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April 2, 1979
Shoreline Highway
Stinson Beach
Dear Shih Fu,
This is an experience I had during the holiday season last year. Ionly now have found time to write it up.
I should rescue and save all beings and set them in the place of ultimate peace and joy! Therefore, the Bodhi- sattva immediately brings forth the bright wisdom of great kindness. Avatamsaka SutraKindness is supreme. Kindness can make us happy all the time, because kindness comes from giving and making others happy. Giving makes everyone happy. To be truly kind you have to have given yourself away, given your afflictions away, given everything away, let it all go.
Being brittle and hard is easy
It takes courage to be kind.
Being stingy and selfish comes
naturally to the weak, but
It takes strength to be
compassionate.
Holding on to the self is not
wisdom,
But it takes faith to let go.
Doubts and fears are greed
for benefit.
It takes giving to be happy.
As I bowed in the icy shadows of the rocks on Christmas Day last year the voice of a wise, kind teacher in my ear gave me faith and courage. He said, "C'mon, let it all go. I'll catch you if you slip." In my heart I stepped over a chasm with eyes closed and found myself on another shore. Without thoughts in my mind, the peace and light was pure joy. Everything was okay. My heart wanted to give the happiness I felt to all beings. Every hard and selfish atom in my body felt permeated with the light of kindness.
Dwelling peacefully in an attitude
of giving, all his faculties are happy,
his merit and virtue increase. Produc-
ing a wholesome joy and desire, he ever
enjoys the practice of vast, great
giving. -- Avatamsaka Sutra
Just then I bowed into the sunlight, out of the shadows, and took a good look at the selfish, fearful heart that I have lived in all these years. When I seek benefit from others, when I seek their approval, I cannot be kind. When I hold on to a self and project my fears on to others, I cannot be kind. Seeking approval and fearing hurt by themselves are the cause of my unhappiness. I make it all up by myself, in my own mind. Fear itself is the poison and pain, it's not the object of fear that causes hurt. Give up the fear habit-projection, stop seeking self, return the light and happiness fills the world.
Faith in my teacher's voice gave
me strength.
Strength gave me courage to act.
Courage helped me give up my fears.
Giving up the fear itself brought
happiness.
I rested in the heart of happiness that day. I felt clouds of black ch'i disperse from my body. Kindness came naturally with the practice of giving. The more giving, the more kindness; the more kindness, the happier the heart. To maintain happiness is easy when one gives to make others happy. With kind thoughts one is happy and wants to share it to make others happy, too. This refills the original happiness without exhaustion.
Giving the Dharma is the highest giving and it makes for the highest happiness in return.
To leave the home-life and cultivate the Way is the highest kindness, because it makes one able to give the Dharma without rest. As I bowed on that rocky road, I realized how deeply good it is to practice the Dharma. Reciting the name of the Buddha is great kindness and great goodness. As we bow, we recite the name of the Avatamsaka Sutra and the Avatamsaka Assembly of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. We say the word "Buddha" twice and Bodhisattva once with each bow. Just this alone is a happy deed, a way to give to others. It is a kind act. It is enough to fill the world and the heart (no difference) with light, joy and peace. All the happiness begins with giving, giving up the self, contemplating freedom. How fine it feels to be content and seeking nothing, unbound by all the afflictions we make for ourselves, on account of our Self.
At the place of seeking nothing
there are no worries.
Be content, give up all afflictions, doubts, fears.
If you know contentment,
you will always be happy.
If you can be patient,
then you naturally are at peace.
Give all thoughts of Self away. Stop thinking and get
happy. Then be kind
and make others happy. How? Give Dharma by cultivating
the Way.
He vows that all beings will perfect
the speaking of the Buddha's road to
Bodhi, and constantly take delight in
the supreme giving of Dharma.
-- Avatamsaka Sutra
A family of Dharma-friends joined the bowing that morning and "manifested bodies to speak the Dharma." Passers-by saw seven disciples of the Buddha praying on the highway, cultivating the Buddha's road to Bodhi with happy hearts.
When the Bodhisattva cultivates the
practice of giving, he makes all beings
happy and delighted.
Avatamsaka Sutra
Cultivation gives;
Giving makes happy;
Happiness wants to be kind and give;
Kindness wants to cultivate.
+-------> Cultivate -------+
| |
| The V
Kindness Buddha's Give
^ Way |
| |
+-------- Happy <-------+
Did the state last? No. It was a state, and states come from the mind, they change like the weather. It was a natural thing. I didn't seek it, it came by itself. I didn't attach to it, it left by itself. I admit it was the happiest I've been in my 29 years of living. Until my Self has been completely given away I will still turn and flow in attachments and false thoughts. Now happy, now afflicted. I don't want it this way, and I don't want it any different. I just want to cultivate the Way with a single mind and really learn to give. I want to unite my light with the light of the Sutra.
In thought after thought the Bodhisattva
makes increasing advance into the Perfection
of Giving. -- Avatamsaka Sutra
Disciple Kuo Chen
(Heng Sure)
bows in respect