Good morning, everyone, and welcome. And happy Mother's Day to everyone who is a mother or who has a mother. So we are kind of midway in our two-month practice period that many of us are doing here. And we're I'm using during this practice period four stories from the wondrous Dharma Flower Sutra, the Lotus Sutra, and I'm gonna talk about two of them this morning, introduce two of them, the story of the underground bodhisattvas and the Buddha's lifespan, and talk about the, way that they are used by Dogen, the 13th century founder of Soto Zen, this tradition that we do here. So we're using these stories not as a way of kind of memorizing some particular teachings, but as inspirations.

[01:10]

These are kind of imaginative stories that can inspire our practice. So a couple of disclaimers, the texts of these stories and the chapters that we've been looking at and throughout the sutra have a lot of devotional apparatus, a wonder of kind of ornate flowery depictions of fast numbers of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. And don't get caught up in that, you know, unless you like it. Part of the point of that is just to inspire a kind of sense of wonder, but don't get diverted by that. Also, in the chapters I'm gonna talk about today, don't get distracted by the gender issues. So, the pronouns, sometimes it talks about sons of Buddha, and I didn't go back and look at the original Chinese, but we know that it's sons and daughters, and that it's not,

[02:16]

You know, we have many, many women teachers of Buddhism now. And so, anyway, just a couple of little disclaimers about that. And as background, we've already talked some about the story about skillful means in chapter two, that all the different approaches to practice are part of the one vehicle, the single vehicle, and that the one great cause for Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to appear in the world is to help relieve suffering and to help lead beings into the path of awakening. And so there are many, many different practices, different traditions, different ways of teaching and seeing how to enter the way of awakening. But they're all part of this one great vehicle.

[03:19]

And so there are many different skillful means. And they're all part of this one single mission, really. And then the other story we've talked about is the strange story of this ancient Buddha, abundant treasures from an ancient, ancient world, maybe a few big bangs ago, who appears and floats in, his stupa floats in midair when Shakyamuni is preaching the Lotus Sutra, one of his last teachings. And this stupa appears in midair and abundant treasure, the mummy of abundant treasures, Buddha says, well done, very good. And he has vowed to always appear whenever the Lotus Sutra is taught, it says so right in the Lotus Sutra, and all kinds of strange things happen in the whole, and Shakyamuni Buddha joins it, the doors open, and Shakyamuni Buddha joins abundant treasures in his treasure stupa, and the whole assembly floats in midair, and most of the Lotus Sutra happens floating in midair.

[04:22]

So there's all these strange things that happen in the Sutra, and this isn't meant to be taken or, you know, you don't have to take this literally or fundamentalistically or whatever. These are stories to inspire our sense of practice and our sense of the vastness of our practice and the connection of our practice to many beings. in space and time. So that brings us to chapter 15, the story about underground bodhisattvas. So I'm just going to kind of give the highlights in introducing this today. We'll come back to it in the rest of the practice period. But the basic outlines of the story is that at the beginning, some of the bodhisattvas who had come from other lands and other dimensions and many other galaxies to hear the Buddha tell the Lotus Sutra.

[05:25]

as it says right in the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha's been saying, who will come back in the future evil age to keep alive this teaching and this practice? And they say, oh, we'll come back. After your extinction, after you pass away, we'll come back and teach this Lotus Sutra everywhere throughout this land. And the Buddha says, there's actually no need for you to come. protecting and embraces the sutra then. Because in my world itself, there are as many bodhisattvas as there are sands and 60,000 Ganges rivers. And when the Buddha says this, the earth of this world trembles and splits open. And from the open space, the empty space under the ground, suddenly spring forth many, many, many, many bodhisattvas, each of them with many, many other bodhisattvas accompanying them, and they all come forth and they rise up into the air where Shakyamuni Buddha is, and they make offerings to Shakyamuni Buddha and ask for his health, and there are four leaders of these bodhisattvas who are named.

[06:44]

So there's this amazing scene where there's these huge numbers of bodhisattvas, and the four leaders are named superior practice, unlimited practice, pure practice, and firm practice. And then various questions come up because the regular bodhisattvas and disciples wonder, who are these people? Where did they come from? Buddha says that they've been in the space under the ground. So Maitreya, who's supposed to be the next Buddha, asks his now a bodhisattva waiting to become the next Buddha, where they've come from. And the Buddha says, They've been hanging out in this open space under the ground. They enjoy being in quiet places, diligently, persistently practicing without rest.

[07:51]

They do not rely only on human or heavenly beings, but always delight in profound wisdom, free from obstacles. They always delight in the Dharma of Buddhas with complete devotion, persistently seeking unexcelled wisdom. And so Maitreya asks them, well, who taught them? Where did they come from? We've never seen them before. And the Buddha tells Maitreya and the other Bodhisattvas, well, actually, they all trained with me. And that brings up more questions because As Maitreya says, we all know that you left the palace, you were born and left the palace about 40 some years ago and became the Buddha. But these beings, there are so many of them, and how could you have taught all of them?

[08:54]

It is as if a 25-year-old man pointed to a 100-year-old person and said, this is my child, or as if a 100-year-old pointed to a young person and said, this is the person who fathered and raised me. So there's all these questions that come up because there's all these multitudes of bodhisattvas who've been practicing under the ground, who are always there and available. So there's a number of things to say about just this image of these underground bodhisattvas. it seems to imply that this energy of awakening, these beings who are dedicated to practice and who will keep alive the practice and the teaching of awakening, are always here and always ready. And when they're needed, they can come forth. So as we sit here, they're right under your cushion, right under your chair. The earth itself has what is needed.

[09:59]

I remember when I lived at Green Gulch, Wendy Johnson, is she still around? Yeah. She was the head gardener and I remember her talking about the fertility of the soil, that in a square foot of soil, of soil from which things grow, not just microscopically, but actually there are thousands and thousands of beings in one straight-footed stroke. So the Earth itself has this fertility of awakening, that there are many beings, the Sutra says, in this open space under the ground, ready to come forth. So we sometimes feel hopeless and like we don't know what to do, but there are resources available. So this is part of what this teaching says to us, that the Earth itself, space itself, is an awakening agent.

[11:08]

It is a resource for us. So we talk about Mother Earth. The Earth itself has what is needed to teach us how to take care of the Earth, even in our difficult time of climate damage and the Earth being damaged. Yet somehow there are the resources available. This story leads into the story in the next chapter because the Bodhisattvas are asking, well, how could you have taught all of these ancient Bodhisattvas? And the Buddha doesn't want to respond, actually. And finally, Maitreya and the other Bodhisattvas ask them three times, ask the Buddha three times, we beg you to explain this matter. We will believe and accept the Buddha's words. At first, the Buddha says, well, you're not going to believe what's really going on here. But after they ask three times, you know, this is a kind of tradition in many places to ask for something three times, and so then he tells them.

[12:17]

that even though they think that he left the palace and went and practiced for six years in various ways and then finally sat down under the Bodhi tree and awakened after sitting all night, he says, the time that has passed since I became a Buddha exceeds, well, he says, suppose you took all the worlds in a great number, in a great distance, Well, maybe I'll read you just because these sutras have these huge, huge astronomical numbers. and metaphors for numbers. Suppose someone were to take 500,000 billions of myriads of countless 3,000 great thousand-fold worlds and grind them into dust. Then, after going east through 500,000 billions of myriads of innumerable lands, one of those specks of dust was deposited. Suppose he continued eastward, that's that way, until he had used up all those specks.

[13:25]

What do you think? Is it possible to imagine or calculate the number of all those worlds? And then he said, If I now speak to you clearly, suppose you took all those worlds where a speck of dust had been deposited and where none had been deposited and reduced them to dust. Let one speck of dust be equal to an eon. or kelpa. Kelpa is the amount of time it would take to wear down Mount Everest if a bird flew over the top of Mount Everest and brushed it with a piece of silk once every hundred years. So if you took all of those, so anyway, it's this huge amount of time. The time that has passed since I became a Buddha exceeds this by hundreds of thousands of billions of myriads of countless eons. Okay, since that time I have constantly been in this world, preaching, teaching, and transforming, and in other places, in hundreds of thousands of billions of myriads of countless other lands, I have led and enriched living beings.

[14:29]

And he goes on, so basically he says that it's been a very, very long time since he first awakened and became a Buddha. And he says that he will continue for twice that long into the future. And he says, all the sutras preached by the Jatashagata, the Buddha, are for the purpose of saving all the living. So again, this is the reason for Buddha's appearing. And he says, sometimes I speak of myself. Sometimes I speak of others. Sometimes I appear as myself. Sometimes as someone else. Sometimes I appear in my own actions. Sometimes in the actions of others. But all that I say is true and not empty. So. The Buddha has insight into the character of the threefold world as it really is. For the Buddha, there's no birth or death, neither retreat from nor emergence into the world, nor is there any existing in the world and entering extinction following this.

[15:38]

Nothing is simply real, nothing is simply empty, nothing as it seems, nothing the opposite. This world is not as we experience it. So the Buddha is saying this really strange radical thing that he's been around this really long time and then will continue. So what does this mean? He talks about how He appears to be born and awaken and pass away into extinction. And this is what's supposedly going to happen to Shakyamuni Buddha soon after the Lotus Sutra. And historically, soon after the Lotus Sutra, Siddhartha Gautama, Shakyamuni Buddha, is being passed away. But he says that for some beings, it needs to look as if he will pass away. Because if they thought that Buddha would always be here, they would slap off. They would feel like they didn't have to practice themselves. For other beings, they're inspired by seeing and knowing that Buddha appears for a very long time and is always present in some way.

[16:45]

So if by telling you this story, you feel like, oh, Buddha's here and I don't need to do anything, then please leave. You don't want to hear this story. But we do have this Lotus Sutra that's very important in East Asia and important in the Soto Zen tradition. And I want to talk about how Dogen used it in his teachings and in our tradition. But one of the ways we can look at it is that it presents a very wide view of time and of awakening in the world. And that time is not what we think of it, think it is. We have various stories about history. We have the story about Buddha having lived 2,500 years ago. Actually, since I started practicing, they've changed the dates of when Buddha lived.

[17:46]

They used to say he was born in, I don't know, around 560. Now they say he was born around 470 or something. In Dogen's time, in the 13th century, they thought he was born around 950 or 970. So, you know, history changes. The past changes. And we can change the past by how we understand it. And the future changes, and the present changes. So time is this very interesting thing, and the story is a story about awakening in time, and how we awaken time. So there are many ways to see these stories. There's, again, first the story about Bodhisattvas under the ground, in the Earth itself, and how awakening is a function of Earth and space. Earth is form. This is us. This is us. And time is right now. The right now includes many times.

[18:48]

So when you woke up this morning, totally is necessary to the next breath you take. And actually, each of the breaths you've taken this morning, today, was totally necessary to the next breath you take. If you didn't take one of those breaths, you couldn't be here to take the next one. So time moves in various ways. So these stories are about, again, the point of these stories is, How do we see our awakening? How do we help our awakening? So now I want to look at this in terms of some of what Ehei Dogen, again the 13th century founder of this tradition of Soto Zen that we follow, that Suzuki Roshi brought to California in the 60s. A little bit of what Dogen said about some of the things in the Lotus Sutra, these stories.

[19:57]

I'm going to start with a writing of Dogen's from his Shobo Genzo collection of essays. This one is called The Awesome Presence of Active Buddhas. Some of you have heard me talk about it before, Gyokutsu Igi in Japanese. One of the things he says there is to know that Buddhas in the Buddha way do not wait for awakening. active Buddhas alone fully experience the vital process on the path of going beyond Buddha. So this is one of my favorite sentences from Dogen. Buddhas do not wait for awakening. Awakening is not something that will happen in the future. Awakening is not, you know, if you practice long enough, if you go to enough all-day sittings, or if you read enough sutras, you'll, later on sometime, there'll be something called awakening. Awakening is something that happens now and And it's about the vital process on the path of going beyond Buddha. Buddha did not stop awakening and stop practicing when he became the Buddha.

[21:04]

He continued sitting and practicing awakening every day. So Buddha remaining in the world does not wait passively for some future experience of Buddhahood, but engages in awakening as an active process. So Dogen frequently uses this phrase, Buddha going beyond Buddha, to describe the vitality of ongoing awakening. And this has to do with this lifespan of Buddha. Ongoing awakening is not looking back to some past experience or understanding or remembrance of some previous awakening state of being. Shortly after this passage, Dogen quotes Shakyamuni describing his long lifespan in chapter 16. Shakyamuni says, in the past, I practiced the Bodhisattva way and so have attained this long lifespan, still now unexhausted, covering vast numbers of years. And Dogen comments, quote, you should know that it is not that the lifespan of the Bodhisattva has continued without end only until now, or not that the lifespan of the Buddha has prevailed only in the past.

[22:09]

but that what is called vast numbers, vast numbers of years, is a total inclusive attainment. What is called still now, so Buddha said still now and exhausted, is the total lifespan. Even if, quote, in the past I practiced is one solid piece of iron 10,000 miles long, Dogen says, it hurls away hundreds of years vertically and horizontally. This being so, practice realization is neither existence nor beyond existence. Practice realization is not defiled. Although there are hundreds, thousands, and myriads of practice realizations in a place where there's no Buddha and no person, practice realization does not defile active Buddhas. So he's talking about active, actual Buddhas. Buddhas who are actually actively practicing, not just some dead Buddha sitting up on some altar or some, well, a Buddha on an altar.

[23:14]

some idea of Buddha, some remembrance of Buddha. He's talking about active Buddhas, and he says that there's no Buddha and no person. Practice realization does not defile active Buddhas. So Dogen is using the story of Buddha's lifespan to support his often expressed view of the pure unity of practice realization here now. The inconceivable lifespan becomes a symbol for Dogen of the ongoing, present being time. This time here, this dynamic time here, this flowing time here. This is not an abstract time frame, some external container belonging to some esoteric realm of Buddhas, but a way of expressing Dogen's view of time as the actuality of non-dual awakening, active practice in concrete, present context, here, now.

[24:17]

So Dogen is using this image of this lifespan to talk about our practice now. Dogen also says, although the everyday activities of active Buddhas invariably allow Buddhas to practice, active Buddhas allow everyday activities to practice. It's a pretty interesting statement. So, of course, our everyday activities today, for many of us are sitting all day and, you know, who rings the bell and we get up to walk, or then the clappers start to sit, or for midday meal, we'll be using bowls. You know, all of those activities allow us to practice. But also, here, Dogen is saying that active Buddhas allow our everyday activities to practice. So that's really interesting. The activities themselves are practicing. It's not that we're practicing them, they're practicing us too. Then Dogen says, this is to abandon your body for Dharma.

[25:23]

To abandon Dharma for your body. This is to give up holding back your life, to hold on fully to your life. The phrase, give up holding back your life, is from the closing verse of chapter 16 of the sutra, which we'll be chanting in our midday service. Shakyamuni says there that for beings who are intent on seeing Buddha, not holding back or hesitating to even give their lives, then the Buddha and the assembly appear on Vulture Peak. presenting the Lotus Sutra. So for Dogen, the enduring life of Shakyamuni is realized by those who fully give their vitality to the everyday activities of Buddha's practice. So we're doing that in this formal way here today, with all these traditional forms of practice. And part of the challenge of our practice especially in our context as a non-residential lay center, a practice center in the middle of a big city, how do we allow, how do we give vitality to our everyday activities?

[26:35]

How do we allow our everyday activities out in the world of Chicago to be Buddhist practice? So further, Dogen quotes Buddha saying in chapter 16 about the lifespan, after I pass away, to listen to and to accept this sutra and to inquire into its meaning will be quite difficult. So again, he's speaking of the Lotus Sutra shortly before the Buddha passes away on one level. Dogen turns this quote to indicate that simply listening to and accepting the sutra is sustaining Buddha's lifespan. So Dogen plays with the idea of how is Buddha still alive, and it has to do with us. But he says that listening to and accepting the sutra, the teaching, is sustaining Buddha's lifespan, equally to expounding the Dharma. He says, know that it is equally difficult to listen to and accept this teaching.

[27:40]

Expounding and listening are not a matter of superior or inferior. All Buddhas of the three times remain and listen to the Dharma, to the teaching. As the fruit of Buddhahood is already present, they do not listen to Dharma to achieve Buddhahood, but are already Buddhas. So Buddhas listening to the teaching also do not wait for awakening. So Dogon is saying it's not superior to be telling, sitting up here saying the teaching, as opposed to sitting out there listening to it. This is the activity of Buddhas. Listening to the teaching, speaking the teaching. Same Buddha activity. Dogen offers a striking image near the end of Gilbert's Iggy for the persistence of the Buddha's teaching through time, which is the issue here. Buddha is saying that he has this very long lifespan.

[28:42]

What does that mean? How do we understand that? The point of these teachings is not to memorize them as some idea, but what does it mean for our practice? And Dogen says, Although this moment is distant from the sages, whether it's 2,400 or 2,500 or 2,900 years or 1,300, you know, 1,300 was what, 700 years ago. Although this moment is different from the sages, you have encountered the transforming guidance of the spreading sky that can still be heard. Although this moment is distant from the sages, you have encountered the transforming guidance of the spreading sky that can still be heard. Each of you is now hearing this teaching, going back from a long time. Here, Dogon indicates the persisting of the Dharma in time as integrating with the pervading of the spreading sky.

[29:50]

So for Dogen, the Buddha nature of the sky or space itself offers transforming guidance throughout the vastness of time. Somehow throughout the spreading sky, throughout space itself, from India to China to Japan to California to Chicago. The transforming guidance of this teaching and this practice You've heard it. How is it that we can keep Buddha's life alive? So, a couple more things from Dogen. In another one of his Shobo Genzo essays, of Subodai Shin, Awakening the Bodhi Mind. Dogen quotes the Buddha's statement at the very end of chapter 16, at the end of the verses that we'll be chanting in our midday service, where Buddha says, I always give thought to how I can cause all creatures to enter the highest supreme way and quickly become Buddhas.

[31:03]

Dogen quotes that and says this statement itself is the Buddha's lifetime. Buddha's establishment of the mind, training, and experience of the effect are all like this. Benefiting living beings means causing living beings to establish the will to deliver others because they attain their own deliverance." So just this giving thought to how to help beings enter the way. and become Buddhas. Just this thought is the Buddha's lifetime here. Buddha's establishment of the mind, training, and experience of the effect of his life is like this. Benefiting living beings means causing living beings to establish the will to deliver others before they attain their own deliverance.

[32:12]

Dogen says. For Dogen, the inconceivable lifespan is exactly this intention to help all beings awaken, which mysteriously creates this ongoing life of the Buddha. As long as this vow and direction to universal awakening persists in the world and has potential to spring forth in current practitioners, in us, Dogen sees the Buddha as alive. over this vast range of time is up to us. When we look at the world and see the difficulties of the world and care about it and have the intention to help beings awaken, it is enough. So this is Dogen's interpretation of interpretation.

[33:14]

I don't know. This is Dogen's way of seeing Buddha's lifespan. How is it? What does it mean that Buddha is still alive? So again, this is all part of this bodhisattva intention. We will chant the bodhisattva vows to free all beings, to end all delusions, to see dharma gates, all situations as opportunities to enter the dharma and to realize the Buddha way. We will chant at the end of this. But Dogen says about this later on in 1251 in a couple of dharma hall discourses from Ehiko Roku, one of them he says, bodhisattvas studying the way should know how Buddha nature produces the conditions for Buddha nature. So this Buddha nature is this quality of awakening, which is what brought you all here, even if you're here for the first time.

[34:26]

This is what brought you here, this reality of caring and wisdom and the awakeness of the next breath. So Bodhisattva's studying the way. That's us. Dogen says, we should know how Buddha nature produces the conditions of Buddha nature. Buddha nature produces conditions for more Buddha nature. caring about the quality of our life and the quality of our world produces conditions for more and more beings to care about how we take care of the problems of our society, of spreading love rather than hatred, of caring about the world. Bodhisattva studying the way should know how Buddha nature produces the conditions for Buddha nature.

[35:37]

Around the same time in a different Dharma hall discourse, Dogen talks about Bodhisattva vow saying, the family style of all Buddhists and ancestors is first to arouse the vow to save all living beings by removing suffering and providing joy. Only this family style is inexhaustibly bright and clear. So, again, that goes back to the single great cause in Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas appearing. And he says, the family style of all Buddhists and ancestors. A family style is a phrase, a common expression for a particular tradition or lineage. So this is the family style of Soto, Zen, or Dogen. But here he's saying the family style of all Buddhists and ancestors. It's just to arouse, first, to arouse this vow, this determination.

[36:45]

free all living beings, and remove suffering, and provide joy. So, this seems like a tall order. Ascension beings remember us without a freedom. And yet that's, everything we do can be directed towards that. It doesn't mean that we fix all the problems of the world, you know, through the course of our sitting today. Well, maybe we can't, I don't know, but that would be nice. We should do that if we can. But, you know, how do we, whatever we do, each of you has many wonderful things that you do. Each of you has many ways of being helpful. And to direct that all towards this energy, this family style, this vow, this commitment to save all living beings by removing suffering and providing joy.

[37:48]

Only this family style is inexhaustibly bright and clear. So this is the single great cause for coming and sitting here. So thank you for being here. It's Sunday morning, and a number of you have joined for the Dharma talk. For the people who are here for the day, we'll also have some discussion time over tea this afternoon. But if any of you have questions or comments, anyone, we can take a little bit of time for that. Please feel free. responses, utterances. Yeah.

[39:01]

Yeah, Buddha nature allows Buddha nature to flourish. This is like the the underground bodhisattvas who just rise up and help bodhisattvas to be bodhisattvas. So we should study that. How does this quality of awakeness help develop more awakeness? It sounds like a psychological term. Please unpack that. Well, it's kind of mysterious, you know, because this is the idea of bodhicitta, the mind of awakening, right?

[40:11]

And we don't know where it comes from, you know. Where does compassion come from? Well, where does caring come from? You know, there's this theory that there are certain people who have no Buddha nature. There are certain people who are sociopaths and have no empathy. But, you know, there was a serial killer who became a disciple of the Buddha. So I don't know. I don't quite think that people who are filled with hatred are incapable of turning that around. I don't know. But it's a mystery. Yeah. Could be. May it be so. Yeah, it's a mystery, and yet part of the point is that even if we don't know how, so skillful means is we don't know. We don't know.

[41:12]

There's no instruction manual, but our determination, our interest in being kind, being caring, trying to be helpful rather than harmful, actually somehow taking that responsibility makes a difference. And we don't have the answers. If we had the answers, it would have been taken care of a long time ago. Yes. It was one of the last teachings of the Buddha, supposedly, in terms of the history of Shakyamuni Buddha as a historical being. It's supposed to be one of his last teachings. Well, we don't really know, you know, we don't have, we don't know.

[42:13]

We have Ananda's record of it and what actually the Buddha said we don't really know. There are the early, the Pali suttas, the early teachings of the Buddha from the Theravada tradition. And then there are the Mahayana teachings. And so that's a whole long discussion. So I could comment on the differences between those. And there are various stories. There's lots of different stories about the career of the Buddha and how his teachings evolved. Part of what he's saying here is that all of them, all of the teachings were coming from the same place, how to be helpful, how to help beings, how to they were all directed towards this single purpose of awakening beings, leading beings onto the path of awakening. They're all true teachings. So that's one way to say it. I could say about the early teachings, the Pali sutras, one way to describe that is that the early teachings were about nirvana as escape from samsara, escape from suffering.

[43:22]

So the ideal of the arhat, the personally perfected being is that you practice really hard and then you never have to be reborn and you can personally escape from suffering. Whereas the idea of the bodhisattva is that we have to do it all together, all beings all together. And that nirvana is actually right in the middle of samsara, right in the middle of all of this suffering. So that's one way to talk about it. Yes, Nelson. Yes. Buddhists do not wait for awakening. Yes. And both of these, they seem very parallel to me in the sense that you say that Buddha nature produces its own conditions.

[44:40]

It seems to, not to the extent that it's not real, but you can't deny the sort of conditions outside itself. And it seems to follow from that. just as beings can start living out their realization for their realized. It's in the dream. It's kind of mysterious and unfolding. Yeah, thank you.

[45:41]

That's very, very interesting. Bodhichitta, buddhahood, buddha nature can arise in any conditions, in any situation. They say that human realm is the most auspicious, but there are also buddhas in hell realms, and hungry ghost realms, and even in heavenly realms, and so forth. So buddha nature can arise in any situation, but also Buddha nature and Buddha situation accords with that situation. It accords with the time and season. So it's a very interesting situation. So we are now in the fortunate situation of springtime in Chicago, and spring is arising and everything, and so we have a day to enjoy that. So thank you all very much for being here.

[46:32]

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