“The most important question for all Buddhists is how to understand birth and death completely for then, should you be able to find the Buddha within birth and death, they both vanish. All you have to do is realize that birth and death, as such, should not be avoided and they will cease to exist for then, if you can understand that birth and death are Nirvana itself, there is not only no necessity to avoid them but also nothing to search for that is called Nirvana.” 1
I’ve heard the explanation that we come into existence because there is a “critical mass of karma”. This karmic mass is the result of having acted on ignorance. Starting from a place of ignorance, our task, should we wish to harmonize body and mind and find the cure for suffering, is to convert the ignorance into understanding that birth and death are Nirvana itself. It does little good to consider this as an intellectual idea. I want to look at what specifically needs to be done in addition to doing sange, taking the Precepts and making the vow to work for the good of all living things. Great Master Dogen discusses this by defining the Bodhisattva mind through the four wisdoms.
“The Four Wisdoms, charity, tenderness, benevolence and sympathy, are the means we have of helping others and represent the Bodhisattva’s aspirations. Charity is the opposite of covetousness; we make offerings although we ourselves get nothing whatsoever. There is no need to be concerned about how small the gift may be so long as it brings true results for, even if it is only a single phrase or verse of teaching, it may be a seed to bring forth good fruit both now and hereafter. Similarly, the offering of only one coin or blade of grass can cause the arising of good, for the teaching itself is the True Treasure and the True Treasure is the very teaching: we must never desire any reward and we must always share everything we have with others. It is an act of charity to build a ferry or a bridge and all forms of industry are charity if they benefit others.2
I want to explore the idea of charity and what needs to be given in order to make it possible to understand birth and death a little bit better. In our culture, charity usually implies financial gifts to help the poor. I think the Buddhist understanding of charity may be much bigger than this. As Dogen explains the real gift is the True Treasure which is the Dharma. When we manifest our respect and gratitude for the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, when we manifest respect for the gift of life and death that we have received, we are being generous and charitable. Some might have a difficult time imagining that death is part of the gift, but anyone who has meditated with the dying and experienced the death of someone close to them, will have a new appreciation for the Buddha’s teaching that life is impermanent. Anything that helps us understand this is a great gift. We cannot learn this in the abstract, but only in the willingness to honestly face the reality of death with an open heart. 3
In addition to the teachings, financial contributions to charities and the Sangha, and acts of industry that benefit others, it might be helpful to see how to be generous internally. What do we have to give to our own mind/body/heart? Elastic is described as “giving” because it stretches; it is flexible. That seems to me to be a significant aspect of giving, being able to be flexible, to stretch and allow ourselves the internal space to relax and open up the mind/body/heart to find solutions to the problems of suffering. I’ve heard my teacher refer to meditation as “luxury of mind.” In meditation we give ourselves the luxury of time and stillness from which genuine peace can manifest. In meditation we have the opportunity to give our full attention. Giving one’s time, attention, or effort in a selfless way are important aspects of charity.
Doing things wholeheartedly: giving one’s all, is manifested in our commitment to the keeping of the Precepts and the doing of the meditation. Faith is a “giving in trust” or entrusting ourselves to the care of the Unborn. In this aspect it is a giving up of the self. This willingness to make an offering of one’s suffering is perhaps the most difficult aspect of the gift. “The real gift is getting rid of something we never wanted anyway:” our own suffering. But because it is viewed as uniquely “my own,” the giving up of suffering means that we face the fear of losing the self. However uncomfortable is the suffering, at least it is familiar. The fear of giving up the self is inextricably entwined with the fear of confronting the unknown.
There is an aspect of giving that is described when a physical object has give or play in it. It is connected with the idea of flexibility, but the idea of play is an idea of being relaxed and willing to explore the unknown, as young children play with an idea or as young animals play with each other as a natural aspect of learning. So with genuine charity we have to give play to the heart/mind/body in order to find the compassion, love and wisdom necessary to transform the suffering into understanding.
Great Master Dogen quotes Shakyamuni as saying: “that one must turn the stream of compassion within and give up both knowledge and its recognition.” 4 This is the way one can harmonize body and mind and enter the stream of Buddhism. This giving up seems to entail the aspect of giving in trust, which has an important function of giving up control. The self no longer dictates our actions based on emotions, likes/dislikes, greed, anger or fear. This is giving up of the knowledge of the intellect and emotions without cutting ourselves off from these things and without letting them control our actions. We cannot fully understand the Buddhist teaching on giving without seeing that giving and receiving are not separate things. Koho Zenji reminds us that if we can give up something as small as the self we can know something as great as the universe. Just as with giving and receiving, we must understand that control in Buddhist practice is not exercised by holding on but by letting go. It is also helpful to see these things in terms of process not in terms of attainment or achievement.
The Scripture of Avalokiteshwara Bodhisattva tells us that we must become like this Bodhisattva, all compassionate, completely sympathetic, tender, willing to respond to the suffering of all sentient beings with skillful means and then it throws in the line about control: “As thunder shakes the universe does he control his loving body and his thought of great compassion like a cloud from which a rain of dharma comes as nectar down, destroys the flames of evil passions all.” 5 If we controlled our bodies “as thunder shakes the universe” then we would let it rumble on through, rattling our little cage of self and letting the sparks of lightning flash where they will. The universe “is not answerable to my personal will for, without fail, evil is vanquished and good prevails.” 6 Great Master Dogen talks about this issue of control in The Rules for Meditation by saying: “Control mind function, will, consciousness, memory, perception and understanding” and follows this instruction with the admonition not to strive to become Buddha. 7 So how does one control memory for example? If you try very hard to remember something, the harder you strive, the further away it gets. When you relax and forget about trying to remember it, it surfaces by itself. This is the same control that thunder exercises over the universe. Thunder, like enlightenment, is not controlled by my personal will, but is produced “when all conditions ripen.”
The simplistic mind will want to think that if we have no control, then we therefore have no choices. This could not be farther from the truth. We have thousands of opportunities in each minute to exercise choices. We have enormous amounts of control when it comes to limiting the self. “Turning the stream of compassion within” comes when we stop attempting to control the external situation and start making wise choices in controlling the six thieves.
“The calamities and misfortunes created by the thieving done by the five senses stretches from generation to generation; because their harm is exceedingly heavy, great caution is necessary. Wise is the one who is the governor and regulator of his senses and not their follower; treat them as though there were thieves; do not let them indulge in indolence and evasiveness. If you let them indulge themselves, they will soon enough see to their own obliteration for the lord and master of these five senses is the discriminatory mind, therefore you should govern your mind well… When you achieve meditation, your heart is not in turmoil or your mind scattered; just as a household that would be frugal with water arranges dikes and pond banks carefully, so a trainee does likewise. Therefore, for the sake of the water of discriminate wisdom, practice meditation well that you may prevent the loss of that water through leaks caused by the defiling passions. This is what I call ‘doing meditation’… What the World-honored One desires with His great compassion is to benefit all by means of their ultimate realization of their identity with Buddha… The Teaching that to spiritually benefit yourself by training, benefits others, contains all.” 8
The choices we have made in the past, based on ignorance as to the real nature of self, have led to our current suffering. Those choices were made by the discriminatory mind, the mind of emotions and judgments, the mind of likes and dislikes, the mind that is led by greed, anger, and fear. The choices we make in the present will determine whether or not that ignorance gets transformed into deeper understanding. We have the same power and control as that of the Buddha. If we awaken to the mind of the Bodhisattva, then we empower these subtle instincts to act as a Bodhisattva would act, to act with tenderness, sympathy, benevolence and charity. When acting thus, we can transform the suffering into a True understanding of birth and death. If we give up both knowledge and its recognition, if we learn to control the self, we will find that place of peace in the midst of the passing rumblings of karmic thunder.
References:
1 Great Master Dogen Shushogi, What is Truly Meant by Training and Enlightenment, as translated by Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett, M.O.B.C. in Zen is Eternal Life, Shasta Abbey Press, 1987, p. 155.
2 Ibid, p. 160. Since charity is the opposite of covetousness, compare the Kyojukaimon and Commentary for the Precept “Do not Covet. The doer, the doing and that which has the doing done to it are immaculate, therefore there is no desire. It is the same doing as that of the Buddhas.’ Thus there is nothing to be coveted and no one that covets. ‘Now you have so guard well,’ says the scripture.”
3 See The Gift by the author in August-September 1992 Santa Barbara Buddhist Priory News and Events Calendar.
4See Zen is Eternal Life cited above at p. 133.
5 The Scripture of Avalokiteshwara Bodhisattva, as translated by Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett in the Liturgy of The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives for the Laity, Shasta Abbey Press, 1990, p. 50.
6 See Zen is Eternal Life cited above at p. 156.
7 See the Liturgy of The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives for the Laity, cited above at p. 98, and “Neither a clear head for a good knowledge of learning are of great importance any more than are mind, will, consciousness, thought, understanding or perception; all of them are useless; to ender the stream of Buddhism one must just simply harmonize the mind and the body.” See Great Master Dogen in Zen is Eternal Life, p. 133.
8 Excerpts from The Buddha’s Last Teachings taken from Buddhist Writings on Meditation and Daily Practice: The Serene Reflection Meditation Tradition, Rev. Hubert Nearman, O.B.C., translator, Rev. Master P.T.N.H. Jiyu-Kennett, M.O.B.C. and Rev. Daizui MacPhillamy, M.O.B.C. consultants and editors, Shasta Abbey, Mount Shasta, CA, 1994, pp. 249,256,257, and 259.