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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:
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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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