Jukai2

When you receive the kai, you’re acknowledging that you are the Buddha, you are the Dharma, and that you are the Sangha, and therefore you are going to live as such. In the Three Pure precepts, we vow that we are not going to do evil, bad, or horrible things. In these Precepts, we are saying, “To the best of my ability, to the best of my capacity, I will avoid or refrain from doing anything that is hurtful or harmful to others. Secondly, I vow to do good. This means that I vow to do good for other people, and also for other things, whether it be animals, dogs, cats, or other creatures, whether it be inanimate objects, stones, the earth and so forth.” We vow to always do good, which means to do what we know to be the best thing. And third, and most importantly, is the bodhisattva vow, which is to put your own enlightenment on hold, on the back burner, and to work endlessly and tirelessly, and sometimes through exhaustion, to bring about the awakening of all sentient beings. It’s a vow to help all beings awaken to who they are. We say that the worst thing is to live an entire life and never know who you are. That is what we consider the worst crime. That is killing the life of the Buddha. If the Buddha is alive and well within and you never reveal the Buddha, you have killed the life of the Buddha. This means that no matter how long we live, or how much we accomplish in so-called external areas, external ways, if we never reveal the Buddha within, we have killed the life of the Buddha. That’s what we consider to be the worst possible crime – to waste this life.

What we are acknowledging is that this very mind is Buddha, this very mind is the Buddhadharma, this very mind is the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. That is the deepest understanding and realization and really the deepest way to appreciate this life, which is just such a gift. We can and we do easily take this life for granted. But, if you really even think, not even meditate, just think about what chance you had to be born in this life, it is infinitesimally small. What an opportunity! And with the flick of your fingers it is gone. And those of us who get a little older start to realize and appreciate that this time is really limited. When you are young it is hard to imagine how it is limited. But at this certain point you start to appreciate that it is downhill from that moment on. With that understanding of impermanence, the appreciation for every moment, for every day, and for all of it grows and deepens. It is all a gift. Not to enjoy it, not to appreciate it is what we call killing the life of the Buddha. That is one of the gravest sins, to not appreciate this life, to take it for granted, to wish it passing by. You know, very often when we are doing some unpleasant task or working, we want the time to end, we want the day to end so we can go home and relax, and this is really insane. We are wishing our life away. It’s crazy. We’re rushing through to whatever . . .