Mind of compasion

One time, the Buddha told the monks that they were to keep permeating the person who spoke to them out of ill will with an awareness imbued with good will.

Beginning with that person, they were to keep pervading the all-encompassing world with an awareness imbued with good will—abundant, expansive, immeasurable, free from hostility, and free from ill will.

We too can work with this practice. Initially, we can start this training with those who are close to us: family and friends who care for us. We start here because it is easier for us to love those who love us and who are kind to us. It is much more difficult to love those whom we have negative feelings for.

Once we establish this mind of compassion and goodwill for family and friends, we can then begin to expand it to include people we casually encounter, people whom we have no strong positive or negative feelings for. Accomplishing this, we can broaden this mind of benevolence to include people we dislike, and eventually even those we hate.

If we can keep widening this mind, we will gradually be able to accommodate many others in an ever-widening circle. Then, we can open up this caring mind to include all beings throughout the universe. The more encompassing this caring mind is, the greater our respect for all beings and all things will be.

We do not Know

If we are sympathetic to others’ welfare while maintaining goodwill, commiseration, and loving-kindness for all people, then we will not judge others. We will not say that this person is right and that person is wrong because we will come to understand that we do not know what is really happening, that we will likely mis­take falsity for truth. But if we are able to regard both friend and foe with sympathy and loving-kindness, we will then be able to practice the nonjudgmental, unconditional giving of love and thus wish for all beings to be happy.

We Need to go Further

 

One time when the Buddha was speaking with the monastics, he advised them to discipline and train themselves whenever they heard people speaking to them using speech that was timely or untimely, true or false, affectionate or harsh, beneficial or unbeneficial, with a mind of good-will or with inner hate. In other words, they were to train themselves by remembering these words of advice at all times.

Like the monastics, we can train ourselves so that their minds remained unaffected. To maintain a calm, clear, and unperturbed mind, we should not allow that which we see, hear, taste, touch, or think to disturb and thus taint our pure mind. Whatever has been perceived must not move the mind but be allowed to fall away; just as an image moving in front of a mirror is reflected but is no longer present after passing out of sight.

Also, we can train to say no evil words and endeavor to never again say words that are false, harsh, divisive, or enticing. Not talking harshly to others, not being sarcastic, and not lashing out blindly are ways to control anger.

But we need to go further.

Ideally, we should not even hold anger in our hearts. Holding on to our anger will taint everything we do: when we interact with others from a mind of bitterness and frustration, we will inflict our anger on others.

Strength of the Spirit

Nonviolence is the law of our species
as violence is the law of the brute.

The spirit lies dormant in the brute,
and he knows no law but that of physical might.

The dignity of man requires obedience
to a higher law—to the strength of the spirit. 

~ Mahatma Ghandi 

A Perfect Practice of the Buddhadharma

The guiding principles in Buddhism are awakening, correct understanding, and purity of mind. In other words, we are to:

1. be awakened, not deluded
2. have correct view, not deviant ones, and
   
3. maintain a pure mind, not a contaminated one.

To achieve these goals, we practice the Threefold Learning of discipline, meditative concentration, and wisdom. Buddhists will recognize these as the underlying principles in many of the Buddha's teachings, for example, the Noble Eightfold Path and the Six Paramitas.

Master Lianchi, also known as Master Zhuhong, the Eighth Patriarch of the Pure Land school explained how the Threefold Learning can be perfectly practiced through nianfo—mindfully chanting "Amituofo."

“We must also recognize that this discipline, concentration, and wisdom are equivalent to the Dharma-gate of buddha-remembrance. How so?

• Discipline [precept keeping] means preventing wrongdoing. If you can wholeheartedly practice buddha-remembrance, evil will not dare to enter: this is discipline.
• Concentration means eliminating the scattering characteristic of ordinary mind. If you wholeheartedly practice buddha-remembrance, mind does not have any other object: this is concentration.
• Wisdom means clear perception. If you contemplate the sound of the buddha’s name with each syllable distinct, and also contemplate that the one who is mindful and the object of this mindfulness are both unattainable, this is wisdom.”

~ Pure Land, Pure Mind, Trans. J.C. Cleary

The practice of nianfo, elegant in its simplicity, can help us to perfectly practice the Buddhadharma.