The Bodhisattva’s Four Methods of Guidance, Part 1: Giving and Kind Speech
Discover Dogen’s favorite teaching—the 13th-century Japanese Zen master’s short text on the Bodhisattva’s Four Methods of Guidance (giving, kind speech, beneficial action, and identity action)—learning that these four practices are all you need for spiritual practice, as they teach how bodhisattvas (enlightening beings on the path who help others awaken) naturally become wonderful people others are drawn to, not through manipulation but by genuinely embodying generosity, kindness, helpfulness, and identity with others, transforming your entire world wherever you go as you practice.
Introduction: Four Methods, Two Workshops
Meet Norman Fischer, Soto Zen priest and poet, introducing Dogen's tremendous text “Bodaisatta-Shishobo” (The Bodhisattva's Four Methods of Guidance), explaining that this first workshop covers giving and kind speech while the second covers beneficial action and identity action, with the promise that these four methods are all you need for spiritual practice whether you're a Zen student or any kind of student, setting up exercises for how to practice them in daily life.
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Introduction: Four Methods, Two Workshops
Meet Norman Fischer, Soto Zen priest and poet, introducing Dogen's tremendous text “Bodaisatta-Shishobo” (The Bodhisattva's Four Methods of Guidance), explaining that this first workshop covers giving and kind speech while the second covers beneficial action and identity action, with the promise that these four methods are all you need for spiritual practice whether you're a Zen student or any kind of student, setting up exercises for how to practice them in daily life.
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Teaching: Expansive Generosity and Speech That Changes Nations
Explore Dogen’s radical understanding that giving means non-greed, not coveting, not currying favor—revealing that life itself is already a gift, being alive means continuously giving, so practicing giving means living with expansive generosity as a spirit rather than specific acts, where even giving things that aren’t yours (like a forest you walk through) cultivates imaginative generosity, where accepting a body and giving up a body are both giving (birth and death as generous acts), and where the mind transforms the gift and the gift transforms the mind in mutual growth. Learn that kind speech flows naturally from this generous spirit, speaking to everyone (even difficult people who deserve pity not standoffishness) as tenderly as you would to a baby since people are deeply sensitive, recognizing that kind speech arises from a kind mind (the seed of compassion) and has the power to turn the destiny of a nation—not just praising others but conditioning the world we live in, as our seemingly inconsequential throwaway words are strong and powerful, changing the world in all directions when we speak in a world of kindness and generosity.
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Practices: Breath, Generosity, and Authentic Speech
Receive concrete exercises for cultivating giving and kind speech: (1) In meditation, breathe in accepting the gift of air with gratitude, breathe out sending beneficence and goodness in all directions, using imagination (which literally changes the world) to open the heart of giving; (2) Be on the lookout all day for ways to be generous in small and large ways—with time, spirit, smiles—finding many chances by asking “where’s my next chance to be generous?”; (3) Practice saying “how are you?” with genuine awareness of your whole being and the other person, not overdoing or making it false but authentically caring so people realize you’re actually asking and will tell you; (4) Notice your own unkind speech—every mean, thoughtless, uncaring, curt, or passive-aggressive comment—checking your own feeling to discover this doesn’t feel happy or good to you, using awareness of unkind speech as the way to cultivate kind speech.
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Closing: Meditation as Ground for Heart Cultivation
Receive gratitude and encouragement to establish a meditation practice if you don’t have one, recognizing that while there are millions of books and ideas about how to speak and think, they go in one ear and out the other unless you cultivate these practices with your whole body through meditation, which creates the ground and capacity to actually practice these four methods, establishing a simple daily practice of breathing and paying attention for the purpose of cultivating your heart, with hope that these practices have positive effect in your life.
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