going forth

 Zen Teacher Norman Fischer

“… the Buddha spoke of four ways of practice: not practicing, practicing for oneself, practicing for others, and practicing for both oneself and others, the best of these being to practice both for oneself and for others. If that’s what we’re doing, then we really need to see ourselves as practicing for peace, disciplining ourselves, becoming peaceful, but not for our own sake alone: training ourselves so that we can become effective warriors for peace, so that peace will spread. I don’t mean a naïve peace, but one that takes into account the way the world really is. We need to be peace activists willing to go forth waging peace. I’d like to offer a few points about how we can practice peace, realizing that to really practice peace is a daunting job.

First of all, we need to recognize that our personal problems are not just our personal problems. Whatever your particular challenges are, these disasters are not your fault. Although through unwise actions you may have made things worse, you did not manufacture these things. They arose in your life from the past, from karma, and if it’s possible in your lifetime simply to meet these issues and not make things worse, just that would be a great thing. And if you could go beyond that, and even to make things little bit better, or a lot better, creating some goodness out of the trouble you have inherited, then you are helping not just yourself, but also the world. The problems you have are not just your problems. When you make peace in one small part of the world you are lighting a lamp which will illuminate the space all around you. If we work on our personal human problems selfishly, we can work on them a long time and not find too much satisfaction. But if we see that our particular problems are just our particular path to peace, which benefits everyone, not just ourselves, then I think we can be inspired by our very troubles, ennobled by them, rather than sunk by them. Even if they continue for a long time to be difficult, we can find some sense of mission that’s inspiring for us as we work through them, perhaps for a whole lifetime.

Next, we need to practice directly for others, to benefit our family members, sangha members, customers, colleagues, patients, clients, communities, our nation, our planet. We need to accept our personal responsibility, to recognize our personal power to do good. I think what this means is that it’s time to really think about sharing our practice with others, to stop thinking about our practice as a private, personal matter that’s not part of our work and sharing in the world. Now, we don’t need to paste a sign on ourselves that says “Zen Buddhist practitioner,” … [or] … convince everyone of the virtues of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. But we do have to be willing to engage the world with our practice, to go forth into the world to test and use our practice. This phrase “to go forth” was the phrase in Buddhism that meant to take up the practice and to share it with others. When someone joined the Buddhist sangha it was called “going forth”. I think it’s time for us to go forth.”

Zoketsu Norman Fischer is a Zen teacher, poet, and former abbott of the San Francisco Zen Center. Click for the full text.

nothing

 Matsuo Basho, 17th-century Japanese poet.

Nothing in the cry  

of cicadas suggests they

are about to die.

what is ‘buddha nature’?

The lotus flower grows in muddy water. At night the blossom closes and sinks underwater, at dawn it rises and opens again. In ancient faith traditions of Egypt, Asia (and Christianity), lotus (and lily) blossoms symbolize purity of heart and mind.

Ken McLeod teaches in the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism. He says:

Discomfort is the stimulus for creativity. Or, as Joseph Goldstein says, “We move only when we are uncomfortable.” The [Buddha’s] first noble truth, “There is suffering,” implies that there should be a lot of creativity in the world. This creativity can be one of two types. The first is an active reaction to suffering, seeking to avoid it in the most immediately efficient manner (as opposed to a passive reaction which just results in tension).

The second is a response to suffering and opens to the experience of suffering and acts on its implications, just as Buddha Shakyamuni did 2,500 years ago. The difference is the matter of attention. Without attention, no matter how brilliant and ingenious the creation, it’s still a product of reaction, avoids actual experience, and reinforces conditioned patterns. With attention, there is the possibility of responding to what arises, experiencing it fully and having that understanding pervade our future experience and contribute to others’ understanding.

… Bring the attention to what is arising and we know, directly, what needs to be done. … The source of that knowing is buddha nature. And the practice is very simple in principle: strip away whatever prevents it from manifesting.”

This is an excerpt–click to access the entire talk.