Latest / Zen Community of Oregon Dharma Talks / The Way of The Bodhisattva - Kisei Costenbader, Sensei

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The Way of The Bodhisattva - Kisei Costenbader, Sensei · Zen Community of Oregon Dharma Talks

• 0:00
  Jomon: Hello and welcome. This is the Zen Community of Oregon, making the teachings of the Buddhadharma accessible to support your practice. New episodes air every week.
• 0:26
  Kisei: It's good to take refuge, to take refuge together, to come back to this reminder of our interconnection, this reminder that we're all one body, the body of the Sangha. And to see parts of that body here, you'll see the faces and eyes and hands of this one Sangha body that includes all beings. So I want to talk today about the way of the Bodhisattva. I think this image or archetype of the Bodhisattva resonates with a lot of people, probably a lot of you who are here tonight or find yourselves in community practice spaces like this. The archetype or the image of the Bodhisattva is someone whose heart is oriented towards love for this world.
• 1:48
  Love for this world and the beings of this world. And it's also somebody who is in touch with, who feels the pain of violence, injustice, all the many forms of suffering that are happening in this world for the beings in this world. And from that that willingness to feel or to be open to all the ways that we suffer, we can suffer, we, this one Sangha body. There's a desire or a motivation to ease or believe this suffering. Another archetype that sometimes resonates with the archetype of the Bodhisattva is the spiritual warrior, guided by a wisdom that this life isn't just our own, but it's a shared life.
• 3:10
  And the practice of a Bodhisattva is the practice of compassion. So that's really what I want to talk about tonight is the different, the various, the many expressions of compassion. And in the tradition, in the Mahayana tradition where this word bodhisattva comes from, bodhisattva usually literally translates as an awakening being, a being on the path of awakening, who has the qualities that I just shared, motivated by love and a willingness to feel and recognize the suffering in the world. Now compassion is the practice of a Bodhisattva and compassion has two important dimensions in the Mahayana tradition. The first is what we sometimes call absolute compassion or boundless compassion.
• 4:23
  It's a recognition and in a way we can talk about absolute compassion or boundless compassion and I can give some words and descriptions but it's gonna remain conceptual until it's not. And so we have this kind of concept placeholder word absolute compassion or boundless compassion. But it's something that we can come to know and that's part of what dharma practice is leading us to recognize. And so boundless compassion or absolute compassion is in a way, it's a training in a view. And the view is nothing need be done about our original perfection.
• 5:18
  We were chanting this chant during retreat this weekend that Jogan and I led. Nothing need be done about our original perfection. That it's saying that compassion actually is our nature, is the nature of reality. We don't have to cultivate it. We don't have to generate it.
• 5:42
  It's who we are. All of us. Everyone and everything. Again, that's like hard for the conceptual mind, right? It's like, yeah, but what about what's happening in Minnesota?
• 5:56
  What about the ICE agents? And so this is a that is unfathomable to the rational mind, but it's a view, I think, I think we have a taste of, like we know, and there are parts of us that can't fathom it, but it's a view we can try on. Like, what would it be like to practice as if, to live as if, or to live from that knowing that this is compassion? This world is a world of compassion. That's actually our nature.
• 6:45
  Everything that is sourcing forth in the spaciousness of our awareness, everything we see, hear, smell, taste, touch, is a manifestation of compassion. Everything we think is a manifestation of compassion. Everything that happens is a manifestation of compassion, is sourcing from our true nature. Well, this is the vision of the Bodhisattva, that the spacious clear source of our being gives rise to compassionate activity. So the practice that I introduced in the second half of the meditation tonight is a way of connecting to that view.
• 7:43
  And the practice is simple. It's aligning, you know, the practices that have like the least amount of instruction is like the practices that are helping us align with what is already here. And so we can do like these slight adjustments to our way of seeing. Like, oh, notice the space. We're so oriented to the things and then we make stories up about the things or we attach our conditioned views to start to drape onto the things that appear in our awareness, whether it's thought, a body sensation, a memory, and then we're elaborating and reacting to those images, those feelings.
• 8:34
  And this teaching is saying, that's fine. That's the play of compassion. But sometimes we get stuck and can't see it. And so when we orient to this space, we can see this bubbling forth, this play of awareness, this play of sense experience. And we can practice seeing that whatever arises in this space of our own awareness, whether in meditation on the cushion or off the cushion, is compassionate activity, the manifestation of compassion.
• 9:23
  And I said earlier, the ornaments of spaciousness, those ornaments are manifestations of compassion. Well, is training in a view. It's training in a view until that view becomes our reality, or we start seeing that actually it is reality. And then it's no longer a view or a concept, but our lived experience. This is so much what Koan practices in Zen.
• 9:59
  We try on a view. We act as if. And we try it on. It has this experimental quality. Oh, what happens when in my meditation I regard everything that arises as compassion?
• 10:18
  What happens when I walk down the street and I regard whatever arises as the embodiment of compassion? It's not so helpful to tell other people to do this. Oh, don't worry about that. It's just the manifestation of compassion. That's not very skillful.
• 10:39
  But for ourselves as bodhisattvas in training, it can just be an interesting way of noticing noticing, like, you know, where our fixed views come in. Oh, not that. That isn't included. And and, you know, it can be challenging. So it's more about a recognition.
• 11:11
  Nothing need be done to make compassion happen. Compassion is our nature and we're learning to recognize that. And it's not going to appear like what maybe the mind thinks compassion should look like. So that's an ongoing view that we can practice. The other dimension of compassion I call active compassion, or sometimes in the traditions we call it relative compassion.
• 11:50
  And that's acknowledging that also compassion can be cultivated as we aspire on the way of the bodhisattva, there are things that we can do to cultivate compassion in our lives. We just, like I mentioned at the beginning of this talk, we just had two ceremonies of precepts where people took the 16 Bodhisattva precepts and the five foundational precepts. Precepts, reflection, study, and embodiment is one way in our tradition that we can cultivate compassion and live compassion in our lives. There's a teaching called The Way of the Bodhisattva. It's a teaching by Shantideva.
• 12:51
  Many of you might be familiar with a verse from the longer discourse of the Way of the Bodhisattva. We have turned it into, actually Soten said it to music and gave it a more melodic feeling and rearranged some of the words. And we sing it sometimes and we'll probably sing it tonight. But the way of the Bodhisattva comes from a teaching that's by Shantideva. Shantideva is an interesting person.
• 13:26
  I want to talk just little bit about Shantideva. So little is known about him. And so some of the things that are known about him have more of a legendary quality, but are interesting in the context of Shantideva's teaching of the way of the bodhisattva. So Shantideva was a monastic in training, lived at Nalanda University, and was often kind of like made fun of by the other monastics. He was like a little sloppy in dress where there was an emphasis in their tradition on decorum and looking good and dressing the part.
• 14:15
  He often didn't, like, turn in his homework assignments on time and was kinda would often, like, sit and be a little aloof while the other students were doing debate and doing various aspects of training at the monastery. And so people kind of thought Shantideva was stupid or not really up to the task of being a monastic, that he was kind of a misfit and found his way there and was struggling to get by in learning these monastic rules and regulations and decorum that the other practitioners were engaged in. And so there came a time where he kind of gets put on the spot and is asked, well, what does Shantideva think about that? People thinking that he hasn't really done his homework and he's always kind of unkempt. So they put him on the spot and they ask him to give a teaching.
• 15:23
  And he gives the way of the Bodhisattva. And people are like, woah, this person who we thought wasn't really up to the task was actually operating on this whole other level of connecting to Bodhicitta and connecting to and nurturing this aspiration. And so I want to read part of The Way of the Bodhisattva. This is the commitment chapter, and this is the chapter that our chant, Shantideva's Way of the Bodhisattva, is based on. I'll just read a few lines, but this is his aspirational prayer of connecting to Bodhisattva vision.
• 16:09
  He sickness has been healed, may I myself become for them the doctor, nurse, the medicine itself. Raining down a flood of food and drink, may I dispel the ills of thirst and famine. And in the ages marked by scarcity and want may I myself appear as drink and sustenance. For sentient beings poor and destitute, may I become a treasure ever plentiful, And lie before them closely in their reach, A varied source of all that they may need. My body thus and all my goods besides, And all my merits gained and to be gained, I give them all away, Withholding nothing, To bring about the benefit of beings.
• 17:05
  Nirvana is attained by giving all, Nirvana the object of my striving. Everything therefore must be abandoned, and it is best to give it all to others. This body I have given up to serve the pleasure of all living beings. Let them kill and beat and slander it and do to it whatever they desire. And though they treat it like a toy or make of it the butt of every mockery, my body has been given up to them.
• 17:37
  There's no use now to make so much of it. And so let beings do to me whatever does not bring them injury. Whenever they catch sight of me, let this not fail to bring them benefit. If those who see me entertain a thought of anger or devotion, may these states supply the cause whereby their good and wishes are fulfilled. All those who slight me to my face or do me any other evil, even if they blame me or slander me, may they attain the fortune of enlightenment.
• 18:18
  May I be a guard for those who are protectorless, a guide for those who journey on the road. For those who wish to go across the water, may I be a boat, a raft, a bridge. May I be an aisle for those who yearn for landfall and a lamp for those who long for light. For those who need a resting place, may I be a bed, and for those who need a servant, may I be theirs. May I be a wishing jewel, a vase of plenty, a word of power and supreme healing.
• 18:54
  May I be the tree of miracles, and for every being, the abundant cow. Like the earth and the pervading elements enduring as the sky itself endures. For boundless multitude of living beings, may I be their ground and sustenance. And he goes on and on just thinking about what beings could possibly need, all the different ways that people could suffer and offering him himself. And, you know, this teaching also speaks to probably what he was facing, like, oh, there are people here who mock me and make jokes of me.
• 19:43
  May I actually, may that do them benefit. May I give my body and life to them for their benefit, for their awakening. So it has this ring of a very archetypal vow of complete selfless service and humility that I think can strike a chord in us of an aspiration, that aspiration of compassion to really be of service, to really be of benefit to the people who are suffering our lives in whatever way is possible. And there are other chants throughout their tradition that have the same kind of spirit. Like we have another chant in the chant book called Tori Zenji's Bodhisattva Vow.
• 20:39
  And he evokes that same image of those who cause me harm. May that be what they need to awaken fully, which kind of turns it around and offers his practice to them. And there's another chant that isn't in our chant book, but is often chanted in sotos and monasteries that comes from the Lotus Sutra, which evokes the different images of kanzeyan, which is the bodhisattva of compassion, and invoking Kansei On to come in all these different ways that beings are suffering, like calling on Kansei On to respond, to be there, to provide relief from suffering. And then last week, for those of you who are here either on Zoom or in person, because we were in person at Heart of Wisdom, I read a little bit from Martin Luther King Jr's sermon on loving your enemies. And he also evokes the spirit of the Bodhisattva through evoking Christ's teaching on loving your enemies and then talking very specifically about, well, how would one go about loving one's enemies?
• 22:02
  And he talks about first, it requires self reflection. And part of that self reflection, he was noting, is noticing that we can take this divide of I'm good and they're evil, whoever they are. And we do that now, I'm sure. And he said, Well, there's also evil or we're not all good. We also make mistakes.
• 22:34
  And to include that in our self reflection to recognize the places where we cause harm so that we can't fully take that position of superiority or righteousness to have a kind of humility of heart. And we were talking about atonement in that spirit last week. And then he said another way that we can practice loving our enemies is to see the good in who we're calling evil or in the enemies. And, you know, another another way of saying that is to see the humanity in both ourselves and others. Kind of like, it brings us back to, oh, yeah, we are one body.
• 23:22
  You have these different reactions. And and it's not, of course, you know, in in MLK Jr. Life, it wasn't, of course, like, not to call out injustice, but not to equate the people committing injustice with being evil themselves, like taking stripping them away of their humanity and just seeing them as the act or the thing that they're doing or saying, which is just you know, he he starts that talk saying, this is almost an impossible task, but it's not impossible. And we can strive to live this way. And I think the same is with Shantideva.
• 24:09
  When I connect with the words of Shantideva with that prayer, it opens something in my heart. And I want to talk about what I'm calling the five compassions, which comes from the teaching of the Paramitas, which is a teaching about how to cultivate compassion, how to cultivate the heart of a bodhis attva, the way of the Bodhisattva. So the five compassions. First compassion is wise compassion, compassion that's grounded in the experience of interconnection and the response comes from discernment and deep listening. So there's a discernment piece in wise compassion.
• 25:00
  Like wise compassion is under active compassion, relative compassion, how we live compassion. Another compassion, the second compassion, is fierce compassion, which has a protective quality, compassion that rises up also as a response but has more of a protective quality. Maybe that's setting a boundary or saying no or taking some kind of action to, in the spirit of protecting or responding to something that's happening. So maybe that's speaking up. Fierce compassion.
• 25:43
  Third compassion, patient compassion. And this is the manifestation of compassion that has that like slow, steady, can be slow, can feel slow maybe sometimes, but that steady showing up for something or someone we care about or believe in over and over and over again, continuing to show up. In the literature that we have about the archetype of the bodhisattva, there's this sense of, of course, it's like over many, many, many, many lifetimes. Like we've been doing, you could think of it like, oh, we've been doing this for a long time and we'll continue doing this for a long time. That's the spirit of the Bodhisattva.
• 26:34
  And Jiso's vow encompasses that. Jiso is the manifestation of great vow or benevolence or great determination, one of the archetypal expressions of Bodhis Sattva in the Buddhist tradition. And one of the things he said is, Even if their good deed is as little as a hair, a grain of sand, a drop of dew, or a bit of down. I shall gradually help living beings to liberation until every single being is fully awakened. And that's the vow of the Bodhisattvas.
• 27:16
  Like, I'll keep showing up for this work of liberation and compassion training until we're all liberated, until we're all awake. It's also the recognition that like true, deep sustaining change often takes time. And we can have those like quick shifts or those, you know, kind of big transformative experiences. But then there's the like day to day integration and that happens on an individual level, that happens on a relational level, that happens on a societal level, community level, organizational level. So that's the third compassion, patient compassion.
• 28:08
  Then joyful compassion. And joyful compassion reminds us compassion is nourishing for us too. To be on this path of being a Bodhisattva, practicing compassion brings joy. And then unified compassion. Unified compassion invites us to reflect on is this response in alignment with my vows, my values, my capacities?
• 28:41
  It's that kind of quality of aligned action. And so I think, like, reflecting on these five compassions can be a helpful parameter where it can sound like Shantideva is like, yes, just be completely selfless, give it all away, let them beat you and take everything from you, and that's like what you should do. That's what a compassionate person is, or that's the manifestation of a Bodhisattva. And, you know, he's more evoking like the spirit of it in a prayer. But the actual living wisdom.
• 29:21
  It needs patience. It needs us to discern and connect with, wait, am I the right person for this task? Is this in alignment with my vows? Do I have the capacity right now? Sometimes we are more called, like Martin Luther King Jr.
• 29:43
  Was, to just respond to something and perhaps it's at the risk of our own lives to benefit others. And that can take the form of social action at times, that can take the form of being a parent, that can take the form of different vocations that we might choose that is asking us on different levels to put ourselves down and and and be of service or put ourselves aside and and be of service or or risk our own lives in some way to benefit others. And I think the five compassions could help us balance how to live the Bodhisattva Vow as human beings who are bodhisattvas in training, who have limits, who can't do everything. Trunkpa had this phrase idiot compassion. So we get like, you know, maybe that's another, that's the sixth compassion is like, oh, just notice when doing idiot compassion, which is like, you know, coming, you know, not from alignment with our vows, but maybe from a sense of should or shame or guilt, and it's draining us.
• 31:07
  It isn't sustainable. It isn't like bringing in those qualities of discernment. And of course we all fall into idiot compassion sometimes because we want to be of service and we want to help others. And sometimes we overextend ourselves or try to do something that we actually don't have the capacity to do. But that's a warning like, Oh yeah, there's a way we can lose ourselves in compassion, not in the Bodhisattva way, but in the like, just really becoming drained or burnt out way.
• 31:45
  And tradition also reminds us that there are like two shadow sides, or they call it near enemies of compassion. One is righteousness. So it's like, you know, sometimes our sense of wanting to do good or to help others can take on this flavor of, well, I'm right and I need and it comes from that sense of righteousness. And other times it can come from a sense of pity. And so those are near enemies of compassion.
• 32:23
  They're not quite aligned or not quite aligned when we're acting from those places. And that, you know, just is something to watch out for and to be discerning about and to have compassion for ourselves that, of course, like sometimes we're righteous, sometimes we're acting out of pity or responding in ways that are actually outside of our capacity.
• 32:55
  Jomon: Thank you for listening to the Zen Community of Oregon podcast, and thank you for your practice. New episodes air every week. Please consider making a donation at zendust.org. Your support supports us.