Good morning, everyone. Good morning. And some of you are starting to practice rhythmically together. So welcome for that. This is an opportunity for us to be together and support Huda, Donna, and Sanda, and Saza. So thank you for joining. And for those of you who are not formally in the practice commitment period, also be very much welcome to attend any of the talks during this time in Zaza, virtually or in person. So this is wonderful. We have some people from Michigan and California and Oh, in New Mexico. Anyway, so we're all here.

[01:03]

And the theme, the Dharma theme for this eight-week practice period is the Vimalakirti Sutra. So those of you in the practice period formally have access to that text, but you don't need to read any of it particularly Those of you in the practice period won't be studying some part of it. But I want to give an introduction today to this sutra and talk some about the first couple of chapters. So the Mahakirti Sutra is an old Mahayana Bodhisattva text. and it's about this character named Vimal Kirti. Don't worry about pronouncing it, it won't be discussed.

[02:07]

But Vimal Kirti was a great awakened layperson, layman, who is said to have lived at the time of Shakyamuni Buddha, 2500 years ago in Northern India. And He was quite a dude. So the main thing to say about him, and I'll come back to this, is that he lived in this city called Vaishali. And he was in the middle of all kinds of stuff in the world. He was active in the world in lots of ways. some of you are in Chicago, or wherever you are in the country. So, I'm hoping we'll have some time for discussion, questions, but I want to look at Marshall Chapter 2 at least.

[03:12]

So, this sutra starts off as all Bodhisattva and Mahayana sutras do. Thus, I have heard at one time, that the Lord Buddha was in residence at, in different places, but here in the Garden of Amrapali, in the city of Vaishali, attended by a great gathering of Bhikshus. They were 8,000, all Arahants, perfected beings, free from impurities and so on. And it goes into this wonderful assembly. that was there to hear the Buddha. So the first chapter is about the Buddha, not about Kirti particularly. And just to read little bits of the text, and we're using Robert Darin's wonderful translation. So, So he's talking about all of the bodhisattvas.

[04:25]

All of the bodhisattvas who were there, he says, their mindfulness, intelligence, realization, meditation, incantation, and eloquence all were perfecting. They were free of obscurations and emotional involvements, living in liberation without impediment. Probably dedicated through the transcendence of generosity, subdue, unwavering, and sincere. And sincere morality, tolerance, effort, dedication. So these are the transcendent practices. They turn the universal wheel of the Dharma. They were stamped with the insignia of signlessness. one of those principles of Buddhism. He goes on to talk about how they had penetrated the profound principle of relativity and destroyed the persistence of instinctual mental habits.

[05:34]

There are all convictions concerning finitude and infinity. So they saw how all things were related. They were not caught up in Ultimate or in Neonism or in the Absolute. And then at one point it goes on to talk about all the different Bodhisattvas who are there, who are named. And this is, you know, some of us are doing the chanting monthly, the flower omen and the top sattva sutra. In Naxija, as well as many Mahayana siddhas, there are names and names and names of different bodhisattvas and buddhas who are hanging out, sometimes kings and so forth. But this one starts with Samadarsana, Samadarsana, Samadhi, Vikruvitaraja, Dharmak,

[06:40]

Dharmashvara, Dharmakantu, and so forth. There's a long list, including Valakiteshvara, Mahastha Apartha, who's the companion of Valakiteshvara, who would say this breaks strength, and others, including Ramachala, Ratnadandini, Also Maitreya and Manjushri. So anyway, notable bodhisattvas. And I mentioned that partly just to emphasize that Mahakirti is not one of these great bodhisattvas who appears in lots of texts. As far as I know, aside from this sutra, he's mentioned only once. amongst a list of people in an assembly in one of the other Mahayana sutras, not one of the major ones, or what we think of as the major ones. So the Mahakirti is considered to be not an historical person, although some people thought he was.

[07:52]

Anyway, that's getting ahead of the story. But so there's this assembly there in front of the Buddha. And so I want to talk about Buddha Kshetras. This is Buddha fields. And in classical Buddhism, classical Mahayana Buddhism, it is said that whenever a Buddha awakens, there is constellated around them, a Buddha field, the land itself, becomes a field of Buddhist practice. This idea of a Buddha field is very important in Mahayana Buddhism.

[08:53]

Buddha kshetra is the Sanskrit word. We have some sense of this from who was the founder of , who we talk about a lot, who says in one of the things we chat, we'll know sometime coming weeks of this practice, It's a section called Jijyu Zanghai, the Self-fulfillment Samadhi. And this is in Vendawa, How to Engage the Way. It's really Dogen's first writing. on writing about the meaning of zazen. Some of us have been working on zazengi, which is a much shorter text, and Dogen may have written that initially, but the versions we have were edited later.

[09:59]

At any rate, in the Spindawa, I talk about inserting the way that really There's a sentence that once is my favorite sentence from Dogen and the one that I've puzzled over most for decades. Dogen says, when one displays the Buddha mudra with one's whole body and mind, so we know mudras like this or like this or like this, but when one displays the Buddha positions, Buddha gesture, Buddha posture, with one's whole body and mind sitting upright in this samadhi, in this sasana practice, even for a short time. Everything in the entire Dharma world, all the phenomenal world, becomes Buddha mudra, and all space in the universe completely becomes awakened. So this is very counter to our usual way of thinking.

[11:02]

When a Buddha awakens, everything around awakens. It's hard to see how that works. It's hard to think about that in our usual way of objective thinking, but this is what the Buddha field is. And this is a big issue in this first chapter of the Malakirti Sutra. So, It is sometimes said that there are pure and impure Buddha fields. The largest school or branch of Buddhism in Japan and in much of East Asia is Pure Land Buddhism. Jodo Shu or Jodo Shinshu developed around the same time as Jodan. and it's going to many schools in the 13th century.

[12:06]

And this is based on this idea of pure lands. And the pure land in East Asia is about . So these pure land schools in Japan the main practice, not necessarily the only practice, but the main practice is just chanting the name of Buddha, Namo Buddhah, Namo Buddhah, over and over again sometimes. And there's different understandings in Theravada, how that works and what that is. But the idea is that Amida Buddha, when it became Amida Buddha, immediately fast-loaded this Puritan, this beautiful Puritan. Some branches of Puritan Buddhism in Japan, they chant this as they're dying in hopes of going there after they pass away in this world.

[13:14]

Or they chant this regularly in similar hopes. So I'm going to give away that we, this is a spoiler alert, the closing chapter of the Mahakirti Sutta reveals that actually Mahakirti is from a different pure land. in a galaxy far, far away or whatever. This is called the land, the Buddha land of Abhirati. And this isn't from Shakyamuni or Amitabha. This is from Akshobhya. So, Apparently, according to this last chapter, the monetary practice deciduously in that pure land for a long time before it was shut by Shalit in Shabt-e-Runi's time. Anyway, that's not one of the assigned chapters for this practice, which is, you know, just to be of information.

[14:15]

So, but the issue in the first chapter is one of the, Arhat practitioners, one of the disciples of Buddha who was not formally a Bodhisattva practitioner, was concerned because Shakyamuni had created this Buddha field that we're in. So we're all in Shakyamuni's Buddha field. still talk we still talk about it even though it's 25 years since shakimoni passed away but um this disciple is our disciple and shari putra is one of the 10 great disciples of shakimoni buddha and a question so her first one of the one of the lay people from Ucchadi, a devotee, asked the Buddha to, what is the Bodhisattva's purification of the Buddha field?

[15:24]

Please explain to all of us the Bodhisattva's purification of the Buddha field. So the Buddha said, noble ones, a Buddha field of Bodhisattvas is a field of living beings. Why so? A Bodhisattva embraces a Buddha field to the same extent that he causes the development of living beings. He embraces the Buddha field to the same extent that living beings become disciplined. He embraces the Buddha field to the same extent that through entrance into a Buddha field, living beings are introduced to the Buddha wisdom, Buddha knowledge. He embraces a Buddha field to the same extent that through entrance into the Buddha field, living beings increase their holy spiritual faculties.

[16:27]

Why so? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, [...] aspires to awakening, that is concerned with awakening. Anyway, so it goes on about this, and it's available for people who have the spiritual need. But then at some point, and it makes an excuse sort of for Shariputra, who is the disciple of Buddha, who is later in the sutra,

[17:28]

I've kind of talked about that in lots of books, because the sense would not be in the body suffering. But magically influenced by the Buddha, it says, the Venerable Shariputra had this thought, if the Buddha field is pure only to the extent that the mind of the body sufferer is pure, Then when Shakyamuni Buddha was engaged in the career of Bodhisattvas, his mind must have been impure. Otherwise, how could this Buddha feel, appear so impure? So I don't know exactly what was going on historically back then. I mean, there was obviously world wars, because there seems to always be wars. They're not necessary in all Buddha fields. But anyway, and there's all kinds of things that we know are going on now that might lead us to think that so now this is not a pure Buddha field.

[18:29]

So there's some Buddha fields that are pure and some that are impure, according to this. And so I had a question about it. How could there be school shootings and assault rifles available everywhere? And how could there be... people persecuted and people of the wrong color killed by police and so forth and so on. All the things that you see and a massive inequality of resources and so forth. And climate breakdown and big tornadoes coming through Chicago area Is that last night being before? How could it be before? Yeah, well, so enhanced by climate damage.

[19:32]

How could these things be if Shakyamuni was a pure Bodhisattva? This is the question. Why does this peripheral seem so impure? So Shakyamuni was asking this. And this strange thing happens. So the Buddha knew what Shariputra was thinking because he understands these things. And he said, what do you think, Shariputra? Is it because the sun and moon are impure that those blind from birth do not see them? Or when there's a storm, we don't see the sun and moon? Is that... because the Buddha field is impure. And then there's this event. The Lord Buddha touched the ground of this billion-world galactic universe with his big toe.

[20:40]

You know, there are images of the Buddha. This big toe doesn't seem to be particularly special. I mean, other things are special that we can stop and go on. There are many, there are 32 physical signs of the Buddha, but I don't think the big toe is one of them. But anyway, the Buddha touched the ground of this billion-world galactic universe with his big tongue. Suddenly, it was transformed into a huge mass of precious jewels, a magnificent array of many hundreds of thousands of clusters of precious gems, and it resembled the universe of the Tathagata Ratna-Vuha called Ananta-Guna-Ratna-Ma. Ratna Buva, which was a wonderful, beautiful pure land. And everyone in the entire assembly spilled with wonder, each perceiving themselves seated on a throne of jeweled lotuses.

[21:49]

So this beautiful pure land, no worries, no persecution. Love you all. Then the Buddha said to the venerable Sharafutra, Sharafutra, do you see the splendor of the virtues of the Buddha field? Sharafutra replied, I see it, Lord. Here before me is a display of splendor such as I never before heard of on the hills. Then the Buddha said, Shariputra, this Buddha field is always thus pure, but the Tathagata makes it appear to be spoiled by many faults in order to bring about the maturity of inferior living beings. That's us. For example, Shariputra, the gods of this tri-structure heaven all take their food from single-pressure special, and he goes on about how it is in the pure line.

[22:57]

And then Now, let's see. When this splendor of the beauty of virtues of the Buddha field shone forth, 84,000 beings conceived the spirit of unselfish, perfect awakening. And 500 Lichavi youths from this town of Chabu, who had accompanied the younger Chabu, who had asked the question initially, all attained the conformative tolerance of ultimate truth of birthlessness, which I'm going to come back to. Then the Lord withdrew his miraculous power. He lifted his toe, and at once the Buddha field was restored to its usual appearance. Then both men and gods who subscribed to the disciple vehicle thought, alas, all constructed things are impermanent indeed. So this is the culminating event of this first chapter,

[24:03]

And what it implies is that, and this is difficult for us. And I don't, you know, I don't know if I completely believe it, but that myself, but that is how we see things. It makes it more pure. Now, of course, that doesn't help the people who are, that siren is moving towards the need help. It doesn't help, doesn't fix all the things that are mentioned that there are problems in our world, but it points to this sense of our participation in this, in the purity or impurity of our wooden field. One of the things that the Buddha mentions there is that when they saw this pure Buddhafield, when they saw the way that our world can be, built with gems and so forth, is their imagery, they realized the, what in Sanskrit is called Anupattha Dharma Kshanti.

[25:24]

This is my favorite Sanskrit term. I've talked about it before, so let me talk about it. Shanti means patience or tolerance. Dharma, hair, just means things. All the phenomenal world. Anukatika means ungraspability or unknowability. So this is... The molecule is inconceivable teaching. This is an important part of the secret is immersion in the inconceivable. And it comes about, realizing it comes about through the patience or tolerance with the ungraspability of things. Dharmas, as plural, is usually translated as things. It just means events. So, you know, there's no, there are not really any things in this room.

[26:33]

All of the things we think of as dead objects are actually alive because the road is alive. So, but I'll come back to the practice. But this basic teaching that to patience with, tolerance of, awareness of, that we can't get a hold of anything, that everything is ineffable, everything is ungraspable. This is a basic teaching in the Nagarjuna Sutra. So this, so I want to get to chapter two, because that's been the volunteer two of yours, and that's very relevant to our practice, but just to say a little more about this, about this inconceivability. The sutra combines two strands of the Mahayana, the Madhyamaka, which in the study groups and people here are studying this,

[27:40]

primarily about emptiness teaching, but also the emptiness of emptiness. So, David Brayne and Ethan announced the next meeting of that during the announcements. So, the great, a great ancestor, Nagarjuna, was a great spokesperson for that. So, that's the middle way, or the teaching of emptiness. But the other part of this sutra is that from the of the Tonsaku seed tree. And then the Huayen, Huayen is the Chinese word for the Tonsaku. The flower on the seed tree, which is this magical display of all the kinds of things that people saw when Buddha was toking. He didn't even have to put his whole foot down, just this big toe. And so this is... this kind of amazing, miraculous teaching of the splendor of all things.

[28:51]

And it's very much in the background of Soto Zen. Some of you like Hongsheng, who I translated. He's, we could say that he's a Wayan Buddhist. And Dongshan is the founder of certain words in China. Was actually one of the Wayan ancestors. But in this sutra, it puts together the sense of emptiness. The sense of nothingness. I think it's definitely nothingness. It means that No thing is empty of thinness, of being a separate thing. You could just say relativity. We're all interrelated, intimately, intimately interrelated. Everybody in this room, everybody who's in this room through the screen is over here in terms of not seeing it,

[29:52]

or here, but everybody who's joining us virtually, and everybody who's been in this room, or been in this sauna, or will be in this sauna, all are intimately interrelated. This is the teaching of relativity or emptiness. And then Avatamsa, the YM teaching, is this teaching of inconceivability, that how we can't conceive of how wonderful the world is. And that is not denying climate damage and wars and fascist politicians and all the other ills that beset us. So this is a tricky business. And I want us to study the Mahakanti Sutra to see how we can benefit from seeing things in these ways.

[30:54]

How that could support us. So that's a little bit about this ultimate teaching about the Pratika Dharmakshanti. But I do want to get to chapter two a little bit. And I'll be talking about chapter one and two again tomorrow. And if you have questions, I'll inspire where I focus on it tomorrow, Monday evening. And we'll be talking about all of this. But chapter two is just to introduce you to the student volunteer team. who lived in this great city of Vaishali, where the Buddha appeared in the first chapter. And so, you know, this is relevant for our Sangha because we're practicing in a big city, in this world, doing all kinds of interesting things.

[32:03]

We have teachers and psychologists, clinics and attorneys and social workers and martial arts teachers and all kinds of people here in this room. It's amazing. And all of them doing the Buddha work, all of you, and people online too, doing the Buddha work in this world. This is a non-residential lay sangha. So there's this whole issue of monastic Buddhism and non-racial Buddhism. One of the questions about American Buddhism. But I moved, I relocated from San Francisco Bay Area with Buddhist teachers in the street corner to Chicago because there weren't as many teachers.

[33:06]

And now we have this wonderful And volatility is an interesting figure for us to consider. There are ways in which maybe he's not a model for us, but there are ways in which he is. So consider how we practice in the world and help awakened beings and help unfold our own awakening together, together. So part of Vimalakirti, who he was, he was very wealthy. He was a lay person. He was immersed in the world. I'll just read a few passages here. His wealth was inexhaustible for the purpose of sustaining the poor and the helpless.

[34:11]

He observed pure morality in order to protect the immoral. He maintained tolerance and self-content in order to reconcile beings who were angry, cruel, 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, you know, we all have relationships to all of that. He entered all kinds of worlds and realms. He made his appearance in fields of sport. and in casinos. But he was always there to, his aim was always to mature those people who were attached to games and gambling.

[35:18]

He visited the fashionable philosophical and US teachers. He had always kept unswerving loyalty to the Buddha. He understood the mundane and transcendental sciences and esoteric practices. He had always took pleasure in the delights of the Dharma. He mixed in all crowds, yet he was respected as foremost of all in each of them. He was honored as a businessman among businessmen because he demonstrated the priority of the Dharma. He was honored as the landlord among landlords because he renounced the aggressiveness of ownership. He was compatible with ordinary people because he appreciated the excellence of ordinary merits. He was honored as the Indra among Indras, greater deities, because he showed them the temporality of their lordship.

[36:28]

So this is some background about who this man was. And yeah, so the drama of the sutra that we will unfold at that time, out of the very skill in the Buddha's techniques, the Mala Kirti manifested himself as if sick to inquire after his health. The king, the officials, the lords, all many people came to ask after his health. And he talked about health. He said it is like a cloud being characterized by turbulence and dissolution. He was talking about this growth.

[37:39]

This is about the body, the human body. His body got sick. He says, this lack of reflection, being the image of former actions, just like an echo, being dependent on conditioning, It's like a cloud characterized by turbulence and dissolution. Like a flash of lightning being unstable and decaying every moment, the body is onerous, being a product of a variety of conditions. So this is kind of starts the drama of this very dramatic sutra. that Imalakirti was ill. So I didn't include in the information for the PCP the third and fourth chapter, but basically what happens is Buddha asks his disciples to go call Imalakirti because he's ill.

[38:48]

And when they say he's ill and sick, it means he's really ill. He's like, you know, maybe on his deathbed or something. And one by one, all of the great bodhisattvas, all of the great disciples of the Buddha, all of the great bodhisattvas, And this is in chapters three and four that you're welcome to read, but we're not focusing on to this perhaps commitment period. They all said, oh, I don't want to go. I don't want to go see the volunteer team. The last time I saw him, he came by when I was giving a discourse on whatever their specialty was in terms of practice. And he just threw them away. He just shoved them up. So everybody's intimidated by the volunteer team. So anyway, that's kind of the background setting for this sutra that we're going to be working with in this practice period. The Mahakirti's spine goes into all the worldly realms and is our thread that uses his experience there to help beings, to help awakened beings.

[39:56]

So I could keep blabbing, but I think I'll stop there. And I've got a lot of material. And I'm going to go back over it again, as I said, tomorrow evening. But does anybody have comments, questions? Yes, Paul. So when you were talking about the Buddha fields, and I think this is what was said, that when a Buddha creates a Buddha field, It is pure or impure, depending on the attention of the beings within the field. Well, actually, yes, that's true. But when the Buddha awakens, that immediately creates the field. Yeah, the awakening of a Buddha creates a field of kindness and generosity and kindness. And in each of us in our own way, as we settle into sustains us in practice, what do we wake up to?

[41:04]

It's reflected in some way in the world around us. Not to say that it necessarily affects us in persons. But yes, in the traditional teaching, there are purgatory fields and there are interpretive fields. So my question is about attention, because he uses the word attention in that line. So my question is twofold. Can you swap attention with intention in that line? Can you say, depending on the attention of the beings in that field, could you also say, depending on the intentions of the beings in that field? Yeah, good. Thank you. So yes, part of the point of this is exactly that. The Buddha precipitates good intentions, just like the Malakirti. In the city of Vajrahu, people saw him and they wanted to be like that. They wanted to help others and they wanted to be awake.

[42:07]

So yeah, attention and intention are very related. When we pay attention to something, it actually transforms it. So again, I was talking about how there are no objects because everything is alive. And when we are aware, so awareness itself is transformative. Our awareness of the difficulties around us, families, friends, city, you know, helps support awakening and bodhicitta in others. So yeah, so yes, they are very much related. And that was the second part of what I wanted to ask. Can you speak a little more on the difference between attention and intention, according to Buddhist thought, or is it too esoteric? It's not that it's too esoteric. I mean, they work together.

[43:15]

Our intention, you know, we have our intention to pay attention. Our intent produces more intention. We're attempting to things. We're willing to see the suffering, the difficulties of people or animals or rivers or lakes, you know, and that develops intention to help with them. But the fundamental intention is, and from this perspective is just . So how do we support, how do we give attention to beings who are caught up in what we're thinking to . Yeah, so there is one. Thank you. Thank you. Other questions, comments? So when you told the story about them being told and the way people visualized everything as fields of jewels, you know, you used the word psychedelic before us.

[44:32]

What I was going to say and didn't is, as we get further into the Vimalakirti Sutra, not only is he very skillful in all these different realms, he's kind of a trickster, and he's kind of a magician. He obsesses our usual sense of things. So, you know, in some sense, I say that more often about the flower. Yeah. But it made me wonder, you know, that isn't just that idea. You know, I've read Michael Pollan and Ed Smith's. during the psychedelics. And there's been some sort of, you know, rehabilitation of therapeutic uses of psychedelic drugs. And yeah, and so I was just wondering if you could comment on that and the way that checks can be psychedelic.

[45:41]

I mean, that, you know, breaking a very normal vision of the world and what, you know, what are, like, more or less the needs of making that happen? Well, this inconceivability is the way it's spoken of in the Moloch-Ager syndrome, that we, that I, and this is about our usual conceptions of the world, and I can get into a little bit of the chemistry and physics of all this, but, you know, basically, um, Oh gosh, you know, I use the word psychedelic because before I knew about Buddhism, I had this intensive practice of using psychedelics when I was very young. And it's not that I recommend it to anyone now. I don't regret any of my experiences. And yes, I'm happy to hear that now. I'm a psychologist and people are using it and they're pretty controlled.

[46:43]

helpful way i believe it is helpful in the same way that sutras are helpful and that sazan is helpful and that the dharma is helpful and practice is helpful to unsettle our usual ways of thinking and seeing and hearing and speaking and tasting and touching and all that so uh to get beyond our conventions as part of what Hvala Kirti was about too. He entered into all the realms, the conventional realms and used them and became the most skillful for the sake of waking people up. That's a little bit. David Red, this is Jim. Thank you for that, Tai Ming. I'd like to ask about the humor of the Mahakirti Sutra. which is sometimes making you laugh out loud. And it's also really deep.

[47:46]

It's really satirical. And the non-Mahayana Buddhists or the disciples really come in for some nasty, nasty satire. That moment at the end of the big toe miracle, when the disciples, the disciple followers, instead of saying, oh, now I see that the world is really a bejeweled ocean of bliss. They say, damn it, I knew it. I knew it all along. Everything is impermanent. And that really is sending up, you know, old school Buddhist teaching in a way that's funny and also really surprising. So I wonder if you might say something about that. Yeah. Yeah, this is a very entertaining and funny scripture And we'll get to some things. Vimalakirti's goddess friend in the chapter, she really unsettles the disciples and does some really far-out stuff.

[48:50]

I don't want to give any spoilers. But in some sense, you're right, though. This is Vimalakirti's sutra is in some sense earlier primitive Mahayana, which is part of why Dogen didn't like the sutra. I didn't say that to the practice pencil when they sent us to the Hulagyati Sutra. But anyway, Dogen was not so fond of the Hulagyati. That's okay. I don't agree with everything Dogen said either. But the reason is that it is very... So the Hulagyati Sutra is upholding the vision and view and practice of Bodhisattvas. And so it's early Mahayana, and it's comparing the Bodhisattvas to the Arhat disciples who are personally awakened. And this isn't really, I don't know if this is true historically, but one way of seeing those teachings is that they were concerned with personal awakening, not with spiritual awakening.

[50:03]

world at large and in society. That's not true of Theravada Buddhists. That's the main form of Buddhism in South Asia, Sri Lanka and Burma and Thailand and Laos and Cambodia and Theravada, the teachings of the elder. But in practice, those people are very kind and and help them. So, in the Lotus Sutra, which is some other practice period sometime, in the Lotus Sutra it says that all, it's just one vehicle. And that the, that arhats actually are just being bodhisattvas for people who think arhats are cool, getting into the practice. So, in that sense, I could say that the Mahakirti Sutra is earlier, you know, I don't know, primitive Mahayana, as opposed to the Lotus Sutra, which is Ekayana, one vehicle, everybody's, even, you know, but, you know, in some sense, that's true here, too, because the disciples who are, who are,

[51:19]

chastised or whatever in this sutra are examples for us of things. So I have to see that response probably confused a little bit more. I identify with both. It's fun to pretend to be a god and laugh at mortals, and I'm a mortal shedding tears over impermanence, so it's both. Good. Other comments? I just want to see. I thought I saw a hand up on the screen. Paul just raised his. Perhaps he can go after Jen. Okay, and then Jeff, I think, has his hand up. So... Okay, Jen, and then Paul. I got kind of caught when you said that the Malakuti was admired by the rulers because he taught them about the impermanence of their position.

[52:35]

And I don't think such a person would be admired today in the United States. Well, when do we need to try it? Well, I mean, theoretically, they know, or they, politicians, know that their positions are impermanent. But In reality, they would never let them go until they were forced. Right. So, you know, we have terminus in some realms. We have terminals for presidents, not for Supreme Court justices. Anyway. Not for Chicago mayors. Well, there's an important election happening next Tuesday. Please, this coming Tuesday, please vote for mayor. Anyway. Yeah, so these are rulers who live in a realm where Shakyamuni Buddha is hanging out.

[53:44]

So they all respected Buddha because he was amazing. Everybody knew. Imagine if the Dalai Lama was living in Chicago full time and everybody could see his kindness and humor and gentleness and wisdom, you know. But then, you know, the politicians around here might see things differently. I don't know. I can't answer that question to you, but anyway. Buddhist fields are complicated. So, Paul, did you have something? Yeah, I did. I was curious. So it sounded like Shariputra was sort of raising the point that, you know, how can how can bad things happen in a good Buddha field? And it seemed like the Buddha with the big toe kind of demonstrated like, well, we could just see, we could go into the land of, you know, gems and splendor and everything can look great, but instead we're going to allow there to be these sort of like

[55:02]

I guess, layers on top of that. So you can practice with that. And was the, in this case, it seemed like the Buddha was kind of saying like you know i like i could make the world a place where no bad things happen in a good buddha field but then how would you practice or something and like is that kind of i don't know if you could draw that out a little bit but that seems to be kind of like the first time i've heard of buddha saying like i'm allowing something difficult um to continue um when it doesn't have to Well, another main theme of this sutra is non-duality. So the same Buddha field where there is all this cruelty and suffering is sometimes called samsara, the realm of suffering, is also, from a Buddhist perspective, from a Bodhisattva perspective, the realm of awakening, of nirvana.

[56:07]

So it's hard to see that. And certainly hearing that, that teaching is dangerous because you might think, well, then I don't have to bother with taking care of the world itself and all the difficulties. But... This is subtle, this teaching of non-duality. And there's also the idea, which I think something you said, Paul, sort of alluded to, that from some perspectives, I've talked about this before, and I think we're going over time, I suspect. Maybe there's no going over time. Here. Here. So, yeah, not so much. But there is this idea that, and this was prevalent back in Dogen's time to some other schools.

[57:20]

And my friend John Macy talks about this, that There are, you know, again, assuming that there are many, many Buddha fields all over this galaxy, other galaxies, and we don't know how to think about this, but anyway, there are Bodhisattvas from other Buddha fields who are right now lined up, just waiting for the chance to be born here in this place and time. Because this place and time is one body's office are most needed. Or they can have the most in that. So we're all lucky to be, you know, that the world is, the world is wonderful. You know, okay, so something about birdsong. And there's so much is wonderful in this world.

[58:23]

And the same time as all the suffering. So Bodhisattvas really want to be born here. And so we're lucky to be here because whatever we do that is helpful and kind can make a big difference now. So... Jeff, do you have a comment or question? Or is that just a floating hand? One last comment or question, anyway. Okay. Well, thank you all for being here.

[59:27]

Whether you're here online or here in person, Lincoln Square Center. And yeah, so there's sort of, let's volunteer to pose this lots of questions for us. And it's a very rich, I don't know if you know, but he's, suggesting for us. And I don't think we have to take sides about whether the world is wonderful or terrible. Just how do we take care of what's in front of us?

[60:06]

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