The meaning of not stealing

The thief

Left it behind

The moon at the window

Ryokan

In explaining the precept not to steal, Reb Anderson tells the story of an 18^th century monk and poet named Ryokan who lived in a small hut in the hills, possessing nothing: “One full moon night, a thief came to visit.  Ryokan was not at home, so the thief entered, but he found nothing to steal.  Ryokan returned and caught the thief and said, ‘I’m sorry that you came all this way and didn’t get anything.  Here, have my clothes.’  The thief was surprised, but he took the gift and stumbled off into the moonlit night.  After he had left, Ryokan, standing naked in the moonlight, cried out, ‘Poor fellow, he didn’t get much!  I wish I could give him this full moon, too.”    

Reb Anderson read this story before he was a Zen student.  Ryokan showed him a type of mind that he wanted to emulate, a mind that had perfected the attitude of not-stealing – that had perfected selflessness and generosity.  Ryokan had also perfected something else essential to not-stealing: the ability to be fulfilled by whatever he happens to have in the moment.  Ryokan does not need more, he does not need something else, be it different objects or different emotions or different events in his life.  

How does zazen cultivate not-stealing?  There is the mind that wants things, that seeks fulfillment by trying to get what it does not have.  Actually, there is the body that desires what it does not have, a body filled with energy driving it to seek fulfillment in delusory ways, in ways that will not actually lead to fulfillment, in ways that at best lead to transient satisfaction.  The mind may well understand that it will not be fulfilled so easily, but the energies in the body persist and overcome the mind.  This work with the body is at the core of Buddhism: learning to transcend our actions and thoughts that only lead to transient satisfaction means working with the body, and the way we do that is through meditation, by steadfastly facing, recognizing, and being compassionate with all the energies in the body.  So in zazen it may look like all we are doing is staring at a wall but really we are practicing deep honesty and love. 

Zazen perfects the precepts because zazen works on a body level; it forces us to sit with the energies in the body, gives those energies a chance to be seen and to settle down.  Zazen is a practice in finding fulfillment in this very moment; so zazen is actually the precept of not-stealing, of not trying to gain something, of not trying to seek fulfillment elsewhere.  But it goes both ways; the precepts also facilitate zazen, the active practices, visualizations, and contemplations of selflessness and generosity and fulfillment alter and calm the organism and facilitate the deepening of zazen.