Good morning. This morning I want to talk about the letter and the spirit of rules and regulations. As you know, we have 16 presets and in the Vinaya It mostly practiced now in Southeast Asia.

[01:06]

There are 350 precepts for men and a few more for women, and so forth. So these are rules and regulations. And sometimes monks live in accordance with the rules and regulations. maintain their behavior to be in line with expressing their Buddha nature, and to keep people from interfering with each other. in a way that is unwholesome. So in order to regulate your life, to keep your life on the path, we have rules and regulations called precepts.

[02:11]

And in order not to get into trouble and to create harmony, And then there's, so those are the rules and regulations. The other side is the spirit of what these rules and regulations are about, which is expressed as loving kindness, compassion, sympathy, sympathetic joy, equanimity, and various other qualities that make for an enlightened life. Although rules and regulations are important,

[03:19]

Without the spirit, they just become what we call dead precepts, just following by rote something. There's something good about that too, just following without question. There's something about that that also is okay. But basically, if we understand what we're doing, and cultivate the qualities of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity, precepts or rules, following rules by rote, is secondary. to the spirit of practice, which is not to say that rules are not good.

[04:29]

We should have rules, but just to have rules, to rely on rules without cultivating the spirit is to lean on something. In Zen practice, we try not to lean on something, but to find our way without too much support. This keeps our practice, our mind, and our feelings vital, that we have to make sure that we're dealing with these qualities all the time. The rules help us to keep us in line, to keep us mindful, but the main thing is to concentrate on the Spirit.

[05:35]

So when we are interacting with each other, to keep in mind, how do I treat this person, these people that I'm interacting with, with loving kindness? Sometimes we say that in Zen, people say, that in Zen, people don't talk so much about love. But actually, we talk about love, we don't talk about love, we should practice love, without talking about it too much. But our whole attitude is one of loving kindness, which means selfish, selfless activity. You know, we say we should treat each person as Buddha, regardless

[06:41]

whether we like them or not, regardless of what they do to us or don't do to us, regardless of what our relationship is, without being angry at someone, without holding on to our anger when someone steps over the boundaries, So if someone insults you, what do you do? How do you treat that person with loving-kindness? So the cultivating loving-kindness is something that is going on all the time. If you only bring it up in certain circumstances, it doesn't work very well. Sometimes I'll give a person the koan. When someone, no matter how someone responds to you, when giving you something, whether it's something you like or something you don't like, something you want or something you don't want, you bow and say thank you wholeheartedly.

[08:02]

Which means accepting everything equally. Something good, something bad. The mouth of a monk is like an oven. Which means that you eat whatever comes. Good feeling, bad feeling. Good attitude, bad attitude. you simply eat and digest, and then whatever that food is, you use it, you digest it, and what comes forth from you after digesting it is loving kindness. It's not a matter of rules, it's a matter of attitude. So we develop certain attitudes, and I think that's what I'm talking about. It's like, what is our attitude toward the world?

[09:07]

There are things that really make us angry. And I find myself with a lot of anger toward certain beings, but when I think about it and reflect, I can let go of that. acknowledge the suffering that's causing people to act this way. If I reflect on the suffering that's causing people to act in a certain way that is despicable, that's compassion. recognizing that people act aggressively or short-sightedly or without thinking for a reason.

[10:14]

So rather than hating someone, I think it's more to cultivate the attitude of compassion for that person because of their suffering or because of their inadequacies. It's like you can't really hate a moron. for doing things that are distasteful, because they don't know any better. So we have compassion. That's an extreme case, of course. But to try to help someone in some way, of course that's a little arrogant, maybe, but at least

[11:23]

to try to understand what's really going on with someone. One of the problems that we have, you know, also is envy or jealousy or possessiveness. I think that everyone pretty much feels envy or jealousy or possessiveness at some time. How come she got to do this and I didn't? How come he gets all this and I don't? Why? This kind of thing goes on all the time. So if we cultivate sympathetic joy, In other words, let go of our own need and allow ourselves to share the joy of someone who is successful.

[12:39]

It's not always so easy. I think this is maybe one of the most difficult things, allow that to happen. But when we do, it's a great relief because then we can go on with our life. We don't need to have some kind of adulation or to be in a high place. Dogen says, and all the ancestors say, fame and gain are big stumbling blocks. needing fame, needing gain, needing to be somebody, or take someone else's place, or someone stole somebody from me. That's a hard one. But we didn't have that person to begin with. So our mind creates all these problems. So, you know, equanimity

[13:49]

is a form of love in its most highest form because equanimity is indifference in the sense to whether circumstances are good or circumstances are bad. It's unequivocal. balance. It means that you're not swayed by anything, and so our beneficial action, our beneficial attitude is not dependent on circumstances, whether love and hate as opposites are the same energy.

[14:55]

With one energy, I can love someone, and then when circumstances change, the energy just flips over and becomes ill will. I hate you, I love you, I hate you. It's just being pulled around by emotions. Equanimity is not being pulled around by emotions, but maintaining the same feeling the same attitude regardless of circumstances. So if one really loves somebody, circumstances are not going to change that. The love is not going to turn into hate. Although, if you need to hate, go ahead. That's also part of human nature. We have to remember that. Otherwise, we're too idealistic. Dogen wrote several things that have been collected and it's called the Eihei Shingi.

[16:01]

Shingi means a collection, well it's a rules for the community. It's more like how do you practice. Dogen has the Shobo Genzo which is more The Shingi is more practical, but it's interesting that Dogen's Shingi, although it talks about procedures for the monastic officers, it's just a bunch of stories which are inspirational. You know, Keizan, who was Dogen's successor two generations later, actually created the Soto school, whereas Dogen himself wasn't so hung up on the Soto school, but more on his particular way of teaching, which was more exemplary, whereas Keizan, who created the Soto school from Dogen's succession,

[17:18]

had more rules, whereas Dogen's Shingi has more attitude. Dogen talks more about our attitude, whereas Khezan talks more about rules. It's interesting if you read the Shingi of both of them. So I'm going to read you a little bit of Dogen's Shingi. I'm just going to talk about a few parts. He talks about the chief administrator, the Kanin of the monastery, and Kanin in those days did almost everything, and later the Kanin's duties were divided but the Kanyan had a lot of responsibility.

[18:25]

And Dogen talks about what is the attitude of the Kanyan toward the practice, toward the other practitioners. So he says, the Kanyan exercises excellent caretaking mind in supervising the monks morning and midday meals. The Kanyan entertains visitors from all directions without lack of hospitality the kanin has the ability he should take direct charge of preparing meals as ceremonial offerings to the monks on the occasions of winter solstice, New Year's, the beginning and end of summer ongo and so forth. So he's talking about how the kanin is not a dictatorial person but someone who takes care of everyone. When I was practicing with Suzuki Roshi who we call Kadagiri Roshi now, he was Kadagiri sensei then, was Suzuki Roshi's assistant, and Kadagiri was kind of like the Kanin in a way, and to watch Suzuki Roshi and Kadagiri

[19:50]

interact with each other was very interesting. This is our kind of observing them was our teaching, their teaching for us, and how these people interact with each other. And Kanagiri had his own ideas about things but he always respected Suzuki Roshi's always did everything with great kindness to everyone. Both of them actually were very kind to everyone. We often think of Zen masters as being very strict, you know, very powerful presence, but the power of their presence was in their loving-kindness. Every teacher is different and we have some kind of expectation of what a teacher is supposed to be like, but if we have to let go of that idea because everyone is different, if you expect something, then you can't see who's really there.

[21:06]

So best to let go of your expectation. Matter of fact, when we enter practice, expectations and ideas, so that we can actually see clearly what's there. He says, the Kanyan, when instructing or admonishing new trainees, should use skillful means, trying to make them understand without unreasonably using extreme means, When punishment is needed, it should be done publicly, probably so that it doesn't become a personal matter in the kitchen. And no more than 10 or so blows should be administered. And then it should stop. So it's very interesting. This is the 13th century in Japan.

[22:08]

Well, you know, they had a lot of young boys sometimes, you know, who were unruly. It's just an interesting statement. The essence of the Kanin's work is to revere the wise and include the many being harmonious to the seniors and friendly with the juniors. So, to respect those who come before you and to help those that come after you, I can remember people having, when I was abbot at Zen Center, having people in positions that I felt they were being very kind and very gentle and so forth, but the people below that person felt that that person was being very domineering and bossy and critical.

[23:37]

So sometimes someone will be kissing up to someone higher. and putting those on another level, suppressing those below them. So you have to be very careful of that. One in the position should be very respectful. Sometimes someone who is in charge of an activity where there are a number of people that are working for them has to be very careful how would they relate so that they don't create an animosity with people. Sometimes someone who is in charge will get very bossy and critical

[24:43]

And then people don't like working for that person. So how do you create a situation where those who are working for you really are enjoying working with you? Like if you're going to be in the kitchen and you're directing the kitchen, how do you create a situation where everybody wants to work with you and they enjoy doing that rather than feeling they have to? Of course, if they're feeling they have to, they have to swallow that. but it's no fun, you know? Sometimes a practice place will have a kind of grim feeling about it, but I think a practice place should make everybody happy. We should all be happy to do what we're doing, to find happiness in sweeping the floor, or find happiness working with each other in every way. I think if we have that kind of attitude, we don't have to worry so much about rules, but we have to be careful that when we say happy, we don't mean happy in an exaggerated way, right?

[26:01]

But a feeling of well-being in harmony is what I mean, a feeling of well-being in harmony, we feel the essence of practice in whatever we're doing. So he says, the essence of the Kanyin's work is to revere the wise and include the many, being harmonious to the seniors and friendly with the juniors. The Kanyin should give comfort to the community of monks who share the same practice, and encourage them to have a joyful mind. The khanin should not depend upon personal power or authority and belittle the members of the community. The khanin should not carry out things willfully and make the members of this community insecure. We're not sick, we don't need that. The con-in should encourage and praise those colleagues who have ability and virtue, those who cannot carry out their duties or whose practice is doubtful should be given advice privately.

[27:18]

So we should be careful, you know, when someone has a problem that we see and you happen to be in charge or you're not, we should be careful not to criticize somebody when other people are around. If you have something to say, you should make some space with somebody so that you can discuss quietly and privately some problem rather than making an issue that disturbs everybody or that focuses on somebody's problem. If they have a great fault and are doing damage to the monastery, he should report this in confidence to the abbot. Matters relating to form can be improved by watching quietly without words." It's interesting, you know, we're always making a problem with form, stumbling through the forms, right?

[28:24]

And if you are really competent at doing something, or you think you're competent at doing something, then when somebody's not doing it right, you compare yourself to that person, and then you start criticizing, and then you say something to that person. You shouldn't do that. It's a great temptation to correct people, but it also creates big problems. So sometimes, or most of the time, we just let people make their mistakes. It's hard. And whenever we want to criticize someone, we should reflect on ourself. How would I feel being criticized? So this is empathy and understanding about how someone's going to feel when you say something. It's like walking on eggs sometimes.

[29:25]

If I corrected everybody for what I thought they were doing not quite perfectly, I'd just be jabbering all the time. I remember Suzuki Roshi, he said, when I walk through Tassajara, I don't look around. So, people learn little by little, you know, and then sometimes to take someone aside and say, let's do it this way, or talk about how it's going, instead of making criticism. I was talking to someone yesterday and they said, you teach all the cooks how to cook, don't you? I said, when did you hear that? I said, no, I don't teach the cooks how to cook, but I discuss what they do with them.

[30:29]

So people think, that I call the cooks in there to correct them, but I don't. The cook comes, and they say, well, how was it? Did you feel that what you did is what you wanted to do? It came out the way you wanted, and I said, well, yeah, or no, or this, and yeah, you know, we kind of discuss it. So in the process, everyone, by consulting, we create wonderful meals for everybody. So we shouldn't be afraid to discuss or keep it to our, if you're the cooking, keep your thing to yourself, but share the responsibility, share the, learn something and I learn something, and that way we work harmoniously together. But I don't like criticizing somebody's cooking.

[31:37]

I hope I don't do that. Sometimes I do. Sometimes. And so that's painful for me, you know, if I feel that I've hurt somebody by saying that. So the position of kānan is a communal obligation. Communal obligation means no self-motivation. Having no self-motivations means to follow the ancients and long for the way. Longing for the way is following it. So self-motivation means ego, actually. Communal obligations means no ego interference. The purpose of practice is to let go of self-centeredness. That's the purpose of practice in a nutshell, let go of self-centeredness.

[32:43]

So that's the basic thing. If we let go of self-centeredness, then all these other qualities will naturally arise. Or if they don't arise, they can be cultivated. they can't be cultivated unless there's no self-centeredness. Self-centeredness injects itself. So we're always dealing with ego and self-centeredness. And we should understand that and not criticize so much for when we see people acting in a self-centered or egotistical way, because it's normal, it's normal activity, but to encourage people to let go. And the more harmonious the practice is, the easier it is to drop it.

[33:49]

So it should be the Kanin's major concern to be open and accessible to the community and endeavor to make them feel at ease. However, don't put a lot of weight on having a large community and don't make light of having a small community. Remember that at one time, Devadatta, who was Buddha's cousin and enemy, attracted 500 monks to join his community, but after all, they were all out of line with the Dharma. Teachers outside of the way may have many followers, but their views are all crooked. So, Yakson was an ancient Buddha. His community was less than 10 monks. Zhoshu was also an ancient Buddha, and his community was less than 20 monks. Fenyang had only seven or eight students. Buddha ancestors were not limited by the number of monks they had. Just revere those who have the way without seeking an abundance of students in the community.

[35:01]

Those who have the way with virtue right now and in the future are descendants of Yaksan and the offspring of Fenyang. We should honor Yaoshan's style of practice and long for Fenyang's excellent example. So it's not a matter of how big your community is, how many people you're practicing with. Actually, the fewer people you have, the less rules you need. And the more people you have, the more rules you need. So in a small community, smaller community, it's more intimate and with people interacting with each other in that way, the intuition becomes stronger. To follow ancient examples, well, the con in should arouse the thought of respect and love when seeing a person of the way mind or a person who follows the ancient example.

[36:11]

When the Kanin encounter scholars of the scriptures who have no faith in and who do not follow the Three Treasures, or those who have no thought of the Way and do not follow the ancient examples, they should be regarded as a party of demons and enchantings. The Kanin should keep in mind not to admit such people to the practice." That's interesting. The idea of faith can be a big problem for some people, because we don't understand what that means. When we think of faith, because of our Christian, Jewish-Christian background of white people in this country, or black people, non-Buddhists, We think of the deity as being something outside of ourself, and to have faith in something, faith means having faith in something outside of ourself, a deity outside of ourself.

[37:21]

But that's not the meaning of faith in Buddha Dharma. Buddha Dharma is called ancestral faith, which doesn't mean faith in the ancestors. It means the same faith as the ancestors have in the Dharma. So basically it comes down to you cannot practice unless you have faith in your own Buddha nature, which is not something outside of yourself, but it's what you are. And doctrinal faith is having faith in some deity outside of yourself. So it's interesting that Buddhism is a religion without a deity. even though sometimes it seems like there is one. So people don't understand Buddhism as a religion because of their fixed idea about a religion needing a deity.

[38:23]

You say, well, Buddhism is not a religion because there's no deity. But that's just because people think that a religion has to have a deity. It doesn't. Buddhism, also people say, well Buddhism is atheistic, but Buddhism is not atheistic, it's non-theistic. Non-theistic is different than atheistic. Nobody knows what Buddha said, but when somebody asked Buddha if there's a deity, he didn't say yes or no. So that's very interesting. He didn't say yes, he didn't say no.

[39:23]

And this is, I think, very important. This is non-theistic. There's something beyond deity and non-deity. there's also the idea of there's the deity and then there's the soul, and the soul is what is separate from the deity, but in Buddhism the deity and the person are not two different things, so we talk of big mind, which is not something out there or separate. So, when we talk about soul, it's the universal soul, not our separate soul, which is over against the deity.

[40:30]

So, faith in Our practice means faith in our Buddha nature, which includes everything, but is not considered a deity outside of ourself. If you don't have faith in yourself, what do you have faith in? Who are you? If you haven't reached that place where you have faith in your own Buddha nature, you're a ghost, drifting around, not knowing who you are. That's what we mean by a ghost. So I know it's time to quit. Okay, this will be the last thing.

[42:04]

From this description we should know that Buddha's disciples should not be greedy for large or small benefit. We should reflect on whether or not our actions will hurt ourselves or others. When we practice the Buddha way, we regard profit as a serpent, poison, drool, or excrement. This is a pure attitude. Do not expound the Dharma for profit." Anyway, these are thoughts on When you started talking, you said that we should have compassion for somebody even if they're a moron or if they're doing something despicable?

[43:08]

Well, I said, you know, if someone who doesn't know better. I used that as a... I used moron as a... to mean someone who just doesn't know better. How about despicable? Well, what did I say about despicable? You said if somebody is doing something despicable, even if we should have compassion for somebody, that they're doing something despicable. Yeah, even if they're doing something despicable. If you have in your mind that they're doing something despicable, I think when I'm thinking like that, there's already a problem with compassion. I think they're doing something makes me feel uncomfortable. If I describe it as they're doing something that makes me feel uncomfortable, that makes me feel angry, or that I'm feeling angry because they've done something, and I see something and I feel angry. Call it despicable, that seems to me already to put a... I don't think you can practice compassion and call somebody despicable at the same time.

[44:21]

I'm not calling them despicable. They are despicable. I think if someone is despicable, then whatever you're feeling for them is not compassionate. Maybe you're trying some self-discipline and trying to stay with the rules so that you don't. But if you call somebody despicable, or if they are despicable... Yeah, I think that's right. You can only have one thought at a time. That's right. Yeah, you can only have one thought at a time. You have mixed feelings, mixed thoughts, but you can ... So, when you're thinking of them, you may think of them as despicable, or their acts as despicable, actually. You don't think of them as despicable, you think of their acts as despicable. That's correct. But when you have compassion for them and try to understand, that's what you're thinking.

[45:27]

I don't want to keep pursuing this, but anyone else is very smart. President Bush. I want to know what you think his suffering is. What I think his suffering is, I've been thinking about that, is that he had a bunch of sisters and brothers and he felt that he was jealous and he wanted to prove that he could do something better than his father and better than

[46:38]

And I just feel sorry for him that he had to go to this extreme to justify himself, to, you know, to be somebody, because he was overshadowed by everybody else in the family. And he was the little guy who was not very bright, you know, the fraternity boy, you know, just not bright. not intelligent, and everybody else around him was more intelligent. He had to prove that he was more intelligent than them. So I feel so sorry for him. I really have compassion for that, much as I think he's despicable. So that tempers my ... by having that compassion tempers my feelings. Well, I'm changing the subject because I don't know who you are.

[47:44]

I heard, and I hope you can have more details about this, that Hoitsu got them, and he's Suzuki Roshi's son, who has a very important role at AAD monastery now, somehow got them to stop hitting the novices or something like that. He changed the culture around hitting. I haven't heard of that. I didn't hear that. I feel like that must be something related to his connection to Americans that was part of the causes and conditions that led that to happen. It sort of feels like something we've been able to give back. Well, I think that our practice influences their practice. They have a word for everything, but they have a word for that. It's called, you know, Something Returning, right? And I think, quietly, we do have influence on them, on some aspects of Japanese practice, little by little.

[48:53]

The wash, you know, goes back and forth. I remember we just had this conference in Los Angeles, and Akiba, who's the bishop in Los Angeles, He came up to me and he says, 15, 20 years, we'll all be the same. Japan and America. 15 to 20 years. Takes time. Or doing something despicable. Acting very angry or violent or something. I'm sure everybody's seen it happen. And at some point, they'll break down and start crying. And I've seen people do this. I mean, some people don't break down and cry because they're so deep into that anger or whatever.

[49:59]

But somewhere down there, they want to cry. We do unto others what they've done to us. That's the way it goes. And people feel caught by that, you know. It is down there. There's compassion down there. The last one. very clear about often unconditional love Right.

[51:24]

Okay, Nancy. Last one. I guess this is a reiteration, but when you talk about... I mean, you talked about this before, that we don't have a deity outside of this. My question is, who are we bowing to? That's a good question. Who? Who is the answer? The answer is in the question. We say, you're bowing to yourself. Who? That's a great koan. I'm bowing to myself. Who? you

[52:24]

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