When I studied Zen with a Soto abbot, in the beginning, it seemed to me that he did everything he could to anger me. I made too much noise with my flip-flops. I didn’t make his coffee right. I was too loud when I washed the dishes. The list goes on. Yep, I learned non-hatred which in Pali is averena which can also mean non-enmity, non-revenge, and non-hostility. This term is used, for example in the Dhammapada (5).
Hatred (verena) is indeed never appeased by hatred here.
It is appeased by non-hatred (averena) — this law is eternal (sanantano).
With averena I didn't have to love those who were angry at me or who didn’t like me. As a consequence of practicing averena I gave up trying to please anyone or suck-up to them. I just didn't have to hate them.
Hatred is bad stuff. It affects us emotionally then, eventually, physically in a fight-or-flight sympathetic nervous system reaction.
Having compassion/karuna for others is completely different. Pop Buddhists and Zennists overuse the term. Compassion is more related in meaning to the Greek word philanthropia, a term from antiquity, which is a benevolent attitude of giving support for those in need which is exactly what the Buddha did after his enlightenment. He gave them the teaching of liberation from samsara.
The Buddha’s compassion was not something like handing out ham sandwiches to the homeless in San Francisco in an effort to virtue signal as in “look at me, I am so compassionate.”
The Buddha did not waste his time on the incorrigibles. His time was spent teaching those with good hearts who were open minded; who understood the peril of samsara. On the same score, he did not harbor any verena to the incorrigibles. He did not love them either, love or agápē in the Greek sense meaning a preference for something.
The vanity of some Western Buddhists requires of them to always act compassionately while it seems, at the same time, they are harboring a lot of verena. Put them under a little pressure and they collapse like a cheap card table. For one thing, they are easily triggered becoming hostile. They would never survive with the abbot I stayed with. They would have left the next day when he scolded them for making too much noise setting down their tea cup!
Sorry, Zennist. I have to side with your abbot on this. There is no need to make such a racket in the kitchen.
Posted by: n. yeti | February 11, 2020 at 09:50 AM