31 / 108 Gates of Dharma Illumination Post Reply Subscribed

[Shokai]

14 Quaint gate.jpg
一百八法明門
IPPYAKUHACHI-HOMYOMON
One Hundred and Eight Gates of Dharma-Illumination

[31] To work for living beings is a gate of Dharma-illumination; for we do not blame others.

In Buddhism, working for other people is considered a profound spiritual practice, often viewed as the fastest path to personal happiness, enlightenment, and the antidote to suffering caused by self-cherishing. This altruistic approach—deeply embedded in the Mahayana tradition through the bodhisattva ideal—involves transforming daily activities into opportunities to serve, alleviate the suffering of others, and cultivate compassion.

How does this align with your Daily practice??


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

[Tenryu]

Working for living beings changes how daily life is met. When the focus shifts from blame to usefulness, what is happening right now becomes the place of practice. Washing dishes, answering emails, or having difficult conversations are no longer something separate, but direct ways of reducing harm rather than adding to it.

In daily experience, this shows up as staying present instead of reactive, doing what needs to be done without making it personal, and noticing when irritation wants to harden into judgment. Small actions matter. When they are guided by care rather than self-protection, they naturally support others and steady the mind.

What matters most to me is this: working for living beings does not sit alongside practice. It is practice, once daily life is no longer divided into “spiritual” and “ordinary.”

Gasshō,
Tenryū
sat&lah

[Choujou]

Along the same lines as Tenryu, working for other beings IS practice. It is also part of the three pure precepts (cease from evil/harm, do good, do good for others)We take what we realize on the zafu and apply it to how we act and respond in our lives. When truly aligned with Buddha mind, you also realize that there is no “other”. It is all one thing… so really you are doing your part to help Buddha. Why wouldn’t you want to help Buddha?! Don’t be silly now!
In seriousness though, this is important because working for the self promotes the notion of separateness, competition, contention… and contributes to that which drives the whole apart rather than together. When we work for others instead of the self, we stay humble, grateful, and compassionate towards others.
In my practice, I try my best to just do good for others. I try to be helpful where I can. I do acts of kindness… I also chose my job for this reason as well many years ago. I sell mattresses. The reason why is because we spend 1/3 of our lives there and it affects our health, well being, mood… it is important, and often overlooked by people. (“It’s just a bed…” oh if they only knew it was so much more…) I am making a difference in peoples lives, and quietly, without fanfare …while the world is quiet, while they sleep. While they are healing, resting, learning, dreaming…

As long as I get them on the right mattress that is!

Gassho,
Choujou

sat/lah today

PS- I mention my job only in reference to my practice and how it aligns, and not to self-cherish. Just want to be clear on that as I realize the irony there

[Tairin]

Thank you Shokai

Like Tenryu and Choujou said above working for others is part of practice. I spend some of my time volunteering with organizations that are helpful and healthy, organizations that contribute to people and the environment. But it doesn’t have to be large grandiose gestures. I like the idea behind lend-a-hand. Even the little things that help others are valuable.


Tairin
sat today and lah

[dorgan]

I brake for squirrels and other creatures, taking care not to cause harm. When I see any living creature in distress, human or otherwise, I do what I can in the moment to lessen or eliminate suffering. I automatically take this further by noticing what I see in people's faces, demeanour, language, and tone, and if I sense pain, I make a delicate enquiry without putting them on the spot or feeling bad about feeling bad. This takes tact, and I sometimes do this less skillfully than I would wish, but take note, and do better the next time. We have two dogs and a cat, and I am always making sure they get all the love and attention they need, easily setting aside my own "agenda" to pay attention, respond, and love. My cat likes to join me in meditation, lying down beside the mat. I do these things now automatically without thinking. I live for all beings, and wish an end to suffering for all very deeply!

The gate presents "working for living beings" not as a mere altruistic action but as an opening into dharma-illumination. The crucial turn lies in the conjunction "for we do not blame others." This is not incidental but essential to the practice. When we blame others, we position ourselves outside the field of mutual causation, interpenetration and interdependence. Blame requires a fixed subject ("I who am right") confronting a fixed object ("you who are wrong"), which contradicts the emptiness of self-nature that Dogen emphasizes throughout his work. This dualistic stance makes genuine "working for" impossible because it secretly serves our own "righteousness" rather than the actual needs before us. Not-blaming emerges from seeing deeply into interdependence: the one we might blame arose through countless conditions in which we ourselves participate. The difficult colleague, the harmful politician, the person causing suffering, each manifests within a web of causation that includes our own karma, our society's structures, the entire dharma-realm. This recognition doesn't lead to passivity but to more effective action, because we work from reality rather than from our narratives of blame. and separation. Working for living beings without the interference of blame, a dharma-illumination opens: self-less service is realization.

gassho, david
stlah

[Seikan]

To be honest, this Gate gave me quite a bit of pause. Not because I don't see the value in altruistic behavior. What got me was the phrase "for we do not blame others." On the surface, I didn't quite see the connection. So, as I've been doing this year, I took some time to compare this wording with that from the SZTP translation:

"Taking living beings into account is a gateway to the illumination of the dharma, for one does not disparage others."

That translation resonates more clearly with me right away as it implies that by working for others/putting others first, we don't belittle them or treat them as lower than ourselves (since of course, they are really no different than us anyway).

Now, turning back to our Nishijima translation, I still feel that "blame" is an odd choice of words, but at the same time, it now makes me think about how often I have "blamed" others for the problems of the world (whether my own immediate world, or the "world at large"). Yet, as my practice has matured (somewhat), I do find that I'm projecting less and less "blame" upon others. I never really noticed this until now (even though we've certainly studied this Gate many times before).

Funny how we can read/study the same things many times over, but it may take some time before it finally "clicks" with us. This is why I am grateful for practices like this course of study.

Gassho,
Seikan
stlah

[Ryūdō-Liúdào]

For me, working for living beings shows up in pretty ordinary, family-level ways: taking in strays (especially cats hahaha), helping people out at the toll bridge when they don’t have a card, and showing newcomers where to shop and how to get things done... Nothing heroic, just small acts that make the flow a little smoother for someone else.

As I said in the previous gate, why should it all be about “me” anyway? Zazen keeps softening the edges of “me,” and once that loosens, serving others feels less like sacrifice and more like going along with the current. The drop of water is just a fragment of the river; what’s to be gained by swimming against what you already are?


Gasshō,
流道-Ryūdō-Liúdào
Satlah

[Chikyou]

The Lend a Hand practice is one of my favorite daily practices that we do here at TreeLeaf. It’s such a small thing, but practiced diligently, it leads to increased mindfulness of those around us and how to help them. It easily became a habit, and before I knew it, helping others required no extra thought or effort at all.

Gassho,
SatLah,
Chikyō