And so I do want to talk about precepts. But I want to talk a little bit about the vows, the four vows in the Bodhisattva ceremony. The four Bodhisattva vows sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them. Desires are inexhaustible, I vow to put an end to them. The dharmas are boundless, I vow to master them. And the Buddha's way is unsurpassable, I vow to attain it. In the Bodhisattva ceremony, the third one, The second one, delusions are inexhaustible, is instead of desires it says delusions. but I'll come to that.

[01:29]

These four vows arise from, the way they come into being is as a response to the four noble truths. The first truth is life is suffering, or, that's a little simplistic, but all the explanations are simplistic, or unsatisfactory is another way of expressing it, or not quite suffering or unsatisfactoriness or not stable.

[02:31]

Unstable, I think, is good. Not anything that you can depend on easily. always in a state of change, which makes it very hard to feel stable, or to feel permanent, So the result is suffering. Things are not the way we want them to be. They're not as we would have them. So that leads to suffering.

[03:37]

So the response to that in the Four Vows is a compassionate vow to save all sentient beings from the world of suffering and confusion. So in the vow, it says, sentient beings are numberless, endless sentient beings. I vow to save them. It seems like an enormous task. But that's the vow, and it's a response to the first truth. And the second truth is the reason why life is suffering, or the reason why we suffer through our life, in our life, the root of that suffering is desire.

[04:40]

or you can say delusion. Desire, delusion. The delusion which arises through desire. Desire itself is not so bad. Desire is necessary, as a matter of fact. But unnecessary desire or craving is maybe the right term. is the root of suffering and delusion. So, that's why the second vow says, desires are inexhaustible, they're kind of endless stream of desire, and the vow is to end them. But you can also say delusion. Delusion is a little more palatable Because if we want to end desire, you know, that really strikes home.

[05:44]

If you end desire, it's like saying, I'm dead. But in a way, that's true. a kind of death of delusive desire is what the second vow is about, in order to allow true desire to manifest. And then the third truth is that there is a way to get out of suffering. The first two truths are about what's the matter. And the second two truths are about what you do about it. So it has a negative side and a positive side.

[06:54]

The third truth is that there is a way to get out of suffering. And the response to that is the dharmas are boundless, I'm allowed to master them. The dharmas, in this case, means the teachings of dharma. To master If you put your attention on mastering, or maybe mastering is not the right word, but understanding or mastery is good though, the dharmas, then that's the way out of it. The way to escape is maybe the usual, but maybe escape is a good word, but to save yourself.

[08:02]

And the fourth truth is to follow the eightfold path of Buddhadharma. the vow which corresponds to that is the Buddha's way is unsurpassable, I vow to attain it. So that's to follow or to be the path. It's interesting, in this ceremony we say, I vow to become the path. I vow to become it, rather than to follow it or something like that. I think that's a very good translation or a good way to express it. I vow to become it. When you become it, there's no problem, but then there's nothing outside of the path.

[09:10]

But it's very difficult to become the path, to become the Buddha way. But when we get tired of our problems, tired of dealing with the problems that we're constantly creating through our delusion or through desire, and we discover a way, it's a big relief, actually. So the path of Buddhadharma, although it's for everyone, in another sense it's not for everyone. It's open to everyone, but not everyone is ready for the path. Because the path is rigorous and

[10:21]

somewhat a little bit ascetic and not easy to continue because our desires are so strong. So as an example, if we look at the third precept, not the third precept, but the fifth precept. The fifth precept is not to take intoxicants or to, not to sell intoxicants or to take intoxicants which cloud the mind. So intoxicants, can be dope or liquor or something that clouds or covers our clarity of mind.

[11:35]

In Buddhadharma, clarity of mind is the most precious thing. Why we practice is to have clarity of mind. And whatever clouds the mind is a hindrance. Sometimes intoxicants can clear your mind, actually, for a little bit, you know. Sometimes we take dope. And we have a sudden clarity. Suddenly our mind is very clear. That's why people like cocaine, you know, and various dopes. But it's only for a moment.

[12:39]

Unfortunately, it's only for a moment. And what looks like clarity is actually clouding. The thing about liquor is that it doesn't fool us so easily. If we drink too much liquor, we stagger around, and we're drunk, and we know that it's unwholesome, but it's not as delusive. Of course, people can drink liquor, not acknowledge the fact of what they're doing. That's different. But it doesn't lead to clarity of mind. You don't drink liquor for clarity of mind. You do it for other reasons, social reasons, or it helps you loosen up, or forget, or something.

[13:44]

Dope gives you the illusion that you're seeing can give you the illusion that you're getting insight. And so it's a little more insidious. I remember when I was smoking dope, a long time ago, I liked it because of the insights I had. And I didn't like liquor at all because I didn't feel like, you know, forgetting or whatever it is that liquor does to you. I could never get with that. But with dope, it was like I really felt that I had insight. But I couldn't sustain the insight, you know, because I'd had to have a dope to light up my mind.

[14:46]

So, but it helped me, you know, even though it was a delusive act, still it had a good side, you know, which was it helped me, to take me to, lead me to the path. And most of the people in my generation, I think, I would say at least 75% of them were led to the path through dope in the 60s, in the early 60s. Jack Kerouac generation. And we were all, you know, smoking dope and looking for the way, looking for the path. And so the dope gave us some insight in that we wanted to find the path, but the dope was the only thing we had. And those of us who found the path, or found some way, let go of the dope when we didn't need it, or when we found the path.

[16:04]

I think other people went on to bigger and better dopes. So it has, dope itself is just some chemical and it blends with the chemicals that are already in our body and heightens those chemical reactions. It gives them a big push, overloads our system in some way to unbalance, actually, our body and mind. And our mind opens up in some way because of the unbalance, the imbalance. But we can't stay imbalanced. So we just get a little glimpse through those imbalances.

[17:14]

We get a little glimpse of things. I remember when I was coming back from Tassajara the other day, I was talking to one of the students who likes to smoke dope, and she was asking me about it. Everybody knows that that person is smoking dope. And, uh, ordinarily, at Tasa Hardee, you don't do anything like that. No dope, no liquor or anything. But, you know, this is an older student who people want to, um, help. So, anyway, everybody knows that she smokes dope. So she was talking to me about it, you know. And, uh, what's wrong with it? And I could only come back from my own experience of what's wrong, what the problem is. And what I kind of came to was in a place like Tassajara.

[18:26]

Tassajara is a little model city. It has its own rules and regulations and ways that people relate to each other. And they live in certain style, lifestyle. Lifestyle is very important actually. And it's isolated from the rest of the world. So in order to maintain the lifestyle and to create harmony amongst the participants, people have to make certain commitments. And whatever you do in that situation affects everybody else.

[19:27]

In our ordinary life, a lot of the time, because our world is so vast, you know, so many people around, You don't tend to pay attention so much to how you affect other people. We tend to think, well, whatever I do is my own business. And if I go in my room and do this or that, it's my own business. It doesn't affect anybody else. It's nobody else's business. But actually, whatever we do affects the people around us. So even if you do something that nobody sees, they feel it. the people around you are affected by it in some way. But you don't notice it so much because there's so much going on. People are going back and forth. And you just duck into your own room and do whatever you want. And it looks like it doesn't affect anybody, but it does. It has a big effect.

[20:30]

So when you live, say, if you're a resident here at Berkley Zen Center, You're living in connection with a certain group of people, even though you have other connections. But whatever you do has an effect, which is felt by those other people, whether they know it or not. Sometimes you realize it, sometimes you don't. And especially at Tassajara, because there's no other focus. So if, say, two people, a man and a woman, start to have an affair, it's immediately felt. It has some effect on people. Or if somebody gets sick, it's not just that person getting sick, but it has some effect on everybody.

[21:37]

So whatever each person does has an effect on every other person. And the way things go, it's amazing. Everyone should experience that kind of cause and effect relationship. So if you're smoking dope and no one else is, even though you do it by yourself, it has an effect, which maybe you can describe and maybe you can't. I remember another time when I was director at Tatsahara, and it was during the summer, and the assistant director was smoking dope. We were having a meeting of the officers.

[22:40]

And he came in a little late. And immediately I knew that he was... Even though I'd never seen him do it before or had any idea of it or anything, immediately I knew because he was changed. His mind was not... The clarity of his mind was not the same as everyone else's. And... He was in a different space, just in a different world. He was in our world, but not of it. And it was very striking, very striking. He finally ended up in Boulder. But anyway, Another thing about intoxicants is that we can learn to operate with them.

[24:11]

We can learn to manage. I know many people who drink a fifth of Old Crow every day. I know a woman who I was very close to when I was very young. And she drank a fifth of Old Crow every day. But it was always just in a glass. She always had a glass. And during the whole day, she was pretty clear. And you wouldn't know that she had been... You didn't feel so much that she was drunk. But it had a big effect on her. And then, old crow started going up in price. And it was getting too expensive. And so she changed to Sherry, which was a big change.

[25:13]

And then she went to work. And that helped her a lot, going to work, because she had to deal with people who She went to work for a telephone company, and she was very bright. And then you have to be really clear-headed. And so she just gave it all up, which was amazing. But not everybody can do that. So it's better if you don't get hooked. Better not to get hooked. Because if you do get hooked, it's difficult. And smoking is like that, too. There are times when you can, in all the circumstances, come together, where you can walk away from something. But that's rare, you know. And in a way it's like coming together with the Dharma. Sometimes we meet the Dharma, but we're not in a position to take it up, you know.

[26:17]

And so we can't practice. And sometimes We meet the Dharma and all the conditions are right. You want to give up other things and you're ready to really join with it. And you take the opportunity. If you miss the opportunity, it may not come again. And the same with some kind of habit that we're hung up on. There are times when all the conditions are right. You want to give it up, and the right circumstances are there and you hop onto it and you can just shake it like that. But if you miss that opportunity, then when you want to give it up again, you have to go through all this grueling withdrawal problem. I had given up smoking, which I used to do, many times, but I always came back to it, you know, and several times it was very difficult, you know, really trying to pull myself away and craving it at the same time.

[27:30]

But when I finally gave up smoking, it was, um, when I had become disgusted with it, I didn't like it anymore. And all the circumstances were right for me to stop, and I just walked away from it. without any withdrawal or anything. It was amazing, I'd smoked for about 35, 40 years. Makes me look old, doesn't it? I started smoking when I was, what, huh? I started smoking when I was about 15, I think, 12 or 15, something like that. And then I gave it up in 1973 in Tassajara. I remember walking out through the snow. The snow drift was five feet deep.

[28:32]

And I don't know if you've ever been in Tassajara. But there was some reason to walk out. We made 10 snowshoes. This is 1969, because we weren't prepared for snow at that time. And so I made snowshoes out of a five-gallon can, cutting off one side and tying it on with my feet with rope. And me and a couple of people, we walked out in these tin snowshoes. And although we walked out for some reason, what was really in my mind behind it all, my real reason for wanting to work out was to get a can of top. Top is smoking tobacco that you roll into cigarettes. I used to always roll them, roll my own. It was much cheaper that way and more interesting. That was my biggest, underneath it, that's where I really wanted to go.

[29:42]

Even though there were other excuses, other good reasons. So that was 15 miles through the snow with 10 snowshoes. It took all day long. And I remember this ad, I'd walk a mile for a camel. And I remember in the dope days, too, when it's easy to get dope now. In those days, it wasn't so easy. And you'd have to have a good connection. And I remember my connection with different people that he'd say, I'll have it for you tomorrow.

[30:42]

And I'd say, OK. And I'd wait all day for that time. And then he'd come back and, oh I'm sorry man, tomorrow I'll have it. And this would go on for a week. I wouldn't think of anything else for that whole week. It would just be in my mind. Maybe I'm an obsessive type. I'm very happy, too, that all that's gone. But the same thing can happen, you know, with other things. It can happen with sexual attachment. It's like that, too. I remember this girlfriend. When will she come back?

[31:45]

Maybe we could extend the lecture time this way. So, um... Go on. It's a tough life. Life is suffering, right? And because of desire. So... It's the right amount of desire, it's just right. the right amount. Balance is really everything. It's how you balance, how we balance are the factors.

[32:47]

But even then it's difficult. If you're too tight with yourself, holding back too much, then that has some effect. And when some temptation crosses your path, you know, maybe there's too much pressure and you go, boom, you know. I think that happens to a lot of teachers from the East because they're held in a certain kind of balance when they're there. When they come to America, the balance shifts because Americans are not like Asians. You know, and the pressure, like, There's a certain amount of pressure inside and a certain amount of pressure outside, right? And the pressure inside and outside equalize each other, and you can live pretty well in Czech. But when you come to another country, the pressure on the outside is different than the pressure on the inside, and you explode, or, you know, change.

[33:54]

And so it's hard for, a lot of times, for those teachers to adjust, and they've all had problems. So maybe it's how we keep the pressure on the inside and the outside equalized all the time, so that when something comes around from the outside, we know how to... we can meet it with equal pressure from the inside, so we don't get thrown off balance. And I think that's the function of practice, to help us keep that pressure equalized. And that's the reason for precepts. Precepts are not just rules. They're set up as rules, but actually they're an expression of what's actually going on inside of us. And real precepts are not just rules, but our own inner awareness of how we keep ourselves balanced

[35:06]

and harmonized. You have a question? About my sex life? I have a question, but I hesitate to shift off your topic. And I've wondered this for some while. And I know you're going to be awake for a time or two. I've read or heard, on the one hand, that in zazen, we just sit. You have your attention directed to your posture, your breathing. And then you just sit. But I've also read and heard that you References people say that they were practicing are saying with a great intensity or a great effort and those two ways seem contradictory.

[36:19]

Same thing. That's how you just said. The second part is description of the first part. Second thing you said is the description of the first part. You see, Zazen is just sitting, right? Just sitting. That's what you said. Then you said, and the other thing you heard was that you sit with great effort. Well, that's a description of the first part. Still not clear. I seem to just be repeating what I read and heard. Well, just sitting means to sit with your whole body and mind in great effort. That's just sitting. Just sitting means with our whole body and mind complete and completely functioning. You could put the emphasis on just sitting. I'm just sitting. Yeah, I'm just sitting.

[37:20]

Robert? During the Bodhisattva ceremony, paying homage to Samantabhadra, I've forgotten and I wonder if you could help me to remind me of who Samantabhadra is or what he or she represents. Well, Samantabhadra, you know we have the various Bodhisattvas, Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri Bodhisattva and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. Avalokiteshvara, Bodhisattva, is the embodiment of compassion and Manjushri is the embodiment of wisdom or prajna.

[38:38]

And Samantabhadra, Bodhisattva, is the embodiment of all practices, of action or of manifesting the Dharma in practice. And sometimes Samantabhadra is also called the bodhisattva of compassion. But in that sense, because Samantabhadra, bodhisattva, leads people to various practices, Avalokiteshvara is more sympathetic. You don't have to do anything and Avalokiteshvara will respond to you.

[39:40]

And Samantabhadra is usually pictured riding an elephant. whereas Manjushri is sometimes depicted riding a lion, but sometimes not. In Zen, actually, Manjushri is usually a monk sitting zazen, which is more traditional, and later became seated on a lion. sometimes is seated on a lion, but most often standing or some easier posture, some different posture without an animal. We hear more about Manjushri and Avalokiteshvara, not so much about Samantabhadra, but in the Avatamsaka Sutra, Samantabhadra is very important.

[40:51]

In the Avatamsaka Sutra the truth seeker visits 52 different teachers and one of the most important ones is Samantabhadra helps him, puts him in the right direction. I think Jim had a question. Okay. Well, it's not a question so much as a way that, I don't know, that I've come to see those bodhisattvas as sort of ideal qualities that I see at different times and different people. Right. And I think particularly Samantabhadra or the shining practice, I see that in new people sometimes.

[42:04]

Right. Just this radiance of people that are just beginning to sit and what happens with that. And not always only in new people. No. But is that... That's a quality. Yeah. Is that what those are as ideal sort of things? Were they real people or what's the deal? Well, bodhisattvas come in different classifications. Bodhisattva is a bodhi being, a being who is on the path of Buddhahood. So in one sense you could say all students are bodhisattvas, all Zen students are bodhisattvas. But then there are great bodhisattvas who are actually already fulfilled and who are actually buddhas, manifestations of buddha.

[43:12]

And these are more mythical or celestial maybe, you know. because you can attribute all kinds of anything you want to them and they become a vehicle for expressing our religious imagination. So you can give them all kinds of qualities which is a way of expressing our human qualities and aspirations. And then we can see those unqualities in ourselves and in others. So, each one of us is Samantabhadra, Bodhisattva, you know, when we are engaged in practice. You know, like you say, the beginner's mind, shining practice. And Manjushri manifests, you know, in our wisdom, as our wisdom.

[44:19]

And Avalokiteshvara manifests as our compassion. So they're really us. But at the same time, we use them as projections. So there's nothing in Buddhism that's outside of ourself. Everything that we talk about or use in that way is really a manifestation of ourself. And all the iconography of Vajrayana Buddhism and Shingon Buddhism in Japan is dealing with psychological manifestations of ourself. But it's arranged in a kind of visual way. And various rituals and so forth can help to convey that. So it's mysterious, but it's not mysterious to be something outside of ourself.

[45:25]

It's a way of understanding, helping to understand and express. I mean, it's true that you're over there and I'm over here. That is true. At the same time, we're the same person. So, yeah.

[46:40]

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