So I want to talk this morning about radical interconnectedness. And this talk is referencing the YM seminar. But I wanted to talk about the aspect of how different ways in which we're deeply interconnected. And as a kind of background for that, I want to mention the, a little bit of background on the Huayen, just a little bit. So one of the main teachings of Huayen is the Fourfold Dharmadhatu, which is very much a background to important Soto Zen teachings, like the Sando Kai, or Harmony of Difference and Sameness, and the Five Ranks or Five Degrees.

[01:20]

The third aspect of that Huayen Fourfold Dharmadhatu will not accept the interpenetration of the universal and particular. So this is how this interconnectedness works. I'm not going to go into detail on this. I'll talk more about it at the seminar. But there's these two aspects of reality in the harmony of difference and sameness. We talked about it as difference and sameness, we can talk about it as the particular, the phenomenal reality, as opposed to the universal or ultimate reality. This goes back to old Buddhist teaching of two truths, that there is conventional phenomenal reality and the ultimate universal truth that we get a glimpse of in So each particular situation, there can't be some abstract, universal, or ultimate truth separate from phenomena, separate from the particular situations of our lives.

[02:37]

And each particular situation, circumstance of our life, is also a particular causal condition that expresses all of the ultimate of the universal truth. So, they completely interact in this third Dharmadhatu from the Hwayan Buddhist school that is actually fundamental to our practice, that the universal aspect and the particular phenomenal events of our life and of our world completely interact without hindering each other. And actually, they're not separate at all. We can talk about it in terms of delusion and awakening.

[03:41]

But delusion is completely delusion. Awakening is completely awakening. And they're not different, actually. They're not separate. in the middle of delusion, when we really settle into our delusions, that's awakening. And when we completely allow the unfolding of awakening in our body and mind and heart, we see through all the delusions. So that's background. One of the most frequently expressed versions of this or expressions of this vision of reality from the Avatamsaka or Flower of the Sutra is called Indra's Neck. Many of you have heard about this.

[04:43]

So this appears in the Flower Ornament Sutra, which actually our Sangha is doing monthly readings of the first Friday evening of each month. So we read some from the Flower Ornament Sutra a couple of evenings ago. But also, so again, I'm not going to go too much into Huayen history or anything like that today, this morning, but the Huayen school developed in China, came to Japan as the Kagon school, was never a hugely popular branch of Buddhism, but it's still there. And it's very important as a background to our practice and teaching. So Indra's net. was elaborated from by the Hawaiian teachers from Flower Ornament or Avatamsaka Sutra. And Indra's Net is a way of describing reality. The whole universe is seen as a multi-dimensional network.

[05:49]

Maybe now with the internet, we have another example of how this works. But at each point in the net where the strands meet, where there's a mesh, according to this metaphor, we could say, is a jewel. And each of those jewels reflects all of the light from all the jewels around them. And each of those jewels reflects the light. And so the whole universe of light and jewels is reflected in each jewel. So this is a way of seeing all of reality, all of the universe, in each thing, in each element, in each place where the meshes meet. And this continues on forever.

[06:51]

So this is a way of talking about reality. And so, you know, we can see that each object actually is an expression of everything. And each person, each one of us is an expression of everything. Each thing or each person ultimately reflects and expresses the radiance of the entire universe. All of totality or wholeness can be seen in each of its parts. So that sounds abstract or philosophical, but it's actually really a wonderful way of seeing the wholeness of our lives. So, A great Vietnamese teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, for example, pulls up a paper and says, can you see the rain? Can you see the trees? Can you see the loggers and the truck drivers who drove the logs to the mill that eventually became this piece of paper from which this piece is made?

[08:06]

The waitress who served coffee to the logger that morning. Everything is connected to each thing. And that's true of us too. So I often use the example of, I'll ask how many of you remember your fourth grade teacher? A couple, three, four, five people here in Ebenezer raised their hands. of the five of you, and I didn't notice how many online. David Ray's hand is up. He remembers his fourth grade teacher. I do. But how many of you thought about her or him in the last month? David Ray. Oh, yes. So it's, anyway, the point is that who, what we are, what we is sitting on our cushions, sitting on our seat includes so many beings and all of them and all the beings who influence them.

[09:18]

How many, how many, how many of our fourth grade teachers remember their fourth grade teachers? For example, so everybody you've ever known is part of what's happening on your seat right now. And of course, some people may be more fully than others, the people you see every week, this week, but Many, many beings are part of what we is right now. Okay, so Indra's Net is an expression of that, how deeply interconnected we are. But in the Hawaiian teaching, coming from the Flower Ornament Sutra, there's a whole range of Samadhi instructions. So Samadhi, same as meditation, but with concentration.

[10:22]

And there are various meditation instructions based on particular concentration objects, like focusing on our breath, or focusing on the sound of here at Ebenezer, the sound of the traffic below us, or it could be the mantra at the end of the Heart Sutra or a line from some song that's running through your head anyway. All of these concentration objects are particular samadhis, particular deep meditations. And as we sit here for a period or when we have a chance to sit longer for a day or more, we naturally, part of our experience or all of our experience, or maybe those are the same, is of this deep settling.

[11:24]

And these Samadhis, these practices help go beyond our limited preconceptions. We can feel and encourage fresh perspectives on reality, on our reality, on our lives. And that helps to expand our mental capacities to express this deep interconnectedness, to share that in our everyday activities. So these Samadhis are important and there's a whole bunch of them in the Flower Ornament Sutra that are discussed and described, amplified in Huayen teaching. Examples, the Lion Emergence Samadhi. And in this Samadhi, it is said that every single hair tip, on every single hair tip, or on the tip of every single blade of grass, on the tip of my staff, there abides numerous Buddha lands, containing a vast array of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and liberating teachings.

[12:52]

So this is a way of seeing, you know, we talk about Shakyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of our world. Historically, 2500 years ago, more or less in eastern India. But In this way of seeing things that includes Indra's Net and this Lion Emergence Samadhi, there are, and this is very much the case in the wonderful psychedelic Flower Ornament Sutra, there are many, [...] many Buddhas. And each of those have around them many, many, many, many Bodhisattvas. This is not the way we usually think about reality, but this is what is expressed in this branch of Buddhism. Along with the Lion Emergence Bodhisattva, another model is called the Ocean Seal Samadhi or the Ocean Marrow Samadhi.

[14:03]

This is another So there are also pages of names of these different samadhis with flower on the sutra. But in this one, that's elaborated in Huayen Buddhism, and again, a background for our practice. Awareness is like the vast ocean surface. So the vast ocean surface reflects and confirms in detail all phenomena of the entire universe reflected in the surface of the ocean. However, as we know, there are waves, many phenomena that arise. Waves breaking on the surface of the ocean distort its ability to mirror exactly and plainly all of the phenomena, all of the sky and the birds flying above the ocean.

[15:10]

But when the waves subside, as the water calms and clears, the ocean mirror, again, reflects all clearly. And this is another metaphor for our individual minds. Of course, in the midst of many thoughts and concerns and considerations and awareness of all the suffering in the world and all these turbulences, the ocean is disturbed, our mind is disturbed. But also, and meditation helps with this, our minds are capable of settling serenely, and reflecting clearly. Reflecting clear awareness. So this is a very helpful image.

[16:12]

In Ocean Seal Samadhi, the seal is like a stamp confirming things. It's also the same word that's used for mudra, the hand position we use in Sahasrara and other times. And this, This particular Samadhi is important in our Soto Zen teaching. So Dogen Zenji, Ehei Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen in Japan in the 1200s, wrote a chapter, an essay in his Shobogenzo, True Dharma, a treasury, on the Oshutsu Samadhi. It begins like this. In being Buddhas and Zen adepts, it is necessary to be the ocean seal Samadhi. In swimming in this concentration, this Samadhi, there is a time of speaking, a time of experiencing, a time of acting.

[17:19]

So he goes on, there's a whole essay where he talks about this and he talks about our reality is being made up of all kinds of composite elements, five skandhas. As I was saying before, in Tom Cleary's introduction to his translation of this, he says, the ocean seal samadhi, or as it is sometimes rendered, the ocean reflection samadhi, is said to be the samadhi or concentration from which the Flower Ornament Sutra emerged. Abruptly revealing the vast panorama of the Buddha's enlightenment. So, the Buddha's complete, total, uniterosamnyak sambodhi, unsurpassed, complete awakening. Our limited human minds can't really get how vast that is. So, clearly continues the treatise or essay, Return to the Source Samadhi, is a Huayen work popular in Chinese Chan schools, Zen schools.

[18:43]

It says, and this is from one of the great Huayen, Chinese Huayen ancestors, develop this Huayen philosophy. The ocean seal is the fundamental, this is a quote from a treatise from one of them. The ocean seal is the fundamental awareness of true dustness. When delusion ends, the mind is clear. Myriad forms simultaneously appear. It is like the ocean. Due to wind, there arise waves. If the wind stops, the ocean water is calm and clear. and all images can be reflected." So in terms of the mind, the Ocean Seal Samadhi, or concentration, is said to be referred to holistic, impartial awareness of wholeness. So, you know, we can see this, just hearing this name, Ocean Seal Samadhi, as a kind of meditation instruction.

[19:50]

first to fully observe all of the waves, the turbulence, all of the thoughts and feelings, all that is painful and uncomfortable in our lives and our world. That's all there. As we sit Zazen, in one period of Zazen, or over time, as we continue to sustain a practice of just sitting, At times, it's like sediments settling out of a glass of water. All of the turbulence settles out. There's this clear reflection, clear seeing. So the Huayan school, these Huayan teachers in China, from the 500s to the 800s, were wonderful at giving examples of this, demonstrating this.

[20:57]

So Fazan, who I'll talk about much more at the Hawaiian seminar in two weeks. Fazan lived 643 to 712. He was the third of the five great Hawaiian patriarchs. And Fa Zhang, even though he was the third of these five, might be considered the true founder of the school. He was particularly skillful and adept at devising models, metaphors, to help us see this profound Huayen teachings, to help people be aware of these. So one of Fa Zhang's students, was Empress Wu, very powerful. She was a dedicated patron and student of Buddhism and arguably the most powerful woman in Asian history, East Asian history.

[21:59]

She lived from 624 to 705. She actually reigned from 665 to 705, not quite as long as Elizabeth II, but actually she was, even before 665, she was very important and powerful in Chinese society. Anyway, she studied with Fa Zong, and Fa Zong used as one metaphor to help her see this interconnected reality. A golden lion that was sitting nearby them in her palace. Peach pointed to the lion and showed the non-obstructing interpenetration of the universal and the particular by describing in detail how the gold, like the universal principle, pervaded the object completely. The whole thing was gold all the way through, this golden statue of the lion that this empress had in her palace.

[23:03]

But also, this particular unique form was that of a lion. We can see it as gold or as a lion. Each particular part of the golden lion was completely gold, and each part was also completely the lion, a part of the lion. So this wonderful book by Thomas Cleary, Entry into the Inconceivable, which is an introduction to Goya, there's a picture of that lion on the cover. So, you know, the lion's face, the lion's mane, the lion's feet, all of them were gold and all of those portions were lion. You can't have the lion without any part. Another metaphor that Fazlan used to kind of instruct Empress Ru and this was a hall of mirrors.

[24:18]

So he placed mirrors on the... There was a room in the palace and he placed mirrors, arranged to have mirrors placed on the ceiling, on the floor, on the four walls, and in the four corners of the room. And then he placed a Buddha image in the very center of the room with a lamp there. And then he brought Empress Wu into the room. And standing there, they could see in any direction, reflections in any one mirror that clearly reflected all the other reflections. So there were Buddhas forever down this way and up this way and, you know, in all directions. So this was a way of seeing how, you know, we could say in this net or how the inter leaving of reality actually is.

[25:22]

And that included seeing the specific reflection of this Buddha image in each mirror, fully demonstrating the unobstructed interpenetration of each particular Buddha and the totality. Each mirror contained all of the Buddhas in all directions. And they didn't obstruct each other. So this is an important part of why I teach this. Non-obstruction. That the universal and the particular don't block each other. So I think I've mentioned this before, but I once saw such a room in the city of 10,000 Buddhas, which is in Ukiah in Northern California, north of San Francisco. There's this, it's actually a Chinese Buddhist center.

[26:32]

It's a large compound. And I was involved with some, ongoing dialogue with people from this John Center, which was founded by Master Hua, one of the great Chinese Buddhist teachers who came to America. And they had one room that was like this Hall of Mirrors. I guess there was a mirror on the top. I don't think there was on the floor, but there were the four walls and maybe more than in between the four walls were mirrors, and there was a Buddha in the middle. So you walk in there and you can see Buddha's there, I mean forever. So this is in space, but the metaphor also works for time, in all times, going back to Shakyamuni and the seven Buddhas before Buddha, we chant sometimes, and Buddhas in the future, all reflecting each other. So along with these models that Fazan created, the other Huayen masters, such as the fourth ancestor patriarch of that school, Chengguan, he was from 738 to 839.

[27:55]

There won't be a test, I'm just mentioning this. But they developed many intricate philosophical descriptions of the various aspects of interconnectedness. For example, the tenfold causes for realization of totality. The non-obstruction of space and time. Space doesn't obstruct time and vice versa. And the ten non-obstructions of totality, or wholeness. So, anyway, the Huayen philosophy is considered by many the most profound expression of Mahayana Buddhism. And these various presentations, philosophical presentations, require a lengthy study, or one could study them. And the dialectics of the interaction of this interaction of the universal and the particular, to describe it in one way,

[29:09]

So this is, we can benefit from these. These are not new and separate teachings, but they expand on and elaborate this philosophy of interconnectedness, of wholeness. So I want to talk about what all of this means in terms of practice. So these Hualien teachings present these splendid, inspiring visions of the wonder of the universal reality. far beyond our limited perspectives, from our limited human capacities, as we are caught within physical details, physical limitations that we each are, our conditioned awareness. But this teaching of interconnectedness encourages the possibility

[30:13]

of fresh, deeper ways of seeing our world, those wonders, and our lives. These teachings are encouraging and we can sense levels of spiritual interconnection with others and with the wholeness of reality. Just to have this sense can lift us beyond our ordinary attachments and prejudices to see this wholeness in all of these ramifications. This kind of vision can help us heal our individual confusion, grasping, sense of sadness and loss, the difficulties of our lives in the world. And also, ultimately, to see how our individual confusion and our collective confusion and delusions, are not separate from seeing the wholeness.

[31:18]

Each piece is an expression of the wholeness. So these Hualien teachings offer guidance for a more complete balance in our practice. How can we hear the siren going by? I'm sure you hear it online too. that siren is going to assist someone who also may remember their fourth grade teacher when they are asked to think about it.

[32:32]

How do we find balance in our practice? So the emphasis on integration of glimpses into the ultimate. With the particular problems and challenges of our everyday situation can help us not get caught up either in blissful absorption and awareness of ultimate reality, which is the most dangerous attachment. So attachment to the ultimate or non-attachment is considered the most dangerous attachment. That's not so much of a problem for us practicing in the world, in the big city, but for people who go off into the mountains and do this practice for months or years, you know, it's tempting to see this wholeness and really hang in there with that, get attached to that.

[33:45]

But we know that the point is to attend to the conventional realities of our world. But with some sense, some background sense of this omnipresence of wholeness or totality, it helps us to balance our practice. to balance our practice of being helpful in the world with the difficulties of the world, with all of the troubles in our world and in our lives. But also that further informs our deeper sense of wholeness. So this is very much the background for a lot of Soto Zen teachings. For example, There's the Soto Zen slogan in Japanese, Memitsu no Kafu.

[34:47]

I think that's been mentioned here before, but Kafu is house style. So the style of Soto Zen does. Memitsu means, well, it means the intimacy of each thread, of each piece of particular piece of reality. So I'm missing Akafia's attention to the details in our lives, in our practice, in our sangha. And we can see this coming out of this interaction of wholeness or totality with each particular event. There are various Huayen tools for bringing the universal into our everyday practice. And a lot of those are expressed in Sentosa too.

[35:49]

There's a chapter, and I can't mental check if we've gone through that chapter in our reading Friday evenings. The chapter is called Purifying Practice. I'm not sure if we've got to that yet. It's the 11th chapter, I don't know. Anyway, in this chapter of the Flower Ornament Sutra, there are many practice instructions to be used as awakening reminders in all kinds of everyday situations. There are 140 different verses. So this is one of those sections where there's all the verses. And they're used to encourage mindfulness or attention in particular circumstances. For example, some of the following situations are cited. When awakening from sleep, before, during, or after eating, when seeing a large tree, when seeing flowing water, when seeing flowers bloom, or a lake or a bridge, or when entering a house or leaving a house, or when giving a gift or receiving a gift, when meeting teachers, many various other kinds of people,

[37:11]

or proceeding on roads, whether they're straight roads or winding roads or hilly roads. Each of these situations, there's a verse to be used in that situation mentioned to encourage mindfulness. And as a reminder of the fundamental intention to help oneself and others bring the sense of totality into the particular situation. So I just have one example. Seeing grateful people, they should wish that all beings be able to know the blessings of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. So that's a verse to say we're seeing people expressing gratefulness. And these verses from the Flower-Armor Sutra from Huayen are used in monasteries today. In Tassajara, there's a talking about how bathing one's body can be used as an example to help the refreshing of each being and all beings.

[38:30]

For example, there are verses to say when brushing your teeth or when washing your hands and so forth. Some of those are used in monasteries. I want to close by talking a little bit more about the sutra, and actually one of the sutras in the sutra. In our Friday evening of the Tumsaka reading group, we're currently working on the Dasabhumika Sutra, which is called the Ten Stages Sutra, the Ten Grounds, and showing development of Bodhisattva awareness. And that was a separate sutra. actually one of the first Mahayana sutras in India. But it's also part of this huge Flower Ornament Sutra. Tom Terry's translation is over 1,600 pages. It's a thick book. And that's supposed to be like a kind of abbreviated version of the whole Flower Ornament Sutra, which is what Buddha actually saw when he first

[39:43]

He was awakened, supposedly, and he spoke the sutra. He was aware of the sutra, but nobody could understand it then, anyway. So he brings that center Zen to show us how it works. But there's another chapter of the sutra that's also an independent sutra called the Tantra Vyubha. Theory translates as entry into the realm of reality. It's quite an academic course on that text. It's wonderful. And so I'm just closing with a little invocation of that. In that sutra, there's a story of a pilgrim named Sugana. And it was a young monk. And he's instructed by Maitreya Bodhisattva. Maybe it's Manjushri at the beginning. Manjushri, yeah. No, I guess it is Maitreya. Anyway. Manjushri actually sends him on the way and he ends up at the palace's trail, a future trail.

[40:49]

At any rate, at the end of that pilgrimage to 53 different Bodhisattva teachers who include monks and laypeople, men and women, homeless people, beggars, wealthy people, incense makers. I mean, it's just this whole panoply of different kinds of beings who are these great bodhisattvas. And each one of them sends Sudhana, gives Sudhana a teaching, a wonderful teaching, and then sends them on to some says, I don't really, you know, I can't really tell you the whole thing. You have to go see this teacher. So he goes for different teachers. So I'm just going to read an excerpt from Tom Clear's description of this in closing, and then I hope we'll have some discussion and further perspectives.

[41:53]

So he says, towards the end of his journey, Sudhana is directed to Maitreya, the Buddha-to-be, personification of loving-kindness. So this is one of the main bodhisattvas In Mahayana Buddhism, Maitreya is predicted by Shakyamuni to be the next future Buddha, you know, maybe in a thousand years or 100,000 years. He doesn't know. In the meantime, he's sitting as a Bodhisattva waiting to, trying to understand how to save all sentient beings so that he can be a Buddha. So as she sits there, she's considering how the mind works. So this is the Bodhisattva of Yogacara Buddhism, which is another branch of Buddhism, which looks into the phenomenology of the mind. Anyway, Sudhana comes eventually to a great tower, the tower of the treasury of adornments of the illuminator, which is Vairochana Buddha.

[43:04]

I'll be talking about that. and this Buddha represents the cosmos as seen by Bodhisattvas, the whole universe as awakened. And Vairochana reflects that this tower is the abode of Bodhisattvas who understand the emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness of all things. The abode of those whose intent is to benefit all beings. Of those who have already left all worlds, but who appear in the worlds to help people. Of those who observe emptiness of all things, yet do not form the view of emptiness. Of those who force in formlessness, yet always enlighten those and awaken those who cling to forms. Of those who practice wishlessness, yet do not give up the will for awakening practice, and so on.

[44:06]

In this vein, Sudhana extols the qualities, this pilgrim Sudhana, extols the qualities of Bodhisattvas. Then Maitreya appears. He praises Sudhana before a great assembly, and then extensively praises the determination for awakening. Finally, Maitreya has Sudhana enter the tower, which is then seen to, and that's the, the tower or palace of Maitreya. And this is where it gets weird. This tower is then seen to be boundlessly vast, as extensive as all space, and magnificently adorned with all manner of embellishments. Sudhana also sees that inside the tower are innumerable, similarly adorned towers, each one as extensive as space, yet not interfering with each other. This image symbolizes the central Hualien theme represented time and again throughout the Sravana Sutra, all things being interdependent, therefore,

[45:21]

implying in their individual being the simultaneous being of all other things. So this is like David implying Jan, who implies Sophia. This way in which we are all interconnected. Thus it is said, let me skip this sentence. So I'll go back. All things being interdependent therefore imply in their individual being the simultaneous being of all other things or other beings. Thus it is said that the existence of each element of the universe includes the existence of the whole universe and hence is as extensive as the universe itself. This point, a basic premise of the whole Huayant teaching, is dealt with in much more detail in all of the treatises translated.

[46:24]

So this is weird, mind boggling stuff. But it's actually, you know, it's very much the background of Soto Zen. So the fourfold Dharmadhatu I mentioned was elaborated in and Shakyamuni in the five ranks or five degrees. It's another way of talking about this. And so again, sometimes people think of Zen as separate from Buddhism or different Buddhist schools as separate from each other. Dogen says it's all just the Buddha way. He didn't use the word Zen or Shakyamuni or anything like that. all connected with practices and teachings of awakening. And they are there to help us in our practice.

[47:29]

So I'll stop there. And I'm very interested in hearing comments, responses, So please feel free. Jerry, you can help me with, I can see the people online, but I think you can see also if somebody raises their hand. People online can raise your hand or use the little M symbol at the bottom of your screen. So, comments, responses, questions? Again, this is just a little sample of what I'll be talking about Saturday, the 22nd of the afternoon.

[48:43]

Oh yeah, this is a little bit. Yes, Dylan. I came in with this question. I think there's a little, maybe it's a little bit in the practices chapter of the Augustine Socket Sutra, but I'm wondering like what role, Can you hear him online? Can everybody hear me? Yes. OK, good. Thank you. I'm wondering what role prayer has in different types of Buddhism. I guess in Mahayana or in Zen. It sounds like the different invocations you can say when doing different things is as listed kind of in the Sutra, in the Abhisamsaka Sutra, sort of what I'm talking about. of like how to like, I guess Zazen is like an embodiment of that. And maybe prayer as a concept is sort of a Western Christian concept, but I don't know, is there some way, is there ways that Zen or Mahayana Buddhism does that?

[49:58]

Well, first I need to ask you, what do you mean by prayer? Um, uh, I mean, um, bringing forward a wish for, um, uh, well, it's a wish and a, and a bringing or acknowledgement of, um, the project of, um, becoming free, I guess, and being peace. So a wish for that and an acknowledgment of the potential for that, I guess. Yeah, we sometimes chant, may all beings be happy. Yeah. So, OK. I think in the West, care often is with theistic religions, prayer is often like looking up to some being, sometimes called God or whatever, to help us with some particular thing.

[51:08]

And that's in Buddhism too, popularly. So, Buddhist practitioners, devotees, call on particular Buddhas and Bodhisattvas for help with various things. But that's also part of our, without assuming some being to help with some project. Just, I think it's that, again, depending on how you define the word prayer, I'll just let that go, but we do, we will be chanting the four Bodhisattva vows. So that is falling on, ending of all, cutting through all delusions, entering all Dharma gates, freeing all beings, expressing the Buddha way.

[52:14]

So those are things we wish for. There's one of the paramitas, the transcendent practices is vow, which also means taking on. So the bodhisattva vows are these inconceivable vows, but there are particular vows. So, you know, the vow of commitment to show up at Ebenezer or on Zoom this morning. So all of you have fulfilled that prayer or whatever you want to call it. So there are limited, you know, So for David Weiner, who's speaking tomorrow evening as a chaplain, when he's with a patient who is potentially, who's dying, or with a family of people who've died, he's trying to help them deal with that. That's a kind of commitment or vow.

[53:15]

And you can say prayer, but in the Buddhist context, at least in terms of the Dharma. It's not about somebody else coming and helping. Although there are lots of stories about bodhisattvas in which they do that, great bodhisattvas. So it's complicated. But yeah, Buddhism very much includes repentance and confession, which are sometimes part of prayer. In Zazen, Zazen is wonderful. Zazen is many things. It's having a chance to glimpse the ultimate wholeness of all things, as I was talking about, and see it in the particulars. But maybe it's also a penance for all our ancient mystic dharma, to actually witness that, to allow that to be part of how we sing.

[54:17]

So yeah, so that's a complicated issue. But yeah, I think it might be helpful to, rather than this big word prayer, just to think about the specifics of how you want to express intention would be helpful. Hi, Jen. Hi. I wonder if we could talk about something you mentioned earlier, and that is... Can you hear her on Zoom? Yes, okay, go ahead. That is how dangerous it is to attach yourself to the ultimate reality, and why that's dangerous. But to be aware of the ultimate reality is normal and needs to be done. Yes. But when you said attach yourself, it's dangerous to attach yourself to the ultimate, like it's dangerous to attach yourself to anything too much.

[55:26]

Yes, sure. I think another word for that is fanaticism. I don't know. I'm trying to Yeah, yeah, yeah, good. Or obsession is another word. But yeah, to glimpse the ultimate wholeness and interconnectedness of all things is wonderful. And sometimes that happens in some dramatic way. In some branches, it's called Kensho, seeing the nature of things. That can be a dramatic, cathartic experience. but it's also something that happens as we continue sitting. Suki Roshi talked about walking through the fog in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and his roadscape. It's not, it happens, it can happen with some sudden understanding or experience or it happens gradually and sometimes in ways we don't even recognize or realize and that's okay.

[56:31]

But, What you're asking about is attachment to the ultimate. So there are branches of Buddhism and there are many other spiritual traditions where realization of the ultimate is the total goal. Realization of the Godhead or something. Experiencing, I don't know what, some satori or something, some ultimate vision. Some satori? Satori is just a Japanese word for awakening experience. So a lot, many spiritual traditions see that as the whole point of the practice. From Huayen and in Mahayana generally where we see the oneness of nirvana and samsara, The point isn't just to realize all this, to have some deep experience or feeling of the ultimate, but to bring that back into, bring it all back home to our lives and this world with all its troubles.

[57:53]

So I want to encourage everybody to vote next month. Very important. For example, not to get caught in some mystical, I don't know what, vision or awareness. So I don't know if that responds to your question. Getting obsessed or attached to, I have to reach, you know, perfect enlightenment or whatever, is, Dangerous. It's a kind of obsession. It's a kind of fanaticism. And it ignores the suffering of the world. And our practice is to be open to hearing the cries of the world. That's compassion. So there has to be that balance. Thank you for that question. And that's a question that we have to return to over and over and over again, to not get caught on either side, to find the balance

[59:01]

the comfort, consolation, whatever word you want to use of seeing the ultimate, but also paying attention to each detail. Taking care, not just seeing, but taking care of details. Thank you. So any comments online or questions for Jerry? I'm sort of intrigued by this... Thank you for your time, by the way. The verses, one says, like, before eating, after eating, and it lends a ritualistic feel to life. I was wondering if you could say more about that. There's something very intriguing about living a life that so much ritual in it.

[60:09]

Yeah, well one can see one's whole life is ritual. There's conscious rituals and unconscious rituals. And how do we bring awareness to, you know, we all have some ritual when we wake up in the morning, brushing our teeth and whatever else. And it's not that some rituals are good and some rituals are bad, but, you know, can you pay attention to it as ritual? Zazen is a ritual. How do we use that ritual to express awakening, or the awakening on our shape, in our body and mind, with its limitations? So yeah, you might look for that chapter Which chapter is it on? 11? Okay, anyway, it's... You might go to the Flower of the Moon Sutra and look at that chapter and see some of the particular verses that are used.

[61:20]

There's also, I think there's a book by Ekin Roshi where he has a bunch of these. And also they're part of... the expression in places like Kripa Bhojpala, Tassavara Monastery. Let me find the chapter for you. It's the 11th chapter of the flower of the sutra. So you can go look for that. And there are, you know, the whole chapter is these different verses of how to express awakening and compassion in each of these particular situations through a particular verse that you can say intentionally. It's an interesting, what struck me also with what you just said is

[62:23]

We already have rituals that we just do unconsciously. So that's a way to bring more awareness into everything. Yeah, that's our practice, to bring awareness into each of that. Hi, Cecile. I was thinking, as you were talking, a lot about the difference between the images is like Indra's net and the mirror. And because when I think about the net and the mirror, there's this kind of deep symmetry to wholeness. There's this way that this idea of interpenetration is very geometric and exact in the reflection, which feels like a very different image to me than the ocean, where The idea of wholeness in the ocean seems like there's an asymmetry to the wholeness of the ocean to this flowing and coming back to the turbulence that rises and goes away.

[63:34]

So I was just wondering if you could speak a little bit to that. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. So the symmetry or asymmetry of these different images is based on our particular perception and how we see it. We see symmetry in some images. We see asymmetry in other images. The world now looks very asymmetrical. There's all this division and hatred and cruelty. From some being in a Buddha field in a different world system looking down or up or whatever, there might be a greater wholeness there. So, but I really appreciate your question, because a big part of practice, a big part of understanding dharma is imagination.

[64:36]

To actually use our imagination, I guess there are some spiritual teachings where your imagination is discouraged, you should just in the Mahayana. Mahayana is a whole world of imagination and imaginations. And so to look at, so what you were saying is very good, to look at different images or metaphors for wholeness and reality and see how they, you know, some are chocolate and some are vanilla or whatever, you know, some seem symmetrical, some seem asymmetrical. And that's based on our way of thinking. And that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, that's where we awaken. But just to imagine possibilities, you might imagine other metaphors for wholeness that are not yet in the Flower Ornament Sutra.

[65:47]

So let me know. Thank you. Yes, John. And I also add that, like, I think all of those images work and just accent different aspects of interrelation of reality that like, you know, the, as you said, the mirror and the net have more of a mathematical accent to it. And then the ocean I think can accent the verb, the action, the actual frothing and combination and things meeting each other and combining into new things. But it's still the way of how things work together to create reality. Thank you, Dylan. Yeah. And the other aspect of it is that each of these images or metaphors or whatever you want to call them, some may be helpful for some people and not for others.

[66:48]

So there's an element of skillful means. Some people might be really transformed or awakened by the image of Indra's neck. Some people might be more helped by to awaken by the image of the ocean. So yeah, how do we use our imagination? It's also important. David Ray online has some. Okay, yeah, we have time for maybe one more comment. So David Ray, please. Thank you so much for this talk, Taigen. My question is kind of, I guess, an add-on to Sophia's. So I am once again puzzling about the seal, the image of the seal, and why it's called Ocean Seal Samadhi, and how to take the thought of a seal, something that makes an impression or is an impression, alongside the surface of the sea, the surface of the ocean that is sometimes turbulent and sometimes just wavy and sometimes apparently still.

[67:59]

But I'm wondering where the seal fits into that image. Well, it's not the seals that swim in the ocean. I know, I know, I know. It's the stamp. Yes, the stamp. And it's also mudra. So these hand positions, like this. And, you know, there, you see the images of what he said images with various different gestures, translated as gestures, are kind of confirmations of various things. This is have no fear, for example. This is giving. So these are all ways of seal and stamping confirming, and the ocean does this by reflecting, and reflecting sometimes perfectly serenely, and reflecting sometimes with turbulent waves, and everything in between.

[69:01]

So that is a confirmation, a seal, the reflections there are, are reflections, are confirmations, or seals, or stamps of this reality. And Dogen talks about, you know, The full moon can be seen in an ocean or a lake and also in a puddle an inch wide reflection. So yeah, there's seals within seals. But yeah, there are also these, in Asian cultures, in East Asian cultures, in China or Japan, the Japanese word is hanko. David knows this. people have their own stamps that they carry with them. And it's like, for us, a signature. So you stamp your seal with the characters of your name, and that confirms that you've seen it. So this idea of seal or stamp or mudra is very complex and intricate and very interesting.

[70:11]

I don't know if that helps your question. It is me, it's not someone else. To put that sense of reality on it, so what the ocean is doing is putting its seal, it's putting its sense of reality on the Samadhi, or on this consciousness of universal being. So it's a seal saying that is real. Yes, good. It's a seal of reality. Thank you.

[70:48]

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