[AUDIO AND TEXT]
Back in May of this year, we touched on Robert Aitken Roshi’s presentation of the Great Vows (also known as the Great Bodhisattva Vows). In that talk, I quoted from Aitken’s 1994 book The Practice of Perfection: The Paramitas from a Zen Buddhist Perspective (© 1994, Robert Aitken, Pantheon Books. © 1997, Counterpoint).
In that book, Aitken stresses the quality of Aspiration that the Paramitas carry. He says, “The Paramitas are inspirations, not fixed rules.” This ought to make it easier for us when we place ourselves under their sway. He encourages us to take it easy on ourselves, saying, “There are milestones on the path … but they are no more than milestones and are not any kind of ultimate consummation. Perfection is a process.”
Aitken published an earlier book containing short verses, or gathas, that he says exemplify our self-identification as Bodhisattvas, as beings of wisdom and compassion dedicated to the task of liberating all beings. In the Introduction to The Dragon Who Never Sleeps (© 1992, Parallax Press, Berkeley, CA), he writes:
Mahayana teachers are clear that the Bodhisattva is an archetype rather than a deity. When I take the noble path of the Buddha, the Bodhisattva is no other than my selfless self. The Bodhisattva vows are my own.
The verses presented in The Dragon Who Never Sleeps highlight everyday occasions upon which we can make our being as Bodhisattvas our own – bring the Bodhisattva vows to life in our everyday doings. In this book, he says his intention is:
… to show how ordinary occurrences in our modern lay life are in fact the Buddha’s own teachings, and also to show how we can involve ourselves accordingly in the practice of wisdom and compassion with family and friends – with everyone and everything.
I’d like to quote just a few of the verses that he presents right at the beginning. These have to do with waking up after sleep – both in the mornings and, I would venture, after waking up to our essential nature. After what we blithely call Enlightenment. See how simple, yet how profound, they are.
Waking up in the morning
I vow with all beings
to be ready for sparks of the Dharma
from flowers or children or birds.
Remember the words that the Buddha is said to have spoken when he saw the Morning Star while sitting under the Bodhi tree? “I and all beings awaken together.” Those words have been translated in different ways, but the key is that the one man and all beings saw It at once, and together.
Here are the next two four-line verses that Aitken Roshi presents:
Waking up in the morning
I vow with all beings
to listen to those whom I love,
especially to things they don’t say.
Watching the sky before dawn
I vow with all beings
to open those flawless eyes
that welcomed the Morning Star.
See how these few simple lines can bring us to appreciate and embrace the opportunities that the coming day will present to us?
Now, again, these are not inviolable promises we are making … to ourselves or to the Universe. They are, rather, aspirational statements of intention. They simply place us in a certain frame of mind and being as we begin to conduct our daily activities. We might think of these verses as a Zen Buddhist incarnation of the Daily Word – remember that little magazine that was published by the Unity School? My Aunt Ruth used to read it every day (bless her!), and I think it still exists!
So, by cluing us into these “dragon gathas,” Aitken Roshi gives us a way to regard ourselves daily as Bodhisattvas, and it’s really not too painful a way. In the Introduction, he gives us a very relatable way of embracing the Bodhisattva path. He says, simply and without any pressure:
I vow to use the many events of my day as opportunities to fulfill the task I share with all people, animals, plants, and things. Such vows take ahimsa, non-harming, to the most profound level of personal responsibility. I might not realize them completely, but I do the best I can.
From the Great Vows: Dharma gates are countless; I vow to wake to them. “I do the best I can.”
I’ll close tonight with another early verse in the collection, and this one really struck me:
Sounding a bell at the temple
I vow with all beings
to ring as true in each moment:
mellow, steady, and clear.
What more could we want than that as a statement of the essential nature of our being?
Thank you.
EMPTY CLOUD ZEN 