Rev. Oriana La Chance, Prior of the Eugene Buddhist Priory
<http://www.eugenebuddhistpriory.org>, offered the following in the most
recent edition of Walking the Buddha's Path:*
Thoughts on the Paramita of Meditation
Since the priory began having our Sunday morning gatherings via Zoom, I
have been looking at the paramitas with the congregation. Not exactly in a
linear or systematic way—just picking up bits that get a “Hum, very
interesting,” or “Wow, yes” from me and exploring those bits. The
paramitas—the six perfections—are generosity, ethical discipline,
patience,
joyful effort, meditation and wisdom. In his book on the paramitas, *Entering
the Mind of Buddha, *Reb Anderson writes,
*“At the heart of this book is the assertion that the six heroic practices
of bodhisattvas are the appropriate response of the buddhas. These
practices invite us to enter the mind of buddha. . . . These practices are
methods of training bodhisattvas to leap beyond duality, suffering, and
delusion, while also leaping beyond enlightenment. These great,
transcendent practices arise in communion with buddha. They are a path of
training in being fully ourselves and allowing things to be fully
themselves. From that fullness, an appropriate response comes forth. These
teachings help us to understand the dynamism and vitality within the
stillness and the silence of the buddhas.”*
Reading this I am reminded that several years after I began giving Dharma
talks, I told my teacher that I was tired of giving talks on the paramitas.
I remember saying something like, “How much can you say about the
paramitas?” You know, ho hum, sort of a drag. I suspect this “sort of a
drag” came out of a fear of this independent self being “curtailed” by
generosity, by patience. Not freed, but held back. Yet, now, it seems to me
that the paramitas contain multitudes, and our understanding can only go
deeper and deeper, as they become more immediate to us.
The past few weeks I have been talking with the Sangha about the paramita
of meditation from the perspective of Great Master Dogen. In particular, I
have looked at Rev. Master Daishin Morgan’s thoughts, in his book *Buddha
Recognizes Buddha, *on Dogen’s “Rules for Meditation.” What I am
interested
in here is his response to Dogen’s passage:
*“Since Truth is not separate from training, training is unnecessary—the
separation will be as that between heaven and earth if even the slightest
gap exists, for when the opposites arise, the Buddha mind is lost. However
much you may be proud of your understanding, however much you may be
enlightened, whatever your attainment of wisdom and supernatural power,
your finding of the way to mind illumination, when the opposites arise you
have almost lost the way to salvation.”*
What is it about the opposites that trips us up? What hold does duality
have on us, and why is it so hard to give it up? Rev. Master points us in
this direction:
*“This is what happens when we believe that the situation we find ourselves
in lacks something. Such a feeling comes from dissatisfaction from the
judgment that the present is insufficient, and for it to be right,
fulfilling or enlightened we must add or remove something. We have divided
the present and judged the body of the Buddha as inadequate and become
immersed in the sense of incompleteness that accompanies the opposites.
Thus, we cannot see the Buddha mind.”*
What gives me pause here is, *“We have . . . become immersed in the sense
of incompleteness that accompanies the opposites.”* I’m struck by Rev.
Master’s juxtaposition of “incomplete” and “the opposites.” Yes.
Can there
be a sense of completeness when we divide things up into good and evil, I
want and I don’t want, myself and other? Aren’t we, in effect, dividing
ourselves up? How can our lives be complete when we define ourselves by
division—what I call *“this and not that.” *When the opposites
arise, there
is always an “other,” something “over there” that we are striving
for. Or,
there is something we push away because it doesn’t measure up to our idea
of “when everything is just the way I want it to be.” This underscores
our
sense of separation, of almost being at war with the universe so that we
can get “mine,” so that we can make the world be the way we believe it
should be—if I’m honest, not for others, but for me. As long as we feel a
need to fix it, rearrange it in our image, there will be the fear and
desire that arise from a sense of something not being quite right. We feel
the gap between heaven and earth. Fear and desire become the basis for our
actions and, indeed, the Buddha mind is lost.
Rev. Master also writes,
*“The whole point of zazen is that we can entrust ourselves to the way
things are without needing to filter it through ideas and abstractions of
training, which will always be at least one step removed from the immediate
truth. Thus, in zazen, we learn to sit without adding anything or taking
anything away. To just sit is to train, and to train is to entrust
everything to the truth. . . . ”*
And, also:
*“To say that the life of the universe is training is another way of saying
that the life of the universe is the constant manifestation of Buddha
nature.”*
If the truth of Buddha nature is universal, then we cannot be separate from
it. It is already complete. Can we trust that, or do we have to get in
there with our individual spin on everything? It is our spin that creates
the idea of this separate being in a constant *competitive* dance with
everything. A dance we can only dance alone. Where is there opportunity for
the stillness and silence Dogen writes about?
In “Rules for Meditation,” Dogen begins with the idea that
enlightenment is
not created and cannot be destroyed. It doesn’t come or go. Enlightenment
is Buddha nature. Following from this, and very important, Rev. Master goes
on to say:
*“Zazen is an expression of our enlightened nature, rather than a means to
enlightenment.”*
Let me underline that by saying it again: “*Zazen is an expression of our
enlightened nature, rather than a means to enlightenment.”*
Doesn’t this make everything brighter and lighter? No intense holding
ourselves to some form which will bring us enlightenment, if we are good
enough, fierce enough, use our will enough to create some better state down
the road, maybe.
Again, as Reb Anderson begins his book:
*“These great, transcendent practices arise in communion with buddha. They
are a path of training in being fully ourselves and allowing things to be
fully themselves. From that fullness, an appropriate response comes
forth.”*
The paramitas? Maybe not sort of a drag. Maybe not so, yawn, boring.
Rather, the key to a good life. I don’t mean by this a life in which we
“do
good.” I mean a life led in accord with the truth.
I take refuge in the Buddha; I take refuge in the Dharma; I take refuge in
the Sangha.
"Zazen is an expression of our enlightened nature, rathern than a means to enlightenment." I've heard this stated a number of times, in a a number of ways but today.......the meaning was more clear. Love that.