It's one of those days when I have the burden of riches. There's so much I'd be interested to express to you. So, I try to be careful because there's so much. Perhaps I'll start with ... and what I was just going to start with, I'm not going to start with. I'll start with something else, which is ... and I'm not going to start with that, I'm going to start with something else, which is, over the hill and through the woods to Green Gulch

[01:03]

we're having a practice period. And the theme of the practice period is, flowers bloom in the withered tree. And I interpret the withered tree as the withering of our grasping our discriminations. And in the non-grasping of our discrimination, a flower blooms. It's the flower of great wisdom. And that's the image. In the context of letting go of our discriminations, wisdom blooms.

[02:11]

And letting go does not mean eliminating discriminations. Letting go does not mean a lobotomy. It means, actually, a thorough, compassionate relationship with our discriminating, diluted human consciousness. For example, the discrimination between in-consciousness, between self and others, that's a discrimination which we might have some attachment to, or might be somewhat stuck in that discrimination. It's quite common that we might notice that we're stuck in the discrimination between self and other. Have any of you ever seen such a sticking to that discrimination? So we're not, the tree, that discrimination doesn't wither if we're not kind to it.

[03:23]

Being unkind to the discrimination between self and other, the tree gets thicker and stronger, and postpones the blooming. So again, the theme is practice compassion with discriminations, and the attachment to them drops away, and wisdom blooms. That's a theme, a poetic image for the process of awakening. There's another image just like it, which is the dragon howls in the withered tree. That's another expression for that. Okay, so then, in the process of examining our discriminating thought with compassion,

[04:31]

I got visited by an old friend that's been visiting me for 30 or 40 years. And the old friend is, I guess I'll say, the great bodhisattva, Samantabhadra. Back on the altar in that room, there's two bodhisattvas, one is Manjushri, the bodhisattva of great wisdom. On the other side is Samantabhadra, the bodhisattva of great practice and great vows. Jackie gave those statues to us. Thank you, Jackie. Yeah, so there's Samantabhadra, hi!

[05:33]

Sitting on the elephant, holding a big flower. So Samantabhadra has come to me, I wasn't expecting her arrival, but here she is in my life again after a while. She's been here a while long, but she's made a big appearance recently in the middle of the practice period, or at the beginning of the practice period. She came to visit. And she comes with ten vows. And so I brought those ten vows up at a Sunday talk at Green Gulch. A couple of weeks ago, was it? Ten vows, and I also brought up ten practices and ten cakes.

[06:37]

That's the name of the talk. And Reverend Kokyo here told me he listened to the talk. For some reason, he listened to it. And did you listen to the whole thing? Wow! You got the ten cakes too, right? So Samantabhadra means universal goodness, or universally good in English. That's a translation of Samantabhadra, universal goodness. And this Bodhisattva is the main Bodhisattva of the great, huge sutra called Avatamsaka

[07:47]

Sutra, which is translated as flower adornment scripture. The main Bodhisattva of this is Samantabhadra, from the beginning to the end, Samantabhadra is there, universal goodness spread throughout the great scripture. And towards the end of this, in the last chapter of the last book of the sutra, Samantabhadra tells us about her vows. She's full of vows. Full of vows. And they tell us what their vows are. So that came up to me, and I just felt, as I have felt over, like I first heard about

[08:47]

these vows about 40 years ago, and every now and then they come to me and just inspire me. And then they came again. And while we're practicing compassion with our discriminations, these vows came to me. And I'm just so grateful that they came. Somebody asked me, how come you brought them up? Well, they just came. It's just a blessing that they came 40 years ago, they came thousands of years ago to this planet, and they came just at the right time. When I'm working on withering this tree, they come right at the time when I'm trying to practice compassion with my and other people's attachment to their discriminations. And I think I haven't told you yet what the vows are, but just to sort of give you a preview,

[09:54]

the preview is, in the midst of these vows, and again they're vows, to practice practices. So 10 vows to practice 10 practices. In the midst of these vows, and then the practices which the vows support, they're vows, and they support practice. Practices come from, are carried by the vows. In the midst of these practices and vows, the attachment to our discriminations just drops away. Not eliminated, just drops away, or dances into the sky and comes back to play. Now it's like the discriminations are the playmates of all living beings. They're no longer interfering with realization of reality. Are you ready to hear about the 10 vows?

[11:11]

Okay, well, number one. And again, in the sutra, they, Samantabhadra, are saying, I think in the first person, I will, I vow, I will, I vow. Number one, to pay homage to all Buddhas. And paying homage means, you know, to acknowledge the worth, to acknowledge the great worth of all Buddhas, of great wisdom and compassion, of great awakening. That's the first one. And, when Samantabhadra talks about this vow to practice homage to all Buddhas, they go

[12:35]

on to say, moment after moment, without cease and without end. Again, before I go on to the next one, I just want to emphasize. Oh, moment after moment, without cease, and also regardless of, without cease means regardless of time. In other words, every time, all time, every moment, but also regardless of place. So wherever, and you are, wherever I am, Samantabhadra says, wherever I am, whenever I am, I pay homage. So for example, if you practice sitting, then you would do it while you're sitting.

[13:42]

If you were walking, you would do it when you're walking. If you're eating, if you're driving, if you're going to the toilet, and of course, after you go to the toilet, what do you do? Wash your hands with water and soap. And while washing my hands with water and soap, this hand washing is paying homage to all Buddhas, because whatever I'm doing, I'm paying homage to all Buddhas. This is the Samantabhadra's Bodhisattva way. Washing hands is not a waste of time, because when I'm washing hands, I'm paying homage to Buddhas. When I'm washing hands, Samantabhadra is washing her hands. And in this hand, in paying homage no matter what I'm doing or when I'm doing it, in that

[14:55]

homage paying, clinging to discriminations drops away, I say. So, this is a vow to do that, and it's the practice of it. And by the way, I say that as I'm practicing, as we're practicing, paying homage to all Buddhas while we're washing our hands, or eating our lunch, or opening a door, or sitting. While our sitting is paying homage, we're paying homage by sitting. Our hand washing is paying homage. We pay homage by washing our hands, through washing our hands, for washing our hands.

[16:01]

We pay homage to Buddhas. Buddhas also pay homage to us at the same moment. And as we become more thoroughly engaged with paying homage in each moment, we open to the fact that Buddhas are right there with us face to face. We see the Buddhas practicing with us and reciprocating our homage. We need Buddha, Buddha needs us. There's no Buddha with us, there's no us without Buddhas. This is the first practice of samantabhadra. The first vow.

[17:05]

Then the next one, vowing and practicing, praising Buddhas. In transmission of the practice from Asia to America, the praising of Buddha's practice has not really been highlighted, because a lot of Western, of the Eastern people noticed when they brought up praising Buddhas that the Western people kind of were not very receptive to that, so they backed off. But in Asia, in the monasteries particularly, when lay people come into the monasteries to join, every day they do a lot of praising of Buddhas. It's a part of the standard liturgy to praise Buddhas, and they have extensive praising scriptures.

[18:14]

What's the difference between praise and homage? Well, like, for example, one of the ways to practice homage is you say, I align myself with this thing, and I'm going to join in the practice of this thing. And also, the formal way to pay homage is to do prostration, is to offer incense and do prostration. That's a formal way to express homage. Whereas praise, you actually, like, usually say it. But you can also see the prostration as praise, but you can praise things that you don't pay homage to. Like, you could praise an athlete or a ballet dancer, but you're not saying, I'm going to be a ballet dancer, or I'm going to be a football player, or I'm going to be a piano player, or I'm going to be a high school teacher.

[19:17]

You can praise people without sort of aligning yourself with them and joining their program. So first you join the program, then you praise the programmers. Then you make offerings. Then the third bow is, and again, the praise is at each moment. In each moment means no matter what you're doing. So then you see, again, whatever you're doing, you, if you're Samantabhadra, you make what you're doing an act of praise. I serve beings as an act of praise of the Buddhas. I clean the temple as an act of praise. I clean my own house as an act of praise of Buddhas.

[20:21]

Do any of you ever clean your house? Do you have a cleaner? Bruce, do you have a cleaner who cleans your house for you? Do you clean your house ever? Yeah, okay. So when you're cleaning your house, if you're ever cleaning your house, when you're cleaning it, it actually is quite convenient. You can also praise the Buddhas while you're cleaning. You can make your cleaning. Okay, I'm going to start cleaning now, but this isn't just cleaning. I'm not trying to get anything here. This is an act of praise. I'm going to call it cleanliness is next to godliness, right? So I clean the house as an act of praise of Buddhas. I serve a meal. I eat a meal as a praise of Buddhas. You can do this practice while you're doing anything and then making offerings and so on.

[21:24]

All these practices can be done all the time, whatever you're doing. They can be done and samantabhadra vows to do them and we can join. We can praise all Buddhas, but we can also praise Buddhas, bodhisattvas. Like we can praise samantabhadra by adopting his practices. So I'm wearing this, a colorful robe today, which I think has 115 embroidered Buddhas on it. Embroidered images of Buddha, 115 on a red background.

[22:25]

And this robe was entrusted to me by Reverend Kokyo and Charlie, Reverend Charlie Pekorny and Galen. Yeah, so three priests, when I was in China with them, found this robe and saved it from oblivion and gave it to me to take care of. And so I just thought, today's a good day to wear it, to wear this robe of Buddhas, of Buddha and Buddhas, to wear this robe on the day when I talk about paying homage to all Buddhas, to 115, but also to infinite Buddhas. So I wear a robe in honor of Buddha, as part of my homage, and I wear it as a praise of Buddhas, and I wear it as an offering to Buddhas.

[23:28]

And you can also wear your don jacket as an offering to Buddha. And some of you have your own Buddhist robe, and you wear that as an homage to Buddha, as an homage to Buddha's teaching. When you put the robe on your head, you say, Great Robe of Liberation, Field of Virtue Far Beyond Foreign and Emptiness, wearing the Tathagata's teaching. I'm wearing the Tathagata's teaching now, saving all beings by wearing this Tathagata's teaching. And another reason I'm wearing it is because on Thursday night and yesterday morning, Friday morning, we did some very lovely ceremonies at Green Gulch, paying homage to Shakyamuni Buddha.

[24:29]

Like it says there, homage to Shakyamuni Buddha on these pennants, homage to Shakyamuni Buddha. We paid homage to Shakyamuni Buddha, celebrating the last night of his life, and the day that this Buddha died. Now, the traditional day to do that is February 14th and 15th, but we couldn't get it together to do the ceremony at that time, because the ceremony is a little bit complicated. To do all the homages and to do all the offerings and all the praises, we couldn't train the Sangha. It took us two weeks to train the Sangha, more than two weeks. Finally, on Thursday and Friday, we were able to do it, and we did these ceremonies, lovely ceremonies, to pay homage, to praise,

[25:34]

and to make offerings, extensive offerings to Buddha, to celebrate, and to maybe shed some tears about this lovely thing called Buddha entering Parinirvana. The Buddha achieved nirvana about 35 years, or was it 45 years? About 40 years before the Buddha entered Parinirvana, the Buddha, more than, yeah, 45 years before the Buddha entered Parinirvana, according to some stories, the Buddha attained nirvana. Parinirvana refers to the special nirvana that the Buddha demonstrated for beings at the end of his incarnation.

[26:39]

It was nirvana for 45 years being demonstrated, but then a special nirvana was demonstrated, and we celebrated that time. When the Buddha was appearing to be sick, but still teaching, still the Buddha teaching, and we recited some of his teachings. And again, we bowed to Buddha, we paid homage, we praised the Buddha, and we made offerings. And we got all dressed up in our Buddha best and did the ceremony. After the ceremony, at lunch following the ceremony, someone said to me at the table in the dining room at Green Gulch,

[27:47]

what is the meaning of Parinirvana? They asked me at the table, and I paused and I said, the meaning of Parinirvana is, you might say, rather large. It has a vast meaning. But maybe I could say, oh, and then the person said, or maybe, yeah, maybe she said, does it mean that the Buddha is, like, gone? Is that what it means? And I said, the meaning is like that. The meaning is, and this is at the dining room, this is in the dining room, right?

[28:58]

And I'm saying, the meaning is, and people are like, in the dining room, the meaning is, so to make a long story short, somebody said, it's vast. Now, part of the reason for that long pause was because it's vast, but another part of the reason was, I forgot what the meaning was. Or I forgot even what part of the meaning was. But then I remembered. The person said, does that mean the Buddha's gone? And I said,

[30:02]

part of the meaning of this Parinirvana, part of the meaning of the Buddha dying, is that Buddha dying is a teaching. It's not just dying. It's dying as a teaching. OK, I'm going to give you a little teaching now. Here it goes. Watch this. And so following the Buddha, then it became a tradition for the Buddha's mature disciples, as they were about to die, to make their dying a teaching. OK, now are you ready? Here we go. Watch this. OK, OK, OK. Anyway, later I will demonstrate. While I'm dying, I will demonstrate dying as a teaching, teaching as dying.

[31:11]

So the Buddha was teaching. During all those years, the Buddha was teaching, teaching, teaching, teaching. The meaning of Parinirvana is the Buddha was teaching for 45 years. That's the meaning of it. And now the Buddha teaches by dying. So is the meaning of Parinirvana that Buddha's gone? I'm not saying no. I'm just saying the meaning of Parinirvana is death as a teaching, death as a blessing. Buddha gave us the blessing of dying. This was for us. We needed the Buddha to die. The Buddha needed to do that for us. So the Buddha did. And then I also said at the lunch table, during the 45 years of teaching,

[32:20]

one of the Buddha's teaching was nothing is annihilated by death. No. When the person says, is the Buddha gone, is there nothing left or nothing remains? Nothing is annihilated, the Buddha taught. But also, nothing is lasting. Some things are always here, like the Buddha is always here. But that doesn't mean the Buddha lasts. And of course, it doesn't mean the Buddha is annihilated. So part of the Parinirvana is to demonstrate that nothing is annihilated and nothing lasts. Buddha showed that at that time. So I wear this robe to pay homage to Buddha, to praise Buddha,

[33:25]

to hold up Buddha, and make offering to Buddha of this robe, which was offered to me, to offer to you, and to offer this wearing of this robe to Buddha and Buddha's teaching. The meaning of Parinirvana is vast. I say a little bit about it now. There's no end to my offerings to Parinirvana. There's no end to my homage to Parinirvana. There's no end to my praise of Parinirvana, Samantabhadra says, and I join that. You can join it too. So those first three, I thought, were quite relevant to wearing this robe. And this robe is relevant to wearing those three.

[34:26]

And to the ceremony, celebrating the great teacher. Can you hear me well up there, upstairs? Yeah, good. Okay. And I also mentioned that someday talk. I'm still with the first three. One of the, what's the word, I don't want to say great too many times, but anyway, one of the most wonderful Zen ancestors is a person we call Wang Bo. He's the master of Linji, who is the founder of the Linji or Rinzai school of Zen, which became the most prolific of all the Zen schools in China.

[35:28]

There's five schools. Rinzai was sort of the most popular in terms of the most populous. So Rinzai is the founder of that school and his teacher is Wang Bo. And one of Wang Bo's main teachings is non-seeking, not trying to get anything. He's not trying to get anything, which could be rephrased as generosity. But he emphasized non-seeking or not seeking anything in the practice. And there's a story about him in the Blue Cliff Record. He was 13.

[36:30]

And it's a story about him when he was a head monk in a monastery. He wasn't the abbot, he was the head monk. And, but I have the feeling like he was making his teaching known in that monastery. And what was his teaching? His teaching was not seeking anything. For example, when paying homage to the Buddha, not seeking anything from Buddha. Paying homage not to get something from Buddha, but as to give something to Buddha. Give your, give your homage. Give your, pay your respects. Give your respect to Buddha. Not try to get Buddha to respect you. Of course, Buddha already does respect you, but you're not trying to get that.

[37:34]

And in trying to get it, you kind of, in some sense, contradict the fact that Buddha is already giving it to you. So don't try to get Buddha's respect. But give Buddha your respect. Pay your respect. Pay homage to Buddha without seeking anything. Pay homage to pay homage. And not even that. So anyway, I just can't believe how good our Zen stories are sometimes. So here we have this head monk, this wonderful historical figure, Wang Bo. He's living in a monastery. He's telling people about not seeking anything in Zen practice. And one of the people in the monastery is a kind of an amazing guy who's actually, he's the uncle of the current emperor of China.

[38:34]

And he's living in a Zen monastery. And part of the reason he's living there is he's kind of hiding from his nephew who might want to kill him. Because his nephew hates him and, you know, and thinks he might be, you know, might be dangerous. His uncle might try to get rid of him or whatever. Anyway, so this monk who's in the monastery is also the brother of a former emperor and the uncle of three emperors who didn't live very long. So this uncle outlived his three nephews and became an emperor. And his name is Shun Tsung. He was the last, they say, the last strong emperor of the Tang Dynasty. Strong in the sense of, well, you'll see, he's kind of a strong guy. So he's the monster. He's not the head monk.

[39:38]

He's just an ordinary monk who's also going to be emperor. And I don't know if Wang Bo knew he was going to be, that he was like the former emperor's brother and the uncle of the current emperor. I don't know if Wang Bo knew that. But I could have met him. Pardon? What did you say? He might have known. Let's just imagine he did know that this guy is the uncle of the emperor who's hiding out in the monastery. So Wang Bo is, on a certain occasion, guess what he's doing? You can probably guess, right? Hmm? He was paying homage to a statue of the Buddha. Now, of course, not of course, maybe Wang Bo paid homage to Buddha all day long like Samantabhadra. He probably heard about Samantabhadra. So he might have been paying homage when he was sitting in meditation

[40:39]

like Samantabhadra does. Samantabhadra sits in meditation or rides the elephant. See, he's on the elephant there. He's riding the elephant. And at the same time he's riding the elephant like, oh, whoa, boy, he's paying homage to Buddha, right? Get the picture? So Wang Bo might have been doing that too, all day long paying homage to Buddha. But in this particular case, he was doing it in a formal way, offering incense and prostrating before the Buddha statue, formally revealing his ongoing practice. Okay, you get the picture? Any questions? No, everybody got it? Okay, so the emperor, former, future emperor, by the way, just happens to be nearby, watching Wang Bo, isn't this amazing? Watching Wang Bo do prostrations to the Buddha, having heard Wang Bo's teaching.

[41:42]

So he says to Wang Bo, if you don't seek anything from Buddha, and you don't seek anything from Dharma, and you don't seek anything from Sangha, why are you prostrating yourself to the Buddha statue? And Wang Bo said, I don't seek anything from Buddha. I don't seek anything from Dharma. I don't seek anything from Sangha. In this way, I pay homage to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The way to pay homage to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha is by not seeking anything, or to do it as a service, not as seeking. That's the way Wang Bo did it. That's the way Samantabhadra does it. That's the way we can learn to do it. We pay homage to the Buddhas

[42:45]

without trying to get anything. That's the way the ancestors paid homage. But the story just said, in this way of not seeking is how I pay homage. And then the future emperor says, Shren Zong says, his name is not Shren Zong yet. His name is Shren Zong when he becomes emperor. Anyway, the future emperor says, well, what's the point of paying homage then if you don't seek anything? And you probably can guess what happened next, right? Wang Bo slapped the future emperor. And then the future emperor says, don't be so, don't be so coarse. And then guess what happened?

[43:46]

He slapped him again. And then Wang Bo said, this is no time to talk about coarse or subtle, and slapped him again. That's called sleeping with the future emperor. Three slaps of the emperor, Wang Bo. And then later when he became emperor, the emperor gave kind of this teacher a name, which is coarse action ascetic, coarse action monk. And then later one of his ministers said, you should change the name to vast action, or vast wisdom priest. So I wear this robe in homage to Wang Bo, and in homage of, in homage of homage without seeking anything. In praise of praise without seeking anything.

[44:51]

In praise of making offerings without seeking anything. I think, you know, when we made offerings, the other day to the Buddha, I don't think, I think most people were just making offerings. They weren't trying to get anything from Buddha by making the offering. And that made, some people may feel that that wasn't very interesting, we didn't get anything. Actually, afterwards I got to eat some of the offerings. They were quite tasty. Vegetarian feast for the Buddha. So those are the first three, okay? Want to hear the next seven? It's getting late, but do you have time? I do. Great, how about you? Okay, anybody else? Everybody else okay with hearing the next seven? Scott, okay, all right. If you want, you can light on if you want to, go ahead.

[45:53]

Make yourself comfortable. It's gonna, it's gonna be several hours. Okay, the context is we're doing this stuff, without seeking, right? This is a service which the Bodhisattva does. The next one is revealing and disclosing the shortcomings in our practice. Like, for example, if you, if you try to practice homage, praise, and offerings, and you notice that you're trying to get something, now you have something to confess. Okay, I was practicing, I was paying my respects to Buddha, but as I'm trying to get the Buddha to like, give me some approval. Sorry, sorry Buddha. I didn't just offer my homage, I was trying to get you to, you know, pat me on the head, which I heard you do sometimes. And actually, you did pat me on the head,

[46:54]

and I appreciate it, but I'm sorry that I was trying to get you to do it. I'm sorry, that's confessing and being embarrassed that I'm trying to get something from Buddha rather than I'm here to serve Buddha. If you look in the stories of the Zen ancestors, sometimes they say so-and-so studied with so-and-so, but they also say study and so-and-so served so-and-so. You serve the teacher, that's the way you study with a teacher. You study with a teacher by serving the teacher. Not studying to try to get something from the teacher. You study to give yourself to the teaching. But you might notice that you're not practicing that way, so then you confess and repent it. And maybe some other shortcomings too besides that. There's quite a few possible shortcomings. So Samantabhadra vows to do that practice

[48:00]

unceasingly and without end. And then following that one is the practice of rejoicing in the merits of others. Rejoicing in the merit of the Buddhas, yeah. And rejoicing in the merit of our friend's practice. And when I confess and repent my shortcomings, it opens my peepers to see the virtues of others. If I don't notice my own shortcomings, that's because my eyes are somewhat shut. And also, again, I pay homage to Buddhas, so Buddhas will open my...

[49:04]

I'm not supposed to touch my eyes, but let's just pretend I open my eyes. Buddha, I pay homage to Buddha and request Buddha to open my eyes so I can see the merit of others. And when I see the merit of others, I vow to rejoice in it. And moment after moment, again, noticing and apologizing for my own shortcomings opens my eyes to the wonderful vision of the merit of others, and I vow to do that practice. That's number five. Number six, which also I wear this robe in honor of number six, is to request the Buddhas to turn the wheel of the Dharma. The Buddhas usually wait to be invited.

[50:05]

They just don't... They don't bring their Dharma wheel and roll it over people. They've got their Dharma wheel, it's available, but upon request, and usually three times. It's a traditional moment. And we have stories like that, where people request the Buddha to turn the wheel, and the Buddha says, actually, this isn't a good time, I'm having lunch or whatever. But then the last three times, the Buddha says, okay. Request the Buddha to teach the Dharma. Okay, got two of them there? Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the service. That's number six, requesting the Buddhas to teach and keep and request it every moment.

[51:09]

So again, in daily life, moment after moment, brushing your teeth, washing your hands, paying your respects to Buddha, rejoicing in the merit of others, okay? At that same time, request the Buddha to turn the wheel of Dharma right now. While you're rejoicing in how wonderful other people's merit is, at that same moment, okay Buddhas, turn the wheel of Dharma. Rejoicing in the merits of others is really a good time for Buddha to turn the wheel. Or another way to put it is, when we're rejoicing in the merit of others, that's a time when we can see the Buddha turning the wheel of Dharma. When we don't see the merit of others, or can you imagine

[52:10]

seeing the merit of others and not rejoicing? That does happen in this world. Like some people see somebody else do really well and they don't rejoice in it because they feel jealous, or envious, I should say. They did that really well. I wish I could do that, rather than, that was great. And then they say, you're really good at rejoicing in my merit. Thank you. Rejoicing in the merit of others is a great moment to also say, okay Buddha, please, right now, turn the wheel. Not just for me, but for all beings. And not just for me, but for these people, these wonderful practitioners. Please turn it for them. That's number seven. No, seven.

[53:12]

Oh, you're right, that was six. Turn the wheel. Number seven. Don't go. People are coming to me more and more and saying, don't go. They're saying that to me. Don't go. Don't leave. So number seven is, I vow to request Buddhists to not leave, to not leave this world, to stay in the world and teach. Because they're teaching the Dharma, but then they might go and then we're in trouble. So don't go. Please stay. That's number seven, right? Number eight. I vow to do all the practices which the Buddhas have practiced and are practicing. So all the Bodhisattva practices which Buddhas have practiced. Generosity, ethics, patience,

[54:15]

enthusiasm, concentration and wisdom. I vow to do all those practices. Right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right concentration. I vow to do them all. Right mindfulness. I vow to do all those practices. Generosity, kind speech, beneficial action, identity action, all the practices of Buddhas. I vow to do them. I vow to copy the Buddhas. Of course, vowing to do the practices of Buddhas is another way of paying homage. I pay homage, it's partly that I will do, I will practice all the practices of Buddhas.

[55:16]

And the next one is, I vow to harmonize and accommodate with and accord with all living beings. I'll do these practices, but also I do these practices to accommodate and assist and support all living beings. I vow to do that practice. And number 10 is all the merit from all these nine practices, I then turn over to the support, the awakening and peace of all beings. Those are the 10 vows and the 10 practices. And, yeah, so maybe that's enough,

[56:22]

or maybe it was too much. There's more, but I think I'm going to stop now. And I just mentioned that maybe this afternoon I'll tell you about the 10 cakes and the 13 cookies. And the 13 cookies. And the one grain of rice, etc. Okay, although it's late, if there's anything you want to say before you pay homage by having lunch, or you pay homage while you're having lunch, if there's anything you'd like to bring up, maybe, yes? I would love to receive the teachings, the greatness, and make my vow to appear,

[57:25]

to be, to see that, to see the teachings of greatness in the midst of the fear, which I attend to. Yeah, okay, thank you for, you would like, are you vowing or just like? No, I would love to vow. Yeah, so you vow to see the teaching in the fear? Or, yeah, so that's, so if you want to see the teaching in the fear, then when there's fear, do those 10 practices. Of course, the immediate one is to go, you can just go, skip over the first seven, and just go right to do what Buddha does. So Buddha's living in the middle of an ocean of fear. That's where Buddha lives. At the center of the ocean of fear, at the center of the ocean of delusion,

[58:27]

that's where Buddha lives. I've mentioned that before, haven't I? Where does Buddha live? In the center of the ocean of suffering, at the center of the ocean of fear. That's where Buddha lives. Now, have I also mentioned or asked you, where do you live? Where do you live? Same place. Of course, it's your version of it, but you also are at the center of the ocean of fear. And what does Buddha do at the center of the ocean of fear? Buddha regards the fear with eyes of compassion and listens to the cries of frightening beings with compassion. So, yeah, so that's how Buddha relates to all the fear around her, by regarding it with eyes and ears of compassion,

[59:32]

listening to it, observing it. Now, Samantabhadra also did those seven vows before that. And those seven vows before that, and the practices which are supported by those vows, those practices will help us relate to the ocean of fear the way Buddhas do. Because Buddhas, in the middle of all the fear, they're able to open to all that fear and be compassionate with it because they've done the previous, depending on the previous, seven practices. Because I pay homage to Buddhas by all my actions, I am lifted up with spiritual life to support me to do this amazing practice

[60:33]

or to enter this amazing practice of being compassionate to the ocean of fear. I don't do it by my own power. I do it by enlightenment power, by Buddha power. And the Buddha power comes to me because I pay homage to Buddha. I'm not trying to get Buddha power, but when you pay homage, that is Buddha power. So you get your Buddha power working, you get your mojo working by paying homage to Buddhas. And you're paying homage, you're lining up with the presence which is compassionate to the ocean of fear. Not by your own, like, I can stand the whole ocean. No, I align myself with this ability to sit in the middle and open to it all. And I praise that ability.

[61:35]

It's not mine. And it's not even Buddha's. It doesn't belong to Buddha, it is Buddha's. And I make offerings to Buddha. All this uplifts the practice of compassion in the middle of the ocean of fear, where I live all the time anyway, but I'm not always open to it because it's so immense. But there is an opening to it, and the opening to it is what I want to align myself with. The opening to it is all Buddhas. And I praise that openness, and praising that openness promotes that openness. And openness to it helps me accommodate with all beings. And then I give this wonderful accommodation

[62:38]

in the middle of it to all beings. And back to homage, the first one. We have a verse to do while we pay homage. And this verse, Zen people say this verse. Like, am I a Zen people? Sometimes I'm a Zen people. Sometimes I'm a Zen people. Anyway, sometimes I'm a Zen people, and sometimes I'm a Zen people. And when I do prostrations, I do a bodhisattva verse while I do prostration. So I'm paying homage to the Buddhas, to serve the Buddhas, and to serve the Buddhas' work of sitting in the middle of all fear and practicing compassion. I'm doing this service, and while I do the service, I also can recite a verse,

[63:39]

which is bowing, bowed to, or one bowing, one bowed to, okay, that homage thing. Their nature is empty and vast. They have the same nature. This body, or the self's body, the body of this self, and the body of the other who I'm paying homage to, they're not two. These bodies are not two. So by paying homage, we become the one. We realize we're the one who can sit in the middle and observe with compassion ceaselessly. And then,

[64:41]

two more lines. Do you remember, Sanya? Oh, yeah. Arousing the unsurpassable vow. So here I am, practicing Samantabhadra's vows, practicing homage, person bowing, person bowed to. They have the same nature, which is empty and vast. This body, other bodies, not two. Arousing the inexhaustible vow. Liberating all beings. Something. Relying on ultimate truth. Oh, realizing ultimate truth. Yeah. Arousing the unsurpassable vow,

[65:55]

realizing ultimate truth. We realize ultimate truth sitting in the middle of the world of suffering, of the world of fear. That's where we do it, and we sit there with these practices, and that's how it happens. Not by my power, not by Buddha's power, but our relationship. Okay, so thank you very much for listening to too much. Sorry to talk so much, and I'm glad I was able to stop. Before we fainted. And also, we have copies here of the Ten Great Vows of the Bodhisattva Universally Good. If you'd like to have a little copy in case you haven't memorized it.

[66:57]

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