I always wonder if for those of you who are unfamiliar or for anyone who is unfamiliar with what we do, how it possibly makes any sense to you. that this looks like a religion, but it's not really a religion. Perhaps it has the psychology to some extent of a religion. But it's really a moral imperative To live according to how the world actually exists and to live with a deep trust in humanity. Which is hard to do sometimes.

[01:13]

Yeah, a trust in, a belief that we should live the way we deeply feel we should live and with others in that way. Again, that all this is, what we're doing here, the stuff and the building and the Buddhas and all, is all based on sitting still. All of this is about how to support sitting still. Then again, how can all this be based on a posture? Well, the two most important aspects of our life is that we're awake much of the time and we're asleep much of the time.

[02:39]

And what is being asleep and awake? It's two postures. It's very hard to sleep standing up, as I joke and say, unless you're driving. Well, that's not quite standing up. So waking is associated with standing up and sitting up? And sleeping, of course, is associated with lying down horizontally. So, but discovering a mind of stillness requires another kind of posture.

[03:43]

Okay, okay. So this is a day in our life. But it's also a day in the world's life and our culture's life and our life with each other. We say sometimes a piece of karmic ground. And to take the precepts is based on the life we've had up to now and the life we want or would like. would like in this world and would like with others, and a life we intend to realize.

[04:57]

Dogen calls the decision to practice, the decision to take the precepts, Dogen is the most well-known teacher in our lineage in the 13th century. Dogen said that the decision to take the precepts was initial enlightenment. Because if you can really discover your life in this world with yourself and with others, in a way that doesn't harm others as much as possible, in a way that benefits others as much as possible.

[06:21]

This is, in fact, enlightenment. And enlightenment is a freedom from mental suffering. So we take the precepts for ourselves and for our world and for others. Each person we meet. Each person we know. Each person we imagine. Yeah. So how can I say something about how the world actually exists? First of all, everything is impermanent. We'd like it to be permanent or predictable, at least.

[07:33]

And it's relatively predictable. I mean... Obviously not all the time, but relatively predictable. Yeah, but how can we live knowing the world, really experiencing the world in its unpredictability at each moment? As I said occasionally, perhaps we can think of the present as a present, as a gift. At each moment we're presented with the gift of the present. But when we look at this present, it's wrapped in old newspapers from our past.

[08:39]

And you look again and it's wrapped in newspapers that haven't been printed yet. You know, the emperor's new newspapers. Do you have that story about the emperor's new newspapers? So we have to unwrap this present. And it's best unwrapped with a still mind. that has a big, accepting, spacious patience. Yeah. And you can't wait till tomorrow or Christmas to unwrap it. So it has to be unwrapped in this moment.

[10:08]

How can we each be sufficiently present to unwrap each moment in each moment? That's what all this practice is. That's what all this is about, actually. Discovering how to not find yourself separate from the present, but in the midst of the present without alternatives, and to unwrap yourself and the present at the same time, this is to take the precepts. To deepen our intention to live in this way.

[11:16]

Now, this is so much about how we exist with others. And the most powerful and difficult practice is the each moment encounter with another person. So we try to do this precept ceremony day and two days together here in one weekend. But we have three teachers giving Jukai precepts to six people.

[12:20]

All in one ceremony. So we may not figure out how to do it, but we'll make a good shot at it. And tomorrow one tokido, or full monk-priest ordination. So we're here to do it together. How to take the precepts together, all of us maybe. Or recognize them as a possibility at least. Yeah, yeah.

[13:28]

And although we wear lay people and we mostly wear sitting robes when we sit, The monk-priest, there's no real difference in Buddhism. Wears robes. And, I mean, all this may not be pertinent to most of you. I think it's interesting to note that the robes are designed to help you maintain a still mind. As the Japanese farmer or Chinese farmer dresses a certain way so he or she can farm, And courtiers at court are dressed in a way that makes it real difficult to fight.

[15:01]

Because they're warriors and they tend to get in fights, so you give them really long sleeves and long pants and they're tripping all the time. That's, you know, what they do. And our athletes dress in the West, of course, a certain way. The robes are designed for the, excuse me for getting technical here, the yogic body. The body which can maintain a still mind. and maintain and not lose its energy, its chi.

[16:13]

So how do we achieve this kind of subtle mind posture? In ordinary clothes. It's part of our practice. Now I mention this because also one of the basic teachings of Buddhism is called the two truths. And that's the teaching and the fact that we live in what we call the conventional world, the world where we hope everything is predictable and so forth. And the fundamental world where we don't know really what's going to happen next.

[17:28]

Each moment is a moment someone dies, and maybe us. How can we live in both truths simultaneously? both sides of this equation. And the person who takes the precepts ideally is finding the way to live on both sides of this equation. in the world of compassion and the world of wisdom and to live in a way that makes clear that this is how we actually exist. Again, what we're doing here is about discovering a still mind, which is also an open, free mind, free of mental suffering.

[18:52]

a patient mind, which accepts things as they are, and lives with each person in each moment in this way. Yeah, and it's not far away. It's something possible for everyone. But if you're only busy most of the time and worried, you have to find some technique. And the technique is to, once a day or several times a week, find a chance to sit down. And let this deep, still mind surface in me. Okay, well that's more than enough, isn't it?

[20:36]

An introduction to our practice. Thank you very much.

[20:42]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_67.39