So some of us are in the middle of this practice period, this two-month practice period, and we're focusing on several of the stories from the Lotus Sutra. And again, these stories are not about learning some understanding of some particular teaching. They're more, well, they're very often very strange stories. And they're intended to inspire us to incite our imagination, to support our practice. support the Bodhisattva practice, which is the story in Chapter 2, it says the Buddhas appear in the world, and we could say Bodhisattvas, for the sake of helping all beings onto the path of awakening and relieving suffering.

[01:01]

So the story I want to talk about this evening, I started talking about yesterday from chapter 11 of the Lotus Sutra. And it's a very strange story in many ways. And I want to say some more about it tonight just to talk about the major features of the story. As Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha, is preaching the Lotus Sutra, one of his last sutras before his passing away, suddenly there springs up from the earth a stupa, a reliquary of Buddha, very well ornamented with precious jewels and very beautiful. And the stupa rises up into the air and there comes a voice from the stupa saying, well done, well done, world-honored Chakramuni Buddha, for the sake of the great assembly, you were able to teach the wonderful Dharma Flower Sutra.

[02:07]

which is the full name of the Lotus Sutra, the Dharma by which bodhisattvas are taught and which Buddhists protect and keep in mind. All you say is true, Shakyamuni. So this is a very strange event. And it's met by all the assembly with joy in the Dharma and wonder at this amazing spectacle. So again, this is about These stories, well, can serve to inspire wonder or awe or just to see things differently from our usual way of seeing things. Again, the major features of the story is that the Buddha tells the Bodhisattva who is inquiring that in this great treasure stupa is the body of a Tathagata, an ancient Tathagata or Buddha named Abundant Treasures.

[03:09]

And he made a great vow saying, after I become a Buddha and then am extinct, if there is a place in any land in the universe where the Dharma Flower Sutra is being taught, so that I can listen to it, my stupa will appear there bearing testimony to the sutra and praising it. It says this right in the Lotus Sutra, that whenever the Lotus Sutra is preached, that this ancient Buddha from a, I don't know, some previous age, some previous big cycle of big bangs or whatever, shows up and always praises the Buddha there. And so many strange things happen in this chapter. One of the next things is that one of the Bodhisattvas says, we would like to see this Buddhist body. And as Shakyamuni Buddha tells the assembly that this Buddha, abundant treasure, has taken a great vow that whenever his stupa appears, if someone wants to see his body, then the embodiments of that Buddha who are preaching the dharma in the worlds and the 10 directions return and assemble and then they can see this Buddha.

[04:40]

So there's so many levels of, you know, strangeness going on in this story. So we're now told that there are many embodiments of Shakyamuni Buddha in many worlds throughout space, and they all come together. So we do know that Shakyamuni Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was an historical person 2,500 years ago, more or less. We don't know the exact dates, and we don't know exactly what he said, but anyway, all of these Buddhas come, all of these other Shakyamuni Buddhas, come from wherever they are, and they make offerings to the treasure stupa of abundant treasures. And then, What happens, well, there are other things that go on, but at that point, when the other Buddhas have all assembled, Shakyamuni Buddha rises up into the air himself, and he goes up to the stupa, and he opens the door.

[05:57]

It makes a sound like a gate opening. And then Abundant Treasures, the mummified body of Abundant Treasures, who was sitting there in meditation, says to Shakyamuni, well done, Shakyamuni, and he invites him to join and take his seat, and share his seat. So, Shakyamuni says, This is all very strange. And Shakyamuni Buddha sits next to the ancient Buddha Abundant Treasures, so sometimes you see two Buddhas sitting together, and that's about from the sutra. And, you know, it has to do also with this practice period we're doing, because for this practice period we have Douglas as our head student, so two teachers sitting together. And we have some former Shusos here, near Zon, for me. A couple of years ago was Shiso here in Hogetsu last fall at Green Gulch, and Hakusho just came back from being Shiso at Tassajara.

[07:04]

Anyway, so these Buddhas are sitting in the middle of the air in the stupa, and then the Buddha, through his powers, allows the whole assembly to rise up into the middle of the air to hear the teaching. And so this is called the Ceremony in the Air and this goes on most of the Lotus Sutra from this chapter 11 through chapter 22. So this is very strange stuff, what's going on here. So one aspect of what's, so for many of the people in the practice period, they've found this sutra disconcerting or strange, and that's appropriate. It is pretty strange. But one of the things that's strange, of course, is just the Lotus Sutra talking about itself, and abundant treasures appearing right in the Lotus Sutra,

[08:10]

where he always goes to hear the Lotus Sutra. So I want to talk next about how Dogen, the 13th century founder of this branch of, in Japan, of this branch of Zen, Soto Zen, that we do here, how he used this story of the Lotus Sutra in his own teaching. because Dogen doesn't explain things. In our style of practice, we don't explain the teaching. It's more like proclaiming it, and that has something to do with this Lotus Sutra, and Dogen intentionally and consciously borrowed from the Lotus Sutra to talk about this. So, just to say a few things about this quality of the Lotus Sutra referring to itself, not just in this chapter, but in many places. And also again about this ancient Buddha coming and talking about how the Lotus Sutra has been expounded many ages ago and presumably will be expounded again into the future.

[09:29]

So there's a way in which this sutra is kind of giving instructions or kind of giving commentary on how to use the sutra. And what the sutra is is not so clear. It doesn't say this is the teachings of the sutra. It just talks all about the dharma. And in some ways it presumes all of the previous teachings of Buddhism and basic teachings. But the sutra itself is something that proclaims the sutra. This becomes, so in some of Japanese Buddhism, in Nichiren Buddhism, they chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo in honor of the Lotus Sutra and they actually have as an object of veneration the Lotus Sutra itself and study it.

[10:33]

But for Dogen, it's more like it becomes part of his style of teaching. So he usually doesn't, Dogen doesn't explain things or give a linear logical instructions about the teaching, but kind of free associates. But he's talking about, always about the non-dual reality of this present phenomenal world. with this presence of the Buddha and this ongoing possibility of awakening. So I wanted to read a few examples of things from Dogen's teaching. which share this quality of the Lotus Sutra and refer to the Lotus Sutra. So, he clearly is quite intentionally borrowing from the Lotus Sutra. These are not from Shobo Genzo Dogen's longer essays, which is better known, but from his extensive record, or Ehikoroku, that I translated together with Shohaku Okamura.

[11:44]

So these are very short talks, so I'm going to give you a few of them in their entirety. This one was from 1241. He said, Today this mountain monk, Dogen, gives a dharma hall discourse for the assembly. What I have just said I offer to all the three treasures in the ten directions, to the twenty-eight ancestors in India, to the six ancestors in China, to all the nostrils under heaven, to the eyeballs throughout the past and present, to dried shit sticks, which refers to an old koan, to three pounds of sesame, to zen boards, and to zafus, Previously, we offered incense for the limitless excellent causal conditions, and we just did that, and we dedicate it so that toads may leap up to Brahma's heaven, earthworms may traverse the eastern ocean, and clouds and water monks may become horses and cows. All Buddhas, ten directions, three times, all honored ones, bodhisattva, mahasattvas, maha-prajnaparamita, which is how we end our dedication.

[12:48]

So that's the entire talk. And you know, what is he saying? He just says, today this mountain monk, Dogen, gives a dharma hall discourse for the assembly. And what I have just said I offer. And he does all these offerings. And the offerings are interesting. He mentions references to various Zen koans, to cushions, to Zen implements. And dedicating it not to, so we just did a dedication to Shakyamuni Buddha and Mahaprajapati and Bodhidharma, who's on our altar, and Dogen and Suzuki Roshi. Here, Dogen offers this to toads so that they can leap up to Brahma's heaven, to earthworms so they can traverse the eastern ocean, as well as to clouds and water monks so they can become horses and cows. all beings are included, it's not just human beings. So this very inclusive sense, but he just makes this offering, and that's the Dharma talk.

[13:54]

So he's celebrating, like the Lotus Sutra, he's celebrating the Dharma without naming a Dharma, but just proclaiming it for all beings. Here's another one, this was, This actually is the next one in Ekoraka, so it might have been within, you know, sometime probably in the next week or so. We don't know exactly. As this mountain monk, Dogen, today gives a dharma hall discourse, all Buddhas in the three times also today give a dharma hall discourse. Do you hear it? The ancestral teachers in all generations also today give a dharma hall discourse. The one who bears the 16-foot golden body gives a dharma hall discourse. Description of Buddhas as 16-foot golden bodies. The one endowed with the wondrous function of the hundred grasses, which is all things, gives a dharma hall discourse. Already together, having given a dharma hall discourse, what dharma has been expounded?

[15:03]

No other dharma is expressed, but this very dharma is expressed. What is this Dharma? It is upheld within Shanglan Temple, it is upheld within Guanyin Temple, Kanzeyan Temple, it is upheld in Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, it is upheld within the Monks Hall, it is upheld within the Buddha Hall. He didn't say Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, I did. So, again, he's proclaiming the Dharma. He doesn't need to say what it is. He says that as he's saying it, all Buddhas are saying it. So this thing about the lotus, about the ancient Buddha coming to hear the Lotus Sutra proclaimed. whenever it's proclaimed, as it says right in the Lotus Sutra, just very strange. And I saw Jack Lawler earlier today, who's the Thich Nhat Hanh lineage teacher up in Evanston, and was reminded of a time I heard Thich Nhat Hanh in California give a weekend seminar on the Lotus Sutra.

[16:21]

He spoke for several days, and he was talking all out of sutra, and I just felt like I was there on vulture peak listening to the Buddha. It was just wonderful. Thich Nhat Hanh has this poetic way of being, of carrying himself. So, no other dharma is expressed, but this very dharma is expressed. What is this dharma? Here's another one, this is from a little bit earlier. So this is, again, another entire one of these little talks that Dogen gave to his students. In the entire universe in 10 directions, there is no dharma at all that has not yet been expounded by all Buddhas in the three times. All been done, all been said. All been written in the book, as Dogen says. Therefore, all Buddhas say, in the same manner that all Buddhas in the three times expound the Dharma, so now I also will expound the Dharma without differentiations.

[17:26]

This great assembly present before me also is practicing the way in the manner of all Buddhas. Each movement, each stillness is not other than the Dharma of all Buddhas. So do not act carelessly or casually. Although this is the case, I have an expression that has not yet been expounded by any Buddha. Everyone, do you want to discern it? Anybody want to hear it? After a pause, Dogen said, in the same manner that all Buddhists in the three times expound the Dharma, so now I also will expound the Dharma without differentiations. which is what he said all Buddhists in the three times have already said and will say, and he's saying it now for the first time. So there you have it. So this is Dogen expressing the Dharma in this way.

[18:33]

And you know, there's some way, there's a way in which this is not, this is like our zazen, it's not about something else. We just sit. We don't sit to get somewhere else. We actually appreciate and enjoy our inhale and exhale. We sit uprightly. We are present in this body-mind as it is here this evening. And of course, you know, we witness to this and we pay attention and we see that some part of us, our monkey mind or whatever is, you know, thinking about other places and times or wanting to be somewhere else or wanting to be someone else or whatever. But the practice is just this Dharma. Dzasan is just this. Just this. So I mentioned this also yesterday, but about this sense of the self-referential, self-reflexive, I quoted William LaFleur's wonderful book, The Karma of Words.

[19:54]

He says, the narratives of the Lotus Sutra are not a means to an end beyond themselves. They're not about something else. Their concrete mode of expression is not chaff to be dispensed with in order to attain a more abstract, rational, or spiritual truth. The Lotus is unequivocal about this. It says, one may seek in every one of the ten directions, but will find no mode or skillful means other than the Buddha's. And LaFleur says, this accounts for what may seem to be an inordinate amount of praise directed by the sutra toward itself. It also implies that within the sutra there is an unmistakable philosophical move opposite to that in Plato's Republic, a move to affirm the complete reality of the world of concrete phenomena, this world, in spite of the fact that it is impermanent. And then we have Buddhas coming from all different times. speaking the sutra, right in the sutra.

[20:57]

So this is, you know, not our usual way of seeing or thinking about the world. So this self-referential aspect of the sutra demonstrates the non-separation of its goals of liberation from the Buddha's skillful means themselves. They're not separate. given the non-duality of purpose and context of the Lotus Sutra as a text that itself represents and enacts veneration of the world's potential for liberation, this very sutra becomes venerated. And for Dogen, it's used as a style of talking about just this. So, So part of this, obviously, is about the interfolding of time. And we'll talk more about that when we get to the story about the Buddha's inconceivable lifespan, which I'm going to start to talk about this Sunday.

[22:08]

So time is moving in many directions. And we have this Buddha from an ancient time who appears whenever. and we have all these Buddhas who are speaking right now of the Lotus Sutra. There's something going on with space too. So for Dogen, space is not some abstraction. It's concrete, it's physical. It's the stuff of the world, toads and earthworms, horses and cows. It's not about reaching some other space. It's not outer space. It's not empty space. It's the space of this world. And Dogen says something very interesting about this Buddha, Abundant Treasures Buddha. When the stupa appears, and jumps out of the ground, Dogen says about that, this treasure stupa is a treasure stupa in space, and space makes space for the treasure stupa.

[23:17]

It's very strange. So the way Dogen says it is that space itself makes space for this stupa to appear. So part of this is that time and space, beyond how we usually think about them, are themselves, we could say agents or skillful modes to support us to wake up. How do we do this? And how in the sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha keeps asking, who of you, which of your, you know, to his disciples and to the bodhisattvas, who will come back in the future evil age and keep this teaching alive? So we'll talk more about that when we get to chapter 15. And again, I'll introduce that this Sunday. But something is going on here that

[24:26]

connects up different senses of time and different realms of space itself. Space makes space for the treasured stupa. So I want to go back to, a little bit before we have some discussion, a little bit of discussion, to the the reason for Buddhas appearing in Bodhisattvas, the single great cause, as it says in Chapter 2, which is just to benefit all beings, to help everyone onto the path of awakening, to help relieve suffering. And Dogen is very clear about that. And we have our Bodhisattva precepts or guidelines that include benefiting all beings. not just certain kinds of beings, not just beings from certain countries or whatever, all beings.

[25:29]

So I want to go back a little bit to Dan Berrigan, who we had the memorial service for, who passed away this weekend. Well, he was, maybe many of you know about him, but for those who don't, he, along with some other fellow Catholic priests and Catholic faithful, burned draft notices during the Vietnam War to oppose that war. And he burned them as a kind of echo of the napalm that was burning Vietnamese people. And later on, he went and symbolically attacked, with some of his friends and his brother Phil Berrigan, a nuclear missile. He broke into a nuclear missile plant and found that their security was quite lax.

[26:36]

Part of this work of bodhisattvas and Buddhas that's happening in many times in many spaces right now is You know, how do we respond to the difficulties of the world? How do we respond to systemic injustice? How do we respond to climate damage? I talked yesterday a little bit about Albert Parsons, the great Chicago bodhisattva who was executed for developing a movement to have an eight-hour work week, a work day, as opposed to much, much, much longer back then. This was in the 1880s. So how do we respond to, from this place of the Lotus Sutra to the situations of our world? It's not enough to just work on our personal greed, hate, and delusion.

[27:43]

We have to do that. That's part of this practice, too. We see our own particular patterns of greed, hate, and delusion, anger, and confusion, and grasping. But also, this practice of bodhisattvas is about calling us to respond to the suffering of the world and to liberate beings. So how do we face the reality of climate damage? There's this event down in Indiana where the tar sands refineries are, where they're spreading poison into Lake Michigan that's happening in the middle of this month. I talked to an organizer from 350.org about efforts for divestment from fossil fuel in Chicago, and I'll say more about that maybe in the announcements. But anyway, there are lots of things that we can do. And also, it seems like the problems of violence and injustice and inequality in the world and in Chicago are so huge, what do we do?

[28:54]

We can feel helpless. really not accurate. How do we look at this? And as Rebecca Solnit said when she was here recently, she quoted Bill McKibben as saying, stop being an individual. And this whole vision of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in many times, in many spaces, right in the Lotus Sutra, as they appear, kind of invokes this sense of how connected we are to everyone, how we need to work on ourselves in our sitting, and also we need to respond to everyone else. So there's, of course, lots more to say about this. I'll stop now and ask for comments or questions or responses to this strange story of the stupa in mid-air, or anything else.

[29:55]

Ben, hi. And this sort of timescale, it's not a human timescale. It's one of the great resources of this practice, specifically for the context of responding to

[31:09]

societal systemic problems, as well as to our own, that we have this kind of sense of time. And it's even before the Lotus Sutra, just in terms of honoring Shakyamuni Buddha 2,500 years ago, and Bodhidharma in 600, and Dogen, and Suzuki Roshi way back in the 60s. This practice has been, that we're doing here tonight, each one of you, each one of us, has been kept alive by many beings, not just by the string of, you know, names of ancestors, but many people in each generation have kept alive this practice so that we can do it. So we're connected to them. And then, you know, the Lotus Sutra turns that. And so we see that actually right now there are many times and many spaces and this sense of interconnectedness that actually, you know, it arises in the context of regular sustained practice. We see how we're connected.

[32:24]

So yeah. And even the time scale of responding to problems in the world. You know, thinking of Albert Parsons in the 1880s and Dr. King who said, the arc of history bends towards justice. people in the Black Lives Matter movement now and in the climate change movement now who are making change and people responding to inequality. So that parallels, you know, we also need to look at our own. We need, you know, the work of sitting on our cushions and looking at our own personal patterns of grasping and anger and so forth. But it's connected to, you know, all of us together as human-type beings, more or less. Other comments? It's very parallel.

[33:34]

It really is very parallel. I've been teaching a lot of sutra. What Dogen was saying, it's like there's, I don't know if I'm paraphrasing it accurately, Yeah.

[34:56]

Yeah. Yeah. This very inhale. this very exhale, and then how do we respond to all of it? And people have ideas about their Zazen. People come to me and tell me how they had a wonderful period of Zazen or that their Zazen is boring. But really, we don't know how vast and deep and wide is our effort at just being present within ourselves, but also our efforts at trying to respond to all of the suffering in the world on so many levels.

[36:00]

So this is our job, but it's been, you know, it's not just us. We're connected to everything in all these Buddhism bodhisattvas, in the Lotus Sutra even. So, other comment or response? Time for one more at least. Yes, a question. Yes, yes.

[37:16]

No, no, that's right. It's like Joanna Macy was talking about when she was here, to befriend future beings, you know. the people walking by in front of Irving Park Road in 50 years, in 250 years. And, you know, what world will that be? And that has to do with us. And we have very limited number, amount of time, we collectively humans, to make, to respond to the fossil fuel system of energy that we're in now and change that. And things are already going to be bad. Antarctica is melting. Things are going to be bad. But how bad it is, it's up to us. In the next 20 years, in the next 10 years, the next five years, we can make a difference. So that might be daunting, but it's also wonderful.

[38:24]

There's lots to do.

[38:26]

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