Someone told me that when he came to Zen Center, at some point he mentioned to someone that his practice was to worship deities, or something like that. And the person he mentioned to said, you're in the wrong school. I don't know what they meant by the school, but I assume they meant the Zen Center school was the school he was in, and that if you're worshiping deities you're in the wrong school because we don't do that at Zen Center. Somebody said that to the person. So I don't know what that person who said he was in the wrong school was thinking or

[01:12]

whatever. Some people do come to Zen Center and they notice, perhaps they notice that we make incense offerings to statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and then we do prostrations sort of in the direction of those statues, and we chant scriptures, and then after we chant them we dedicate the merit to these Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. This could be seen as worship. This could be seen as worshiping the divine enlightened beings and the divine enlightening beings. We also sometimes make offerings and do prostrations to the ancestors of our tradition, like the founder of Zen Center, or we make offerings and do prostrations to Ehe Koso, the transmitter

[02:21]

of our tradition from China to Japan. So, in a way, there is worship going on at Zen Center, but we don't use the word worship very much. Is that right? You don't hear it much around Zen Center. Let's go to the Zendoan worship we don't very often say. We don't say weekly or daily worship. Is that right? Have you noticed that? It's not a common word around San Francisco's Zen Center or most Zen Centers, and there's probably lots of reasons for it, like people's background, maybe they somewhat have problems with the issue of worship from their childhood or their culture, so it might have been a reason to worship much at Zen Centers to attract all the people who are looking for

[03:22]

a refuge, an escape from worship. And I don't say that when you're meditating or when you're practicing Zen you have to be worshiping, but most of the ancestors of the tradition were into worship quite a bit. So for example, the founder in Japan, Ehe Dogen Daisho, he was very much into veneration, revering and paying homage and praising and worshiping his ancestors, you know, Shakyamuni Buddha and all the ancestors. So if one isn't into worship, it's okay to come to the Zen Center and not be into worship.

[04:26]

In other words, to practice meditation perhaps as an act, a wholesome act, which you think will be beneficial to yourself and other people. To be quiet for a while, to sit still for a while, to pay attention to your breathing and posture, and as a result maybe become calm and maybe anger and other afflictive emotions will pass away and you'll feel better and be a better person to your friends and neighbors. That seems good, and that's certainly allowed at most Zen Centers. And, in addition to that, one might be sitting as an act of revering enlightened beings,

[05:30]

of honoring enlightened and enlightening beings, of praising enlightened 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 beings, in addition to sitting calmly and doing wholesome deeds, they do these deeds as an act of worship of the great enlightened being or great enlightened beings and great enlightening beings. The great enlightening being, Samantabhadra, who is the main bodhisattva of the flower

[06:37]

adornment scripture, at the end of the scripture, they have these ten vows of this great enlightening being, and I think that the first two vows are vowing to be a great enlightened being, to pay homage to all Buddhas, that's the first vow, and the second vow is vowing to praise all Buddhas. So this great bodhisattva, this supremely enlightened bodhisattva, who is not a Buddha yet, but who is a bodhisattva with an understanding basically on a par with a Buddha, the central figure of the great Mahayana scripture, this bodhisattva, he or she, is vowing, the first two of the ten vows, the first one is paying homage to the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, I think Buddhas actually, and paying homage and praising the Buddhas.

[07:40]

Those are the first two vows of the great bodhisattva, Samantabhadra, which is translated as universal goodness, or universally good, enlightening being. And, again, paying homage isn't just praise, it means you align yourself with something. You say, I want to join or be like this person. So you can praise, I don't know what, you could praise Tiger Woods as a wonderful golfer, but you could 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. So that's paying homage rather than just praising. We have both these vows, and in this thing we just chanted, Dogen said, ehe koso, Dogen

[09:03]

Zenji said, revering Buddhas 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 Buddhas and ancestors in this particular place, but he's basically vowing to do that. He's vowing to revere Buddhas, praise Buddhas, and in praising Buddhas and revering Buddhas, become one Buddha. So the practice is, even if you can't see a Buddha right now, you can still look at a statue or think of Buddhas and bow to the statues either as Buddha or bow to the statues thinking about the Buddhas. And when you bow to them

[10:03]

at that time, there's the Buddha and there's you. And you're bowing to the Buddha. The Buddha might be bowing to you too, but anyway, you're bowing to the Buddha. And bowing with reverence to the Buddha, we are one Buddha. Not two Buddhas, one. It's still you are bowing to the Buddha, but in that bowing, that is one Buddha. When you start, it seems like there's a Buddha plus somebody. But when you bow to the Buddha as an act of reverence, then there's one Buddha. So did you drop out of the scene? There was Buddha and you and now there's just Buddha? Well, kind of yes. But also, Buddha dropped out of the scene

[11:09]

as being somebody in addition to you. Anyway, there's just one Buddha when you bow to Buddha. When you bow to Buddha, that's Buddha. When we bow to Buddha, that's the Buddha way. That's the Buddha way. Bowing to Buddha is the Buddha way. Now, if you happen to run into a Buddha and you say, what's happening, man? And just, I don't know what, wave or something and walk by, that's okay. If what you mean by that is this wave means total reverence, this is called the homage wave, this is called the praise wave, this is called the worship wave, okay fine, that's the Buddha way too. But most people don't actually go like this to something when they mean to say, I really praise you. They don't usually go like that.

[12:13]

But if that's what you mean, I guess the Romans go like this? Did they go like that? In the movies, I think they actually did do something like that. And then Hitler picked up on that too, right? Anyway, the prostration is the formal way of saying, I'm with you, and I'm with you guys. And at that time, that is the Buddha way. And when there's that, there is the Buddha way. And when there's not that, when there's not reverence, when there's not for the Buddhas, then the Buddha way degenerates. And the Zen school may not be known for this, but that's just because the Zen school isn't known for this by some people. Millions and

[13:18]

millions of other people, I don't know how many millions, but anyway, for quite a few millions of other people, the Zen school clearly is a school of respecting the Buddha, venerating the Buddha, and being one Buddha. The Buddha way is about being one Buddha, not being Buddhas and other people. And so, when we have a chant, there's more than one chant, but we have a chant which we can do in our head or out loud when we bow to Buddhas or Bodhisattvas or Zen masters or whatever. And the chant is, the one bowing and the one bowed to, their nature, no nature. They each have the same nature, no nature. The one bowing and the one bowed

[14:23]

to, their nature, no nature. This body and other bodies, not two, plunge into the truth, live in vow. What vow? Well, the vow to, for example, worship, praise, pay homage to Buddhas, live in those kind of vows. What kind of vows? The vow to, and then the rest of it, there's more vows coming up, there's eight more for this particular Bodhisattva, one of them being to serve all living beings, to be a servant to all living beings, that's another one. This great Bodhisattva, supreme Bodhisattva, vows to serve all beings. And also to confess

[15:27]

his shortcomings. What shortcomings does he have? Well, if we look at Samantabhadra, we don't see any shortcomings. In all the scriptures, there's no shortcomings of Samantabhadra mentioned, but he sees his shortcomings, he sees all shortcomings, all the time. So he's confessing his shortcomings. And then also, when you see your own shortcomings, and the next one after confessing your shortcomings, is to see the virtues of others, to vow to see the virtues of others. But that follows after looking at your own shortcomings. The more I notice my shortcomings, the more I see how others are virtuous. The less I see my shortcomings, the more I see other people's shortcomings. Does that make sense? You know about that. You've seen people like that, right? They've got no shortcomings, but everybody else does.

[16:28]

When I see my shortcomings, then I see how good other people are. Wow! Amazing! I mean they've got problems, but compared to me, please! I vow to do those practices. If I say that, I just happen to be saying what a supremely developed, enlightening being says in the Avatamsaka Sutra. So, hey, you're allowed to join in this kind of vowing. But this veneration, remember, people have nervous about it, but it's about cutting through the duality between you and Buddha. Now, cutting through duality, that sounds more like Zen, okay. But the way you cut through it is to enter it by being you and the Buddha. It sounds like duality, doesn't it? Me and the Buddha. Me worshipping the Bodhisattvas. It sounds

[17:31]

like duality. There's me and them. There's two, right? Me and the Bodhisattvas. You and the Buddha. It sounds like two, okay? Well, what do you do with that? You bow, and you cut through it, and you become one Buddha. There becomes one Buddha. Now if I hear about people going around telling people, you're in the wrong school, get out of here, you worshipping one, if I hear about that, then I have to think really quickly of my own shortcomings, so I can realize the virtues of this person saying you're in the wrong school. Because they actually 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

[18:31]

the kinds of Buddhism where they're kind of clearly expressing worshipping Buddhism, Bodhisattvas, a lot of them would think, that's not what we're doing here. Well, we are. Some of us are. Particularly the ancestors are. The ancestors are the ones that did it. Some people would just come into Zen centers and walk out and don't become ancestors. They don't do that, some of them. They come in, they say, this is a nice place, good vegetarian food, people are quiet, I can sit here and calm down, this is great, 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 who come and worship the ancestors. They don't necessarily do it the first day they arrive, sometimes it takes them a while to get into it, but sometime before they become an ancestor they really

[19:37]

totally get into person bowing, person bowed to, their nature, no nature. Person bowing, person bowed to, one Buddha. They get into that. Usually it takes some repetition to get into the foundation of this issue before there's like 100%. One Buddha, wow! And if people have, human beings and some other kinds of living beings, do have some

[20:43]

problems around worship, and one of the problems around worship I'd like, or a couple of the problems around worship I'd like to mention. The Buddha Dharma is not without danger. It is not without danger. The Buddha way has dangers. So even if you're bowing, even if you're worshiping and in the process they're becoming one Buddha, still there's some problems. And also before you do that, you may have some resistance and the resistance may be well founded. I just recently was reading an article, I think by a Christian person, I'm not sure, but he was talking about, I think, well basically he was saying that in the Lotus Sutra, the great Mahayana Sutra of the Lotus Sutra, by the way the Lotus Sutra

[21:46]

has three parts, and the third part of the Lotus Sutra is the practices of Samantabhadra. So Samantabhadra is also big in the Lotus Sutra, because the third part of the Lotus Sutra is about the practice of Samantabhadra. But anyway, in the Lotus Sutra, in Chapter 16, the Lotus Sutra says some wonderful things. Chapter 16 is about the eternal life of the Buddha, and the Buddha says in that chapter, it looks like the eternal life of the Buddha looks like I was born at a certain point, lived in a palace, saw the suffering in the world, left home, pursued the path, attained the path, taught for 45 years and died, it looked like that. But actually, that coming and going was just a skillful means that I

[22:47]

gave to help people. Actually, I'm always here. He says that in Chapter 16. But one of the implications you can draw from this chapter is that this Buddha that appears and disappears represents something. He represents something that's true about all of us. He represents truth. And so the Lotus Sutra does seem to be saying that the great Buddha Shakyamuni, who appeared in India, and other Buddhas who appear in the world, they appear as representatives of the truth of our life. But within Buddhism, there is no such thing as a Buddha. And in Christianity too, some people can see Christ as representing the

[23:57]

truth of a reality about all of us. But within Christianity and within Buddhism too, I think in some 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 is really important, that if you think that Christ constitutes, if you take the constitutivist view of Christ, then you would probably logically have to deny that, for example, the Buddha is a valid

[25:08]

representation of the truth, or a valid constitution of the truth. But in Buddhism, the Buddha is a valid representation of the truth, or representation. And in that case, and here's the really bad part, which I think it's good to be wary of, in that case it would be difficult for you to have a dialogue, if you were a Christian, with a Buddhist, other than basically saying, too bad for you, because I have to deny the validity of your tradition, because the truth is constituted by Christ. And similarly, some Buddhists might think that too, so then they wouldn't be able to dialogue in a respectful way with Christians, etc. And I think this is one element in our current world war, or current wars around the world,

[26:08]

is that people don't see their traditions as 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 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 Buddhas, then I will become perhaps hostile to other forms of divine reality. And if you did think that worshipping the Buddha would mean that you would say that the reality is constituted in what I'm bowing to, that would not be harmonious with you

[27:14]

respecting other traditions. But in the Lotus Sutra anyway, which I think is again very closely related, particularly to the Zen school, and especially to Soto Zen, in the Lotus Sutra, it's pretty clear that we're talking about Shakyamuni Buddha as a great and necessary representation of reality. We need some representation of reality to enter it, otherwise our mind doesn't know where to look, doesn't know where to bow, doesn't know where to resist, or whatever. So the Buddha appears and disappears, but the Buddha 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

[28:19]

and disappear. So the one that does appear and disappear tells us that we need to see the Buddha in order to see the Dharma. And the one that does appear and disappear tells us that the real Buddha, that 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. And the real prophets aren't ones that appear and disappear, they're representations of a spiritual process. So then in Chapter 16 also the representative Buddha, the Buddha who appears so we can see, who allows us to make a representation so we can see and hear, that one tells us that if you practice all virtues and you're gentle and flexible and

[29:25]

honest and upright, you will see the Buddhas. You won't see the representative Buddha, because that Buddha has passed away. But that Buddha sends the message, the one through words, that you'll see the real Buddha. And that real Buddha is always with us. And we need to see the Buddha, because the Lotus Sutra also says that only when a Buddha meets with a Buddha is reality realized. Only when we bow to Buddha and there's one Buddha and one ancestor. And in that bowing there is uprightness, honesty, flexibility, and harmony. And also, we are practicing all

[30:32]

virtues means we live in the world of all suffering beings. So if we don't practice virtue in a gated community, in our...

[30:49]

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