Mt Source Sangha - April Teacher's Greeting
Dan Gudgel
sittings, visit www.mtsource.org
Mt Source Teacher's Greeting - April 2009
by Shinko Rick Slone
Greetings fellow wayfarers,
There is a story that Mitsu Suzuki, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi’s wife, tells
of Suzuki Roshi and his time at Tassajara towards the end of his life.
He loved working in his garden outside his cabin, but Mitsu did not
like to see him working so hard when he was already sick with cancer.
She would scold him when she caught him. So he posted a student to be
on the lookout for her while he worked away. When the student spotted
her, Suzuki would quickly exchange places with the student and pretend
to be taking it easy while the student worked.
One day, she caught him, sweating profusely, working with a shovel
bigger than him. “Hojo-san,” (Hojo-san is an honorific title for the
Abbot of a temple) she shouted. “You will cut your life short working
so hard!” “If I don’t work hard, my students will not grow,” he said.
“Go ahead and cut your life short then, if that is what you want,” was
her response.
I encountered this little vignette about seventeen years ago at the
very beginning of my life of Zen practice. I was much moved. I felt
then that there was something vitally important in this story. Today
it brings tears to my eyes. My practice all these years has simply
been to try to understand this story. How was it that his working hard
in his garden all by himself was helping his students to grow? When I
envision this story I don’t think I see his students all standing
around in a big circle watching him. They had other things to do—clean
toilets, cook food, make beds, clean the zendo…
As I write these words, I am in the midst of Shiho, the Dharma
Transmission Ceremony. I am getting up at three in the morning,
bumping around in the dark, offering incense and bowing at various
altars here at Green Gulch, feeling very happy, feeling very close to
Suzuki Roshi, trying once again to understand his spirit.
My teacher Norman Fischer said in our Shiho study group that Dharma
Transmission is all about practicing for others. He then said that, of
course, being a Zen priest is all about practicing for others. Suzuki
has said that our Soto Zen way is itself all about helping others
before helping ourselves. So Dharma Transmission is really nothing
special, I suppose.
Still, I am very grateful. And I am very grateful to have been a
teacher for Mountain Source these past few years. It has given me an
opportunity to make many mistakes trying to figure out how to be good
teacher for you. You have been very patient with me. I ask your
continued patience as I pledge to keep on trying to figure out how to
be a better teacher. Many more mistakes to come, I am sure.
But our mistakes don’t matter much, if we understand our spirit correctly.
Albert Einstein has said, “The true value of a human being is
determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained
liberation from the self.” I cannot agree. We each have our own
intrinsic value as living beings that does not need to be earned, and
cannot be taken from us. I suspect, however, that our personal sense
of peace, happiness, and self-worth are very dependent on our
commitment to be of service to others.
Lao Tzu said, “The sage has no mind of her own, she takes others minds
as her own mind.” (See below for other translations of this important
selection of text.) Our practice points to and emerges from this mind.
This mind is the “Big Mind” that Suzuki Roshi was always talking
about. This Big Mind is our own deepest nature and it is at the same
time everything and everyone around us. It is very vast. When we
understand, when we have this feeling for Big Mind in our practice,
helping others is nothing special; it is just simply how we live. And
our joy is calm, quiet, and as vast as this Mind.
Once a student came and asked Suzuki Roshi if he felt burdened by all
these hippies coming to him, asking him to enlighten them. He said, “I
am very grateful for them. I will do everything I can for them.” The
student said that Suzuki seemed so light and happy when he said this.
I still want to understand Suzuki Roshi’s spirit. I want to know his
joy. If I persevere in this wish, maybe some day I can be a good
teacher for you.
Will you help me with this?
Yours,
Rick
Beck - The wise have no mind-set. They regard the people's minds as their own.
Blackney - The Wise Man's mind is free But tuned to people's need:
Bynner - A sound man's heart is not shut within itself But is open to
other people's hearts:
Byrn - The Master has no mind of her own. She understands the mind of
the people.
Chan - The sage has no fixed (personal) ideas. He regards the people's
ideas as his own.
Cleary - Sages have no fixed mind; they make the minds of the people their mind:
Crowley - The wise man has no fixed principle; he adapts his mind to
his environment.
Hansen - Sages lack a constant heart-mind; they deem the public's
heart-mind as heart-mind.
LaFargue - The Wise Person is always a man without a mind - he takes
the mind of the hundred clans as his mind.
Legge - The sage has no invariable mind of his own; he makes the mind
of the people his mind.
Lindauer - Sages are entirely absent of mind It happens that the mind
of the one hundred families acts as a mind.
LinYutan - The Sage has no decided opinions and feelings, But regards
the people's opinions and feelings as his own.
Mabry - The Sage's heart is not set in stone. He is as sensitive to
the people's feelings as to her own.
McDonald - The wise man makes no judgments of his own. He has no rigid
and plump ideas alone. Maybe no certain, opinionated feelings. He uses
the heart of the people as his own inner side and heart. People's
opinions and feeling are then as his own.
Mere - The sage does not distinguish between himself and the world;
The needs of other people are as his own.
Mitchell - The Master has no mind of her own. She works with the mind
of the people.
Muller - The sage has no fixed mind, She takes the mind of the people
as her mind.
Red Pine - The sage has no mind of his own his mind is the mind of the people.
Ta-Kao - The Sage has no self (to call his own); He makes the self of
the people his self.
Walker - The sage has no set mind. She adopts the concerns of others as her own.
Wieger - The Sage has no definite will of his own, he accommodates
himself to the will of the people.
World - The sage has no mind of her own. She is at one with all of humanity
Wu - The Sage has no interests of his own, But takes the interests of
the people as his own.
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