I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Well, hello again. Well, tonight we'll be talking about what can't be talked about. So, I've been kind of wondering how to do this. Fortunately, the sutra is going to help us look at what is, as I was saying, beyond what can be looked at or seen or heard or thought of. Tonight, we'll be dealing with chapters 12 through 22, the chapters that make up what is known as the ceremony in the air. Just to go over it again, the first ten chapters are the assembly on Eagle Peak where people begin with aspiration.

[01:06]

They're still in the ordinary world of time and space and other people and, you know, Zafus they can sit on and concrete objects, but they aspire to have a realization that will take them beyond that. And this week we'll be discussing chapters 12 through 22, where they get beyond the ordinary, beyond the common sense way of viewing things. The whole world is turned upside down, as it were. And this is, this ceremony in the air is what deals with realization, the realization that comes in the midst of one's practice, as one's practice. And just to round it out, next week we'll be talking about the last six chapters which deal with the various bodhisattvas and how they bring this realization back down to Earth, back down to Eagle Peak, back down to the world that we are usually living in. But tonight we are going into the regions of Buddhist science fiction as one of the bishops in the Nichiren school is referred to it as.

[02:16]

It begins in chapter 11. I'm sorry, I was saying chapter 12 through 22. It's 11 through 22. It begins in chapter 11 with the precious stupa of the Tathagata many treasures, which rises up out of the earth. So let me read to you from the passage where this appears. At that time, in front of the Buddha, A stupa of the seven precious things, 500 yojanas in height and 250 yojanas in length and breadth, sprang up from the earth and abode in the sky. Then, from the midst of the precious stupa, there came a loud voice praising and saying, excellent, excellent, world-honored Shakyamuni. Thou art able to preach to the Great Assembly the wonderful Law Flower Sutra of universal and great wisdom by which Bodhisattvas are instructed and which the Buddhas guard and mind.

[03:21]

So it is, so it is, world-honored Shakyamuni. All that thou sayest is true. So up to this point, the Buddha has been talking about the one vehicle, the possibility that all beings can attain Buddhahood for themselves. And even though different people have different states of mind, different inclinations, different talents, even different levels of aspiration, up to this point the Buddha has been teaching that they will all nevertheless enter into the same stream, flow out into the same ocean of Buddhahood, the very same enlightenment and realization that Shakyamuni himself had. So now you have this great treasure tower rising up or precious stupa rising up out of the earth and floating up into the sky, and you have this primordial Buddha, many treasures testifying to the truth, endorsing what the Buddha has been saying up to this point. Now, before I move on to the next parts of the ceremony in the air,

[04:29]

Let me say a few things about what this precious stupa is and who Many Treasures Buddha is. To begin with, the treasure tower, if you look at the dimensions, it talked about yojanas. I read somewhere that if you took these measurements and tried to apply them literally, this precious stupa would be half the diameter of the earth. So, we're not talking about something that is within the realm of ordinary possibility. When you think about what this precious stupa really is, it is the Buddha nature in a symbolic form. It's the stupa of the seven precious things. These seven precious things are the different aspects of our own practice. Our ability to center, calm ourselves, find a center, investigate the truth, gain encouragement and inspiration from that effort.

[05:33]

All of these different aspects of our practice are the jewels of the precious stupa. And the precious stupa altogether is our own Buddha nature emerging from beneath the earth of our daily activities, our daily frustrations, our usual state of discouragement and quiet desperation, as Thoreau called it. And it rises up into the sky. It takes us up beyond that. It is transcendent. It does break through the ordinary world that we usually live in. And if Shakyamuni Buddha is the one who has realized the truth. Many Treasures Tathagata is the personification of the truth that is realized and Many Treasures Tathagata is the Buddha within our own hearts within the depths of ourselves that when it hears the teaching of Shakyamuni wells up from within us saying, yes, this is it.

[06:37]

This makes sense. This must be the way out of that frustration, that anxiety, the anguish that we usually face. This must be the way into something that I previously, that we previously could not have imagined, could not have even asked for. as we saw in the reaction of the Buddhist disciples in the previous chapters where he predicted their Buddhahood and they said this was something that we could not have even sought of ourselves. So in the rest of that chapter the treasure tower rises up, the disciples, who are still on the ground at this point, hear this testimony and they say, who is this? Who is saying these things? And Shakyamuni Buddha tells them, this is the relic, excuse my poor pronunciation, the reliquary, I guess is an attempt, this is the reliquary of an ancient Buddha

[07:39]

who made a vow in the far distant past that whenever the wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Sutra is preached, he would appear to hear this preaching and to testify to its truth. And the disciples asked, well, we would like to see this Buddha. Could you open this stupa so that we could see his form? So the Buddha says, well, first, I have to recall all of the emanated Buddhas throughout the universe back here. back to Eagle Peak. Because only when everything is gathered together can we open up this universal truth. And that's what he proceeds to do. But first he purifies the Saha world, this world of endurance and suffering. He purifies it. And all the various devils and demons and ghosts and everybody else is sort of a cosmic urban renewal. And they're all cleared out. I prefer to interpret it differently.

[08:40]

I don't like to think of them all being sort of bought off and shunted off to some other neighborhood. I prefer to think that the minds of all the beings within are elevated to the point where they no longer think of themselves as demons or ghosts or war makers or homeless people or rich people who don't care or all the various kinds of people there are. Their minds are elevated from what they were and they go beyond their usual state. So it's not, I don't think of it as removal but as transformation. And three times the Buddha has to transform the Saha world. Three times he has to purify it because there's so many Buddhas coming in with their retinues and their bodhisattvas. So many aspects of the truth appearing throughout the universe as reflections or mirror images of Shakyamuni Buddha. And they all gather together. And one thing I'd like to say about that is I see this, some people interpret this as Shakyamuni Buddha being the only real Buddha and all these other ones are mere ghostly images or mere reflections.

[09:48]

But I think of it more holographically. For us who live in this world, Shakyamuni Buddha is the one who taught the Dharma. Shakyamuni Buddha is the Buddha whom we have a special relationship with. the Buddha who we can relate to and who related to us in our terms. And all the other truths go back to the truth that we can learn through Shakyamuni Buddha, the truth that Shakyamuni embodied. But if we were to live on another planet or another world system or in different circumstances, there would be another Buddha who would be the one that we would relate to directly. And then Shakyamuni Buddha would be the reflection of that Buddha. So all these Buddhas are reflections of each other. There's no question of a hegemony here or a monotheism of Buddhas. There's no, you know, I, Shakyamuni, am the Lord your Buddha. Thou shalt not have any other Buddhas before me. This is not what's going on. It's a holographic thing. All the Buddhas mirroring and echoing each other. But because we live here, Shakyamuni Buddha is the one that the truths return to for us.

[10:52]

Now when they are all gathered together and when it is seen that the truth is universal and expressed in many different ways throughout the universe and all returning to this one, then Shakyamuni Buddha is able to open this treasure tower, show many treasures, Tathagata, and many treasures This Buddha who has passed into nirvana so long ago is not static. He's not a mere personification of non-existence. He seems very active, very lively for an ancient Buddha and very, what's the word? very hospitable as well because he invites Shakyamuni to come and share his throne within the precious stupa. So now you have both Buddhas there. You have Shakyamuni and you have Taho. You have the one who realized the truth and you have the embodiment, the personification of the truth that is realized within us. Now both are in this tower that has risen up over the earth.

[11:56]

And the congregation wants to be there too. They say, well, we can't see you so well anymore. well of course not they're still within the realm of convention. So the Buddha through his transcendent power lifts the entire congregation up and when you think about it when we practice we embody in our practice that union or perhaps I should say non-duality of realization and that which is realized and when we practice We are sitting in the treasure tower, and when we practice, the world and all the beings within it are the assembly, and all are lifted up into the sky with the treasure tower, with the practice and realization of the Buddha nature. That's what's going on here. And words can never do this justice, which is why the Lotus Sutra uses this fantastic imagery to convey to us how awesome this is, how incredible this is, how mind-boggling this whole process is.

[13:02]

But it doesn't end there. It doesn't end there. It moves on. Because several chapters which follow, Chapter 12, and unfortunately I don't have time to go into them in detail, I really encourage you to look at them on your own. Spell out some of the implications of this. In Chapter 12, you have Devadatta's enlightenment predicted. And I mentioned this last week, I believe, in the Dragon Girl, showing that nobody is left out of this. In Chapters 13 and 14, it is demonstrated how one should practice in different circumstances, in peaceful circumstances and under hard or oppressive circumstances. And then you get to chapter 15. In chapter 15, the Bodhisattvas who have gathered together from all the corners of the universe, all these celestial, transcendent, perfect beings, tell the Buddha, well, we will teach this wonderful dharma in the future after you are gone, after your extinction.

[14:09]

We would be happy to come into this world despite all its hardships and limitations and try to teach this and get people to wake up. And amazingly enough, the Buddha says, that's okay. You don't need to do that. I have some other people in mind who are going to be able to preach this dharma in the world that is so full of hardships after my extinction. And then he brings forth these other Bodhisattvas. So let me read that passage to you. At that time, the Bodhisattva Mahasattvas who had come from other lands, numerous as the sands of the eight Ganges, arose in the great assembly and with folded hands saluted and spoke to the Buddha saying, world honored one, if the Buddha will allow us after his extinction, diligently and zealously to protect and keep, read and recite, copy and worship this sutra in this Saha world, we would preach it abroad in the land. Thereupon the Buddha addressed all the hosts of those Bodhisattva Mahasattvas.

[15:15]

Enough, my good sons. There is no need for you to protect and keep this sutra. Wherefore? Because in my Saha world, there are in fact Bodhisattva Mahasattvas, numerous as the sands of 60,000 Ganges. Each one of these Bodhisattvas has a retinue, numerous as the sands of 60,000 Ganges. These persons are able, after my extinction, to protect and keep, read and recite, and preach abroad this sutra. When the Buddha had thus spoken, all the earth of the 3,000 great thousand-fold land of the Saha world trembled and quaked, and from its midst there issued together innumerable thousand myriad kodis of Bodhisattva Mahasattvas. All these Bodhisattvas with their golden-hued bodies, 32 signs, and boundless radiance had all been dwelling in infinite space below the Saha world. All these Bodhisattvas, hearing the voice of Shakyamuni Buddha preaching, sprang forth from below. I like to refer to these as the emergent bodhisattvas of the earth.

[16:19]

Sometimes, just to make it a little, bring it down earth a little more, I'll call them the grassroots bodhisattvas. Because if you think about it, that's where they're coming from, from the roots, from not just grounded, but from beneath the earth, where the seeds are planted, where seeds take in their nourishment. It says from the emptiness beneath the earth. These Bodhisattvas have a very keen insight into emptiness, but they are still rooted in this world of its daily cares and concerns, and it is from these circumstances that they arise. And who are these Bodhisattvas? Well, they're us, basically. They're us. We are the Bodhisattvas who emerge from beneath the earth of our daily circumstances, of our jobs, of our families, of our practice, of getting caught in traffic, of trying to finish making revisions in a dissertation, of trying to raise a daughter who keeps hiding that dissertation, that problem today.

[17:34]

This is the earth which our practice is rooted in. This is the earth which is empty and which we need to realize is empty, but also very full. And you notice that these Bodhisattvas are golden-hued with 32 marks, 32 signs. These Bodhisattvas are described as not merely very advanced beings, but as practically Buddhas themselves. In fact, for all intents and purposes, they are Buddhas, except they have not taken that position. They don't need to. They just need to be who they are, practice as they are. But really, You know, their practice is Buddhahood itself. You know, there's different sayings, like, it takes one to know one, or, you know, to love, you had to get love, you have to love yourself. Well, this is the Buddhist version of that. You know, to become a Buddha, you have to be a Buddha. And that's what these Bodhisattvas are.

[18:34]

And again, they are us. We are the ones that have been entrusted with teaching this Dharma, this wonderful Dharma, the lotus flower in this age. Not the celestial bodhisattvas, not the ones who live in an ideal realm, but we, the people who have to deal with these circumstances. Now, the Buddha then goes on to say that these are his original disciples. Not only would they be his disciples in the future, but in the far distant past, these were his original disciples. And the other Bodhisattvas and the other disciples who had been there all along looked at this huge, vast conglomeration of these practically Buddha Bodhisattvas who had sprung up from out of nowhere, it seemed, and said, well, how could you have had time in just 40 years since you became enlightened under the Bodhi tree to teach all of these beings?

[19:36]

But the Buddha insists that this is true, even if it seems as ridiculous, the sutra says, as a young man of 20 pointing to a bunch of 80-year-old men saying, these are my sons. Because nevertheless, these are my original disciples. And then we move into the 16th chapter, the eternal life of the Tathagata. And this is where the Buddha reveals that he is much more than simply a prince who left the palace 40 years before and woke up beneath a Bodhi tree. Now, some people misunderstand the 16th chapter and think that this talk of the eternal Buddha, that the Buddha's enlightenment actually happened in the far distant past. And that the enlightenment under the Bodhi tree was just a show, just a sort of expedient means or demonstration of how to become a Buddha by someone who already was. And misinterpret this Buddha as some kind of super being, some kind of God who is making a play at being human and attaining enlightenment.

[20:46]

But that's not really what's going on here. Let me read a very crucial passage from the 16th chapter that might help put this in perspective. The Buddha says, Because the Tathagata knows and sees the character of the triple world as it really is, to him there is neither birth nor death, or going away or coming forth, neither living nor dead, neither reality nor unreality, neither thus nor otherwise. Unlike the way the triple world beholds the triple world, the Tathagata clearly sees such things as these without mistake. Now even in the Pali Canon, many times the Buddha says that the Tathagata cannot be measured or understood from the perspective of the body, our thoughts, our feelings, or any of the other aggregates which make up what we think of as the self.

[21:47]

That essentially the Tathagata is beyond our ordinary understanding, beyond measurement, beyond quantifying. And that's exactly what he's saying here, that the Buddha does not see things in these terms anymore, in terms of self or other, within or without, beginning or end. In the Buddha's enlightenment, all of these categories and boxes broke down. And the Buddha saw in his enlightenment that this enlightenment was going on the whole time, the whole time. And that this enlightenment was not just his enlightenment, but the enlightenment of all beings. That has been going on the whole time. And this is how these Bodhisattvas from beneath the earth are the original disciples of this original Buddha. Because that enlightenment under the Bodhi tree is timeless. and outside these boundaries of time and space. Just as the teaching of that enlightenment as the wonderful Dharma, the Lotus Sutra in the 16th chapter is shown to be beyond time, beyond space.

[22:56]

But what this means is right in this time, now, this space, it's being preached. Right now we're sitting under the Bodhi tree. Right now we are in the congregation, the ceremony in the air. This is what the 16th chapter is saying. It's not a theory anymore. It's something that we are living. We just need to see it. We need to learn how to see it, see in a different way, hear in a different way, feel in a different way, think in a different way. And when we can learn to do that, when we can open up to that, the Lotus Sutra is happening now. It's no longer the one vehicle of someday you will become a Buddha. It's if you just could wake up, you would see that right now, Believe it or not, there's more. The ceremony in the air, the revelation in the 16th chapter that the Buddha's life is without bounds, that the Buddha's life and our life are both without bounds.

[24:14]

Now it needs to be taken, and that's looking at it from our perspective, from the perspective of the ones who sit outside the treasure tower. But now we need to take it into ourselves. We need to really feel that, not just read it or try to imagine it and visualize it, you know, sitting on a, you know, sitting on a zafu or sitting on a sunny beach or, like today, during lunch, I was out sitting on the grass and enjoying the fresh air for once. We need to take it right into our heart, right down into our bellies. We need to give voice to it. And that is where the next chapters, or that is what the next chapters are trying to help us understand and help us to do. The next chapters say, At that time, when the great congregation heard the Buddha proclaim that such were the number of kalpas in the length of his lifetime, of his enlightenment, innumerable countless living beings obtained great benefit."

[25:21]

So this goes beyond mere hearing. This is really hearing in the heart, hearing in the gut. The 17th chapter goes on to say, �Thereupon the Buddha addressed Maitreya Bodhisattva Mahasattva, �Ajita, those living beings who have heard that the lifetime of the Buddha is of such long duration and have been able to receive but one thought of faith and discernment, the merits they will obtain are beyond limit and measure. Suppose there be any good son or daughter who, for the sake of perfect enlightenment, during 800,000 Kodis and Ayatollahs of Kalpas, practices the five paramitas, the perfections. the perfection of generosity, the perfection of virtue, the perfection of patience, the perfection of effort, the perfection of meditation, the perfection of wisdom being accepted. These merits, compared with the above-mentioned merits, are not equal to even the hundredth part, the thousandth part, or one part of a hundred thousand myriad cotes of it.

[26:26]

Indeed, neither numbers nor comparisons can make it known. If any good son or good daughter possesses such merit as this, there is no such thing as failing to obtain perfect enlightenment. Now, probably you've all heard many, many times that understanding what enlightenment is, is not an intellectual understanding. It's not about reason or figuring it out or coming to some conceptual idea. That this prajnaparamita, this perfection of wisdom, is something that really can't be reduced to any kind of textbook descriptions, and that's what the sutra is saying here. It's equating this single moment of faith and discernment in the life of the Buddha with the perfection of wisdom. It's saying that as generous as you might try to be, as impeccably ethical as you might try to be, as patient, as concentrated, you might be able to sit in Zazen for hours and hours without getting a cramp, unlike myself.

[27:31]

It doesn't matter if you don't have that perfection of wisdom, because that perfection of wisdom is what makes it real generosity, real sitting, real patience. And that perfection of wisdom is nothing other than, according to this passage, that moment of really having full trust and confidence in that life of the Buddha as our own life. So it is putting into the terms of faith, a single moment of faith, a single moment of opening up. Now this is not faith like blind belief, but again, this is faith is in total trust, total confidence. and the kind of total trust and confidence that only comes from a direct perception from actually being there and realizing that it is here now to be there with the sutra goes on to say Again, Ajita, if anyone hears the duration of the Buddha's lifetime and apprehends its meaning, the merit obtained by this man will be beyond limit, and he will advance to the supreme wisdom of Tathagatas.

[28:39]

How much more will this be the case with the one who is devoted to hearing this sutra, or causes others to hear it, or himself keeps it, or causes others to keep it, or himself copies it, or causes others to copy it, or with flowers, incense, garlands, banners, flags, silk canopies, and lamps of fragrant oil, and gi, pays homage to this sutra. This man's merit will be infinite and boundless and able to bring forth perfect knowledge. Ajita, if any good son or good daughter, hearing of my declaration of the duration of my lifetime, believes and discerns it in his inmost heart. Such a one will see the Buddha always on Mount Eagle Peak, surrounded by a host of great Bodhisattvas and Sravakas, and preaching the Dharma. And he will be able to see this Saha world whose land is lapis lazuli, plain and level, its eight roads marked off with Jambananda gold, lined with jewel trees. It has towers, halls, and galleries all made of jewels, and which dwell together its Bodhisattva host. If anyone is able, so to behold, you may know that this is the sign of profound faith and discernment."

[29:46]

This is the Pure Land. This is the Pure Land. That's what this passage is saying. We just need to open up to it. The next chapter, chapter 18, the Merits of Joyful Acceptance says, if anyone in an assembly hears this sutra, though only one stanza, and joyfully proclaims it to others, and thus its teaching rolls on till it reaches the 50th hearer, the happiness obtained by this last, I now will explain. And then he goes on with the hyperbole of the Mahayana that we all come to know and love. I've already read enough passages like that. Again, I encourage you to go look for yourself in the sutra. So the 18th, or yes, the 18th chapter is saying, even the 50th person who hears this, if they can understand it, even though they're so far removed from the original event, even though it's passed down the line 50 times, it's so powerful that even they, if they can open up to it, will have merits that go beyond any kind of piecemeal attempt at being nice or being good.

[31:00]

Because the perfection of being nice, being good, being kind, patient, compassionate, is perfected by this moment of realization. Chapter 19, The Merits of the Preacher, goes on to say that the one who realizes these things will have all of their organs purified. Touch, taste, sight, sound, hearing. consciousness, all of these will become purified. And there are several very profound passages in that sutra about how the entire world is embodied in ourselves once we realize this, about how the one who opens up to this preaching can hear the Dharma in all things that they hear, can smell the Dharma, everything becomes a Dharma for the one who is able to realize this. It talks about the purification of the six sense organs, but it really goes beyond that.

[32:04]

They're talking about the purification of the whole person, the whole being, through that single moment of realization, that single moment of faith in this eternal life of the Buddha, which is our life, the single moment of opening up to the pure land right beneath our feet. And then finally, in chapter 21, The Buddha speaks of this teaching, this wonderful dharma, the lotus flower teaching, as the moment of transfer of the Buddha's realization to us in whatever situation we might find ourselves in. And this is one of the, I think, one of the most inspiring sections of the Lotus Sutra. Essentially speaking, all the laws belonging to the Tathagata, all the sovereign divine powers of the Tathagata, all the mysterious essential treasuries of the Tathagata, and the very profound conditions of the Tathagata, all are proclaimed, displayed, revealed, and expounded in this sutra.

[33:13]

Therefore you should, after the extinction of the Tathagata, wholeheartedly receive and keep, read and recite, explain and copy, cultivate and practice it as the teaching. In whatever land, whether it be received and kept, read and recited, explained and copied, cultivated and practiced as the teaching. whether in a grove, or under a tree, or in a monastery, or in a lay devotee's house, in a palace, or a mountain, in a valley, or in the wilderness. In all these places, you must direct a chaitya and make offerings. Wherefore, you should know that all these spots are the thrones of enlightenment. On these spots, the Buddhas attain perfect enlightenment. On these spots, the Buddhas roll the wheel of the law. On these spots, the Buddhas enter parinirvana. If you remember the parable of the prodigal son where the father finally reveals that he is the father and that the son will inherit everything that is the father's, this is the moment where you get to see the will.

[34:16]

This is the moment where you're given the keys to the treasury. And really, it's the key of your own heart. As Hui Nung said, don't think it's the father's or the son's. It's just what it is, wherever it is, where it is. And finally, chapter 22, the chapter's called The Final Commission. It's just about two pages long. The Buddha, being very generous and not wanting to say, well, it's just for these people, opens this dharma up, not just to us, to the bodhisattvas from the underground, but to all the other bodhisattvas who had said before, we want to preach this. And he had said, no, wait, I have some other people. Well, in the 22, he opens this up to everybody. So in our realization we really are joining the Sangha, the entire universe of all beings everywhere without exception nothing no one being left out. And this final commission is really the total communion as well as a commission to teach.

[35:25]

And that is the ceremony in the air and I I can't even imagine that I've done justice to it, but I hope I've been able to convey a little bit to you of what it's about and what it means, what it could mean in our practice. And with that, I will open it up to questions. Yes? Is Eagle Peak the same as Vulture Peak in India? Yeah, I've seen different... Right. Rajagriha is the... I think that's the city, the area, and the actual title is Girdharaktu, I think. So Eagle Peak is that place? Right, it's been translated different ways. Yeah, Eagle Peak, Vulture Peak, depending. Because if you've ever seen a picture of it, it looks like a kind of... looks like an eagle or a vulture with its wings folded up, kind of like this, with the wings going this way and then the beak. So it's like a big slab up at an angle.

[36:30]

Supposedly there were caves in that area, and the Buddha often, not just in Lotus Sutra, but in others, would give sermons at the top. But in the context of the Lotus Sutra, I'll point this out too, Eagle Peak is really anywhere where the Lotus Sutra is realized, anywhere where the Lotus Sutra is shared between people. So, when you read the sutra, realize that there's different levels going on here, that Eagle Peak has become a metaphoric place, as well as a literal place. Yes? This grandiose imagery of the jewel, trees and towers and parasols and banners and all that stuff, is that Indian or Chinese? Very Indian, very Indian. Apparently, in India of 5th century BC or later, it was very difficult to travel from one place to the other.

[37:33]

They didn't have Mooney or BART. Actually, that could be an improvement, but especially off the ride I had tonight. But anyway, there were all these mountains that had to be passed, and it was very difficult, and rivers that would flood, and it was difficult to get over them, and just very tiring to go up and down these hills. Because, of course, this wasn't the Gangetic Plain. I mean, where the Buddha was teaching was sort of higher up. So, for them, the perfect place would be nice, level, like Kansas. Kansas would have been the Pure Land to them. Very easy to walk from one place to another, no obstructions. And of course, they would imagine, you know, well, just think of the Wizard of Oz, you know, when Dorothy's in Kansas, everything's all black and white, and then suddenly, bang, technicolor, and there's the yellow brick road, and all the colors, and so what's the most colorful thing, you know, that you could see in ancient India? Well, jewels, sapphires, and diamonds, and pearls, and opals, and rubies, you know, so they imagined that kind of color on everything, in everything.

[38:42]

And that to them was a way of expressing how beautiful this all could be if we had the eyes to see it. Yes? But I wanted to ask you, Michael, about this expression, Saha, the Saha world. Where does that come from? Before you respond, let me say that I remember from a class series many years ago now that Norm Fisher gave the Avatamsaka Sutra, referring to this world as the world of endurance. I was going to mention that because there's this passage in the Flower Garland that talks about all the different worlds throughout the universe and all the different names they have, and there's such beautiful names.

[39:50]

There's the Flower Garland world, of course, and there's the world of of precious things and the world of many-jeweled necklaces and the world of bee-jeweled parasols and all these really exotic names. It just boggles the imagination just trying to imagine what these names might mean. And it's a whole page or two listing these wonderful, beautiful names of all these worlds in the Eastern and Southern. northern and northeast directions, presumably stemming from here. And then you get to the Saha world, the world of endurance. I'm like, why would I let down? I guess we're kind of the Bellevue of the cosmos, in a sense. in the 11th chapter when the treasure tower the precious stupa rises up the buddha purifies this saha world this world of endurance three times and reveals that really from the perspective of the buddha and from the perspective of any other awakened being who comes into this sphere this is already the pure land he just uncovers what's already there in the the sutra of the

[41:12]

the last sutra, the Sutra of Meditation of the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue that caps off the Lotus Sutra. This world of endurance in the aspect of a Pure Land is called the Pure Land of Tranquil Light. So that's where we are right now. We're in the Pure Land of Tranquil Light. We just don't realize it. In the 16th chapter, in fact, the part that we're going to recite tonight, there's a very significant passage in the first part that says, let's see if I can find it quickly, Here we go. When all the living see, at the kelpa's end, the conflagration when it is burning, tranquil is this realm of mine. ever filled with heavenly beings, parks and many palaces, with every kind of gem adorned, precious trees full of blossoms and fruits, where all creatures take their pleasure. All the gods strike the heavenly drums and evermore make music, showering mandrava flowers on the Buddha and his great assembly.

[42:17]

My pure land will never be destroyed, yet all view it as being burned up, and grief and horror and distress fill them all like this. So what the 16th chapter is saying, it only seems to us like this is the world of endurance. But really, this world is one amongst all those other beautiful world systems with their beautiful names. And this world and its true aspect is the pure land of tranquil light. So we don't have to feel like we've been thrust into some kind of cosmic ghetto of rebirth necessarily, only if we want to persist in that kind of thinking. Yes? which said things of this nature. If you only have faith, if you can only believe this, then it will exceed by a million fold the advantage or merit, I suppose.

[43:21]

Good works, generosity, patience, concentration, the whole nine yards of paramitas. of what certain Christian sects say, I think a lot of Protestant sects say, well, you know, forget about all that other stuff. If you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you will be, you will be more, you know. Right, right, right. And good works and all that other stuff, all those came into a rose during that same period of time that Christ was preaching.

[44:21]

And that there was cross-fertilization was something very likely. I've seen some very sloppy scholarship in that direction. Well, I'm not as forward or challenged about that. All I want to say is that the idea of, and in fact, earlier. Pali Canon, right? Right, in which Buddha as a human teacher is now being transmogrified into Buddha as eternal universal savior, or even God. I mean, some people... Okay, well, first off, there's nothing in the Lotus Sutra that contradicts or goes against the teachings of the Pali Canon. but there is much in the Lotus Sutra that takes material from the Pali Canon and carries it forward.

[45:27]

And I've heard so many times people saying that, well, in the Lotus Sutra the Buddha is turned into a god or the Buddha is no longer really a human being anymore. They're not really looking at the Pali Canon very carefully when they say that because in the Pali Canon, the Buddha says that the Tathagata is beyond appearance and disappearance many times. And there's nothing in here that is different from what's in the Pali Canon. It's the way it is expressed. In the Pali Canon, it's very kind of rational and logical. But in here, it's portrayed in a very mythic form But really, it's not trying to make this person into something that is beyond what we are. It is trying to say, if we were... The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, which is the prologue to the Lotus Sutra, says, after talking about all the wonderful mystical signs that are on the Buddha's body, it says,

[46:37]

There are 32 such signs. The 80 kinds of excellence are visible, and truly there is nothing of form or non-form. All visible forms are transcended. His body is formless and yet has form. This is also true of the form of the body of all living beings." So this is not a case where the Buddha is some kind of transcendent savior who has powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, you know, that we don't have. it's that the Buddha understands his life in a different way and that we too are being invited to enter into that understanding and understand our own life in a different way. And when faith is used in this context It's not a faith where, oh, I believe the Buddha was the creator of heaven and earth and blah, blah, blah. It's not that kind of faith where you have a bunch of creeds and you ascribe to them intellectually and go, okay, I believe that, I believe that, where's my ticket to heaven? That's not what's going on here. In this sense, faith is when all of this becomes so real to you that it changes your life.

[47:44]

So it's not just agreeing to something somebody's trying to put over on you about what the Buddha is. It's really realizing, oh, this is for real. It's trust and confidence. It's not belief. That's what faith is. People of faith of other religions, they would not say that their faith is simply assenting to a list of acquired doctrines. and to that extent they may be approaching Prajnaparamita as well. As a matter of fact this is a good chance for me to take back something I said last week. Last week somebody asked me about the Prachakabuddha path, the path of the private Buddhas, and I was saying that the private Buddha is one who awakens to dependent origination. even though they have never heard of the Buddha or come into contact with Buddhism and yet they're unable to express it as fully as the Buddha did. And I said that people like Rumi or Meister Eckhart would be examples of people in other cultures who independently arrived at the same truth of dependent origination as the Buddha.

[48:54]

But I'd like to take that back because it seems to me that somebody who independently arrived at dependent origination but was unable to speak of it, to teach it, someone who was just a Prachakabuddha, a private Buddha, we'd never hear of them because by definition they would go off into the hills, realize it for themselves and keep it to themselves. But a Bodhisattva is one who is able to realize the truth of the Buddha and take it into other cultures, other worlds, where the Dharma has not yet penetrated, and even try to express it in seemingly non-Buddhist terms. And I think that when you read Rumi, or when you read Meister Eckhart, you see an example of a Muslim in one case, or a Sufi, and a Christian in another, expressing these very same insights in terms that a Muslim or a Christian could identify with. And in fact, Let me read to you this chapter in the Lotus Sutra, this section from chapter 10, rather, that I wanted to share last week, but I didn't get a chance.

[50:03]

Let's see. Oops, picture eight. Excuse me a second. Here we go. Bhikshus, listen to me attentively. The way my Buddha son has walked is beyond conception. Knowing how all enjoy mere trifles and are afraid of the greater wisdom, the Bodhisattvas therefore become Sravakas or Prachagavadas. By numberless tactful methods, they convert the various kinds of beings, saying, we are but Sravakas, far removed from the Buddha way. They release innumerable beings, all completing their course. Even the lowly disposed and the neglectful gradually become Buddhas, inwardly hiding their Bodhisattva deeds. Outwardly, they appear as Sravakas, mere monks. With few desires and disliking mortal life, they truly purify their Buddha land.

[51:06]

And here's the clincher. They show themselves possessed of human passion and seem to hold heretical views. Thus do my disciples tactfully save all beings. So it is very possible that some Christians, in their own terminology, may be expressing the very same insights that are being shared in the Lotus Sutra. It is very possible in the Buddhist worldview that bodhisattvas can be reborn as the members of other religions. but they carry that compassion, that insight with them. That's their inheritance. That is the vows they take with them. But that doesn't mean that that other tradition will always be able to stay at that high level. Faith can easily degenerate into blind belief. This kind of ecstatic awakening can become mere emotionalism. And I think that's the problem. That's the problem, and it can happen within Buddhism too, you know.

[52:10]

I understand. I think this is a trend, a religious trend that seemed to be prevalent at that period of time. I think what it is is that they realize after, well think about Shinran and Honen, there's a good example. Here were two men who went through the whole ten dai program of monastic training for I think 20 years in the case of Honen, read the sutras five times, obeyed all the rules, did all the rituals and ceremonies.

[53:11]

Basically they did everything they could to live up to it and after all that effort they realize, you know, I'm the same shitty person I was when I started. And not only that, but they'd driven themselves crazy trying to be perfect and realizing, I can't match up, I can't live up to this. And in that moment, when they dropped that effort, then they were able to drop their own body and mind, as it were, drop their own egocentrism with which they were approaching the practice. And that, for them, was the moment of faith. But after that, Honen persisted in doing all the practices, living up to all the precepts. Basically, he remained a good monk. In Shinran's case, he realized, well, I can try to be a family man and embody it in that way. But it's not like they had a moment of faith and realized, well, now I can do whatever I want. No, they had a moment of faith and then finally it became real to them. Finally it wasn't a bunch of external rules they were trying to live up to.

[54:14]

It was the Dharma in their heart expressing itself as ethical action, as a tranquil mind, as generosity. But now it was real. It wasn't some kind of painful austerity they were trying to force themselves into. Now it was coming from their heart authentically. See, so this isn't, it has been interpreted and used, this idea of faith as a way to bypass or shortcut, you know, sort of a salvation on the cheap. But really, it's the most simple act, but also the most difficult act. And once you've got it, everything will fall into place. But it's very easy to fool yourself. Maybe it was necessary for them to go through all those travails to get to the place where they could actually make that realization. Right. Could the Buddha have discovered the Middle Way if he hadn't indulged himself, if he hadn't tortured himself almost to death? Right. That doesn't mean we have to do it. We don't necessarily have to reinvent the Dharma wheel, I think. Yes? This is such an important point.

[55:15]

Would you say again what it is this is asking us or encouraging us to have faith in? It is the courage to have faith in the boundarylessness which is the life of the Buddha, which is our own life. I think that's what it's asking us to have the faith and the courage to realize and live. And it's scary to try to step outside the boundaries we ordinarily live in. It's very easy to live inside the burning house because we know where all the rooms are and where to find our stuff. But to race out the door into the unknown, that can be very scary. But that's where the freedom is. That's where the safety is. That's where we can really accomplish something. There must be a better word or a more felicitous word synonym for boundarylessness. Right. What word is there, Michael?

[56:17]

What's boundarylessness? Boundarylessness. Well, Dushyana, you know, emptiness, that's the one. Well, we say, drop body and mind. Right. Jump off that pole. Drop body and mind. I like boundarylessness. Well, you know, that's why these sutras are so long because they try to throw all the words in there so that everybody will find something they like. You know, the flower garland especially does that. It goes on and on and on with all kinds of adverbs and adjectives. Yes? Well, it's sort of a technical point, but I just wondered whether the treasure tower stupa in the Lotus Sutra is, you know, an analog for Vairochana's tower in the Atikamsaka Sutra. Is that the same structure or is it different architecture?

[57:25]

Well, when you get into, you know, there's the way of using words conventionally and then the way of using words sort of on the ultimate level and, you know, suddenly everything becomes synonyms for everything else. Dharmadhatu equals Buddha nature equals Dharmakaya equals. So on that level, probably yes, they're trying to convey the same realization. On the more conventional level, I would say that the treasure tower is more like the emergence of our Buddha nature from out of our life, from out of our practice, from beneath the earth and lifting us up. The tower in the Flower Garland Sutra is more a portrayal of the Dharmadhatu, the Dharma realm, as it appears to the advanced Bodhisattva or to the Buddha. Right, right. And in both cases it's an opening up.

[58:28]

It's an opening up into that, if you like the term, boundarylessness or emptiness. Right. Thank you, I hadn't made that connection before. I'll have to think about that more in the future. Yes? Well, there is this question about practice. If this one moment of faith is more important than all of our small-minded or sentient beings' efforts Then what is it that, and also we know that this one moment of faith, this moment of faith is very hard to sustain. So how do we practice with it? Well I think that one moment, right, I think we shouldn't take one moment too literally. I think that there is, well here again we have the conventional level of using language and an ultimate level.

[59:35]

And since our language only operates within the conventional, we have to somehow find a conventional term and make do with it as sort of a stand-in for what's ultimate. And in this case, using the idea of one moment to signify time on an ultimate level. So really that one moment is encompassing all of those other moments. And when we can somehow understand this or enter into this, each of those moments of embodying living out a particular practice or a particular moment of meditation or being generous or being patient with someone, enter into that one moment and find their life in that one moment. You know, so it's sort of a one moment outside of time that informs all of those chronological moments within time. Am I making sense? Almost sounds like I know what I'm talking about.

[60:37]

In my mind I do, but it is very hard to live that. Yeah, and there are the other metaphors of the Buddhas who have been practicing for Kalpas and Kalpas. and so there's no discontinuity in the Buddha's practice. Right. But it's hard to keep one's focus there. Yeah, it has always seemed to me that the ultimate level is not something apart from our conventional activities and understanding but it is something that it is the context within which we operate conventionally. And most of the time, we don't have that perspective to realize that context. And when we do, then we continue with these conventional ways of doing things and thinking about things. But now it's on a whole different level, as it were.

[61:38]

Yes? This question reminds me of the song and the sound of music, of how you cloud and everything else. There's times when I feel like my faith is the result of my practice, and there are other times when I'm doing my practice and my faith is my practice. It's one of those indefinable things that's very much the moment. And when you're practicing, that's the only moment there is. To me, the treasured power suggests something very Right, right. In our practice we are trying to live out what we're reading in here.

[62:43]

We are dramatizing it in our own life and making it real by doing that. Yes, I was curious. So when your daughter hit your dissertation. It's my wife's actually. Whatever. Were you involved in that incident? No, I received the panicked phone call from at work. My practice was to sort of wait for the initial storm to blow over and then to see what can be done after, you know. And I do that with myself also. When I find myself going into a tailspin, I realize, well, OK, I'll get this out of my system. And then I can really seriously sit down and think about what to do next.

[63:46]

But sometimes you just have to just let things blow up. Optimally, you should be at the point where, from the very first instant, you go, well, there's got to be a solution to this. but that's very difficult. But I guess it's a good sign if even in the midst of the panicking you realize that eventually it's going to blow over and then you can get down to the real work of resolving whatever it is, which is in fact what happened. And Yumi, my wife, knew it too because after she got out of her system she hung up and then within three minutes she called me back and said, okay, I found it. And it turned out our daughter didn't hide it at all. She put it next to the computer. We just have to be patient with ourselves, I think. Yes? Oh, right. Oh, okay. Thank you. I'll take one more question and then I'll do that.

[64:48]

Because I believe you had one. Yes? Right. It was, as I believe the woman in the back mentioned, first compiled, first written down along with a lot of the other Mahayana sutras around the first century of the common era, and I think it's very possible that there might have been a lot of sharing along the silk route and the trade routes. As I mentioned last week, there's a lot of parallels between the Gospel of John and certain things in the Lotus Sutra, as well as the parables and the synoptics. But anyway, the verse sections were written first. This is what most scholars think now. The verse sections were written first, and then the prose parts were written as a way of building, embroidering on the verse sections.

[65:55]

They believe that the first 10 chapters were compiled first as sort of a standalone sutra. And then later on, the middle 11 through 22 were added, and then the last six were appended towards the end. And then there was some question about the 12th chapter, whether it was part of the original, or whether it was appended during the time of Che, the Tiantai patriarch in the 6th century. But that's one of the best chapters, so I don't care when it was written or who wrote it. From my understanding there were different communities who had different oral traditions and were trying to keep the Buddha's teachings alive and not just the literal teachings but the heart of the Buddha's teachings alive. So they came up with not just probably the more literal traditions of the Pali Canon of what the Buddha might have said or done, but also a more mythic and poetic way of remembering the intent of the Buddha's teachings.

[67:07]

And I think these oral traditions eventually got written down by the different communities. So probably in one valley you had a bunch of monks transcribing parts of the Lotus Sutra, and the next valley over the Pure Land, and the next valley over the flower garland is being written down. But that's just my speculation. I believe so, but I know a lot of them were written in Central Asia, like up in Afghanistan and places like that. There's a lot of Persian influence on some of the Mahayana sutras. Right. Yes. Yeah, but I'd have to check on that. Yeah. Okay. Well, let me plug my books, and then we can chant the 16th chapter. As for translations of the Lotus Sutra, I've mentioned before, the easiest ones to get would be the Burton Watson translation, which is very nice to read.

[68:15]

But that doesn't have the epilogue and the prologue sutras, which the threefold Lotus Sutra does. So the language in here is a little bit, maybe slightly stilted. I like it myself. I think they were trying to make it sound like the King James at times, but it's very nice. So for the sake of completion, I like this. I think the Leon Hurwitz translation is probably the most scholarly one. And then the Nietzsche and Schuh, which I belong to, has their own translation, which is very readable and also holds up rather well scholastically, too. So if you want a copy of this one, I could, you know, just let me know after this is over. I could probably bring some up in the next week or two. Also, it is very difficult to read the sutra sort of cold, as it were, without any kind of background. I also have Introduction to the Lotus Sutra by Shinjo Sugudo, who is a priest at the Nichiren school back in Japan, and this was translated into English.

[69:20]

And this is 1350, at least if you get it through the Nichiren Shu, it's 1350. And I have several copies of this if anyone's interested. And then for $5, my sensei in San Jose put together a collection of brief passages and sections from the Lotus Sutra organized under different themes. And it's kind of very handy to use for reflection or meditation or just to kind of get the gist of what the Sutra is about. So that's what I have available. If anyone's interested, they can see me in the back. I think Steve has the books over there. So, okay. I'm moving right along. Sutra, here we go. In your handout, turn to page 19. And this is In the Tendai school and the Nichiren school that I belong to, the 16th chapter is looked upon as the core of the sutra.

[70:31]

This is where the sutra really comes to life. So we regularly recite at least the 16th, the verse portion of the 16th chapter, which is what this is, and Dogen, being a former student of the Tendai school, also incorporated the recitation of this first section of the 16th chapter. And if anyone had ever seen or has ever seen the Sutra recital book of the Soto Shu, they'll find that the section we're about to chant tonight is right in there, in Japanese though. We'll be doing it in English. And then after that, as before, we'll chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, which means devotion to the wonderful Dharma the lotus flower teaching as a way of showing our appreciation and maybe touching that faith, which is what the 16th chapter is all about. Okay. Do you have it?

[71:35]

Okay. The Wonderful Dharma, the Lotus Flower Teaching, Chapter 16, Revelation of the Eternal Life of the Tathagata. Since I attained Buddhahood, the Kalpas to which I have passed are infinite thousands of myriads of kotis of asamkhya years. Ceaselessly preached I the law and taught countless kotis of creatures to enter the way of the Buddha. Since then are unmeasured kalpas in order to save all creatures. By tactful methods I reveal nirvana, yet truly I am not yet extinct, but forever here preaching the law. I forever remain in this world using all of my spiritual powers so that all perverted creatures, though I am near, yet fail to see me.

[72:40]

all looking on me as extinct, everywhere worship my relics, all cherishing longing desires and beget thirsting hearts of hope. When all creatures have believed and obeyed in character upright and mind gentle, wholeheartedly wishing to see the Buddha, not caring for their own lives. Then I, with all the Sangha, appear together on the divine vulture peak, and then I tell all creatures that I exist forever in this world by the power of tactful methods, revealing myself extinct and not extinct. If in other regions there are beings reverent and with faith aspiring, again I am in their midst to preach the supreme law. You not hearing of this only say I am extinct. I behold all living creatures. sunk in the sea of suffering.

[73:43]

Hence, I do not reveal myself, but set them all aspiring till when their hearts are longing, I will appear to preach the law and such supernaturally pervading power throughout us samkhya kalpas. I am always on the divine vulture peak and in every other dwelling place. When all the living see at the kalpa's end, the conflagration when it is burning. Tranquil is this realm of mine, ever filled with heavenly beings, parks and many palaces with every kind of gem adorned, precious trees full of blossoms and fruits where all creatures take their pleasure. All the gods strike the heavenly drums and evermore make music, showering mandorava flowers on the Buddha and his great assembly. My pure land will never be destroyed, yet all view it as being burned up, and grief and horror and distress fill them all like this.

[74:49]

All the sinful creatures, by reason of their evil karma, throughout asamkhya kalpas, hear not the name of the precious three, but all who perform virtuous deeds and are gentle and of upright nature, these all see that I exist. And I'm here expounding the law at times for all this throng. I preach that the Buddha's life is eternal to those who at length see the Buddha. I preach that a Buddha is rarely met. My intelligence power is such my wisdom. Light shines infinitely. My life is of countless kalpas from long cultivated karma obtained. You who have intelligence do not in regard to this beget doubt. but bring it forever to an end. For the Buddha's words are true, not false, like the physician who, with clever device, in order to cure his demented sons, though indeed alive, announces his own death, yet cannot be charged with falsehood.

[75:57]

I, too, being father of this world, who heals all misery and affliction for the sake of the perverted people, though truly alive, say I am extinct. lest because always seeing me they should beget arrogant minds, be dissolute and set in their five desires, and fall into evil paths. I, ever knowing all beings, those who walk or walk not in the way, According to my right principles of salvation, expound their every law. Ever making this my thought, how shall I cause all the living to enter the way supreme and speedily accomplish their Buddhahood? Om.

[78:04]

Namo Myoho Renge Kyo Namo Myoho Renge Kyo Namo Myoho Renge Kyo Again, thank you very much. It's been very nice.

[79:22]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ