see all of you and so many of you whom I know well. About two or three years ago, a group of us studied the Lotus Sutra together. I wouldn't say I exactly taught it, because I'd read through it once or maybe twice, and I just wanted to read it again with people. And so a group of six or eight of us read it here, and then another even smaller group read it at Judy's house. And so I've been very looking forward to reading it again with people and also feeling myself a little bit more settled into it. And the last time there was a man who came to the class who was in a life crisis and he'd been talking to me about it and he was looking for support and ways of getting through this crisis

[01:09]

He said, well, I'll try coming to your class. And I said, okay. And after the first class, he took me aside and he said, you know, Meili, just reading a sutra is not going to help me. So, I hope very much that I can help the sutra manifest its way this time so that we can all feel how it indeed is helping, does help us. In our practice, our two Indian roots are the Heart Sutra and the Lotus Sutra. our 2,000-year-old roots. And we tend to, since we chant a short version of the Heart Sutra every day, maybe more than once, we have a certain kind of bone familiarity with it, at least that piece of it.

[02:25]

And not so much familiarity with the Lotus Sutra. Although, as we begin reading it and hearing it, there's quite a lot of it in our rituals, especially our eating ritual. We say homage to the Maha-Sadharma-Pundarika Sutra, right? As... just as we are beginning to receive our food, and after we've said homage to the Buddhas, we pay homage to the Lotus Sutra. And our evening echo, may the merit of this chanting pervade everywhere, and may all beings, that affects the Buddha way, whatever that is, comes from the Lotus Sutra. And I encourage any of you a lot, there's a great deal in Dogen that comes from the Lotus Sutra.

[03:31]

There's a great deal in all of our Japanese ancestors that comes. So I encourage you as we spend time together these evenings and read the text, It's quite a wonderful hunt to track down pieces of the Lotus Sutra in more recent formulation. I've just been reading, and maybe some of you also have, Jocko Beck's second book, Nothing Special. And it seems to me it's full of the Lotus Sutra. So once you begin to really get into the Lotus Sutra, you begin to see it all over the place. So, please in the course of your weeks, if you're reading other things, see if you find the Lotus Sutra background. So the Heart Sutra is the wisdom aspect of our practice.

[04:39]

how to strip down the middle way, kind of the razor's edge, no eyes, no ears, no nose, you know, how do we stay exactly, exactly on that edge between the phenomenal and the noumenal, between one side and the other. And the Lotus Sutra is our devotional practice. So, we can think in these weeks, what does, what is our devotional practice? What does that mean to us? Devotion means, comes from the Latin de and vovare, which is to pray. What is our prayer?

[05:42]

We don't, in Zen, we don't talk much that language. What is our heart's desire? And how do we express that? And how do we feel that? And where does that come from? So, the Lotus Sutra is concerned with who is Buddha and What is Buddha's teaching? What is Buddha trying to teach? What is Buddha's purpose? And included in this is, what is our connection with Buddha? What is our fundamental Buddha nature? What is it that brings us to practice?

[06:44]

What is it that gives us some sense of our way, that lets us know when our development is falling off, or when we're on the track? How do we know that? How do we get that sense of balance? What is the root of our confidence? Where does our confidence come from? So these are the themes that will come up for us in the Lotus Sutra. I'll say just a little bit about the history of it. There's disagreement amongst the scholars as to what language it was originally written in. Some say Sanskrit and others say that they're not sure.

[07:46]

Stan, I'm sure you can find a place. That it may have been in some kind of Indian dialogue. The early roots are quite unknown. And actually, our contact with it, it was probably compiled in segments, and it was certainly, it existed in 255 in our common era when it was translated, first translated into Chinese. And then Kumarajiva, the famous Indian translator in China, translated it in 408. And it's that Chinese translation that has pervaded everywhere. So I think what I'd like to do now is just to start reading the introduction.

[08:59]

We're just going to be paying attention tonight to this introductory chapter. This introduction is in a certain way the most difficult part of the text that we're going to be looking at because it is full-blown Indian Baroque. And it's very, it's seriously grand. Throughout this sutra, there are a lot of different kinds of styles. There are parables and poems, and as it goes on, it becomes much more graspable. So, but tonight we are going to engage with the grandest aspect. Suzuki Roshi gave a series of lectures a long time ago apparently on the Lotus Sutra and they were rather difficult to follow.

[10:31]

But he did, we have an article that he wrote on the Trikaya, that is the three bodies of Buddha, the Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya, Dharmakaya. and which comes from this sutra. And I'll be quoting from this later on. But Suzuki Roshi says of this sutra that the Lotus Sutra describes our perfect background. When life is firmly established in the perfect background, we can enjoy it and not fear losing it. So what we're going to hear now in this introduction is a description of our perfect background with all of its multiplicity and its variety and its grandeur and its levels.

[11:35]

So perhaps if we read it with that in mind it will not seem other to us. or it will not seem so other to us. So you can follow along if you want. I'm going to skip a little bit as I read. You can follow along or just imagine that you are in a kind of cosmic theater and that this is all happening. Thus I have heard At one time, the Buddha was dwelling in the city of the king's house on Gujukta Mountain, together with 12,000 great bhikkhus, mendicant monks. All were arhats, men enlightened but not Buddhas, their outflows already exhausted, never again subject to anguish. They had achieved their own advantage and annihilated the bonds of existence, and their minds had achieved self-mastery.

[12:44]

their names were. Maybe we can Americanize them to make them accessible to us. Yeah. Well, their names were, and you can see their names, and then there were also... There were also another 2,000 persons, including those who had more to learn and those who had not. There was Mahaprajapati, the mendicant nun, together with 6,000 followers. Rahula's mother, Yasodhara, the bhikshini, was also together with her followers. There were 80,000 Bodhisattva Mahasattvas, all non-backsliders, in Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi.

[13:46]

When we first began to chant the Heart Sutra, instead of complete, perfect enlightenment, we used to chant Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi. all having mastered the Dharanis, preaching with joy and eloquence, turning the irreversible Dharma wheel, having made offerings to incalculable hundreds of thousands of Buddhas, having planted many seeds of merit, constantly being praised by the Buddhas, cultivating themselves with compassion, having entered well into the Buddha's wisdom, having penetrated great wisdom, having reached the yonder shore, their fame bruited widely in countless worlds, able to save numberless hundreds of thousands of living beings. Their names were Manjusri Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva he who observes the sounds of the world, Avalokiteshvara, and so on. At that time, Sakro Indra was there with his following, consisting of 20,000 sons of God, among whom further were those named the God-Son of the Moon.

[14:59]

and so on. There were the four great God-kings together with their retinue of 10,000 sons and daughters of God. There were the God's son of self-mastery, Ishvara, and the God's daughter of great self-mastery, together with their retinue of 30,000 sons and daughters of God. There was also the Lord of the Saha world, that is, our world. Brahma, the king of the gods, the great Brahma Sikkim, the great Brahma Great Luster, together with their retinue of 12,000 sons and daughters of God. There were eight dragon kings, Nagaraja, namely the Dragon King Nanda, the Dragon King Upananda, the Dragon King Sagala, the Dragon King Usuki, the Dragon King Taksaka, and so on, each with several hundred thousands of followers. There were the four Kinira, mythical being, half horse, half man, kings, namely the Kinara King Law, the Kinara King Fine Law, the Kinara King Great Law, the Kinara King Law Holder,

[16:13]

each with several hundreds of thousands of followers. There were the four Gandharva, musician demigod kings, namely the Gandharva King Pleasant, the Gandharva King Pleasant Sound, and so on, each with several hundreds of thousands of followers. And there were the four Asura, titan kings, namely the Asura King Balan, the Asura King Karishkandi, and so on. There were the four Garuda, mythical bird kings, namely the Garuda King Great Majesty, the Garuda King Great Body, and so on. There were Vesedi's son with several hundreds of thousands of his followers, each having made obedience to the Buddha's feet, withdrew and sat to one side. So this is the collection of the multiplicity of our experience. our cosmic experience and they have come and they have seated themselves with great confidence because the Buddha is present.

[17:25]

At that time, the world-honored one, surrounded by the fourfold multitude, showered with offerings, deferentially treated and revered for the Bodhisattva's sake, preached a scripture of the Great Vehicle, named the Immeasurable Doctrine, a Dharma to be taught to Bodhisattvas, a Dharma which the Buddha keeps ever in mind. A little bit later we'll talk about this very important statement that this whole doctrine is preached for the sake of the Bodhisattvas. When he had preached this scripture, cross-legged, he entered into this samadhi, state of concentration, of the abode of immeasurable doctrine. Now, what is Buddha's samadhi like? where his body and mind were motionless.

[18:34]

At this time, heaven rained down mandarava, coral tree flowers, and great coral tree flowers, and mansuka flowers, celestial flowers, and great celestial flowers, scattering them over the Buddha and his bands of followers. The whole Buddha world trembled in six different ways. At that time, in the company of the Bhikshus and the Bhikshusinis and the Upasakas and the Upasikas, the gods, the dragons, the spirits, the Gandharvas, the Ashuras, the Garudas, the Kanaras, the Magarharas, humans and non-humans, as well as petty kings and wheel-turning kings, these great assemblies felt that this had never happened before. And joyously, joining palms, single-mindedly, they beheld the Buddha. And at that time, Buddha emitted a glow from the tuft of white hair between his brows, which illuminated 18,000 worlds to the east, omitting none of them, reaching downward as far as the Avici, the lowest hell, and upward as far as the Ashanika, highest gods.

[19:59]

In these worlds there could be fully seen the six kinds of living beings in those lands. There could also be seen the Buddhas present in those lands and the Sutradharmas preached by those Buddhas could be heard. At the same time there could be seen those among the Bhikshus and the Bhikshusinis and the Upasakas and the Upasikas who through practice had attained the path. Further, There could be seen the various background causes and conditions of the Bodhisattva Mahasattvas, their various degrees of beliefs and understandings, and the various approaches with which they trod the Bodhisattva path. There could also be seen those Buddhas who achieved parinirvana, perfect extinction. further that could be seen how, after the Buddha's parinirvana, a stupa, a reliquary mound of the seven jewels would be erected with the Buddha's relics. At that time, the Bodhisattva, now this next section is going to be what the plot of the Lotus Sutra is.

[21:12]

At that time, the Bodhisattva Maitreya had this thought Now that the World Honored One has shown us these extraordinary signs, we must ask, for what reason have we had these portents? Now that the Buddha, the World Honored One, has entered into Samadhi, whom shall I question about these rare apparitions beyond reckoning and discussion? Who can answer?" Further, he thought, This Manjusri, the Dharma Prince, having already approached and served incalculable Buddhas in the past, must surely see these rare signs. I will now ask him." So, this essentially is what happens, that Maitreya asks Manjusri our question. What is it? What's going on? What's happening?

[22:14]

And again, and he'll ask the question three times, and then Manjusri will tell him, but we don't quite get it. And he'll tell him again, and we don't quite get it. And he'll tell him, and he'll ask, and he'll tell, and we never quite catch it. So the Lotus Sutra is sort of like a book that has a very, very long prelude and never quite gets to the book in a certain way. So we're always being presented with this extraordinary panorama and asking what it is and never quite knowing. and this will become the one vehicle teaching. This will become the one vehicle teaching that we practice here, our Sazen practice. So the problem is, this enormous experience that goes way beyond our consciousness, what can we do with it?

[23:33]

That's the problem of the Lotus Sutra. So, Maitreya will ask this question three times in the verses that come next. It's thought that probably the verses are the oldest part of the Lotus Sutra and the prose came afterwards. And then on page 12, Manjushri answers. What is going on? What is going on? Now Manjusri will say, at that time the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva, Manjusri said to the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva, Maitreya and the sundry great worthy Bodhisattvas, good men, I never know quite know what to do with the total lack of of women here. Good people. All right, we'll edit it that way. Good people, I surmise that the Buddha, the world-honored one, now wishes to preach the great Dharma, to precipitate the great Dharma rain, to blow the great Dharma conch, to beat the great Dharma drum, to set forth the great Dharma doctrine.

[24:50]

You good people, once before, in the presence of past Buddhas, I saw this portent. When the Buddhas had admitted this light, straightway they preached the great Dharma. Thus it should be understood that the present Buddha's display of light is also of this sort. It is because he wishes all living beings to be able to hear and know the Dharma. Difficult of belief for all worlds that he displays this portent." So this is why the Sutra is being preached. because he wishes all living beings to be able to hear and know the Dharma. Difficult of belief for all the worlds. You good people, it is just as it was incalculable, infinite, inconceivable cosmic ages ago. At that time there was a Buddha named Sun and Moon Glow.

[25:51]

A, other translations it says, a Tathagata. a thus come one, worthy of offerings, of right and universal knowledge, his clarity and conduct, perfect, well gone, understanding the world, a teacher of gods and men, a Buddha, a world honored one, ah, and so on. And now what's going to happen is that this answer uh... what's going on that this answer the buddha is preaching this dharma difficult as it is for all beings to hear the answer gets more and more confusing as more and more buddhas are brought in who have been teaching it since the very beginning of time and they have their stories and it's interwoven and it's it's uh... you're not quite sure which buddha is who and um... So we find ourselves in the middle of, we find ourselves surrounded by this transpersonal, these trans-historical Buddhas.

[27:08]

We find ourselves, of course, in the middle of the Mahayana. So the sutra starts off, thus I have heard, as all of the early sutras started off. And in the earlier tradition, in the Theravadan tradition, thus I have heard was spoken by the historical Buddha. But who is the Buddha that is talking about, that is preaching the Lotus Sutra? It's not Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha. It's a different Buddha. Are there any questions so far or comments? First of all, it never says it's Shakyamuni.

[28:15]

And then as you read the text, and I'm not going to read it so... If you read 12 and 13, you hear that all of these Buddhas have been preaching this sutra for ages and ages past. So it's been going on without limit since the very beginning. Alright, so this is the extent, roughly speaking, of the text that we're going to cover tonight. It's just a little bit more that this Buddha On page 13, this Buddha, who is now the Buddha's son in Moonglow, preached a scripture of the Great Vehicle named the Immeasurable Doctrine, a dharma to be taught to Bodhisattvas, one which the Buddha keeps in mind. And then on page 14, this Immeasurable Doctrine becomes the Lotus Sutra, the Lotus Blossom of the Flying Dharma, the Saddhanasundarita Sutra.

[29:29]

So it's just not clear at all when this preaching began and where. It's apparently, it's always been with us. Yeah. So the actual historical origination of the Lotus Sister Sutra didn't originate with Shakyamuni Buddha? No, no, no. Suzuki Roshi says that it was preached by the Sambhogakaya Buddha and so I want to say a little bit about the the three bodies of Buddha and quote a little bit from this very nice article of Suzuki Roshi's and then perhaps have a little discussion and then in another half hour kind of switch into a different mood and do a little chanting and perhaps do something else.

[30:46]

So, people with me? Good. So, Suzuki Roshi talks about the importance of knowing something about the background of the Lotus Sutra. This sutra, the Saddharmapundarika Sutra, was supposed to have been told by Buddha himself, but actually it appeared about 700 years after Buddha passed away. So historically we cannot say that the Buddha told this sutra. If we ask who told it, or if you ask If all of the sutra was told by Buddha, the answer may be only a part of it was told by Buddha. The Mahayana sutras cannot have been told by Buddha. But we say Buddha because the sutra was not told by the nirmanakaya Buddha, that is the historical Buddha.

[31:51]

but by the Sambhogakaya Buddha. It was told a long, long, long time ago, a long time before Buddha, who knew that there was this kind of sutra before him, and told about the sutra, which was told by the Sambhogakaya or the Bhairavachana Buddha. So it is necessary for us to know, first of all, how an understanding of Buddha in all aspects develops from the historical Buddha to the Dharmakaya Buddha. Without this understanding, this sutra does not mean much. If you do not have this kind of understanding, this sutra is just a fable, maybe like a fairy tale, very interesting, but actually it doesn't have much to do with our lives. Accordingly, I have to explain that what the Nirmanakaya Buddha is, what the Sambhogakaya Buddha is, and what the Dharmakaya Buddha is. And then he talks a bit about, he talks about

[32:53]

Theravadan history. And then he says, Buddhism seems to have developed from the Theravadan to the Mahayana, yet in reality it has not changed and did not develop. Rather, Buddhists have always tried to regain the original way, the original understanding of Buddha. The Nirmanakaya Buddha has two elements. One is that of a historical human being, and the other is that of a superhuman being. Historically, such a character existed. Buddha, as you know, is a human being. And when he attained enlightenment, he reached the bottom of our human nature, true nature. Though his human nature, which is universal to everyone, and through his human nature, he subdued all the emotions and thinking mind.

[34:00]

So there was this historical Buddha, and also there was the super And there's a lot in this sutra and others about the 30 marks and the attributes of a super Buddha. And there also were the tales, the Jataka tales, even the Theravadin, the old teachers, talked about the lives the Buddha had before he became the Buddha, when he was various animals and took different forms. So there was always a tradition of the Buddha lineage. which mirrors our knowledge of the difficulty of the Buddha way, that a Buddha doesn't just suddenly appear.

[35:15]

Buddha requires work and work and work through countless lifetimes. It's the same thing with us. We appeared in this world, but how did we appear in this world? How did the Buddha appear? How did we appear? We had a limitless background. We do not appear all of a sudden from nothing. There is something. There must be something before we appear in the world and before a Buddha also. That Buddha was so great was because he had a limitless background, a limitless practice. This point is very important in the development of the idea of a Buddha. So there's the historical Buddha and then there's the kind of the super Buddha with the 32 marks and the supernatural attributes and the Buddha with the many previous lives.

[36:29]

And then there is this Sambhogakaya Buddha. I started this kind of talk to explain who told the Lotus Sutra. This sutra was supposed to have been told by the historical Buddha, but actually what is told here is told by the Sambhogakaya Buddha. And it is valuable because it was told by the Sambhogakaya Buddha. The idea of a superhuman nature of Buddha is the result of the more emotional attachment to his character and his teaching, which the Theravadins have. The reason that the historical Buddha was a Buddha is because he attained enlightenment. He changed. Starting as a Bodhisattva, he became a Buddha. He is always changing. So in a certain way, he is not just a historical Buddha. Who is changing should be the next thing we ask when we really want to know who Buddha was.

[37:34]

So we must know that Buddha is the Sambhogakaya Buddha and that the Sambhogakaya Buddha is the perfect one or truth itself. Truth itself, when it is observed by people as a truth, may be a teacher. But even plants and animals, mountains and rivers can be our teacher when we really have the eyes to see them. When the idea of the historical Buddha has this kind of background, he will be accepted as our teacher in a true sense, not just in an emotional way, but wholeheartedly we can accept the historical Buddha as our teacher because he is the one who teaches us, who is enlightened in the eternal truth, who is the strong background of truth. He became the Buddha because he was enlightened in the truth. And he is the one who teaches us the truth he found. For the Buddhist, Buddha is not just a historical person. He is truth itself. And historical Buddha cannot be perfect.

[38:45]

But the background of the historical Buddha should be truth. And if so, truth itself should be the real Buddha for us. Without this kind of background, Buddha would not have been remembered by human beings for such a long time. When Buddha is acknowledged as the truth itself, then, as long as the truth exists, and as long as we care for the truth, we can remain as Buddhists. The true Buddha is the Sambhogakaya Buddha and when the Sambhogakaya Buddha takes some activity or is observed by someone, he may be called the Nirmanakaya Buddha. So the Sambhogakaya is the is the activity, is the Buddha activity that then takes some form. So sometimes we see a leaf

[39:48]

and are surprised because we have seen the form of a leaf with light hitting it in such a way that we've been taught something and that's the activity of this true teaching suddenly taking the shape of a leaf or a teacher or any form that tells us something. So we should know this Sambhogakaya Buddha. We know this Sambhogakaya Buddha even before we attain enlightenment. And without this confidence you cannot even practice Zazen. How can you practice Zazen when you doubt or when you are observing yourself objectively without having any subjectivity?

[40:55]

Only when you accept yourself, when you really know that you exist here, that you cannot escape from yourself, can you practice Zazen. This is the ultimate fact. I am here. This is very true, don't you think so? But still you doubt, and still you make a separation from yourself and observe yourself from the outside. Who am I? What am I doing? Zazen practice is not this kind of practice. Someone else is practicing Zazen, not you. You should practice Zazen. That is Shikantaza, and that is the Sambhogakaya Buddha. So, It's encouraging. Right. That's the whole point. It's encouraging. Yeah. So just a little bit more, the Dharmakaya Buddha or the Dharma body of Buddha is called the fundamental, undeveloped Buddha body.

[42:00]

When we say undeveloped body or fundamental body, we mean that it is the original source itself. It is another interpretation of the same thing as the Sambhogakaya, but when we understand this thing as something which is very calm, which is not an activity, we call it the Dharmakaya. The Dharmakaya body is the potential. So, nothing can be said of that. But the Sambhogakaya arises from the potential and then takes the form that we see the form of our expression. So, that's difficult stuff. There's a beautiful section in Under a Single Moon, the collection of Zen poems by John Tarrant about the Sambhogakaya Buddha. Luckily I couldn't find my copy and I didn't bring it and I won't read it.

[43:02]

It would probably be too much. But if anybody is interested in these, in this Trikaya, the three bodies of Buddha, I could get that. We have it in the library. Yeah, we have it in the library. I don't notice if it's here. Oh, I'll look it up. Okay. So, That's enough exposition for the moment. So we've had the display of all the different people and experiences and beings who've come because the Buddha presence is there and this enormous cast has assembled with confidence and has with their confidence and their taking their place just being who they are with confidence they have requested the teaching and the teaching comes after that request has been made and the request has been made because somehow the teaching is known to be there so it's this

[44:21]

It's a kind of fundamental understanding that plays itself out. And then Buddha, for the Bodhisattva's sake, preached this sutra. There are the three vehicles, the three ways that we learn practice. There are the Shravakas, the disciples, the Shravakas, the ones who hear. This was in the old teaching, the Theravadan teaching, who listened to the words of the historical Buddha and who learned the Dharma as it was laid out to them. Some of the people here took Piyasilo's class, right? A few of you? Because that was a very nice background to this. You could really see very clearly the difference in style and teaching and belief system from that to this.

[45:35]

Almost immeasurable. So the Shravakas were the ones who came and listened patiently and carefully and wrote down the words and kept the teaching. And then there were the Pracheka Buddhas, who are called independent teachers, independent Buddhas. And these are all parts of our experience. You know, as we practice, we do have to listen very carefully and learn and practice. And the Pracheka Buddhas are the independent Buddhas. They learn from just the process of cause and effect. And one sees them around, well-developed people who don't seem to have any particular school, but they have, they've learned from life. They've learned from the process of cause and effect and they've ripened from it.

[46:43]

They cannot teach. Which is interesting. They can't say exactly how it happened. I have a friend whose sister made a change. She'd been a kind of carping, nagging, rather depressed housewife. And her children grew up and left and she had less to do and her situation changed. And in the course of a couple of years, she became much more interested in outside things and less naggy and just made a big shift. And my friend asked her, well, what did you do? Well, I didn't do anything. But you've changed in this way and that way. Oh, I don't know. and it is to the Bodhisattvas that this teaching is given because the Bodhisattvas are able to make unattached effort to make constant unattached effort they're not tied down to their

[48:04]

the particular shapes of their experience as the Pracheka Buddhas. They're not tied to a way of... to standards and to a laid out teaching the way the Shravakas were. The Bodhisattvas are able to just be in the present. You'll be seeing more of this as the Sutra goes on. So it's to the Bodhisattvas that this preaching is coming. And in connection with the Samadhi, so the teaching, Buddha goes into the Samadhi in order to teach. And The white light comes out of his head and lights up everything from the lowest hell to the highest heaven.

[49:15]

So everything in that moment becomes completely transparent. The beings and the people's different attainments and their non-attainments, everything is present. And from that position, the Dharma is preached. Now I thought, I've been reading the Lotus Sutra, and April came, and our newsletter came, part two of Stages of Practice by Sojin Sensei. And I'd just like to read a paragraph that he wrote about Samadhi. When our consciousness is really bottomless and we feel bottomless support, that's called Samadhi. Being in touch with our bottomless nature. It means we don't rest in some idea or level of ideas, but there's an opening that goes all the way through.

[50:26]

It's like a bamboo tube, which has sections, and each section is divided by a membrane. Dogen describes our consciousness like this, as segmented levels of understanding. When our understanding is no longer segmented, but goes all the way through, our consciousness rests in samadhi, or in whole being. Support is limitless. In the second stage of our practice, we have that confidence, and our mind is calm, and we're not thrown so much by every wave that comes along, but one can take pleasure in riding that. Now that's a lovely, to me, spare statement of this very wonderful and grand samadhi. So... I do think that's all I want to say.

[51:45]

And... What I'd... Are there other responses? Other questions? Yes? Well, that last comment that you made, that it was a... because it makes it more accessible and it's very easy to get lost reading all this stuff and say boy I wish I met that Buddha or that manifestation of the Buddha energy but actually when you describe it that way it's and we hear Mel time and again say you know it's about you it's about you that actually all this stuff is a good reminder that we in fact can be that. It's not about, it is, but it's really not about somebody or something a long time ago and we can only kind of get ood and odd by it.

[52:52]

Yeah, yeah. Well, what I had thought about doing now was to have a little bit of chanting practice to kind of wake up our energy. I've found a person who practices Zen and also practices Nichiren, Soka Gokai. And he has a double practice. And he is willing to come, perhaps in our last session, and chant with us. The Soka Gokai chant the name of the Lotus Sutra, which we will in a minute, and they also chant chapters 16 and 21, which are considered really the most important pivotal chapters and are really pretty obscure. They chant these in Sino-Japanese, which I think that they learn.

[53:53]

Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to see, to have contact with somebody who has that. kind of energetic and devotional practice. But what I'd like to do tonight is to chant Namo Myoho Renge Kyo for five minutes and then I would like to hand out papers and pencils to people who don't have them and I would like us to write for five to ten minutes whatever comes up for us that has to do with perfect background. and what our experience is about perfect background. And maybe five minutes is enough. It's going to be difficult about perfect background. Perfect background. Don't you have one? Perfect background? No, not me. Oh, he's an alien. Just imagine, take yourself, you know, imagine a kind of a movie film about what we've just read.

[55:00]

And that there, you know, that this is our home. That we in fact here are non-backsliding bodhisattvas. And what is our perfect background? Anyway, just to try that and see what comes up. What does that mean? What? Non-backsliding bodhisattvas? It's just irreversible. Your good fortune is just irreversible. So I don't know, here are papers. Or maybe people... Does anyone need a paper? Let's do it that way. And now somebody who has two good hands can use the drum.

[56:07]

Does anyone know the chant? You could use the drum. This drummer doesn't have to do any writing. Twice as much writing. We're going to write while we chant? No, no. We're going to chant for five minutes. And the beat is... Na-mu-nyo-ho-renge-kyo. [...] Namu Myoho Renge Kyo Namu Myoho Renge Kyo

[57:12]

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo Namu Myoho Renge Kyo Namo Myoho Renge Kyo O-rin-ge-kyo Namu-myoho [...] O-rin-ge-kyo

[59:03]

Namo'valokiteshvaraya [...] Namu Myoho Renge Khyo Namo Myoho Renge Khyo Namo Myoho Renge Kyo

[60:07]

Namo Myoho Renge Kyo Namo'valokiteshvaraya Namo'valokiteshvaraya Namo'valokiteshvaraya Namo Myoho Renge Kyo Namo Myoho Renge Kyo

[61:38]

Namo Myoho Renge Kyo Namo Myoho Renge Kyo Namo Myoho Renge Kyo Now a minute of quiet and then your papers and write. Just keep the pencil moving for three minutes. There are pencils on top of the tableware. Just keep your pencil moving.

[63:06]

Keep words coming for three minutes. Be brave enough to read. Background, Bodhisattva Carol and the Land of the Lotus Sutra surrounded by deities, mom and dad deities, Jeff and David, deities dog and cat and goldfish deities all expanding the Dharma. Sambhogakaya manifested as nirmanakaya. What a way to look at my background. The Land of the Lotus Sutra instead of the Land of a dysfunctional family. Perfect background. Does that mean I can't write about being beaten as a kid? I don't really understand this perfect part of the background. I guess in some ways it was perfect. We all played our parts, just like all the Bodhisattvas ready to hear the words of the Buddha. But the Buddha expanded his teaching for the benefit of the Bodhisattvas. Was the Dharma my parents expanded for my benefit? Yes, absolutely.

[64:07]

It taught me about the Wheel of Sattva. Thank you. Can anyone else read? Perfect background. I like to imagine the people and their hundreds of thousands gathered around to hear the dialogue. Kind of like the March on Washington in August 1960, when Martin Luther King spoke his, I have a dream, Of course it makes sense to me that enlightenment would begin with a big demonstration. What a perfect background. All those beings in Bodhisattvas wanted liberation and truth and they sat down to listen. They could all see the light from the Buddha shining to the lowest hell and the highest heaven. Probably even the ones who didn't see the light were allowed to stay around there too. Thank you.

[65:13]

Would you read that last two sentences? I went off. Pick it up. They could see the light shine from the Buddha shining to the lowest hell and the highest heaven. Probably even the ones who didn't see the light were allowed to stay around there too. Where will this take us? Gray words on blue paper. What has this to do with perfect background? Lead will not leave paper, and paper is blue. Is this enough? This experiment, anxiety fluttering against what is. What is, what is? People writing, people leaving, people thinking whatever they think. Is this enough? Can we believe it? Nothing else to believe

[66:17]

We'd better. See? People still writing. Ross wriggling his toes. Not so bad. Not so bad. Conversation of pencil scratchings. Joy. Why have a retort? Uh, just keep pen stuck for three minutes, but I don't know what to say other than the pen seems to glide over the paper and the sound is repeated throughout the room. Tired now, tired in writing. I don't know what and who's going to read this. Quack Kerouac thing. Yeah. Quack Kerouac thing. That's that's happening now atop this book in the room. I don't know, but breath now the flow of some Something about breath.

[67:22]

Oh, it's a pleasing sound. When is this going to be over? That's why my toes were wiggling. Perfect background. Light of morning. Birds singing constantly year round. They sing every day, but why do I only hear them? The water moves by as I sit or wait across and take a look and wonder where its beginning is. I'm always wondering where its beginning is when I walk and notice, when I realize the sky. Where is the beginning? The cloud as it trails off and my eye catches the line of the mountain off in the distance and I wonder again about its beginning and mine. I'm always wondering these days about my own beginning. Was there ever one? Is there ever a beginning? It seems like a trite question and it's there, trite or not. I look up into the sky walking in rain and wonder where the first raindrop is or if there is a first one.

[68:28]

I remember that day at Point Reyes there were about seven or eight hundred water birds swimming in one direction and squawking like crazy. And who was the leader? Was there a leader? Where were they going? Why were they going in a circle? How did they know how to keep going? Thank you. The perfect background is the state of being whereby things, thoughts, events, feelings, people, animate and inanimate objects. Beings arise and subside as all laws of nature dictate, and one is at a perfect equilibrium, aware of all that is happening and yet not pulled by this and that.

[69:36]

Life arises and life subsides, birth, death, all part of a constant flow of beings. Although death seems to be the absence of the mortal being, it's just another change in the continual changes that go on. It's all there and there's no loss. Perfect background. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Could we crawl into it? Could we feel good about it? Does it matter? But take up the challenge. What do the words mean? I don't want to say because I don't want to think about it. Why don't we just do it? Let's just do perfect background. Let's play catch. It'll be a little fun, maybe a lot.

[70:38]

Here we are. Perfect background. Engines roaring over Pacific white clouds, westward bound, O Bodhisattvas, Mahasattvas, Buddhas of all directions and colors, presiding over the western skies, radiant non-stop, infinite depth and directions, crying babies, bloody murderers, hands, and merciless killers. Wife beaters, children deserters, war monglers, all rise up and rejoice. The shining of Buddha lights now from all directions, toward all direct, from all directions, toward all directions, infinite wisdom and compassion.

[71:47]

Lambo mil fat nin wa ging. Jet engines roaring west, lands of Buddha, mountaintops of kindness and oceans of wisdom. Well, that's a very nice way of background.

[72:55]

Is there anything more? Is there anything more that we would like to talk about tonight? Can you tell us what literally Namo Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. Namu is like homage to. I think this is, I figured this out and it slips a little bit, but I think it's Namu to the great Myoho. Renge is, I think lotus. And Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, I'm not quite sure. Renge Kyo. I know where to find it, I think, and I'll tell you next week exactly.

[73:57]

So, as I said, this in a way is the hardest, Yeah, a couple questions. One is I associate this sutra with you. You've taught the class often and I'm curious of all the sutras what for you what's what's the the draw that kind of brings you to studying it again and again and sharing it with us and my other question is If there was one, what was the purpose of the exercise that we just did? I mean, I have some ideas. I'm curious about your angle, or maybe it'll be revealed later on. It won't be further revealed. I enjoyed doing it. Thank you. Well, that's a nice question. Both of them are nice questions. Personally, I love to read the Indian sutras.

[75:04]

I just love to read them, and I don't know why. I've read through the Avatamsaka Sutra mostly. Because they're so old, you know, and they're such a different expression of my own experience. I went to a reading that Robert, that Thomas Cleary gave at Black Oaks a few years ago. You know, when he sat at the reading, he just published another book, and his books were sitting like this. And he said, this was quite a long time ago, I guess, and he said, the most important thing anyone can do is read the Sutras. And that really, oh yes, I thought, he's right. And that somehow gave me permission.

[76:08]

The Lotus Sutra is quite readable, actually, because it's shorter, and there are parables, and it's, as we'll see in the next weeks, it's quite accessible. And I feel like it's magic. I really do. You know, I go out to the Concord Naval Weapons Station. I've been going out over the years and sitting quite a lot. Zazen groups there, different groups. And there's a bodhisattva who goes out there named Abraham Zvickl, and he's 91. And he's been a pacifist all his life. He spent years in jail. He somehow manages to evade his wife, who thinks that for him to go out to the weapons base is very dangerous. And he evades her and he comes out to the base and he brings his, you know, there's that Japanese drum that you beat.

[77:12]

And he stands there right in front of the bass, Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, and he beats the Lotus Sutra into the bass. And it just seems wonderful. What better thing could anybody do? We could send Howard to do a duet with this guy. Yeah, he could do it. So that's the first question. And why we did the exercise, it's because of what you said earlier. This is not experience that is other. It is our own experience and we can all write it as we all did in our extraordinarily various ways. We write it and we know it and we play it out. writing about it just makes it obvious that we are very engaged, each one of us, even the alien who says that he doesn't have a perfect background.

[78:19]

We're very engaged with our perfect backgrounds all the time. I'm just wondering, how did you pick these pages of the Lotus Sutra? Yeah, well I have a method of getting through it in perhaps four sessions and I want to get most of the parables and just, I mean this is the most cursory introduction obviously to the Lotus Sutra but there's a certain progression and so I'm just going to, what's in there is just little samples that Like a tour guide, I'll take you through. So it's fine to take these home, but it's great to have them here. If you're like me, if you honestly think that you're not going to read them during the week, you can leave them here and then you won't be in danger of forgetting them. Or you can take them home and bring them back.

[79:20]

Is this whole book, the whole sutra? Yeah, right. This is the whole sutra. It's that small. That's why I say it's quite... And there are three translations, and the library has all three. They soon will be processed. This Hurwitz translation is the most plain. And then there's the Burton Watson translation, which I guess is the most recent. and then there is the threefold Rūpa Sutra, and I can't remember who translated that. It's a Japanese. A Japanese, yeah. So, it's always fun to, you know, to look at the different translations and see the difference. And the, I think by next week the copies, the library copies will be over there and, you know, you can look at them. take them out very briefly if you want. And they'll be available for after the class too if you want to go back.

[80:25]

It's a very nice suture to read from beginning to end. The last, and actually the last chapters of it, it's not even this long because it ends It ends and then there are sort of extra chapters that are kind of tacked on. So the actual sutra is probably not much longer than this. It's quite easy to read. See, I have two copies here if anyone needs them. And the stapler went on the fritz, so handle your copies carefully. Anybody need them? Okay. And there are a lot of people that haven't paid for class yet. It's $20, and you can leave a check marked class in the box or give it to me personally. No, in the memo section.

[81:28]

Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

[81:33]

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