(Follow this link to see the November 2020 Priory Newsletter where this was published.)

As autumn evolves, the garden begins to be a bit tattered, but the water in the fountain keeps steadily flowing!

The other day I was noticing how there is this quality of ungrudging kindness in the mind of meditation: this is the quality of mind that allows whatever is there to arise and be seen and felt without resistance or complaint. This quality is rooted in a confidence in the practice of meditation, a confidence that whatever arises can be helped to peace through the compassion of the Fundamental Mind of Buddha. I can’t say that I always notice the presence of this quality, but when I do, it is welcome.

This ungrudging kindness of mind reminded me of the idea of Generosity of Spirit that Rev. Master Jiyu encouraged in us and talks about in the short piece below. An important aspect of this generosity of spirit is the allowing for all things, all beings, all situations to have their place in the Buddha Mind. This allowing is not an unwise or blind allowing; it sees what is there and this “seeing what is there,” together with the confidence in the practice is what enables the absolute trust that Rev. Master talks about below.

Ketchimyaku: The Blood Line of the Buddhas.
By Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett

(Editors Note: The Ketchimyaku, or bloodline certificate, is given at the time of formally taking the precepts in our tradition and shows a graph listing the names of the people in our ancestral line from the time of Shakyamuni Buddha through the successive generations down to the teacher who gives us the precepts and then to us. Through all those names runs a red line which starts by coming out of an empty circle – representing the Buddha Mind or the Eternal. The red line continues through our name and then goes back to the empty circle, hence the “Bloodline.”

When Rev. Master refers to heaping “coals on the fires of hell,” it means that we do not have to add to the negative consequences that we or another are experiencing or will experience as a result of choices made, by judging or criticizing and the like.) 

The plum-crested silk of the Ketchimyaku; the Blood Line of the Bud­dhas; the thread that runs through everyday life and eventually returns us to the Buddha; the thread that runs from yesterday to today and from today to tomorrow; and on into eternity, never turning back; the thread that is strong and vibrant so long as the Precepts are kept. Every year we learn more about those Precepts and how to return to the Eternal. We should know however, that it is not a going backwards but a going on. If it were going backwards there would be no need for the line from Master and disciple back to the Eternal: they would merely look back through each other. But this is a going on! This year we have learned much about the Precept concerning the Three Treasures. Do not defame the Three Treasures!

Perhaps one of the greatest gifts of all Buddhism is the learning of gene­rosity of spirit for without it Buddhism does not live. Gratitude for the teach­ing, generosity of the spirit to all, no matter what may or may not have hap­pened, the recognition of the law of karma which is inexorable; over which neither I nor you nor anyone else in this world has power, the fact that the consequences of actions are the consequences thereof and that no living per­son has the right to heap coals on the fires of hell; just the red line, going on, going on from yesterday to today and from today to tomorrow. To be a Bud­dhist is to keep the Precepts from one day to the next and make sure of the meaning of that keeping. It is to keep the red line strong, vibrant and flowing; one year to another, to another, on to eternity. Above all this year, let us learn generosity of spirit.

The keeping of the Precepts leads to peace within the heart, which leads to true joy, which leads to gratitude which is unbounded, which gives birth to generosity of spirit and generosity of spirit gives birth to absolute trust. Never be fearful. Hold the red line. Feel the water of the spirit pour through you; to everyone around you and back to the Buddha and round and through and on. Never let yourself become clogged with self, ideas and doubts, delu­sions; and above all, no matter what you witness or experience, always keep generosity of spirit before your eyes and in your heart.

Originally given as a lecture at Shasta Abbey, March 26, 1987; Also appeared in The Journal of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives, Summer, 1988.