As penetrating and perfect dharma, it is rarely met with even a hundred thousand million kalpas. Having it to see and learn, to remember and accept, I am bound to taste the truth of the target of the worst. Good evening. Good evening. I apologize for my energy. We're really into starting on time. There's a lot to it. We got a lot to cover. So thank you all for being here. And thank you all of those of you who are online. So tonight we're going to do kind of an introduction and a pretty overview. and chapters one and two.

[01:01]

We actually decided that we were gonna cover all the chapters in the Lotus Sutra. Some of them will be quite brief, but we'll at least mention them. So I wanted to start with Zen teacher Hakuen, who is a great Zen teacher from the 18th century. And when he read the Lotus Sutra for the first time as a young student, he wondered where the teachings were and why it was so referential, why the Lotus Sutra kept talking about the Lotus Sutra and saying, we're going to do this, and did they ever do it? The Lotus Sutra kind of putting down others, and he was quite disappointed, actually, and kind of dismissive of it. But the reason that I tell this story is because years later, When he was about 41, he had a big opening experience reading the Lotus Sutra.

[02:03]

And he cried, he sobbed, because he realized the depth of the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, which he had not fully realized until that moment, that it came completely alive for him. When he was a young man, he said, Why is this the king of all sutras? It's just parables and wild stories. Accurate. Everything that he says about the Lotus Sutra is actually true. I mean, that's a way of describing it. It's the reaction of many people when they first read the Lotus Sutra, to be honest. It's not an easy sutra to get into. I was at Tassajara for a practice period 20 years ago, and we studied the Lotus Sutra, and I know that I read it, I didn't read it except for the parables and the wild stories, which are lovely and memorable, but I didn't get it. And then reading this new translation, and particularly the introduction and the translation, it was, I will not say that I hadn't experienced it, however,

[03:19]

I did, it was like, okay, now I really want to study the Lodha Sutra because I'm reading levels of skillfulness and subtlety and understanding how it fit into the place and time that it developed. So, as best I can, I'm really looking forward to sharing this with all of you. So, Oh, and just to finish up with Hakowen, it was a chapter on parables where the Buddha cautions Shariputra against savoring the joys of personal enlightenment and reveals the truth of the Bodhisattva's mission, which is to continue practice beyond enlightenment, teaching and helping others until all beings have attained salvation. And he wrote saying, suddenly I penetrated to the perfect, true,

[04:22]

ultimate meaning of the Lotus Sutra. And this event marked a turning point in his life and after that he dedicated the rest of his life to helping others achieve liberation rather than just practicing for his own awakening. So the Lotus Sutra is a Sadharma Pundurika Sutra and it is one of the most influential, if not the most influential and venerated of the Mahayana Sutras. It's the main scripture in the Tendai school, along with Tendai in China and Tendai in Japan, in Korea and Vietnam, as well as Japan. And many Buddhists in East Asia believe that it contains the final teachings of the Buddha. So this is a sutra that was compiled about 500 years ago. So that's... that's a whole thing that we'll talk about also. In context of other Mahayana Sutras, and there are really a lot of them, but the main ones that you may be aware of are the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, the Pashdhaparamita Sutras, which includes the Heart, Avatamsaka Sutra, Lankavatara Sutra, Pure Land Sutra, Nirvana Sutra, and

[05:47]

For all of these sutras, there's no single author. It's not like somebody sat down and wrote it. So very different from where this is pretty much all the words of Hitler. This is a number of people, and we don't know who any of them are. There's no known authors to any of this. But it accumulated over, just talking about the Lotus Sutra, it started about Somewhere between a hundred years before the start of the Common Era and a hundred years after the start of the Common Era. So somewhere in there, stories and chapters started coming together and being gathered together and then they got arranged in different orders and added to. So the way the Lodra Sutra goes, there's first a section in prose and then there's a section in verse. which kind of restates it, but not exactly.

[06:49]

There's some additions, some subtractions. And they eventually decided that the verse came first. It's probably easier to memorize. It started with oral tradition, and then eventually getting written down. And chapters two through nine were first in verses, and then it got turned into prose. And then that was probably around the year 50, And by chapters 10 to 21, about 100. And the third stages of chapter 22 to 27, around 150. Oh, and chapter one, I think, came around 100 of the common era. First translated by Dharmaraksha's team, and all those teams of translators, all kinds of people working together. in 286 of the Common Era from Sanskrit. But it was Kumrajiva's translation, again, Kumrajiva heading up this team, this monastic team, became the standard tradition in East Asian Buddhism.

[08:02]

Fun fact, the first English translation of any Buddhist scripture was a chapter from the Luddha Sutra, and it was translated from French to English, by Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, published in 1844 in the literary journal The Dial, which was published by Ralph Waldo Emerson and was one of the transcendentalists. And I thought that's so oddly fitting that this very literary sutra would be published by a transcendentalist literary magazine and be published by a woman. And the authors of the Lotus Sutra were thought to be well-educated Buddhist monks. This was a time of a lot of very well-established Buddhist monasteries. And they were deeply immersed in sutra monasteries, the Abhidhamma. So they would, you know, they're scholars, they're scholar monks. And many of them, they would just be focused on scholarship, not even necessarily sitting.

[09:09]

So they'd be really familiar with the whole range and depth of Buddhism in India at that time. The two central teachings of the Lotus Sutra have been very influential for Mahayana Buddhism. And the first is the doctrine of the one vehicle, which says that all Buddhist paths and practices lead to Buddhahood, and so they are all... means of reaching Buddhahood. So that's, that doesn't sound like much. At the time it was huge. The second is the idea that the lifespan of the Buddha is immeasurable and that therefore he did not really pass on into final nirvana. He only appeared to do so means but is still active teaching the Dharma. So, Little housekeeping. No, not really.

[10:10]

But anyway, in our ceremony where we were invited to be inviting teachers last Friday, entry ceremony. Thank you. There was a Q&A, you know, called a Mondo. And somebody said, why the Lotus Sutra? Okay, now I'll give you the real answer. Why is the Lotus Sutra? important in Soto Zen, okay? Well, we can start with breakfast or lunch. We chant ten names to Buddha, right? Ames to the Dharamakaya, Vairoshana, Buddha. a completely different version in San Francisco, etc. And I'm still getting used to this one.

[11:12]

Anyway, this is an old, old chant. It goes back to China. It goes, and it's referred to as the 10 names of Buddha. But if you look closely, what we chant, it's got 11 lines. Because our guy, A.A. Dogen, added a line. In between the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas, He put in there, he interpolated Amish to the Mahayana Sadharma Pundarika Sutra. So we've chanted that many, many times together. Amish to the Lotus Sutra. Yeah. Dogen, as you probably, many of you know, was a monk from his age. When his mom died, when he was just eight, she encouraged him to become a monk. She wanted him to do that. He could have been some other kind of scholar or a, you know, imperial retainer or something like that.

[12:14]

But she thought he should be a monk and he did that. And in Kyoto, they had, and still do have, big Tendai monastery on Mount Hiei. And that's where Dogen trained, as a boy. And allegedly, he memorized the Lotus Sutra. I think if you cut Dogen, he would bleed the Lotus Sutra. I think so. In his most famous work, life work, the literary compendium, called the Shobogenzo, the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. It consists of all these essays with various topics. Two of them are directly about the Lotus Sutra.

[13:16]

... which means only a Buddha and a Buddha, which we will talk about because that's chapter two. That's one of the most significant things about chapter two. And it was a big enough deal Dogen wrote a whole festival about that. And the other one is Hoke Ten Hoke, which means the flower turns the Dharma flower. It's about the Lotus Sutra, like really specifically about the Lotus Sutra. But he references the Lotus Sutra all through the Shobo Ganso and the Ehe Koro Bu, the collective short talks and so forth. In another fascicle in Chobagenzo called Taking Refuge in the Three Treasures, Kye Buposo Ho, Kye Buposo Ho, Taking Refuge in the Three Treasures, Dogen says, quote, may be said to be the great king and the great master of all the various sutras that the Buddha Shakyamuni taught.

[14:25]

Compared with this sutra, all the other sutras are merely its servants, its relatives. For it alone expounds the truth. Okay? That's our guide Dogen. And I meant to bring along the standard Soto Zen liturgy, which you may know. It comes in this green sleeve and it opens up like an accordion. It's published by the Soto Shu, the Soto School in Japan, and it's all the liturgy that they chant. set up for us to chant and, you know, translated into English. And they did a really good job. And this is, it has all the things in Romaji, Japanese, and in English. And yes, it's a nice book. I'm sorry I didn't bring it. What do you find in there? The verse section of chapter 16. the lifespan of the Tathagana from the Lotus Sutra, and the verse section of Chapter 25, Avilokiteshvara.

[15:34]

These get chanted in Soda Zen temples. When Linda and I went to the Soda Zen Buddhist Association, we had people, we invited them to lead services like what they would do in their temples. So we had a chance to chant Chapter 25 because One of the people said, yeah, we sent this at our temple. And I thought that was pretty great. So it's part of our liturgy, the Lotus Sutra. And Dedehuji, too, when we went there. Rinsoen. When we were in Rinsoen with the Suzuki's, Hoitsu's son was basically, he's running the show, and he was, Doshi, Doan, Fukudo, and Kokyo for service. He did everything. I really wanted to help, but he wouldn't let me.

[16:35]

And we chanted the lifespan of the Tataga at Rinsouen at breakneck speed with the Mukugyo. But we had the books. We had the little books. It was fun. Okay. That's one topic. Very important to Soto Zen. The other thing is what Linda mentioned about the self-referential nature. It drives people crazy. The Lotus Sutra is always talking about the Lotus Sutra. When does it ever get around to actually preaching the Lotus Sutra? I don't know if this is a skillful means or not, but It sure is fun. I found a great quote by a great Zen teacher and scholar, Taigen Dan Layton. Also, those two.

[17:39]

Yeah, poor Taigen was, he's tore up. He was tore up. Anyway, Taigen says, The Lotus Sutra itself frequently emphasizes the importance and rewards for the reading, copying and reciting of the Lotus Sutra. Other Mahayana Sutras talk about the merit to be derived by recalling or copying the Sutra being read. However, the Lotus Sutra at times seems to hold this self-referential quality at its center, such that it promotes an extreme mode of self-referential discourse that is unique to the Lotus Sutra. often speaks of the wondrous nature of the Lotus Sutra, right in the text commonly referred to as the Lotus Sutra. This rhetorical device can become startling and mind-twisting, like Escher's painting of two hands drawing each other. Which I thought, we've all seen that picture. When we were driving to New Orleans, we were listening to an audiobook of the Lotus Sutra.

[18:48]

And I started saying, it's like a Klein bottle. You know, it's this topological thing, like it's not a, it's a three strip, right? The Klein bottle is the bottle that contains the Klein bottle. It has no inside or outside. And, well, it's hoke ten hoke, right? The Dharma flower turns the Dharma flower. You turn the Dharma flower, you are turned by the Dharma flower. This is what Dogan's talking about. Next, misogyny. This self-referential business, for a long time, has had me thinking, I often anthropomorphize the Lotus Sutra. We have these bumper stickers that are still kicking around that say, what would Mel do? And I often think, what would the Lotus Sutra say? What would the Lotus Sutra do? And this personifying it, in my mind, yeah, like a person, it has a shadow side.

[20:03]

We all have a shadow side. And part of that is its history. So Linda said it was by very well-educated, definitely quite literary monks, male monks in India in a time when, frankly, it would be kind of lousy to be. So when it says, you'll be reborn as a man, they're like, yeah, okay, I get that. And Patriarchy and misogyny was the rule of the day. That's how the societies were set up. This translation, I really want to thank our friend Michael McCormick, who will be giving the talk this coming Saturday, for turning us on to this translation by Shinozaki, Ziprin, and Earhart.

[21:16]

where they faced this head-on, removed most of the exclusive language without diluting the meaning of the Loda Sutra, one iota. And I sent an email to the listserv where I gave some examples. And there's also an issue in Chapter 14, Safe and Easy Practices, where it's... advising monks who they should associate with and who definitely they should not associate with in order to have safe and easy practice, in order to have to practice, which is, you know, a good thing. It starts out with kings and princes and high lords. Don't associate with them. It'll mess you up. You know, you don't want to do that. And it's a long, long list, which includes ...unmanly men.

[22:20]

You know, don't get tempted by unmanly men. So in this day and age, it's like, what? It doesn't feel so good. And frankly, the Shinazaki and all, they don't do a whole lot better. They become close to the five types of non-virile males in order to become intimate with them. Basically, it's just saying, don't get tempted. It's not saying there's something wrong with them, although, frankly, I wouldn't doubt that many people believe that. This is the shadow side. Yeah. You know, Dogen's teacher, Rujing, when he was studying with Rujing in China, advised him not to look at big fish. Yeah, you can look it up. No, never mind. He really said that.

[23:22]

Don't view big fish. You'll get distracted. But, you know, the verse section of chapter 14 goes on to say, nor do we have any distinctions, such as, this is a man, or this is a woman. They have no such attachments to all things, neither knowing nor seeing them as such. This is called the sphere of a bodhisattva's practice. So, you know. Also, in chapter 12, there's the famous story of the dragon girl. A, she's not human. B, she's a girl. And she shows how quickly she can become a Buddha, and does that, changes into a man, but wait, she's still a girl. It's kind of great, you know?

[24:23]

Not as much fun as the Vimalakirti Sutra, where Shariputra actually gets changed into a woman, but it makes the same kind of point. It makes the same kind of point. And this is an example, a small example, of how he uses imagery. Yeah, there's a lot of that. And also, the Lotus Sutra is famous for many, many, many predictions of enlightenment. And we'll talk more about that. But it includes Mahapajapati, the Buddha's stepmom. The Buddha gives Mahapajapati a prediction of enlightenment in the Lotus Sutra, which is pretty cool. Although, it takes him chapter 13 before it gets... But that does happen.

[25:25]

This is a... There's a book called Buddhism After Patriarchy by Rita Gross. And she says that basically Buddhism is a product of a patriarchal milieu, traditions and values transcend that milieu. which is kind of great. I can be on board with that. I believe that. So in sum, that's the sphere of the Bodhisattva's practice, to have no such attachments. But I would not be my teacher's student if I didn't hold up. And women's rights are being taken away from them in this country. Women are dying in Texas, and it's not okay. It's not okay. What would the Lotus Sutra say? Yeah. So that's all I can say to you. Chapter one. Can I just say, you're welcome to ask questions.

[26:29]

Just raise your hand and we'll finish the thought and go on. Linda, when you said the translation, are you meaning this translation that Greg referred to? Yes. Shinazaki. Shinazaki is a brother. Okay, the one you wrote about in America. Yeah. I was a little confused. No, this is more recent. It's 2019. Okay, I've seen it in the... All the translations... This 2019 translation is the one we're going to chant on Memorial Day. And we're going to project it on the screen. Well, wherever the screen is. But we're going to have a projector and share it on Zoom. So there's no need to have to own a copy if you want to come and chant with us on Memorial Day. Chapter one. Chapter one is not part of the original recensions as Linda mentioned. It was added on. It sets the scene.

[27:31]

It's very typical for a Mahayana Sutra. It's one thing, the Buddha's on Mt. Guttakuta, a.k.a. Vulture Peak. That's the place. That was his favorite place, so it gives it that authenticity. Hey, this is happening on Vulture Peak, okay? It's very important. And who's there? Basically of importance in the Buddhist pantheon. Humans, monks, bodhisattvas, 80,000 bodhisattvas. Gods, demigods, non-human beings, kindharas... Gandharvas. Gandharvas. Gandharvas, yeah. All these sort of fantastic non-human beings that sort of populate a lot of the Mariana. It's very colorful. It's India, you know.

[28:32]

And it's actually... I've come to think of it also as kind of, you know, they didn't have CGI or special effects. But they paint this picture with just vast imagery. And then, well, that's enough for now. It can be trans-inducing. That's how I've come to think about it. It puts you in a more receptive to... Especially when chanting it. Yeah, yeah. You just let it wash over you. Absolutely. Yeah. So it names a lot of these, but it doesn't name all 80,000, but it does name a lot of them. And then you recognize a lot of the names. Manjushri and Pavalopiteshvara and Samatabhadra and Maitreya. They're all there. And many others. And it's just kind of like awe-inspiring, right? And then...

[29:33]

In chapter 1, the Buddha doesn't say anything. He's just sitting, and he's absorbed in samadhi. He's just sitting, absorbed in samadhi. The samadhi called the domain of innumerable meanings, which presages the sutra by the same name, which is the beginning of the threefold Lotus Sutra, which we're not going to chant. This translation includes the threefold Lotus Sutra. That was added much, much later, the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings. But in chapter one, he's just in this samadhi, and his mind and body are unmoving, and then this ray of light comes out from the tuft of hair between his eyebrows. It's all the worlds in the cosmos, which causes Maitreya, Bodhisattva, to wonder, what's going on? What is the Buddha doing? And he asks Manjushri, and Manjushri explains that the Buddha is about to begin preaching the great Dharma.

[30:35]

Then, fun, he goes on to tell a long story about the past lives and past incarnations that includes Maitreya's backstory from countless kappas in the past. In a past incarnation, Maitreya, it turns out, was quite a playboy, a pleasure seeker. Kind of like Francis of Assisi, only it was like past incarnation. Many couples in the past. Yeah, so all these stories and this imagery just invite us to widen our scope and our consciousness, actually. Yeah. That's it. That's all I've got to say about Chapter 1. Good. Chapter 2. So it's called Skillful Means. And by the way, if you have the Threefold Lotus Sutra, the part that we're talking about, the Lotus Sutra, is the middle of the three.

[31:42]

There are three sutras in there, and it's the middle one. I got confused this time because I just started reading at the beginning of Kindle, and I was like, why does this not line up? So chapter two is Skillful Means, or you... And this is often considered the key chapter of the text. So the Lotus Sutra represents a really major shift from early Buddhism in more than a few ways, really. It's bringing forward the teachings that are really radically different, and doing so in a number of different ways, and the narrative often addresses in it, like how to make sense, like kind of a rationale for why this is so different. We're already, we're in the Mahayana, you know, we're in Zen.

[32:47]

So we've been just washing in the Mahayana and a lot of things that are just very familiar to us over time. And when they show up in the Lotus Sutra, it's like, But at the time, it was really, really radical. So part of our going through this, and especially this next section, is really highlighting what's different, what was revolutionary. Because bombshells, well, the first bit really is. Right, so reading it, it seems to continue from chapter one, but originally, this was where the sutra started. At that time, the world-honored one, the Buddha, calmly from Samadhi, addressed Shariputra. The wisdom of Buddhas is infinite and extremely profound. The approach to their wisdom is difficult to enter and difficult to understand.

[33:52]

It is beyond the comprehension of even Shravakas and Pratyekas. Shravakas are the voice hearers and the practitioners, monks, and Pratyeka Buddhas are the self-awakened ones. They didn't have a teacher. The wisdom of Buddhas is infinite and extremely profound. The approach to their wisdom is difficult to enter. and difficult to understand. It is beyond the comprehension of even Sravakas and Pratyeka Buddhas. Why is this? Why don't Sravakas and Pratyeka Buddhas understand what Buddhas understand? Buddhas have been in close association with hundreds of thousands of millions of other Buddhas, fully practicing countless teachings of the way boldly and diligently advancing and making their fame universally known.

[34:55]

Having accomplished a profoundly profound and extraordinary Dharma, they have taught it according to what was appropriate, but their intention is difficult to grasp. Shariputra, since I became Buddha, I have spoken far and wide and taught with various parables and examples from the past, Countless skillful means I have led living beings, freeing them from their attachments. Why is this? Because the Tathatagas, the Buddhas, are replete with skillful means and the paramita of knowledge and insight. Shariputra, the Tathatagas, is able to distinguish all things, explain the teaching skillfully, use gentle words, and bring joy to the hearts of all. In essence, Shariputra, the Buddhas are fully accomplished in the infinite, boundless, and extraordinary Dharma.

[35:57]

So the Shravakas and Pratyeka Buddhas, the voice hearers and the self-awakened ones, are part of this great assembly. They're part of the fourfold sangha of monks and nuns and laymen and laywomen. Until this very moment, the teaching has been that the understanding that the Arhats have, their wisdom is equal to that of the Buddha. There's a difference between Buddhas and Arhats, but it's not about their understanding. They're considered to be equal. So now they're hearing that the wisdom of the Buddhas is beyond their comprehension. So this is really starting things out with a bang. It's kind of like setting down your... Okay, what you thought you had, you don't have.

[37:03]

You don't have it yet. What? Yes. Can I mention the detail? Yes. It's pretty significant symbolically. And another thing that makes the Lotus Sutra really different is from the Samadhi and just start speaking. He's not responding to anything. Most of the sutras, he is being asked a question or is in discourse with somebody. He's just emerging from the Samadhi and saying, here's how it is, and you can't understand it. Go on. What's an arhat? An arhat is one who has, is part of the early Buddhist school, and it's one who has completely awakened and entered nirvana, because the goal at that time was to awaken, to become enlightened, and then when you end this life, you don't have . So this is the beginnings of presenting this different view where you stay to help enlighten other beings.

[38:07]

So then in the verse section, Shariputra says, kind of restating, without being asked of your own accord, you expounded it. You, the Buddha, expounded it, extolling the way you have followed and the wisdom attained by the Buddhists as extremely sublime. All the undefiled arhats and the seekers of nirvana are now enmeshed. Why does the Buddha expound this manner? Those seeking to become Pratyeka Buddhas The monks and nuns, the heavenly beings, dragons, spirit demons, gandharvas, and other beings glance at each other in uncertainty and look expectantly to the most honored of all beings. What does it possibly mean? Please, Buddha, explain it to us. In the assembly of shravakas, the Buddha says, the Buddha says, I, sharia, oh,

[39:14]

Shariputra goes on and says, in the assembly of Shariputra, Buddha says, I, Shariputra, am foremost, but now within the scope of my own wisdom, I am in doubt. I'm able to determine whether my knowledge is the ultimate Dharma or something merely on the way to achieving it. This is pretty dramatic. I like this language, you know, it's like... The verse really conveys more of the feeling, like how thrown, you know, all these people must be. You know, you thought you'd attained the ultimate, and all of a sudden, you know, you're moved and told that, like, you have no conception. Wow, okay. Yeah, and the old phrase, At the time of the Buddha, you know, I have done what needed to be done.

[40:15]

And in Zen, it's more like, so having that confidence in one's own, having confidence in one's own insight, but also being recognized as having that. And then the Buddha is saying, not yet. This is all being written and compiled concurrent with the beginning of Mahayana Buddhism. Right? So that's why it's so revolutionary and that's why they're pretty dramatic about a lot of these teachings. You know, because, as I was saying, for a lot of people it was difficult to accept. And... Yeah. It was revolutionary. I'll just leave it at that. So in these dialogues, it's pretty true.

[41:21]

So coming to this exchange with Shariputra is really interesting. And then the Buddha says, that is enough, Shariputra. I should say no more. Why is this? Because the Dharma the Buddhists have attained is understood and with great difficulty. Only a Buddha, together with a Buddha, can fathom the ultimate reality of all things. One of the most famous and most important lines from the Lotus Sutra, and the inspiration for Ehe Dogen to write that facet, only a Buddha and a Buddha. It's a koa. So the line is, only a Buddha together with the Buddha can fathom the ultimate reality of all things. Among all things, each has such an appearance, such a nature, such an embodiment, such a potential, such a function, such a cause, such a condition, such an effect, such a reward, and from first to the last, such an ultimate identity.

[42:37]

So, So that's the ultimate nature of all things. That each of them has an appearance, a nature, an embodiment, a potential. So these are called the 10 suchnesses, which you may have heard of. I am not gonna go into the 10 suchnesses per se, because it's a way of practice, it's a way of contemplating. But it's intended to cover like all aspects of all phenomena. But when you take them together and analyze them, it's emptiness. The identity of all things is emptiness. There's no fixed thing there. They're just all its parts. It's a similar but different way of talking about the skandas, you know, of breaking things down or atomic things. And, you know, it's like, well, then what is it? It's empty. It's empty of own being. If you're interested,

[43:40]

There's a lot of scholarly stuff going back, way back, China, Zhe Yi, Tiantai, school. They get really into the ten suchnesses. Because this is a whole contemplation practice. Yeah, so emptiness, or Sinyata in Sanskrit, is the unifying principle for all 10 aspects of reality, and the term empty is synonymous with suchness, like Tathagata, which is an epithet of the Buddha. So it's talking about emptiness, but there's the flip side as well, because you could also look at it that all anything is, is these ten suchnesses, is, you know, in Zen we would say is form, feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness.

[44:49]

You know, it's like it's nothing, it is that. That is what it is, is all of those things together. So you could say it's actually a tatami mat. You know, it actually is this. So you can look at it from the point of view of emptiness or from conventional reality. I don't know, some of us who are a little older might remember this song that went to, first there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is. It's like that, you know. It's like we take things as conventional reality, like this is a sabhatan and this is my foot and that's just what it is. And then we practice and we look into it and it's like, oh, so, you know, where did this piece of wood come from?

[45:51]

It came, as Thich Nhat Hanh would say, it came from sunlight and a sea. water and it moves through time and it was this and that and it keeps changing so it's like oh and then you can step into seeing it more fully that way but it's but it's also just this that phrase just this is it is emptiness is awakening so it's you know, from the beginning in the Lotus Sutra, it's pointing to the both and of it. It's not just emptiness, it also has the positive side, the positive expression. Melinda? Yes. Thank you for that explication. If you all could say a little bit about only a Buddha and a Buddha, of seeing the full, I think that quote is seeing complete reality or something like that.

[46:53]

Yes. And fathom the ultimate reality of all things. Right. So when you were talking about the wood, talking about the description or unpacking that, I think those two things go together. That you have butsu, you have butsu, and which is like, what does that mean? Only a Buddha and a Buddha. But, oh yeah, sunlight, seeds. and all that sort of stuff creates things. Could you say a little bit about how one informs the other, or how they relate to one another? You nicely set me up for the next thing that I was gonna talk about. That's great, perfect. What? I'm not reading it, I'm thinking ahead. But you brought something forward for me which I haven't thought of. or hadn't quite articulated, which is that we tend to think of awakening as something that I do.

[47:56]

It's in a person. Even though we think of it like Sangha, we don't think of it as that way, but awakening is kind of like mine. Like the archive is awakening. Yeah, or like the Buddha awakened. But what this is saying is all the Buddhas in dialogue, in relationship. I mean, it takes you through this whole journey of, there's a Buddha that's up here. Like the, you know, part of what the Buddha is setting up is the Buddha is, the wisdom of the Buddha is you had any idea of. It's so high, you can't even perceive it. And then it's gradually gonna come down until like, everyone's Buddha. So it's setting up this contrast, and it's not bringing Buddha down, it's lifting everyone up. That Buddhas awaken in conversation with Buddhas, in relationship with Buddhas, only a Buddha with a Buddha.

[49:07]

And that's why, you know, Prachika Buddhas who awaken to the nature of reality, kind of a category to themselves, you know, they have this of reality, but they're not in this dynamic relationship with other practitioners. And thinking about how the Lotus Sutra, all the Mahayama Sutras are written, it's like this ferment of ideas at the time. It's like science. In the West, generally, we have this very individualistic, great man idea, like we know the major figures, but it's It's never been just that. You know, there have been all these people over time contributing pieces and pieces and coming together. This more distributed, deeply interconnected, deeply interconnected, the web.

[50:10]

You know, it's a kind of a mind level manifestation of Indra's net where everything is connected to everything else. He's starting to articulate it in visionary form as only a Buddha and a Buddha. I'm sure as we keep going in this, other images and similes will occur to us. So if they do, please, please share them. Yeah. The Buddha said, okay. This was... distillation from that introduction I was talking about in the new translation. There is no single viewpoint, not even that of a Buddha, a single Buddha can ever encompass the ultimate things. There is always more to know than any one perspective of knowing. So it's this multi-perspectival teaching, which I think many of us are getting more familiar with.

[51:12]

It's not just like you know, the objective view. It's like everyone has their own perspective. Hacks. So is this sort of, the way my brain's wanting to interpret this is that there is no real perception of ultimate reality that's outside of relationship. Like it's always in relationship. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Agreed. Yeah. Yeah. I like in the Shuso ceremony, the Shuso says, let us call forth the Dharma. Let us call forth the Dharma. It's something we do together in relationship. Yes. And just experientially, you know, which always feels really stilted, but when it starts becoming a dialogue, then it comes alive because we're actually creating something in the moment. Let's see. So there is always more to know than any one perspective of knowing.

[52:15]

This is not a limitation, but a built-in characteristic of any experience, of any knowable thing. So the Buddha is addressing sentient beings, informing them that he sees that they too will be Buddhists, and in an important sense already are Buddhists. This means that the statements that he's making are from one Buddha to another. So, you know, I heard, you know, yeah, we're all Buddha, you know, but this grounds it in practice. It grounds it in how we can understand that, so it's fairy fairy kind of thing, like, oh yeah, you're cool. You know, it's like, how do we realize that? How do we bring that to life? All right, then come on. Well, I just can't help but think of the koans. I mean, you know, that's what the Zen literature is all about, these interactions between, you know?

[53:20]

That makes it very Zen, you know, what you're talking about. That makes me see, that makes me see more clearly how the Zen quality, you know? Come on. I was wondering about sentience and how that is defining sentience. I was thinking about the meal board and the Thich Nhat Hanh thing and like at some point like this was sentient in my definition of sentient as like a tree is a being and I mean like this was sent you know like is I don't know how that like how does that extend to like or non-human beings as Buddha everything is alive everything is alive All is life. All is consciousness. This is actually, it's a different practice period. Period of study would be the founder of this school in China, Dungshan.

[54:24]

That was a very important awakening experience for him in his youth. Do the ascension, preach the Dharma. Yeah, you could check that out. Short answer, yes. Thank you. And Dogen saying, earth, grass, trees, walls, tiles, and pebbles all engage in Buddha activity. So I think back and farther back, it was and then it started getting more and more, it's like, where is the line actually? And I think for a lot of this, it's, you know, once you start looking for where the line is, it could go into nihilism or it could go into expansion. You know, it could be like there's nothing there and that means nothing matters.

[55:28]

Or you can say there's no fixed self and that means that everything matters so much because we're also deeply intertwined, also connected. So that's the way that Buddhism went. Yeah, and then just... I love this. The interaction of the Buddha and ourselves is the real Buddha. What you were saying, Buddha is in relationship. And we'll probably say this a bunch of times, but Buddhism itself is an open canon. it continues to expand. I'm sure you've noticed that Buddhist books and teachings have just proliferated in our lifetimes. Ups and downs, but it's a completely open canon. Michael has a question online. Yes. Michael. Yeah.

[56:30]

I'm unmuted. Great. I'm loving all these descriptions in the Lotus Sutra of like Buddha and all these, like, Buddha's so great and big and huge. And it reminds me a lot of the Avatamsaka Sutra, kind of building up, like, and it seems to kind of call back to Dogen as well, but the Avatamsaka Sutra talks about, like, on every atom are Buddhas as numberless as atoms. And even, I remember, the Yoibutsu Yoibutsu was saying, the whole of the great earth is the gateway to liberation. But it seems like they're all kind of pointing at the same thing with this just kind of really expansive, vast idea. Less a question, more of a comment. I just find it all kind of exciting, so. Yeah, I think it is. And I also think that's why in Zen, you hear a lot about Zen is everyday tea and rice, you know, nothing special.

[57:33]

which our teacher emphasized over and over and over again. A big part of his Dharma. Because... It is exactly as psychedelic as the Alpha Tama Psycho Sutra, but you can't hang out there, you know? You have to take care of the important business of the Zendo and sweeping the leaves and making breakfast. Etc. Or no? So I don't, like I couldn't tell you the ten suchnesses, so I don't know them that well. But on the question, the question of sentient being, and so when we do the skandhas, you know, they have sense organs, right? But the suchnesses, I don't remember when you said them, but it's, Those are suchnesses of what we call sense organs.

[58:40]

It's just all phenomena. It's all phenomena. Yeah, the first nine are basically all phenomena, and then the tenth one is encompassing all nine of them together. So that is the sentient and non-sentient all together, whereas we When we say things like the sanghas, it's kind of based on sense organs, and I think that's what causes that difference in some people's minds as we chant that out. So each of the chapters of the Lotus Sutra has a title, and the title of chapter two is Upaya. usually translated as skill and means or skillful means. And it refers to skillful means. How the Buddha is teaching and while bringing people together, bringing all the many many beings that showed up on Vulture Peak to hear the Lotus Sutra being preached.

[59:56]

This is It goes hand in hand with the other big thing about the Lotus Sutra that Linda mentioned previously, which we call the Ekanyana, E-K-A-Y-A-N-A. The Ekanyana means the one vehicle, the one vehicle. So the Lotus Sutra says, this goes beyond the way of the Shravakas. It goes beyond the way of the Pratyekha Buddhas. It even goes beyond the way of the bodhisattvas. And it includes them all. And some of the really fun stories in the Lotus Sutra. And it feels like, it can feel like, because of this revolutionary nature, not only the Lotus Sutra, but other Mahayana Sutras are dismissed teachings.

[60:59]

They call it the Hinayana. Nobody wants to be the lesser vehicle. We don't say Hinayana. We don't say Hinayana Buddhism. We say Theravada, which is the way of the elders. The old school Buddhism is Theravada Buddhism. We don't say Hinayana. They did. We love you and you're the lesser school. But even though it can feel kind of dismissive, they're saying, here's this other way, which includes them all. So many places in the Lotus Sutra, and many of these stories that we're going to get into, they're saying that that's good. This is, for example, I'll mention one of them. the parable of the medicinal herbs.

[62:00]

It talks about all these different plants, right? There's little plants, there's big plants, there's big, great, big trees, there's little shrubs, you know, a little clover, you know. The rain comes and all the plants are nourished. They're all nourished by the rain. Each one according to its own need. Meaning that This teaching, the Ekayana, that includes all of them, they're saying, these are, they're all good. Trust this, they're all going to lead you to Buddhahood. Whatever you're practicing now, it's fine. Eventually, you're going to be Buddha. They're all part of the Ekayana. So it's radically inclusive. Actually, it might sound, and it does sound, to me it sounds in places.

[63:04]

Not only the Little Sutra, it sounds dismissive. But it's trying to be very, very inclusive. That all these practices are good. If that's a practice for you, cool. You're a Pratyekha Buddha, cool. You know, do that practice. Keep it up. You're on the path anyway. Whether you know it or not, you're going to be a Buddha. So... Can I add one thing to that? Please. What I was trying to convey before that it has like the emptiness side and the everything side. This is like the everything side, you know, that all of these practices will get you to Buddhahood. So it's actually affirming everything. It's not... And I was... Before all of modern quantum physics and stuff, if someone had had a realization about quantum physics and was like, okay, I know you've got Newton and all this basic geometry stuff, else, like how you would try to set that up to let people know that there's something more and how you try to convince them to make it plausible.

[64:28]

Hacks. Yeah, I'm just noticing a parallel. So I was really intrigued by the way, like when he's talking to the Arhats and the Bodhisattva, like you thought you had it, but you actually didn't, but you did have it. You didn't know that you had it. And the reason I didn't tell you then was that there's like, I don't quite exactly remember, but there's this idea like it just wasn't the time. His skillful meaning was understanding that the timing wasn't right. And that kind of makes me think of Dogen and Bendowa. He's sort of like, ah, this terrible country where everyone's bad and no one practices, and I'm like the wandering duckweed, and it's just not the time. That's sort of one of the questions. Is this the right way? Why isn't it the way we're all doing it? It's like a similar response of like, just sort of ties in what the skillful means is being sensitive to... Yeah, like if you're going to...

[65:31]

Isaac Newton in telling about quantum physics, it's like he wouldn't do, I don't know, relates to that metaphor you were using. Well, in the Sutra, maybe Shariputra is Isaac Newton. They mention Shariputra, not only in the Lotus Sutra, but the Kirti Sutra, and hey, the Heart Sutra. Oh, Shariputra. Why? Because Shariputra in old school Buddhism represented wisdom. He was the wisest of the Buddha's disciples. And so in the Lotus Sutra he's like befuddled. What's happening here? You know. And also in the female Girghi Sutra, poor Shariputra. He's kind of a straw man for this other understanding, which to the Mahayana, and for sure the writers of the Lotus Sutra, it's great, but it's limited.

[66:42]

So in chapter two, it's a lot of dialogue with Shariputra. This comes to, well, I have a lot of favorite parts of those. One of my favorite parts. The first time I read it, I was just like, what? I'm gonna read it to you. So it's classic, you know, he's absorbed, the Buddha is absorbed into Samadhi, after what, nothing happens except, Beginning of chapter two, this ray of light, it illumines all the cosmos. And Manjushri explains to Maitreya, he's about to preach the Dharma. And then he just opens his mouth and starts preaching. And there's this back and forth with Shariputra where he's like, what'd you tell us?

[67:45]

And it's very classic, he asks him three times. asked him three times to tell us, tell us, really, what is the true Dharma. And then, as the su- the modern one then addressed Shariputra. Since you have earnestly made your request three times, how can I refuse? For your sake, I will now explain everything in full detail. Listen carefully and reflect deeply on my words. When he said this, five thousand laymen and laywomen in the assembly, immediately stood up, made a sign of respect to the Buddha, and withdrew. They walked out. They couldn't handle it. This roots of evil had set so deeply in them, and their prideful arrogance was such that they deemed themselves to have attained what they had not attained,

[68:48]

and to have experienced what they had not experienced. Because of such failings, they did not stay. The world-honored one kept silent and did not stay. I love that part. They just couldn't handle it. So this really speaks to what I'm sure must have been very lively tension and conflict. Maybe so. scholars, the roots of the Mahayana and places where Buddhism was really thriving like Nalanda University and many places in India where there was like really, really a lot of scholarly discourse and discussion and this revolutionary thing was happening. So it's not the only place where there's this tension. and it's being talked about.

[69:48]

And this is just such a great image. Like, okay, bye! If I could add one thing, there weren't monasteries that were like Mahayana in the early days. It was just like a few people within any given monastery started doing these different practices. So this would have been like really alive. You know, it's like, oh, your friends are now doing this other thing. We got this. That's like, so, you know, you can imagine like converting to political views or whatever, because this was, this was huge. Yes. Hi. When you were talking about the Echiana and the different practices and you talked about like um you know um you want that you'll become up with that something that just kind of came up for me is that is it more like already um rather than you you know you'll become up with that

[71:06]

Is it more like the realization that everything is Huda rather than becoming a Huda? On that note, I want to leave you with a quote from the verse section of chapter 2 that we like a lot. I think this addresses this. If not, in the verse section, the Buddha, still talking to Shariputra, you should know, Shariputra, that from the beginning I made a vow, desiring all living beings to be my equals with no distinction between us. Now what I've done a long time ago has been perfectly fulfilled. That's only chapter two. There's more.

[72:08]

There's more. Lots of parables, lots of stories, all pointing to this. This is really, it's in chapter two. Yeah, I think you kind of brought it up, actually, when you were talking about, like, I don't remember the exact what you said, but you brought it up in the sense that feeling of, like, everything is, or expansion and that kind of brought up the expansion part which is everything is one with everything yeah and at the same time it's it's not because like it's not an oak tree but it is but it's not but it is So, we'll keep coming back to this theme over and over again, because as Greg was saying, it shows up in different parables and stories.

[73:12]

Yep. Yes. Oh, yep. Couldn't you say that the acorn will be? You can say that the acorn will be. And get out of the whole problem. What problem? But where is the line between the acorn and the tree? Where do you draw a distinction? But it might not be. It might become squirrel. Correct. Thank you very much, everybody. Thanks for coming. Beings are numberless. I vow to awaken with them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Thank you all.

[74:20]

Have a good night.

[74:24]

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