Good morning and welcome. So last Sunday I spoke about the Eightfold Path, especially Right View, the first part of the Eightfold Path, but the Eightfold Path is maybe the earliest, one of the earliest lists of practices, part of the Four Noble Truths. The Eightfold Path is the practices for relieving suffering, for ending suffering. There are many of these lists. This morning I want, this morning and this weekend, this morning and tomorrow evening, I want to talk about the ten bodhisattva practices, paramitas, or ten transcendent practices. I want to talk about these as a background for the practice commitment period that's starting next Sunday with an all-day sitting.

[01:04]

But whether or not you're formally doing that practice period, we'll be talking the next couple of months about the traditional archetypal bodhisattva figures, each of whom has a particular combination of these bodhisattva practices and a particular approach and strategy towards bodhisattva practice. So I wanted to just review and talk about some of those practices, some this morning and some tomorrow evening. So these are So the bodhisattva is the practitioner of the being. In the case of the archetypal bodhisattvas, the great celestial bodhisattvas who are available in the world, help support universal liberation. At the end of each of our talks, we chant the four bodhisattva vows.

[02:08]

So these practices are practices done by the great bodhisattvas and also are guidances for us to how to practice in the world, their expressions, of the awareness that we come to through sustained engagement in zazen, in meditation practice, and then the reflections of that, their expressions of zazen, and then they are uh... ways to actually practice actual uh... programs of practice even uh... to engage in in the world and guidances for us in that uh... we also talk about the sixteen bodhisattva precepts which are another system of guidances but today I want to talk today and tomorrow I want to talk about these ten bodhisattva practices and again the great bodhisattvas engage in them but also

[03:14]

These are practices for us. So often there's a list of six, but there's a longer list of 10, which we'll talk about. So I'll just start by just naming them. I'll give the Sanskrit name for those interested in that, but also what they mean in English. And then I'll talk about two or three of them this morning. And then we'll have some discussion. So first is dana, or generosity, giving. And in each of these, and I'll come back to that one, this is the first one, is a subtle practice, a difficult practice. And I've talked about all of these before, but there's no end to engaging in these practices. Each of them is very subtle and challenging. Second is shila, which is ethical conduct, and this is the realm of precepts and how we function in the world, also very challenging. The third, very important, is kshanti, or patience.

[04:16]

which is a dynamic practice, not a passive practice, but active, kind of active patience. The fourth is virya, or effort, or enthusiasm, energy. So there will not be a test, but I just want to go over all of these. And how to, so virya has to do with how do we sustain our energy or enthusiasm for practice or for engagement in the world. Also a challenging, important practice. The fifth is samadhi. This is a sitting, just sitting. The fifth of these paramitas refers to an aspect of our zazen which is settling and calming and settling our mind, finding some stability in our life.

[05:26]

The sixth of these paramitas, and often they're just, most commonly you'll probably find them in Zen talked about just in terms of the six, is prajna paramita. So I want to talk about that one more today. Prajna is wisdom or insight. and the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra and there are whole bunches of different sutras that are named for this prajnaparamita, this perfection of wisdom, this practice of wisdom or insight. So there's a Prajnaparamita Sutra in 8,000 lines, and then the Diamond Sutra is shorter than that. Then there's a longer one that's Prajnaparamita in 100,000 lines. Anyway, this perfection of wisdom or insight is very important. But then I'll mention the four others. Pranidhana, vow or commitment, also important. Upaya, very important.

[06:28]

Skillful means how to practice skillfully, how to practice skillfully in the world. Bala or powers, which sometimes refers to special meditative powers, like the Buddha, brings forth, but also practically for us, how we use our abilities. And then the last one is jnana, knowledge, which is different from prajna. So it's actually useful in terms of talking about prajna. Knowledge is knowledge of how things work. and all of you have some knowledge of some area, some skill that you have developed, and that can be used to support bodhisattva aims, the bodhisattva vows to help liberate all beings, to aim towards universal liberation, or just to help believe suffering, where you see it in front of you.

[07:31]

including, of course, the difficulties we each face on our own seats, our own internal problems. So these bodhisattva practices, again, are practices of These great Bodhisattva figures that I'll start talking about next week, but they're around us, Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, Kanon or Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, and many others who are around in the temple and are part of the iconography of East Asian Buddhism and are invoked in our Zen liturgy. But just to talk about these practices today, just to start talking about them, I'm going to say a little bit. I'll start by talking about dana, which we've talked about before.

[08:38]

But again, it continues to be always a challenge for us. What does it mean to give? What is generosity? How do we find our spirit of generosity? How do we not cling to self but actually try to be helpful to others? So one of the ways to see bodhisattva practice, this practice of working towards universal liberation, not just practicing for ourself, although of course we derive benefits ourselves from doing this practice regularly. we find some steadiness, we find some calm or we can sometimes, not always, sometimes we are benefited by seeing how our mind is whirling around or we see more clearly our own grasping or anger or confusion.

[09:44]

This is very available and it's also available in the world and the Bodhisattva ideas that we're connected to the world. We can't just actually liberate ourselves personally without considering what's going on in the world around us, what's happening with our friends and family and loved ones and in the world. So generosity is to start to see how to be caring and generous for others. but also the practice for generosity for monks traditionally in Asia is to receive. So when I was in the monastery in Kyushu in Japan, we would go on begging rounds. This is the traditional practice. And it's like sashin for your feet and your voice. You go and spend the day walking on straw sandals.

[10:44]

And until you get used to them, they're your toes or your heels bleed, and you're chanting as you go from house to house. And I hung up my straw sandals in the Doksan room because I'm not doing that anymore, but we still have a dana bowl asking for generosity. So for us to learn to give, we also need to learn to receive. How do we accept the generosity of others? So we talk in our meal chant about the three wheels, giver, receiver, and gift. The practice of generosity is a practice of mutuality. We start to feel the reality of our interconnectedness with all beings through giving. So there's just a simple level of how do you give an appropriate gift?

[11:46]

So when it's time for gift giving, what's something that's actually an appropriate gift for someone? Or how do you receive a gift graciously? Maybe it's not the gift you would like. Maybe it's not something you, maybe it's something that you feel is, what? I don't want that. But how do you then receive it graciously? And maybe actually it is, you might find it's useful for you. I don't know. So giving is a challenge. How to be generous. how to actually be generous. And of course, part of the practice of the Paramitas is to see how they're connected. So each of these practices is supported by all the others.

[12:52]

So Generosity is supported, for example, by skillful means, by learning how to be skillful. Generosity is supported by patience, by watching. Well, if you want to give something to someone, if you decide you really care about someone and you want to give them something, you have to watch and see what is it that would be really helpful to them. They may not even know what would be helpful to them. if you want to receive something graciously, how do you, so Prajna and Donna are related too, and I'll talk more about Prajna, how do you see what's in front of you? What is the study that allows you to practice generosity in a new way? And so there are many challenges to Generosity. And this is something that, you know, all of these are practices that all of you have already been doing.

[14:04]

These are not new practices. All of you have, well, maybe I shouldn't assume, is there anyone here who's never received a gift? Don't be shy, it's okay. And if you raise your hand, you may find that many people are gonna start giving you something here. Is there anybody here who's never given a gift? Okay, so we all know about generosity and gift giving. We all have some practice of that. And, you know, sometimes it just comes naturally. We just, oh yeah, okay, I'll give this to this person. Or, you know, it's not just giving material objects. So when we do the begging rounds, there's a chant that we do when we go door to door, and sometimes you do it at a public place, like a bridge or a train station or something.

[15:06]

but also going door-to-door, there's a chant you do when someone, and in Asia, the lay people want to give to the monks to support their spiritual practice. They feel they get some benefit from that, and there's a whole culture around that. So it's a different way of seeing it. Here, beggars are seen as bums, and we have trouble giving handouts to panhandlers on the street or homeless people on the street. They're seen as, you know, not worthy, you know, and we wonder, oh, what are they going to use it for? You know, there's one version that the Bodhisattva, actually, Jizo, the earth storehouse Bodhisattva, who we'll talk about, and Kanon, the Bodhisattva of compassion, both sometimes hold a gift-bestowing jewel, and the practice of that is just to give whatever anybody asks for. So that's beyond questions of, well, what is this person going to do with the money I might give them?

[16:08]

Are they going to use it for drugs or alcohol? You just give, and maybe that encourages someone. I'm not saying that that's what we should do. This is a question always. There's also the question that people with resources face how to give in a way that's effective, that's helpful. Who to give to, where to give. But I was starting to say that there's a chant that's done after one receives something when you're going from door to door. that is about give a receiver and gift, but it's about the oneness of giving material gifts and spiritual gifts. So there's a chant that's given as teaching. So now I'm giving teaching about the Paramitas. That's considered a kind of gift. But also you're receiving it. So that's also a kind of gift. You're giving me the opportunity to give some teaching.

[17:13]

And Dogen says in one of his talks that Buddhas sometimes sit up in the front and give teaching. Buddhas also sit and listen to the teaching. This is what Buddhas do. So listening to the teaching and giving teaching are equally Buddha practices. So there's this mutuality, there's this circularity about giving and receiving that is part of the heart of this practice of generosity, of dana. And it's a subtle practice. So there's a lot more to say about that. But I'll talk about Prajna a little bit and then maybe we can have some discussion and I can talk more about some of the others too. But Prajnaparamita is the sixth and in some sense is a circle because then it goes back to Dhanaparamita. Again, often it's just the sixth. So Prajna is often translated as wisdom. We chant on Wednesday mornings the Heart of Perfect Wisdom Sutra, the Heart Sutra.

[18:23]

But it's a particular kind of wisdom. Well, it may include many kinds of wisdom. So the bodhisattva of wisdom, Manjushri, who always sits, usually sits in the center of Zen meditation halls, and there's a Manjushri figure sitting below, Shakyamuni, on the altar, riding a lion with a teaching scepter. Sometimes he carries a sword to cut through delusion. But wisdom, also could be translated as insight, to see clearly. And it means seeing within, so it's about meditative wisdom in a sense. Manjushri's associated with meditation, to look and see clearly. So we sit facing the wall in our tradition, which is to say we sit facing ourselves. and thoughts and feelings arise, and we let go of them and they may come up again.

[19:34]

But we see what's in front of us, whatever, in our zazen practice, whatever arises, we just see it. This practice of insight is to see what's in front of us. And we develop this practice of just being able to witness clearly what's in front of us. And so this practice of wisdom or insight is to see in any situation. So facing the wall is to see our own hearts and minds. It's also to see our connectedness to all beings. It's not a wall to keep anything out or anybody out. But prajna is wisdom or insight into the heart of things, into what's important. It's not about knowledge. Again, there's a different practice that's knowledge. So wisdom isn't really about studying lots of sutras or listening to lots of dharma talks.

[20:41]

It's true that in Asian cultures, students will go and make offerings to Manjushri to do well on tests and things like that. So popularly, it's understood in various ways. But really, this prajna is clear seeing. What's important? So Suzuki Roshi, my teacher's teacher, used to say, what's the most important thing? And we could say that globally, or we could just say right now, what's the most important thing? In this situation, so in whatever situation we're in, some difficulty with someone at work, some difficulty that we have to respond to in our life, or with a family member, or whatever, prajna is about what's the insight into what's going on here? So seeing clearly. Now this is supported, of course, by samadhi, by being settled enough to see clearly, by patience, by being able to just watch, by energy, by having this energy to stay with it.

[22:00]

So all of these, again, they all interact with each other. And that's part of what we'll see when we're looking at the Bodhisattvas. They each have a combination of particular paramitas that they particularly express. But prajna is to look into the heart of things. And prajna also is associated with the teaching of emptiness, which is particular Buddhist teaching. So emptiness doesn't mean nothingness. So this is a technical aspect of this teaching of prajna. So we're going to be working on these different bodhisattvas from this book, Faces of Compassion, about the classic bodhisattva archetypes book that I wrote. But I'm just going to read a little bit about wisdom and emptiness.

[23:03]

Prajnara Wisdom is the experiential insight into the essential emptiness or insubstantial nature of all phenomena. So to see what's happening in any situation, in a way to see its emptiness, but what does that mean? All material and mental events are fundamentally empty, void, and vast as space. This emptiness does not mean vacancy or non-being in a nihilistic sense, rather, in the nature of their very existence, all things are empty of any independent substantial quality and are not separate and estranged from the totality of all being and each other. So another way to translate emptiness might be relativity. So prajna or wisdom is to see how things are totally interrelated, whatever situation is happening, to look into it and to see how it is part of a web of many causes and conditions. Prajna is the experience of the essential unity and sameness of all things in the midst of their diversity.

[24:16]

All things appear and finally cease. All of us will pass away. In spite of all the distinctions we cherish, all people are alike in having fears, needs, and desires, and wanting to love and to be loved. This penetrating insight into the oneness and emptiness of all creation is embodied in the Bodhisattva Manjushri, as I've said, who eloquently cuts through and opens up each of the delusions of our discriminating consciousness. The awakening to this insight slices through the confusions of our conditioning, which habitually obstruct our life and awareness. So part of insight is to see the way in which we are caught by our habits of thinking, to see our patterns. So part of zazen, maybe the most difficult part of zazen is to see our patterns of grasping, or anger or confusion coming up again and again and again, to get familiar with them. To study of the self, as Tolkien says, to know what we're up to, to get used to that, and then not be caught by it, so we don't need to react to it.

[25:26]

So we can say, oh yeah, there's that again, and then not act it out. Emptiness is not a thing, some new toy or crutch to grab hold of. The greatest delusion warned against by masters of emptiness teaching is attachment to emptiness. Even emptiness is empty. It's simply a way of being that releases and lets go of attachments. It is a practice of opening and letting go. So prajna is about seeing into what's happening, seeing how it's related to many things, seeing that our ideas and stories about what's happening are not the whole story. Looking deeply. And it's a kind of an immediate thing. It's not about something we have to figure out. So Manjushri is often depicted as a 16-year-old.

[26:29]

Teenagers often know clearly. We've seen this this weekend in terms of the young people speaking truth to power about the politicians and the gun lobbies and what's needed for sanity in our culture. It's kind of an immediate clear seeing, and yet it includes all of this seeing into our confusion. So I could say a lot more about prajna or about generosity and these other practices of enthusiasm and settling and ethical conduct of commitment. But maybe I'll stop there and ask for comments or questions about any of these practices. So questions, comments, responses, please feel free.

[27:35]

Yes, Dylan. I have a question. So if everything is inherently empty, Well, it's not, because we already have everything, but we don't know it. So we're all connected, but also we're all distinct. So emptiness is about this essential sameness. But particularly in our, well, in East Asian Buddhism generally, but also in our tradition, we talk about the harmony of difference and sameness. There is this aspect of prajna, of the oneness, sameness, connectedness of all of us. But each of us expresses that in a particular way. I can see you and Jerry, and in some ways, you're the same.

[28:47]

In some ways, you're quite distinct. So how do we respond to that? From the heart, that is the same. So when Dogen came back from his study in China, and he was asked what he brought with him, he just said, eyes horizontal, nose vertical. We all share that. but then we each have our own particular way of expressing it, and that's wonderful. So in some ways we do have a self, but it's not the self we think of as a separate self. It's the self that's the expression, a particular expression of the commonality of all of us. So it's subtle. So ask your question again. Right, so to show somebody what they already have, not just to show them, but to help somebody express what they already have in their way.

[29:52]

So I can't tell you how to be Buddha, but I can help you see how the Buddha that's already under your seat can grow and develop and express itself through you. And that's an ongoing process. That's not something that you get and then it's done, because we're alive. So, in Japan, they say when somebody dies, they become Hotoke, Buddha, because they're finished, you know? But as long as we're alive, we keep having this challenge of how do we find how to express Buddha today as Dylan, as a particular being we are. It's not that it's something new, but it's taking a new, it's taking a new, it's responding to a new situation. It's a new season, even if it feels like it's still as cold as it was last week.

[31:01]

So, good luck. Other comments or questions or responses in terms of any of these practices? Yes, Nicholas. Yeah, ultimate truth and conventional, yeah. We still have to do the laundry and pay the rent.

[32:11]

Yeah, thank you. Other comments or questions? Yeah, please. Jeff, hi. Good. Welcome, welcome. The Heart Sutra says, form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Form is no other than emptiness, emptiness is no other than form. So, emptiness is not the absence of form. Emptiness is the way form is. So yeah, there's not really any difference.

[33:36]

We can talk about material concerns and the materialism of our society and putting things in terms of accumulating material stuff as opposed to accumulating friendships or something. But yeah, there's not in terms of I think in Western religion there's this duality between matter and spirit or something like that, but I think it's not so much a part of what we're talking about here. that to talk about the two truths, the idea of the ultimate reality and the conventional reality, the ultimate reality is right here in this physical world. It's not somewhere else. It's not in some ethereal spiritual realm in some heavenly place. It's right here. So right after this we will have

[34:38]

a practice of mindful temple cleaning. So taking care of the physical dimension of our reality is an important part of our practice. So they're not really separate to respond to your question. Other responses or questions or reflections? Hi, Miriam. Well, I wouldn't try to free yourself from being an individual.

[36:06]

Just in being the individual you are, you are expressing the universal. To see the universal as expressed uniquely by each of us, each in our own weird way, each in our own particularity, is the universal. It's not in getting rid of the self. So non-self in Buddhism doesn't mean you should not take care of yourself. It doesn't mean that you are not a self. It means that it's not that the self you truly are is not limited to some idea or story or set of numbers or whatever that you have about yourself. We all start from some, I think to survive adolescence, maybe we need to build an ego where we have stories about ourself and who we are and that's not it.

[37:18]

More fundamentally, there is an individual on your seat right now who is a wonderful, dynamic, marvelous expression of everything. So don't try and not be an individual, but how do you see that individual informed by everything? and totally expressing everything. And I've said this before, but one of the things that was really most informative to me after some years of practice when I first went to San Francisco Zen Center is that the really most senior practitioners, the people who had been with Suzuki Roshi, were each really weird. I could start naming names, but maybe I don't need to.

[38:22]

That as we steep in the practice, we become more ourselves in some way that's not about just some story or idea, but that is a deep expression of everything. And that's not something we can manipulate or figure out or control. It's just, you know, we each have our own seat. So please allow yourself to be yourself. Maybe on that note, we'll

[39:02]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_91.98