Now we acknowledge and welcome the members of the Great Assembly. Welcome Amanda. Welcome Bhashya. Welcome Genmyo. Welcome Amarana. Welcome Rosie. Welcome Cynthia. Welcome Breck. Welcome Karin. Welcome Maggie. Excuse me, Margie. Welcome Karin. Welcome Sandra.

[01:03]

Welcome Scott. Welcome Marjorie. Welcome Barbara Joan. Welcome Jeff. Welcome Warren. Welcome Nicola. Welcome Donna. Welcome Martin. Welcome Fran. Welcome Lynn. Welcome Deborah. Welcome Gail. Welcome Marjorie. Welcome Dale.

[02:09]

Welcome Gloria. Welcome Chia Ying. Welcome Susan. Welcome Sarah. Welcome Christian. Welcome Timothy. Welcome Matthew. Welcome Vivian. Welcome Jackie. Welcome June. Welcome Jack. Welcome Michelle. Welcome Linda. Welcome Gayatri.

[03:23]

Welcome Angela. Welcome Catherine. Welcome John. Welcome Lori. Welcome Sonia. Welcome Karin. Welcome Steven. Welcome Kevin. Welcome Ranigan. Welcome Linda. Did I miss anyone? Welcome Reb. Welcome Jeff. You missed us, Jeff and Barbara Joan. No, I said Barbara Joan.

[04:28]

I said Barbara Joan, but I'll say it again, Barbara Joan. Thank you. I think our dog barked at the same time. Welcome again and again. So what we just did just now, and have done in the past, is a kind of an enactment, a ritual enactment of the Sutra. The Sutra starts by this place, the place or the site of awakening of the Buddha.

[05:33]

And there's a great assembly there. And the assembly is recognized. And honored, just as we do here. And the assembly is there because of this great awakening. This great awakening has an awesome spiritual power. And that through, you know, what do you call it, due to this awesome spiritual power of the awakening, there is this great assembly. And here too, this assembly is due to,

[06:39]

this assembly is imbued with, this assembly is assisted by, this assembly is aided by, great awakening. That brings us together. Last week I said something which I wish to say again, which I heard Suzuki Roshi say. And when I thought of that today, I thought, he said a lot of things and I don't remember all of them. But I remember some of them. And they really are with me. And I thought of this essay I read once. And the name of the essay was River Teeth. River Teeth.

[07:43]

And what River Teeth are, is they are what is left of redwood trees that fall into rivers. So some redwood trees just fall on the ground, but some fall into rivers. And the river flows over them, and flows over them, and flows over them. And eventually, the river washes away almost all of the tree, except for these very like jewel-like parts of the tree, which you might call burl. Anyway, they don't get washed away. Even after 500 years, when the rest of the tree has been washed away, these river teeth are still in the river. And there are some things we hear, some things that happen in our life,

[08:45]

that are like river teeth. And so some of the things Suzuki Roshi said are like river teeth in my mind. They're very well situated, and they don't wash away. And part of the reason they don't wash away is I keep bringing them up. So what I brought up was, I heard him say that Zen is the key that unlocks the sutras, that unlocks the Buddhadharma. And then I said, which I didn't hear Suzuki Roshi say, that the Mahayana sutras, and in particular, this great extensive Buddha flower adornment scripture, this scripture teaches us how great Buddha is,

[09:49]

but also it teaches us how great our Zen practice is. So our practice protects, maintains, and realizes the Buddhadharma in the sutras, and the sutras educate us about our sitting practice and our general daily practice of Zen. And then I just thought I might just mention, since I said Zen is, we can say Zen, or we can also say our simple sitting practice unlocks the deep meaning of the sutras. So you might ask, well, what is our sitting practice? What is Zen?

[10:50]

And one of my responses to my own question is that Zen is this great assembly. In conversation with each other, Zen is the genuine, wholehearted, intimate communion among all of us in this great assembly. We assemble for Zen, and Zen is us assembling and intimately communicating with each other. This intimate communication with each other will unlock, and does unlock, the deep meaning of the great scripture. Tonight I thought I might also give you an overview

[12:12]

of the first book of the sutra. It's not the biggest book, but it's a pretty big book. It's about 100 pages in English translation. You don't have to read it, but some of you may have, some of you already have read it. But you don't have to read it, and I would like to tonight give you a brief overview, or anyway, an overview of these 100 pages. It starts out with the Buddha at the site of awakening, who has just awakened. And this awakening place is full of light.

[13:16]

The light of his awakening makes everything radiant and peaceful. And then after showing us this great awakening Buddha in radiant presence, it then tells us who else is in the assembly. And it starts telling us about the bodhisattvas. Now it tells us also that there are more or less infinite bodhisattvas in this assembly. But it tells us a few of the leading bodhisattvas in the assembly, starting with Samantabhadra, universally good bodhisattva. And it tells us the names of these leading bodhisattvas

[14:24]

among an innumerable assembly of bodhisattvas. Then it tells us about 39 categories of spiritual beings. Each category is introduced by saying it is an innumerable assembly of spiritual beings. And it tells us the ten leaders of the innumerable beings in this first category. And then it tells us the names of the ten leaders of the innumerable spiritual beings. And then it goes on to tell us the next kind of spiritual being, the next assembly of spiritual beings, innumerable assembly.

[15:30]

And it tells us about the ten leaders and it tells us their names. And so for each of these 39 categories, each of which is innumerable, I should say each of the categories has innumerable members, in each one it tells us the names of ten leaders of that category. Then after it tells us these, I guess, it gives us about 400 names. Right? 39. No, actually counting the bodhisattvas, 40 categories of beings and it tells us the names of ten of each category. So it gives us 400 names.

[16:33]

Then after telling us the 400 names of the leaders of these innumerable assembly of assemblies, it then points out that what it has just done. It has told us that the assembly around this radiant awakening is very different beings. There is great diversity in this assembly. Okay. Then the sutra goes on and it goes in reverse order to the original presentation. It starts with the last group that were named and the last group that were named are, what are they called? They're called...

[17:36]

They're called the heavenly... They're called the devas of heavenly great freedom. And the leader of that group is... The name of the leader of the group is Ocean of Subtle Flames. And then it tells us, again, each of the names and tells us each of their particular form of liberation. And then the number one leader of the last group gives us ten verses, ten four-line verses, gathas.

[18:50]

And these four-line verses tell us about the Buddha, describe the body of the Buddha. So, the first one to speak is the leader of the ten leaders and that leader gives us a gatha, which is what that leader sees, how that leader sees the Buddha. And then that leader tells us nine more gathas, which describe how all the other leaders see the Buddha. And then we move forward and going backward through the names we went through before and we talk about what all those different leaders, how they see the Buddha, and a verse for each one. And the first one, the first verse,

[19:52]

is the first verse of the Sutra. And this first verse is the verse which Ocean of Subtle Flames... It's the Ocean of Subtle Flames view. And here is what the Celestial King, Ocean of Flames, sees. But again, as I mentioned before, this Bodhisattva, excuse me, this great spiritual king is imbued with, receives, assisted by, inherits the spiritual power of the Buddha. And here's the Chinese character. This character is repeated over and over and over in the Sutra

[21:01]

because everything in the Sutra imbues us. Everything in the Sutra we receive. Everything in the Sutra we carry on. Everything in the Sutra we take care of. Everything in the Sutra we inherit. Everything in the Sutra is given to us, aids us, and so on. By the aid of the great spiritual power of the Buddha, this Celestial King, Ocean of... Ocean of Subtle Flames tells us how the Buddha is by the aid of the Buddha. And what does he tell us? In the first verse, he says that the Buddha body extends through all the great assemblies. It fills the dharma realm without end.

[22:06]

It is quiescent without any inherent character, without any inherent nature and is ungraspable. And yet, it appears for the sake of saving all sentient beings. The Celestial King, Ocean of Subtle Flames, imbued with the power of the Buddha, is able to tell us this is how the Buddha is. This description is the description of the Buddha body. What is it again? The Buddha body is pervading all the great assemblies.

[23:07]

That means it's pervading this one. It fills the dharma realm without end. It is quiescent it is without any inherent nature and it's ungraspable. But it appears for the sake of saving all sentient beings. This is the Buddha body and this is our practice. Our practice pervades every being and place. Our practice pervades all the people in this assembly and all other assemblies. It fills the dharma realm without end. It is quiet. It has no inherent nature and it cannot be grasped. That's our practice.

[24:14]

And it can appear like us sitting here together. And we appear this way for the sake of saving all sentient beings. But these are just appearances. Our actual practice is quiet. Without any inherent nature and ungraspable. And it pervades all assemblies so it pervades the appearance of us. This is the first verse and I propose the first verse tells us the Buddha body. Yes. But it also tells us about our practice. It tells us what Zen is. But there is

[25:15]

399 more verses in this chapter. You don't have to read all of them but if you do, it will be good. And then at the after all this teaching about the Buddha has occurred so all these beings, all these celestial beings and all these bodhisattvas give us these teachings about the Buddha. Then when they're done as often happens at times like this the sight of enlightenment and also the name of the world in which the Buddha's awakening occurs in this sutra. The name of the world is the flower treasury

[26:18]

flower adornment treasury of oceans of worlds. Tom Cleary translates it as flower bank ocean of worlds. I prefer flower treasury of ocean of worlds. That's the ocean of worlds in which this assembly around the Buddha at the sight of enlightenment is living. This ocean of worlds after all this teaching this ocean of worlds shook in 6 ways and 18 manners. The 6 ways are it shook, it quaked it roared, it crashed it surged, it welled up yeah, it trembled and it did that in 3 different ways.

[27:22]

So 18, it did those 6 ways so like it quaked and then it quaked all over and then it quaked all over in all directions. It trembled, it trembled all over it trembled in all directions. So it really shook and rattled and quaked and the world got quite disturbed. And then it calmed down again and then all the beings in this massive immeasurable assembly in this ocean of beings around the Buddha this ocean of beings gave rise to clouds clouds of offerings clouds of inconceivable offerings. The ocean gives rise to clouds of inconceivable awesome boundless offerings.

[28:24]

And these offerings these cloud offerings then rain down on the assembly. Ocean giving rise to clouds of offerings which rain down on the assembly over and over and this sets up the next chapter. This chapter ends with this massive radiant awakened assembly making these inconceivable offerings and also being rained down by the offerings which they make. This is the environment in which the next chapter will start. So that's my overview of the first chapter and as I said before this sutra and also this chapter will be

[29:24]

unlocked its meaning will be revealed by Zen. And we got the Zen here don't we? The Zen is this assembly in intimate conversation. So let's open up the sutra let's unlock the sutra Great Assembly Great Assembly Great Assembly tell the Great Assembly what's going on? Are you joyful? Warren? I'm joyful. I'm joyful, Rabbi.

[30:25]

I'm joyful to see you in the Great Assembly tonight. Sutra. It's sutra. And I wonder who or what is the narrator The narrator here I mean these words are like I love your explanation of it. Thank you. And it's perfectly clear what's happening and setting us up but Who's the narrator? What is that? Is that? Who's talking? Many sutras start as you may know with Thus I have heard and in that case it is Ananda. So does it start with Thus I have heard? Yep. So you could say it's Ananda. Oh. Oh, it's Ananda. He's telling the entire story. You could say it's Ananda.

[31:27]

He says Thus I have heard. Wonderful. Okay. But actually I don't know who the narrator is. But in other sutras it's Ananda. Okay. I never thought of it. Thank you. You're welcome. This is a Mahayana Ananda. I like him too. Hello, Reverend Great Assembly. I also love Ananda and I love it that it's that the sutra starts Thus I have heard. What that gives me is

[32:27]

that there are these reverberations that that we take in. Hearing. Thus I have heard. And we're hearing. Am I? Oh, I am. Okay. Are you hearing me? Okay. So what I found reading some of this and these verses and so forth this raining down they're raining down words it feels like sounds and raining down gems all over the place. I was really struck oink by, you know, we're sitting just sitting and

[33:28]

we're struck we're, you know, it's oh it's sort of like that fog that you talk that we talk about walking through and I wonder about the quiescent that I have a little bit of a question about how when it's all when it all starts coming down after the shook and the and all Those are appearances. They're appearances. Okay. So the essence that's happening that's the essence of the appearance. Okay. So they're all appearances. The shaking is appearances. Words are appearances. It's all appearances. The gatas are appearances. And the appearances for example, the first gata

[34:28]

which is an appearance it says that the Buddha body is ungraspable. It's not an appearance. So is it energy? Is it the energy that we gather when we sit just sit quietly? If it was energy it might have a, what do you call it? You might be saying that it, the Buddha body has the energy as its nature. So I don't want to say the Buddha body is energy. I would say what I say it is is that it is the interaction among all things. But that's not energy. And the interaction among all things is quiet. Our conversation is quiet.

[35:30]

But it's an activity, isn't it? It's an activity but it's a quiet activity. It's quiescent. It's the calmness of this conversation not the sound of it. Yes, yeah. It's the ungraspableness of this conversation not the sound of it. Yes, yes. Thank you. Yes, that's the Buddha body. It's quiet. It's quiet. Actual conversation is quiet. The words are not quiet but the way they're the way they're working together the way they include each other the way they pervade each other is quiet. Thank you. Thank you.

[36:31]

You're welcome. That's beautiful. Thank you, Sutra. Susan. Unmute, please. There you go. Hello. Hello. Ren. Yes. I am delighted to find myself in the Sutra with you this assembly

[37:32]

and I really enjoyed the various ways that people were interacting with this Sutra. I felt like I'd never heard of this Sutra before but when I looked it up, I thought oh, the Avatamsaka Sutra which I never knew what that meant but it felt like an old friend. So I thought, well when the Sutra arrived last week it was very exciting and I thought, well, maybe I'll go right to the last page and see what they say there. So the last page let me see if I can you can't the last page has two one sentence on it which was I felt good about starting there page 1643 it's from the glossary in Thomas Cleary's book it says a yaksha

[38:33]

a kind of being sometimes thought of as a ghost or spirit sometimes benign sometimes malignant and I was happy to find that included there because I realized I felt a little like maybe someone such as myself sometimes benign sometimes malignant might not be included I had a small thought in the back of my mind but it wasn't true Yes, so I think one of the one of those 39 categories I think is yakshas yaksha innumerable yakshas

[39:37]

are in the assembly the Buddha's got a lot of variety in his group Thank you, Susan for bringing the yakshas into our attention so we can recognize them and honor them Thank you, Rep Thank you, everybody Okay, Rep I thought I'd try this thing on consent which is, I think, is this what triggered it was this appearance thing so our true self is that which doesn't appear

[40:41]

and and perhaps you might be willing to accept as a gesture at that non-appearing conversation the ground of being so that the hyper-individualized self the delusional self is the self which convinces itself it is not grounded in the ground of being and, you know, you can you know, not agree with this but this is a proposal so the the so the consent is the I mean, this this interesting thing of like who would who would not accept amazing grace

[41:45]

could amazing grace ever be forced on someone and yet amazing grace kind of you know, or you know, nirvana or what have you kind of you know, occurs without the the self that thinks it's separated and somehow can't has to you know, it's there's you know, is there something violent about that that breakthrough in something non-consensual because there it seems to me that we can't that great fire that can't be faced or turned away from you can't you in some way have to passively be grasped by it and you can't even know you can't even know when you'll be grasped by this by this lover

[42:47]

this cosmic lover so consent and so and also when when beings appear you know, and to the sitter which happens I confess or proclaim to myself you know what's their relationship to consenting to that appearance well, their ultimate consent is their ground in the same being that I'm myself am grounded we have the same ground so I don't know if you have a thought on that or not or you might be completely incomprehensible I agree, we we may not know or we may not know when we will be receiving this amazing grace but

[43:49]

the the story in the sutra is about those who occasions where the amazing grace has been received and the message is I hope we have enough variety here for you to realize everybody is going to be able to receive it because all these beings received it and were able to see the Buddha because of receiving it we don't see the Buddha by our own power but we do, for example, sit and we may pray that our sitting will receive it just as I often say I pray that this great assembly will receive stillness and silence I don't know when they're going to receive stillness and silence but I pray that they will

[44:52]

and I don't know how I got in the position of praying that our meeting here will receive that this assembly here will receive stillness and silence and I pray for it I want it I wish for it and I vow to keep praying for it and I kind of feel like more and more confident that this is what's really happening that we are receiving this amazing grace by praying together in this assembly Now let me propose But it's ungraspable It's ungraspable You have a You have a bunch of Buddhists sitting in the middle of a great fire turning the wheel and this these great flames these crackling flames

[46:00]

that you know various holocausts and so on and you know food deserts or what have you They They I mean perhaps some of these beings might be unaware that they're in the great assembly They might be unaware that they are the recipients of amazing grace Yes and you could say why doesn't the sutra mention those people that that are unaware Well I think they're actually the reason why they don't mention it is they mention a subset of those groups Some of the people in the group are not aware perhaps We just hear about the ones who are So we're just hearing about in each huge group

[47:04]

and with tremendous variety like in these enormous groups of yakshas of demons We hear about ten of them who are aware They receive this gift from the Buddhists and they are aware But we don't know about the rest of the group It doesn't tell us about the much larger part of the group that we're not hearing about So maybe some of them really think they're not in the assembly They're not in an assembly around the Buddha They think that But their leaders some of their group are getting this help from the Buddha and they see the Buddha in the middle They're in the middle of the flames where the other people are sort of in the cooler regions and they can hold on to their attachments That's one way to understand

[48:07]

what's going on with the innumerable other beings besides the ten that are mentioned in each category But there are no... But the Buddha body pervades the other ones as much as it pervades the ones who know The ones who see are not pervaded anymore than the ones who don't according to this sutra And how about the kindly eye of the Buddha or the kindly ear of the Buddha which hears the sounds of the world and becomes a Buddha right here that the eye of the Buddha This eye of the Buddha? Or the self? The... The eye of compassion? The Buddha eye? Yeah The Buddha eye That eye is not looking around at other enlightened Buddhas That eye is looking at beings who

[49:11]

who don't feel like they're at the Great Assembly It's looking at all the beings in the Great Assembly, right? Well, is it looking at beings outside of the Great Assembly? That feel like It's looking at It's looking at beings the best, clearest largest Buddha eye is the one that sees furthest out of the Great Assembly and sees the being that is most delusionally convinced that it has nothing to do with the Great Assembly I agree with you I agree with you And I gave an overview of the chapter but if you get into the details which I didn't I think I would agree with you Yes I agree with you Thank you Good evening, Rob

[50:19]

Good evening, Fran Good evening, Great Assembly I want to thank you first of all for reminding us of what Zen is as you always do about intimate conversation And what I wanted to what struck me in what we're talking about so far in the Sutra is the abundance of beauty that there's just great flower adornment and oceans of worlds with treasuries of flower flowers just this beautiful you know unending beauty and that always that strikes me very strongly and I'm thinking about the first statement you made about river teeth

[51:20]

and the part of the redwood that remains and I think what you mentioned the word burl and I know the burls are very organic looking very beautiful also very hard and I guess it was Suzuki Roshi was saying well there's a part that doesn't wash away and that's intriguing to me because I've always heard the teaching as that there is no permanent there is no permanence there is no part I would think that doesn't wash away but here there's you're talking about a part that doesn't wash away and it's a beautiful part it's this gem but maybe you could say more about that that it doesn't wash away but it's impermanent and how what can you say more about that you mean say more about how the teaching of impermanence

[52:20]

doesn't wash away that's what it is well the teaching of impermanence that hasn't washed away yet somehow that's a river tooth of the Buddha so the Buddha said a lot of stuff but for example mentioning the impermanence of compounded phenomena that's kind of a river tooth of the Buddha and part of the reason it holds up is that we keep saying it like you just said it and gave it new life okay so us us bringing up the teaching maintains it in the world of impermanence okay so there are there's enough beings that keep bringing it up that it remains

[53:20]

stays it gets refreshed or yeah so there could be other things other than the dharma though that would also remain and that's the sad part is that there's some river tooths of trauma there's lots of traumas but some of them are really don't get washed away they stay and they stay and things like hatred and that can be passed down yeah and part of what the sutra also dealing with is that we have in later part of the sutra we have what makes the world is the vows of the people in the first chapter these spiritual beings in the assembly their their pure vows

[54:22]

make the world but also the world's made from the most twisted horrible karma so we have river tooths of dharma and river tooths of delusion and they're both creating the world together but there's something later in the chapter in the sutra okay there's something about liberation that shows or awakens us to that the dharma is more true than the other teachings that might stay alive or the other things that might stay alive I think the dharma is the truth of those other teachings that are the dharma is the truth of delusion it's not better than delusion it's the truth of delusion the dharma is not better than anything

[55:26]

it's the truth of everything I guess I'm thinking about like basic goodness being that you know that there's something essential about goodness rather than I don't know why I'm moving in my thoughts towards good and evil but something about goodness is the essential nature of the leading bodhisattva in this sutra is called universally good or you could say universal goodness but the universal goodness pervades everything including evil it pervades all evil just like it pervades all good which is the opposite of evil it's the universal good not the particular good

[56:28]

that's opposed to evil would you say that evil pervades all good universal goodness? would I? I would say evil yeah evil evil pervades all goodness too evil is included in all goodness and there's no hindrance between the two that's the dharma and dharma pervades all evil there's no hindrance but that's not to say they're the same and one causes misery and the other is causes ease or is ease one is torture one is freedom but they but they include each other and they really don't hinder each other that's one of the main teachings of this sutra there's no obstruction between good and evil okay

[57:29]

it's kind of up to us to it's up to us to keep alive that river tooth that is the dharma that is the dharma interesting thank you you're welcome yes I read hi gail um so when you describe the buddha body tonight as being quiescent um without inherent nature ungraspable and pervading everything you then followed it up by saying our actual practice is all of those things quiescent without

[58:31]

existence yeah and my ears really perked up I mean that seemed to be the point or um I at that point wanted to believe or wanted to see that we this great assembly are the flower adornment sutra that that the ocean is creating um the clouds of inconceivable offerings that are raining down on us right now and I don't know I felt different when I was kind of willing to believe that or have faith in that idea it was sort of like I was squinting my eyes trying to make everything fuzzy so that I'd let go of the habituated ideas I have about who and what we are

[59:31]

as the appearances we are but I just didn't know I mean I felt kind of different but I didn't know if it was just imagination if my mind was just kind of creating another story but it it did feel like um an important moment like trying to know that we are it or I don't know or that it is us yeah because it wants to be us it wants to pervade us it doesn't want it doesn't want to not pervade us it doesn't want to like stop before it gets to us yeah Buddha body the vow of the Buddha is to pervade us and so but it's inconceivable but is the willingness to believe it somehow does it make it more possible to

[60:32]

awaken to it to to grasp it a little what do you mean by believe it um well I guess you know humans we we often believe that we're separate and that we're not the flower adornment sutra and that we're not that great assembly that you know they're somehow better than us or you know again I'm not so clear what you mean when you say believe what is the what is the activity there when you say I believe what's going on with you when you believe for example this teaching that the Buddha body pervades all the great assemblies if you believe that what happens to you when you believe it um well I I think I open to it or surrender you surrender to it

[61:33]

surrender something of um myself or my habituated beliefs I'm using the word belief again you got this well you got this thing called these teachings that the Buddha body pervades all the great assemblies and then you open to it and you surrender to it and also you surrender your self to it you make offerings to it is that what you is that part of what you mean by believe yes thank you yeah so that then that kind of belief is kind of a way to relate to the teaching and one of the things is you're making offerings and you're also kind of like aligning yourself

[62:35]

with the words opening to it so yeah and so aligning opening opening to the teaching making offerings to the teaching and perhaps even praising the teaching is part part of the way of enter of receiving the Buddha's help and entering it yeah so if that's what you mean by belief if those functions are recorded what you mean by belief then I would say okay that that would be right that kind of belief facilitates realization of the teaching and in particular the teaching of the Buddha body pervading everything yeah thank you thank you that helps thank you and I think something I was doing was opening to the idea that

[63:37]

I am not other than that you know you can study Buddhism for a long time and and hear the teachings and still think I am other than it uh-huh so I guess maybe that's what happened for me tonight as well um that I was letting go of that other than separate from sense okay thank you thank you thank you hello hello another another species of creature hasn't shown up I just want to say that I found this

[64:37]

I've only read the first chapter and it's delightful and the imagery the structure the repetition the names of all these beings are just wonderful and I love the rhythm of it the repetition and it calls out to be sung or painted or acted in a little drama and I wonder if in the original is it is it like that how good is the translation to the original is it rhythmic and beautiful and and musical I think the I've heard some theories and I guess the one that I sort of favor a little bit is that originally the sutra was songs that emerged from states

[65:39]

of samadhi states of concentration and then the and then at some point the songs got written down and then the prose kind of summaries and and descriptions were added to the verses so that's one story about where these where the sutra came from so the musical quality I think probably in Sanskrit is it might be more easy to see the music of it but you seem to be able to see some music even in the English translation which is great it's a compliment to the translator yes is this the best translation in your view no the other one is good too but I didn't I didn't necessarily want to give you too much but I I'm enjoying it very much

[66:40]

and thank you it's great and those who are not enjoying it that's great too everybody's welcome in the Great Assembly hello Lynn yes I want to add a note of science to the River Teeth the redwood tree burl is formed by the increasing weight of the growth of the redwood tree on the roots and the roots start to curl from the weight of the growth and it's a very moving metaphor to me and in relation to the Dharma it's kind of like diamonds yes

[67:41]

right so they say River Teeth or it's like the burl is kind of like the jewel of the tree yeah diamond of the tree the impact of drawing yeah very beautiful thank you thank you good evening good evening Reb and Assembly even though I've heard you speak about this many times I just want to say it was wonderful to listen to you present the summary again the power of repetition by hearing that and what I noticed and I've heard and I feel it coming through different people's

[68:42]

offerings here but what I noticed in myself was actually a lot of fear coming up thank you and I felt and that connected with that especially the quiescence and the all-pervading and and I just felt the weight even though it's maybe I'm creating a self but I felt a kind of responsibility and a need to yeah a responsibility and it made me kind of fall into fear not like okay let's go anyway I don't think I'm the only one on the screen but just wanted to say it's although other times I felt inspired tonight what I really noticed

[69:42]

is fear come up when I heard about this wonderfulness so I don't know if you maybe that's one of the beings the fear being but the responsibility part of throughout time and the silent quiescent going through all time and space like I don't know yeah Last Saturday I said something I brought up that thing from Smokey the Bear where he used to say only you can prevent forest fires yeah yeah like that and I I was saying only you can maintain I don't know what I was talking about but only you can protect and maintain the Buddha Dharma and if you and if you hear that you might be scared yeah you know even though I'm saying that to everybody

[70:44]

still I mean it for you and then you might say even if everybody else is taking care of it you said it only me and I'm scared being scared is one of the reactions to the sense of the sense of responsibility you could also be proud you know oh only me oh even though even though there's other people are doing it too only me so there's a lot of emotional reactions that can occur but the teaching is that you are pivotal you're at the center of this and you are responsible for the whole program and you're not alone and yet nobody else is going to do it for you so you only you can do your job the job of you being at your seat and being pervaded and pervading that's your job and fear is one of the things

[71:45]

that could come up and when the fear comes up then we have various practices which we bring to bear to take care of the fear but thank you for sharing that feeling of fear I think that that that comes up anyway a lot of emotions different emotions can come up when we hear this teaching and all of them should be and all of them are in the in the assembly and all of them are worthy to be acknowledged honored welcomed just like we acknowledge these beings we acknowledge all feelings all emotions I think yes thank you thank you it surprised me a little bit and or that that response yeah and I think

[72:46]

it it was it can be I'm thinking I'm feeling it is a forgetting that I'm not doing this alone nor is it of my it's a all time and space came into this moment it's not just me even though this this appearance is pivotal but creating a self that feels responsible instead of what's the word I want responsive that I can be responsive can make you can can lead to nervousness or fear so I think creating a self might be part of the difficulty yeah it's part of the difficulty that's often part of the difficulty yeah and

[73:47]

at that moment only you can take care of that thank you for your help and you won't be able to do it by yourself yeah you'll be able to do it by receiving the awesome spiritual power of the Buddhas when you take good care of something that's because you've done that by receiving the power of Buddha Buddha's teaching of how to take care of things yeah but you had to do it you had to apply the Buddha's power in your case kind of a paradox oh yeah [...] hello Great Assembly

[74:48]

hello Great Angela thank you I thought I heard you say last week write this down so I wrote these words down that I thought I heard you say imbued by assisted by the awesome power of the Buddha receiving the power of the Buddha inheriting aided helped when the Buddha aids us we inherit Buddha bequeathing the Bodhisattva receiving all that and that activity is a key ingredient in this communion to be aided to be supported

[75:51]

to be sustained to receive to inherit that's part of this this Buddha body and the the word that comes to my mind is the point being or the activity being to benefit all beings for the welfare of the world not quite I wouldn't say there's a point to the Buddha body or you could say the Buddha body is a point and the point the point of the Buddha body right there is that it's everywhere so you can say the Buddha body doesn't have a point it is a point it's the point which pervades everywhere it's the place that doesn't move

[76:51]

and it's everywhere that's the point that is the Buddha body however it appears in various ways it pervades everything but it appears in different ways according to the mentalities and needs of beings and it can do that it can appear in whatever ways necessary because it can pervade everybody so when it pervades me or you it takes a different it can take a different appearance and that appearance can be like the five senses? yeah or it could be the five objects of the senses for example thank you

[77:59]

hello Reb hello Great Assembly hello Basia nice to see you all again I'm sorry I missed the first class somehow I thought it was starting later but turned out that it was a good thing because I got my first blister of shingles that day so it was a good thing that I got a whole night's rest rather than stay late but as I was listening to you and how inconceivable this Dharma teaching is and how my shingles was in a way a very big gift of

[79:02]

dissolving the ego from the self from resistance to that which we want to find out that we want to realize I think I'm fidgeting and twisting because every five minutes new pain is coming up and it is such a wonderful gift to really settle to settle to settle did you say? settle, yeah settle I'm glad you're receiving that gift it's wonderful so I don't think I have any questions

[80:06]

because any question that when you mentioned the good and evil it is so paradoxical the yin and yang or the good and evil being in each other and that's another thing how do we settle in in that how do we settle in the yin and yang? in the knowing that there is good in the evil and the evil is in the good and the knee-jerk reactions to somehow protect ourselves or resist or judge or whatever all those gross reactions all of them I think that's my practice right now they are they are invalid

[81:08]

invalid what did you say you think your practice is right now? just settling in yeah in whatever is rather than having ideas about it yeah or yeah settle rather than having ideas take away rather just settle into what is right and that simple practice that simple practice is quiet and it has no inherent nature and it's ungraspable so that's a wonderful practice that's our wonderful practice yes yes it sure is wonderful because it opens new possibilities that we don't know exist yeah yeah it opens you can say it opens new possibilities

[82:10]

and it also opens to the Dharma opens to Buddha's wisdom yeah well I'm sorry at first I was sorry to hear about the shingles but now I'm happy to hear about the way you're practicing with it I'm not happy that you have shingles but I'm happy the way you're practicing with the shingles and I'm receiving the gift with appreciation thank you thank you Jack and June June and Jack yes I don't want to say

[83:11]

too much okay but I wanted to comment after what Sonia said okay and it's because I wanted to say that I I've been having all kind of reactions since last week and I didn't know quite what they were or how to think about them or label them and I thought well the closest was last week Angela said resistance and I thought yeah I'm in that those waters and when Sonia said tonight fear that it clarified oh it's fear because

[84:12]

this is big and and I feel like when I finally get to a point where it's kind of you know when you pray for peace I think I'm feeling sort of peaceful and then you know I hear these lessons and it's like ah there's more there's it's coming it's raining down I can't seem to find a place that will just well I don't want to say it but leave me alone just come on did you say leave me alone yeah just leave me alone like they say nature stop raining down on me yeah you know just and then paradoxically the only way

[85:14]

I can get that peace is by meditating and so I feel sort of trapped that's all thank you so much well thank you well as we study this sutra lots is coming up I'm studying it in in five different assemblies and so much different things are coming up for different people and more is going to come up later so it's just it makes sense this is an oceanic scripture and we're going to have oceanic responses to it and only you can take care of this scripture so please do so any

[86:20]

looks like there's no more hands tonight so maybe we end a few minutes earlier and yeah oh so I'm not in a hurry to get anywhere but there is another there is another book coming up and this I just talked about the first one so maybe next week I'll open the door to the second book I should say turn the page to the next book which is about the appearance of the Buddha the Buddha is not an appearance but the Buddha is going to appear in the next chapter okay thank you so much to the great assembly this one and all the other ones may our may may the merit of our meeting

[87:20]

pervade every being in place with the true merit of Buddha's way beings are numberless we vow to save them afflictions and reactions to this sutra are inexhaustible we vow to open and welcome them dharma gates are boundless we vow to enter them Buddha way is unsurpassable we vow to become it

[87:49]

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