Good morning. So, I've been looking over lately Suzuki Roshi's talks on the precepts, of which there are about 20 or so. at least where he mentions precepts and his understanding of precepts. Can you hear me in the back? Okay. And since we're going to have Rohatsu Sesshin, Seven Days Sesshin, commemorating Shakyamuni Buddha's enlightenment, Precepts are a big part of Buddha's understanding and practice.

[01:12]

Suzuki Roshi, well, Dogen says, when we're sitting zazen, all the precepts are kept. It may sound funny, but it's so. Of course, when you're just sitting still, you can't do any harm, right? But it does go beyond that. So I'm going to do some quotes from Suzuki Roshi. see how far we get in talking about the true meaning of precepts. First of all, when we think of precepts, we think of the 10 prohibitory precepts or the 10 grave precepts, but there's more than that to precepts. That's one aspect of precepts.

[02:18]

In order to talk about something, you have to delineate what it is that you're talking about. So we have a list of things, of behaviors that we call the precepts. But actual precepts is way beyond a list of prohibitory rules and regulations. So people really think of, mostly they think of precepts as regulations. But precepts are beyond regulations. and they're beyond words. They're the very heart of our behavior. They include our attitude toward birth and death, our attitude toward how we relate to this world and to each other.

[03:20]

and the various levels of meaning in precepts. So I'm going to talk about that. So first of all, I just read the 10 prohibitory precepts so that we can remember what they are. At least we should identify what we're talking about. So the 10 There are different lists and different, not different lists, but different ways of expression, but when we take the precepts, we say, I resolve not to kill, I resolve not to take what, not to steal, basically, not to take what is not given, not to misuse sexuality, not to resolve, I mean, resolve not to lie, I resolve not to sell or use the wine and drugs of delusion.

[04:22]

I resolve not to dwell on the mistakes of others. I resolve not to praise myself and downgrade others. I resolve not to withhold spiritual or material aid. I resolve not to harbor ill will. I resolve not to abuse the three treasures, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. actually Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are the main precepts. We have 16 precepts. You know, back in the olden days, way back in Buddha's time and up to the present, there were approximately 250 precepts for monks and 325 or something for nuns. But that was all reduced in Japan to 16 precepts, 16 major precepts, which actually makes a lot of sense.

[05:39]

One of the foundational formulas in Buddhadharma is the three baskets, shila, samadhi, and prajna. Shila is precepts, behavior. What is the proper behavior? mostly is based on monastic practices, the precepts, in the olden days. The 16 precepts are also based on those monastic practices, but also suitable for lay people as well. So the lay people and monks take the same precepts in our lineage. So shila is precepts or behavior which allows us our freedom.

[06:54]

Often we think of precepts as limiting our freedom, but it's actually, they're actually to expand our freedom. But limiting and expanding is a koan. If we don't see the precepts as koans, then we don't understand precepts. We get stuck. What is a koan? It is a two-headed snake. What? I guess I just heard my echo. A koan is like a two-headed snake. So, which is the real snake? Which is the real head? That's a koan. So, each precept is like a two-headed snake.

[07:58]

Which is the real? Which side is the true side? So Suzuki Roshi illustrates the oneness of the two sides. in his opening statement here. This is from Not Always So, the book, and this is his talk on observing the precepts. He says, in the full lotus position, we cross the right leg over the left leg, and the left leg over the right. That's when you cross both legs. Symbolically, the right is activity and the left is the opposite or calmness of mind.

[08:59]

So it's either activity or stillness. Those are two polarities. If the left is wisdom and the right is practice, and when we cross our legs, we don't know which is which. If you sit in the full lotus position, you realize you don't know which is which at some point. So even though we have two, symbolically, we have oneness. It's the oneness of the two. Our posture is vertical without leaning right or left. backward or forward, just sitting up straight. This is an expression of perfect understanding of the teaching that is beyond duality. So real precepts are beyond duality, beyond right and wrong, beyond good and bad, beyond like and dislike, beyond pleasure and pain, beyond suffering and freedom.

[10:12]

So this is how we keep the precepts when we're sitting Zazen. Although you don't, almost nobody sits with both legs crossed, it's really a wonderful way to sit because you really, but don't feel that if you're not sitting with both legs crossed that it's not Zazen. You will understand this. if you sit long enough, no matter how you're sitting, no matter what your position is. So when he says, when we extend this, we naturally have precepts and the study of how to observe the precepts. This posture of Zazen is not just a kind of training, but it's the actual way of transmitting Buddhist teaching to us. Words by themselves are not good enough to actualize this teaching, so it is transmitted through activity or through human relationships.

[11:26]

So this actually expresses the three baskets. It's transmitted through activity, which is samadhi, and through relationship, which is How we relate with each other as precepts is through wisdom. So precepts contain all three. Sheila, which is behavior, Samadhi, which is, Samadhi is to being present fully on each moment, fully present on each moment in a non-dualistic way.

[12:38]

That's Samadhi. So when we practice, there are many different kinds of samadhis, but basically samadhi is just samadhi. It means being totally one with both the essential and the momentary. So this is, Samadhi is the expression of Bodhisattva practice. So in the three levels of, there are three levels of precepts. One is the written word. Don't do this, don't do that. Those are prohibitory precepts, and there's meaning in those precepts, but those are called dead precepts.

[13:40]

because they're immovable. They're simply signposts, pillars. They're important. Don't kill is important. Don't steal is important. Absolutely. But they're just signposts. So So they're written precepts by rote. And then there's the precepts of non-duality, which means, as I said, no good or bad, no right or wrong. Everything is just the way it is. which if you look at it, is so.

[14:46]

We assign good and bad. We assign right and wrong. We assign like and dislike to everything. So we're constantly assigning names to things and believing in the names. But if you take away the names and take away the concepts, everything is just as it is. So there's the actual world Then there's the human world. And in the human world, we have precepts. Animals don't have precepts. Trees don't have precepts. Except that everything is living by precepts, which doesn't mean that they're making up rules. I mean, the rules come from actuality. The actual thing is first, then the rule follows. So there's the level of precepts, which is just the way things are.

[15:49]

And then there's a level of this is the way they ought to be, that we ought to act given the way things are. And in the middle is Samadhi, which takes into consideration just the way things are and the rules. And the living precept is the precept is not written down. It's the way each one of us experiences and responds to circumstances. So it's all improvisation. Actually, improvisation, because we don't know what's coming next. We think we know what's coming next, we can conjecture about what's coming next. Tomorrow we will have bacon and eggs. But that doesn't mean that that's actually what's going to happen.

[16:59]

Tomorrow I'm going to still be breathing, but that may not be what's going to happen. I have to take a drink of water on that one. So the living precept is to be totally in this moment, responding with the background of non-duality the written precept, the rules. So sometimes you have to stick with the rule and sometimes you have to go beyond the rule in order to express the truth. That's why dead precepts are not necessarily dead, you know.

[18:04]

If you say the dead precepts are dead, that's not true, because the dead precepts are also alive, but they're alive as dead precepts because they're immovable. So, but our life is not like that. Our life is movable, and it's always moving, and everything is constantly changing. So in a constantly changing world, we have to have, that's what brings life to life, is the change. So in a constantly changing world, we have to adjust to the changes, moment by moment. That's our Zen practice. So I wanted to take an example, which is of a precept.

[19:10]

I usually talk about, when I take the example, I usually take the example of resolving not to kill, because that's the first one. So, and it's also easy to talk about the one not to lie. You know, sometimes in order to be honest and save someone, you have to lie. You have to go beyond the rule. And I usually use the example of someone who's running from the Nazis, and you let the person in your door, and then somebody knocks on the door, and they say, have you seen so-and-so? You say, who?

[20:10]

No, I haven't seen him. So, is that a lie? It is a lie, but you have to lie in order to say something, in order to So, but you have to take responsibility for the lie, and that's karma. So, but you don't know what the result of your karma is gonna be when you take that lie. So, karma, you know, is a volitional action, that's all, and then there's the result. So, precepts and karma are, related because karma is created through our volitional actions. We do something and then there's a result. It's very simple. Karma is the simplest thing and it's also the most complex at the same time because even though we can kind of figure out what the result might be, there's so many

[21:27]

contributing factors to any event that is too complex for us to know. Every event, we say do one thing at a time, but there's no such thing as doing one thing at a time. Doing one thing at a time involves, actually, if you want to go this far, The whole universal activity is involved in this one little act. So everything is contributing to every act that's happening in the universe. So we live in this very limited space and we try to do our best. So let's say I resolve not to kill, but that's impossible because life depends on killing.

[22:30]

Life depends on death. You cannot do anything. You can't take a step without killing. So what does that mean, I resolve not to kill? In order to survive, everything is surviving on the lives of everything else. That has nothing to do with the way we like it or want it. It's just the way things are. So that's major precept is everything is doing what it's supposed to be doing. following its own precepts. The dog is following its own precepts by killing the rodent. That's what it's supposed to be doing in order for it to survive. The cat gets the mouse.

[23:33]

The human being gets the ox. But, you know, vegetables like to live as well. Everything wants to, everything that's living wants to live, otherwise it wouldn't be living. And everything needs to die. And that's the precept of life. So life has its own precepts. And if we understand the nature of the way everything works together, then we understand precepts and we can adjust our own precepts in conformity with nature's precepts. So our roles are to help us to not get caught by going against the rules of nature.

[24:38]

and karma. So, Buddhist understanding, why is there Buddhism? Well, Buddha said, because the only thing I teach is suffering, how it works, and how to alleviate it. How to not create karma that leads to suffering. That's all. And then there's all these books and philosophies and books to write. But it all comes out of this simple stuff, which is not so simple. Actually, the most complex stuff is the most simple. E equals R, you know, Einstein. MC squared. Yeah. So, you know, that's profound. And precepts are profound.

[25:42]

Each one of them is a koan. So how do you not kill? Vegetables you're also destroying, but the destruction is necessary for life. Death is necessary for life. If things didn't die, just how crowded it would be. So we have to honor death, you know. We have friends that are dying all the time. I mean, everybody has friends and relatives and people you never met who are all dying. And from a human point of view, it's terrible. But from a nature's point of view, it's just inevitable. So we have to be somewhat in line with nature to understand birth and death.

[26:44]

And not think of birth is good and death is bad. Or birth is bad or death is good. It's just the way things are. And our attitude and understanding comes from our feelings. So it's natural for us to mourn when someone dies. Dogs do it. Animals do it. Elephants do it. are emotionally attached and emotionally sorrowful, and that's our job. So when you do that, you're following the precepts. When you feel your mourning and your feelings of grief and so forth, that's following the precepts, as for a human.

[27:47]

Can you give an example of breaking the precepts? Well, we don't say breaking. We don't use that term. We use the term staining. Breaking the precepts is like, I'm no longer following precepts. I will never follow precepts. I'm outside of that. That's breaking with the precepts. You can't break the precepts, but you can take a break. You can make your break with the precepts. But if you're still practicing and we're always standing the precepts, you know, it's really hard to follow something that perfectly. So it's called standing the precepts.

[28:51]

And then you re-enter the precepts and continue. But it's, you know, it's got that mark on it, but it's not breaking. So we don't use that term, breaking, if one is still practicing. It still has faith in the Dharma. Why is it so easy to say people are breaking the precepts all around me? It doesn't matter around me. Who said that? Well, that would be me. Well, you're breaking the precepts if you're keeping them. You're not breaking them if you don't understand them. If you don't understand the precepts, then you're not breaking them. You're only breaking them or staining them, so to speak, if precepts are what you're following.

[29:58]

But if you're not following them, it's like going into a country in Africa and trying to convert people who have never heard of your religion and thinking that they're all sinners. How can they be sinners? They don't know anything about your rules and regulations and philosophy. So we've ruined a lot of, our people have ruined a lot of wonderful little communities that were really coherent and harmonious in the name of, you should do what we're doing because you're bad. That's a good, yeah. So everything is eating everything else. And it's good.

[31:00]

You know, I don't usually, I don't like using the terms good and bad. I try to avoid them, but even though that's so, there is a good and a bad. There is a right and a wrong, right? But it's on the dualistic level, which is okay. So we have to include the dualistic level in the non-dualistic level. So that's why we say samsara is nirvana. delusion has to be included in enlightenment. Yeah, so we have to follow the ordinary way at the same time not being attached to the ordinary way. That's practice, that's samadhi, is following the ordinary way without being attached to the ordinary way.

[32:05]

knowing that everything is just as it is, and knowing that human rules are to be followed because we don't want to create more suffering. So that's what the rules are about. The rules are about not creating suffering. So, and that's the Dharma. So, not harboring ill will, don't harbor ill will. The actual precept in this bedrock meaning is don't be attached to anger. Don't be attached to anger. The precept is not, don't be angry. I mean, you can't help being angry. We're angry all the time. You know, just like we're killing all the time, we're angry all the time.

[33:13]

There's so much to be angry about. Yeah, there is. At the same time, you know, how do we save ourselves from being inundated by our own anger, or suppressed by our own anger, or creating more anger in the world by being angry due to righteousness. Righteous anger is okay, but it's not deep enough. It's still on the surface. So we have all this stuff going on on the surface, right? All this anger and all this delusion and all this mayhem and craziness as a big act on the top. And then we sink down further and further and further and we see how it's all just water, right? Yeah, so how to stay deeply in bed, walking.

[34:19]

Dogen calls it walking on the bottom of the ocean with your feet while swimming on the surface. Swimming in the waves, getting all mixed up in the chaos, but with the feet firmly on the bottom. That's sadhana, that's samadhi. And it's the product of prajna, which is wisdom. Sila, samadhi, prajna. Wisdom is the inherent or intuitive understanding we have about all this. And so the activity of that wisdom is compassion. So the Diamond Sutra has a phrase that we vow to save all beings even though there are no beings to save.

[35:29]

That's a great go on. Yeah. terrible, but from a nature point of view, it's inevitable. And I started thinking about where I can bring in the nature point of view to happening that scared me, and I got really angry. I got really angry with my mother. And I'm trying to find a way to bring the nature point of view, and is that, is it to think, well, it's natural that I would get scared and get angry, but I'm not sure that that is nature.

[36:46]

No, that's your human, human nature. You know, I just flashed through my mind, just before you said that, was a bumper sticker I saw. It said, when it's raining outside, the best thing you can do is take off your clothes and dance in the rain, if you don't want to get wet. It's true. You know, I think when I take the dog out when it's raining, right, the dog just has the same clothes on when he's in the house or outside and I'm putting on all my rain stuff and he's just, you know, watching me.

[37:52]

we get upset by things. It's so easy for us to get upset by things. So how do we remind ourself that we're just getting upset by things? Why am I getting upset by this? I think that's the question that you should ask yourself. Is this about my mother or is this about me? And why am I blaming my mother for my emotions or my responses or my reactions. That's me, it's not her. She's just like, you know, just a prop for you. So think about that. Yeah, I can't, oh, Charlie. Well, we're going to add that to the precepts.

[39:22]

That's also true, even though that's what it is, we have to create our own precepts. So the precepts that have come down to us are often, the 10 precepts are pretty universal, but there's always been minor precepts. And minor precepts have to do with local, locale and time and place. So, of course, the minor precepts also are expressions of the major precepts.

[40:26]

But when you write them down, you see that, you know, I can't think of any right now, but there are plenty of minor precepts which we do follow, but we don't necessarily think of them as precepts. Yes. Yeah. That's true. Yes, I have to tell you, the old-fashioned ant powder works better than anything else. And all these ant deterrents have been on the market, you know, spray and gels and all that. They don't work anywhere near as good, just a little bit of ant powder, tuk, tuk, tuk. And they meet it, and then, boom, it's over. They never come back. And then you say, excuse me.

[41:35]

That's a precept, actually. Because people are very concerned about ants and insects, and how you treat them. And at Tassajara, I've told you this before, when we first got Tassajara, in the summertime, it was so hot, and there were all these flies would come around. And so we had to deal with the flies. So we'd take a gallon jar and put something really sumptuous in it for flies. I won't tell you what that is. And the flies would come into the bottle. They'd all be attracted to the bottle, but they couldn't fly out. It's like the Roach Hotel. The guests check in, but they don't check out. So what do you do? Some people just let them crawl over you and they carry diseases and so forth.

[42:38]

So it's important to eliminate them in your vicinity. War is inevitable. It's unavoidable. Not all wars, of course, but the concept of conflict is unavoidable. We live in conflict with things, and how we manage conflict is a big problem. It's a perennial problem, how we manage conflict. And that's what precepts are about. take the jar when it was full out to the flats, where nobody's living, and burn them. But we chant the Heart Sutra. It's not like, you know, we're just smashing flies, but we're actually conscious of what we're doing.

[43:45]

Consciousness, that's what we're doing. And that's not what we'd like to be doing, but we have to do it. And we pay our respects to the flies as living beings. Yeah, so we don't want insects and rats and mice, you know, crawling on our face while we're... A couple of our former members who were lying in bed and they found that the rats were eating at their face, nibbling on them. I won't tell you who that is. But you have to weigh doing things that you don't like to do and don't want to do with things that you have to do.

[44:50]

That is, that's our life. So we have to have precepts about how we do that. And so we make up our precepts. Suzuki Roshi said, you should make your own precepts as given your time. These are minor precepts, meaning that they're not perennials, but they're for place and time. Actually, I made a list of them. which I don't have with me, some time ago, when I was really kind of disgusted with the way some of our members were acting. Like, you know, not walking around in an arrogant manner, that's a good precept. Yeah, you should be trying.

[45:57]

Oh, it's about time if you have any one more question. Okay. Does it get any easier as one gets older and practices more to realize the definition more of those precepts in terms of when it's appropriate to have conflict, when it's appropriate to step back, when it's appropriate just to watch. Because I have conflict about this all the time. Am I being passive? Am I disengaging? Am I rebounding too much? Yes, those are your own personal precepts. How you address those How do you address that? So those are questions that could be discussed or not, but that's the living precept.

[47:06]

When you meet the situation, because you have a background of studying precepts, that helps you to address the living precept as it comes up. So our experience, you know, and our study, and our taking seriously, allows your intuition to inform you. Yeah, that's living precept. I call it the bodhisattva sandwich. On the bottom is the rote precepts. That's one piece of bread. And then on the top is the non-dual precepts, the things as it is.

[48:08]

And then in between is the juicy stuff, you know, your life, activity, and your intuition. Yeah, your samadhi.

[48:21]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ