Good morning. Welcome. So in addition to this being one of our all-day sittings, this is the beginning of our two-month practice commitment period. So I want to talk about practice period. In Japanese, it's ongo, peaceful abiding. And for most of you who are actually formally doing the practice period, some of you are not, but for those who are not formally doing it, please enjoy and use the energy of the next two months and participate in that way. So this is a period of intensified practice. of settling, going deeper, a little more zazen than, a little more at least zazen than you usually do.

[01:12]

A chance to settle and open to being present. and enjoying your experience of being present and how we do that together. So it's an opportunity, but it's also a challenge. So my job is in some ways to challenge all of you, each of you, but also you, I want to challenge you all to challenge yourselves to settle, deepen, enjoy your zazen, open to the space of practice period. And you know, in places like Tassajara or Green Gulch, where when they have a practice period, there's something called a tenkin.

[02:15]

who has some other jobs. I think maybe they hit the hun sometimes. Anyway, they also go around and check if you don't show up, because everybody's sort of living in the same place. So we don't have that. I'm not going to call you to see if you're doing your zazen at home. So in some ways, this is more challenging. find your way to deepen your practice here and at home, to intensify and open up your practice of settling, of going deeper. And what that means, you know, isn't necessarily what you think that means. How do we settle? How do we open up our practice? Sometimes it's a little bit, sometimes it's subtle, sometimes it's more than subtle.

[03:18]

So again, just formally, for those of you formally doing this, and for those of you just dropping in and enjoying the energy of it, see how it is that you are exploring your practice and exploring zazen. And part of that is attending to intention. So for those of you who formally are doing this practice commitment period. Some of you, anyway, wrote something about your intention. But look at that. What is it that you want to use this opportunity, these two months, to look at? What's important to you in your practice? And your practice is just your life. But it's a way of doing your life that is intentional. What is important to you?

[04:31]

What do you care about? How does that express itself? How do you enjoy that and focus on it? So again, look at And it can change, and it might change from day to day sometimes, or you might, you know, have decided you wanted to focus on, oh, generosity, for example, or working with anger, or, you know, many things you could decide to look at. But also see how, when you pay attention to that, see how that shifts. See what arises. Let's see what may show up in the practice period. So this is also something we do together as Sangha, as community.

[05:36]

Sangha is one of the three jewels like Buddha and Dharma, which means how does this community of practice period, and the other communities that you're each involved with, how do they support your practice? They are jewels because they help you to pay attention, to deepen your intention, to settle. to enjoy your breath. So we have various forms for the people formally doing the practice commitment period. We'll have a few discussion meetings after Sunday Dharma talks. All of you in the practice commitment period have a Dharma companion or companions that you can hang, meet with and talk about what's going on. The head student, Douglas, will also be having teas that you could, informal small tea groups that has a chance to talk about this.

[06:41]

So we do this together. But we also do it individually. So I want to, I'll talk, I want to talk more about that. How this is something we do together, but also it's about seeing beyond your idea of yourself. So the third jewel or one of the other three jewels is dharma, the teaching. Dharma is also just reality, the truth. So zazen is dharma. Zazen, your sitting practice, and how that appears or expresses itself in all the other activities of your life is also dharma. It's a way of seeing reality or truth or the teaching.

[07:43]

Dharma gates are boundless, we vow to enter them. So see what shows up during this practice period for you in the adventures of your life. So we're also using as a Dharma tool for these eight weeks, four stories from the Lotus Sutra. The point of this is not to learn about the Lotus Sutra or study the Lotus Sutra, but rather to use these stories to help you settle and open, to help you pay attention, to help you look at what it is, how it is that we are all practicing together so I want to focus on one of them but I'll mention all four that that we've chosen to look at.

[08:50]

So one of them is about skillful means, chapter two of the Lotus Sutra. And for those of you who, some of you have copies of the Lotus Sutra, if you don't, when you choose a particular chapter, I can give you a copy of that text. But the text itself is not so much the point. It's what it brings up for you. So again, you're using these stories to Help inform and explore your practice. So the story about skillful means, chapter two, is actually the longest of the four. There's a lot of stuff in it, but maybe the thing I want to emphasize is, well, it's talking about skillful means. In some ways, so he's talking about skillful means in one vehicle. So the Buddha talks about the one single great cause for Buddhas appearing in the world.

[09:57]

He says, the Buddhas appear, the World Honored Ones appear in the world because they want living beings to open a way to the Buddha's insight and thus purify themselves. They appear in the world because they want to demonstrate the Buddha's insight to living beings. They appear in the world because they want living beings to apprehend things with Buddha's insight. They appear in the world because they want living beings to enter into the way of the Buddha's insight. This is the single great cause for which Buddhas appear in the world. So, Buddha the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, or just the reality of awakening, shows up to help all of us enter into this path of awakening, this practice of awakening, and to relieve suffering, because Buddha recognizes the suffering of beings. So this idea of skillful means, and there are a number of other parables or stories after chapter two that you can look at if you want to, but the idea of this is to actually recognize differences at the same time that all the differences are considered the one great vehicle.

[11:09]

Talks about that there's, that the one great purpose for Buddha's appearing is to help relieve suffering and help beings enter into the way. But also that part of doing that is to use what's called skillful means. At different times, at different times, different periods of zazen during the day today, you may have different stuff you're dealing with. At different times during these two months, there may be other different things that come up. And each one of you has differences. So I wanted to again mention, for those of you who didn't get to hear Rebecca Solnit last week, something she said at the end of her talk about climate, which she titled, Under the Same Sky, Climate Connects, Demands, and Informs Us.

[12:11]

And so she was talking about the really serious dangers to all of us on our planet and all beings in our world of climate damage. And how it connects us, that we all, we talk about the weather, we're all under the same sky, all different beings, we're all interconnected. Also that there's change, that things change, that nothing is stuck and hopeless because everything changes and we can actually, even though things are going, are already and are going to get worse, already bad and going to get worse, that what we do in the next five, 10, 15 years together as human beings to change our energy systems. can make a change, can make a difference. And then we already have enough, she was talking about it in terms of climate and energy systems. But she talked about, but she was also mainly talking about bodhisattvas, and that's what this is all about.

[13:16]

How do we, how do we use our zazen to inform our bodhisattva practice? So the Lotus Sutra stories are all stories about enlightening beings, bodhisattvas dedicated to universal awakening. So I'm just going to paraphrase some of what you said at the end about our idea of individuals. So for climate change, people think that personal virtue is going to be enough and that this is something that, you know, as Buddhist people we are interested in. So she says for climate this might mean having compact fluorescent light bulbs or being a vegan or not riding a car so much or having a Prius or any of those things. And she compares that to someone watching as someone gets beat up, but since you're not actually pummeling them yourself with your own fists, you think you're awesome.

[14:23]

Or the house is on fire, but you didn't actually light it, and you got out, so you're clean. So she talked about this in terms of bystander behavior, and also moral narcissism, being more concerned with your own hands being clean. And really the Bodhisattva practice is about recognizing everyone, recognizing the effects of things on all of us. Checking out of the realms of suffering into personal enlightenment is the fundamental violation of the spirit of Bodhisattva ethics. The intention to save all beings is the primary moral imperative. So beings are numberless, we vow to free them. But she's talking about our tendency, maybe stronger in our culture in some ways, towards individualism. She says the world will not be saved by individual acts of virtue. They do not add up to enough. Only collective acts will bring about the systemic change we need in order to ensure a future

[15:30]

for the immense variety of life on Earth. And she mentioned being at the climate conference in Paris in December with Bill McKibben, and they were sitting tired on the floor, and a young woman came up and asked him, what's the best thing an individual could do about the climate? And Bill McKibben said, stop being an individual. So anyway, this has to do with skillful means. And I want to kind of modify a little bit what Rachel said. Yeah, our practice, doing practice period together is about not just seeing our own individual goodness or whatever. It's not just about you or me, but seeing how we can help together. But part of that, the skillful means part, is that we recognize that we each have particular ways of doing that. So it's a subtle thing.

[16:32]

This is kind of the heart of Soto Zen. How do we see our own particular capacities and qualities, but in the light of the wholeness of everything? Anyway, so that's a little bit of a commentary on skillful means. And I'll mention two of the other stories and then I want to talk more about the fourth story, but there's a story about a, as the Buddha is preaching the Lotus Sutra, this is in chapter 11, there suddenly appears this stupa floating in the air. A stupa is like where they put the relics of Buddhas, and pagodas in East Asia are stupas. And this treasure stupa appears floating in the air above Vulture Peak where the Buddha is is giving the Lotus Sutra and a voice comes out of it saying, out of the stupa saying, well done, well done, world honored Shakyamuni, for the sake of the great assembly, you are able to teach the wonderful Dharma Flower Sutra of great impartial wisdom, the Dharma by which Bodhisattvas are taught and which Buddhists protect and keep in mind.

[17:49]

It is just as you say, Shakyamuni Buddha, all that you say is true. So this comes out of the stupa and then, this is a really interesting, weird story. One of the Bodhisattvas says, in this stupa there is the whole body of a Tathagata, of a Buddha. So it turns out this is the Buddha abundant treasures from a distant Kalpa or a distant time and distant space. And it turns out he shows up whenever the Lotus Sutra is preached. So maybe he'll show up during this practice period. And it says this right in the Lotus Sutra. So there's this kind of, this is one of those Mahayana teachings that kind of turns our heads inside out. What does it mean that right in the Lotus Sutra there's this Buddha who appears, who always appears whenever the Lotus Sutra is preached. And anyway, there's many things to see about this.

[18:52]

One of the things that happens is that emanation bodies of the Buddha come and And they want to see the Buddha. Usually the stupa's kind of closed. And most of the times in East Asia, the pagodas are closed, but sometimes once a year they'll open it and you can see, I live right next to a stupa to Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, who's on our altar. So I don't know if it had the bones or mummy of Manjushri, but anyway, it's not our usual way of thinking. and the stupa doors open eventually and you see this Buddha abundant treasures and Shakyamuni Buddha goes and sits next to him and then the whole large part of the sutra including the next two stories are preached in the middle of the air and all the assembly and the bodhisattvas and all the disciples and all the other strange beings who are there all rise up in the middle of the air. So I don't know if we're going to do any levitation during this practice period. It's not required but anyway this

[19:53]

This is a story that kind of takes us out of our usual way of seeing all these stories. So again, the point of these stories is not to get some understanding of the Lotus Sutra or study the Lotus Sutra. How do these stories inform and activate and support our practice. And so the people in the practice period are asked to choose one of these four. The next one is about, from chapter 15, is about the bodhisattvas under the ground, because the Buddha's been asking, who's going to come back? in the distant future evil age, you know, when there's all this hate speech and when, you know, we have climate damage and, you know, he doesn't say that, but... And at some point, some group of bodhisattvas who've come from a distant galaxy say, OK, we'll come back and help. And the Buddha says, no, you don't need to. And then suddenly, from out of the open space under the ground, spring forth innumerable ancient bodhisattvas, each with retinues of huge numbers of other bodhisattvas, and they're there to help.

[20:56]

And it says various interesting things about them. But, you know, part of the point of this story is what Rebecca was talking about, is we have enough. That the earth itself is enough. That already, right under your seat, under your Zabatana chair, there is all that you need. Great Bodhisattvas are there. So how do we see the fertility of the earth, the fertility of our lives, of our situations? So this is another story that you can play with and see how that supports your practice. So the last story that I wanted to say a little bit more about today is about is sort of the follow-up to the last story about the Buddha's lifespan. Because after these bodhisattvas come out of the ground, Maitreya, the supposedly next future Buddha, asks, well, who are all these people?

[22:04]

Where did they come from? Who taught them? What's going on? We never saw them before. And the Buddha says, oh, I taught them. And everybody's puzzled because they know that the Buddha, you know, left the palace 40 years ago or whatever and wandered around and got awakened. Anyway, so this story is about the Buddha's revelation that Well, he says, you should all listen carefully to hear about the Tathagata's secret and divine powers in all the worlds. The humans, heavenly beings, and assurers think that the present Shakyamuni Buddha left the palace of the Shakya clan, sat at the place of the way, the Bodhi Mandala, under the Bodhi tree not far from the city of Gaya, and attained supreme awakening. But all of you in fact there have been innumerable unlimited hundreds of thousands of beer billions of myriads of eons since I became a Buddha So this is a strange story, and we're going to, for midday service, we'll chant the closing verses about this.

[23:12]

He says, the time that has passed since I became a Buddha exceeds these by hundreds of thousands of billions of myriads of countless eons. I have been constantly in the world preaching, teaching, and transforming. But then he also says that sometimes, for some, and this is part of what we'll be chanting, for some people, he also says, oh, Buddhas are very rare. How often does somebody like Suzuki Roshi appear in the world? How often does Shakyamuni Buddha appear in the world? It's very unusual to have a chance to hear the Buddha's teaching, to have a chance to practice it. It's extremely unusual. So this is another kind of skillful means. But I think there's something deeper here, which I want to try and say something about today. He says, all the sutras preached by the Tathagata are for the purpose of saving all the living.

[24:18]

Sometimes I speak of myself, sometimes of others, sometimes I appear as myself, sometimes as someone else. Sometimes I appear in my own actions, sometimes in the actions of others. But all that I say is true and not empty. This has to do with time and our time in many interesting ways. So the Buddha's been around for a long time, he says, and he'll continue, he says, to be around for twice that long in the future. It's not exactly that he's infinite and eternal, but for our purposes, here on this planet in the United States of America, Buddha's always here. What does that mean? And then also sometimes Buddha's not here. It's very unusual. So I think this is a story about exploring how it is that Buddha is here, how it is that Buddha is not here, how it is that this time

[25:23]

This strange year of 2016 is vast and includes all time. How is it that it's very strange in particular? The Han, that Jane hit before, says, life and death is the great matter. Don't waste time. And all of us know people who are no longer here in the world in the usual way that we are today. Don't waste time. How do we take care of the next inhale and exhale? How do we enjoy each period of zazen? How do we do this together? And in some ways, there's these vast reaches of times that, you know, it's hard to imagine. So all the sutras talk about these huge ranges of time and space.

[26:31]

And yet, our practice is to take care of hitting the bell on time, standing up, doing walking meditation. When the meal comes, as it will for lunch today, receiving it from the server, how do we appreciate each spoonful, not take more than we can eat, And then temple cleaning time, how do we take care of doing what we can to brush off the zabutons or sweep the floor, whatever it is that Nyozan will ask you to do. How do we take care of each thing? And yet also, Buddha is here and has been here for a long time. which is kind of as mysterious as the treasure stupa.

[27:33]

How do we take care of our life? How do we follow the schedule? And yet each breath, each inhale, each exhale, whether it's during zazen or walking meditation or on a break, each inhale, each exhale is complete. Can you appreciate and give yourself to each inhale and exhale? Can you receive the wonderful treasure of each inhale and each exhale? And please take another inhale after that. Or allow another inhale after that. So our time is precious, but also our time stretches back to Shakyamuni Buddha 2,500 years ago, more or less, and then Abundant Treasures Buddha, who shows up to praise Shakyamuni Buddha and lived maybe many big banks ago, I don't know.

[28:44]

So it's wonderful just to be here together this morning, today. How do we enjoy this opportunity? And it's not about, you know, your individual needs, but also each of us makes it what it is. This day would not be what it is without every single one of you. So we also have sangha jobs today and through the practice period to actively express, well, how is it that Buddha is here? What is it that we can do to be helpful, to help make things work better for everyone, and ourselves, to take on this practice? So,

[29:55]

That's enough for me to say. It's Sunday morning, so if anyone has, we'll have time for discussion later, but if anyone has a comment or a question or a response, please feel free. Eric. Can you spell it? Okay, thank you. Uh-huh. Yes.

[31:03]

Good. And then there's the vow. We intend to enter Dharmagate. So each situation is a Dharmagate. Each difficulty is a Dharmagate. That's collectively, too. So Rebecca Solnit was talking about climate damage as a Dharmagate for people to wake up and do something to change the way our world is and that we can actually do that. That's an example. But yeah, how do we find Buddha? Maybe we have to think Buddha's gone to find her. Thank you. Anybody else? Further comment or reflection? Stop it!

[33:27]

Yeah, that's how it works.

[34:02]

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