7 / 108 Gates of Dharma Illumination

[Shokai]

11 Quaint gate.jpg
-百八法明門
IPPYAKUHACHI-HOMYOMON

[7] Pure conduct of the actions of the mind is a gate of Dharma illumination; for it eliminates the three poisons.

Buddhist actions of the mind constitute the root of all experience, shaping reality through intentions, emotions, and consciousness. Key mental actions involve cultivating beneficial states (compassion, awareness), reducing afflictive emotions (ignorance, anger), and training through meditation, mindfulness, and wisdom to achieve peace and liberation.

• Intention : The most crucial mental action, forming the basis of karma. It is the conscious or automatic motivation that directs mental, verbal, and physical activities.
• Afflictive Emotions : Destructive mental states that cause suffering, specifically ignorance, attachment, and anger.
• Beneficial Qualities: Positive mental actions such as loving-kindness, compassion, and awareness.
• Cognitive Activity: The process of knowing, which includes raw experience, conscious thinking, and mental holograms.

How does this gate make you feel and how do you incorporate it into you dauly practice ???

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

[dorgan]

Pure conduct of mind doesn't mean suppressing thoughts—it means seeing through the poisons, recognizing their empty nature. The mind illuminated is naturally pure. The three poisons are: 1) Greed/Attachment (rāga, lobha) - clinging, craving, desire that grasps; 2) Hatred/Aversion (dveṣa, dosa) - anger, ill will, rejection of what is; 3) Delusion/Ignorance (moha) - fundamental confusion about reality; not seeing things as they are.

The path to eliminating the three poisons: 1) study the self (see how the three poisons operate), 2) forget the self (the poisons lose their ground; they all depend on self-grasping), and 3) be actualized by the myriad things (reality manifests without the distorting filter of greed, hatred, delusion). You don't eliminate the three poisons by noticing "I have eliminated them." That noticing itself would be a subtle delusion (pride, attainment-seeking).

Practice happens through you, not by you (self-grasping dissolves); zazen is not a technique to eliminate the three poisons. Zazen is their elimination actualized. When thoughts arise (including thoughts about eliminating the three poisons), don't engage, don't suppress, sit in the awareness that precedes grasping, rejecting, or obscuring. This sitting is pure conduct of the mind. Body-mind drops by itself through pure practice.

Sange (懺悔)—repentance, revealing karmic consciousness, clear seeing. Gatha of Acknowledgment: All harmful actions committed by me since time immemorial, stemming from greed, hatred, and delusion, arising from body, speech, and mind, I now fully acknowledge. Acknowledgement is purification. Each day, I can examine myself to see if greed, hatred or delusion was at play, not for harsh judgment, but for clear seeing. When I clearly see greed as greed, hatred as hatred, delusion as delusion, without grasping or rejecting them, they lose their power over me.

gassho, david
stlah

[Seikan]

I find it curious that this Gate appears in the list following the previous two Gates (Right conduct of the actions of the body, Pure conduct of the actions of the mouth) and not before them. I feel that the purity/rightness of our speech and actions is ultimately rooted in the purity (or lack thereof) of our minds in each moment.

When our thoughts and other mental formations are colored by the three poisons (Kleshas) of greed, hatred and ignorance/delusion, then our speech and actions take on those same qualities. However, through our practice of zazen we allow our original purity of mind to shine forth. And the more we keep that purity shining brightly off the cushion as well (through embodied acts of compassion, generosity, and other wise actions), the more that the three poisons dissolve like shadows in direct sunlight.

On one hand, I feel like this Gate should take precedence over the previous two as it is more foundational. Then again, by cultivating right actions and pure speech, we are cultivating purity of mind simultaneously. It all depends on our perspective.

Gassho,
Seikan
stlah

[Tenryu]

This gate feels very close to the previous ones, but more subtle. I don’t experience the ‘three poisons’ as things to remove, but as patterns that depend on fixation. When the mind isn’t held tightly around a view, a want, or an aversion, they don’t gain much force.

In daily practice, this shows up as attention to intention. Thoughts and emotions still arise, but I try not to follow them or turn them into identity. ‘Pure’ here feels less like control and more like not taking things up.

Gassho,
Patrick
st LaH

[Chikyou]

If practicing with pure speech is hard, practicing with pure mind is even harder. The actions of the mind lead to the actions of the mouth, and of the body. It all starts in the mind, so to practice with the speech and the body, it is best to practice with the mind. Like purifying the speech, purifying the mind requires constant dilligent effort.

I have found, with practice, that this purification comes more easily and naturally. What once seemed an impossible task is not nearly so impossible now.

Gassho,
SatLah,
Chikyō

[Tairin]

Thank you Shokai

RIght Conduct, Right Speech both start right here with this Gate. Negative thoughts are a seed. Positive thoughts are a seed. We we water negative thought seeds we will grow negative actions and words. On the other hand, if we water positive though seeds then we will grow positive actions and words.


Tairin
sat today and lah

[Choujou]

Hello everyone,
Happy New Year!

I’m very sorry to be so late as I took yesterday for myself to reflect on the year… the 6th gate topic is closed so I will post my response for that here as well, and try to make it brief, and 7… my apologies for being behind…

for the 6th gate, like everyone, I felt that it was tied to right speech. It is easy to get caught up on conversations with others and to slip… to speak judgementally, or harshly when suddenly commiserating… it is a reminder to me that one must be mindful of speech as words have power. They have intention and meaning, and they can hurt others and cause suffering, so best to make sure that they are honest,wholesome, and good as best as one can!

Being in sales I practice this daily. I do my best to ensure that I am clear in what I am saying, as well as honest and sincere. This is not often found in the world of commission sales it seems, as deceit and manipulation are common practices, of which I refrain. It is not necessary to do so when you treat someone with kindness, decency, respect, and love.

For gate 7: just like words, our thoughts and intentions have power as well… even if not spoken, thoughts and intentions will have an affect on reality (Tairin mentioned “watering”… and it brought this to mind; an interesting example of this are the water experiments done by Masaru Emoto. I’ve attached a video from a movie from years ago that talks about little about his experiments and the results… very interesting… I wondered, how does that affect us considering that the human body contains a large amount of water in its make up?) Much like words, it is important to cultivate wholesome thoughts and intentions, as thoughts will lead to words, which lead to action, which leads to karma… and so on. Whatever we put out ripples out in all directions. If we lay the foundation of a pure mind, then pure words and actions follow naturally.

like Seikan, I am surprised that this gate follows the previous two, but I suppose it is good to know the pieces and then the whole to better understand the intricacies of right intention/thought, words, and action. I suppose it keeps us mindful of it all…

this for me is probably the hardest of the three… thoughts tend to run wild sometimes, so it is a good reminder and practice to be mindful of them, and to not attach to the nonsense. This last year being difficult for me was a lesson in addressing afflictive emotions… In our practice, we don’t run away, we don’t grasp either…taking time to release afflictive emotions, to heal them, and to cultivate good feelings and thoughts through practice and wholesome introspection… absolutely crucial for cultivating right speech and actions, as well as one’s health and well being! (This is actually what I was doing yesterday and why I am late and posting such a long post! Sorry everyone!)

Thank you for reading, sorry to go so long!

Gassho,
Choujou

sat/lah today

[Jinjitsu]

Happy New Year everyone! So grateful to be walking this path alongside you all

My feeling about this gate is that it works in tandem with the previous two in an inseparable cycle. For example, by giving up swearing during Ango it felt easier over time to have gentler and more compassionate mental conduct. And then it became easier to make other better choices of body and mouth as well. To me this highlights the interdependent nature of all of the gates.

Gassho,
Josh
satlah

[Tensei]

New Year, New Gate!

This gate also makes me curious, but because of the order that the last three gates have been presented. They match the order of the Verse of Atonement:

"... Born of my body, mouth and mind, ..."

It makes me think about our conversation at yesterday's precept discussion, where we discussed sections 6&7 of Zuimonki:

"If you rectify the body in terms of the four attitudes of dignity, the mind rectifies itself. If at first you uphold the precepts, the mind reforms itself."

Body and Mind are one, so by starting with the Body, we also start with the Mind.

Gassho,
Tegan
satlah

[Seikan]

This gate also makes me curious, but because of the order that the last three gates have been presented. They match the order of the Verse of Atonement:

"... Born of my body, mouth and mind, ..."

Tegan, that's a great observation! I'm ashamed to admit that I never noticed that before . . . Thank you for the insight!

Gassho,
Seikan
stlah

[Tai Do]

This Gate is about purity of mind: freeing the mind from the three poisons through their counterparts of renunciation , loving-kindness, compassion, empathic joy, equanimity and mindfulness developed through the practice of zazen and the precepts. In daily life, it is the attention to our intentions, like when we treat well someone only because they can help us in something contrasted to treating well someone because you care about their well-being.
Gassho,
Tai Do
Satlah

[Ryūdō-Liúdào]

For me, this gate feels like it's about softening, honesty, a peaceful, quiet courage. An acceptance of the mind as it is, and a firm willingness to gently guide it through positive mental action.

I think this gate is about seeing the three poisons clearly as they form, and not feeding, justifying, or turning them into any sense of identity. The key is in how we deal with intention, choosing to direct or guide, not control. Even when intentions are mixed, noticing them is already purity. From there, we simply direct thoughts toward clarity, non-harm, and honesty (easier said than done at times, eh? lol)

Essentially, the gate eliminates the three poisons through starvation, not removal. Ignorance fades when we look directly. Attachment weakens when we don’t indulge. Aversion cools when we don’t act it out. The poisons depend on unconscious participation, so awareness withdraws consent. Then, "ta-da!" - illumination!

Some ways that I incorporate it into daily practice are: making a note of noticing irritation without giving it a reason or explanation of why it is, allowing desire without chasing it, and admitting confusion or lack of knowing without pretense of certainty. With soft guidance, this helps me in becoming less reactive, dramatic, and/or invested in stories.

I think pure conduct of the mind is about not clinging to any state. Even compassion could become poison if one clung to being “the compassionate one.”

Gasshō,
流道-Ryūdō-Liúdào
Satlah