Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. The Bodhisattva known as the universally worthy one, Samantabhadra represents the active side of our fundamental nature and therefore is expressive of selfless love. In Japanese he is called Fugen, in Chinese he is called Puxian.

(Follow this link to see the April 2022 Priory Newsletter where this was originally published.)

The fourth of the four practices, “Practicing the Dharma” is as follows (from the Red Pine translation):

Fourth, practicing the Dharma. The Dharma is the truth that all natures are pure. By this truth, all appearances are empty. Defilement and attachment, subject and object don’t exist. The sutras say, “The Dharma includes no being because it’s free from the impurity of being, and the Dharma includes no self because it’s free from the impurity of self.” Those wise enough to believe and understand these truths are bound to practice according to the Dharma. And since that which is real includes nothing worth begrudging, they give their body, life, and property in charity, without regret, without the vanity of giver, gift, or recipient, and without bias or attachment. And to eliminate impurity they teach others, but without becoming attached to form. Thus, through their own practice they’re able to help others and glorify the Way of Enlightenment. And as with charity, they also practice the other virtues. But while practicing the six virtues to eliminate delusion, they practice nothing at all. This is what’s meant by practicing the Dharma.

Again, in this Fourth Practice, Bodhidharma is pointing toward Emptiness or Purity: Shunyata. He eloquently points out that this Buddhist Emptiness is not about some indifferent, despairing, cold blankness.

And since that which is real includes nothing worth begrudging, they give their body, life, and property in charity, without regret, without the vanity of giver, gift, or recipient, and without bias or attachment.

That that which is real contains nothing worth begrudging is not the source of despair, it is the source of freedom to respond to life from a place of positive generosity. They give their body, life, and property in charity, without regret.  This place of giving without regret and without bias or attachment, is giving from our deepest nature. When we let go of regret and bias and attachment, we open up to our deeper life; this practice is lively and not static.

Even our giving is an act of ongoing training: and to eliminate impurity they teach others, but without becoming attached to form. Being attached to form, holding rigidly to one way or another of doing things, is one way that impurity arises. Impurity is the delusive mind that covers up the Fundamental Purity; one of the primary delusions is belief that the discriminatory mind and its projections are true, the sense that they are fundamentally reliable.

When we teach others, when we relate to others at all, we have to learn how to let go of all judgementalism about them or us. No matter my position, I am not better nor worse nor the same as another person. Just today, I happen to have the job of teacher and I have to take responsibility for that. As a teacher, it is expected of me, in practicing the Dharma, that I will look carefully at how I give rise to the impurity of pride and let that go; I must work to convert any pride or inadequacy that arise. Pride (I am better than another) and inadequacy (I am lower than another) are the evidence that we are enmeshed in the discriminatory mind. Converting pride and inadequacy is letting go of the vanity of giver, gift, or recipient.

But while practicing the six virtues to eliminate delusion, they practice nothing at all.

The six virtues are the six pāramitās:

Dāna pāramitā: generosity, giving of oneself
Śīla pāramitā: precepts, virtue, morality, discipline, proper conduct
Kṣānti pāramitā: patience, tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance
Vīrya pāramitā: energy, diligence, vigor, effort
Dhyāna pāramitā: meditation, contemplation
Prajñā pāramitā: wisdom, insight

To practice the pāramitās while practicing nothing at all is to understand that the prajñā pāramitā permeates all of our life; practicing the prajñā pāramitā is to be actively alert to when we are holding on to anything in our minds or spirit and to let that go. This way of practicing allows our understanding to grow and deepen.

The Prajnaparamita one should know
To be the Greatest Mantra of them all,
The highest and most peerless Mantra too;
Allayer of all pain Great Wisdom is,
It is the very Truth, no falsehood here.
This is the Mantra of Great Wisdom, hear!
Buddha, going, going, going on
Beyond and always going on beyond,
Always BECOMING Buddha. Hail! Hail! Hail!

(From the Scripture of Great Wisdom, translated by Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett.)

This is what’s meant by practicing the Dharma. Practicing the Dharma is endlessly enriching, endlessly lively, endlessly profound.