The Simplicity of the Way Teisho, by John Tarrant, Roshi

　　Teisho given for Jukai Ceremony held at Gorricks Run during the Easter Sesshin, l994

　　We are here for the ceremony of refuge, one of the joyful ceremonies of the Zen universe. In it we take up the way of the Buddha; it is a kind of ordination for people who nevertheless live in the world. Like many such things it really recognises a kind of inner connection, an intimacy and commitment, that has already happened. But through that recognition mysterious things happenmysterious further things happenwhich is the point of ceremony anyway. I think of it as a kind of inner wedding to the wisdom path; its an initiation. When we take refuge we say that whatever else is in my life, the opening of insight and wisdom and compassion is at the core. And whatever else I want for myself I want those things first.

　　The precepts are boundary markers, I suppose. I think of the way in the ancient world people used to take a plough and oxen or horses and plough a big circle and mark it with stones: that was the beginning of a city, and within that circle magical things could happen. This too is a kind of boundary marker. The precepts themselves are expressions of the way the world looks from the point of view of Buddha nature, before theyre anything else. Theyre actually descriptions of reality. If you want to conform to reality and to what makes sense, this would be a good thing to do.

　　In the Mahayana tradition precepts are not taken literally. If somebody comes along running and heads off to the north, and somebody else comes along running behind them with an axe and says Where did he go

　　 you say, He went south. How the precepts are helpful is by bringing something into consciousness, and especially by bringing the costs and sacrifices of our behaviour into consciousness. We translate the precepts as I take up the way of . . . not lying, and so on. Nobody is telling you that you cant get drunk, but the precept says that if you do there is a sacrifice involved. Some people call it a hangover. But its not just that: theres a sacrifice of consciousness, theres a sacrifice of a night of your life, there are many things. So if you want to get drunk you had better really want to get drunk.

　　And its the same with all kinds of things. We tell many lies in certain ways. Sometimes its hard to tell; we can be too literal about this. We dont have to share every passing feeling we have about somebody: I hate you today! Thats not a matter of observing the precept about lying. But the ways in which we distort other peoples versions of ourselves and try to control other peoples versions of ourselves are myriadjust as an exampleand when we take the precepts we realise that theres a great cost to us in such distortions, that we lose our own affective connection with the universe. And we may impress somebody for a little while, but usually people know when we are lying anyway. Because in some sense there are no secrets in the cosmos.

　　So the rules are not meant to make you unable to breathe or to strangle you, but they are meant to show you that behaviour is a very deep and interesting matter And if we pay attention to our human karmic limits then something else will open out enormously. If you observe and respect human karmic limits you are also observing Buddha nature and you are observing the interconnection of all beings. And if you do that you find that the field has grown very vast and is full of trees and stars and wind. And that is the point about refuge. When we take the vows we are vowing to enter the simplicity of the way, knowing that that simplicity makes everything shine, everything dance, and theres nothing more precious in the world. And thats why we love it.

　　Its also a sign of gratitude for t…

《The Simplicity of the Way Teisho》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…