Stop the Bleeding
by Rev. Kinrei Bassis

One of the most difficult aspect of the Dharma for most people to fully understand is how we can find peace and acceptance when we confront the many difficult situations and problems in life. Unless we understand and apply this Dharma teaching that we always need to try to find peace and acceptance for whatever life giving us, we will never find real freedom from suffering.

The normal worldly mind of people is usually so fully immersed in the world that most people have no understanding of how they can let go of all the difficulties they face. Suffering can seem unavoidable whenever something goes seriously wrong in our lives. A basic Zen Buddhist teaching is that we have to see the world with two different eyes. One eye sees the world of the opposites; seeing good and evil, seeing what is causing suffering and seeing what is bringing more happiness. It is this eye that sees all the diverse aspects of our lives and the world. It is this eye that sees All is Different. The other eye is that which can see through the ephemeral nature of all the worldly conditions and perceives the ever presence of that which is boundless, that All is One, that the radiant light of the Buddha, filling all things. Our small minds cannot fully comprehend how we can understand All is One but through our ongoing spiritual practice can learn to open our hearts and minds and awaken to this sacred insight into the real nature of reality.

The Sandokai, the Zen Buddhist scripture by the Great Master Sekito Kisen, tries to explain how we can harmonize these two aspects of reality. The Sandokai explains the basic Zen Buddhist teaching of how we can work at bringing the All is One and the All is Different, together. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing that these two aspects of reality are not separate but rather different ways of seeing the same reality. The All is Different refers to the world of distinctions, good and evil, self and other and all the myriad of phenomena that makes up our world, while the All is One refers to the ultimate reality of nothing having any fundamental substance and all is Buddha.

The deep spiritual question we can ask ourselves is how we can move beyond this dualistic understanding of reality and experience the integration of the All is One and the All is Different together within our normal daily lives. Worldly life usually involves grasping after what we want and pushing away what we do not want and this is the real source of our suffering. Yet trying to escape from our suffering by grasping after and clinging to an abstract idea of Oneness and enlightenment will hinder us from finding genuine enlightenment. True awakening lies in experiencing the harmony and interpenetration of the All is One with the All is Different. Another way this truth is expressed in Buddhism is Samsara and Nirvana are one. Samsara, this world of endless change, endless good and bad conditions and Nirvana the place of complete peace and liberation are just different ways of seeing the same world.

One of the main ways people misunderstand the practice of acceptance and peace in Buddhism is that when we are at peace we will be passive in the face of life’s problems. They assume that if we are at peace this would mean that we are not going to try to change the world or work at accomplishing something with our lives. Yet this overlooks the central aspect of human existence that we are always experiencing; all of us are putting considerable effort into trying to make our lives work. No one usually thinks that if we have deep acceptance, then we will stop taking care of ourselves. In my life, I wake up in the morning; I wash, I brush my teeth, I eat breakfast. If I look at my daily life, I spend much of my life just taking care of myself; eating, sleeping, showering, dealing with clothes, dealing with money, dealing with my health problems. No one usually thinks that if we have deep spiritual acceptance this means we will no longer care about or help the people in my life who matter to us. Yet the spiritual insight that is needed to find real spiritual acceptance is seeing the real significance of what is happening in our life.

For instance, like most people, I spend time every day and some money taking care of my teeth. I naturally deeply prefer having teeth since it supposedly feels much better than dentures, yet does having teeth really deeply matter? I deeply care about my health yet the Buddhist teaching is we cannot escape from old age, disease and death. I meet many people dealing with poor health who are doing fine and I also meet many healthy people who are miserable. I naturally prefer living but an important part of Buddhist practice is working on the acceptance of our inevitable death. For all the people in my life, I naturally wish for them to all have good karma and be peaceful and happy. Yet it is inevitable that all people are going to face some difficulty and pain as they go through their life. However much I care about and love someone, although I may be able to provide some help, I often are powerless to help them life’s trials.

In my spiritual training I always need to be working on trying to have the enlightened view of all the suffering I am facing in my life and all the suffering in all lives around me. It is spiritually vital for us to follow the Buddhist Precepts and do whatever will bring the most good and lest harm. Yet this does not stand against the deeper insight that nothing can ever fundamentally be harmed. When I now look at all the past difficulties and suffering in my life, they now have no more reality than a dream. It is like remembering a meal I ate last year, it is now just like a dream of eating. The same is true of all our past successes and failures. The significance we give to everything lies just in our minds while in a deeper sense nothing has any fundamental substance so in a way, everything is like a dream. Most people are just completely lost in their personal dream of birth and death. It is not that our life is not real but it does not have the deep significance we give it.

Seeing the deeper unreality of our difficulties does not mean I do not feel the suffering of others or lack empathy. I just means I do not have to make this painful feeling into my personal suffering by clinging and obsessing about someone’s troubles and pain. When I think of the person’s suffering, I may feel some pain. But I can just let that painful feeling arise and pass like a dream. I remember asking a mother who had lost her child a year ago, “how are you doing.” She responded, “I am doing fine and I am at peace with the loss. It just often hurts like hell when I think about him”

An image I like using to explain acceptance is the following. I imagine myself seriously bleeding. I can still picture myself being peaceful and with acceptance yet I would still do all I can to stop my bleeding. If someone next to me was seriously bleeding, I would hopefully be willing to do all I could to help stop their bleeding. The reason I use this to explain acceptance is that when something is unmistakably good to do, we generally do not think about it but we will naturally be willing to do the actions that will prevent the bad outcome. When the karmic consequence is such as someone bleeding to death, most of us will feel obligated to respond. The same principle can be seen in the way almost all of us drive our cars. We are almost always making an effort not to be in an accident since the bad consequence of that is something we all want to avoid. The obvious point I am making is that when we can see the bad karmic consequences clearly, we almost always automatically respond. The reason people do evil and not good is they are not seeing the real karmic outcome of their wrong actions. People often just concern themselves with what will make them feel better in the short-term. I have had the experience of speaking in anger with someone and then seeing hurt on their face and realizing what I was doing and this recognition made me want to change my behavior. An alcoholic may know their drinking problem is damaging but all the suffering they are causing themselves in the future does not have the burning reality to them as their distress they are now experiencing in the present by being sober.

Going back to the image of dealing with our bleeding, we can expand the bleeding to represent all conditions that are causing us and others to suffer. If we could see them as clearly as we can see our blood, we would automatically respond. I see someone else is suffering and there is something I can do to help, it is no different than seeing someone bleeding and wanting to help; it is close to automatic. The trouble in life is much of the suffering of others we do not even perceive and when we do, we often do not have a clear way to help. But if we could see clearly the karmic consequences of our actions, the desire to good and help would arise naturally the same way we avoid hitting the pedestrian while driving.

A central part of acceptance in Buddhism is the teaching of anatta, no self. It is deluded to cling to our own deep significance. Yet it does not mean we have no significance. If I bleed to death, it does have some significance and naturally I will try not to die. But also naturally, it has to be alright to die since dying is always a realistic and inevitable possibility throughout every moment of our life. The teaching of anatta is just seeing that all that we think is so important to ourselves are just conditions flowing though us and none of them have any fundamental substance. It does not mean our life has no importance but it just does not have the deep significance we wish to give it. Since our body will dissolve with death and everything we have done in our life will soon be forgotten, it is pointing us to the Zen Koan- “what is our original face before our parents were born.” By letting go of deep significance we give to the unfolding of our lives, we point ourselves to finding “our original face”. We need faith in the Dharma to help point us to trust that we can do the central task of spiritual life, letting go of deep importance we give to ourselves and to others and this will open our hearts to bringing the All is One and All is Different. together.

Priory News
By Rev. Kinrei

This fall, the Priory had two monks from Shasta Abbey pass away in the Bay area. Rev. Serena Seidner who became a monk at Shasta Abbey in 1997, died on September 12. Rev. Serena had been a Berkeley Priory member in the 1980’s and 1990’s before becoming a monk. Due to declining health she left Shasta Abbey and moved to Oakland a few years ago to stay with her daughter. We held a service for her at a crematorium on September 26. Rev. Serena had Buddhist funeral at Shasta Abbey on October 17.

Rev. Vera Giordano died from cancer on October 15. Rev. Vera become a monk at Shasta Abbey in 2014. Before that she had spent a few years as an active member of the Priory Sangha. Rev. Vera left Shasta Abbey last January to be with her family as she pursued treatment for an aggressive form of breast cancer. She was only 47 years old. We had a Buddhist service for Rev. Vera at the crematorium on November 8 and her funeral was on November 22, at Shasta Abbey.

I always find helping people with the end of life to be a very meaningful and a powerful teaching for me. Both Rev. Serena and Rev. Vera showed their deep faith and Buddhist training in how they approached their death. Both of them had loving family members with them as they went through their final days. Their bright attitude was both helping them and was helping their family deal with their dying.

The Priory has a memorial for Ellen Cleaver’s sister, Ann Louise Murdock on November 16. We had a memorial for Diana Holt’s brother, Ian Holt, on December 21.

With Gratitude

Charity is one of the four wisdoms and demonstrates the
Bodhisattva’s aspiration. The generosity of the entire Priory Sangha is what makes it possible for the Priory to exist and for the Dharma to be freely offered to whomever is interested.

In recent months, we have been given many generous gifts,
including panini press, flowers, books, tools, plants and paper goods.

During the past few months we have been given food donations of prepared meals, bread, olive oil, cakes, soups, salads, various vegetables and fruit, soy milk, coconut milk, tofu, breakfast cereal, vegetarian burgers, vegetarian meats, coffee, teas, nuts, various chips, peanut butter, eggs, and fruit preserves. You are always welcome to check with the Priory on what foods are currently needed.

Introductory Meditation Retreat
January 31 & March 28 (10 am–5 pm)

This introductory meditation retreat will provide an introduction to the sitting meditation and the basic teachings of the Soto Zen tradition. It will include meditation instruction, several period of meditation and a Dharma talks on how to practice meditation and integrate Buddhist teaching with our lives. A vegan lunch is included with the retreat.

Priory Meditation Retreats
January 17 February 14 March 14 April 11

Retreats are an excellent way to deepen our meditation and training. The retreat is 8am to 5pm and the day is a mixtureof meditation, Dharma talks, spiritual reading and Buddhist services.

Meditation Instruction

Meditation instruction and an orientation to the practice at the Priory are offered each Thursday at 6:45 pm. Please arrive a few minutes early so that we can begin promptly at 6:45. The instruction is followed by a 7:30-8:05 pm meditation period. We ask all people new to Zen Buddhist practice to attend this instruction. The meditation instruction is free, as are all the activities at the Priory.

Spiritual Counseling

Rev. Kinrei is available to discuss your spiritual practice and to help you to better apply the Dharma to your life. Taking refuge in a senior member of the Sangha is an important aid in gaining a better perspective and deeper insight into our spiritual life. It is also helpful in learning to cultivate openness and trust. You are welcome to contact the Priory and arrange a time to meet.