I bow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Good evening. So, continuing with the sutra. Chapter 15. We are going to do 15 and 16 and then maybe look a little bit at 25 and 28. And I think doing that we will pretty much hit the high points of the sutra.

[01:02]

Most of the other chapters, with the exception of I think chapter 21. Chapter 21. Supernatural powers of the thus come one. In that chapter there is one amazing thing that happens. It is too bad that we are going to miss that. What happens in that chapter is that, and I encourage you to read that and the rest of the sutra even after we are finished with our class. But in that chapter, remember how all the emanations from the Buddha came? They were all sort of, there is a tree and a lion seat and all the emanations of the Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha from all the directions came and sat there. So you get the scene, the stupa is still hovering in the air. Shakyamuni Buddha and this other many treasures Buddha are sitting side by side on the ground.

[02:04]

There are all these jeweled trees with Buddhas who are the emanation of Shakyamuni Buddha coming from all the directions, sitting under those trees and all their retinues are surrounding them. In chapter 21, I forget what the pretext is, but the Buddha sticks his tongue out and his tongue covers the whole universe. And all the other Buddhas sitting under the trees, they do the same thing. And so you have this phenomenal thing of all these, extending their long broad tongues and emitting immeasurable beams of light. When Shakyamuni Buddha and the other Buddhas beneath the jeweled trees thus displayed their supernatural powers, they did so for fully over 100,000 years. After that they drew in their tongues again, coughed in unison. And all together snapped their fingers, all these, can you see this?

[03:15]

All these Buddhas sitting under, more in unison. Right, that's what they did. And when they did that, this filled all the Buddha worlds in ten directions and the earth in all of them quaked and trembled in six different ways. So we sort of missed that part, but other than that, the rest of the chapters are either, the ones that we're not reading, either those chapters are all much more about how great this sutra is, and what the benefits are of keeping it and reciting it, and how terrible it is if you were to put the sutra down. So, which we've heard plenty of that already in what we've read, so we're not missing so much. And then there's also a few chapters that we're missing which are very similar to chapter 25 and 28 where a few other bodhisattvas are mentioned and the things that they say and do are mentioned.

[04:17]

We don't want to miss the point. Yeah, what? The point is just to sit there. Yeah, yeah, we're going to do that. At the end. Yeah, yeah, we're going to do that. So, we're going to do 15 and 16, and then skip over to 25 and 28. 15 and 16, somebody mentioned last time that 15 and 16 are kind of like the culmination of the whole sutra, and in a way that's true. In a way, everything comes together in these chapters. So, all the bodhisattvas, so there's the Buddhas, there's a bunch of Buddhas under these trees, and each Buddha has a whole retinue of bodhisattvas.

[05:20]

So there's a lot of people there, and all the bodhisattvas who are there stand up now and say, World Honored One, if you will permit us, in the age after the Buddha has entered extinction, to diligently and earnestly protect, recite, read, copy, and offer alms to this sutra in this world, we will preach the sutra widely if you will allow us to do this. Can we have your permission to protect and recite the sutra? And the Buddha says, No, no, you don't need to do that. Because, in this world there are bodhisattvas and mahasattvas as numerous as the sand of 60,000 kanjis, and each of them has a crew of bodhisattvas working for them that are just as numerous and these people are going to protect and recite the sutra, so you don't have to worry about it.

[06:22]

And just as the Buddha said that, yet another miracle occurred, as you know from reading this, out of the ground these different bodhisattvas emerged and they just broke through the earth and they poured out of the ground and sort of hovered in the air. Immeasurable thousands, 10,000 millions of bodhisattvas and mahasattvas with golden-hued body, with 32 features, measurably bright, and so on. Each one a leader of their own assembly, each one with a retinue equal in number to the sands of 60,000 kanjis. And then a whole long paragraph here of how many there were of them and how many disciples they all had. Only here, unlike usually when this formula is given, they bring it up to a huge number and then they bring it down to a really tiny number. Only equal to the sands of one kanji's river.

[07:26]

It just seems like, at this point, that's nothing, only that many. Half a kanji's, one quarter of a kanji's, one ten-thousandth of a kanji's, in other words, number of sands on the kanji's. And then all the way down to only four disciples, five disciples, three, two, one disciple, and even no disciples at all, just they came themselves, people who do solitary practice. This is kind of curious, it's the only time that you see that kind of thing. Maybe to, for once, honor even small bands of disciples. And then they all went to the tower, the stupa in the air, where the Buddha was sitting with many treasures. And then they praised the Buddhas for fifty small kalpas. They sang hymns and so on, a praise to the Buddhas.

[08:29]

Incidentally, this is an interesting thing. I mean, you find this in all religions, right? Hymns of praise. In the Greeks, they had hymns of praise. In the Old Testament and the New Testament, you have hymns of praise. And here, they sing all these hymns of praise. And I think that's because a mark of the spiritual life is gratitude. That a person who is in the path feels a sense of gratitude for their life, even though it might not be, you know, from a worldly point of view, some fabulous thing, and even though there might be suffering in it, when you are in the way, you feel gratitude. It seems to be a feeling that arises spontaneously. It's a kind of a way that you can tell that you're in accord with your practice. You feel some sense of gratitude, and then you want to praise the world or the Buddha or God or whoever or whatever

[09:34]

you designate as the source of this gratitude. You feel overwhelming. My cup runneth over. You feel, gosh, this is great that you could see a tree, that you could walk, stand, sit. So these bodhisattvas feel that way, and they praise the Buddhas. In the meantime, everyone sat there and listened to these wonderful hymns of praise that went on for many, many, many years, although the Buddha made it seem like it was only a little while. And so after they sang their hymns of praise, the leaders of the bodhisattvas came forward, and they said, where did these bodhisattvas come from? And the bodhisattva says, the Buddha says,

[10:44]

no, let's see. First they say, I hope you're well. And he says, yes, I'm very well. Why am I well? Because it's easy to teach with all these wonderful students. They immediately understand. And so I'm not worn out. It doesn't make me sick to put out all this effort, because it's very easy. Now is the time when the other bodhisattvas who had previously been there are thinking about this situation, about how all of a sudden all these bodhisattvas arise out of the earth, so many, many, many of them. What is this place, the world of empty space underneath the Saha world? Well, the Saha world is this world. And what's the empty space underneath it? Well, I don't know. I mean, there seems to be like a cavity somewhere under the earth. And this is exactly the question that Maitreya and the other bodhisattvas are about to ask.

[11:53]

Not exactly, what's this cavity, but why are all these bodhisattvas here? What's this about? We never heard of such a thing. We never heard the idea that... See, they were coming forward and saying, you know, we want to take care of the Lotus Sutra, because they thought everybody's here now, you know. And all of a sudden they discover that there's this cavity, this empty place under the earth, and there's innumerable bodhisattvas under there that come up. Where did they come from? We have never in the past seen or heard of such a thing. And we want to know where they come from. Oh Buddha, would you please tell us where they come from? This is amazing. We can't believe it. And then all the Buddhists, who were all the emanations of Shakyamuni Buddha, who were all sitting on lion seats, they too asked the same question. Where did all these bodhisattvas come from? And why are they here? And then the Buddha gives his answer on page 219. He says, I converted these and guided these bodhisattvas.

[12:56]

I am responsible for their being here. I trained them. And I caused them to develop a longing for the way. They have all been dwelling for many years in this place, empty space underneath this world, where they read, recite, and understand the various sutras, and they ponder them, and they make distinctions, and they keep the sutras correctly in mind. So these are wonderful bodhisattvas, and they're here because I taught them. The million untold numbers of bodhisattvas, I have taught them, and I have developed them, and that's what they're doing there. That's how they got there. Well, this answer made the bodhisattvas and Buddhists who asked the question very perplexed. How could this be? And they say, on page 220, they were puzzled at this thing that had never happened before,

[13:58]

and they thought to themselves, how could the World Honored One, in such a short space of time, have taught and converted an immeasurable, boundless, asamkaya number of great bodhisattvas of this sort, and enabled them to dwell in Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi? Because, you know, the Buddha has only been teaching for 30, 40 years. You know, he was awakened, he was a prince, and the whole story, he was awakened on the Bodhi Tree, and he was teaching 30, 40 years. You can't teach an immeasurable, infinite number of people in 30 or 40 years, see? So we don't get it. How did you do that? That seems impossible. They say it's sort of like if you saw a young man who was 25 years old, and that young man pointed to someone who was 100 years old and said, that person there is my son. If you said that, if we saw such a thing, we would be flabbergasted. How could this be that somebody 25 years old

[14:59]

points to someone who is 100 years old and says, that's my son? This would be hard to believe. And it's also hard to believe what the Buddha has just said, they say. What's the point of all this? Well, we're getting to the point. This is all leading up to it. Don't come out and say things in this sutra. It's leading up to it. You'll see what the point is. And then when we get to the point, then we can discuss what you think about the point, how you feel about it. But notice that these people here have trouble believing this stuff. We're not the only ones. They say, we can't get it, it's hard to believe. Yeah, and they were there too. So in other words, and they repeat, you just recently attained the way, and they give other similes. It's also like something else, what is it? Anyway, it's impossible. It just doesn't seem to make sense that in such a short time

[16:00]

you could have trained all these bodhisattvas. And the chapter ends on that question. How could this be? And then the Buddha now is about to reveal the highest message of the Lotus Sutra, because three times he says, now you must believe what I'm going to say. And he repeats that, you must believe. And they say, we beg you to explain. We will believe, we will believe. Please explain. And again he says, you must believe. And they say, we beg you, we beg you. And finally after they pledge themselves three times that they will believe in what he's saying, and they won't just be critical of it, but they'll really listen hard and they'll really try to believe. Then the Buddha says to them, in a sense we already know what he's going to say, because we've been prepared for this. In the beginning when the stupa arose in the sky and we saw this Buddha who was already extinct appear before our eyes, we already knew that something was up. And so the Buddha here says,

[17:00]

you must listen carefully and hear of the Buddha's secret and transcendental powers. In all the worlds, the heavenly and human beings and asuras all believe that the present Shakyamuni Buddha after leaving the palace of the Shakyas seated himself in a place of practice not far from the city of Gaya and there attained complete enlightenment. But good men, it has been an immeasurable, boundless, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions of nayutas of kalpas since I in fact attained Buddhahood. It wasn't 40 years ago in Bodh Gaya that I attained Buddhahood. It was really an immeasurable amount of time ago. That's how it could come. In that immeasurable amount of time I could have trained all these disciples because it's not really true that it only happened 40 years ago. And then he gives another long metaphor for how much time it has been. Another one of these where you go to the east

[18:01]

and you drop a grain of ink pulverizing, a very similar kind of one. That's how long it has been since I attained Buddhahood. Ever since then, all these countless numbers of years ago, ever since then I have been constantly in this world, not just for 40 years, but from countless time ago, preaching the law, teaching and converting. And elsewhere I have led and benefited living beings in hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions of nayutas and asavakas of lands. So I implore the Buddha to observe different people and see where they're at, see if their faculties are keen or dull. And then I appear in different places

[19:02]

and preach to them under different names. Maybe even all the Buddhas in this sutra, maybe, or actually just me, under different names, appearing in different guises to benefit different kinds of creatures. Now, I observe, the Buddha says, how among living beings there are those who delight in just a little, simple kind of teaching. And for those people, I describe how in my youth I left my household and I attained enlightenment and all the story that you all know. I say that story for those people who can't seem to grasp anything beyond that. So I tell them that story. But in truth, the time since I attained Buddhahood is extremely long, like I just said. And it is simply that I use this expedient means to teach and convert living beings and cause them to enter the Buddha way. This is why I speak in that manner. Why do I do this?

[20:03]

The thus come one, the Buddha perceives the true aspect of the threefold world exactly as it is. There is no ebb or flow of birth and death. Did you hear that? There is no ebb or flow of birth and death, actually. There is no existing in this world and later entering extinction. These are not true things, even though it looks that way. It is neither substantial nor empty, neither consistent nor diverse. Nor is it what those who dwell in the threefold world perceive it to be. The world is not what people think it is. I know that. And so I size up people and see how close they are to understanding the way the world actually is. And I accordingly give them a story. And the simplest one is about how I was enlightened at such and such a time and all that. But

[21:09]

I do not really ever enter extinction. Like I said, it looked like I did. I announce that I am going to enter extinction. But this is only an expedient means. Remember the sutra begins again with this concept of expedient means, with this parable of the burning house. So now we find out that the whole life of the Buddha and the extinction of the Buddha is not real. It is only an expedient means. Now why do I do this? Because if I were to remain in the world for a long time and tell people the truth, people with shallow virtue would fail to plant good roots but living in poverty and loneliness will become attached to the five desires and be caught in the net of deluded thoughts and imaginings. In other words, if they see that the thus come one lives forever and does not enter extinction, either they are going to identify with the thus come one and say, wow, my teacher

[22:12]

is endless and become arrogant, which will cause them to suffer more. Or they will think, since the thus come one is always going to be here, I do not have to worry about practicing because he will take care of everything so I do not need practice. So, in order to prevent either one of these kinds of things from happening, I show the expedient device of extinction in ordinary life. It is not really true. Then he gives another parable. Suppose there is a skilled physician who is wise and understanding and knows how to compound medicines and everything and he goes away for a trip and while he is gone all his children drink poison that makes them full of pain and suffering and they fall writhing to the ground. Some of them drink more poison than others and some of them are totally out of their minds and some of them just have a stomach ache and are miserable.

[23:13]

So the father comes home and concocts different medicines and gives the medicines to the children to take to cure them. The ones who are sick but not completely out of their minds see that it is good medicine and they take the medicine and they get better. But the ones who are completely out of their minds see the medicine and they won't take it because they are completely out of their minds. They don't want it. Poison has penetrated their faculties. They don't trust the medicine. They don't trust the father. They won't take it. What is the father going to do? Well, the father says now I have to resort to some expedient means. So he says to the sons you need to know that I am now old and worn out and I won't live very long. I won't leave you this medicine. It is up to you. You can't count on me. I am just getting old. And he goes away on another trip and he has someone

[24:15]

send a message back saying that he died. So then the children in shock at his death come to their senses take the medicine and get better. Same story with me says the Buddha. I have to tell them that I am going to extinction to wake them up and get them to take the medicine because people are so out of their minds with the poison of greed, hate and delusion that they cannot see the world for what it is. And they won't take the medicine unless I use this kind of expedient device. What do you think? He says. Do you think that this is a lie that I have said that I was entering extinction? They say no. No world under one. Because of your intent. So in the verse repeats more or less the same thing. When I look at living beings I see them drown in a sea of suffering

[25:17]

and therefore I do not show myself causing them to thirst for me. Then when their minds are filled with yearning at last I appear and preach the law for them. Even though there is tremendous suffering in the world in my Buddha realm which is always there there is peacefulness and tranquility and beauty and all those who practice meritorious ways will see me will actually be and study with me see me in person preaching the law. So this is the burden of those two chapters. So what is that interpretation? What does that amount to? Again the Lotus Sutra is preaching this notion of Buddha not as a person as a teacher but a universal Buddha

[26:18]

that's present everywhere at all times always available Remember also in the very beginning of the sutra the Buddha began by saying my teaching is not understandable it's too vast human beings cannot grasp the world in which I live. So this is if we can say that the early teachings of the early Buddha was psychological in other words a person who achieved a kind of real peace, a deep psychological peace based on perhaps a metaphysical truth but nevertheless stressing the psychological peacefulness if we could say that the early Buddhism was psychologically oriented non-supernatural

[27:19]

we could say that the Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra is quite supernatural and metaphysical that even though the Lotus Sutra and we talked a lot about the Christian tone or the Christian similarity to Christianity in the Lotus Sutra even though the Lotus Sutra has that similarity, it does carefully fall short of ever saying that the Buddha created the world, it never says the Buddha created the world and it never says that the Buddha is it also never says actually that the Buddha is eternal it doesn't raise concepts of eternity it does make a great deal of the length of time incalculable amount of time but still time so the Lotus Sutra I think doctrinally is careful not to make the Buddha into a god and yet they certainly make the fact of Buddhahood into a metaphysical conception rather than a psychological one and they say therefore that

[28:21]

to make offerings and so on is just as powerful as to do the psychological work that the early Buddha taught people should do so just one more comment Martha and then we'll have a discussion I see Martha just wanted to make one more comment I see several people in our seminar we were discussing the idea of that that the impermanence of phenomena could not be an object of consciousness you could see this happening this happening and this happening and you could think as you looked at that series of things happening that there has been change but the actual change itself you can never catch

[29:21]

your mind can't catch it so that the fundamental fact of our experience is not an object of consciousness this is what we were contemplating what we read in the text and I was saying that in so far as this is the case that as you come to bear down on the actual fact of human experience you end up with a great unknown just as in physical sciences when you bear down more and more accurately on the nature of matter the same thing happens you bear down on it let's find an atom and let's find a molecule let's find an atom let's find a proton and a neutron and a quark and god knows what and then you can't find anything there's a great mystery there the same with our own human subjectivity that while we know on a conventional level that we are having experience if we really try to examine it we cannot

[30:22]

grasp it and so it's in the middle of this ungraspability of this human experience that we see this empty space under the earth that we see the vast cosmos that we see all the stuff that all the mythology that this sutra is talking about is a way of talking about the fact of that mysterious unknownness that's right in the middle of our experience because the sutras are not telling us that over here there's these buddhas over there they're telling us that all these multiple directions and all these vast quantities of time are right in the middle of our life of an instance of our life so that's how I would interpret this sutra and this is made while this sutra doesn't really explicitly say that it's implied but it's pretty explicit in the avatamsaka sutra where it actually says that that's the case that that's where all these buddha realms are outside of this present

[31:24]

space and this present moment avatamsaka sutra so what did you have? I just was saying at the end of this chapter of sixteen I don't know just the wording but all who perform virtuous deeds and are gentlemen of upright nature, these all see that I exist and in here expounding the law. At times for all this wrong I preach that buddha's life is eternal so expediently I guess you're saying that no one really says buddha is eternal but I guess here he does say it as an expedient means but the sutra is not positive it's not arguing that yeah I think that in his essay on this sutra bhikkhu sangha rakshita discusses this point and he says that

[32:25]

if you analyze the sutra it is clearly not it's cutting short of making buddha into a god and a creator and eternal and so on even though it approaches that but it's not crossing over the boundary yeah exactly even though it's an uncountable number it's a number he doesn't sound like a creator but he sounds like an appreciator or an actualizer that's different than actually creating yeah it is you know the difference between a creator and this buddha here is the creator stands outside of causality see that's the thing you follow causality up to the point where causality ends and then you say on the other side of that is the creator and nowhere in buddhism is this ever the case because there's nothing outside of causality causality is a circle that includes everything

[33:29]

and buddha not to see causality for what it is is to escape the will of becoming but escaping the will of becoming is not outside of causality that's only a correct and true understanding of causality it's not in another place or in another time so it would be contrary to the basic fundamental impulse of buddhism for someone to say that there's something outside of causality and that's what god is something outside of causality of course having said that you could also there are theists who would interpret god in a similar way in a buddhist way what I would call a buddhist way you know what I mean so the idea that this is a theistic doctrine, this is a non-theistic doctrine and never the twain shall meet it's just not so there are many takes on theism that become very close to buddhism and there are takes on buddhism that

[34:29]

smack of theism even though they are careful never to cross the line well I'm not an expert on theism but I would say my sense of it is that christian mystics christian mystics the Hasidim among the Jews the Sufis among the Muslims talk about union with god if there is union with god then god is not outside of causality it's an experience of letting go of self and entering into something like christians have this idea christian mystics have the idea of kenosis, emptying of the self and then god comes in so this mystical doctrine sounds to me very similar to much of what you could make fine points there but they don't posit a god outside of causality somewhere else

[35:31]

but of course those points of view are generally minority points of view in the great theistic religions because theistic religions have the feature of having the world's greatest authority at the head of the religion, god and who wants to give that up because if you represent god then you're the boss people don't like to say god is you that's not good if god is you then maybe you can tell me so it's bad for the establishment so the people who say these things are usually canonized later St. Paul's conversion experience I'm really excited I now no longer live like Christ lives in me that's true that's pretty absolutely central that's true the gospels have various sides

[36:37]

it depends on where you want to grab a hold of it whether you want to see it that way or not I think that's true so it's not so simple the traditional buddhism will define theism like this that's what theism is it's different I think we see from a sutra like this and also from certainly in Zen understanding of these things these definitions are not hard and fast it depends on how you interpret he talks about since I attained buddhahood does that again there was a historical moment before he had in this chapter he says that there is a time this is never denied that he was a bodhisattva training and that he became a buddha this is not denied in this chapter it's just that that whole thing happened way, [...] way back

[37:38]

uncountable numbers of years ago it didn't happen 40 years ago so that's never denied this is not immortality there was a time before the buddha again we're bookending we're bookending the buddha the enlightenment experience to have had a time before when the world was not was not available to him well there were other buddhas he's referring to himself and the same is true of each of the other buddhas they were bodhisattvas they became buddhas so again then it is sort of an immortal cascade of pre-buddhas before this buddha that's right that's right the question of where it began and how it began is not addressed it's just it was going on that's all and then you know the famous saying of the buddha that's not a question

[38:38]

that tends to and furthermore speculation about it is harmful to be obsessive about trying to answer an unanswerable question is not helpful so what else about this question I have something going on before the Lotus Sutra but this brings it up again yes the thing about it being outside it being outside the presence of the buddha and the compassion of the buddha it being outside being outside oneself yeah and I don't know how to read in here that it's not like that yeah well I don't think this is saying that that it's outside of oneself this is a mythology you could read the Lotus Sutra and I certainly would read it as as I said a moment earlier as a religious document

[39:41]

that fumbles to try to say something about the ineffable nature of our own experience that's what I would say I don't think it's it's I think what it's saying is that this world that we live in right here and now in front of us is more marvelous than we know because of our conditioning and our small mindedness over many generations of our lives life after life we have created a very narrow space of a world in which we see ourselves operating in this particular way and so given that the Buddha said well start from here do this [...] and you can have peace and the Lotus Sutra is saying well that's what the Buddha said because that's what we need but in reality the world that we are inhabiting even now is this vast world a cosmic fantastic world we're just not it's not available to

[40:43]

us because we're not we're not able to see it we're not ready for it now I'm preaching the Lotus Sutra because I know that you're ready for it so here it is I'm going to tell you finally the way it really is because up to now I've just been using different expedient devices and I will continue to do that of course for the benefit of beings but now at this point we've all practiced long enough so that I can really let you know what's really going on this is really your experience it's really happening right in front of you all the time and time is this way not the clock hours that you think it is what looks like things changing and impermanent is not really that at all so and this is like I say again this is not that far fetched I mean when we look at again using analogies from the physical world

[41:43]

when we look at distant stars and when we look at the inside of our body and mind microscopically on an atomic and subatomic level we see that there are these patterns and universes going on that are impacting on us that are actually the real world that are happening that are not part of our human experience now we can think about them because we have the scientific information but they're real even from a technological scientific viewpoint we would all agree that these billions of worlds in the galaxy are real and that the atomic subatomic nature of our bodies are real and that these ways that our body communicates with itself and with each other are real and measurable and so on and yet we don't it's not part of our conscious experience so we know that there are these vast universes and worlds and this is a poetic description of those universes and worlds that are in fact what we are

[42:44]

so I think this yeah that's what the sutra is really about and I think it gives us a sense you know you know from an egotistical point of view a self point of view we really don't have that much of a chance you know actually and we're all doomed right we really can't I mean how much can we experience how much can we enjoy how much can we live in such a short amount of time with these tremendous limitations of this body and mind and I think that if we are honest with ourselves and really settle into our experience we will see how limited we are and how ultimately frustrating it is

[43:47]

you know how unsatisfactory it is so what this sutra is telling us is that those limitations and that unsatisfactoriness can be transcended because right in the middle of these limited experiences that are human beings is this vastness that we can be in touch with through the agency of our practice and our faith really I think that's the message and the burden of the sutra there's a kind of sense of transcendence here transcendence which is not which is right here if only we can go inside and be in touch with it so you know through our limitations to achieve or appreciate the ultimate and that the ultimate is vast and huge and available to us this is to me what the lotus sutra is telling us it's really opening up the practice for us in many dimensions

[44:49]

now I mean I realize too that the lotus sutra isn't for everyone and there are places and times and situations in which I would never bring it up because just like the Buddha said it would freak somebody out or they would think I was crazy or they would misunderstand what I was trying to say so in general it is a better idea just as the Buddha found out it is a better idea to talk about suffering and the cause of suffering and to offer helpful practices to be able to work with our suffering and ease it somewhat you know so that's mostly how we practice and mostly what we do but I think it is also valuable to get a glimpse of this world and appreciate it and see what it is so once in a while we pull out one of these Mahayana sutras and we read it and we amaze ourselves it seems like the sutra is

[45:53]

what just occurred to me is inviting us to see beyond ourselves so I think I was just thinking I was thinking anybody who maybe has had children I mean I haven't but you've had children you almost have a way of seeing how that how you transcend yourself or go outside or beyond yourself already for better and for worse whatever the kids pick up you can see how that gets conveyed a boring situation which physicians do do because they are used to it and they don't open themselves to it this would be tiresome yeah right but I mean if you are a parent or a family member you feel that it is a miraculous, unbelievable event and then of course in the course of a lifetime that gets squeezed and narrowed

[46:55]

and sort of worked with in such a way that it could become a big drag for all parties and that is what we do we take miracles on a daily basis we take miracles and we squeeze them and push them with the ego until they become terrible very often we want to get out of it and parents can hardly wait for their children to leave home because they are so troublesome and children can hardly wait to get out of the house because their parents are such a pain in the butt and that is what this miracle has come to so that is what we do I mean this is our job as human beings to take miraculous experiences and turn it into a big pile of shit and smell so bad we have to practice Buddhism so that we can regain a sense of yeah an appreciation for the miracle that is our life right that is what it is right our life is beyond our life our experience is beyond our experience ego is

[47:55]

yeah ego is to be contextualized in a much wider way so you know how you meet certain people who just seem to have transcended I don't know maybe it just takes years transcended what well mostly it is old people now that I think about it who don't not caught up in yeah old and young seems like in the middle yeah now that I think about it yeah children sometimes old people little kids and old people yeah some people you know like I had a friend years ago who wrote music and I said God you know

[48:57]

you write such beautiful stuff and he said you know it just comes through me and for somebody to get that when he is 20 something you know it amazed me at the time yeah well I think that maybe it is another good example because maybe artists could relate to something like Lotus Sutra that is just how I feel when I am composing that is what I feel when I am writing poetry what I feel when I am overcome with these creative impulses I am really not myself like I think when we were reading this and it was describing all the stupa and the railings and stuff I thought of Michael Sawyer's drawings and how he must have just yeah transcended something oh yeah and throughout the ages in Asia

[49:59]

craftsmen would take these sutras and they would try to reproduce them there is a whole, Kaz and I were translating a whole passage in Dogan where Dogan's teacher is telling him describing to him how you are supposed to build the seat where the Dharma teacher walks up these steps and gives a Dharma talk and he describes basically something out of the Lotus Sutra where there are these canopies and parasols and banners and bells are hanging and it is made out of gold and lapis lazuli and they would make this stuff you know in these big kingdoms where they had tons of money and they were very lavishly building temples and they were trying to reproduce and as I said in an earlier class the sutras the ceremonies and rituals were enactments of stuff in the sutras and they were actually enactments of some of these scenes would be enacted through the different rituals and tantric rituals like that

[51:00]

some transformative ritualized using special implements that are crafted that people are making with the spirit of these sutras the faithfulness of it all you can imagine a whole culture based on this faith in these kind of sutras using these things as source texts to recreate in the flesh and the world through craftsmanship and faithfulness and text memorization and all this kind of stuff and music and so on a very rich ritualized life in which we could come together and experience this feeling, you know, what we're doing just to read these words is a pale version of what because people would practice with these sutras and they would recite them they would sing them, they would recreate them in ceremonies and so on, so they really raised up a sense of the real stuff of it so again we don't really, in our practice

[52:02]

you know, Zen practice it has all this overlay of this stuff in it, but especially the way we do it here it tends to be much more concerned much more psychologically oriented because we come, we don't come as people who are ready to have faith in this sort of thing, right, we come as people who are, what are we going to do we've got to figure this out so we have to work on that that's what expedient means, right we have to work on all that stuff but I think that when we get to the place where even though we haven't perfected ourselves at least we have put to rest the more nagging aspects of this kind of stuff we can appreciate this other side and I think we do Buddha's birthday pageant we do that yeah that's what the trouble with language is sometimes I think that

[53:02]

there is like an energetic experience of things that transcend our capacity that describe it or understand it mentally in language but then there's this urge to do it and it brings it down yeah it makes it a lot more banal than it would have been if I just would have left it that it was marvelous and mystical and then I have to try to explain it yeah that's why when they try to explain it it kind of comes out like this you know what I mean that's pretty good all over the place, very poetic and extravagant yeah well it's language that seems to be pointing to somewhere beyond language yeah exactly, it's straining at the edges of language right yeah everything is incalculable

[54:05]

incalculable, if you grind up the world systems into ink drop one grain of ink it would be so many miles well let's take a little bit of a look at chapters 25 and 28 and then we'll see if people come with some poems so chapter 25 as I said is these are the ones that I think most scholars feel like some of these were tacked on at the end I think it's pretty clear that the burden and the message of the sutra is already complete probably at chapter what we just read, chapter 16 and after that there's just piled on more detail about how wonderful the sutra is and then after that some little, in a way snapshots of bodhisattvas

[55:06]

who might have been in this great assembly and who they are and how wonderful they are and in the far east there were cults of these different bodhisattvas where there would be temples dedicated to them offerings made to them and prayers offered to them and so on so this one is perceiver of the world sounds who is avalokitesvara bodhisattva the bodhisattva who hears the cries of the world and is compassionate any kind of being undergoing trials and tribulations if they call on this bodhisattva will receive relief there's a famous story in Dogan where he goes to China this is a true story, Dogan went to China and they were in the middle of a tremendous storm at sea you know and Dogan was on the point of perishing

[56:08]

and he called on avalokitesvara bodhisattva and they were saved so he because he knew the lotus sutra he knew that that's what to do so here is someone holding fast to the name of bodhisattva perceiver of the world sounds should enter a great fire the fire could not burn you this would come about because of the bodhisattva's authority and supernatural power, if one were washed away by a great flood and called upon the name of avalokitesvara immediately you would find yourself in a shallow place suppose there were all these people who were on the sea they were out there seeking trade and finding gold and so on and they were out in the sea and a fierce wind blew their ship off course and it drifted to a land full of demons if among these people there was just one person

[57:09]

who called the name of bodhisattva they would be delivered from their trouble with the demons if a person who faces an imminent threat of attack should call the name of avalokitesvara then the swords and staves wielded by his attackers would instantly shatter into so many pieces and he would be delivered though there were enough demons to fill the thousand million fold worlds and they should try to torment you if you call the name of avalokitesvara these demons will be not even be able to look at you let alone do anything to you and so on and so on, many things like that all you have to do is call avalokitesvara and you'll be ok and then on page 302 I thought this was interesting in the second paragraph there this bodhisattva avalokitesvara can bestow fearlessness on those who are fearful in fearful, pressing

[58:12]

or difficult circumstances that is why avalokitesvara is also called the bestower of fearlessness so that's interesting avalokitesvara who is the bodhisattva who hears the cries of the world who listens and the important and operative thing here is that the power and authority of avalokitesvara's saving grace is that he simply hears the cries of the world he actually is open to it and hears it and it's the virtue of that hearing that gives avalokitesvara the authority and power that if you only call his name these great things will happen avalokitesvara in a sense isn't doing anything he's not showing up and making something happen

[59:13]

it's only by virtue of the power of the fact of his listening to the cries of the world all of them without being freaked out or fearful that is the source of his power and therefore if we call on him we can become fearless so this is an interesting thing how do we become fearless? we become fearless by listening to the cries of the world fully and carefully avalokitesvara hears the cries of the world in the light of emptiness that's why avalokitesvara is not freaked out by the cries of the world so it's a true and deep hearing so today I was talking on the phone with someone, a student who's far away who's in a freaked out state of mind totally full of fear he said, I didn't know what to do

[60:18]

and he said, well I was looking for work and I went to an old age home but I thought I better not work there because it's too depressing and I said, well maybe you should work there go back and see because maybe if you work there and just take care of the people and just listen to them and watch them and try to be helpful in any way you can, maybe you'll feel better and I think that might be true maybe he'll feel better maybe his fear will be assuaged by his own listening if he stops thinking about his fear and really listens to others troubles and truly listens, maybe he'll become fearless that's what this says to me so that's something we can all think about and all wonder about hmm so it seems like there's something in being if someone really listens

[61:19]

there's something about being really heard, that you can kind of hear it as it is, rather than like the fear part is about not being in the present and actually we always talk about that but I can experience that so maybe by really hearing that you kind of find your stability yeah exactly so there's something in that listening without doing anything that allows the person to really experience or hear it for themselves that's right, that's the idea here, that there's nothing more powerful and more saving than just having someone listen, and with a true listening yeah, because there's no fear there's only fear when we are afraid for ourself when there's worry for ourself and there's only worry for ourself in the present moment there is no such thing there's no self, and there's no worry so

[62:20]

it could also be physiological too to some extent how do you mean? imagine when you experience fear there's certain chemicals that are released so imagine that someone has those overabundance of certain, something that's misfiring and they're not necessarily experiencing fear without any any stimulation for it anywhere, any focus it's kind of like an objectless fear yeah, well like mental illness it's paranoid and they're ill because there's no focus to it, just like everybody's invasive right but I always say that paranoia is the human condition everybody's paranoid people who are paranoid as a diagnosis are only more paranoid because you know if we, we're all what do you mean by that? I know what it means just don't hide it as well

[63:24]

that's funny because it's so true, right? but Jim knows what you mean so then the last chapter of the sutra is this is Samantabhadra the shiny practice bodhisattva we say but Samantabhadra means universally good or universally worthy or universally worthy he shows up in the final chapter of the sutra he comes from the east and he came to hear the sutra he says Johnny, come lately now that it's all over he shows up and says hey, I came to hear this great sutra I heard about it and I want to know how will people later on after the Buddha has entered extinction how will they be able to acquire this sutra and the Buddha says

[64:25]

if they fulfill four conditions they will be able to acquire the sutra first they must be protected and kept in mind by the Buddhists second they must plant the roots of virtue meaning do good deeds, good actions third, they must enter the stage where they are sure of reaching enlightenment which is one of the bodhisattva stages no turning back fourth, they must conceive a determination to save all living beings so if they fulfill these four conditions they will receive the Lotus Sutra and the bodhisattva universally worthy says that's wonderful and if someone does fulfill those four conditions I hereby bow that I will protect that person in the future I will jump on my elephant because Samantabhadra is pictured riding on a white elephant I will mount my six-tusked white elephant

[65:28]

and with my army of bodhisattvas I will proceed right to where that person is and I will protect him or her so then they say and if people should wish to practice this sutra Samantabhadra says they should do so diligently and with a single mind for a period of 21 days and after that I will get on my elephant and help them and I will give them spells and magic potions so there must be a prayer I don't know about it particularly but I'm sure that in Tendai Buddhism and especially and probably Shingon Buddhism there must be a 21 day ceremony this is a great thing this kind of like three week long rituals and two month rituals native peoples also have such things where they drop everything for a month and have a ceremony so I'm sure that there is a 21 day lotus sutra ceremony with a number of different rituals and so on I heard someone tell me

[66:30]

that if I wanted to break a habit like years ago if I would do the change for 21 days if you would do it for 21 days do the change? I mean whatever you were trying to change like quit smoking quit it? stop the habit maybe substitute a new behavior if you could actually devotedly do it for 21 days oh yeah, 21 yeah oh yeah 21 days well there you go I've tried 21 days is a long time no it hasn't you mean you haven't been able to do it for 21 days? 21 days is a long time yeah it is a long time yes on the third one about entering the stage of reaching enlightenment what did you suggest that that might mean? well in the on the bodhisattva

[67:32]

10 stages of the bodhisattva one of the stages is where the bodhisattva reaches a point where they can't turn back and they will definitely go on to enlightenment and that's a very important stage I forget what number it is out of the 10 but so they must be advanced they must be advanced students of buddhadharma and if they are advanced to this extent they will hear the lotus sutra so this is telling us the lotus sutra is a very advanced sutra and I think it's in this chapter where it says the lotus sutra is the is it in this chapter? maybe not somewhere it says is it in the other chapter 25? no anyway in one of the chapters it says that the lotus sutra

[68:33]

is the ultimate sutra the last sutra let's see if I can find it quickly yeah page 207 it's in chapter 14 that we didn't read but in the middle of the page or so and when they have one great distinction it first says the lotus sutra will not be heard by most people it's too much for them but when they have one great distinction and merit and they wiped out the three poisons and they emerge from the threefold world and destroy the nets of the devils at that time the buddha is filled with great joy and this lotus sutra is capable of causing

[69:33]

living beings to attain comprehensive wisdom it will face much hostility in the world and will be difficult to believe it has not been preached before but now I preach it this lotus sutra is foremost among all that is preached by the buddhas among all that is preached it is the most profound and I don't think that any other sutra says this sutras always say how great this sutra is and if you just recite one line blah blah blah that's common but I don't know as far as I know there isn't another sutra that says this sutra is the best sutra it's the most profound sutra and so this was believed like I said earlier in one class in the Tiantai school there was a whole ranking of all the buddha's teachings and it placed the lotus sutra in the pinnacle they even had a thing where they said the buddha taught this this this and finally he taught the lotus sutra in such and such a time with all of this leading up to it because it was the ultimate sutra and it is given at the very last

[70:34]

see the way that powerful ruler did when he took the bright jewel he had guarded for so long and finally gave it away this refers to a parable he had just told about a ruler who gives many things to his great generals and helps them along in various ways but he has a jewel in the top knot of his hairdo that he only gives to the ultimate general who finally has accomplished everything because he wouldn't give that away easily, he would only give it to the person who is worthy of it at the right time so that's the same with the lotus sutra Manjushri, this lotus sutra is the secret storehouse of the buddhas that thus come once among the sutras it holds the highest place and so on and so on so anyway back to the end here the sutra for such a fantastic sutra here it just sort of ends it's terrible what happens if you criticize people who read the sutra I know, well there's a lot of that throughout and in the end here all the different terrible things that will happen to you

[71:35]

they're missing their lips their nose is flat many passages this is at the end here of this chapter on Samantabhadra all the terrible things that will happen to you if you don't respect the sutra and if you make fun of people who do respect the sutra yeah, if you say to people that uphold the lotus sutra if you say that this is useless and it will get you nowhere then as punishment for saying this you will be born eyeless in existence after existence this is the last page 324 yeah, pus and you'll have boils all over you yeah, all this kind of stuff which we've seen before it's mentioned, similar things are mentioned in other chapters yeah and they bowed and

[72:36]

departed so that's the end of the sutra so I would encourage any of you who would like to read the rest of it, the parts that we haven't read but I think we did, on the whole, a pretty good job maybe we covered it in 21 days I don't know how long we've been at this but it hasn't been very long so did anybody take up the suggestion, besides Martha no, I was just waiting I forgot to do it so, is it true that nobody has one? Martha really has one don't be shy we're among friends I have one alright, there you go in my hour of darkness this body, this mind

[73:38]

burned with sadness but somewhere in the past or maybe today yet at least myriads and millions of nayudas of kalpas ago this world drops itself away and the fires dance eternally only seem to fade we're all burning, but we are the flames dancing, flickering lighting up the sky for all great, great job thank you, that was very nice great, who else? who wants to follow that? I'll try this is sort of embarrassing but I'm going to do it anyway you'll see immediately that I'm not an artist but I'd like to show this to people because I think it would be if there were places that you really liked in the Lotus Sutra, I'd recommend this and when I took this class before it was suggested that we pick something out write it out and write it out and so this one

[74:39]

I didn't see it how we did in here but around the edge, I just copied a passage and then there were these bodhisattvas that was conduct standing firm, limitless conduct superior conduct and pure conduct so I put that sort of around the edge and then I made one there's another passage in here that I think is really nice, that practice that I actually ended up giving away but it's fun you know, just kind of help just to keep the Lotus Sutra alive anyway sure so I recommend it it's a nice way to do it so I actually it's a little hard to follow that I'm not much of a writer I actually gave it a title it's called The story is to the path of cultivation

[75:41]

as the atom is to science skillful stories of innumerable bodhisattvas inspiring the path of practice for the benefit of beings the blood knows the bones, the marrow knows yet they do not yet know that from immeasurable boundless time immemorial the world honored one the seven Buddhas before Buddha conveying compassion, wisdom and devotion to all beings upon beings in the ten directions conveying beings to liberation great, thank you it's amazing getting all those immeasurables yeah, I know that seems to be a key feature of the sutra who else has one? I know others do I do, but I don't like the

[76:45]

applause at the end we won't applaud you we won't do it sorry you're brave, so I'll follow you earth, fire, water, wind each other we've loved this Saha world forever but suffering makes love fickle or abusive and so we bring our suffering to this wisdom's light parched souls refreshed in Buddha's gentle rain once more all beings Bodhisattvas Mahasattvas Mahaprajnaparamita more? this is very short so you might miss it sometimes a stupa appears from a simple gathering of seekers

[77:45]

listening to the old Jew tenderly singing with respect I go through the lines questioning if they talk to me what touches and softens my heart is it that all pervading and compassionate presence listening and responding to the calls of the infinite voices is it within or without also different it's interesting different approaches more? I know there are more life means appeal to the masses

[79:13]

and offering the way and even those who claim to the folly of their professed attainment suffer only the humiliation of other's perfect forgiveness more? do you have more? no? do you? no? more? are there others?

[80:24]

did you write one? no, I forgot I really meant to but I forgot can you do one as prompt? no you know in one class one woman took this idea of copying a lot of sutra and she found pictures from magazines or different art things and found one that represented each chapter and did one of those does he still have that? like King Kochen with these colored copies and did a whole book in picture it was really sort of a new age copy can you imagine copying the sutra out by hand

[81:28]

which is of course what they did that would be a kind of neat thing to do yeah, calligraphers can appreciate but that was of course a major practice right? I mean, now for us to copy the sutra would be something we could do it but in those days that's how the copies existed when you made a copy so throughout the religious traditions scribes, you know the whole job of being a scribe is a great job I would like that job can you imagine sitting there all day long writing up religious texts they still do it because in Judaism the only scriptures that are really kosher for ritual use are written by hand

[82:28]

to this day and there are people who do that that's what they do well, I guess we come to the end of our Lotus Sutra class it's quite delightful for me because I can't remember the last class I gave but usually the classes are bigger than this and it's more fun for me when it's smaller it's more intimate it feels like we're just sitting around the living room talking about the sutra rather than this big event so I enjoyed having a small class very much and I appreciate everybody's faithfulness to the classes you're welcome so onward

[83:25]

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