we just chanted a verse which in English could be called the Lofty Ancestor Ehe's Verses for Arousing the Bodhisattva Vow. And when you were chanting it, I just felt a lot of joy listening to you chant this. And I thought, what a good deal this is. Like, you know... if you practice confession and repentance, you're going to get a lot of help. You're going to get a big reward for confessing and saying you're sorry for your shortcomings. Yeah, it really sounds like a great deal. Yes? Did you ever think about... I just did.

[01:03]

Thank you. And actually, we study it every time we chant it. We study it. We're reciting it, and we're almost memorizing it, right? And I often comment on it. But we could also have a class to study it. Could be. Thank you for the idea. Thank you, too. I could give you a long revelation of my understanding of the geology, of the geological process of the Hawaiian Islands. Thank you. Before I do that, if I ever do it, I just want to mention that I feel like I am sitting on a hot spot and there's a volcanic activity going on in my body and mind and it's joyful.

[02:26]

And the hot spot is, I think the hot spot has something to do with the teachings, our true nature. Part of the reason why I mention the Hawaiian Islands is because right now there is new volcanic activity going on there on the big island. For a long time That island was made by volcanic activity. And for a long time, there's two peaks on that island. They're both about more than 13,000 feet above the water. And they're 26,000 feet below the water. Those two, they're the tallest mountains in the world. They're 39,000 feet tall.

[03:32]

And one of them... used to be... One of them is taller than the one that's... Let me just say that the Hawaiian islands go from southeast to northwest. They're on a line from southeast to northwest. And the row of islands... All the islands in that row used to be volcanoes. And one of them, the big island, is still... has active volcanoes on it. The other ones all used to be active volcanoes. But they're on a conveyor belt, a volcano building conveyor belt, which is moving the bottom of the ocean is moving over this hot spot. And when it moves over the hot spot, the heat and the lava accumulate and push up

[04:34]

26,000 feet and make islands which initially are still active volcanoes but then they move off the hot spot to the northwest when they're not on the hot spot anymore they're not volcanoes and then the new volcanoes come up and this has been going on for hundreds of millions of years I suppose and will probably go on a little longer and now the island has moved so that on the slope of one of the other mountains the hotspots coming up in new places which will become new huge mountains someday the last island the most northwest island of Hawaii I think I don't know if anybody's ever been there but I've heard that it's basically flat it used to be a big it's the top of an old volcano And it used to come out of the water quite a bit, but over the millions of years, it got worn down by the water and the wind.

[05:42]

So now it's flat. And if you go then from that flat one back to this one, you go into the mountains gradually grow because they've been out and getting eroded for shorter times. But this island that we're looking at now will someday probably be up in the northwest and get flat. And there'll be other islands coming up. So we have this volcanic activity going on which I talked to you about the last month when I was here I told you that something like I heard about this teaching a long time ago which in Sanskrit is called Tathagata Garba and whenever I mention Sanskrit, I'm conscious that you're not... What's the word? You're not real familiar with Sanskrit, so it's hard maybe to listen to a foreign language that you're not familiar with.

[06:48]

But I'll just tell you that I heard about this teaching called Tathagata Garba, which Tathagata is one of the epithets of Buddha. It means thus come one or thus gone one. So the Buddha is... an awakened one, but a Buddha is also a Tathagata, one who has gone to suchness and returned from suchness. And then Garba means basically womb, womb or matrix. And this This expression expresses the confidence that all living beings fully possess the wisdom and virtues of the Buddhas. That we are the Tathagatagarbha.

[07:55]

All of us together are the womb of the Buddha. And I also, part of the reason, and so I, like quite a few years ago, I heard about that and I started to study a text which is called Ratna Gotra Vibhanga. Mahayana Uttara Tantra Shastra. And that text, in Tibet, they usually call it Uttara Tantra Shastra. But the whole name of the thing is Ratna Gotra Vibhanga Mahayana Uttara Tantra Shastra.

[09:07]

Ratna Gotra, Ratna, it means jewel or jewels. And Gotra means lineage. and Vibhanga means like a discussion of it. So it's a text which discusses the germ or the seed or the lineage of the jewels. What jewels? Buddha Dharma Sangha. The Buddha Dharma Sangha is like a reproducing system. It's like a living reality which has a lineage and it reproduces itself. And so this is a text which is about the seed of the Buddha Dharma Sangha. The lineage of Buddha Dharma Sangha. And the next part is highest, the great vehicle, highest...

[10:12]

about this seed of the Buddha Dharma Sangha. And in this scripture, it's not really a scripture, it's a commentary on the teaching of Tathagatagarbha. So it's a whole text, a big text. The basic text has... It's 77 pages in English of Sanskrit verses. And then there's a commentary on those verses. And it's basically about this Tathagata Garba. Tathagata Garba is very similar to the word Buddha Datu in Sanskrit. Which means literally Buddha element. but usually is translated as Buddha nature.

[11:15]

So this text, which I studied quite a while ago, is about the womb of the Tathagata, or the womb in which the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha live. And it's also about our Buddha nature. The whole text is about that. It's really beautiful, I felt. But I stopped studying it because I started to feel like this seems to be contradicting Buddhism. Because it teaches that there's something in this Buddha nature is actually the way something very pure in Sanskrit, nirmala, nirmala, ta-ta-ta. It's about something that is suchness, the way things are, unmixed with any pollution.

[12:25]

The perfect, the fully enlightened Buddha is reality as it is unmixed with pollution. The Tathagatagarbha or Buddha nature is it is reality mixed with pollution and the Buddha Dharma Sangha grow out of suchness reality mixed with pollution and suchness unmixed with pollution and the qualities of suchness unmixed with pollution and the activity of suchness unmixed with pollution. But the perfectly awakened Buddha is not enough to give rise to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

[13:31]

It's the fully awakened Buddha who is just the way things are and sentient beings who are just the way things are. mixed with not the way things are. And those together are what creates the jewels of Buddhism. But this suchness, unmixed with pollution, is talked about in this text and it is self. It is eternal. It is joy. It is purity. It is the opposite of It is actually what are called the upside-down views. It sounds just like the upside-down views, but it's not the upside-down views. What are the upside-down views? The upside-down views of Buddhism are to see in what is not self, a self. To see or believe in what is not joyful, joy.

[14:33]

To see in what is not purity, purity. To see in what is not eternal permanence. That's upside-down view. But this isn't... The characteristics of this... of the Buddha are not to see in the self what is not the self. It's to see the self where there's a self. And it's to see eternity where there's eternity. And it's to see joy where there's joy. And it's to see purity where there's purity. But anyway, I backed off that teaching because I thought... I'm going to be polluting myself to start hearing about self, eternity, joy, and purity. Which again, sound like the upside down views, but they're not. The upside down views is to see those four things where they aren't.

[15:34]

But they are part of our life. Because our life is the way things really are mixed with our attachments and confusion. Another thing which encouraged me to start studying this quite a while ago was that I heard that this Tathagatagarbha teaching, this Buddha nature teaching, Tathagatagarbha teaching, is very influential in Zen, a big part of Zen, which it is. But I felt nervous about that too, that we have this kind of non-Buddhist thing mixing with Zen. But as I told you last month, I read the Nirvana Sutra recently, and I got to a part which is called milk medicine. And I told you that story last time, didn't I? Yes.

[16:37]

And that encouraged me to now start studying Tathagatagarbha again. In the early Buddhism, people were addicted, as usual, to seeing self where there is no self, to seeing purity where there is no purity, and so on. They were addicted to these upside-down views. So the Buddha taught them no self, no permanence, impermanence, no purity, and, you know, not joy, suffering. He taught them that as a recovery process from this addiction. After hundreds of years of Buddhist practice of reversing these upside down views into right views, this new movement comes of the great vehicle and part of it is to say

[17:45]

In the Nirvana Sutra, which is probably put together around 300 CE, in the Nirvana Sutra, it gives us example of the milk medicine. That when people are addicted to milk and using it addictively as medicine, the Buddha prohibits it. After they're free of using it as medicine addictively, then the Buddha says, sometimes... milk is the best medicine. Sometimes this Tathagata Garba is the best medicine, but it's sometimes not the best medicine. So I'm bringing it out. And I was thinking, you know, is this an R-rated talk? Is this a PG-13 talk? Is this a PG-46 talk?

[18:49]

Is this a PG-55 talk? I think it's not PG-13, 15, 28, 65. But it is PG. It needs parental guidance. In order to study this teaching, we have to study this teaching. And we have to do this together. Otherwise, we might misunderstand it. I feel like I am, I'm not your parent, but I am here to help you, to support you, to not misunderstand this teaching of Buddha nature and womb of the Tathagata. And to see if maybe now is the time when this is going to be good medicine for us. I'm sitting on this hot spot and this is causing me to talk to you about this and to feel joy in now studying this material again which I'm doing and I'm sharing with you.

[20:02]

But that's not the full extent of the volcanic activity. Again, for a long time, well, for 30 or 40 years at Zen Center, we have been doing a monthly confession and repentance ceremony in relation with the Bodhisattva precepts. So we practice confession and repentance. And we also invoke the presence of the Buddhas, the Tathagatas, and the Bodhisattvas. And then we express the Bodhisattva vows.

[21:17]

And then we go for refuge in the Three Treasures. We've been doing that ceremony. And I've heard, again, towards the beginning of that time, for 30 or 40 years, I've heard... that in Asia when they do the ceremony they often or usually they read a scripture as part of the ceremony which we do not do we have not done at the San Francisco Zen Center we've done the confession and repentance ceremony which I just told you about but we have not been reading a scripture And the scripture that they read is called, in Sanskrit, Brahma's Net... No, excuse me. In Sanskrit, it's called Brahmajala Sutra. And there's two Brahmajala Sutras. One is in Pali, and it's about trance practices, jhana practice.

[22:23]

And there's another one in Sanskrit and Chinese... which is totally different scripture, just happens to have the same name in Sanskrit or Pali. So, translated, it's Brahma's net scripture. It's about the Bodhisattva precepts. So, it is read during the Bodhisattva precept confession and repentance ceremony. But we haven't been doing it. And part of the reason why we didn't do it One of the reasons is we didn't even know about it. We heard about it but we didn't know what it was. And then some number of years ago I found a translation of it. And yeah. And I read it and I realized that a lot of the esoteric

[23:31]

teachings around bodhisattva precept transmission is from that sutra which again makes sense that you would read that sutra in these ceremonies and we also recite these parts from the sutra in other ceremonies that you're not so familiar with then quite recently Jeff Hunter told me that he was looking at that sutra. And I asked him to send it to me. And he sent it to me. And then I learned, quite recently, that the sutra that I had seen before was just the second part of that sutra. So the sutra has two parts. One part is about basically the first part in a way is about Tathagatagarbha about Buddha nature as the context for the Bodhisattva precepts so in the first part you have this great presentation of various stages of the development of this Buddha nature and then in the second part you have the actual expression of these precepts which are said

[25:01]

to be for all living beings whose original nature is pure. That's what it says in the second part of that sutra, before giving the bodhisattva precepts. These precepts are for all sentient beings. whose original nature is pure. We have sort of a later development nature too, which is not pure. But our original nature is pure, and we are a mixture of our original nature, which is pure, and later developments, which are not. We're a mixture of that. And these precepts are for us. But it doesn't say, in the part I'm quoting from that second part of the sutra, the Brahma Sanat Sutra, it doesn't say these precepts are for all sentient beings whose nature is impure.

[26:15]

Of course it's for sentient beings whose nature is impure. But it's also these sentient beings who have an impure nature The news is they have an original pure nature which is pure. That's what these precepts are for. And these precepts are the precepts which we receive in this tradition. And along with the sutra that Jeff sent me, is a commentary, a big commentary. The sutra's not very long. It's only about maybe... I don't know. I forgot to count the pages. It's not very long. In Chinese, I think the second part of the sutra is like seven pages in the Taisho, which is about like 21 pages.

[27:25]

Because the Taisho has... Each page has three panels. So it's like, the second part's like 21 pages. The first part's about 21. So the whole sutra's about, I would say, only about 50 pages. It's not a big one. But with the commentary, it's really big. Hundreds of pages. And the commentary is by a Korean scholar. And I thought, oh, people cannot deal with this. But I feel like maybe the time has come for you to deal, for you to be open yourself to the Brahmas Net Sutra, which is the place where our precepts come from. That sutra is where our Bodhisattva precepts come from. There are other Bodhisattva precept sutras, but this is the one that almost all East Asian Bodhisattva precept people

[28:27]

That's where they get it, get the precepts. And if I also just briefly mention that the number of precepts is the total number, I'll just say the number of precepts is ten grave precepts, bodhisattva precepts, which are the ten grave precepts of our tradition. And I brought some cards. Sonia and I brought some cards which have the ten grave precepts on them. And those are in that sutra. And then in addition, there's 48 minor precepts. And if you look in the 48 minor precepts, we do not usually transmit in this school, but I think it would be good for you to read them. And particularly because they're not for monks and nuns only. They're mostly for lay people, for business people, and parents, and and kings and CEOs and CFOs.

[29:30]

They're for those kinds of people. They're for lay people. So those are 48. So the total is 58. These precepts are for all sentient beings. For monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen. They're also for people who are not Buddhist. But we usually don't give them to people unless they want them. So... But that's what they're for. They're for everybody whose nature is originally pure and developed somehow wonderfully. The plot is thickened. The original nature is thickened with the plot of delusion. If you want to read the scripture, you can buy it.

[30:35]

And you can also receive it on the internet. If you'd like to have it sent to you, you can write to Sonia, Rebassistant, at sfcc.org, and she'll mail you the sutra. And you can read it. Huh? You'll email. Oh, you'll give them the link. She'll give you the link, and then you can receive this sutra, which is, again, the source of the Bodhisattva precepts in East Asia. The Tibetans know about this too, but it's not as influential in Tibet as in China, Korea, and Japan. And by the way, this great Korean scholar, among many Chinese and Korean scholars... he's the one who's most influential in Japan, which, again, I never heard about. But he had a strong influence on Japanese Mahayana bodhisattva practice.

[31:43]

And I'm not Korean, but I'll say his name, Daeshen, Daeshen, which the Chinese characters for that are great intelligence or great wisdom. He lived... In the 8th century, his commentary on this sutra was probably written in the first half of the 8th century. And in Japan, hundreds of commentaries have been written on this scripture. It's very influential. And if you, I'll just tell you beforehand, it's really pretty far out. Right after, in the sutra, right after it says, right after, in the teacher, the main teacher of the sutra is Vairochana Buddha, Dharmakaya Vairochana Buddha.

[32:57]

And Vairacana Buddha says, these precepts are for all living beings whose original nature is pure. And then he says, now I, Vairacana Buddha, seated on a thousand-petaled lotus flower platform, and on each platform is a Shakyamuni Buddha. So this Vairachana is seated on a thousand petals of lotus and on each petal is a Shakyamuni Buddha sitting. And with that Shakyamuni, each Shakyamuni Buddha has, I believe, a trillion other Shakyamuni Buddhas with him. And each Buddha has an inexhaustible Buddha land. And from here, Vairachana goes on to give you a picture of where these precepts are coming from. So, if you read it and it's too much, just stop and come back later.

[34:10]

But it is, again, I don't know what to say other than it's very influential. It's in the background of our Bodhisattva precept tradition. And it's also coming from this Buddha nature, Tathagatagarbha perspective. So I was talking to the priests at Zen Center about studying the scripture and as I got into talking to them about it, I thought maybe it's too much to go through it in a group. So I recommended that they read it and after they read it, after they've all read it, if they want to study it in detail, we could do that. And then we could even do it with the commentary. So this is a possible thing that might happen with the priests at Green Gulch.

[35:17]

But so far we're not doing it. I just said, why don't you read it? In the meantime, someone said to me, you've never taught the Platform Sutra, which is sometimes called the Platform Sutra of the sixth ancestor of Zen, Hui Nung. And it's true, I never did teach it. I read it a long time ago, like... Like around, yeah, 1970 I started reading it. It was translated in 67 and I read it in 70. And yeah, I still have the book and I have my notes from 1970. It's lovely. But I never taught it. And I had various reasons for why not to. But when it was brought up, I never taught it. I thought, well, maybe now is the time to do it because because I wanted to study that bodhisattva precepts sutra the brahma's net sutra i feel like people need to get familiar with before i study it but we have another precept sutra the platform sutra the short version it says platform sutra but it's actually bodhisattva precept platform sutra the platform is a is a platform that the preceptor the teacher sits on

[36:38]

giving the Bodhisattva precepts. So I thought, well, let's go look at the Platform Sutra and see how the Zen people deal with these precepts. And it's the same. And so we're studying the Platform Sutra now. And what I'm finding, which I found before, but more comfortably, is that the Bodhisattva precepts in the Platform Sutra are Buddha nature. bodhisattva precepts. And again, in that platform sutra of the Zen sixth ancestor, who we call, before introducing a practice called, I believe, formless refuge, the formless refuges. It's a practice in there. In that Platform Sutra, in that Bodhisattva Precept Platform Sutra, there's a section which is about formless refuge or receiving the formless refuges.

[37:53]

So the Sikhs ancestor in this scripture supposedly said, now I will give you the formless three treasures. The Farmless Refugees and the Three Treasures. And again, before he says that, he says, he quotes the Brahma's Net Sutra. And he tells the people, these precepts are for all sentient beings whose original nature is pure. And then he says, now recite with me. And then he does this thing, which I'm not yet ready to do with you because I want to check to see if you're ready for it before I do it. Then he goes on to transmit the formless refuges in the three jewels.

[38:59]

So, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if you feel overwhelmed by all that I said. And so I'm going to pause now before I actually, I thought I actually, I don't want to talk to you too much more about the Brahma's Net Sutra until you've read, some of you have read it. But I do feel like maybe I can start talking to you about the Bodhisattva platform sutra of the sixth ancestor of Zen because again that is you know when I look at the platform sutra I see various elements in there that are in our Bodhisattva precept ceremonies and when I look at the sutra I also see various elements that are taken from both of those places so again the platform sutra I see coming from the Tathagata Garbha teaching and also coming from the Brahmas Net Sutra.

[40:14]

And I see our ceremony coming from both. And from all these sutras in the background of those two. So behind the Tathagata Garbha teaching is the Nirvana Sutra, the Avatamsaka Sutra, the Tathagata Garbha Sutra, And so on. There's these huge Mahayana masterpieces behind these bodhisattva precept ceremonies. And I maybe maybe want to say that I think I'm sitting on this hot spot and I'm moving slow. I'm going northwest slowly. I'm going to be on this hot spot for a while. And I will share with you the lava. I will share with you the... It's more like the... What is it called? The magma? It's called magma? It's coming up.

[41:16]

And I'm very joyful to have this coming up. And I feel like maybe I can share it with you. And you can sit on the same spot. There's plenty of room on the top of this volcano. So I'm pausing. I'm pausing and I'm joyful and I want to be careful not to say too much. Yes? I have two questions. Number one, do you want us to email Rev. Simpson? You don't want to just put the link on the bulletin board and have us copy? Do you want us to actually have the process of email and response?

[42:17]

We could do that. So we can put the link on the board. And if somehow that doesn't work, you could email Yes, Charlie. We could put the link on the Dharma Talks page. Also. How about putting it on the bulletin board? So we can put it on the... I'll show it to Charlie. He can put it on the Dharma Talks page. And somebody, I don't know who, will write the link on the bulletin board. Maybe you will. I will be happy. Can I ask a question more about that? Yeah. Go ahead. Is the link to the Brahma Net Sutra or is it to the 48 precepts or are they the same? In the Brahma Net Sutra in the second part the 58 Bodhisattva precepts are presented and discussed.

[43:30]

Could you give us a sample of one of the ones we don't know about? Yeah. Not eating meat. That's not explicitly said in the first ten. But it is in the latter 48. Not eating meat. Also, actually, in the first ten, precept number five, actually in the text, you will see if you read it, it's actually the precept of not selling intoxicants. But I think in the early days of Zen Center, Suzuki Rishi thought, well, probably we should say not just, because not everybody is a drug dealer, but a lot of people use drugs. So Zen Center didn't make a policy not to sell drugs,

[44:33]

in the Zendo but not take drugs in the Zendo because people were taking drugs so actually I think maybe the first almost the first of the 48 is not to take drugs not to take in intoxicants and number 5 in the first 10 is not to sell them So that's one of the 48 that's in the R10, because we felt like we should mention at least that one of the 48 for people, because most people don't think of themselves. Well, I'm not going to sell sake. Yeah, right. Yes. Two questions. First, I thought, at some point when you were talking about the sutras, did you mention that they were intended for sentient beings of pure origin?

[45:43]

Well, whose original nature is pure. Are there sentient beings whose original nature is not pure? In this, this sutra says, these precepts are for all sentient beings. whose nature is pure. This scripture is saying the Tathagatagarbha teaching is saying all sentient beings original nature is the Tathagatagarbha. And there's a debate. Some Yogacara, some of the Mahayana philosophers think that there's some people who do not, who these precepts are not for, who are incurably polluted. There is that opinion floating around. But Zen generally speaking seems to go with the Nirvana Sutra which says as it's teaching about the you know the milk medicine and the Nirvana Sutra says all sentient beings

[47:03]

without exception, have the Buddha nature. Or another translation could be, the way Dogen interprets it. All sentient beings, whole being, is Buddha nature. But Buddha nature is not just the pure. It's the pure mingled with the impure. We all have this mixture and we also all have this original nature. Just like our so-called, our unconscious process has the seeds for nirvana and the seeds for samsara. Our body and mind have the seeds for nirvana and the seeds for samsara. And the seeds for nirvana are coming from the unmixed suchness, unmixed reality in our body, in our mind. Unmixed, perfectly pure. That's in us. but also we have the impure.

[48:05]

And those two together is where the Tathagata is born. The perfectly pure grows up with all sentient beings. And that's what that Ratna, Gautra, Vibhanga, Mahayana, Uttara, Tantra, Shastra is about, is to discuss this. And like the two correlated precepts where you mentioned, yeah well it also teaches that all these precepts come from each of all the others they're all mutually included that's another part of the teaching there is that you know not selling intoxicants goes with not killing, not taking what's not given, and so on.

[49:07]

Each of the ten include the other nine, but also each of the 58 include the other 57. That's, again, part of the teaching of Buddha nature. From the Avatamsaka Sutra, we all fully possess the wisdom and virtues of the Buddha. We all include each other and are included in each other. That's our nature. And that nature is originally pure. But also, it is possible that we have attachments and misconceptions so that interferes with our enjoyment of our true nature, which is what we're here for, is to learn how to deal with those attachments and misunderstandings in a way to awaken to our true nature.

[50:08]

So again, in the Platform Sutra for Bodhisattva Precepts, over and over again it is said, see your original nature and become Buddha. But also see that your original nature is Buddha. Your original nature is Buddha. Your original nature is Buddha. See that. And seeing nature is again called Kensho, which is in Zen often equated with enlightenment. See your nature. You've got your nature, see it. But you can't see your nature unless you look at your not nature. You can't see your original pure nature unless you observe your impure nature with eyes of compassion. So two months ago I was stressing or more Zen practice is to observe the cries of the world. The cries of the world are the cries of deluded beings.

[51:12]

They're the cries of delusion. They're the cries of fear and arrogance and self-righteousness and confusion and attachment and hatred. All this stuff is calling for compassion. All these are like not really our original nature. But if you... observe them with eyes of compassion, they all turn into Dharma doors. And you see your original nature in everything. Because all these pollutions are intimately cohabiting in your Buddha nature. And as we know, it's really a challenging work to moment by moment be listening to all the cries of the world. As we observe sentient beings with eyes of compassion and listen to their cries with compassion, as the compassion becomes more and more wholehearted, these cries, these sentient beings, including ourselves,

[52:30]

will open will reveal the original self nature in its purity. So the compassion practice is continuous and as it becomes wholehearted the wisdom eye opens and we will see our true self nature. The compassion, the wisdom, the liberating wisdom grows in the growing compassion Once again, I suggested to you that there's this kind of lineage of teachings.

[55:28]

So there's like the Nirvana Sutra, which is one of the last of the Mahayana Sutras to appear, and the Avatamsaka Sutra, the Flower Adornment Scripture, that both of those scriptures teach. the Nirvana Sutra says all living beings without exception are the Buddha nature or have the Buddha nature and the Avatamsaka Sutra says the Buddha says now I see that all living beings without exception fully possess the wisdom and virtues of the Buddhas however because of attachment and misconceptions, they don't realize it. Therefore, I teach it. And those texts are in the background leading up to the Brahmas Net Sutra which gives the Bodhisattva precepts of Buddha nature, the Bodhisattva precepts

[56:51]

of the Buddha nature, Tathagatagarbha. And that sutra, and that sutra with the other sutras, flows into the platform sutra of the sixth ancestor, also teaching the Buddha nature bodhisattva precepts. And I put some cards over there, which I think are... Did they get covered up by other scriptures? I put some cards up there which say 16 great bodhisattva precepts. So this presentation of bodhisattva precepts in 16 is the three refuges, the three treasures... and the three basic bodhisattva precepts, the threefold bodhisattva precept of embracing and sustaining the forms and ceremonies, embracing and sustaining all wholesome action, and embracing and sustaining all beings.

[58:10]

And it's followed by ten grave precepts, which are the ten grave precepts in the Brahma's net scripture. The ten major or grave precepts in R16 come from that sutra. In the bodhisattva precept ceremony in the sixth ancestors bodhisattva platform sutra in that text They don't give the ten grave precepts or the 48 minor. They more focus on the three treasures. And they talk about the three treasures as a formless three treasures.

[59:16]

There are three treasures. They're Buddha, Dharma and Sangha without form. And so at the beginning of the ceremony the Buddha says recite with me. And he said if you recite with me this recitation will make you see the three bodies of Buddha in your own self. And then he recites going for refuge in the three bodies, one by one, in our own physical body. So our own physical body has a form. So we use the... we use our physical body as the place for going for refuge in the three bodies of Buddha.

[60:32]

We don't go for refuge in our body. We go for refuge in the threefold Buddha body in our body. And in doing this, the ancestor says, you will be able to see the three bodies of Buddha in your own body or to see your own body as the threefold body of Buddha. And the three bodies are what we call the Dharma body of the Buddha. The other is the complete fulfilled body of Buddha and the other is the the hundred thousand ten thousand hundred million trillions of transformation bodies of Buddha those are the three bodies

[61:50]

No, I don't. Where do you want me to start? Well, I guess the three. So number one is called the Dharma body or the real body of Buddha. Dharmakaya Buddha. The next one is called the complete Sambhogakaya Buddha, which is also sometimes called the bliss body of Buddha. So, the fulfilled or bliss body of Buddha. Sambhogakaya Buddha. And the third body is the more or less infinite transformation, transformational forms that Buddha can take. Nirmanakaya Buddha. Yes? I can.

[62:59]

But next time. So I just wanted to tell you that in this platform sutra, which I didn't recommend you read that yet, but guess what? You can get that online too. You don't have to buy it. You can just Google it. And it's translated by the same organization, which might be called Bukyo Dentokyo? Anyway, it's BDK. It's the initials. It's the Numata Institute in Berkeley. Anyway, if you Google Platform Sutra, you can get a PDF of it, and you can download it onto your computer, and you can read the Platform Sutra, too. but I'm not recommending you do that yet. First, I suggest you read the Precept Sutra and the background Mahayana Precept Sutra, and then after that, read the Zen Precept Sutra of the ancestor.

[64:07]

Anyway, in that sutra, at the beginning of the ceremony, in that sutra, the ancestor, Hui Nung, says... People say he said, recite with me. And then he says, I or we go for refuge in the Dharma body of Buddha within or as our own body. I or we go for refuge in the complete body of Buddha. the complete fulfilled body of Buddha in our own physical body. We go for refuge in the transformation body of Buddha, the billions of transformation bodies of Buddha in our own body. And he says, in doing this, you are able to see the three bodies of Buddha as your own self nature.

[65:17]

Yes? Actually, with one body that we have, we're given, with that one body, we are capable or there's the potential of transforming. So we don't have to go like one body at a time. With this one body, you're able to go to the whole transformation of all the bodies. Correct or not? Correct. so we don't have to keep being born in different bodies. You don't have to, but you will. And each body you're born in, you can use that body to go for refuge. Usually we go for refuge in the Buddha, in the Dharma, in the Sangha. This is a formless refuge where you're going for refuge in something which has no form because...

[66:22]

you're going for refuge in these things in your own body. So it's formless. These three bodies of Buddha are formless. But you need your body, which is a form. We need to realize that using this body to realize those bodies shows us what we really are. We will see our true nature, our original true nature in this method. That's the beginning of the precept ceremony. So maybe next time we meet, we could actually do the ceremony, at least that part of it. And then there's also repentance, which is also formless repentance. And then there's a formless going for refuge in the Buddha Dharma and Sangha. This first going for refuge is going for refuge in the threefold Buddha body in our own body as a way to see our essential original nature.

[67:32]

That's what the ancestors are suggesting here. Or that's what they say the ancestors are suggesting. And this understanding of the Bodhisattva precepts has been a big part of the Zen tradition for about 1300 years. So If you read the other sutra as a background, perhaps next time we meet, we could actually perform part of the sutra, platform sutra ceremony. But I don't know if anybody will come. I can imagine you say, well, I don't know if I want to do that. I'm not saying for sure we'll do that. But we could. We could do it. Or I could just tell you about it. and tell you about it and tell you about it until everybody wanted to do it. Part of my job description is to be flexible.

[68:35]

Which leads me to say that I was talking to someone earlier about we have a lot of English surnames that are actually job descriptions like Mr. Carpenter, Mr. Miller, Mr. Farmer, Mr. Baker, Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Archer, Mr. Smith. And we also have Mr. or Mrs. listening to the cries of the world. So that's kind of our last name. In China, all their names were Shakya, Shakya something. They were all in the Shakya clan. And the Shakya is the one who taught us to listen to the cries of the world.

[69:45]

Our family name is like our job. See your own original true nature. That's our job. That's been assigned to us by the sutra, which you may or may not wish to accept.

[70:03]

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