37 / 108 Gates of Dharma Illumination

[Shokai]

32 Quaint gate.jpg

一百八法明門
IPPYAKUHACHI-HOMYOMON
One Hundred and Eight Gates of Dharma-Illumination

[37] Belief and understanding are a gate of Dharma-illumination; for [with them] we decisively comprehend the paramount truth.

Buddhism is often described as a practical philosophy or way of life focused on improving oneself through mental discipline and ethical behavior, fostering compassion and inner peace; a path of spiritual development and insight, aiming to end suffering and the cycle of rebirth by achieving Nirvana—a state of ultimate peace, wisdom, and liberation from greed, hatred, and ignorance. Core beliefs include the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, karma, impermanence, and the absence of a permanent soul. It emphasizes personal responsibility, ethical conduct, mindfulness, and meditation rather than worship of a creator god.

Understanding and believing in the above is the subject of this Gate. How do you feel that applies to your Daily practice.

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

[Ryūdō-Liúdào]

For me, belief and understanding aren’t about signing on to doctrines. They grow out of direct experience. I don’t believe in impermanence, no-self, karma, or suffering because Buddhism said so; I believe in these things because I keep seeing them play out in my own life.

In daily practice, this gate shows up as trust born from repetition. Sit, observe, get tangled, untangle, repeat. Over time, the Four Noble Truths stop being ideas and start feeling like simple descriptions of how things work: craving hurts, letting go helps, kindness smooths things out.

I took a little bit of a roundabout way to get here. My start in Tibetan Buddhism and "general" Buddhist studies likely tilled the field, but it was through Daojia (Laozi and Zhuangzi in particular) that I started seeing the reeds from the rice. When I started to study Buddhism again, Chán/Zen appeared as the proverbial rug that tied the whole tearoom together.

Zazen is where belief turns into understanding and understanding into conviction. I don’t hype myself up about awakening. I just keep showing up and letting the Dharma prove itself in small, boring, undeniable ways.

How does that feel? Solid. Pretty far out, yet still and undramatic. Like standing on ground that doesn’t wobble when life starts doing life. Belief gives direction. Understanding gives confidence. Together, they keep me walking the path without clinging to maps or slogans.

Gasshō,
流道-Ryūdō-Liúdào
Satlah

[Tenryu]

In Zen, belief and understanding are not something I add to practice; they arise within practice itself. Sitting, acting, and meeting situations is already the field where the Dharma confirms itself. Impermanence and cause and effect do not feel like ideas to accept, but like what is continuously being enacted.

There are points I cannot resolve conceptually, and I do not try to. “Not knowing” has its own steadiness. Practice-realization carries understanding without the need to settle everything in thought. This gives daily practice a quiet confidence, grounded and uncomplicated.

Gasshō,
Tenryū
sat/lah

[Tairin]

Thank you Shokai

I feel perhaps I am fortunate in the sense that Buddha-Dharma is very aligned to what I intuitively believe and understand. I might quibble about something here and there but ultimately I feel very naturally aligned with practicing Buddha-Dharma.

It is how I wish to live my life and conduct myself in the world.


Tairin
sat today and lah

[Seikan]

What I really appreciate about practicing in this tradition of Buddhism is that while I'm first presented with a series of teachings and "beliefs" to help steer me onto the path, it is only by walking the path myself that I am able to slowly come to "understand" the reality and truth outlines by those beliefs.

And most importantly, I am never told that I must blindly accept any of those beliefs. On the contrary, we are taught by the Buddha himself to "be lamps unto ourselves" (my paraphrasing) and discover the truth firsthand. This is one of the greatest aspects of the Buddhadharma, and it is what makes it stand apart from so many other religious/philosophical traditions.

Gassho,
Seikan
stlah

[Chikyou]

To me, Buddhism just makes sense. When it comes to the core beliefs, there is no “suspension of disbelief”. It is, somehow, solidly logical.

Strangely, perhaps, through practicing Buddhism I actually feel that I have gained understanding of other religions as well. Like fingers pointing to the same moon. Or that poem by Rumi that I really love: “One Song”.

One Song

What is praised is one, so the praise is one too,
many jugs being poured

into a huge basin. All religions, all this singing,
one song.

The differences are just illusion and vanity. Sunlight
looks slightly different

on this wall than it does on that wall and a lot different
on this other one, but

it is still one light. We have borrowed these clothes, these
time-and-space personalities,

from a light, and when we praise, we pour them back in.

Gassho,
SatLah,
Chikyō

[dorgan]

Impermanence: I breathe in and out, feel my tea as it grows colder, notice relationships changing, watch the portrait of myself hidden in the closet age while I remain ageless (yeah, right!), eat, sleep, start another day, arrange for my cremation, choose what happens to the ashes, and thus experience and embody impermanence.

Karma: I have seen and experienced how my words, thoughts and actions manifest and affect myself and others. This moment of intention shapes the next, and I notice, for example, how my body constricts when I hold resentment or anger, and how spacious I feel when I release it. This is cause and effect, deeply felt and self-informing.

Non-self: the question "what am I?" loses its purchase because the boundary presumed by the question has temporarily dissolved in zazen, when engaging life mindfully, in listening completely. Breakthroughs happen, and life continues, somehow a little different, somehow a little better, and I just sit. Another day.

Eightfold Path: The Eightfold Path is an ongoing correction, like a sailor constantly adjusting to wind and current. Noticing how one feels, in the body and mind, opens doors to ever-increasing self-awareness that fosters growth. The tightening throat and chest, sudden coldness and perspiration, a clenched jaw, a constriction in the throat, a stomach suddenly feeling unwell, a hotness in the face, sweating palms, crossing arms in front, a stiffness in the back, goosebumps forming, hair standing on end, a racing heart - all hold clues to the arising of thoughts, words and deeds that we can stop before they manifest.

Like a ladder, our Soto Zen Buddhist beliefs and understandings help us reach a more beautiful, right-feeling place, one that, though in continuous flux, is wonderfully comforting; afterward, the ladder is unnoticed yet an integral part of who we are.

gassho, david
stlah

[Choujou]

I feel that it doesn’t apply to my daily practice, it is my practice! Belief for me is a sort of faith in the fact that what we learn from our teachers, sutras, and dharma practices of all kinds are true, and leading us back to our true self... Understanding, and I mean in the complete and whole sense, is completely becoming and embodying what you know to be true.

Gassho,
Choujou

sat/lah today

[Tensei]

Chikyou, I know exactly what you mean. I didn't really 'get' religions before starting to practice.

As for belief, it's hard not to believe in the truth of the Dharma when you see it unfold in your daily life. I was agnostic about the religious aspects of practice until one day it just sort of seeped in, as it were.

Gassho,
Tensei
satlah