Guishan’s “Do Not Betray Others”

Dharma Discourse by Abbot John Daido Loori

Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo,* Case 47

Featured in Mountain Record 19.1, Fall 2000


 The Main Case

One day Guishan, after sitting the whole day, gathered his feet in his hands, pointed to his straw sandals, and said to Yangshan, “All hours of the day we receive people’s support. We should not betray them.”1Yangshan said, “Long ago, in Sudatta’s garden, the Buddha expounded just this.”2Guishan said, “That’s not enough. Say more.”3Yangshan said, “When it is cold, to wear socks for others is not prohibited.”4
[View Footnotes]

The Commentary

All masters throughout time have always looked to guiding and aiding all living beings. They would set up their shops according to their capacities, and in response to the imperative of time, place, position, and degree. Appearing and disappearing in harmony with the occasion, they created countless kinds of expedient means to alleviate suffering. Guishan wanted everyone to know, so he stirred things up by saying, “All hours of the day we receive people’s support. We should not betray them.” Yangshan was an adept, and could not help but respond. Guishan’s intention, however, was unfathomable; he wanted more. Without hesitation, Yangshan again rose to meet the old man’s challenge. But say, what was Yangshan’s meaning? We should understand that to wear socks for others is a very personal matter. It is the seamless Dharma activity that is the ten thousand hands and eyes of great compassion itself. It is the spiritual light of four virtues of the bodhisattva manifesting in the ten directions. But tell me, right now, how do you manifest it in your life?

The Capping Verse

Pure jewelled eyes, virtuous arms,
formless and selfless, they enter the fray.
The great function works in all ways,
these hands and eyes are the whole thing.

The Footnotes

1. This is pertinent. He wants the whole world to know about it.
2. When the wind blows, grasses bend.
3. What can he say? It simply cannot be explained.
4. Very intimate, but what does it mean?

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Footnote: *300 Koan Shobogenzo is a collection of koans gathered by Master Dogen during his study in China. The koans from this collection, often called the Chinese Shobogenzo, appear extensively in the essays of Dogen’s Japanese Shobogenzo. These koans have not been available in English translation but are currently being translated and prepared for publication by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Abbot John Daido Loori. Abbot Loori has added a commentary, capping verse, and footnotes to each koan.


Portrait Every night millions of Buddhist practitioners all over this country chant the Four Bodhisattva Vows. Every night each one of us vows to save innumerable sentient beings; to manifest the ten thousand hands and eyes of Great Compassion, of Kannon Bodhisattva. For me, these hands and eyes are none other than the sangha, the community of dedicated practitioners who take up the challenge to address the endless list of problems we face today.

Right now we are prosperous as a nation and as a sangha. The Dharma is growing in the United States. Centers continue to appear and new practitioners are engaging the practice. At the same time, millions of people are starving. World peace is still a dream. This Great Earth is dying. Overpopulation persists and diseases are rampant. Our children receive the greatest brunt of suffering. The imperative is clear. The burning question is: what will we do? What will you do?

We take up this question personally and collectively in the context of training within the Mountains and Rivers Order. The Board of Governors is one of the several governing bodies of Zen Mountain Monastery. and it is made up of a cross-section of the people we serve: students, non-students, and people with casual interest in the Monastery. Every five years we invite them to come together as a group and to look to the future, to help us envision where the priorities are. The recommendations that come out of those meetings are then relayed to the Board of Directors to determine whether or not we’re capable of undertaking the suggested projects, and if we can, to figure out how.

In the past we’ve taken initiative and begun programs such as the National Prison Buddhist Sangha and the Zen Environmental Studies Site. Usually, when we take this sort of action, it is in response to a specific need that arises and galvanizes our attention. Right action, which is one of the eight gates of our practice here, means meeting the needs of a growing sangha. It means guiding and aiding all living beings and responding to their cries for help. It means taking care of our fragile planet.

This koan addresses the issue of compassion within the context of our vows.

One day Guishan, after sitting the whole day, gathered his feet together in his hands, pointed to his straw sandals, and said to Yangshan, “All hours of the day we receive people’s support. We should not betray them.” My footnote to that says, This is pertinent. He wants the whole world to know about it.

Yangshan said, “Long ago, in Sudatta’s garden, the Buddha expounded just this.” Footnote says, When the wind blows, the grasses bend.

Guishan said, “That’s not enough. Say more.” The footnote adds, What can he say? It simply cannot be explained.

Yangshan said, “When it is cold, to wear socks for others is not prohibited.” Footnote to that concludes, Very intimate, but what does it mean? Not prohibited means it’s okay to wear socks for others.

The commentary begins, All masters throughout time have always looked to guiding and aiding all living beings. That’s what our vow is; that’s what our practice is. It’s not a self-centered endeavor. Right from the outset, we should understand clearly that individual liberation is a contradiction in terms. Personal liberation is fulfilled only within the context of social liberation.

Trying to achieve real freedom is impossible while approaching this practice with a self-centered point of view that excludes even a single speck of dust. Look at what is liberation and what it means to be free. To be liberated means to merge with the ten thousand things, with the whole catastrophe. As Master Dogen says, To study the Buddha Way is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self, and to forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things. To be enlightened by the ten thousand things means to merge with the ten thousand things.

Sangha

All masters throughout time have always looked to guiding and aiding all living beings. They would set up their shops according to their capacities, and in response to the imperative of time, place, position, and degree. “Setting up according to their capacities” is a critical line. We have a tendency to fall into extremes. We either wallow in hopelessness or hide from our problems like an ostrich with its head in the ground; or we run around in frenzy like a chicken without a head. Either way, we don’t accomplishing anything.

Look at Vincent Van Gogh. The man was all heart, but he was not very practical. Before he was an artist he was the minister for a small coal mining town. There he witnessed unimaginable suffering and deprivation. Wanting to help, he immediately started giving away everything he owned: his clothes, food, furniture, his house. In two weeks he had nothing left and his ministry had ended. He became just another shivering soul. That was not very skillful of him at all. Granted, he was a great artist, but he was a lousy minister. Setting up your shop according to your capacity means to know exactly what your capacity and power are. Each one of us has personal power, and it’s different for different people. There are things that I can do that you can’t do. There are things that you can do that I can’t do. We need to know clearly what we are capable of — how to use our talents and energy for the benefit of others, responding appropriately to the imperative of time, place, position, and degree. That appropriate response is at the heart of practicing the Precepts, and it’s also a guideline to right action. It is the essence of skillful means. Skillful means change according to time. What was effective twenty years ago may no longer be effective today. What is skillful in one place may not be appropriate in another place. Your position in relationship to the problem determines what skillful means you can use.

While I was a research scientist working in a chemical plant, I found out that the company was polluting a local stream. I was in a position of authority at the time, so I used it. I went to the plant engineer and talked to him about the problem. At first he was resistant, but when I offered to help him figure out an alternative to get rid of our waste he agreed to cooperate. We worked together and the pollution stopped. In this case, my position allowed me to intervene directly. Five years later, when a different ecological crisis involved the same plant, I was no longer working there. All I could do was stand outside the fence with pickets and prowww. My position changed so my way of dealing with the situation had to change too.

Most important is the matter of degree. In any given situation, how do we know how much action is necessary and optimal? That’s a very difficult question. Many of us engage a worthy cause with a vengeance, frequently fired by self-righteousness. We know unequivocally what’s wrong and what’s right, and from that kind of discrimination we obtain plenty of fuel to propel our anger. To be able to funnel that anger into effective and skillful action requires that we take all aspects of a situation into consideration.

The Buddha was a master of skillful means. The ancestors were masters of skillful means. Appearing and disappearing in harmony with the occasion, they created countless kinds of expedient means to alleviate suffering. Appearing and disappearing are important dimensions of compassionate action. Sometimes you need to be very present; sometimes you need to be invisible. Both can be equally effective.

Guishan wanted everyone to know, so he stirred things up by saying, “All hours of the day we receive people’s support. We should not betray them.” Yangshan was an adept, and could not help but respond. Guishan’s intention, however, was unfathomable; he wanted more. He wouldn’t settle for a quote from the Buddha. In fact, I’m surprised that Yangshan was so shallow in his first response.

When the second challenge went out: Without hesitation, Yangshan again rose to meet the old man’s challenge., he said, “To wear socks for others is not prohibited.” It’s okay, but what was his meaning? This is where we really get into the heart of this koan.

We should understand that to wear socks for others is a very personal matter. It is the seamless Dharma activity that is the ten thousand hands and eyes of great compassion itself. Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, is often depicted with ten thousand hands and eyes. It is said that she responds to the cries of suffering in the world. With her ten thousand hands and eyes she responds and takes care of problems. She acts without a moment’s hesitation.

At the center of the bodhisattva ideal, ten thousand hands and eyes notwithstanding, is the reconciliation of opposites, the merging of differences — self and non-self, sentient and insentient, man and woman, as one reality. Master Dogen calls it, “I am thus. You are thus.” This is the fundamental metaphysical and religious ground of great compassion, the non-dual Dharma. It is seamless because it has no edges. It encompasses the whole universe. There is nothing outside of it.

It is the spiritual light of four virtues of the bodhisattva manifesting in the ten directions. Dogen writes beautifully about those four virtues: giving, loving speech, service for the welfare of all beings, and identity with others. He says: Giving means non-greed. Non-greed means not to crave. It means to give freely and not expect receiving anything in return because of that giving. That is true giving. Let us offer flowers of the distant mountains to the Tathagata or share the treasures with all sentient beings in spiritual things as well as material things. When the Way is surrendered to the Way you attain the Way. Upon being enlightened you necessarily let the Way come through itself. The self gives the self for the sake of giving the self. The other gives the other for the sake of giving other. It is purposeless. There is no reward, no payoff. Within this kind of giving, we merge with each other.

Dogen continues: Spiritual teachings are material wealth and, likewise, material wealth is spiritual teachings. If you study giving carefully, you realize living as well as dying are both giving. To be sure, to make a living and to regulate a business is none other than giving. Flowers are innocently fondled by the wind, and birds trust freely to time. These too are feats of giving. Indeed, by reason of being originally gifted with the power of giving, one’s present self came into being. Giving is free of and undefiled by dualism. There is no giver and no receiver.

About the second virtue, loving speech, he writes: As you meet sentient beings, you arise the sense of compassion first in your mind, and treat them with consideration and affectionate words completely devoid of any violent or spiteful language. As you take delight in affectionate words, they will gradually flourish. Even those loving words which were before unknown and unperceived will show themselves. As long as your present life lasts, you should take pleasure in speaking compassionately. Generation after generation, let us exert ourselves unremittingly. Compassionate speech is fundamental to the pacification of enemies and the reconciliation of others. You should ponder that thoughtful words arise from the loving mind. The loving mind has compassion as its seed. Compassionate action does not have to be grandiose. We don’t have to be white knights in shining armor, galloping off to battle. Often, all that’s required is simply some loving speech.

Path

About the third virtue: Working for the welfare of all beings means that you contrive ways to benefit all sentient beings, high and low. You think of various means that will be most congenial to their well-being. Commiserate with the turtle in trouble. Take care of the sparrow suffering from injury. When you see the distressed turtle, watch the sick sparrow, you do not expect any repayment for your favor. You are moved entirely by your desire to help. So serve enemies and friends equally. Assist self and other without discrimination. If you grasp this truth, you will see that this is the reason that even the grasses and trees, the wind and water are all naturally engaged in the activity of giving.. This is selfless giving. It is boundless giving.

Lastly, about identity with others: Identity with others is non-difference. It applies equally to self and other. There is a truth that after the self assimilates others to itself, the self lets itself be assimilated by others. The relationship of self and other varies according to circumstances. To save all sentient beings, you must be totally prepared to be saved by all sentient beings.

We should understand that to wear socks for others is a very personal matter. It is the seamless Dharma activity that is the ten thousand hands and eyes of great compassion itself. This is the non-dual Dharma. When it is realized, it is called wisdom. When wisdom arises, compassion immediately arises with it. There is no way to hold it back. There is no way to limit it. There is just the spiritual light of the four virtues of the bodhisattva manifesting in the ten directions in all of our encounters.

This teaching has always been implicit in Mahayana Buddhism from its inception thousands of years ago. But it never had the opportunity to manifest itself freely. It flourished in countries where there were significant political constraints; where there was no religious freedom. Monasteries were isolated. They were not in direct contact with much of the pain and suffering surrounding them. But we do not have that problem. We live in an age of communication, knowing very well what is going on at the furthest corners of the earth. We have the potential to feed the world. We have the potential to heal the earth. We have the potential to take care of the waste that we produce, to house the homeless, to bring world peace. It is said that there are three million Buddhists in the United States. That is a formidable number of people who are vowing every day to save all sentient beings. Why isn’t there more political action arising within Buddhist communities?

“Wearing socks for others” means knowing personally the suffering of others and responding accordingly. It is always possible to become complacent, to take the easy route. The easy route is to realize yourself and then go off to enjoy your life: “To hell with everybody else. I got mine.” I am thankful that the Buddha did not take the easy way; that Ananda, Bodhidharma, Dongshan, Guishan, Yangshan, Maezumi did not saunter off into the sunset. The path of the bodhisattva is to not rest on your laurels until each and every living being has been saved. Again, liberation can only be fulfilled in the context of the liberation of all beings. We should remember that every time we take our seat in the zendo.

The commentary ends: But tell me, right now, how do you manifest it in your life? That is the ever-present challenge. There are ways we respond to this challenge as a sangha. There is a long list of things we do and can do as a community, and that list will continue to grow as long as we are practicing here. But aside from the sangha, as an individual, what will you do in your everyday activities? Each and every one of us has countless opportunities for manifesting true giving, loving speech, service for the welfare of all beings, and identity with others. Are you willing? Are you able? Do you have the power to manifest the ten thousands hands and eyes of great compassion? That is what Kannon is.

The capping verse: Pure jewelled eyes, virtuous arms. Formless and selfless, they enter the fray. What does formlessness have to do with absolute, non-dual identity? Formlessness is not self-centered. A self-centered action is completely different from a selfless action. Doing good is not necessarily compassionate activity. Sometimes, on the surface, compassion may not seem like compassion at all. In compassion, there is no sense of separation between the doer and the doing. Someone falls, you pick them up. No one giving; no one receiving. “Formless and selfless, they enter the fray.” It means taking a chance. It means practicing the edge.

The great function works in all ways. The Dharma Wheel turns in all directions. The great function is your life, the Buddha nature. These hands and eyes are the whole thing. What are these hands and eyes? They are not the hands and eyes of some mythical deity that was incorporated into the pantheon of Buddhism. The ten thousand hands and eyes of great compassion are your hands and eyes, your life. Every time that great heart of compassion comes to life inside your body, you give birth to the hands and eyes of Kannon Bodhisattva. That is where she exists — no other place. Our challenge as individuals and as a sangha is to rise up to meet our vows to save all sentient beings. Please, take care of this.

John Daido Loori, Roshi is the Abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery. A successor to Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi, Roshi, Abbot Loori trained in rigorous koan Zen and in the subtle teachings of Master Dogen, and is a lineage holder in the Soto and Rinzai schools of Zen.

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