To wrap up a long-running thread through this blog, the fourth and final of the Four Exemplary Acts of a Bodhisattava is cooperation ("manifesting sympathy"). Zen Master Dogen discusses the Four Exemplary Acts in Shobogenzo Bodaisatta Shishōbō. For those of you keeping score at home, the first three acts are offering alms ("free giving"), using kind speech, and showing benevolence ("helpful conduct").Real cooperation is not an abstract concept but is always related to a concrete task. The "manifesting" of cooperation refers to our actual ways of behaving, our everyday actions, and our attitudes of mind. “Cooperation means not being contrary" Dogen explains. "It is not being contrary to oneself and not being contrary to others. When we really understand what cooperation means, we will see that self and other are one and the same.”
The Taoists say that music, poetry and wine (harps, poems, and sake) are a hermit’s three friends. Dogen picked up this saying and used it to express both the mutual agreement between subject and object and the identity of subject and object in a classic Dogen passage:
“Music, poetry, and wine make friends with ordinary people, make friends with those in lofty positions, and make friends with the hosts of celestial beings. At the same time, ordinary people make friends with music, poetry, and wine; and music, poetry, and wine make friends with music, poetry, and wine; and ordinary people make friends with ordinary people; and those in lofty positions make friends with those in lofty positions; and celestial beings make friends with celestial beings."
The Taoists also say, "A sea does not reject water, and therefore is able to realize its greatness. Mountains do not reject the earth, and therefore can realize their great height. An enlightened leader does not despise ordinary people, and therefore can realize a large following.”
Dogen explains that a sea’s not rejecting water is the sea cooperating with water. Further, since cooperation works both ways, water has virtue by not refusing the sea. For this reason, it is possible for waters to come together and form a sea. And because one sea does not reject another sea, it forms an ocean, which is something much bigger, just as one mountain does not reject another mountain, and therefore forms a larger range.
Because an enlightened leader does not despise the ordinary people, he realizes a large following. "A large following," according to Dogen, "means a nation. An enlightened leader may mean an emperor or empress.”
Just as the sea receives its greatness from the rivers which empty into it, so too can the water in the rivers realize greatness by becoming one with the sea. By extension, an enlightened leader receives greatness by leading the many, friend and foe alike, and the many can come to realize greatness by being good citizens of the great nation. Those who act contrary and practice discord and division are caught up in the delusion of self and other, and are ignorant of the true power of cooperation.
"This is why bodhisattvas vow to practice cooperation" Dogen writes. "And to do so, they need but to face all things with a gentle demeanor.”
How can we, as the good people of a nation, overcome our own strong opinions and prejudices and be citizens of a great nation, accepting the guidance of an enlightened leader with a gentle demeanor on our faces? By letting go of mind and body through the practice of zazen. As Soyu Matzuoka, the founder of our Order, said, "It's the most that we can do."
The true meaning of cooperation, then, is to transcend the distinction of self and other. To transcend the distinction between self and other is to be enlightened by all things. To be enlightened by all things is to forget the self. To forget the self is to study the self. And to study the self is to study the Way.
This is learning what "cooperation" means.
Dogen explains that a sea’s not rejecting water is the sea cooperating with water. Further, since cooperation works both ways, water has virtue by not refusing the sea. For this reason, it is possible for waters to come together and form a sea. And because one sea does not reject another sea, it forms an ocean, which is something much bigger, just as one mountain does not reject another mountain, and therefore forms a larger range.
Because an enlightened leader does not despise the ordinary people, he realizes a large following. "A large following," according to Dogen, "means a nation. An enlightened leader may mean an emperor or empress.”
Just as the sea receives its greatness from the rivers which empty into it, so too can the water in the rivers realize greatness by becoming one with the sea. By extension, an enlightened leader receives greatness by leading the many, friend and foe alike, and the many can come to realize greatness by being good citizens of the great nation. Those who act contrary and practice discord and division are caught up in the delusion of self and other, and are ignorant of the true power of cooperation.
"This is why bodhisattvas vow to practice cooperation" Dogen writes. "And to do so, they need but to face all things with a gentle demeanor.”
How can we, as the good people of a nation, overcome our own strong opinions and prejudices and be citizens of a great nation, accepting the guidance of an enlightened leader with a gentle demeanor on our faces? By letting go of mind and body through the practice of zazen. As Soyu Matzuoka, the founder of our Order, said, "It's the most that we can do."
The true meaning of cooperation, then, is to transcend the distinction of self and other. To transcend the distinction between self and other is to be enlightened by all things. To be enlightened by all things is to forget the self. To forget the self is to study the self. And to study the self is to study the Way.
This is learning what "cooperation" means.
2 comments:
Thank you.
Gassho to Uku
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