To work for living beings is a gate of Dharma illumination; for with it we do not blame others. 爲衆生是法明門、不毀呰他故. Last week we talked about not praising oneself and said that that was one half of the seventh precept. This week we take up the other half about not disparaging others. Interestingly, Uchiyama Roshi made the same points as our gate statement in his last lecture at Antaiji. You have to expect to be trampled on by difficult circumstances, maybe even for many years, but don’t lose your life force under all the pressure. Unless you have that vow, you will lose heart. Only when you live by vow does everything you meet--wherever, whenever, whatever happens--reinforce your life as buddhadharma. As long as you have that vow to live out your life wherever you are, sooner or later spring will come. And when it does, you will have the strength to grow. This is the life force. You have to thoroughly understand that this is completely different from selfish ambition. Ultimately, development and backsliding depend only on you. It really is pointless to say that you became rotten because of your circumstances, or that your education is responsible, or that the blame belongs to somebody else. The fundamental attitude of a practitioner must be to live out one’s own whole self. That’s a long quote, so let’s look at it more closely. You have to expect to be trampled on by difficult circumstances, maybe even for many years . . . He starts by saying, in essence, that life is characterized by suffering: the first of Buddha’s four noble truths. We have to accept that we will have difficult circumstances . . . but don’t lose your life force under all the pressure. Unless you have that vow, you will lose heart. In the face of that suffering, we’re going to become discouraged and lose our way unless we are living by vow. Living by vow is the opposite of living by karma. Okumura Roshi talks about this a lot and even called one of his books Living by Vow. Here’s how he describes the difference. He says that part of the definition of a bodhisattva is a person living by vow rather than by karma. Karma includes our personal habits and preferences, and also the system of values we inherit from our culture that we use to evaluate what we encounter and decide what to do. Living on that basis is living by karma. A bodhisattva lives by vow, pointing toward Buddha’s way. There are several kinds of vows. There are general vows, like the four vows we chant after the dharma talk, or the vows to follow the precepts that we take during jukai or when we become clergy. There are also individual vows that are specific to each person about our own aspirations. Vows are what drive our practice. Uchiyama Roshi and the gate statement say that without the vows, we get discouraged when we meet some obstacle in our lives. Only when you live by vow does everything you meet—wherever, whenever, whatever happens—reinforce your life as buddhadharma. As long as you have that vow to live out your life wherever you are, sooner or later spring will come. And when it does, you will have the strength to grow. This is the life force. When we’re being driven by the four vows, we always know our purpose and where we’re headed. The first vow says Beings are numberless; I vow to free them. This is working for living beings, as it says in the gate statement. Uchiyama Roshi says that as long as you have that vow, your whole life is the buddhadharma. There is nothing you encounter that’s separate from you or outside the buddha way. The vow is how we remember to take refuge in the three treasures and look to our practice for support. It’s how we remember our place in the universe, and that we’re interconnected and being supported by all beings. When we remember that, it helps with the discouragement. Next, Uchiyama Roshi says an interesting thing: You have to thoroughly understand that this is completely different from selfish ambition. Again, our aspiration is to work for living beings rather than to be dragged around by our delusions about the self. We still make effort and we still have a direction, but that direction is not determined by the three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance. What we do is based on wisdom, compassion and generosity. The ultimate yardstick is not necessarily our personal comfort or the fulfilling of all our cravings; our view of the world becomes much broader than ourselves. Thus, we’re living by vow and not by karma. Next Uchiyama Roshi says, Ultimately, development and backsliding depend only on you. It really is pointless to say that you became rotten because of your circumstances, or that your education is responsible, or that the blame belongs to somebody else. The fundamental attitude of a practitioner must be to live out one’s own whole self. Now we’re getting to the stuff about blame. By the way, the root of the word blame is the same as for blaspheme, so certainly something is going on here about unwholesome speech. The point is that it’s not possible to blame others for your suffering if you’re not separate from them and you’re working on their behalf. If we’re living out our own whole selves, we’re living the life of the universal self. That means we’re not focused on our small grievances. It also means that we really understand the Right View component of the Eightfold Path. Right View is deeply understanding the nature of suffering and how it arises. If we really understand where our suffering comes from, we see that it doesn’t come from other people. It comes from clinging to our own expectations and ideas about how things “should” be. Just because I think things should be a certain way, that doesn’t mean the universe agrees! When things don’t go my way, the easy response is to blame someone else. Probably, I’m doing that rather than taking responsibility for my own suffering. I want to emphasize here the difference between acceptance and approval. We need to accept that there is suffering and how it arises. That doesn’t mean that suffering is OK and we shouldn’t do anything about it, and it doesn’t mean that others shouldn’t be held accountable for unskillful behavior. We also need to be careful about using karma to blame victims for their own circumstances. It’s been misused in Asian history to rationalize injustice and societal oppression. The message is that people born into poverty or disability deserve their situation because of misdeeds in past lives. It’s a really harmful thing. Blame might seem like a powerful response to our suffering. It was all his fault, it wasn’t mine. I didn’t do anything wrong. The related message is that I don’t deserve my suffering. When we think and say these things, they might make us feel stronger, but actually, these are not positions of strength. They reinforce our habits of looking away from suffering and ignoring where it comes from. They also imply that we’re powerless to do anything about our suffering, and that we’re simply at the mercy of a cruel world. Everything would have been fine if only THEY hadn’t said this or done that. Well, yes, what they did might have been out of our control. What’s not out of our control is our response to the discomfort we feel. Now, that’s easy to say. Maybe at some time in your life you’ve heard someone say that we can choose whether or not to be happy, or that no one else can make you feel a certain way. The natural response is: I can’t help how I feel! Without some guidance about how to understand how suffering arises—and how contentment arises—we continue to get tossed around by emotions. Because we forget that the self is empty and it’s just five skandhas clinging to five skandhas, we feel threatened and get defensive—and then we look for someone else to blame. Instead, if we can commit to seeing what’s arising for us, seeing that it’s based on delusion about the nature of self, we can cut off an unskillful response at the roots. Why do we feel the need to blame someone else? What’s the fear that’s at the bottom of that? Also, there are myriad causes and conditions for everything that arises and everything that happens. The person or circumstance we’re blaming is in the midst of countless dynamics. We’re only seeing the affect on ourselves, but there’s much more going on than that and we need to keep the broadest view. I’m one small piece of the total picture of this moment. That doesn’t mean that I and my suffering are not important. They’re just not the whole story. Now, what does this mean in the context of our individual practice? In this dharma family, the approach has been that we are responsible for our own practice. As Uchiyama Roshi just said, Ultimately, development and backsliding depend only on you. We can find lots of excuses not to practice: we’re too tired, too busy, too old, whatever. We’re kind of blaming our circumstances. When I was leading the Milwaukee Zen Center, sometimes sangha members would apologize for not attending regularly and give some reason, as though they were injuring or insulting me somehow by not being around! I always said two things: 1) I’m not taking attendance or keeping score. Be here as your life permits . . . but 2) We make time for the things we think are important. When your practice becomes important to you and you’re committed to it, you will have time to practice. The responsibility is yours. Okumura Roshi has often told the story of his ordination with Uchiyama Roshi, who said he never encourages anyone to ordain because being a monk is difficult and there are a lot of meaningless people already in robes. However, if Okumura Roshi wanted to be a true practitioner of zazen, he would do the ceremony. Okumura Roshi said. “I still appreciate his reply to my request—it left me no room for making excuses or shifting blame.” No one had talked him into this, so when things got tough, that wasn’t someone else’s fault. And after that, when Okumura Roshi’s father met with Uchiyama Roshi on the day of the ordination, he said, by way of a standard Japanese expression of gratitude, “Please take care of my son.” Uchiyama Roshi said he couldn’t do that and that the young man had to practice by himself and walk on his own legs. To this day, in this dharma family, during zazen the teacher sits facing the wall like everyone else. Uchiyama Roshi said he never faces his disciples: he faces the Buddha and walks in that direction as his own practice. If others want to practice with him they should also face the Buddha and go in the same direction with their own feet. Okumura Roshi has always tried to follow his example by relying on the teachings and not on the teacher. However, what about when a few of those living beings really, really seem to be at fault for what’s wrong in our lives or in the world? It’s not easy to just turn on our loving-kindness is it? That’s because blame is related to anger. Trying not to blame others for our suffering is not the same as expecting them to take responsibility for their actions. We can work on discerning the causes of suffering without doing that in the midst of anger and ill will, though this is not easy. We can start by remembering that the real problem is ignorance. When people don’t understand how the world really works and what the self really is, they take unskillful action. That action and the resulting conflict is frequently based on the three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance. We all fall prey to the three poisons sometimes, and we all make mistakes. Myriad unknowable causes and conditions have resulted in a person resorting to unwholesome action and perpetuating suffering for others. There are responses wired into the primative parts of the brain having to do with craving and fear and agression. Those things may be amplified by our temperaments, our families of origin and our culture. The person we’re blaming didn’t choose any of that. These universal challenges of the human condition don’t belong to any one person. The person we’re blaming is not the sole instance of craving and aversion. It’s not his/her/their ignorance or greed, it’s the ignorance and greed of the human condition. Maybe we can cultivate a bit of compassion for someone hijacked by his delusions and acting out of fear. If so, then we can still have benevolence toward him and wish him well. In a previous week, we said that for a bodhisattva, wishing someone well means wishing him liberation from suffering and the three poisons. We can wish for anybody that he/she/they will wake up and see clearly, even if this isn’t someone we personally like. We can also remember that we don’t always know someone’s motivation. We’ve heard many times that something done with the best of intentions can go awry and cause harm. As bodhisattvas, we take responsibility for what we do; this is why we have vow and repentance. That’s how we take care of this dynamic; people outside of the sangha may not have a way of understanding about this and we need to be patient. Again, blaming someone and holding him accountable are not the same thing. Blame comes with ill will, or at least with ignorance. Holding someone accountable doesn’t cut off the relationship. Blame says I want to be separate from you. Accountability says we’re interconnected because we can’t help it and now we have to figure out how to work together. That’s working for living beings So, rather than blaming others for things, maybe we can point to ignorance as the real culprit. If we do that, there aren’t human enemies, there are only a lot of confused people in the world who need help. That’s where our bodhisattva vows come in. We can continue to work for living beings even if we don’t agree with what they do. Questions for reflection and discussion
No self-deception is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we do not praise ourselves. 報恩是法明門、不欺負他故. You may recognize “praising ourselves” as one half of the seventh precept against praising self and disparaging or slandering others—and sure enough, next week’s gate is about not blaming others. The Bonmokyo says about this precept: If a bodhisattva boasts of his own virtue and conceals the good works of others, thus causing them to be slandered, the person thereby commits a bodhisattva parajika offense. You are getting something for yourself in a less than honest way that puts someone else at a disadvantage. We made a start on considering self-deception several weeks ago when we considered Gate 25: Truth is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we do not deceive ourselves. We saw that when we really see truth, or when we really see the world through the lens of Buddha’s teaching, we can’t deceive ourselves. Sometimes we’d like to believe that things aren’t the way they are, that the things we love will never leave us, that zazen will turn us into people we like better, or that we are separate from others and what we do doesn’t affect other people. However, if we’re really seeing clearly, we know that these ideas aren’t sustainable, and that if we live and act on the basis of them, we and others will suffer. We’ve seen here the difference between acceptance and approval. As bodhisattvas, we have to accept that there is suffering and what the cause of that suffering is. That doesn’t mean suffering is OK or that we condone unskillful behavior. To ignore suffering or any part of our lives is self-deception. Today’s gate says that one of the things that happens when we deceive ourselves is that we praise ourselves. The Sanskrit term for pride, arrogance or conceit is Māna. It creates the basis for disrespecting others and for the occurrence of suffering. Sometimes the three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance are referred to as the five poisons or five kleshas when they include pride or arrogance, as well as envy or jealousy. Māna is usually translated as pride, but the basis of the word is about measuring. The problem is comparing ourselves with others, whether we come out on top or not. This gate is not saying that we shouldn’t have healthy egos. There’s nothing wrong with being happy that you got an A on your final or gave a great performance or won the game. When your friends and family say congratulations, it’s not necessary to be falsely modest or diminish your accomplishment. Pride becomes an issue when it becomes the basis for demeaning others. The teachings in these two gates are about competition. To compete is to get something for yourself by establishing that you’re better than other people who want the same thing. The teaching here is not that competition is never necessary or always bad. There’s plenty of competition in nature for food, mates or territory; that’s how species survive. People need to compete sometimes for jobs or scholarships. Resources are limited and there has to be a way to establish the best fit. The problems start when we are caught up in competition based on self clinging and separation. If we’ve fallen prey to these two things, we don’t understand the nature of self, or we’re choosing to ignore it. In other words, we’re deceiving ourselves. In an unskillful competition, we have to build ourselves up while at the same time tearing others down. That’s why today we’re dealing with praising self. Buddha tells us that there are three things that are true about existence: 1) that everything is part of the network of interdependent origination— nothing arises on its own, but because of causes and conditions 2) that everything is impermanent because those causes and conditions are constantly changing, so what arises from them has to be changing too 3) there is no fixed self-nature because we’re subject to the same interdependence and impermanence as everything else No fixed self nature means that the self is empty. The self is simply a collection of elements that comes together for some finite period of time. We give it a name and believe that we are the same people from birth through today to our eventual death. However, there is nothing we can point to and say this is my permanent self. We aren’t the same people that we were five minutes ago or five years ago. We’ve had experiences, learned things and created memories. Some breaths have gone in and out and some blood moved around. We’ve digested some food and created some waste. What part of this shifting, impermanent collection of five skandhas can we point to and say, this is me? The same is true of all conditioned things; they have no fixed and permanent self-nature. On one hand, we need to feel that there is some continuity in our state of being so that we can function in the world and be psychologically healthy. On the other hand, in the universal sense, there is no self. Understanding this is crucial to our zazen practice and it’s written into Sanshin’s practice vision in the Six Points. The first one is the study of the meaning of zazen in the context of Buddha’s teachings, understanding the common thread that runs from the teachings of Shakyamuni through the Mahayana tradition, the teachings of Dogen Zenji, Sawaki and Uchiyama Roshis, down to Okumura Roshi and the practice of shikantaza at Sanshin today. When Shakyamuni realized awakening under the bodhi tree, he knew directly that clinging is the cause of suffering. He saw that we try to gratify sense desires by grasping at things we think are desirable. That’s dangerous because the loss of that desirable object is inevitable and we suffer. The escape from this cycle of greed and fear is in taking up the Eightfold Path. One of the things to which we cling most readily is the five skandhas or aggregates that make up the concept we call “me.” In the Pali Canon, the Buddha talked about the five skandhas as they relate to praising self: If one regards himself superior or equal or inferior by reason of the body that is impermanent, painful and subject to change, what else is it than not seeing reality? Or if one regards himself superior or equal or inferior by reason of feelings, perceptions, volitions or consciousness, what else is it than not seeing reality? If one does not regard himself superior or equal or inferior by reason of the body, the feelings, perceptions, volitions or consciousness what else is it than seeing reality? The five skandhas aren’t a reliable basis for comparing ourselves with others. One aspect of seeing clearly is to understand the nature of self, and thus the need to praise ourselves doesn’t arise. Somehow we need to understand how five skandhas can be released from clinging to five skandhas. Again, as we saw a few weeks ago, with the three marks of existence Buddha taught that all conditioned things are empty of a fixed and permanent self nature because of both interdependence and impermanence. Everything arises because of causes and conditions; nothing comes into being by itself, so nothing can be separate from everything else around it (interdependence). Because these causes and conditions are changing all the time, the things that arise from them must also be changing (impermanence). If everything is connected to everything else and changing all the time, there’s nothing we can identify as a permanent self-nature or essence—and Buddha’s teaching about emptiness must include this group of five skandhas called “me.” This is also the teaching of the Prajna Paramita literature in the Mahayana tradition. The Heart Sutra says, “Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, when deeply practicing prajna paramita, clearly saw that all five aggregates are empty and thus relieved all suffering.” The five skandhas being free from clinging to five skandhas on the basis of emptiness is the equivalent of Dogen Zenji’s shinjin datsuraku (dropping off body and mind), Sawaki Roshi’s “zazen is good for nothing,” Uchiyama Roshi’s “opening the hand of thought,” and Okumura Roshi’s “1=0=∞ (infinity).” This is what we actualize in shikantaza, which has been handed down to us directly from generation to generation. This is zazen in the context of Buddha’s teachings In zazen we give up clinging to the five skandhas because we only do four things in zazen: take the posture, keep eyes open, breathe deeply and let go of thought. That means we let go of all thought, including ideas about who we are and what the self is. There’s no room to hold into ideas about the five skandhas because those four things we do in zazen take up the entire space. Zazen is the five skandhas ceasing to cling to the five skandhas. If we’re not clinging to ideas about self, we can’t deceive ourselves. Sawaki Roshi said that “Religion” is to live out the ever fresh self, which is not deceived by anything. If we’re seeing clearly, we can’t help but see that this heap of five skandhas that arises fresh moment by moment is no better or worse than any other heap of five skandhas. We don’t need to brag about ourselves in order to impress other people or impress ourselves. When we do that, we’re reinforcing the idea that there is a fixed self that needs to be defended or enhanced. That’s when we start to compete for stuff. I want to get more things to prove that I’m better than you or at least good enough, and I do that to defend or enhance this idea of self. It’s a vicious circle: I want to get more stuff so I look good so I can get more stuff so I can look good. That kind of competition, greed and clinging is based on fear—fear that somehow this small self isn’t enough or is in danger of being annihilated. I need to take up the biggest possible space so that people will either admire me or be afraid of me, but in any case no one will attack me. It’s a self-esteem issue. Even when we feel successful, we still keep comparing ourselves to others. Even when we feel pretty good and are praising ourselves, that’s a temporary circumstance because all things are impermanent. Then have to look for another way to shore up sense of self. It’s not a basis for lasting content or peace. Comparing is a natural human tendency, and it’s pretty deeply rooted in our psychology. We don’t have to be ashamed of it, but we do have the opportunity to watch it arise and decide whether it’s the skillful response to this moment. Now, of course, there’s also an absolute view of this problem of praising self. The self can’t be annihilated because there is no self with a beginning and an end. Within this one unified reality, nothing is separate from anything else. If so, then you can’t separate out something to praise which is more or less valuable than anything else. If you’re drinking a cup of coffee, it’s pretty hard to say, well, this section of the coffee in my cup is better than that one. There’s just coffee, beyond any comparison. When we talked about kindness, we said it was about wishing well to all beings equally. We can’t make distinctions between wishing well for these folks but not for those folks, because we’re not really separate. If we really understand our nonseparation, then there’s no comparing or measuring, and desire to praise self doesn’t arise. Okumura Roshi says: There is no gate, no entrance, and no way to come in or go out. From the time of the Big Bang, nothing is added and nothing is taken out. Within time and space, things are coming and going, arising and perishing, but nothing is coming from outside and nothing goes out from this universe. In my case, I was born in 1948 and now I am 71 and I may disappear sometime in the future. This is my lifetime from birth to death, but my life is not limited to this time. My life is a continuation from my parents’ lives and, spiritually, my life is a continuation from Shakyamuni Buddha and my teacher. My life will continue even after my death. In that sense, I never came in through the gate and I will never go out through the gate. I am always here, and all beings are the same. There is no separation between ourselves and others. When we really awaken to that reality, there is no way to praise only this collection of five skandhas and look down on other collections of five skandhas. Sawaki Roshi said we need to give up our tendency to compare ourselves with others and just return to our actual selves in zazen. Sit firmly in the place beyond any question of whether you are great or not. This is what happens when we let go of thought. The yardstick disappears and we can’t measure ourselves against others. The yardstick can be very subtle and we don’t always notice when we’re praising ourselves. Sometimes we just do it internally when we’re not trying to compete with others. I did a good deed, and therefore I’m a good person; I feel good about myself, or, I’m really doing great practice, saving a lot of beings! I’m joining online zazen every morning and memorizing Dogen quotes and I’ve created a whiz-bang home altar! That’s all great, but we don’t need to say so. We have to watch our motivations for our actions, because we can do good things partly so we can praise ourselves. Then on the basis of doing a wholesome thing, some unwholesomeness can arise Okumura Roshi wrote: When we create twisted karma with our good deeds, people are usually happy and praise us, and we in turn are proud of our actions. In these cases, perceiving the deep and subtle self-centeredness within our benevolence can be very difficult. This is why our practice of zazen as repentance is significant. In zazen, we cannot hide from ourselves. As the Kan-fugen-bosatsu-gyo-ho-kyo says, “If you wish to make repentance, sit upright and be mindful of the true reality.” In zazen, we can’t hide from ourselves or deceive ourselves. We let go of thoughts about who we are and how great we are. We stop trying to perpetuate the stories about our own importance. Questions for reflection and discussion:
Repayment of kindness is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we do not cheat and disregard others. 報恩是法明門、不欺負他故. Now that we’ve considered recognition of kindness, we’ll consider repayment of kindness. Last week we said that on an individual level, kindness was wishing wellbeing for others. More universally, it’s about the support we receive from all beings or the universe just to live and go about our daily activities. Recognizing kindness means we have to know what kindness is in ourselves and others so that the unfolding of that kindness can come to fruition. I also introduced the idea that recognizing and acknowledging debts of kindness is a critically important aspect of Asian culture. This is repaying the debt of gratitude. In Confucan cultures, everyone has duties to everyone else: your parents, children, boss, employees, society, the state. When Buddhism arrived and encouraged people to leave home, cut ties and join the sangha, it created real conflict: who was going to take care of your responsibilities if you became a Buddhist and left home? There was also a sense that the current family, business or state of the world was a connection between past and future. People now had an obligation to take on the heritage that they received from their ancestors, take care of it, and hand it on to the next generation. Thus arose the problem of disconnection when people left home to join the sangha. How were they to repay their debts? In response, Buddhists began to emphasize teachings about filial piety. Practice was not for oneself, but to liberate all beings, including all those to whom one had responsibiilties. Becoming a monk was positioned as beneficial for one’s family and for society, and as an acceptable means of repaying the debt of gratitude. Within Buddhism, practice was also a means of repaying one’s debt to the Three Treasures. This was relevant for lay practitioners as well. While monks were concentrating on practice, laypeople were carrying out their occupations. That daily work was a means of repaying the debt to Buddha and all living beings. Last time I mentioned Suzuki Shosan’s teachings on how each occupation is Buddha’s work. Much of his written teaching is about how everyone owes a debt of gratitude to each of the four classes of society—samurai, artisans, farmers and merchants—and also how engaging in each of these occupations is Buddha’s work and repays one’s debt to Buddha. Samurai’s work is practice because they get to study death. The courage they needed to face death was the same courage needed to enter the Buddha Way. They had the opportunity to become aware of their fears about death and to see how those come about. Being fearless because you understand the nature of death is not the same as being fearless because you’re not acknowledging that death is coming, Being an artisan is Buddha’s work when it’s done with sincere attention and the understanding that it’s a complete manifestation of buddha nature. To do that, you have to have faith that buddha nature already exists, so that’s not as easy as it sounds. Merchants traditionally were a low-ranking class, even though they were necessary to society. Shosan says it’s fine to be a merchant and make a profit, and that being a merchant is practice to the degree that it’s done without greed. Buying and selling without clinging reinforces understanding, and that reinforces wholesome behavior. If you make a lot of money, good for you—as long as it’s being done ethically. Finally, he says farmers have been entrusted by the universe to feed everybody, even though it’s physically difficult work. To grow food, you have to be patient and calm and see clearly what’s happening with your plants and animals, so this is Buddha’s work as well. One way to say "please" in Japanese is お願いしますonegaishimasu, literally something like "please do me a favor." There’s some subtlety about this that implies that it’s not enough to recognize that we’ve received kindness or support and to feel grateful. We’re obligated to repay it—but we can’t possibly repay this huge debt, so it’s like the four vows in that it’s a lifelong practice. There’s one unified reality within which causes and conditions enable the arising of individuals and what they do. We’re indebted to the universe for our birth, and simply living our lives and doing our jobs to the best of our ability is a means of repayment. When things change and we get better jobs or more comfortable circumstances, that’s fine—we just do those thing with the same heart and mind. In the Shushogi, Dogen says: In our continuous day-to-day practice and moment to moment study, simply following the Buddha Way is the true way of fulfilling our filial piety . . . We should see that our debts of gratitude to all living beings are as important as [the debt to our own parents]. (3-15) It’s easy to see how we owe a debt of gratitude to our parents, even though our personal relationship may or may not be good. It’s easier to forget that we’re supported by beings and circumstances that are farther removed and that we don’t know about. These are as important to our circumstances as our parents, and need the same kind of attention. However, by simply doing our best to be wholehearted in each moment, we begin to take care of our debt to all beings. Another more concrete way that repaying the debt of gratitude shows up in our practice is the making of offerings. We put flowers, candles and food on the altar, and we also offer the merit of our good deeds to others. The bodhisattva recognizes debt of kindness to all beings and thus aspires to liberate everyone. One way is to give away the beneficial results or karmic fruits of the good things we do. We cultivate prajna, sila and samadhi, or wisdom, morality and concentration, and dedicate the merit to all living beings. Traditionally you can accumulate merit in your practice by:
During liturgy we give that merit away by reciting an eko 回向, or verse for the dedication of merit. Ekos have a structure in which they (1) state how the merit was generated, (2) name the recipient(s) of the merit, and (3) explain the hoped-for outcome of the merit transference. For example: Having chanted the Maka Hannya Haramitta Shingyo, in gratitude for receiving boundless compassionate gifts, we reverently offer the merit of our chanting to: The Great Founding Teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha; our first ancestor in Japan, Great Teacher Eihei Dogen; the Eminent Ancestor, Great Teacher Keizan Jokin; the successive ancestors who transmitted the light of Dharma, and to the eternal Three Treasures in the ten directions. We also offer it to the guardian deities of this temple and to all Dharma-protecting devas and good spirits. May the true Dharma flourish in the ten directions, may all nations dwell together in harmony, may peace and tranquility pervade this sangha, and may all beings live together joyfully. Here’s another example. May the Three Treasures illuminate our awakening in practice. Having chanted the Dai Hi Shin Darani, we dedicate this merit to the deceased monks throughout the Dharma realm; and to— [names of those who have died]; may they know rest and attain Buddhahood; to— [names of those who are ill]; may they know comfort and peace; to the founding patrons of this temple, and to sentient beings throughout the Dharma Realm. May they perfect awakening in Buddha’s Way. It may seem a little strange to us as Westerners to be offering merit to buddhas and ancestors. These folks lived hundreds or a couple of thousand years ago, and now they’re dead. They’re not here to know what we’re doing, and it feels worshipful. And yet, without them, we wouldn’t be practicing today. We wouldn’t know how to sit, and we wouldn’t have teachings. Whether or not you believe that something has been transmitted from teacher to disciple and that I’m literally 84th in line from Shakyamuni, we have instructions and guidance in the practice from somewhere. In the Shushogi, Dogen says: That we are now able to see the Buddha and hear the dharma is due to the blessings that have come to us through the practice of every one of the buddhas and ancestors. If the buddhas and ancestors had not directly transmitted the dharma, how could it have reached us today? In talking about debts of kindness, in the largest sense, there is no person in debt, no offering to be made and no debtor. None of these things can be separate from each other because they’re all part of an interconnected system. We’re offering ourselves to ourselves. Whatever we’re accumulating and giving away is already part of the functioning of the same universe that gave rise to us in the first place. Does the wave owe a debt of gratitude to the ocean? In one way yes, because the ocean gave rise to the wave. In another way no, because the ocean is just doing what its causes and conditions lead it to do. That’s the view we take when we can see past our delusions of being separate. On a moment-to-moment basis, however, we forget that we’re not separate. Repaying the debt of gratitude helps us to remember and to see more clearly. We don’t disregard our connections with other beings. How do we cheat others when we ignore our debts of kindness? To cheat is to behave dishonestly in order to gain an advantage. We’re doing something that’s not in accord with reality, and the result is that someone else has some unfavorable circumstance. The opposite of that is our old friend dana, or generosity. Okumura Roshi says: Dana is a practice that allows us to be free from self-clinging based on the three poisonous minds. This practice benefits both giver and receiver, and the gift is also free from the three poisonous minds. Thus, our activities simply become one with the circulation of the myriad dharmas that are always coming and going within the Dharma world. We simply refrain from blocking such a circulation by ceasing to create a wall between ourselves and all others. We could say that when we ignore our interconnections and our debt of kindness, we create an artificial roadblock that disrupts the flow of things within this reality. We create separation that keeps all beings from receiving what they need from us. In other words, we cheat them and put them at a disadvantage, thinking we’re gaining something or at least not losing something. Imagine the blood flow in your body between your organs. Each organ does something that benefits the body. If the heart believed that it was separate and didn’t owe anything to the other organs or to the body as a whole and it stopped the flow of blood, the other organs would be cheated of nourishment they need. The heart would also suffer because the blood wasn’t being purified or oxygenated elsewhere in the body. We can choose to ignore our interconnections, but then everybody suffers. When we’re free from greed, anger and ignorance, we’re free from selfishness. That benefits the being that’s giving and the being that’s receiving. Because we’re always engaged in a mutual exchange with all beings, that means our unselfishness benefits everyone. If we disregard others, as this gate says, we fail to recognize kindness, so there’s no way we can repay our debt. We already know we can’t repay all our debts of gratitude in this lifetime, and it’s even more impossible when we disregard them! Thus in order to repay our debts of kindness, we have to be free from greed. Maybe we usually think about greed and generosity as related to giving something to someone who needs help, someone who is less fortunate than we are. We think about giving to charity, or giving to the local dharma center. Maybe we think about sharing what we have with people we love, our family and friends. In all those cases, we’re in the superior position. We have something, and we’re giving to someone who doesn’t have whatever it is. Maybe we even give because we want to impress, gain love or even greater debt for someone else. How about giving when we’re the ones who owe something? Now we don’t have the upper hand. We don’t think of that as giving, but as obligation. If we repay a debt grudgingly, we resent what we owe and that we owe. Can we repay kindness with openheartedness? Can I freely offer my daily work to the universe simply because the universe is supporting me? Can I sit shikantaza and chant and bow and offer the merit simply because Buddha gave me this practice to do? Can I accept that I will always owe a debt of kindness to all beings, and then freely work for their liberation as a bodhisattva? If I can recognize kindness for what it is and repay my debts of kindness, then I actively participate in the reality that is the network of interdependent origination. If I choose to ignore the network, it doesn’t go away; I just become an obstruction to the way it functions. Okumura Roshi says: Each and every action we perform as a practice of the bodhisattva vows is connected to everything in the past, present and future. Therefore, even our small offerings given with sincere hearts have a connection with all beings in all the six realms, including heaven realms, human realms, and the realms of all sages such as buddhas and bodhisattvas. Each and every action, no matter how small, resonates with all beings in the past, present and future. This is what Dogen means when he says, “Whether we give or receive, we connect ourselves with all beings throughout the world.” When either giving or receiving, by letting go of egocentricity and being giving or receiving, we go beyond the separation of self and all other beings. We then actively participate in the network of interdependent origination. Here, Okumura Roshi and Dogen are reiterating that what we do connects with all beings throughout space and time. What we do resonates with all beings in the past, present and future. We need pay attention to our place in that chain. A few minutes ago I pointed out that traditionally there was the feeling that we’ve inherited what we have from the past, and we’re responsible for handing that off into the future. Thus everyone has a responsibility to maintain our lineage and tradition, whatever form that takes in our lives. We need to preserve the legacy. When it comes to practice, you don’t have to be a teacher to play a part in passing on the legacy of the dharma. The Kataññu Sutta says the debt we owe our parents is too large to be paid back in material ways. If children were to carry their parents on their backs their entire lives, or let them be kings and queens of the country, it wouldn’t be enough. Buddha says it’s only possible to repay one’s gratitude by teaching them Buddhism through spiritual qualities. He’s not saying we should teach them how to practice, or convince them to become Buddhists. He’s saying we should set a good example for parents and everyone by living in a wholesome way and demonstrating good qualities that arise from your practice: wisdom, morality, generosity, compassion, concentration, diligence, contentment, etc. If we’re going to be good examples, we need to practice ourselves to enable that. Again, doing our practice is in itself repaying our debt of kindness to Buddha and all beings. Questions for reflection and discussion
The recognition of kindness is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we do not throw away good roots. 三歸是法明門、淨三惡道故. This week we look at recognition of kindness, and next week it’s repayment of kindness. These two gates are related. We’ve got three elements to talk about in this gate: kindness, the recognition of kindness, and connection with good roots. Metta, or the perfection of loving kindness, is one of the ten perfections in the Pali canon. The list looks different in the Mahayana tradition, but still includes loving-kindness: giving, morality, renunciation, wisdom, diligence, patience, truthfulness, determination, loving-kindness, and equanimity. As a side note, kindness is subtly different from compassion. Compassion is entering into someone else’s suffering and feeling with that person. As bodhisatvas, we want to liberate all beings because we feel their pain. Kindness is wishing happiness and wellbeing for others. As bodhisattvas, we show benevolence to all beings without any thought of reward or gain for ourselves. This isn’t the first time we’ve considered a gate related to kindness. When we were talking about the bramaviharas or four divine abodes, the one covered by Gate 14 was benevolence or loving-kindness: Benevolence is gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] good roots prevail in all the situations of life. Buddha says loving-kindness reverses anger and greed, but that this will take some time because anger and ill-will are pretty deep-seated. The three poisons are basic to our delusion. Even when we aspire to kindness, have trouble sustaining it. We get it intellectually, we know what we want to do, but gosh, we keep falling off the wagon. There’s an dismaying element of limitlessness associated with kindness. Buddha says we have to have loving-kindness for all beings, not just our friends and people we like. In the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, Buddha says we haven’t reached great or limitless loving-kindness until we experience it equally for everyone: If one does not feel anger even towards a single being and prays to give bliss to such a being, this is loving-kindness. It’s easy to experience for ourselves and our loved ones, and harder for strangers and impossible for people we hate! In the sutra, Buddha says we are really practicing loving-kindness when we don’t see wrongs and anger doesn’t arise. We stop seeing what others do as personal affronts to ourselves or attacks on our egos. If we don’t take stuff personally, we don’t get angry. Both Gate 14 and this gate associate kindness and roots: 14) Benevolence is gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] good roots prevail in all the situations of life. [28] Recognition of kindness is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we do not throw away good roots. I’m guessing these are connected to the line in the Mahaparinirvana Sutra that says, If any person asks about the root of any aspect of good, say that it is lovingkindness. All the wholesomeness in the world is based on kindness. Whatever good is happening is because of wishing happiness and wellbeing for others. For bodhisattvas, kindness can intersect with compassion; we’re wishing wellbeing for others and that means wanting them to be able to liberate themselves from suffering. For the bodhisattva, wishing others well is not hoping their cravings for diamond rings and cherry pie are fulfilled. It’s wishing they have wisdom, compassion and insight so they can cut through delusion and wholesome circumstances can arise. This is how we talked about kindness back at Gate 14. This week’s gate says we have to recognize kindness so we don’t throw away those good roots. We have to know what kindness is in ourselves and others so that the unfolding of that kindness can come to fruition. Recognizing and acknowledging debts of kindness is a critically important aspect of Asian culture. It’s not so important in Indian Buddhism, but started to become important when Buddhism arrived in China and then Japan. Confucianism was already there in China, and one of the central virtues was filial piety. That meant that children had to take care of their parents as they got older and after they died. They also had obligations to social superiors and to the state. In a Confucian society, everyone had duties to everyone else: parents and children, bosses and employees, older or higher rank to younger or lower rank. It started in the home and reached outward to larger and larger rings of social groups, and all behavior was determined by mutual obligations. It was the source of the culture’s ethical system. Every day one lived, one accumulated more debts of gratitude. Then Buddhism arrived and encouraged people to leave home, cut family ties and join the sangha. This was a big problem. If a son becomes a monk, who takes care of the parents? If your family had a trade or business that had been going on for generations, who was going to carry that on and continue to improve and expand those activities? Who carries out all the social obligations, one of which was to have children who would continue to keep society going? There was also a sense that everyone owed his identity to the family or business or social group that had been created by previous generations. Your worth wasn’t based on your personal achievements or accomplishments, but on the reputation of your group. You were able to function in the world because of your parents’ wealth or social class, or because you had been appointed to a particular job. You were indebted to others for your sense of self. Thus there was a real conflict: Buddhism looked to the Chinese like an irresponsible foreign religion because the sangha cut ties with society. The general belief was that if individual households were run properly, then ultimately the state would be run properly. Peace and prosperity for the entire country rested on the condition of the family household. Buddhist practitioners started to emphasize teachings on debts of gratitude. They said that it wasn’t that monks were abandoning their responsibilities, but that their practice was for the liberation and wellbeing of all beings, including their parents and the emperor. They also generated merit that they dedicated to dead relatives and ancestors. They were taking care of their social obligations, but in a different way. As Buddhism continued to develop in East Asia, some additional teachings arose that helped to resolve the conflict. One was that because of interconnectedness, all beings have been our parents at one time or another. Our practice is to liberate all beings, and if all beings have been our parents, then we recognize that we owe all beings a debt of kindness. Dogen wrote a poem that said, Those fellows who stray around in delusion here and there, within the six realms, are actually my fathers and my mothers. Those fellows who stray around in delusion here and there are us—everyday people who get caught up in our stuff and pulled around by our desires and our suffering. Because of that, we wander continuously around the six realms of samsara. Dogen says that all average normal people are actually his fathers and mothers, and maybe this felt really important to him because he lost both his parents when he was a young child. In the Bonmokyo or Brahma Net Sutra, which is one of our source texts for the precepts, it says that if we don’t recognize our debt of kindness to our parents, we break a minor precept: A disciple of the Buddha should have a mind of compassion and cultivate the practice of liberating sentient beings. He must reflect thus: throughout the eons of time, all male sentient beings have been my father, all female sentient beings my mother . . . On the day his father, mother, and siblings die, he should invite Dharma Masters to explain the Bodhisattva sutras and precepts. This will generate merits and virtues and help the deceased either to achieve rebirth in the Pure Lands and meet the buddhas or to secure rebirth in the human or celestial realms. If instead, a disciple fails to do so, he commits a secondary offense. This is a reference to what still happens today at a funeral or memorial for a layperson. Among other things, we chant the Shushogi, a compilation of Dogen’s teachings that includes how and why we should receive the precepts, and at the end, officiant gives a few minutes’ dharma talk. All that is based on this precept and the teaching that we owe our parents for their blessings even after they die. Dogen says that we should treat all beings the way we treat our parents, and that’s the basis of our bodhisattva work. He says that laypeople respect and care for their parents while they are alive and hold services for them after their death, but: Monks abandon their debt of gratitude and enter the realm of non-doing (mui). Within the family of non-doing, the manner [of paying off the debt of gratitude] should not be limited to one particular person. Considering that we have debts of gratitude to all living beings just as we do to our own fathers and mothers, we must transmit all the merits of our good deeds throughout the dharma-world. We don’t limit [the dedication] specifically to our own parents in this lifetime. This is the way we do not go against the Way of non-doing. Depending on place and time and what sutra you’re reading, Buddhism says we owe a debt of kindness or debt of gratitude to four benefactors. There are various lists of who or what these are, including parents, all sentient beings, rulers, Three Treasures; mother, father, Buddha, teacher; and, in the first list I ever learned, parents, teachers, leaders and homeland. We recite the list in the formal meal chant when we make a food offering. First this is for the Three Treasures, next for the four benefactors, finally for the beings in the six realms; may all be equally nourished. As an aside, last week we talked about the three devotions, which was about taking refuge in the three treasures. We said that this idea of taking refuge goes back to India before Buddha. and that originally it meant declaring allegiance to a powerful person, like a patron. You did what the patron told you to do in exchange for receiving protection from various dangers. In the early years of the Buddha’s teaching career, his new followers adopted this custom and express their allegiance to the three treasures in a similar way. It’s easy to see how the three treasures were included in these later teachings about debts of kindness in cultures that operated based on mutual responsibility. People in medieval Asia were used to having lords, masters or patrons. You were expected to be loyal, and in return you received protection. It makes sense that the three treasures or your Buddhist teacher took on a similar role. Anyway, the point is that we say that we’re indebted to four benefactors because we can’t exist without the support of other things and people. Everything is dependent on causes and conditions. This is why we keep hearing about no-separation. Nothing exists on its own; it arose from something else, and it’s interconnected. Recognition of kindness is another way of saying recognition of interconnectedness. There was a Japanese monk called Suzuki Shosan who lived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. He had an interesting, eclectic Buddhist life after being a samurai warrior. He practiced in various Buddhist traditions, was a close friend of a Soto Zen monk, and established about 30 Soto Zen temples, but was ordained in another tradition. He developed his own style of practice unlike Soto Zen. Much of his written teaching is about how everyone owes a debt of gratitude to each of the four classes of society—samurai, artisans, farmers and merchants—and also how engaging in each of these occupations repays one’s debt to Buddha. The one Buddha, the Tathagata originally awakened, benefits the world by dividing himself into countless millions of parts. Without blacksmiths, carpenters, and all the other artisans, the needs of the world would never be satisfied. Without samurais, the world would not be governed. Without farmers, it would not be fed, and without merchants, nothing in the world would circulate freely. Any other occupation, as soon as it appears, begins to serve the world. There are men who have discussed of Heaven and Earth, there is the man who invented written language, and also the man who invented medicine, having differentiated five principal organs. Although these achievements that have emerged in great multitude, exist for the benefit of the world, they are nothing but the manifestations of the grace of one Buddha in action. Again we see the recognition of kindness as a recognition of interconnectedness. There are individuals that are both receiving support from others and providing support through their daily activity, and there is also one unified reality or the Buddha way within which the individuals and their activities function, and that makes that functioning possible. There’s one unified reality within which causes and conditions enable the arising of individuals and what they do. We’re indebted to the universe for our birth in this form, and simply living our lives and carrying out our functions is a means of repayment. When we look broadly at how causes and conditions and gratitude work, we get to see how things we didn’t really want in our lives actually sometimes turn out to be helpful. Recognizing that we were suffering brought us to practice. Social distancing during the pandemic resulted in Sanshin increasing its virtual programming ability more quickly than we planned. Maybe you just took a wrong turn on your way somewhere and discovered a beautiful view or a shop you never would have seen otherwise. Somehow the dharma, or the functioning of the universe, resulted in something good through no intention of our own. We can’t take credit for that; it’s not a reward for the small self. It’s a gift from the universe. Now, what are we going to do with it? We need to be on the lookout for kindness so we don’t throw away the good roots. Out of the kindness of others or the support of the universe, something good and wholesome happens. Recognizing that interconnection with all beings is both an opportunity to see clearly how things actually work and an expression of our understanding. Next week we’ll talk about repaying all the kindness we receive from the universe. We need to close the loop. Questions for reflection and discussion:
The Three Devotions are a gate of Dharma illumination; for they purify the three evil worlds. 三歸是法明門、淨三惡道故. As always, first let’s look at the nature of the three devotions and then at their relationship to the three evil worlds. The three devotions are about taking refuge in three treasures: Buddha, dharma, and sangha. Buddha is the historical Buddha, but is also awakening itself. Dharma is what Buddha taught, but is also the way things are or the way the universe works. Sangha is the community of people who practice together, but also all beings. Sometimes these are also called the three jewels or the three gems. Gems are valuable and precious, but in ancient India they were also thought to have protective powers. When we hear the story of Buddha’s life, we hear that he attained awakening under the bodhi tree and then went to look for five men he’d practiced with before in order to share the dharma with them. They accepted these teachings and became Buddha’s students. This is when we can say that the three treasures were established—now there were a Buddha, the dharma and a sangha. Dōgen Zenji says we take refuge in Buddha because Buddha is a good teacher, we take refuge in dharma because it’s good medicine, and we take refuge in sangha because it’s a group of good friends. We need these things. . The expression “to take refuge” is kie 帰依. Ki 帰 means to return or go back and e 依 means to depend on. Taking refuge means we take the three treasures as the main guide for how we live. This idea of taking refuge goes back to India before Buddha. Originally, it meant declaring allegiance to a powerful person, like a patron. You did what the patron told you to do in exchange for receiving protection from various dangers. In the early years of the Buddha’s teaching career, his new followers adopted this custom. They expressed their allegiance to the Buddha, dharma and sangha, but in the Buddhist context this custom took on a new meaning. Taking refuge in the Buddhist sense is not asking for the Buddha personally to intervene to provide protection, although we still face dangers from the three poisonous minds and we want freedom from those. We’re committing to the three refuges and to our practice because we recognize that we create our own suffering. We’re committing to cultivating wisdom and skillful intentions that keep suffering from arising, and following the teachings helps us do that. During ceremonies like ryaku fusatsu, we chant the three refuges: I take refuge in Buddha together with all beings, immersing body and mind deeply in the Way, awakening true mind. I take refuge in dharma together with all beings, entering deeply the merciful ocean of Buddha’s Way. I take refuge in sangha together with all beings, bringing harmony to everyone, free from hindrance. We could spend a lot of time just taking apart this chant, but let’s look at it briefly. Immersing body and mind reminds us that awakening is only manifested when we enact it moment by moment. It’s not enough just to study intellectually what Buddha said and agree with it. We have to completely embody it and completely awaken to this reality. When we do that, our wisdom and compassion naturally manifest and we take skillful action. We study the teachings not only in the form of what Buddha said but also in the form of the way the universe works or the way things are. Yes, sometimes we study sutras or books, but we also pay attention to reality and immerse ourselves in that reality. The reference to the ocean is a pointer toward taking the broadest possible perspective, letting go of thoughts and views that limit our ability to see clearly. The words translated as “bringing harmony” actually mean “unify.” We’re unified by the dharma, and that makes a collection of individuals into a community. We don’t lose our individuality, but we see how we’re connected and functioning together. If there’s no separation, then obstacles and hindrances don’t arise—or at least, they get resolved. In taking refuge, we return to zazen and the three treasures when we lose our way; we can rely on them. However. the three treasures aren’t something outside ourselves that we worship. We’re simply recognizing that the three treasures and ourselves and all of reality are not separate. The three treasures are absolute reality, and this is where we live—this is our shelter, because there’s nowhere else to go. Dogen asks why we should have faith in the three treasures and answers that it’s because the three treasures are our final refuge. All the same, it’s easy to lose sight of that and to turn to other things for comfort or refuge when we’re fearful. There are lots of things we might look to to save us from misfortune or suffering. Okumura Roshi has written that he thinks religion arises from two needs: to deal with our fears, and to figure out how to live together. People two or three thousand years ago were no different. Dogen points us to a very old Buddhist text called the Abhidharma-kosa which says: Many people, fearing misfortune, take refuge in the ghosts enshrined in various mountains and forests. This refuge is not genuine or respectable. By such refuge we cannot be released from suffering. When we take refuge in the Buddha, dharma and sangha, we observe our life with wisdom, based on the Four Noble Truths. We know suffering, the cause of suffering and going beyond suffering forever. We also know the Holy Eightfold Noble Path and go to the peacefulness of nirvana. This taking refuge is most superior. This refuge is most respectable. By this taking this refuge, we will surely be relieved from various sufferings. People of that time turned to ghosts and other fantastic beings because they seemed to provide some way to have power over nature. Folks wanted control over things they couldn’t control. Buddhism says that if we take refuge in the three treasures instead, we learn about the real cause of our suffering and what to do about it. We bring about our own suffering, and we can’t look to someone or something else to end it. Okumura Roshi says: Not by simply worshipping something but by accepting this teaching, we know how suffering is created and how it can stop. That’s why taking refuge in Buddha, dharma and sangha is superior to worshipping a ghost. It might seem like our suffering isolates us from others: I feel pain, and you don’t feel the same pain I do. Sometimes it seems like no one is suffering except me, or that I’m alone in my suffering. This individual self that’s suffering is part of the universal self, and that’s where we go for refuge. We’re not actually alone, even when we’re in quarantine in our houses and we don’t see anyone else for weeks. We’re always interconnected with this one unified reality and with the three treasures. One aspect of the three treasures is ittai sanbo 一體三寶, or one body-three treasures. It means that the three treasures aren’t actually separate; we can say that they’re three expressions of awakening. However, it also points us back to interconnection and the reality that we and the three treasures are connected across space and time into one body. We’re born, we live and we die within this one reality. This reality is our home, so taking refuge in the three treasures is returning home and taking shelter there. We’re giving up being pulled around by our ideas and delusions and returning to the way things actually are. According to Uchiyama Roshi, taking refuge in the three treasures is how we come to have a settled life. As we know, the great question of his life was how we balance peace and progress, how to have a settled life in the midst of the need for progress and development in modern times. Because everything is always changing, we can’t rely on conditioned things forever. We’d like to feel that having things, people or circumstances in our lives make our lives settled and stable, but of course they will all disappear eventually. The three treasures that make up this one reality are all we can really rely on. We do many things to protect the small self and enhance our self-concept, but all we can really do is take refuge in the three treasures and give up trying to protect the self. Taking refuge implies that we stop revering the self and look instead to the three treasures. Dogen says: What the Buddhist ancestors have authentically transmitted is reverence for Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. If we do not take refuge in them, we do not revere them and if we do not revere them we do not take refuge in them. (1) Last week’s discussion of Gate 26 on dharma conduct pointed out that Dogen taught that having grandmotherly mind isn’t just about being kind to other people and taking care of them. It’s about taking care of the three treasures by understanding that all actions—all our conduct—is the buddha dharma. Dogen said: Be mindful of the Three Treasures as a parent would be mindful of an only child. We have to pay attention to all of our actions as practice. Dogen taught that practice and awakening are not two. There is no awakening which is outside or of separate from our day to day activity, so because the three treasures are important to us, we handle them carefully. In the Bonmokyo it says, Whenever a bodhisattva hears non-Buddhist or evil minded person direct even a single slanderous word at the Buddha, he experiences pain like that inflicted by three hundred spears piercing one heart. The tenth precept is about not slandering the three treasures. On one hand, we vow not to say bad things about them, not to say they’re evil or mistaken or harmful. On the other hand, Okumura Roshi reminds us that it’s also an act of slandering the three treasures if we’re practicing for ourselves: Even if we are trying to be good students of Buddha, if we try to do so for our own sake, even slightly, we slander the Three Treasures. Still, if we stop practicing and sharing dharma with others, again we slander the Three Treasures. We must examine what’s there inside of ourselves, what makes us behave, practice or act in this way, and if we find some defilement we have to let it go and make repentance. That’s how our practice continues and our awakening ripens. Even though we make vows and intend to do the right thing by the three treasures, we can still fall into delusion when we stop paying attention to our actions and motivations, or when our day-to-day activity becomes all about our craving and aversion and not about taking care of the three treasures. Those three evil worlds in this week’s gate statement are the sanakudo 三惡道, or three lower realms of the rokudo 六道. In this world of delusion or samsara we transmigrate constantly through the six realms (2). The three lower realms are hungry ghosts, hell, and animals, or our old friends, the three poisonous minds of greed, anger and ignorance. In the Ekottaragama Sutra it says, Beings who take refuge in Buddha do not fall into lower rebirth. They cease from excess and dwell with humans and gods, and will arrive at nirvana. Taking refuge in the three treasures, doing our practice, doing shikantaza, study and beneficial action, allows for our wisdom and compassion to manifest. We see clearly what’s happening and act skillfully in the world. We get to see how our craving and attachment create suffering for ourselves and others and push us into the three lower realms. In the hungry ghost realm, we want stuff and we’re incredibly frustrated because we never get it (greed). In the animal realm, we simply try to avoid pain and make ourselves comfortable—we’re just complacent and dull (ignorance). In the hell realm, we can’t escape from our anger and hatred, and feel claustrophobic and extremely hot or cold (anger and ill will). These three poisons and their attendent hell realms are the root souce of our suffering and the suffering we perpetuate for others. They aren’t something that comes from somewhere else and strikes us randomly. We put ourselves there in those realms and we can get ourselves out by taking refuge in the three treasures and doing our practice. Questions for reflection and discussion
Notes
(1) Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo – Book 4, translated by Gudo Nishijima & Chodo Cross, Windbell, 1999. (2) The six realms (rokudo) are hell 地獄, hungry ghost 餓鬼, animal 畜生, asura 修羅 , human 人間 and god 天. |
About the text The Ippyakuhachi Homyomon, or 108 Gates of Dharma Illumination, appears as the 11th fascicle of the 12 fascicle version of Dogen Zenji’s Shobogenzo. Dogen didn't compile the list himself; it's mostly a long quote from another text called the Sutra of Collected Past Deeds of the Buddha. Dogen wrote a final paragraph recommending that we investigate these gates thoroughly. Hoko has been talking about the gates one by one since 2016. She provides material here that can be used by weekly dharma discussion groups as well as for individual study. The 108 Gates of Dharma Illumination
[1] Right belief [2] Pure mind [3] Delight [4] Love and cheerfulness The three forms of behavior [5] Right conduct of the actions of the body [6] Pure conduct of the actions of the mouth [7] Pure conduct of the actions of the mind The six kinds of mindfulness [8] Mindfulness of Buddha [9] Mindfulness of Dharma [10] Mindfulness of Sangha [11] Mindfulness of generosity [12] Mindfulness of precepts [13] Mindfulness of the heavens The four Brahmaviharas [14] Benevolence [15] Compassion [16] Joy [17] Abandonment The four dharma seals [18] Reflection on inconstancy [19] Reflection on suffering [20] Reflection on there being no self [21] Reflection on stillness [22] Repentance [23] Humility [24] Veracity [25] Truth [26] Dharma conduct [27] The Three Devotions [28] Recognition of kindness [29] Repayment of kindness [30] No self-deception [31] To work for living beings [32] To work for the Dharma [33] Awareness of time [34] Inhibition of self-conceit [35] The nonarising of ill-will [36] Being without hindrances [37] Belief and understanding [38] Reflection on impurity [39] Not to quarrel [40] Not being foolish [41] Enjoyment of the meaning of the Dharma [42] Love of Dharma illumination [43] Pursuit of abundant knowledge [44] Right means [45] Knowledge of names and forms [46] The view to expiate causes [47] The mind without enmity and intimacy [48] Hidden expedient means [49] Equality of all elements [50] The sense organs [51] Realization of nonappearance The elements of bodhi: The four abodes of mindfulness [52] The body as an abode of mindfulness [53] Feeling as an abode of mindfulness [54] Mind as an abode of mindfulness [55] The Dharma as an abode of mindfulness [56] The four right exertions [57] The four bases of mystical power The five faculties [58] The faculty of belief [59] The faculty of effort [60] The faculty of mindfulness [61] The faculty of balance [62] The faculty of wisdom The five powers [63] The power of belief [64] The power of effort [65] The power of mindfulness [66] The power of balance [67] The power of wisdom [68] Mindfulness, as a part of the state of truth [69] Examination of Dharma, as a part of the state of truth [70] Effort, as a part of the state of truth [71] Enjoyment, as a part of the state of truth [72] Entrustment as a part of the state of truth [73] The balanced state, as a part of the state of truth [74] Abandonment, as a part of the state of truth The Eightfold Path [75] Right view [76] Right discrimination [77] Right speech [78] Right action [79] Right livelihood [80] Right practice [81] Right mindfulness [82] Right balanced state [83] The bodhi-mind [84] Reliance [85] Right belief [86] Development The six paramitas [87] The dāna pāramitā [88] The precepts pāramitā [89] The forbearance pāramitā. [90] The diligence pāramitā [91] The dhyāna pāramitā [92] The wisdom pāramitā [93] Expedient means [94] The four elements of sociability [95] To teach and guide living beings [96] Acceptance of the right Dharma [97] Accretion of happiness [98] The practice of the balanced state of dhyāna [99] Stillness [100] The wisdom view [101] Entry into the state of unrestricted speech [102] Entry into all conduct [103] Accomplishment of the state of dhāraṇī [104] Attainment of the state of unrestricted speech [105] Endurance of obedient following [106] Attainment of realization of the Dharma of nonappearance [107] The state beyond regressing and straying [108] The wisdom that leads us from one state to another state and, somehow, one more: [109] The state in which water is sprinkled on the head Archives
November 2024
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