PERFECTING THE PARAMITAS GENEROSITY 2010.2

This segment will take up the first of the Six Perfections of Zen, Generosity or Charity,

called Dana Paramita in Sanskrit. Again, we use the active form, perfecting, so we are

about the business of perfecting generosity in our daily lives and practice.

Here, again, from the Introduction, is what Matsuoka-roshi had to say about Generosity,

or Charity:

The first, Charity, asks that you realize that the essence of human life is

mutual aid, and that you give of yourself as well as of your possessions.

Giving is not just the contribution of money, although this is an important

part of it. It also means the practice of benevolence, love, compassion and

virtue so that others will be inspired by your example and spirit.

Our intentional practice of generosity can eventually result in our actually becoming

truly generous. But the meaning of generosity in Zen is not obvious. It can be

understood on at least three levels, the literal or relative, social level; 2) the

metaphorical or absolute, personal level; and 3) the actual or concrete, transcendental

level.

Again, generosity cannot be practiced separately from the other Paramitas. How can we

practice generosity without patience? How can we practice generosity without finding it

in meditation? Does true generosity, or charity, require exertion, and wisdom?

The literal, relative social interpretation generosity or charity, is as we have seen, is being

kind to others, rather than seeing ourselves in competition. Cooperating with others,

taking pleasure in their happiness, their success. These are forms of generosity.

But, on a non-social level, how can we be generous to ourselves, or generous when we

are alone? For instance, when driving on the expressway, can you be generous to

yourself? Somebody cuts in front of you, cuts you off, somebody does something stupid.

The stress that we feel when driving, is a form of self-punishment, you might say. We

become angry, frustrated. In our mind, we think we are angry with others, but actually,

the stress, or distress, turns back on ourselves, so that we become upset, anxious, angry.

We have an upset stomach, indigestion, leading to ulcers and other forms of dis-ease, bad

health. Stress is one of the number-one killers of people.

So how can we practice generosity in stressful situation?

First of all, we can observe our reactions to other drivers, in a traffic jam, for example,

when the pressure’s on. We see how they are behaving, we may see our own behavior in

them. Becoming impatient, honking horns, yelling, and so forth, these are demonstrations

of stress, where we are blaming others, essentially. As the Tao te Ching says, when the

blaming begins, there is no end to the blame.

So, when we recognize our knee-jerk reaction to stress, the old “count to ten” admonition

can come into play in Zen fashion. If we can breathe deeply, sit upright as we do in

zazen, even if we’re stuck in a traffic jam, or crawling along bumper-to-bumper; it can

help us to recall the calm, relatively stress-free condition of sitting in zazen. So we can

observe our own behavior, our own posture, our own breath, and our own attention, what

we’re paying attention to. Mindfulness is partially remembrance, on a sensory level.

Now, in a traffic jam or at full speed on the expressway, we have to be aware of

conditions outside the car; that is, we have to be on the road. On the other hand, we are

also in the car. These automobiles, these vehicles, form a shell around us, something like

an insect. Or like armor – we’re riding in an armored vehicle — compared to our body,

which is very soft, and vulnerable. This sometimes lulls us into a form of ignorance.

Seat belts, safety precautions, and so forth, all part of being in the car, and at the same

time being on the road. Observing speed limits, observing intervals, allowing a large

enough space between our vehicle and the one in front of us. And of course, when we do,

people from the other lanes jump into that space. And so, to maintain an interval, we have

to keep slowing down. If we are going 10 miles an hour — we are supposed to allow one

interval for each 10 miles per hour — if we allow one vehicle space, somebody will

jump into it. Suddenly, we don’t have an interval. So we have to slow down even more,

and as interval opens up again, somebody else might jump in. At 20 miles per hour, the

interval is big enough for two cars to jump in. And they will. So, it appears that we are

going backwards! It can be frustrating.

But — consider what is frustrating about it. Where are we going, in such a hurry? If we

are running late to work, then of course there is stress associated with that —

disappointing other people, maybe creating a problem with the boss or colleagues waiting

for us. So we try to avoid this by planning better, by starting earlier, if we have to

commute. By allowing for traffic, allowing for accidents even. If we are late to work, we

can apologize; we have a reason, if not an excuse. Unless we are habitually late,

habitually getting started too late in the morning to make the drive to work on time. Then,

here is a problem. Most of the tension or stress that we feel is self-imposed.

We are creating, and re-creating a situation in which we are doomed to failure, and we set

ourselves up again and again this way, and so again and again, we find ourselves in a

stressful situation, on the expressway running late, and who do we blame? We blame

everyone else but ourselves. So this is a key; this stress is really self-imposed. The

circumstances that we have created have, predictably, led to a stressful situation again.

So here we can sort of take a vow, or a precept. You know, there’s something — first

thing in the morning, we’re having difficulty getting out of bed, if we have difficulty just

getting going, we don’t really like our job — this sort of resistance becomes built in, and

can become such a part of our personality makeup that we’re no longer conscious of it.

We just see it as this is the way the world is: It’s difficult, it’s frustrating, and it’s never

going to get any better. Ignoring the fact that somewhere, say in the prior 24 hours,

before finding ourselves back in this same, stressful situation, we set in motion the

process that will, predictably, produce this stressful situation.

But we can take a vow, and say I take up the way of being generous with myself, and

allow myself more time to get ready, the day before. I repeat the vow before I go to sleep.

I will go to bed earlier, or I will do my meditation, so that I do not suffer insomnia. I will

set the alarm for a half hour earlier, an hour earlier, maybe. I will get up in the morning

and do some meditation. Then I will get in the car and go on the expressway, maybe half

an hour earlier. So, I am giving myself more time.

I am not giving this time to my boss, to the job, to the others on the expressway. I am

giving myself this break. And so, then, I find myself driving again, but with less stress,

because I have allowed enough time to get to the office on time, and so I can allow an

interval before me, and if people jump into that interval, so what? They are feeling the

stress that I have been feeling up ‘til now; they are probably going through a similar

pattern of self-destructive, self-fulfilling behavior, which leads them again and again, to

the same stressful situation they find themselves in.

So I have become generous with myself. I have allowed myself to settle into real time, in

the car, even though I happen to be on the road. Sitting in the car, I can breathe deeply, I

can remember to sit up straight. I can practice a little driving zazen. Driving while under

the influence of meditation. There’s no law against that.

So generosity, then, becomes something that I begin to experience; that I do have all this

time. In fact, one way we can look at it, is that time is really all we have. And here we

are, whether we are sitting in a car, sitting in the office at work, or sitting in zazen. That’s

a lot of sitting. But no matter where we are, the benefits of our meditation practice can

come into our daily life, by allowing ourselves this kind of generosity to the self.

Now, as it happens, if we do this and because we do this, we are able to allow the others

on the expressway, to screw up. And it doesn’t bother us so much; we understand that

they are under extreme pressure and stress, which we no longer are. Rather than react to

what they do in anger and frustration, rather than feel their frustration, we see it for what

it is, and we no longer feel it.

So, we are becoming generous to others. We can allow them their suffering; we can see it

as such; we don’t have to pile blame for it on top. And, we don’t have to take it

personally, that they’re causing us all this stress and strife, because we have begun to see

clearly that we cause our own stress; we cause our own strife. We are the cause of our

own suffering. This attitude is one of extreme generosity — that we can accept this.

So on the abstract, personal level, beyond the literal meaning of generosity to others, we

find that there is really no separation, in generosity, of others and self. Generosity to the

self is generosity to others, and vice-versa. So the most abstract interpretation, perhaps is

to see charity that way. That is, our misconception of generosity prevents our being able

to actually practice it. And to become truly generous is not what we think it is, at least in

the beginning. It is a process of discovery, through observing when we are not being

generous, to others or to ourselves. This is a clue, this is our cue, to observe what we are

doing in that moment. And simply by observing it, a kind of mental or emotional ju-jitsu

comes into play, by which we can clearly see Oh, this is not generosity. I am not

practicing charity here, either to myself or to others. And, by simple reflection, we can

see, then, what true generosity would be, in this particular case.

In this way, situation after situation, incident after incident, in daily life, we can begin to

see clearly when we are not being generous. We may not be able to figure out

beforehand, what would be the generous thing in each circumstance. It is not always

obvious. But we can certainly recognize when we are not being generous, or charitable.

And so, by simple reflection of the opposite, we can see where the path of true generosity

may lie, in any given circumstance.

On the concrete level, which has less, or really, nothing, to do with what we might do

about it, we can consider generosity to be an attribute of existence itself. That is, we exist

by virtue of the generosity of the Universe. The generosity of our parents, the generosity

of their parents, our grandparents; the generosity of people who nurtured us, our teachers;

people who try to take care of us, like the leaders in the government — the city, state and

nation, and so forth — even though we can see their motivations as being selfish in many

cases. But, nonetheless, many people are working very hard to make everything work.

The society hangs together as well or as poorly as it does, based on the efforts of

thousands and thousands of people.

And so the way we were raised, we can appreciate. But beyond the nurturing of family

and friends, he fact that we are born, and have a good birth, a healthy body and life; this

is considered a very important opportunity in Zen. Because, as a human being, according

to Buddhism, we gain the ability, the opportunity, to wake up. To become awakened, in

the full sense that Buddha was awakened. This is the most generous, you might say,

aspect of all — that we’ve had this precious human birth. So we make a gassho, make a

Buddhist bow, in the direction of our provenance, where we came from. And say thank

you, for this opportunity; I’ll do my best not to blow it.

So this concrete dimension of generosity is that everything is being allowed to be, to the

degree that it can, and it is, defects and all; through the generosity of existence itself. So

this year’s crop of vegetables and flowers, grass, trees and so forth, fades and dies. The

leaves fall off the trees. The weeds and plants in the garden are plowed under. They

become mulch or compost for next year’s garden, and generously give of themselves, in

order to fertilize and support the next generation. Each generation in life is generous in

this way, that eventually we age, we grow sick, and we die. And this clears the way for

the next generation.

So, whether we like it or not, and whether we do it consciously or not, we are generous

by nature; we are participating in the cycle of generosity in the evolution of the universe,

the growth of life, and the changing of life.

So from these three perspectives, the relative — doing our best to be socially generous to

others. And then the metaphorical — the fact that, in order to be generous to others, we

truly must be generous to ourselves, and discover that there’s nothing selfish about it.

And finally the concrete — that the universe is exceedingly generous to its denizens.

In Zen, there’s no self, as such, that we reify or try to substantiate. So, our activities are

neither selfless nor selfish, entirely. And we begin to work around that issue, How can I

do this; it’s selfish of me to do this. And there is no way, ultimately, to practice generosity

that may not, in some way, look selfish to others. It is entirely personal.

If, in fact, we are generous by our very nature, then practicing true generosity begins with

uncovering, or re-discovering, that basic nature, in Zen called buddha-nature. This

buddha-nature is awake, completely awake, and so not confused by such ideas as whether

or not something is selfish, or selfless: as in a given action that we take. An action cannot

be purely either selfish or selfless, but is always a blend, a combination of the two. This is

called non-dualistic action.

The discriminating mind sorts and separates into pairs of opposites. And so we fill our

heads with all kinds of fantasies, conflicts and battles. The society we live in, the media,

friends and relatives, are fully engaged in those artificial conflicts and fantasies, so it is

very difficult to escape them, to avoid becoming embroiled in such discussions.

But our generosity allows us to see clearly what is going on, to hear what others have to

say, and yet not take it to heart: not have to defend another position, not have to attack

their position; but to see it from the perspective of generosity. They are allowed their

position, even though we can see that it’s clearly based on selfishness, or fear. All of

these social criticisms or contradictions basically resolve themselves to a kind of fearbased

approach to life.

And so becoming generous means accepting our fear, accepting the fearfulness of others.

It is understandable in this situation, where we don’t control our aging, sickness, and

death, but can be overcome at any moment, it is very natural to be fearful. When people

engage in behavior that is clearly motivated by fear, we can be generous — to understand

that we are in the same boat; they are in the same boat as we are. We can empathize, and

in doing so, if we have less reactivity than they, then this may become a form of social

generosity, where our calmness, in the face of the same conflicts, may inspire others.

Whether relatively trivial, as in the misbehavior of people driving on the expressway; or

important and life-threatening, terrorists and nation-states warring on each other; all of

the horrible atrocities that we see in humanity’s inhumanity to humanity.

We cannot be so generous as to simply ignore, or chalk up to karma, these insane

activities of humankind. That would not be generosity. Generosity would be to recognize,

not the inevitability of the whole catastrophe, as Zorba the Greek put it; but instead to

recognize where it is actually coming from: peoples’ lack of generosity. And their lack of

generosity comes from a mistaken view of reality, from ignorance, according to

Buddhism. So we can be most generous in assuming that everyone is doing their best,

given the circumstances of ignorance and fear, and so forth. It's just that their best may

not be very good. May be terrible, in fact.

So, entering into the fray of everyday life, if we personally become free of this kind of

ungenerous mind, of the selfish clinging mind, that sees I, me, and mine, and feels the

need to defend, at all costs, this so-called self. If we can become free of this mind, then

we enter into the mind of generosity. And then, our awareness can open up to see, for

sure, and have confirmed, that we are truly the recipients of immense generosity from the

Universe. Call it God if you like, if you are of a theistic, Christian, or Judaic bent; or

Allah if you are a Muslim. But, from the perspective of Zen, the important thing is to

find, and feel, this true generosity of spirit, that is our birthright.

And, in fact, in most children, it is clearly natural and recognized, in childhood. A child

can be very selfish. But they can also have extreme generosity, because they haven’t

learned yet that there is something to gain or something to lose. So this no gaining idea is

central to Zen practice. For us to see that — however we live our lives, whatever

accomplishments we can chalk up — actually, in the end, we have gained nothing. There

is nothing to be gained. And, by the same token, there is really nothing to be lost.

Now, this is on a very absolute, very abstract plane. Concretely, scientists tell us that the

universe is a finite, closed system — nothing can be added to it, nothing can be taken

away. So, also, from that perspective, you could say that there is nothing to gain or lose.

But from a social, human perspective, we would say that we do have something to gain or

lose.

From a social perspective, we do see gain and loss, but on a relative basis, and usually of

such a niggling variety that by emphasizing gain in our awareness, we often come out on

the losing end; or if we win, and therefore gain, we don’t feel very good about it

sometimes. But Buddhism’s generosity is a win-win-win situation. We win, others win,

and existence itself is a winning proposition.

To bring this back to the personal level, sitting in zazen is practicing generosity of all the

above types. It is literally being generous to others, as our practice inspires others by our

example and spirit, so they are encouraged to continue, or to begin, their own practice,

the hard work of the Paramitas, and the hard work of zazen. It is generous in the second

sense, of being abstractly, or absolutely, generous, in the sense that it is generous to

ourselves as well as to others.

We are taking the time to slow down to a complete stop, where all of our attitudes take a

rest. Particularly our ungenerous attitudes, our attitudes of clinging, accumulation of

wealth, avariciousness, et cetera. We are simply sitting still for long periods of time,

doing nothing that harms others, for now at least. In doing so, we are being completely

generous.

But sometimes zazen is not comfortable, the comfortable way, as it is said to be.

Sometimes we are very uncomfortable in zazen. We may have gotten beyond physical

discomfort, but something is nagging, something bothering us, that we may not even

know specifically what it is. We should be doing something else, taking care of business;

we should be planning for the future. We’ve neglected something at home, at the office;

let something go, and now it’s becoming a crisis, and so we feel anxiety. Sometimes

people say they feel like they want to get up and run out the door. It becomes extreme.

So, here, to be comfortable is not to ignore the fact that we have some things that need

taking care of. Zazen is not to ignore that fact at all, or to suppress it. But instead, simply

to allow to ourselves that, during this sitting here, this moment in zazen, for this amount

of time, half an hour, or an hour, however long it’s going to be, even a day-long retreat:

I’m going to be generous with myself. I’m going to give myself this time for zazen.

And, hopefully, through this process, whatever it is that I continue to do in my daily life,

that finds me continually in these stressful situations, where I’ve not taken care of things;

I’ve been ungenerous to others, I’ve been selfish both in time and assets, and in giving of

myself; if I can overcome this once and for all, then I will be able to practice generosity

in the true sense of the word, in my daily life, and all these anxieties and worries that I

have now, I will begin to take care of, as much as possible.

So taking good care of my life, taking good care of the lives of others, taking good care

of my practice; even taking good care of the practice place and of my humble home

environment, this is all being generous in the most well-rounded sense of the term.

So let’s continue practicing. Please join, listen to the next in the series, which will be on

the Precepts. Which, like the Paramitas and the Eightfold Path, we will look at the

Precepts from the literal, the relative, and then the more absolute or abstract, and finally,

more concrete, perspective.

By exploring this series of eight talks, perhaps we will come to some deeper grasp of the

Paramitas, at least on the conceptual level. Hopefully that will bring about a mindset that

begins to open our awareness to the dynamic reality of the Paramitas, as functioning

vitally in our daily lives. By combining this study with zazen, meditation time on the

cushion, the depth and breadth of the meaning of the Paramitas will become clear in its

own time, and in a way that is natural to you. Please listen to the next in the series, on

precepts, the natural way of living the Paramitas in daily life of a bodhisattva or buddha.

© 2010 Zenkai Taiun Michael Joseph Elliston

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