Lecture 20:

Make Clear The Direction Of The Future

Lecture of Sensei Ryokyu Endo.

Feb.14 th　2007. Kyoto.

It is not the lecture, which is the tool to self- reflection, but the direction of your action. Last weeks lecture was about sharing, so if you heard that lecture have you started to share? You really have to start, you have to start now in your heart, you really have to do it, don’t wait, what is waiting? If a lecture is just a story, there is no meaning to give or receive it.

Last weeks lecture was about “Be responsible to raise a person to share Tao, share the Nembutsu.” Why is this? It is because of the one- ness of the practice. *Practice. *Faith. *Share/Spread. And as I said in the previous lecture this is looking from the direction of the future. Untill now, the entrance was Tao Shiatsu and some of the people studying Tao Shiatsu practice Nembutsu, but in the future, including now (the future is already in your heart, in that direction) the person who has a real practice of Practice, Faith, and Sharing will do Tao Shiatsu to support their life and their sharing of the Nembutsu.

I am not going to explain why Nembutsu, or get into any “bull shit” discussions about “what about people who practice different faiths.” I don’t want to waste any time, in the past I wasted so much time with so many such discussions. But who is really, clearly in the practice will have relief from such a waste of time discussions. Any way, I could explain why the Nembutsu, but I won’t, there is just no time for this any more. The people who will be able to do Tao Shiatsu are the people who are doing this practice of Practice, Faith, and Sharing, or the people who really want to do this practice, otherwise Tao Shiatsu becomes a job and the Nembutsu a hobby. Tao Shiatsu is to support your spreading and your practice instead of joining a temple or begging. In the days of Sakyamuni, healing was one of the practices of his students.

Practice, Faith, and Sharing, these three are as one, and even if only one is missing, then it becomes nothing. If you are not raising others to spread the Tao, the Nembutsu, then it means that you are not standing on your feet, that you are depending on what? For example, the Tao Centre, other people, the teachers, other students, or what? These are all illusions. Why you suffer when you hear the real thing is because you depend on all these illusions. But to clear all this and to make clear in your heart the Practice, Faith, and Sharing, is only through your action. It is easy to think that, if I can change my heart then all will be clear, but it doesn’t happen, it just means that you want to wait. Of course sometimes, some people can’t even see what is a problem, and don’t even think that they have to shift their heart. But if you feel disconnected, or some thing different in the Ki, it means that your Soul is trying to tell you to open up.

So about this state, “Be responsible to raise a person to share Tao, share the Nembutsu.” is equal to being the person to create Sangha, for this is the purpose to create Sangha. But if you are not standing on “Be responsible to raise a person to share Tao, share the Nembutsu.” Then the purpose of creating is different and the direction of the mind is to “how can I enjoy” i.e. bringing in more people to the group etc. this is “bull shit”, really “bull shit”, Sangha is not for this, not for your own small enjoyment. If you are standing on the state of “Be responsible to raise a person to share Tao, share the Nembutsu.”, then the only thing is about the outside, not inside the group i.e. Tao Sangha, or the inside of yourself. The only reason you may thing about the people inside Tao Sangha is they should be in this state and if not then why not. And if not in this state then what is missing, not what is missing in them, but what is missing in my heart, my action. Do not depend on some illusion, you have to establish in your heart that there is another person to raise.

So what is the process, the steps to raise someone? Actually there are four steps.

  1. Give Merit.
  2. Recommend or Lead, to give Merit to others.
  3. The person bcomes part of Tao. i.e. joins Ki Shindo class.
  4. The person becomes a person who spreads.

So imagine a person (A), who can be a friend or some body you know etc, and through this process they become the person who spreads. Of course you can’t just say “hello” you have to think that if not enough Merit, that person will never reach the state of “Be responsible to raise a person to share Tao, share the Nembutsu.”. So give Merit, give what that person needs, not something that the person doesn’t want. In the Ki Shindo 56 philosophies there are four ways of spreading the Dharma, these come from the Sutras, and one way is giving Merit, the heart of really wanting to give any thing that a person wants. This heart is not egoistic, but just really wishing that the person’s wish becomes fulfilled. If you don’t have this heart to anybody, then there is no state of raising a person. Because you have the wish that you want to raise up this person, anybody, you can really see this person, all the wish as a human being, pleasure, sadness etc. Also deep inside the person’s Soul, in a really deep level, is the wish of “The One”, the Great Love of “The One” and the want to share all this. Without this heart of really wanting to give you can never see truly see the person. This is why giving Merit has many levels and is really deep spiritually. I really, really wish that you be in this state. It is not in your head but in your heart.

There is an ancient story from China about an old lady, who was a beggar, and a young Buddhist priest. Every day the young priest would carry the old lady up and down the mountain, and one day the old lady said to him “before I die please make love to me”. This was a big dilemma for the young priest, because in those days the priests had to follow a very strict code, which included no sex. Any way the young priest spent the night thinking about this problem that he was faced with, and finally he decided what to do. The next day as usual he met the old lady, and he said to her “ ok lets do it” and that exact moment, the young priest became a Bodhisattva. Please really think deeply about the meaning, meanings of this story. Some people may even have to quit because of this. There is a similar story but the priest said no and was then kicked out of his temple.

Giving Merit, this is the base. There is a process but the base is giving Merit. If you live as a human being, in the human world, with this heart, it is not easy in some ways but you receive so much Great Love from the Amida Buddha, which is so much more than the suffering.

Suffering will bring “The One.”” The One’s” Heart.

And this Suffering is not Personal Suffering.