Actions themselves are neither good nor bad; only the intention is important. If you think something is good, it is good; if you think it is bad, it is bad.
"When the Buddha was alive, there was a prostitute called Pass-a-million. Every day, she sold her body many times. Every day, many different men came and had sex with her. But any man who had sex with her would become enlightened. So she was only using sex to teach Buddhism. When a man came to her, he had many desires. But after being with her, he had no desires, he understood his true self, and he went away with a clear mind."
- Zen Master Seung Sahn
Bodhidharma said, "Self-nature is inconceivably wondrous. In the dharma where there is nothing to grasp, nothing to take hold of, 'not giving rise to attachment' is called the precept of refraining from misusing sexuality."
Master Dogen said, "When the three wheels are pure and clean, nothing is desired. Go the same way as the Buddha." The three wheels are the body, mind and mouth. Greed, anger and ignorance are pure and clean. Nothing is desired.
Twice yearly, the Zen Center holds the Zaike Tokudo or lay initiation ceremony for those wishing to receive the precepts and formally enter the Buddhist path. This is an important and powerful event in the life of a practitioner and in the life of the sangha. This ceremony, historically known as "entering the stream," has been performed continually since the time of the Buddha. In the Soto Zen tradition, the ceremony continues to be offered exactly as set down by Master Dogen in his text Kyojukaimon (Instructions on Giving the Precepts) more than 800 years ago.
During the ceremony, participants undertake the Three Refuges (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha), the Three Pure Precepts (Do No Harm; Do Only Good; and Save All Sentient Beings), and the first five of the Bodhisattva Precepts:
1. Affirm life; Do not kill.
2. Be giving; Do not steal.
3. Honor the body; Do not misuse sexuality.
4. Manifest truth; Do not lie.
5. Proceed clearly; Do not cloud the mind with intoxicants.
In zazen, we directly experience our self-nature and can see how inconceivably wondrous it truly is. As we come to understand how complete we actually are, we realize that there is in fact nothing to be attained, nothing to grasp, nothing to take hold of. With such a realization, how can one not observe the precept of honoring the body?
1 comment:
Shokai:
You might think of this and other such posts as news rather than edification but many, certainly I, don't know much about Buddhism in general or Zen Buddhism in particular. Gradual exposure to teriminology and teachings, no more labored than what you do here, will work sooner than published books will for uninitiated such as me: we haven't had occasion or just aren't going to pick up one of those books.
Thanks.
I have some study of Jewish tradional practice under my belt and your mention of "The three wheels are the body, mind and mouth. " triggers a question. In the 1700's Scheur Zalman of Liadi [for a short bio see: http://www.jewishgates.com/file.asp?File_ID=384 ]
explored the way psychology [a subject not known as such in those days and one he invented in a somewhat idiosnycratic way] connects to the Kabalahists model of the layering of existence. Though there is more in this than I have knowledge or license to explain, one precept that arose from his explortation was the parallels between the way that life's actions manifest from deity into the physical world and the way actions people take in this world arise from words which arose from thought. The gist of the connection is summarized in three words hochma, bina, da'at, compressed into the acronymic CHABAD, which names the form of Hassidim founded by Schneur Zalman.
His book, the "Tanya" is one slog of a read and all I was able to come away with as guidance was that it falls on each of us to order our involvemet in the layers of existance through our control of the chain of manifestation within ourselves: right thought, right speech, right action.
I wonder how similar this is to the
three wheels.
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