someone told me
the that when he came to zen center
at some point he imagined to someone
that
his practice was to worship deities
i've something like that
and the person mentioned to us said you're in the wrong school
i i don't know what they meant by school but i assume they meant presents and her school
was the school he was in and that if you're worshipping deities you're in the wrong school because we don't do that had and center
somebody said that to the person

and so i don't know what that person who studies in iran school
was thinking or whatever but
some people do come to zen center and they notice or perhaps they notice that would make incense offerings to statues or buddhas and bodhisattvas
and then we have prostrations sort of in the direction of those statues
and we chant scriptures and then have to return them we dedicate the merit to these
the these buddhas and bodhisattvas
this could be seen as worship
this could be seen as
yeah worshipping the divine being the divine enlightened being the and then divine enlightened enlightening beings we also
sometimes make offerings and good prostrations to the ancestors of our tradition like the founder of zen center
or we we make certain we do it we'd make offerings and your prostrations to a hey coso the founder of the transmitter of our our tradition from china to japan
so in a way there is worshipped going on at zen center but we don't use the word worship very much said right
you don't hear much on said center
let's go to the zendo and worship we don't very often say we don't say weekly or daily worship
have you known is that right to be noticed them
not a common word around ours it as presents and or moss and centers
and as you know
there's probably lots of reasons for it like
people's background is maybe there's someone have problems with for the issue of worship from their childhood or there
their culture
so it might have been a skillful thing to not use the word worship much had done as sense hundreds to attract all the people who are looking for a refuge and escaped from worship
and i don't
i don't say that when you're meditating or when your practices and your you have to be worshipping but

most of the ancestors of the tradition work into worship quite a bit so for example of founder
in japan a dog and dire show here
he was very much into veneration
revering and peng or paying homage and praising and worshipping his ancestors
you know shocking mooney buddha in all the ancestors
so if if one isn't into worship but it's okay to come to the zen center and not the into worship
in other words to practice meditation perhaps too
to it as as well as an act
a wholesome act which you think will be beneficial to yourself and other people
to be quiet for for a while to sit still for a while to pay attention to your breathing and posture and as result maybe become calm and
maybe anger and and other afflict of emotions will pass away and you'll feel much you'll feel better and and be a better person in to your friends and neighbors that seems good and that's certainly allowed at most and centers
and in addition to that one might be sitting
as an act of
of revering enlightened beings
of honoring enlightened and enlightening beings
appraising
enlightening beings are paying homage to enlightening beings that way of sitting is the way of sitting of enlightening beings
so some people are sitting with a wholesome intention which is not separate from enlightening beings but
the enlightening things in addition to sitting calmly and doing wholesome deeds they do these deeds
as an act of worship
have the great
enlightened being are great enlightened beings
and great enlightening beings
hum the
the great enlightening being some ontop hydra who is the main body sought for of the flower diamond scripture at the end of the scripture they have these ten bows of this great enlightening being and i think that the first to vow the first two vows are vowing to
to pay homage to all buddhas as the first bow and the second vow is bowing to praise all buddhas so this this great bodhisattva this supreme this supremely
enlightened body sought but was not a booty yet but who is a bodhisattva with an understanding basically on a par with a buddha
the the central figure of the great my on scripture
this boy sought for here she is vowing first two of the ten miles first one is
pay homage to the buddhas and bodhisattvas i think boot is actually and paying homage and praising the buddha's
hand
yeah was the first two bows of the great bodhisattva samantha hydra which is translated as universal goodness are universally good enlightening being

and again pay homage means isn't just praise
it means you align years is if you align yourself with something he say i want to join or be like this person
so you can praise or know what you can praise tiger woods has a wonderful golfer
but you can also say i want to be a wonderful golfer like that
i want to learn to play golf really well and learn the skills of golf and the skills of concentration
that's more like doesn't pay homage rather than just praising but we do
we have these both his vows
and
and in this thing we just chatted and said
a kosovo dog and is angie said
revering buddha and ancestors we are one buddha and one ancestor revering buddha
we are one buddha revering the ancestor we are one ancestor so he said that he didn't say i revere buddhism ancestors in this particular place but
he's basically
vowing to do that he's vowing to revere buddha's praise buddha is
and in praising buddhas and revering buddha's become one buddha so the practice is
even even you know even if you can't see a buddha right now you can still
look at a statue or think of buddha's and bow to the statues
either as buddha or amount of the statues thinking about the buddhas and when you bought them at that time there's the there's the buddha and there's you
and you're bound to the buddha the buddha might be bound to you too buddy why you're buying to the buddha
and bowing with reverence to the buddha gay
we are one buddha
not to boat as one
it's still you are bound to the buddha but in that boeing that is one buddha
when you start it seems like there's a buddha plus somebody
right
but when you bought the buddha as an active reverence there's son is one buddha
so did you drop out of the scene
there was buddha new another just buddha well kind of yes
but also buddha dropped out of the seen as being somebody in addition to you
anyways there's just one buddha when you're about to buddha when you bought the buddha that's buddha that's when we bought the buddha that's the buddha away
that's the boot away bowing to buddha is the boot away
now if you happen to run into a booed and you say what's happening man you know
and just you and what wave or something walk by as okay
if if what you mean by that is this way needs total reverence
total i know this this is as this is this is called the this is called the homage wave
gay this is called the praise where this has called the worship wave okay fine that's the buddha way to
but most people don't actually go like this to something when they mean to say i really praise you that they don't usually like that but if you're that's what you mean
guess the rumbling to roam the the is going this how are they going to go did they go at that
in the movies yeah i think they actually did do some my dad and then hitler picked up on that to read
anyway the point the prostration is is the formal way
i'm saying i'm with you
and i'm with you guys
and at that time that is the boot away
and when there's that there is the buddha away and when there's not that
when does not reference
for the buddha's than there isn't a brutal than the buddha way degenerates
and then school men have been known for this but
that's just because the zanskar isn't known for for this by some people
millions and millions of other people i don't know how many millions but anyway for quite a few millions of other people send school clearly the school of
respecting the buddha venerating the buddha and that that today
be one buddha
the buddha way is about being one buddha not being booed as an other people
and so we have this when we when we we have a chance we have does more than one champ but we have a chat
which we can do in our head or out loud when we bout to buddhas and bodhisattvas or zen masters or whatever and the to chant is the one boeing and the one bow to
their nature no nature
the each of the same nature no nature
the one bowing and one bowed to
their nature no nature
this body and other bodies not to
plunge into the truth
live in wow
what vow well about to for example
worship praise pay homage to boot us live in those kind of out what kind of hours the vow to and then the rest of the there's more valves coming up there is a more for this particular bodhisattva
one of them being to serve all living beings to be a servant all living beings that's another one this great bodhisattva supreme
bodhisattva vows to serve all beings
and also to confess his shortcomings what what shortcomings does he have well if we look at some onto or we don't see any shortcomings in all the scriptures as most know shortcomings of some mondo pedro are mentioned but he sees his shortcomings
he sees all shortcomings
whole time so he he's confessing his shortcomings
and then also when you see the shortcomings of other and when you see your own shortcomings and the next one after saint after confessing your shortcomings is to see the virtues of others devolved to see the virtues of others by that follows after looking at your own shortcomings
the more i noticed my short commute the more i see how others are virtuous the less i see my shortcomings
the more i see other people's shortcomings
what makes sense you know about that you've seen people like different
they've got no shortcomings but everybody else does but when you see how when you see when i see my shortcomings then i see how good other people are wow
amazing i mean they got problems but compared to me please
i vow i vowed to do those practices if i say that i just happened to be saying
what is supremely developed enlightening being says in the other times like suit yourself
hey
you're allowed to join in this kind of our
but this veneration remember it's not a in people people have nervous about it but it's about cutting through the duality between you and buddha
a cutting through duality not sound more like zan okay
but the way you cut through it
is to enter it
by being you
and the buddha sounds like duality doesn't me and the buddha me worshipping the bodhisattva sounds like duality there's me and then there's two
what's new in the body sought by you in the boot of sounds like to okay or you'd do it that you bow
and you cut through it and you become one book that becomes one good
so on
now if i hear by people going around telling people you're in the wrong school get outta here
you worshipping one
if i hear about that than i have to think really quickly a minor shortcomings so i can realize their virtues of this person saying you're in the wrong school because actually didn't they did me a favor by saying that
so i could like talk about this today
so i could point out that a lot of zen students when they hear about the kinds of buddhism or there
kind of clearly expressing
worshipping buddhas and bodhisattvas the lot of would think that's not overdoing here where we are some of us are
particularly the what dan sisters are the ancestors of the ones that did it some people would just come in his and centers and walk out and don't become as just they don't do that some of them to come in they say this is nice place good vegetarian food people are quiet i can sit here and calm down this is a great
people everyone's welcome all sentient beings are welcome at a real zen center but the ancestors are the ones who come
and
worship
the people who are going to become the ancestors are the ones have come and worship to ancestors they don't necessarily do with the first day they arrive sometimes it takes me awhile to get into it
but some time before they become an ancestor they really totally get into
person bowing person bowed to their nature no nature
person bowing person bowed to one buddha they get into that
usually takes you know some repetition of this issue before there's like one hundred percent
one buddha wow

ah and a people have them human beings and some other kinds of living beings do have some problems around worship and one of the problems around worship on i'd like are more a couple of the problems around worship i'd like to mention
the buddha dharma is not without danger the buddha the buddha way has dangerous
and
so even if you're bowing still we could have even if you're worshipping and and in the process they're becoming one buddha still there are some problems and and and also before you do that you may have some resistance and the resistance may be well-founded i just recently was looking a reading an arty
cobb i think by a christian person i'm not sure but he was
he was talking about i think
well basically was saying that
in the lotus sutra
the great mahayana sutra lotus sutra by the way the law city has three parts and the third part of the lotus sutra is the is the practices of surmount of hydra so some and potters also big the lotus sutra because the third part of of researchers is about the practice
have some entendre but anyway in the lotus sutra in chapter sixteen
the lotus sutra
minos says and some wonderful things that separate cities about the eternal life of the of the buddha
and the buddhist says in that chapter
you know
it looks like i was born at a certain point
live in a palace
saw the suffering in the world left home pursued the path attain the path taught for forty five years and died it looks like that but actually that that coming and going was just a skillful means that i that that i that i gave to help people actually i'm always high
here
and he says that in chapter sixteen
but one of the implications you can draw from this chapter is that
this this buddha that appears and disappears he represents
something
he represents something that's true
about all of us
handsome lotus sutra does seem to be saying that the buddha the great buddha shakyamuni who appeared in india and other boaters who appear in the world they appear as representatives
of the truth
of our life
but within buddhism
i look before i got to buddhism i say and in christianity to some people can see christ has representing
the truth of a reality about all of us
but within christianity and within buddhism to i think symptom cases people might think that buddha or christ are not representatives of a truth that pervades all being
and that works in all beings but that christ constitutes the truth
or buddha constitutes the truth
rather than is a representation that beings can see as a way to enter the truth
and the author
points out which i think it's really important that if you think that christ
constitutes if you take the constitutive east view of christ
then you would probably logically
have to deny
that for example the buddha
is a valid representation of the truth
are you know a valid a valid a constitution of the truth or representation
and in that case
here's a here's a really bad part which i think it's good to be wary of in that case he would be difficult for you to have a dialogue if you're a christian with a buddhist
other than basically saying too bad for you
because i have to deny the validity of your tradition
because your because the truth is constituted by christ and similarly some buddhist might think that tooth so then they wouldn't be able to dialogue and a respectful way with christians etc
and i think this is one element in our current world
ah
not in our current war a war or couldn't current wars around the world is that people don't see their traditions as a representative of a truth that's found in all beings
and therefore it's hard for them to actually have a conversation with people who are using other representations and like really be able to acknowledge the validity of a different representation of the divine reality
so if you hear about worshipping the buddha and you come from an environment where people are attributing
the constitution of reality into these forms you might feel well if i worship the buddha's
then i then i will become perhaps hostile to other forms of divine reality
and if you did think that worshipping the buddha would mean if you would say that the reality is constituted know what i'm bowing to
that would
that would not be harmonious with you respecting other traditions
but in the lotus sutra anyway which i think it's again very closely related to particularly to present school and especially to santos and in the lotus sutra it's pretty clear that we're talking to my shocking mooney buddha has a great
and necessary or representation of reality
we need them we need some representation of reality to enter it otherwise
our mind doesn't know where to look it doesn't know where to bow doesn't know where resist or whatever
so the boot appears and disappears but it doesn't but the good doesn't
what appears to appear and disappear or appears to be born and die actually not but the buddha that isn't born and dying we can't see that buddha
not until we study the one who appears and disappears and teaches us how to see the one that doesn't appear and disappear
so that one that does appear and disappear it tells us that we need to see the buddha in order to see the dharma
and the one that it does appear and disappear tells us that the real buddha
that's the one who appears and disappears represents doesn't appear and disappear
and so also the real christ isn't the one that appears and disappears
in the real profits heart ones that appear and disappear their representations
i'm a spiritual process
so then in chapter sixteen also the buddha tells us the the representative buddha the buddha who appears so we can see who allows us to make a representation so he can see and hear that one tells us that if you practice all virtues
and your gentle and flexible an honest and upright you will see the buddha's
you won't see the they're caught the representative buddha because that buddhism has passed away
but that buddha sends the message the one through words that the you'll see the real boy
and that real buddha is always with us
and we need to see the buddha because the lotus dosage also says that only one a buddha meets with a buddha is reality realized
only when we bought the buddha and there's one buddha
and one ancestor
and in that boeing there is
uprightness
honesty flexibility and harmony harmony
and also we are practicing all virtues means
we live in a world of all suffering beings
so it wouldn't practice virtue in a gated community