Photo by: Jacob Isbell
Changing Perspective Playfully
Good evening fellow practitioners. I see a lot of people wearing shirts with the tags sticking out. (Editor’s note: on retreats at DDRC, participants are asked to turn printed t-shirts
inside out to hide words or images that might distract other participants.) Sometimes this
happens to my shirt as well. One of my students may see it and whisper to me, as if it is
something embarrassing, “Hey Master, you’re wearing your t-shirt inside out.” Then I tell
them (whispering back) “It’s a designer shirt, see the tag?” as if it were something fashionable. Just changing the perspective makes it seem very different.
At the Master’s Quarters there’s a wooden walking stick that Master Sheng Yen used to use. I take it when I go for a walk. Sometimes when people see this they will ask me, “Hey, Master, is something wrong with your legs?” and I’ll say “No, my legs are fine. It’s the stick that has a problem; it can’t walk. I’m actually just taking the stick for a walk.”
Occasionally people ask me, “Can you drive a car?” and I’ll say, “Well, I can open the door.” (In Chinese the words kai cha could mean drive and kai could also mean open.) Something that was originally negative quickly changes to be positive. If people ask me, “Can you drive?” and I say, ”No, I can’t drive,” that’s a little negative, it diminishes me. But instead of looking on the downside where I can’t do something, I look at what I can do. I say, “Yes, I can open the door and I can sit in the car and ride.” Just by changing perspective the whole situation changes.
We can transform the way we view our daily life and respond to situations. With the first example, someone points out that your shirt is inside out. One type of response might be, “I only have a few clothes and no place to wash them so I have to turn it inside out to wear it twice.” Or, “They told me to turn it inside out so the writing doesn’t distract others.” Giving all those explanations is a downbeat response, long-winded and unnecessary. Why not just say, “Well, this is a designer shirt, you see?” and show them the tag. A simple response like that gives a unique perspective. You take something that was originally troublesome, a lifeless thing bringing everybody down. Change the outlook and suddenly there’s a creative space, there’s joy. It’s the same thing with the walking stick example, a dull situation becomes something lively. This is really the purpose of Buddhism, to be able to see things from a fresh perspective. With practice we can apply this attitude. We can look at things differently and have a straightforward approach of expressing our viewpoint. In doing so we get a message across that’s lively and creative.
Greeting Yourself in the Morning
The same goes for how we view ourselves, and this is an important point: How do you
look at yourself in the mirror when you wake up in the morning? For me, I smile and say,
“Good Morning!” I feel good. There’s a sense of joy there. But some people look at themselves and [makes a dour face] they see something dull and lifeless. Or the first thing they see is another white hair! Maybe some of the younger folks see another pimple. These people, the first thing they see when they look in the mirror are all the blemishes and imperfections. They use all sorts of makeup and goop until their original face is completely out of sight. At that point it’s just a mask to cover up all the imperfections. If we look at ourselves this way every day what happens after a while is that when we wake up in the morning we feel lifeless and don’t see any hope.
Looking in the mirror for imperfections is just an analogy for how we look at ourselves in general. We may look at the state of our mind and always see only the flaws. We may think, “Oh, even after studying Buddhism I have so many vexations. Every single thought, every single move I make is karma.” We are filled with self-pity and think of ourselves as a terrible person. Here we thought Buddhism was supposed to help us be joyful. But it turns out that we use Buddhism to look down on ourselves and see only imperfections.
Photo by: Anindita Chatterjee/ Pexels
Wholesome States of Mind
If we see only the negative side we weigh ourselves down with negativity. We may eventually lose all faith, and then Buddhism becomes a vehicle for self-criticism. In fact Buddhism teaches us that while we have flaws, we should recognize our positive traits as well. We should know our faults but it’s more important to know our wholesome qualities and nourish them. Then we have a sense of confidence; we have self-worth and value. We have creativity and the potential to bring joy to others. We are full of hope; this is the liveliness we get from adjusting our attitude. So how do we maintain this positive perspective in daily life? By cultivating more wholesome states of mind.
Of course there are vexations. The Buddhist school of Consciousness Only analyzes the different states of mind and subdivides them into categories of unwholesome and wholesome states. According to this analysis the unwholesome states may be more in number, but it’s just a way of describing these states of mind. Some people who study Buddhism seem to forget that there are wholesome states of mind and that these are what we want to nurture. Usually our mind fluctuates from wholesome to unwholesome states. By cultivating wholesome states of mind we counterbalance unwholesome states.
When we practice meditation for the most part we’re focused only on ourselves, using the method and taking care of this calm yet clear state of mind. However in daily life our practice is not only limited to ourselves. We have to interact with others and take care of various affairs. How do we extend our practice into these activities and relationships? Precisely through cultivating wholesome states of mind.
Reaping What You Sow
When a person always has a negative outlook, it’s almost as if they emit a dark energy. It seems they’re calling for some negative reaction from the environment to come back to them. This constant feedback of negativity multiplies and the person comes to feel flawed. On the other hand we know that when we cultivate positive states of mind we have a brightness about us. We may know people who are like this; they have a joyous quality about them. They emit a wholesome energy and it seems that the response that they get is also wholesome.
We can see this very clearly in our own interactions. What happens when we scold someone or pressure them? Do they smile and give a happy response? Of course not. Most of the time the response we get is negativity bounced back at us. In the beginning we have a stronger will. Then it seems we win. They listen to us, but they’re afraid of us. When they see us they immediately get tense. When we’re pressuring people we ourselves are agitated and uncomfortable. We also fear that one day they might retaliate. What about the day when they have the stronger will? Then they may give us pressure. On the other hand if we have a very joyous approach to interacting with others we get a joyful response.
“On retreat sitting in meditation the emphasis is on ourselves, harmonizing our body and mind. But in daily life, because most of life is interacting with others, the emphasis should be on compassion.”
Giving Joy and Removing Suffering
We are practicing Buddhism because we want to relieve ourselves of suffering. If we are sensitive to this we realize that other people also want to be free of suffering. So we start to see that in interacting with others the practice is cultivating wholesomeness, sharing joy. This in fact is compassion, one of the cornerstones of Buddhist teaching. The two Chinese characters for compassion mean “giving joy” and “removing suffering”. This practice is actually the whole of Buddhism.
We cultivate this simply by nurturing wholesome states of mind. This begins with having an optimistic perspective on life, beginning most importantly with an optimistic perspective on ourselves. If we look in the mirror every day with the attitude of seeing our own faults, are we able to help others with their suffering? Or bring them joy? Most likely we will just bring them down.
Just by changing our attitude and the way we express ourselves, we change our perspective. We can use a certain physical or verbal expression to communicate this wholesomeness. For example, to some of my younger students I may say [in a playful friendly voice], “Wow, you have so many pimples on your face! What happened?” I smile and say this in a very cheerful way and do you think they get upset? Actually they don’t. Because the way I express myself is very lighthearted.
It’s not that I want to hurt them. I may say something like this to loosen them up or cheer them. But I’m also trying to show my care for them. Because actually if many blemishes suddenly appear it could be a sign of some imbalance in their health, something they need to pay attention to. It’s a way of saying, “You’ve got to take care of yourself,” a cheerful way of expressing concern. It’s not like I’m saying [in a harsh annoyed voice], “Look at all those pimples on your face! What are you doing?” and giving them pressure. Some parents do that to their kids. Every day they say, “Ah, look at you, you’re failing, you’re worthless!” using a constantly negative attitude. For parents who drill their kids like that, do you think the kids feel comfortable with their parents? No. When their parent comes near them, they cringe to block that negativity.
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Genuine Compassion
On retreat sitting in meditation the emphasis is on ourselves, harmonizing our body and mind, having this calm yet clear state of mind. But in daily life, because most of life is interacting with others, the emphasis should be on compassion. And how are we compassionate? First we change our attitude, seeing things in a positive light and cultivating positive mental states. We are sensitive to the needs of others. We use a wholesome way of interacting and this becomes something mutual. We should be aware that compassion is the foundation of our practice in daily life.
When we say we are practicing compassion, are we really? Even something as simple as saying good morning to others, is it just obligatory? If we say [in a low-energy downbeat tone], “Oh, good morning,” do they feel that it’s a good morning? I think they would wonder how you could be having a good morning when you sound that way. Do you start by smiling in the mirror and saying a cheerful, “Good morning!” to yourself? When we interact with others is our compassion genuine? And how do we make it genuine? It has to come from within our own experience. Only then can we genuinely express this wholesome energy to others. It’s crucial that in order to authentically practice compassion towards others we have to be compassionate towards ourselves.
Expanding Practice Outwards
We say that a person who practices compassion for the sake of all sentient beings is a bodhisattva. Some bodhisattvas go deep into the mountains on solitary retreat. People may criticize them and say, “How can you deliver sentient beings by isolating yourself?” The bodhisattva may respond by saying, “When I go into the mountains to do solitary practice I am cultivating wholesomeness, I am cultivating joy within myself. This gives me the energy and the aspiration to help others.”
I think we can all relate to this. When we are using the method well, when our body and mind are relaxed and we have fewer wandering thoughts, we feel a certain joy. In our body there is lightness and ease, in our mind a wholesome energy. This pleasant sensation arises from personal cultivation, the harmonization of our own body and mind. Naturally when we express ourselves to others from within that state of mind they sense that it’s truly coming from our heart and is something real. This joy can influence others and encourage them to practice, or at least it helps relieve their suffering.
So, practicing compassion, we have to work on ourselves. But at the same time we must be careful not to isolate ourselves in a bubble, concerned only with our own vexation. Some people when they practice meditation just get wrapped up in themselves. Instead of cultivating joy it may just do the opposite and become self-criticism. But the practice of Buddhism is not about emphasizing the negative aspects of yourself or the world. It’s about cultivating calmness, clarity of mind and wholesome joy. When we do this we want to be able to expand it outwards. How do we do this practically? Well, we start here on retreat with our practice on the cushion. We gradually extend this to the whole of the Chan Hall activities, then to the whole of the retreat center. Then when we go home to our daily lives we continue to extend our practice outwards into our personal relationships with others. Our point of effort at that time becomes compassion, taking this genuine joy and wholesomeness and sharing it with others. This is Buddhadharma. This is the heart of Chan practice.
Venerable Chi Chern was Master Sheng Yen’s first Dharma heir. Born in Malaysia in 1955, he is one of the most respected meditation teachers in Malaysia and Singapore. This Dharma talk was given by Ven. Chi Chern on July 22, 2011, during an intensive Chan retreat at the Dharma Drum Retreat Center in Pine Bush, NY. The talk was translated by David Listen and edited for the magazine by Buffe Laffey.
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