From Dharma Talk given July 11, 2010 (Unedited)
Podcast available
“Old foxes never forget their native home. When they are dying, they lie with their heads turned toward the hill where they had lived. The white tortoise once saved by Mao-pao of Chin in China showed its gratitude to Mao-pao by carrying him on its back when he was defeated in battle and had to flee across a river. Even beasts express their gratitude! It is needless to say that we human beings should also do so.”
From Nichiren Shonin’s writing Hoon-jo, Essay on Gratitude written upon hearing of the death of his teacher Dozen-bo.
I suspect that we all actually know that we should express our appreciation, and are all very grateful for the wonderful gift of the Lotus Sutra we have been given. I am sure you know to be grateful, yet do you know how to repay your debt of gratitude? Being grateful is just one part of the equation, repaying that debt is the other part. So how do we begin to repay the favor of the gift of the Dharma? Perhaps some answers have already come to your mind. None the less, let me talk a little about what the Buddha has to say about how we should repay the gift we have received.
On Monday July 12, 2010 I will be giving a lecture on Chapter XXII of the Lotus Sutra titled Transmission. Today I would like to just delve into two sentences from that chapter that address this very question of repayment of debt to the Buddha. Wow, you might say, is it even possible to pay the Buddha back for his wonderful teaching of the Lotus Sutra? The answer is that it truly is possible.
Quoting from the Lotus Sutra:
“When you see anyone who does not receive this sutra by faith, you should show him some other profound teachings of mine, teach him, benefit him, and cause him to rejoice. When you do all this, you will be able to repay the favors given to you by the Buddhas?”
On the surface this may seem rather simple to understand and not worthy of a special Dharma Talk. It clearly seems to say the way to repay the favor is to spread the Dharma, to tell others about it. And on one level that is indeed what it says, but it also tells us how to go about spreading the Dharma, so let us look at this in more detail.
First it says; “When you see anyone who does not receive this sutra by faith…” There are actually two ways to receive the Dharma, one by faith and the other intellectually. In one instance, by faith, a person truly embraces the teaching has created a relationship with the teaching and has incorporated it into the depths of their lives and actually tries to live the principals and teachings on a daily basis. The other, is a theoretical understanding, that is a person may agree with the fundamentals of the teaching, and may actually like what is said and taught, but has not yet delved deeper into the hidden core of the Sutra and therefore has not established a direct relationship with the Sutra. While that person may ascribe to many of the principals expounded they still have not begun to actually delve deeper into the meanings and the implications of those meanings and their expression in their actual lives.
Helping one another
This is not all that we are charged with doing if someone is unable to accept faith and belief in the Lotus Sutra. The Buddha says we should teach, benefit and cause them to rejoice. Now you may wonder how do we go about doing this. I think perhaps a good place to start is by manifesting the best kind of living proof or example of our practice to others for them to see a manifestation of our benefit. Remember if someone praises the good in us, they are in fact praising the Buddha which causes them to receive merit.
So our instructions apply specifically to those who do not accept this sutra by faith or who reject it outright. Now what are those instructions? What is it that we should do in situations such as this? Looking next in the sentence it says “you should show him some other profound teachings of mine.” In other words we should try to lead them step by step towards accepting by faith the Lotus Sutra. We may begin with such profound teachings as dependant origination, explaining that nothing arises independent of something else that there is no unconditioned arising or coming into being. Or we might explain to them about the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-Fold Path. I think the Eight-Fold Path is an easy teaching for those of other faiths to accept and incorporate into their religious beliefs. Even explaining clearly and thoroughly concepts such as cause and effect can allow people of other religions to begin to see life in new and different ways without them abandoning or even outright accepting Buddhism.
Next it says we are to instruct. In this instance we should instruct people who have perhaps only a theoretical understanding in how they may come closer to actually establishing a direct relationship with the Lotus Sutra and thereby develop faith in the teachings. We should however, in all cases be respectful and not belittle a person because they have only a surface appreciation for the teachings. Remember faith, like enlightenment is a process, one that occurs over time and with experience. Some of us first came to Buddhism because we wanted to accomplish something, perhaps improve our lives, or overcome some difficulty. You could say that some may have approached this practice with objectives that over time have changed. We may not have at first began practicing the Lotus Sutra because of the changes it could affect in our lives, and yet over time we can see that those changes have occurred.
The third item in the list is to benefit them. How do we benefit someone. The best way is by example in our lives. When people see that Buddhism has benefited us then they can see the possibility for it benefitting themselves.
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” John F. Kennedy
Some of you have heard me talk about how each of us have unique lives with unique challenges, and how we are the ones most suited to overcoming those challenges. While we are truly unique, we do frequently share some common factors with others. For example some are male and some are female. In some situations a woman may look more closely at how another woman faces and overcomes life’s challenges. Some of us are old and some are young. It may be easier for a young person to identify with another young person than it may be for them to relate to or identify with an older person. While it is true that we do not always seek out something or someone similar as an example on which to model ourselves still we do frequently look to other people to see how they have overcome a particular challenge that is similar to our own. This is how we can benefit people, by showing them through the example of our lives how to possibly overcome a particular challenge they face.
Finally it says we should cause them to rejoice. This is perhaps one of the most difficult things for us to accomplish. It isn’t easy to be a Buddhist, it isn’t easy to always follow the teachings we ascribe to. And yet when we are able to then we can cause other people to be happy and thereby cause them to experience joy in Buddhism even without them practicing. When someone praises you for being kind or caring and compassionate or being fair and balanced in your emotions and behavior then they are actually praising the Buddha in you. We have, by our behavior caused them to rejoice over the Buddha’s teachings.
We may think that we are insignificant in our practice, especially when so many people do not practice Buddhism. When we do this we diminish our own potential for causing others to be happy. When you take the time to greet the cashier who services your order or when you say hello and greet with a smile a stranger, you do not know the impact of your actions on their life. Yet by so doing and by causing them to smile and feel joy in your Buddha actions you are allowing them to make a connection with Buddhism even if you do not know it and even if they do not know it. Think of the times when someone has complimented you on your positive attitude or on your sunny disposition, and you mention to them that you believe that you are helped because of your Buddhist practice. Sometimes they may ask you for more information, and you are given the opportunity to share with them the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. Well, the same things happens even when they don’t ask you, or even when they don’t even mention it.
Think about times when you have not been able to act perhaps as a Buddhist would act, think about how the other person responds to you. They think less of you on many levels. The same is equally true when we exert a positive influence on others and our environment. The relationship of cause and effect is there regardless of whether or not we see it actually manifesting in this moment.
Now I would like to speak a little about some of the most challenging people to share Buddhism with and that is our relatives or our closest friends, or our spouses.
It is often the hardest for us to share Buddhism with our relatives. While it is true that for some their relatives are very adamantly opposed to Buddhism there are many others for whom this is not an issue. Yet in all situations our relatives are almost always the most challenging, and it is in large part because they know us. Our relatives especially our parents and siblings know us intimately, they know all of our faults and our strengths. So if we claim Buddhism has helped us in some fundamental way, they can often see beyond that and may not be impressed. It isn’t enough to merely say we have changed, we need to actually change in significant ways for our relatives to notice something is different. This kind of change usually takes a long time, it occurs over many years of continued effort to make a fundamental change in our lives. This is not the change that comes by merely saying we believe in Buddhism, instead this is the change that occurs as we embrace and incorporate Buddhism on ever deeper levels of our moment to moment lives.
“I remember those happy days and often wish I could speak into the ears of the dead the gratitude which was due to them in life and so ill-returned.”
