Garbage and Roses

"What is real remains."

A principle text of Buddhism, the Prajnaparamita "Heart" Sutra, perhaps the principle text for all practitioners on the way is also called "the Heart of Understanding." This text is central to many and universal in its wisdom. It traces its roots within the Buddhist Canon back 2,000 or more years. Surely other traditions at that time had some access to it, and other like teachings.
Technology may have changed over that time, but the Heart, or Perfect Understanding Sutra in its reflection of human nature and practice has not. Despite the passage of time, it remains a reality.

For me a student of the Way, and a learner of the teaching, I have used other study texts to understand and learn more; however, the best one I have used whether in Zendo or on my own, is the 1988 translation and commentaries written by Buddhist monk and teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Understanding.
 It is written with emphasis to make the teaching more accessible to the Western mind. By writing the commentary on Garbage and Roses, he seeks to further our understanding of emptiness. "To be empty does not mean nonexistence... Emptiness is the ground of everything... if I am not empty, I cannot be here [in this moment] writes the philosopher, Nagarjuna... Empty is quite a positive concept... because you are there, I can be here."

"Neither defiled nor immaculate"

"Defiled or immaculate. Dirty or pure. These are concepts we form in our minds... A beautiful rose is pure, immaculate." A garbage can is dirty, evil, rotten. These are experiences that may fill our mind with the idea of the word.
Looking more carefully, more deeply, you will see that the rose is born out of the garbage. The garbage is composted, and forms the base of humus for the soil that the rose needs to survive. Organic gardeners know that in a few months, plant matter, and natural things, decay into compost. Thus roses and garbage inter-be.
They need each other! Likewise, the Buddhist teaching of the human Genesis is very short and simple, yet it is very deep:

This is, because that is. This is not, because that is not. This is like this, because that is like that.

Meditate a while upon this and you will see more clearly the inter-being of things. Sometimes, we in our lives, are like that because this is like that. We all inter-be. So, "we must be very careful. We should not imprison ourselves in concepts. We can only inter-be. We cannot just be." Only through the eyes of inter-being can we be freed of suffering, can we find forgiveness and blessings.

For example, many of us want to "be good." But we forget that part of good is evil. For without evil, what then is the good? "You cannot be good alone,' Thich Nhat Hanh states, 'you cannot hope to remove evil, because thanks to evil, good exists and vice versa...
So Buddha needs Mara to take the evil role so Buddha can be a Buddha. Buddha is empty; Buddha is made of non-Buddha elements... Buddha needs Mara in order to reveal himself... When you perceive reality in this way, you will not discriminate against the garbage for the sake of the rose."

Saint Paul needed Saint Matthew to become Saint Paul, who himself initially was a vicious persecutor of Christians, yet through a vision, and contacts with the disciples, with Saint Matthew the Evangelist, Paul (Saul) became transformed into one of the early Fathers of the Christian Church. Without Saint Matthew and others to open his eyes, like Mara and Buddha, he would not be Saint Paul of the Bible.
 Clearly that is because this is; it is the work of inter-being that we may look deeply to perceive that. The Feast of Saint Paul is June 29 in the Roman Church Calendar.

"So do not hope that you can eliminate the evil side. It is easy to think that we are on the good side, and that the other side is evil. But wealth is made of poverty, and poverty is made of wealth." And if we look very carefully into the world, into ourselves, we may see that we suffer, we bear the pains of all.

The Heart of Mahayana Buddhism

"To say that you don't know, is the beginning of knowing."   
-- a Chinese proverb


Cultivating the Mind of Love is one of many titles written by Vietnamese Buddhist monk and teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh. Many think many things about practices originating from the East, some are interpreted accurately and some less so. Hanh makes it his endeavor to bring what he calls "engaged Buddhism" to the west. A prolific scholar-translator, writer and teacher, Hanh writes many things in his book. He wants above all to give instruction about Mahayana Buddhism.

Reminding readers that 'the raft is not the shore... we see many waves.... the wave is, at the same time, water..." Hanh continues with his teaching: "The first aspect of Buddhist meditation is samatha (stopping and calming), and the second is vipasyana (insight, looking deeply). If we study Mahayana Buddhism, we will see that vipasyana, looking deeply, is very much at its heart...'

' Its attitude of openness, non-attachment from views, and playfulness serves well as a dharma door to enter the realm of Mahayana Buddhism, helping us to see clearly that all the seeds of Mahayana thought and practice were already present in the early teachings of the Buddha."

The Lotus Sutra is King

"The Lotus sutra is king of all Mahayana sutras."  --Cultivating the Mind of Love by Thich Nhat Hanh

In every spiritual tradition, it seems, people become fixed in their ways. Their thoughts are habitual. "They attach to form and are bit by the snake of misunderstanding," writes Buddhist master, Thich Nhat Hanh. In every age, there is need for renewal, to keep traditions accessible, to overcome misapprehension, and to introduce practices which reflect positively upon the age. The dawn of Mahayana was just that. The traditions which preceded it were non-native to early practitioners of Buddhism in China and the north. The mind of Mahayana was intended to help one gain a closer understanding of the true practice. For example, ideas of impermanence, nirvana and inter-being were re-formed for the earliest Mahayana practitioners.

Previously, many had taught that the practice was to exit this world of suffering. Shravakas, therefore had practiced primarily for the self and not for the compassion and good of the world. In the new view, this was not the heart of the Buddha's teaching. Rather it was Vimalakirti sutra which launched a challenge to this former thinking. Shariputra, disciple of the Buddha, was the focus; humbled by the new way, the Mahayana ushered in a time when the average person could be enlightened. No longer was enlightenment the province of priests, monks or nuns alone. 

Yet it is in the Lotus sutra that we learn Shariputra remains the Buddha's most beloved disciple; he learns that the Buddha has offered the teaching at that time because it was necessary. Now we learn that everyone has the possibility to become a fully enlightened buddha, and that the Buddha is present everywhere, forever. Additionally we learn that the three vehicles are in fact one, ekayana. So no matter what tradition you have or do follow, all are disciples of the everlasting Buddha. "Thanks to the Lotus sutra, peace and reconciliation among practitioners has become possible," writes Hanh.

Mahayana Buddhism

"Mahayana is a living faith. We cannot ignore the significance of Mahayanism." --Suzuki

The Buddhist thinker and teacher, Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, wrote a volume about the Mahayana which is titled, Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism. This book first appeared in English translation in 1907; a later edition was produced from that translation in 1963, and still later, another edition was rendered from the same translation in 1977. In this article, I use the 1963 volume.

It was the desire of master Suzuki to make clear to practitioners of other Buddhist denominations, and other non Buddhist faiths the meaning and significance of Mahayana practice. In the introduction to this volume, Alan Watts writes:

"Mahayana Buddhism is the very basis of both classical and contemporary Buddhism. Unlike Hinayana, in which the accent is on individual salvation, Mahayana stresses social compassion. Intellectually, it is more understandable than its intuitive offshoot, Zen. Mahayana represents one of the great systems of perceptions on the nature of man and his relation to the world. It is concerned with human suffering, and offers a remarkable set of insights on how one ought to live and by what principles."

Suzuki writes to answer some basic, and some more complex questions about Mahayana. Note in a number of instances, Suzuki engages the reader into an understanding of the topic through the use of another, more familiar, western belief in Salvation, the way of the Christ. While some may not have carefully considered it, Buddhism is indeed a salvific practice. It desires to free the self from suffering and to aid others to the same salvation, or liberation in Nirvana.

Mahayana, What is it? This basic question starts the inquiry Suzuki wishes to make. He makes many statements:

* Religion is the innermost voice of the human heart...
* Within Buddhism there exists diverse schools of thought...
* The human heart is not an intellectual crystal...
* Mahayana is the great vehicle of Salvation...
* It is more liberal, more progressive, metaphysical, speculative...
* Mahayana, as Suzuki defines it is, "the highest principle, or being, or knowledge, in which the universal and all beings are manifest, and through which they can attain final salvation...
* Mahayana was first used by the "progressive party"...
* Mahayana originated about the time of Christ...
* Asvaghosa, an Indian philosopher, was the first Mahayana expounder...
* Hinayana was a term given to others by the Mahayana sect...
* Mahayana is a boundless ocean in which all forms of thought and faith can find a congenial and welcoming home...
* Its earliest writings exist in the Pali language...
* Mahayana is a living faith...

NOTE: This article first appeared here in summer 2009

Kumbum Chamtse Ling Monastery

"Our escape route was long and hard for people more used to the sheltered life of Lhasa." My Land and My People by Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Tenzin Gyatso, as he is customarily named, more often called the 'Dalai Lama,' especially in the West,approves and supports  the Tibetan Mongolian Cultural Center, the Kumbum Chamtse Ling monastery located in Bloomington, Indian; it celebrates and enjoys a degree of autonomy unknown in its original homeland. Today, while Tibet remains embroiled in relations with China, Mongolia enjoys a large measure of autonomy.

The establishment of this monastery on American soil is an important moment in American Buddhism. Not to be overlooked, it is an active monastery devoted to Mahayanan principles with its resident abbot, Arjia Rinpoche; this pivotal development, is a source of pride to the growing U.S. population of Mongolians and the few of Tibetan ancestry. The community now forming around the monastery in Bloomington, Indiana is decidedly an interfaith community, as Buddhism itself was once a persecuted and repressed faith, there has been a flowering of compassion regarding the beliefs of others. Still true today, in some parts of the world, Buddhism, like other faith communities, remains suppressed and scarcely tolerated.

Westerners, who through simple unfamiliarity with one of the great faiths of the world, have over the course of the past 50 years regarded this Eastern philosophy with varying degrees of suspicion. Others not comprehending that its message is one of peace, faith and salvation, have taken to Buddhism due to a notion of the exotic. Yet Buddhism in its forms, shares much with other faiths, far more familiar in the west, especially to Orthodox Christians and Jews whose traditions of scholarship, teaching and monastic activities in several respects mirror those of their Buddhist brothers and sisters.

Due to political events occurring more than 50 years ago, Tenzin Gyatso was forced to flee his homeland as a young man. The majority of his life has been lived in exile. Due to China's claims to Tibetan and Mongolian territories, as well as areas of Himalaya, the traditions of this part of the world especially its religious foundations, have been severely tested by forced rule. 

In his book, My Land and My People, first published in English in 1962, the thoughts and impressions of Tenzin Gyatso are made available to general English readership for the first time. He writes, "If you hit a man on the skull and break his skull, you can hardly expect him to be friendly. This [thought] thoroughly angered the Chinese.... [In regards to political skill] I could only apply my religious training to these problems... But religious training, I believed and still believe, was a very reliable guide... Non-violence was the only moral course."

Later in this same book, he writes of the preparations and realization of his exile, "My journey through the border areas reminded me of two of my observations of China itself... The first was of Chinese monasteries... I had found all of the temples and monasteries neglected and almost empty... I was told that there were still learned Llamas in Inner Mongolia  ... several hundred people came from Inner Mongolia to ask for my blessing... This was the fate I could see hanging over the Tibetan monks and monasteries already in Chinese hands... I believe boys from Mongolia and East Turkestan clung equally stubbornly to their faith."

Now today in America, Tenzin Gyatso comes to share his faith with all; the establishment of the Tibetan Mongolian Cultural Center is one of the keys to this effort, and further evidence that Mahayana has a life not only within its historic boundaries, but in the wider world as well.

Mahayana Buddhism

"Mahayana is a living faith. We cannot ignore the significance of Mahayanism." --Suzuki

The Buddhist thinker and teacher, Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, wrote a volume about the Mahayana which is titled, Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism. This book first appeared in English translation in 1907; a later edition was produced from that translation in 1963, and still later another edition was rendered from the same translation in 1977. Here, I use the 1963 volume.

It was the desire of master Suzuki to make clear to practitioners of other Buddhist denominations, and other non Buddhist faiths the meaning and significance of Mahayana practice. In the introduction to this volume, Alan Watts writes:

"Mahayana Buddhism is the very basis of both classical and contemporary Buddhism. Unlike Hinayana, in which the accent is on individual salvation, Mahayana stresses social compassion. Intellectually, it is more understandable than its intuitive offshoot, Zen. Mahayana represents one of the great systems of perceptions on the nature of man and his relation to the world. It is concerned with human suffering, and offers a remarkable set of insights on how one ought to live and by what principles."

Suzuki writes to answer some basic, and some more complex questions about Mahayana. Note in a number of instances, Suzuki engages the reader into an understanding of the topic through the use of another, more familiar, western belief in Salvation, the way of the Christ. While some may not have carefully considered it, Buddhism is indeed a salvific practice. It desires to free the self from suffering and to aid others to the same salvation, or liberation in Nirvana.

Mahayana, What is it? This basic question starts the inquiry Suzuki wishes to make. He makes many statements:

* Religion is the innermost voice of the human heart...
* Within Buddhism there exists diverse schools of thought...
* The human heart is not an intellectual crystal...
* Mahayana is the great vehicle of Salvation...
* It is more liberal, more progressive, metaphysical, speculative...
* Mahayana, as Suzuki defines it is, "the highest principle, or being, or knowledge, in which the universal and all beings are manifest, and through which they can attain final salvation...
* Mahayana was first used by the "progressive party"...
* Mahayana originated about the time of Christ...
* Asvaghosa, an Indian philosopher, was the first Mahayana expounder...
* Hinayana was a term given to others by the Mahayana sect...
* Mahayana is a boundless ocean in which all forms of thought and faith can find a congenial and welcoming home...
* Its earliest writings exist in the Pali language...
* Mahayana is a living faith...

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Amida Buddha, The Buddha of Light

" I have nothing to say. Even if I were to explain, people attached to the phenomenal world would not believe me; on the contrary, they would criticize the sutra."

--Bassui, Zen Master, 14th century Japan

Amida Buddha is the heart of Ch'an Buddhist faith and practice. Originating in Mahayana practice and revealed by the historical Buddha over 2,600 years ago, the name Amida is Japanese (from the ancient Sanskrit language) which means ‘Immeasurable Life and Light’ or Oneness.

Bassui wrote, "Amida means the Buddha nature of ordinary people. Upon realizing your true nature, eighty thousand delusions will change into eighty thousand wonderful meanings. These are referred to as Kwan Yin Bodhisattva and Seishi Bodhisattva and other sages."
Kwan Yin, or Kannon as the bodhisattva is also called, sometimes considered the Great Compassionate One, freely loving, and universal, assures spiritual liberation for all. By this living experience of love and compassion, no one is left behind.
Religions offer sacred or mythical stories so that ordinary people can understand that which is not visible to the eye. For example, there are stories of virgin births, crucifixions, visits by angels, ascensions through heavens and resurrections. Some may dismiss myths as false, or just nice little stories but in reality, myth serves as the medium by which our inner deep subconscious mind interacts with our outer conscious mind and world. Myths manifest themselves in a many ways, often most clearly in religious experience and rituals.

In The Larger Sutra of Immeasurable Life, the main Ch'an Buddhist scripture, the historical Buddha tells Ananda, one of his chief disciples this sacred story, "There was a prince called Dharmakara, which means Storehouse of the Dharma, who like the true historical Prince Siddhartha Gautama or Shakyamuni, renounced his royal position, and became a monk. His reason for pursuing the religious life was motivated by his great compassion and deep understanding for all suffering beings throughout the universe and time. Due to his compassion, Dharmakara declared 48 religious vows, the Primal Vows, creating a Pure Land that would liberate each and every suffering being throughout time and space." The Way was now open for the ordinary people of ordinary minds.

A Pure Land, "depends upon the purity of the mind," writes Bassui, "the appearance of the Amida buddha comes when the mind remains undisturbed... If you destroy all thoughts, your true nature being no mind, the resting mind, the most basic, empty mind, both pain and pleasure cease. This is what is referred to as the land of bliss... The physical body... is a temporary formation of the five aggregates."

The undisturbed mind is described by Bassui as a mind that is, "consisting of the four elements, having no individual form; when there is thus no individual form, the nature of the mind is as it is, and there is no aspect of disorder. This is called the one undisturbed mind as it is said in a sutra that the undisturbed, straightforward mind is the abode of the Buddha Way because there is no misconception there."

Love, No Beginning, No End

Love comes often as a surprise, an accident, a gift. It comes not as we choose, but as we, the chosen one. Always love is a gift shared between two or more persons. If it is not reciprocal, not shared, it may be a relationship but it is not love.

In his book, Cultivating the Mind of Love, Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh relates to the reader his personal, honest experience. He says he was young monk, meeting a young nun, and "Seeing her standing there like that was like a fresh breeze blowing across my face...I had never had a feeling like that." Falling in love is an accident, he concludes, but it is also more.

You see he writes, "in our store consciousness are buried all the seeds, representing everything we have ever done, experienced or perceived. When a seed is watered, it manifests in our mind consciousness...we have to trust, knowing that all the seeds of enlightenment and happiness are already there... We only need to be there, to allow the seeds of love and understanding that are deep within us to be watered."

Anything that waters these deepest, true seeds within us is true Dharma. We become filled with the mind of enlightenment, the mind of love. Filling us with joy, confidence and energy, we feel alive. Yet "our mind of love may be buried under many layers of forgetfulness and suffering. If we are lucky, we may find someone in our community who is skillful enough so as to enable us to touch this seed, the mind of love."

The community of practitioners is vital to one who seeks to live by experience, the simple mind, to touch the mind of love. This group may be large; it may be just two or three persons who support one another. They, solidly forming, to support and encourage one another in the practice of mindfully examining themselves and the world around in this moment. "If you don't have anyone who understands you, who encourages you in the practice...your desire to practice may wither."

The mind of love is a strong power within you. You are alive with it; it is a matter of watering those seeds to bring it forth. Thich writes, "Where is the self? Where is the non-self? Who is your first love? Who is your last? What is the difference between our first love and our last love? How can anything die?

'If you want to touch my love, please touch yourself." Water which flows in spring, in winter, is a bright, solid mass. In a cold pond, it reflects the bright, full moon. Can you hold onto the water by its form? Can you trace its source? Do you know when and where it will end? "It is the same with your first love. Your first love has no beginning and will have no end. It is still alive, in the stream of your being."

Love may indeed be an accident, but we need not avoid it, nor the gift that it may bring us. While this accident may "cause us some suffering...we will survive."
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