Good morning. So this is the last day of our spring practice period, and the last day of our three-day session ending it. We've been studying, talking about the major bodhisattva figures. And this weekend, I've been talking about the topography of bodhisattva practices and approaches. and looking at the dynamics of the interaction of the universal aspect of bodhisattva awareness and the particular phenomenal quality of bodhisattva awareness and action and talking about this the universal ultimate aspect in terms of wisdom, and the particular phenomenal aspect in terms of compassion, which is what I want to focus on today.

[01:09]

So, these bodhisattva figures are kind of nicknames for qualities of bodhisattva practice, activity, These are fields of bodhisattva approaches. There's a lot of overlap. There's a lot of interaction between them. I talked the first day about how each of these bodhisattva qualities involve aspects of zazen, of our meditation practice, or implicate aspects of, or can encourage aspects of zazen.

[02:13]

and on the other hand all of these bodhisattva figures and images and all of we might say all of the sutras and uh... schools of buddhism arose from Zazen from people doing this practice of relaxed upright sitting for twenty five hundred years since the Buddha Shakyamuni and longer So these bodhisattvas, these awakening beings, kind beings, these cosmic beings, and just human beings, people like us, trying to act harmoniously, trying to encourage kindness and awareness, sitting upright, settling into being themselves, have witnessed various qualities and then we have these cultures of Bodhisattva lore and imagery and writings and

[03:36]

and even institutional schools and so forth and so on. Anyway, I want to talk about these Bodhisattva nicknames and fields as aspects of compassion today. compassion as the flip side or the other side of wisdom. So I want to go through these bodhisattvas and how they represent and encourage different qualities or aspects of what we can call compassion. So And by compassion, I mean addressing particular beings, addressing the suffering and needs of beings in our phenomenal world. in Chicago, in our country, on this planet, and, you know, in other planets, too, I suppose.

[04:41]

So, Kanzeon, Avalokiteshvara, Kanon, Chenrezig, Guanyin in Chinese, Kwanseom in Korean, is the name given to one of these Bodhisattva fields. And the aspect of compassionate practice expressed by this realm of compassion is, well, many aspects, but we could start with just listening. Her name means to listen to the sounds of the world and often implying listening to or hearing the suffering of the world, the cries of the world. So compassion as just listening, just hearing. And there's an immediacy to this aspect of compassion. Just hearing the difficulties of whomever, whatever is right in front of you.

[05:51]

And when we're sitting facing the wall, it's the difficulties of the being on your seat. So self and other, in the wisdom side, we saw how self and other are not really separate. This open-heartedness of the Bodhisattva field known as Kansayon is this open-hearted just hearing, really listening, and accepting all beings. Whoever, whoever, whatever is in front of her. But this also involves, again, the particulars, responding to differences.

[06:54]

So we've been chanting in our midday service the harmony of difference and sameness. How do we respect differences? We talked yesterday about the wisdom side being involved in seeing the sameness of things, the oneness, the wholeness of things. This aspect of compassion that is referred to in terms of kanzeon is about seeing particular problems, particular aspects of pain and suffering. So one particularly striking image that somehow developed of this Bodhisattva field is the thousand-armed Kanzan. And each hand has an eye to see from a different perspective.

[07:59]

And each hand holds a different tool to be helpful from a different perspective. So listening is foremost, but then there's also responding. And in the Lotus Sutra, this bodhisattva represents skillful means, skillful means not as knowing how to respond skillfully, but trying things, being willing to make mistakes. So it's interesting. Compassion is the realm of making mistakes. It's not the realm of some idea of perfection. It's the realm of being in the world, being in the particularities of the world, where we are not perfect, where we are in the realities of the difficulties, facing difficulties.

[09:14]

Facing the difficulty that's right in front of us. But then trying things, being present, being open, being aware, and trying to respond. And the more we make mistakes and try to respond, maybe we start to become more skillful at responding. We learn from mistakes, which is to say we make more mistakes. But then maybe we don't make the same mistakes too many times. Or in each new situation, the mistakes become subtler. So this is all, you know, the realm of, the field of compassion, nicknamed Kanzeon. And part of this quality of compassion is that there are many, many forms of this Bodhisattva.

[10:15]

And, you know, this tradition of Mahayana Buddhism, of Bodhisattva Buddhism, has moved from through many cultures from India, it's in Tibet, in China, Korea, Japan, moving even into South Asia in Theravada countries, and now in our country. And so American Buddhist artists are doing their version of these figures. This is a tradition of imagination. We can imagine these Bodhisattva fields in our own way, and they will shift as the Bodhisattva path starts to find its forms to respond to the problems of our world.

[11:17]

What is the form of compassion that responds to gun violence, that responds to the cruelty of racism and of economic injustice? We may develop new bodhisattvas or new forms of the bodhisattva images that we have. So another nickname for a bodhisattva that expresses a kind of compassion is, to use the Japanese name, Jizo Bodhisattva. Akshita Garba in Sanskrit, Dzong in Chinese. The earth matrix or earth womb bodhisattva. Down to earth. Being down to earth. And this Bodhisattva is not just down to earth, but gets down under the earth to the hell realms. So witnessing to real difficulties.

[12:20]

And this Bodhisattva doesn't have all the hands and tools and skillful means. He's just there, everywhere, really. He's right there in the hell realms. and in the heavenly realms, which have their own difficulties, and in the hungry ghost realms, and even in our human realm. So this Bodhisattva is a protector for animals, for travelers, for mothers, for children, for beings who are between realms, especially. But this practice of witnessing, so the aspect of compassion, nicknamed Kanzeon, listens and tries to respond. The aspect of compassion that we've been calling Jizo, this practice of witnessing is really interesting.

[13:25]

To witness to someone's difficulties, It's not a small thing to testify to real horrors, the people who go into war zones or who come out of concentration camps and report, you know, the survivors on what happens. My friend Alan Sanaki and the others are religious witnesses who went recently to the Rohingya camps, the refugees from Burma who were driven out by the so-called Buddhists in Burma because they were Muslims and are living in horrible refugee camps and who are suffering genocide in real horrors. There are so many examples. This witnessing is an interesting quality of compassionate action.

[14:33]

How do we, last night someone mentioned the new museum about lynching in the South, to witness to that history. to remember that, to keep alive. The horrible things that people have suffered. Well, you know, we want to forget. There's this numbness that we all are part of. We don't want to think about climate damage.

[15:37]

We don't want to talk about it. It's kind of rude for me to mention it, excuse me. And we don't want to remember the huge arsenal of nuclear weaponry that our country has and threatens to use. threatens to use as a first strike basis to destroy life or, well, animal life on this planet, or at least the life of large animals like humans. So since Hiroshima, there's this cloud of denial. So Dan Ellsberg, a guy I got to know before I moved here, has talked about the doomsday machine that the United States runs of nuclear arsenal. So I'm being really rude and impolite by even mentioning that. So, Jizo is the aspect, the nickname for the bodhisattva who witnesses to horrors.

[16:43]

And, you know, can we acknowledge the horrors in our world? And so then, you know, what do we do? Well, you know, part of compassion is just to witness to the difficulties in the world. Awareness itself can be transformative. Enough people aware of difficulties changes things. So I think, you know, this museum of lynching in, I think, Alabama, in the horrors that African American people suffered in this country, you know, changes things. And there's so much of the karma of racism and slavery that's part of what we all suffer from in one way or another.

[17:44]

So again, I apologize for being rude and disturbing our everyday awareness that we have to, in some ways, we have to keep going and take care of our everyday activities. We kind of have to numb out about all that, but that's part of reality. Is that part of compassion to mention it? Well, you know, Jiso witnesses to these things. And maybe he doesn't make a big deal about talking about it, so I'll shut up. Maitreya is another aspect of compassion, another nickname for an aspect of bodhisattva compassion. And Maitreya, you know, Maitreya is kind of more lighthearted in a way, aside of Maitreya. Maitreya is the aspect of bodhisattva promised to be the next future Buddha. And Maitreya is there in every Chinese restaurant, the fat, jolly, laughing Buddha.

[18:53]

And Maitreya represents loving kindness, loving kindness, just to be kind. So we will chant the Metta Sutta at the end of the day. May all beings be happy. Just to wish all beings to be happy. That's nice. We can do that. We actually can do that. We can really, you know, everyone, even the people we think are doing harm, we can wish kindness to them. In fact, you know, it helps to wish kindness to everyone. and people who are doing harm can change. That happens again and again and again. So, loving kindness, metta. Maitri. This is the, This is the realm, the nickname for this aspect of bodhisattva.

[19:57]

That's one kind of, we could say, compassion. And again, this aspect of compassion we call Maitreya is extended to all beings, even difficult ones, even non-human ones. So Maitreya particularly takes care of animals. Maitreya's the Bodhisattva of vegetarianism, of extreme kindness to animals, and just acceptance of everyone. And again, Hotei, who was a, I think, 10th century Chinese, based on a 10th century Chinese historical strange monk who walked around with a sack of toys or candies or whatever for children and, you know, is now called Buddha in China.

[21:00]

Miloufei is Chinese for Maitreya. And you go to Buddhist temples in China and there's this fat jolly laughing Buddha and he's just Buddha. So the Chinese think of this guy, Kote is the Japanese name, butai in Chinese, as an aspect of Maitreya. Just this fat, jolly, laughing Buddhist Santa Claus. Just may all beings be happy. It's a kind of kindness. It's a wonderful kind of kindness. It's something we can all do. We can all wish kindness to everyone. Part of Maitreya that, you know, I talked about this as a kind of wisdom, but Maitreya is also associated with the Yogacara school that studies consciousness.

[22:01]

So I talked about this as an aspect of zazen, part of Maitreya's asana, studying how the mind works, studying karma. But I think we can see that also as related to compassion, studying how we get caught up in suffering and through that study, just accepting everyone. We all have this And all kinds of beings, all kinds of people, have this discriminating consciousness that separates me and you, self and other, subject and object. So we're all caught by that, and we all have our particular karmic stuff.

[23:03]

So I'm thinking of Isan. He was director of San Francisco Zen Center when I first got there. He later founded the hospice, well, he founded the, well, it's now called, named after him as Sanji, the Zen Center in the Castro in San Francisco during the AIDS epidemic. and much to the consternation of some of the Zen students, just turned it into a hospice. So he was a funny guy. He could be kind of bitchy at times, I have to say. But he was saintly, I mean, really. Just because

[24:10]

He'd been through everything himself. So he really accepted everyone. So that's, I don't know if that came to him through Yogachara's study exactly. But in a way, you know, he knew his own karma. He knew how separating self and other produces this kind of stuff. If he's not back already, he will be as a Buddha, for sure. Then I want to tell us to say something about Samantabhadra as another nickname for compassion of Bodhisattvas. And I mentioned Samantabhadra yesterday in terms of the wisdom aspect of interconnectedness. So Samantabhadra presents a different kind of response to suffering.

[25:19]

Samantabhadra, we say in our meal chant, is the shining practice bodhisattva, the bodhisattva of action in a way, of using the wisdom, the bodhisattva wisdom in the world in all the stuff out there, out on the street. So how is Samantabhadra a Bodhisattvic nickname for a kind of compassion? So unlike the Bodhisattva of Insight, Manjushri, who rides a lion, Samantabhadra is depicted riding an elephant. Samantabhadra is deliberate. Samantabhadra is careful. Samantabhadra is kind of stately. Samantabhadra responds to particular things in the world. He responds to systems of suffering.

[26:21]

I talk about him in Faces of Compassion as the social activist Bodhisattva. That's part of Samantabhadra, and it's not the part that's emphasized so much in Asia, but I think it really applies. Through talking about interconnectedness, Samantabhadra energy also looks at how to protect and take care of the web of interconnectedness. how to respond and take care of the ways in which that beautiful interconnectedness is, can be, often is damaged. How harm occurs, how cruelty occurs. So Tom asked Haitian last night about people who are mindful as they commit cruelty.

[27:30]

So this is an interesting question. How do we encourage helpfulness rather than harm? How do we encourage harmony and balance? So this is through the interconnectedness that Samantabhadra represents. we can see an aspect of compassion. And it's not that there was not social engagement in Asian Buddhism. It's a little hard to find sometimes. You have to dig around to see it in the sutras, in the texts. It's there. It's in Dogen, definitely. It's in examples from Japan and China and India and Korea, Tibet. But it's not, you know, maybe it's, maybe that, maybe because Asian Buddhism was in feudal countries where, in patriarchal countries, it's not, it was kept in the background.

[28:42]

But anyway. Here, you know, I want to celebrate Samantabhadra as the social activist, Bodhisattva. And that's a kind of compassion. It's not the whole thing. We need Kanzeon, just the immediacy of responsiveness. So I'm mindful that I've talked during this practice period about The 50th anniversary is the 50th anniversary of the killing of Dr. King, the beginning of this practice period, and the 50th anniversary of the student uprising at Columbia University that I was part of, and I talked about that. This week is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. I'll talk more about that next Sunday. That was really a major event in everything about how our life is now.

[29:48]

And partly that's, you know, that's a story of transformation because where he started, it's not so, not so, not so attractive, but especially in the last year, in the last half year, what he came to was really something remarkable, what he could have done if he hadn't been killed. So it's an interesting story, and there are stories of, you know, one of Shakyamuni Buddha's great disciples, Angulimata, was a serial killer before the Buddha found him. So, you know, as bad as things may look, transformation happens. So anyway, Samantabhadra is about responding to systems of suffering and systems of suffering has to do also with people and how people can interact with that. So seeing systems of suffering and seeing how

[30:55]

people can transform them is hopeful. So anyway, this is by way of talking about the side of the phenomenal world, the realm of particulars, the realm of not the ultimate truth, not the universal truth, not the side of oneness where actually we are all the same. There's just one eyes, horizontal, nose, vertical, the one truth, but the particular problems that we all face. And the point of the wisdom teaching is then how do we express it in our lives, each of in our particular way. We each have our own particular ways of expressing, may all beings be happy in the world.

[32:00]

So, you know, I've mentioned these four nicknames of bodhisattvas who express different kinds of kindness and compassion, but I think there could be many, many more. And there are many, many more. There are thousands and millions of bodhisattvas that are described or mentioned in some of the sutras. And maybe we need to create more archetypal bodhisattvas. Anyway, that's a little bit. So we're not going to have a discussion period this afternoon, so I want to open this up to any comments or responses or reflections about the side of bodhisattva compassion in our lives, in the particular situations that we face in our worlds. So please, comments, questions, responses, please feel free. Yeah, thank you for your talk.

[33:19]

You talked about a number of things. And I'm often struck by the way that I, myself, and people in general have a tendency, because we have is that we often use the term interdependence, but I think it's actually a much longer way of putting it.

[34:28]

It's interdependent coercing, that we are not externally related. We are constituted. Our very being is produced by everything else. Yes. And I understand. We are totally involved.

[35:41]

And so if we, in order to totally, completely take on compassion, I think it's really important that we stop. Yes. Yes.

[36:45]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes. It's not that we're the good guys and somebody else is the bad guys. Absolutely. We have to see that we are in the middle of all the problems. And, you know, right view is to not hold on to any particular view, but to listen. I mean, Kanzeon is the one who listens, so we have to listen to, and Aisin talked about this wonderfully last night, to listen to the fears and feelings and perspectives of everyone, the people who we think we're different from, especially. And being self-righteous about what we think are the solutions or what we think is the good is harmful. So all of this is a koan. So thank you. Thank you.

[37:46]

Other comments? Yes, Ashen. I actually want to add to what that relates to something that I wanted to say, which is that one of the hot topics in psychology right now is self-compassion, and the big proponent of that is Kristin Neff, and she talks about being a long-time meditator and recognizing through her own practice that she needed to find some way to relate to herself that was beyond just the sort of dispassionate awareness that she felt like she was supposed to do in meditation. And so actively worked at finding ways to bring compassion to her view of herself and her experience, and so now promotes that for other people. And I want to say that to do what you're, I think, rightly recommending, Nyozan, of looking at ourselves and looking deep within to see the seeds of, you know, harmful action that seems to be out there.

[39:00]

We can find seeds of it in ourselves, but Finding compassion for ourselves makes it easier and sometimes makes it possible to do that. I have found that you have to have a good enough feeling about yourself to be, and once you can develop a feeling that, you know, I'm good enough, you actually can open your eyes a little bit wider to some of the, you know, not helpful motives or actions that were harmful that we may have done. And so looking at our own impulse to turn away or to kill a situation or to block something out and responding compassionately to that really helps us to find a way to respond to that outside. We can't be more compassionate to the outside world than we are to the inside world.

[40:02]

Yes, Tom. I have a question about their relation to what we talked about yesterday and today. It's about maybe if there's a tension between when we're trying to embody wisdom or non-duality, and when we're trying to embody compassion. It seems to me that when we take a compassionate view of things, that often has to do with seeing the way in which things are sort of wanting, I think there's a wonderful creative tension

[41:10]

Yeah. So, I mean, others may have some response as well, but Suzuki Roshi said, you're perfect just as you are, so you have a lot of work to do. And Yogi Berra said, if the world were perfect, it wouldn't be. So, yeah. there's the side of things that is, here we are, and it's just what it is, and that's got to be okay. And yet, we walk out on the street and, you know, look at the headlines or whatever, yeah, there's a lot of work to do. Both is true somehow. And I think, so one thing to say is that seeing the side of wholeness, to put it that way, feeling the wholeness of reality supports us to be more helpful in the conventional realm.

[42:41]

But maybe others have, please others, other people, so-called others, express, please respond to Tom. I want to hear more. Yes, Aisha. when these ultimate things like compassion or wisdom, or when they manifest in the phenomenal world, they always pull it a little bit out of balance. Whose Rakasu says that something is missing? Was that you both? Can you read your Rakasu? When the Dharma fills the body and mind, you realize something is missing. Something is always missing, and that is what pulls us out of balance, against the backdrop of perfect balance.

[43:42]

And then there's a need to kind of pull the other foot forward and get back into balance, and then we fall out of balance again. And that's how we get anywhere. So it's kind of the harmony of difference and sameness, where it talks about the front and the back foot in walking. That's just the fact of life, is that anything that happens pulls things out of balance a little bit and then pulls it back into balance and out again. That's how I see it. So yeah, there's this dynamic tension and balance and interaction and integration. It's this process. Other comments about that or anything else? Oh, Stephen, hi. Thank you. One way that I think about this kind of tension as well is when you see something in the world that you don't like, that generates an aversion, your mind tries to push it away, and you can try to change the thing in the world as a way to

[44:49]

make it not be so, ignore that it's there. And you don't have to sit there and let the bad thing be, but that doesn't mean that you have to not let it, you can let it be present in your mind and accept that that's a thing in the world and that it's part of everything while you're trying to work with it and change it. in the middle of what some people jokingly call a condo war. And it gets really ugly sometimes. And I'm right in the middle of it on the board of trying to negotiate a way forward. And there's one guy in particular who it's really easy to it will work out how it works out, and I'm not in control of that.

[46:28]

So my responsibility is to participate, but without trying to will it into being according to my vision. It's only part, and I can't guarantee that. I'd also like to say something that's potentially rude, but I feel motivated to say it because it seems like the right time to say it, because I love the city of Chicago very deeply. And we're not separate from this. Like, in this room right now, we're a lot like people.

[47:30]

And there's a lot of resources on that side. And I'm not advocating for any particular solution, but it's a very deep, karmic seed in the city that I love very, very much. And it's work that we have to do. prescribing in particular, but just looking around, it's something I want us to be aware of in this room. It's something that I sense a lot when there's a lot of white people in the room, that it's just, oh, this is normal, there's a lot of white people in the room, but that's not normal. Whiteness is not normal. Thank you. I don't know what to do about that. I appreciate your saying it.

[48:49]

Paula. You can't listen to people you've never seen. You can't listen to people, you know, that live in a different place. So that, in order to do that, there has to be a little bit of tension internally, because we like to stay in our comfort zone. So each one of us knows where that is, but the only way you can really listen is every now and then you have to put yourself in an uncomfortable situation around people that you don't feel comfortable around. But the beauty of that is, if you just put yourself in the situation, you don't have to say anything.

[50:00]

You just have to listen. So there's a pass, you know? Because I think, as humans, we always feel like, well, if we go into a foreign situation, then what am I going to do? What am I going to say? How am I going to respond? Our Zazen teaches us we don't need to do or say anything. We just need to be present and listen. Yes. And that's where it starts. Thank you. Suzanne? The other piece off of that is, in listening also, thinking about power and access, if you're talking about them, and privilege and passing the mic. So, in a situation of, oh, here's a situation, but we don't know why it's like this and what the problem is and how to fix it, there's a whole lot of people who, every single day, are thinking about ways to fix these problems, because the problems impact them, every single day.

[51:06]

So, this came up at an event that I was at, there was a follow-up to a play, a James Baldwin play, person who's on the political board, I can't remember the title, but he has some power. He was elected official. And he said that one of the questions was, what have you done this year to impact racial equity in our town? And he realized he hadn't done anything. He said he didn't know what to do. And he also told the story of going, you know, just trying to make sure to talk to people of color in this community and would just look and say hi. And so there was this brilliant woman who listened to all this and let everything go through and then she turned and said, in a way that I cannot possibly paraphrase, it was so unbelievably brilliant, but basically it was saying, so if you don't have the answers, there are all of these people in your community

[52:18]

elective to your position, who have been thinking about these answers. So don't just go up and say, hi, I'd like to be a nice to the other, you know, ask what, you know, here's a problem, I don't have the answers, do you? And then bring them to the village hall the next time there's a meeting and say, you know, I want, members of our community, or members of the community next door to us, who have some answers, to have the floor. Please listen. So, it's got, like, I think there's a lot of dialogue around listening. You know, I need to listen and learn, that's good, but also pass the mic. Open the doors. Give the floor. Yes, Jenny.

[53:24]

There was something impassive about the political wars, like how we threw them out, forced them out. The largest message they need to discuss. Yes, yes. This is it. Which we are only starting, only just beginning to bring them out. We will do this for you. So, and they started telling, first of all, just educating us and telling us that it was great. And so, it started, and it was really interesting when we were able to have that first reaction to Mars.

[55:04]

Yeah. And it was so painful. And it was at the same time, first of all, an urgent push to get out of this. What can we do now? OK, it happened. And we had to stop ourselves because we were listening and they were talking and they were not talking. So we listened and listened. And what's interesting is what happened with them is that they started to relax.

[56:17]

And they started being really protectionist towards us. And it's like, we understand this. We're in this together. It really hurts. And we just started apologizing to each other. And anyway, the urge to flee stopped. And they realized, and they started not jumping at us, and telling us, and educating, but sharing about what the effect has been on their family, their parents, their friends, their parents, their love. And as it got more and more intimate, it was so And all that was a fact.

[57:20]

So it was, it really became clear to me about that whole, the barriers between the giver, receiver, and gift. It was just amazing. Thank you very much, Jenny, for that story.

[58:28]

It's encouraging and moving. And this is something I might have mentioned in announcements, which we will have, but next Sunday happens to be a board meeting. of the ancient dragon. Those are open for anyone to come and witness. But I think there's actually five board members in the room. And Douglas, as chair of the board, maybe we should put on the agenda this topic of just the whiteness of our Sangha. I know it's something that's happening in Soto Zen in America as a topic and something that I've actually kind of resisted trying to manage and manipulate. But as a sangha, maybe we need to listen to how can we respond about that. So I invite anybody who's interested and concerned about this to come and be at the board meeting. So we've gone long, but I invited us to go long.

[59:31]

Does anybody else have anything to say about the field of bodhisattvas and compassion and so forth? Mr. Boe. I mean, I think it's appropriate to pitch this out there. And I don't know if it's appropriate to make an argument for a particular political candidate here. I don't have a candidate, but if the Four Peoples Campaign, which was mentioned sort of before the beginning of the practice period, I feel sort of what it may the war economy, racism, ecological destruction, and of course the war against the poor. And so this campaign, they're in the middle of like six weeks of action here in Illinois, in Springfield, every Monday I believe, and then next week

[60:45]

So if you would, please bring any flyers or information and post it so that people know particularly what to do. And I'll sign off now so we can make announcements for Sunday.

[61:28]

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