least, yeah, most of us were, at least half of us were here. We're doing our one-day sitting today, and we just finished having our, what we call, bodhisattva ceremony. Japanese is called ryaku fusatsu, or sange, which means something like repentance ceremony. So I'm, you can't hear me, I can't hear myself. Repentance ceremony? Is that better? Okay, so I'm going to talk about this ceremony, about its parts, and what the meaning is, more or less. So the ceremony, the first part is called repentance. The second is called the homages.

[01:06]

The homages where we pay homage to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and ancestors. And then there are the four Bodhisattva vows. And then there are the three refuges. And then there are the three pure precepts. And then the ten great precepts. That's quite a lot. And then we do a lot of vows. So, the basic pattern of this ceremony is to avow all of our ancient karma and to renew our vows of practice. We do this once a month. So, in other words, we clean our mind and then jump in. So this is like taking a or wash it awfully.

[02:09]

So, repentance is the beginning. It's like taking all the broken furniture and tossing that out, repairing it or cleaning up the house. But this is not the usual kind of repentance. did this or I shouldn't have done that. It's not that kind of repentance. This is like acknowledgement that we are as we are. This is total acceptance of who we are as we are. It's called abbreviation. It's non-specific. There's the formal sanghe which is conditioned, which talks about the various conditions.

[03:22]

In the olden days, and probably today still, the Theravada monks would have confession twice a month in the new moon and the full moon ceremonies. admit their transgressions because they had 250 precepts. And if they transgressed one, they would say, I did that. And then the punishment might be meted out if it was really something bad or some kind of consequence. So they had to be very honest and accept the consequence. Today we don't do that. In Japan, Saicho, who was one of the, way back in early Buddhism in Japan, of the Tendai school, Shinkan, Tendai school, initiated the 16 Bodhisattva precepts that we practice today.

[04:26]

which includes the ten prohibitory precepts, the three pure precepts, and the three treasures, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. And that's what we have been doing in this ceremony. The sixteen precepts constitute the body of the ceremony. The reason for that is because If you are from a different country than India, you don't have the same conditions that you have in India. Like you don't eat rice balls with your hands and stuff them into your mouth. These are minor precepts actually, you know, part of the 250 precepts and 300 for nuns. It just had to do with normal everyday activity. that made you into a dignified person. Part of Buddha's practice for his monks was actually to train them to be dignified human beings.

[05:42]

And so a lot of the precepts were simply transgressions of being a... don't be a slouch, you know. So, a lot of the precepts in India pertain to those conditions in India. Like, don't pee on a stupa. We don't have stupas. So, one time, Shakyamuni apparently didn't lay out a lot of rules. of behavior. But people would come to him, the monks would come, they'd say, you know, so-and-so has been doing this and that. So, then they'd talk about it and then the Buddha would say, well, let's make a rule that you shouldn't do that.

[06:49]

So, like for instance, I don't know if you've ever read this, One time, a group of monks tickled another monk to death. And so I said, well, no tickling. Don't tickle anybody. Stuff like that. So the precepts were reduced to 16 major precepts. There's the major precepts and the minor precepts. The minor precepts were just, major, in that don't kill, don't steal, and so forth, you know, which are basically common to most religious practices. There's like the Ten Prohibitory Precepts, kind of like the Ten Commandments, in a way, but they're not commandments.

[07:53]

They're suggestions for behavior. I'm going to write you what I wrote down. Repentance is to let go and unite with all beings in the universe with compassion for all and letting go of self-centeredness. Basically, you clean the mind so that you can actually let Buddha's teaching and compassion occupy your mind with something worthwhile. But don't let the devil in when that happens. I'm only kidding. Kadagiri Roshi, when he was setting up in Minnesota, before they found their place, they were looking for

[08:59]

you know, land somewhere, and people would come by and yell, the devil! You're the devil! You know? Interesting. So anyway, you don't react to things like that. When you clear your mind, you don't react to things like that. You express compassion for these people and hope that they will understand. instead of just shooting up their mouth. So, we let go of greed, hate and delusion. All my ancient twisted karma. Twisted is a word that was put in. Sometimes it's called evil karma. Sometimes it's called, what we say, tangled. I like tangled. I invented the word tangled. So, meaning involvements.

[10:04]

All my involvements which create suffering, which create binding and tangling. There are two meanings, two ways that tangling is used. Usually tangling means entanglements which bind you, like wisteria, the way wisteria, these vines are all twisting around each other. So in that sense it's a binding, but he uses it to mean relationship. the tangled vines of student and teacher, which free both of them. So all my ancient, I like tangled, here's this twisting, from beginningless greed, hate and delusion.

[11:16]

So beginningless means not yesterday, but no beginning and no end to greed, hate and delusion. We thrive as human beings on greed, hate and delusion. This is a human world which is driven by greed, hate and delusion. We want something, and then we get caught by what we want, and then we can't have what we want, and then when we have what we want, it's not satisfying, and we want something else, and so forth. And ill will comes up very easily. you know, we get caught actually in our ill will and it's hard for us to let go of our ill will and it becomes, ill will is also kind of greediness because it feeds us.

[12:23]

We feed on ill will, you know, we feed on love and we feed on ill will, which are just two sides of the same coin. The same energy that goes into love also goes into ill will. So it's just a matter of which pipe you channel it into. And we make a lot of mistakes. And sometimes we need to justify a mistake because we're too arrogant to admit it or to let go of it. And then we continue to keep digging a deeper, deeper hole because we keep defending our ill will. When we defend, we dig a hole and we just keep digging that hole. Pretty soon we find we're in this hole and we don't even know how we got there because And then pretty soon we're just lost in it.

[13:31]

And whenever something comes up that touches it off, we react. So ill will is a binder. It reinforces ego and it keeps us from finding our freedom. But a burst of anger, you know, it's very refreshing. Accept that. It's not lasting and it comes back to hit us in the head. So delusion of course is the parent of ill will and greed. Delusion is the parent and ill will and greed are the children. What is bad is good, and what is good is bad.

[14:34]

That's the basic delusion. We fall for this play. So, then born through body, speech and mind, this is the body, is our temple. Actually, this is our practice place. And so, this is where we receive the teaching and express the teaching. So we receive the teaching through our body, called Zazen, and through speech, which is hearing the Dharma, and through mind, which is thinking. So When our body, speech, and mind are confused or deluded, we're not clear, and we are confused, and then we don't know where we are.

[15:47]

So, to avow all this, from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion. In other words, we identify with everyone. you're greedy. We're all the same. When we realize we're all the same, then we can relate to each other. Thieves, you know, can relate to each other as thieves. Burglars, we're all burglars. And so we can let person, just like everybody else. You're all bad. You're all bad. So, when we take the repentance ceremony, we clear our mind and we all become Not good or bad, just simply present without any baggage.

[17:10]

It's a good way to be. It's not good or bad, but it's real. We allow Buddha's world to appear. So, to keep our mind clear all the time is called practice. to keep our mind clipped to, you know, to forgive right away. Not to hold anything at the bottom of your heart. It's called practice. And that's all there is to it. You're totally clear and free. That's called freedom. You know, we say beings are nerveless. I vow to save them. Well, save is probably, I don't say that's wrong, but free. Sometimes we use the word free. I vow to free them or to awaken with them.

[18:17]

We say awaken with them. This is an old translation. That's good, awaken with them. But to free them is really good because we free ourselves and we free everybody else. we can create harmony in the world. But until we're free, we can't do that. So to free our mind, what frees our mind is forgiveness and not attaching to those things which are tempting, like not hitting back, not reacting to things. To always keep a clear mind is the most important thing. So this is the repentance ceremony.

[19:19]

And then we pay homage to the Buddha, all the Buddhas. There are seven Buddhas before Buddha. There are more than seven. There's a sutra in which it's enumerated hundreds of Buddhas in the past. But we discount seven in order to make a short list. So we respect the Buddhas Shakyamuni, Maitreya, and then the Bodhisattvas, Manjushri, Samantabhadra, Avalokiteśvara, and all the ancestors. So they're the historical or mythological ancestors, the seven Buddhas. mythological Buddhas, because Buddha was not the first one, so we count all those ones before Buddha.

[20:20]

And then Shakyamuni is the present Buddha of this age, I don't know about millennium, but he's for us, the personification of Buddha nature. Maitreya Buddha is the Buddha in your own mind, your future, Maitreya is Celestial Buddha, right? Up in Tushita Heaven, which will save the world. But Jesus already did that. Because both of them are personifications of love. Maitri means love. So Maitreya Buddha, when he takes his turn, a long time from now, will be But you are Maitreya Buddha. All you have to do is act like it. Yeah, you are Maitreya Buddha.

[21:24]

You are Manjushri Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva of Wisdom, who is the teacher of all the Buddhas. Manjushri Bodhisattva is you when you act through your Buddha's wisdom mind. Samantabhadra Bodhisattva is your practice mind, or your activity of practice. And Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva is your compassionate mind, or your compassionate actions. When you act in that way, you are Avalokiteshvara. Even though we talk about, we look at them as celestial Buddhas or something, they're just eitrons, right? But actually it's us, it's all you. This is not about something else. Everything is about your practice. You are Avalokiteshvara, you are Manjushri, just when you practice in that way. So then there are the four Bodhisattva vows, right?

[22:34]

The Bodhisattva vows are basically a response to the Four Noble Truths. The four noble truths are sentient beings are subject to suffering or dissatisfaction. The second truth is, the reason for that is called desire, sometimes called delusion. But it's delusion about desire. about what is really desire. Desire, there's nothing wrong with desire. It's just like, where do you put it? Because desire leads to suffering, because it leads to greed, ill will, and delusion. So desire is drawn to delusion. So that's why in Buddhism they say, get rid of

[23:39]

It doesn't mean to get rid of desire, it means to put desire in the right channel so that it leads to wholesome actions. So we call it, when it's turned toward practice, I call it way-seeking mind. So the third noble truth is there is a way out. There is a way to deal with it. And the fourth truth, the fourth noble truth is, that way is called the Eightfold Noble Path, or the Six Paramitas, or all of the practices of Buddhism. So, beings are numberless. I vow to save them from what? Greed, ill-will, and delusion. Or, save them from themselves. But free is good.

[24:42]

I vowed to help people to be free of greed, hate and delusion. That's responding to the First Noble Truth. And delusions or desires are inexhaustible. I vow to not follow them in a bad way or end them. And then the Dharma gates are bound The dharma gates, you know, we can say, well, the various practices of Buddhism are the dharma gates. But every activity in your life is a dharma gate. Everything you do, everything you encounter between you and whatever is your encounter is a dharma gate. We call it the gateless gate, the mumon, the gate that has no gate.

[25:43]

Every occasion is an opportunity to practice the Dharma. That's why we call it continuous practice. It's not just coming to the Zen Dojo. It's continuous practice. And I can't say that enough. And then, Buddha's way is unsurpassable. You can test that out. You should test that out. You shouldn't just take my word for it. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. You should try to surpass it, actually. And if you can, you can leave Buddhism behind. As a matter of fact, you should surpass it and leave Buddhism behind. And then you can appreciate Buddhism. And when you leave it behind, you know that there is no behind. So, the Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. Become it is like, okay, attain it.

[26:55]

We don't like to say attain it because we don't have the word attainment in our vocabulary because there's nothing to attain. So, then we take the three refuges. We take refuge in Buddha. Refuge means various things. Return to what? our own true nature. We return to Dharma, or take refuge in Dharma, our Buddha wisdom, our innate Buddha wisdom. And we take refuge in Sangha, which is our activity. Our activity is expressed through Sangha. Sangha means the people that you practice with, or the world. You can include everything in Sangha, if you like. specifically it's the people you practice with, but the extended Sangha, extended family is infinite.

[28:01]

But Sangha is you. You are Sangha. Buddha, we say immersing body and mind deeply in the way. Immersion means The dharmakaya is your nature, is your essence of mind. Taking refuge in the dharma is your wisdom. Before all beings entering deeply into the merciful ocean of Buddha's way, this is sambhogakaya. Your Buddha body, which is yogic, yogic meaning connecting everything together. your yogic body is the body that connects all things together.

[29:04]

So there's no separation, even though each thing is individual. And to take refuge in Sangha before all beings bringing harmony to everyone. So when you have harmony within yourself, then you can express harmony to your surroundings and to everyone. This is dharma, this is practice, creating harmony all around you without trying. You're not expressing anything, it's all being expressed through you. Dharmakaya is being expressed through you. And the Sanmogakaya is being expressed through you. All you have to do is act natural. But natural, meaning natural Buddha.

[30:05]

Because Buddha is just our true nature. Then we have the three pure precepts. I vow to refrain from all evil. I vow to do what is good. I vow to live and be lived for the benefit of all beings. This is kind of a dualistic way of speaking, good and evil, good and bad, but that has to be expressed. So when we say non-dual, our practice places a lot of emphasis on non-duality, but that non-duality also includes duality. So, we say there's no good or evil. Yes, that's true. At the same time, there is good and there is evil. So, these are the two aspects. One is, yes, there's good, yes, there's evil, and yet, there's that place where there's neither good nor evil.

[31:12]

Things are just as they are. So I refrain from, I refrain from all evil, which is the abode, this is, Dogen wrote these commentaries to these particular precepts. And they sound, you know, they make you scratch your head sometimes, because the precepts or express a dualistic expression. Ivada, referring to evil, is dualistic because evil creates good and good creates evil. There's no evil without being good and there's no good without being evil.

[32:17]

They just create each other because one is the antidote to the other. So, I vow to refrain from all evil. That sounds good, right? And Dogen says, it is the abode, the source and the law of all Buddhas, is to do good. I vow to do all that is good. And Dogen says, it is the teaching of Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi. It is the path and it's the basically. And I vow to live and be lived for the benefit of all beings, that's the third pure precept. Dogen says it is transcending profane and holy. Okay. Transcending profane and holy means non-dual. Taking self and others across. Across means across the sea of duality.

[33:21]

So I refrain from evil and I do good. This is a dualistic understanding which we should all follow. But the higher understanding is transcending profane and holy. So then there are the ten grave precepts. Grave, meaning serious. I vow not to kill. Each one of these ten precepts is a koan. They seem very straightforward, and they are. I vow not to kill. I vow not to take what is not given. I vow to refrain from false speech. I vow not to sell the wine of delusion. We say wine or drugs. I vow not to slander. I vow not to praise self at the expense of others. I vow not to be avaricious.

[34:26]

I vow not to harbor ill will. I vow not to abuse the three treasures. This all sounds very straightforward, and it is. So, to say, as an example, which I always use, because it's the first one, I vow not to kill. Well, yes, that's very, very good. But it's impossible to not kill, because living is dying. Living is dying. There's nothing that doesn't die, each moment. living and dying, birth and death are happening continuously on each moment. And we create a kind of play in our mind about what's happening in our world.

[35:34]

And so we put our attention on that play rather than on the fact that birth and death is happening on each moment. So, even if I go like this, I'm killing something. If I scratch my eye, there are uncountable creatures inside that eye that are being disturbed. Or maybe they're enlightened, I don't know. Yes, it's mostly human beings that are not enlightened. We live, actually, in a world, an enlightened world. But it's the human being. Because the human being is the new baby. It's the baby. And we have to learn all this.

[36:38]

Whereas animals, the turtle comes out of the egg on the beach, crawls to the water and starts swimming. He doesn't need anything. There's just what to do. The dogs and the cats, there's just what to do. Of course, they have to learn how to be with people, but they adapt themselves very well, better than a lot of us. People say, well, I'm a vegetarian. That's true. You're not killing animals. But you're taking the life of the vegetable. We're consuming the life of the vegetable. So everything is eating everything. That's called consumption. Mass consumption is our life. I sometimes think of it as we're earthworms with a big mouth and a big anus.

[37:41]

And we crawl through the ground eating or consuming and we leave a trail. And the trail is good. It fertilizes the ground and aerates it and so forth. But anyway, that's what we are. We're killers of everything. But we also allow things to grow. So dying is living. Living is dying. Dying is living. We can't do without it. We can't do without killing and we can't do without bringing to life. or allowing it to happen. So it's both. So what does it mean not to kill? It means not to take life willfully, not to kill life. In other words, even though this is true, be careful about what you eat and what you kill. Yes, because everything wants to live.

[38:44]

The will to live is not even ours, although we cooperate with it. It's the universe creating this will, this energy that wants to be here and do this thing, and we'll do whatever we can to survive. No matter how well trained we are, When push comes to shove, we'll eat each other. As we know. So, this is a big koan. What does it mean, not to kill? We should be careful not to kill. At the same time, we have to do it all the time. But we should be very careful, because everything wants to live.

[39:52]

So, I vow not to take what is not given. This is going to be long for a long time. Not too long. I vow not to take what is not given. In other words, don't take somebody else's stuff. And Dogan says, self and objects are such. They're two. me and the object. But yes, for what? So the gate of liberation stands open. So what is the gate of liberation? The gate of liberation means nothing belongs to me, and yet everything belongs to me. Everything is... we use things. Like Suzuki Roshi, I remember saying, I don't own anything, but I do have my glasses, and I appreciate you letting me wear them. And Agen Roshi says, you can't have my typewriter, because I need that for my work.

[41:08]

But if I didn't, you know, it's not mine, but I use it for my work. And so please, don't take it from me. Let me have it. So some people don't have anything and need a lot. So we start stealing from each other. But, you know, Ryokan is in his little hut. He has nothing but a blanket. And it's a full moon night and someone comes in and steals his blanket. That's all he had. And he says, my gosh, you know. He looked out the window. It's a full moon. He said, if he'd only come and asked me, I would have given him the moon. So letting go of stuff is really good practice.

[42:12]

even though we may have a lot of stuff, we're not attached to everything. So, attachment is suffering. Anyway, these are the... I can't go into all of these ten precepts, but each one is a koan. of co-ops. The end of co-op study for them. So I'm going to stop. I didn't ask for any questions. But if you have one, you may or may not, but I don't want to... Do you have any questions? How would you distinguish caring, let's say caring for the one body, from attachment?

[43:38]

Yeah, caring without attachment. Yes, that's the trick. Caring without attachment. There are various practices which are attributed to something called love. But love, you know, not many people know what that word means in its true sense, because it's usually associated with attachment. But true love is not attachment. It's generosity. It's Dana. It's generosity without any strings attached. No strings attached.

[44:43]

So when you love someone, you do what you can for that person out of love without expecting anything back. So when we give, we just give and forget. When we have relationships, we do expect something back. That's also a form of love. It's not as pure as just give and forget, and just do what you can for this person without attachment. but there are various forms of attachment which are also love. But it's also to be able to feel the suffering of others and do what you can for people without attachment and without being attached to suffering.

[45:49]

you become attached to suffering, their suffering. And it makes it difficult to help people that way, because then they become unhappy because you're suffering. And then everybody's unhappy because everybody else is suffering. And there's no salvation in it. So to help someone up pulled down into the bit. But sometimes you do. Sometimes you have to do that. Sometimes, OK, I'll go down into it. But basically, it's helpful if you can help people up without attachment. There is engagement, but engagement is not attachment. So how to engage? and express pure love, which is what holds everything together.

[47:13]

Love is actually the binder which holds everything together. But everything is changing. So you can't hold on to any of it because it's changing. So every moment is a different configuration. and you have to adjust to every moment's different configuration without attachment. But sometimes you do, and it hurts, and it's okay. Oh, it hurts, but it's okay. I feel the pain, I feel the suffering, but it's okay. I'm not going to escape from it, but it's not going to bind me. How does our arrogance interfere with our letting go? Oh, because we stick to our position. Arrogance is sticking to your position. Yeah.

[48:15]

See, when we're arrogant, we think that we're... Arrogance usually comes from not being sure of yourself. So it's being too sure of yourself. And so it binds your mind. Humility, people misunderstand what humility is. Humility means not thinking too much of yourself, not thinking too little of yourself, just knowing yourself as you really are. That's humility. So arrogance is thinking too much of yourself, which is a kind of false thinking. Humility is knowing exactly where, so you don't have to respond to every situation from a true base. Humility is knowing that you're intelligent, but realizing that even though you know you're intelligent, there are beings that are much more intelligent than you are.

[49:29]

And it's knowing that you have limitations, but you know that there are limitations that are much deeper than yours. So it's just knowing where you are. It's just being yourself. That's humility. And you don't get fooled by anything. True humility, you are not fooled by anything.

[49:54]