I vow to face the truth of those who target me. For this practice period, we will, of course, be studying 16th and precepts. And it's a good subject for practice period, because precepts is not something just theoretical, but something which we embody. and which is the basis of our practice. We say zazen is precepts and precepts is zazen.

[01:07]

So we really need to understand the nature of precepts. We say there are 16 bodhisattva precepts. But these precepts have to be understood in various ways. So when we, when I say study, when we enact the precepts in our daily life, we need to observe and understand from the various meanings for each precept. About five years ago, I think it was about five years ago, I can't remember exactly how long ago.

[02:43]

About five years ago, at Zen Center in San Francisco, we started to put together an ethics statement. Every Zen Center should have an ethics statement. It's okay. But it took five years to create this ethics statement, which seems very simple. But through lots of discussion and lots of closely examining what ethics and precepts mean, I know you can't hear me, You'd be surprised at the controversy over ethics that ensued.

[04:08]

Some people thinking there should be very strict ethical standards, and some people feeling there shouldn't be any. And between those two extremes, something was worked out. And the way it was finally worked out was that the ethics statement would be based on the precepts. So, you know, to create an ethics statement out of thin air doesn't work so well. But we already had precepts in place. So to base the ethics statement on the precepts is quite natural. And that's what we did. So finally, this ethical principles and procedures for grievance and reconciliation, is what this is called, was printed.

[05:13]

And it has the precepts, or 16 precepts, and some commentary on what it means in the realm of ethics, and also procedures for grievances. reconciliation. And this is quite new. As a matter of fact, I haven't totally studied it myself, but I know enough about it so that I understand it. But we have 50 copies. And so I thought that I would give you each a copy. I know that there are more than 50. So those people who feel that they have studied precepts, could let the rest of the people have them and then if there's any left over you can have one and then next week I'll get some more so that everybody can have one. So if you have a pretty good familiarity with the precepts, you can give your copy to somebody else.

[07:18]

How many people don't have one? How many do you need to bring next week if you didn't get one? Well, I just want a little, but I'll pull it apart for you. Not too many, four or five. But I'll get more. So let's just go over the presets just to get familiarize ourselves with them.

[08:34]

So it's page six. No. Page three. Three. Page three. So the first of the 16 precepts are the three refuges. which represent the foundation and orientation of our bodhisattva life. So we take refuge in Buddha, we take refuge in Dharma, and we take refuge in Sangha. So these are called the three refuges. And then on page five, There are the three pure precepts, which are inseparable from the bodhisattva practice taught at Zen Center. They represent the aspiration of every bodhisattva to do no evil, to do good, and to save all beings.

[09:42]

Those have been translated in various ways, but this is how we do it now. This is the old way. And then there are the ten essential precepts, which we call sometimes, on page six, ten brave precepts or ten clear mind precepts or ten inhibitory precepts. A disciple of a Buddha does not kill, but rather cultivates and encourages life. And two, a disciple of Buddha does not take what is not given, but rather cultivates and encourages generosity. And three, a disciple of Buddha does not misuse sexuality, but rather cultivates and encourages open and honest relationships. And four, a disciple of Buddha does not lie, but rather cultivates and encourages truthful communication. And five, a disciple of Buddha does not intoxicate self or others, but rather cultivates and encourages clarity.

[10:45]

6. A disciple of Buddha does not slander others, but rather cultivates and encourages respectful speech. 7. A disciple of Buddha does not praise self at the expense of others, but rather cultivates and encourages self and others to abide in their awakened nature. 8. A disciple of Buddha is not possessive of anything, but rather cultivates and encourages mutual support. 9. A disciple of Buddha does not harbor ill-will, but rather cultivates and encourages loving-kindness and understanding. 10. A disciple of Buddha does not abuse the Three Treasures, but rather cultivates and encourages awakening, the path and teaching of awakening, and the So before going into the precepts, I want to talk about the various ways that we think about precepts and the relationship of the Three Treasures, the Three Pure Precepts, and the Ten Clear Mind Precepts.

[12:23]

And quoting from Dogen Zenji, and he's talking about refuge. He's talking about taking precepts. And he says, this is from the Kyoju Kaimon, which is Dogen's commentary on the precepts. He says, now we should take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The three treasures have three measures and virtues called the one body, three treasures, the realized three treasures, and the maintained three treasures. The Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi is called the Buddha treasure. Being pure and genuinely apart from the dust is the Dharma treasure, and the virtue and merits of harmony are the Sangha, which is the Sangha treasure.

[13:45]

These are the one body, three treasures. To realize and actualize the Bodhi is called the Buddha treasure of the realized three treasures. The realization of Buddha is the Dharma treasure. To penetrate into the Buddha Dharma is the Sangha treasure. These are the realized three treasures. Guiding the heavens and guiding the people, sometimes appearing in the vast emptiness and sometimes appearing in the dust is the Buddha treasure. Sometimes revolving in the leaves and sometimes revolving in the oceanic storage, guiding inanimate things and guiding animate things is the Dharma treasure. Freed from all sufferings and liberated from the house of the three worlds is the Sangha treasure. These are the maintained three treasures. When one takes refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, that person attains the great precepts of all Buddhas.

[14:48]

Make the Buddha your master and do not let any of the waves be your master." Sometimes we wonder, why are the three treasures considered precepts? We usually think of precepts as the ten prohibitory precepts or the ten clear mind precepts. But Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are the fountainhead of the precepts. So there's actually one precept. And that one precept is manifest Buddha. And in order to manifest Buddha, one must manifest Dharma.

[16:01]

And in order to manifest Dharma, one must manifest Sangha. So this triangle of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha is called the One Mind, Three Bodies of Buddha. and it's the essence of all precepts. So, Buddha is essence, Dharma is the truth or phenomena, phenomenal aspect of Buddha. And the Sangha manifests Buddha's activity.

[17:05]

So, the three treasures have three measures and virtues called one body, three treasures. One body is Buddha as three aspects. Dharma is Buddha, and Sangha is Buddha, and Buddha is Buddha, and Buddha is Dharma, and Buddha is Sangha, and so forth. So the three are inseparable. And when we put emphasis on Buddha, we put emphasis on reality, or our nature. And when we emphasize Dharma, we put emphasis on the law, the way things are, the truth as manifested, manifested truth. And when we put emphasis on Sangha, we put the Buddha as manifestation in the world.

[18:25]

You can also see them as dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya. Buddha is Buddha nature, which is dharmakaya. And dharma is manifested wisdom, which is nirmanakaya. And the Sangha is Buddha as embodied as each one of us. So he says, the three treasures have three measures and virtues called the one body, three treasures. The Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi means unsurpassed perfect wisdom. In the Heart Sutra, we say, unsurpassed perfect wisdom.

[19:29]

We used to say, Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi. And we never wanted to translate that because it always sounded so good. But we translated it because it's consistent with translation. But Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi is untranslatable. but we translate it anyway as unsurpassed, perfect wisdom. So the Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi is called the Buddha treasure. And being pure and genuinely apart from the dust is the Dharma treasure. That's Buddha's wisdom as manifested. And the virtue and merits of harmony are the sangha, which is the sangha treasure. So the characteristic of sangha is harmony. And these are the one body, three treasures.

[20:38]

They're the three treasures of one body. To realize and actualize the bodhi, bodhi means realization. enlightenment. To realize and actualize the Bodhi is called the Buddha treasure of the realized three treasures. The realization of the Buddha is the Dharma treasure. What Buddha realizes is the Dharma. What we realize as Buddha is the Dharma. To penetrate into the Buddha Dharma is the Sangha treasure. These are the realized three treasures. Guiding the heavens and guiding the people, sometimes appearing in the vast emptiness and sometimes appearing in the dust, is the Buddha treasure. So, form is emptiness and emptiness is form.

[21:44]

Sometimes appearing as form and sometimes as emptiness. Sometimes appearing as no self and sometimes appearing as a beggar in the dust. Sometimes revolving in the leaves and sometimes revolving in the oceanic storage. Guiding inanimate things and guiding animate things is the Dharma treasure. freed from all sufferings and liberated from the house of the three worlds is the Sangha treasure. These are the maintained three treasures. When one takes refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, that person attains the great precepts of all Buddhas. Make the Buddha your master and do not let any of the waves be your master.

[22:50]

So taking refuge in or becoming one with, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, is the attainment of the three treasures, or the attainment of the great precepts. So actually, great precepts are being one with Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. That's the essence of precepts. And then, there has to be some way to do that. So we have the One Body Three Treasures, and we have the Realized Three Treasures, and we have the Maintained Three Treasures. The Realized Three Treasures are the three pure precepts.

[23:58]

Refrain from evil, to do good, and to live for the benefit of all beings. This is realization of precepts. And this is Dharma, understanding Dharma. These three pure precepts are very general precepts, right? And when we understand Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, then these three pure precepts naturally manifest. They're not something imposed, but they manifest as realization, to not to do evil, to do what is good, and to live for the benefit of all beings. This is the natural bodhisattva instinct.

[25:04]

So this is called bodhisattva mind. And this is important to realize this. So this is called realization. And from realization comes the maintained precepts. To maintain means to actually do something in the world. So we have the... In the... The ten cardinal precepts, we call them various names. We have Hinayana precepts, or let's call them precepts of rules, precepts of behavior, manifestations of behavior, which are the ten precepts,

[26:21]

clear mind precepts. And then we have the Mahayana precepts. And we have the Buddha nature precepts. So-called Inayana precepts are the literal understanding of precepts, the rules. That's what we usually think of as precepts, is the rules. Something imposed from outside. Or not necessarily from outside, but something strict, strict rules of behavior. And Mahayana precepts are rules of the manifestation of behavior which comes from our compassionate heart and mind. These are subjective precepts.

[27:30]

And the basis of these precepts is compassion. And the third kind of precept And Buddha nature precepts is non-dual precepts, precepts of non-duality, which is the culmination of the Hinayana and Mahayana precepts. The Buddha mind precepts, Buddha nature precepts include Hinayana and Mahayana. precepts. Just practicing precepts from Hinayana point of view is dualistic.

[28:39]

And just practicing from Mahayana point of view is dualistic. But when we combine Mahayana, when Mahayana precepts are Hinayana precepts and Hinayana precepts are Mahayana precepts, when they include each other, then they become Buddha nature precepts. Which means precepts of non-duality. So, you know, When Nansen heard the monks arguing over a cat, who does the cat belong to? He picked up the cat and said, if anybody can say a word, I'll leave this cat alone, otherwise I'll cut it in two. Nobody could say anything, so he cut the cat in two.

[29:52]

This is an illustration of dualistic... dualistic and non-dualistic understanding. Very interesting going. Does anything belong to us? Who does the cat belong to? Well, the cat belongs to me. This is my cat. We say that, this is my cat, this is my this, this is my that. But actually, nothing belongs to us. But, in the court of law, this is my cat, this is my car, and you can't have it. These are the rules, right? Wrong? Right and wrong. So, in this world, we have to go by the rules. And when people violate the rules, it's wrong. And it's wrong to cut cats in two.

[31:02]

Dogen said, if I had been there, I would have said, why don't you cut it into one? Don't think that he actually believe that he cut the cat in two. So we have to understand from these three aspects. Whenever we think about precepts, we have to study them or act them out from the point of view of these three aspects.

[32:09]

There are rules, and you cannot do away with rules. Nevertheless, there's the real, actual, compassionate action, which comes from our innate nature. The rules also come from our innate nature, but they're principles. The rules are like principles, and the way we act out our life comes from principles, but it also comes from intuition. rules on one side and intuition on the other. And the combination of intuition and the rules is what gives us guidance in how we behave ourselves. And the other thing we have to understand is

[33:19]

The two opposing things are actually two parts of one thing. Good and bad are two sides of one thing. Right and wrong are two sides of one thing. The one thing is buddha nature. Pleasure is buddha nature and pain is buddha nature. Having what we want is buddha nature and not having what we want is buddha nature. Justice is buddha nature and injustice is buddha nature. So everything is buddha nature? Everything is buddha nature. Yeah. Everything is buddha nature. So to be at one with our true nature is to let go of dualistic thinking.

[34:27]

When we let go of dualistic thinking, then we can operate in the world of duality. Can you explain how injustice is buddhanature? Is what? Is buddhanature. What is it if it's not buddhanature? It could be delusive activity based on not being aware of your buddha nature? It's, yeah, delusive activity, not being aware of buddha nature. But delusive activity is also buddha nature. We don't like to think so. Birth and death, which one do you prefer?

[35:29]

Will you die? These are important questions. How do you feel about that? Is that injustice? So there's the actual world, the way things actually are, and then there's the human world. Then there's the animal world, and the insect world, and the fish's world. And the human world thinks about good and bad, right and wrong, birth and death. human consciousness has this characteristic.

[36:35]

So, in the human world, we have rules. Animal worlds have rules too, you know, they're more simple. But, in the human world, because we feel justice and injustice and all the dualistic aspects of life, we have rules about it. But this is human activity, which is also Buddha nature. But there's the justice and injustice of the human world, and then there's just the way things actually are. in the non-dual world, which means things just happen. So we don't like it when things are not good, and we do like it when things are good.

[37:46]

But whether they're good or not good, things just happen the way they happen. There are reasons and causes, of course. But these are two aspects of our life. No matter how much we want to save something, it's going to not be there. No matter how much we want to get rid of something, it's going to be there. But that's our human desire. It comes from human desire. But in the dynamics of the way things work, they just work that way. Could I say something? When I see the picture, like in I think it's yesterday's paper, the day before, of that starving baby in Zaire, how do I reconcile that? I mean, that to me is injustice, and how can I reconcile that with woman nature?

[38:52]

On the human world, on the human level, on the human level, that's injustice. No argument. It's injustice on the human level. But on the fish's level, the fish couldn't care less. The bird just looks down at it like the way you look at ants. I'm not saying that we... Do you understand? These are different levels of reality. So, in the human world, we have what's called compassion, right? Compassion means that we understand that everyone suffers the same way. And so our compassion leads us to do something about that. And we should do something about that.

[39:54]

This is because we live in the human world. At the same time, things are just happening that are somewhat in our control, but mostly not. In other words, one is born into this world, And no matter how much you want to stay young, you grow old. No matter how much you want to stop breathing, you breathe. No matter how much you want to stop eating, you eat. No matter how much you want your hair to stop growing, it grows up to a certain point. It's just all happening. It's nature. Nature is producing and changing things.

[40:58]

And our behavior as human beings influences all this. We are self-creating beings. So, this is the human world, the human world of suffering and happiness and compassion and hate and anger and all these emotions and thoughts. Human world. And we need to take care of that, you know? And at the same time, we have to see a bigger picture. That's what I'm saying. I'm not saying we should, because, you know, if you only think, well, they're all as one, so what's the difference? That's incomplete. So we have to see the picture as complete. And we may not like to see the picture as complete. We don't like to see the fact that we're going to die one day. We don't like to look at that. So we don't talk about it very much. But each one of us is marching to our death.

[42:05]

Do you like it or don't you like it? It doesn't make any difference. I want to kind of try to restate what you're saying to see if I get it. We have this human life and this human nature that we bring to it. With our thoughts and feelings, we tend to interpret things and make meaning out of them. And because we're human, that's what we do. And it's not that we should stop doing that. It's that we should notice that we do that. That when we attribute things with things like injustice or compassion or kindness, that that's our activity. We do that. That's our activity. And it's only part of Buddha's activity. I mean, human activity is Buddha's activity, but Buddha's activity is also many, many other kinds of activities.

[43:08]

For me, what's helpful is knowing is being conscious of when I'm making an interpretation so that I don't prevent myself from helping. Because if I just say, well, it's just all one, it doesn't, you know, I'm just making that interpretation. I have to be fully committed to my human activity because that's the life I'm living. You have to be totally committed to your human activity because that's your purpose on earth. As a human being is to be totally committed to being as human as possible. And that's not separate from or distinct from or anywhere away from being fully Buddha. That's also there. Well, that's Buddha. That is being fully in the realm you're in. For a fish, being a fish totally is Buddha. Being a bird totally, being a total bird is Buddha.

[44:16]

So humans read newspapers and respond and react to them. That's what we do. That's our reaction. And waking up to that, that's what we do, is waking up. So to be aware is to be Buddha. is our awakening Buddha mind. And to manifest compassion is the essence of Buddha mind. The essence of wisdom is compassion. The activity of wisdom or the manifestation of wisdom is exemplified as compassion. When you say to be aware, are you saying to be aware of my reaction to the newspaper article? aware. Just have awareness. I'm not saying what specifically you should be aware of, just manifest awareness.

[45:23]

The thing is that when I observe my awareness and I think that I'm being aware, I also notice that I'm not choicelessly aware. That I am selectively aware. Selectively aware, yes. So, this is why our mind, thinking mind, modifies and discriminates. Modifies and discriminates. But you have to do that. You have to discriminate. in order to divide. Discriminate means to divide, to categorize and divide, which is necessary. But it's also necessary to stop discriminating. When one stops discriminating, there's no good or bad or right or wrong. This is why we sit sasan.

[46:24]

Because we have the opportunity to stop discriminating and just experience or be at one with everything. We're not discriminating. There's this feeling, there's this pain, but it's not good or bad. It's not, I like or don't like. You have the opportunity to experience. The mind, when it starts discriminating, then there's partiality. As soon as partiality appears, it's no longer total reality. But if we know how to see it in its totality, then we can discriminate good and the bad. We know this is good and this is bad, this is right and this is wrong. At the same time, to see both at the same time.

[47:29]

I guess the problem that I have is that as soon as I say, this is right, this is wrong, I've already taken a position. You have, yes. And if I've taken a position, then I'm coming from selective awareness, I'm not coming from choices. Right. But if you are, in the beginning, able to see both sides as equal. See, all things being equal, we have a saying, right? All things being equal is like that. So is desire the thing that prevents us from seeing all things being equal? Well, it's our preference. Preferences. Preferences. You keep going deeper and deeper and then you find out, well, what is it that's saying all things differently or making preferences?

[48:31]

Well, it's I, ego, sense of self that's creating the preferences, like and dislike. So it's very deep. That's why if we practice Zazen in a very strict way, little by little, you begin to have a more whole output. But we have to make preferences, you know. We have to choose, but we choose on the basis of... we discriminate on the basis of non-discrimination.

[49:33]

It's called the discrimination of non-discrimination. So, as long as, you know, best thing is you can argue with yourself about it, but if you just let it be, you'll see how it is. If you think about it too much, you just keep more discriminating. Just watch how the mind discriminates, that's all, without making a judgment. If you can do that, just watch how the mind discriminates without making a judgment about it, and see what that is like. I want to read you something and talk about it.

[50:46]

This is kind of going over what I said, but from Yasutani Roshi's paper on the precepts, he says, before investigating the ten cardinal precepts, he calls them the cardinal precepts, that's one translation for the ten precepts. Let us consider the spirit behind the three kinds of precepts, the Hinayana precepts, the Mahayana precepts, and the Buddha nature precepts, which we were just talking about. The Hinayana precepts, serving as the rules of the Buddhist Sangha, are the most literal. They regulate the outward manifestation of behavior. If one violates the rules of the Sangha, one has broken the Hinayana precepts, regardless of the reasons that one might have. In other words, it doesn't matter what your reasons are, you break the precepts. This is called the literal, or the letter of the law. In law we have, you know, if you go through the red light, you get a ticket.

[51:50]

It doesn't matter why, you know. Maybe you were taking your wife to the hospital to have a baby or something. Cutting corners, but you went through the red light, you get the ticket. If one violates the rules of the Sangha, one has broken the jnana precepts, regardless of the reasons that one might have. Inner thoughts, unless expressed in outward actions, are not a consideration of the jnana precepts. So it's only what you do, it's not what you think. it's acting out something. The Mahayana precepts emphasize the spirit of the precepts. The spirit is the mind of compassion and reverence, the natural activity of Buddha nature. In the Mahayana, actions that express this compassionate, reverent mind uphold the precepts. And actions that betray this mind break the precepts.

[52:59]

So meanness as an attitude actually violates the precepts. And so what are the Buddha nature precepts? Calling the Buddha nature the precepts. Buddha nature is the true self, our original face. Any time that anyone swallows up the universe in one bite, or in one, in himself, he says, in one gulp, that person experiences the world of Buddha nature. The universe is one. This is what is called the absolute. Here, there is no dualism between self and other, between delusion and satori, or between good and evil. all dualisms vanish. Whether or not one's life accords with the absolute truth determines one's observance of the Buddha-nature precepts."

[54:01]

So, whether or not one's life accords with the absolute truth determines one's observance of the Buddha-nature precepts. So, to actually live in reality of non-duality is very difficult. because we're always being pulled one way or the other. It's like a tightrope and we're always falling to one side or the other. It's very hard to stay right in the middle. Very hard to stay there. There's a electronic little tuning mechanism for instrumentalists playing music. And you try to keep the green light on by staying in tune. But it's always falling either flat or sharp, flat or sharp.

[55:03]

And it's almost impossible to keep it steady in the middle between flat and sharp. But when you can do that, The tightrope gets wider and wider, so that you're actually walking down the street. But, that's easy, yes? manifesting in a way where there's some question about. Well, whether you see yourself or whether someone else sees you.

[56:09]

Well, either way, I mean. I think it's two different things. The other two, yeah. I think, you know, for yourself, you have to know whether or not you're being compassionate and whether you're manifesting actual wisdom. So when you are dealing with another person, where is the compassion? Sometimes compassion can be hitting somebody. It's not usual, but it's possible. So compassion has a wide range of manifestations or understanding, but basically it's You check yourself by, are you being compassionate? Are you being generous? That's why we have the precepts. The precepts help us to observe these things.

[57:15]

Am I slandering somebody? Am I manifesting ill will? Am I taking something? Am I, you know, all those things, right? So those are the checking points. And if the other person... Well, you can see that in another person. You know, Joe's acting up like this, you can notice that in someone else. Some activity is a bit more subtle, just a little slippery, and it can be... It can be, but, you know, the more tuned in you are, the easier it is to see. And when you're tuned in to yourself, I mean, when you're really tuned in to your own behavior, then you begin to understand the behavior of people around you. So next, we may clarify the relationship between the three refuges, which is the one body, three treasures, and the three resolutions, which

[58:29]

are also called the collective pure precepts. He calls the three pure precepts the resolutions and the ten cardinal precepts. If we consider the three refuges that Buddha, Dharma, Sangha as the substance or the essence, the three resolutions are the aspect or the three pure precepts are the aspect and the ten cardinal precepts correspond to function, how you actually act out in the world. Since the three refuges are the essence of the precepts, those who transgress against the three refuges are abject precept breakers. I looked up the word abject and it means downcast, you know, like you feel like you're an outcast or down. And those who lose faith in the three treasures of Buddha, Dharma, Sangha violate the precepts.

[59:34]

So I want to explain these two aspects. Breaking the precepts means that you do something wrong, or you do something that goes against the precepts. But because you honor the precepts, you realize this. There's a way of turning around and getting back on the path. That's called repent or return to where you were. Acknowledging and turning around. That's repentance. means coming back to wholeness, at-one-ment, coming back to the one mind, to the one Buddha mind.

[60:38]

In other words, when we fall into duality and wake up to the one Buddha mind, that's at-one-ment or atonement. So we do that all the time. That's what we should be doing all the time. It's not a big deal. It's just that we should be doing that all the time. So that's called breaking the precepts and returning. We fall down and we get back up and continue. But those who lose faith in the three treasures, in other words, when you just reject it and say, I'm not going to follow this anymore, that's called violating the precepts or they're no longer part of your life. So those are two different aspects. One is called staining and the other is called breaking. So staining is like you can wash it out.

[61:42]

You can wash out the mind and come back to having a clean mind. Whereas Breaking means that you've actually divided and let go of the precepts. So then he says, those Buddhists who have faith in the three treasures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and who take the three refuges, use the three pure precepts to express the form of their minds. To not do evil, to do what is good, and to save all beings. Altogether, these 16 Buddhist precepts return to the one Buddha mind, Buddha nature. And then he says, the Buddha nature precepts are the Buddha nature itself. The Mahayana precepts flow from the compassion and reverence of Buddha nature.

[62:48]

and the Hinayana precepts are the counterpart of the Mahayana precepts in the realm of external behavior. In each case, the root source of any precept returns to the one Buddha-nature. The Mahayana and Hinayana precepts are both fully contained in the Buddha-nature precepts. With this understanding, we may move on to scrutinize each of the precepts. That is like its preamble to the Ten Cardinal Precepts. So the first precept is to refrain from taking life. So I'll read you his little comment. He says, the standpoint of the Hinayana precepts. The Hinayana precepts are the rules of the Buddhist Sangha used to regulate the conduct of Buddhists, regardless of the spirit or the reasons. Doesn't matter. Taking the life of anything is considered in Hinayana to be a violation of the first precept. So any kind of killing is a violation of the precept.

[63:53]

It's not possible to not kill anything. We know this. But nevertheless, it's a violation of the precept. But what it really means is don't willfully take the life of things that you can avoid taking the life of. That's what it means. It doesn't mean that you... because, you know, walking down the street, doing this, killing something, you know, that's killing. Something's being damaged there. But it's also coming to life. If I exercise my arm, it's breaking down the muscle. But when I go to sleep, the muscle builds up. That's called exercise. When you pull carrots and radishes out of the garden, they scream. They don't like it. I mean, they're rooted in there, and they go, whoa!

[64:59]

But that's necessary. Is it to end their life, to sustain? If you don't end their life, something else will. They can say that about everything. Yes. That's why, you know, I feel very compassionate toward the carrot. Nevertheless, I eat it. And something eats me, you know. We're also being eaten all the time. amount of killing in order to stay nourished. Right, so we have to, it's like, what is our attitude toward killing? That's what we're, so we have to look at it from these three points of view.

[66:01]

Regardless of the reasons, taking life, so according to the Hinayana precepts, I'll use the word Hinayana because it's the opposite of Mahayana. It means little in the narrow. Actually, in the narrow view, that's what it means. And the Mahayana is the broad view. It's not disparaging. It simply means small, narrow. So in the narrow view, anything you kill is a violation of the precepts. So we should know that we're always killing, that we're always using life, taking life. And the precept of refraining from taking life means that one must absolutely avoid killing the tiniest insect, even if it be harmful to people. All Buddhists, whether monks or laypeople, should uphold this precept. This precept arises from the compassionate and reverent mind of Buddha nature, as do each of the Ten Cardinal Precepts.

[67:11]

stated another way, this precept is grounded in the principle of mutual attraction and rightness innate in all nature. Mutual attraction means affinity. We have some connection with everything. And how do we approach and treat everything that we have a connection with? How do we do that? what this precept is about. So, you know, there's a story, a lot of stories. There's one story about, in Buddhist time, there were these bhikkhus who were traveling in a group and they were accosted by robbers. I don't know what the robbers thought they could get, The robbers realized that, I don't know what, well anyway, the robbers said, if we let the monks go, they'll tell on us.

[68:28]

So one of the guys said, maybe we should kill them. And then one of the robbers said, no, I know about these monks. I used to be a monk, I think he said that. Just tie them up to the grass. Tie them to the grass. And since their bowels won't allow them to pull up the grass, they'll just, you know... So they tied them to the grass and then left. And then the king, the Raja came along, you know. And we told them the story, you know, on the Satharaja, you know, set them up in a vihara, you know, treated them very nicely. But that's a kind of example of not, you know, not harming anything, because actually in India, the monks were not allowed to dig in the ground. And they were not allowed to have anything. Just beg, you know, and the begging, they paid for the food through their practice.

[69:35]

That's why we say in the meal chant, may our practice and virtue, we deserve this meal. So then he says, these days, many voices proclaim the sanctity of human life.

[69:59]

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