Accidental Yogi

Sunrise

August 2011, Sydney.  Winter makes this morning chilly.  As the morning sun rises over receding clouds, the Harbor Bridge begins to glow.

The Venerable Hsuan Hua once said that you can find Bodhi through your afflictions. I guess afflictions must be really important! So what does this word mean?

It comes from the Sanskrit term “klesa” and has a meaning similar to that of, i.e. affliction, distress, trouble. In Buddhism affliction (or, as it may be understood from Chinese, the afflicters, distressers, troublers) means passions and illusions; and consequently “fan-nao” in Buddhist phraseology has acquired this technical connotation of the passions and illusions.

So afflictions is kind of like the basic building blocks of the suffering of ignorant sentient beings. It works something like this; attachment and greed causes dissatisfaction and hatred, which in turn causes illusions and ignorance. This ignorance then causes even more attachment and greed. So afflictions describe the undesireable results of this vicious cycle based on passions and illusions.

But this is exactly the opposite of Bodhi! How can this help us to find Bodhi? Ahhh, but this is exactly what Bodhi is about. Many people like to say that Bodhi means enlightenment – it literally means “the awakened one”. And yes, that is absolutely correct. But there is another meaning for Bodhi that may prove to be very useful in this case. And that is “unmoving in the midst of fan nao”. That is, when one awakens and is no longer caught up on the passions and illusions, one ceases to be affected by the events of this world. It’s not that the world all of a sudden becomes favorable to an Arhat, it’s just that an Arhat is no longer bothered by such events.

Knowing this, we come back to the original question; how does one find Bodhi through one’s afflictions? Can a hurdles athlete ever become an olympic competitor if he never runs on a field with hurdles? Can a boxer ever become a champion if he never has the chance to box against worthy competitors? Of course not. Can a cultivator ever become a great bodhisattva if he never has any fan nao to get in his way and test his skills?

OK, so where does this leave us? Interesting that you ask! The underlying message here is this; for those of us who are lay people and do not live in a monestary, our primary place of worship is in fact, the world that we live in. Our neighborhood, our office, the place where our kids play – that is our temple and our primary place of worship. It is not, contrary to what you might think, your local temple.

And why is this so? Because it is in our defiled living environment that we face the afflictions that are both the cause and effect of our ignorance. And it is in this very circumstance, that a cultivator can put his cultivation into practice. A chan cultivator, spends time meditating at home so that when he leaves his house, he is better equiped to skillfully deal with his afflictions. It is no different than a boxer who trains at the gym for the sole purpose of bringing in his skills to bear inside the ring.

At this point, you might be wondering why I’m using such non-buddhist like analogies about fighting in the ring. I assure you it is not because I am a boxing fan. As a Buddhist, I deplore violence for the sake of money. But the analogy is an appropriate one because I want to impress upon you that cultivation is an active struggle. It not a passive process involving prayer and increased helplessness. The former is the image that most people have of Buddhists. Only by exposing himself to the troubles of the world, can a cultivator put what he has learned and improve his skillfullness.

The skills that a cultivator improves upon depends on what his goals are. One who cultivates the sravaka vehicle seeks the skills to give up the self. One who cultivates the bodhisattva vehicle is grateful that unfavorable circumstance give him the opportunity to practice the paramitas of patience and giving. In either case, without the afflictions, there is no opportunity to apply vigor, no opportunity to obtain certification, and no opportunity to gain wisdom. In short, without afflictions, there is no opportunity to reach Bodhi.

Faith is a very common word in every religion and used often in buddhist literature. However, while denotatively, faith may be an accurate translation, connotatively and in the context of western monotheistic religions, the use of faith in Buddhism may be misleading.

This is largely due to the christian doctrinal definition of faith. The doctrine of faith defines it as an unyielding belief in God without any insight or rational reason on the part of the disciple.

If, for instance, a follower had spiritual powers and could verify God for himself, then it would not be classified as faith. So the spirit of faith in the christian context is essentially blind.

The difference in what “faith” means in each context is evidenced in the choice of words: Christian follower and Buddhist disciple. A follower’s purpose is to follow, while a disciples purpose is to learn.

This emphasis on blind faith is actually the opposite of what faith means in the context of Buddhism.  The Buddha taught methods and not doctrine. In fact, he taught methods to attain wisdom so that we can see the truth for ourselves. When asked questions about the nature of the universe (for instance the question of creation) he would refuse to answer them – saying they were unprofitable.

In Buddhism, faith is something you cultivate through vigor. A disciple slowly gains wisdom by applying vigor to a virtuous cycle of increased faith.

One might start with a tiny bit of faith and using that, hear or read a bit of dharma. Haveing heard the dharma, one can apply effort to understand it. What he comprehends, can then be applied with even more vigor to put that uderstanding into action. It is the action that brings certification to or verification of the teachings of Buddha. The certification is the cause of faith. And the fruit of faith is wisdom.

This natural, unforced, “eyes wide open” kind of faith might also be termed “sincerity”.

So you can say that
“Great vigor is the cause of great faith”

Great sincerity that is the result of great vigor draws it’s roots from careful investigation of Buddha’s teachings, buckets of sweat from cultivating it’s corresponding action, and years of experience certifying to the dharma. As wisdom is the fruit of that certification, each bit of wisdom gained is just a tiny step closer to nirvana. For a cultivator, the suffering that comes from afflication lessen with each bit of wisdom gained.

And so you might also so
All dharmas begin and end with sincerity.

As one dilligently applies vigor to gain sincerity, one steadily gains wisdom. Wisdom is then used by disciples and bodhisattvas alike in not only cultivating one’s own actions, but in benefitting all sentient beings without being drawn in to the ignorance that pervades everywhere.

So finally, you can also say that
The sincerity of the sages is prajna.