Quietly engaging the world through zazen and dharma study

At Sanshin, beneficial action, the third element of our mission, has in general included work inside the temple to support the practice calendar -- things like ringing bells, taking care of altar flowers, cooking meals during retreats or teaching zazen -- as well as practitioners' external activities like taking care of families and jobs or maybe doing some volunteer work in the community.

Beneficial action is simply creating skillful means to benefit living beings, whether they are noble or humble. For example, we care for the near and distant future of others, and use skillful means to benefit them. We should take pity on a cornered tortoise and care for a sick sparrow. When we see this tortoise or sparrow, we try to help them without expecting any reward. We are motivated solely by beneficial action itself
-- Eihei Dogen, Shobogenzo Shishobo

Skillful action recognizes interconnection and cause-and-effect

How can we transform our consciousness and go beyond this sense of separation from other human beings? This is an especially important question at this time in human history. As a result of developments in science, technology, transportation and communication, the world of human beings has become one community. People from different racial, religious, and cultural backgrounds must communicate and interact with each other. Unless we find some common ground, one on which people can live knowing they are connected to each other, humans beings will not be able to live together peacefully.
-- Shohaku Okumura​

When we're spiritually healthy and have some clarity about the nature of reality, we naturally engage in skillful action -- action that moves us and others toward understanding two related things: interconnection and cause and effect.  

Interconnection or non-separation means that within this one unified reality, nothing is actually disconnected; there is nothing outside of Buddha’s way.  That sounds nice when we think of it as being supported by all beings.  It sound scary and uncomfortable when we think of it as being unable to escape from the things in our lives that we don’t like so much.  How can we help ourselves and others to see and acknowledge interconnection?

Cause and effect is important because it reminds us that what we do has consequences.  We don’t operate in a vacuum; when we do something, it sets up causes and conditions that unfold across space and time.  That means that it’s important that our actions in the world -- even small actions -- are skillful, because whether we’re being wholesome or unwholesome makes a difference for others besides ourselves.  How can we help ourselves and others to see and acknowledge cause and effect?

The role of the temple

The role of the individual

Traditionally, the beneficial action work of Buddhist clergy has been simply in serving their danka (members).  Having no involvement in secular affairs was seen as a virtue; when people became clergy they were no longer required to pay taxes or serve in the military.  By removing itself from economic and political structures (sometimes by physically relocating to a remote mountain) the temple also removed itself from the control of the government.   This kind of separation no longer works because today's temple is a nonprofit corporation in the US (a religious juridical body in Japan) and subject to laws and regulations.  Thus we need to determine what role Sanshin plays in the larger society as distinct but not separate from its role in enabling individual practice. 

The most important consideration is that action taken in the name of Sanshin must be action that does not create division within the sangha.  This means that Sanshin does not take positions on contested political issues or take sides in conflicts.  Choosing one position over another blocks people on the other side from joining and fully participating in the life of the sangha and makes Sanshin part of the conflict.  The felt need to take a position raises questions like "How can we be sure this position represents the feelings of the entire sangha?" and "Who decides what Sanshin's position should be?"  Appropriate activities are those that promote integration and benefit everyone.

Okumura Roshi has identified two kinds of community activities that Sanshin could appropriately undertake as an organization: caring for the earth and providing direct help to those lacking the basic necessities of living.

Initiatives that care for the earth are already underway at Sanshin, read more about them here.  We don't yet know what involvement in direct relief might look like.  We do know that this is a traditional role of temples much as early churches provided hospital care, lodging for pilgrims and meals for the hungry.  Temples served as refuges for those in society who had lost their places and were seeking new directions precisely because the temple itself was outside of the systems of government control and support.  ​

While the role of Sanshin as an organization related to beneficial action looks one way, the role of the individual practitioner can look another.  Through their professions, volunteer activities or material support, individual practitioners can and should be involved in their communities in ways that seem the most meaningful to them based on their bodhisattva vows.  They are free to take positions on issues, engage in public processes of debate and decisionmaking, and work for particular changes, outcomes or circumstances as they see fit.  By supporting their discernment and practice, Sanshin can help to equip these bodhisattvas for effective community engagement.

Ideally our individual practice of beneficial action includes discernment, action and reflection.  It's helpful to create a solid foundation in the precepts, the practice of zazen and the study of teachings about interconnectedness and cause-and-effect that points us toward using our particular karmic conditions most effectively in liberating beings from suffering.  As individuals we each have particular skills and abilities, experiences and interests that we can offer for the benefit of others.  When we decide in what activities we will engage, we can start or partner with community organizations, get training, commit time and resources and concretely carry out our vows.  But our practice doesn't stop there -- we also need to reflect on that experience.  What insight are we gaining into our own motivation, assumptions and delusions?  What fear and ignorance are  we unearthing?  Where are craving and aversion arising, and what might we do differently next time?

We offer our practice to our community as part of our individual bodhisattva activity, but we're also supported in the deepening and maturing of our practice by those very activities.  Our actions don't need to be grandiose.  If we've got the wherewithal to organize large initiatives, donate significant funds or train and manage a legion of volunteers, that's terrific.  It's also meaningful beneficial action to walk to nearby destinations rather than driving, rake an elderly neighbor's leaves or volunteer at the food bank.  At Sanshin itself, beneficial action can mean supporting the sangha's practice by ringing bells, participating in work day, cooking meals during sesshin or teaching zazen.  Each of these activities inside and outside of the temple is a practice of beneficial action that manifests the dharma and is also an opportunity for personal inquiry into the roots of suffering.

As Okumura Roshi notes above, transformation of our understanding of interconnectedness is key.  How do we understand interconnectedness and how do we take action based on that understanding?  We practice beneficial action in the intersection of abstract theory and concrete activity, seeing one reality from two sides and expressing two sides with one action.  Sanshin becomes the place to which we return to share our growing understanding, check our perceptions, broaden our awareness, and gain support to wrestle with the tough questions.  There will be a diversity of views, interests and experiences of engagement as practitioners identify their bodhisattva paths.  What holds it all together is our shared commitment to help beings who transmigrate through samsara.

Putting in a Window
Carpentry has a rhythm that should never
be violated.  You need to move slowly,
methodically, never trying to finish early,
never even hoping that you'd be done sooner.
It's best if you work without thought of the
end.  If hurried, you end up with crooked
door joints and drafty rooms.  Do not work
after you are annoyed just so the job
will be done more quickly.  Stope when you
begin to curse at the wood.  Putting in
a window should be a joy.  You should love
the new header and the sound of
your electric screwdriver as it secures
the new beams.  The only good carpenter
is the one who knows that he's not good.
He's afraid that he'll ruin the whole house,
and he works slowly.  It's the same as
cooking or driving.  The good cook
knows humility, and his souffle never falls
because he is terrified that it will fall
the whole time he's cooking.  The good driver
knows that he might plow into a mother
walking her three-year old. and so watches
for them carefully.  The good carpenter
​knows that his beams might be weak, and a misstep might ruin the place he loves.  In the end,
you find your own pace, and you lose time.
When you started, the sun was high and now
that you're finished, it's dark.  Tomorrow, you
might put in a door.  The next day,
​you'll start on  your new deck.
-- John Brantingham
Putting in a Window, Finishing Line Press, Georgetown, KY, 2005​

Seeing for ourselves and living the reality of life

In the broad view, it's not really possible to separate zazen, work and study.  Zazen and study are themselves forms of beneficial action and they provide the foundation of the activities in which we engage with the community.  The shapers of the Sanshin style -- Kodo Sawaki, Kosho Uchiyama and Shohaku Okumura -- have all taught us that we need to see clearly what's happening within and around us, understand why we believe and value what we believe and value, and not be swept away by habituated thinking -- our own or that of the society.  Sawaki Roshi frequently warned practitioners about falling prey to gurupuboke, group stupidity.  "We live in group stupidity and confuse this insanity with true experience. It is essential that you become transparent to yourself and wake up from this madness. Zazen means taking leave of the group and walking on your own two feet."

Likewise, Uchiyama Roshi said, "If we think about it, there is no doubt that everyone is always living out the reality of life.  But so often we live blindly, so caught up in our thoughts that we think they alone are what is real and complete.  This is a kind of insane reality.  The important thing is to find a sane way to live out the reality of life.  This is what a true spiritual practice is about: not spirit or mind separated from the body and the world, but a true way of life.  This is what zazen is -- a practice of living out the fresh reality of life."