These precepts are received and practiced in a conversation face to face. Just like I suggest that justice is received and practiced in a conversation face to face. Hating people is not justice. Being angry can be justice — sometimes it is justice — but that anger is a conversation, where everybody is participating.
Some people aspire to do practices for themselves, and they don’t aspire to do practices for others — that’s called individual practice. And other people aspire to practice with others, and by others, and for others, and as others, and that’s called the Bodhisattva path. And they’re both good. And there’s a third way: which is saying the two are the same.
If you go up to injustice and say, “I resist you,” that’s because injustice is calling you and saying “would you come and liberate me from being stuck in this appearance? Would you be my friend?” If you say “I resist you” as a gift, that would be an appropriate response to anything– but in particular– to injustice.
Truth is a relationship. Truth isn’t something that I’ve got over here separate from you. It isn’t something you’ve got over there separate from me. The real truth – the truth that is justice – is not on either side. It’s our relationship.
The way all of your appear in my consciousness is a reduced, biased, constricted, impoverished version of you. So from that perspective, I cannot do to justice to you. How can I do justice to you? How can you do justice to me? We do justice to each other by fully responsible conversation face to face.
Taigen Dan Leighton is a Soto priest and teacher, academic, and author. He is the … Bodhisattva Values and Social Action, by Taigen Dan Leighton (03/25/2017)
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