I vow to chase the truth This morning I thought that I would review the meal chant. I think a lot of the older people probably know what everything is about here. I think a lot of people don't.

[01:04]

And I kind of wonder what is all this, what are we referring to? So I just thought I'd go through it and talk about it. It starts out by talking about the various parts of Buddha's life, significant aspects of Buddha's life in India. So Buddha was born at Lumbini. I think that recently, right last week, a couple of weeks ago, that there was some excavation being done at Lumbini, which kind of verified the fact that Buddha was born there. I can't remember exactly what it was. He was enlightened at Bodhgaya under the bow tree. He taught at Paranasi, among other places, and entered Nirvana, Paranirvana, at Kushinagara.

[02:13]

And then he says, now we open Buddha Tathagata's eating bowls. We say, these are my eating bowls. But actually, they're Buddha Tathagata's eating bowls. When we eat with these bowls, we are Shakyamuni Buddha. We are 35 Shakyamuni Buddhas. There are actually innumerable Shakyamuni Buddhas. When we sit Zazen, we're no longer Joe and Mary. We are Buddha nature. So we relate to each other as Buddha. And it's not my practice, it's Buddha's practice. I think it's very important to remember this. It's not my practice.

[03:17]

My practice is a self-centered practice, which is not Buddha's practice. So when we sit zazen, This is Buddha's practice. I think we should remember that. When we eat, we're eating with Buddha's eating bowls. The first bowl is our orioke, or the bowl which holds just enough. And we call it Buddha's head. So now we open Buddha to target us eating bowls and we're allowed to eat with them. May all be free from self-clinging.

[04:18]

So this is the kind of prayer that we have, actually. May all be free from self-clinging. which is the essence of Dharma. When we're free from self-clinging, then our essence of mind expresses itself clearly without any hindrance. So the point is, to be free from self-clinging is the purpose of practice. So this is the opening statement. And then it says we have the homages to the various, actually these are the names of Buddha.

[05:29]

We say homage to the Dharmakaya, Vairochana Buddha, homage to the Sambhogakaya, Lochana Buddha, homage to the Nirmanakaya, Sakya Muni Buddha, homage to the future Maitreya Buddha, homage to all Buddhas in the ten directions, past, present, and future, homage to the Mahayana, Sadharmapundarika Sutra, homage to Monjushri, the perfect wisdom Bodhisattva, homage to Samantabhadra, the Shining Practice Bodhisattva, homage to Avalokitesvara, the Infinite Compassion Bodhisattva, homage to the many Bodhisattva Mahasattvas, and homage to the Maha Prajnaparamita. So the first three, the Dharmakaya Viruchana Buddha, the Sambhogakaya Lochana Buddha, and the Nirmanakaya Shakyamuni Buddha, Perhaps it would be helpful if people wanted to get out their chant cards.

[06:47]

Or if they're under your seat, you can get them out. Follow along. Sure. That's fine. So these first three are called the trikaya, the three bodies, three bodies of Buddha. the Dharma body, the wisdom body, and the manifestation body of Buddha. This is what the Sixth Patriarch says about them. The first is the Dharmakaya Buddha is your nature, your essential nature. The Sambhogakaya Buddha is your wisdom and the Sambhogakaya, the Nirmanakaya Buddha is your appropriate action, your manifestation as a person.

[08:05]

Buddha manifested as a person. So this, the Trikaya came about because in order to universalize Buddha, originally Buddha was a nirmanakaya, just nirmanakaya, just this person. And then in order to create a universal religion around this person, the early Buddhists had to establish a cosmological inclusiveness. So in order to do that, there has to be a cosmic Buddha. a cosmic focus, a cosmic energy that creates, from which everything extends.

[09:25]

So, they developed the Dharmakaya. Mahayana's developed the Dharmakaya, concept of Dharmakaya, which is the Dharma body of Buddha. And Vairocana is the personification of the Dharmakaya Buddha. Vairocana is like the primal Buddha, which doesn't come or go. representation of Buddha nature, which essentially has no coming or going and is the potential for all existence, for all phenomena. All phenomena are expressions of Bhairavachana Buddha, who is the embodiment of the Dharmakaya.

[10:35]

So, Vairagyana, in esoteric Buddhism, Vairagyana is the central figure, the central Buddha. And around, well I won't go into esoteric Buddhism, Sambhogakaya is the wisdom body of Vairochana, or the Dharmakaya. The Dharmakaya cannot be seen as a thing, but everything is its manifestation. Sambhogakaya is like the wisdom of the Dharmakaya manifest in this world.

[11:50]

So your wisdom, your non-dual wisdom, your wisdom of reality is called the Sambhogakaya. the Sambhogakaya, Lochana Buddha. Lochana is a name, another name for Amitabha, Amida Buddha, which is, who is the Buddha of infinite light. So infinite light is enlightenment or wisdom. Wisdom is a manifestation of infinite light. And nirmanakaya, Shakyamuni Buddha, nirmanakaya, it means the manifested person who is Shakyamuni Buddha, the first, not the first Buddha, but the Buddha of our, from which our Buddhism extends.

[13:06]

There's a sutra that has a list of maybe 3,000 names of buddhas of the past. I don't know how many, but it's a lot. They're all wonderful names. But we say, usually we say the seven buddhas before Buddha, which stands for all those innumerable buddhas of the past. So when Shakyamuni announced his Buddhahood, he said, I am not the first Buddha. All I did was discover the ancient path, which was covered over with brambles, which no one had been walking on for a long time. So Shakyamuni Buddha is not a god.

[14:18]

Shakyamuni Buddha is a person who uncovered true nature, his true nature, and disclosed the reality of our life to us. So, Shakyamuni Buddha is revered not as a god or a deity, but as someone who has discovered the path and who has given us the practice. Dharmakaya, or Vairochana Buddha, is not a deity either, although in Buddhism, Vairochana comes closest to being a deity.

[15:31]

There's a book called The Gods of Northern Buddhism, but I think the word god is not right. Anyway, so in order to express where Shakyamuni came from, they developed the idea of a larger Buddha, which is the universal Buddha, which is the universe, that are greater than the universe. the ultimate Source. And Shakyamuni is an expression of that ultimate Source. So that's why we are all expressions of that ultimate Source, and we are the innumerable Shakyamuni Buddhas.

[16:39]

because we can practice the same practice that Shakyamuni practiced. We have all the same qualities. And they say, as it is said, all the ancestors were the same as we before their realization. So the three bodies of Buddha, are a way of looking at our true nature, our manifested nature, our wisdom nature, and our essential nature. And the three bodies are associated with the eight aspects of consciousness, and the four wisdoms, which I talk about frequently.

[17:45]

The sixth ancestor says, if you talk about the four wisdoms without talking about the three bodies of Buddha, you have wisdom without... disembodied wisdoms. Wisdoms without a body. So you have to talk about consciousnesses in connection with the three bodies of Buddha. So the Dharmakaya is associated with the eighth consciousness, which is the alaya-vijnana, the storehouse consciousness, which contains all the seeds of memory. sometimes equated with the psychological collective unconscious, but it's not the same.

[18:57]

And sambhogakaya is associated with the delusive consciousness, the seventh consciousness, which is ego. The nirmanakaya is associated with mind consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses. And when we talk about consciousness, when in the realm of illusion, illusory realm or delusion, and when the Eight Consciousnesses are turned, turned around. They're expressed as the Four Wisdoms. So, when the Alaya Vijnana, the Eighth Consciousness, is turned around, it becomes the Great Round Mirror Wisdom, which reflects everything without bias.

[20:15]

sees everything as it is, clearly, which is the ultimate purpose of practice. And when the seventh consciousness, the ego, is turned around on its basis, it becomes the wisdom of great equality seeing the equality of everything, leveling everything to sameness. It turns delusion into wisdom. And when the sixth consciousness, the mind consciousness, is turned and it becomes the wisdom of subtle observation, it's able to understand the essence of each individual thing intuitively without going through the process of thinking.

[21:42]

And when the sense consciousnesses are turned around, they become the wisdom of perfection of action, based on the other three. So then we speak of the four wisdoms. So the three bodies... I don't know if I explained that completely. When the alaya turns around, that's the dharmakaya.

[22:50]

The sambhogakaya is like when the ego consciousness is tempered. It becomes wisdom of equality or non-discrimination. And the nirmanakaya is the body of subtle observation. perfecting of action, wisdom. It's a little complicated, a little complex, but consciousness is spoken of as wisdom when one is enlightened. Before enlightenment, it's called consciousness. So, all of this, a lot of the things in the meal chant and in our service are gleaned from esoteric Buddhism.

[24:23]

Zen itself has no such ideas. Zen is without concepts, really. But we use the concepts of other schools in order to express certain ideas. And I think we have to remember that. Zen itself is very simple. And Zen is kind of like water. I always like to use the analogy of water to express our Zen. Because water has no boundary of its own. And it takes the shape of whatever container it meets. And it's always subject to gravity.

[25:25]

and is always being pulled to the lowest place. And wherever it, whatever it meets, it takes that shape. But, and you can't fool water. Water's really hard to fool. And the great test of water is plumbing. If you've ever been under the sink, you know, trying to get that pipe straight and tight, so forth, think that this is it. I know it'll work now. You turn on the faucet, drip, drip, drip. It has to be just right to hold it. So we use various concepts from other schools of Buddhism.

[26:37]

And the chants that we do come from the esoteric schools, the Shingon mostly. Although there is Zen literature, Zen literature is the colons, but the philosophy comes from other schools. So the Avatamsaka Sutra is considered one of the basic Zen texts. It's not a Zen text, but it's a text that the Zen masters felt expressed their philosophy the best. But there's also other sutras, and all the sutras are held in high esteem by the Zen school, but they don't belong to the Zen school.

[27:43]

So then we say homage to the future Maitreya Buddha, the Buddha of loving kindness, who will appear at some point in the world, and that will usher in the era of love in the world. Now it's the era of confusion. And then homage to all the Buddhas in the ten directions, past, present, and future. homage to the Mahayana Sadharma Pundarika Sutra, that's the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra vies for first place for the Avatamsaka Sutra as the great Mahayana sutras. But the Lotus Sutra is considered the high point of Mahayana.

[28:55]

So is the Avatamsaka Sutra, so it's hard to say. But Dogen himself was very taken with the Lotus Sutra, which describes the purpose of a Buddha And then homage to Manjushri, the perfect wisdom bodhisattva, homage to Samantabhadra, the shining practice bodhisattva, and homage to Avalokiteśvara, the infinite compassion bodhisattva. So these are the three bodhisattvas who personify our practice. Just like the three bodies of Buddha personify who we are, the three bodhisattvas personify our life as a bodhisattva. So Manjushri, of course, is the bodhisattva of wisdom and Samantabhadra of practice and Avalokiteshvara of compassion.

[30:14]

So wisdom and compassion are the two legs of practice. Wisdom without compassion leads to cunning and arrogance. And compassion without wisdom doesn't have any direction. So they really complement each other, and it's very necessary. And in the middle is Samantabhadra riding his elephant. The elephant is the symbol of Buddhist practice. It's like one foot down, and very solidly, and then the next foot down, very solidly. The elephant's practice is often compared to the rabbit's practice.

[31:17]

The rabbit's are founding along. So Monjushri is usually pictured, often pictured, riding a lion. And the lion is kind of like our great passion of nature. And the wisdom sits comfortably, comfortably riding on top. And Samantabhadra, who is the epitome of practice. Sometimes Samantabhadra is called compassion too. But I like it better when he's the epitome of practice. Riding the elephant very steadily and for a long, long time.

[32:22]

And Avalokiteshvara, the infinite compassion bodhisattva. is usually pictured holding a little vase from which he pours, or he or she. I think Avalokiteshvara is kind of androgynous, sometimes a man, sometimes a woman, and actually can be anything, anybody, and appears in various guises in order to help beings. It can appear actually in any guise to help beings. And when you're out in the world, you are Avalokiteśvara. You are all three, actually. Your practice is to find a way to be in the world as practice, with wisdom,

[33:32]

discernment and with compassion in a kind of anonymous way, helping beings without making any particular show of it. This is how you practice in the world to hide your dust, hide your light in the dust. Bury your light in the dust so that it permeates without being attractive or offensive. So then we say homage to the many Bodhisattva, Mahasattvas. Mahasattva means

[34:33]

a great being. So, when you practice, you practice Bodhisattva practice. But there are also great beings who are Bodhisattvas. So, there is a great being within you. So in some way, you know, Buddhist cosmology developed kind of cosmic Buddhas and cosmic Bodhisattvas. And the Zen masters kind of brought that all down to earth. Never mind the Bodhisattvas and Buddhas in the sky.

[35:40]

Pay attention to the Bodhisattvas and Buddhas within yourself. You are Shakyamuni Buddha. You are Avalokiteshvara. You are Manjushri. Bring out the Manjushri that resides within yourself. And then, it says homage to the Maha Prajnaparamita, homage to the perfection of wisdom. And then the second part, innumerable labors brought us this food, expresses the interdependence of all beings. There's no way that we can possibly trace the grains of rice that appear in our bowl, but we can appreciate the various labors

[36:45]

The original says 72 labors brought us this food, this rice. That's what it literally says, 72 labors. 72 just is another number meaning innumerable. But you could sit down and find out all the 72 labors that, at least, it'd be an interesting thing And then we said, may we know how it comes to us. So we should appreciate how it comes to us. And if we really knew how it came to us, we'd be astonished. Receiving this offering, let us consider whether our virtue and practice deserve it. Well, this comes, as you know, from the monks' practice, because monks are supported through their work of being virtuous.

[37:47]

So if a monk isn't virtuous in practice, they don't deserve the offering. That's the only means of support they have, is through people's offerings. And people have always supported the monks with offerings because of their practice. So there's no other way. doesn't receive offerings from people, then he starves to death or she starves to death. So, of course, there have always been corrupt monks. So this is what this is about. Receiving this offering that we should, we say we should, but we say let us consider whether our virtue and practice deserve it. And desiring the natural order of mind, let us be free from greed, hate, and delusion."

[38:57]

The natural order of mind is nirvana. Nirvana, sometimes we get confused, you know, we think that nirvana is some special state, or some great, you know, thing beyond human understanding. But nirvana is simply the absence of greed, ill will and delusion. It's our natural state of mind, natural order of mind. We're not trying to gain some special thing that nobody else has. If you want to gain some special thing that nobody else has in order to have power over people, or in order to set yourself up in a secure way, or in order to be wealthy, that's not nirvana. Or to have some ecstatic state. Be always in an ecstatic state.

[40:00]

Maybe that's nirvana. Nirvana is simply the norm. But we don't experience the norm. We're all abnormal. Subnormal. It's very hard to eat plain food, you know. We always want something a little more than plain food. But nirvana is maybe plain food. It's simply the absence of greed, ill will and delusion. It sounds simple, but it's not simple.

[41:07]

It's a pure mind, pure aspect. But purity is to be found within the impure. So we have to be very careful when we toss these words around. Nirvana is not the absence of samsara. we get stuck when we start thinking that way. So it's a kind of koan. Samsara is nirvana, nirvana is samsara. That's the koan. It's not something that you can easily figure out with your rational mind. But the natural order of mind Actually, we eat to support our life, literally.

[42:22]

We eat to support this life of this person and in order to practice. We eat to support life and to practice. It's more literally, we eat to support this life in order to practice the way of Buddha. I think if we just took the and out, we eat to support life, to practice the way of Buddha. So eating has a purpose. Two purposes. One is to support this, but in order to practice. But we certainly enjoy it. It's one of the problems. And then we say, this food is for the three treasures, for the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

[43:31]

The three treasures is actually the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. But each one of us is the three treasures. You are Buddha, you are Dharma, and you are also Sangha. And so there's particular three treasures, then there's the great three treasures. This food is for the three treasures. It's for our teachers, family, and all people. It's for all beings in the six worlds. You know the six worlds, the worlds of heaven, heavenly realm, the fighting demon realm, the human realm, the animal realm, the hell realm, and the hungry ghost realm, in which we're constantly going from one to the other.

[44:43]

The first portion is for the precepts, and the second is for the practice of samadhi. This is a kind of interpretation, actually. Literally, it says, we eat to stop all evil, and to practice good. That's more literal. It's the three pure precepts. to stop all evil, to practice good, and to save all beings. Those are the three pure precepts. You know, the first of the three precepts, the first three precepts are to take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. And the next, the three pure precepts are to stop evil, to do good, and to help all beings, to work for the benefit of all beings. Those are the three pure precepts. And then there's the ten They're mind precepts. So those six precepts are stated here, but the ten, of course, don't need to be in this.

[46:02]

So the third is to save all beings. Thus we eat this food and awaken with everyone. So that's kind of nice. We eat this food and awaken with everyone. And then we say at the end, the water with which we wash these bowls tastes like ambrosia. It's not ambrosia, but it tastes like it. We offer it to the various spirits. These are the pretas, or the hungry ghosts, actually. We offer it to the various spirits to satisfy them. In the monastery, when we have When we eat, we take a little bit of rice or whatever out of the first bowl and put it on the end of the setsu, the washing stick. And then during the meal, they come around with a little hook and a dustpan, just like a little dustpan, and they take it off the end of the stick.

[47:10]

And that's our offering. to the various spirits. And then they collect the water, which is also an offer. You know, when you wash your second bowl and you pour some of the water into the third bowl, and you drink the water that's left in the second bowl. Right? at the second bowl, and then there's a little bit of water left. Then you have the third bowl, which has some water in it. And then you pour most of the water from the third bowl into the bucket, but you keep some. And then you bow to the server, and you drink that, because you also are one of the hungry ghosts. You're sharing the water with the hungry ghosts.

[48:14]

So remember to do that. Also, I made this little remark during breakfast, to be aware of the people on either side of you. And when you're unfolding your orioke, or folding it back up, and you see that they're confused, you know, like, I can't figure out, you know, because they're way behind, and everybody else has got their orioke going, you know, Oh, I missed that step. You know, they're confused. Say something. You know, don't just sit there ignoring them. Be aware of what they're doing on either side of you. So that if they're... That's how we learn from each other. We have to kind of learn from each other. We have a little bit of instruction, but to do orioke well, you have to do it over and over again every day. And even Zen.

[49:20]

You repeat your mistakes over and over again until it becomes the way to do it. So it's good to look around and help each other, remind each other of the way to do it. I'm sorry, but please do that. So the water with which we wash these bowls tastes like ambrosia, and we offer some of it to the various spirits to satisfy them. Various spirits to satisfy them. Om. Tatsugami Roshi used to say, this is just a table om. You know, the Tibetans go, om, right? It's just a table home. Just a little home. You don't carry it out.

[50:22]

It's just home, maha, makurasai. But in Sanskrit it's maha kushalaya, which means You know, kushala and akushala. Kushala is wholesome or good. And akushala is unwholesome or bad. So, ah om makura sang. It means to goodness, you know. To that which is sweet or wonderful. And swaha is like just an exclamation. So be it. It's untranslatable, but it's just a kind of exclamation. So, do you have one question?

[51:32]

It seems like the service that we do is to acknowledge so many unseen things that we don't understand. Which service? The service, the meal service, the chanting that we do in some way acknowledges all these forces. In a certain way, it gave people reassurance in acknowledging spirits. It sort of takes in folk. There's a lot of folk belief in a little superstition and various stuff, but it's nice because it kind of satisfies that aspect of ourself. We're all superstitious, and that's good. A little superstition, to acknowledge a little superstition. in our lives is okay because it's part of human nature.

[52:39]

Yeah. Isn't that kind of acknowledging the unknown? Yeah, it kind of acknowledges that which you can't explain or, you know, stuff that hovers around. And you can't quite explain it, and so you include it in some way, express it in some way, yeah. I was surprised when you said that the names of Buddhism came from Shingon and that we have these chants and so forth from Shingon Buddhism or whatever. And I'm just curious because you could say a little bit about the connection between Zen and some of these other schools that it draws from. I'll do that next time. That would be a good subject for another talk. Peace, love and grace.

[53:47]

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