Wednesday Lecture

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could it be

so the surfers gonna cock
ha ha
during the summer the summer season
an altering the practice create the sixpence of the year that we do practice period
ah the three different kinds of practice periods fall and winter and spring we have wednesday night damn attack
in zondo sitting and cushions or incessant pasture and then in the summer
together more intimately you might say sitting in this room of closer together and
sometimes their formal talks more formal and sometimes we have invited guests who come in and it's informal and i think tonight i just wanted to have a more formal feeling for the first one but as the summer goes along with tanto nap
busan will
announce you know pm
level of formality for the wednesday night talks or will be different i won't be this form of every time
ha
the tanto and the practice committee and i have been talking about a theme for these talks throughout the summer and the theme one of the things anyway
branch people felt would be very helpful beneficial useful and
ah
encouraging would be to talk about the precepts
so i was hoping to start out in a kind of general way talking about the precepts and how they relate to our and practice
and then over the weeks will take up individual ones and look at them more closely
and perhaps break into small groups so you can talk more intimately with the smaller group
and then other things will be brought up as well so
it's a kind of overview
so last friday we had a lay or nation here we had a precept body for precept initiation how many of you were not here at the ordination or never been to an ordination
ole nation
eight
ah
so when we give just a brief overview of of the precepts and how and the ones that we chant and work with are called the sixteen bodhisattva precepts
during the buddhist time checking money good it's time when the order of monks and nuns was begun was started there were no precepts there were no rules how to ah
interact and what to do every day that the buddha just
people he just had come practice with me and they would do zazen and bake for their food and then as the group got larger and the days
the different situations circumstances of the days i unfolded there would be some situation where the buddha would say let's do it this way or this is the most beneficial way to treat one another let's do this or this may lead to destroy
action so let's not do this and slowly slowly they're built up a a body of
our guidelines and rules and ways that the people agreed that they would conduct themselves and some of those rules are very very detailed like you know the length of
yeah have a bad platform or ah
you know how many needles you could own or the the right way to go begging for food in these kinds of things and they were they were based on circumstances
to help the monks to practice hard and to help each other the monks and nuns
so near the end of buddhist life he said to nanda who is he is close attendant for years and years also his cousin he said you know a damned up after i'm dead
you know if some of these precepts don't actually correspond to what's going on some of them the minor ones you can nullify them that the order the the group of monks and nuns can can just let those go
and a nanda was so astonished at the buddha had said that some of these could just be
dropped that he ah
didn't ask me which ones at a minor ones
so after the buddha died there was a council about three months after the buddha day
of all the enlightened disciples they all came together
the our hats for a council and they asked to nanda who memorized everything that the buddha said he had an enormous capacity for memorization and he was with the buddha for so many years everything the buddha ever said he could recite and all the sutures stared out thus have i heard that's a nanda
who heard this and then he he says it the thus have i heard
so at this council she told them that the buddha said after i'd daddy you can drop the petty the the minor ones and my macaca showroom maha shop yeah who in the zen lineage just thought of as the buddhist successor when we chanted shakyamuni buddha macaca show that and he said well which ones
to put to say one could wrap and he said i you know i know so makeover shows that since we don't know what the buddha
i felt was minor or the little ones will just keep them all every one of and that practice went on
for a long time in about one hundred years later after the buddha guide about one hundred years after that there was a second council called and at that council
there was disagreement among the the
practitioners about ten precepts that some group thought or kind of minor and they wanted to let them go and the other groups had no no we have to this is the buddhist words and we have to keep them and that eventually split the saga into two groups for northern which became mahayana
and the southern which became
the old wisdom school or indiana which is a derogatory term it that they split over this question of precepts and which precepts to home to so the i'm the whole discussion of precepts is very old and the the
potential for divisiveness literally
about interpretation of the precepts and the rules and the guidelines and so far this very
this traditional it's a it's embedded right in there just human beings the way we are
we don't always see eye to eye about very essential things that one might think would be completely clear but but it wasn't always
so
so the southern school in the northern school in the southern school went into became the terrified in countries of sri lanka ceylon and thailand and berman and northern buddhism my yeah no went into
east asian korea and vietnam and other way they had both both different kinds but when it when i'm skipping up to about eighth century japan the m
there are some
buddhist teacher at the time from the ten day school who asked the emperor petition the emperor of china to be able to ordain buddhist monks using the sixteen bodhisattva precepts rather than the full two hundred and fifty vinegar or for nuns it's fifty
you are so more so he asked the emperor if if the japanese banks could have this other kind of ordination it was a state religion so the emperor was involved in this and i guess the petition in several times and died before the emperor said okay but then profile did say okay and so in japan
fan
ha
the sixteen bodhisattva precepts are what is given in the ordination for both lay ordination and priest or nation and there's a small group of people who still receive this larger group of precepts and in other countries be something
aims do both
so through our teacher and the founder of zen center
suzuki roshi this ah
and through dogan and our particular lineage the sixteen bodhisattva precepts are what is offered and
the ram
as for the priest or nation or the priest receiving a precepts it's called leaving home and obtaining the way are realizing the way and for the limits
shoot k talk ago for to shoot k and for the lay it's staying home and accomplishing the way which is i k tako da so it's both tokuda accomplishing the way and it's just different modes one is leaving home and when staying at home but it's accomplishing the way and the same
the word precept comes from the route that means the same as some capable compare it to hold in one's hands or to be capable
and there's a lot of different words that have this same a c e p t park like accept oh and are also means to
to take with the hands to actually take so so accept is to take separately and the x cpt except as to take separately and susceptibility susceptible is too
be taken from underneath to be you know
and to take by treachery or by trickery is deceptive deception and to receive an offering is receptor so there's all these steps and precept is to take beforehand present means to take beforehand or prescribe or recommend to take before him
so
the am i can turn that around for quite a while why does mean why does present me to take beforehand don't you take it right there isn't it more like an acceptor recept instead of a precept ah how come take before and
my kind of landing with that taking before his around the fact that the precepts
our
a description of living according to or not according to
living our full buddha nature living in a chord with or not even in accord with gazette separates the two but full expression of a buddha nature or
ah the truth of our human life so in some ways we've already this is our birthright you might say or this is the way if we are completely in alignment and settled completely settled we live like this so in some ways before we even taken this
this is how we are and when we decide to take them it's a decision to bring our entire life into alignment with the way we really are which we sometimes feel miss aligned or out of alignment with
so that's how i understand this taking beforehand because you bought you already are the precepts

ah so i brought with me
the young pioneer been a brief ammunition sutra pioneer van and which is what the buddha said on his deathbed and
where did he talk about on his deathbed and we knew you could imagine i'm talking my lots of different things but what he brought up was the precepts
so
in this last describe this is it's it's long and i won't read the whole thing that
the the words of the sutra you know it has a
it's liturgical you know it has a kind of chanting old language kind of feel to it the repetition and the way i mean it's partially the translation and personally
the m
how they how a nanda basically spoke and then ah because it was an oral tradition for it so many years passed down orally it has an oral
feel to it rather than a written things
so i wanted to sometimes when i read the old sutras
like the middle length sayings and the discourses i think i can find a find myself saying oh that's know that's that then that's that's some terrified and hinayana thing and i don't have to really take this seriously because you don't i mean i don't know if that happens do sometimes putting a certain kind of distancing myself from
the words of the buddha which i have fuck
i had questioned myself about that you know what what is it is it just certain words i don't like or
so anyway if that so i don't usually read these are all things i tend to read out loud
zen ancestors or suzuki roshi ears and which i brought also but i thought it would be nice to hear the words of the buddha from the would right before he was going to die
and upon witness discourse and dharma was was sad was spoken hydra was awakened he he had enlightenment and in the first the first turning of the wheel when someone heard it
ashley up that count geena was awakened remembered the buddhists and com dns got it you've got it you know so in this one subhadra when he heard this was fully awakened and this is often now
other teachers have said that that in a dharma talk or sometimes people have great insight into their
they're like so
so this took place while the the buddha was line between the two solid trees where he died and he was about to enter nirvana was the middle of the night com and without sound for the sake of all his disciples he briefly spoke of the essentials of the dharma
oh picture and i think in
we don't know exactly who has gathered around him whether it with beaches and brick chimneys but this is a big shoe so maybe he was just with
the monks
so this is the last words of their teacher if you can picture the scene in the middle of the night they're they're doing standing vigil around him
we're sitting around obese shoes after i pass away respect and cherish the precepts
following the precepts is like coming upon a light in the darkness like a poor person finding a great treasure you should know that the precepts are your teacher
to have the precepts is the same as if i were to remain in the world
and then he he goes on to some
certain admonitions about you know not
fortune telling and not
keeping servants and animals and all all these particular things to the young in holyrood
not being involved in worldly affairs don't perform magic or mix potions or become closely acquainted with eminent people all these are not to be done with a clear mind and right mindfulness you should seek awakening
you ought not to conceal your wrongdoing express mistaken views
getting you ought not to conceal your wrongdoing express mistaken views or lead people astray
in receiving the for kinds of offering and that would be food medicine cloth for robes and shelter i think
know what is proper what is a proper amount and be content with it when you receive it offering you should not hoard it
now i shall speak briefly of how to protect the precepts
the precepts are the basis of true liberation
therefore they are called the pretty moksha which means that which leads towards liberation
by relying on the precepts you will give rise to all the jana's with their concentration concentrations and to the knowledge of the extinction of suffering
that's by relying on the precepts you will give rise to all the concentrations into the knowledge of the extinction of suffering for this reason old big shoes you should keep the precepts and not let them be broken
if you keep the precepts then you will obtain good or wholesomeness if you do not keep the precepts
no merit can arise at all
therefore you should know that the precepts of a dwelling place of equanimity which is the ultimate merit
and then it goes on to talk about the five cents desires the precepts just to name them the sixteen bodhisattva precepts and in this he's referring to this larger group but they could all be melted down you might say into this
sixteen which are taking refuge of buddha dharma and sangha
embracing and sustaining right conduct all good and all beings and then the ten grave which is not to kill not to take what is not given not to miss you sexuality not to lie not to intoxicate mind or body of self or others
not to pray self at the expense of others not to be possessive of anything not to harbor ill will and not to disparage the triple treasure so those are the sixteen
so he brings up the five desires which come from the five senses and
if you follow the five desires and this ethic is is interesting
which she's you have been abiding in the precepts you should control the five senses i think those kinds of words that control and good and evil and thinks that's one of the reasons they don't like to to read these because i think it's hard sometimes people and myself included have a reaction like
don't tell me what i shouldn't shouldn't do or something like that so
he says you should control the five senses do not leave the senses unguarded allowing them to enter the five desires so from the five senses of
i ear nose tongue body come the five desires
the desires of visuals and touch a bull's testicles and smell of bulls and
if you indulge the five senses the five desires will become unbounded and you will be unable to control them and it's like into a bad tempered horse which is not controlled by a bit falling into a ditch and pulling his rider down with him
so do not regret neglect them and be mine from
for this reason the wise person controls his or her senses and does not follow after them
he guards them a it says he hears i'm going to to it as if he guards them like prisoners these five senses are like prisoners and does not let them wander about even when he lets them go free
before long they are all extinguished and i think that's like suzuki roshi saying you know give your give your cow a big pasture and let it go you know let it wander about kiss sink
don't it's not like you want to get rid of the five senses or if you even could and try to get rid of them but it's you guard them you watch them you're mindful of them you're aware of what's going on
and you don't follow after them even if you let them go free you don't go after them so
and before long are extinguished so if you don't
elaborate and go after and add more the the the desires get extinguish the cool
if you don't follow after them so it's not that you'd try to get rid of or push them down or
like they're bad it's more
they rise it may go away and he just let them arise and let them go away and if you're mindful practicing this mindful guarding its this awake
attentiveness to what's going on in body mind and if you're practicing that way you watch them extinguish you let them be free but you don't go after them in a landry some the master and five senses as the mind
and so on lots of different images like because like a person who running hastily with a jar of honey
in her hands looks only at the honey and does not see the deep hole
which is a great images maybe such just mess without jackets are like pooh bear in the with the have full up in now
africa and a mad elephant without a chain or monkey jumping around this is if you let the senses to school and follow after them you're just agitated and chasing there's this excitement and ah
ah disruption and so
so strived diligently
or pictures and receiving all food and drink you should accept it as medicine do not take more of what you like and less of what you dislike just take enough to support your body and avoid starvation and thirst
so
and we just so much here
and see

ah a lot about hatred of a preceptor disciple of the buddha just not harbor ill will
basically
he he basically says if you give way to hateful thoughts you obstruct your own way and lose the benefit of your merit this merit
i think it's problematic but basically the the conditions that you've created for yourself to be able to practice and help others and you destroy them very easily with hateful thoughts and actions
patience is a virtue which even the keeping of the precepts and the undertaking of ascetic practices cannot equal and patience is the main practice around hate and ill-will is to have patience when people are hurting you
ah
one who practices patients can truly be called a powerful great beam
and so forth you should know that hatred is more powerful than a raging fire
always guard yourself and do not allow hatred to enter know robber steals more merit than hatred householders who have desires and do not practice the way have no teaching by which to control themselves even hatred it's forgivable in them those who have left home and practice the way have no desire should never give rise to hatred
it just as thunder and lightning do not occur in a light feathery cloud
so we just skip around here
an honest my talks about person and many desires who get who seeks for their own gain have much suffering person a few desires either seeking nor design anything does not have this sarah
simply for this reason you should practice pureness of desires
pictures if you want to be free from all suffering you must know contentment
the state of contentment is the condition of prosperity and ease
one who is contented is happy even when he or she has only the earth to lions one who is not contented is dissatisfied even when here she is in a celestial palace
so
ah
so at the end our final thing after talking about
this practicing of the precepts allows wisdom to grow and its wisdom truly wisdom is a stout ship which carries you will cross the sea of old age sickness and death
it is an excellent medicine for all sicknesses his wisdom and without prior to see the precepts
the a buddha is saying you cannot wisdom is you can't you can't
no wisdom
how
so all these i can't tell if i'm losing you after our high streets orthosis okay with you
it does several of the precepts have to do with language with lying slander praising self at the expense of others and also often ill will have very ill wills is expressed with
certain kind of language like sarcasm and
if not necessarily slander just harsh talk mean talk you know sometimes
one hears if if some sometimes people come and tell me that sounds so is some
is really mean to people you know ah
is impolite and rude and really mean and you know to hear that
it down
it's very it's it's one of the things in community there can be extremely harmful
the use of speech in a on unkind way you know this community does it has had very little really very little and in all these years of physical violence although we've had physical violence to where there's been actual hitting striking out punching but really like i could maybe name maybe less
than fingers on one hand but harsh speech sarcasm unkind words
is not so you know it's not so i come and hopefully as we take up those precepts during the summer and he can really really
all practice together with our language and
so there's there's harsh speech and divisive speech malicious talk
which is all the slander there's lying which is untruths
there's praising self at the expense of other which is language that puts other people down in order to make you look better all that kind of speech is
ah
points to a misunderstanding about the truth of self and other i'm not different that's the the precepts themselves point to this
the the core teaching a buddhism which is
the non separateness of self another so the precepts are way that those function in the world while how do you function so that so how do you express self and other and not different well you speak kindly to want to know you have ah
the word sarcasm means to tear flesh
that the root of it sarcasm is tear flesh so what passes sometimes for wit and
you know joking around as a kind of edge to it like you know like go claws and yeah
so to to bring those up this together as a community i think
is very supportive supportive to me and hopefully supportive to everyone
and there's other kind of talk that the buddha pro proscribes he said the group useless talk frivolous talk and idle chatter is another kind of talk which sometimes leads to slander and a kind of loose
talking about other people so he says here i'm a big shoes if you engage in all manner of useless talk your mind will be confused this is it's about your own practices
what's interesting about the piece of says there's you practicing the precepts of me practice in the precepts and how that cultivates
my own practice and then there's
when let's say my practice when someone is using abusive speech or harsh speech to me that's a different kind of practice that's patience and understanding how this is developing me and developing parts of myself that don't usually or don't
may not be as developed if someone is actually being mean to me you're hurting me so that's a different practice and then the person who is using the her speech than they have a different practice so it's you see what i mean it it depends on which point of view so
sometimes it's very helpful they have somebody speak harshly do because you get a chance to really see where you
you know that you've got a lot of ill will as soon as somebody starts talking that way to you you don't have much patience and you hate them back in you yell back you know so
so there's various practices around them
the observing and the not observing of the precepts it's it's endless it's endlessly vast and rich so
so so in terms of useless top if you're going to be doing useless talk it may be having someone else but it also very confusing your mind gets very confused if you're doing frivolous talk at idle chatter so if you're engage in all manner of useless top your mind will be confused even if you have left home meeting your a day
as a monk you will not attain liberation for this recent pictures you should immediately leave behind confused thought and useless talk if you want to attain the bliss of nirvana you need only extinguish the evil of useless talk such as the practice of avoiding useless stuck so
the bliss of nirvana and extinguishing the evil don't let that stop you from a hearing a that useless talk is a m it leaves you with confused agitated body and mind
oh
so many as you know you probably notice that the and be asked if you have any doubts about the four noble truths ask about them immediately and me they don't have doubts
and if and product
than anirudh a sense
ah

oh no it's the buddha who says thou
anyway at this time with the buddha dying in front of him
are thought would be if they've crossed the ocean of suffering and truly understand their thought would be how swift is the passing of the world honored one and still shot at this time
and then at the end he says be should do not grieve even if i were to live in the world for as long as a kalpa which she's a measures like the time measurable are coming together would have to end there can be no coming together without party
the teaching which benefits both self and others has reached completion even if i were to live longer there would be nothing to add to the teaching those who were to be awakened weather in the heavens or among human beings have all been awakened
those who have not yet been awakened all possess the conditions for attaining awakening
if all my disciples practice the teaching from now on through generation after generation the dharma body of the to togheter at the thus couple on her a name for the buddha will exist the dharma body of the to togheter will exist forever and will not be destroyed therefore you should know that all things in the world
are impermanent coming together inevitably means party
do not be troubled for this is the nature of life
diligently practicing right effort you must seek liberation immediately with the light of wisdom destroy the darkness of ignorance nothing is secure everything in this life is precarious
oh pictures you should always whole heartedly seek the way of liberation all things in the world whether moving or non-moving are characterized by disappearance and instability stop now
do not speak kindness passing i'm about to cross over this is my final teaching

so ah
this final part where all things that come together even if i were to live a kalpa a campus is the amount of time it takes an iron mountain it's immeasurably hi to be worn down by a bird swing that touches it lightly once every hundred years that's a couple so even if route to live a kalpa
ah
still he would one day they would be paying everything that comes together will eventually this is our this is our shared
a human life together this is our suffering and when we understand this this is
this is what
our intention once we understand this is can live each moment fully knowing this that that
that we will part in know those we love will it will not last it cannot last and
so don't waste time this with the hard sense you know do not waste time do not pass your days and nights in vain you know this teaching of impermanence and the precepts are this this
ah
this articulated way of bringing that forth and not wasting a moment in in activities that may hurt those you love may hurt others may cause you to
be so confused you can't live in the world with in truth or in
we can't live in the world in alignment with our understanding
even when we have full understanding still
our habitual energy forces us or we may feel forced by habit patterns to
do things in an old way that still harming even with full insight into impermanence and
suffering and non-self
so we don't have the is full range of of precepts that we're working with but we do have our own precepts you could say or rules or guidelines that have grown out of you know living in america at this time in this situation these cirque
i'm stances and it's just like the buddhist time that we we don't talk about we only can own to needles you know or
all the all the different things that were created at that time to address the issues in the sixth ancestor basically way dung said there are no rules that are kind of set in stone that the precepts
come out of the understanding of her life the realization of our zazen actually is where the precepts come out the the appropriate action on the circumstances of and great band and they're so even these precepts you know
and this is why i saved vast because there's the literal keeping the precepts psych do not steal or do not take what is not given you know and there's the compassionate understanding of that same precept which is sometimes you steal you steal a loaf of bread to give to a starving per
listen maybe is that breaking the preceptors that not breaking the precept so one has to have a non confused and unconfirmed body bound to be able to know at that time in the moment in that circumstances what is
what is
what is appropriate action what is or what is just making more trouble so there's the literal there's the compassionate and then there's the ultimate understanding the precepts switches
there is it is impossible to steal there is no so how could you take something with where how could you take some me if if there is no self and other theories no object outside of
mind if there is no subject or object where are you taking from home you know that's the ultimate understanding and all the precepts you can study in those three different ways and sometimes someone may be coming from some they think they're coming from the ultimate understand
it's all one man don't want
this doesn't block you know there's no such thing as stealing this is my cup so see ya later against you know well that some if you really understand it then
then the the literal and the compassionate the online the ultimate are in alignment you know that story about suzuki roshi his glasses you probably do it's kind of a famous story where he said he had glasses on and he said
these glasses don't
i'm wearing these glasses but they don't belong to me i'm when and because you allow me to wear these glasses and
now someone may say well they through his glasses he went to the eye doctor it's his prescription they don't fit any us what's he saying but actually
and we know stories about this somebody could take and rip those glasses off stop on him and not allow him to wear those glasses it really is by the good will and the young
the harmony of all beings that he is allowed to wear those glasses or that you're allowed to
have your food or you know
so
that's it
to think in that way how connected we actually are
ah
is practicing the precepts and are zazen practice you know we say sittings asking what precepts are you breaking so it is as in
even if you do have ill will let's say or
the young
it arises you've let it go you're not actually expressing to someone ill will when i sit in zazen i'm saying
ah
full it's full expression of your self in not necessarily only zazi posture but a dozen posture zazen the periods of sauce and that we calls us in are an excellent way to understand how to live your life with doesn't mind so
i don't want to narrow it though
so
so our are in fact it's been said by jovian that you can't actually sits as in without practicing the precepts truly sets us and or practices and maybe i should say unless you're practicing the precepts you're just kidding yourself
so i can't read that clock is a getting and eighty three
so
so quaint known basically said the there aren't think set that we we create them together out of our circumstances
so we have various guidelines and rules here that have been created a out of
whatever it is thirty five years of of a group of people trying to practice hum
and what seems to be the most bash beneficial to create causes and conditions to find our way and to take care of one another and to live in her
ah
that's the way it should be you know is it because if we get to a for this is the way in nobody is
the buddha always said that was in alignment alignment with circumstances what was true then and when circumstances change
but the basic fundamental thing is not change
which is this some
he i think so what mean in that case the basic them i it yes and anything
the basic truth of are finding our way each moment
that basic truth is unchanging can pass down through all the young generations
so it's up to each one was if it's not you can't either own to somebody else we have to find our way

no
so i'm looking forward to this study together
i think it's very alive because it really is about our life or interactions in our
desires and fears and it's about us together and
i don't the precepts you know
i think i used to think they're the sort of stodgy old
hello archaic things you should be met
ah but the more i practice in work with him and talk about them in talk about them with others and inflict on image of the more and fever how alive and and of course
the ordination in you uk and kind present do in this case me giving and receiving it's the ceremony of giving and receiving precepts
that's the core ceremony for ordination
kimbrel wedding is all about present like it or not the vulva presents and
zazen and precepts i'm not too so
sarah wow
so hopefully this this
taking this up together it's very important to take up the presets in a situation where they can be dialogue and discussion because the possibility for misunderstanding is really great and were clinging to one understanding ah
so
i often they're not brought up in like a sunday lecture or some situation where someone could go away with the wrong impression or misunderstanding so it's very important to talk about it and with your practice leader individually among you know dinner table conversation in small groups or on these wednesday night
it's very important
bringing up to elucidate because as soon as you say anything you're on one side and and they're not one side is round so we have to cut a circle around together

early