Good morning, everyone, and welcome. So today is not only an all-day sitting, but also the first day of our practice commitment period for two months. Whether or not you are formally doing that practice commitment period, we'll be talking for the next couple of months and you're welcome to consider the Bodhisattva figures, the Bodhisattva approaches to practice. So we'll be looking at these from My book, Faces of Compassion, looking at the six major archetypal figures in East Asia, bodhisattvas. But I should say first that there are many, many, many bodhisattvas

[01:10]

mentioned sometimes by name or just referred to in the Mahayana Great Vehicle Sutras of the Bodhisattva tradition, the Perfection of Wisdom and the Lotus Sutra and the Flower Ornament Sutra and the Nirvana Sutra, sometimes talk about innumerable Bodhisattvas on the tip of every flower or blade of grass or in every atom. So there are many bodhisattvas, but these are the ones that are most commonly described and venerated in East Asia, particularly. They're also in India and Tibet, but there are many others there. And in some ways they represent particular approaches to bodhisattva practice, bodhisattvas being beings dedicated to universal awakening, to liberating and relieving suffering for all beings.

[02:29]

So we say the four bodhisattva vows at the end of all of our services and talks as we will today. So looking at each of these six bodhisattvas is a way to look at the range of bodhisattva practice. So in the same way we look at the stories of the ancient and sometimes not so ancient Zen teachers, the koan stories, the teaching stories of Zen ancestors and teachers and students, we study these stories, we can study these stories of bodhisattvas as ways of seeing our own practice or informing our own practice, appreciating our own practice and finding approaches to practice. So each of these six major bodhisattvas

[03:37]

represents a particular style or approach to engaging the way, engaging approaches to awakening practice. So for those of you formally doing this practice commitment period, I ask that you pick one or, if you'd like, a couple of these major figures that either represent some aspect of your own practice or that you would like to emulate. But first, maybe to look at all six of them a little. So there's a chart at the end of the book, and there's copies of that out front that you're welcome to take that show these six bodhisattvas. And I should mention Shakyamuni Buddha, who in some ways is the model for all the bodhisattvas, the historical Buddha who awakened and who was considered a bodhisattva before that.

[04:50]

And next week, next Sunday, we'll be celebrating Buddha's birthday. And that's also a children's event, and in the course of that we'll be talking about how the Buddha, Shakyamuni, Siddhartha Gautama, before he became officially the Buddha, how he represents aspects of and a model for all bodhisattvas. But then there are these six figures who are very common now in the West, but also in all of East Asia. And each of them has a combination of the paramitas or transcendent practices that they express, generosity, ethical conduct, patience, effort, meditation, stabilizing meditation, wisdom, vow, skillful means, powers, knowledge, each of them has three or four of these

[06:11]

practices that they particularly express. So to see these practices in combination is one way to see how they really work. Each of them also represents particular schools and sutras. Each of them has many stories about them, and they vary in the different Asian Buddhist cultures. And now they are becoming part of American Buddhist culture. Each of them also has a kind of body of stories or folklore about them. So, in this sense, each of them is a kind of archetype, a kind of representative of some kind of primary approach to how bodhisattvas are. So, these major bodhisattva figures, well just to name them, Manjushri, and I'm going to come back and introduce all of them, but Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, is sitting in front of

[07:23]

I think It's not as often seen, there's an image of him in the doksan room, he rides a lion, rides an elephant, whereas Manjushri rides a lion, and represents a complex of things, dedication, devotion, connection with the environment, kind of aesthetic quality. Also I see him in our context as a kind of activist bodhisattva. That's not how he's usually depicted in Asian cultures, but he's the active practice bodhisattva. So many of them are invoked in our meal chant or in other chants of ours.

[08:28]

Then there's Avalokiteshvara. Kanzeon, who we'll be chanting to this evening, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, who hears the sounds of the world. And there's an image of him in the back, above Paula, and here on the side, and many other images in the temple. Tara is a female version of Kanzeon, or Guanyin. It's the Chinese version that's in the entryway. Then there's Jizo, or Kshitigarbha, or Dzong in Chinese, the earth womb bodhisattva, who's the witness to hell realms. So I'm gonna go back over all of them. Maitreya is the bodhisattva of loving kindness, a very complicated figure, but also the next future Buddha. And then Vimalakirti, the enlightened layman, who promotes magical displays of emptiness teaching.

[09:32]

Anyway, these, just to name these six, each of them appears in various ways in the Bodhisattva literature. Each of them appeals to us in various ways I've taught courses academically in dharma centers, and I've talked about this here before. But doing this practice period, you might find one or two of them appealing to you initially. And I've had, and there were a couple of them that appealed to me when I first started working on this. But now I kind of feel like I have relationships with all of them. But they're ways of seeing ourselves, and the stories about them are stories about aspects of our own practice. So how is it that we each can find aspects of bodhisattva practice that are part of who we are?

[10:44]

This is the point of studying this material. How do we find Bodhisattva figures, Bodhisattva teachings that inspire us? And the point of this Bodhisattva practice is to bring the awareness that develops through sustained meditative practice into our expression of our lives in the world. How to be helpful in the world. How to help awaken all beings, we say. We say beings are numberless. I vow to awaken them. I vow to free them. this inconceivable practice. So the idea of the Bodhisattva is the Bodhisattva awakens together with everyone, everything, not just people, but to free the whole planet and all other planets.

[11:56]

This may seem unimaginable given how difficult things are on our planet right now. And yet, these Bodhisattva stories offer us particular ways of approaching how to be helpful, how to cut through delusions, how to hear and see and enter dharmagates, ways of seeing the teaching and the practice and opening up to that, and realizing Buddha. So, you know, from some perspective, the bodhisattvas are working their way up towards Buddha, like Shakyamuni, who was a bodhisattva before he became the Buddha. From another perspective, the Bodhisattvas are just doing Buddha's work, and there's really not so much difference between Bodhisattvas and Buddhas.

[13:03]

So we can see both sides in different accounts in the sutras. And also, you know, we have these great Bodhisattva figures. Somebody asked me, are they gods or people? And, well, neither exactly. But, you know, in Asian cultures, they're looked up to sort of like, you know, like the Hindu gods, you know. So students, when they have an exam, will call on Manjushri to help them, you know, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. So they're sort of like these celestial figures, these energies, these beings that are out there in the world that can help us. And we chant to Kansa on the Bodhisattva of Compassion. But there are also aspects of our own practice.

[14:06]

So all of us here in this room, and Paula who wasn't in the room when I said that but is now entering, all of us are doing bodhisattva practice. That's what this means. Zen is a part of the bodhisattva tradition. We are engaged in trying to or, I don't know, trying to, we are awakening. We are sitting in zazen as a way of expressing Buddha, expressing awakening on our seats and sharing that with each other, encouraging each other. So again, this chart at the back of the book, there's copies of that available in front.

[15:24]

You're welcome to take those. If we run out, we'll make more copies. And for people in the practice period, Well, there are copies of the book available in the library and at discount. And also, for people in the practice period, there are copies of chapters from the different bodhisattvas, if you have several, some that you're interested in, available in the back hall. So we look at these six different bodhisattva figures as kind of stories about approaches to how to do bodhisattva work, to encourage that. So I'm going to do a brief survey now of these six, say more about them.

[16:28]

And during the practice period, a shin who will be the shuso, starting tomorrow night, we'll have a, tomorrow night a installation ceremony for her and assuming that goes alright, that she will be the shuso or head monk for the practice period. And she will be giving talks and I'll be giving talks and If you look at the website schedule, there will be talks about specific ones of these bodhisattvas. But I want to just do a kind of survey this morning, and then maybe we can have a little discussion. So again, first is, and we'll talk next Sunday at Buddha's birthday about Shakyamuni, but the first of the six is Manjushri. His name means noble or gentle one.

[17:30]

He's considered the Bodhisattva of wisdom, but in some ways, or prajna, but in some ways it's more like insight. He's related to the Prajnaparamita, or wisdom sutras, like the Heart Sutra or the Diamond Sutra. But he's also prominent in many other sutras. Flower Ornament Sutra, the Vimalakirti Sutra. He's connected with the precept schools, also is very important in the Zen teachings, but also in the Madhyamaka teachings about emptiness. So in some ways, he teaches about emptiness or sameness. So we sometimes chant the harmony of difference and sameness. Manjushri teaches about sameness or emptiness or oneness. And well, often he's in the meditation hall.

[18:37]

In Zen, he's usually in the meditation hall where there's a large temple where there are different halls. And that's because he's connected with meditation. And sometimes he carries a sword. Sometimes he carries a teaching scepter like this. Often he rides on a lion because he's fearless. And he's also depicted usually as very youthful. So this is a kind of wisdom that's not the wisdom of book learning. This is not the wisdom that comes from lots of studying or hearing lots of dharma talks. This is this immediate insight. Wham! Manjushri just sees what's in front of him. He's depicted often as like a 16-year-old. 16-year-olds or, you know, teenagers often just, you know, they know everything.

[19:42]

They just, you know, I did when I was a teenager, I knew a lot. more than I know now. And we can see, you know, these teenagers from Parkland, Florida and elsewhere who can speak very, very clearly about what's happening and mobilize and speak to the realities of what's going on very eloquently. So that's the other thing about Manjushri, he's very eloquent. He talks a lot. He's one of the people who commonly speaks during the sutras. He's the one who often speaks the what the Buddha has to teach, or he'll inquire of the Buddha, or sometimes he'll say what the Buddha wants to say. So he's got this very youthful, insightful aspect.

[20:48]

Anyway, there's a lot more to say about him, and there's lots of stories about him. And sometimes, particularly in Zen, we make fun of him in various ways. But he's a very bright, interesting figure. And he's also the teacher of all the other Buddhas, of all the other Bodhisattvas and Buddhas, because he teaches emptiness. And that's the starting point. So we chant the harmony of sameness and difference. He's the one who teaches the sameness, the oneness of all things. And then a lot of the other bodhisattvas express the other side of the particularity. So the next one who does that is Samantabhadra, who's not so commonly seen in temples, but is kind of everywhere. Samantabhadra has a particular set of vows, which includes praising.

[21:50]

He has 10 vows, which include praising Buddhas and asking Buddhas to teach. He's in the Flower Ornament Sutra, particularly, although he's elsewhere, too. He rides an elephant. And sometimes on fancy Buddhist altars in Asia, there'll be Buddha in the center and then Manjushri on one side and Samantabhadra on the other. complementary. Samantabhadra is the active Buddha. He is in the Flower Ornament Sutra, which teaches interconnectedness and awareness of the interconnectedness of the environment. him as related to the environment and related to aesthetics and artistic endeavors, but also as the activist Bodhisattva. So in the book I talk about examples of these different figures, and that's just my own kind of playing with them.

[22:54]

But Dr. King and Gandhi, for example, Samantabhadra. Einstein and Bob Dylan, for example, as Manjushri. It's not to say those are, you know, a living example. avatars of those bodhisattvas. One of the ways that you can study this is to think about people in your life who exemplify those energies. So each of these is an archetypal energy. The next one is Kanon, Kanzeon in Japanese, or Kanon. Guan Yin in Chinese, Avalokiteshvara in Sanskrit, Chenrezig in Tibetan. The bodhisattva of compassion, also, a compliment to Manjushri. Sometimes Manjushri is on one side of the Buddha and Kanon or Guan Yin is on the other side. Her name means to hear sounds or to listen to the sounds or the tears of the world, to respond.

[23:56]

And she appears in many, many forms, partly because she's aware of the side of differences of all the different kinds of beings and how they need different kinds of help. So, She's particularly, if so, Kanon appears as a woman, Guanyin, in China most of the time. Sort of can be sort of ambivalent sexually in Japan and male in India. Anyway. She has many different forms, though. So there's one form there, an 11-headed form there. There's a 1,000-armed form in the doksan room. And that's intentional because the Bodhisattva of Compassion needs to appear in many different forms to help many different kinds of beings. So Avalokiteśvara is particularly important in the Lotus Sutra, but also in the Pure Land Sutras.

[25:02]

And represents generosity and skillful means and patience and powers. and there are many, many stories about Kannon too. The next one, Jizo, or Kshitagarbha in Sanskrit, Dzong. So you don't have to remember all this, because it's all on this sheet. I'm just giving a little summary. Jizo is the one who witnesses to suffering in the world, and particularly goes down to the hell realms. and helps beings there, or just witnesses to hellish realms, and kind of protects women and children, has this deep vow to stay in the most difficult places and help beings there. There's a particular sutra about Jizo, or Kshitigarbha, very popular, one of the most popular in East Asia, along with Kanhon.

[26:09]

Usually appears as a shaved head monk. And sometimes in groups of six for all the six realms, because he goes into all six of the different realms that people can be in, or that beings can be in. But just the act of witnessing to suffering. Very powerful bodhisattva. The next one is Maitreya, Maitreya in Sanskrit, a very complex bodhisattva who's predicted to be the next future Buddha. So sometimes he's seen, depicted as a bodhisattva, sometimes as a Buddha later on. He expresses loving kindness, like the Metta Sutta, which we'll chant later today. But also looking towards the future. We don't know when Maitreya will be the next future Buddha.

[27:14]

There's various predictions. It might be in the year 4,000, or it might be in 350,000 years. So he's... There's this kind of looking towards the future, and sometimes he's depicted... pensively thinking, sitting up in the meditation heaven, trying to figure out how to save all beings. And he's connected with the Yogacara school of Buddhism, which looks at consciousness, trying to figure out how to save these difficult, complicated human-type beings. So the study of consciousness is connected with him. So a very complicated figure, and yet one that people call on, hoping to come in the future.

[28:16]

And the energy of calling, looking towards the future, is about Maitreya. But also just general loving-kindness. So again, each of these figures has a range of different aspects. Maitreya represents patience, waiting to become the next future Buddha, and generosity, and also a particular kind of meditation, studying self, studying consciousness. Then there's Vimalakirti, who like Manjushri, teaches emptiness, but in kind of magical and conceivable ways. Vimalakirti is the great lay practitioner, layman, not a monk, who shows up all, he was at the time of the Buddha, and he kind of showed up all of the great monk disciples of the Buddha. And so there are many stories about Vimalakirti, and there's a sutra about him that's very entertaining.

[29:26]

He had many talents, he entered into all kinds of different realms, and was the most talented in each of those realms. and also used each of those kinds of ways of being to awaken beings in those situations. So all of these different figures have collections of stories, have collections of practices, and represent different aspects or possibilities of bodhisattva practices. You know, there might be other great archetypal bodhisattvas in other planets who have other combinations of stories and iconography and sutras. But anyway, these are the six that are prevalent, especially in East Asia.

[30:28]

So, in the same way that the teaching stories or koans can show us aspects of our own practice, these can show us models of Bodhisattva practice and can show us aspects of our own practice or aspects of Bodhisattva practice that might inspire us, that we might want to try and express in our life. And we'll be, over the next nine weeks, we'll be looking at these and playing with them and discussing them and seeing how they feel to us and trying on these different figures and what they look like for us. And each one, again, is a complicated array of aspects.

[31:34]

So at this point, I'll stop and ask if there are questions or comments about the whole idea of bodhisattvas, or about any of these in particular. Yes, sir? I'm just interested, if you could say something about the mantra tree, if you could suggest Yeah. Well, sameness in the sense of emptiness as opposed to particularity.

[32:36]

But the sword is like it cuts through delusions. It's that's the, you know, it's this it's the aspect of meditation that just as you know, often I'll say as thoughts and feelings come up in zazen, just let them go. But sometimes, you know, there's an aspect of meditation that's sharp focusing and whatever thoughts and feelings come up, just cut through it. That kind of sharp focus, that's one way I see Manjushri's connection with meditation and discipline. And that's to cut away all differences, all distinctions. Well, sure. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, Caroline. Yeah, good.

[33:40]

good yeah so for example with Manjushri to try on what it's like to relate to thoughts and feelings or to the things in your life in that way of cutting through or of seeing the oneness of things. What I did not talk about so much is the different stories about them, which is where they come to life. For example, with Manjushri, there are many stories. There's stories about him appearing on the particular mountain where he's venerated as a tramp, and there are whole There's one story about on that mountain, the tenzo, the head cook, was trying to cook lunch for people, but she kept seeing, she or he kept seeing Manjushri sitting there above the soup pot, and finally she just swatted him and said, get away, I need to take care of the monks.

[35:21]

So to see the way that Manjushri appears, Insistently, this teenager quality of Manjushri as really insistently bringing up emptiness and oneness and wisdom and insight. Another famous story about Manjushri is from Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor's New Clothes. Do you know that story? Yeah. Does anybody not know that story? So, to see, to see through the, the artifice and its illusions and, you know, that's a, that's a story that's very relevant today and to our emperor, you know, and, you know, to see through all the, all the tweets and stuff. Yeah, how to use that kind of clear seeing and how to not be confused.

[36:23]

There's another famous, so I don't want to tell all the Manjushri stories, but there's another famous Zen koan about Manjushri's leaking and how nothing can be done about that. So anyway, each of these figures has Zen koans about them, has stories from the sutras about them. And so to practice with it is to take on, well, how do I want to, how would that be for me to act like that? Or how can I use that energy in my life? Or, you know, I don't know how it would be for you. And some of them might not resonate at all. You might not relate to Manjushri. You might relate to one of the others. So practicing with them is to see how to use the qualities. Or maybe you might come to it from the practices.

[37:25]

You might look at Kannon's generosity and skillful means and patience and see that combination of practices and how does that work for you. So there might be various ways of practicing with the material. But it's a good question. And each of you might have your own way of doing that. Yes, Jamie? It's a small part of it.

[38:32]

Good, yeah, right, so as human beings, with all the complexities of that, as you say, these stories of these exemplary bodhisattvas, well, a number of them have, we could say, shadow sides. Manjushri is more clear than some of the others, but, we could see, you know, we can use them as models, but it's not that any of us are going to be that bodhisattva. But how do we use that, how do we use the stories as, and the figures as, you know, some aspect or potential for our own practice without assuming that, you know, without, it's not that you should become one of these great bodhisattvas that would, and ignore your humanity and your own, you know,

[39:56]

human grasping and anger and confusion. We have to study that too. But sometimes we can study that from some of this. I don't know. It's not, this isn't just to get rid of your humanity and become one of these Bodhisattvas, but in terms of your aspiration for practice, how do you see, how can you be encouraged or inspired by one of these figures or more? It's not to substitute who you are for, you know, Jizo or whoever. So, but good question. Any last comment or question? Yes, Brian.

[41:09]

for diversity, which is good. Yeah, yeah, good. Thank you. Yeah, so one of the things I do in the book is suggest possible exemplars of these different Bodhisattva figures, and the exemplars I use are common culture figures that people have heard of, but I also encourage you, so, you know, Dr. King or Gandhi for Samantabhadra and so forth, but I encourage you to think about people you know in your own life who represent the qualities of these particular

[42:48]

bodhisattva archetypal figures, and then all of them are going to have human flaws, just as Gandhi and King did, for example. So it's not about being superhuman or perfect, it's about as human beings, how can you also represent qualities of awakening beings? I wanted to add to that and say I also find it more helpful to think about the exemplars in the book as representing a quality of a bodhisattva, like one of the paramitas meant, rather than the bodhisattva themselves. Particularly because I know as time passes, since you wrote the book, We've learned more, you know, those particular earthly people have gone on to do sometimes not so skillful things. And it doesn't mean that they're, it doesn't mean anything except that they're human beings who, you know, in some ways do represent those positive qualities.

[43:51]

But it doesn't mean that they're, you know, perfect beings either. Yeah, definitely not. In fact, you know, I wrote the first version of this book 20 plus years ago, and if I was doing it now, there's at least a couple of the exemplars I would expunge. So, you know, don't ask me who, but anyway. We get to guess. So, you know, people are, it's not about being perfect. It's not about being Buddha, even. It's about, you know, how do we, these aspects or qualities of bodhisattva practice that people do actually express, even imperfect people. So, thank you. That's a good start to the practice period.

[44:37]

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