In this issue:
Some years ago I came across a book whose title often comes to my mind. The book is a collection of spiritual counseling and letters that Brother Lawrence, a 17th century Carmelite friar in France, gave to a lay disciple. According to his biography, Brother Lawrence was a simple monk. He was the head cook for a monastery of some 200 monks, and that was his daily training. What he brought to that training was encapsulated in the title of the book: The Practice of the Presence of God, or sometimes translated as simply The Practice of the Presence. In essence, that is also what our Buddhist training is pointing us to.
One might ask, “Just what is this ‘Presence’?” But that is a misguided question: what implies an object, and the Buddhas and Ancestors teach that the Presence being pointed to is not an object separate from ourselves, and It is Something greater than ourselves. A most helpful perspective on this seeming paradox for me is explained by Rev. Master Jiyu in Roar of the Tigress II:1
The ultimate of Zen sometimes appears as a universal reality and sometimes as something intimately part of you and me…. I refer to the Unborn2 when I am speaking of the ultimate reality of Buddhism in such a way that it appears to transcend all aspects of individuality…. And yet, there is nothing in me that is not of the Unborn, so I must have a way to refer to this fact. Therefore, I use the term “Buddha Nature” when It appears within the individual and has the intimate feeling of “being mine.”
The Unborn is ultimately ineffable. Ascribing qualities and characteristics to It is dangerous because all we can inevitably do is project our own limited, and often disoriented and egocentric, human experience onto It. But if, as the Buddha taught, the Three Poisons of greed, anger, and delusion separate us from It, then it follows that corresponding qualities of compassion, love, and wisdom are manifested by It on a cosmic scale. The all-inclusive term Love with a capital “L” is used almost universally by great spiritual teachers. And just as human love can be experienced but not described materialistically, the cosmic Love of the Unborn can be experienced.
That is the true longing of our heart: to experience this Love. All of the wonderful teachings and practices that the Buddha’s and ancestors have handed down to us—pure meditation, the Precepts, the scriptures, the master-disciple relationship, the Sangha, and so on—are there to help us realize, and stay present to, the Unborn. What great gifts!
In a recent talk Rev. Master Koshin reminds us that our most important relationship is with the Eternal. To have a relationship with anyone you have to be present to them. If you are not present, it is as if they do not exist. And being present requires giving the relationship time and self-sacrifice. And it matters what we give our time and sacrifice to: as the Bible says, “Where your heart is, there will your treasure be also.” We want a treasure of spiritual value, and not the fool’s gold of the worldly diversion and distraction.
One of Buddhism’s Five Laws of the Universe is that “the intuitive knowledge of the Buddha Nature occurs to all.” The deepest longing of our heart is to unfold this knowledge of the Presence of the Buddha Nature within us. When we live in this Presence, It becomes the backdrop against which all of the relationships and events of this life are put in proper perspective.
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1Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett, Roar of the Tigress, Volume 2, Shasta Abbey Press, p. xxiv.
2 At different times Rev. Master Jiyu used the terms “the Unborn” and “the Eternal” interchangeably.