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Abandonment is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we turn away from the five desires. 是法明門、厭離五欲故。 This week we take up the last of the four brahma viharas or divine abodes. We’ve considered benevolence, compassion, sympathetic joy, and this time it’s abandonment (Skt. upekka), frequently translated as equanimity. You may have heard of something in the Buddhist tradition called the Eight Worldly Winds or Eight Worldly Conditions. These are:
This is the stuff that swirls around us in our lives and pulls us off center or off course. It’s interesting that they’re in pairs of opposites; there is definitely a “good” and “bad” here. We chase after one and avoid the other; it’s basic craving and aversion which, as we know, leads to suffering. Equanimity is being calm and balanced and stable in the midst of the swirling of these eight worldly winds. The English word is made up of “equal” plus “animus,” which is mind or spirit. We encounter various things with equal spirit, looking carefully, not looking away, not immediately deciding to connect with this and throw out that. The gate statement says that abandonment is a gate because we turn away from the five desires, also known as the five hindrances (Skt. pancha nivarana). These are known to be obstacles to tranquility of mind. They are:
At Gate 36 we’re going to be returning to these five desires or hindrances and we’ll go into additional detail then. For the moment, let’s connect the five desires with the eight worldly winds and abandonment or equanimity. The gate statement says that we turn away from sensory desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and doubt. That allows us not to be thrown off in the midst of loss and gain, good-repute and ill-repute, praise and censure, sorrow and happiness. That in turn creates the conditions for equanimity, or the ability to abandon picking and choosing and needing to take a side. All this is a more complex way of saying that if we’re not paying attention to these things arising in our minds and understanding them really well, they get in the way of our zazen and the rest of our lives. Before we realize it, we get hijacked into taking sides, and chasing after and running away from things. As Dogen says, Flowers fall with our attachment, and weeds spring up with our aversion. We want the flowers, and as soon as we see them, our grasping comes up. We don’t want the weeds, and as soon as we see them, our aversion comes up, We can become consumed with that and lose our balance. Once we’ve lost our balance, we don’t see clearly and it’s difficult to be skillful bodhisattvas in the world. It’s really hard to do anything useful for others when we’re caught up in our own greed, grasping and craving. Now, equanimity is not about being passive and apathetic. It would be easy to think that not giving in to desires means that we should just become inert and never make a choice, but it doesn’t really mean we just say, well, everything’s OK and there’s nothing I need to do. It helps us see where can actually be useful and what we just need to let go of, because there are things we want to change and things we can actually change. Having equanimity is about being stable in the face of everything coming at us in good times and difficult times. It’s not about detaching or withdrawing from the world, maintaining our personal peace by ignoring what’s happening. Buddha is not saying we should be indifferent or unconcerned about others. He’s saying that abandoning the hindrances allows us not to get swept away by the eight worldly winds. The only thing we’re indifferent to is the demands of the ego or the small self. In the face of loss and gain, we accept that things come and go. Sometimes we want something we don’t have, and sometimes we have something we don’t want. Sometimes we have something we want and we’re afraid to lose it, and sometimes we’re afraid of something coming into our lives that we’d rather avoid. That’s what this worldy wind is about. When we lose a job or get a new job, break up a relationship or start a new one, make a lot of money or lose all our money -- can we fully enter into what’s going on, fully see and accept what’s happening, and not get blown over by it? In the face of good-repute and ill-repute, or changes in what others think of us, we can do our best to maintain good relationships, but in the end even if we do our best to be skillful, there are those who are just going to disagree with us or even disparage us. In the midst of that, can we stick to our principles and do what we think is right and wholesome? I’m sure you’ve heard this story about Hakuin: A beautiful girl in the village was pregnant. Her angry parents demanded to know who was the father. At first resistant to confess, the anxious and embarrassed girl finally pointed to Hakuin, the Zen master whom everyone previously revered for living such a pure life. When the outraged parents confronted Hakuin with their daughter’s accusation, he simply replied “Is that so?” When the child was born, the parents brought it to the Hakuin, who now was viewed as a pariah by the whole village. They demanded that he take care of the child since it was his responsibility. “Is that so?” Hakuin said calmly as he accepted the child. For many months he took very good care of the child until the daughter could no longer withstand the lie she had told. She confessed that the real father was a young man in the village whom she had tried to protect. The parents immediately went to Hakuin to see if he would return the baby. With profuse apologies they explained what had happened. “Is that so?” Hakuin said as he handed them the child. In the midst of good repute and ill repute, or honor and dishonor, he remained stable and simply cared for the child. In the face of praise and censure or criticism, can we avoid becoming proud or shriveling up and hiding? In the face of sorrow, can we pick up and keep going while taking care of the grieving process? In the face of happiness, can we completely enter in the joy of that while not becoming consumed by it? Within the four brahma viharas, equanimity is not only its own point but helps to refine the other three. Steadiness combined with benevolence, compassion and sympathetic joy helps us wish all beings well and enter equally into their suffering and joy, regardless of our personal likes and dislikes or the condition that we ourselves are in Thanissaro Bhikkhu writes: When you encounter suffering that you can’t stop no matter how hard you try, you need equanimity to avoid creating additional suffering and to channel your energies to areas where you can be of help. In this way, equanimity isn’t cold hearted or indifferent. It simply makes your goodwill more focused and effective. Our interactions and relationships with others don’t swing wildly in one direction or the others depending on how we feel that day or latest thing the other person has done or said. When we remain steady and stable, we create less suffering for ourselves and better causes and conditions for those around us. Regardless of how much goodwill or compassion you’ve cultivated, there are bound to be people whose past actions are unskillful and who cannot or will not change their ways in the present. Equanimity helps make sure we can benefit all beings. Upekkha has been described as freedom from all points of self-reference. It’s also been described as learning to put aside your preferences so that you can watch what’s actually there. Equanimity helps us take a step back and see that not everything is about us, our wants and likes and ideas. As soon as everything is about me, I’m subject to every whim, delusion and misperception that comes out of the small self. It’s an unstable and fatiguing place to be, and not a good basis for decisionmaking. Dogen wrote a waka about equanimity, which Okumura Roshi has translated: Natsu fuyu mo Omoi ni wakanu Koshi no yama Furu shi-ra-yu-ki mo Naru i-ka-zu-chi mo Whether summer or winter, the mountain of Koshi is free from discriminative thinking. It sees equally falling of white snowflakes or roaring of thunder. Not discriminating between summer and winter, accepting all of the different conditions of four seasons, means we encounter summer storms and winter snow with equal spirit. It’s just the next thing that’s happening, and it’s not necessary to decide whether it’s good or bad. We may still need to clear away the fallen trees or shovel the snow—in other words, we may still need to take some action—but we can do that without grumbling. It’s just the next thing that needs to be done. Okumura Roshi says that this waka reminds him of what Dōgen wrote in the Tenzokyokun (The Instructions for the Tenzo) regarding magnanimous mind: As for what is called magnanimous mind, this mind is like the great mountains or like the great ocean; it is not biased or contentious mind. Carrying half a pound, do not take it lightly; lifting forty pounds should not seem heavy. Although drawn by the voices of spring, do not allow your heart to fall. The four seasons cooperate in a single scene; regard light and heavy with a single eye. On this single occasion you must write the word ‘great.’ You must know the word ‘great.’ You must learn the word ‘great.’” This “great” is a pointer back to ”magnanimous.” He’s exhorting us to deeply study what these words mean. Okumura Roshi is giving us a clue here about how we can cultivate equanimity or abandonment. We enter into magnanimous mind and we see and accept 100% of this one unified reality. Imagine a time when you were caught up in one of the hindrances. Maybe you were worried about the outcome of something, feeling unmotivated and that everything was pointless, or feeling bitterness that your input about something was not asked or was disregarded. At times like this, hard to see beyond two immediate stories: there’s what you want and then there’s how things are going. One is good and one is not good, and everything gets evaluated in terms of that dichotomy. You accept one and reject the other, and that’s it. There’s actually a bigger world out there in the world of magnanimous mind. We accept all possibilities and options without judging and labeling from a self-centered perspective. and we can see all sides of the situation and all the elements involved. If you’re doing a jigsaw puzzle and you pick up a piece and try it and it doesn’t fit, you don’t say, “Well, that’s a bad piece” or “I really hate that piece.” You say, “Well, it doesn’t fit there.” You’re able to take action, but it’s not based on what that piece means to you personally; it’s based on what’s needed in that situation. Equanimity allows us to hold both ends of the dichotomy equally and at the same time: loss and gain, honor and dishonor. In the middle of two things, or in the middle of seeming chaos, we can stand up, look around, and see clearly what’s happening and what we need to do. We can see that these two things are not actually separate. In addition to the desire for one element or another, there is frequently an additional desire: to avoid ambiguity. Sometimes we have a hard time with uncertainty. Deciding on one thing or another can give us a feeling of being in control or having something solid to hang onto. It can also make it difficult to change our thinking when we’re presented with new information. That’s when we can find ourselves entrenched, and if the “other side” is equally dug in, that’s a problem. Equanimity allows for keeping an open mind. Just as the mountain has a firm foundation, we need to build a firm foundation in our practice. Giving way to restlessness and doubt makes it hard to practice, and we need that stable practice foundation in order to go forward. We don’t just wake up in the morning and say, Today I’m going to have equanimity and magnanimous mind. They come from deeply understanding the nature of impermanence and no self and how causes and conditions work. Deep understanding requires regular committed zazen practice. Zazen is a fine place to cultivate equanimity. There’s a reason we have phrases like “sit like a mountain.” It’s sitting that’s solid, stable, and unmoving. The mountain has strength and dignity, but is completely natural. Equanimity also has to be natural, not something you put on. It’s not about suppressing thoughts or feelings so you appear calm. It’s about seeing through those thoughts, feelings and hindrances so they don’t cloud your understanding and judgement. 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
December 2024
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