Well, good morning Red Cedar Sangha. This is our final Sunday morning dharma talk before summer break. And the title of my talk is The Six Paramitas and Bodhisattva's Outline of Practice. My colleagues and I over the past months have offered our perspectives on the six paramitas. Generosity, ethical conduct, patience, energy, meditation, and wisdom. And we have each recognized these virtues as interactive, mutually supportive, and in the end inseparable from our daily actions of breath by breath. So today I'd like to reflect upon a core text of our practice, the outline of practice by our root teacher Bodhi Dharma. And I'm really pleased that at Forest Street Bodhi Dharma was kind of a silent partner in this setting. We now have Bodhi Dharma in our front garden. A wonderful statue that arose from someplace that Tim can maybe tell us. And also right above our entry, there's a lovely brush painting of Bodhi's with his great big eyes. And what this text does is offer us a distillation of what it means to practice these virtues, these six virtues in our everyday life. And in that sense, I guess I'm the kind of cleanup batter after this series of lectures about the paramitas. So to that end I'd begin by offering you the last line of this text which is actually only three pages long which reads while practicing the six virtues to eliminate delusion they that's us practice nothing at all. This is what is meant by practicing dharma or as Harada Roshi says what is most important is to function in this way without being aware of it. So who was Bodhi Dharma and what does he tell us about virtuous practice about living everyday Zen?
And part of part of my purpose in this talk is for those who are new to the sangha to get a little bit of background about who our one of our core teachers is because he's quite mysterious but also quite wonderful. In our morning service, we invoke our ancestors as we did this morning who have transmitted the lamp throughout space and time. Shakyimunu Buddha in India, Bodhi Dharma in China, Dogen in Japan and Soyen Shaku bringing the dharma to the west here in America. We recite in the Fukan Zazengi of Dogen where he tells us the way is basically perfect and all pervading. Need I mention the Buddhist who was possessed of inborn knowledge? The influence of his six years of upright sitting is noticeable still here we are. Or Bodhi Dharma's transmission of the mind seal the fame of his nine years of sitting three years longer than Buddha is celebrated to this day.
Bodhi Dharma seems to be the almost invisible leg on the chair as we sit. kind of our silent partner. In that light, I'm bringing forward the short text of our founding guiding teacher who brought the dharma to the Chan in the Chan Zen form to China. Roshi Robert Aitken calls him the archetype of steadfast practice. It was striking on our pilgrimage years ago that John Wylie and Hannah and I and others went to with mountain rain to Japan where we saw many statues and images. Not so many of Buddha except in temples but everywhere there were statues of Jizo and Bodhi Dharma called in Japan Daruma. Now, if we're in Cloud Hall, if you look on the back window there, there's a couple of little darumas on the shelf. A Roma doll is a traditional Japanese good luck charm for making a wish or setting a goal. One eye is painted with a circular dot. One works towards the goal every day. Once the goal or wish becomes reality, the other eye is painted. So, the Daruma is in Cloud Hall. I bought in Japan on a trip with my children a couple three years ago for the purpose of bringing back for our Zen construction here and both eyes were completed when we open the door. So mission accomplished as they say. Thank you Bodhi Dharma. For the everyday Japanese person, the true meaning of Daruma is a reminder of self-perseverance, focus and discipline. A popular idiom and a core Zen proverb that's often used for the meaning of daruma is nana korogi, ya oki roughly translated as fall down seven times stand up eight. Daruma is a symbol of perseverance and staying the path. Now the talk today is based on Red Pine's the Zen teachings of Bodhi Dharma. The text that's also found in his Zen Roots book and Shoto Haradi Roshi's text the path to Bodhi Dharma. So a little background on our 29th ancestor as told in Kaizen's transmission of light and these texts. So Bodhi Dharma was born around 440, the third son of a king who invited Prajnatara, the 28th ancestor from the Buddha's heartland of Magada, where Buddha was enlightened to teach in his court. Prajnatara transmitted the Mahayana teachings to Bodhi Dharma and told him to go to China to spread the teachings that point to the mind and nothing else. So in 1472 he sailed the coastal route because going overland was bought blocked by various conflicts and three years sailing around the kind of that peninsula includes Vietnam and Laos came to China in 475.
The ground for Bodhi Dharma's arrival in China was prepared by numerous Indian followers of the Buddha carrying the prajnaparamita sutras beginning around 665 AD. But it wasn't until Bodhi Dharma showed up that a dedicated practitioner rather than a scholar of meditation arrived. And even at that time before Bodhi Dharma came there were 8,500 temples, Buddhist temples and 120,000 clergy in China. 50 years later there were 8,500 temples and nearly 320 clergy. About 5 about two two million clergy, excuse me, about 5% of the population. major explosion of Buddhism in in China as a result of Bodhi Dharma showing up. There's a pivotal story of his arrival in the court of King Wu, one of China's great supporters of Buddhism, translations, temples, monasteries. And this story is told to both I think the placement is important. The first koan in the Bluecliffe record and the second koan in the book of serenity, two important texts of coons. When Bodhi Dharma arrived at the court, the emperor Wu asked him if his bountiful philanthropy hadn't earned him incalculable amounts of merit. Bodhi Dharma said no merit. And Red Pine says worldly blessing perhaps, but not merit. Material philanthropy has no effect on spiritual welfare. Emperor Wu then asked him, "What is the ultimate meaning of the holy truth?" And Bodhi Dharma said, "Vast and void, no holiness." The emperor said, "Who are you facing me?" Bodhi Dharma said, "I don't know."
The emperor did not understand the teachings of emptiness. So Bodhi Dharma left abruptly and went north. where he crossed the Yangzhe River reportedly on a lotus leaf or a hollow reed and came to Shaolin the Shaolin temple which is also the center for kung fu where he sat for nine years and was known as the Indian who stares at the wall legend says he cut off his eyelids to stay fully alert that's why you see the big bulging eyes hence his bulging eyes and that when his eyelids fell that's where tea started to grow,
helped him stay awake when you're meditating. Later, Emperor Wu asked his trusted abbott adviser about Bodhi Dharma's leaving so abruptly. Does your master know who was here? The emperor said, I don't know. That's a different kind of I don't know. Than Bodhi Dharma said, I don't know. He's the Mahāsattva Avalokiteśvara transmitting the seal of the Buddha's mind. The emperor regretted what had happened and wanted to send an emissary to invite Bodhi Dharma back. But the adviser said, "Your majesty, don't even try to send an emissary. Even if the all the people in the land were to ask him to come back, he wouldn't come." Well, sometime after 534 during this period at Shaolin Monastery, the outline of practice was transcribed.
But why is bodhi dharma the most famous of all these thousands and thousands of monks who studied and taught the dharma in China? Zen as meditation had been taught and practiced for several hundred years. Much of what he had to say concerning doctrine had been said before. But Bodhi Dharma's approach to Zen was unique. As highlighted in the other sermons in Red Pine's book, seeing your nature is Zen. Not thinking about anything is Zen. Everything you do is Zen. While others viewed Zen as purification of the mind or as a stage on the way to Buddhahood, Bodhi Dharma equated Zen with Buddhahood and Buddhahood with the mind, the everyday mind with everyday life. Most scholars agree that this outline of practice was composed by Bodhi Dharma sometime during the nine years of wall contemplation and that it reflects the foundational ethos of early Chan. Its emphasis on quieting the conceptual mind has shaped Zen for generations and those themes echo through the sayings of later figures like Quinyin, Matsu and Linji and they remain central to our contemporary Zen practice.
And here we are today in Bellingham, Washington, practicing under the banner of Zoketu Norman Fischer's everyday zen walls sitting each morning thanks to Bodhi Dharma's dedicated practice. So what does this outline of practice or more properly contemplation of four practices for entering the Mahayana path provide us as encouragement and direction? So, first here's my bumper sticker version, the one I carry around in my head to remind me of my responsibilities and opportunity to polish the dharma moment each breath. The four principles that Bodhi Dharma lays out are number one to suffer injustice to accept your situation, two adapt to conditions, three want nothing, and four practice dharma. eight words captures I believe the kind of composite of how bodhi dharma helps us to remind ourselves in our practice. We can view these four statements as a rephrasing of the four noble truths. In the realm of samsara, suffering, daka is an innate characteristic of existence. Nothing's permanent. Endure suffering. The origin of suffering is craving or attachment except conditions. Cessation of suffering can be attained by letting go of attachment. Want nothing. The noble eight-fold path leads to renouncement of craving and succession and cessation of suffering practice dharma. Or as Red Pine sums it up, bad karma, good karma, no new karma, Buddha karma. That's the short version. And this text is only three pages long in its entirety. So how does Bodhi Dharma present these principles? Here's a few excerpts and comments. There are two entrances. Many roads lead to the path, but basically there are only two, reason and practice. To enter by reason means to realize the essence through instruction and to believe that all living things share the same true nature. Those who meditate on walls and the absence of self and others are in complete and unspoken agreement with reason. Without moving, without effort, they enter, we say, by reason. Now this is interesting. Reason here doesn't translate as kind of rational logical evaluation or study of texts and sutras per se. Rather realizing the essence through instruction reflects Shitou's line in song of the grassroot hermitage. Meet the ancestral teachers, be familiar with their instructions. Bodhi Dharma spent 40 years studying with his teacher Prashnatara and an initial 20 years teaching in India before he fulfilled his teachers prophecy that through though China is vast there's no other road and you need successors to follow in your footsteps. His instructions from these 60 years included far more than just reading texts. Every bow, every chant, every moment in the Zendo, every offering of his bowl was instruction. And those instructions include meditating on walls, our zazen practice of just sitting to realize our true Buddha nature. This is such a critical term in our understanding of Bodhi Dharma's teachings. The scholar John McCrae offers that the term in Chinese piquan can be translated as both the wall contemplates and one contemplates a wall with wall as a metaphor for the inanimate or the unconscious. One becomes a wall and contemplates as such one what does one contemplate? One contemplates Śūnyatā emptiness. One gazes intently at a vibrantly alive Śūnyatā says mccrae. Zazen is our path to this reason. The process of continually awakening to and with practice. In a different translation, reason is defined as dharma nature. So here's an alternative translation part of what I just read. Entrance by dharma nature means relying on the teachings to awaken to the essence. Deeply trust that all sentient beings share the same true nature. But it is obscured by dust, guest dust, and delusive conceptual thoughts, and thus cannot be revealed. If one discards delusion, turns towards truth, and stills the mind in wallgazing with no self or other, seeing sage and ordinary as one, abiding firmly and unmoved, not following words or doctrine. Then this accords with dharma nature beyond knowing, without discrimination, naturally effortless. This is called entrance by dharma nature or entrance by reason. But in our Mahayana Zen tradition, we must bring this embodied understandings to bear in the world of samsara. We must engage the relative world with our whole hearts, bodies, and minds. Hence, the need to bring these understandings to bear through practice. To enter by practice refers to four inclusive practices. suffering injustice, adapting to conditions, seeking nothing, and practicing the dharma. Let's listen to what Bodhi Dharma says about each of these practices. When those who search for the path encounter adversity, they should think to themselves, "In countless ages gone by, I've turned from the essential to the trivial and wandered through all manner of existence, often angry without cause and guilty of numerous transgressions." Sounds like all of us. Now though I do no wrong, I'm punished by my, Now though I do know wrong, I'm punished by my past. Neither gods nor men can foresee when an evil deed will bear its fruit. You know John Lennon saying instant karma going to get you. But karma's got a long haul passage. So it may not come immediately but always catches up with you. I accept it with an open heart and without complaint or injustice. He then quotes from the Vimalakirti Sutra, one of our other core teachings. When you meet with adversity, don't be upset because it makes sense. And he goes on to say, "With such understanding, you're in harmony with reason and by suffering injustice, you enter the path." And this is spoken at a personal level not sort of looking out at the whole world of injustice but what's happening to you personally when those moments when you feel like oh things are what what happened why what why is this so wrong and bodhi dharma's advice is accept and move on this first principle just understanding and accepting the basic nature of karma that is our life one moment to in a continuous line of 100,000 million kalpas they it's all come to this as Dong Shan tells Just this is it. This moment now includes the entire universe. Includes everything that's gone before. At this one moment right now, by fully accepting and entering this moment, we can take the next step off the 100 ft pole, knowing nothing but confident that all will be provided. The 19th century Soto Zen monk Riokan put it this way. To meet disaster at the time of disaster is fine just as it is. To meet illness at the time of illness is fine just as it is. To meet death at the time of death is fine just as it is. Next to my desk hangs a prayer invocation by Shodo Harada Roshi. Can't remember where I found it but it begins in this passing moment karma ripens and all things come to be. I vow to choose what is.
If there is a cost, I choose to pay. If there is a sorrow, I choose to weep. When starving, I choose hunger. When happy, I choose joy. When it is my death, I choose to die. Where this takes me, I choose to go. Being with what is, I respond to what is. This is fully embracing the moment, accepting it for the karmic truth that it is. Indeed, it all comes to this recognizing that the right moment is everything. The second practice is to accept to adapt to these conditions. Bodhi Dharma tells us that as mortals we are ruled by conditions and not by ourselves. All the suffering and joy we experience depend on conditions. If we should be blessed by some great reward such as fame or fortune, it's the fruit of a seed planted by us in the past. When the conditions change, it ends. Why delight in its existence? But while success and failure depend on conditions, the mind neither waxes nor wanes. Those who remain unmoved by the wind of joy silently follow the path. No matter what happens, our practice teaches us to accept without judgment and to respond accordingly. It is what Harada Roshi calls being obedient to karma. When we accept things as they are, we are free to take the next step without preconception. Responding to conditions as they arise. This is something sitting practice teaches us. Things arise, things pass. Arising out of emptiness, passing into emptiness. No trace left behind in our lives. Good things apparently happen. Bad things apparently happen. Nothing stays forever. Fame is fleeting. Fortunes too, unless we cling to our gains and then we are caught by them. We then serve our gains rather than our gains serving us and others. What is there to hold on to? Our meditation practice offers us the opportunity to simply watch as things come and go. It puts us in touch with our Buddha nature. We translate that experience into our day-to-day lives and recognize that within changing circumstances, there's a stable platform, a platform of emptiness, a place of potential as Zuketsu has called it, on which our lives rest. And now we have endless potential occupying upstairs here. It's a great coincidence. How hard it is sometimes to recall and remember that stability when we fully meet conditions no matter how dire or wonderful with our entire energy and agency we embody bodhi dharma and we are on the bodhisattva path bodhi dharma's third practice seeking nothing he tells us people of this world are delusional they're always longing for something always in a world worth seeking but the wise wake up They choose reason over custom or dharma nature over custom. They fix their minds on the sublime and let their bodies change with the seasons. All phenomena are empty. They contain nothing worth nothing worth desiring. Calamity forever alternates with prosperity. To dwell in the three realms is to dwell in a burning house. To have a body is to suffer. Does anyone with a body know peace? Those who understand this detach themselves from all that exists and stop imagining or seeking anything. The sutras say to seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss. When you seek nothing, you're on the path. When we chant, "All my ancient twisted karma," as we did this morning, from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, we recognize right up front that craving is fundamental to our unexamined lives, and that its roots run deep, and that by stating it as a primary condition, we are aware of its power and fundamental reality. What then do we do to address this deeply motivating behavior? How do we find satisfaction and comfort in what is and not in the endless pursuit of our hungers, our material goods, food or social standing? Or even wanting enlightenment, however that's manifest itself. The initial recognition of this drive for more beyond our basic need for food, clothing, and shelter comes from our sitting practice, watching our cravings coming and going. A few weeks ago, when discussing the state of our planet, someone raised the question, how can we address our current dilemma based on overconsumption when we are constantly assaulted with ads and social customs that reintroduce and reinforce the urgency of wearing the newest fashion or going to the next best restaurant or making sure we have the nicest car. And when we achieve these momentary desired states, its very impermanence and our own fleeting attentions bring us up to the next thing or conditions we want. What or when is doing this wanting? What or who is doing this wanting? What happens when we're fully satisfied with what we have in this moment and then the next and the next? What do we really need? And how much are our cravings a program we have a choice about whether to respond to or not? It's an interesting exercise to have an instinctive desire to want something say a brownie or a new piece of clothing and take a moment to ask why must I gain this thing or condition now. And by asking the question the answer becomes obvious. It is in fact a passing. If it keeps coming up, you may actually be hungry or need that new car or piece of clothing because it's broken down or worn out. I've always liked the old New England proverb of frugality and simplicity. Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without. Good to remember when we are dissatisfied with our material conditions. When our untrained minds and inquisitive desires are driving us to always want more and more, allowing these cravings to come and go, much as we allow our thoughts to come and go without attachment when sitting, is a core part of our living practice. But it's not only things, it's also our wanting the conditions of our lives to meet certain expectations. And having these predetermined outcomes in mind or fearing the various ways they won't be achieved seems to be at the root of many of our anxieties. The constant what-ifing in exhausting preparation for the upcoming moment. Turn that aside in inside and reflect. If I want nothing then what I have is a gift to share to offer to others. The first paramita of dana or generosity is based on this fundamental stance. It is the other side of the coin as they say. Wanting nothing is also a statement of our faith in the generosity of the dharma to constantly provide us what we truly need, not what we think or imagine we need. With this understanding, we have as Harada Roshi says never left the Buddha's palm at any time or in any way. When we give ourselves completely to the dharma path with our full energy, all is provided. What we have is fully sufficient and our presence and the interactions we have with those around us and the infinite world of sentient and insentient beings is filled with gladness and joy. Neither wanting nor holding on to what we have opens the dharma gate to true joy. Embracing and delighting in the old but never tired line, you can't take it with you frees us in this life from the suffering of the saha world. Or as Suzuki Roshi's son Hoitsu wrote Roshi offered us in a dharma talk at Rinszuin when John and Hannah and I were there. He ended his talk by saying practice with joy. So this brings us to the fourth part of entering through practice. Practice in accord with dharma. Here's what the clear-eyed bodhi dharma tells us. The dharma is the truth that all natures are pure. By this truth, all appearances are empty. Defilement and attachment, subject and object, don't exist. The sutra say the dharma includes no being because it's free from the impurity of being. And the dharma includes no self because it's free from the impurity of self. Those wise enough to believe and understand this truth are bound to practice according to the dharma. And since that which is real includes nothing worth begrudging, they give their body life and property and charity without regret, without the vanity of giver, gift or receiver and without bias or attachment. And to eliminate impurity they teach others but without becoming attached to form. Thus through their own practice they are able to help others and glorify the way of enlightenment. And as with charity they also practice the other five virtues. But while practicing the six virtues to illuminate delusion, they practice nothing at all. This is what's meant by practicing the dharma. In our world of craving and competition, we say practice makes perfect. In the dharma realm, we understand that practice makes practice. That as Shinyu Suzuki says, you are perfect the way you are, but there is always room for improvement. There is no end thankfully to this practice. This effortless effort we commit to sitting on the cushion and living our everyday lives. This fourth practice is really a statement for living is based on our experience of great mind Buddha Dharma informing our every action, our every word, our every feeling. I've always found Dogen's articulation of this all embracing mind in his introduction to the tenzo most clarifying. He instructs us to bring forth our dharma understanding and our every action of body, speech and mind as a three-fold manifestation. The caring and compassionate parent or grandparent mind. The joyful mind fully embracing each moment of this life. And the magnanimous mind overwhelmingly generous and constantly offering to others. Practicing and embodying the six paramitas: generosity, ethical conduct, patience, vigor, meditation, and wisdom without self-consciousness fully aware is our fundamental obligation and responsibility as bodhisattvas on this path.
And as we chant this morning, the Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. My hope is that this introduction to a short but important profound teaching by our founding teacher Bodhi Dharma will inspire you to investigate thoroughly as Master Dogan would say this matter. My deep appreciation to all of you for this opportunity to open this text to you this morning. Thank you.
