Good morning, everyone. So we're in the closing session for our spring practice period. We've been talking about the bodhisattva figures, and I want to talk this weekend about the topography of bodhisattva practices in terms of the dynamics of universal and particular, which is kind of the heart of are Soto Zen underlying practice. We could say the universal is about wisdom. The particular is about compassion. So I'll talk about wisdom tomorrow and compassion Sunday. This dynamics is part of the basic pattern of our whole practice.

[01:02]

And these Bodhisattva figures we've been studying in terms of the major Bodhisattva figures. We've looked at six of them. These figures are kind of nicknames for aspects of the approaches to bodhisattva practice. So I want to talk about this today in terms of zazen, in terms of our meditation practice. So in our Soto Zen School of Dogen Zen, zazen is beyond any particular techniques. Zazen is just sitting. Zazen includes, you know, all meditation techniques. Dogen says in Fukun Zazen, Zazen is not about learning meditation.

[02:09]

It's not about some particular meditation practice or technique. We just sit. And our just sitting is about deeper, going deeper into our experience, our own experience of reality, maybe our common experience of reality. Diving deeper into what it means to be the person on your seat, what it means to be people in this world. So all of these bodhisattva figures, and actually all of the meditation aspects, and we could say techniques, that I'm going to talk about today, and all the sutras, and all the bodhisattva figures, and all the images of bodhisattvas, they all just came out of Zazen.

[03:24]

All of the... teachings and schools and aspects of everything in Buddhist history are emerged from, came out, were products of people doing zazen. from Shakyamuni and many great Zazen people since. So just sitting is what we do. But within the experience of just sitting, all of these practices arise and have arisen. And all of the schools of Buddhism have arisen. So over these three days, it's OK for you to please just sit, just do zazen.

[04:39]

But I'm going to be talking today about the particular aspects of Zazen that are called forth by these particular bodhisattva figures or bodhisattva images that we've been talking about. And you can ignore these, but it's OK if you want to try them on, because they're part of Zazen. These are approaches to zazen, or expressions of zazen, or aspects of what can come up in zazen. And they're all optional, but they may help you to amplify this basic just sitting, this basic objectless meditation. Just paying attention to whatever arises.

[05:43]

So again, you know, these bodhisattva figures, we've been looking at their stories in the schools and sutras and their iconography and so forth. But as I said, you know, in some ways they're just nicknames for aspects of bodhisattva practice. So I'm going to go through them and talk today about aspects of meditation that they express. So Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, of insight, who sits in the center of all Zen meditation halls. So he's very much connected with meditation. In Arzendo he's sitting in front of and below the Buddha. And there are a number of particular aspects of meditation that he represents or that he encourages or that we can call forth.

[06:54]

So basically just insight. Seeing what's in front of us. seeing what's important, but also cutting off defilements, cutting off distractions, focusing. So sometimes Manjushri carries a sword to cut through defilements, to cut through distractions. So this, and he often, as in the case of our image, sits on a lion. So there's a kind of fierceness to Manjushri. So this is one kind of meditation that you may find yourself taking on in your zazen sometime in the next three days. When some distraction comes up, just cut it off. Just focus. Right now.

[07:58]

Facing the wall. Next breath. This body-mind. Here. Just being present. Whatever habit pattern comes up, just cut it off. So that's one way to see Manjushri's meditation. It's also just seeing through all of our ideas, seeing the emptiness or sameness of all things. So we will be chanting the harmony of difference and sameness at our midday service. Manjushri represents the side of sameness or emptiness. Seeing the emptiness of all of our ideas, seeing through all of our concepts. Manjushri cuts through our conceptualization, our language of subject and object, self and other.

[09:06]

Cutting through that. First maybe we have to examine that to see that we have this habit of, more than a habit, it's at the heart of our whole way of thinking, or most of our way of thinking, to see self and other, subject and object. It's deep within our language. So Manjushri uses language to cut through language. This is a lot of what koans are about, using language. A lot of poetry is about this, using language to cut through language, to cut through this sense of separation. And emptiness teaching, to see the emptiness of all things. So we think that things is real. We trust our ideas about the reality of things.

[10:14]

Eye, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind. So we still have electricity. We were called and told that our electricity might go out this morning. It may any minute, of course. But we just take this for granted. Dogen didn't have electricity, Shakyamuni didn't have electricity. There's so much that we take for granted and it's all empty, you know. Eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind. A few weeks ago I My retina detached and it's back attached now thanks to a surgery, but I can't see out of one eye.

[11:17]

I can see out of the other eye, so I still have vision. But, you know, we take this for granted. We have people in our sangha who can't hear out of one ear or can't hear very well out of either ear. We take these things for granted. I heard last night about an old friend on the West Coast who was told a couple months ago that his cancer was gone and then just found out that it has metastasized and can't be treated. We take our life for granted. So seeing through the emptiness of things is to see through our assumptions of eye, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind, electricity, all of the things that we assume about the world around us.

[12:31]

The oceans are rising, you know, this world that we assume is very fragile. So this is part of our, this is available part of our Zazen too. to see the emptiness of all that we assume. So there's lots more to say about Manjushri as a nickname for an aspect of our meditation. Just to see the immediacy of right now. Vimalakirti is another nickname for an aspect of Zazen. The Malakirti also looks at emptiness in a way, but through inconceivability. And he doesn't bother with silence, he shows non-duality through, he doesn't bother with language, he shows non-duality through silence.

[13:40]

So, silence. very important part of our zazen. Silencing all of the words, all of the garble that comes up. The Malakirti is also the aspect of, the nickname for the aspect of meditation that is inconceivability, the inconceivable, which is a name for the aspect of reality that is beyond what we can conceive of.

[14:53]

The central part of Zen teaching, of Dogen's teaching, of Buddhist teaching, our usual idea of space and time, Vimalakirti in his sutra plays with. He tosses galaxies around and catches them in the palm of his hand. He plays with our usual idea of space and time. our usual sense of space. So he fits into his small room, less than a quarter the size of this little room, vast numbers of bodhisattvas and disciples and huge thrones for them to sit on. When we face the wall, just in the little patch of wall that is in front of our seat, it's not that we have to focus on any one point, but on every point in the wall there are many atoms, whole worlds.

[16:23]

So Vimalakirti is also, actually, his goddess friend sees through our usual ideas of gender also. His goddess friend upsets Shariputra. Shariputra, the great monk disciple of the Buddha, is so impressed by Vimalakirti's goddess friend that he asks her, how come she doesn't turn into a man so she can become a Buddha? you know, which was the prejudice of those times, that only a man could become a Buddha. And the goddess is very happy to be a goddess. She doesn't need to be a man to become a Buddha, but she does this instant double sex change operation and turns Shariputra into woman. And he's totally freaked out. So, you know, our usual ideas about gender, you know, is another one, the Vimalakirti. cuts through. So all of this is, you know, this is an aspect of meditation. Who do we think we are?

[17:37]

What is the space of this room? What is the space of our cushion? There's vast space between me and Madhudva, between me and Asa, sitting next to me. And of course, we're also very close. She even got my haircut last night. So our usual ideas about things. Reality is inconceivable. It's beyond our conceptions. It's beyond our ideas. So that's another aspect of zazen. It can be part of our zazen. You can try it on. Samantabhadra, another nickname for bodhisattva practice. in a way is related to Vimalakirti. Samantabhadra's aspect of zazen has to do with interconnectedness, with holographic awareness, with seeing how everything is totally interconnected.

[18:53]

So I sometimes say that when you sit, you can't sit alone, that everybody you've ever known is part of what's happening on your seat right now. Of course, you know, your parents and former lovers and pets you had as a child and teachers and friends and, but even people you don't remember who you had conversations with, you know, a week ago or 10 years ago are part of what's happening on your seat right now. We're so deeply interconnected with so many beings and people you never met. And the jungles in the Amazon basin that provide oxygen for our planet. So, you know, you can be aware of or allow into your zazen this sense of interconnectedness.

[19:56]

or this image that Samantabhadra is connected with of Indra's net, how the whole of reality is this net, and each mesh in the net is a jewel, and each jewel reflects the light reflected in the jewels around it. Deep connectedness. And part of that aspect of meditation is this includes the beauty of all that. This aesthetic quality, it's beautiful. This deep, deep connection with everything. And part of what that means is that each one of us and each breath we take is an expression of everything. So this gets back to that connection of the particular and the universal. Each one of us is a unique, wonderful, particular, strange version of everything. This is also an aspect of our zazen.

[20:58]

So each one of these, as an aspect of zazen, we could say a lot more about, but I'm just giving a a quick tour of the bodhisattvic aspects of zazen. Kanzeon is a nickname for an aspect of zazen that, well, the name kanzeon means to listen, to listen to others, to listen to the suffering. This also means to listen to the suffering of yourself. So Manjushri is about cutting off all the stuff, but you know, part of Zazen is listening to what comes up. It doesn't mean you have to figure anything out. But as you're sitting, part of what's, you know, I think part of what's most difficult about Zazen is when all these voices come up or when you see your own habits and your own greed and your own anger, your own frustration.

[22:05]

Just hearing that, I think that's when people first start doing, practicing zazen. That's maybe the most difficult thing, actually seeing our own stuff, you know? But also it's listening to others, being open to hearing other people. Other people aren't separate from us, but, you know, They're also sitting in different seats. So Dogen says in Genjo Koan, to study the way is to study the self. So we have to listen to the self of ourself and to the self of others. This is an aspect of zazen, just this listening. So when thoughts and feelings come up, Part one aspect of Zazen, Manjushri's aspect of Zazen is to see them as empty, to cut them off, just sit.

[23:07]

But Kanzeon Zazen is, okay, can I hear that? And it doesn't mean analyzing them or figuring out anything, but just really listen, be with it. And part of kanzen zazen is to respond. Kindness. It's OK that I have this greed. Can I be OK with that I have this greed, but without responding, without doing something about it, without hurting others, without having to you know, invade other countries to get all of their stuff too. Or when we hear some anger in our own suffering or somebody else's suffering, how do we skillfully feel that in ourselves and without getting angry about our anger?

[24:26]

And then, you know, there's a part of Zazen that is about just listening to sounds. So one of the objects of meditation that is recommended in a number of sutras is just to listen. like to ambient sound. Now, this is not for everybody. We have a number of people in our sangha who have tinnitus, or tinnitus, or however you say it. And sometimes ambient sound is unpleasant for them. But for some people, just being aware of the sound of the room, the rustling in the room, whatever sounds come in from Irving Park Road. It's a way of focusing, it's a part of zazen. So again, these bodhisattvas are nicknames for bodhisattvic aspects of zazen.

[25:39]

And I'm mentioning all of these because I'm inviting you to take on, you know, you're not going to, you can't do all of them in one three-day session. And I'm not, and you can ignore, these are all optional. Please feel free to just sit and ignore all of this. But, you know, you might try on one or two of them. these particular so-called meditation practices all, they come out of zazen. They come up in zazen. And you can try them. So Jizo Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva who witnesses to hellish realms, who protects travelers and children and women and all marginal people and beings, who's present in all realms and witnesses to all realms, and especially hell realms. Witnessing as an aspect of zazen,

[26:47]

So Jizo is particularly relevant in Sesshin maybe, witnessing to hell realms. Through the course of Sesshin, many people experience some pain in their knees or their back or their heart. Sitting for a long time, some pain comes up. Can you just witness to that like Jizo? Jizo is willing to be present and just be there. So this witnessing practice, testifying to, oh yeah, I see, how hellish, how much that hurts. And part of that witnessing may be letting go at some point, or maybe not, but still, You're there, Jesus was there witnessing and protecting being suffering in some way.

[27:57]

Offering some comfort because somebody is witnessing to this. This is difficulty. the poem about Mazu as he's about to die. How many times have I gone down into the dragon's cave for you? As part of our zazen, to go down into this pain, to witness it, to do this for ourselves and for all beings. So we're not just sitting for ourselves, of course. We do zazen for all beings. This is Jizo Sazen. And then Maitreya is a nickname for a particularly complicated aspect of bodhisattva practice.

[29:07]

So we'll chant in the evening service tonight, throughout Sashin, the Metta Sutta. Metta, loving kindness. part of Maitreya is just this loving-kindness, and that is one kind of zazen, just to extend loving-kindness to oneself and to those one already loves, just in their particular ways of practicing that, to breathe in the pain of beings and then to breathe out this loving kindness. And one does it in their ways of doing it to oneself, then to those who one cares about a lot. And if one gets good at it, then to those even who one has difficulty with or who when things are causing harm, but this metta practice, may all beings be happy, one can use that mantra as a mantra in Zazen, just to sit with the wish, may all beings be happy, to really express loving kindness.

[30:25]

This is one aspect of Maitreya Zazen. There's another more complicated aspect of Maitreya's zazen, which has to do with Maitreya's association with the Yogacara school. So again, all of these branches of Buddhism and all of these different kinds of so-called meditation practices or techniques, they all just arose from zazen. So again, please feel free to ignore everything I've said today and just sit. But all of these particular aspects of Zazen, you know, are part of Zazen and you can try them. So, Maitreya also waiting to become the next future Buddha, that's the story about Maitreya, that he will be the next Buddha.

[31:27]

And in the meantime, he sits up in the meditation heaven, studying consciousness, seeing how it is that human-type beings with their subject, verb, object, conceptualizations get caught up and find themselves suffering. And the Yogacara study of consciousness developed a whole system of eight or nine different forms of consciousness But for the purposes of how to use that in zazen, part of it is just seeing karmic seeds. There's this idea of the alaya vijnana, the storehouse consciousness, where we have these karmic seeds. So in zazen, you can see tendencies.

[32:34]

Maybe this is part of what's referred to as the fourth skanda, but habits of thought. This is part of what I was talking about also in, well, in some of the other forms of study of the self, just to see the patterns of grasping or anger or confusion that come up. And the particular forms that they take. And to become intimate with them. And to look at them and to see how we can let them go or become so familiar with them that we don't have to act on them. So this study of how we create and hold on to these patterns of thinking is part of this, is associated with this Maitreya aspect of Zazen.

[33:57]

So that's a little tour of the qualities of Zazen that are part of the associated with the Bodhisattva practices and the approaches of Bodhisattvas. And again, we can say a whole lot more about each one of those, but the point is that just sitting, or sometimes Dogen calls it, dropping body and mind, has all these textures, has this rich topography, and all of these patterns can come up in

[35:02]

the middle of Arzazan, and we can use them in Arzazan. And there's more. Each of these figures have mantras associated with them. We can also use those in Arzazan. And again, these are all optional. These are all parts of what have historically over 2,500 years of people sitting zazen have come up and then people have worked them out and written treatises and sutras and developed schools of Buddhism based on these patterns of awareness. So I think in modern Soto Zen, both in Japan and America, there's some tendency to think of Zazen just sitting in some very pure way, or just sitting, and don't let anything else in or something. But we have these traditions of these different Bodhisattva, Mahayana, whatever you want to call them,

[36:12]

or, you know, I'm calling them this weekend nicknames, for aspects of awareness. And I think we can use them. And, you know, for each one of you, certain approaches may be helpful at different times. So these are resources to help us. And the point is just to find your way. to be present, to be upright, to be helpful to yourself and to all beings. So, you know, I'm not mentioning all this so that you will get busy during your Zazen trying out different stuff.

[37:17]

But these are available facilities, you know. So we'll have some time this afternoon over tea to have some discussion about this. But we can take a little time now, too, if anyone has any responses or questions or comments about any of this. Please feel free. Yes, station. I've always thought that dropping off body and mind was kind of maybe the opposite of engaging with all of these things. How are they the same? Each of these can be a way to let go and drop off body and mind. Through taking on any one of these, through taking on engaging inconceivability, for example, just the thing that popped into my vision as I looked at the page, one can then let go of one's idea about body and mind when one sees the inconceivability of all things, anything.

[38:41]

So these are all ways to reach dropping off body and mind. But dropping off body and mind does not mean like dropping off body and mind is not something that happens once and for all and forever. We drop off body and mind again and again. So another name for Zazen is Buddha going beyond Buddha. Another thing that Dogen says often. So Buddha awakens every day. Buddha is not something that happened once 2,500 years ago and that's it. Or we have some really good understanding of Buddha or Buddhism that's possible. But then you have to get up the next day and go to work or do the laundry or whatever. We continue. And how do we awaken again and again? Or in some new situation? some idiot becomes president and how do we take care of awakening in that situation?

[39:44]

Or whatever. I'm not referring to anybody specifically, but how do we take care of whatever the new situation is? So dropping off body and mind is like this. You might have dropped off body and mind two periods ago, but then you have to still do kin in and serve lunch or whatever. Yeah, it grows back. Well, you know, we are, the point is that Buddha is alive. How is it that Buddha is alive? Buddha is alive because we keep practicing and we keep, and keeping practicing means zazen is not something that happened once. It's like, it's not, so like, you know, you don't brush your teeth once and then you never have to do it again. It's like we, every day we keep We can notice inconceivability. We can let go of our attachments.

[40:47]

But some of those attachments, sometimes we let go of something and it's gone. Some particular attachment or addiction or habit. It happens. But a lot of these patterns, a lot of those karmic tendencies in the alaya-vijnana are so deep that they continue over lifetimes. So how do we practice with them? How do we drop body and mind again and again and again? So Zazen is alive. I think there are people who sit Zazen once and, you know, people who come to Zazen instruction and, you know, it benefits them and they may never sit Zazen again. You know, and that might be cool, you know. But that's not, you know, you're all here for at least part of a whole day today. So you've all sat Zazen before today.

[41:48]

And we'll sit Zazen again. Something's happening. It's alive. Yes, shunning. Well, Maitreya is complicated because Maitreya is sometimes represented as a bodhisattva waiting to become the next Buddha. Sometimes Maitreya is imaged as Buddha when Maitreya becomes the next future Buddha. So Maitreya is a very complicated figure, like that sometimes, but also Maitreya is the bodhisattva of Yogacara Buddhism, which is about the study of consciousness, and that's the part that I was talking about.

[43:05]

So in terms of Yogacara Buddhism, there's a study of consciousness, and the reason they associate, they take on Maitreya as their bodhisattva is that Maitreya is Now, supposedly, the story is sitting up in the meditation heaven, considering how to become the next Buddha and doing what Dogen recommends, which is studying the self, studying consciousness, studying human consciousness, because we're, you know, presumably for dolphins or for octopuses or for trees that they have a different kind of Buddha and Bodhisattva or whatever, but for human for humans, Maitreya is looking at human consciousness and trying to figure out how it is that we get caught in delusion. And so there's these eight aspects of consciousness, and I won't go into the whole thing, but one of them is the aspect of consciousness that separates self and other.

[44:16]

which is sort of the basis of delusion. And then there's this storehouse consciousness which, from one perspective, over lifetimes develops patterns, seeds, karmic seeds of patterns of delusion. grasping and confusion, but complex seeds of that. So part of, I think, in terms of zazen, one way to apply that to zazen, and there may be many ways in terms of studying Yogacara, and there's a whole complex meditation a program that could be associated with Yogacara Buddhism, so I'm just kind of taking out one piece of that, but to look at what our particular karmic seeds are, and to study that, and to see how we might let go of that, or untangle that, or at least not be caught by that, is something that can happen as part of our zazen.

[45:28]

without getting too programmatic, I think. That's what I was referring to. Yes, Senhorsan. Self-Defense. In fact, themselves can be, in other words, that all particularity is emptiness, form is emptiness, right?

[47:28]

Yes, right, right, right. Yes. Yes. Yeah, right.

[49:01]

And actually, in terms of universal in particular, each of these different bodhisattvic nicknames for Sazen has both sides in some ways. So yes, that's right. They're all about letting go in their own way. Thank you. So maybe let's stop for now. We'll talk about this in a different way tomorrow or the next day. And we'll have time to talk this afternoon for those who are still going to be here. And again, feel free to use this material in your zazen or not. And the main thing is to please enjoy your zazen.

[49:58]

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