Judging and Criticizing

by Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett

It took me many years of Buddhist practice to recognize how much my mind was filled with harsh criticism. I was hard on myself and hard on others, and I did not understand how I could be different. I did not understand how I could see all the mistakes and suffering I witnessed in my life with compassion and acceptance rather than with judgments and criticism. How do we face all the wrong behavior and suffering that we encounter without blaming or judging? How can we instead embrace and help all this difficult karma that we encounter in our life? 

We generally begin Buddhist training with a mind that is caught up in its likes and dislikes, in its opinions and views. This mind places us firmly in samsara, as it is a mind that cannot escape the first Noble Truth: suffering exists. The mind that is always judging everything and grasping opinions is the foundation of our delusionary small self. Yet it is necessary, normal and functional that we evaluate and discriminate when we are making the endless decisions that are needed for living. It is vital that we use our intelligence to help us navigate this often confusing and complex world and make the best choices we can. Yet the problem lies in that we let this useful function, the part of our mind that generates and holds judgments and opinions, take over and dominate our mind and our heart. One way of viewing meditation and mindfulness practice is that we are allowing our minds and hearts to stay in touch with a sense of stillness, silence, and spaciousness and not allowing our judgments and opinions to dominate and fill us. We want to view everything with equanimity and peace. It is good to notice how our hard judgments and strong opinions lead to a sense of conflict and a rejection of what we are facing in our life. 

It is very difficult to convert these strongly held viewpoints and opinions. One reason is that it gives us a sense of superiority to look at others and judge them. We know the way things should be, whether it is the behavior of other people, the way the world is, or how we should be. It is helpful to look at this critical mind and see how it feels and where it brings us. It never brings us to real happiness and joy, nor real peace and contentment. 

Being judgmental about other’s mistakes becomes deep suffering when we see ourselves making mistakes. Many people have come to me after making a serious mistake and believing what they did was unforgiveable. As a Dharma teacher, it is then helpful for me to point them to compassionate acceptance, that nothing is unforgiveable. We can learn from our mistakes, work at accepting the consequences and at the same time, trying not to condemn or judge ourselves. We need to trust that there is no problem in the deepest sense. When we view something as a problem, it means we are demanding that what unfolds in a situation goes the way we wish. We do not control the unfolding of the karma in our life. Buddhist training teaches us to try for the best possible outcome in whatever we are facing in life but to also be willing to accept whatever hap- pens. There is a Buddhist teaching, “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, do the possible.” 

We have to see that our mind has this compulsive tendency to judge all the time and to take sides for and against things. One way we can get in touch with our pervasive judging is hearing ourselves saying “it should be this way” or “should not be this way”. We counteract these pervasive “should” which fill our minds by bringing ourselves back to the Buddhist teaching “things are as they are.” Or the teaching that “everything is the life of Buddha.”

One way of letting go of the compulsive tendency to judge is to fully open our hearts to the law of karma. Everything that happens in our life and in the world is due to causes and conditions. Every thought we have is due to karmic causes and conditions and every feeling we have is under the influence of a myraid of karmic causes and conditions. What we frequently neglect to understand is the problem is not the feelings and thoughts we now have in the present, because their cause lie in the past over which we have no power. The thoughts and feelings are karma which is flowing into our life. The problem lies in our mistaken response to our present thoughts and feelings by judging ourselves and others. The work of Buddhist training is directing our thoughts and actions towards that which will lead ourselves and others to finding the place of great compassion and peace. Whenever we make a problem out of the karma which is unfolding in our life, we are pointing ourselves towards suffering and away from seeing the fundamental purity of these karmic conditions. 

We can view our opinions as being reality and believing in their truth. But all opinions are based on only a partial view and we can never know everything. This means that we can never know when we will see something that we were previously unaware of. This new insight can completely change the way we view and judge something. This also means whenever we are certain of our opinions or judgments, we can still be wrong. It does not mean we ignore the judgmental mind; it means we should not let that faculty of judging and discriminating dominate us. We want to approach everything in our life with an open mind that recognizes that we could be wrong. The mind of Buddhist training is not obsessed with being right or being perfect. 

Buddhist training means we are trying to see the world with the eyes of the Dharma. When I have a problem, I need to trust the Dharma and trust that all my seeming real problems and difficulties are a consequence of my viewing the situation with a mind full of judgments and opinions. If I let go of the mind that is asking for things to be my way, then whatever is happening is just the unfolding of some karma and there is no problem. Problems are my judgments of how things should be coming into conflict with reality. 

Rev. Master Jiyu used to like saying “if we look with the eyes of a Buddha, we will see the heart of a Buddha.”  The eyes of a Buddha sees everything as clean and immaculate. The only thing getting in the way of us viewing the world with the eyes of a Buddha is the mind that condemns and judges. The mind of meditation and the practice of the Buddhist Precepts soften our harsh judgments and strong opinions and helps our heart and mind to be more open and see everything with more acceptance and compassion. 

“The way to Buddhahood is easy. They who do not perpetrate evil, they who do not grasp at life and death but work for the good of all living things with utter compassion, giving respect to those older, and loving understanding to those younger than themselves, they who do not reject, search for, think on, or worry about anything have the name of Buddha: you must look for nothing more.”

~ Shoji by Great Master Dogen 

I said, “But I already know them.” 

“Yes, you know the version that most people are given but you do not yet know the Kyojukaimon.” 

“I heard it during my Jukai ceremony.” 

“Did you understand it fully?” 

“No, the Japanese was too old for me to be able to.” 

“That’s what I meant, so we’re going to translate it. Get some paper and we’ll get on with it at once.” 

I settled down at a side desk, which he has now arranged for me in his room, and he got out the old book and started working on it. We had just finished the beginning preamble and had got to the first Precept, “Do not kill, but no life can be cut off. Do not kill Buddha. Do not cut off the life of Buddha,” when he said, 

“Before we go any further, I want you to explain that.” “Oh. ‘Do not kill.’ I understand that.” 

“But do you understand ‘not cutting off the life of Buddha,’ because only that is real death?” 

“I think so. May I tell you what I think it is?”  “Of course. I am waiting.” 

“As I understand it, it’s a matter of mind attitude in the sense of the kokoro, the heart-mind, wanting to do harm. One frequently accidentally kills. We kill millions of microbes every hour of the day just by breathing and we’re always treading on grass and insects and things like that. To ‘cut off the life of Buddha’ is to will to hurt, to harm; to will to kill, if you like, the compassion within ourselves; to will to kill the feeling that other creatures have the right to live.” 

“Go on.” 

“Let me think. How can I put this? The trouble is I know what I’m trying to say and I can’t get it out.” 

“I know that one but what are you going to do when you have to lecture to people who come to you with questions like this? You have to be able to talk to them on these matters; you have to be able to explain them.” 

“Yes, let me think again. I know what it means. It’s the ‘with’ we were talking about yesterday.” 

He smiled. “Take it from there.” 

“If we kill something deliberately there’s a bit of ourselves that we’re cutting off and there’s something even more than that. We’re saying that something hasn’t got the right to live; in other words, that something hasn’t got the right to be Buddha. There’s something that we’re not accepting . . . . . there’s something we’re saying . . . . . just . . . . . well, can’t be Buddha. That’s the Precept that everybody breaks when they say, ‘Oh, well, this is pure and that’s impure.’ When they say that a . . . . . purity is . . . . . It means that if I say that Hitler is difficult to see as a Buddha I am trying to kill Buddha; if I say some- thing is unclean I am killing the Buddha Nature within that thing itself; if I say . . . . . but that means that morality has to be thought of from a totally different angle, for morality is only a rule of thumb: that which leads to a higher, truer morality—a morality beyond morality. At a later date, as we spiral in, we discover that we cannot really live completely by the Ten Precepts, otherwise we are always working out which one to break and which one not to. We have to live by the Three Pure Precepts, but even they are not enough. Every time we look at somebody and say, ‘Well, I can see the Buddha Nature in so-and-so but I can’t see it in him over there,’ we’re literally killing the Buddha and it’s our own delusions that kill the Buddha. That’s why we don’t know that we ourselves are Buddha. That is why we are not enlightened. Because we cannot recognize the Buddha in all things, we constantly kill the Buddha. We can know, we can feel instinctively, that the Buddha is everywhere but we have not under- stood the ‘with,’ we have not understood that our bones, flesh, blood, marrow . . . . . yes, and our sexual side as well, and all the mud and the things we hate and all the torture side of ourselves and all the evil, all is the aspect of the Buddha Mind. We have to learn to accept it and work through it and bring compassion to bear on those who only exhibit one aspect, and even love them whilst we restrain them because, only by so doing, can we teach them better things. So, every one of us is a murderer every day of the week; every time we discriminate against someone else.” 

“Quite correct.” 

“That is the meaning of ‘do not kill.’ It is not just ‘don’t go out and slaughter an animal for food,’ it is ‘don’t discriminate against other people, don’t set yourself up, don’t say “I know who’s a true teacher and I know who isn’t,” because, instantly, we are killing. All the Precepts interact upon each other and spiral in. After a bit we get over the fact that the Ten Precepts are the limit of morality and go on to something deeper. We come to where the Ten Precepts fall away and all we have to live by are the Three; to cease from evil, to do only good and to do good for others.” 

“That’s right.” 

“Then they fall away too, because they’re still bounded, and we are left with the True Heart within us which is the Buddha Nature. That’s why ‘Homage to the Buddha, Homage to the Dharma, Homage to the Sangha’ are the only Real Precepts and anybody who takes the refuges completely has taken the Precepts. It means that I believe there is within me something greater, something far more wonderful than I have yet been able to show to the world. It means that I know that within me is something intrinsically good and that I can be worthy of it by being better than I am; that there is a teaching which can help me and that there are priests who have realized their True Nature who can give me guidance.” 

“Good. Now you have understood ‘do not kill.’ You have understood that no life can be cut off and you have understood it from the moral, from the Lord of the House and from the ‘with.’ You have gone through the phases and now your training must express it. At a later date you will take it deeper still.” 

“I’ll try. I honestly will.” 

“I believe it but you will fall many, many times and every time you fall you’ve got to scramble back; and you’ve got to go on believing that you can scramble back.” 

“That’s the meaning of faith. Faith isn’t a belief in an outside God; it isn’t a belief in something external. It’s the belief that one can always go on and do better than one has done before through
the guidance of the Buddha Nature. That’s the real meaning of belief.” 

“Yes, so it is.” 

“Faith is the faith in us. It’s the faith in the Buddha Nature; in our possession of it. Now to really try and put it into practice.” 

“We will go through the other Precepts steadily over a period of time and you will find that they are all one and the same Precept.” 

“Can’t we do them now? ‘Do not steal, but there is nothing to be stolen.’” 

“Tomorrow. Don’t try to rush. The world takes time to develop and so can you. You’ve already got a long way. I want you to settle down and work quietly; let these things sink in. Remember that just having a kensho is not nearly enough; all that it does is open up the panorama; whether or not we want to see it is an- other matter.” 

“Yes. Seeing God is one thing and knowing how to live with Him is quite a different one or, better still, becoming a saint is quite a different one. That is the meaning of endless training.” 

“Correct. What you have to do, now you have seen it, is learn to understand and express it.” 

“But don’t you realize that you’re— well, —sort of not teaching me anything, you’re dragging it all out of me?” 

“That is how Zen is taught. The master only points the way. Re- member what it says in the Scriptures, ‘Trainees contain the ultimate, masters contain the means; correctly blended this is good.’ All Zenji Sama and I do is point. You have done the work and you walk alone and you can walk alone very well indeed. Why do you want any more?” 

“It’s just a totally different concept of teaching, that’s all. Always, when I was being taught before, the teachers were putting stuff in, never taking it out.” 

“That’s the meaning of faith. Faith isn’t a belief in an outside God; it isn’t a belief in something external. It’s the belief that one can always go on and do better than one has done before through
the guidance of the Buddha Nature. That’s the real meaning of belief.” 

“Yes, so it is.” 

“Faith is the faith in us. It’s the faith in the Buddha Nature; in our possession of it. Now to really try and put it into practice.” 

“We will go through the other Precepts steadily over a period of time and you will find that they are all one and the same Precept.” 

“Can’t we do them now? ‘Do not steal, but there is nothing to be stolen.’” 

“Tomorrow. Don’t try to rush. The world takes time to develop and so can you. You’ve already got a long way. I want you to settle down and work quietly; let these things sink in. Remember that just having a kensho is not nearly enough; all that it does is open up the panorama; whether or not we want to see it is an- other matter.” 

“Yes. Seeing God is one thing and knowing how to live with Him is quite a different one or, better still, becoming a saint is quite a different one. That is the meaning of endless training.” 

“Correct. What you have to do, now you have seen it, is learn to understand and express it.” 

“But don’t you realize that you’re— well, —sort of not teaching me anything, you’re dragging it all out of me?” 

“That is how Zen is taught. The master only points the way. Re- member what it says in the Scriptures, ‘Trainees contain the ultimate, masters contain the means; correctly blended this is good.’ All Zenji Sama and I do is point. You have done the work and you walk alone and you can walk alone very well indeed. Why do you want any more?” 

“It’s just a totally different concept of teaching, that’s all. Always, when I was being taught before, the teachers were putting stuff in, never taking it out.” 

“That’s the usual concept of teaching but it is wrong. We must realize that within us is a great storehouse of knowledge; all we have to do is tap it.” 

“Isn’t there a danger of becoming swollen headed?” 

“Very much so. You must watch constantly for the desire for power. There will even be power struggles within your own mind. The nearer one gets to mastery the worse they become.” 

“Yes, I can see the danger of that, but if I really can see that everything, that every aspect of me and the universe is the Buddha Nature expressing itself at all times then I’ll be able to handle it.” 

“Good. Leave me now. I have to prepare a lecture for this evening.” 

“Thank you, Rev. Hajime. In any case I must go to some ceremonies. I now help with the memorial ceremonies in the Buddha Hall.” 

“Yes, I know. There are about seventeen this morning. You’ll probably be pretty tired.” 

“I suppose I shall be. Anyway, can we continue this evening?” 

“I don’t really know; I may have to go out again this evening but we can certainly continue again tomorrow.” 

“Thank you very much.” 

Again, we bowed to each other and I went to prepare for the ceremonies. 

Changing my robes to go to the Buddha Hall it struck me that
the last two or three lines of the Rules for Meditation really are extraordinarily apt. After all, he wasn’t putting anything into me; he was dragging it out just by throwing out ideas. And through and through my mind kept running those last few lines, “If you do these things, you will become as herein described, then the Treasure House will open naturally and you will enjoy it fully.” I own the Treasure House and always have owned it. What an idiot I have been not to have noticed it before and not to believe, not to realize that the only person who could open the door to it was me. I really am very stupid. 

Priory News 

by Rev. Kinrei 

Our longtime Sangha member, Sally Schmidt, died on December 21, after several years of serious and disabling health problems. We held a Buddhist funeral for Sally on January 18.  Sally‘s two daughters and her granddaughter attended along with many of her friends and many Sangha members. 

Janelle Reinelt, a Priory Sangha member who had moved to Seattle, came down to the Priory to take the Buddhist Precepts. We held the Precepts ceremony on March 14 with many of the temple Sangha members attending. Commitment is essential for spiritual progress and we are happy to help Janelle make a deep commitment to her Buddhist training. 

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 a leaf rake, buddha statues, clothes, flowers, books, tools, plants and paper goods.

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

Introductory Meditation Retreat
May 31 July 26 (10 am–5 pm)

This introductory meditation retreat will provide an intro- duction to the sitting meditation and the basic teachings of the Soto Zen tradition. It will include meditation instruc- tion, 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
April 12 May 17 June 14 July 12 (8 am–5 pm)

Retreats are an excellent way to deepen our meditation and training. The retreat is 8am to 5pm and the day is a mixture of 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 our practice to attend this instruction. The meditation instruction is free, as are all the activities at the Priory. If your schedule will not allow you to come on Thursday evening, you are welcome to call the Priory to try to arrange a different time for the instruction. 

Priory Support and Membership

There are no fees for participating in meditation, Dharma talks, Bud- dhist services, retreats, spiritual counseling or any other services the Priory offers. We are supported by the donations of our congregation and friends. All gifts of any kind, whether money or materials or labor, are deeply appreciated.