Dharma Talks by Zen Master Senshin
May 2012:
Taking the Precepts
If you have a mind, in other words, if you hold on to your dualistic thinking
then taking the precepts will be helpful. The precepts will guide you in your
behaviour. But there is deeper meaning here. If you have no mind, you don’t
need the precepts. You don’t need to read them, you don’t need to think about
them, and you don’t need to reflect on them. You don’t need something called
“the precepts”. Already your behaviour, your thoughts and actions are clear.
The deeper meaning in taking the precepts is: Who is it that is taking the
precepts? Our practice always comes back to our primary question of: Who
am I?
Our lineage is in the Korean Soen tradition. The essence of our training is
written in three sentences in the ceremony itself. The first sentence is: “Our
offences have no self-nature and arise only from our mind”. Dualistic thinking
is a result of habit and conditioning. What I mean by that is when thought
arises, we analyse it, judge it and determine whether it is good or bad. We
then function from that experience of dualism and our lives become guided by
our judgements and are thereby self-limited. In creating that which we call
self, we create subject and object. In so doing, a separation is created (Zen
Master Sen Shin is holding up her right hand and left hand), into that which
we call a right hand and that which we call a left hand. However, when
thought originally appears, it is a pure impulse: Who is that seeing this right
hand; this left hand? If we can observe thought as it arises and leave it alone,
it will disappear just like the smoke dissipating into the air as the stick of
incense on the altar slowly burns. When we try to hold on to thought,
manipulate it, control it, then thought becomes something we try and keep for
our small self.
From a conceptual perspective, we think our thoughts are something, which
we then refer to as I. We think we are our thoughts. When we are attached to
our thinking, we cause suffering. Our small, egoistic self believes that: I am
right and you are wrong. Or, Australians have a good life but the Eastern
Europeans have a terrible one. Or, New Zealanders life style is
environmentally superior to that of the Americans. Many people think
America is too aggressive in world politics except for many Americans who
think that the USA is number 1! These are just examples of how we believe in
our dualistic thinking so our dualistic thinking controls our lives. This kind of
thinking is expected and is accepted in many cultures and in many nations.
The point being our dualistic thinking causes suffering for ourselves – then we
generously impose it on others. We impose our personal suffering on other
people, other beings, the environment, which we are steadily destroying, and
no one really knows how our personal suffering impacts on that which can not
be seen or known.
The second sentence states: “If our minds are extinguished, our offences too
will be destroyed”. This isn’t about physical death, but spiritual death.
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Taking the precepts is to renew our Great Vow, thereby dying to who we think
we are. Letting go of all dualistic thought is the meaning of extinguishing our
minds and our offences.
Let’s look into this a bit deeper. Human beings think that that which we call I
is the centre of the universe. When dualistic thought of good and bad, right
and wrong, black and white no longer arises, the I or the ego moves away from
centre stage. Let’s use the metaphor of a theatrical performance. Each of you
has been to a theatre to see a play or an opera. On a traditional proscenium
stage, the main actor frequently occupies centre stage. That which we call I or
in this case the main actor, enjoys being in the spot light anywhere on the
stage. But who are the producers who are running this show?
The ego can only experience itself in the role that it is
playing. So a question appears: Is this all that I am, an actor
in a play? However, small our actor or ego may seem, our
spiritual awareness is unfathomable.
It is none other then the entire stage, all the people in the
production as well as the audience. And not only does our
spiritual consciousness encompass the theatre but the town
the theatre is in, the state, the city, the country, and the
universe with all of its inhabitants, both seen and unseen.
When we take the precepts often we are confronted with some aspect of the
form of the words or the ritual. And we continue to question: Who is it that is
taking the precepts? When we begin to listen to the deeper questions that
arise naturally within us, we become aware of that which is greater than what
we think we are. Our practice is to listen to that which is greater than the selfcentred ego. In Buddhism, it is called many things such as true self or
Buddha-nature. In each religious tradition, there is a name for that experience
which is greater than the small and limited self. But these are just words to
describe one great and all encompassing mind that is interconnected with all
things. It is up to each of us to experience oneness directly.
The 5 and the 10 precepts are designations of the thinking mind. We take the
precepts to help clarify our muddled state of mind so that our life direction
can become clear to us. When one’s life direction is clear there is a deep
knowing that we can’t know, we don’t know, that it is not possible to know
who we truly are and that is what the practice of the precepts is all about. This
is the meaning of the third and last sentence, which says: “When both our
minds and our offences are extinguished and both are seen as empty, this is
termed true repentance”. True self is undifferentiated from all phenomena.
What is there to offend and: who is the offender?
Returning to our metaphor … taking the precepts helps dim the spot light on
the main actor (our ego). The ego will function all by itself whether it is on a
stage or not, or whether it is in the spotlight or not, or whether it is playing a
specific role or not.
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You don’t have to believe in what your ego is telling you anymore. You don’t
have to believe in your dualistic thinking. You can step into the audience and
observe your ego with all of its dualistic thoughts as it goes through its role in
your play. Relax and watch it. It is really quite entertaining!
Here is another example of our ego at play. Yesterday, I drove to the store to
pick up dish detergent. At the shopping centre, many of the parking places
were cordoned off with plastic tape. There was one free space that I parked in.
After I finished shopping, I loaded the car and I jumped in ready to make a
quick get away. Before reversing, I noticed in my rear-view mirror a little old
man driving a big new car. His head didn’t even reach the top of the steering
wheel. The car was headed towards the now empty space next to my car and
was creeping along very slowly. And I thought, “Oh, my goodness, I will be
here for a long time”. Slowly he began to line up his car to turn into the vacant
spot. At the best of times I am a little impatient in a big shopping centre with a
big car park. So I watched him as he ever-so-carefully negotiated his car into
the space next to mine. As I waited for him to complete his parking
manoeuvre, I noticed his wife was sitting in the back seat of their car. That
didn’t give me a whole lot of confidence in his driving ability so I started to
back up to get out of his way. My driver’s side window was rolled down and
suddenly I heard this voice, obviously speaking to me. There was a workman
on a high platform installing a sprinkler system on the ceiling of the car park,
and this is what he said in a loud and emphatic voice: “They just can’t wait,
can they? You wouldn’t believe all the things that I have seen them do. They
hit each other, they race each other for a free car park and once, they almost
hit me.“
We have all experienced prejudice. This tradesman was expressing his
frustration using prejudice language. Prejudice can take many forms. In the
extreme, prejudice can be known as racism, sexism, elitism, etc.. In more
subtle ways as we have just read in the 10 Precepts today, the 7th Precept
reminds us not to praise ourselves while abusing others. We also read that the
Dharma is equitable which means that at the very source of our being, at the
source of all beings, there is true equality.
So back to my parking lot dilemma – on the right hand side of my car, there
was a frustrated tradesman demanding sympathy and respect. On the left
hand side of my car, the elderly couple had finally finished parking their car.
Suddenly, the little old man popped up in front of my driver’s side window
and said, “I guide you back”. I looked at him and then I looked at his car where
his wife was still sitting – she was smiling and waving to me in a friendly
manner. All the elderly man wanted to do was to help. When I had reversed as
far as I could go, the elderly man told me to stop. Even though the tradesman
had by this stage suspended his haranguing, he still had to get in the last word
and he piped in with, “You’re right love”. As I turned the car to head out of the
parking lot, I waved at the tradesman, the elderly man and his wife thanking
them all for their help.
Like the tradesman, standing up high on the scaffolding, we all have the
possibility for privileged perspectives in our lives. One challenge is how do we
use what we see, smell, taste, touch, think and hear?
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If we use our experiences to support our prejudices then we can cause
unnecessary suffering to ourselves and to others. From a prejudicial
perspective, from any perspective, we misread people and things and we get it
wrong. This is why we take the precepts to remind us that originally there is
no I and no you, no killing and no one to be killed, no owning and nothing to
be owned, no attachment and nothing to be attached to. No intoxicants and no
one to be intoxicated. All of our offences that arise from our dualistic thinking
mind are originally empty.
In Buddhism there are many ways to describe original mind -- that
experience, which is undeniable yet, inexpressible. We are all part of one
Great Flow. My teacher used to say: “Yeah, go with the flow but watch where
the flow is going.” You don’t need to watch where the flow is going. The flow is
who you originally are. This is the subtle and mysterious mind, which cannot
be owned, killed, intoxicated, stolen or abused. It doesn’t get angry, it isn’t
ignorant or possessive. It doesn’t laugh and it doesn’t cry. It isn’t Chinese,
American or Australian.
It is each of our responsibilities as human beings to cultivate this mysterious
and subtle mind with which we are all endowed. One way to do that is through
our practice of the precepts. As part of your practice, read the precepts and
reflect on them deeply. Wonder about them: Who is it that has taken the
precepts? That is our practice, enlivening our innate spirit of inquiry so that
our lives can be freed from prejudice and in recognising pre-conceived ideas
as they arise letting them all go.
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