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Gail Sher Sixteen Precepts, Talk 4 Transcript (Youyube Automated) Gail Sher Sixteen Precepts, Talk 4 Transcript (YouYube automated) It is a privilege to be here today passing on to you not only the teachings of my great teacher Shunryu Suzuki-Roshi but by passing on the meaning of his teachings giving meaning to all of the great buddhist ancestors all the way back to Shakyamuni Buddha Soto Zen Buddhism is part of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition in which practitioners are called bodhisattvas and the story of the first bodhisattva is in one of the Jataka tales those are the tales of buddha's past lifetimes and since the precepts that were about to study beginning today um are received during the bodhisattva initiation ceremony where we become a bodhisattva we might start by learning how a bodhisattva thinks therefore i'm going to recount this delightful story that took place countless eons ago in a city called Amaravati so in Amaravati there was a brahmana named Sumedha who experienced both his parents dying while he was still young and the steward of the family's property displayed before Sumedha all of the gold and silver and gems that he would now be inheriting this was seven generations of gold and silver and gems there was a lot of it and when he saw this display he thought after amassing all this wealth neither my parents nor my ancestors were able to take even a single penny with them when they passed away can it be right that i should seek to take my wealth with me when i go thus he told the king that he would give all his wealth to the poor and he would become a spiritual seeker Sumedha thought suppose a man after falling into a heap of filth hears about a distant pond covered with lotuses of five colors that man ought to search for that pond and if he does not that's not the pond's fault in the same way there is a lake the great deathless nirvana in which to wash off the defilements of my harmful karma if i do not seek it that will be not be the lake's fault so he left home and entered a forest in the himalayas to practice as a hermit because he was a person of great capability he attained superhuman knowledge and supernatural powers while he was thus practicing the Dipamkara Buddha appeared in the world and started to teach in a city not far from Sumedha's forest the people immediately invited the buddha and his followers for a meal and to ease the way they began to fix the road that was flooded and to decorate it with flowers Sumedha flew there by means of his supernatural power and seeing how hard they were working he offered to help everyone knew about his powers so they told him um if you would fix the muddy part of the road with soil that would be good but Sumedha although he could easily have done this he wanted to use his own hands instead so he started to carry soil but Dipamkara Buddha arrived before he finished Sumedha didn't want the buddha to walk through the mud so he loosened his matted hair and he lay down on the ground and he asked the buddha to just walk on him which was a dramatic expression of his commitment to take refuge and even today some buddhists um prostrate themselves all full length on the ground to pay respect and express their respect and gratitude when Sumedha lying in the mire looked up at Dipamkara Buddha he made a vow if i want i could now enter the buddhist sangha and by practicing meditation free myself from deluded human desires and become an arhat then at death i would at once attain nirvana and cease to be reborn but this would be a selfish course to pursue for thus i should benefit myself only i want to help all beings as Dipamkara Buddha is now doing i am determined i vow to attain what Dipamkara Buddha has attained and benefit all beings Dipamkara Buddha seeing Sumedha lying in the mud understood that he had vowed to become a buddha he told his assembly that in a distant future Sumedha would would become a buddha named Gautama hearing this prediction Sumedha was delighted and believed his vow would be realized having praised Sumedha for his vow Dipamkara Buddha and his assembly left thus Sumedha became the bodhisattva which in this case means the buddha to be. this is an early example of the path called bodhisattva practice chosen by Shakyamuni Buddha so Shakyamuni Buddha chose the bodhisattva way in the previous lifetime in which he was Sumedha the archetypal image of the bodhisattva in this story suggests that all mahayana buddhist practice is based on the bodhisattva which has two aspects and this explains why zen master Isan Reiyu chose to be reborn as a water buffalo because water buffaloes who walk in the muddy water to help farmers grow rice symbolizes bodhisattva practice right they're doing bodhisattva practice they walk in the mud to help farmers grow rice that's their life it's it's a perfect symbol for the bodhisattva what the practice of a bodhisattva is so the verse of the true called the triple treasure i take refuge in the buddha i take refuge in the dharma i check refuge in the sangha directly states the connection between taking refuge and vow where the priest where we get the precepts so taking refuge in the buddha we vow together with all beings to walk this path of wisdom and compassion taking refuge in the dharma we vow to share the teachings and wisdom and taking refuge in the sangha we vow to create harmony without hindrance in the soto zen tradition our practice is based on dogen zenji's teaching of continuous practice and also the sameness of practice and enlightenment so there's continue in in dogen's view there's continuous we do continuous practice and our practice is the same as enlightenment so please listen to dogen's truly inspiring words with your soft zazen mind just just let them flow through you um and last week i talked about dogen's idea of doing not understanding so you'd and so i'm going to ask you to do that right now just do not understanding don't worry about understanding you actually will understand so here is is dogen's very inspiring speech in the great way of the buddhas and ancestors there is always unsurpassable continuous practice which is the way like a circle without interruption between the arousing of awakening mind practice awakening and nirvana there is not the slightest break continuous practice is the circle of the way therefore this continuous practice is not activities that we are forced to do by ourselves or by others it is the continuous practice that has never been defiled the virtue of this continuous practice sustains ourselves and others the essential point is that the entire earth and throughout heaven in the ten directions all beings receive the merit of our continuous practice although neither others nor ourselves know it that is the way it is therefore because of the buddhist and ancestors continuous practice our continuous practice is actualized and our own great way is penetrated because of our own continuous practice the continuous practice of all buddhas is actualized and the great way of buddhas is presented because of our own continuous practice there is the virtue of the circle of the way because of this each and every one of the buddhas and ancestors dwells as a buddha goes beyond buddha upholds buddha's mind and completes buddhahood without interruption because of continuous practice there are the sun moon and stars because of continuous practice there is the great earth and empty space because of continuous practice there is the self and its environment and body and mind because of continuous practice there are the four great elements and the five aggregates although continuous practice is not something worldly people love nevertheless it is the true place to return for all people because of the continuous practice of all buddhas in the past present and future all buddhas in the past present and future are actualized therefore the continuous practice of one day is nothing other than the seed of all buddhas and is itself the continuous practice of all buddhas i just wanted to add that um the beauty of continuous practice is that it's not something you control once it's on board the practice does the practice and takes you out of it so that's why it's so powerful it's pure there's no outflow as we talked about a few weeks ago um so the practice actually does the practice once you set it up i take refuge in the buddha i take refuge in the dharma i take refuge in the sangha these three lines from the bodhisattva initiation ceremony are the first three bodhisattva precepts these are the first precepts i take refuge in the buddha i take refuge in the dharma i take refuge in the sangha so that's precept one two and three according to dogen the essence of the true transmission of the buddha dharma is taking refuge in the in these three buddha dharma and sangha it's called the triple treasure and when when dogen approached death what did he do what practice did he choose on a long piece of white paper he wrote three large black characters buddha dharma sangha and he hung the paper on a pillar in his sick room and then he roused himself to walk around the pillar he likes circumambulated you know he's dying but and there he is in bed and he gets up and he circumambulates to the best of his ability this pillar where he's got sheets of paper with the character for the buddha dharma and sangha he brought his whole life energy forward to rock walk around these three jewels and then he gave to them he gave his life and and he gave his whole life to all beings um taking refuge in when it's translated into japanese it has two characters and one means to throw oneself unreservedly
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