Reflections on Bankei's 'Song of the Mind' Verses 27-28

“Fame, wealth, eating and drinking,
Sleep and sensual delight -
Once you've learned the Five Desires
They become your guide in life

Notions of what one should do
Never existed from the start
Fighting about what's right, what's wrong
That's the doing of the ‘I’”

According to the records that exist, the great Zen Master Bankei Yotaku (1622-1693) was never much interested in worldly interests. Unlike most of us, he was obsessed with more spiritual concerns from a young age, which crystallized in the form of a question regarding the nature of the “Bright Virtue,” which was mentioned in a Confucian text he studied as a boy. His Confucian teacher could not explain exactly what this was, so the young Bankei turned to Shingon (Esoteric) Buddhism and then Zen Buddhism for the answer. And, through practicing Zen and suffering much ill health he was led to a realization of the “Bright Virtue,” which he dubbed the Unborn Buddha Mind. Deepening this experience and sharing it with others then became the main focus of Bankei’s life as a Zen monk from that point on. So, you see, he was never much concerned with he calls the “Five Desires” in the first verse that we will look at here, and it is because of this detachment from worldly hankerings that he was so able to talk to people so unswervingly of the Dharma, never getting caught up in any distractions.

“Fame, wealth, eating and drinking,
Sleep and sensual delight -
Once you've learned the Five Desires
They become your guide in life”

As ever, in this verse Bankei gets straight to the point, naming the Five Desires and the central importance that they play in life. This centrality can in fact be enlightening if we view them with the detachment that accompanies pure awareness, but unfortunately, most of us most of the time are anything but detached from them, and suffer the consequences. This is because these five are the objects of our desire, and it is desire that is the cause of our suffering. The Buddha taught us that to end our desires, or at least end our clinging to them, ‘snuffs out’ our suffering. (‘Snuff out’ is the most common translation of the word Nirvana into English.) Bankei, as someone who had realized the “Bright Virtue,” instead of running around after his desires (presuming he had them), was completely identified with the Unborn, and was able to use the Five Desires as a guide in life to teach his followers with. Let’s look a little closer at them, one-by-one:

•    Fame: In today’s global media, billions of people around the world are exposed to celebrities and the adulation that they inspire. Many of us have wished to be famous ourselves, either as pop singers, actors, sports stars, or TV ‘personalities.’ As the latter term suggests, much of this fame is based on interesting egos acting up for the cameras, either to attract lust, hate, or other ignorance-based emotions. In Buddhism, we’re encouraged to reflect upon lust, hate, and ignorance as they are considered to be the three main character-flaws that stop us living from our true nature. Desiring fame and all its benefits is to be lost in ignorance, as far from the “Bight Virtue” as one can be. One of these benefits is often wealth, to which we urn our attention next.
•    Wealth: Game shows with big prizes – especially lotteries that make their winners millionaires – are extremely popular television programmes. They appeal to our desire for financial safety, and inspire great despair when we don’t win, which for the majority of us is every time we play such games. Learning to be satisfied with what’s at hand is an important life lesson that most religions teach, and the Buddha also promoted this attitude. (Not that he was against commerce, but that it should be based on principles such as honesty and fair trade.) A proliferation of game shows and other property-gaining forms of entertainment suggests a spiritually sick society. Gaining perspective on wealth and its acquisition is closely related to awakening to our Unborn Buddha Mind, and realizing that if our basic needs are covered, there’s nothing to hanker after.
•    Eating & Drinking: One thing that the media could do for us is show ourselves what we really look like. In movies, TV shows, pop videos, and the like, nearly all the people featured are incredibly slim and attractive. In reality, of course, most of us in the affluent world are overweight, and many of us near-alcoholics or other drug addicts; a sizeable minority are in that sad latter group, which seems to be ever-increasing. As with wealth, having enough food and drink to live on should in theory be enough for us, but instead most of us don’t know when to say, “No,” often with unattractive and unhealthy consequences. Being obsessed with food and/or drink is a sign of deeper psychological problems, and comfort-eating or getting ‘out-of-it’ will not solve anything, at least in the long term. Seeing the Unborn at the heart of our being can free us from gluttony and drug-dependency, if we can make the commitment to awaken, and stay awake.
•    Sleep Indulging: in more sleep than we need can often be a form of escapism. It’s a kind of self-obliteration; turning the off switch so we don’t have to confront the horrible aspects of life. Of course, there are many other forms of escapism, such as mentioned above, especially if we live in relatively affluent societies, but these often do not contain the same level of self-annihilation that over-sleeping can. Sleeping to avoid our problems is a kind of impermanent suicide that we can repeat on a daily basis whenever things get too much. Seeing the Buddha Nature that’s ever-present will free any need to negate the sense-of-self, as it will have been transcended already.
•    Sensual Desires: This is the big one that can obsess us, and take up more of our time  than any of the other Four Desires, at least when thinking about it, if not actually doing it! By sensual desires is primarily meant sex, of course. Here are lots of sensual desires (including eating and drinking), but this one is often more destructive than the others. This is because sex is such a powerful desire, and the most extreme acts are driven by the lust for sexual gratification. Here in Thailand, sexual desire is everywhere to seen; in the media, the nightclubs, workplaces, the schools, and even the monasteries, sometimes! Seeking to satisfy our sexual desires will inevitably lead to suffering when we cannot do so, or when sex fails to live up to our expectations. Seeing our innate Unborn Buddha Mind can free us from attachment to sex, leaving us free to do it or not, neither dependent upon blind desire nor restricted by ideas of good and bad. This latter aspect of living from the Unborn is the subject of the following verse and commentary:

“Notions of what one should do
Never existed from the start
Fighting about what's right, what's wrong
That's the doing of the ‘I’”

It’s the libertine’s dream to find a philosophy or religion that supports their wanton behaviour. Many westerners seem to think that Buddhism is such a philosophy or religion: it emphatically is not. Distorted versions of Buddhism have long been invented by people wishing to justify their own conduct, and no doubt this will continue. Yet, the True Dharma remains, and if we discover our Buddha Nature and live from it, we will naturally live in line with Buddhist morality, without giving it a thought. This is what Bankei means by “Notions of what one should do never existed from the start;” the Unborn has no codified set of moral rules, for it is naturally compassionate and wise, and expresses itself accordingly. Living from the Unborn – and not from our egos – we also naturally act in line with these two central elements in Buddhist morality.

Furthermore, Bankei states that it is the ‘I’ that fights “about what’s right, what’s wrong.” This may well be a highly moral ‘I’ or ego that argues with others about what constitutes a virtuous life, but it is nevertheless an ego, and Bankei wants us to go beyond all limiting ideas and feelings of being a separate, suffering being. The Buddha stated that he taught only two things: suffering, and the ending of suffering. Everything that he trained his followers in, including morality, was to end suffering, which is another way to put ‘living from the Unborn.’ For, if we see our Buddha nature and then live from it, we will be transcending suffering and its main cause, desire. The Five Desires will then have no hold over us, and we will be able to live a virtuous life without the need of any notions of good or bad. We will be free of the greatest tyrant of them all; the sense-of-self or ‘I.’ But, how do we become aware of the Unborn Buddha Mind, let alone live from it? Well, the following exercise is a beginning, and it comes with a wholehearted recommendation.

If you have a pain, ache, or other unpleasant sensation in your body, you can use it for this meditation. If you do not, forced physical discomfort is not recommended, as the Buddha was no sadomasochist, and encouraged his followers to walk the Middle Way between self-indulgence and self-mortification! So, in this case, focus on an unpleasant mental object, such as a painful memory or current concern. It is best to do this reflection when you have a little time, say twenty minutes or more, so that you may first relax both body and mind. Some breath-meditation or zazen will do, or just sitting quietly for five minutes. After this initial period, turn your attention to the painful sensation. Notice its duration, rhythm, intensity, location, and any other characteristics that come to mind. Do this for at least another five minutes, if not ten or more, and then turn your attention around to who or what is doing the observing. Not your feelings or thoughts, for they are objects in awareness, but focus instead on awareness itself. How does the pain affect awareness, if at all? What is the nature of awareness, for that matter? Is it big or small, happy or sad, painful or comfortable? Or, is it the capacity for all these attributes and others to arise in? If you were to live from this naked awareness, as this naked awareness, what would your relationship be to that painful feeling you examined earlier, and to suffering in general?

You may wonder why there are so many questions in the above meditation and so few answers. (In fact, there aren’t any answers, only suggestions.) Well, the author of this blog cannot look for you, nor would he want to – he’s read some of your blogs! (Only kidding.) Truth is, we must all see the Truth for ourselves; even the Buddha couldn’t enlighten others. He could only show the (Middle) Way. Discovering the Unborn – and the Buddha used this term as well as Bankei – is the real beginning of the Buddhist Path. It is from this point that the journey takes on a truly transcendent aspect, whereas previously all we did was in preparation for this realization. Once we have glimpsed our Buddha Nature, it’s up to us to cultivate it, to drown into it and find that there wasn’t ever anyone to drown on the first place! But what a journey!