of this Pukan Zazenji, Dogen's Zazen instructions. Two over here. I read a piece of that last night, at the last meeting, just as we were ending, in a little bit of a rush, the discussion of the parable, the famous parable about the burning house, and talking about the one vehicle, teaching. And that, for us, the form that we practice the One Vehicle Teaching in, the principal form, the kind of root form, is Zazen.

[01:05]

And as Dogen describes, of course, that's the form, that's the root form that we practice on the cushion. And then we practice all the myriad other forms as we rise from our cushions. The One Vehicle Teaching itself, of course, is that we are Buddha nature. That's the One Vehicle Teaching. And it is a a radical and a joyful and a wonderful teaching and incredibly hard to understand. It just has very little, if anything, to do with our normal reasoning processes.

[02:09]

And so there's just all of this dialogue in the Lotus Sutra about the difficulty that the Arhats and the Pratyekabuddhas are having with this teaching, which is so wonderful and they're so glad to have it and it's so very hard to understand. So that's, we know about that. Now I want to really encourage people to ask questions. I thought it was, it was, there were good questions that were asked last night, last week, that were helpful. And one never needs to feel that one is asking stupid question, because in the context of this really non-reasonable teaching, there's no such thing as a stupid question. So, anything that you have, that you're wondering about, is a good wonder.

[03:13]

So, don't hold back. Tonight, we are going to talk about two very beautiful parables. For me, there are seven parables. Somebody else said there are more than seven, but usually it's said that there are seven parables in the Lotus Sutra. So tonight I wanted to go through two of what I think are really very beautiful ones. Chapter four, Belief and Understanding, and then the Cloud of Magic Herbs. So, Belief and understanding, sometimes that chapter heading is translated as faith and discernment.

[04:24]

And as the sutra goes on, there's a lot of talk about believe and discern, believe and discern. So that becomes quite a major instruction. So the belief part. Now Ron raised this question, that all this sutra and the grandeur of it, the bodhisattvas and the buddhas, it all seems as if it's out there and other. And our great difficulty is acknowledging our Buddha nature, that we don't trust and we don't have faith in that it lies within us and so we grab, we have an instinct to grab because we don't trust.

[05:30]

that gets us into a lot of difficulty. So, our tendency is to want to get something out there rather than to really have confidence in this perfect background that Suzuki Rochi is talking about. When we are in touch with the perfect background, we enjoy our lives and we don't fear losing them. That's a wonderful line just to keep in mind as the week goes by, you know, to really try and keep in touch with the sense of the perfect background that this sutra is describing. Somebody else said that unenlightened people are simply those who refuse to admit they're enlightened. It's one of those things like the Hinshin Min, is that right?

[06:47]

The Third Ancestors Sutra? The Faith in Mind, yeah, yeah. The way is perfectly simple, just pick and choose. You can get really boiled down. It's all very simple in a certain way. Alright, so, I'll just read from page 84, which you have copied. We've moved from the last chapter, the... Okay. At that time, the wise and long-lived Subuti and two others, in view of the unprecedented dharma that they had heard from the Buddha, in which the world-honored one had conferred upon Shariputra a prophecy of Anuttara Samyak's Sambodhi, displayed the thought that this was something rare and danced for joy.

[07:55]

Then they rose from their seats, adjusted their garments, bared their right shoulders, knelt to the ground on their right knees, single-mindedly joined palms, inclined their bodies in veneration, looked up at the august countenance and addressed the Buddha, saying, We who were at the head of the Sangha, all of us advanced in years, who told ourselves that we had already attained nirvana and could be charged with nothing further, made no effort to seek Anyatara Samyak Sambodhi. The time is now long since the World Honored One of old began preaching the Dharma. All this time, we, sitting in our seats, our bodies tired, were mindful merely of emptiness, signlessness, and deedlessness. And in the Bodhisattva Dharma's sport, supernatural penetrations, the cleansing of Buddha realms and the perfection of beings, our hearts took no pleasure.

[09:00]

What is the reason? The World Honored One had caused us to leave the three spheres and made us able to bear direct witness to nirvana. Furthermore, we are now well advanced in years, and when the Buddha instructed bodhisattvas in Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi, this did not arouse in us the least thought of desire. Now, however, since the Buddha's own presence, we have heard the prophecy of Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi conferred on voice hearers, and our hearts are very glad, having gained something they had not had before. For we did not think that now, suddenly, we should be able to hear such a rare Dharma. Profoundly we rejoice, having received this great good advantage. An incalculable precious treasure, unsought by us, of itself has come into our possession. So here we're back to joy again. The old men who have practiced restraint and restraint and restraint and had no more desire to arouse.

[10:14]

The old men have been surprised. And again, it's a difference between the Theravadan and the Mahayana. The Theravadan has this reasonableness and restraint. There's a lot of talk in the Theravadan tradition about detachment and maintaining distance and letting go of afflictions. And that's part of our practice. But the Mahayana has a very different emphasis of including everything. Including everything and finding the balance. So there are two different styles of practicing the way. So, everybody is very ecstatic now because Shariputra has received the prophecy of enlightenment.

[11:22]

Now, another good question was asked by Anne last week. The difference between the prophecy of enlightenment and being enlightened. So if you're told by somebody that you have absolute confidence in, that you will be enlightened, of course your heart leaps and undoubtedly your life is changed. But if you're told that you are right now a Buddha, that's dangerous stuff. You know, you could really get inflated on that. So the prophecy leaves room for the effort. And somebody else said the prophecy is like being accepted into the university of your choice.

[12:25]

You're very pleased, you know, you put all the effort into making the applications And then the letter comes and says, you're in. So you're then, you're all ready to make, to throw yourself into the effort. There was a story in Tricycle some issues back on the controversy of tokus and there was one school that put forth that these in fact are reincarnations of previous lamas. There were some people who felt that perhaps having a small child given all this attention and saying that he or she is this incarnation, And so I thought about that for a while, and in light of what you just brought up, it's like if we're all given that prophecy or encouragement, in fact, we can manifest it in some way.

[13:44]

It was quite stirring. Because I think typically we look at these stories of Tibetan lamas, they just do all this magical stuff, and the kid and all that, and they're just the next generation. But the question of the socialization, I think, plays a big part in it. It kind of downplays the magic of it. Nevertheless, it has something to it. Yeah, that's a good example. It's called the self-fulfilling prophecy. There's been a whole lot of research on that. education, you know, how the teacher views the children. That's right. That's how they perform. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Another good example. Yeah.

[14:51]

So again, the topic of joy is brought up and If we have time to do a writing, which we may not, but it would be nice to do one on joy. What is joy in our lives? I was talking to someone today about it and recalled a story. There's a man I know at the AIDS Center who was a stunt photographer in Hollywood and very dashing man who loved adventure and was very agile himself and just took pictures of all these stunts and had to be very smooth in his camera operation. In 1963 he was hit by a drunk driver on his crossing the street and

[15:56]

just smashed up his body, smashed up his body. And a month's subtraction. And then some years later, I'm not sure if that time or later or what, he acquired AIDS through a blood transfusion. So, you know, a person who has encountered that much of what we might call bad luck has, could be embittered. And he's not in any way. And I have, he's restrained. And doesn't, he talks factually about his life, but doesn't explain inner events. We're in a little writing group. And in one of the groups, and I kept looking and looking and wondering how it was that he is able to live, he's very sick now with AIDS, and in constant pain from all these injuries, and he lives with, he thinks he has 14 cats now.

[17:11]

He just takes all the stray cats in the neighborhood and gives them homes. So in one of the writing groups, he talked about how after the end of some long hospitalization, when he was just able in his hospital bed to begin to focus on the world, the only thing he could see out his window was a kind of dusty courtyard and there were sparrows that were playing in the dust. And he felt such joy. He felt such joy that ever since that time, he's just felt glad to live. So it's a nice story about joy because it's a good story.

[18:12]

Also, we have a tendency to think that joy is so big and technicolored. And joy has so many different manifestations. And sometimes it's there and we don't notice, or we hardly notice. So, it's important. And the Sutra keeps encouraging us to be in touch with our joy. And for some reason I've written a little quote from Dogen here on this page that relates to this. When are we, Dogen writes, when are we available to the teaching? Begin in Buddha's presence.

[19:16]

I'm sorry. Being in Buddha's presence, the disciples hear and are joyful when we are ready to hear is not up to us so being in Buddha's presence the disciples are joyful joy has some perhaps some role in our receptivity to the teaching maybe something to think about does it? Alright, now that is a very good question with which to begin this parable of belief and understanding. Is joy a gift or does joy belong to us? That's a nice way of thinking about this parable. So, I chose for some reason to

[20:18]

use the verse of the parable rather than the prose. Also in the text in between that I'm skipping, there's more and more talk about the World Honored One being the Tathagata, the thus come one. as the sutra goes on there are always a number of buddhas and they're in different combinations and the meanings of their appearances are different but there's more and more emphasis on the presence, just the presence of Buddha, the Tathagata and on the Buddha's presence in our world here and now rather than on the many worlds that are in the cosmos.

[21:28]

So now I'd like to begin to read on page 90 this parable. This day we Now, so this is the, Maha Kashapa is telling this parable. And Maha Kashapa, of course, is our ancestor. He was the first teacher to be enlightened by Buddha. He was the one who when Buddha asked a question and he was the one that when Buddha held up a flower nobody quite knew what to do and he stepped up and took the flower and he smiled and that was the first transmission. And in the context of joy, that's a nice transmission story. So, Maha Kasyapa is saying, This day we, having heard the Buddha's spoken teacher dance for joy, that we have gained something we never had before.

[22:41]

For the Buddha says that voice hearers, sometimes called Shravakas, shall be able to become Buddhas. the one vehicle, and a cluster of unexcelled gems, unsought by us, has come into our possession of its own accord. For example, suppose that a boy, young and knowing nothing, forsaking his father and running away, arrived far off in another land. then went about through several countries for more than 50 years. His father, tormented by grief, sought him in all four directions. Then, when weary with the search, he settled in a city where he built himself a house, in which he amused himself with the objects of the five desires. The house was great and rich, having much gold and silver, giant clamshell and agate, pearl, and vaiduria, elephants and horses, cattle and sheep, hand carts and palaquins, carriages and chariots. Workmen to tend the fields and many dependent people.

[23:43]

The profits that flowed out and in extended to other countries as well. Merchants and traders were everywhere. There was no place without them. Multitudes, in the thousands, of myriads, of millions, surrounded him in deference. And by kings he was constantly loved and cherished. Assembled ministers and powerful clans alike all revered and valued him. For this reason those who came and went were numerous. Such were his power and wealth. Having such power, but being of advanced and decrepit age, he was all the more grief-stricken in recalling his son. Morn and night, he thought, when my time to die was about to arrive, my stupid son left me, now more than fifty years since. My treasure houses and everything in them, what shall I do with them? At that time, the poor son, in quest of food and clothing, was going from metropolis to metropolis, from kingdom to kingdom, now getting something, now not.

[24:47]

hungry, weak, and emaciated as he was, he developed scabs in his body. Eventually, in his passage, he reached the city in which his father dwelt, and going about for hire, at length arrived at his father's house. At that time, the great man within his gateway had erected a great jeweled tent where he was seated in a lion throne, surrounded by dependents, and attended by various persons. Among them were those who reckoned the quantity of gold, silver, and gems, of the goods given out and taken in, who recorded them in ledgers. The poor son, seeing his father, rich and powerful, stern and majestic, fought. This is a king, or the equal of a king." In his consternation, he wondered why he had come thither. Repeatedly, he thought, if I stay long, I may be driven, of course, to work. When he had had these thoughts, he ran off in haste, inquiring about poor villages, for he wished to go to one to work for hire.

[25:53]

The great man, at this time seated on his lion throne and seeing his son in the distance, silently recognized him. Accordingly, he commanded messengers to overtake him and bring him back. The poor son cried out in alarm and saw a distraction falling to the ground. If these men have seized me, it must be that I'm going to be killed. Of what use are food and clothing if they bring me to this? The great man knew his son to be foolish and mean. He will not believe my words. He will not believe this is his father. Accordingly, resorting to an expedient device, he sent other men squint-eyed and crouched over, persons of no imposing appearance, and told them, you may talk to him, saying, we will hire you to clear away dung and other filth, giving you a double wage. The poor son, hearing this, followed them joyfully, and at their bequest, cleared away dung and filth, and cleaned the rooms and apartments. The great man, through his window, constantly saw his son, and was mindful that the son, being foolish and inferior, enjoyed doing menial work.

[27:02]

Thereupon the great man, putting on torn and filthy garments, and taking in hand a dung shovel, went to his son's workplace, and there, by resort to an expedient device, Approaching him and talking to him, he caused him to work with diligence. I have already increased your wage and anointed your feet with oil. Your food and drink suffice, and your bedding is thick and warm. He spoke to him sternly. You must work hard. He also used gentle words. You are like my son. The great man, being wise, eventually permitted him to enter and leave. Throughout twenty years, having charge of the great man's household affairs, he showed him his gold and silver, his pearls and spatika, the income and expenditure of his various things, making him responsible for them all. Yet the son still lived outside the gate, dwelling in a grass hut and thinking of his own poor state.

[28:05]

I have none of these things. The father, knowing that his son's thoughts were at last broad and great, and wishing to give him his treasure, straightaway assembled his kin, the king and his ministers. the Strychias and householders, and in this great multitude said, This is my son. Since he forsook me and went away, fifty years have passed. Since I saw my son come back, it has already been twenty years. Formerly, in such and such a city, I lost this son. Going in search of him, at length I came to this place. Everything I have, my houses and my vassals, I make over entirely to him to do with as he pleases. The son who still had in mind his former poverty and his lowly ambitions, and who now, in his father's presence, was the great recipient of precious gems, as well as of houses, apartments, and all manner of treasures, was overjoyed, having gained something he had never had before.

[29:13]

Actually, this translation, this verse, is a little bit different from the prose, and in the sense that it personalizes the father, the Buddha figure, more. So that's just a difference. There are two copies of the whole Lotus Sutra here in the section of the new library books. So if you want to read through some of it and have some continuity, there's that chance. So let's go through this. Think about it a little. the father and the son. And one can think about the way that we somehow start out life as children being whole and fall out of wholeness one way or another, leave.

[30:30]

The way this story makes sense to me is in terms of the inner teacher and our development, thinking about those themes. In this very personalized version, the father really feels, despite all the wealth, really feels bereft at the absence of his son. Buddha's not supposed to be attached to anything. But there's a certain way in which a Buddha needs us to manifest. Going back to the three bodies of Buddha, the dharmakaya, the potential body, and the sambhogakaya, the expressive body, and the nirmanakaya, the form body.

[31:41]

If there's just the perfection of Buddha, there's no activity. So there's some way in which the father longs for the son even before the son has any notion that he's left home. And then the son comes and sees the grand palace and he is terribly frightened It's also a story about our resistance. There are... I think most of us have had moments in our practice where we have really been frightened.

[32:47]

You know, the first time I went to San Francisco Zen Center, I was going to sit a one-day sitting, which we didn't do at first in the Dwight Way Zen Do. And I went to that big cavernous room and Zen Do and sat and had breakfast. And then suddenly I thought I was going to pass out. Just really thought I was going to pass out and ran out of the Zen Do and sort of lay on the floor. until I recovered enough to drive home. It's never happened since. And I think I was terrified. You know, one senses that something big is going on and it's not comforting. So, the son wants to leave. And he goes away.

[33:55]

But he doesn't get very far. You know, you get a real taste of practice. You really see something. And it's hard to leave. Mel talks about his first session and getting a certain way through it and being extremely uncomfortable and thinking, well, you know, why am I bothering about this? And walking out. And then finding that he was just preoccupied with having walked out, that there was no way he could leave it. He had to come back. So, the son comes back, even though he's frightened. And then the teaching of the skillful means. The father sees exactly where the son is and sends men squint-eyed and crouched over, who some commentators say are bodhisattvas, because, you know, the skillful means

[35:13]

The bodhisattvas know how to appear in exactly the shape that will be acceptable to the person to whom they are bearing a message. And so, the son does this very menial work, which is exactly the kind of work he needs to do. The kind of slogging that we have to do when we begin practice. The very persistent and dull work of being mindful and watching and falling and watching and falling and watching and falling. And there's some, I think the prose account says that he shoveled dung for many decades. And then he was, and then the father sees that he's advanced enough so the father himself can make a disguised appearance.

[36:17]

And encourages him, offers him a little reward. Reminds him of the rewards that have been given. And encourages him to work hard. Now, this story is faith and understanding, belief and discernment. And when I discussed this at some other point with a group, somebody said, well, it's not a story about faith because the son is just doing what he's being told to do. So why is it a story about faith? which is a point of view that's not invalid. The son is also, he's also entirely committed to what he's doing.

[37:33]

He never has a thought of leaving. He just does each day what he's been appointed to do and just does it. And it's, that this just doing what you need to do, just coming, just coming to the zendo, just sitting, just doing it, is the way, it's like faith is a kind of muscle. And the just doing it is strengthening the faith muscle. And the father sees this and encourages. It can be understood on so many different levels. For instance, in one, it seems to me, it's sort of her type of parent-child generational conflict, gross experience.

[38:37]

The father has so much faith. The father has so much faith. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. So, the father gradually gives him more responsible jobs. Yet the son still lived outside dwelling in a grass hut and thinking of his own poor state, I have none of these things. So this is kind of the middle, this is mature practice stage. That there is no kind of, there's no inflation. There's no thought of reward. and there is a real acceptance of poverty.

[39:47]

Poverty being, you know, when you're poor you're not in a condition of controlling things. You're just poor and you're taking what's coming. But it is like you have your joy and your peace, you know, as a result of that, because you're just not, you're not after anything. That's right. Yeah. It's just like that simplicity, you know, of spirit, and of the most beautiful people. Yeah. I remember when I was younger, I used, I was, for a while. And my most favorite memory is peeling vegetables with the 85-year-old cook who I was most attracted to spiritually.

[40:55]

And she had very little to say. She was so beautiful, you know, the spirit was just gorgeous. Because there was nothing there. Yeah, yeah. So, um, living in the grass hut. Exactly. Yeah. She had no ego at all. Uh-huh. And when we changed habits, and I was the youngest one there in this school, she asked me to help her, and I was so, so humbled, you know, to think that the oldest was, was asking me, you know. Uh-huh, uh-huh. It was so, it was such a beautiful And so then 50 years have passed and this time the son is 100 and the father is we don't know how old. And the father, the ceremony of the father identifying, making the identification with the son.

[42:06]

the identity of father and son, the faith of the father passed on completely to the son who is overjoyed. He's overjoyed because he gained something he didn't have before, but actually he had it all along. Yeah. He was always the son. Yeah. Yeah. But all along, he's practicing faith. You said he's totally committed to what he's doing. So he's practicing faith. But where is he practicing discernment? Well, I would say, and maybe people have other takes on this, that the work, the various jobs that he is doing, I mean, first the kind of low-level dung-slinging, and then the more administrative aspects would be the discernment work, that he's gradually understanding what the kingdom is about by hands-on work.

[43:30]

So I thought about, was looking around at what other people, a couple of other people said about faith. Faith, the mental state generated by first-hand encounter with mystery. One way of thinking about it. You know, the father's house being so mysteriously grand from the point of view of the son. And then the son's hands-on encounter with that estate. Katagiri Roshi talks about the Lotus Sutra.

[45:03]

And actually, the passage that he's going to refer to here in the Lotus Sutra is not one that we just read. It's a later chapter, which I'm not going to read about. But there's a late chapter that's devoted wholly to Avalokiteshvara. The first paragraph of the Lotus Sutra mentions the reason why Avalokiteshvara is named compassion. Avalokiteshvara means to see the world and to be seen by the world. If I see with compassion, then all of you, because you are already seen by a compassionate being, will see me as a compassionate being. There is true reality or communication between the world and human beings. At that time, there is nothing to separate or analyze like paper and fire. There is oneness, which is called compassion.

[46:12]

True reality, which is going on between the world and Avalokiteshvara, is very compassionate, supporting, helping, sustaining, upholding the world. According to general Buddhism, it's called dharma or the truth. The meaning of dharma is to support, It's quite a long quote, so I don't think... The passage from the Lotus Sutra goes on to say, the Buddha answered the bodhisattva infinite thought, good son, if there be countless hundred thousand myriad kotis of living beings suffering from their cries and all of them will be delivered. We don't believe it. If we believe it, we call upon the Bodhisattva's name, but nothing seems to change.

[47:16]

Suffering is still suffering. Suffering is still with us, so we don't believe it. And then we decide that the Sutra lies, because we always see the world in terms of our concept of the world. But it is true. There is no other way to be delivered from human suffering. If you see the world, so all this is a matter of the development of faith that Kadagiri is talking about here too. If you see the world very deeply, then you can hear the sound of the world. The sound of the world is something you are always looking for, but you cannot actually find it through your experience, so finally that is suffering. It is a very direct cause of suffering. So finally you say, please, please make me simple. Please make me free. The moment that you call saying, please, is called Avalokiteshvara.

[48:20]

There is no subject who is calling and there is no object you are calling upon. When you sit down in Zazen, you don't know why. If you think about it, you come up with many reasons, but the reasons don't hit the mark exactly. Now here's our experience with the one vehicle. You cannot ignore the reasons you have thought of, because they are part of the truth, but not the complete truth. What you want is just to be present, right in the middle of true reality. where you and Zazen exactly merge, nothing else. To sit Zazen is to call upon something, and to sit Zazen is exactly the something you are calling upon. You sit exactly in the middle of something you are always looking for and calling upon. We don't know what it is, but it is always there.

[49:23]

If you sit down, you feel something, you taste it. By virtue of deeply seeing the world, of hearing the sound of the world, immediately we manifest ourselves with wholeheartedness. This is the meaning of with all their mind. You know, the Bodhisattvas in the Sutra turn to Buddha with all their mind. Whoever we are, whatever reason we have to decide to sit down, immediately we can sit with our whole mind, our whole heart. Even for a moment, that's pretty good. Very naturally, all we can do is constantly return to the source of zazen, which means zazen based on casting off body and mind. This is the point we are always seeking. This is called faith. It seems to me, as I read all of this stuff, that what it's saying is that it's

[50:42]

It's there all the time. It's a question of your being open enough to receive it. And so it's strikingly similar to the Christian concept of grace, at least the way Thomas Merton talks about it. That it's a gift in the sense that it comes to you, but it comes to you only when you're open. God speaks only to people who are quiet, something like that. And so it's both. Yeah. Actually, the next parable is going to really illustrate that. Augustus too. So, coming back to, again, coming back to discernment, it's said that discernment has two kinds of meanings.

[52:06]

One is that it's a virtue that enables us to respond quickly and accurately and creatively to the situation. You cast through and you sift it and you discern. And then the second is not trusting our own judgment, putting ourselves in a situation of rule. So those, in a certain way, they're almost in conflict, and yet there are different sides of it. that discernment has a quality that's beyond reason. So the son has put himself into a situation beyond his own role. He's just entered the practice situation completely.

[53:12]

And we say that when a person begins to practice, they enter the realm of intention, and they live by vow or intention, rather than the meandering of desire. So, in this way, the son has been willing to do that. And then of course it's also true in the course of practice development that what at first seems like enormously hard work, little by little becomes very easy. That's how I feel.

[54:23]

I'm trying to figure out the difference between faith and discernment. You just talked about discernment and it sounded like faith to me. Maybe it's the same, I don't know. Well, I don't think they're separable. When the son puts himself in the position of doing as appointed things, cleaning up the shit and stuff, that's faith, but then you also made it into understanding or discernment as well. That's the part that's hard for me to discern. Well, can we think of some examples in our own lives of how in our histories, how faith and discernment have worked.

[55:31]

I don't know if that's right, but in cleaning up shit, it often doesn't go properly into the tool or the container that you're assigned, and so you have to use skillful means, or to do the job properly. You can't just rely on the instruction. So discernment is always necessary in refinements, or else you just become slavishly devoted to a routine that often is very inefficient. and the sky doesn't get anywhere. To me the story is really the father's story. It's his faith, it's his discernment.

[56:32]

He has his faith to keep searching and he has the discernment create these tasks and so forth and so on. So he's kind of facilitating this for himself. Yeah. The son doesn't seem to have much conscious dilemma. Even when he runs away, he's brought back. Yeah. You want to say your question once again? Pardon? Do you want to state your question? Is it a question? Well, it's getting clearer. I mean, I think what he said was helpful in terms of differences between faith and discernment. I do have to say, though, that for me it's very odd to have a parable

[57:43]

It deals so much with letting go, to have a parable that's so riddled with focus on well. Well, that is the Indian, that's just the way Indians talk about spiritual life. And it's, right, it's very difficult. It is, it's not our style. And especially when, in addition to wealth, there are hundreds and thousands of beautiful women that augment your stature. Yeah, right, right, we just. So that's very interesting. resistance to kind of getting very excited about it or something. And I can see the metaphor very clearly. Well, these questions continue in the next parable of medicinal herbs.

[59:14]

The situation is a similar kind of problem. So chapter 5, at that time the World Honored One proclaimed to Maha Kashyapa and the great disciples, good, good, Kashyapa has well stated the Thus Come One's real merits. Truly it is as he has said. The Thus Come One also has incalculable, limitless, whatever it is, of merit. If you were to tell of them for incalculable millions of kalpas, you could not finish. Kasyapa know that the thus come one is king of the dharmas. If he has anything to say, it is never vain.

[60:18]

He sets forth all dharmas by resort to wisdom and practical expedience. Without exception, the dharmas he preaches all reach to the ground of all knowledge. The thus come one sees and knows that to which all dharmas tend and that to which they are reduced. He also knows what the profound thoughts of all living beings can do, penetrating them without obstruction. Furthermore, with respect to the dharmas, he is perfectly clear, demonstrating all manner of wisdom to the beings. Kashyapa, consider the grasses, trees, shrubs, and forests, as well as the medicinal herbs in their several varieties and their different names and colors, and the mountains and rivers, the dales and bales of a thousand-million-fold world produced. A thick cloud spreads out, covering the whole thousand-million-fold world and raining down on every part of it equally at the same time.

[61:22]

its infusions reaching everywhere. The grass and trees, the shrubs and forests, and the medicinal herbs, whether of small roots, stalks, branches, and leaves, or of middle-sized roots, stalks, branches, and leaves, or of large roots, stalks, branches, and leaves. Also, all trees, great and small, whether high, intermediate, or low, all receive some of it. Everything rained on by the cloud, in keeping with its nature, gains in size, and its blossoms the fruit, and fruits spread out and bloom. Though produced by the same earth, moistened by the same rain, yet the grasses and trees all have their differences. Kasyapa know that the thus come one is also like this. He appears in the world as the great cloud rises. With the sound of his great voice, he pervades the world with its gods, its men, its asuras, just as the great cloud covers the lands of the thousand-million-fold world.

[62:31]

In the midst of a great multitude, he proclaims these words, I, the thus come one worthy of offerings, of right and universal knowledge, whose clarity and conduct are perfect, well gone, understanding the world, the unexcelled worthy, the regulator of men and women of stature, the teacher of gods and people, the Buddha, the world-honored one. Those who have not yet crossed over, I am able to cross. Now these, what I'm going to say, is in fact the four vows. Those who I have not yet crossed over, I am able to cross. Those who do not yet understand, I cause to understand. Those not yet at ease, I put in their ease. Those not yet in nirvana, I am able to attain nirvana. For this age and for later ages I know things as they are. I am the one who knows all, the one who sees all, the one who knows the path, the one who opens up the path, the one who preaches the path.

[63:37]

You, multitude of gods, people and assurers, should all come here in order to listen to the Dharma. At the same time, numberless thousands of myriads of millions of kinds of living beings come before the Buddha and hear the Dharma. The thus-come-one at this time observes these beings, their keenness or dullness, their exertion or laxity. and in accord with what they can bear, preaches the Dharma to them in an incalculable variety of modes, each causing them to rejoice and enabling them speedily to gain good advantage. These beings, having heard this Dharma in the present age, are tranquil and are later born in a good place, They enjoy pleasure consonant with the path and are also enabled again to hear the Dharma. When they have heard the Dharma, they are separated from obstacles and in the midst of the Dharmas, in keeping with their powers, gradually contrive to enter upon the path.

[64:42]

Just as the great cloud rains down on all grasses and trees, shrubs and forests, and medicinal herbs, and just as they all, in accord with their nature and kind, derive the full benefit of the moisture, each gaining in growth, just so is the Dharma preached by the Thus Come One of a single mark and a single flavor, namely the mark of deliverance, the mark of enchantment, the mark of extinction, having completely acknowledged of all modes. Whenever these beings who hear the Dharma of the Great One, of the Great Thus-Come-One, if they hold it, read it, recite it, and act according to His preachings, then the merit they gain thereby shall be unknown and unnoticed even by themselves. What is the reason? Only the thus-come-one knows these beings, their kinds, their reasons, their substance, their nature, what things they think back on, what things they think ahead to, what things they cultivate, how they think back, how they think ahead, how they practice, by resort to what dharmas they think back, by resort to what dharmas they think ahead, by resort to what dharmas they practice, what dharma they gain, and by resort to what dharma they gaineth.

[66:03]

The living beings dwell on a variety of grounds. Only the thus come one sees them for what they are and understands them clearly and without obstruction. Those grasses and trees, shrubs and forests, and medicinal herbs do not know themselves whether their nature is superior, intermediate, or inferior. But the thus come one knows this dharma of a single mark and a single flavor. namely the mark of deliverance, the mark of disenchantment, the mark of extinction, the mark of ultimate nirvana, of eternally quiescent nirvana, finally reducing itself to emptiness. The Buddha, knowing this, observes the heart's desire of each of the beings and guides them protectively For this reason he does not immediately preach to them the knowledge of all modes. All of this, all of you, Kasyapa, are very rare in that you are able to know that thus come one preaches the Dharma in accord with what is peculiarly appropriate and that you are able to believe and accept this.

[67:15]

What is the reason? the Buddha's, the world-honored one's preaching of the Dharma in accord with what is peculiarly appropriate is difficult to understand and difficult to know. So... It's a very intimate story. All of the beings and the minutiae of their development being intimately fostered by this great cloud. very tender and pervasive relationship. Now there are psalms, there are some psalms about God knowing everything.

[68:23]

I wish I thought about bringing one of them. You know, the great comfort that we imagine that Well, we abandon ourselves so much and feel often so bewildered and lonely and cut off and isolated. And the comfort of this teaching that there is some great cloud-like knowledge that all the time knows what's going on with us. Now the end, the last couple of lines of the Enmei Jikku Kanongyo, we don't usually see a translation of that, that's the, our chant that's praising Kanzeon or Avalokiteshvara or compassion.

[69:32]

The two last lines of it go something like, and every small mind wave that comes up is part of the big mind. It's the same idea. So when Thelma is saying that it seems like the story of the son and the father, that it's the father's story, in a certain way, it seems to me that it's nice that this is the very next story, that there's a kind of, I won't say correction, but it's a different balance. It's this more, It's a more even relationship. You could just look on it symbolically, more like the father and son, parent and child.

[70:37]

That's right. It's really important hearing all this talk about the World Honored One. It's very important to keep translating that into one's inner teacher. What's the meaning behind does come? It's the completely present one. It's the one that's just exactly here. Hasn't come, hasn't gone. Thus come, thus come, thus gone. It's suchness. It's just nothing but the now that's always gone before you say it. Someone else want to speak to that?

[71:41]

There's a translation for Tathagata. You know, the root of Tathagata is not clear. I don't remember what's said about it, but there's no... there's speculations, but... But the Duskum one is the... That's the Tathagata, yeah. So are these all like different aspects of Buddha? The Duskum one and the World Honored one? There's kind of different names we give to different facets or aspects, and you're kind of emphasizing it. By using that name versus some other name. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That the Tathagata becomes more and more of a teacher as the sutra goes on. That at first the Buddhas all have this Shakyamuni and then there's the whole array of the other named Buddhas. And then it simplifies somewhat as it becomes more focused on the Tathagata.

[72:47]

So, there's a lot in this little story. It's a very nice, this very compassionate aspect. It's also a nice corrective for those of us who tend to want to compare practices, who tend to feel that everyone else has a better practice than mine. The story is addressing that. There's no possibility that there can be comparisons about practice. We never know what's going on. And we ourselves don't know where our practice is. That's gone. That's right, that's right, that's right.

[74:02]

Only the thus come one knows, you know. We don't know. And it's a very nice story about healing, development and healing and the really mysterious qualities of our development and healing. I was in a Chinese restaurant a couple of nights ago and my fortune said, watch out for what you want, you might get it. And our tendency to want to make prescriptions for ourselves, you can't quite do that. You don't really know what's going on. And our tendency to think, what the needs of other people are. I read this and then I also had lunch with a friend of mine who's a therapist who's trying, who's studying to pass the MFCC exam.

[75:09]

And she's also a Buddhist and she was talking about how horrible it is to have to learn the DSM-3, the diagnostic, mental health diagnostic manual. I mean, how can you be involved with this story and then think about diagnosing. You know, it's such a tiny little kind of stamp that we put on the very mysterious healing developing process. And it's hard not to be arrogant. Does it start ringing any bells for anyone else's story?

[76:23]

I was just listening to a tape the other day by Christina Groff. Addiction is a search for spirituality. It makes so much so understandable. Because what we're addicted to really, we're really searching for our spirit, but we don't quite know where. comes in a myriad of things outside of ourselves. But really, it's our own inner search. And she spoke so eloquently on the tape. It just makes you look at addiction and alcoholism and any kind of addiction in a much different light. You don't look at the person as some as a spiritual search. Yeah, a misdirected spiritual search.

[77:29]

But all part of the path. Yeah. Part of the suffering. Yeah. Each person has their own, you know, kind of suffering. It's like some of these that are so, so wealthy that I house it for, you know? And their suffering is what they think their joy is. That's really the point. Sometimes still, it's so, I'm drifting like a bellows, and that there is, in fact, a very luminous Buddha state, very external to me, like what you just described.

[78:38]

Like a great cloud. Yes, and some knowledge that will support me if I just relax. And then, of course, we're instructed to kill the Buddha, but then I don't want to. Because, as far as I'm concerned, if I am the Buddha, it's a very sorry specimen and not adequate to the task. And so, sitting here, one is enveloped in the Dharma and the people who sit in this room. But then I think what could be music can, then the Dharma could be music, and the music could be an example of what I, if I just practice, I too could.

[79:40]

So there's always that outside before one's... one has to create a myth and hang on to that myth with confidence before one can, I suppose, have some kind of overwhelming revelation that indeed the Buddha does reside within. We're sort of going from a lonely state to needing something beyond, without, and having... I suppose that's why we have to seek teachers, because they seem to exemplify what we... If we can see that in them, then it means that we can have it too.

[80:43]

I'm drifting now. Well, you covered many topics. Yeah, that on the one hand, a teacher is inspiring as a kind of model. On the other hand, the student makes the teacher and the teacher makes the student, as Mel is always saying. It's this process of the Dharma wanting to manifest in a relationship and through a relationship and through a situation that gets waked up. I'm rambling in response to your rambling. Dogen wrote a little poem, a five-line poem, about the Lotus Sutra, which is on the subject of inner and outer.

[81:51]

The Lotus Sutra. When you grasp the heart of this sutra, even the voices of selling and buying in the marketplace expound the Dharma. When you grasp the heart of this sutra, even the voices of selling and buying in the marketplace expound the Dharma. Maybe he didn't like all the riches either. If after you've taken this class and somebody asks you, well, what's the Lotus Sutra about? You can remember this little poem. another reflection. Another reflection on the scale, the enormity of the sutra, for me is in Suzuki Roshi's chapter about bowing.

[83:39]

After Zazen, we bow to the floor nine times. This is our Zendo Lotus Sutra event. By bowing, we are giving up ourselves. To give up ourselves means to give up our dualistic ideas. So when we bow, we're not the Shravakas, we're not the voice hearers, we're the Bodhisattvas. We're giving up our dualistic ideas. So there is no difference between Zazen practice and bowing. Usually to bow means to pay our respects to something which is more worthy of respect than ourselves. But when you bow to Buddha, you should have no idea of Buddha. You just become one with Buddha. It's a one vehicle teaching. You are already Buddha himself. When you become one with Buddha, one with everything that exists, You find the true meaning of being.

[84:55]

When you forget all your dualistic ideas, everything becomes your teacher and everything can be the object of worship. When everything exists within your big mind, all dualistic relationships drop away. See, the Lotus Sutra is our big mind sutra. It's all about big mind. There is no distinction between heaven and earth, man and woman, teacher and disciple. Sometimes a man bows to a woman. Sometimes a woman bows to a man. Sometimes a disciple bows to the master. Sometimes the master bows to the disciple. A master who cannot bow to his disciple cannot bow to Buddha. Sometimes the master and disciples bow together to Buddha. Sometimes we may bow to cats and dogs. In your big mind, everything has the same value. Everything is Buddha himself. You see something or hear a sound, and there you have everything just as it is.

[86:03]

In your practice, you should accept everything as it is, giving to each thing the same respect given to a Buddha. Here, there is Buddhahood. Then Buddha bows to Buddha. and you bow to yourself. This is the true bow. It's really quite nice. In the big mind there's no male or female, but in the small mind all this is man, Yes, it makes it that much more difficult to make the leap. Yeah. It's a big mine, isn't it? Yeah, there are these cultural impediments, the wealth, the gender. Later on, I don't know if we'll get to it next week, but there's a very smart little girl, an eight-year-old little girl, who receives the Enlightenment prediction.

[87:13]

But she has to turn into a man like that before she gets enlightened. So, yeah. We could always kill Buddha, you know. If you meet Buddha, kill Buddha. These things are all... Well, I think that's enough for tonight. And we can begin. the next time with the chapter about the universal prediction of Buddhahood. And I think, would people be interested in hearing somebody who has talked for some of the period, who practices Lotus Sutra practice, that is the Soka Gokai chants? Would it be interesting to hear that? Soka Gokai is based on the Lotus Sutra and their practice is a great deal of chanting both of the name Namo Myoho Renge Kyo and the 16th and the 21st chapters which have very powerful and significant meaning and are not easy to read and

[88:37]

I certainly don't want to expound upon them, but perhaps the visitors can. Which was the one that you were going to talk about next time? It's in there. No, actually, I'm not going to read it. I'm just going to summarize it. It's not one of these? No, it's not one of those. But next class is the last class, so I don't know quite what we'll get through and what we won't. We're not going to get through everything. I do hope that if this engages you, that you do take out one of the books sometime and just try, in a moderate way, reading through the whole sutra.

[89:26]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ