{"id":27220,"date":"2020-05-11T17:00:57","date_gmt":"2020-05-12T00:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/?p=27220"},"modified":"2020-05-11T17:00:57","modified_gmt":"2020-05-12T00:00:57","slug":"my-religion-is-kindness-a-zen-meditation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2020\/05\/my-religion-is-kindness-a-zen-meditation.html","title":{"rendered":"MY RELIGION IS KINDNESS A Zen Meditation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The Dalai Lama once famously declared, \u201cMy religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.\u201d I find it joins for me with an anecdote about the writer Aldous Huxley. As he approached his death he said, \u201cIt\u2019s rather embarrassing to have given one\u2019s entire life to pondering the human predicament and to find that in the end one has little more to say than, \u2018Try to be a little kinder.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/iframe><\/p>\nNow Zen stories often don\u2019t seem particularly kind. In the great koan collections, the sayings and doings of the Zen masters, insults and even slander are often used as complements. Sometimes as the highest complements. While pushes, shoves, the odd kick, and not infrequent slap might be referred to be some commentator as \u201cgrandmotherly kindness.\u201d<\/p>\nSo, what is kindness? And what might be a <a href='https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/library\/buddhism' target='_blank'>Buddhist<\/a> kindness, or, more specifically, kindness in Zen? Merriam-Webster, a steady go to for me, defines kindness as the quality or state of being \n\u201ckind.\u201d Which isn\u2019t especially helpful. But, turning to \u201ckind,\u201d we find it defined by \u201csympathy\u201d or \u201chelpfulness.\u201d Another dictionary I consulted speaks of kindness as \u201cgenerosity.\u201d<\/p>\nAnd there you go. Sympathy. Helpfulness. Generosity. I find they work. Even in those Zen stories. For me kindness is the state of sympathy for the other, a desire toward helpfulness, and most of all it means generosity of heart. It is a state of being. But there is something about action within it, as well.<\/p>\nHere we begin to touch the old Zen stories. We live in an age where casual acts of violence between human beings are no longer normative, nor acceptable. And I find that all for the good. And we don\u2019t need to emulate the actions of someone in Tenth century China to understand what is actually going on.<\/p>\nAnd, still going on, but in ways appropriate for our time and place. Now it can be a word. It can be a mock swipe of the Zen teacher\u2019s stick. The phrase, \u201cI spare you thirty blows\u201d works pretty well. It is an encouragement, it is a call, most of all it is a call to presence. Stop thinking too much about it, and come and live in it.<\/p>\nSo, beyond the misunderstandings of Zen\u2019s practices, kindness has a host of false approximations. In Buddhist circles these are sometimes called \u201cnear-enemies.\u201d \u00a0Sentimentality for one. Pity for another. Some act of kindness with an expectation of a pay-off is still one more. The truth of the matter is that the kindness I believe the Dalai Lama is pointing to, the kindness I am thinking of represents a possibility always present within our human hearts.<\/p>\nAnd here we find kindness and Zen.<\/p>\nTo use a Buddhist term, I believe kindness is bodhisattva action. It is the manifestation of the generous heart in the world. It isn\u2019t transactional, that looking for some pay-off down the line. Rather this Buddhist kindness, this religion to which the Dalai Lama points, is rooted in the profound realization that we are all of us intimates, all of us profoundly, astonishingly, maybe devastatingly connected. Sympathy is seeing into that connection. And wishing to be helpful follows like steps in a dance. Generosity is sharing with the family where no one is excluded from the family.<\/p>\nNow, kindness, while as natural as natural can be, is also just one among a number of contending possibilities in our lives. We do not have two wolves in our hearts, as that popular story of complex origins goes. Rather we have a whole pack of wolves living within us. So, if the wolf we feed wins, if we are what we do, what follows?<\/p>\nThere is a saying attributed to many different people. In one version Mohandas Gandhi tells us, \u201cYour beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.\u201d Digging around I can find variations of this going back to Ralph Waldo Emerson, to Laozi, and even to Gautama Siddhartha who in the\u00a0Majjhima Nikaya <\/em>tells us \u201cWhatever a (person of the way) keeps pursuing with his thinking and pondering, that becomes the inclination of his awareness.\u201d<\/p>\nUltimately, for me, the Dalai Lama\u2019s line \u201cKindness is my religion,\u201d is a koan. Outside of the Zen schools the word koan has come to mean a thorny question. And, okay, sure, \u201ckindness is my religion\u201d is certainly a thorny question. All those things of intention and action and transformation, and what they mean; you have a pretty thorny question.<\/p>\nBut here I mean koan in the sense of an assertion about reality, which is at the same time, the very same time, an invitation. My religion is kindness. What is that world that we\u2019ve being offered? And, well, what do we want to do with it?<\/p>\nAs it turns out, it\u2019s all in your hands.<\/p>\nYou know, the Zen way.<\/p>\nThe human way\u2026<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SkUspBay1tU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 MY RELIGION IS KINDNESS A Zen Meditation James Ishmael Ford \u00a0 The Dalai Lama once famously declared, \u201cMy religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.\u201d I find it joins for me with an anecdote about the writer Aldous Huxley. As he approached his death he said, \u201cIt\u2019s rather embarrassing to have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1546,1549,1909,8],"class_list":["post-27220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-kindness","tag-loving-kindness","tag-metta","tag-zen"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>MY RELIGION IS KINDNESS A Zen Meditation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"      MY RELIGION IS KINDNESS A Zen Meditation James Ishmael Ford   The Dalai Lama once famously declared, \u201cMy religion is very\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2020\/05\/my-religion-is-kindness-a-zen-meditation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MY RELIGION IS KINDNESS A Zen Meditation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"      MY RELIGION IS KINDNESS A Zen Meditation James Ishmael Ford   The Dalai Lama once famously declared, \u201cMy religion is very\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2020\/05\/my-religion-is-kindness-a-zen-meditation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Monkey Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/james.ford.1029\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-12T00:00:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/81\/2020\/05\/Shakespeare-Co-248x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2020\/05\/my-religion-is-kindness-a-zen-meditation.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2020\/05\/my-religion-is-kindness-a-zen-meditation.html\",\"name\":\"MY RELIGION IS KINDNESS A Zen Meditation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-12T00:00:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-12T00:00:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\"},\"description\":\"      MY RELIGION IS KINDNESS A Zen Meditation James Ishmael Ford   The Dalai Lama once famously declared, \u201cMy religion is very\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2020\/05\/my-religion-is-kindness-a-zen-meditation.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2020\/05\/my-religion-is-kindness-a-zen-meditation.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2020\/05\/my-religion-is-kindness-a-zen-meditation.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MY RELIGION IS KINDNESS A Zen Meditation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/\",\"name\":\"Monkey Mind\",\"description\":\"Easily distracted...\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\",\"name\":\"James Ford\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James Ford\"},\"description\":\"James Ishmael Ford is a writer and spiritual director. 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