5 / 108 Gates of Dharma Illumination

[Shokai]

10 Quaint gate.jpg
一百八法明門
IPPYAKUHACHI-HOMYOMON

[5] Right conduct of the actions of the body is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] the three forms of behavior are pure.

Right conduct of the body involves ethical, wholesome physical actions that avoid harming oneself or others, often emphasizing non-violence, non-stealing, and proper sexual conduct. Rooted in Buddhist and ethical traditions, it requires mindful awareness to create positive karma and maintain integrity, fostering harmony.
Key aspects of right conduct of the body include:

• Abstaining from Harm: This includes avoiding the destruction of life, refraining from violence, and not taking what is not freely given.
• Wholesome Actions: The body should be used to act with kindness and compassion. It involves honest, respectful behavior rather than actions driven by greed, hatred, or delusion.
• Mindful Awareness: Right conduct is developed by paying attention to actions rather than acting out of habit. It requires reflecting on motivations to ensure actions are unselfish and beneficial.
• Bodily Integrity and Boundaries: This concept extends to respecting the bodily autonomy of others, such as respecting personal space and sexual boundaries.
• Threefold Purity: Right conduct is often linked with right speech and right thought, ensuring all three are free from defilement.

How does this make you feel and how do you incorporate it into you daily experience ??

合掌,生開
gassho, Shokai
stlah
仁道 生開 / Jindo Shokai
"Open to life in a benevolent way"

[Tenryu]

This gate feels very grounded to me, because it brings practice back to the body. Right conduct doesn’t feel like moral purity, but like reducing friction in daily life. When actions are simple and non-harming, there’s less to justify or repair.

A very ordinary example for me is my body. After years of long hours at a screen and little movement, tension and pain appeared. When I started paying attention and responding to what my body actually needed, things improved quickly. I notice that the same sensitivity naturally extends outward: how I relate to my own body shapes how I act toward others.

Again, ‘pure’ here doesn’t point to a state, but to not fixing harm or neglect into action.

Gasshō,
Patrick
sat today/LaH

[Seikan]

As Shokai describes above, for me this Gate is another expression of the "bodily-focused" precepts (e.g., not killing, not stealing, avoiding sexual misconduct, avoiding intoxication, also the three pure precepts). Yet, this Gate also feels a bit broader in scope and less "specific" when compared to the standard precepts. As such, this can provide a simpler frame of reference for guiding my actions. It provides directional guidance in full alignment with the precepts, but it feels less fragmented as a touchstone, and therefore can be easier to call to mind when needed.

FWIW, "Correct practice of physical behavior" is the SZTP translation of this Dharma Gate, which doesn't feel all that different to me than the Nishijima version, but it may resonate with other differently.

Gassho,
Seikan
stlah

[dorgan]

When I reflect on the 108 gates, I see them as one gate. They may appear different to me for a time, and, for ease of conversation and to emphasize different aspects of the teachings, I may speak of them separately, but they lead me to the same garden. As gateways to a developing practice, the 108 gates help me cultivate crucial skills, behaviours and understandings until my own practice becomes me, and I become my practice.

In a non-dualistic universe, where subject and object are illusions and conventions of language that hide truth rather than reveal it, where all life and matter are interpenetrating, interdependent, codependent, and co-arising, body, speech, and mind are not separate.

At the same time, all states are one; my partial awareness, where I see body, speech and mind as different shades of one colour, where I am still developing as my practice deepens, is as much a part of the One reality, Truth, as the total awareness of Pure Mind. Ignorance and enlightenment coexist; distinctions disappear.

I can intellectually understand non-dualism, but to absorb it, become it, live out of it, be totally immersed in it, is a way of being that lies ahead for me and towards which I practice each day. For now, the gates offer insights and are calls to practice that, if acknowledged and followed, deepen my practice and draw me closer to an enduring realization, one that has been absorbed into my being.

This gate makes me feel determined to practice zazen daily, to be mindful and careful with all actions and behaviours, and to seek to express harmony, beauty and love through all that I do, think and say. This gate is the physical dimension of the precepts, understood as a matrix of interpenetrating, interdependent applications that share causality; that is, one does not exist without the other.

gasshō, david
stlah

[Choujou]

For me, this gate is rooted in precepts, the eightfold path, and practice. What we realize on the zafu is brought into everyday life through our acts, words, and thoughts. This gate to me, along with the precepts are blueprints… guidelines on how a Buddha acts and behaves. This allows us to reflect on our own lives and how to act or respond, and to let go of what doesn’t align. When we do this we aren’t doing so to “become” a Buddha, but to realize that we already are.

I do not wish to be a source for suffering for others. We all make mistakes, sometimes we allow delusion to cloud our thoughts, words, and acts… we snap, we get upset, we get angry and yell, argue… some choose to do even worse… even though we know we shouldn’t. This gate reminds me to stay present and mindful of my body and what I do with it… and to ensure to the best of my ability that the choices that I make are in the best good for all involved, at all times. (Especially during the harder times.)

Gassho,
Choujou

sat/lah today

[Tai Do]

To me, this gate expresses the right action of the Eightfold Path, as presented in the first five precepts that deal with bodily actions. When we act mindfully, we respect the boundaries of others and refrain from harm. It is really a day-to-day activity, like paying attention while driving, asking permission before taking a cookie from your child's plate, asking "can I?" while expressing intimacy with your significant other.
Gassho,
Tai Do
Satlah

[Tairin]

Thank you Shokai


For this gate it is easier to see if I look at how I feel when I fail to meet my expectations for Right Conduct. In those cases I feel poorly, embarrassed and disappointed in myself. Poor Conduct generates a lot of negative reactions within myself. I tend to close down. On the flip side Right Conduct generates a lot of positivity within myself. When I feel good it feels like I open up Maybe a silly analogy but it is like I open up like a flower.


Tairin
sat today and lah

[Seikan]

When I feel good it feels like I open up Maybe a silly analogy but it is like I open up like a flower.

Tairin, I love that analogy! It makes such good sense to me as well. Thanks for sharing.

Gassho,
Seikan
stlah

[Chikyou]

This gate makes me feel steadfast and supported. If I’m in a situation where I don’t know what to do, I can remember right conduct of body (and mind) and in that way will have guidance. All of the precepts are also like this. The more I study them, the more I appreciate them, and the vows I take, because they give me a firm foundation for practice and living life. It’s not restricting, as it might appear on the surface, but instead it’s liberating, because it allows me to move confidently through life knowing that I have that guidance.

Gassho,
SatLah,
Chikyō

[Jinjitsu]

This gate feels like a road map, in maybe a similar way to the precepts. Showing the way, this will help foster conditions of body and mind that enable us to actualize the Bodhisattva vows as best we can. I know when I don't, my whole being is agitated and restless.

Gassho,
Josh
satlah