask for. And of course the meaning of this parable is that The different disciples of the Buddha had different ideals, different aims, different concepts of what it would be like to be enlightened. Some of them wanted to be disciples and sit at the Buddha's feet and hear these wonderful teachings and then put them into practice and attain liberation from all this suffering. Some of them were content to go off into the hills or the forests and meditate by themselves and figure it out for themselves. These would be the private Buddhas. And there were others who were a little more ambitious or to put the positive spin on it, more compassionate and wanted to become Buddhas themselves and help others attain liberation. So these were the ones who were going for the goat cart.

[34:45]

But really everybody, no matter what their own ideas, is going to get the big white block cart of Buddhahood itself. much better than any of them had thought to get, even the Bodhisattvas. Because even though they were aspiring to Buddhahood, the actual attainment may be something much different than they could imagine by themselves. So this is the parable that the Sixth Patriarch comments on. This is the understanding that he wants to convey to this monk who had previously thought of Buddhism as nothing more than reciting and gaining merit through recitation. Through this parable, the six patriarch and the others are trying to convey that Buddhism is about raising our aspiration, raising our life condition, so that we try to improve or liberate ourselves and others as well, so that we fully open up and participate in life and not settle for a lesser goal. And that in fact, even if we are aiming for a lesser goal, we are still involved in the process.

[35:50]

So really there are no lesser goals. Those lesser goals are part of the greater process, part of the greater goal. So there's no need even to argue about it. There's no need to go up to somebody who wants to just go off and be a hermit for a while and say, you know, you shouldn't do that. You should be aspiring to save all sentient beings. You should be out demonstrating on the street or doing this or doing that. The Lotus Sutra recognizes that you need to address people where they are with the aspirations that they have and help them with what they can immediately deal with. Anything else is just empty dreaming, but within that you need to keep them moving, keep spurring them on to greater and greater accomplishments, greater and greater amounts of letting go and opening up. Let's see. Here we go. In commenting on this parable, the sixth patriarch says, the sutra teaches you to dispense with the makeshifts and to resort to the ultimate.

[36:54]

Having resorted to the ultimate, you will find that even the name ultimate disappears. You should appreciate that you are the sole owner of these valuables, and that they are entirely subject to your disposal. When you are free from the arbitrary conception that they are the fathers or the sons, or that they are at so-and-so's disposal, you may be said to have learned the right way to recite the Sutra. In that case, from Kalpa to Kalpa, the Sutra will be in your hand, and from morning to night, you will be reciting the Sutra all the time. This is what he hoped that the monk, the sutra reciting monk, would learn. To live this process moment to moment. To not settle for a lesser understanding. To keep spurring himself on, but at the same time to work with what was right in front of him. This is the way the expedient means of the Lotus Sutra works. Take people where they are and keep them moving. Now, in that passage, the Sixth Patriarch is also referring to another parable. I want to discuss briefly, the parable of the poor son, sometimes called the parable of the prodigal son.

[38:01]

It is found in the fourth chapter of the Lotus Sutra. And here we have a different view of expedient means. Whereas in the first parable of the burning house you have the Buddha as the old man addressing the disciples according to their different goals. and in presenting them with something better than they had hoped for or asked for. In the parable of the poor son, you have an example of a gradual unfolding of aspiration and a gradual unfolding or deepening of the teaching. How am I doing on time? Well, it's 8.20. Okay. In this parable, Wait just a moment. I'd just like a little feedback here because it's a very important story and I wonder if we need to have a little discussion. If we can absorb another important story, is that okay? And then have discussion. In the parable of Prodigal Son, much like in the biblical parable, a young boy takes his inheritance and heads off to the hills and probably ends up in Berkeley.

[39:16]

But anyway, he ends up very poor and leading a very hand-to-mouth existence. And in the meantime, the father has apparently made some very wise investments, probably in Silicon Valley. from the speed with which he becomes incredibly wealthy in the story. And he becomes the master of a huge estate. But he never forgets his son. He always wants to find his son. And he always feels this emptiness because he has no one to pass on this treasure to. Which is very interesting. The treasure, the great wealth that he attains by itself is not good enough. He needs to share it. So the wealthy man in this story is again the Buddha. And one day the young boy is passing by his father's estate and he no longer recognizes his father, it's been so long. And he has been living such a poor existence for so long and working such menial jobs that he can't even relate to the kind of life that his father has been living.

[40:24]

But the father is watching, happens to see him passing on the street at this time and recognizes him. And he says to one of his servants, please, go get that man passing by. Bring him to me. I think I might have a job for him. So he sends a servant out. Now, one might imagine it being a security guard or something like that, because when the boy sees the servant coming towards him, he's immediately terrified and runs away. He goes, oh, they're going to arrest me for something. No good can come of this. They probably think I was trying to case the place or steal something, and now I'm doomed. And finally, the servant catches up to him and drags him back to the father. The boy is practically fainting in fear. And the father says, oh, this is not any good. He says, it's okay. I made a mistake. I thought I knew this person. You can let him go. So the boy leaves. And the father decides that he has to try a different approach. There's too much distance, too much misunderstanding.

[41:28]

So he sends out a more humble-looking servant. maybe a gatekeeper or something, or one of the people that takes care of taking out the trash or something like that. And he sends this man out and says to the boy, we have a job at the estate. It's a simple job, just clearing out the trash, clearing out manure from the stables. Why don't you come? It looks like you could use some work. And the boy agrees. Now this he can relate to. He wants me to clear the shit. OK, I could do that. So the boy comes back, takes up this job, and sticks with it for a few weeks. And the father is watching him, kind of surreptitiously, he doesn't want to spook him anymore. He says, okay, he's sticking with it, he's doing it, that's good. I think maybe now it's time to move this along. So the father takes off his tuxedo, his nice Brooks Brothers clothing, or whatever he's wearing, and he puts on some of the more humble, garb of one of the groundskeepers.

[42:32]

And he goes out to the boy and says, you know, I've been watching you. You've been doing a pretty good job. And I think at this point you might want to move into the gatehouse and maybe we can give you some different responsibilities, something a little better than just cleaning out manure. So the boy agrees. And this goes on for a while. And eventually the boy is able to relate to the father finally. and although now it's his boss. And the father gives him more and more responsibilities to the point where the boy has now become the chief accountant, I guess you could say. He's responsible for checking all the money and making sure that all the treasure vaults of this wealthy man are kept in good order. And then, the father becomes ill and he knows that this is it, this is my last chance to pass on my inheritance, my legacy to my son.

[43:32]

So he calls the boy in and calls in all his servants and all the other people, family and friends and associates and says, now is the time to tell you that this man who is now the general manager of my estate is in actuality my own son and I am passing on everything to him. And, of course, the boy is overjoyed. He couldn't have expected this. He had no idea that this was actually his inheritance, what he'd been taken care of all along. Just like the six patriarchs said, he said, you should appreciate that you are the sole owner of these valuables and that they are entirely subject to your disposal when you are free from the arbitrary conception that they are the father's or the son's or they are at so-and-so's disposal. you may be said to have learned the right way to recite the sutra. Buddhahood is not the sole possession of Shakyamuni, or of Dogon, or of Hakuin, or the Sixth Patriarch, or of anyone else. It is the vast treasure which is everyone's inheritance.

[44:35]

But it's very difficult to relate to that. And in fact, in the initial stages, it might even be absolutely frightening. And it is said in the Tiantai tradition, and also the Nichiren tradition that came out of it, that the Buddha's teaching chronologically unfolded in this way, the way the father related to the son, that at first he taught the flower garland sutra and the interpenetration of all things and the flower net of Indra, the jeweled net of Indra, sorry, that you might have heard of. It's very scary to relate to that kind of stuff. Wow, I don't know. I'm either going to have to sit hundreds of hours in Zazen or take tabs of acid to even get a glimpse of this. I don't recommend the latter. But the idea is it scares people. It intimidates people. After a while, their mind just kind of shuts down and says, I can't relate to that. So the Buddha realized that he had to try a different tactic. So he taught the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path. He taught a way that we could liberate ourselves from our afflictions. This is the stage of clearing out the trash, sort of clearing the decks.

[45:39]

But after that, one must learn to become more compassionate. One must learn that, yes, you need to start with yourself, take care of yourself, but you need to widen your scope. This is the point where the sun is able to advance a little bit. This is where the Buddha started to teach the Pure Land Sutras, the Vimalakirti Sutra, to give people a wider view. And then it got to the point where the Buddha could let people in just a bit into the vision of the emptiness of all things. Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. The Buddha could get people to begin to relate to the Buddha's own experience, begin to relate to their own Buddha nature. This would be equivalent to the boy becoming the accountant or the general manager. But the final stage... Okay, now let me see if I can wrap up my talk here. So that is the role of the Lotus Sutra in Buddhism. The Lotus Sutra is the account of the last teachings of the Buddha wherein he finally reveals that this enlightenment, this Buddhahood, is your inheritance.

[46:53]

It is what I want you to wake up to. And all the other teachings were a way of laying the groundwork. All the other teachings were a way of preparing you to get to the point where you could take this in without running away, without shutting down, without saying, well that's nice but you know. Now in the next few weeks I'm going to shift gears here and give you kind of an overview of what I hope to cover in the next few weeks. I want to talk about the Lotus Sutra not just as a collection of parables of our awakening And indeed, there are many great parables in there, and I will be covering the other parables. But I want to talk about the Lotus Sutra as a whole. I want to go beyond the third chapter. I want to go beyond just the idea that we could attain enlightenment, that we should aspire to it. I want to talk about the Lotus Sutra as a cosmic drama from the beginning to the end.

[47:58]

And it's the cosmic drama of our own awakening. And it has three movements. this cosmic drama. The three movements are known in the Tiantai and Nichiren tradition as the three assemblies and two settings. And what these are is from chapters one through ten, and my own teacher, my sensei, the venerable Ryuzo Matsuda, tells me that this is actually the way the sutra was probably actually written. The first 10 chapters were compiled and they kind of held together as a sutra all by itself. And these first 10 chapters relate the assembly on Mount Sacred Eagle, it's sometimes called, or Vulture Peak and other translations. And it's very, it's on the ground, it's down to earth. And the Buddha is still the man who woke up, the Prince Siddhartha who became enlightened sitting under the Bodhi tree.

[49:03]

And this part of the sutra teaches the one vehicle. It's all focused around the one vehicle. It's all focused around getting people to aspire to Buddhahood itself, telling them it's not only possible but this is the path in fact that you are already on whether you realize it or not. Then in chapter 11 this great treasure tower rises up out of the earth and there's a Buddha in it called Many Treasures and a whole one might even say psychedelic or almost Senshu Murano, one of the bishops in our tradition, calls it a science fiction fantasy. This huge ceremony in the air takes place. And in that ceremony in the air, the Buddha is no longer the historical Shakyamuni Buddha, but the eternal Buddha of all time and all place, in space. All times and all places, all spaces. And in that, assembly changes as well. The assembly that was already there on Eagle Peak rises up into the air also along with the treasure tower in Shakyamuni and all of these innumerable Bodhisattvas rise up from underneath the earth and we find that they're the original disciples.

[50:13]

This whole fantastic display is a way of showing the actual realization of Buddhahood, no longer just theory, no longer just something to aspire to in the future but an ongoing event that is right here and right now. The last assembly is the return to the Eagle Peak. It's coming back down to Earth. It is taking that timeless, placeless illumination and grounding it, making it real in terms of our practice and our actual relationship to ourselves and to others, to this world. So those are the three assemblies in the two settings. The first assembly on Eagle Peak where we learn to aspire to Buddhahood. The ceremony in the air where there's the actual realization of Buddhahood outside of limits of time and place. And then there's the final assembly on Eagle Peak where we ground that, where we make that real, where we dedicate the merit and that insight to all beings.

[51:19]

And in fact, this is not something you find, this movement from being grounded to realization to grounding it again, this is something you find expressed in many different ways throughout the Buddhist tradition. You may be familiar with this saying, before Zen, mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers. During Zen, mountains are no longer mountains, rivers are no longer rivers. After Zen, mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers. is also describing this movement, this movement of understanding where you are in your present circumstances and aspiring, going beyond your present circumstances and realizing something that is much more than the taken-for-granted world that we usually live in and then returning again to our actual concrete conditions and living them just as they are, not as we would like them to be. Now the last things I want to say, the last thing I would like to talk about is chanting practice, but maybe I could hold that off until just before we start the recitation.

[52:30]

It will only take me five minutes. Or should I do it now? Well, you know, you said you wanted to chant for about 20 minutes. I think this will take us up to nine. Okay. And which leaves us without a discussion. Maybe we should just have We'll just want me to do questions answers and then I can say five minutes about what chanting is before we actually do it at the end. Okay, I'll do that way. All right, so well with that I will shut up and I will give you a chance to say something and ask me any questions so that we can clarify anything that I might have muddled in my talking and rambling. please the heart sutra fits into that penultimate period just before the Lotus Sutra it is to grossly oversimplify you might say that the Buddha sets up a whole bunch of dichotomies early on between enlightened and

[53:46]

the way of the Bodhisattva and the way of the disciples and Sravakas, you know there's all these dichotomies earlier on. Nirvana and the Pure Land, you know you find all these in the Vimalakirti Sutra and in the Pali Canon, etc., etc. When you get to the Prajnaparamita period, the Perfection of Wisdom period, which the Heart Sutra is such a wonderful sort of summary or the Buddha is really clearing the decks of all those dichotomies and they say just drop them because enlightenment goes beyond any of these sort of cut-and-dried categorizations of whatever. It's going to defy our ability to explain and once one's done that and once one's really understood that this defies categories, defies this and that, self, other, subject, object, then one can go into the and learn the positive aspect of that without getting caught up again in thinking, oh, Buddha nature is something.

[54:52]

The Buddha is eternal in the sense of like an eternal being. These are all gross misunderstandings of the Lotus Sutra. So I would say on the one hand, I think you can go beyond the Heart Sutra into this more positive way of relating to Buddhahood that you find in the Lotus, but if you have not properly understood and practiced that perfection of wisdom, you're going to reduce the Lotus Sutra to something that it's not. You're going to turn the Buddha of the Lotus Sutra into some kind of super godlike being, which is not what's being talked about. You're going to understand Buddha nature as some kind of true self, you know, some kind of Atman, which is again missing the point. So they really do need each other. They really do need each other. I'm drowning in papers here.

[55:53]

Yes. At what point in Shakyamuni's teaching career does he preach the Lotus Sutra? Traditionally it's said he taught the Lotus Sutra in the last eight years of his life. It's kind of funny because when you read this, It's weird because on the one hand it seems that it takes millions and millions of eons to get through the preaching of this sutra. On the other hand when you read through it it almost seems like it was taught in one afternoon. So time is very relative and it's almost like it is what you make of it. But traditionally it was taught that he taught it in the last eight years of his life. The very last sutra that he taught would be the Mahaparinirvana sutra. which is considered a kind of summary of everything that had gone before, including the Lotus Sutra. Yes?

[56:59]

essentially right. Nietzsche then makes a very interesting point about the flower garland. I actually waded through the entire Cleary translation once and I didn't even notice it because I was just so overwhelmed by it, but Nietzsche mentions that the Shakyamuni Buddha doesn't teach anything in the flower garland sutra. He's sitting there silently abiding in the illumination that he had under the Bodhi tree. It's the Bodhisattvas who all teach, the Bodhisattvas who are discoursing back and forth and making and Nietzsche then points out that all the other sutras up until the Lotus Sutra none of them go beyond what is taught in the flower garland. All of them are exemplifications or applications of what is taught in the flower garland. So according to Nietzsche and the only unique teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha is in the Lotus Sutra because everything else was taught by the Bodhisattvas. what does the Lotus Sutra have that the Flower Garland doesn't?

[58:18]

In a way you could say that when you get to the Lotus Sutra you have returned to the Flower Garland period because now after the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path and the Six Perfections and emptiness and all of that, now finally the minds of the disciples are ready for that Flower Garland teaching. What is different is that the Lotus explicitly includes these so-called lesser teachings of the Four Noble Truths Eightfold Path. It includes an explicit recognition of the Buddhahood of people such as Devadatta, who is of course the Buddhist Judas, explicitly recognizes the Buddhahood of people. There you have the Dragon King's daughter sort of standing in for all the minorities of ancient India. The inclusiveness of the Lotus Sutra is what makes it different from the Flower Garland. Because the Flower Garland, when you read it through, it's just so vast and so wonderful, but you can almost start to wonder, well, all right, but where does this leave those of us who don't get it?

[59:28]

All this wonderful stuff's going on, but, you know, it's going on over my head. When you get to the Lotus Sutra, it's no longer over your head. It's right here. And that's what makes it so unique. And it's the person of Shakyamuni that is his real teaching, not any of the discourses that come earlier on. And some people have pointed out there never is a Lotus discourse in the Lotus Sutra. It's all about the Lotus Sutra teaching, but it's never there. But the teaching is the Buddha himself and the life of the Buddha, which is our own life. But we'll get to that in the future. I think maybe we should just take one more question. OK. Maybe a slightly skeptical note. Do historical Buddhist scholars actually attribute this sutra to Shakyamuni? No, no, no. That would be absurd. The Talibama would probably get very upset to hear me say that.

[60:32]

I've heard that he taught that one needs to accept that the Mahayana sutras were definitely taught by Shakyamuni. I don't even think when he said that it was quite as straightforward as people think. To be brief, the Buddha taught, we believe, 5th century BC. His teachings were passed down through all traditions and probably but not by any one singular oral tradition. There are probably different lines of traditions and by the time you get to the Christian era, the common era, people began to write them down. So you have different recensions. You have the Pali Canon or what eventually became the Pali Canon heading kind of south. And then you have the different sutras that were written in Sanskrit heading north. And each of these sutras represented a kind of school of thought about what is the real essence of the Buddhist teaching. So the flower garland people, the monks who started to write that down, they had a certain idea about what was at the heart of the Buddha's teaching.

[61:36]

The Pure Land monks, or the ones who wrote that, had a different idea of what was at the essence. Those who wrote the Lotus Sutra, yet again something else, the people who wrote down the Pali Canon probably wanted to try to stick to what they believed were the actual historical events, whereas those who were at the Mahayana they were more concerned about the heart than what actually happened or what was actually said, although a lot of the Mahayana Sutras are reworkings of material found in the Pali Canon. are reworkings of the actual historical material, but they're trying to bring out the subtext of compassion, the subtext of that which goes beyond the mere words, that which goes beyond mere historical situations. So that's really what you find. And of course when it got into China, the Chinese are like, well, what is all this stuff? How come this sutra says this and this one says that and this one over here is doing that? I personally believe it was a genius of the 5th century monk, he was 5th century, founder of the 10th high school who organized all these sutras and found the way in which they work together, found the harmony.

[62:44]

he believed that that harmony ultimately led up to the Lotus Sutra. And I think he had very good grounds for believing that, for teaching that. And certainly, Khakuin and Dogen, and most recently Thich Nhat Hanh seem to have, seem to agree with that assessment. So. So when we're dealing with this from a faith perspective, and when we're dealing with the underlying We do that with full knowledge that this is not, the teaching for example of the Lotus Sutra was not in existence at the time of Shakyamuni's teaching, even though it is being attributed to him by faithful tradition. There's a book called Creation by, oh God, what's his name?

[63:56]

I'm gonna forget, Gore Vidal, thank you. It's a marvelous book, it's very funny. It's about a Zoroastrian ambassador from Persia who travels throughout Asia and meets Shakyamuni and Lao Tzu and Confucius and various other people and makes the remark, I rather like, that everything east of the Indus River is numbered. You have 12 of these, four of these. There's this great part in which he is attending a discourse by the Buddha and there seems to be something going on between the Buddha and Shariputra, some kind of inside jokes going on between the two of them and there seems to be these kind of inside jokes going on all around that go beyond the actual teachings and discourses which Shakyamuni actually says And I really find that very plausible. I find that extremely plausible. And I think that the Mahayana tradition is an attempt to express the kind of inside joke of enlightenment, as it were, that probably was historical and that wasn't conveyed in the more literal Pali canon.

[65:12]

So, no, I don't think huge towers rose up out of the earth, especially since they're half the diameter of this planet. I think that would have had an effect on the tides. Somebody would have noticed. But I do think that what is expressed in this sutra was real in the hearts and the minds and the activities of Shakyamuni and his disciples and that to do justice to it you have to express it in this mythical form and that to really get to it, you know, so really you have to be there kind of experience, we need to engage it not just with our insight Mythically, as well, we need to engage in it with our devotion, with our hearts, with our imaginations, you know, enter into the reality of it. And that will transform, in turn, the way we relate to the actual concrete circumstances that are right here. Thank you, Michael. Thank you. Can we have a little chanting?

[66:12]

Okay. Let's see. Oh, here we go. On page 14 of the handout is the first selection I chose. Please bear with me. I have not recited in English in a style that you may be used to. I'll just muddle along and see how it goes. I've selected certain passages in the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, which is the epilogue or preface sutra, I should say, to the Lotus Sutra.

[67:16]

It's kind of an overture to the Lotus Sutra and it sums up many of the themes that you will find in the actual Lotus Sutra. So I've chosen some passages from that as well as the verse summary of the parable of the burning house. And then maybe if there's, if we're on doing okay on time. We'll chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo just for a little bit to follow up on that. That means, I devote myself to the wonderful Dharma of the lotus flower teaching. I will be saying more about that in the future. Can we try that just once? Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. Good. I'll be leading that with a drum. Since I can't carry Taiko drums around with me, I'll use this Indian drum I had commissioned for me. Nichiren Buddhists like toys.

[68:21]

We have lots of toys. It's not about toys, but it's fun to have them. So, without further ado. The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, Chapter One, Virtues, together. Thus have I heard once the Buddha was staying at the city of royal palaces on Mount Gurdwarakta with a great assemblage of great Bhikshus in all 12,000. There were 80,000 Bodhisattva Mahasattvas. There were gods, dragons, Yakshas, Gandharvas, Asuras, Garudas, Kinnaras, and Maharagas. Beside all the bhikshus, bhikshunis, upasakas, and upashikas, there were great wheel-rolling kings, small wheel-rolling kings, and kings of the gold wheels, silver wheel, and other wheels, further kings and princes, ministers and people, men and women, and great rich persons.

[69:30]

each encompassed by a hundred thousand myriad followers. They went up to the Buddha, made obeisance at his feet, a hundred thousand times, made procession around him, burned incense and scattered flowers. After they variously worshipped, they retired and sat to one side. Chapter two, preaching. Thereupon the Bodhisattva great adornment with the 80,000 Bodhisattvas said to the Buddha in unison with one voice, world honored one, if the Bodhisattva Mahasattva want to accomplish perfect enlightenment quickly, what doctrine should they practice? What doctrine makes Bodhisattva Mahasattvas accomplish perfect enlightenment quickly? Buddha addressed the Bodhisattva Great Adornment and the 80,000 Bodhisattvas, good sons. There is one doctrine which makes Bodhisattvas accomplish perfect enlightenment quickly. If a Bodhisattva learns this doctrine, then he will accomplish perfect enlightenment.

[70:35]

World honored one, what is this doctrine called? What is its meaning? How does a bodhisattva practice it? The Buddha said, good sons, this one doctrine is called the doctrine of innumerable meanings. A bodhisattva, if he wants to learn and master the doctrine of innumerable meanings, should observe that all laws were originally, will be, and are in themselves void in nature and form. They are neither great nor small, neither appearing nor disappearing, neither fixed nor movable, and neither advancing nor retreating. They are non-dualistic, just emptiness. All living beings, however, discriminate falsely. It is this, or it is that, and it is advantageous, or it is disadvantageous. They entertain evil thoughts, make various evil karmas, and thus transmigrate within the six realms of existence, and they suffer all manner of miseries and cannot escape from there during infinite kodis of kalpas.

[71:39]

Bodhisattva, Mahasattvas observing rightly like this should raise the mind of compassion, display the great mercy desiring to relieve others of suffering, and once again penetrate deeply into all laws. According to the nature of a law, such a law emerges. According to the nature of a law, such a law settles. According to the nature of a law, such a law changes. According to the nature of a law, such a law vanishes. According to the nature of a law, such an evil law emerges. According to the nature of a law, such a good law emerges. Settling, changing and vanishing are also like this. Bodhisattvas, having thus completely observed and known these four aspects from beginning to end, should next observe that none of the law settles down even for a moment. But all emerge and vanish anew every moment and observe that they emerge, settle, change and vanish instantly.

[72:41]

After such observation, we see all manner of natural desires of all living beings. As natural desires are innumerable, preaching is innumerable. And as preaching is innumerable, meanings are innumerable. The innumerable meanings originate from one law. This one law is namely non-form. Such non-form is formless and not form. Being not form and formless, it is called the real aspect of things. The mercy which Bodhisattva, Mahasattvas display after stabilizing themselves in such a real aspect is real and not vain. They excellently relieve living beings from sufferings. Having given relief from sufferings, they preached the law again and let all living beings obtain pleasure. Chapter 3, Ten Merits Good sons, do you want to hear how this sutra has ten inconceivable merit powers? The great Bodhisattva Adornment said, we heartily want to hear.

[73:43]

Buddha said, good sons, first this sutra makes the unawakened bodhisattva aspire to Buddhahood, makes a merciless one raise the mind of mercy, makes a homicidal one raise the mind of great compassion, makes a jealous one raise the mind of joy, makes an attached one raise the mind of detachment, makes a miserly one raise the mind of donation, makes an arrogant one raise the mind of keeping the peace. Makes an irascible one, raise the mind of perseverance. Makes an indolent one, raise the mind of assiduity. Makes a distracted one, raise the mind of meditation. Makes an ignorant one, raise the mind of wisdom. Makes one who lacks concern for saving others, raise the mind of saving others. Makes one who commits the ten evils, raise the mind of the ten virtues. Makes one who wishes for existence, aspire to the mind of non-existence. Makes one who has an inclination toward apostasy build the mind of non-retrogression.

[74:48]

Makes one who commits defiled acts raise the mind of detachment. Good sons, this is called the first inconceivable merit power of this sutra. Wonderful dharma, the lotus flower teaching, chapter 3, a parable. The triple world is not safe, just as the burning house, full of all kinds of sufferings, was greatly to be feared. Ever there are distresses of birth, old age, disease and death. Such fires as these are burning ceaselessly. The Tathagata, freed from the burning house of the triple world, tranquilly lives in seclusion, abiding in peace in the woodland. Now this triple world, all is my domain. The living beings in it all are my sons, but now this place abounds with distress and I alone am able to save and protect them. Though I taught and admonished them, yet they did not believe. They were imbued with desires to which they were greedily attached. Therefore, tactfully, I tell them of the three vehicles which cause all living beings to know the sufferings of the triple world and reveal and expound the way of escaping from this world.

[76:01]

If all these songs are resolved in their minds, they will perfectly have the three clear views and the six transcendent faculties. And they will become Pratyekabuddhas or Bodhisattvas who never slide back. Sariputra, I, for the sake of all beings, by means of this parable, preach the one Buddha vehicle. If all of you are able to receive these words in faith, you shall all be able to accomplish the Buddha way. And as we chant, I will chant on... I will not chant on namu. We'll chant namu. And I'll go myoho renge kyo. Like that. A little faster, though. At the very last, when I do it for the last time, I will chant on namu. So it will become namu myoho renge kyo.

[77:06]

Like that. So then you'll know that's the last one. So hopefully that will go smoothly. Namu... and all of

[78:16]

Namo Myoho Renge Kyo Namo Myoho Renge Kyo Namo Myoho Renge Kyo My sensei The Venerable Yusho Matsuda told me that wherever one is able to recite the Dhaimoku, recite the Lotus Sutra, that becomes the Pure Land. So I want to thank everybody for allowing me to come here and speak to you and for helping me to make this the Pure Land. Thank you very much.

[80:24]

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