Ten Guides Along the Path

Last Sunday we had our Annual Membership Meeting at Still Point. After receiving a good report on the State of our Sangha, we received copies of the Still Point Zen Buddhist Temple Chants and Gathas. It includes our foundational Dharma:

• The Three Refuges
• The Four Great Vows
• The Meal Gatha
• The Sutra on Loving Kindness
• Homage of the Buddhas
• The Great Compassion Dharani
• The Maha Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra
• The Way of the Bodhisattva
• Meditation on the Six Paramitas
• Ten Guides Along the Path

After the meeting, the potluck. I sat in a circle with fellow Dharma brothers and sisters enjoying a hearty bowl of bean soup and (as usual) great conversation. A sister asked about the source of Ten Guides Along the Path.

I remembered reading it before and thought I knew the source. It reminded me of a quote I read in an article from the Still Point Newsletter (published by Dharma Rain Zen Center, not our Temple's newsletter) by Ven. Samu Sunim. He cited the source of his quote as the Essay on the King of Samadhi . I previously quoted this in a November 23, 2004 entry.

Although it sounds very similar to Ten Guides Along the Path, I realized after looking at the quote again that I was mistaken. Flipping through Thousand Peaks yesterday, I found the true source—Zen Master Kyong Ho. Through a Google search, I found this great tale which sheds light on who Kyong Ho was as a teacher.

In this tale, Master Kyong Ho is visiting a temple. He listens as the teacher of scriptures delivers a dharma talk on how to be a good monk. The teacher says things like:

• All of you must study hard, learn Buddhism, and so become as big trees, with which great temples are built, and as large bowls, able to hold many things.
• Always keep your minds set on holiness and remain in good company. In this way, you will become great trees and containers of Wisdom.

Here is what Kyong Ho says in response to Man Gong's teacher.:

All of you are monks. You are to be great teachers, freed from the ego; you must live only to serve all people. Desiring to become as a big tree or a great container of Wisdom prevents you from being a true teacher. Big trees have a big use; small trees have a small use. Good and bad bowls both have uses. Nothing is to be discarded. Keep both good and bad friends; this is your responsibility. You must not reject any element; this is Buddhism. My only wish is for you to free yourself from conceptions.

—Zen Master Kyong Ho

We live in a strange time with lots of teachers like Man Gong's teacher of scriptures. Friends tell us to cut "toxic people" out of our lives. In order to find peace, we are often instructed to separate ourselves, isolate ourselves, insulate ourselves against the "bad".

How many people have we discarded? Bad dates, bad mates, bad parents, friends who borrow money but never pay it back, people who can't help but stir up drama and chaos wherever they go, those people we work with. We clutch our purses tighter when we pass homeless people on the street. We judge criminals, addicts, and often people who are simply different than we are (democrats, republicans). We think this is a good thing. Is it? Really?

To be a bodhisattva, we must embrace all beings, everywhere. How do we make the shift from cutting people and things our of our lives like cancer to being people who embrace all beings? We take on the Way of the Bodhisattva no matter what. We take a different approach to those "toxic people". We say:

May all who say bad things about me
Or cause me any other harm,
And those who mock and insult me
Have the fortune to awaken fully!

And we mean it. We really mean it.