On Dharma Transmission

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Serial: 
SF-03519
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Zendo Lecture

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educating the trainers is that to target as good evening

i have well two things are main ah
my main subject in ideas talking about why i'm here
back
i spent to have the last three months here in the practice period and ah
now i'm appearing again for a week so i went to explain what with it is
but first i just want to say something about being here again and seeing all the old students who i practiced with and
as how i missed those people that are not here now that we're here them but it's great to see everybody and to see everyone in a new position most of your earn a new position and that's really refreshing ah
so i just want to give a word of encouragement
you know it's been very ah
it's always hard work opening a branch of period
the transition from
i practice period to get season and
people are exhausted and we've been working very hard
and so i think you've done great job in making the transition
i just want to say
a few words about how to stay focused on practice which is not to lose your samadi
samadhi
it means concentration
but it means concentration not just on
in any other way that means concentration and practice
in in any way that we concentrate our practice we create somebody or somebody is that concentration
so ah
to not lose the power of somebody which is to stay always concentrated
i practice
always concentrated on whatever we do as practice and when we get lost to come back
that way you'll have very wonderful summer
so this is the time when we take care of were we when we share our practice
with public
during the six months of practice practice practice period
we retreat up the mountain
and during the five months or six months of five months of guess season we open ourselves to the public and take care of people become
to to visit and your passed through here
so how we behave ourselves makes it makes a big impression on people
so if we really know how to be had to center ourselves to stay centered
and not lose our concentration
we can really help people
so the reason i'm here with my students is that i'm doing what we called dharma transmission
i have
two women students who have been practicing for many years with me and with us berkeley and also in san francisco zen center
who have their own practice places
and
this trend transition transmission ceremony is for them
it makes me realize how we wait until people get pretty old is where we transmitted
ah
grace church when i started practicing with me in berkeley nineteen sixty seven
and mary know thing i can't remember exactly when she started taking a long time ago and
each one has established their own practice place
so i want to talk about what is this dharma transmission
you know we have a several ordinations the engine center
in our school actually
there's one called joke i joke i mean taking the precept
but we don't do that ceremony and uk is a ceremony that's done in japan and are also other places in the world and the buddhist world uk has done a very regularly for lay people
who are called believers
but we don't have people in our practice we don't see people have believers
ha
in america we have developed a practice where to lay people are practitioners
so where we give way people lay ordination called took it out z k token dollar which means
ordination while living at home
stay at home
i'm
and then we have a priest or nation which is called shoe can talk it out
which means leaving home
kind like a monk
technically that's what it means actually
some people leave home some don't some lay people the home soon stay home some priests me home some people stand who preach stay home so how do you leave home while staying home and how do you stay home or maybe com
so this is the co-owner of american practice
when she will make every all are dealing with
and then
there's a rite of passage called she saw which is
head monk during a practice period they had my practices and the protege of the abbot
practice
i am
a former habit
ah
they had this role in his position and so that's kind of rite of passage and then the last ordination is called dharma transmission which makes any am a priest a full priest
how a person a someone who is ordained as a priest
it is called an sui which means clouds and water
it has the feeling of freedom of clouds and water
of course the water i was six the lowest level
not all what shall we do that happen
but are seeking below his level means you can form to things and you have flexibility to take any shape
so water doesn't get julissa gets frozen
anyway
so this dharma transmission is given as a and
active
the final rite of passage from a mature priest
so this is very traditional in gin
because in then
you can you know there
we don't
take any special sutra as are
i touched on we we've study all of that
as and

doctrines or buddhism but basically then has nothing
we borrow
our service are chanting and so forth from other schools of buddhism
so there's very little that when would call and then chat
bar then way of doing a gym formality mostly it's borrowed from other schools of buddhism because then is simply a practice of being present
and letting go
and in order to give it some form we use these structures
so then practice has a very formal aspect to it in order to give this thing but it's nothing some sort
so that you can recognize him
so when we walk into the zendo we are confronted with the atmosphere of practice
so
since there's no special sutra or doctrine which is then
the teaching comes
i'm actually comes from within us rather than from one out
so whatever we study from without is to stimulate but within to come out
and so this is when practices practices to bring forth the dharma rather than to put it in
but we do put it in and that stimulated to come out
but basically our practices how we ah
come
follow arm
our way moment by moment
so
then teaching is
handed down from teacher to student teacher and disciple
and that's the way or ah
our lineage he has created we say that our lineage cans all the way from shakyamuni buddha and from before jackie money buddha
through all of the ancestors so that's why it's so important in gen practice to pay attention to the ancestors and their teachings
shall we chant the of the ancestors everyday and
with some veneration
i'm so i when one has diamond transmission one is like an ancestor
and can transmit dharma to others
so this is the his this is a very typical history of i'm in our school or in practice
and how it's transmitted
we say from warm hand to warm hand
from teach you to disciple
come and in when someone has diamond transmission there
don't want to say empowered i wouldn't say
entitled to
pass that onto someone else
so this is the way we keep the lineage going and keep the presence of the school alive and through this transmission from teacher to disciple
so how
this ceremony and and transmission is an acknowledgement of the transmission that one already has
it's not that through the ceremonies that when receive damage transmission when received dharma transmission through their own practice
and through association with a teacher over long period of time the don't the transmissions actually happened
and the ceremony is an acknowledgement that and an empowerment
ha ha
i can during this time which is traditionally it's twenty one days that the ceremony that the of these ceremonies
six twenty one days but we often shortened it to seven
to one week because people are very busy
but in this case i did twenty one days by a was i had my dharma transmission in japan and
grace mary by having their and we are doing twenty one days
so you see them while walk coming around and in the morning they get up before everybody else
an hour before everybody else and they go around to all the altars and offer incense and bow and in a little gotta chad
and then everybody else wakes up
and then they go and do this a compound
a or rye which is ringing the bell
and chanting the name of one of the ancestors and ballot and they do that for each one of the ancestors
that takes a couple of hours and then they are have to make their own documents transmission documents when each day and it takes a long time they have to use brush and ink and big documentation
letter writing himself it's intense period of time in which they do nothing else
he noticed we don't an eating our own little table
in order to get some space and to stay together
so what are the power
vicky and alum are helping us and
so we all are this kind of thing together i think the kind of
the transmission samadhi together
and it's hard to step outside of that
so when i see the people that i've practiced were gone you know in the first part of this year it's hard to have a conversation for to say something and i i really apologize for not now associating with you more but it's really hard to get under state to step out of this
concentration
so we have several ceremonies that along the way was going on his and
the last two nights we have a ceremony each night which is late in the evening out everybody goes to bed
and one of the ceremonies is
ah and empowerment ceremony and the other ceremony is
a
transmission ceremony but we say transmission transmission a funny word because
even though it's okay
and there's nothing transmitted
there's nothing like now you have is
because you already have it otherwise he wouldn't be having ceremony
so it's more like to two minds come together
it's like pouring ah
water from one cup to another
it's the same water so we and just to have our understanding is out of the same
in a great gateway it doesn't mean that we don't have differences and conflict
not everything is perfect
but in the deepest way
we have the same understanding
hi it possible in this thread transmission my for
the student disabled to not even like each other
that's rare
but it's based not so much on person can added all and personality but on understanding
hum
join in the last ceremony will take place at midnight
i'm
it's a ceremony
actually that that disciple becomes a child
and it's kind of like a
rebirth
and we call the person by their name new so and so
what very humbling dharma transmission is very humbling experience
what is humble me and humbly you know people have different ideas but what humble man when when i say humble would i mean is
when one is humble one knows exactly where one is
when not where one is and who it is
and is not
going beyond who they are far below it beneath who they are
standing right in the middle of just who they are
no pretense
had a true or false
ha
so ah and
you know can you receive a brown robe and you have dharma transmission
so in a way you know when it's a kind of recovered in thing becomes a kind of coveted thing by for priests and for a long time and jin center
i'm only one person had diamond transmission regular show on a transmitted one person before he even before he died one of his disciple
and didn't have the opportunity to complete that would is other students
i have completed their interest and met many of sniff hiroshi students
which would have given me great joy
and many feeling suzuki roshi would have wanted somebody to do that
he said i remember him saying when i'm a teacher dies the teacher student
we have dharma transmission milk continue to
transmit condition that teachers are the disciples
xhaka i don't have as much as i could
hum
but i think we have to understand that you know he she well do they mean depressions enlightened
when i time of transmission
ah
i don't like to think of enlightenment as something that one has
i lay enlightenment is sending that one does
hip one acts like an enlightened person if one's persons in one's actions are enlightened and then hannah that's all that needs to be said
so i don't sometimes we say what we read the stories in the book you know someone so and so once i was enlightened
but it didn't say you know what on the circumstances around at work course
but in iraq
we wait til somebody actually it to somebody has to be old to their old age before i live in the name but before i give them garbage ambition
because i mourn every one of us is working out some ego problem
i want every person is working out some ego problem and people have damage transmission also have ego problems
but
ha although we all have problems
which is human nature we still your dharma transmission
but we give it when we know feel assured that the person who receiving the dharma transmission will continue to be aware of their shortcomings and be aware out of a create problems
for themselves and others
you know being aware of your arm
delusion is enlightenment
if you think you know and i don't have any delusion
cats really diluted
so you should know
what our shortcomings are what had difficulties are where our ego stand out ah what kind of entitlement we think we should have
ah
how we are
deport ourselves
how we handle things
how we see our relationship between not only people but object
you can see it in enlightened action the way someone picks up planting and put it down
i can tell when someone watch into my dog sam my interview room
exactly where they are just as they walk in the way they walk in the way they sit down the way they bow
the way they start talking before they're even settled
he and
no this kind of i'm fan
unsettled behavior
can even go on with someone new edge he couldn't understanding
a practice in canada and of
buddhism
so we should be careful not to put a person who in diamond transmission up on a pedestal
we should
i i should but
we give people the benefit of it would have burned out at a dance we hit out
but at the same time when when has this dharma transmission it really be lose that person to be far more careful because that person carries entrustment so the to the two terms it come up in a ceremony one is
transmission the other is entrustment trust
isn't interested to you
that's a big responsibility
big responsibility and when we forget that and arrigo on blocks
reality
on that's noticed by people
so we have to realize that we are the carriers of the diamond not just people who have diamond transmitted all of us are
you know when suzuki roshi was alive and practicing the can students many many of his students and dharma transmission
but not the ceremony
the he transmitted his dharma to many many people just naturally
the only one person was able to have the ceremony
of acknowledgement
but many people received his diamond
as they do now
ciao
it's important that
someone who has this nasty entrustment recognizes the diamond that everyone has
it doesn't try to stand out in some way
where be special
sam with transmission ceremony is not public
it's people say it
a secret but secret is too strong a word it's a private thing is like between two people basically something that happened between two people
so ah and it's very intimate
very intimate
so it's not something you'd like to pick air and you may want to rest percentage that the in the which is not a show
so that's why i don't like to
talk about it my sure how you know people discuss it alive
and the people ever the the
the disciples are doing this
i'm a display
and i can just be something that has done
in the midst of all of us but it's private
and it affects everyone but still
i don't like it to make waves
because then we see how she's somebody just as something wonderful you know
that like that it's wonderful but it read it is just promoting someone with a lot of responsibility
so after dharma transmission
thomas people who have the doctor and then transmitted are interested
give a presentation to the saga
a public presentation of the saga afterwards
i don't know if we'll have time to do that
get now i hope that they can but for

hurt my time up
what i think i have a question
hey somewhere
they get got my chances
a lot of factors
the different levels of damage as
how's a why why that's true the that way
a different situation
well
yeah it's hard for me to speak about japan
i i don't know if i don't want to say where it's done in japan
our practice what are our dharma transmission is the most formal
ah with it
the way we do dharma transmission here is the most formal way that they would do it in japan and so that a level of formality and and often in japan just can have given out very freely and easily
and nuclear she wanted our dharma transmission to be more calm
ah
meaningful
hey couple of his people here you can make your package
how many of my students should i give a diamond transmission to well i hate to say it
but this is number nineteen and twenty a number twenty
here's a lot
like the old woman who lived in his shoe
and well
oh wait you know in japan
a teacher would get maybe one wondered one or two dharma transmission maybe three or four you know
but dinner in japan they don't have too many students
also it can to live in greedy you know until her
but cared
how are students stay with us for twenty thirty years
japan has to students you know ah
maybe studied the monastery for three years and they go home to the home temple and take over the farthest temple and but it is
ah bitter have very many students
here we have only students you know because in america invented i practised very new and lot of enthusiasm and ah students who are very mature so that's one thing
and because there's so many even mature students
ha
it just follows their patient have some
authority
the other side is
that we need teachers in america
if we're going to spread the diamond we need to have these teachers
and teachers cannot stay in one place they had to go someplace you know it's nice to stay in one place transcendent very tidy in
you can stay or a long time
and then
nice happy family that's great
but also there's a need for teachers to go out and spread the dharma not spread it i like this brenda dharma but accommodate people who want to practice
ah in a world now
ah
i think
i never found that i would give dharma transmission in two thousand people i will give diamond transmission to probably more
and i realize
now i'm getting old myself
little bit
he fell
and we need a new generation
and so far south
ah yes time okay so we don't want to go beyond our time because when it has to get up and go to work in the morning and play whenever we do
he now