Traditions: Buddhism

TRADITIONS: BUDDHISM

TOREI ZENJI: BODHISATTVA'S VOW

I am only a simple disciple, but I offer these respectful words:

When I regard the true nature of the many dharmas,
I find them all to be sacred forms of the Tathagata's never-failing essence.
Each particle of matter, each moment,
is no other than the Tathagata's inexpressible radiance.
With this realization, our virtuous ancestors gave tender care
to beasts and birds with compassionate minds and hearts.
Among us, in our own daily lives, who is not reverently grateful for the protections of life:
food, drink, and clothing! Though they are inanimate things,
they are nonetheless the warm flesh and blood, the merciful incarnations of Buddha.
All the more, we can be especially sympathetic and affectionate with foolish people,
particularly with someone who becomes a sworn enemy and persecutes us with abusive language.
That very abuse conveys the Buddha's boundless loving-kindness.
It is a compassionate device to liberate us entirely from the mean-spirited delusions
we have built up with our wrongful conduct from the beginning-less past.
With our open response to such abuse we completely relinquish ourselves,
and the most profound and pure faith arises.
At the peak of each thought a lotus flower opens, and on each flower there is revealed a Buddha.
Everywhere is the Pure Land in its beauty.
We see fully the Tathagata's radiant light right where we are.
May we retain this mind and extend it throughout the world
so that we and all beings become mature in Buddha's wisdom.

The man we now call “Buddha” was an Indian prince, born in 560 BCE near what is modern-day Nepal. When you read about his life, you can see many similarities between the Siddhartha Gautama and Jesus of Nazareth. Both men had their births announced by celestial portents and messages. Like Jesus, Siddhartha was born at a time when established religion was more of a business than a spiritual path—and they profoundly changed the way it was practiced. Both men had a message of equality, unity and cosmic love. Siddhartha was actual royalty, with all of its privileges while Jesus was hailed as the “King of kings” but born in poverty, his kingship only known to the chosen few. Both the Indian prince and the Jewish carpenter had their struggles with the physical world; both were teachers who showed the way but taught that the followers would have to walk the path for themselves.

Siddhartha’s father was told by his astrologers that there would be four signs that would lead Siddhartha to renouncing his life and becoming the Buddha, which means “The Enlightened One”: seeing a decrepit old man, a diseased man, a dead man and a monk. He surrounded his son with everything that wealth could buy and trying to make sure that he knew nothing of life but goodness, pleasure and ease. He never experienced any of the sorrows of life and his father worked hard to keep it that way. But try as he would to prevent this, fate has a way of ensuring its fulfillment—Siddhartha managed to leave the palace compound one day and saw all four signs. He was 29 years old when he left his family forever.

He became a complete aesthete, denying all physical pleasure in attempt to find the serenity he saw in the monk (the fourth sign). He wanted to go beyond the miseries of the worldly life, where all comforts and luxuries are worthless and transitory, to finding permanence and supreme peace. For almost 6 years he worked at this and did not find much progress. It was a song, sung by some girls as they passed his hermit’s cave that brought him a message of profound spiritual significance. The words of the song talked about tuning a sitar, that when the strings are stretched too tight, it breaks and there is no music and when they are not tightened enough, there is no music. This opened his mind to the idea of moderation, that he should find the middle path by avoiding extremes. He began to seek out that middle path.

The next major event in his life was his actual enlightenment. As I tell you this story, consider how it follows the Christian gospel of Jesus, how the devil tempted him and how he had a last meal before dying and then being resurrected to bring his message to his followers. Siddhartha follows this pattern, being tempted by the Maya, “dying” to his physical being, and being “resurrected” into Enlightenment.

“Once Buddha was in a dejected mood as he did not succeed in his Yogic practices. He knew not where to go and what to do. A village girl noticed his sorrowful face. She approached him and said to him in a polite manner: "Revered sir, may I bring some food for you? It seems you are very hungry". Gautama looked at her and said, "What is your name, my dear sister?" The maiden answered, "Venerable sir, my name is Sujata". Gautama said, "Sujata, I am very hungry. Can you really appease my hunger?"

The innocent Sujata did not understand Gautama. Gautama was spiritually hungry. He was thirsting to attain supreme peace and Self-realization. He wanted spiritual food. Sujata placed some food before Gautama and entreated him to take it. Gautama smiled and said, "Beloved Sujata, I am highly pleased with your kind and benevolent nature. Can this food appease my hunger?". Sujata replied, "Yes sir, it will appease your hunger. Kindly take it now". Gautama began to eat the food underneath the shadow of a large tree, thenceforth to be called as the great 'Bodhi' or the tree of wisdom. Gautama sat in a meditative mood underneath the tree from early morning to sunset, with a fiery determination and an iron resolve: "Let me die. Let my body perish. Let my flesh dry up. I will not get up from this seat till I get full illumination". He plunged himself into deep meditation. At night he entered into deep Samadhi (super-conscious state) underneath that sacred Bodhi. He was tempted by Maya in a variety of ways, but he stood adamant. He did not yield to Maya's allurements and temptations. He came out victorious with full illumination. He attained Nirvana (liberation). His face shone with divine splendor and effulgence. He got up from his seat and danced in divine ecstasy for seven consecutive days and nights around the sacred Bo-tree. Then he came to the normal plane of consciousness. His heart was filled with profound mercy and compassion. He wanted to share what he had with humanity. He traveled all over India and preached his doctrine and gospel. He became a savior, deliverer and redeemer.”

Once he had attained his enlightenment, he went all over, teaching and gaining disciples, who would go out and teach as well. One interesting note is that Buddha told his disciples not to enquire into the origin of the world, into the existence and nature of God. He said to them that such investigations were practically useless and likely to distract their minds. He welcomed everyone, regardless of caste, sex, social status, wealth or poverty. Anyone could follow his Eight Fold Path. There are stories of Buddha performing miracles, including a rather familiar one about walking on water. He is credited with bringing to an end the practice of sacrificing animals as part of religious ceremony.

He also used parables like Jesus Christ to teach when saying the lesson straight out would not have been understood. In one instance, a woman’s child had died and she wanted Buddha to bring the child back to life. He asked her to bring him some mustard seed from a house where no one had died. She went from house to house in the town, always being told, “Oh, lots of people have died here”. She finally went back to the Buddha, in tears and sorrow because she could not find what he had asked for. He told her "All the objects of this world are perishable and impermanent. This world is full of miseries, troubles and tribulations. Man or woman is troubled by birth, death, disease, old age and pain. We should gain wisdom from experience. We should not expect for things that do not and will not happen. This expectation leads us to unnecessary misery and suffering. One should obtain Nirvana. Then only all sorrows will come to an end. One will attain immortality and eternal peace".

Another time, Buddha went to the house of a rich Brahmin with bowl in hand. The Brahmin became very angry and said, "O Bhikshu, why do you lead an idle life of wandering and begging? Is this not disgraceful? You have a well-built body. You can work. I plough and sow. I work in the fields and I earn my bread at the sweat of my brow. I lead a laborious life. It would be better if you also plough and sow and then you will have plenty of food to eat". Buddha replied, "O Brahmin! I also plough and sow, and having ploughed and sown, I eat". The Brahmin said, "You say you are an agriculturist. I do not see any sign of it. Where are your plough, bullocks and seeds?" Then Buddha replied, "O Brahmin! Just hear my words with attention. I sow the seed of faith. The good actions that I perform are the rain that waters the seeds. Viveka and Vairagya are parts of my plough. Righteousness is the handle. Meditation is the goad. Sama and Dama - tranquillity of the mind and restraint of the Indriyas (senses) - are the bullocks. Thus I plough the soil of the mind and remove the weeds of doubt, delusion, fear, birth and death. The harvest that comes in is the immortal fruit of Nirvana. All sorrows terminate by this sort of ploughing and harvesting". The rich arrogant Brahmin came to his senses. His eyes were opened. He prostrated at the feet of Buddha and became his lay adherent.

Here is what he taught:

The Four Noble Truths -- Life is suffering

Suffering is caused by selfish craving

Selfish craving can be overcome if you follow the Eight-Fold Path

The Eight-Fold Path is a practical method to attain enlightenment and the end of human suffering

Buddhism is sometimes criticized as a "negative" or "pessimistic" religion and philosophy. Surely life is not all misery and disappointment: it offers many kinds of happiness and sublime joy. Why then this dreary Buddhist obsession with suffering? The Buddha based his teachings on a frank assessment of our plight as humans: there is suffering in the world. No one can argue this fact. Suffering lurks behind even the highest forms of worldly pleasure and joy, for sooner or later, as surely as night follows day, happiness must come to an end. Were the Buddha's teachings to stop there, we might indeed regard them as pessimistic and life as utterly hopeless. But the Buddha offers both a hope in the third Noble Truth (Selfish craving can be overcome if you follow the Eight-Fold Path) and a cure for it in the fourth (The Eight-Fold Path is a practical method to attain enlightenment and the end of human suffering). The Buddha's teachings thus give cause for unparalleled optimism and joy. The teachings offer as their reward the noblest, truest kind of happiness, and give profound value and meaning to an otherwise grim existence. One modern teacher summed it up well: "Buddhism is the serious pursuit of happiness."

What then, is the Eight-Fold Path? It is this: Right thought

Right action

Right effort

Right speech

Right livelihood

Right attention

Right concentration

Right understanding

The Eightfold Path is best understood as a collection of personal qualities to be developed, rather than as a sequence of steps along a linear path. The development of right view and right resolve (wisdom and discernment) facilitates the development of right speech, action, and livelihood (virtue). As virtue develops so do the factors identified with concentration (right effort, mindfulness, and concentration). Likewise, as concentration matures, discernment evolves to a still deeper level. And so the process unfolds: development of one factor fosters development of the next, lifting the practitioner in an upward spiral of spiritual maturity that eventually culminates in Awakening.
The long journey to Awakening begins in earnest with the first tentative stirrings of right view — the discernment by which we recognize the validity of the four Noble Truths and the principle of karma. We begin to see that our future well-being is neither predestined by fate nor left to the whims of a divine being or random chance. The responsibility for our happiness rests squarely on our own shoulders. Seeing this, our spiritual aim becomes suddenly clear: to relinquish the habitual unskillful tendencies of the mind in favor of skillful ones. As this right resolve grows stronger, so too, does the heartfelt desire to live a morally upright life, to choose our actions with care.

There are four main kinds of Buddhism: Theravada, Mahayana, Tibetan and Zen/Chan.

Theravada is found primarily in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Myanmar/Burma, Cambodia, and Laos) and Sri Lanka. Numbering over 100 million adherents worldwide, it is beginning to take root in our Western culture. It is the oldest form of Buddhism, with its texts tracing their origins to the Enlightened One himself. Venerable Ananda, the Buddha's cousin and close personal attendant, committed the Buddha's sermons (suttas) to memory and thus became a living repository of these teachings. Shortly after the Buddha's death, five hundred of the most senior monks — including Ananda — convened to recite and verify all the sermons they had heard during the Buddha's forty-five year teaching career. Most of these sermons therefore begin with the disclaimer, "Evam me sutam" — "Thus have I heard."

The teachings were at first handed down orally, but by 250 BCE, they were written and arranged into three categories: the Vinaya Pitaka (the "basket of discipline" — the texts concerning the rules and customs of the Sangha – the unbroken monastic lineage that has preserved the teachings since the Buddha's day, and all those who have achieved at least some degree of Awakening; in other words, the Buddhist laiety), the Sutta Pitaka (the "basket of discourses" — the sermons and utterances by the Buddha and his close disciples), and the Abhidhamma Pitaka (the "basket of special/higher doctrine" — a detailed psycho-philosophical analysis of the Dhamma). Together these three are known as the Tipitaka, the "three baskets." Buddhists do not worry if the Tipitaka contains actual words of Buddha like the Christians ascribe the Bible to being the actual Word of God. It is not regarded as gospel, as an unassailable statement of divine truth, revealed by a prophet, to be accepted purely on faith. Instead, its teachings are meant to be assessed firsthand, to be put into practice in one's life so that one can find out for oneself if they do, in fact, yield the promised results. It is the truth towards which the words in the Tipitaka point that ultimately matters, not the words themselves.

Theravada Buddhism focuses primarily on meditation and concentration, the eighth of the Eightfold Noble Path; as a result, it centers on a monastic life and an extreme expenditure of time in meditating. This focus left little room for the bulk of humanity to join in, so a new schism erupted within the ranks of Buddhism in the first century AD, one that would attempt to reformulate the teachings of Buddha to accommodate a greater number of people. They called their new Buddhism the "Greater Vehicle" (literally, "The Greater Ox-Cart") or Mahayana, since it could accommodate more people and more believers from all walks of life.

Like the Christian Reformation, this was an attempt not to overthrow the established religion, but to “bring it back to its (real) roots.” It took religious authority from the few and gave it out to the many. This is also where the concept of states of enlightenment became added to Buddhism. Each of us lives a series of lives, always working towards Enlightenment, always leading to becoming like Buddha and this added the concept that there is more than one Buddha, since each of us has the potential for complete Enlightenment and therefore, can become Buddha.

The followers of Mahayana also completed the transformation of Buddhism from a philosophy to a religion. Those who follow Theravada believe that Buddha was a man, with a finite lifespan. The Mahayanists developed a theology of Buddha called the doctrine of "The Three Bodies," or Trikaya. When it occupied the earth in the form of Siddhartha Gautama, it took on the Body of Magical Transformation (nirmanakaya ). This Body of Magical Transformation was an emanation of the Body of Bliss (sambhogakaya ), which occupies the heavens in the form of a ruling and governing god of the universe. Finally, the Body of Bliss is an emanation of the Body of Essence (dharmakaya ), which is the principle underlying the whole of the universe. This Body of Essence, the principle and rule of the universe, became synonymous with Nirvana. It was a kind of universal soul, and Nirvana became the transcendent joining with this universal soul.

Tibetan Buddhism derives from the confluence of Buddhism and yoga which started to arrive in Tibet from India briefly around the late eighth century and then more steadily from the thirteenth century onwards. Indian Buddhism around that time had incorporated both Hindu yogic and tantric practices along with the classical teachings of the historical Buddha who lived around 500 BC. It acknowledged that there were two paths to enlightenment. One path was that taught in the sutras according to the historical teachings. The heart of sutra practice was based on morality, concentration, and wisdom. The other path, which has become the cornerstone of Tibetan variations, was tantric. This practice blended the sutra teachings with techniques adapted from Hindu systems of yoga and tantra.

Tantra is more than a sexual technique. It should show up in every aspect of life, in everything that you do. The tantric path includes the following steps:

Lamrim (literally, stages of the path) These are indispensable topics for reflection and contemplation and also the meditations and activities that should naturally follow on from them. The Lamrim embodies the necessary prerequisites for tantra. It is set out as a progressive set of steps.

Relying Upon a Spiritual Guide (learning from someone already on the path)

The Preciousness of Human Life (the importance of using life for something valuable)

Death and Impermanence (uncertainty of death and the unsatisfactory nature of this world)

The Danger of being Reborn in a Lower Realm

Taking Refuge from Samsara (the cycle of endless grasping and eventual disappointment)

Karma (the law of cause and effect which works in this world as well as at esoteric levels)

Developing Renunciation for Samsara (integrating spiritual understanding and values)

Developing Equanimity (accepting, and seeing past, both good and bad experience)

Recognizing that all Beings are as precious as our Mothers (the beginnings of bodhichitta)

Remembering the Kindness of Others

Equalizing Self and Others (realizing that we all want and deserve to be happy)

The Disadvantage of Self-Cherishing

The Advantage of Cherishing Others (loosening the hold of ego through caring)

Exchanging Self with Others (this is the core practice for developing bodhichitta--it involves developing the wish to voluntarily take on others' problems and freely give them one's own happiness in exchange. A sketch of the technique is as follows: breathe in others' woes as black smoke--let it settle into the heart, then breathe out all one's own happiness as white light--let it expand to fill all the cosmos. A practitioner should imagine and rejoice at the effect of both the in- and out-breath. For, on the in-breath, the reality and weight of all the problems in this world sink into the heart and help to dissolve the ego. Likewise, the out-breath brings relief and joy to all others.)

Developing Great Compassion

Taking Responsibility to Relieve Others' Burdens ("exchanging self with others" in action)

Sharing One's Own Good Fortune with Others

Bodhichitta (the desire to attain full enlightenment for the sake of all beings)

Tranquil Abiding (developing advanced stages of concentration)

Superior Seeing (developing emptiness--that is, non-identification with the personal ego)

What is the experience of emptiness like? At the beginning level of physical body and mind, emptiness means that one does not identify with any experience whatsoever. Any sight, sound, or other sense is recognized and honored for what it is, but it is not clung to. Similarly, all thoughts and feelings are also taken in this way--as being real and valuable, but not as being in one's possession so that one does not cling to the experience of them. It is as if all experiences, whether external (in the world "out there") or internal (inner thoughts, hopes, feelings, and desires), are viewed as clouds passing by. The reality is the sky which the clouds float by in. And if the sky is noticed, it too is taken as just another cloud wafting by. The result of this amazing relation to one's experience is an enormous sense of relief, peace, and clarity. At first it seems that one will die if one doesn't cling to experience, but after awhile it becomes apparent that one continues to live on anyway. We are more than just the experiences that we engage in.

This leads us to the ideas of the fourth type of Buddhism, Zen or Chan Buddhism. It began with the teachings of the Buddha, but was brought to fruition in China, Korea and Japan. Focused more on the meditative concentration, it was infused with Taoist and Confucian teachings as well. In China, it is called Chan; in Korean, Seon and in Japan, Zen. In India, the tradition of the mendicant (holy beggar, or bhikku in Pali) prevailed, but in China social circumstances led to the development of a temple and training-center system in which the abbot and the monks all performed mundane tasks. These included food gardening or farming, carpentry, architecture, housekeeping, administration, and the practice of folk medicine. Consequently, the enlightenment sought in Zen had to stand up well to the demands and potential frustrations of everyday life.

All Zen schools are rooted strongly in typical (Indian) Buddhist beliefs: the Four Noble Truths, the Eight-Fold Path, and so on, while at the same time, Zen's emphasis on direct seeing into one's nature keeps it lively and at the edge of the tradition. It is not primarily an intellectual philosophy nor a solitary pursuit. Zen temples emphasize meticulous daily practice and hold intensive monthly meditation retreats. Practicing with others is valued as a way to avoid the traps of ego. In explaining the Zen Buddhist path to Westerners, Japanese Zen teachers have frequently made the point that Zen is a way of life and not solely a state of consciousness. D.T. Suzuki wrote that the aspects of this life are: a life of humility; a life of labor; a life of service; a life of prayer and gratitude; and a life of meditation. And these lives are by necessity all occurring at the same time!

In Japan, Zen is strongly associated with the Samurai, who used its discipline and meditation techniques as adjuncts to the weapon training and martial arts the warriors followed. It is also considered to have allowed a fatalistic view of life to be bearable—it could be honorable to die, knowing that you were working towards becoming a Buddha. It took the mundane physical (training for war) and gave it a mystical meaning, making it something more than just preparing for war, making war holy and the warrior a saint.

One of the other familiar hallmarks of Zen is the koan, or Zen story. In some sense, a koan embodies a realized principle, or law of reality. Koans often appear paradoxical or linguistically meaningless dialogs or questions. The 'answer' to the koan involves a transformation of perspective or consciousness, which may be radical or subtle. They are a tool to allow the student to approach enlightenment by essentially 'short-circuiting' the logical way we order the world. There is a sharp distinction between right and wrong ways of answering a koan—although there may be many "right answers", practitioners are expected to demonstrate their understanding of the koan and of Zen through their answers.

The core of Zen practice is the sitting meditation, called zazen. Awareness is directed towards one's posture and breathing. In Soto Zen, practitioners follow shikantaza meditation ("just-sitting") which is a meditation with no objects, anchors, or content. This is not the same as thinking of nothing. For Zen followers, there is the concept of “mu”, which in Japanese means "no thing" or "the absence of a thing". It does not mean "nothing", for in zen, nothing is still something. The amount of time spent daily in zazen by practitioners varies. The key is daily regularity, as Zen teaches that the ego will naturally resist and the discipline of regularity is essential. Meditation as a practice can be applied to any posture. Walking meditation is called kinhin. Successive periods of zazen are usually interleaved with brief periods of walking meditation to relieve the legs.

Most Zen monasteries and training centers, in the East and abroad, emphasize regular meditation, both on a daily basis and in monthly retreat, as well as a discipline based in practice schedules and everyday household chores such as cooking, cleaning, and gardening as an essential part of the path to enlightenment. In other words, Zen is a part of living; all that you do can help you attain enlightenment and supreme peace, to become Buddha.

This can be said about all four kinds of Buddhism; that they are indeed a way of life, a method of finding peace and connection to the Universe for each of us. Those who follow this path often seem to have a serenity that is missing in our busy Western lives, and so many Americans are turning towards Buddhism to find the answers to their own questions. So I would give you this thought from Werner Erhard: “This is it. There are no hidden meanings. All that mystical stuff is just what’s so.”

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HAKUIN ZENJI - SONG OF ZAZEN

(Dharma poem by Hakuin Ekaku [1685-1768]. Read as part of the ceremony at the end of the day during sesshin.)