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Compassion is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we do not kill or harm living beings. 悲是法明門、不殺害衆生故. This week we continue our discussion of the part of the text that deals with the four brahma viharas or divine abodes. Last week we talked about benevolence (or loving-kindness or metta). This week it’s compassion or karuna, and we still have sympathetic joy (mudita) and abandonment (upekka) ahead of us. Again, cultivating these qualities was said to lead to the arising of the mind of brahmas or loving gods, or to allow one to live with the gods. In the kanji for compassion 悲是, the first character has to do with grief, sorrow, sadness (hi). Of course, the roots of the English word “compassion” mean to feel with (someone). When we have compassion, we’re feeling someone’s suffering along with him or her. Our interactions with that person and the actions we take arise from our recognition of shared suffering. Compassion is the recognition of the first of the four noble truths: life is characterized by suffering. A sanghe member once asked me whether benevolence and compassion were the same, and I said no. Benevolence is about wishing all beings to be well and happy while compassion is wishing all beings to be free from suffering—recognizing the suffering of beings and doing what we can to relieve it, or at least not perpetuate it. The difference is subtle and they are related, but there are two different aspects here. The opposite of compassion is anger. When someone makes a mistake because of his own suffering, we can take it personally and become angry and lash out, or we can recognize the suffering and try to help stop that chain or cycle of pain perpetuating pain. That’s the difference between anger and compassion. When I first read this gate I immediately thought of this teaching from the Tibetan tradition: Just as I wish to be free from suffering and experience only happiness, so do all other beings. In this respect, I am no different from any other being; we are all equal. Compassion is understanding that all beings can experience suffering just as we can, so we don’t do harm to them. It’s when we see others as others, who are somehow disconnected from us and not our responsibility, that we make mistakes. We can put ourselves in their place because in a way we are already in their place: no one is outside the Buddha Way. As we saw last time, the Mahaparinirvana Sutra is a good source for teachings about the brahma viharas. Buddha is teaching about the pure actions of a bodhisattva, and the sutra makes the point over and over again that Buddha views all beings as he does his son Rahula. We as bodhisattvas are also to see all beings as we would see our own children. This is not easy; people question the Buddha about whether he can really do this. This or that person did this or that bad thing; can you really see him as your son? Yes, it’s true, I really do. The point is not to blame, shun or get angry at the person, but to fix the problem so suffering doesn’t perpetuate. Buddha says it’s like seeing that your okesa has a hole in it and simply repairing it. There’s a tear in the dharma fabric somewhere and something is out of alignment. Suffering arises because something is out of whack—our expectations, perceptions, craving and aversion, or whatever. Our job as bodhisattvas is simply to mend the tear so beings don’t keep falling through the hole. Buddha sees beings falling into hell with their suffering, and because of compassion he tries to do something so it doesn’t keep happening. In the sutra, he says: Should I see but one person falling into Avichi Hell, I would, for the sake of that person, stay in the world for a kalpa or less than a kalpa. I have great compassion for all beings. How could I cheat one whom I regard as my son and let him fall into hell? Seeing a person falling into hell, I cause repairs [to be made] and bestow the precepts for good deeds. Buddha could have seen people making mistakes and falling into hell realms and just written them off or become angry. Instead, he provides teachings, guidance and precepts the way a parent would care for a child. A parent might make a rule that the child not to go outside of the yard and into the street; when the child is older, she understands on her own that the street is busy and dangerous and has no desire to go there, but for now she needs help. This is how we’re also encouraged to approach the world: seeing the suffering of beings and what that suffering leads to. When we wake up, we can see enough to keep some of our suffering from arising, but for now we and others need help. This is compassion, and we can see that it arises from Right View from the Eightfold Path. Right View is a clear and deep understanding of the nature of suffering, how it arises and what we can do about it. If we don’t understand suffering, we can’t act compassionately. Now we can see how wisdom and compassion are connected. We have to have wisdom to see what’s actually going on and to know how to act skillfully to mend the tear. It’s not enough just to feel sorry for someone; I feel sorry for you still means I don’t see your suffering as my own (and I’m glad it didn’t happen to me). Also, Dogen’s teacher Tendo Nyojo tells us how zazen and compassion are connected: The zazen of buddhas and ancestors places primary importance on Great Compassion and the vow to save all living beings. … In buddhas’ and ancestors’ zazen, they wish to gather all Buddha Dharma from the time they first arouse bodhi-mind. Buddhas and ancestors do not forget or abandon living beings in their zazen; they offer a heart of compassion even to an insect. Buddhas and ancestors vow to save all living beings and dedicate all the merit of their practice to all living beings. The vow to save all beings means to liberate all beings from suffering. This is Great Compassion, and the kernel of the whole thing. The most important, basic kind of compassion is the first of the Four Bodhisattva vows: liberating all beings from suffering. This is what our practice is all about. Buddhas and ancestors do not forget or abandon living beings in their zazen. Again we are reminded that we’re not sitting for our own benefit alone. We’re not sitting so that we can reduce our stress and feel peaceful or have a peak experience; we’re sitting in order to liberate all beings. Zazen is not about closing ourselves off from the world in order to focus or concentrate; it’s about letting the whole world and all beings in. We don’t forget or abandon living beings in zazen. If compassion is the whole point of our practice and we’re putting all of our attention there, then it’s not possible to harm beings, because anger and ill-will is the opposite of compassion. When we see how central Great Compassion is in our practice and tradition, then no wonder Kannon is such an important bodhisattva. Kannon is the embodiment of our aspiration to free all beings from suffering. One of the manifestations of Kannon has a thousand hands and eyes, and Dogen wrote a whole fascicle about it. He says that Kannon’s whole being is hands and eyes—in other words, compassion fills the universe. There is no “I see suffering with my thousand eyes so I’m using my thousand hands to help.” Compassion is already completely there. Kannon’s whole being and our whole being is compassion. Eyes are seeing everywhere and hands are helping everywhere wherever there are suffering beings to be liberated. There are a lot of stories in the medieval Buddhist tale literature about Kannon manifesting in various forms to save people in their hour of need: curing illness, saving them from danger, helping the poor, helping them have children, or liberating themselves or their parents from hell realms. Kannon stories are among the most popular in the tale literature. Why? Because we all suffer and would like to be saved. You may know that Avalokitesvara in India was male, and somehow by the time he makes his way to China and becomes Kuan Yin and to Japan as Kannon, he becomes female. The male version was said to represent compassion in a general way, but the female version is compassion in action. Compassion isn’t just a feeling. It’s something we do. No wonder, then, that in the tale literature, Kannon actively comes to the aid of people who need help. As we move through the world, we do our best not to cause injury or harm, but compassion isn’t about just being nice, never doing or saying anything that shakes anyone up. Sometimes the compassionate thing to do is to bruise someone’s ego. If I’m drinking on the job, the compassionate thing is for my supervisor or somebody to say, “Look, get it together. You can’t go on like this.” If I let my ego get involved, I might feel foolish or insulted, but that doesn’t make this an uncompassionate act. What about all the rest of the people around me who are affected by what I do? Dealing with me is the compassionate thing for them. Preventing harm to beings can mean making the tough call and it might be that not everyone likes it. Compassion is not all hearts and flowers and sugary stuff. It’s not one big Hallmark card. Seeing all the suffering of the world and vowing to liberate beings is not an easy thing. People sometimes ask, how can I take on all the suffering of the world when I can’t even deal with my own? If we take it on like Kannon, there is no such thing as compassion fatigue. Compassion doesn’t come at a personal cost to ourselves if our egos aren’t poking their heads in. My friend and fellow dharma teacher Dr. Tomon Marr is a palliative care physician. She wrote a piece called “Can Compassion Fatigue?” in the Journal of Palliative Care. (She also gave a dharma talk on the topic here.) She makes the point that to say compassion can fatigue assumes that there’s a limited well of compassion in each of us. Once it’s used up, either we must replenish the well, or move along without it, devoid of our compassion or with impaired compassion. Instead, if we’re just wholeheartedly focused on this moment without worrying about where else we should be or what else we should be doing, we can show compassion without burning out. Our self-care strategies can actually work against us if we’re getting through the day in order to get to our real life or our leisure time, where self-care supposedly happens. She’s speaking here specifically of compassion fatigue. We certainly need physical rest, downtime, and activities other than work. However, rather than relying on going somewhere other than here and now to recover from compassion fatigue, we have to understand what compassion really is. Real compassion doesn’t cost us anything. Perhaps what gets in the way is the idea that we should be able to finish the work. Beings are numberless and I vow to free them, but it’s not possible. It’s a never-ending uphill slog. Just because can’t do everything doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do anything. As Okumura Roshi has frequently reminded us, our practice will always be incomplete. We do our best not to harm beings. We recognize that one of the marks of existence is suffering. We all have that in common: we all want to be free from suffering and not come to harm. The opposite of harming beings is seeing that all beings are suffering and doing what we can to lessen that suffering. We take bodhisattva vows that include liberating all beings. Compassion becomes a dharma gate when non-harming is the natural outgrowth of our wisdom rather than something we have to acquire or put on. For now, we may need to remind ourselves to look for the compassionate response to what’s happening in our lives, but the more we practice the more it arises naturally because there’s no gap. Our challenge is: how do we get out of the way of our own compassion—because there’s an unlimited well already there. We just have to find it. Questions for reflection and discussion
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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
September 2024
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