to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Morning. Today is the first day of our three-day session commemorating Buddha's Parinirvana. Parinirvana is a term used to, a little bit in contrast to just nirvana. It means something like the great decease of Buddha. So I'm gonna talk about nirvana and what that means.

[01:04]

In our tradition, we have Buddha's parinirvana, Buddha's birthday, and Buddha's enlightenment as three separate events. But most Buddhists observe those three at the same time, called Vesak. So I don't know exactly why those are, in our tradition, those three are separate, but that's the way it is. So that's what we do. Nirvana is a term that's one of the three Dharma seals. You're probably familiar with the three Dharma seals, which are no self, impermanence,

[02:17]

and nirvana. In the old so-called Hinayana tradition, sometimes the three Dharma seals are no-self, impermanence, and suffering. That's the way we usually hear about the three seals. if we study the old texts, no self, impermanence, and suffering. These are the three elements that are at the foundation of our life. But the Mahayana, instead of using suffering as that basic element used nirvana.

[03:20]

So I'll talk a little bit about that. The reason, one reason why nirvana is used instead of suffering is because suffering is not really an element, or it's not, suffering is just a feeling. we can suffer or not suffer. There's suffering which is caused by body illness or difficulties with the body, difficulties with the mind, difficulty with circumstances, not having what we want. and suffering, having what we don't want is suffering, being with people we don't want to be with is suffering. Well, you know, there are many causes and reasons for suffering.

[04:26]

But how to let go of suffering is actually nirvana. How to let go of the duality of existence, non-existence, permanence, impermanence, self and no-self, coming and going. These are, all these dualities are a cause of suffering. Being attached to these dualities is a cause of suffering. So if you say, there is no self, that's a one-sided view.

[05:32]

In Buddhism, we say, there is no self. But that's a one-sided view. If you say, there is no self, there has to be a self. Otherwise, you couldn't say there's no self. You wouldn't want to say there's no something that you can't name. So the reason why we say no self is because there's a self. And the reason why we can say there's a self is because there is no self. We don't usually see that side, though. Because we see things in a one-sided way, usually, it's hard to say that because there's no self, we see things as self. And because

[06:39]

And then we say things are also not permanent. But that's also a one-sided view. I think existence, nonexistence is a little better term because things exist and we say, yes, things exist. But that's a one-sided view. Things don't exist. But if you only think that things don't exist, that's also a one-sided view. And we think of birth and death. Of course there's birth. Or life. Birth, actually. If you think I was born, and stick to that view, that's a one-sided view.

[07:43]

If you think I was not born, that's also a one-sided view. If you think my friend died, that's a one-sided view. If you think my friend didn't die, that's also a one-sided view. So, what's the truth? The truth is somewhere in between. So I have, I know someone, a rather advanced student who is still trying to figure out the problem of no self. You know, Buddha apparently when he was teaching people, he emphasized certain aspects of the Dharma because of the way people fell into one-sided views.

[09:06]

So he talked about suffering and talked about no self. but he also talked about self. He talked about impermanence, but he also talked about existence. When we read the sutras, the sutras are written by people. making a great effort to understand Buddha's understanding. But anything that's written down is not totally accurate. If we become attached to these words, then it makes it very difficult to understand Buddhadharma. That's why we have to practice and use our intelligence

[10:14]

and our discernment to see between the lines. In a phrase, when you read the sutras, you have to read the back of the page. We say, read between the lines. If you simply take everything you read as verbatim, without questioning, then it becomes, what has been called catching a snake the wrong way because it will bite you. There's actually a sutra called how to catch a snake so it won't bite you, which refers to how to be discerning when you study. The sutras.

[11:16]

So, when we study the sutras and when we practice, you know, we have to be able to, it's very important to practice middle way. So someone asked me, I still can't get rid of this self. You never get rid of this self by trying to get rid of this self. That's a dead end, total dead end. Why would you want to get rid of this self? In order to conform to an idea that's no self. There shouldn't be a self. There is no self. no separate self. That is an illusion.

[12:22]

But at the same time, there it is, you know. What we discern as a self is not a self. But at the same time, it is a self. So if you're too selfish, if you're too far on the side of self, then we hit you in the head. If you're too far on the side of no self, we hit you in the head. Where is the middle? If you say I am alive, we hit you in the head. If you say, I'm not alive, we'll hit you in the head. If you say, my friend is dead, we'll hit you in the head.

[13:24]

If you say, my friend is not dead, we'll hit you in the head. If you say, I'm going somewhere, bonk. If you say, I'm not going anywhere, bonk. In Mahayana Buddhism, there are the eight don'ts, or the eight nots, which are the eight opposites, which are to be avoided. And I just mentioned them. So if we talk about existence and non-existence, birth and death, these are grave subjects, you know, which we're all concerned about.

[14:32]

This morning, we had oatmeal for breakfast, some fruit soup, and tofu scramble. And the oatmeal was there in the bowl. And then when we ate the oatmeal, the oatmeal was gone. Did the oatmeal die? You could say so. The oatmeal was there, now it's gone. It must have died. We don't think that the oatmeal died because the oatmeal went down in my stomach and all the ingredients disassembled themselves and the essence went into making me feel good and then the rest went someplace else or is going someplace else.

[15:39]

But when we die, what do we think? He died. And when we think about the oatmeal, The oatmeal, we just call it oatmeal. We just call them oats. We just call them grains. But you know, this earth, the world is a ball of dirt, a big rock in space, twirling in space. Isn't that amazing? Big rock spinning around in space. And we think of ourselves as something special. but this twirling around in space produces what we call plants. These plants spring up and produce seeds, and we shake the plant, the seeds fall off, and we gather them up, and then we dry them out.

[16:50]

We put them in water, turn on the fire, They bubble up and we call it oatmeal. It didn't come from anywhere and it's not going anywhere because every transformation is a different stage. If you say to the oatmeal, do you know that you were once little pieces of oat on a plant? The oatmeal would say, are you kidding? I never had that experience before. So, when we think of birth and death, it's just a concept, just an idea. I mean, it has its validity as an idea, definitely. You know, we have our feelings about our fellow beings and

[17:54]

We mourn them and we feel suffering and so forth when they transform and when we transform. But there's nothing but transformation. Suzuki Roshi's main teaching was everything changes. And if you think about everything changes, that covers everything. all our understanding can come out of that one phrase. If you take it to its source, there's nothing but transformation. And we don't know what everything transforms into. We only see this particular picture of the transformation process. So when we are born, so to speak, that's just one event in the process.

[19:09]

But we were already existing in our parents. We're already existing in stardust. Everything is made out of stardust. So animals, plants, minerals, water, fire, we're just all part of the same thing. And this is one particular aspect called my life. So nothing is really lost. Nothing is gained. There's no gain and no loss. This means no coming, no going, no gain, no loss. Nothing is gained because whatever is gained and whatever is lost,

[20:15]

So it's okay to have things and to enjoy our life in the midst of things, but without hanging on to anything. In order to experience nirvana, it's not necessary to withdraw from into some special place, because nirvana is not some special place, or some special idea, or some special event. It's simply the ground of our being. It's actually the norm. Buddha's always talking about, I'm only teaching the norm. I'm not teaching any special teaching. I'm only teaching what is normal, the norm, nothing special. And that nirvana, if you're looking for something beyond that, then you just go stumbling past into some imaginary desires place.

[21:40]

But nirvana is the norm. It's when we understand completely what is and we give up, let go of our frustrations, we just end up in the right place called nirvana. not attaching to greed, not attaching to ill will, and not attaching to our delusions. So when we talk about Buddha's nirvana, Buddha's par nirvana, Buddha let go of, he had already let go, This is what made Buddha Buddha is that he'd already let go of one-sided existence or all of his illusions and delusions and misunderstandings and false aspirations.

[23:09]

And then when he led the final transformation in this particular world, he was totally set free. You know, the Bodhisattva ideal is to not allow yourself to be totally set free until everyone is set free. So bodhisattva is immersed in that way of life. The arhat way of life, which is pre-bodhisattva, so to speak, separated nirvana from samsara. In other words, the world was, a place of suffering, and a place where suffering was the Saha world, which if you've ever studied Bruegel, or the medieval painters, it's just this world of suffering.

[24:44]

But that's also a kind of one-sided view. So the arhats were immersed in this, not immersed, but subject to this one-sided view, and they tried to escape from that world, that view of the world, and live a totally pure, clean life, dissociated from the world of samsara. But Mahayana view, was to not separate from the world of suffering, but to find nirvana within the world of suffering, within the world of the dualistic world. So, you know, realization is to realize the non-duality of all those opposites.

[25:51]

but without being caught by the opposites. To enter the world of beings in the illusory world without being caught by it in order to bring people to realization, to help bring people to realization. So the bodhisattva suffers the suffering of other people or everyone. We cannot have our own, when we create suffering, we may not realize that what we create, when we create suffering, it creates suffering for everybody. create our own happiness and not include everyone, we're not totally fulfilled.

[27:05]

We're only fulfilling some small part of ourself. Even though we may be very happy doing something for ourself. So the human world and the world itself is like one piece of cloth. If you pull the corner of the cloth, the whole cloth comes along with it. But we may think that our piece of the cloth, you know, is not connected to all the rest of the cloth, but it's one piece. So whatever we do really affects the world, the whole world, even though we may not see, oh, my tiny little piece, you know. Doesn't mean much, but it does. Today,

[28:19]

we're going to have a ceremony in about 15 minutes to commemorate Shakyamuni Buddha's parinirvana outside. So everyone is welcome to, who is not in the sasheen, is also welcome to stay for the ceremony and encouraged to stay for the ceremony. which will be explained to you by someone else. So the main thing, you know, is to stay in the middle. To stay and not fall into one side or another. It's sometimes, you know, the way it's characterized is walking the edge of a sharp sword.

[29:30]

If you fall into one side or the other, just walk that edge right in the middle so you don't fall into one side or the other. Either side. you get cut in half. So precepts are also like this. You know, everything is like this. When you study Buddhism, You know, everything is like this. Precepts, when we say, don't kill, you know, one side of don't kill is, don't kill anything, you know.

[30:38]

The other side is, you can't kill anything. Nothing can be killed. And the middle is, you understand both sides and you don't fall into one side or the other. But whatever you confront is a totally new situation and has to be handled in a thoughtful way according to the circumstances. That's Bodhisattva way. So everything has to be Every situation has to be approached from the point of view of compassion. Everything is constantly devouring everything else. That's the law of the world. Everything is being devoured and everything is devouring.

[31:39]

We eat our way through the world, each one of us. We're like earthworms. Earthworms can't see and they can't hear. But they just, you know, open up. They just eat their way through the world. And it makes for nice, mellow soil. And we do the same thing. If we know how to act in accord with nature and don't violate nature, and treat everything that we meet in a compassionate way. That's the middle way. You can't say that you don't kill, but you make a big effort not to kill, not to kill life. But we're always, you know, if I eat a cabbage, I'm killing that cabbage.

[32:46]

But I'm not really killing the cabbage. I'm participating in the transformation of energy. But if I don't appreciate the cabbage in that way, then I'm maybe killing the cabbage. If I don't really pay attention to what I'm doing and appreciate the cabbage for what it is, and appreciate how the cabbage and I relate to each other, then I'm killing the cabbage. That's why we bow and chant for the food, to acknowledge how things come to us and how we relate to them. So even though we participate in the transformation of that energy, we're not killing.

[33:53]

But when we don't pay attention to our environment or to the people that we're harming, that's killing. It's very interesting that some people think, well, you know, at some point the Earth is going to be uninhabitable, so by that time, of course, we'll be on Mars, or the moon. Great. It's like somebody living in a house. They never clean the house. The house just gets so full of stuff, and the foundation is deteriorating, and the roof is caving in. They say, well, let's move. Yeah, it'd be great to leave this wonderful earth and go to a nice, rarefied atmosphere called Mars. Anyway. So this earth and our life is actually a place of nirvana.

[35:10]

That's one of the characteristics, main characteristic of our life. and it's the norm that we all want to be at, not some special place. So we honor Shakyamuni for pointing that out to us. Thank you.

[35:40]

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