Engaging Dogen's Zen by Wirth Tetsuzen Jason Davis Kanpu Bret Schroeder Shudo Brian

Author:Wirth, Tetsuzen Jason,Davis, Kanpu Bret,Schroeder, Shudo Brian
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisdom Publications

14Shushōgi Paragraphs 22–23

JIEN ERIN MCCARTHY1

“Kind speech” means, when meeting living beings, to think kindly of them and offer them affectionate words. To speak with a feeling of tenderness toward living beings, as if they were one’s own infant, is what is meant by kind speech. We should praise the virtuous and pity the virtueless. Kind speech is fundamental to mollifying one’s enemies and fostering harmony among one’s friends. Hearing kind speech to one’s face brightens one’s countenance and pleases one’s heart. Hearing kind speech indirectly leaves a deep impression. We should realize that kind speech has the power to move the heavens. . . . “Beneficial deeds” means to devise good ways of benefiting living beings, whether noble or humble. Those who encountered the trapped tortoise and the injured bird simply performed beneficial deeds for them, without seeking their reward or thanks. The foolish believe that their own interests will suffer if they put the benefits of others first. This is not the case. Beneficial deeds are one, universally benefiting self and others.

— From fascicle 46: “Bodaisatta Shi Shōhō [The Bodhisattva’s Four Methods of Guidance]”

The root of kind speech for Dōgen is compassion. In its attendant passage in Shōbōgenzō, the first instruction in kind speech is not speech at all, but first “to feel compassion” for other living beings and then to “offer them caring and loving words.” Compassion is a warm, deep feeling of empathy for others, akin to love, combined with the desire to relieve their suffering.2 Here in Shushōgi, Dōgen encourages us to use not just kind but affectionate words to express love and compassion for all living beings. This might seem a simplistic phrase at first. A friend of mine who went to see the Dalai Lama came back greatly disappointed because, “All he said was be nice to people.”

But what Dōgen (and I am sure the Dalai Lama, too) asks us to do here goes far beyond just “being nice.” We are to treat others with the compassion we give babies, and not just any babies, but our own offspring. This counsels an intimacy that we usually reserve only for those in our closest circle — and perhaps we don’t even always use loving and affectionate words with them either because offering such words requires really letting go of self so that we can speak from a state of compassion. Treating others from this place of intimacy also requires vulnerability on our part, which leaves us open to being taken advantage of. As Thomas P. Kasulis puts it: “Compassion breaks the shell of the ego so that the pain of others enters our own being.”3 And if we were not recipients of kind, caring words as babies or children, it not being automatic that parents always speak with kindness and affection to their children (and in some cases never), our ability to offer that affectionate care and kindness might well be damaged. As Dōgen points out in Shōbōgenzō, there is a direct link between compassion

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.