Good morning. So, this morning we just finished doing the Bodhisattva ceremony in Japanese called Ryakufusatsu. Is this on? Okay. It's called Rilku Fusats, which means something like abbreviated repentance ceremony and taking the precepts. Abbreviated is the key word here, because I'll read this to you. Of course, you already know it, but this is a kind of refresher of what you already know. If you haven't heard this before, you don't know it. This bodhisattva ceremony is the ceremony of repentance or confession and renewal of our practice.

[01:14]

renewal of it. So every month we renew our practice in this way. We acknowledge our ancient tangled karma and renew our vow to practice. That's what this ceremony is about. So it's about living by vow instead of living by karma. So what we call ordinary activity is living by are by karma, and when we take our Buddhist vows, then we're living by vow instead of by karma. So we're living by the rules or what we believe is the truth of our life, the true value of our life, the true virtue of our life. living by the Buddhist precepts.

[02:15]

So Buddhist precepts takes the place of karma. So there's a lot to say about this. And this is also quite long, this ceremony, and it has many moving parts. I cannot cover all of those parts, but I do want to cover some of the essentials of, remind us what the essentials are of this ceremony. You know, Suzuki Roshi says that precepts are not something that is imposed on us. Sometimes we think, if we have some rules, when your mother tells you, don't do this and don't do that, these are the rules, you think something is imposed on you. But when you grow up and take the Buddhist vows, you realize it's not something imposed on you.

[03:25]

You are freely taking the vows, freely taking the precepts. as your inmost request, as Suzuki Roshi used to say. This is your true inmost request. So the precepts come from you, and the precepts that are established are to remind us of our own inner request for truth and order. So the precepts are an expression of our vows. So the ceremony starts out with a lot of vows and stuff, but with the repentance. So we say, all my ancient twisted karma, or now I like to use the word tangled rather than twisted because it makes it seem like we're twisted beings.

[04:34]

We're actually tangled. Karma is an entanglement. Our karma entangles us and traps us. So that's the problem with karma. I'll explain or say something about that. So all my ancient tangled karma from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, born through body, speech, and mind, I now fully avow. Avow is to acknowledge. So the key here is beginningless. So this is not about what you did yesterday or something like that. It's about all the karma that you can never remember, that you can never really understand. But you know that you've been creating karma since the beginning of your life.

[05:36]

So it's more like ancient entanglements that are hindrances to your life, basically. So it goes way, way back. And sometimes people say, well, why don't we acknowledge our transgressions from last month? which actually is a Buddhist method, the old ancient Buddhist method of acknowledging karma. So it's within the monk's circle. And every twice a month, in the old style, the monks would have a meeting and acknowledge their transgressions for the last month.

[06:39]

And they lived by rules, actually. 220 precepts or 350 precepts, depending on which school it is and whether you're a man or a woman. So it was taking care of immediate transgressions And there were, you know, all kinds of elaborations, hierarchy of transgressions, the worst of which, the parajika, or killing a Buddha, or killing your mother and father, or things like that. So, those were very grave precepts, which you could be expelled from the order. And then there was less major and then some minor and many minor precepts. So they lived by those precepts. And in China, of course, they were not so strict.

[07:45]

The precepts were reduced as rules because so many of the minor ones, minor precepts, were local. So we have major precepts and minor precepts. The major precepts are pretty much universal. We have the 16 precepts, which are our vows. And in China, they have the 250 precepts in various languages. precepts, but when Buddhism came to Japan, the Japanese reduced the precepts to 16. And those are the precepts that we follow, hopefully, sometimes. So, 16 precepts.

[08:47]

The three Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, they're all right here in this She, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha are the first three, and the three pure precepts, which, I'll just put it there. The three pure precepts are refraining from evil, doing what is good, and vowing to live for the benefit of all beings. Those are general precepts. They're not specific. Specific precepts are the ten specific. They're called grave precepts. We call them Clear mind precepts. I like clear mind precepts rather than grave.

[09:50]

Grave precepts are kind of like pointing, don't do that, that, that. They're the precepts of don't do. But clear mind precepts are precepts of don't do, but do. So it includes both do and don't do. I like that better. That's the second page. I'm still on the first page. I may not get too far. So, all my ancient tangled karma from the very beginning, caused by greed, hate, and delusion. So, these are the three poisons, the three they're called poisons, which are hindrances to our life. So we avow, and then we become, for that moment, we become purified. We become wholesome.

[10:53]

Wholesome is, we're not, we're no longer in the realm of being, driven by duality because we have the whole sum. So we're kind of made whole and clean. That's the point. We're no longer hindered by our karma. So what is karma? As we know, karma means volitional action. A volitional action means an action that we do on purpose, which creates problems for us. So my rule of thumb is that you're presented with something, whether it was an object or a situation,

[12:01]

and you investigate it. That's the first step, you investigate, what is that? And then the second step is, well, let's see, I'll try that out. So you try it out, and then you have some experience of that situation. Then you have a choice. Shall I forget about it or shall I do it again? That's where karma steps in. Third time is the charm, as we say, because you made your decision to go ahead and do something. And so you can, you know, all of us have get caught by karma.

[13:05]

We all get caught by, I mean, it's impossible not to get caught by karma because of our desire. Desire is the motivator for creating karma. So that's why we say desires are what they are. Actually, we usually say delusions, right? But that's a kind of cop-out. It's really desires. literally, that create our problem. So how do we not get caught by desire? That's what, that's Buddhadharma. That's the four vows. But I'll get on to that. That's down here a little bit. So this is all, you know, connected about what is karma and how to free yourself from karma. Suzuki Roshi talked about the magical powers of the arhats, which is actually in our liturgy, but we don't always recognize it.

[14:06]

the six powers of the arhats and their followers who attain the supreme attainment of arhatship, right? So he talked about the six powers, which are clairvoyance and the ability to do these miraculous things, which is kind of historical, you know. So the last vow is the vow to be free from karma. He said that's the main Buddhist practice, is how to be free from karma. So he also talked about virtue and value. We usually talk about value. We rarely talk about virtue because our society is based on value, whereas it could be based on virtue.

[15:11]

Virtue means your true nature. Value means karma. Comparative values. You're comparing one thing to another. This is worth a lot and this is worth a little. That's dualistic thinking. Everything is the same, actually. But we make these judgments based on value, which is okay. We have to do that. But the problem is we get caught karmically in judging by value instead of judging by virtue, which is a thing's true value, not comparative value. So that's why we say an ant is equal to an elephant. Ants are little, elephants big, right? But an ant and an elephant are equal in value. Virtue. Virtue value.

[16:12]

Which cannot be, nothing can be duplicated. So everything everything, every created thing, it has its own virtue. So we respect that. And then, it's interesting, Suzuki Roshi talking about changing our karma. He doesn't talk much about that, but he says, He's talking about the sutra. I'm not sure what sutra it is exactly, but without saying he's talking about the sutra, he's talking about it. So he says, as a bee in gathering honey, tastes the flower but does not harm its color or its scent.

[17:16]

This is a typical Buddhist understanding that the bee takes what it needs without harming what it's taking the nectar from. This is a very famous parable. When we take honey, because the flower's beautiful or the scent is nice, we miss the true taste of the flower. When you're taking care of yourself and the flower, you can have a direct feeling of the flower and taste its honey. Often we are not careful. We may ruin a beautiful flower or we may stick to a particular flower. If we stick too much, eventually the flower will die. The purpose of the flower having honey is to help the plant by inviting bees. So it is necessary to know whether we are like a bee or like something else.

[18:23]

When we are aware of the difficulties that we sometimes create, we can extend our practice more carefully throughout our everyday life. Which reminds me of another story. A story way back in Buddha's time. There were a number of arhats, and they were on the road going someplace, and a band of robbers came along. And the robbers took whatever the bhikkhus had, because they didn't have anything, actually. There was actually nothing they could take. So they were going to just get rid of them because that's the way robbers are sometimes. If they stick you up and you don't have any money, they'll shoot you just out of frustration. And, but there was one of the robbers who had been a monk at one time, and he said, you know, let's do this.

[19:31]

I was, I understand these guys. So let's, they were by a field of some kind of plants. And he said, if we tie them with string to the plants, they won't move because they don't want to pull up the plants. So he did that, and then... There they were. And then, of course, a king came along with his retinue, and he said, what's going on over here? And they told him. And the king was so impressed that he gave the monks of Pihara all kinds of stuff for their welfare. So that story came to my mind.

[20:33]

So then we do a lot of bowing. And then we pay homage to various deities. These are not deities. They are examples of practice, personified. And as we know them, we pay homage to the seven Buddhas before Buddha. to Shakyamuni Buddha, to Maitreya Buddha, Manjushri Bodhisattva, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, homage to the succession of ancestors. So, there are two ways to look at these demigods. I don't know, they're not really... So, you know, as Shakyamuni Buddha, found the hidden path. He said, according to the story, that when I was traveling along on the ordinary path, I saw a kind of trace of a path going this way.

[21:44]

He said, so I went down there. I went down that path, it's all covered with brambles and stuff, and found this path. And then he realized that this is the path that all the Buddhas had taken, all the Buddhas before him. So we say the seven Buddhas before Buddha, actually there's six before Buddha. It's a little bit funny. But just six just represents innumerable Buddhas throughout time and space that appeared before Shakyamuni. He said, I simply uncovered the old path. And then, I mean, so there's seven Buddhas before Buddha. And then Shakyamuni Buddha was the present, at that time, Nirmanakaya Buddha. Nirmanakaya Buddha is, of course, it's the Buddha who is embodied. So we have the Trikaya.

[22:46]

In order to understand who Buddha is, they developed the Trikaya. the old Mahayana Buddhists, the Dharmakaya, the Sambhogakaya, and the Dharmanakaya. So, the Dharmakaya is our nature. Sambhogakaya is our wisdom. Nirmanakaya is our actions, according to the Sixth Patriarch's understanding. I like that better than all the other understandings, of which there are many, because intellectually, people make big intellectual

[23:47]

stories about these bodhisattvas and buddhas. And they were in awe of them, right? But the Sixth Patriarch of Zen just brings it down to, oh, it's very simple. It's you. They're not out there. These are your qualities. These are the qualities of your practice when you are actually practicing. So dharmakaya is our nature, Buddha nature. When we say resume our nature, our true nature, that's dharmakaya. And to express when we are one with our true nature, then our expression is sambhogakaya, our wisdom. And our actions are nirmanakaya, our everyday activity. So, homage to Shakyamuni, homage to Maitreya.

[24:57]

Maitreya is the Buddha of the future, as you know. But who is Maitreya? You know, the Jews are always waiting for the Messiah. Same thing, exactly. But the Messiah never arrives. as somebody else, and there were all kinds of false messiahs during history. And people would believe in this false messiah, Donald Trump. Excuse me. So, yeah. Each one of us is Maitreya Buddha. And how do we, Maitreya Buddha is called, the Buddha will come in 250,000 years. He's the next Buddha to appear. So, Maitreya is our baby in our womb.

[26:08]

who will be born to save ourself. When we save ourself, then we save everybody. Because Maitreya is the Buddha of love and compassion. Maitri is love and compassion. So that's the embodiment, that's the next Buddha. But all of these Buddhas, all Bodhisattvas are our own true nature. We embody them. Maitreya Buddha, Monjushri is our wisdom. Samantabhadra is our practice. Avalokiteshvara is our compassionate body. And we pay homage to the succession of all the ancestors.

[27:12]

The reason we pay, somebody said, why do we chant the names of the ancestors? That person didn't quite understand why. It's because the only thing that preserves Zen, which is Buddhist practice, is handing the dharma from one to another. It's a long line of handing the dharma from one to another, say with warm hand to hand. That's why we have dharma transmission and why we have students. Actually, it's not just people that have dharma transmission who transmit the dharma. Everybody who practices transmits the dharma. Some are acknowledged as, for one reason or another, for their leadership. So then, we have the four vows.

[28:21]

So we're paying homage to all of these qualities that we embody in each other and in ourselves. And then we have the four vows. Four vows are the four responses to the four noble truths. So we say, beings are numberless, I vow to save them. So the first truth is beings are suffering. The first of the four noble truths is There's a tendency for people to suffer. Suffering, you know, suffering and not suffering are the two aspects. Pleasure and suffering are the two aspects. But our understanding is that they're really one.

[29:24]

The suffering within pleasure and pleasure within suffering. That's the way it goes. So, we have to be able to find the calmness of our mind within our suffering. The calmness of our mind is that which is the settled place in our life, no matter what's happening. And that's why we sit sadhana. When you start feeling some discomfort in Zazen, just keep going, and you'll find your treasure. You won't find your treasure if you don't continue, because you go to some other means. It's hard to stay in our settled mind, in our here, and receive whatever comes.

[30:29]

That's the way it is in this life. So, beings are neverless. The response, the Bodhisattva's response is, I've got to save them or awaken with them, we say. I've got to awaken with everyone and influence everyone else to awaken, help people to awaken. So that's the response, Bodhisattva's response to the First Noble Truth, suffering. And delusions, or desires, are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Well, it's pretty hard to end them, but we vow to do the impossible. Suzuki Yoshi used to say, You know, if we just had possible things to do, Buddhism would disappear. So we vow to do the impossible, whether we do it or not, that's something else.

[31:33]

But the vow itself is what's important. So delusions are inexhaustible. So these two are the problem, the problem of suffering and the cause. And so we address the cause. And then the cure is, dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. So the third noble truth is there is a way to deal with it. There's a way to deal with our life, the life of pleasure and suffering. And the answer is, the Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. So this is, first we have the repentance, and then we have the homages.

[32:43]

Then we take the four vows, which is how we renew our practice. So every time we recite the four vows, we renew our practice. And then we take the refuges. I take refuge in Buddha, I take refuge in Dharma, I take refuge in Sangha. So taking refuge in Buddha is like, we take refuge in our own nature, which is the dharmakaya, our dharma nature. Everyone belongs, we all belong to that club. Yasutani Roshi described it as, we all belong to the same nose hole society. So we take refuge in Buddha, our own true nature, which is the Dharmakaya. And we take refuge in Dharma, which is Sambhogakaya, which is our wisdom body.

[33:52]

That's what's Dharma. Dharma is our wisdom body that we study, we practice. That's the realm of wisdom which is the expression of dharmakaya, actually. And then, I take refuge in Sangha, which is nirmanakaya, nirmanakaya Buddha. It's our activity, which is informed by our true nature and our wisdom, Buddha's wisdom. We can also say, I return to In Buddhadharma, we don't acknowledge original sin. It's more like we are born without sin, but then we, and the way we create, I don't like to use the word sin, but it's used, unwholesomeness by falling into duality.

[35:07]

So we're born without the sense of duality, which is, without the sense of duality means purity. So when we talk about pure and impure in the Buddhadharma, impure means dualistic. Things are divided. That division is impurity, even though everything is separate according to our view. We don't always view our nature, which is undivided, but undivided is purity, and divided is impurity. So we live in an impure world, as you know, but our original nature is purity. in other words, not divided, or the reconciliation of divisions, the oneness of two, the oneness of duality, actually.

[36:21]

So returning to our nature means returning to immersing ourself in the oneness of duality, which is called saten. So I take refuge in Buddha, or I return to Buddha, before all beings, I think it should be, immersing body and mind deeply in the way, and awakening our true mind. And before all beings, entering deeply the merciful ocean of Buddha's way, that's the Dharma. And before all beings, bringing harmony to everyone, free from hindrance. So that's living by vow. I wonder if you have any questions?

[37:27]

You brought up living with volitional action and living by vow. We've talked about volitional action being like karma, or a way to describe karma. And so when we're taking action by vow, I choose to do something, how can I understand that that's not karma, or how can I understand that? Okay, thank you. I didn't finish my, I was going to, right, thanks for reminding me. It's good karma and bad karma. So you, you know, make a decision, We're always creating some kind of karma by making a decision. Every time we make a decision, we create a path or a road. And so when we do something out of habit, it's either good karma or bad karma.

[38:36]

So it's good to have good habits, right? Yeah, that's basically, it's simply you create good habits or bad habits. And it's hard to get out of the bad habits because they're addictive. As I like to say, we're creatures of addiction without knowing it. There are certain addictions that are very prominent and obvious. But there are a lot of addictions that are not obvious, and those are just as, you know, they may not have the same harmful results, but they do captivate us. You know, whenever we put our hand on something, you know, I can put my hand on this and I say, I have this. But actually, it has me. It's telling me what to do. Everything that we encounter we have some effect on and it also has some effect on us.

[39:39]

So whatever I think I have also has me because if I let my glass drop, well, that's one way to get rid of something. But it has me because I have to pay attention to it. Whatever is demanding our attention has me. In some way, it's okay. As long as we know what we're doing. But we don't always know what we're doing. Like in the Sangha, or in the practice of Sangha, we allow everybody to influence us and we influence each other, but the stick is simple. So the stick affects me, and I could deny that effect and just use it for that beautiful stick for hitting something, for example. No, it's not. It's not because of, yes. Yeah, and so then that is, I guess, karma.

[40:45]

Now I pick up a different stick and it makes me want to build something beautiful with that. I'm responding to this stick and my urge to work with it. Yeah, well misusing something, you know, can create pretty bad karma that hurts yourself and others. Yeah, so creating good karma or good habits helps people. So we're always creating karma, one kind or another. So we say it's better to create good karma than bad karma, but it's also possible to not create any karma. Because good karma is somewhat the same as no karma, considered neutral. Bad karma, good karma, and neutral karma. So good karma is more akin to neutral karma. Can you say something more about listening to this stick?

[41:47]

I don't know. Is that you? God! That's how I get my communications from God. So that listening is in order, but we can't be sure what it's saying. Well, you know, we say rocks, pebbles, fences, and so forth, are all preaching the Dharma. Everything's preaching the Dharma. What is it saying? Yes, if you don't try to understand it, it'll talk to you. If your mind is open without preconceptions, It's talking to us all the time, and we need to listen. that it doesn't necessarily excuse the moment of transgression with a person, but it has, but it kind of led up to that.

[43:24]

Like if I excuse my patient with you in that moment, I can say I'm sorry to lose my patient with you, but the causing conditions that brought share our life with someone, saying that it's not just this moment, it's this history that I have. Forget the history. As soon as you say, I'm sorry for this, that releases you. That's called release. That's it. That's called, it's called repentance. You don't have to flagellate yourself. Uh-huh.

[44:27]

Oh, I see. Yes. Because it reminds us of Tangled Karma. In other words, we are the result of what we've been. So this is our history. Bringing up our history. History is important. Even though we start from each moment. So it's, I now fully avow all my, because I can't say it all, right? So I say, I avow it all. And then it's the same thing as saying, excuse me for whatever I did for you. That's the level that it's presented. So by acknowledging all your past karma from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, you freed yourself. As soon as you chant that, you've freed yourself, even though you immediately go back to creating more karma.

[45:31]

But it's nice if you don't. You have the opportunity to continue in a different way. But if you don't do that, you don't have the opportunity to continue in a different way. That's where we're all stuck. We really get stuck. in resentment and not being able to, you know, free ourself. So we are our own captors. Yeah. I've always been curious about the distinction between good karma and real karma. Is it pointing to Well, no karma is kind of like the bee who takes the honey, who takes what it needs without hurting the plant.

[46:48]

And the effect on the plant is not volitional, but the plant benefits. So there's really no karma. involved. There's some kind of karma, which means the bee is doing what it needs to do, right? And we would say a wholesome way because the bee is contributing to its family, right? But without harming anything. So there's maybe some kind of minimal, I can't say there's minimal karma, but it's called neutral, because it's not good and it's not bad. There's gotta be some place where the thing is not good and it's not bad. So not good and not bad means the reconciliation of good and bad, or right and wrong.

[47:50]

So we demonstrate that with our bow, right? This is bad karma, this is good karma, and we put them together and we bow, and that neutralizes the good and the bad. It takes away the good and it takes away the bad. It's beyond good and bad. Because there's no self in it. Yes, there's no self in it. Yes, something like that, yes. So it's hard to tell what's really good. As long as there's some self in it, the tiniest bit of self in it, it's okay.

[49:01]

Okay. You have to speak to me. We are, as a collective, as a collective of the world, which we are living in, we are doing a lot of, I mean, we are kind of like, what's happening politically, is kind of like what's happening with the giant robots, like, you know, like US and Europe, you know, versus, you know, the other part of the place. I mean, even Asia, I mean, they are manipulating right now, And we are living in this country, and we are working in taxes, contributing to the power, to the machine that we are doing this.

[50:09]

Collectively, we are doing a lot of damage. I think you're talking about collective karma. You heard about the karma of a nation, the karma of a group, right? People get caught in the collective karma of a group.

[51:13]

of a country or nation or an idea, and that's too bad. I'm sorry. That's life. People get caught in the machinery. So we each have to do our best individually. Life is sad. It's like, we have to accept that. We have to accept that we are also contributing to the bad karma of our country, but we can't help it, even though we don't want to, because everybody gets caught up in that situation, wherever you are. And you can revolt, you can, you know, but You have to be able to discern your own way of responding to what's happening.

[52:17]

So I say, vote!

[52:19]

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