Purify One’s Heart

by Rev. Kinrei Bassis 

What is the essence of the Buddha’s teaching? When the Buddha was asked this question, his response was, “Cease from evil, do good; and purify one’s heart – this is the teaching of all the Buddhas.” These are called the Three Pure Precepts and in Zen Buddhism the Third Pure Precept is given as “do good for others” rather than “purify one’s heart”. I have a personal preference for using “purify one’s heart” as I feel that is a better teaching for what we need in order to better see the problem with our own selfishness and self- absorption. When our desires and fears cloud our eyes, we can cause harm while still having good intentions. For instance, a parent can wholehearted be trying to be helpful for their children but many parents, due to their own unrecognized selfishness, narrow mindedness and delusion, can instead cause significant difficulties and suffering for their children. To try do that which will bring forth a positive and good result, we need first the right intention but then we also need to have the deepest possible under- standing of whatever situation we find ourselves and then try to do our best to make the choices that will produce the most good and the least amount of suffering. Often people are unaware of what is driving their choices in life and they can then easily make wrong choices. When our minds and hearts are too self-absorbed, we can easily be narrow mind- ed and selfish and then we become a source of considerable suffering, for both ourselves and for others. 

The path of Buddhist training is often taught as the conversion of our defilements, our greed and desires, our anger and ill-will and our ignorance and delusions, into enlightened behavior; into compassion, love and wisdom. People do not always understand that the Precepts are actually a description of enlightened behavior. Evil is Buddhism is simply choosing to do that which is going to create more suffering for oneself and others. Doing good is doing that which will lessen the suffering and produce more happiness and peace. The third Precept, “purify one’s heart”, means we have to purify our intention. What are the results we trying to produce with our thoughts, with our words, and with our actions. Buddhist practice is based at understanding the real underlying purpose of whatever we intend to do, so that we are doing that which will help to free ourselves and free others from suffering and bring forth as much happiness as possible. Our defiled thoughts and actions are called defilements because these choices in our lives will simply lead to creating more suffering in the long run. Take greed for instance. If the greedy behavior was generating a positive result for us, then it is not be greed but right action. If our hate, our anger and our despair lead us to having less suffering and more happiness, that again would be right thought and right action. The third defilement, ignorance and delusion underlie all our difficulty in purifying our hearts because we are failing to fully see and take to heart the harmful consequences of our wrong action. People will justify their anger without fully recognizing what our anger is doing to themselves and what it is doing to others. Due to delusion, people will justify their anger and ill-will without really looking at what will actually be helpful to the recipient of their anger. No one really wakes up in the morning thinking that what I want to fill myself today is with angry and upset thoughts. Whenever we are angry it just means life is not giving us what we want and we are frustrated and upset. Something and someone are getting in the way of what we want. Yet although our anger may actually be hurtful to someone else, we are also hurting ourselves. Whenever we are upset and angry with someone, we may think we are just hurting them but filling ourselves with hate and anger is like drinking poison, we are damaging ourselves. Spiritual life is pointing us to finding unshakable happiness which can only come from embracing the whole of our lives, the good and the bad conditions. To be inwardly still means we do not have to be moved and blindly react to all the difficult conditions in our life. Instead, we can try to see with the eye of the Dharma that points us to seeing the ephemeral nature of everything in our lives and this awareness can lead us to finding real freedom and liberation. 

The underlying purpose of Buddhist meditation and training is to stop the outflowing of misery, confusion and despair that flows out of following our defiled emotions. We deal with the defilements by trying to understand and see what choices we can make in our life to make our life and the lives arounds us better. We are cultivating stillness and acceptance to alter the way we keep deludedly grasping our selfish passions in a misguided attempt to bring ourselves more happiness. However, we still need to accept and provide help to all these defiled feelings in our life so that we see everything within our lives with the vast openness and compassion of our ongoing Buddhist training. 

The pressures of our life’s many difficulties make us feel like we cannot accept and be a peace with what is unfolding in our life. Our deluded non acceptance will often have us breaking the Precepts, try to futilely control the many circumstances in our life that we actually have no way to influence. I do not control much of what happens with my body, how others will treat me or what is happening in the world. Life seems to create much worry and stress but this worry and stress is not arising from the difficult conditions we face; it is arising from our inability to fully embrace all these karmic conditions. The Dharma is teaching us to have a positive acceptance of whatever life is giving us, both the good and the bad. 

To purify our heart means we have look at whatever causes suffering in our life so we can try to understand our delusions that are causing our suffering. I remember eating in a restaurant where our waitress mentioned that she practiced Buddhism and then blurted out, “my defilements are just killing me” with the same tone that one would use to say that my shoes are killing me. Yet the comment touched me since it is rare people recognize where their real difficulties in their life is coming from. When we are lost in our defilements, we feel the pressure that makes us feel that finding stillness and acceptance is not possible for us. Yet whenever we make the choice to trust that it is alright to be wherever we are, to find acceptance for dealing with what difficulties we have, our heart can get in touch with something we all possess, a place within our hearts of stillness and peace that is not affected by the waves of good and bad conditions, moving through our life. 

The second Precept “do good”, if we are not being very careful, this positive wish to “do good” can become a self-centered desire which can still create patterns of attachment and misery. We can get caught up in what we are trying to accomplish and loss sight of the fact that we cannot control all conditions and often whatever we are trying to do, may not work. The world is filled with people trying to do some sort of good and then being filled with despair and a sense of failure when fail to solve some difficulty and their actions have a bad result. To purify our hearts means we see our insignificance, how much is out of our control. Yet the ongoing Buddhist training is that we are still trying to keep having our choices in life motivated by our pure and positive spiritual intention. Then whether we have success or failure in whatever we are doing, our good intentions are helping to convert our own hearts and minds and in turn, this in some immeasurable way will help to convert all hearts and minds everywhere to find the incomprehensible fullness of the Buddha. 

Purifying our heart becomes a clear need and purpose in our life when we begin to better see how our defiled heart and mind is causing us to suffer. To be generous rather than to be greedy. To be kind and forgiving rather than critical and angry. To be patient and positive rather than upset, anxious and worried. Cultivating these positive approaches to what life is offering us does feel much better and when we indulge our defilements, then, not surprisingly, we feel bad about ourselves, feel bad about our life and feel bad about the state of world. 

An example of living from a deeper place than the just our little self is just the normal process of being a parent. Why does giving so much to this helpless new being we brought into the world often feel so right and meaningful? This enormous amount of generous giving which parents need to do for their children usually feels good and right because needs of the child can usually feel far more important than the needs of our little self. Taking care of our children can feel very positive and far more meaningful than most other aspects of our life. Feeling connected to the child, despite all of its difficulties which, at times, can feel overwhelming, does point us to a deeper place than just being lost and enveloped in powerful sense of our own self-importance. 

Buddhism often uses the image that we should treat all sentient beings with the same care and love that a parent has for their child. That is obviously a ideal but it points us to what will really help us, the attempt to let go of just viewing our life through the narrow prism of our self-absorbed mind, which is filled with our desires and fears and try to open our hearts and minds to the liberated mind which is trying to have deep empathy and compassion for whomever and whatever we deal with in our life. This liberated heart and mind is the goal of Buddhism and we find it with our ongoing efforts to keep making the choice to keep letting go of our narrow and selfish mind and connect and open our hearts to seeing everything in our life as part of our spiritual path. 

Priory News 

by Rev. Kinrei 

The Priory had a new roof put on the temple this summer and it went very smoothly. The previous roof had been done in 1989 so it was good fortune to have lasted this long be- fore needing replacement. It is good to probably not have to think about roof problems for a number of years. 

On August 16, the the temple held a Buddhist marriage service for Sarah Arnold and Gerald Hildebrandt. They had both moved here from Berlin, Germany this summer. I knew Sarah from when she took the Buddhist Precepts at Shasta Abbey in 1989 when she was a teenager and it was good to reconnect these many years later. 

On September 8, the Priory participated in the Solano Stroll, a street fair that drew an estimated 150,000 people. It was good to have this opportunity to interact with many others in the community and also increase the awareness of the Priory. Many people who have been to the temple at some time in the past, stopped by to say hello. One couple stopped by with a sweet story. They met eight years ago when he saw her reading the Priory newsletter and intro- duced himself and asked if she was a Buddhist. I never thought of the newsletter as something which can help begin a romantic relationship. 

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 Buddhist greeting cards, a leaf rake, flowers, books, tools, plants and paper goods. 

Providing monks with food is the traditional offering given when coming to a Buddhist temple, and we appreciate all the generous food offerings we have been given. 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 butter, eggs, and fruit preserves. You are always welcome to check with the Priory on what foods are currently needed. 

Introductory Meditation Retreat
October 26 and January 25 (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
October 12 November 16 December 14 January 11 

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. 

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 spiri- tual 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. 

Shasta Abbey Retreats 

Attending a retreat at Shasta Abbey is an excellent way to deepen one’s Buddhist life by living and practicing together with a large community of monastic and lay members of the Sangha. The introductory retreats are the recommended first step in practicing at the Abbey. For more information, you can go to their website at http://www.shastaabbey.org or contact the Guestmaster at (530) 926-4208 or guestmaster@shastaabbey.org. 

Introductory Retreat November 15-17 Segaki Retreat October 24-27
New Year’s Celebratory Retreat December 27-January 1