JUKAI: Recibir Preceptos es Iluminarse

Rev. Hyonjin Sunim

(Ozmo Piedmont, Ph.D.)

Jukai es una ceremonia budista en la que un discípulo formalmente recibe los preceptos de su maestro, un acto significando su elección de seguir el camino de los budas, y por consiguiente convertirse en un hijo o hija del Buda. Se la considera un momento de suma importancia en la vida de un budista, puesto que por medio de este acto se manifiesta la Iluminación con plena consciencia, identificándose con la esencia del universo.

            El diccionario define “precepto” como 1. una regla o principio para actuar, 2. un guía para la moralidad, y 3. una especie de instrucción para operar algo.  Los preceptos nos sirven entonces como un conjunto de reglas, guías, e instrucciones para vivir plenamente, sin sufrimiento.  Es una manera de evaluar si estamos actuando igual a un buda, ya que de hecho, somos todos budas en nuestra esencia. Es sólo que no percibimos esta esencia todavia porque se queda cubierta por nuestros hábitos mentales basados en egoísmo y negatividad. Cuando aplicamos los preceptos a nuestra conducta, estamos rompiendo patrones mentales condicionados por esta vida y otras, en las que estamos apegados a la codicia, frustración, e ignorancia. Sin embargo, la posibilidad de liberarnos de estas tendencias negativas siempre depende de nosotros mismos, en nuestra capacidad de abstener de impulsos habituales, prestar plena atención a las sensaciones egoistas surgiendo en la mente chica, y elegir otro camino de comportamiento. Los preceptos nos guían en el camino correcto, el camino de los budas.

            ¿Cuáles son los preceptos? Para un láico, hay 5 preceptos fundamentales. No requiren ningún don especial, simplemente la intención de vivir consciente, ser amable, y vivir en paz.  Son cinco preceptos que cada budista toma para comenzar su camino espiritual. Se llaman los votos de pratimoksha, con “prati” significando individual y “moksha” significando la liberación en sanskrito. Entonces, pratimoksha quiere decir los votos para la liberación personal del sufrimiento. Estos preceptos incluyen 1. preservar la vida, no matar; 2. ser generosos, no robar; 3. honrar el cuerpo, no hacer mal uso de la sexualidad; 4. ser honestos, no mentir; y 5. proceder con claridad, no nublar la mente con intoxicantes.   

            Historicamente, se consideran los preceptos como cosas en sí, realidades tangibles, cosas preciosas tratados con respeto, como un regalo especial entregado de uno maestro a su discípulo. A la vez, son cosas frágiles, mereciendo mucho cuidado como ollas de arcilla: son delicadas y se rompen facilmente.  Si esto pasa, hay que conseguir otros nuevos, en otra ceremonia de Jukai.

            ¿Qué significa la palabra “Jukai”? En japonés Kai significa preceptos y ju significa recibir; entonces “recibir los preceptos.” Pero hay otro sentido más profundo de la palabra jukai. Ju es sinónimo con la palabra kaku, la que significa “realizar”.  A veces se llama al Buda “Kakusha”, el que tiene el sentido de “Realizado” o “Iluminado.” Kai además significa “Naturaleza Búdica”. Por tanto, Jukai expresa la aspiración de todo budista, “realizar la Naturaleza Búdica.” Recibir los preceptos es literalmente realizar la esencia del universo como tu verdadero ser.           

            Al final de la ceremonia de jukai, se le pregunta tres veces: “¿Vas a seguir los preceptos?” Y tres veces el discípulo se compromete respondiendo: “Sí...sí...sí.” Entonces, en este momento preciso se convierten el cuerpo y la mente del discípulo en kai, como kai tai, la Naturaleza Búdica revelándose.

            Al principio de la ceremonia, se recita un verso sagrado: “Todo el karma malo cometido por mi desde los tiempos antiguos, debido a mi codicia, enojo e ignorancia, nacido de mi cuerpo, boca y pensamiento, ya lo expío todo.” Es una forma de expresar “sange,” lo que significa en japonés “arrepentimiento y expiación.”  Hay tres aspectos de este sange: samadhi, preceptos, y sabiduría: 

1. Samadhi es lo que se experimenta al penetrar profundamente en la meditación, viendo directamente al Buda, o sea, realizar la esencia de todo el universo. 
2. Preceptos son recomendaciones para vivir en armonía con el mundo, la ética de budismo, cultivando  más y más concretamente la realización de la Mente búdica en nuestra vida cotidiana. Cuando tomamos los preceptos, estamos comprometidos 100% a la intención de vivir según estas recomendaciones, a pesar de que una y otra vez nos olvidamos, cometiendo errores resultando en sufrimiento para otros y nosotros mismos. Sin embargo, si admitimos nuestro error, podemos volver de nuevo a los preceptos y a nuestra esencia interior.  Hay que recordar que un precepto no es un mandamiento, puesto que no hay pecado en el budismo. Ni hay nadie vigilando ni juzgándote si rompes un precepto. Es evidente a uno mismo por la ley de causa y efecto, la ley de karma: si cometemos acciones malas, vamos a sufrir. Pero si actuamos acorde a los preceptos, nos sentimos en paz.  Nos  aprendimos esto practicando la meditación, experimentando la mente calma y lúcida, dos aspectos de la esencia cósmica. 
3. Sabiduría tiene que ver con la “no-naturaleza” o el “no-yo”, sinónimos de la naturaleza verdadera, la Naturaleza Búdica. Realizar la Naturaleza Búdica es trascender lo bueno y lo malo, lo correcto y lo incorrecto. Es renunciar la codicia, ira, e ignorancia del ego, dejándonos ver nuestra naturaleza verdadera, lo cual es sabiduría. Sabiduría es identificarse con la esencia del universo.  Nuestro trabajo en esta vida es realizar y expresar esta esencia de manera consciente y directa en nuestras vidas cotidianas. 

     

      En efecto, cada uno de nosotros es un buda. Es sólo que no lo sabemos ni lo experimentamos debido a nuestro apego a los hábitos de la mente chica.  Pero al expresar arrepentimiento por nuestros actos negativos, logramos el Tesoro del Buda, conocido como “anuttarasamyaksambodhi”. Dentro de nosotros es esta esencia pura, un Cuerpo Único, el que ve con ojos de un Buda, viendo las cosas como son, todo como resultado de la causación, o sea, el “co-origen inter-dependiente”. Eso significa que todo fenómeno es impermanente, interconectado con el resto del universo, como una gigantesca red cósmica. Cada fenómeno surge por causas anteriores y es a su vez causando otros fenómenos. Todos surge, existe, cambia, y desaparece, la causa de otras cosas surgir a su vez. La causación y la impermanencia son la naturaleza de la “no-naturaleza,” o sea, shunyata, la vaciedad.  Es una vaciedad plena de vida, sabiduría, y creatividad; en fin, la Naturaleza Búdica.

      Realizar la Naturaleza Búdica es la Iluminación, identificándose con los Tres Tesoros. El primero es el tesoro del Buda, que somos esta misma esencia del universo.  El segundo es el tesoro del Dharma, que cada uno de nosotros es una personalidad única, especial y diferente, un regalo al universo. El tercero es el tesoro de la Sangha, dándonos cuenta de que somos estos dos aspectos inseparables a la vez, individuos únicos y la esencia universal. Así son Los Tres Tesoros.

      Todo en el universo, todos los fenómenos, tú y yo, todo es diferente y esencia única a la vez. Entender esto es el significado verdadero de jukai. Al recibir jukai, tu verdadera naturaleza se está revelando como los Tres Tesoros. Al recibir jukai, nos confirmamos idénticos con el Buda, Dharma, y Sangha, convirtiéndonos en hijas e hijos del Buda. Al final de la ceremonia, se recita: “Cuando los seres sensibles reciben la sila (preceptos), entran al reino de los budas, lo cual no es otro que La Gran Iluminación.  Efectivamente son los hijos del Buda.” Es para enfatizar que somos tanto la esencia como individuos diferentes, igual como los hijos e hijas a sus papás y mamás. Con tal de que, tarde o temprano, nos maduramos, llegando a ser budas perfectamente realizados, ya adultos espirituales.  Mientras tanto, confiamos en que somos miembros de la misma familia de budas. Recibir jukai es revelar y afirmar esta verdad maravillosa.

(La ceremonia de Jukai para recibir los preceptos se tomará lugar el 15 de diciembre 2013 en Guadalajara, Jalisco, México. Los interesados pueden comunicarse con Rev. Hyonjin Sunim para más información sobre el evento.)  

Bibliografía

Loori, John Daido. (2009).  Forward por HakuyuTaizan Maezumi: “Jukai: Receiving the Precepts.” The Heart of Being: Moral and Ethical Teachings of Zen Buddhism.  Dharma Communications Press. Kindle Edition.

WESAK FESTIVAL and RETREAT

May 17-19, 2013

MBZ Sangha

Baby Buddha Altar 

Bathing the Baby Buddha

Rev. Hyonjin and Friends

DHARMA TALKS

Rev. Hyonjin Sunim

Friday, May 17, 2013

BUDDHA THE BABY: The True Essence of Buddha-Nature

It happened on this day 2539 years ago.  In the shade of a tree, standing up, holding onto the branch of a tree for support, the Queen Maya of Kapilavastu gave birth in Lumbini, India.  The baby's name was Siddhartha. 

At his inception, his mother had dreamed that she was traveling through the great Himalaya mountains, where a spiritual being in the form of a white elephant, entered her right side, a very auspicious symbol.  Based on this dream, it was predicted that a baby would be born who would be either a king of the world or an wandering ascetic that would become a great religious teacher, a Buddha.   Although his father tried with all his will to influence the young Siddhartha to follow his own example as a king, but Siddhartha chose the solitary and spiritual life.   We are all confronted with this same decision, to choose between exterior wealth of power and fame and illusory satisfactions of desires, or on the other hand, the interior wealth of a solitary life based on peace and compassion.  The latter is solitary because we have to confront the everyday world that says the opposite.  

At his birth there were extraordinary and auspicious signs. The sky was clear and radiant with a magnificent light, with blooming flowers and singing birds everywhere - four devas, or spiritual beings, appeared in the sky pouring two streams of water, one cool the other warm, over the mother and child, bathing them tenderly.  

In this moment, the baby stood up, took six steps, which represented the six directions - north, south, east, west, abovve, below, and right here, and in step appeared lotus flowers under his feet.  He pointed with one hand toward the sky, and with the other pointed at the earth, expressing that he would unite heaven and earth. The he declared, "I am the World Honored One."  In the Mahayana tradition, this is interpreted as meaning that the true self of all beings in space and time is the innate Buddha Nature in each one of us.  

Wesak Day is the commemoration of this event.  It is the most practiced Buddhist celebration in all of Asia. One celebrates this day with great color and joy. As in many festivals, it is an opportunity to clean and decorate the home.  Then Buddhists visit their local temples to participate in the ceremonies and to present offerings of food, candles, flowers, and monetary donations to the monks.  The devout Buddhists use the celebration as a way to strengthen their intention to be honorable and to constantly maintain their practice of meditation, ethics, and to help others.  

The main activity of Wesak Day is the ritual bathing of the Buddha baby.  One puts an image of the little Buddha baby on the altar inside a basin of water, with his one hand pointing towards the heavens and the other pointing downward.  People approach the altar, bow, then fill a ladle with fragrant water, and pour it over the image of the Buddha baby to bathe him.  

This ritual emphasizes the universal message that we should clean our heats and our minds of the stains of greed, anger, and ignorance. The light of the candles on the altar represents the light of wisdom, the darkness represents ignorance.  It is believed that upon lighting the candle, our lives will be enlightened, diminishing the negative tendencies of our minds and our actions.  

When we bathe the Buddha statue, we should pray with sincerity for the purification of our minds, eliminating the poisons of greed, hate, and anger.  We should pray for peace and harmony everywhere, so that there will be no more violence, deception, and suffering in the world. We should wish that the world becomes a Pure Land, and that all minds be guided by the way of the Buddhas. This is the true meaning of the bathing of the Buddha.  

The benefits of bathing the Buddha

When you bathe the Buddha, you will receive the following: 

1.You will receive prosperity, happiness, good health,, and longevity.    

2.All your aspirations will be realized. 

3.You will experience peace and harmony with your parents, family, and friends. 

4.All of your obstacles for learning the Dharma will be removed and you will no longer suffer.    

5.You will quickly reach enlightenment.  

What mental attitude should we have when we bathe the Buddha? 

1.Faith:    We should trust and feel happiness for the merit generated by bathing the Buddha. Pouring the water over the Buddha, we are cleaning our own minds.  

2.Sincerity: When we bathe the Buddha statue, it is as if the Buddha were right here with us, in the present, helping us to cultivate merit of blessings and support.  We offer this merit to all sentient beings of the universe so they can increase their wisdom and connect to their Buddha Nature.  

3.Morality: We wish to eliminate negative karma and purify our minds.  We pray for peace and happiness for all of humanity.  

The ritual and the giving of Dana

One makes a bow of respect in front of the altar, then puts a donation in the container.  Then you carefully fill the ladle with the scented flower water, and pour it over the image of the baby Buddha while you recite the following:   

First bath: May my impure thoughts be eliminated.  

Second bath: May my good actions be increased.   

Third bath: May all sentient beings be free.  

During the rest of the evening of the festival, you can approach the altar when you are ready, one by one, or with your children, and bath the Buddha.   

Saturday, May 18, 2013

BUDDHA THE BOY: The first meditation experience - Shikantaza 

Our practice of shikantaza, sitting, neither thinking nor not thinking, focusing on our breathing, is based on a key spiritual event in the early life of  the Buddha as a boy, which guided him latter in his life toward the attainment of Enlightenment.   It was during a plowing festival to promote agriculture given by his father the king.  It was a very celebrated event for both the nobles and the farmers.  Everyone wore their best cloths to participate in the ceremony.  On the indicated day, the king, accompanied by his attendants, went into the countryside, accompanied also by his son Sidhartha and his nurse maids. They put the boy on a blanket at the side of a field being plowed, in the shade of a solitary rose apple tree.  While the nurses watched the boy, the king left to join the festival. When the festival was at its peak, the nurses left, leaving Sidhartha alone. 

Under the tree, all was quiet and calm, optimum conditions to quiet the mind.  The boy watched in the distance a farmer working in the field, going from one side to the other plowing the earth.  The boy continued watching the movements of the farmer, seeing how the earth opened, revealing nests of ants and at times earthworms cut in two, serving as food for the waiting birds at the scene.  He saw the suffering of these beings, losing their homes and their lives, wondering why life was so fragile and transient.  While he concentrated intently on this scene in front of him, aware of his breathing in and out, his mind entered into a state of profound peace, that which is called samadhi.                

When the nurses returned from the festival, they were amazed to see the child seated there, his legs crossed naturally in a lotus pose, and meditating deeply.  They informed the king, who immediately returned, to see the child seated in meditation.  Recognizing this as a fortuitous event, he deeply bowed in reverence to the child.  

This event of samadhi in peace and tranquility would become the key experience in the life of Siddhartha as a man in his spiritual search for meaning and understanding.  Worn out by six years of spiritual practices and austerities that gave no ultimate fruit, Siddhartha remembered that moment in his childhood meditating at the side of a field, seated in perfect peace, and so he began meditating in the same fashion, which would reveal the supreme Truth, the realization of how to free himself from suffering, leading to complete and full Enlightenment and realization.  

When we practice shikantaza, which means to sit only to sit, we are using the original and natural form of the Buddha as a child, sitting without moving, without thinking nor not thinking, calming the mind in concentrated focus on the breathing, looking at the floor in front of us, without attachment to anything, without rejecting anything.  We observe our rhythmic breathing, and we ask ourselves as the Buddha did, "Why must we suffer?" or  "What is this?" or "Who am I?"  From there, we let go of the little mind, waiting attentively, but without expectation for an answer, waiting without a goal, the goal-less goal, the gateless gate of Zen, the "Don't know..."  And with infinite patience, one opens completely one's heart and mind to the Infinite, here and now, to experience the true self, beyond thoughts, our Buddha Nature.  

(http://www.bps.lk/olib/bp/bp102s-files/OEBPS/Text/10Main03.html)

Sunday, May 19, 2013

BUDDHA THE MAN: The true self fully awakened, enlightened and realized   

            We celebrate Buddha's Enlightenment that resulted from his search to understand himself.  In the Buddhist tradition, this event is the most important of all.  In zen monasteries around the world, the week before the celebration, everyone participates in the most difficult meditation retreats of the whole year, some lasting seven days without sleep.  

            The meaning of Wesak is found in the Buddha and his message of universal peace for all of humanity. We commemorate the Buddha and his Enlightenment, and we remember his deepest realization on the night before his awakening, and which came about in three important watches.  

            During the first watch of the night, when his mind was tranquil, calm, and pure, a light arose in Him, while at the same time, understanding and recognition became manifest.  He saw his previous lives, first one, then two then 3, 5, and then in groups of 10, 20, 30, 50, then 100, then 1,000...and thus it continued through the night.     

            On the second watch of the night, He saw beings as they died and were reborn, depending on their karma, as the disappeared and reappeared in one form or another, on one plane of existence or another.  

           During the third watch of the night, He saw the arising and disappearing of all phenomena, both mental and physical.  He saw how things arose depending on causes and conditions, which is called Interdependent Origination.  Then he perceived suffering, understanding how suffering arises, then disappears, and how to free oneself from the dissatisfaction and suffering, the path of liberation from greed, desire, and delusion. At last, his mind was completely free. He has achieved full Enlightenment.   

            This wisdom and light that shown and radiated under the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya in the district of Bihar in the north of India, more than 2,500 years ago, is of great importance for humanity. This revealed the path for all of humanity on how to free itself from superstition, hate, and fear, revealing to all the world the light, love, happiness, which is known as Nirvana. 

            After His Illumination, the Buddha promised to remain here in this plane of suffering, called samsara, in order to teach everyone this path to liberation.  We are profoundly thankful to Him for His compassion to not abandon us, and we follow His example, dedicating each step of our own spiritual development to the liberation of all beings in the universe, as a vow of the Bodhisattva.  In this aspiration, we all become children of Buddhas, like the image of the Buddha baby.  It is a symbol of our pure aspiration,  our unbreakable trust,  our potential to be Buddhas, existing here and now, in each one of us. There is no better way to thank the Buddha for His supreme sacrifice than to follow His example, meditating daily, and applying the teachings in our lives for the alleviation of suffering of all others, and in so doing, we are truly able to show our gratitude.       

            

On Dying

Rev. Master Meiten McGuire

At the end of the group last Tuesday, we were asked to send merit to the client of one of our members. When the client didn’t show up for an appointment, she went to his home and found him dead of a heart attack which turned out to have happened several days earlier. She found his body and, quite naturally, was still coming to terms with it. Then after we’d finished, another group member came up to me and told me about her 23-year old friend having died in a fire during the night three days ago. Her friend and her two equally young roommates were killed during the night after their sofa caught on fire. She felt still in shock at the sudden death of a friend. How to live with some balance and sanity in a world of impermanence and uncertainty is why we train.

Great Master Dogen put it so well in Rules for Meditation, which we recite before our first sitting and which is recited daily at Soto Zen training monasteries: “Oh sincere trainees, what use is it to merely enjoy this fleeting world. Quickly the body passes away, in a moment life is gone.” He also asks that we not forget the true dragon [Awakened Mind, Buddha Mind], not to waste so much in time in rubbing only part of the elephant [the phenomenal sensory world we live in] but advance inward directly along the road that leads to the Mind, That which is beyond the impermanent and changing. According to Houston Smith in his “Religions of the World,” all religions address this in one way or another, indeed they are created by man because of the sense of separateness from what he as a Christian called God and which the Buddha called the Unborn, Unchanging, Undying.

That we don’t know from our existential predicament thus expressed is why we train to, as it is put in “The Scripture of Great Wisdom,” gobeyond the human mind which understands life events from a conditioned wrong view. As you know, the Buddha-to-be on his deep awakening experience came in touch with his ‘myriad past life,’ clearly seeing one life in detail and then another and another. He then saw how ‘beings pass away and are reborn according to their deeds.’ Thus, rebirth and the law of karma [cause and effect] are foundational to his great teaching of the Four Noble Truths, the teaching that is unique to Buddhas. Obviously, this was the big awakening coming from his opening to the way things are. Thus he commented, “I just teach Seeing the Way Things Are.” Or in another context, “I teach only two things: suffering and its end.” Thus, we begin here and now with this human condition and go beyond to That which we’ve lost touch with through life after life of searching looking in the wrong direction for the end of suffering.

The above is one way of putting the Right Understanding which is the first factor of the Fourth Noble Truth, the Eightfold Noble Path leading to the end of the unsatisfactoriness of ordinary life as we know it. In other words, we have to recognize this aspect of our lives sufficiently to begin somehow questioning whether it has to be this way or perhaps not. For many, and certainly for me, we come gropingly to this recognition before launching on a spiritual search for Somethingthat is at this point hidden from us. This is ‘going on beyond the human mind’ in order to find the peace and ease that surpass all understanding: it requires over and over again finding that willingness, that courage really, to move into the Unknown.

What motivates us is the unsatisfactoriness [dukkha] itself, and we come to see more clearly that the basic dukkha is trying to hold onto as real and permanent that which always is changing [anicca].Through conditions arising from a vast past, we are caught in a wrong view of who we are and what the seeming external world is. This is the karmic predicament we face and come to question in some way that allows the magnificent turning inward to advance directly along the road that leads to That which is bigger than this fleeting world of our conditioned body-mind. As you’ve heard me frequently say, what we’re doing in thehardest thing in the world to do, going beyond the safe even when unpleasant known into the great Unknown we’ve lost touch with. That it can be done is the Buddha’s promise: Don’t believe anything because I tell it to you; make it true for yourselves. This is a teaching for here and now…”

Within this Right Understanding we can find a spiritual grounding when faced with the tragedy and unsatisfactoriness that life brings. The Buddha when referring to himself as a ‘physician’ for the suffering world prescribed one ‘medicine’ only: meditation. Why? Because so long as we are caught within the seeming reality of this saha world of impermanence we will suffer. That is the First Noble Truth with which the Buddha began his own great search and where we start too—that’s just the way it is. If we simply stay trapped in the karmic conditioning attempting to make it go away, we’re inevitably on the wheel of birth and death, Samsara, perpetual wandering. As the Buddha put it, we’ll go on and on “hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving,” which is a helpful condensation of the twelve links in the Conditional Arising of a new being, a ‘you’ and a ‘me.’

Friends, we’re here this time around with the excellent good karma of having been born in the human realm along with countless favorable circumstances to move off this wheel where we are driven by a sense of self which keeps us moving in the direction of suffering. The ‘ignorance’ is that of not knowing who we are, of having lost touch with our basic connectedness with all beings, not separate, not isolated, not alone in the way we implicitly have taken ourselves to be. In being stuck in this wrong understanding, we take others, our world, as separate too. And truly the sad shocking events of life have the purpose of shaking us to look more deeply—is this really so. We long for ‘Something More’ than this fleeting world. As Dogen asks us, “What use is it to merely enjoy this fleeting world?”

There simply has to be sufficient awareness of “quickly the body passes away; in a moment life is gone,” as Dogen put it. Death is the great equalizer and the awakener. It awakens us to the vital need topractice, to determinedly keep going in the very midst of life itself. “We stand against the world of this conditioned mind in order to train in Wisdom.” This is the magnificent choice we make over and over again that truly leads us toward the end of suffering. Impermanence isn’t going to go away. The Buddha hits hard at this sobering truth. We who are true seekers of Great Truth choose over and over again to “train hard, for this is true enlightenment,” again to quote Dogen’s “Rules for Meditation.” No one can do this for us. As the Buddha taught out, “You must make the effort. Buddhas can only point the way.” Doubt arises, of course. Puzzling, painful events of life come and challenge us over and over again. And we learn little by little, as it is put in one of Psalms [I think], “Grave where is thy victory? Death where is thy sting?” The great purpose of this precious life of ours is to come to know this for ourselves. Dear Ones, we have everything going for us, and right now is the opportune moment, which the Buddha urges us not to let pass in vain. We’re all on a magnificent Journey to return to our true Home where living and dying are viewed as passing phenomena in a great Karmic Play. As we see this for ourselves, we come to know the freedom of Zen as pure meditation loosens little by little the karmic bonds of clinging.

February 20, 2013

EXTRAORDINARY KOREAN ZEN MONK VISITS GUADALAJARA SANGHA: Daeung Sunim, a Buddhist monk from Seoul, South Korea, is making a pilgrimage on bike from Canada to Argentina. When he was asked why he was risking his life and health in the arduous adventure, he responded saying, "To text my spirit." Daeung Sunim is biking 20, 000 miles from North America to the furthest point of Argentina, crossing from Vancouver, Canadá to Maine, USA. He is 44 years old and when he began his journey he had no physical preparation, little money, and only a tent and a little food. He was without social contacts, no car or support, no reservations or fixed plan.  He speaks no Spanish and only a little broken English.  He renounced all the comforts of his monastery in South Korea, replacing them for physical pain, isolation, exhaustion, no shelter, hunger, danger, and uncertainty.  He has had to confront everything Nature presents him: insects, heat, cold, rain, wind, and climbing mountains on his bike.  It is an incredible test of his mind and body. Nevertheless, in spite of facing sometimes dangerous people on the road, the great majority of people he meets are kind and good to him, offering him shelter, food, clothing, and financial support through a blogspot and facebook page created by friends he met on the road to keep track of where he is traveling and to alert others who might be interested in sponsoring him for a night or offering him a meal or a donation. In his trajectory he has learned five important things: 
1. The Universe provides to those who trust.
2. When we open our hearts, and wear a big smile, there are no language  barriers. 
3. Since all beings are One, when we give to others, we receive.
4. There are protective spiritual beings on this earth helping us on our journey of Life. We must simply open ourselves to their support, trusting that they are always there.
5. There is beauty everywhere, if we can just open our eyes to see it. 
The Guadalajara Buddhist Sangha took the opportunity of Daeung Sunim's visit to ask him about his journey, his life in a monastery, and his spiritual practice.  It was an unforgettable experience to meet this humble man with such courage, compassion and spirit.   We will remember him always.  May the universe protect him on his journey. 
To follow Daeung Sunim's journey or offer support, go to http://journeyofspirit108.blogspot.mx/   or https://www.facebook.com/JourneyOfSpirit/info

THE ZEN OF AN OLD SOCK

Rev. Hyonjin Sunim

Aquarius Magazine, February-March, 2013

How is an old sock the most valuable treasure of the world? In Zen, the most important thing for spiritual practice is to take refuge in the Three Treasures: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. They are called treasures because they alleviate the suffering related to pain, old age, sickness, and death, since there is nothing more valuable than that which one finds right here, always right in front of us.  It isn’t that instantly the pain and the difficulties of life are going to disappear, but rather we discover how to live in peace with life just as it is.  We learn patience, acceptance, and self-compassion for this body and little mind, that which has to endure so much in each moment.   The first teaching of the Buddha 2,500 years ago, right after his Enlightenment, was that life is suffering.  So it is.  No one can escape this fact.  We all discover that this body is limited; it ages, becomes sick, and eventually dies.  We wish that it were different.  And this desire to change that which is inevitable causes us suffering.  We become obsessed with plastic surgeries, make-up, vitamins, exercise, fine cloths, and all kinds of distractions, including sex, drugs, alcohol, entertainment, and sense stimulus.  But sooner or later, life teaches us that none of this is a permanent solution.  Resisting this fact, we suffer.  But this suffering is not necessary. 

Although we cannot eliminate the pain, the physical sickness, or death, we can, however, eliminate the suffering.  Suffering is an aspect of the little mind, the part of us that wants to believe that it shouldn’t be this way, that we don’t deserve this experience, that it is unjust and horrible what we are going through.  Of course, we have all thought like this at one time or another, but the consequence is more suffering, since we are not present with that which is arising in life right in this moment.  Learning to accept exactly how things are, including the weaknesses of the body, its limitations, and its fragility, is when we learn the most important lesson of life, that one can discover peace and gratitude right here in the middle of the pain, that all is perfect just as it is, if we let go of whatever resistance to that which life is presenting us.  But to reach this realization, it is almost beyond the little mind, that which is conditioned and habituated to the negative and damaging mental patterns. For this reason, when at last the little mind, which is always believing it is in control, that it can solve everything, as if it were the center of the universe, at last gives up, and opens itself to a more authentic and freeing consciousness inside of ourselves, our true self that is not born, does not age, and does not die, that which the Buddhists call our Buddha Nature.  Thus sickness, ageing, and the pains and difficult moments can become opportunities to discover the inner treasure.  It is only when we recognize that truly we need help, that at last we can fully take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and the Sangha.

            What does it mean to take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha? When we take refuge in these Three Treasures of Buddhism, we are opening our hearts and our minds to the innate peace and wisdom within us.  All suffering is an aspect of the little mind, the mind of thought and mental impulses.  How can we get beyond these thoughts in order to discover the true self?  Ironically, using thought we can break our attachment to thoughts.  The Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn recommended that we ask ourselves the most important question of our lives: “What am I?” Nevertheless, any answer based on ideas or concepts keeps us holding on to the little mind, that aspect of our personality that suffers.  However, accepting that the little mind does not have the answer, one opens to the direct perception of the true self.  Upon responding “Don’t know” we cut through all thought and return to the Mind before thought, the Mind of emptiness, wisdom, compassion of our Buddha Nature.  This is our true Self.  

“Buddha” in Sanskrit means “to awaken.” Upon asking ourselves “What am I?” and responding with the “don’t know” mind, we awaken to our true Mind, the cosmic consciousness, or rather, our inner Buddha.  All that is limited, changing, and impermanent, is no our true self.  This includes suffering, impatience, thoughts, and emotional and mental states.  However, that which is inalterable while facing these changing thoughts is Buddha.  In fact, all is Buddha, including our little mind and all phenomenal things.  When we are unalterable, unmoving mentally, then all becomes one, all is beautiful and perfect just as it is.  This is the Buddha Treasure.

It is like the time the Master Seung Sahn visited a museum in Paris some years ago and saw a curious painting of two old and worn out socks with holes in them.  This painting was considered the best piece in the entire exposition, and the museum had paid a lot of money for it.  The Master asked himself, “Why is this painting so important?” After contemplating it awhile, he understood its internal meaning.  Although the socks were ugly, nevertheless, a human being had walked far in them.  The person had passed through many experiences, spent much energy, which had caused many holes to appear in the socks, reflecting much suffering.  This painting was teaching something important about human life: although they were dirty and ugly, that life that wore them was beautiful. This ordinary life, that which is normally ignored, is noble, beautiful and precious in itself, including with all it holes, dirt, challenges, and suffering.  The beauty that one could appreciate in this painting is that which we come to appreciate in ourselves: this is the treasure of the Buddha.

That which blocks our appreciation of this beauty in us is our attachment to ideas, the idea that we desire something or we cannot tolerate something.  When we learn to let go of attachment, accepting that all is transitory, we begin to see things as they really are, as if it were the first time seeing them, like a painting of old socks in a museum.  Thus we discover the Dharma Treasure when the inner beauty shines forth without obstruction from desires or aversions, without fear, resistance, resentment, prejudice or discontent. The true Dharma is the inner perfection showing itself and expressing itself to the outer world.  One can now understand by way of thought the supreme Truth, the wisdom that reveals itself free of preferences and aversions.  This Dharma is that which the Buddha taught in his lifetime and it is that which one of us rediscovers in ourselves, that which is always inside us right here and now. 

  When we discover this Truth, then the natural aspiration arises to put this realization into the practice of everyday life, with our families, community and the society, which is called the Sangha.  But how can we do this? The Buddha gave us a guide showing us how to live a balanced and harmonious life with others and with ourselves.  It is a map of how to life a correct life, the Way of the Buddhas, revealed in a series of recommendations based on goodness, ethics, and morality, that which was outlined in the Noble Eightfold Path of the Buddha, and which became crystallized in the five first precepts of Zen: Don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t misuse sexuality, don’t lie, and don’t cloud the mind with intoxicants.  When we follow these guidelines, combined with meditation, the little mind becomes calm, revealing its inner beauty, that which is called Enlightenment.  When one discovers this inner beauty, the inner Buddha, compassion naturally arises to help other human beings. This calm and aware mind, this enlightened mind, allows us to live in harmony with the world and all beings in it everywhere.  Therefore, we want to share this joy with everyone.  We want everyone to experience this Enlightenment, this joy, and this liberation from suffering.  This is the Sangha Treasure.  Taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is to discover our true identity, our true behavior, and our true inner work for the world.  We discover that our life is perfect, just like an old sock.  Even though it may be old and worn, the life that wears it is noble and admirable, full of goodness, kindness, love and compassion, the Eternal walking the Way of the Buddhas. 

Bibliografía

Sahn, Seung. (2002). La Brújula del zen. La Liebre de Marzo: Barcelona, España. 

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