Good morning. Is that working? Okay. Throughout the history of Buddhism, but especially Zen, in the history of Zen, we find this question of students, the teachers, what is Buddha? Who is Buddha? This is expressed in various ways, and it's a question that always leads to the essence, and the Zen masters So the monk asks Master Oumong, what is Buddha?

[01:04]

He says, three pounds of flax. Or another monk asked him, he said, who is Buddha? What is Buddha? And he said, a shit wiping stick, which that was before toilet paper was invented. So this kind of response is spontaneous and has nothing to do with the object, has nothing to do with the three pounds of flax or whatever, it has to do with spontaneous response, which brings us to the moment ungraspable moment. This is a response that cuts through the thinking mind or the deliberation mind and brings the monk into the present and it's kind of like a sneeze, Dogen says, a

[02:21]

everything is gone, and then you come back to life, you come back to your world again. So it's a moment of opening your mind and letting go of discursive thinking, so forth, and you will find that most of the koans helping the student to let go and sometimes they seem illogical because the response doesn't go through the logical processes, it simply comes out in a spontaneous way and of course we're used to thinking in patterns of logic and when our patterns of logic are interfered with or not brought into the process then we feel kind of lost.

[03:29]

So the question is how to be born freshly on each moment without any residue. around the 16th century, I'm kind of paraphrasing this, but it was considered that silence was the most valuable thing. And if you were going to make divisions of silence with sound, it should be done very carefully. But today, I'm going to talk about what is Buddha in a more logical way because a mind wants to have some logical satisfaction as well. So I'm going to talk about how the Mahayana presents the understanding of what is Buddha.

[04:44]

When Shakyamuni appeared as what we call the Buddha of the present aeon or whatever length of time that is to the present, he was a person and he discovered the ancient path of So, when people were practicing with him, they were simply practicing with the teacher, and so they obtained their understanding through association with the teacher. Later, after he passed into Puranirvana, the students had to recollect what he said and create a practice based on the Buddha's practice or understanding, which they did in various ways.

[05:52]

There were 18 schools of Buddhism before the first century which had different ideas in order to really understand where the Buddha, who this Buddha was, or what is this Buddha, they came up with the understanding of the three bodies of Buddha. If we just say Shakyamuni was a person, that's true, or Buddha was a person, that's true, but that's not complete. the Buddha. There has to be something that the Buddha is a Buddha of. So they came up with the three bodies of Buddha, the Dharmakaya, the Sambhogakaya, and the Nirmanakaya.

[06:56]

The Dharmakaya, I've talked about this before and I hope you don't feel bored. dharmakaya is the undivided Buddha mind. You can say many other things, but for this purpose dharmakaya is the undivided Buddha mind or the undivided presence of there's no way to access or grasp the Dharmakaya, the Dharma body, kaya means body, so the Dharmakaya is the total body of Buddha in which everything, all aspects of our life are expressions or

[07:59]

without divisions, that's dharmakaya, and dharmakaya holds the potential for all activities in the universe, or what universe is simply a big term for the Indians always write out, when they talk about time, they write out a number that's impossible to decipher because it's so long, so it just means endless. So Buddha nature is this beginningless, endless nature of everything that is universal. Everything is an expression of even dharmakaya is a little bit limited in that sense, there's something more than dharmakaya but we can't express that.

[09:12]

So dharmakaya is expressed through nirmanakaya. Nirmanakaya is the division, all the divisions when something is discriminated it's divided. So the Dharmakaya divides itself into innumerable manifestations and some of those manifestations are called you and me. So the Shakyamuni Buddha was a person who accessed his Buddha nature completely. So he's called the Nirmanakaya Buddha, the one who is not the essence body but the manifestation or transformation body.

[10:22]

So this is called Nirmanakaya is the transformation because in this world everything is in transit. Everything in our world is in transit, so there's nothing to grasp, there's nothing to hold on to really except for a moment. So then we realize that although we talk about birth and death And the alternation of night and day, they're simply transformations, fundamentally. Everything is in the state of transformation. So there we say, no birth, no death, in fundamental way. So something arises through causes and conditions, and when the causes and conditions are not there, it no longer manifests.

[11:24]

But we are all manifestations of dharmakaya, buddha nature, which when the conditions are appropriate we manifest as myself, and when the conditions and causes are not working together we don't manifest. we are never lost because the manifestations are simply manifestations of the ocean of existence. So we're talking about the waves and the water, the waves are the manifestations, they arise through causes and conditions. and then find another existence, join other waves to manifest continuously, so our life is actually continuous.

[12:27]

I always had a hard time believing in reincarnation, I can't believe in reincarnation, but life is continuous, phenomena doesn't return in its former manifestation, but the energy continues in various manifestations. Please have some water. Okay, but if you really want water, there it is. In order for the dharmakaya to come together with the nirmanakaya it seems like there has to be something in between as a catalyst or as a way of creating, bringing the two together.

[13:39]

when we chant our meal sutra like we did this morning for breakfast, homage to the Dharmakaya Vairochana Buddha, homage to the Sambhogakaya Lochana Buddha, homage to the Shakyamuni Nirmanakaya Buddha. So we have that chant. We also chant homage to the future Maitreya Buddha and then we pay homage to the three Bodhisattvas. Manjushri, Samantabhadra, and Avalokiteshvara. So all of these Buddhas, Buddha bodies, and Bodhisattva manifestations are interconnected. They're just ways of talking about personifying our nature. So sambhogakaya is Buddha body, which is in between the dharmakaya, which is inaccessible as itself, and the nirmanakaya, which is the divisions.

[14:58]

So sambhogakaya is like, sometimes it's translated as enjoyment body, Buddha's enjoyment body, which is okay, what it does, it's more like the yoga body or the body which is connecting everything. So when we talk about Buddha usually what we're really talking about is the Sambhogakaya. Sambhogakaya is like, well the Dharmakaya Zen stands for enlightenment and it's cool, cool energy, cool light, which is very settled.

[16:02]

So Dharmakaya is like the body of the moon and And nirmanakaya is like the reflection of the light of the moon in the water. In Genjo Koan, Master Dogen talks about it's like the moon reflected in the water. The moon is not penetrates through the water and the water is not changed or disturbed. So, these... Sambhogakaya is enlightenment, our enlightenment body, the enlightened mind, and it's the mind of practice.

[17:05]

It's like the hinge between the two. It's like two faces. One face faces the dharmakaya, the other face faces the nirmanakaya, and connects all three together as one body. It's really one body with three manifestations. So dharmakaya is like timeless. Timeless means one time. Nirmanakaya is timeful. When we think about time, we think about one o'clock, two o'clock, yesterday, today, the future, and the past. But in the Dharmakaya, there's no such thing. yesterday, today, tomorrow, one, two, three o'clock is nirmanakaya.

[18:15]

So nirmanakaya is our past and our future and our present. If you bring the past and the future together, where's the dividing line? point to as the dividing line between the past and the future, or the past and the present. The present is really hard to take hold of, but we think that we're always living in the present. That's our idea, we're always living in the present. But actually, as we speak, it's all history. what we're mostly aware of is history. This is called the historic body, the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

[19:17]

The future is just an idea because there's no future that actually meets the present or the past, but we talk about it that way. So it's a kind of illusory, this is the illusory world where we make up things, we make up our world in order to adjust ourself to live, but actually continuous time is no time because there has to be something to contrast work. So, in order to make time work, we have to say there's a past and a present and a future. But then it works for us because this is the active world. But the world of stillness is just continuous time, which is no time.

[20:25]

So this is Zazen. When we practice Zazen thoroughly, It's no time, because it's just all one time, even though there's past and present. You know, you can sit in Zazen, the bell rings, and then the bell rings again, and where'd all that time go? What a waste of time! It really wastes time, actually. Time is wasted. So that's the kind of problem we have, because we want to accomplish something, which is okay. This is the world of accomplishments, but what do they amount to? The end. So, zazen is the sambhogakaya in its pure sense that connects the dharmakaya with the nirmanakaya.

[21:35]

This is what's called samadhi. Samadhi is when the dharmakaya and the nirmanakaya are expressed in a pure sense through the sambhogakaya. through our activity. So Sambhogakaya is personified by the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra rides an elephant and he's considered, we say, the shining practice Bodhisattva. Bodhisattva who personifies to connect, to be at one with the Dharmakaya and Nirmanakaya.

[22:43]

That's our practice. So what is all this about? Well, it's about how we practice. We don't think in this way necessarily, but if you have this understanding, then you always know where your practice is. This is Samantabhadra right here. He is riding his elephant. Why an elephant? Because the elephant is the symbol of Buddhism actually. The Buddhist animal, so to speak, who when he takes a step, it's a sure step. He doesn't just kind of flit around. It's like one step at a time and he knows where he's going. I mean hopefully. Manjushri is like the personification of the Dharmakaya even though he's called the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, right?

[23:53]

So we usually associate that with, we normally associate that with Sambhogakaya because Sambhogakaya is the wisdom body. when he was asked this question, what is Buddha, or what is the Trikaya, he said, the Dharmakaya is your nature, the Sambhogakaya is your wisdom, and the Nirmanakaya is your actions. But here in this case, represents the Dharmakaya because I was wondering about why but then I realized that because Manjushri is the teacher of all the Buddhas, he's Bodhisattva but he's actually the teacher of all the

[24:57]

represents the nirmanakaya, he has a thousand arms, there's a thousand arms of the Lakyajivara, which means he has all these means, and each hand has an eye in it, so he has a thousand eyes and he can see what sentient beings need, so his practice is to sentient being, because he understands that he, or she, actually, they're all androgynous, so not exactly androgynous, but sometimes male, sometimes female, depending on how you like to think about it. So, mainly we practice in the realm of dharmakaya, I mean sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya, and dharmakaya is this kind of like idea, you know, but it's in the ways a little bit like the Christian trinity

[26:30]

and the poor suffering beings can relate to Jesus as the kind of like the Sambhogakaya, the access to the Dharmakaya. It has that similarity, but since we don't have those thinking that way in Buddhism, the deity of the Dharmakaya, the personification of the Dharmakaya, but not really because Buddhism resists settling on a deity, but Bhairavachana is the Buddha of radiant light. So this radiant light is what makes everything appear, and yet it's totally still.

[27:40]

Vairagyana sits in the center of the universe in total stillness and doesn't do anything except emit light. Kind of like the sun in Japan. The sun is their center. Yeah, so the sixth ancestor, when he's talking about the three bodies, he said the three bodies, if you want to understand the three bodies, you also have to understand the four wisdoms.

[28:51]

So when our mind is awakened, then the three bodies are expressed as the four wisdoms, so the dharmakaya is expressed as the mirror wisdom, which is totally empty, non-active in a division sense, it's active in a non-moving or the stillness of stillness, which is the greatest activity, and reflects everything just as it is. So if the mirror is turned toward the sky with no clouds, then nothing is reflected. But when it's turned around and reflected down toward the earth, then it reflects all of the activity that's going on in the earth accurately.

[29:57]

it doesn't distort what it sees, it doesn't have opinions, it doesn't have ignorance and so forth, just totally as is, which is really hard because we always want things to be as we like them. And we're so used to our partial understanding as the truth, that it's hard to see things as it really is, because we want something. And when we want something, we can't see things as it is. So, dharmakaya and the mirror wisdom is just like a mirror, which is non-distorting. When a flower passes by, it sees the flower just as it is. has nothing to do with how we like it or don't like it.

[30:58]

Then, Sambhogakaya, the wisdom of the Sambhogakaya sees everything as its equal, in its equality, as well as its difference. Sometimes we say we want to get rid of hierarchy, because hierarchy is dominating, and hierarchy has that dominating quality, but hierarchy is also necessary. Otherwise, if everything is exactly the same, there's no life. So we need hierarchy in order to produce life. But at the same time, everything is equal. So to be able to see the equality of each thing as well as the difference with that same mirror mind, we save the world.

[32:11]

And then the wisdom of activity is nirmanakaya. So when we awake, all of these, the three bodies create the four wisdoms. The wisdom of mirror wisdom, the wisdom of equality, the wisdom of differentiation, and the wisdom of all of our activity, doing the right thing, doing what's appropriate in every situation. So this is a kind of outline or way of thinking about what is the body of Buddha.

[33:15]

Who is Buddha? What is Buddha? Buddha is not just a person, but the person is all of those bodies. These are the three bodies of you and me, my dharmakaya, my sambhogakaya, and my nirmanakaya. So we have to access the dharmakaya with our sambhogakaya body-mind, nirmanakaya bodhi-mind, we have to practice, which is Sambhogakaya. There's a poem, which I've read to you before, that Dogen used in, it's by Xue Du, Dogen used in his Tenzo Kyokun. It's 1735. The truth you search for cannot be grasped. As night advances, a bright moon illuminates the whole ocean.

[34:23]

The dragon's jewels are found in every wave. Looking for the moon, it is here, in this wave, in the next." I think this poem personifies the three bodies. 1735, the truth you search for cannot be grasped. That's Dharmakaya. We're all looking for the truth body in our lives, but it can't be grasped. As night advances, a bright moon illuminates the whole ocean. That's Sambhogakaya, the bright moon of our Sambhogakaya body, mind. The dragon's jewels are found in every It is here, in this wave, in the next. In other words, it's right here in our nirmanakaya body.

[35:26]

So, the last summation is the sambhogakaya allows the dharmakaya to express itself in the nirmanakaya. When we wash the dishes, just wash the dishes. When we sweep the floor, just sweep the floor. That's the final conclusion. But do it with your whole body and mind. Do you have any questions? Yes. Well, that's a question, but I'm not sure that it adds up to anything. I think ... I think I once knew.

[36:49]

They're all odd numbers. I thought it represented, you know, nirmanakaya, all the things you can count. That's a very objective, nirmanakaya kind of thing. It is, it is, because it's dividing. Yes. The world of divisions. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's good. Yeah. Oh, night, as night descends the moon. Well, in order for the light to be present, there has to be darkness. I thought it might mean something around death or aging. No, I don't think so. Well, in a sense, but darkness, in this sense, means oneness. And the light is like illumination, which means differentiation.

[38:12]

Everything comes to light, everything comes present in the light. In Buddhism, well there are two meanings to dark and light, but basically it's like in the darkness all things are one. That's non-differentiation. It's like Dharmakaya. Nirmanakaya is like the moon. So, emerging from oneness is illumination. Like right now, we are in illumination, right? I can see you, you can see me. This is the brightness of the darkness. This is the bright side of the darkness. So brightness and darkness are like two sides of a coin, but the coin is one thing, one piece. So the moon comes out from the darkness and illuminates the waves, sparkles on the waves.

[39:25]

It's called glee. It's an Irish word. Glee means the sparkles on the water. The glee club. I'm sure that that's where it comes from. Yes? Well, when you sit in Zazen, I know, but I'm just saying when you sit in Zazen, one, two, three, this is the most stable combination. Triangulation is really stable. It can be unstable in human relationships, but basically it's stability.

[40:29]

So that's why it's so important. In architecture and any kind of building, any kind of structure, the triangle is important. Two is not, if you have two like this, it's very weak, but if you have like that, it's strong. I think that's a major reason for the triangle. I mean, for the number three, but there are other reasons as well. People have their reasons, but I think that's one very universal reason. Yes? In this unfolding universe, you have thoughts and feelings. Yes. And I have thoughts and feelings. Is the Sambhogakaya Buddha, the understanding that you have your thoughts and feelings and I have my thoughts and feelings and they're all equal but different?

[41:57]

Yeah, they're all equal but different. Yeah. The equality of differentiation and the differentiation of equality. This is You have your thoughts and I can't access them unless I am close to you. If I'm concentrating on you, I can pretty much see your thoughts and feelings. It's not like the particulars of your thoughts and feelings, but it's like a dog knows your thoughts and feelings, because it's not thinking. It's just very immediate. Because we have such a discursive mind it tends to block out our access to each other.

[42:59]

During sasheen we don't speak, but by the fifth day we kind of know where everybody's at in a fundamental way. So knowing each other in a fundamental way without the intermediary of thinking or talking, you just have that. So if we were to be sitting for a month together, every day, we'd just be one person. It is anyway, but with many different manifestations. Well we already are, but it would be possible to eliminate the ... you know it's like the sun is always out, but the clouds are, I mean at daytime, but the clouds are obscuring it, so we say it's a cloudy day, but when the

[44:11]

So when we let go of the clouds, then we access the sun. It's always there. So the three bodies are always there. It's like we access them rather than try and find them. Right there. And allow that to manifest in our awareness. And if you're married to somebody for 20 years, you know the other person thinking and feeling, you know, without trying. You should wait. Namaskar.

[45:16]

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