Fusatsu Talk: Walking on the Ground of Reality
Photo by Marc Serota
On the heels of the US election, OMS’s Guiding Teacher Zuisei Goddard speaks to the importance of renewing our vows to be and stay awake, to train the mind so we can stay clear and grounded, and to do so for our own benefit and that of everyone.
Zuisei touches on the various aspects of the fusatsu liturgy, from the Gatha of Atonement, Taking Refuge, and invoking the many buddhas and bodhisattvas for guidance and inspiration.
This talk was given by Zuisei Goddard.
Transcript
This transcript is based on Zuisei's talk notes and may differ slightly from the final talk.
Walking on the Ground of Reality
Fusatsu Talk
Good evening, everyone. Tonight we’re doing a Fusatsu or renewal of vows ceremony. Fusatsu—Uposatha in Sanksrit—is a “day of observance.” It’s a day of practice, of atonement, of renewing the vows we have taken in our desire to be and stay awake, for our sake and the sake of everyone.
Renewing Our Vows
Renewing our vows periodically is helpful, but it is especially helpful to do it in moments when the path before us is not clear, moments when the ground does not seem firm enough to hold our weight. When the things we used to rely upon show themselves to be unreliable, do you know what that means? It means good news! It means excellent news! Because now we can turn all of our energy, all of our focus to that which is reliable. We can now devote our effort to finding and walking on ground that will actually hold us—the ground of reality.
At moments like this, we’re no longer confused about what’s most important, what needs protecting and why. The direction we need to take is no longer vague or ambiguous. At moments like this, we’re no longer surprised by samsara; we don’t ask “How can this be?” We know how this can be and we know what we have to do to take care of it.
So, we are here tonight to remind each other of all that we do still have, all that we know and trust and are able to use as we meet this moment. We’re here to remind each other that assuming tomorrow will be the same as today is delusion. This moment is not the same as the one that came before, just as I’m not the same I was ten years ago, a year ago, a month ago, a day. And when we see this clearly, when we accept it fully, we are free to move at the speed of impermanence. We’re no longer bogged down by shoulds and woulds and could have beens. We simply face what is, directly, courageously. This is the bodhisattva’s path. This is the bodhisattva’s life.
Now, the fact that today is not the same as yesterday, and tomorrow won’t be the same as today, is also good news because that is how vow is possible, that is how practice and transformation and awakening are possible. One moment we’re stumbling around in the dark, and in the very next moment everything is filled with light. All that we see, all that we hear, all that we touch, filled with light. But why don’t we see that? Because we don’t see that—yet. But it only takes an instant, it only takes one thought, one act, to drop the blindfold so we can see things, so we can see ourselves as we are.
It only takes an act like doing phone banking up to the nth hour before election day. Like signing up to be a poll server, helping people fill out their voting sheets from noon until nine o’clock at night when the polls closed. Like setting up a table with sweets and a sign, like sending out an invitation to coworkers, saying, “Come, if you’re hurting. Come and let’s be together.” Like being “the calm one in the boat,” in the middle of a raging storm—not because it doesn’t hurt or because we don’t wish that things were otherwise, but because wishing won’t get us anywhere but to disappointment, and we need all our energy to meet this moment, which means we can’t afford to fritter it away.
Training the Mind
This is what it means to train the mind. It’s not just about being quiet, focusing of the breath. It’s about knowing what to focus on, and what to let go. We know we cannot afford to go dark in dark times. We cannot afford to fall into despair. And anyway, this is not what a bodhisattva does.
Remember Daido Roshi?: the antidote to despair isn’t hope, it’s action. Daido would say, “Hope?! Forget about hope! A bodhisattva doesn’t need hope; a bodhisattva has vow!” That’s how he would say it, “A bodhisattva has vow!” A bodhisattva gathers with other bodhisattvas to remember, Oh, this is how harm is created, how anger is created, how delusion and greed are created. Again, we’re not surprised; we may be heartbroken, but we’re not surprised. We’re not taken aback by things not being the way we want them to be. Instead, together, we vow to live with determination, with integrity, with clarity.
Others shall be angry; we shall not be angry here, As the Buddha said to Cunda, Shariputra’s brother. Others will be driven by power, by gain; but our own lives...?Our own lives will be fueled by care.
I refuse to let you change me, I say to the establishment. I refuse to collude in samsara with you. I will not allow your endless hunger to rob me of my clarity, my generosity, my kindness, my peace. I will not needlessly give you my time, my words, my ears, my attention, because what I take in as sustenance must nourish me and you don’t. I will not hand over my power for you to abuse, to misuse. I will take responsibility for my own life. I will take responsibility for those moments in which I too create harm.
Fusatsu: Renewing Our Vows
All evil karma ever committed by me—as we say in the ceremony—because of my actions, my words, my thoughts, I now own it, and I atone for it. I become one with it. “I am sorry; I am deeply, deeply sorry, and I vow to not do it again.”
And recognizing I need help with this, I then invoke the many buddhas of the past, of the present, of the future. Namu, being one with: the past seven buddhas, being one with Shakyamuni Buddha, with Avalokiteshvara and Manjushri and Samantabhadra and Maitreya, I vow to live as they lived. I vow to embody what they embody: wisdom and compassion and the unwavering desire to be free, to not create more trouble for this troubled world.
I’m not going to make myself small or tell myself that what I do doesn’t really make a difference. I’m not going to pretend I have less power than I have. I will renew those Four Great Vows that are the cardinal points of our practice:
To save all beings—to meet them with kindness and care,
To abandon harmful desires,
To master the dharmas, which means to let everything teach me,
And to attain the unattainable Buddha Way—unattainable because I’m already walking it.
I have been walking on the ground of reality; I just needed to recognize it. And now I can. It’s very clear, what will help, and what will harm. But, just in case there’s still any room for doubt, I will take refuge in that which is unassailable.
I will see that I am one with Buddha, with Dharma, with Sangha. I am one with the awakened mind of every buddha in every place and time. And I will once again give rise to bodhicitta, my aspiration to see that.
I will study and investigate and live in accord with the teachings—the Buddha’s dharma that is good in the beginning, good in the middle, good in the end. I will be that dharma, letting its wisdom be vast in me, like the ocean, letting that water drench all that it comes to contact with.
And I will lead the people, by word, by example, being the light that we all need. See, that’s the thing about darkness—you can’t separate it from the light. Everything filled with light is the way of things. Just like in the darkest day, the sun is always present—behind the clouds, or on the other side of night, our own lives can show the darkness or they can show the light.
Today, this moment, I choose the light. And that choice is both my right and my responsibility. I vow to hold it well.
Explore further
01 : Taking Refuge with Vanessa Zuisei Goddard
02 : Uposatha Days in Tricycle Magazine
03 : Equanimity with Vanessa Zuisei Goddard
Walking on he Ground of Reality, a fusatsu talk by Zen Buddhist teacher Zuisei Goddard—given on the heels of the US election—on renewing our vows to be and stay awake, to stay grounded and clear .