We know that we have a problem. So where do we begin, in order to do something about it? Step boldly onto the path, which is directly in front of you. But perhaps you do not see the path immediately, so we must point it out to you, with what Mumon called grandmotherly kindness, and Shakyamuni Buddha called Skill in Means. Part of that Skill in Means is to provide a ceremonial celebration which allows us to memorize what we hope to understand, and take part in it with trust in our teachers.
In the Jukai celebration for those taking that step of formally becoming Zen Buddhists, that would be the Precepts of the Buddhas, starting with the Three Pure Precepts, which in turn start with
Cease from Evil
This is the house of all the laws of Buddha; this is the source of all the laws of Buddha.
We will take up the other precepts and Buddhist virtues from time to time going forward, and see how each one is a koan.
Every teaching can be understood firstly from where you are, and secondly as yet another facet of the universal koan, which you seem at first to have no idea of. Furthermore, we warn you against trying to think of solving the koan. You must abandon your previous delusions of self and become this new koan. We know what we think of as evil, but we do not start off understanding what it really is. Don’t worry.
The law of karma is one of the five laws of the universe; it is absolute, it is inescapable. All are bound by the law of karma once it is set in motion. By accident someone made the course of karma; it is not intentionally set in motion; what happens, or happened, or will happen to you or to anyone else is caused by karma; by accident the wheel rolled the wrong way. Do not continue the rolling of the wheel in the wrong direction by dwelling on the past or fearing the future; live now without evil. Stop the wheel now by cutting the roots of karma, by knowing the housebuilder of the house of ego; if you do not, karma will go on endlessly. The only difference between you and another being is that you have the opportunity of knowing the Lord of the House right now, having heard the teachings of the Buddha.
Kyojukaimon and Commentary
Giving and Receiving the Teaching of the Precepts
Great Master Eihei Dogen
Commentary by Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett
Continuing,
Others may have less opportunity than you but, when they hear it, who knows which will be first at the gate of the Treasure House? ‘Cease from evil’ is absolute, in thought, in word, in deed, in body, in spirit. All are bound by the law of karma; do not doubt this. You will pay for everything you do if you do not cut the roots now and live by fully-digested, Preceptual Truth. Do not worry about the karma of others; each man his karma makes.
We do not take this or any precept once, just ceremonially. We have to take it again at every moment where we have a choice to make. Will we think or speak or act so as to increase suffering, our own and others’, or will we put aside temptation to do the right thing?
Our Confession verse says
All the evil committed by me is caused by greed, hatred, and delusion, which have no beginning. All the evil is committed by my body, mouth, and mind. I now confess everything wholeheartedly.
But what about all of the other evil in the world? You can’t fix it in the manner that authoritarians seek to. You can do the right thing yourself, and you can take a public stand against some of the evils that surround us, as the occasion arises. Thus others will learn that they can do so as well.
To do something yourself, without copying others, is to become an example to the world.
Dogen Zenji
Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
Mark Twain
And remember that there are now more of us on the side of right than there are of them.