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\u2013 Kazuhiko Fukuji (Thank you, Tetsugan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Is Zen weak on compassion teachings?<\/p>\n
Zen teacher Norman Fischer R\u014dshi has written that he considers it \u201c\u2026 a serious weakness in Zen: its deficiency in explicit teachings on compassion.\u201d (1)<\/p>\n
In this post, I\u2019ll present another perspective, however, I\u2019d like to note that although I disagree with Fischer R\u014dshi on this point, his book,\u00a0Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong,<\/em> has helped many people to remember and actualize the buddhadharma in daily life. In addition, a member of the Nebraska Zen Center offers Mindful Self-Compassion courses at the center. So I\u2019m not a compassion-practice hater.<\/p>\n The first point I\u2019d like to make is that we do find explicit teaching on compassion in many Zen sources, for example, the Ten-Line Kannon Sutra<\/a>\u00a0and The Universal Gateway<\/a> \u2013<\/em> both essential aspects of the Zen liturgy that provide instructions for the spirit and detail of compassion practice.<\/p>\n In addition, D\u014dgen uses the word \u201ccompassion\u201d eighty-six times in Tanahashi and Levitt\u2019s translation of the Shobogenzo<\/em>, where he has a fascicle on compassion practice, \u201cAvalokiteshvara\u201d (or \u201cKannon\u201d), based on a wonderful k\u014dan that includes this exchange:<\/p>\n Y\u00fany\u00e1n asked, \u201cThe bodhisattva of great compassion uses the many hands and eyes for what?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n D\u00e0ow\u00fa said, \u201cAs if it\u2019s night<\/span> and a person gropes with their hand behind their body for the pillow.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>(2)<\/p>\n In addition, many of the k\u014dans in the Harada-Yasutani curriculum could be considered compassion k\u014dans, for example, Songyuan Chongyue\u2019s \u201cWhy can\u2019t clear-eyed people cut the blood-red thread?\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, when zazen and daily life are about regarding the cries of the world and reaching back for a pillow to comfort all living beings (i.e., meeting all beings with compassion), all of Zen is about compassion.<\/p>\n Now, you might say, \u201cIs that it? Is that all you got?\u201d<\/p>\n And then I might say, \u201cIsn\u2019t that enough? Compassion is more about practice, after all, then a huge set of teachings, or a particular personal psychological state.\u201d<\/p>\n Okay, well, on the other hand, if you really<\/em> want more, there is something<\/em> more, one of the central rubrics for training in both the S\u014dt\u014d and Rinzai lineages, D\u00f2ngsh\u0101n<\/span>\u2018s Five Ranks, and particularly the third rank. Digging into the teaching for this rank, though, I see some of the commentaries have a tilt that support Fischer R\u014dshi\u2019s perspective. Before I explain that, though, some back story is necessary.<\/p>\n D\u00f2ngsh\u0101n Li\u00e1ngji\u00e8<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>(807\u2013869) is attributed with systematizing the Five Ranks of the true and biased (3). The underlying principle is that the truth will set us free, and that the relationship between the true and the biased shifts, sometimes dramatically, over the course of practice. The Five Ranks are first, \u201cbiased within true\u201d (\u6b63\u4e2d\u504f), second, \u201ctrue within biased\u201d (\u504f\u4e2d\u6b63), third \u201creturning within true\u201d (\u6b63\u4e2d\u4f86), fourth, \u201creaching within unity\u201d (\u517c\u4e2d\u81f3), and fifth, arrival within unity (\u517c\u4e2d\u5230).<\/p>\n Ross Bolleter R\u014dshi, an Australian Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani lineage, offers this lovely summary (note: he prefers \u201cmode\u201d to \u201crank\u201d):<\/p>\n \u201cThrough the five modes of [true] and [biased] we have discovered that, although we awaken in very individual ways, we can broadly discern staging posts on the path\u2026. We can say that, initially, we experience emptiness, and begin a lifetime\u2019s work of embodying it. We awaken to our intimate connection to all that is, realize the subtlety of words, and then letting go of any preoccupation with hidden understandings, we awaken ourselves, and others, in the thick of the world and its suffering.\u00a0Finally, we emerge transformed, but find it difficult to say where we have been, or how we have traveled. We live our life\u2014with its give and take, joy and sorrow, increase and decline\u2014as the Way.\u201d (4)<\/p>\n Within our Zen Way, as expressed by Bolleter, compassion is the heart of the great matter of birth and death. So is awakening. \u201cWe experience emptiness,\u201d says Bolleter, glossing the\u00a0first rank of \u201cbiased within true,\u201d \u201cand begin a lifetime\u2019s work of embodying it.\u201d Then Bolleter says, \u201cWe awaken to our intimate connection to all that is,\u201d glossing the\u00a0second rank, \u201ctrue within biased.\u201d Bolleter, continues with the third rank,\u00a0\u201creturning within true:\u201d \u201cThen letting go of any preoccupation with hidden understandings, we awaken ourselves, and others, in the thick of the world and its suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n The third rank,\u00a0\u201creturning within true,\u201d is most relevant for our exploration of compassion and Zen, so let\u2019s dig into the dirty detail by examining\u00a0D\u00f2ngsh\u0101n\u2019s<\/span> verse for this rank:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWithin mu<\/i> there is a road out of dust and dirt At first glance, this verse might not seem to be\u00a0about compassion at all, but about really, really shutting up.\u00a0\u201cDust and dirt\u201d usually represent \u201cthe world of differentiation\u201d in Zen-speak.\u00a0Thus, the first line seems to say that within mu\u00a0<\/em>(i.e., \u201cno\u201d or \u201cnon\u201d) there is a process of being free of the mess of worldly concerns. Where\u2019s the compassion?<\/p>\n In the second line, \u201cthe taboo word\u201d is often interpreted as representing the emperor\u2019s name, the prime taboo word in ancient China, which in turn is understood in the Zen context as talking about awakening. In this light, the point seems to be that from deep silence, exactly one with the true, we will silence the whole world. Seen in this light, the verse has a \u201csilent illuminationy\u201d feeling \u2013 passive and not exuding compassion, to say the least, but more about \u201cHow cool it is that I can so completely shut up that I can shut you up too.\u201d<\/p>\n This seems to be the most common interpretation, although without the attitude, of\u00a0D\u00f2ngsh\u0101n\u2019s<\/span> verse for the third rank. If such an important system underlying Zen training is more about shutting up than liberating beings, it would appear that Fischer R\u014dshi is correct \u2013 Zen is deficient in compassion.<\/p>\n However, there are other ways to read \u201cout of dust and dirt,\u201d and these readings flip the meaning of the verse. In The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Zen School<\/em>, Daibi R\u014dshi, an early Twentieth Century Rinzai Zen master, said, \u201c\u2026 Out of<\/span>\u00a0\u2018dust and dirt\u2019 are taken to mean the \u2018dust and dirt\u2019 of Satori.\u201d (6)<\/p>\n Multiple levels of meaning, including contradictory ones, are common in Zen, especially in D\u014dgen\u2019s teaching and in k\u014dan introspection. Even standard metaphors like \u201cdust and dirt\u201d are revivified, like new wine in old bottles. \u201cOut of dust and dirt\u201d can also\u00a0mean to shake off the stink of attainment and get to work liberating beings.<\/p>\n Further, Daibi R\u014dshi adds this twist:<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Within Mu is the Way that leads out of<\/span> dust and dirt\u2019 may also be read as \u2018Within Mu is the Way that leads out to<\/span> dust and dirt\u2026.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>When read as \u2018out to,\u2019\u00a0\u2018dust and dirt\u2019 refer to the realm of sentient beings, and mean the dust and dirt of wisdom and differentiation. According to this, as the [true] and the [biased] are not two, and there are neither sentient beings to be assisted nor are there any afflicting passions, so the way of the great compassion that is impartial leads out to the wisdom of the differentiation of dust and dirt. This constitutes the affinity link with the Buddha-Realm.\u201d<\/p>\n When \u201cdust and dirt\u201d refer to being free from any ideas of attainment, any stink of Satori, we are then free to fully go out to embrace the dust and dirt of the world. \u201cNot touching a taboo word\u201d (the second line of the verse), in this light, means that we don\u2019t find such a word in all the dictionaries of all the world\u2019s languages, and we are free to devote ourselves to the awakening of all living beings.<\/p>\n This seems to be a hidden understanding and it is found through \u201c\u2026letting go of any preoccupation with hidden understandings,\u201d as Bolleter put it and continued:<\/p>\n \u201cWords that avowedly name the emperor\u2014that discuss enlightenment itself\u2014can themselves be a subtle and low lit means to avoid breaking the taboo on naming the emperor, who by the way is as apparent as this warm autumn day, the doves cooing in the frangipani, or the low hush of distant traffic.\u201d (7)<\/p>\n And we \u201csurpass the previous dynasty\u2019s capacity to cut off tongues\u201d by hearing from each tongue the rolling truth of the buddha dharma, and sharing it with friends far and near.<\/p>\n Indeed, in my view, rearticulating the role of compassion in Zen was Hakuin and his successors greatest contribution to contemporary Zen. For more, see \u201cWhat\u2019s Love Got To Do With It? The Most Important Thing About Hakuin\u2019s Teaching.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n For example, Hakuin said,\u00a0\u201cIn this [third] rank, the Mahayana Bodhisattvas do not dwell within the realization attained. Great compassion shines forth unconditionally as they are carried forward on the four great and pure vows into the ocean of free and unrestricted activity\u2026.\u201d (8)<\/p>\n So let\u2019s get to it.<\/p>\n (1) Norman Fischer,\u00a0Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong,\u00a0<\/em>Kindle location 148.<\/p>\n (2)\u00a0Dogen, Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen\u2019s Shobo Genzo<\/em>, translators Tanahashi and Levitt, Kindle location 8979. The translation of the k\u014dan excerpt is by the author.<\/p>\n (3) For much more on the Five Ranks, see\u00a0Complete Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn<\/em>, trs., Norman Waddell, pp. 197-221; Ross Bolleter\u2019s The Five Ranks: Keys to Enlightenment;<\/em>\u00a0and Taigen Dan Leighton\u2019s Just This Is It: Dongshan and the Teaching of Suchnes<\/em>s.<\/p>\n (4) Bolleter, Kindle location 1377.<\/p>\n (5) Translation by the author.<\/p>\n (6) Torei Enji and Daibi Roshi,\u00a0The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Zen School<\/em>, translated, Yoko Okuda, p. 269.<\/p>\n (7) Bolleter, Kindle location 1757.<\/p>\n (8)\u00a0Waddell, p. 206.<\/p>\n D\u014dsh\u014d Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teaches with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach Sensei, with the Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training<\/a>, an internet-based Zen community. D\u014dsh\u014d received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi and inka sh\u014dmei from James My\u014dun Ford R\u014dshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. D\u014dsh\u014d\u2019s translation and commentary on The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is now available (Shambhala). He is also the author\u00a0of\u00a0Keep Me In Your Heart a While: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri<\/a><\/i>. Click here<\/a> to support the teaching practice of D\u014dsh\u014d R\u014dshi at Patreon.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Is Zen weak on compassion teachings? Zen teacher Norman Fischer R\u014dshi has written that he considers it \u201c\u2026 a serious weakness in Zen: its deficiency in explicit teachings on compassion.\u201d (1) In this post, I\u2019ll present another perspective, however, I\u2019d like to note that although I disagree with Fischer R\u014dshi on this point, his book,\u00a0Training […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[66,200,194,129,197,203],"class_list":["post-5258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-compassion","tag-dongshan","tag-five-ranks","tag-hakuin","tag-norman-fischer","tag-ross-bolleter"],"yoast_head":"\nD\u00f2ngsh\u0101n<\/span>\u2018s Five Ranks<\/h4>\n
Returning within true<\/h3>\n
\n\u7121\u4e2d\u6709\u8def \u9694\u5875\u57c3
\nNow only do not touch the taboo word
\n\u4f46\u80fd\u4e0d\u89f8 \u7576\u4eca\u8af1
\nalso surpass the previous dynasty\u2019s capacity to cut off tongues.\u201d (5)
\n\u4e5f\u52dd\u524d\u671d \u65b7\u820c\u624d<\/p>\nOut of Dust and Dirt or Out to Dust and Dirt?<\/h4>\n
\n<\/div>\n
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