Download The Ky0jukaimotr, Part II

The Ky0jukaimotr, Part
II
Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett
The Eightfold Path, represented by the eight-spoked wheel
of the Dharma, is well-known all over the Buddhist world but
has seldom been connected with the sixteen Precepts of the
KyOjukaimon. Last month I spoke of the way in which the Ky6jukaimon can be interpreted as a means of understanding morality spiritually and exhibiting spirituality through morality. This
month I want to explain how there are not really sixteen Precepts
all separate from each other but one Buddha Nature exhibited
within all sixteen of them.
Once again taking the two Precepts which I used as illustrations last month, let us see how they interact upon each other
with the others. Obviously if one kills another person one is also
stealing his life from him, therefore a person who breaks the first
Precept of killing is also breaking the second and becoming a
thief. If a life is stolen it has first to have been desired, that is,
coveted, so the third Precept is then broken. To desire to take life
means to say to oneself that the person whose life is coveted does
not deserve to live ffid, this being untnre, the fourttr Precept, which
speaks against that which is untrue, has been broken. There is
no doubt that a murder is committed by a deluded person for a
person whose mind was not deluded to the Truth could never
commit a murder so such a person breaks the fifth Precept. By
being deluded the murderer has spoken in his own mind against
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The Journal of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives
the person he murders and thus the sixth Precept is broken. By
thinking that another deserves to die a murderer presumes that
he has the right to play god with powers of life and death and his
pride in himself and his devaluing of the person he kills make
him break the seventh Precept. When a person is proud as above
described one is also mean since the life of another is begrudged
to him and this breaks the eighth Precept. When a person begrudges another something that person usually gets angry about
his possessing it in the first place and a murder, even when done
seemingly in cold blood after premeditation and without heat, is
still an act of anger and fear, therefore the ninth Precept is broken. In becoming angry the Buddha Nature within the murderer
himself is defamed as well as denied within the person murdered
and the last, tenth, Precept is broken. Thus the breakage of one
Precept is the breakage of all of them and the breaking of any
one is just as bad as the breaking of all.
There are bound to be people who will cry that it is not nearly
kill him.
just
But
think about it for a minute. If you slander another you
are not only stealing his reputation, you are also killing it. Which
is worse? To kill a physical body which can feel no pain after it
has died or to kill a reputation which the person may have to live
with for the rest of his life? By killing the reputation you may
deprive a person of his means of livelihood, thus he will suffer
physical hardship and perhaps eventual death from starvation.
In this day and age the latter is hard to visualise but it is not beyond the bounds of possibility. In Japan once a person gets fired
from a job he can seldom ever get another; almost no one is ever
fired in Japarl, no matter how incompetent he may happen to be.
But it does occasionally happen with disastrous results for the
person concerned and almost always as a result of slander. So
as bad to steal something or to slander another as it is to
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The Kydjukaimon, Part
II
Ltfting the statue back onto the main altar at Shasta Abbey after a
ceremony during the Ten Precepts Retreat.
be present in all you say and do remembering that even the slight-
est act against another is an act against the very existence of
Buddhahood.
How does all this tie in with the eight-spoked wheel and
the Eighffold Path of the Buddha's original teaching? As I have
said so often before, there is nothing to be found in Zenthat is
not to be found in the original teachings of the Buddha in a much
less developed form. Just for a moment give the steps of the Eighf
fold Path a little thought. Now the actual steps are: right under-
standing,right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood,
right effort, right mindfulness and right concenfration. Obviously
h'
tj,
The Journat of the order of Buddhist contemplatives
and
if one has right understanding one is going to think colrectly
only right
if one thinks correctly one is going to say right things.
livelihood is bound
action can come out of right speech and right
right effort which
to result from right action which must lead to
which always
will yield right mindfulness and right concentration
full circle- From
produce right understanding and the wheel comes
and morning will
this the importance of meditation every night
the words of the
become clear as you read on. Let us consider
wrong
in connection with the Eightfold Path. "Al1
Ky6jukaimon
me from time
actions, behaviour and karma perpetrated by
greed' anger and deimmemorial have been, and flfe, caused by
mouth and
lusion which have no beginning, born of my body,
,don,ts' of the Kyojukaimon are against actions of
wi11." AII the
daily life; every
body or will, speech and thinking in our ordinary
notpractising the code
breakage of th" rvojukaimon comes outof
in the Kyoof morality, both physically and spiritually, taught
jukairnor, and to practise that code the steps of the path, which
followed.
are the spokes of the wheel, must be carefully
joined together in
Notice how the spokes of a wheel are all
completely unmovthe cenffe and that when it turns the centre is
people
cannot find their true
ing. only the outside rim moves.
they do not
Buddha Nature in the centre of the wheel because
because
know how to reach it; they are frightened and helpless
good look at themno one will tell them to sit down and take a
teach them to find
selves, correct them when they err and thus
who want the tnre
the centre of the wheel. There are also people
joy and freedom that comes thereof, for ffue freedom can only
the moral code of
come as a result of living the spiritual side of
life in everyday tasks'
the Kyojukaimon and exhibiting it in daily
wheel of the Dharma'
He who keeps the precepts rearns to turn the
The Kyojukaimon, Part
II
A water wheel is dependent upon an outside force, that of
water, in order to turn and when there is no water it ceases turning having no power of its own. A wheel that contains within
the stillness of its own centre the power to turn itself, that is, when
the driving force within a person is generated by the power of
Zazen and an understanding of what the Buddha taught, no outside source or stimuli are needed. It is because I know this to be
true that I am against drug-taking, cigarettes, alcohol and other
artificial forms or means of trying to gain religious experience
or simply to relax. Such pleasure or enjoyment that they give can
only ever be temporary: like the mill-wheel which ceases to turn
without water, he who relies on external stimuli can never find
permanent peace and true freedom and yet keep the wheel turning and so such people long for death; any release except the one
sure way to understanding appeals to them until they can realise
that they are trying to live their lives the wrong way out. But a
person who has found the true source of life within himself needs
no outside stimuli whatsoever for the energy of his wheel is the
Buddha Nature itself which is within the true meditation hall
within him. When such a one meditates the whole world meditates too. Next month I will discuss this matter further.