|
Delight is a gate of Dharma illumination; for it is the mind of peace and tranquility. 歡喜是法明門、安穩心故。 Joy, happiness or delight—what a satisfying result for which to aim in our practice! Surely practice can fix all the things that make us unhappy and point us toward a pure paradise where life is beautiful all the time. Isn’t that what it means to liberate ourselves and all beings from suffering? First, we need to ask ourselves what happiness is, exactly. Having an abundance of chocolate cake or social media likes? Getting rid of the noisy neighbors? Knowing that we’ve paid our income taxes for this year and we don’t have to worry about them for another twelve months? Indeed, if and when those things happen, we’ll probably feel pretty good—at least, for awhile. But soon we’ll be off on a quest for the next thing that will bring delight when it either shows up in our lives or exits stage right. Somehow, we always want things to be different from the way they are. This, of course, is Buddha’s first and second noble truth: human life is charactized by the suffering that comes with chasing after things and running away from things. So, from where does deep and sustainable delight really come, and how do we get our hands on it? The good news is that it’s already here, if we know how to find it. Practice is about knowing how to find delight here and now, not about getting better at acquiring things from somewhere else. Being able to experience delight is a good indication that we’re also experiencing peace and tranquility. The Sanskrit word at the basis of these elements means that the body and mind are at ease or at rest, and things are stable and safe. It’s the opposite of agitation and anxiety. We need to be tranquil in order to experience real delight. Thrill-seeking might seem fun or rewarding for the moment, but doesn’t lead to lasting happiness. Also, of course, if we’re agitated because we’re angry or fearful we can’t experience delight either. We might characterize all of these things as disturbance. Peace and tranquility is freedom from disturbance. That doesn’t mean we remain perfectly still and silent all the time, or that we can’t dance or sing or cry or engage in whatever is happening in this moment. It means we can do all of those things and yet not be disturbed. When we’re not disturbed we have peace, and when we have peace, then delight can arise. How do we keep from being disturbed? We avoid grasping and judging. As soon as I grab something, give it a name, decide whether it’s a good or bad thing for me, I have disturbance. Can we encounter each thing as it is, engage with it appropriately and let go of it and move on? If so, we can be delighted with whatever we’re doing and whatever circumstance we’re in. Avoiding disturbance is not becoming inert or passive. It’s not about separating ourselves from what’s happening or protecting our equanimity by being stand-off-ish. We’re wholeheartedly entering into this moment and this reality, and everything that it presents. We can be Jizo Bodhisattvas going into hell, and still we can stand up straight, and still delight can arise. Balancing the cultivation of tranquility with the need to carry out our activities in the world—in other words, experiencing delight without disturbance—is a key point of practice at Sanshin. It comes to us directly from Uchiyama Roshi’s life experience as a Japanese who was born at the beginning of the Taisho era (1912). In the Tokugawa era (1600-1868), Japan was closed to outside influences, social classes were fixed, a centralized government held power, the size of the population was stable and there was little change. Fixed social classes meant that there was no competition or freedom of choice. A stable population required no advances in agriculture to feed a growing number of people. Without competition, there was peace of mind. Instead of going toward development and progress, energy went into refining the culture, increasing sophistication and elevating its aesthetics. During the Meiji era (1868-1912), Japan began to be influenced by Western ideas about organization and government as well as science and technology. It had to study and adopt these Western forms of progress so that it wouldn’t be left behind or swallowed up as a Western colony, but peace of mind was lost as a result. Uchiyama Roshi witnessed the effects of this change, and this experience prompted his question: how do we find a balance between progress and peace of mind? He considered how Japan was to integrate its serene traditional culture with more driven Western development. He studied Western philosophy and Christianity as well as Buddhism in an effort to come to an understanding, and he concluded that the bodhisattva path and working hard for all beings rather than oneself was the answer. The exploration of this question of balance is the topic of his well-known book Opening the Hand of Thought. Progress can encourage competition, and the result of competition is a few winners and many losers. Winners have power and money and sit at the top of the pyramid. However, Uchiyama Roshi says that there are no real winners because achieving power and money leads to disturbance and suffering: fear of loss and no peace of mind. If we turn our efforts to working for all beings’ benefit and development rather than competing for our own gain, we harness the energy of our discovery, innovation and building for the creation of wholesomeness and liberation from suffering. We experience delight. We live with a day-to-day tension between chasing after or escaping from things and avoiding taking any action at all in order to remain calm. Uchiyama Roshi points out that this same tension exists in our practice of zazen. While we’re aiming for nonthinking, we are usually wobbling between sleeping and thinking or, as Dogen puts it in the Fukanzazengi, dullness and distraction. Shikantaza gives us the opportunity to put ourselves into the intersection of peace and progress and see what’s there. We can do this not only during zazen but also in the midst of work and study. One of my dharma teacher friends once asked her sangha to consider what makes up a skillful attitude toward work. “If I can’t have fun vaccuuming,” she asked, ”when will I have fun?” If we can just vaccuum without grumbling, delight can arise, and it’s not delight at having a clean carpet. That kind of response is still based on attachment. There’s no need to look for the silver lining or to make things OK, to convince ourselves of the virtues or qualities of our circumstances in order to justify our activity. That’s just another place to get stuck. The term translated as delight in the gate statement is 歓喜 kanki. Both kanji mean joy or delight. A related term is 随喜 zuiki, the delight of participating in practice. 随 Zui means through or during, so the feeling of this term is delight while engaged in something. It comes from Chapter 18 of the Lotus Sutra, “The Merit of Appropriate Joy.” This section describes various incidences of someone hearing the dharma, experiencing delight, and then sharing the dharma with others: the delight of participating in practice. Traditionally, there are four ways to engage with the dharma: hearing, teaching, reading and reciting or chanting. When we hear the dharma and start to practice, we can begin to see how we create suffering in ourselves and others with our greed, anger and ignorance, and over time we may get better at heading off this kind of disturbance. We may become more peaceful and tranquil, and more likely to respond to dharma practice by experiencing delight. Whether we’re hearing a talk, helping others with their practice, reading a dharma book or participating in a service, delight can arise naturally. When there’s a lot of static in our lives, it’s harder to take in the teachings and really be aware of what’s happening in our bodies and minds. On the other hand, when we aren’t agitated, the dharma can get in, it can help us calm down and experience delight, we can practice, and continue to take in more dharma. The more dharma, the more delight! This delight is not about our personal happiness, so we’re able to take it into the world for the benefit of others. For instance, in Dogen Zenji’s Tenzo Kyokun, we find, “When tenzos are engaged in cooking, although they encounter coarse [ingredients] they should not arouse negligence; although they encounter delicacies they should be all the more diligent. Therefore, to fulfill these duties for one day and one night is to delight in participating in practice.” (1) To not judge ingredients, to have equanimity while working in the kitchen or anywhere in our lives, is to delight in participating in practice and to be able to benefit others. Okumura Roshi explains this unselfish delight in Chapter 1 of Living by Vow when he writes about the informal meal chant: “As we take food and drink, I vow with all beings to rejoice in zazen, being filled with delight in the dharma.” In Japanese, we say Nyaku onjiki ji tougan shujou, zennetsu ijiki houki juman. Delight in the dharma is houki (法喜), literally dharma delight. Yup, it’s the same ki as kanki and zuiki. Okumura Roshi wrotes, “When we eat, we should be happy. This happiness is the enjoyment of dharma. We consider the taste of food to be the taste of dharma. When we receive or eat a meal, we shouldn’t grasp the taste. Usually when we eat, we encounter our food with our desires. These desires are the cause of delusion or samsara. The Buddha and Dogen Zenji teach us to become free from desires caused by objects. This is Dogen’s teaching of shinjin datsuraku, or dropping off body and mind. Our joy when we receive food is not the fulfillment of our desire. It is the joy of dharma and zazen. I think this is the most essential teaching about food and eating.” (2) In zazen we just observe our desires and delusions coming up without acting on them. It’s a great chance to create the conditions for delight to arise because the heart and mind settle down. A genuine selfless delight is an indication of some degree of tranquility and an encouragement to our practice—thus it becomes a gate of dharma illumination. Questions for reflection and discussion
Further reading and listening
Notes (1) Dogen’s Pure Standards for the Zen Community, translated by Shohaku Okumura and Taigen Leighton. State University of New York Press; Annotated edition (1995). (2) Living by Vow by Shohaku Okumura, Wisdom Publications (2012), p. 106. Comments are closed.
|
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
|
RSS Feed