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The Berkeley Buddhist Priory Newsletter
January - March 2010
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Vespers: The Litany of the Great Compassionate One
(The following is an edited transcript of a lecture given to the congregation at Lions Gate Buddhist Priory, Aug. 28, 2001, by Rev. Master Koten Benson. It was first published in the Lion’s Gate Buddhist Priory Newsletter, March–May, 2009 and June–Sept. 2009)
What I’m going to be talking about tonight is the Evening Office that we do each evening after meditation; what we have also called in the past “Vespers”. Vespers simply means the evening, and the occurrence of the evening star, and is a term we borrowed from Western monasticism. The purpose of the recitation of these scriptures at the end of meditation in the evening is to set up the process of training and meditation for the night. It is done so that the Wheel of the Law turns and continues to turn during sleep, so that a person makes the right decisions in the event of death during that time, but also so that meditation continues through the night. It’s interesting that Dogen’s discussion of the monastic schedule does not start with Morning Service; it starts with meditation the evening before, so to emphasize the continuance that goes on and that meditation and training are something that go on day and night.The first scripture that we do for this is called the Litany of the Great Compassionate One, or the Daihi Shin Dharani in Japanese, the Dharani of the Great Compassionate One. A dharani is not a paragraph, in the sense of the way English is written in the form of a paragraph, with a beginning, subject, etc. A dharani or a mantra is a series of interjections. We use the word “litany” because in Western church music a litany is a list, as it were, of titles, like “The Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary”; it’s a listing of interjections. One of the problems in translating things from Sanskrit into English along these lines is that one has to be very careful not to make it sound ridiculous. There are Sanskrit mantras that are the equivalent of “bang,” but you can’t quite do “bang, bang, bang,” if you see what I mean, without it seeming silly in English. In Sanskrit there are words which are like the snapping of the fingers, to call attention to a particular point or emphasize a particular word, and so when this dharani was translated an attempt was made to convey as much as possible the religious meaning and not necessarily use all the little Sanskrit words, which don’t do the same thing for us. Those of you who have been at a Shurangama Ceremony, Rev. Hubert translated some of the Sanskrit mantras as “peace,” for example.
The Litany of the Great Compassionate One, like all dharanis or mantras, is for the purpose of generating within oneself, in this case, Great Compassion. If one says that Great Compassion is something that is within oneself, to many people’s minds that makes it small, or makes it a product of people’s minds, and it is much more than that. It is personified as Avalokiteshvara, in this case the thousand-armed, with multiple hands, with an eye in each of them. The meaning of the hand with the eye in the centre of it is that one makes use of all aspects of one’s body and mind to benefit others and that this is beyond the usual limitations that we think of concerning ourselves. When we can truly let go of the separate self and generate, if I can put it that way, Great Compassion – True Compassion, then Great Compassion manifests itself in all that we do and is not something that we produce. It is something, in other words, that arises out of our training, out of our meditation, out of learning how to be still, and is not a contrived phenomenon, although the gateway in is to try to be kind, if I can put it that way. One starts with what is in front of one, and as one enters through, it becomes wider and wider and wider.
So, it starts off with “Adoration to the Triple Treasure,” which is Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, the taking of refuge in something that is greater than oneself.
“Adoration to Kanzeon Who is the Great Compassionate One!” When I recite this, a question arises: Who is the Great Compassionate One? Where is the Great Compassionate One located? It’s not something that can be found at some great distance; it’s something that has to be found within oneself. The answer to the traditional question used in koan Zen, “Who is reciting the Buddha’s name?” is similar to this, because we have to make this real for ourselves.
“Om to the One who leaps beyond all fear!” This was one of Reverend Master’s favourite quotes and, again, who is the one who leaps beyond all fear? When we let go of our grasping, then there can be a leaping beyond all fear, but only, and I’ll come back to this, if the one who leaps is not us.
“Having adored Him, – may I enter into the heart,” which means, “May I come to know fully what Great Compassion is and make it real for myself,” and it bears on that story of the lay disciple who says, “In my garden there is a stone, which sits up and lies down.” He means himself. It was a poetic way to refer to oneself, also meaning this thing which is difficult to deal with. “Can I carve it into a Buddha?” And when he asked the teacher that particular question, the teacher said, “Yes, you can.” But then the person said, “Well, maybe I cannot,” and the teacher’s response was, “No, you cannot.” Ultimately only you can make you True, by your own training.
“His life is the completion of meaning.” We talk about what is the meaning of our lives or the significance of our lives. Great Compassion truly understood, and as Dogen would say, digested thoroughly, is the completion of meaning, is what gives meaning to one’s life, one’s existence. Great Compassion in this is not separate from meditation and training. When I was first at the Abbey somebody made a very important point; that what we are seeking is not perfection, but rather compassion.
“It is pure, – it is that which makes all beings truly victorious – and cleanses the path of all existence.” This is the path of karma, both from the distant past and from the present, because that which cleanses karma, whether of this life or of the past, is compassion. If we wish to truly cleanse the path of all existence, if we wish to deal with our past karma, it isn’t a matter of having to fix it in some way. As a matter of fact, it’s often that we can’t go back and fix it, but when we can see it through the eyes of Great Compassion and have compassion, then that is what cleanses it.
“Om, – O thou Seer, –” Seer: One who sees truly, one who sees far, one who has what Reverend Master Jiyu used to call long-distance eyes. Long-distance eyes see compassion in things and in the cause of things, if I can put it that way. “World-transcending One!: Great Bodhisattva!” As I said, this is not a paragraph with subject, verb, object.
So, it says, “All, – all is defilement, defilement, earth, earth.” This is because that is often the way we see it, whether it’s in our jobs that we do, or anything else. There is the story of Tozan, who was with his teacher, and they were down by the river washing out their bowls, and they saw two birds devouring a snake, or a frog, tearing apart a snake or a frog, and Tozan turned to his teacher and said, “How has it come to this?” Why does this happen? And his teacher said, “Only for your benefit,” which was not a metaphysical statement, or a cosmological one, or even a karmic one. He was saying that when you encounter whatever you encounter, the nature of it does not take away your responsibility regarding training and what you do with that encounter, whether or not you can do something about the way you think another being is suffering. Training does not have results in the way other things have results. Sawaki Kodo used to say, “Zazen (meditation) is good for nothing,” by which he meant that it has no value in a commercial way. People can get health benefits from doing other things. If they want to calm down their whatevers they can do biofeedback or something.
Then the next sentence, which is very, very important, coming out of the seeing of “defilement, earth”: “Do, do the work within my heart.” Who is it that does the work within the heart? I like to think of this phrase as referring to that which happens in the very, very deep caverns of our being through the permeation of training and meditation and of our sincere intent. It permeates very, very deeply to very, very deep aspects of ourselves, deep into our hearts without it necessarily being visible to us.
“O great Victor I hold on, hold on!: To Indra the Creator I cry!” Sometimes it seems like all we can do is to hold on, hold on.
In Japan, when they bless a new stupa or tombstone, they write an inscription down the back of it: the manji or swastika, and they do three of them, meaning, “Move, move, move,” and then they do three of the character “shin,” or “heart,” one after the other. This is the True Heart, “defilement-free One.” Then they write the Sanskrit character for Great Compassion, which has a long tail on the end of it. They draw it all the way down to the very bottom, so that when the tombstone goes in the ground, the tail of the letter goes all the way down into the earth. This means that through the use of our intention and will, in the sense of willingness, the movement that we generate for our training is the movement of the defilement-free One, that which is truly pure within our own hearts. This is what generates Great Compassion, and that Great Compassion penetrates all the way through.
“Come, come, hear, hear, a joy springs up in me!” As a result of this, then the joy that does arise within oneself, not as a personal possession and different from the happiness of attaching to the self, is the happiness of letting go.
“Speak, speak, give me direction,” which is related to the taking of refuge, both interiorly and with others.
“Awakened, awakened, I have awakened!” This is the voice of our True Nature, which is awakened and aware and is Great Compassion and Great Wisdom and Great Mercy from the very, very beginning. It is difficult for us to imagine that this is true, because we often see only the clouds that obscure our own natures, and yet it is nonetheless true and nonetheless what people have actually experienced, that when we let go of this there is something there.
“O merciful One, compassionate One,: Of daring ones the most joyous, hail! Thou are all successful, hail!” Success in training is not the same thing as success in anything else. It cannot be measured in the same way and, as Sawaki Kodo said, it is good for nothing; it cannot be bought or sold, and it is something in which we train our imperfections in the middle of true perfection and even when we come to the point of seeing that true perfection and true purity we continue to train our imperfections. It becomes like swimming in a great ocean, to use a metaphor, with one’s pockets filled with rocks. One is still swimming in the great ocean and one still has to work on the rocks, but the rocks do not interfere with the swimming.
“Thou hast attained mastery in the discipline, hail!” This refers to sila or precepts: to truly practice the Precepts.
“Thou hast a weapon within Thine hand, hail!” This is traditionally depicted as either a sword – given that nobody uses swords nowadays, sometimes the metaphor is kind of lost – that which cuts through; and sometimes it’s the bow and arrow, because the skill, if I can put it that way, in our training arises again out of Great Compassion.
“Thou hast the Wheel within Thine hand, hail!” Wherever the heart of True Compassion exists, the true teaching comes. As Dogen says, “Anything can teach.” It does not have to do so deliberately.
“Thou who hast the lotus, hail!” The lotus is the symbol of purity, of true awakening, of our True Nature. The holding of each of these things is, in the iconography, being offered to us, and we should not be hesitant to accept that which is offered.
“Hail to Thee Who art all compassion!” And again: who is “Thee?” One is, in a sense, addressing oneself in this. Reverend Master Jiyu always used to say that one could make good use of The Litany of the Great Compassionate One to turn the Wheel of the Law, and that that was not a wrongful use of it. It’s considered particularly efficacious in despair, actually.
“Adoration to the Triple Treasure” – the Three Refuges.
“Give ear unto this my prayer.” And again, this is something within, rather than outside of oneself. People often make a distinction in training with Buddhism; they say, “Is this outside of me or is this inside of me?” Sometimes the problem is that people have not experienced their own Treasure Houses, so they do not realize that the whole of the iconography, the pictures of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, are depictions of our own Treasure House. As it says, “When the trainee is feeling low and all inferior, the teacher will say that on their head there gleams a jewelled diadem and on their bodies rich robes hang, and at their feet there is a foot rest.” And when the teacher says that, they are simply describing the Buddha Nature of the person concerned; and it says, when the trainee receives this with surprise and doubt, then the sage goes back to saying all things have the Buddha Nature: cats and cows and everything else. And if cats and cows have the Buddha Nature, you do; but that doesn’t stand against the jewelled diadem. That actually exists.
Now, before I go on, I was wondering whether there were any questions.
Question: I’ve been puzzled by “Indra the Creator.”
Answer: On one level it’s basically a cry for help to anything. Indra actually means the world created through our sense organs, and Buddhist symbolism in India in general is not exactly positive or negative, but is based upon the process of training, so that one symbol can mean the beginning of training as well as its fruition. So Indra means the sense organs, but it also means that which brings about True Life. It means the enlivening aspect; that’s one way I can put it. As Reverend Master said, “Zen is eternal life.” There’s a story that kind of goes, “Does the dragon roar in the withered tree?”, which means that people often think that training will kill their humanity, if they give up things or let go of things; that there will be nothing on the other side of it, and the dragon’s roar in the withered tree is in reference to this. Some of you have seen what I hold at formal sanzen: that twisted nyoi that I have, carved out of a dead, twisted branch. That’s used in China to represent that there is something alive beyond the usual way of looking at life and death. So, calling upon Indra the Creator would, in India, include that whole range of things; in the beginning, refuge in the world that we create and the way we see, and later, within this, refuge in the Great Compassion; because without Great Compassion, samsara, the world, as we experience it, is like a heap of broken dishes or an enormous amount of trash paper blowing in the wind; that’s the only way I can put it.
In Buddhist medicine, it is said that the causes of enlightenment are the same as the causes of mental illness. They both result from the direct encounter with impermanence: one is the letting go of it; the other is the inability to let go of it. Both see, only in different ways. I think that is why it is said that to alcoholism there is a spiritual base, because people are actually seeking that which is beyond samsara but do not have a practical way of doing so, so they find the nearest thing, if I can put it that way. Viewing alcoholism that way is viewing it through Great Compassion. This doesn’t mean that when the drunken person appears at the gate they’re not still Buddha; they’re a drunken Buddha, and drunken Buddhas need to be shown somewhere where they can sleep it off before they can participate, but they’re no less. Compassion doesn’t mean that one does not see things as they are, although, as Reverend Master Jiyu used to say, “If one trains oneself one runs the risk of being seen as unrealistic in the eyes of the world, and maybe even to the extent of being called a bleeding heart.”
Indra also represented that which, in the really old depictions of the life of the Buddha, stood behind Shakyamuni, holding a vajra, a dorje, which is sometimes in the shape of a dumbbell with large ends. This figure is always standing behind, and is sometimes seen as the true nature of, or to other people, the guardian deity of Shakyamuni. It’s one of those things in Buddhism that is no doubt talking about something that is actually experienced, and the only way they could depict it was by depicting it in that form, and I certainly know for myself there are quite a number of things that I would never have thought were literally so, that are, but not literally so in the way I would have thought.
Any other questions?
Q: The turning of the Wheel; the story of the cart, where you leave the burning house, and the cart, its wheel is there. I find it comforting in that I associate it with something happening, with a given commission, that I’ve invited, that goes on all the time.
A:Yes. Yes.
Q. That even though I may – I do have the Buddha Nature, I’m not living in the state of enlightenment, so it’s expanding that, going towards, always.
A: Yes. Because what happens as that occurs over a period of time, and the interior movement and change happens in the person, is that the expansion, sometimes seen symbolically as the opening of a lotus blossom, takes place within; I could say within oneself, but that sounds like it’s in one’s tummy – within, and, as that happens, there is the conversion of karma. When we hear “conversion of karma,” we think, oh yeah, you scrub your clothes and the dirt goes down the drain, but in the way karma is converted, those very things which are obstacles become the cart wheels, in the same way as greed, hate and delusion become compassion, love and wisdom through training. It’s just the same substance transformed. There’s a quote from W.H. Auden, and he’s talking about the origins of World War Two, in a sense the origins of suffering:
For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have, Not universal love
But to be loved alone.
And that is what it’s all about, and that can be transformed. When the self changes then everything looks different, and as each part of that karma changes then it is an impetus toward training, and that transformation goes on and when we come to particular points along the way we have a glimpse of it, but that doesn’t mean it only goes on when we have a glimpse. It’s like D.T. Suzuki’s comment of “Once or twice I’ve had the great experience and a million times the little moments that make one dance.” When we see the little moments we think they are only occurring at that time, rather than something that is going on all the time. Sometimes we see it and sometimes we don’t. As is says, “Sometimes we raise the eyebrows of old Shakyamuni, and sometimes we do not.” Sometimes it is good to do and sometimes not. What do you think?
(The conclusion of this article on Vespers by Rev. Master Koten Benson will appear in the next issue of the Newsletter.)
Priory News by Rev. Kinrei
On November 8, the Priory held its yearly memorial for Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett. It is thirteen years since Rev. Master Jiyu died and it is always wonderful to have this opportunity to remember this great Master and express our gratitude for her life, her teaching and her example of deep Buddhist training. On this same day, the Priory Sangha also celebrated my ordination as a Buddhist monk, thirty years ago on November 4, 1979. I am very grateful for the deep appreciation, gratitude and generosity that was shown to me. I gave a Dharma talk about my memories of Rev. Master Jiyu and how her teaching and example has shaped my life. We then had a potluck lunch, hosted by Judy Brown who very conveniently lives around the corner from the Priory. The weather favored us with a warm and sunny day and everyone seemed to enjoy this festive gathering.
The Priory, as of early December, has an additional senior monk in residence. Rev. Scholastica Hicks has relocated from Shasta Abbey to the Priory. She had hoped to move down here in early November, but a few days before her move Rev. Scholastica had a bad fall and fractured her shoulder. Her recovery has gone well and she was feeling fit enough to move down here in December. And she was here in time to share her twentieth ordination birthday as a monk with the Priory Sangha on December 6. The Priory was extremely well attended on that Sunday, since that was also the day we celebrated the Enlightenment of the Buddha. Rev. Scholastica gave an insightful Dharma talk and it was followed by a very bountiful potluck lunch. Rev. Scholastica has spent a number of months at the Priory in recent years and the Sangha has gotten to know and appreciate her training and example. It is a great help to me as the Prior to have another venerable and wise monk here at the Priory.
With Gratitude
Charity is one of the four wisdoms and demonstrates the Bodhisattva’s aspiration. Deep appreciation and gratitude is extended to all those who contribute their spiritual practice, money, time, energy, and various gifts to the Priory. The generosity of the entire Priory Sangha is what makes it possible for the Priory to exist and for the Dharma to be freely offered to whomever is interested.
In recent months, we have been given many generous gifts, including a wireless router, books, Buddhist pictures, rosaries, meditation cushions, cat food, paper napkins. toilet paper, dish soap, plastic bags, air mattress, bathroom scale, towels, bedding, kitchenware, A chiropractor has been providing free treatments for Rev. Kinrei which is deeply appreciated.
Providing monks with food is the traditional offering given when coming to a Buddhist temple, and we appreciate all the generous food offerings we have been given which provide most of the food for the Priory. During the past few months we have been given a number of prepared and take-out meals, vegetables, fruit, soup, soymilk, beans, salad, salad dressing, eggs, coffee, bread, teas, breakfast cereals, olive oil, canola oil, tofu, vegetarian meats, fruit juice, crackers, noodles, nuts, cheese, chips, rice cakes, yogurt, peanut butter, jam, sugar, vinegar, spices, hot drink mixes, chocolate, ice cream, cookies, candy, pies, and cakes. You are always welcome to check with the Priory on what foods are currently needed.
We encourage our Sangha and friends to offer writings to this newsletter. We all have our own personal experiences and understanding and it is an act of spiritual generosity to be willing to offer and share them with others.
Buddhist Memorials and Animal Funerals
We held a memorial for John Rosheim’s recently deceased father, Edward, on October 25. The Priory has had quite a few animal funerals during the past few months. Norman Hering’s dog, Shadow, had his funeral on October 18. Roger and Marianne Kahn’s dog, Luna, had her funeral on November 1 and Mary Gray’s cat, Buddy, had his funeral on November 7. All these services were well attended by memebers of our Sangha and it is a wonderful aspect of Buddhism that we can make these offerings of merit to beings.
Introductory Workshop April 24 (10 am—1 pm)
This workshop is designed to be a follow-up to the basic meditation instruction that we offer every Thursday evening. It will include a talk on meditation practice, then a few periods of meditation and then a talk on bringing mindfulness and compassion into our daily lives. There is no charge for the workshop and we ask that people register in advance.
Helping the Priory and Work Days
Buddhist training is based not just on receiving the spiritual nourishment that the Sangha offers us, but also our own willingness to cultivate gratitude and to be willing to find ways to give. Offering our valuable time to help with the work of the Priory is very much needed if the Priory is to flourish. During the past few months, Sangha members came by the Priory and helped with many different tasks, such as gardening, cleaning, cooking, construction, computer work, bookkeeping and laundry. Please contact Rev. Kinrei if you wish to help; the Priory always has plenty of work that needs doing.
In addition, the Priory has been having regular work days which have been a great help with fixing up and maintaining the Priory and its grounds. You are welcome to come to the Priory whenever you can and offer your help. The next work days are scheduled for Saturday, January 30 and March 27, from 9:30 to 3:00, but we welcome everyone to help for whatever part of the day they can come. Working together as a Sangha is a way of both giving to the Priory and sharing in the brightness of our fellow members of the Sangha. Work days include a lunch at the Priory which is an informal meal. Please let us know if you can attend as it is helpful in planning the work.