​Gate 98: Balanced state of dhyana

The practice of the balanced state of dhyāna is a gate of Dharma illumination; for it fulfills the ten powers.
修禪定是法明門、滿足十力故。

The kanji translated here as “practicing the balanced state of dhyana” can also be read as “practicing zazen,” so it might sound like this gate is about achieving some particular kind of mental or physical state. but really, it’s about establishing our sitting practice and just going forward with that day by day.

We all know something about zazen, so we don’t need to go much into that as the first element of this gate statement, - but we’re going to intersect that with the ten powers, so we need to know more about those.  There are various versions in the Buddhist tradition of something called the ten powers; in some cases these are the powers of awareness of a Buddha, and in others, they’re the ten powers of a bodhisattva.  It depends on the text and the time and place within the tradition.

Today I want to look at these as the ten powers of a bodhisattva, or bosatsu ju-riki, because we’re all bodhisattvas here, and that brings these powers a little closer to home.

1) Devotion to the Buddhaʼs teaching and no attachment to anything

This is described as jin-shin-riki 深心力, a deep mind power.  In other words, this isn’t just an everyday intention to practice or a general enjoyment of practice as something “I” like to do.  This is a profound understanding of the dharma.  I think there are two ways to look at this if we add one word to the line: devotion to the Buddha’s teaching and therefore no attachment to anything, and devotion to the Buddha’s teaching and also no attachment to anything.

We know that the most basic things that Buddha taught were about non-attachment.  When dealing with the three poisonous minds, we aspire to turn our greed into generosity.  When we understand impermanence we see that there’s nothing we can really cling to.  When we see that all five aggregates are empty, as it says in the Heart Sutra, we see that there is no self.  Committing to practice and doing regular zazen where we drop off body and mind lets us see these things for ourselves the way Buddha sees them.  Because we’re doing Buddha’s practice, studying his teachings and taking action in the world based on that, therefore we have no attachment to anything.  

Yet what about devotion to the Buddha’s teaching and also no attachment to anything?  Even though we’re devoted to the three treasures, ultimately we don’t cling even to them.  Buddha taught in various ways depending on who was in front of him and what their karmic circumstances were, so sometimes it seems like he was saying contradictory things.  The dharma points us toward seeing and understanding the way the universe actually works and the three marks of existance, but just as once we’ve crossed a river we leave the raft behind, once we see for ourselves, we don’t need to cling to the teachings.  We take bodhisattva action based on our own prajna, so we use the teachings to transcend the teachings.

2) Increasing oneʼs devotion (zojojin shinriki 増上深心力) 

This is another deep mind power.  To increase your devotion is to hear everything as Buddha’s teaching, to see all sentient and insentient beings expounding the dharma and completely manifesting buddha nature.  There’s a real feeling here of something increasing, growing, becoming more powerful as we cultivate our practice.  The first power is a profound understanding of the dharma, and this second one is continuously deepening that understanding.

We’ll never come to the end of zazen, work, study and ritual.  We’ll never come to the end of our bodhisattva vows.  We have myriad opportunities to understand every moment, everything we encounter, all activities and forms and beings as the dharma.  Thus even when we think we’ve got a pretty good handle on this practice and what Buddha said, there’s always something even more subtle that we can understand.  We have to keep that spirit of inquiry and be open to the next dharma gate and the next opportunity to open the hand of thought.

3) The expedient ability to instruct people and alter their conduct (hoben riki 方便力)

Sometimes this is translated as the power of employing expedient means to guide and embrace sentient beings.  As bodhisattvas, we see clearly who’s in front of us and what they need in order to be freed from suffering.  Each person needs something different, and the same person needs different things at different times.  There’s no one size fits all when it comes to liberating beings.

We hear all the time about expedient means, usually related to skillful action or beneficial action, but it’s useful to consider why we use a word like expedient.  Why not practical or effective?

Expedient usually means some action that gets the job done but may be improper or even immoral.  We don’t assume that all of our bodhisattva activity to liberate beings is problematic because we’re behaving selflessly on behalf of others.  In the Buddhist context, rather than proper or improper, the distinction is between relative and absolute, or form and emptiness.  In the world of emptiness, there are no belongings that are lost or stolen, no human bodies that get sick and die, no delusion brought on by ignorance or intoxicants, no beings who are suffering.  And yet, in this world on fire there are suffering beings everywhere and it’s not helpful to tell them about emptiness in the midst of acute suffering.  There are three poisonous minds in action, and precepts being broken.  We have to aknowledge this world of form and work within that context.

Just as Buddha taught different people differently depending on circumstances, we may have to put aside the true nature of reality, the absolute point of view, long enough to help suffering beings in a concrete way.  This is expedient means in a Buddhist context.  Sometimes we have to work with only part of the story in order to achieve our aspiration.  One of the ways we do that is with language, and hoben or skillful means always gets tied up with the duality of language.  The actual content of Buddha’s awakening can’t be expressed in language, so any attempt to teach the dharma using language will always be incomplete -- and yet we have to do it in order to liberate beings.  We have to see reality from both sides and express both sides in one action.

4) Understanding what people think (chi riki 智力) 

Traditionally, this is a supernatural kind of wisdom to read the minds of sentient beings.  Today we might not believe in such things, but nonetheless, before we can really help others, we need to have some sense of what’s going on in their heads.  We have to watch and listen.  Before I say something, is it true and helpful and well-timed?  Will this person be able to hear it and take it in?  Might there be some preconception at work or some prior experience that’s influencing thinking?  Do I really understand what people are trying to achieve, or do I just think I know what they want to do?  When we cultivate wisdom and compassion in our practice, we’re naturally better attuned to the experience of others.

5) Satisfying people with what they want (gan riki 願力)

This is actually the power of the bodhisattva vow, fulfilling the desires of sentient beings.  Every time we chant the four vows, we’re presented again with this huge challenge: freeing all beings from suffering, ending all delusions, going through all the dharma gates, seeing everything as the dharma and every moment as an opportunity for practice, and completely manifesting Buddha’s teaching, which has no boundary or endpoint, with this limited human form.

On the one hand, this seems futile; we know we can’t do it.  On the other hand, that’s a powerful thing.  I know it’s not possible to complete these vows, and yet I vow to take them on anyway and to put my energy into selfless activity even though by nature I’m caught up in the three poisons.  The fact of that contradiction makes this a powerful thing; this isn’t something we do casually.  We’re not going to encounter this kind of aspiration very often in the world.  Living a self-centered life and getting all the cherry pie I want seems much more appealing.

To go against our programming is kind of a big deal, and yet we can’t cling to some idea about what great people we are for deciding to live as bodhisattvas.  As soon as we do, we undercut the vow, so there’s a lot to work with here.

6) No cessation of exertion, or (gyo riki 行力)

It’s certainly important to apply ourselves to our practice and make good effort, to be active in our practice and fully engage in zazen, work, study and ritual, whether in the temple or in our daily life activities.  We need to practice with others regularly, because it’s so easy to go off the rails when we’re on our own, with no chance to experience how our practice fits in with the practice of the sangha.  

There’s that kind of power of exertion, or activity, making the effort to come to sesshin or book discussion or participate in a work day, sitting zazen every day and having some direct experience of nonseparation and nonreliance, but we also have to make sure that body, speech and mind are all telling the same story -- in other words, that we’re completely manifesting Buddha’s teaching all the time, and there’s no gap between what we think and say and do.  It’s not enough to go around saying “My teacher says . . .” or “I read in a book that . . .”  What are we actually doing with this body and mind?  Do we actually understand and experience the dharma, or is it still something "out there" that we just read and talk about?

For the bodhisattva, there’s no cessation of exertion or practice because we’re already completely not separate from the dharma.  The universe is practicing through us all the time and there’s nothing outside of Buddha’s way.  There’s no disuption of practice, no hindrance to awakening.

7) Including all vehicles without abandoning the Mahāyāna (jo riki 乗力, the power of the vehicle which transcends all vehicles, i.e., the Mahayana)

In the Buddhist tradition, a vehicle is anything that can carry beings to the other shore of liberation.  Depending on what source you’re looking at, there are anywhere from one to five vehicles.  Sometimes rhe vehicle is someone’s karmic situation: as a disciple who is working to liberate himself but not all beings, or as someone who liberates himself without help from anyone else but is also not working to liberate others,  or as a bodhisattva, etc.  Sometimes the vehicle is the set of teachings or tradition, like Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana.  In the development of the Buddhist tradition, by the time we get to the Mahayana, the Lotus Sutra is saying that really there’s only one vehicle, which is the Buddha’s actual ultimate teaching, and that all the other vehicles are expedient means to attract people to the One Vehicle.  

All of these circumstances and traditions and schools and sects  aren’t wrong, but they don’t tell the whole story.  Soto Zen falls within the Mahayana school of Buddhism, so of course we privilege Mahayana as a vehicle to some degree, but we also recognize that it too is expedient means.  We practice within the Mahayana and we don’t abandon it simply because it’s a skillful means, but we remember that it’s pointing us toward something beyond Mahayana forms and teachings, to including all vehicles as Buddha’s awakening that can’t be expressed in words.

8) The mysterious power of showing the appearance of the Buddhas in every world in each pore of the body (jinpen riki 神変力, the power of the miraculous manifestations of the Tathagatas in all the worlds in the space of a single hair-follicle)

Again we have a supernatural, miraculous power, and this one points particularly to the powers used by a Buddha or bodhisattva to teach and transform beings.  Jinpen riki just means a divine power, but all the translations of this item I’ve seen make reference to manifesting all the Buddhas of all the worlds in a single pore or hair follicle.  Clearly this is an image of interconnectedness and all dharmas being reflected by all other dharmas.  The Avatamsaka Sutra says:

Countless eons throughout the three periods of time,
As well as the different features related to their formation and decay,
Are completely displayed in a single pore of the Buddha.
The volume of space throughout the ten directions can be known,
But the scope of the Buddha’s pores cannot be measured. 
Sentient beings with all their differences
Manifest completely on a single hair’s tip.
His spiritual transformations fill the world.
The Buddha, with the unlimited strength of his spiritual powers,
Extensively proclaims his epithets equal to the number of sentient beings.
He enables all to hear according to their likes and pleasures.
Multitudes in measureless, boundless lands,
The Buddha encompasses in a single pore.
The Thus Come One then sits–serene amidst the assemblies.
The power of all sentient beings’ blessings and virtue
Completely manifests within the Buddha’s pores.
Now they return to the ocean of great blessings:

Buddha or awakening or the true functioning of the universe has no outer boundary.  It’s endlessly big and we can’t measure it, so we have an innumerable amount of eons and everything they contain within the single pore of the Buddha.  All dharmas are reflected by all dharmas.  We can think of this as a special high-end power that only Buddhas have, but actually this is already happening all the time.  Because of interdependence and interconnectedness, everything is always present in everything else.  We’re already reflecting myriad dharmas from our 84-thousand pores and hair follicles, and when we sit zazen and deeply realize non-separation, we can see that as bodhisattvas this is not a mysterious power we need to acquire.  In zazen, all the parts of your body and mind come together in one activity of sitting and non-thinking.

9) Making people turn toward the Buddhaʼs teachings and leading them to perfection (bodai riki 菩提力, the power of enlightenment which enables sentient beings to aspire for enlightenment and attain Buddhahood)

This is about bodhicitta, or the aspiration for awakening, and as we know, we can’t just give that to someone, even as bodhisattvas.  We can’t arouse anyone else’s bodhicitta, but we can help to create some conditions that make it possible for others to recognize their aspiration when it arises, or maybe remove some hindrances.

We can inspire others by the way we carry ourselves and our practice in the world, how we respond to what we encounter, hopefully with wisdom and compassion, not by forceful evangelizing, which rarely works anyway.  If someone wants information about what you’re doing, it’s fine to have a conversation, but the best thing we can do is be ourselves and live our lives in Buddha’s way.

10) Satisfying all kinds of people with even a single phrase (tenborin riki 転法輪力) 

Tenborin is turning the wheel of the dharma, or teaching dharma.  This is the power of turning the Dharma-wheel by expounding a single phrase in accordance with the different capacities, natures, and desires of sentient beings. 

Turning the wheel of the dharma is a very old metaphor.  Recall that a moment ago we were considering  vehicles.  Turning the wheels of a vehicle moves it forward.  If you’re a wheel-turning king in India, you have a mighty chariot that conquers a lot of territory.  If you’re the Buddha, you turn the wheel of the dharma vehicle  and cover a lot of ground that way.  As bodhisattvas, we turn the dharma wheel or share the dharma by communicating the right thing at the right time to whoever is in front of us in a way they can take in and use.

Like so much of this tradition, this list of ten things is actually ten ways to look at reality.  It’s useful to consider them individually, but in the end we can’t really pull them apart.  You probably noticed some themes emerging:

1) We can’t do any this bodhisattva work completely without cultivating prajna, or wisdom.  We need to see what Buddha is really teaching, we need to see who we’re really working with and talking to, and we have to be able to apply one to the other.  Also, it’s not enough to say, well, I’ve got it now so it’s time to teach it to others.  We have to continuously cultivate and deepen our own practice.  We can’t just decide to go out and save the world, because we won’t have the tools to do it.

2) We need the biggest possible box of tools at our disposal so we can use the best one in each situation.  Sometimes we lean on wisdom and sometimes on compassion.  Sometimes we’re working in the world of emptiness and sometimes in the world of form.  Sometimes it’s important to function within our particular family style or denominational style, and sometimes we need to put that aside.  We can’t fall into “when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” -- if we do, we get stuck.

3) This practice takes committment and energy and activity.  Vow is important and we can ride that wave a bit as bodhisattvas, and then we have to go out and actually do zazen, work, study and ritual in order to save beings.  Also, as much as we’re committed to doing our part and meeting the dharma halfway, we also know that Buddha nature and awakening are already here.  We’re already completely manifesting Buddha nature without a gap, and yet we still have to practice.

The basis for all of this is zazen, where we open the hand of thought and drop off body and mind.  That’s where we can let go of the hindrances that are narrowing our view and blocking our ability to function freely within this one unified reality -- even if only for a little while.  This is how we learn to see the way Buddha sees and what makes us powerful bodhisattvas.

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Questions for reflection and discussion:

• How do you see the relationship between zazen and the ten powers?  How do they function together?
• Which of the ten powers puzzles you most, and why?
• How do you continuously cultivate prajna in your own practice?  How do you turn that prajna around to help others?
  
• How has your practice given you a wider range of tools to use in encountering the world and responding skillfully?
  
• How are you feeling about your commitment to practice these days?  How might you take the opportunity of ryaku fusatsu, a jukai-e or tokudo in the sangha, or some other (re)commitment activity to reconnect to your vow?