(Follow this link to see the November 2022 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.)

Lately I have been reflecting on the profound value of training and living in community and also the fragility of our community connections. In Buddhism there is a special value placed on community: the Buddha famously remarked that having good spiritual friends is the “whole of the holy life” and I can attest to this value. Because of this value, this is a topic, or range of topics, that I come back to time and time again in my spiritual practice.

Embossed on the great bell at Shasta Abbey (a gift from Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett’s Sangha in Japan) there is a poem composed by Rev. Master Jiyu:

From strange, abysmal depths
I have climbed forth to view the universe
And find it fair and wondrous
As the morning star
I am glad I became a monk

We each must (and can!), of our own effort, make the climb she is referring to here. Although it is true that the Buddhas and our teachers “do but point the way,” for myself, I can say with great certainty that I would be lost without the help extended to me by the Sangha in its various forms and pray that the Sangha will continue to help me throughout my life. Maybe more importantly, I pray that I will continue to be willing to receive the help offered by the Sangha.

As it happens, it is my understanding that this bell was given, in part, as an apology for ill treatment Rev. Master Jiyu received in Japan from the community of monastics there. It is the koan – the koan is a profound and often problematic challenge – of the Sangha that sometimes their help, their presence, will be difficult to bear; I can also attest to this!

Our Sangha relationships, the human relationships in our practice community, add an extra dimension to our usual social relationships. This extra dimension comes from the Sangha’s shared commitment to practicing the Dharma, the shared commitment, from each of us, to look carefully at our own minds, take responsibility for what we find there, and do something about it. (There is an excellent article about Sangha relationships by the esteemed monastic Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi that talks about Sangha friendships; the article is found via this link.)

While I pray that you never have to endure the kind of difficulty that Rev. Master Jiyu endured in Japan and elsewhere, at some point, we will each have to accept that our Sangha will point out our faults, one way or another. Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi starts his article with a quote from the Buddha:

“If you find a wise person who points out your faults and corrects you, you should follow such a sage as you would a revealer of treasures. It is better, never worse to follow such a sage. DHAMMAPADA (verse 76)”

For many of us modern people, in one way or another, there can be a great difficulty that presents itself in this. What happens if our critic seems to be doing the thing that they are pointing out to us or are exhibiting some other fault? What if the person who tells us that we have body odor, or something like that, has body odor themselves? Or, more subtly, what if the problem being pointed out, being criticized, is our problematic reliance on the complaining critical mind and critical speech? “I’m being criticized by a criticizer, for criticizing!”

There are a variety of responses that we can make to such a situation and eventually they might all be explored. In a sense though, for me, the way that I have dealt with this problem is by grappling with the tenth precept (do not defame the Three Treasures) and putting the teaching of its commentary into practice. Insofar as I have, and I am not yet finished in this, climbed my own way up from those abysmal depths Rev. Master Jiyu mentioned, it has been by climbing on the “rope” offered in the effort to let go of my own criticism.

Here is the precept and commentary.

Do not defame the Three Treasures.

To do something by ourselves, without copying others, is to become an example to the world and the merit of doing such a thing becomes the source of all wisdom. Do not criticise but accept everything.

The [Buddha Nature Within] does not always do things in the normally accepted ways, nor do the Buddhas and Ancestors; they are not individual and they are not the same as each other. Each expresses the Truth in [their] own way as do all things; they do that which they do in their way and express the [Buddha Nature] within it. Do not criticise the way of another, do not call it into question; look within it and see [Buddha]. Look with the mind of a Buddha and you will see the heart of a Buddha. To criticise is to defame the [Buddha Nature within all things]. Love the [Buddha Nature] at all times — know [It], talk to [It]; never let a day go by when you do not consult with [It] even on the slightest matter. Then you will never, as long as you live, defame the Three Treasures.

(Dogen wrote the first part of this, in standard text, and Rev. Master Jiyu wrote the commentary in italics. I have modified her text in brackets to make the language less patriarchal.)

I have written a bit about the critical mind in other places so I don’t want to get too elaborate about that here, but maybe a quote from the Scripture of the Buddha’s Last Teaching (said to be the Buddha’s final discourse before passing away, in Buddhist Writings, available here) I came across recently might be illuminating:

The evasiveness of the discriminatory mind goes far beyond the dreadfulness of poisonous serpents, fierce beasts, ruthless robbers or blazing infernos, yet it is not enough merely to instruct it through metaphors for it is just like someone with a handful of honey who wheels about recklessly whilst focusing on the honey and fails to see the deep pit before him. It is like a crazed elephant without any restraints or like a monkey who has taken to the trees and prances about, leaping and jumping; only difficulties and suffering can constrain it; you should hasten to damp its ardour and not give it license to be indulgent for someone who indulges his mind loses his good practices. Govern it in a single situation and there will not be any affair you will be unable to manage; therefore, o monks, you should be diligent and skillfully progress by bending that discriminatory mind of yours to submission.

But for many of us, to let go our criticism of another who is behaving in a problematic way can be worrying, at least. I find it helpful to notice that in this advice from the Buddha, he is not advocating that we get rid of the discriminating mind. I also remind myself that the practice of the precepts is the wise advice of the Buddha on what leads out of suffering for me as an individual, independent of others. Even though the precepts can be difficult to implement, learning how to practice them will be to my long-term benefit.

Letting go of criticism does not mean that we get rid of our wise discernment, our ability to see the truth expressed by all things: we just recognize that compost is compost and is not to be eaten and we can let go of the extra part of our mental activity where we list all the reasons why it is bad and should be gotten rid of for its evil smell and danger.

When we indulge in criticism and complaint – the complaining mind – we are saying that the thing criticized is the opposite of Buddha and we are unwittingly putting ourselves into that category as well: when the opposites arise, the Buddha Mind is lost. The Buddha Mind is lost for both sides of the opposites and this can temporarily break our Sangha relationships. When we allow the mind of complaint to go by, when we allow it to arise and pass away, we see what is here right now, clearly and fully, and we allow ourselves to be fully what we are in all our contradictory complexity. We allow ourselves to be Buddha without taking up the impulse to define things as “this” not “that,” or “good” not “bad.” We liberate ourselves independent of the behavior of others.