Zen and EQ

Professor Hsiang-Cho Yo

Lecture by Professor Hsiang-Cho Yo
Buddhism Retreat in Bodhi Monastery
Translated by Mike Lee

Collective karma is communal and shared by everyone. Under certain circumstance, everyone possesses that particular collective karma. Individual karma is distinct. Inside a great collective karma, there is still someone who cultivates into accomplishments. Why? He is very focused and hard working. In the environment of a great collective karma, most everyone is diligent, but there are still some who are lethargic, as well as some who cannot tame the anxieties in their minds. Therefore, we must cherish the discussions within Buddhism on this "no ego", on this collective karma, on this creation of conditions, etc. We still have some opportunities for taking control, like everyone coming to this Buddhism retreat in America.

I believe that before leaving home, you must have lots of tasks yet to be done, lots of things to take care of; there must be people at home who need you. You work very hard to take care of all these matters. You must have very strong resolve to temporarily let of those important things, so that you can come to sit here today. Furthermore, to sit here without second thought, to sit here in peace, to sit here and mindfully absorb, this is indeed something that we must cherish. Thus, I just mentioned that life is full of disappointments that we can do nothing about. It is indeed so. You should appreciate this kind of disappointment that we can do nothing about, so from it, you can cherish those opportunities that you can take control. Today, when we are able to attentively listen to a lecture, when we are able to properly chant the name of the Buddha, when we are able to sit through the time of one burning incense, these are all opportunities we ought to cherish.

In our lives, not even considering making accomplishments in this mundane world, most people are in fact usually running in circles under greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, suspicion, as well as fortune, sex, fame, food, or sleep. Yet, within the six paths of reincarnation, humans have an absolute advantage over others. What is this advantage? It is: if you cultivate and perform kind deeds, you will pass through faster, more fruitful, stronger, and more effective than the other five paths of reincarnations.

However, what if you do bad deeds? The bad deeds that one can perform throughout a day within the mundane humanity are millions folds of those in the other five paths of reincarnation. You say that a tiger can eat a human, but how many people would be killed when you use a nuclear bomb? We say that a tiger is a scary animal, but it only eats one human in many months. However, for a human, the damages he makes are much more frightening than the tiger, with the killer weapons like poison gas or biological agents, or toxic chemicals that some people place within the foods they sell. So, humans do have an absolute advantage.

In the six paths, we must pay special attention to the human advantage, and this advantage calls for you to do good deeds, so that you make great accomplishments. If you do bad deeds, then your negative accomplishments shall be great also! So, what do I consider to be cultivation? I often give the following definition to cultivation: it is to give one self the mission to purifying the self. It is also to give one self an opportunity, to gain further awareness of the self. I feel that within Buddhism, we come in contact with various schools, various good teachers, and various way places, through which we learn many rituals. These rituals are only for helping us. Why is the wisdom of prajna in the end called prajna without fixity? The reason is that your enlightenment is not based on rituals; your enlightenment is dependent upon your mind.

In our lives, there are a lot of disappointments that we can do nothing about. Because we have no control over them, they what the Buddha describes as ego-less and impermanent. No matter if it were impermanent or ego-less, all these things are Dharmas arising from conditions, and they come into existence through the blending of conditions. Therefore, they change in accord with conditions and they rearrange incessantly. From a certain viewpoint, the process of these rearrangements can be called impermanence.

On the other hand, because of these kinds of conditions, which endlessly go through rearrangements, we are led to the awareness that there is no self nature which is core and unchanging. This special quality of lacking a self nature that is core and unchanging, it can be called ego-less, or it can be called nature of emptiness, or simply emptiness.

Thus, the tolerance discussed in Buddhism is divided into many levels. Of course, when people in America today talk about EQ, I think it does not cover the highest level. However, if we were to only speak from the lowest level point of view, the matter of tolerance can be considered from several areas. Moment ago, in the experiment we talked about, we are seeing "tolerance for delayed satisfaction".

Modern people, especially those in the American culture, possess a very obvious characteristic, and that is the "McDonalds syndrome", also known as the "fast food syndrome". As soon as people pursue instant result, then they immediately miss out on many important things in this world. On the surface, let's say that we're drinking a cup of tea, and we take five minutes to finish it. Some people might complain that it is too troublesome and they can finish the tea in one minute. True, from the view of quenching thirst, perhaps one can drink the cup of tea in a minute or a minute and a half. However, as you analyze further, what is the difference in result between using one minute to drink the tea and using one hour to drink the tea? We modern people, especially in the United States, can observe a special trait that manifested from culture, and that is we place too much emphasis on results. On one hand we talk about efficiency, while on the other we talk about result.

Efficiency is the speed of completing a particular task within a defined duration. As for result, we can take the example of the business results for a company; how much gross income and net income were made this quarter or this year? Because we place so much importance over efficiency and result, an actual important thing in our lives consequently becomes neglected. That thing is the question concerning the quality of life, as we pass through the process of living.

Let us discuss it in this way. If a piece of leaf falls on to the ground from a tree branch, then I think most Americans will say: oh, it fell on the ground. However, they have neglected that under any circumstance, the leaf did not fall in a straight line; rather, it slowly drifted back and fro to the ground. This was neglected because it was the process.

Life is playing out in this manner also, for Life is also passing through a process as it plays out. If we drink too fast, then in the process of absorbing, our stomach and our body will endure stress. You should know that as a glass of water enters our mouth, it moistens our throat first then slowly go down through the esophagus. The body is resistive in nature, so if you rush to drink down the water, your body will be in a state of resistance. If everyone drinks in haste, eats in haste, or swallow that McDonalds burger in haste, do you think it is possible for the society to be without stress?

In other words, if your life is constantly filled with those factors of anxiety, how can you rid your mind of anxiety? If everyone's mind is so anxious, how do we make this society free of anxiety? I am not saying that all anxiety is bad. However, if a society is overwhelmed by anxiety, or if a person's life is overwhelmed by anxiety, then the quality of the society becomes questionable and needless to say, the quality of life would deteriorate with it. In order to discuss the quality of life, we cultivators of Buddhism must become aware.

Why do we emphasize "walking meditation" in Buddhism? Because the essence of this term in simple explanation is to be at ease. Be at ease as you walk.

Do you know that being at ease while walking had changed the history of Buddhism? We know that in the history of India, there was once an influential king named Asoka. King Asoka used force to conquer the entire India; with the sword and the arrow, he united India. However, after he conquered India, he could not sleep well and could not enjoy his meals. He kept feeling unease within his mind.

One day, he stood on top of the city wall and looked yonder. Quite strangely, most people who pass by the city wall were very nervous and frightened. What puzzled him was a little child monk, which we in Buddhism call a sramanera.? His head was totally shaven, and he wore a robe that bared his right shoulder, which was typical garb for Indian monks of the period.

King Asoka noticed that of all the people, there is only this child who walked by being thoroughly at ease and calm, and he wondered why? The king was so impressed that this little child could do such a thing. He asked that the child be brought before him. Most people would be scared to walk before King Asoka, but this little child walked in front of him with such ease. Later, King Asoka asked him to sit down, and so he sat down to one side, without any sign of fear. In the end, it was through inspiration from the sramanera's meditation that King Asoka became interested in learning about Buddhism and began to understand the teachings of Buddhism.

Therefore, the facts that Buddhism has flourished across the world today and that many important relics of Buddhism history can be identified, these incomparable credits ought to be attributed to King Asoka.? These relics include the shari of the Buddha being worshipped at the King Asoka Temple in Zejiang province of China. For this formerly cruel sovereign, who killed others heartlessly, to convert into a Buddhist after seeing a young sramanera walking about with ease, I am not sure if he will listen to me today if I try to discuss EQ with him. Buddhism does not enlighten living beings through the spoken words only, it even enlighten people through the action of walking about with ease.

Therefore, it is the same principle when we drink tea, coffee, or water. On the surface, drinking tea is for quenching thirst, but in reality, drinking tea is not merely for quenching thirst, but it is a form of cultivation. When we drink tea with composure and ease, as we sit down to peacefully and calmly drink the tea, at that moment our minds are clear and discerning every thought that arises.

If you can carefully guard and control your mind as you drink that tea, then you should realize that this cup of tea at that moment is like a mirror reflecting the mind. If you drink the tea properly, then it is no different than your sitting in the meditation hall through the duration of burning an incense stick. I am not saying that we should give up meditation and drink tea instead, but I am saying that the idea and essence of cultivation between the two are interconnected. Meditation has its effects, and likewise, drinking tea has its own effects, yet true cultivation lie within all conducts of life: walking, living, sitting, sleeping, drinking, and eating.

Our minds, this working mind of ours, its nature is all encompassing. So, when our society becomes too busy, when our pace becomes too rushed, when our stress becomes too heavy, our health will be impacted, and we miss out on many important things in our lives. Because of hectic pace, we eat food without enjoying the taste. Because of hectic pace, we never stop to enjoy the blooming flowers. As the clouds in the sky drifts by, we never take time to enjoy watching the clouds. You should realize that one hundred zeros added together is still zero. One hundred black spots joining together is still a black spot. So, one hundred hectic paces added together to form an obscure memory, and it is still an obscure memory in the end.

There was one occasion where I took some friends to India to participate in a Buddhism revival conference. It was an event that drew over 400,000 people from all over India. A dharma master complained to me, saying: Master Yo, how come when you went to shake hands with others, they would offer their hands in return, but when I did, they would not? I only asked him one question: master, when you go shake their hands, did you look at them in the eye? He understood and replied, "Oh!".

Because I wanted to shake hands, my eyes will seek out first. So, before my hand got there, my eyes had already made contact, so it was natural to shake their hands. What do the eyes represent? They represent the mind! Do you think that when you shake hands, your goal is only in those pair of hands? It is the same with the experience of life. At every situation, you must exercise one hundred percent of your mind. At every situation, you must focus one hundred percent of your thought. It is in such a way of clear awareness that we should pass through every situation. If you could comprehend this key skill, then every step you take will be upon lotus blossom; every step you take would be perfect.

Now let us return to the topic of tolerance that we were talking about. To speak of the skills for self-regulating one's emotions, I think that tolerance is the most important foundation. This ability to tolerate does not come instantly; it is a gradual process. As the conversation turns to cultivation, I like to bring up the story of Shaolin Monastery. I'm not talking about the modern day Shaolin Monastery. The present Shaolin Monastery is not easy to comment on. Rather, I am very fond of a technique for cultivation at the Shaolin Monastery in the past. Because the monastery is on a mountain where there is no water, water had to be hauled from the bottom of the mountain. Thus to be an apprentice at Shaolin Monastery, one must begin with the assignment of hauling water up the mountain for three years. In the beginning, the new apprentice is always out of breath and raining down sweat by the time he reaches the monastery, but by then most of the water has spilled out. However, after three years, it becomes easy to carry that water up the mountain. There is no more panting, sweating, or spilling. This is true skill, which is acquired gradually! In cultivation, there is no way to attain goals instantly, like the fast foods in McDonalds.

In fact, there are those who wish to attain enlightenment like they're getting fast foods at McDonalds. "Could you please tell me what is the best way to attain enlightenment instantly?" How can enlightenment be something like this? Enlightenment must be accumulated from many small realizations.

Until the end, you go: Ah! That's it! As another example, let's say we're learning martial arts after watching someone else doing an impressive demonstration. I think that it would probably take two or three days to get some basic form down. However, to achieve the state where you inspire awe with your every move, it is something that cannot be done in a few days.

So, cultivation in Buddhism is the same way. It requires tolerance. To speak in mundane terms, the ability to wait is especially important. I recall that there was once a great Buddhist master named Chien-Mu.? When I was in high school, I read one of his articles, which I found to be very moving and inspiring. He said that he was on a trip to Chang-An, which is known as Xian today. He went to Xian to visit the historical temples of Buddhism. At one great monastery, he saw two big pine trees in front of the Buddha Hall. One of them was still standing tall, but the other had fallen down. He saw a young monk planting a oleander next to the big pine tree that had fallen. Oleander is a kind of tree that you can plant this year and see it bloom the next year.

Master Chien was quite disappointed. He thought about the master who built the temple years ago. When the hall was being constructed, he did not plant two oleander. Rather, he planted two great pine trees. With these pine trees, it takes hundreds of years for them to mature and become the apt adornment for the Buddha hall. In other words, back then when the master was constructing the Buddha hall, he already considered the lifespan of the temple to be hundreds of years. However, looking at the young monk now, whose teacher instructed him to plant oleander. Apparently, the current abbot of the monastery was only planning for one year ahead. What are things we consider destinies? They are all things that result from expectations within our minds.

There are people who do not know how to manage their own lives. To such an individual, he only sees the fortune and fame before his eyes, and he does not seek to do long term management of life. What we want as Buddhist disciples resemble planting those pine trees. Our minds do not think in terms of a few hundred years. Rather, we're dealing with three great asamkhya aeons.? We are managing our lives in terms of three great asamkhya aeons.

I have a good friend who is interested in fortune telling. I am not sure where he got the idea, but he went to Taishang in Shangtung province and bought a very nice vacation home, where he planned to spend a year and study fortune telling. Later, I told him that he needed to spend at least three years, and he retorted by asking why he needed to waste that much time. This is precisely our problem as modern people! We only care about efficiency and effect, but we've forgotten that for many things, quality does not come about through efficiency.

On the matter of managing our lives, how can we say that we can finish the job in one year? I feel that the Bodhisattvas of Buddhism are indeed very commendable, for they go through three great asamkhya aeons to manage their lives, to enrich their lives, to empower their lives. For a Bodhisattva, his realm is not simply one world or two, nor is it one small chilocosm, or one middle chilocosm, or one great chilocosm; instead, it consists of measureless aeons, countless worlds, and countless living beings!

Look at the Chapter on Universal Worthy Practices and Vows and see how Universal Worthy Bodhisattva expressed his principles for managing life: until the end of all living beings, until the end of living beings' karmas and until the end of living beings' distress, only then does my vow completes! The problem is that there is no end to living beings; there is no end to living beings' karma, and there is no end to living beings' distress; thus my vow will never complete! To use such a compassionate vow that will never complete, in an existence that has no end, as basis for managing life, this is the spirit of Bodhisattva. And this spirit comes from one foundation, and that is your tolerance! Thus, we who study Buddhism must begin with the tolerance in the small things. When we talk about EQ, we also need to begin with tolerance for the small things.

One of the good scholars that I am closely associated with is Master Thich Nhat Hanh from Vietnam. Here is what I find most inspiring from reading his books. When he was young and had just left the home life in Vietnam, his chore as a sramanera was to wash dishes every single day. For a big monastery of several hundred people, washing dishes is a major task. He thought: I had left the home life to cultivate, how did I end up doing dishes? He had thought that washing dishes and cultivation were two different things. Then, on the holiday of the Buddha's Birthday, the master witnessed the ceremony of bathing the Buddha, and suddenly that evening, a realization came to him as he was washing dishes. He said that if the bowl were treated as a statue of Buddha, then washing the bowl would be transformed into bathing the Buddha. Suddenly, he discovered that washing dishes was a very sacred and wonderful thing to do. If you never washed dishes, then you can't appreciate the meanings behind my words.

After reading Master Hanh's recollection, I became resolved to liken washing dishes to the bathing ceremony. The reason is that if we do not exercise zen while we wash dishes, such that as we washed, we may be thinking about the soap opera that we could be watching, then our mind is not focused on the task of washing dishes. When you focus your mind on washing the dishes, then washing dishes in fact is a process of cultivation.

If we appreciate from this viewpoint, from this viewpoint of tolerance for the irritating, which is the same as the paramita of peaceful tolerance in the Six Paramitas, then everything becomes connected: what I refer to as the tolerance for the irritating and the first core practice of EQ that we have been talking about, which is endurance. The amount of blessing one enjoys depends upon how much tolerance for the irritating he has. The number of times when you can't take it, is the same as the number of years when you lose your blessings.

If you become irritated by a teacher asking you to do too much, then you'll lose that teacher. If a teacher becomes irritated by a student's shortcoming, then the teacher will lose the student. Whenever we get irritated by someone around us, then we will immediately lose that person (as a friend). Thus, where do our blessings come from? Our blessings come from our tolerance for the irritating. Thus, in order to elevate a person's EQ, I think that we should begin with tolerance for the irritating and endurance. Why is it that from this experiment we see that the children's inability to hold back from eating candy has impact on their school performance and leadership skills? I think there is relationship there with tolerance. When we work on mathematic problems, working with all these numbers can be irritating, so doesn't finding the answer require tolerance? To learn any thing requires tolerance. To accomplish anything requires tolerance. The Bodhisattvas need three great asamkhya kalpas to manage lives, so would that be possible without tolerance for the irritating? This tolerance discussed in Buddhism is at a very high level.

The tolerance discussed in Buddhism, apart from the tolerance for the present, tolerance for the environment, tolerance for an event, tolerance for the troubles other beings bring you, it also covers one more thing, and that is called Dharma tolerance, which is tolerance for the Dharma or tolerance for the truth. We can say that for the entire human civilization, especially modern civilization, many aspects are built upon on the human nature of greed, anger, and ignorance. An example would be during grade school when the teacher tells us who made number one, number two, and number three in test scores. Of course, every child hopes to be number one. To desire being number one is to growing the arrogance in greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and suspicion. Arrogance is your need to be better than others.

Sometimes, when we promote the endeavors of Buddhist cultivation, it is very dangerous for us to excessively employ these techniques. People, when something impacts the fundamental nature of our Buddhism cultivation, then everyone will become angry. Of course, Buddhism also has worldly dogma, the kind that establishes some skillful and expedient means in accord with mundane ways. However, these will have problem if they are over used. In confronting matters, we must fully consider both sides. However, what we must pay attention to and reflect upon is the fact that: many aspects of human civilization are triggering our greed, anger, and ignorance. An example is the commercials we see on television. All commercials share the same unique trait, and that is to set off your greed. The advertisers are worried over whether the commercial excited your desire to buy. What is the desire to buy? The desire is the same as greed! Therefore, the truth is that learning Buddhism implies the constant need to reflect over this area.

In reality, the environment around us is pushing us toward more greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and suspicion. Actually, our learning Buddhism is to rein our minds from all the greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and suspicion. Here, we need to have Dharma tolerance! To tolerate the Dharma and to tolerate the truth! Many people dislike the truth, and we can refer to a statement by Guo-Wei Wang, the great Chinese scholar of the early 1900s: "There are two kinds of truths in the world; one kind is adorable but not believable, and the other is believable but not adorable."? What the Buddha talked about was mostly believable but not adorable. Why? Because He did not want you to fall victim to greed, anger, and ignorance! Therefore, with regard to this sort of truth that is believable but not adorable, you must have tolerance! This is why that in this world, when the Dharma of argument and struggle is discussed, those beings that are unsuspecting, unafraid, unwavering, and non-retreating are said to possess roots of great goodness and are sure to enjoy the protection of all Buddhas.

Why? Because it is difficult (to achieve such a state)! In this situation, you'll need to have Dharma tolerance, so this is your ability to tolerate being exercised.