Ordination and the Bodhisattva Way

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Saturday Lecture

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yeah i
jason
tigers words
get it

huh
huh
huh
huh
one

hey

today
this afternoon were having a this damn layered emission at the berkeley and sensitive
how many people have been had had layered nation for gk before bedtime some people from a
suzuki roshi and some people from baker russian
but this is the first time help on this premises at our place
and i asked a quraishi to do it for us
hum
i suppose we could have waited until i was able to in a position to
give people or nation
but i felt that i would like to do it
senate to give us some feeling of
some time
strong feeling a practice
and for our practice and to help us understand time
what we're doing
so i asked bigger should do it
when suzuki roshi
when people who are studying suzuki roshi first had layered admission or he asked on bishop your mother
how to do it at that time bishop yamato was
the representative of the soto
a school in los angeles and is a bishop enough who resides in america from the center school and he has a temple in los angeles
ha en at that time i was bishop yamada
and dumb
so he has bishop you might have to give the first layered nation for zen center supper students there was that nineteen
sixty two or something sixty three
hum
at that time i was about ten or twelve people
and and
ah
the baker him go kong
for both are in that group
and then
that was before i came to them for their i kinda when are making are and sixty four
and then much later in ah
nineteen seventy
hum suzuki roshi decided to give people a recognition there was quite a gap between ah
the first woman in the second one quite a long period of time
how between the time the bishop yamada i gave people a or nation and the time that superior she did it
he actually obtained several priests before their time
and i was ordained in as a priest donating for a month where you are caught in nineteen sixty nine
and then in nineteen seventy
from this is akira she decided to
give another layer ignition
and
so he did it himself this time and
thereafter he didn't he did all the layered nations
and
category bush she did it went swim suit your she was too sick
with are scheduled an end security couldn't do it so the category where she didn't content
no but i went to
ah
read suzuki roshi is talk that he gave that
i printed it in the last newsletter
don't talk of a bit about it
when he gave that secondly ordination

i uk you know to kai means
choose
leads to a it's a can double word or double meaning word it means to give and at the same time is to receive
so it has that feeling of them
transfer answer
am
giving and receiving in this senses being i'm not too different things
when we're just both meetings
k is to our precepts
so idk means are giving and receiving precepts
tom
the bodhisattva precepts
so that's what to say what he is ceremony receiving giving and receiving bodhisattva precepts
so a saluki where she says
as we have so many students here inside and outside of zen center we need more help
i decided to have a layered nation for you all students just in order to help others not to give some special idea of lay buddhist for what a lay buddhist is because all of us are buddhists actually
every sentient being as a bodhisattva whether or not he is aware of it
as this is our conviction i didn't want to give you some special idea of lay buddhist but the time has come for us to strive more sincerely to help others
that's interesting because lot of the people who are taking a guy
i are older lot of our older students people have been practicing for as long as eleven twelve years
but and no-one shorter than six years
the and on it's actually about time you know it
should have been ah
long ago that the desperate
hum
i'm glad that we're doing it now
so superior as he says i didn't want to give people with arc
some special idea of
what ah lay buddhist is and
in other words you know he didn't want to feel that if he gave someone ordination that they would feel that it was on
some hierarchical step
ha
hard to the person had some special qualities
but
it gets more like fulfilling our bodhisattva vow
in order to help ah sentient beings be studying buddhism and we practice
can in order to
confirm or at the practice that we've been doing
we take an initiation
so in a sense because you're already practicing as bodhisattvas huge i
feel the bodhisattva balance our
what you already have
so it's like a confirmation of what you've already been doing rather than some new step
it's not not understand stamp pads
i remember when i am some ordained in either category rush economic team he said well do you feel any different
you know

so then he says array is like abba key dish for a bodhisattva
when he wants to save ladies he takes the form of a lady for boys boise the way he touched for his lady
for boy he takes the form of a boy for a fisherman he becomes a fisherman the more sophisticated chinese expression is to be like a white bird in the snow
when people are like snow we should be like snow when people become black we should be black
and always being with him without any idea of discrimination and we can help others in it's true sense without giving anything any special teaching materials this is actually the body said away this is in a march
a difficult way ah
skillful way of upon practice
that's right
suzuki know she wasn't so
pam
keen on whether a person was a lay person or a monk of course if you're a priest in are you appreciate other priests spring much
but
and innovate and you feel very special about them
but am
ah
bodhisattva practice in our is how to be how to move
invisibly
ah be to be like a white bird in the snow
nice to not stand out in some special way as a buddhist
tom but ah to know how to become
a blend with things and become what things are
so that you can help people in any kind of situation
that's why you may feel that your work as a hindrance to practice that actually it's ours the field of practice
that's sam
ah the practice of being a white bird in the snow
you know need some special place
ah to practice that for you are
where you practice
helping people in every situation
soft the mind is the foundation of our practice to help others
and you may think that we are forcing you into some form foresee some rituals and you are some special teaching forcing you to say yes i will
but these things i provided for you just to be like a white bird in the snow
the when you have ordination
ha
you asked would you receive these precepts from say yes i will say just like that yes i will
ha
and various things are asked during the ordination you say yes i will
ah so that's what he's referring to here i guess i will
when you practice does in this way
you have the point of zazen and the point of practice
this is why we had an ordination ceremony today none of us including various great teachers find it easy to be like a white bird in the snow
but somehow we should make our best effort if you help yourself
through practice ah if you help yourself by way of practice you can help others without anything without using any special needs
just to be with people will be enough
in spite of your busy everyday lives you found time to so your actions that it's your small role
i think this is a good example of the buddhist way even though we are busy there is some way to practice the most formal practice
even though all human beings in the city are busy there is no reason why they cannot practise or way if all join our practice of being a bodhisattva the result will be great
hum
roxio in our is
as small room that we were
and are the people who have been
ah ha are being ordained have been sewing their exes one stitch at a time
and it's taken about a year has been
but how about a year it doesn't have to take year it can be done in a month
bedtime you have to be pretty free to have to do in a month and then they've been around
ha
sewing with that blanche
heartburn
the teaches
people to so isn't and notes and the island in the rock so is laid out in very special way
it just like this robe in our deserve a large road
and am
presto and priest also wears rags who like friends wearing gowns
informally formerly we were there
okay sir
have this this is okay so for case it means oh in some mince isn't honorific turn
hum
mince pie
special feeling
a dog in put a lot of emphasis on using the term old
toward everything ah tom and he said everyone you explain everything you ah
address it should adjust what using the term up there or and
some elevated feeling about it
so a he said it's okay sir
and i'm
ah
so
big rock sioux and okay so i really made in the same way
and each time you make a stitch
hum
do you say monkey kibbutzim sir vince
i take refuge in put subject that
and each stitch has to be just exactly
ah
come up with any copy down again
he make a little not like
and then you fall is very straight lines and each stitch has to be just exactly the same space apart
takes a long long time to do it
as a very concentrated activity so if you make iraq through
so iraq so
it's something you have to really want to do
the
almost every sunday they've been going to their clients for a year
spending several hours sewing
and if they get it wrong they get it wrong that take the stitches to the reader
so we appreciate this kind of
effort to do something
and it gives us a very intimate feeling about

our practice

i never had the opportunity to vote so
my okay sir
this is the first occasion it was sown and sensitive
and then i think nippon mrs category and the few other people worked on it
and was a kind of experiment
and where i think of
but a six or eight of these cases that were made that time
and this was the first one
and i'm
it's it was made out of old pad the old road that leads to work as a hurry
old grey robes that we used to wear the and
am
so i didn't really have the opportunity to make when and after that people started sewing your own roads i made a rock sioux
they took me four years to finish it
i asked the security if i should make a so he said you're too busy or don't think he should do it
why did it anyway
how did you everyone
i don't have
no there's some cough drops you to advocate paint mrs fine thank you again
ah
owning is citizen worked and call them most of his round got a cold
it's i'm just about overnight you know i didn't seem like them
so it's going to be very nice to have more people wearing a road ah
in rosendo and ten around here
at times i felt very lonely and
i'm not having more are people come for a date
so i never did have layered in is neither
usually in others that you take steps to play or donation of gk in tokyo which is priest ordination
remarks are a nation and am
the dharma transmission
there are other
kinds of ordination out of that
but i was ordained as a month before and since i didn't have that take the step of a layered nation but i think it's good
to do that to have
chugai first and then
so handsome
on
you get a feeling ah
for on that kind of our
a confirmation
and somehow in a having this piece of material material thing
this our form was formed
ah know sometimes we say
why do we need to do that in a and practicing and practicing for ten years what's the difference if i have a piece of platinum
we get that kind of feeling
i'm
but there's something
important about the tangibility of things
i'm
having you know in the morning you
put the rocks are uncovered your head gentle
roach said
and am
haven't you were the regime and would take care of it in a very special way
he folded in just the right way and trying to bag
and it's something you carry it carefully and if if you carry nothing else if you do nothing else carefully he should take care of your robe carefully
and
taking care of your room very carefully is
gives you some sense of practice just having to take care of that ah piece of cloth
ah helps you to realize how you take care of everything
ha
when you were if if you're a monk and you were a monk's robes
you're always fooling with the sleeves and now i'm filling the the european and can appear to give on a chilly night flying around with their own basic similar awaiting may be getting impatient
you know and it's it really focuses you earn
ah ha you take care of yourself and how you take care of things
and hey take care of others
ah
the road that people were it since and and i have short sleeves at to bad as much with him but we resist the where the long-sleeve droves like this
then
they take a lot more bother you know eyes filling with your sleeves
ah seems like a lot of by the way would i have so much stuff you know when you can just trimmed down to be more
an easy by things went by burden yourself or something else
that's interesting concept
it's really am
we know we need to know how to take on some kind of ah burn or some kind of ah difficulty or something that slows us down
ah
if we going to help people know than
helping people slows us down
i am taking care of people were taking care of
the world taking care of our situation always slows us down
and the
we need to be able to take care of things gracefully
i even though things are slowing us down
sometimes you know it's like walking through our as a river you know what it's really coming down hard and
take one step out the other in are just trying to stand up sometimes when life is like that
and we need to know how to be able to do that ah when we have to
it's i think there's a tendency in our world today to strip ourself down so that we don't have to streamline
so that we don't so we'd go faster
streamlining is
i remember when they came out with
ah he never nineteen thirty five thirty six the old mash was streamlined for streamlined car the i am the from top to the bag and went like this teardrop shape
in the teardrop shape
can't taken up by general motors perfected in the nineteen fifty chevy
nice to have windows
but
it's like the attempted of
get rid of everything that hinders you going faster
ah
and but when we do that you know we neglect
it's easy to neglect things to ah the faster you go the less opportunity have to take care of things are to take care of people around you or help people it's easier it becomes a burden everything that that catches on you becomes a burden
ah
so more and more we can to neglect
things around us as we become more streamlined and more a fast
we don't want anything holding us back
a bodhisattva way is to
ah
let things hold you back
to be hindered by things
and
to not be up in the friend
you know
not at all costs to be our
at the head of the line

and
bodhisattvas freedom is in being able to change like ah
a chameleon to take on the color of the situation
that your it
as secure as she said to blend with our surroundings
so we're not so much in a hurry to get someplace or
to make a name for herself
i gained some fame for herself for be some kind of worldly success
am
just to
when we can forget about them then we continue our attention to just a bodhisattva work
just helping people in allowing herself to be hindered
huh
i'm i'm not gonna give a very long talk today because come
we're going to have the ordination in the new sendo and to still lot of work to be done
to clean up the place and get everything in order and set up
so that we can start on time
so
i'm going to go
stop there if there's anybody who can help this afternoon cleaning up
and then feel free to do that and wheels are welcome here but his patient

the