Today commemorates Buddha's Parinirvana. In our tradition, the 15th of February is Buddha's Parinirvana, but today we have a one-day sitting, so we have a modest ceremony at six o'clock. Buddhist parinirvana. There are three main Buddhist holidays around Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana. And in the Theravada tradition, they celebrate them all on the same day.

[01:02]

all at once. In our tradition we do one at a time. Parinirvana, nirvana of course, is enlightenment. Understanding our true nature, truly understanding our true nature, and living in accordance with that understanding. So nirvana has two aspects. One is called nirvana with remainder and the other is nirvana without remainder. So nirvana with remainder means nirvana to enjoy nirvana while living in the world.

[02:12]

And para-nirvana means nirvana which is dying, or when Buddha died, passed away, passed on, that was called para-nirvana, great nirvana, or nirvana of the other shore. So nirvana and para-nirvana are just two aspects of the same thing, but they use the term para-nirvana nirvana as the experience of this world. But nirvana has, for the last 2,500 years, people have been trying to figure out what nirvana means or how to express that in words.

[03:24]

But simply speaking, Nirvana is the realization of our true nature of no self, no ego. And to not be under the domination of greed, ill will, or delusion. Sounds simple, but not so simple. Well, all we have to do is not be under the domination of greed, ill will, and delusion. Simple. But the simplest things are the most difficult.

[04:31]

for instance, leading a simple life, probably the most difficult. So simply speaking, to be rid of greed, ill will and delusion is nirvana. By being rid of means to cut off the roots So greed, ill will and delusion are called the three poisonous roots which turn the wheel of samsara or turn the wheel of continual becoming, rebirth, moment by moment. in the realm of greed, anger, delusion and suffering.

[05:41]

So these three roots are the main roots of our suffering. There are other kinds of suffering in this world, but the fruits of greed, anger and delusion are what we are talking about when we talk about Buddha as the great physician who says it's possible to be free from suffering. And the kinds of suffering that he's talking about is the suffering caused by greed, ill will, and delusion. So Buddha's passing away from this world in human form is called parinirvana, the great decease.

[06:59]

And it means that Buddha was no longer subject to domination by greed, ill will, and delusion. that as a human being he was in complete harmony with everything in the universe and no longer needed an ego or a sense of individual self. He was free from the restraint of an individual self. So, there's several traditions in which they say, these are Buddha's last words.

[08:13]

This is Buddha's last teaching. In the Mahayana, Parinirvana Sutra, It says, when Buddha was just about to pass away, to give up this body, he gave his monks his last teaching. Not only monks, but lay people. He gave his monks and lay followers his last teaching, which is called the Eight Aspects of an enlightened person. So I want to talk a little bit about what we consider to be Buddha's last teaching. Coincidentally, this is also Dogen Zenji's last teaching. When Dogen was about to give up his body, he also reiterated the eight aspects

[09:25]

of the enlightened person. And it appears in Dogen's Shobo Ginza. So the eight aspects which Buddha taught as his last teaching First is to have very few desires. And the second is to know how to be content with what we already have, or with very little, or content with what's given to us. And third is to be able to enjoy serenity and tranquility. And the fourth is to manifest wholehearted effort.

[10:36]

And the sixth is not forgetting right thought. And just leave him alone and he'll take care of himself. Thank you. Seventh is practicing samadhi. Well, that's the sixth, practicing samadhi. Seventh is cultivating wisdom. And the eighth is not indulging in idle speech. We have a bee, but it just come to share the Dharma with us. Nothing to worry about. So, first one, having few desires, has to do with our greediness.

[12:16]

But, you know, when we think about our practice right now, It's really not different from Buddha's practice more than 2,500 years ago. We still have the same problems, same practice, same... We think in very similar ways. But yet today we have our own problems. And when we think about, especially right now, we have a war going and problems that we don't want are visited upon us. And it's very hard to deal with and change the world in a way that we find satisfactory.

[13:25]

So it's really important to be able to have some effect on the world. How can we have an effect on the world? You know, you can't go out and change circumstances. very easily. Circumstances will change, and we do have an effect on circumstances, but even when we get it right and you sit down and think, wow, that's wonderful, next moment you turn around and it's all changed again. Have you ever noticed how you get it right and you turn around and it's all changed again? This happens. So an important thing that we can do is to work on our own state of mind.

[14:37]

So Buddha says having few desires is one of the most important ways of having an effect on the world. Rather than always only trying to work on changing the world from the outside, the effective way to change the world is from the inside. The most effective way to change the world is from the inside. because the outward manifestation is an aspect of the inner manifestation. If we know how to live according to dharma, to write dharma, then that would create an enormous influence on the world.

[15:51]

But if we only react to circumstances, forgetting how to cultivate right dharma, then we'll have good circumstances and bad circumstances alternating with each other, but nothing will last. So Buddha exhorts us to plant good roots. And this is the place where everyone is free to work and where there's a real result. Even if you can't change outer circumstances, you can always deal with the inner circumstances, the inner person. So he says, having few desires, which is almost impossible.

[16:54]

very difficult to have few desires. In this world of ours, we're constantly besieged with temptation to raise the ante on desires. Desire is so susceptible. Our desire level is so susceptible and we play on that susceptibility. Something wonderful passes under our nose and it smells so good. Something wonderful passes in front of our eyes and it looks so good. Something wonderful passes through our ears and it sounds so good. something passes under our touch and it feels so good.

[17:57]

How can we have some kind of true self-control and not allow ourself to be constantly manipulated through the senses? and through our idea. The mind is also a sense organ. So we're constantly being manipulated, allowing ourselves to be manipulated through the senses and through the mind. And then we lose ourselves. for a while, but unhappy, because no matter how much we want, it's not enough.

[19:06]

So Buddha says, knowing how to be satisfied with what we have. So these two go together. Not having few desires and knowing how to be satisfied. with what we have. I find it very difficult myself, and I know that we all find it difficult. That's why practice is so difficult. It's simple, but hard to do. And through desire, through raising the ante of desire, we keep exploiting through that through that mode we keep exploiting the world because and destroying the world just through desire because we feel we want so much

[20:24]

We're just actually destroying the world through our unbridled desire and discontent. So Buddha says, calm down. If you know how to have few desires and to be satisfied with what's right around us, then we'll naturally have serenity and tranquility. And serenity and tranquility will be more basic satisfaction than the desire to acquire. Because the desire to acquire takes the place of serenity and tranquility. It's a kind of balance that we have to strive for.

[21:41]

Serenity and tranquility are actually our endowment. It's not an acquired quality. It means to be deeply rooted, deeply rooted in our own natural endowment. And if we find this kind of contentment, we don't need to exploit the world in order to find satisfaction. And then Buddha says, the fourth one is

[22:51]

wholehearted effort, meaning to accomplish something before you give up. It's difficult to decide what you're going to do and actually do it your whole life, to actually do something our whole life that we decide to do through our conviction is not always so easy. We get discouraged easily and then we think, well, maybe it should be something else. Once we find the right way to do something, to actually put our wholehearted effort into accomplishing it, this is what he means.

[24:07]

It may take us a while to find out what that is, but once we find it, to not slack in our effort, And if we find ourselves in a place where we don't know what to do, or somewhat discouraged, then we have to find, well, where is the way? When is that right way? Where am I straight off? What am I not doing? So, Buddha says, don't forget right thought. Right thought means to know this is what I'm doing. Oh yeah, that's right. To always keep coming back to understanding where we are or what our real purpose is.

[25:09]

Sometimes we forget what our purpose is. Sometimes we forget what we had in mind when we started to do something. Sometimes people come in and say, you know, I don't know why I'm doing this. Somebody comes after 10 years, someone will come by and say, you know, I don't know why I'm doing this. Why am I doing this? And I always say, well, why did you do it in the first place? What was your original intention? Oh yeah, that's right. So, not forgetting right thought is to always remember what our original intention has been. And to arouse beginner's mind. Because it's very easy to get lost.

[26:14]

thousands of ways, all saying, you know, this is the right way. Try this. Try me. Try this. You say, oh yeah, maybe that's better. It's much more interesting than what I'm doing. Sansa is not really so interesting. Maybe the other way is very interesting. A simple way is not very interesting. Right dharma is not so interesting. And that's one reason why it's kind of hard, because there's so many interesting things that will tempt us and make what we're doing look

[27:22]

kind of shabby. So that's why it's important to maintain practice as practice. Not, when I say as practice, I mean because it's practice. We just practice for the sake of practice. Not for the sake of feeling good, or for the sake of your feelings. If you just practice for the sake of your feelings, feelings are very fickle. Feelings are not stable. So you can feel good about it, or you can feel bad about it. So if you feel good about it, you say, yeah, this is great. But as soon as you start feeling bored, or some other feeling comes up that's taken away by something interesting, you say, what am I doing this for?

[28:26]

So your feelings will lead you all around, and then pretty soon you just get lost. And then you say, where was I? And then you have to come back. And it may not be easy. So the taste of practice is like the taste of plain water. But there are also really tasty drinks out there. So it's easy to get attached to tasty drinks and forget about the plain waters. So Buddha says, don't forget right thought. Right thought is to always come back to the plain water of the dharma. And then he says, to practice samadhi.

[29:39]

Samadhi is concentration, but it's also concentration free from ego. Samadhi is concentration which is not self-centered. It means concentration which is merged with the activity. By merge, merging means without the interference of subject and object. There is a subject and there is an object, but there's no problem. It's called merging or identification of myself with my activity.

[30:56]

without the idea of gain or selfishness. And samadhi is called, sometimes it's called armor, but armor is a little bit of a funny word. More like container. It contains your energy. It contains your effort. It's like what holds and defines your energy and keeps it from spilling over or from leaking. Leaking is usually the, you know, leaking is like if you have a hole, your energy leaks out, right?

[31:59]

So samadhi is the container, which keeps the energy from leaking out and keeps it centered and steadfast. When we sit Sashin, Samadhi becomes very powerful because there's no leaking, even though your mind is wandering all the time. That's a kind of minor But even though your mind is leaking, still, the body is right here. Body and mind are right here in tremendous concentration. And then he says, cultivating wisdom. There are the four wisdoms.

[33:12]

The wisdom of the great round mirror wisdom, which is the wisdom which reflects everything just as it is, without opinions. without distortion, just a clear mind as a clear mirror which sees everything just as it is. That's called our dharmakaya nature. And then there's the wisdom. which doesn't discriminate. It sees everything equally. A high and low are equal. A mouse and an elephant are equal. A human being and a leaf are equal.

[34:21]

This is called our sambhogakaya nature. And then there's the wisdom which sees everything as different. A leaf is a leaf. A human being is a human being. An elephant is an elephant. A mouse is a mouse. And they're all different. And then there's the wisdom of putting it all into action. Action which, the great activity of the senses, through the senses, which is non-dual, and always accords with reality.

[35:32]

So these last two are our nirmanakaya nature. These four wisdoms are what we cultivate in our practice. The great round mirror wisdom, which is just to see every the basis. If we don't see everything as it is, then whatever we do is always tainted or distorted. Both our thinking and our action is distorted unless we see things free of illusion and delusion. And the wisdom which sees everything as equal, and the wisdom which sees everything as separate.

[36:40]

These two are two sides of the one coin. These are the two sides of the mirror mind. The mirror mind sees everything just as it is. One side, everything is equal. The other side, everything is different. to act in accord through our daily activity with that understanding. That's wisdom of non-duality, which includes duality, which includes discrimination. But it's not based on discrimination. And then the last one, he says, and please, fellow travelers, no idle talk.

[37:47]

Don't get bogged down in idle chatter. Idle chatter doesn't mean not to have casual conversation. It means not to lie, not to slander others, and not to extol yourself, not to boast about your accomplishments, and not to raise yourself and put others down. So it means all of the stuff that comes out of your mouth, that comes out of our mouth, should not be discriminatory. If what we say is not discriminatory, then you can say whatever you like.

[39:00]

If it's truthful and non-harming and non-discriminatory, you can say whatever you like. Maybe boring. But usually if it's truthful, it's not born. So also, he means don't just speculate. Speculation is OK, but say something holding a point of view as if it was the truth.

[40:11]

So all of these eight aspects contain, each one contains the other eight. So there are actually 64 aspects, because you can start from any one, and each one contains all the others, and it's an aspect of all the others. So you can talk about, or think about, or act through each one, and from the point of view of each one, you get a different view for all the rest. So it's a kind of infinite way of thinking about practice, about how to practice. And very simple.

[41:29]

And, you know, it's a little like the Eightfold Path and the Six Paramitas and so forth. Buddha said many things in his lifetime, and people picked up on them and systematized them. But these simple outlines should not be ignored. So if we know how to do this, then we can actually have an effect on the world. Because we affect each other through our ideas and our actions and our beliefs.

[42:31]

That's really what affects society more than anything else. And certain people have ideas which don't conform to that kind of thinking. Then we say, well, maybe we should destroy those ideas or those actions. But you can't do it by trying to destroy them. It doesn't work. It's like trying to cut off the grass. Every time you mow the lawn, the grass just gets stronger. So the only thing you can do is plant a different kind of grass. And it may look impossible to plant a different kind of grass because the grass is so thick. But the opportunity we have, actually, is to plant a different kind of grass. That's called our practice.

[43:40]

So if we want to change the world, then we have to look at ourself and plant the kind of roots that we want to have take hold. That's the only way the world will change. So sometimes we say, well, when all this stuff is going on in the world, why are we doing this? But actually, there's nothing else to do. We can change circumstances in many ways, but the only lasting changes are the changes that we make in ourselves. And even that may not be lasting. But that's the best opportunity we have. And that influence

[44:49]

That's the strength of our practice. If it's really true and strong, we'll have a lot of influence. But the quality of our practice is what makes the difference. You can go through the motions of doing something, but the quality of and the sincerity of the intention So Buddha says, having few desires, knowing how to be satisfied easily.

[45:59]

It's a difficult one. Enjoying serenity and tranquility of our own true nature, our own endowment. Arousing energy. keeping to right thought, practicing samadhi, cultivating wisdom, and not getting attached to idle chatter. Instead of talking about it, to do it. Do we have a question?

[47:13]

Susan? How are a human being and a leaf equal? They both have the same ultimate nature. You are it and a leaf is it. But you are you, and a leaf is a leaf. Well, each one of us has what we call a human form.

[48:18]

And when we see a human form through the eyes of self-centeredness, we say, I exist as a human. But when we no longer see ourselves only through the eyes of our human existence, then we realize, I am everything and nothing. So Buddha, nothing really changed for Buddha. Sometimes Buddha appears as a human being, sometimes as a leaf.

[49:28]

Everything, we say everything is a manifestation of Buddha nature, just Buddha nature appearing in various forms. And when we don't see clearly, we don't see what our true nature is. So being able to see clearly is to see what our true nature is. True nature is buddha nature, which appears as various forms, as all forms, constantly transforming, like waves on the ocean. It looks like a wave is going somewhere. But actually, just energy goes, and the wave just stays in the same place. Rebecca?

[50:40]

I've always wondered why, then, All those arhats, enlightened beings, who were Buddha's followers, always were filled with such anguish as Parinirvana. Yeah, even though, you know, even though Parinirvana is a joyful event for Buddha, it's not a joyful event for his friends. He didn't show a lot of compassion at this point. Yeah, so, they're not crying for Buddha, they're crying for themselves. When someone dies, you don't have to cry for them. Keep crying for yourself. It's okay. We should cry at funerals, even though Buddha said, stop crying. He did.

[51:43]

He said, oh, you guys, stop crying. If you don't understand, But nevertheless, they should cry. He should say, stop crying, and they should cry. If we're not separate, then? How can it be that we're only crying for ourselves? Because even though we're not separate, we feel separate. So, you know, if you say separate, then you fall into duality.

[52:47]

If you say not separate, you fall into duality. That's why life is a koan. Life and death is a koan. The reason it's a koan is because it's neither this nor that, and yet it is this and it is that. What is it? If it was simply this or that, it would be very easy. We wouldn't have so much trouble. We have a lot of trouble because it's neither this nor that, and yet it is this and it is that. So even though we may have realized one thing, we have to cry because we also are this. But you stop crying at some point and go on.

[53:48]

Seeing things as not separate, is duality also? Oneness, right? Seeing things as not separate is oneness. But if you only see them that way, that's duality. What are the two things? A dual, I think, of two things. Dual means two things, right? Separate. Separation. So although there is separation, that which is separate is also one. But if you say it's one, then that's just one side of the duality of separate and one, right? So it's got to go beyond one and two. And that's why understanding a reality is beyond logic.

[54:57]

You can only talk about it a little bit, point at it. Otherwise, it'd be very simple, and we would have solved the problem a long time ago. That's why it's a problem. So if I see somebody who's hurting, am I crying for myself or for them? Well, you're crying for them. But you're also crying for yourself. Because you're not separate. And yet you are separate. There's an old saying, not one, not two. We can identify with someone because we're not separate, and yet the act of identification means that they're separate.

[56:02]

Otherwise, there wouldn't need to be identification. So, it's important to not try to resolve everything by staying on one side or the other. We always say, I can't stand it, so we fall onto one side or the other. You have to be able to maintain that equilibrium of not one, not two. And when you're sitting in tzazen today, that's what you're doing. Well, no, but tranquility comes through equilibrium. You probably break the word tranquil down to some kind of component which means not vibrating so fast.

[57:12]

Real stillness means that the vibration is very even. So, you know, we're like this. This is our mode. And then it gets like this. And, you know, we like both sides. Sometimes it gets eccentric, right? Eccentric means off-center. So when the top is spinning really well, it doesn't look like it's moving, but it's great. That's when it's at its most dynamic, is when it doesn't look like it's spinning. It looks like it's just sitting still. But when it starts to get eccentric, or when it starts to lose its balance, it gets eccentric. And then it gets thrown, right?

[58:22]

It's this movement. And so we're like this, oh God, I wish I could be a little more content. So this tzatz'azim, and the top spins, and the dynamics is still there, you know, because you're still alive, still exist in the world. And so the dynamics are brought to this still point where the top is spinning, but it doesn't look like it's moving. But it is, because when you touch it, it goes poof! So, stillness and movement. This is the other seeming contradiction. So, we have to be able to bring stillness and movement to this single one point. A stillness is in dynamic action, dynamic activity, and dynamic activity is within the stillness.

[59:33]

It's called equilibrium. The problem is that along with the stillness you have painfulness. So along with pleasure you have pain. That's the other side. You can't do without it. You cannot have pleasure without having pain, although that's what we want. We want to have the pleasure without having the pain. So you see what we do. We do all kinds of things and we try to keep the pleasure down, I mean the pain down. We try to keep the unpleasantness down and just cultivate the pleasant side. But it's there, lurking.

[60:33]

So it takes various forms. So when we indulge in pleasure, The painful side takes a certain form according to the kind of thing that we indulge in or want to cultivate and rears its head and takes a bite at some point. So we get it one way or another, you know? You cannot do without it. So in Tsa Tsen, it's right there. They're right there together and it's undisguised and we get certain amount of pain, certain amount of pleasure, but we also get equanimity, which is the most pleasant thing. Because we're sitting right in the midst of reality. That's the most pleasant thing. And the duality of pleasure and pain is brought to

[61:40]

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