This afternoon at, I think it's three o'clock. Two o'clock. It says three o'clock someplace and two o'clock someplace else. Two o'clock is good. We're going to have a late ordination ceremony. ordination for six of our lay members. So I want to talk a bit about the meaning of ordination, especially lay ordination, and the meaning of taking precepts. The term juhkai means taking precepts. giving. Ju is to give and to receive. And kai is the precepts.

[01:16]

So the precepts is the center of the ceremony. And we call it, there's a ceremony called Jukai, simply Jukai, for lay, what's called lay believers. And we have what we call tokudo. Tokudo means entering the stream of practice. And we have zaikei tokudo and shukei tokudo. So zaikei tokudo means lay practice, lay initiation, lay ordination.

[02:21]

And shukei tokudo means priest ordination. We have never had what we call a Jukkai ceremony, so to speak, because traditionally in Buddhism, Jukkai ceremony is for believers in any school of Buddhism, most schools of Buddhism, and the believers take five precepts. and receive, sometimes they'll have a little retreat where they receive these precepts. And in Japan, they have Jukai ceremonies for many, many people, maybe 200 people or 500 people at a time, who want to take the precepts. But it's different from Tokudo. So the reason why, I've always tried to figure out why, there's always been a little question, you know, about why we give lay, why we call saikei tokudo lay ordination.

[03:38]

Because we usually think of ordination as something for a priest. But lay ordination is for people who are practicing. And sometimes people think, well, lay ordination is a little less than priest ordination because the priest is ordained in a visible way and wears robes and has a different role. So a priest is a visible example of practice. wearing the robes and taking care of the practice, taking care of people, and it's a, priest ordination is like a life career. Lay ordination is, it's not a career, but it's a dedication.

[04:40]

It's a dedication, not just as a believer, but as a practitioner. That's the difference. And so, when we look at these two sides, priest ordination and lay ordination, the priest ordination, shukhe tokoro means leaving home, taking the precepts and leaving home. And zaikei tokoro means taking the precepts and staying at home. The same precepts. in our school. The sixteen Bodhisattva precepts are the same for both lay ordination and priest ordination, but the tracks are a little different. both lay ordainees and priest ordainees follow the same precepts and practice the same practice.

[05:53]

In most other countries, it's very clear who is a priest and who is a layperson. But in America, it's not so clear. It's more ambiguous. We don't have the structures in America that support practices, Buddhist practice. We don't have the history to rely on and so forth, so we have to rely on our own resources. And that makes things very different. Priests have to work someplace in order to support themselves. They're not supported by the school or the government or something like that. So this is like, our practice is like pioneer practice. Even though we're in the city, we're really out in the boondocks.

[06:56]

As far as our practice goes. So priests have to go to work, support themselves, and so it looks like they're doing the same thing as the lay people. So it's hard to tell the difference. So a lay person practices without leaving home. And in our practice, the priests also practice without leaving home, but not exactly. Because, well, the question comes up is like, what does it mean to leave home? Leaving home means renunciation. So what does renunciation mean? Renunciation means letting go. So what does letting go mean?

[07:59]

Letting go means letting go of greed, ill will, and delusion, basically. It means letting go of attachment to a self. So, in some sense, the priest track, traditionally, is monastic, but not necessarily. Not necessarily, but a priest should have monastic training. and then return to the home world to help people to practice while maintaining the attitude of strict practice. So when the priest is not at the monastery, Priest is practicing at a place called their home.

[09:02]

So home leaving is more of an attitude than a matter of where you are. So one practices at home and at the same time practices within the realm of non-greed, non-ill will, non-delusion. So wherever we are, we can practice renunciation. So renunciation means non-attachment to our tendencies that create karma. that create what we call bad karma. Tendencies which create are getting caught and unable to step out of the grinding wheel.

[10:19]

So we have a high respect for lay ordination because lay practice is very difficult to actually do it well, wholeheartedly. In some way, you know, it's easier for a priest to practice in the monastery because there are less obvious distractions, but the monastery is full of distractions. You know, wherever you are, you carry yourself. And then when you're in the monastery, you realize it's not the world that's the problem. This isn't the problem. So you begin to see, oh, it's not all those things that, all those worldly things that I thought was the big problem for me. It's my own mind.

[11:29]

So you're there with your own mind and you have a chance to look at your tendencies in a very stark way and deal with them. Whereas in the world, it's easier to blame the world for your problems. So either side, both sides have their own peculiarities of practice and their own problems. And lay track is a totally valid way to practice. And priest practice is a totally valid way to practice. And actually, for our practice, we're kind of in between. It's a little bit ambiguous, and people say, well, John, I wish it was one or the other sometime. But life is not one way or the other.

[12:32]

The ambiguity of our practice actually, I think, is good for us, because it keeps us from thinking that things are one way or another, totally. So I myself am a priest, but I also have a kind of lay practice as well. So as a so-called teacher in a mostly lay Sangha, if I didn't have my own lay practice, I wouldn't be able to relate to everybody and understand people's problems. So I'm a priest and I practice priest practice. I also practice lay practice, same time. And to be able to practice lay practice by following precepts,

[13:46]

as a guideline, is the main thing. So, in our ordination ceremony, we take the three refuges, the three pure precepts, and the 10, what we call, clear mind precepts. They're also called the 10 Prohibitory Precepts. But if you call them the 10 Prohibitory Precepts, then they're only don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. So that's only one side. So as well as don't do this, do this. Don't do this, do this. This is what I call the Clear Mind Precepts. It presents both the negative and the positive. I think just presenting the negative precept is one-sided and seems like it's talking to bad boys.

[14:50]

Sometimes Buddhism gets like that. So we say don't, I vow not to take life, I vow not to kill, but to work for the benefit of all beings. So that's the positive side. So those are the 16 Bodhisattva precepts. So I want to talk a little bit about what it means to take refuge because when we have ordination, the first three are taking refuge. The rest is all, the three refuges are the foundation.

[15:56]

And then the rest of the precepts are the unfolding of how you take refuge. So refuge is one term, one translation, and one meaning. And the meaning of refuge is maybe to return to, or come back to. So return to, we say sometimes, I vow to return to my own true nature. Take refuge in Buddha, we say, I vow to return to Buddha. I vow to return to Dharma. So you can say it either way. So refuge sometimes seems like you're hiding. So I don't, it's okay to use that word, but it's more like you're finding your way back to your original nature from which you have strayed.

[17:05]

So to take refuge in Buddha or to return to Buddha, Buddha means in this case, big Buddha. Dharmakaya Buddha. The Dharmakaya Buddha is the essence of life, or essence of mind. The sixth ancestor, Huineng, Daikan Eno, likes to use the term essence of mind. Dharmakaya Buddha is essence of mind. Essence of mind is, when we talk in Buddhism, we talk about mind. And when we talk about mind in Buddhism, we don't talk, it's not the thinking mind. It's big mind, which is the fundamental basis of all existence. Sometimes it's called emptiness. but it has no special characteristics.

[18:17]

But everything that exists is a characteristic of essence of mind. So it's possible to reach essence of mind through whatever appears. you simply follow it to its source. If I want to know what this stick is, just follow it to its source. So when we find where everything comes from, just follow it to its source. when we end up at where does this come from, we will end up at the source of where everything comes from. So Dharmakaya is our essence of mind, is Buddha.

[19:22]

So each manifestation is a manifestation of Buddha. So when I take refuge in Buddha, I'm taking refuge in the essence, my own essence of mind, which is also your essence of mind. This is where we all meet and where we all come from. So when Tozan, Master Tozan was crossing the stream, he saw his face reflected in the stream. And he said, everywhere I turn, I meet myself. This is Dharmakaya Buddha. Wherever you turn, you meet yourself. So we say, treat everyone as Buddha. If you want to harmonize the world, your world, just treat everyone as Buddha, and treat everything you meet as a manifestation of Buddha.

[20:31]

So we say, there are no objects. Everything has an objective, everything has an objective existence, but essentially there are no objects. So how do we meet the essence of things? How do we refrain from simply meeting things on the surface? So Suzuki Roshi always talked about big mind. Big mind and small mind. And we tend to think that small mind is not so good as big mind. But small mind is big mind. Small mind is a manifestation of big mind. Big mind is the support of everything.

[21:33]

So our thinking mind is also mind. But if we want to know the essence of mind, stop thinking. But that doesn't mean that thinking is not a manifestation of the essence of mind. So in Zazen, you know, Zazen is how we settle on big mind without any interference. And then our little mind's going around, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. We say, I can never stop my mind. Of course not. The mind is there to think. You can't stop it. You can stop it for a little while. You can put a big rock on it. But it creeps out from under the rock. So just let it do its thing.

[22:36]

It's just another activity in the world. So, in order to have calm mind, to settle on essence of mind, when you really settle on essence of mind, things can go on and on without you being bothered by them. There are some things that bother a lot of people. And we should take care of those things. But, you know, within our activity, to find the calmness of our mind, to settle on the calmness of our mind, on essence of mind, so that within activity, there's that still place, which is before anything manifests. It's always there. And then our activity comes out of that enlightened mind.

[23:46]

So this is taking refuge in Buddha. or to return, always. Returning means renunciation, letting go of the hindrances which don't allow us, which cover our essence of mind. They don't cover the essence of mind, but they cover our ability to settle on essence of mind. because essence and mind is always there, like the sun. Sun is always shining, but the clouds cover the sun. So when the clouds go by, the sun comes out. And then the sun shines in all directions. So the sixth ancestor says, One who is a exponent of the Dharma should be like the sun in the sky, shining in all directions without discrimination, without picking and choosing, just simply, that's it.

[25:09]

It's just letting that happen, allowing, Buddha nature to shine forth in all directions. So we say a practitioner of the Dharma doesn't have any, only has one side, and that side is round. So in a sense, it doesn't have any sides, but always the same face. And so take refuge in Dharma. Dharma is like our wisdom. Buddha is our nature, our essential nature. Dharma is like our wisdom and our practice. There's Dharma with a small d and Dharma with a capital D.

[26:13]

So Dharma with a small d is all of our psychophysical manifestations. love, hate, revenge, anger, whatever, all of those emotional and mental constituents, each one is a dharma with a small D. And the dharma with a big D is the law, the truth about how things really are. And so the dharma is the truth, but the big D is how you deal with the dharmas with a small d. How you take care of this body-mind which is full of emotions and thoughts.

[27:17]

So the dharma is the practice and the wisdom. So we say, Dharmakaya is Sambhogakaya Buddha. You know, we have the three bodies of Buddha. The Dharmakaya, which is Buddha nature, and Sambhogakaya, which is the Dharma. It's how Buddha is manifested through our activity, through our actions, and through our understanding. So we have one Buddha with three faces. even though it's all one face. Sambhogakaya Buddha. So Sambhogakaya Buddha, or Dharma, take refuge in the Sambhogakaya Buddha of my own nature, meaning taking refuge in the truth, the true practice, sometimes called orthodoxy.

[28:27]

I don't like to use that word, because it's too religious, too smacks of religion. Which is okay, but I just don't like to use it. When I think of orthodox people, I get turned off. But true practice, practice which doesn't stray from essence of mind. That's the Dharma, and we can learn about the Dharma, but the Dharma, we learn about the Dharma, we read about the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path and all this, but the true Dharma comes from within ourself. So when we study Buddhism, the study of Buddhism is not to put a Buddhist a rope around ourselves, but to stimulate the dharma that is inherent in us already.

[29:31]

So when we read something, we say, oh yeah, that awakens something within us, and then that awakening is called realization. So we have realizations all the time, you know, when we practice. And that keeps us practicing. If you don't have some kind of realization, then you went, why am I practicing? We say this from time to time. I don't know why I'm doing this. I've been doing this for a long time, but I don't know why. Well, you need some inspiration. So dharma is inspiring. So that's why I urge people to study, because study can help you, to inspire you. And then the inspiration brings something forth from you, some kind of Kensho experience. So, then there's this taking refuge in the Sangha.

[30:45]

Sangha is Nirmanakaya Buddha. Nirmanakaya Buddha is the Buddha that is this person. So each one of you are Nirmanakaya Buddha, Ashakyamuni Buddha. And you practice, and your essence of mind is the Dharmakaya. Your wisdom is the Sambhogakaya. Your practice is the Sambhogakaya. And your activities, just your, what you feel, this is myself, that's Nirmanakaya Buddha. So we have these three, which is one. We say three people lie down in one bed. So Sangha is very important in our practice.

[31:54]

When we practice, we practice as one person. When we have Sashin, we practice as one person, but that one person has many manifestations. If there are 30 people in Sashin, that one person has 30 manifestations. And each one is doing something different, but at the same time doing one thing. It's like one body moving in a harmonious way with itself. When I was the shuso, the head monk at Tassajara, my teacher, Tatsagami Roshi, said, this monastic practice is the practice of one monk. So sangha practice is harmonious relationships, harmonious way of working together.

[33:08]

So that even though there is nirmanakaya Buddha, which is each one of us individually, there's also dharmakaya Buddha, sambhogakaya Buddha, which is our collective wisdom, and dharmakaya Buddha, which is our oneness. So Sambhogakaya Buddha is in the middle and faces Dharmakaya and Dharmanakaya as two faces. Or maybe one face with an eye going each way. So when we become ordained, we don't necessarily know very much.

[34:20]

We may know something, but we may not know so much. It's not necessary to know so much. The main thing is whether you have a pure intention. The main thing is a pure intention, actually. I just have a pure intention to do this thing because I have faith in the Dharma. Faith in the Buddha, faith in the Sangha. You know, we say, Maizumi Roshi always liked to say, each one of you is Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. And that's true. Each one of us is Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. We're essence of mind, we're the Dharma itself, and we're the nirmanakaya, all three in one, each one of us. And we recognize that in each other. So we don't even have to know much. So when you become ordained, that's like the beginning or a beginning. It may not be the beginning, but it's a beginning.

[35:22]

And then we work toward understanding what we have done. What did I do? Sometimes people say, uh-oh, what did I do? So, too bad. But sometimes people say, well, you know, the reason I can't do this or haven't done this is because I can't keep all the precepts. Of course you can't keep all the precepts. You're just like everybody else. You want to be perfect before we're perfect. You are perfect. But you have a long way to go before you realize it. But just taking the vows,

[36:30]

There's a number of stories about people taking the precepts. There was one guy who was a drunkard and foul-mouthed and totally out of it. And these monks were kind of playing with him. And so they decided to play a joke on him. And while he was asleep, they put all these robes on him. And when he woke up, he found himself in these robes and totally transformed him. That's the short part of the short story. Just taking the precepts, just doing this, in your delusion. Delusion transforms into enlightenment.

[37:38]

Without delusion, you don't get it. So we take the vows within our delusion. That's very important. I can't do this. I'll never be able to. But you do it anyway. If you wait until you're already realized, too late. Never happened. So, we appreciate What we really appreciate is all the deluded souls. And for someone to stick their neck out and say, I'll do this, even though I can't do it, I'll do it anyway. So, do you have any questions?

[38:49]

Oh yeah, somebody went back there, a guy named Ross. Thank you for your talk. I see a shaved head. I see a shaved head. I see robes. Can you tell us what your lay practice is, as distinct from that? It's not distinct from that. My priest practice is my lay practice. I'm not understanding that. I know. I don't either. I don't understand it either. But I think that's a great answer. But I'll give you the answer you want. I'll give you the answer that you want. It's true. That's right. So that's, you know, I'm a married man with a family and I go home every night, you know, and I just like everybody else, you know.

[39:58]

I didn't really want to do that, but I did it because that's my practice. I would be happy I would be just as happy to be in the monastery as a single person practicing, but I'm happy to have a family and go home and do that too. I'm not making a distinction between the two. When I go to the monastery, I forget all about everything. I don't think about Berkeley Zen Center. I don't think about any of you guys at all. I don't think about my family at all. It's terrible. It's awful. But I'm just there, and I just do that. And then when I come back here, I take care of all of you people as much as I can. I take care of my family as much as I can, you know, and secular life as much as I can. And I don't think about Tassajar at all.

[41:03]

So I just do what I do, wherever I am, and just respond to circumstances. But what priest practice in the world? That's what it is for me. working for the sake of the Dharma in the world, depending on what is present and what needs to be taken care of. There's no real method. I have no method at all, just responding to what's there, to what the needs are. A pure intention is leading home, so how can there be any two tracks? Well, we just talk about two tracks. In reality, there aren't two tracks.

[42:07]

Why talk about them? Because I like to talk about them. You know, in order to make certain things clear, you talk about two tracks. The two tracks are one track. So if I only talk about one track, then you don't get to see the two tracks. So the two tracks are one track. Victory. Thank you very much.

[42:42]

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