Saturday, April 25, 19701
San Francisco
Suzuki (speaking formally): On this day of the opening of Mahabodhisattva Zendo
and the main office of Zen Center, we arranged this altar, making an offering
of fruits and vegetables which were produced in this land of Mahabodhisattva,
reciting the sutra of Daihi-shin Dharani, the Sutra of the Great Compassionate
One.
With this merit, we want to express our way-seeking mind with our deceased
friend Trudy Dixon, Baiho Sesshin [1 word],2 and Zenkei Dosaku Koji,
Soto Sanjo,3 and Chester F. Carlson, and all those who helped our
activity by the spirit of Buddha or by various kinds of offering.
Hereby, we want to practice the bodhisattva way step by step, so that our
practice step by step is paying back the mercy of Buddha and great bodhisattvas
in India, China, and Japan.
Hereby, now, I have one statement which has been in my mind for more than ten
years: Even on top of the mountain of great merit, we should try not --
[Tape recorder stopped!]
[Text below added from audio later on the same tape.]4
the sea of the spirit of great mercy is deep. We should not ignore a single
drop of her [?] teaching. [He screams]. [Bell] And all the people who helped
the journey and continually made offerings giving us encouragement, and also
ancestors of members of Sokoji, and ancestors of those who attained this meaningful
ceremony and ancestors of all our members. We want to continue to realize our
Buddha way with all those persons... [Bell]
_______________
1 The tape on which this transcript was made was a compilation tape
numbered SR-70-08-09. The original tapes appear to be SR-70-04-25-A and -B. The
original tapes may contain the complete lectures, but they are afflicted with
sound problems that must first be remedied.
2 Two Buddhist names were given to her at her lay ordination in
1967: Baiho Sesshin ("Fragrant Plum, Pure Mind").
3 Sanjō may mean "delegate" or "visitor": e.g.,
delegate from the Sōtō-shū (school) headquarters.
4 With this additional text all of the available audio of this
lecture now labeled 70-04-25 has been transcribed.
Source: City Center tape first transcribed verbatim by Katharine Shields
(6/19/00). Checked against tape by Bill Redican (9/28/00). Lightly edited for
readability by Wendy Pirsig and Peter Ford (3/2021).
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