Choir singing. where it says, it talks about the mantra, therefore know the Prajnaparamita is the great transcendent mantra, is the great bright mantra, and the great is the utmost mantra, is the supreme mantra, which is able to relieve all suffering, and is true, not false.

[01:03]

So proclaim the Prajnaparamita Proclaiming the mantra that says that they got a car got a car song that they both use In all of these 600 Chapters of the present part That's this mantra. Mantra is considered, there are various ways of thinking about a mantra, but it's sometimes considered like a spell.

[02:11]

have a special meaning in the context of the form of mantra. And mantras come to us from various sources. Sometimes they appear in text. Sometimes they appear to you. Somehow it's connected with magic. And in Buddha's time, Of course, there's a lot of magic. Also, mantra art is evocative. Mantras are very common. The dharanis, mantras and dharanis have similar sorts And the Dharanis, of course, are not meant to be translated because the power of the Dharani is in the way it's expressed, using particular words.

[03:43]

So the words themselves have So when we chant the Dharamis, we usually chant them, and of course we usually chant them in Japanese, but Japanese is kind of a transliteration of Sanskrit. But they do have translations. Whether or not the translations are are not meant to be rationally understood. It's only meant to be invoked.

[04:46]

The meaning is only meant to be invoked, not rationally understood. And the power goes into evocation. But in this age where we want everything to be explained, rationally explained, we have accepted in our practice, of all the things we have accepted from our Buddhist forebears, we have accepted the Dharanis without question, without too much question. And even though there is now a pretty good translation of the Daiki Shindharani, But whether or not the quality of our chanting invokes the compassion inherent in the Dharami is another question.

[06:04]

But if this invokes compassion... But anyway... So, you know, a lot of Buddhists have mantras But in Zen, we don't chant mantra. It's not usual. We have koans and various things, but we don't usually chant. Actually, a koan is a kind of mantra. A few holy koans are a kind of mantra. But mantra, this mantra, this quasi-parameter measure itself. I want to talk a little bit about the mantra itself, and then go back to these transcendent, great, bright, utmost, and so forth, descriptions.

[07:38]

The mantra says, gathe gathe par gathe par samgat samgat Gattei has the meaning of going, gone. Go, going, and gone, depending on how you see it. Gattei, gattei, haragattei means something beyond, gone beyond. We translate the sutra as wisdom beyond wisdom. We say that wisdom beyond wisdom sutra. That's really beyond. Gone beyond the beyond. But gone beyond or to the other shore.

[08:42]

And Svaha is like... You know what Svaha is. Everybody knows what Svaha is. I don't. You don't? No. What do you think it means? I don't know. I don't pay attention to it. That's why you don't know what it means. Other shore means something like other side of this duality of our life, bridging the duality of our life. Form is emptiness and emptiness is form.

[10:01]

When we understand what that means, when we are emptiness is form and form is emptiness, then we're already on the other shore. That gap has been bridged. when you really know how to live completely where you are. When there's no gap in our life, then the goodness never shows. It's just like saying, nirvana, sami, sambuddhi, enlightenment.

[11:06]

But this mantra is not mantra that you chant all day long. but it's a mantra that you use all day long. In other words, this mantra is a mantra of daily affairs. I used to, I remember, I probably told you this before, but when I first started to practice, I was really struck by Suzuki Roshi's practice. Every day, he would, I would go to Zazen, But whenever I went to God's room, He was always there. And He came out of His little room, just a purging, He came out of His little room, out of His side room, and lighted the altar up for me. And then after He's done with me coming, and His service, He did everything exactly the same way that He did.

[12:13]

And I was really struck by how He really dedicated his life to doing this very narrow kind of activity. Every day doing the same thing, where I was thinking about all my desires, and what I've been doing in my life, and being torn apart by conflicting emotions, and every day he was up there. Every time I come to Zazen, he was doing the same thing. It was kind of like a cycle. He'd go through this cycle every day, twice a day. And later, I heard from him, this is... Suzuki Yoshi's life is a mantra. His activity, all of his actions, his whole life, all together is his mantra. It's not something that he's

[13:14]

some words that are going around in his mind, but his very activity focuses him in the same way that a so-called mantra will focus on him. This is kind of a living mantra. His whole life is a living mantra. And I realized that there was nothing, he had no desire outside of what he was doing. He may have had some desire, and the same desire may have come up. But, and I know I did. Oksan used to talk about how when she was in Japan,

[14:16]

He managed. But his whole life was living mantra. And that's what made his practice so powerful. And if you want to talk about a spell, he created a kind of spell or atmosphere in just his mantra life. created an atmosphere which allowed other people, allowed the space for other people to practice. And that was his only purpose in life, was to create that space, was to do his thing. His thing was kind of like, in an engine, the distributor goes around and around, and there's a little point. that lead to the spark plugs.

[15:34]

And as it goes around and around, it sparks these points. At the point that the distributor makes contact, there's a spark. And it goes here, there's a spark. And the whole thing runs. And he was like the distributor. It's quite wonderful, and not demanding anything from anybody, but just inspiring them. So, the wonderful thing about his practice was not that he did not demand anything from anyone. Very little. He just inspired everyone to want to do something.

[16:37]

Mantric practice is very, very powerful, very simple, and very powerful through that kind of dedication. Kind of unwavering, unwavering. He was like the unwavering pillar. Confucius talks about the unwavering pillar that is at the center of things. the center of our life when we're really focused. There's this unwinding physics. Yes. The vital factor was our So the power of this practice, I think, from Zazen permeated his life.

[17:48]

And this one survived for many, many people. So this is a prize and a pardon for mantra I remember thinking, well, if we wanted a mantra, maybe we could chant this gathe gathe all day long. But no need. We do chant it all day long in our activity. During sashimi. serving each other. So first it says, the Prajnaparamita is the great transcendent mantra.

[19:43]

has the same meaning as gatte gatte or gatte gatte. It's a kind of description, going to the other shore, bridging the gap between So, transcendent activity is washing our clothes, and dying, and serving, in the smallest details Kyo-san and Kyo-gyen.

[20:58]

Lee-san and Kyo-san. Lee-san was the founder of the school that bears his name and Kyo-san was his disciple. Kyogen was another of Hison's disciples. And one day, Hison was taking a nap in his room. He said, it's just me, Kyo-san, your disciple.

[22:11]

Don't be so formal. You don't need to be so formal. And Lee-san said, well, come on in. So Kyo-san came into the room, and he sat down. And Lee-san said, you know, I just had a very nice dream. And I'd like to tell you about it. What do you think my dream was?" And Kelson went outside and got a towel, a wet towel, and brought it back and gave it to the teacher so he could wash his face with. I don't know if it was winter or summer. If it was winter, maybe he brought him a hot towel. And if it was summer, maybe a cool towel. cold washcloth and put it on top of his head and it was warm.

[23:24]

And so the teacher said, oh, thank you very much. And they were sitting there enjoying themselves. And then Kyogen He said, I was just telling Kyo-san about my dream. Do you know what it was? And Kyo-san went out and he heated up some hot water for tea. Kim Sung already understood your dream.

[24:32]

She's got some teeth. And then they sat down and had some tea. That's the end of the story. This is a very simple story. But it has to do with knowing the meaning responding, how to respond to what people need. This is transcendent without Did you say without?

[25:41]

Did you say without? I didn't say without. You started to say without something when you said it. Oh, yeah. Without being told is what I thought. I didn't say something. I thought, well, that didn't want to work. Without, in this case, We had a dream. So they didn't say what it was. And this didn't have to, not guess, but know what it was. And it looks like reading minds. And in a sense, we got to be able to read minds. open somebody's mind and climb inside, you get the message, so to speak.

[27:20]

Especially at a time like this, during Sashimi, our minds are very open, and our intuition is very high. But it's not even that, you know. It's more about always being ready without having anything of your own to do. Only being ready to respond to what people need. This is kind of the hope of freedom. And this is also called renunciation. Renunciation is when you have nothing of your own that needs to be done. If you want to be ordained as a priest, you should be in a position where there's nothing of your own that you want to do. That all of the desires in your life, ambitions of your life, all of your ambitions of your life are no longer important to you.

[28:35]

The only ambition in your life is to let go of all ambitions. and to just be able to respond. in this direction. But even though that's so, we always have some, usually always have some residue of desire left. And if the residue is too strong, then we shouldn't be

[29:42]

ceremonies and so forth and so on. But that is one side of the increase. The second, the first one, priest prayer, is a nice basis.

[32:00]

It's a good basis. You should be able to, if you're a priest, you should be able to know how to fold your zhanu, know how to deal with your rose, know how to hold incense, and offer incense, and bow, and all those things in a way which completely in your head. Learning how to put something down and pick something up. We all, since we were born, we've been picking things up and putting them down. But when you become a priest, you should learn how to pick something up and put it down in a very conscious way. How to fold your robes in a very conscious way.

[33:02]

whatever you come into contact with in a very conscious way, so that you're not ignoring things. And one side is that we arrange our world according to the way we find it. And the other side is that the world comes to us the way it is. we can always do something with what comes to us. So first thing in this realm is that you take care of your space. First we take care of the space that we're sitting in and arrange it consciously. And then we take care of the extended space around us and arrange it consciously.

[34:19]

And then as we move from one place to another, we arrange ourself and arrange the circumstances. So that we're always creating order in our space. So this is conscious activity. I'm talking about ordained priests, but by extension, all of us are practicing in the same way. So, by extension, we're all, when I say priests, I mean all of us. We're all monks. As soon as we enter the monastery, we're all monks. So, how do we take care of our space?

[35:24]

Yesterday, I was looking if there was someone that arranged their belongings. They had a coat, nicely folded, sitting on a rock, and then blood. The coat was placed on the rock in a way that balanced well. And then the gloves were placed on the coat, kind of in the center. And then the tool was placed underneath the gloves, not underneath, but in a way on the gloves that was very subtle, balanced.

[36:44]

And ordinarily, you would not notice something like that. Here's somebody, here's a Zen student that knows what they're doing. Consciously practicing. Not just a practice, but it's life. Taking care of life. Mindfulness is not just words. It's wholeheartedly taking care of life. And then that extends to responding to the needs of beings around you, whether it's people or objects.

[37:54]

There are two kinds of self-consciousness. One is the self-consciousness in which we see ourselves as an object and can't move. If we're walking in a tightrope, we have a pole and a rope, and we start to think suddenly, what am I doing? That's the self-consciousness which And as soon as we are aware of that self-consciousness, which makes us an object, we can't stay there. We have to fall. The other self-consciousness is where we're conscious, not of ourself as an object, but the rope and the pole and

[39:08]

because I'm not there without them. That kind of self-consciousness is how we see everything as ourself and move with that understanding. Then we don't suddenly Sometimes we doubt the magic. When we really are one with things, we doubt the magic of that. And then we become self-conscious of ourself as an object and everything else as an object. And life loses its magic. Thank you.

[41:19]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ