|
Enjoyment of the meaning of the Dharma is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we seek the meaning of the Dharma. 法の道理を願うことは法明門である。それは法の道理を求めることだからである。 We need to look closely here at “the meaning of the dharma.” 道理 (dori) translated here as “meaning” is actually reason, logic, or sense. 道 (do) is “way” and 理 (ri) is the same word as the one in ri and ji (事), or absolute and relative. Thus we have something like “the absolute way of the dharma” or “the logic or principle of the dharma.” Negau (願う), translated here as “enjoyment.” actually means to desire or wish for, but the sense is to pray for. Negau shows up all the time in Japanese ekos using the form negawaku. In English ekos we usually say “May such-and-so happen” but Sotoshu translations might say “What we pray for is such-and-so.” Rather than a small-self thirsting desire, this is a larger spiritual aspiration. We should also take a moment to consider the term “dharma.” One meaning is what the Buddha taught—what got recorded in sutras and what teachers like Dogen had to say about the content of Buddha’s teachings. Another meaning is reality, or the way the universe works. The Buddha said that the dharma is always here, whether or not there is a buddha to preach it or a sangha to study it. It’s the true functioning of our lives, whether we like it, expect it, understand it or not. Let’s put this all together. Instead of “enjoyment of the meaning of the dharma,” we might say “aspiring for the reason or logic of the dharma.” In other words, we want to deeply understand how the universe actually works: how the parts fit together, how karmic circumstances unfold, how this one unified reality makes sense. That sounds a lot like bodhicitta. Arousing the mind of awakening makes us want to investigate the lives of the individual self and the universal self, or the self without relation to others that includes everything, that make up this one unified reality. In section 7 of the Genjokoan, Dogen says, “When a person first seeks after the dharma, the person becomes far from the boundary of the dharma. When the dharma is correctly transmitted to the self, the person is immediately an original person.” This whole “seeking after the dharma” thing immediately raises some difficulty. It means we want something and we’re running after it. We think that’s good and OK because it’s the dharma, and yet we keep hearing that craving and aversion or chasing and escaping are the most basic roots of our suffering. We’re far from the boundary of the dharma. Isn’t there a direct conflict between this gate and the teachings about opening the hand and non-attachment? Here’s what Okumura Roshi says: I think that for most of is, we begin to practice in order to fill some emptiness, or to recover from some sort of unhealthy life. We call this aspiration in Buddhist terms bodhicitta, or bodaishin in Japanese, which is often translated into English as bodhi-mind, awakening mind or way-seeking mind. Isn’t this another kind of desire? Yes, it is. Only the object has changed. We feel sick of living seeking after money, fame, status, etc. and we start to look for something spiritual, in our case Buddhism or enlightenment, liberation or nirvana. Without such desire, we don’t have any motivation for a spiritual search. He goes on to say that in this quote from the Genjokoan, Dogen points out that in the beginning of our practice we’re still trying to fill a gap, still practicing with a greedy mind. The motivation to practice becomes the obstacle to practice. Can we practice without desire for practice? If we can do that, then we’re really just sitting, and it’s not “we” who are sitting—the universe is carrying out practice through our bodies and minds. This is where we get to understand the logic or principle of the dharma that this gate is talking about. Bodai-shin or bodhicitta is the mind seeking awakening. It can also be interpreted as the mind that is awake, the mind that aspires to live in accordance with reality instead of being pulled by egocentric desires that work against it. This is the mind that’s not practicing in order to get something for the small self, like stress reduction or spiritual powers. Dogen says in Shobogenzo-Hotsu-bodai-shin (Arousing Bodhi-Mind), “To arouse bodhi-mind is to vow to save others before oneself, and to actually work to fulfill the vow.” If the mind is truly awake and we really understand the nature of reality, then that vow arises naturally and our focus is on all beings, not just ourselves. Thus the search for the dharma, or we could say the search for meaning, is a very natural part of the human condition. It touches on at least two of the components of spiritual health: a balance/integration between individual/universe or self/whole, and a sense of purpose in life and that life has meaning. However, there are two distinct but related searches going on here. The search for the dharma is about understanding how reality actually works, seeing it clearly in its entirety, not leaving things out and not adding in anything extra. Practice is about seeing with the eyes of prajna. The other search is centered on the question of why our lives matter. What’s the role of our individual selves within the universal self? Is there any point to our getting out of bed in the morning? Okumura Roshi says, Our problems begin when we follow our natural human tendency to look for meaning in our activities. We usually don’t do anything without knowing the point of that action. We ask ourselves what the outcome is, why it’s important, how others are affected and whether or not there’s a benefit for us. By extension, we look for the meaning of our lives. I think these two searches are connected, the search for dharma and the search for personal meaning in our lives. If we understand nature of reality, we understand nature of self. Why is something significant, and what’s the context for that? Bodai-shin, the mind that is awake, says: I know there’s something bigger than me, and I want to know more about that. So, is there any point to our getting out of bed in the morning? The answer is yes, because when we get out of bed, the whole universe gets out of bed. We don’t get up just for ourselves, we get up for the whole universe and all the beings in it. When we feel like that’s a tall order—living on behalf of all beings—we can remember that all beings are also living on behalf of us. All beings are getting out of bed in the morning for us, too. There’s no point at which beings are cut off from each other. We can choose to ignore that connection, but that doesn’t make it go away. The point of our lives, or the meaning of our lives, is that we’re bodhisattvas and we were so from the day we were born. Our lives had a point the moment five skandhas took this human form, so we don’t have to worry about not having a place in the universe or something to contribute; those things are already there. That doesn’t mean we understand how that works or how to do it skillfully, with wisdom and compassion, and for that, the practice of aspiring for the reason or sense of the dharma is helpful. How do we investigate our questions so the dharma begins to make sense to us? We engage in the four aspects to our practice here at Sanshin: zazen, work, study and ritual. Zazen is how we come to understand the meaning of the dharma by sitting down and dropping off all the many ways we create separation: by labeling and making distinctions between self and others, and by clinging to our ideas about reality rather than being in touch with actual reality. Instead we let down all the barriers and just let everything in. As Dogen says in the Genjokoan, “Conveying oneself toward all things to carry out practice/enlightenment is delusion. All things coming and carrying out practice/enlightenment through the self is realization.” We’re just sitting right in the middle of it all and experiencing being personally intimate with the universe. There was a time in his life when Okumura Roshi himself had questions about meaning. As a student, he wondered about societal expectations that everyone would do well in school, get good jobs, make money and buy impressive things. He questioned the value of competition for wealth, power, fame and luxury. Was this really a useful measure of what was good and what was not? He read all kinds of things looking for answers, but Whatever I read seemed to be one person’s idea from his limited experiences in a certain time and society. I wanted to know the meaning of meaning. Then he encountered Sawaki Roshi’s teaching that To stop looking for meaning and simply do good-for-nothing zazen seems like liberation from that endless circle of a dog chasing its tail. We don’t look for meaning in our zazen or ask why we do it. We just drop the barriers and let go of thoughts and questions. Then there’s work. That’s one way we investigate the meaning of the dharma with our activity. At Sanshin, work practice is not just volunteer work at the temple, but the actual practice of balancing action and stillness, and of coming to understand the interconnected nature of community. In a way, we’re doing the same thing we’re doing in zazen, dropping off body and mind in the midst of completely engaging in what we’re doing. We can also observe the teachings in a concrete way. If my job is growing vegetables, I see that they change over time, that they depend on seeds and soil conditions, and that they’re connected to other things around them, and all these things are also true of me. We also come to understand how the universe works through dharma study. In Section 10 of his Gakudo-Yojinshu, Dogen said, “There are two things for determining how to settle the body-mind; one is studying with a teacher and listening to the dharma, and the other is putting our energy into zazen. Hearing the dharma allows our minds to disport freely; zazen uses practice and verification just as we use right and left hands. Therefore, to enter the buddha-way, we should not discard either [practice or verification]. If we do, we will never accept [the buddha-way].” Sawaki Roshi apparently summarized this section as meaning that we have to understand our practice and practice our understanding. While it might seem that we engage in zazen for the sake of making sense of opaque texts taken up in dharma study, it’s actually the opposite. We undertake dharma study in order to understand the nature of zazen. Study alone isn’t enough—we have to put in time on the cushion—but without the guidance of teachers and ancestors, we’re apt to come up with our own ideas about what zazen is and go off the rails. Finally, there’s ritual. While work is an active engagement with the community in this time and place, ritual is an active engagement with the community across space and time. Chanting texts integrates them deeply into ourselves just as has happened for Soto Zen practitioners across the centuries, and like the movements of work, the choreography of form and liturgy are concrete experiences of the dharma. Our approach to ritual at Sanshin is to investigate it thoroughly with body and mind such that we’re not merely going through the motions because the calendar says it’s time to do a ceremony or we’re attached to giving an exotic performance. We do everything we need to do, including elaborate rituals when they’re appropriate and meaningful, but nothing more. Maybe you know this famous story about Bodhidharma. Shortly after arriving in China from India, he visited Emperor Wu. “What is the meaning of the dharma?” the emperor asked. “Vast emptiness without holiness,” Bodhidharma replied. “Who is standing before me now?” “I don’t know.” According to Bodhidharma, the whole point of this aspiration for understanding the universe is to understand emptiness. Everything else makes sense and falls into place if we just get that piece, because so many other teachings are related to it. Emptiness, suchness or thusness is the teaching that no conditioned things have a separate or permanent self-nature. There is nothing we can point to in anything we encounter and say, There! That’s the unchanging, essential nature of that thing! Emptiness is basic to our practice and our understanding of everything we encounter. It’s connected to the three marks of existence, the three characteristics of all conditioned things: Impermanence: Everything arises because of causes and conditions; nothing arises from nothing. Those causes and conditions are changing all the time, so whatever arises from them also has to be changing all the time. Without a fixed, permanent self-nature because of impermanence, everything is empty. The very experience of deeply seeing imperanence is directly related to our aspiration for the meaning of the dharma. Here’s how Tairyu Tsunoda, a teacher at Komazawa University, describes it: When one truly sees into the flux of arising and disppearing, the self-centered mind does not arise, thoughts of seeking fame and profit cease, and the mind the seeks the Way of Buddha arises. For this reason, when this mind that seeks enlightenment -- the mind that sees into the transient nature of the world, the mind the seeks the way -- arises, we become free from the selfish, egocentric mind, the mind which seeks fame and profit. We are then alarmed n the extremely quick passage of time. Without wasting any tie, we practice as if we were batting away flames enveloping our head and hair. We devote ourselves to the practice, reflecting on the uncertainty and fragility of our bodies and lives. Our aspiration to understand the dharma supports our seeing impermanence, or seeing with wisdom or with Buddha’s eyes; seeing impermanence reinforces our aspiration to practice and understand the meaning of the dharma. No-self: Even though we think we are individuals who are identifiable as ourselves and stay the same throughout our lives, there’s nothing we can point to and say: There! That’s me! Our bodies and minds are changing all the time. We aren’t separate from all the other beings and things in the universe or from reality or Buddha’s way. There’s just this constantly shifting pile of five skandhas to which we give a name and a story. However, that’s just five skandhas clinging to five skandhas. Without a separate, permanent self-nature, even the self is empty. Suffering, unease or unsatisfactoriness: Because of emptiness, we can’t use conditioned things to make ourselves happy and comfortable in the long term. Those things will change or go away because of impermanence, and there is no self that we need to shore up by chasing and grasping things. Much as we might like to deny emptiness and the three marks, when we do, we set ourselves up for suffering because that’s not how the world actually is. There’s also a connection to interconnectedness: within this one unified reality, nothing can be separate because there’s nothing outside the Buddha way. If everything is interconnected, then we can’t draw a boundary between this thing and that thing and say this is the self-nature of this thing which is different from the self-nature of that thing. It’s like saying the right hand and the left hand somehow have different self natures even though they’re part of the same body. Without a separate self-nature because of interconnectedness, everything is empty. Thus Bodhidharma says that if we really understand that all of existence is empty and why it’s empty, we understand the workings of the dharma. Take anything else our teachers are telling us, and you can relate it to these teachings about emptiness and the three marks of existence. How about the Four Noble Truths and the nature of suffering? When we deny the three marks of existence, we suffer because reality doesn’t actually work that way. We don’t want to believe that things are impermanent or interconnected and we don’t want to believe that we aren’t a “self,” but the universe doesn’t care what we think—it’s going along, doing what it does anyway, and we get a bad surprise. How about the precepts? Mahayana precepts are a description of how we live when we understand emptiness. They’re not actually rules or guidelines, and we have no urge to break them when we really see how the universe works. How about Dogen’s main teachings, for example: practice and awakening are not two? It’s our understanding of emptiness that allows us to manifest our buddha nature or inherent awakening. We don’t need to go out and acquire these things; they’re already here and we don’t get them by practicing. However, when we practice based on understanding emptiness, we immediately manifest awakening without the hindrances of delusion. Practice and awakening are not two. Emptiness is key to our aspiration to understand how the universe makes logical sense. Some Westerners come to Buddhism because if feels scientific. It seems systematic and logical, and it is. Yet Buddhism doesn’t deny that we are also emotional beings. We appreciate friendship and art and chocolate cake. We get upset when a loved one dies or we lose a job. We see things around us that make us feel annoyed or grateful. Here’s the thing: the dharma can make sense of all of that stuff too. Our practice lets us see what’s really happening in our moment to moment experience so we don’t get hijacked or feel like we’re being hit by a tsunami. We can make some plan for skillful action and have some confidence that we can carry it out. We can make bodhisattva vows to liberate all beings from suffering and have some insight into how that suffering arises and what we can do about it. If we aspire to seek out the meaning of the dharma, we’re on the way to being better bodhisattvas. Questions for reflection and discussion
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
January 2025
|
RSS Feed