Good evening, everyone. Can you hear me back there on the corner and online? Nicholas, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Okay. Hi, everyone. So yesterday, we had an all-day sitting and began our practice commitment period. Our study theme for the practice period is the Vimalakirti Sutra scripture, which is about, well, involves Great Awakened Late person Vimalakirti who lived in the city of Vaishali in the time of Shakyamuni Buddha. Yesterday, I talked about chapter one and chapter two.

[01:06]

And chapter one is about Buddha fields and how when a Buddha awakens, the world around them becomes a Buddha field. And it talks a little bit about chapter two, which I want to focus on this evening, which is about the activities of the great Pelagian lay person, Vimalakirti, and his practice entering all mundane realms. So, just to start off this chapter, it says, at that time, there lived in the great city of Aishali a certain Lichavi, which is a kind of tribe, called the Malakirti by name. Having served the ancient Buddhas, he had generated the roots of virtue by honoring them and making offerings to them.

[02:15]

He had attained tolerance as well as eloquence. He played with the great synagogues. He had attained the power of incantations and tyrannies and pharisees. He had conquered all demons and opponents. He had penetrated the profound way of the dawn. He was liberated through the transcendence of wisdom. Having integrated his realization with skill and liberative technique, he was especially, he was expert in knowing the thoughts and actions of living beings. So this skill and liberative technique, as Robert Thurman translates it here, is sometimes called rupaya in Sanskrit, skillful means,

[03:19]

So this is in terms of Invalid Kirti, it's talking about the skillful means of the skill and liberative technique of Buddha. But also this is a Bodhisattva practice. So this sutra is a Bodhisattva Mahayana sutra. This is a sutra about those whose crashes awakening for all beings. And this practice of of skill in liberative technique is important for us as bodhisattva practitioners. It's described most fully in the Lotus Sutra, another important Mahayana Sutra. But here it's talking about this combination.

[04:20]

So the Mahakirti was, had been liberated, was liberated, is liberated through the parmita, the transcendent practice of wisdom, of seeing into the heart of things, of everything, of prashas called an insight, this immediate awareness. And this is an important aspect of my practice, But it goes on to say that immaturity, having integrated his realization to wisdom, a skill and memory technique, is expert in knowing the thoughts and actions of all other beings and how to help liberate them from the need for suffering. So this is an important aspect of practice, the integration of wisdom and compassion.

[05:23]

two wings of the Mahayana bird, to put it that way. So this chapter, it's not that long, but it goes on to talk about how the Malakirti practice skillful wings. You know, a collaborative technique. Knowing the strength or weakness of their faculties and being gifted with unrivaled eloquence, the Mahakirti taught the Dharma appropriately to each. So, again, to comment on that, part of skillful means is, or maybe the heart of skillful means is respecting differences and the particularities of all people and all beings. And of course, that the perfection of wisdom is about seeing the wholeness and sameness of all beings.

[06:30]

But also to be helpful to beings, we need to appreciate differences, diversity. We need to appreciate the particular difficulties of each person, each being, each event. So the Mahakirti, like the Buddha, taught the Dharma appropriately to each being. Having applied himself energetically to the Mahayana, he understood it and accomplished his tasks with great finesse. He lived with the deportment of a Buddha. He appeared, you know, as a Buddha. And his superior intelligence was as wide as an ocean. He was praised, honored, and commended by all the Buddhists, and was respected by all the gods. In order to develop living beings with his skill and liberality of needs, or his skillful means, he lived in .

[07:36]

So this is the introduction to this person, this being, the Mahatirati. you know, we're looking at that, the sutra and the Malakirti in this practice period to inspire us as lay practitioners, not monks, living in a great city, Chicago, although we have people at a distance who also join us online. So, How can, so the point of studying this sutra, and the point of all dharma study really is, how does it support our practice? So we will continue through the practice period looking at the material of the Vimalakirti Sutra, but also considering what it means for us. So in the case of the Vimalakirti,

[08:41]

And he is this very lofty figure, of course, that says his wealth was inexhaustible for the purpose of sustaining the poor and the helpless. He observed pure morality in order to protect the immoral. He maintained tolerance and self-control in order to reconcile beings who were angry or cruel or violent and brutal. He blazed with energy in order to inspire people who were lazy. He maintained concentration, mindfulness, and meditation in order to sustain the mentally troubled. He attained decisive wisdom in order to sustain the foolish. So we might all look to Figures like the malachite in our own laziness and foolishness.

[09:42]

And then it goes on to say he wore the white clothes of the layman, yet lived impeccably like a religious demotee. So going back to India, I think this was true of China as well, actually saw it in Japan. Lay people wear white. Lay practitioners wear white clothes. Monks and priests wear black or something like that. But anyway, let's just mention here. And images, there are not as many images of the Malachites as there are of other papal esoterics. But there's some, and sometimes it's painted wearing white. great historical lay people, lay addicts of China, and that's also depicted there in white. So it goes on to talk about some of the ways in which the Malachypti practiced and helped the waking beings in this spellful

[10:51]

skillfulness in the city of Vaisala, just to read some excerpts. He made his appearance at the fields of sports and at the casinos, but his aim was always to mature those people who were attached to games and gambling. He visited the fashionable teachers of the day, local teachers, He had always kept unswerving loyalty to the Buddha. He understood all the mundane and transcendental sciences and esoteric practices. So he studied science and he studied various other spiritual practices. Yet he always took pleasure in the delight of the Buddha Dhamma. He mixed in all crowds, yet were respected as the foremost of all. So in whatever activity he was involved with, he was apparent as someone who was teaching truth, teaching reality, which is dominant.

[12:05]

And he was always considered the most skillful in each of those. So it goes on with my descriptions. He engaged in all sorts of business yet had no interest in profit or possession. To train living beings, he would appear at crossroads and on street corners. And to protect them, he anticipated, he participated in government. So to develop children, he visited all the schools. to demonstrate the evils of desire. He even entered the brothels to establish drunkards and correct mindfulness. He entered all the cabarets and taverns. So he went into bars to demonstrate sobriety. So this is the way he's depicted.

[13:07]

It goes on, he was honored as the businessman among businessmen because he demonstrated the priority of the Dharma. He was honored as the landlord among landlords because he renounced aggressiveness of ownership. He was even honored as the warrior among warriors because he cultivated endurance and determination. So it goes on like that. He also says he was compatible with ordinary people because he appreciated the excellence of ordinary merits. So this is this model layman who is in the world, in worldly activities, and very skillful in them, most skillful in them, for the sake of expressing truth in darkness, in Darwin.

[14:11]

At that time, out of this very skill of meditative techniques, the Mala Kirti manifested himself as if so. So this is an important part of the sutra. And the scenes that follow, the chapters that follow, involve his illness. And as it says at this point, to inquire after his health, the king, the officials, the lords in this communal society, the youths, the aristocrats, the householders, the businessmen, the townsfolk, the country folk, and thousands of other living beings came forth from the great city of our showroom and called on this invalid, but the Lord here to pre-predest invalid.

[15:18]

So part, and we'll hear more about this next weekend in chapter five, but he uses his illness as a way of teaching about reality and encouraging people to practice and to awaken. It touches on Wahir, and he will get more into that, but he talks about the frailty of Hawaii's as this body is only a vessel of many sicknesses. Then Wise men do not rely on it. This body is like a ball of foam, unable to bear any pressure. It is like a water bubble, not remaining very long. It is like a mirage, one from the appetites of the passions. So it goes on like this.

[16:19]

It is like a dream being an unreal vision. It is like a reflection being the image of one actions. So he was touching on the problem that this body suffers or feels and has the consequence of our former activities. It is like an echo being dependent on conditioning. So there are many classic Buddhist teachings here embedded in this in these descriptions in sutra. So it's like an echo being dependent on many conditions. This teaching for teachers on a product, to use the technical term, dependent co-origination, which is a kind of wisdom teaching, important wisdom teaching, that all things are a function of everything else. So,

[17:22]

Each of us, as we sit here, we're online, is actually a product, a function, an arising of everything else. Everybody we've ever known, all the other people in Chicago or in Indiana, for all the people in our lives and in All the people of now are part of what is sitting on the seat right now. So we are, and everything is not everything. So take that mountain as an example of worship, holding up a paper and saying, can you see the trees? Can you see the nitrogen in the soil? Can you see the clouds? Can you see the water, the rainfall? All of which made this possible. and even take any event and similarly see how each of us in our bodies are a product of all of these things.

[18:41]

So because it is like a cloud being characterized by turbulence and dissolution. So As human beings, we tend to live in turbulence and dissolution. And sustained sasak practice can help calm that sun. But still, the world is tumultuous. The world is difficult. The world brings us challenges. No matter how calm and settled and peaceful we become, It is like a flash of lightning being unstable and decaying every moment. The body is onerous, being a product of a variety of conditions, which goes back to what I'm saying. He goes on talking about the limitations of the body and duration. Its duration is uncertain, certain only is its end of death.

[19:46]

So after all of this, he says, you should despair of this personal body, not rely on it, not ignore it, not ignore it, but not this body lasting forever. But instead, admire the body of its autopathy. the Buddha, the best problem. So this body of Buddha is another important basic teaching of Mahayana that the body of reality, the body of Buddha is not separate from our self, our small particular self that's going to pop like the bubble. is also an expression of this body of Chittagata.

[20:55]

Chittagata, he says, which the one who comes and goes in such a way. So he talks about this Jarna body. He says, just for example, the body of Chittagata is born of the stories of merit and wisdom. It is born of morality, of meditation, of wisdom, of liberation, and of the knowledge and vision of liberation. It is born of love and compassion, joy, and impartiality. So the mythic lines there, it's what God would want us to know. Love, compassion, joy, and impartiality. It's translational. It is born of charity, discipline, and self-control. Born of the path of ten virtues. Born of patience and gentleness.

[21:56]

It is born at the roots of virtue planted by solid efforts. It is born at the concentrations, liberations, meditations, and absorptions. So, basically, this practice that we're doing, this Zazen practice that we're doing, over, that the point is to sustain it, to give us practice over time. And what unfolds over time is this awareness. So we say, before vows, we'll say later, the fourth one is Buddha's Buddha is unsurpassable. Buddha way is unsurpassable without a realization. In other translations, without a body to become like Buddha. And so this is the effect of practicing sustained practice of this way of meditation, of compassion, of wisdom.

[23:12]

And it's not that we practice in order to reach some other place, because all of that is right here. But this example of the malakirti is to inspire us to realize that, to see how that is in our being right now. And there's much more to say about the malakirti himself as he proceeded in this suture. So, as I indicated, he combines the teaching of wisdom of the Bajamaka school, school of emptiness, with compassion, and compassion as expressed particularly in In conceivable teachings, like the five-level sutra, so both of those are study groups here.

[24:14]

But the point is to integrate those, to integrate all of these wisdoms and times in our own lives. And it's not about reaching some super being. It's about seeing how They are here in, that we have the capacity to express those in different ways at different times. So this sutra is an encouragement to us to see that. And I'll mention again, one of the key teachings in the Malakirti Sutra that I talked about a little bit yesterday in Sanskrit by Padangkotan Shantan. It's the patience or tolerance with the unbrast ability, the unknowability, the indefinability of things, of everything.

[25:23]

They're not really any objects because everything is alive. And we can come to realize that, see how all things come together to produce this world. So it's not about transcending or going beyond our ordinary life. It's seeing how all of these qualities and virtues that the volatility expresses can be part of our life. can be part of our everyday practice. So again, the long-term care team is in a big city, like we do, and it practices in the world, like all of you do, with various friends, and tries to help people and help people awaken in all those contexts. So, this is maybe, we often,

[26:28]

example for us. The point of studying this is to see how this may be available in our lives. So I'll stop there. I'm interested in your comments, questions, responses, perspectives, questions about homology or this text or this practice or anything else. So, why don't you say, well, it's a lie. He's a problem. And yes, can I say that? So. Thank you for the reading. It seems like a very slight insurance. For the study, you know, it's been made and everything. And I've been looking at section 1, section 2, and section 5. teachings that are from online.

[27:29]

And from what you just read there, he is, as you say, connecting with all kinds of different people, understanding their life, having compassion for their situation, empathizing with their various plights and everything. And so it's a very concrete kind of contact and connection with other folks. based on compassion. In this day and age, we know all the people, you know, we are, of course, in contact with our families, friends, the saga, like that. But at the same time, what's different from all of Kirti's era is that we were dealing with, you know, something in the area of the media, concepts. Now I've conceived of soil erosion in Nepal, and how should I be dealing with that? and the economic situation in Europe, this kind of thing. And those things aren't always accurate.

[28:36]

I mean, sometimes they're proven to be illusory. Maybe this issue that was out here in the middle of Siberia turns out not to be correct, or something is unperceived, something is, there's actually a big problem out there environmentally or politically, something like that, and we missed the whole thing. So we have the vulnerabilities realm, where we're dealing very concretely with the folks we encounter every day, you know, in the various realms. At the same time, we have this other realm of, I wouldn't say illusion, but it is abstract. And so I wonder how formula purity would deal with that. Thank you. Yes, this is the question. What's that? I think this is the question for us. Oh. So, you know, you mentioned media, so, you know, there's misinformation intentionally, probably. Well, we got that. And, you know, so how do we take this ancient Indian scripture and apply it to our current complex world with all of its faults and so forth?

[29:58]

So, yeah, I don't have one answer to that. If I had an answer, maybe I would say Sangha. Because, so for example, in our little Chicago Sangha, which stretches to Indiana and California and Wisconsin and Minnesota and Ohio and New York and so forth, we have many people who are doing the Buddha work, sometimes called. the work of the molecule. We have students to study how to do various things. We have teachers at various levels, from grade school to graduate school. We have technical people who are working with the technology and helping us to use it appropriately. We have attorneys. We have psychologists. we have conservationists, we have martial arts teachers, you know, just in our little soccer, and businessmen.

[31:11]

And so I think, you know, we do have to work at translating these ancient Buddhist teachings to our situation. That's the challenge of American Buddhism, of modern Buddhism. And yet, there are these old teachings. This one, it's not clear when it was composed. It's supposed to be the words of Buddha or something. Buddhist students from Buddhist time years ago, but probably going to write, I don't know, maybe a year or two or something like that. maybe later.

[32:11]

So, okay, how do these teachings, and then I talk about, okay, 13th century Japan, 12th century China, so this practice that has been kept alive generation after generation that we are now sticking on. It's very rich in traditions. And it's always shifted and changed and moved to new cultures. So this is a whole other big topic, but it's really our topic. And so I'm hoping that by looking at this teaching of a great awakened great person in a big town in India, big city in India, that we can look at what are some of the things that we can do individually and collectively So thank you for that question. That's the question for the practice room. Thank you. Other comments, responses, perspectives, questions?

[33:17]

Hi, Kyushu. Thank you for that talk. It's been a long time since I read the Malakirti Sutra, and I am going to reread it. But so we all know the story of how Shakyamuni was born into a wealthy family and how his path to awakening. But I don't know how the Malakirti got from, obviously, he's an upper class person. person. How did he get to be this awakened Buddhist? I can't remember. The older I get, the more I forget. So maybe I once knew that, but I'm interested. Well, I mentioned it yesterday. I gave a spoiler. At the very end of the sutra, it talks about, well, it mentions that he's practiced with many Buddhist associates. But, you know, they have a very different way of seeing things. In classical Buddhism, they talk about

[34:20]

rebirth and many lives and some of us might believe that and some of us probably don't it's not part of our modern consumerist capitalist worldview but at any rate it says in one of the last chapters it's not one of the chapters focusing on the practice period that he had practiced for a long time with Akshaya Buddha in the Pure Land of Abharati not the media or the television, which is the work that they should do. But what that means is that he worked at it. He'd done meditation for lifetimes. We can understand that kind of language metaphorically, too. He had worked at it, but then here he was, this wealthy, skillful man person who was helping others to work. So we're all, you know, on the path, as you said.

[35:27]

And that's not about, and again, in certain ways, and we emphasize, it's not about, oh, if you practice long enough, someday you'll be like, it's about seeing how here, this week, this month, in this place, in this body, with this mind, with these friends, we are unfolding the capacity to be helpful, to actually have skillful liberative techniques. This is sort of what's stressed in this chapter. So that's something to talk about more too, to develop these skills that help people, that help them be sufferable. And those of you who I know and assume all are doing that in various different ways. And part of compassion is that there are many, many, many different ways.

[36:28]

It's not one mode. So, but Sangha, or Dharmakaya, we could say, the body of Buddha, as reality itself, to see the whole metaverse and all the different universes as Sangha, everybody's doing something. Krista, one quick comment. I think tonight is the first time I ever chanted that chant, and it was... quite wonderful, and I just put a request in that it be on our playlist. Well, we've chanted it before, but not as often as some others, and maybe especially during the practice period, we'll chant that because it mentions a lot here. This is a poem by Ong Xia, a Chinese setto, adapted to the 12th century. I mentioned yesterday the self-fulfillment sabbatical, which is about Buddha fields, so we'll be chanting that sometime soon.

[37:36]

Mother, we have a little bit of time if there's a couple more responses or questions. Hi, it's Nicholas. Can you hear me? I'm sorry, Nicholas, I had you muted. Go ahead, though. Okay. Hi. So you mentioned something briefly that I picked up on in the sutra. I was wondering if you could elaborate. And that is this idea of having patience with accepting how ungraspable slash mysterious life is. Yes. Yeah, I spoke about it some yesterday. I was thinking about it more. Maybe I'll have to put a plug into this in every talk this practice period.

[38:38]

But, yeah. Patience is such an important practice. We have six or ten, you know, kind of. transcendent practices and this is what everybody's talking about. Of course, there are lists and lists and lists of various practices. One of the things about the Ratha Dhamma translation has a really wonderful, three actual, three glossaries in the back. People who practice great receive that, but anybody who's interested, I can send that to you. But these So there's, I mentioned some of them before, Dr. Horst, and of course, just going through this material and this history, it mentions all these different systems of teaching. But anyway, patience is subtle, and it's really important. And I don't know if I'd say it's my favorite barometer. Maybe it is. It's certainly...

[39:38]

one of the most important practically. It's the one that I've known most about from my teacher, who was incredible. But yeah, but patience is not passive. So this is an important point. So thank you for the question, and we're getting towards the end of the time, but I'll just say that what this particular way of talking about patient system, this is considered equivalent to the equivalent of that is this patience or tolerance for the ungraspability of all events. the un-inconceivability, the indefinability of all events. So this goes counter to our usual educational programs where we're taught to figure out things and deliberate and decide things and define them and know what they are.

[40:51]

And you'll be given a test at the end of the semester or whatever. And it's not that all that stuff is bad or that you shouldn't know things. In fact, everybody here knows a lot of stuff. And the point is having to use it to help beings, to help awakened beings. But beneath all that, unsurpassed, complete, perfect awakening is the fact or the practice or the awareness or the patience with the tolerance level, the I can hold this up, but all that went into creating this event, the one that Ray actually did the awesome construction of this building during my transmission of Tassajara and everything it fertilized, you know, it's all like that.

[41:53]

But we can't get a hold of it. So Our strong tendency to want to possess things, to want to know about them, to want to really understand everything, gets in the way of awakening. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't understand things again. It just means not to be obsessed by that, not to be caught by thinking we can do that. So thanks for the question, Nicholas, and please Ask that question every time you're here, because it's the question. So it's a little past time, but we have eight weeks of working on this text, and we have a lifetime of practicing it. So we'll close with, what was that for that?

[42:51]

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