Today I want to talk about altars. Altars and bodhisattvas. I do so in my mind in conversation with you, deeply devoted practitioners of recent time. I've seen you. I've seen your devotion. And deeply devoted practitioners, decades, and everything in between. I will say what I am believing, and I hope that when I finish, you will also say what you believe. This talk was inspired by one of our newcomers, who, having had Zazen, sat periods of Zazen, listened to lectures, asked, following reference to practice in one of our talks.

[01:04]

What is practice? Well, I thought we should talk very clearly. This talk is my first attempt. So it's your job to be prepared. The altar became very important to me when I entered Buddhist practice. going for zazen instruction at great time. We were taught to stop outside the zendo door, stop, not pause in the course of walking through, not to keep on walking and walk through, stop at the door's edge to my right. Cross hold with my right foot, continue with my left, full stop. Turn toward the altar. Bow. This was the first lesson in complete presence in this moment.

[02:08]

And complete presence focused on the altar. We do that here at Berkeley Zen Center too. We enter this zendo, take a few steps to the middle of the first aisle, if that is our destination, or to the middle of the back aisle, if our destination is further in. And we bow to the altar. An altar is a focal point in a Buddhist temple or zendo. When a Saturday speaker, like just now, enters the zendo, when a priest opens zazen or begins service, the first thing is face the altar, focus upon it, and bow. We all deeply bow to the floor, on the floor, toward the altar at the beginning and end of our services. All the major religious traditions of the world have altars.

[03:13]

Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish places of worship all have altars. Many mosques have altars. In traditionally Buddhist countries in Asia Buddhists have altars in their homes, which they use to help members who have died. In towns in Japan, altars with the figure Jizo are common in shrines and at the edges of sidewalks. On a sidewalk on Alston, just south of Strawberry Creek Park, maybe some of you have seen this, is an altar of a young man of Berkeley who was killed. It stops you. stops me as you walk by. We at BZC have a Jizo garden where some leave memorials for loved ones who have passed and some pray for those who may be mentally or physically.

[04:14]

Altars on sidewalks are invitations to stop, focus, make an offering, sometimes Our offering is just a thought of consonance with those who have created it. Bow. Some Buddhist practitioners here have altars in our homes, providing us a focal point for our personal services, our home practice of Zazen, and our own well-being and memorial services. In Vietnam and Japan, we moved by the active daily use of family altars to remember and honor family members who have died. I was fortunate to visit dear friends who live in Shingu, a small city on the coast of Japan, southwest of Tokyo. One of my friends, learning of my interest in family altars, invited us to join her one morning at her family altar.

[05:19]

We sat by her altar, and she did what she does each morning. She lit candles, placed an offering of food on a special tray, and offered incense, showing me that she's careful with incense just the way we are, not blowing the stick. Then she sat in front of the altar and talked to her parents. part because it was in Japanese. She and her parents shared that home until they died and now she lives there alone. On the altar was an ihai, this one right in the middle there for Sojun, one for each of her parents, inscribed with their Buddhist names and provided in a ceremony by a Buddhist priest after they had died.

[06:22]

So you see in these family altars in Japan, ihais like that, but smaller. Same thing. On my trip to Vietnam, I was also introduced to family altars. In a traditional rural Vietnamese home, the family altar is large and in the center of a room that's devoted to honoring and remembering ancestors. Walking through a Christian community in Vietnam, a group I was into a home and saw a Christian altar on a living room, similarly honoring family members who have died. Families who have moved to the city, like my hosts in Saigon, keep their homes in the countryside and visit them to pay respect on their family's traditional altar. We humans focus on altars to make offerings. are bound to an altar, to our altar is an offering of respect and devotion, and to me, concurrence with the beliefs that are expressed on the altar.

[07:33]

Flowers and flower buds are also offerings, as is the great care offered by those volunteers among us who tend our altar. Cheats, we call them. As our dear friend Megan Collins said recently, is not a flower arrangement. This is an offering to Buddha. As part of special ceremonies honoring our founders and at mealtime in Sashin's, we offer a tray of food and tea. In the past, we offered incense. Some of us at home still do. Our Berkeley Zen Center altar tells the story of what we honor and what we believe. Our altar teaches us our practice. What does this altar, our altar, say to our practice? Topmost is an antique statue of Buddha in meditation posture.

[08:39]

Richard Baker, then Abbott of San Francisco Zen Center, was highly skilled at finding in Japan beautiful antique Buddhas and other Buddhist statues. He made this one a gift to Sojin and to BCC. I've been told it's made of paper mache. Has anyone else heard that? I guess maybe. Yeah, the person nodding told me. Shakyamuni Buddha is believed to have lived in Nepal, BC. He wandered in that area attracting followers who listened to his teachings, took them to heart and taught others. Fully enlightened when he died, he is believed to have entered nirvana. Bodhisattvas are on our altar. They also are important expressions of our practice, right in front of Buddha and then the figures around in the middle area.

[09:44]

Traditionally, Buddhism holds that ordinary people, most of us, we are re-accumulated karma. In succeeding lives, we have a chance to lead better lives, to make up for past karma. As the Ehekoso Hotsuganmon, one of our chants that was lectured about recently, says, although our past has greatly accumulated karma, indeed being the cause and condition of obstacles in practicing the way. May all Buddhas and ancestors be compassionate to us, relieving us of karmic effects, allowing us to practice the way without hindrance. It is theoretically possible for people to lead stellar lives, become enlightened and not subject to rebirth. A person devoted to Buddhism can become fully enlightened, become a Buddha, and enter nirvana.

[10:49]

Bodhisattvas are people who, deeply committed to living their Buddhist practice, do not strive to become a Buddha, but choose rebirth in order to serve humanity through other lifetimes to help others attain enlightenment. In our tradition, bodhisattvas are valued practitioners and the bodhisattvas on our altar represent highly valued bodhisattva ideals. We chanted some of their names in the... Samanjushri, the perfect wisdom Bodhisattva. Homage to Samantabhadra, the shining practice Bodhisattva.

[11:51]

Homage to Avalokitesvara, the infinite compassion Bodhisattva. Homage to the many Bodhisattva Mahasattvas. Homage to the Mahaprajna Paranita. The same bodhisattvas are named and chanted in our monthly bodhisattva ceremony. Oh, here it is. Homage to Shakyamuni Buddha. You know, we do this, we repeat this, so we're up to these words three times.

[12:56]

Homage to Manjushri bodhisattva. Homage to Samantabhadra bodhisattva. homage to Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. We say these things, we don't talk about them. Here we go. We as Bodhisattvas fully participate in this ceremony, monthly on the Saturday closest to the full moon, just as tradition tells us that monks and nuns who practice the Shakyamuni Buddha at the full and new moon. They long ago and we now renewing vows to the Bodhisattva precepts, bowing and chanting Buddha's name and the names of these same Bodhisattvas. Our Bodhisattva ceremony and the figures on our altar articulate and represent the main features of our belief system.

[14:01]

Buddha is the founder, the person whose teachings and practices we follow and emulate. He lived his life in prehistory before anyone worldwide was even carving words in stone. Which means that we don't know if he looked anything like the Buddha figure on our altar. This one is a traditional Japanese Buddha figure. That is all we know. Bodhisattvas seek to understand this reality through wisdom, prajna, and scriptures, and actualize it through compassion. We are all bodhisattvas in this sense. We honor in our tradition particular archetypical bodhisattvas. They are on our altar. Agalokiteshvara, when practicing deeply the prajnaparamita, perceived that all five skandhas in their own being are empty.

[15:04]

and was saved from suffering. Oh, Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness. That we do twice a day here from the Heart Sutra. Centered right underneath the Buddha is a clay figure of Prajnaparamita, meaning perfection of wisdom, as in the perfection of wisdom scriptures of which the heart We chant every day as one. Our figure representing Prajnaparamita is a female made by Rebecca Maeno, a beloved member and priest of Berkeley Zen Center, who died in 2010. Ozan gave a lovely to Rebecca in a sashim shortly after she died and said that the body of Prajnaparamita was like Rebecca's own body. Y'all really look for this on the website.

[16:06]

Just chant, I mean, enter in the... Prajnaparamita, and you get his talk right after she died. You get to hear a really young Hozan voice, which is cool for those of us who didn't know him when he was young. Now, when Rebecca was working on the figure, she used Karen Dakotas as a model, and she also modeled features of the face after her daughter's face. Karen estimates that Rebecca was working on Prajnaparamita about 1983-84. Here's a story I've heard and like. Likely someone in the Zendo can confirm whether it's true or not. Members of Berkeley Zen Center and others becoming clearly aware of the predominance of male and white privilege and our organizations were concerned, I heard, that the figures on our altar were all men and none of them dark-skinned.

[17:23]

Rebecca, a ceramicist, was one of those so concerned and she made the and female Prajnaparamita figure on the altar. And as Hosanna tells it, she simply brought it in. Do you remember landing here the first time? See? I just remember when she was doing something and she really wanted to emphasize the breasts. Do you appreciate them? Because they're quite wonderful. Bless her. Prajnaparamita is the bodhisattva. Prajnaparamita personifies the perfection of wisdom, comprehension of the boundless nature of all things spelled out in the Heart Sutra, which we chant daily in morning eating services.

[18:27]

Come and see this and the other figures on the altar. Please welcome to do that. There is a small Bodhisattva figure forward of and to the left of Prajnaparamita, directly across from the gold candle. This figure is Avalokiteshvara of Great Companion, known in China as Kuan Yin. This bronze figure was made by Jack Van Allen, a devoted Zen practitioner who began practicing with the Suzuki Roshi in the 1960s. Jack's primary trade was in silver rings and belt buckles, reputedly popular with San Francisco rock stars, including the Grateful Dead. He also made small bronze castings of bodhisattvas. Several statues he made are here

[19:31]

Now here's a story. And I'm still working on a personal witness to this story. And if I can't find one, maybe we'll have to tell you. When this Zendo was under construction, word has been passed down that Jack Van Allen made and placed Jesus in the structure, the wooden structure, the framework of the building. Of course, covered by the outside and the inside walls. Sitting here, if the story is true, we believe the story is true, but we make up a story like that. We are surrounded by Jesus. Jizo being a protector and savior who intervenes and helps those cause and places of suffering.

[20:41]

We have a Jizo garden behind and annually a Jizo workshop and ceremony. The two finely carved wooden figures toward the front Our Samantabhadra, the Bodhisattva of practice and meditation, or as we say in our chant, the Bodhisattva. Some also say the Bodhisattva of kindness and happiness. And Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of wisdom and insight. Manjushri is commonly shown wielding a sword to cut through delusion. Sometimes he rides a lion, as doing so represents fearlessness. So Jin found these lovely wooden figures on a trip to China, a trip that was organized to follow Dogen's China journey.

[21:48]

He teaches us how to practice. With our original teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha, our practice is sitting zazen, valuing the teachings, the teacher, and the Sangha. With the female Prajnaparamita and the male Manjushri, our practice is wisdom, a version of wisdom particular to our practice, meditating, carrying on our lives with knowledge and appreciation that everything is completely interconnected, boundless, that everything we touch touches something and so on without end. We know that what we do and how we do it affects everything else, and so we work on doing so with thoughtful care. The Samantabhadra and Jizo, with kindness and kindness, responding to suffering with capacity to help.

[22:59]

We are bodhisattvas. Some of our teachers practice calling us bodhisattvas, awakening in us our bodhisattva practice. Abbott Hozan in his book, The Bodhisattvas Embrace, tells the story of Nikozan Senzaki, a Japanese Zen teacher who came to California in the early 20th century. He greeted his Western audiences. calling the sattvas. In Hozon's words, his greeting was an embrace and a gentle way of prodding his Zen friends to reach their deepest qualities. When I was preparing to leave my Chicago-based life, Laurie Belzer, a teacher with Taigan Dan Layton at Ancient Dragon Zen Center in Chicago, took to calling me bodhisattva and had that effect.

[24:05]

It seemed that she was saying, you are taking this practice as the guiding purpose. The other day I called Laurie and asked her how she came to that way of addressing a person as bodhisattva. And she said that it was at City Center with Abbas Blanche Hartman. Hearing Blanche, Lori caught the power of the reference. The title, Bodhisattva, is for each of us. Our job is to be Prajnaparamita, Avalopa, Jizo, Manjushri, Samantabhadra, Even Buddha in the moments of our lives. This is our practice. To live with the understanding of the total interconnection of everything.

[25:11]

To act knowing that all actions have real life consequences. That everything continues. That nothing stops. to be compassionate with others near and far, and to support those who reach where we cannot ourselves reach, particularly thinking these days of those who are reaching into Gaza. Charity's doing this really well. I know it is. To protect those caught in places of suffering and to maintain our jizu garden so it is there for others. To cut through delusion with wisdom or to seek help.

[26:11]

To practice with energy and devotion, including caring for our practice place so that it is structurally sound. and contributes to a healthy climate and to our practice ways so that all of you are welcome here. What is your understanding bodhisattvas? What is our practice? I do.

[27:17]

I'm in tears, actually. Thank you for your time. Practice. What we take care of, we love. Practice. For me, it was my first entry. I think it was biker. It was biker. invited me to come in and keep a company while she took care of the altar. And so coming full circle here now to your talk after so many years, you've helped link devotion in that practice. open my heart. So I thank you for that.

[28:25]

Could you all hear Sue? Yes. Sue felt her heart opening. She remembers when Vika invited her in here to be with her when she was doing chitin practice, that is bodhisattva practice. One other thing, if I may? I just want to add that you, you know, like this morning when I came to session, I had some time and I noticed that there were some things I could take care of in the bathroom. It's not exactly a halter, but taking care of that, it was a connection.

[29:26]

Because we do have people who take care of it. It's a practice. It connects us. So thank you. I think one of Jack Van Allen's statues is in the courtyard bathroom, so everybody can see that up close. Taking care of the bathrooms, taking care of everything. I was noticing this morning how beautifully cared for the abbot's office is. Fresh flowers, everything was beautiful. Somebody, some bodhisattva is doing that. I think I know who. Yes. Thank you, Hannah.

[30:31]

Another question of Parvita is Mother of the Buddhas. And we were talking about Rebecca's forming the breasts on Prajna Paramita. It reminded me that she and her husband, Arthur, really loved kids and grandkids. He had five of them, their own, and then, of course, an extended family. And Rebecca's mothering way was really quite a warm-hearted expression when she was practicing here. She was gone for a while, and she came back. coincided with my arrival here in 87. And I remember her telling me that there are a lot of new people here now, just like now, next generation. And I think you'll like them. And I was asked to be her Benji, the assistant for the head student. And I really loved the opportunity. And Mel put us together as a teaching, because my wife

[31:31]

Very neat, orderly, and all that right-angle stuff. A little OCD, perhaps. And Rebecca was just very loose and fluid and familial. And it was a really interesting teaching for both of us, I think. And so there's a statue there to remind me. What was the last word? The statue to remind you? The statue just reminds me of that time and Rebecca. Did you all hear Ross? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, good. They're nodding. Thank goodness. Rebecca apparently was sitting in Dwight Way in the attic, that first Zen place of Berkeley Zen Center, and then had kids and was away while the kids were little and then came back here. The Unitarian Church, they told me, just leave them home and let them watch TV.

[32:47]

You come to church. Is there anyone online yet? Not yet. No, but, oh, Peter. Peter. Oh, we'll do Peter first. How do we hear him? How's that? Okay. So I remember something about Jack Van Allen. It goes back pretty far. I don't really remember the occasion. It was a very significant occasion where we were going to have a ceremony. I think it might have been Sojourn's installation or something like that. uh i was to make a cake as part of the celebration and for some reason or another i got the idea that it should be decorated with 108 108 chocolate buddhas jack made these rubber molds for me where i could pour he only made a couple of them

[34:02]

I kind of stored these chocolate buddhas in my freezer for a long time. Anyway, it was a wonderful story. I'll never forget Jack's devotion. Did you see the Zendo when it was just a framework? No. This was some years after that. No, I hadn't actually. Okay, still working on trying to find it. Thank you. Thank you. One of the things I've always appreciated about... Well, you mentioned that there was this sense that the altar had... was predominant male energy at one point.

[35:03]

But to me, a lot of the Buddhas don't come across as even . And maybe it's the Buddhas from Southeast Asia that I'm most familiar with, but they sort of come across as androgynous and very ambiguous as to what kind of a person gender-wise, I appreciated that about them. So, and all these bodhisattvas, maybe our Buddha is not so ambiguous, but these other jizos to me, or jizos and bodhisattvas don't strike me as gendered. So anyway, I've, you know, felt that about it, but Back to Jack Van Allen putting things in the walls.

[36:06]

I just want to remind everyone since we have, at our house, we have all the walls. We are constantly surrounded by studs. Okay? Just keep that in mind. You can put things in the walls now. Yeah, that's very interesting to look at the figures here in you. I mean, we know Buddha was a man, so we just assume it. I just want to... I appreciated your talk as Hatchitan. I didn't know a lot of this historical backstory that you just gave to each one of the figures on the altar. And I so appreciate having this. I've always had this really deep connection and reference to all the Bodhisattvas and the images on our altar.

[37:14]

And I remember when I first started to become a Chigin that actually Sojin was very particular, very particular in how the relation of each one of these Bodhisattvas related to each other. I said, hmm, really? And it was like, you know, how many inches and the distance between each thing. And I, you know, I didn't get it at the time, honestly, until so many years of practice at this particular practice that I realized how important it is that this is a relational practice. How we all are related in here and how we interact with each other and harmonizing. all of what's on the altar and how we harmonize together. And it's just always a reminder to me when I work on the altar, that that's what we're doing. So I just wanted to thank you. I want to say if anybody would like to be achieved, this is the time to let me know.

[38:21]

Thank you very much. Thank you. Did you all hear it, Nancy? Liz has a. Thank you for your next story about Jack Van Allen. I'm going to contact, Reed Hamilton was the head carpenter of the building, the Zendo, and I will contact, he lives up in Nevada City, the Nevada City area, and I will get his email. I will ask him if that story is true, and I will let you know. If you want to know. I want to know so much. Yes, I want to know. I'm just thinking maybe. I'll find out for you. Thank you. Thank you, Hannah, for your talk. Just reflecting on being achieved.

[39:22]

I always loved it because it's such a devotional ritual. It's not like the altar is so dirty. You know, honoring every element on the altar. But I wanted to just mention my own home practice. I even have a Jack Van Allen statue that I inherited. Both Fran and Al had different things. But the one I love is that it's in my kitchen. Someone gave me an altar and it was made out of a little mint can, you know, that opened up because it was all minced. And then they put it, it's all homemade. They put a picture of Buddha in there and, you know, so it just sits on my windowsill. And I develop a habit every time I cook, go in the kitchen, or to cook a meal. I bow to it.

[40:23]

I just love that practice. I have yet to, once in a while, I'll feed the Buddha, you know, but that I haven't fully developed, but I just love the bowing practices. Thank you. I don't know what, maybe just one more. Oh, thank you for your talk. Just as people are picking Hannah up on appreciating the physical images on the altar, I just want to share with you, it's often difficult to get the flower offerings lined up right because Rajin Paramita is somewhat at an angle. It's riding up the knees. So my check, you know, to make sure that, so maybe Luminous Heart can see from where she is.

[41:29]

I sort of get in the middle, and if I'm sort of in the stairs, prides my car and me to just sort of float over on the dish holding the water. And that's how I know how to align. So you can observe that when you just even move in the back. Thank you. Wow, that's beautiful. Because you do. When you're trying to line it up. Now we know. Okay.

[41:57]

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