From: Rev. Harvey Sodaiho Hilbert Good Afternoon All,
The Seventh Grave Precept is interesting as it really speaks to the weight of our judgements and our willingness to identify with others. Sometimes it is translated as "Do not elevate yourself above others." I have also seen it as "Do not elevate yourself above others by putting others down." Soto Shu translates it simply as "Do not be too proud to praise others." I like this last version. It really gets to the heart of the matter. How often do we offer words of praise and encouragement to others without referencing ourselves in the sentance? Often, our measure is our measure of ourselves. When we find ourselves lacking how can we offer praise to others without feeling diminished ourselves? When we are able to identify with others, that is, see others as ourselves, it is far easier to offer encouragement and words of praise. To do this we must be willing to see without our small minds. We must see clearly and without distortion. On the other side, we should realize negative criticism is rarely helpful. It is small salve to our ego, to speak of another's faults and thus puff ourselves up. A modern business book, The One Minute Manager, offers helpful advice with this. The auther suggests that we couch a critique in between two positive statements. I go one step farther and suggest the critique be offered as a suggestion rather than a statement. Like so: "I love the placement of the pictures you have chosen. I wonder if we could do this in this other way? By the way you're really demonstrating a great deal of talent with this project!" The point is this: we are human beings in a social environment. We develop within this environment. Encouragement is like fertilizer in the soil. A good bodhisattva gardener uses it wisely. Be well, Rev. Sodaiho ___ Visit us at: http://www.daihoji.org Daihoji Zen Temple 5 Arrow Road Cloudcroft, NM 88317 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Current Book Discussion: Appreciate Your Life by Taizan Maezumi Roshi Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZenForum/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
