of our annual three-day Labor Day Sashin. And I can already hear the signs of Labor Day screaming around the neighborhood. This morning, I want to talk about the Enmei Juku Kanon Sutra. This is a sutra which we chant quite often, quite short little sutra. And we always chant it in foreign language. We always chant it in Japanese. I don't know where the sutra originated. Sutras are supposed to have originated in India. because citrus are the words of the Buddha. But, you know, when the citrus came into China, 2,000 to 1,500 years ago, and even later, people thought that

[01:37]

All those sutras were the words of the Buddha, Shakyamuni. And then they started saying that the sutras were somewhat contradicting each other and saying different things. And also, there were some sutras that seemed to have originated in China. So we don't know whether this is good or bad. because of course all the sutras were originated by somebody. And so we say the sutras were originated by Sambhogakaya Buddha, not Shakyamuni Buddha, but by the inspiration of Buddha through ordinary people and sages. and they carry the spirit of Buddha.

[02:51]

So this little sutra may have originated in China, may have originated in India, I don't know, but it carries the spirit of Buddha. So we say it's originated with Buddha. So, you know, the M.A.J.U.K.U.K.A.N.N.N.N.N.N.N.N.N.N.N.N. That's it.

[04:05]

We like to chant it over and over. So, Enmei, the title, Enmei Juku Kanon Gyo, means ten phrases. Extending life. Ten phrase, extending life, Kanon Sutra. Gyo means Sutra. And Enmei means It's hard to describe exactly what Enmei means, but the idea is extending life or eternal life or endless dimensions of this moment.

[05:22]

Endless dimensions of this moment. because it means both this moment as a moment of time and also a moment of vast endlessness. This is the essence of most koans. the meaning of this particular moment in the vastness of eternity. So you could say infinite life of this moment. Eternity is a kind of

[06:29]

technical term in Christianity. So it's a little bit different than that. But it has similar meaning. Jukku means ten phrases or ten perspectives, ten ways of looking at something, of expressing the same thing. So each line of this Sutra expresses the same thing from a different point of view. It expresses this infinite life from a little different perspective. It's like looking at a ten-sided jewel and each one has a little different look to it. And, of course, kanon, kanzeon, kanon is a Japanese way of saying Avalokiteshvara.

[07:39]

In China, it's kuanyin. So each culture has a different way of expressing, of saying it, this name. But kan, means to penetrate or to illuminate. It can also mean to be open to. You know, understanding is also, could be one of the meanings, but understanding doesn't mean necessarily mentally. Understanding in a sense of standing under. or being open to. If we really want to understand, in a sense, it means to just be completely open to, without any idea of your own.

[08:41]

Before thinking, we understand. This kind of understanding. So, kan, to penetrate or open to. or illuminate, allow illumination to flow. And zh, zhe, on zhe, is the world. And on means the sound, to be open or penetrate the sounds of the world. You know, when we sit in zazen, we just open ourselves completely. This is the mind of Kanzayon, to just completely open and let the sounds of the world penetrate or flow through and allow Buddha spirit or Buddha nature to illuminate without any interference.

[09:53]

So, Kanzeyan is sometimes called the one who hears the cries of the world. So it has this compassionate aspect. Mind of Avalokiteshvara is the mind of compassion. The mind that's completely open to everything. Kanjizai in the Heart Sutra We say kan, ji, zai, bo, satsu. So kan, ji, zai is another term for kanzeon, a little different, which means to penetrate the self, to penetrate, to understand our own self as everything, to understand our own self as the universe. So this is, of course, we all know, you know, Kamsayon, Avalokiteshvara, we know that this means the mind of compassion.

[11:12]

But there's no end to investigating this mind. So the sutra opens with this announcement, kanzeon, and in a very strong way, evoking kanzeon, evoking the spirit of kanzeon. This is the kanzeon that each one of us that's intrinsic to each one of us. When we study Buddhism, we see all these statues of Avalokiteśvara and stories and so forth, but this is just stories about ourself, not some celestial Avalokiteśvara up in the sky. Citra is talking about

[12:16]

the mind of compassion, the true mind of compassion within each one of us. So when we evoke Avalokiteshvara, when we evoke the mind of Kamsayam, we bring forth the mind of Kamsayam. When we offer incense during service, this is to invite the mind of Kamsayam to to evoke the mind of Kamsayon, to bring forth and invite the mind of Kamsayon to come forth in each one of us. We also offer incense and invite the mind of Prajnaparamita to come forth. Please join our practice. So in China and many countries in the East, Kanzayan is like, something like Mary in Christianity, compassionate, some compassionate figure that people pray to, are devoted to, have a cult of,

[14:00]

It's very common, actually, Kwan Yin, Kwan Yin, in China and Japan. In our Zen school, we're not devoted to any special Buddha or any special Bodhisattva, although we usually set up a figure of Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, and a figure of of Lokiteshvara or Monjushri, especially the Zen Do Monjushri, the personification of wisdom is set up. But these are inspirational figures. We're not devoted to these as deities. Our devotion, practice is actually very devotional. Zen practice is very devotional.

[15:06]

Sometimes people think, well, Zen practice isn't devotional. But other practices are, because people are devoted to some form or some deity. But our devotion is to practice. We're very devoted to practice and to bringing forth Buddha mind. to bringing forth the mind of Kamsayong, but not looking for it outside. So this is very characteristic of Zen practice. And sometimes people feel that it sets Zen apart from most devotional practices. But in our practice we always find these characteristics within ourself rather than supplicate to an outside deity.

[16:10]

So sometimes people feel that Zen is not religious practice because one is not devoted to a deity. But that's just an idea that people have about what religion is. So maybe it's not religious. In Zen practice, I figured out that if you think it's religion, then it's religion. If you think it's not religion, then it's not religion. If you think it's spiritual practice, then it's spiritual practice for you. So we don't need to argue about what it is. For some people it's just to help you have calmness in your life, but definitely

[17:24]

So one other characteristic of kanzeon or avalokiteśvara is the ability to appear in different ways for different people. Sometimes we say avalokiteśvara or kanzeon appears in any circumstance to help people. Because the mind of Kansayana is completely free. It can transform into any form to help people. So if you may find Kanzayon transforming into a statesman, or maybe into a beggar to help people, or maybe into a prostitute to help people, or into a mother, or a fisherman, or whatever, any form, in any circumstance.

[19:08]

Because the mind of Kanzayon is the mind that has nothing else to do but help people. That's Kanzayon's purpose in life, is to help people. And without that purpose, there's no Kanzayon. So there's no self-centeredness or selfish idea. but simply to serve. So the next line is Namu Butsu. Namu means homage to.

[20:11]

but it also means one with. Homage, the etymology of homage is to be a servant, to be subservient, and to honor something above yourself. But it can be extended to mean to be identified with. So, homage, namu, means homage or I am one with Buddha. Homage to Buddha, one with Buddha. Who is Buddha? So it begs the question, who is Buddha? We say, so, in the Mahayana, the old sages divided Buddha into three parts.

[21:16]

Very much like the way the Christians divided Christ into three parts. Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya. Dharmakaya is your essential nature. Sambhogakaya is your own wisdom, and nirmanakaya are your actions. So, dharmakaya is the essential nature, which means you are Buddha, and Buddha is you. Sambhogakaya means Buddha's wisdom shines through you, and you eliminate Buddha's wisdom. Nirmanakaya means that all of your actions are the actions of Buddha.

[22:19]

You're walking and you're talking and so forth. And Buddha is expressed through your actions. So each one of us embodies the three bodies of Buddha. We just divide it up in order to talk about it. but it's really just one body. But it's hard for us to understand this. So we say that intrinsically we are Buddha, but experientially we have some doubts. We don't necessarily experience, our experience doesn't necessarily, we don't feel that we experience that we're Buddha.

[23:27]

We just, well, I'm just me, you know, I'm just, you know, me, Buddha. So in order to experience our intrinsic nature, we practice. And then we begin to understand that Buddha nature is what we are. This is very important to Dogen. Dogen, when he read the Nirvana Sutra, says, all sentient beings have Buddha nature. and Dogen read it as, all sentient beings are buddha nature. So to have is, you can't have buddha nature. You can only be buddha nature. Buddha nature is the expression, is expressed as each one of us. So when we practice,

[24:37]

Buddha nature is expressed through each one of us. Even if we don't practice, Buddha nature is expressed through each one of us. But in order to understand it experientially, we practice. You know, there's a story of Morita Zenji. when he was a little boy, his father, he lived with his father, and his father was very poor and kind of old, and his father couldn't take care of him very well. So his father wanted him to go to the monastery, Eheji Monastery, actually. And he wanted him to become a monk. He was only about 13 or 14. And so they accepted him in the monastery, And the boy was willing to go.

[25:39]

And before he went, his father told him, he said, well, when you go into the monastery, you will have to clean the toilets and take care of the garbage. And you may have to and you probably have to hit the big bell. He said the monks, the older monks, gather together all the leaves and clean up the grounds. And then the younger monks come and gather it all up and take it away. So there's this interaction between the older monks and the younger monks, and they all do the same practice. But there's some interaction there, some kind of cooperation. And he said, when you hit the bell, when you ring the bell, the big bell, you create a Buddha, or you evoke the spirit of Buddha, or you open a path for Buddha every time you strike the bell.

[26:51]

Please keep this in mind. So when Morita Zenji went to the monastery, they asked him to say, no, you should hit the bell, you know, ring the bell for everybody. So he rang the bell, and the old abbot was sitting in his quarters, and he heard this bell. And he said, who rang that bell? Bring him over here. So he brought over the young boy. He expected to see some mature monk. And here was this boy. And he said, what were you thinking of when you hit that bell? And he said, well, my father told me, when you strike the bell, you bring forth a Buddha or open a path for Buddha. And of course, he became a disciple of the abbot who brought him up to Buddha.

[27:56]

So, one with Buddha. When you strike the bell, this is the experience of being one with Buddha, to bring out the Buddha nature of the bell as a sound. When you prepare the soup, to bring out the buddha nature of the soup through your cooking. How do you do that? Soup already has buddha nature, but how do you bring all these ingredients together in harmony as an expression interact with everything around us to evoke the mind of Kanzayon.

[29:23]

This is our practice. How we relate to everything and with the mind of Kanzayon. In every detail, actually, of our life. Very hard. Very difficult. That's why our practice is impossible. But we do it anyway. If it wasn't impossible, it wouldn't be so challenging. Then it wouldn't be so interesting. So, it's kind of endless frustration. A life of endless frustration. Which is quite wonderful. So then the next line is yo-butsu-in. Yo means with, together with.

[30:30]

And butsu, of course, is Buddha. U is is-is or can be to have. And in means direct cause or original cause. So it means not one with Buddha as the original cause or direct cause of our existence. So it means we are not separate from Buddha. Buddha, in our Zen understanding, when we say Buddha, what we mean is Buddha nature. Because we don't set up some Buddha as Buddha. We don't set up some Buddha as a deity, even though it comes close, you know.

[31:42]

Buddha nature. In other words, we are one, our nature is Buddha. So with Buddha, dharmakaya is the direct cause. Dharmakaya, or our essential nature, is Buddha, and we are one with that. Some people say affinity. We have affinity with Buddha, but affinity implies separation. So if you say affinity, It means that you have some closeness with something, but one with means that there's no separation, no difference. So, there's no difference to say, yo budzu in means Buddha, nature is the direct cause.

[32:54]

There's no separation between ourself and direct cause. So, direct cause implies, you know, there's no one cause of things. In Buddhism, we don't say that there's a first cause. This is one thing that separates Buddhism from other religions, because other religions say there is an original cause, or a first cause. But in Buddhism, there's no beginning and no end, because whatever exists is a product of more than one cause. If you have a a seed. The seed is the direct cause, but unless it has water and sun and earth, it doesn't sprout.

[33:59]

So a direct first cause, a direct cause, needs indirect causes in order to function, in order to be what it is. Your automobile is sitting out there, and we call it your car. But it's not a car until you open the door, sit in the seat, turn on the key, and move. The car is a direct cause for being a car, but your action, the gasoline, the air, and all the indirect causes are what make it a car. So even though we say this is, Buddha is direct cause, Buddha needs, this direct cause needs cooperating causes in order for it to be what it is.

[35:05]

So the next line is, yo butsu en. With Buddha, there is indirect cause. With Buddha, in other words, with Buddha there are supporting causes. In order for Buddha to manifest, there has to be supporting causes. So Buddha nature is also all the supporting causes for something to exist. for ourself to exist. So supporting causes or indirect, contributing, this is the realm of cause and effect. So together, the in and the in, direct and indirect, together means karma or actions.

[36:19]

indirect causes acting on something create life, create our karma, our life, our phenomenal life. Do you remember The Good Earth, that movie by Pearl Buck? She wrote a book, this was in the 30s, and it took place in China. It was a very famous movie, a well-known movie. And I saw half of it recently. I didn't see the second half, I saw the first half. I'd seen it years ago. And I remember this part very vividly from when I was a kid. It's about the farmer and his wife in a time of drought and famine.

[37:28]

They go through various cycles, but they become very poor because of this drought and this famine. And the wife finds two things. They didn't have anything to eat. They were boiling mud. actually, just to pretend that there was... just to reminisce over eating. And the wife found two things. She found a peach seed, and she found a bag full of jewels. And so she gave her husband the bag full of jewels, and she kept the peach seed. And he took the bag, he was a little bit naive, you know, a country bumpkin type, and, you know, bought a lot of lavish things, you know, and set himself up and bragged about his money, you know.

[38:37]

And she took the seed, the peach seed, and planted it. And every day she watered it. And the seed would grow, and the little sprout, you know, she'd take care of the sprout. And he was, you know, playing with his money, you know, his wealth. And she never forgot the seed. And the seed kept growing because she kept watering it and taking care of it. All these indirect causes for this seed were creating the seed. And the... farmer's indirect causes were creating what he thought was wealth. It was a great illusion that he was creating through his indirect causes. And finally, you know, he ended up destitute.

[39:39]

But she had this wonderful thing that was growing and which was very real. I don't remember how the movie ended. I didn't see it end, but You can draw your own conclusions. You can make your own ending. So, yo-butsu-u-in, one with Buddha. This is Buddha. Yo-butsu-u-en is Dharma. Dharma is the various things, the Dharmas. Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. So, bu-po-so-en is the next line, which means Buddha, Dharma, Sangha.

[40:50]

Bu is Buddha. Ho is Dharma and So is Sangha. Buddha, Dharma, Sangha are also contributing causes for enlightenment. So Buddha means one with everything. Dharma means the diversity Buddha is oneness, Dharma is diversity, and Sangha is harmony. So these three causes are indirect causes for enlightenment or bringing forth Buddha nature. They are all supporting causes for bringing forth Buddha nature.

[41:52]

So Buddha is the direct cause and the dharmas and Buddha dharma sangha are direct indirect causes for bringing forth illumination. So that's as much as I'm going to talk about today. I want to share something with you. There was an interview in the Sunday Chronicle magazine, a week and a half ago, I think, with Kirby J. Hensley, who is the head of the Universal Life Church, you know, the guy that sends out ordination to anybody who asks.

[42:58]

And he reminded me when you said, you know, you don't have Buddha nature, you are Buddha nature. He said he had a great insight when he had fallen away from the Pentecostal Church because he no longer believed in a personal God. And that one day he was out walking and he saw a flower and he looked at it and he said, God is in that flower. And then he said, no, no, God is that flower. I know people who have gotten ordination from him. Certificates of being ordained ministers. You just send the money and you... It's probably the best way. How do you recognize when you said Kanzayam takes many forms and guises?

[44:05]

That's a good question. all the time. If you see everyone as your teacher, everyone has something to teach you. And you just see everyone is appearing here as my teacher. They may not be conscious of that, but you may be. If you see everyone as your teacher, you will see Kwanzee home. Yes? That reminds me, I work at home and I have a lot of phone calls that interrupt me all the time. The phone just bugs me. Someone else told me that about seeing Kwanzee as a teacher every time he or she is coming. So I put a little sticker on the phone that said, Kwanzee is calling.

[45:08]

It's like all stickers are sort of wore out after a while. And I had a question about translation in Japanese and Chinese and so forth. What do you think it would be like if the chapter were in English? Oh yeah, we can do that. It might sound funny like Italian opera. Right, so you have to put it in a way that you have to transform it, you know, into the language without losing the quality of the meaning. That's the trick. Do you think that will happen? Yeah. Are we like the people in China one generation after Buddhism came to China and they still maybe were saying things in a language we didn't get? It took a long time. And that keep happening all the time? They kept the last language for a while? Well, it took a long time to transliterate the Sanskrit and the Chinese, because they're two different kinds of languages.

[46:17]

But there's also the fact that you want to preserve some of the old language. Like in the Catholic Mass, it's really nice to chant that in Latin, because there's something evocative about the old language. And if you take everything and translate it, then you lose something. So it's good to have both. That's why we do our chanting in both languages. So you get the feeling of one. The nice thing about chanting without translating is that you put your mind to rest and it goes deeper than just the way you think about it. And the other side is that it's nice to have mental understanding as well. So it's nice to do both. I like that. What is your car before you open the door?

[47:25]

I don't know. Parts? Car parts? I'll put together. It's potentially a car. Potentially a car. You know, in the... Duggan says, you step into the boat and hoist the sail. and take hold of the tiller, and stepping into the boat makes the boat a boat. Stepping into the boat makes the boat a boat. Doing the action is what makes the boat a boat. You can say, that's my car.

[48:25]

You can say that, and you won't be wrong, but in the final sense, The car is not a car until it's acting like a car. Although sitting could be acting like a car. You know, like when you're asleep, you're also a person. I have a question about this car scene. I want to tell some information, which is in a few other questions on Melinda, my old textbook. Yeah. There's just this identical dialogue that goes on about which they It's a chariot 3,000 years ago. But the question I had was, does anger make kanzeon disappear? Well, you can say that kanzeon makes anger disappear, right? That's one side. You turned it around, which is OK.

[49:30]

Anger makes kanzeon disappear, right? Nevertheless, it can be angry Kamsaham. Angry Buddha. Now I am angry Buddha. You should never forget that. Even though anger obscures Buddha, it's still angry Buddha. You should never forget that even though you are angry, you're still Buddha. Even though Buddha is Buddha with a cloud, So, sad Buddha, angry Buddha, whatever. So, when we see someone that's angry, we shouldn't forget that that person is also Buddha. That's the mind of Akan Zayong. To see through the anger to the Buddha nature. Otherwise you can't love your enemies.

[50:33]

or people who are antagonistic toward you. You have to see through the anger or whatever it is to their Buddha nature, which is very difficult because you want to react. Well, if everything regardless of its condition, then how can we, then we can't prefer one thing over another. And so, and we can't, and you also said that you are who the nature is, Well, because we live on two levels.

[51:46]

Life takes place on two levels. One level is that everything is just as it is. And beyond comparison. And everything that happens is just what happens. That's the absolute reality. The other level is that we are all human beings in the human world. And we have feelings, thoughts, and aspirations, and so forth. And we have to take into account the human world, where we have good and bad, right and wrong, and laws, and act in a certain way to create harmony in the human world. Creating harmony in the human world means that there's good and bad, right and wrong.

[52:48]

But we, this is our agreement with each other in order to have a human world. And of course, we're always going beyond the rules because of our energy. But in the absolute sense, everything is just what it is. So there are these two levels. But in the absolute sense, harmony or disharmony, one is not preferable to the other. Well, in the absolute sense, everything is working in perfect harmony. But disharmony is part of harmony. That's right. It's just a different kind of harmony.

[53:49]

Chaos is just another form of harmony. But it's not something that we recognize as harmony for the human world. So, as long as we're human beings, we have to pay attention to the human world. take care of the human world, the harmony of the human world. The harmony of the universe is part of which is the harmony of the human world, but it's also very different. The explosions of galaxies is not harmonious to the human world, but it's life. So life doesn't respect us as we like it to be. So life is a great mystery, you know, what's going on?

[54:55]

But as long as we are living in this human form, we have to take care of the human world because there's suffering as a characteristic and human beings want to create a harmonious life so they won't be suffering. And we have to pay attention to that, even though whatever happens to us is just what happens. So both things are going on at the same time. Everything is just the way it is. And there's no way that we can judge it. On the other hand, there's the human world. in which we try to create a harmonious life, because we're human beings, for the human world. Because everybody wants to have some happiness, or contentment, or good life.

[56:01]

And we have to pay attention to that. And so, within that realm, we set up standards of good and bad, and right and wrong. But we should know the difference. that we do set up these standards, and it's good to set up these standards, but the standards change too, because as humanity changes. So we always have this battle going on, constant battle between good and bad, right and wrong, good and evil, but ultimately it's just what happens. So we should understand And because everything is just the way it is, it brings out a lot of compassion, because we don't want to see human beings suffer.

[57:11]

But we create our own suffering. This is the biggest problem, is that we create our own suffering. through our greed, our ill will, and our delusions. So this is what we're always working with. Greed, ill will, and delusion. And then we say, well, why did this happen? It just happens. There's a cause for everything. Everything has a single cause and multiple attending causes. And so we should be careful when something appears to not create causes for suffering.

[58:22]

It's really up to us. But suffering happens anyway. Because it's the nature of things to form and come apart. And when things come together and come apart, there's suffering. In the Noble Truth, Buddha, Desire is a cause of suffering. And this desire is related to things like compassion, like wanting to end suffering. Well, there's desire and desire. When we say, get rid of desire, it doesn't mean get rid of desire because you can't get rid of desire. It means to turn desire in a way that's not self-centered.

[59:28]

When we talk about desire as the cause of suffering, it means self-centered desire is the cause of suffering. So, if someone is a torturer, a murderer, etc., and someone else desires to that situation, even if their desire is not self-centered, isn't it a cause of suffering? No. The cause of suffering for that person would be seeing other people suffer, not their desire to do something about it. So suffering is universal. We can't get away from it. So to say, get rid of suffering, doesn't mean to get rid of suffering.

[60:36]

It means to know how to accept suffering. Because there's always suffering, or there's always ill, you know, dis-ease, unease, uneasiness, unsatisfactoriness. Unsatisfactoriness is the first truth. Things are not, they're not stable. Life is not stable. Life is not, even though we have some momentary satisfaction, the next moment, we don't. So things are upset, then they come back, then they're upset, then they come back. This undulation is what life is like. The rhythm of life is that undulation between having and not having, wanting and not having, having and not wanting, and so forth.

[61:39]

And how you accept that moment by moment is how you get rid of suffering. How you actually accept your pain is how you deal with suffering. to push it away, it's how you suffer. It's just that things are the opposite of the way they seem. If we get rid of all of our painful things, then we won't suffer. But that's not true. Even though everything is bright and sunny, something will happen that will upset us.

[62:29]

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