Please Contribute a 'Bodhisattva Vow' ...

[Jundo]

Dear All,

As you know, we Zen folks regularly recite the Four Bodhisattva Vows. At Treeleaf, our wording is:

To save all sentient beings, though beings numberless
To transform all delusions, though delusions inexhaustible
To perceive Reality, though Reality is boundless
To attain the Enlightened Way, a Way non-attainable

Our Treeleaf Priests hold a monthly tea meeting to catch up with each other, and about everyone always has some struggle or hard personal story to relate from their own recent lives, or about their friends and family. It confirms that Zen priests do not escape life. During the week, Sangha members write me almost daily about things they are facing too. Often, these are problems that cannot be easily solved, or are simply unsolvable. These are my friends and people I care deeply about, or nice people I have just met, and it always breaks my heart, each time, that they are facing such things. There is often so little that I can say to bring even a touch of comfort, although I so wish I could. Some stories are beyond anything that could ever be said ...

We Zen folks cannot solve all life's pains and problems. Far from it. We will always grow sick, older, lose love ones, suffer threats and fears to our well-being, business and job worries, see our family members struggle although we wish they knew peace. I know folks gravely ill, folks who do not know where their next meal is coming from, folks in war zones. Zen Practice allows us to see through these sufferings, to a realm where there is no suffering, where all is light and whole, where nobody grows sick, nobody dies, nothing can be lost ...

... and yet, alas, so long as we are alive in this world, the hardships, illnesses, loss and times of grief will remain. That is just to be human and alive in this world.

Our Teachings let us know freedom from all such things, yet all such things remain ... like two sides of a no sided coin.

We also know that, even a small effort, a single hand offered in friendship, a shoulder to rest on, is overflowing in its power, even if it can only give a little extra strength and comfort to others.

So, I thought to expand the Bodhisattva Vows a bit, to express our wishes that we could all help our friends and loved ones in their times of pain, although we also know that it is often impossible to help as much as we would desire. We can include ourselves too. We keep on hoping and making the effort, sending Metta and a Helping Hand, working for things to be a little better, even when the mountain of troubles seems insurmountable.

Would you do me a favor? Would you think up, and post below, some additional verses like these, to reflect your own difficulties or the battles of friends and loved ones in your life that you wish you could somehow improve, though it seems so hard right now?

I will somehow organize the verses into something that we will recite at our Sangha's weekly Zazenkai next Friday (I may not be able to recite all, and may combine some, but I will recite as many as I can.) It may not cure anything, but the wishes and mutual feelings which we will share, as a group, will certainly help each other. It will help cure our feeling alone in all this. None of us is alone in this.

To cure all cancers, though cancers ever cancering ...

To keep all workers, though workers unemployable ...

To lose no loved one, though loved ones sometimes losing ...

To keep our relatives sober, though relatives just keep drinking ...


* * *

To strain no back, though backs we're often straining ...

To heal all broken marriages, though marriages are sometimes breaking ...

To keep all cats healthy, though the vet is always busy ...

To solve all kid's problem, though parent's new grey hairs are endless ...

Those are just some about a whole bunch of folks I know. Please add more. It can be about you or those you know.

And it's okay to be serious, but also okay to put a little humor into your verses too if you want: Sometimes a little wry humor is the best medicine for something not so funny really.

Gassho, J

stlah

[ZenKen]

What a wonderful idea. I would like to contribute the following:

To uplift the depressed, though the black clouds ever looming
To restore loving kindness, though family rifts are deepening

Gassho
ZenKen (Anna)
satlah

[Jundo]

What a wonderful idea. I would like to contribute the following:

To uplift the depressed, though the black clouds ever looming
To restore loving kindness, though family rifts are deepening

Gassho
ZenKen (Anna)
satlah

Lovely.

[Bion]

To deeply love others, though they do not love themselves
To unreservedly show kindness, though kindness is not given in return
To forgive abundantly, though not asked to


[emoji1374] Sat today

[Jundo]

By the way, if nobody objects to my quoting them, I may quote some folks' verses in an article for Tricycle.

Gassho, J

stlah

[Seiko]

To be a friend to the lonely.
To be a map for the lost.
To seek healing for the undiagnosed as well as the diagnosed.
To react to other's pain, as if it were mine.

Gasshō
Sriko
stlah

[Naiko]

To connect with the lonely, though we are all both all alone and together.
To console the inconsolable, though grief is without end.
To speak for the Earth, though her roar is deafening.

st

[Jundo]

To be a friend to the lonely.
To be a map for the lost.
To seek healing for the undiagnosed as well as the diagnosed.
To react to other's pain, as if it were mine.

Gasshō
Sriko
stlah

These are lovely. But the Bodhisattva Vows typically emphasize our doing the non-doable. Might you rewrite them a bit?

Gassho, Jundo

stlah

[Meian]

My little attempt:

To heal all broken hearts, though hearts are not broken.

To create peace in conflicts, though conflicts are endless.

To fill hungry stomachs, though food is not always the answer.

To relieve poverty throughout the world, though money is a paper tiger.

To house all the homeless, though none are homeless.

Gassho2 meian stlh

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[Veronica]

To help others during panic attacks although panic attacks will arise.

To encourage calm in our children although we cannot always keep them safe.

Veronica
Stlah

[Seiko]

These are lovely. But the Bodhisattva Vows typically emphasize our doing the non-doable. Might you rewrite them a bit?

Gassho, Jundo

stlah

I'll try - second draft...

To end loneliness, though being alone is inescapable.

To give healing to all, though some are undiagnosed.

To end other's pain, though pain is inevitable.

Gasshō
Seiko
stlah

[Risho]

To calm all crying babies , though tantrums are boundless
To relieve all doggys’ pain, though illness is inevitable
To keep an open heart, though differing opinions are inescapable
To exterminate all software defects, though bugs are endless

gassho

risho
-stlah

[Zenkon]

Would you think up, and post below, some additional verses like these, to reflect your own difficulties or the battles of friends and loved ones in your life that you wish you could somehow improve, though it seems so hard right now

This question makes me think of the Parable of the Two Arrows: "Any time we suffer misfortune, two arrows fly our way. Being struck by an arrow is painful. Being struck by a second arrow is even more painful." The first arrow is misfortune and the send arrow is our reaction to the misfortune. Disease, disability, war, famine, climate change are all part of life. We can rail against the inequities, lobby our governments for change, provide aid generously, but basically there is little we can do to prevent the first arrows of misfortune. Perhaps, greedily wanting things to be different than they are, whether it is a cure for cancer, full employment or an end to depression, is a base cause of our suffering.

What we can do is change our reaction to the misfortune. To quote Helen Keller - "I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet". With our understanding of impermanence and emptiness, we can blunt this second arrow.

Therefore, I might propose the following verse:

To engage life with Radical Acceptance, while yet working for positive change.

Gassho

Zenkon
sat/lah

[Will001]

To always try, though nothing ever seems to change.

[paulashby]

Let me offer two that reflect ongoing struggles:
To extend compassion to all people, through racism seems endless.

To celebrate the gift of our life-giving earth, even as pollution causes greater suffering.
Gassho, peace, Paul Ashby sat lah