Rejoicing in Merit: To Gladden at Another's Good — This Too Is a Kind of Recollection

7.6 Rejoicing in Merit: To Gladden at Another's Good — This Too Is a Kind of Recollection

The last vow turned the eyes toward one's own shortcomings — repentance. This vow turns the eyes toward others' strengths — gladness. The fifth vow, rejoicing in merit.

Samantabhadra rejoices from the highest down, all the way:

Further, good son! To rejoice in merit is this: of all the Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, throughout the realm of dharma and the realm of empty space, in the ten directions and the three times, numerous as the dust-motes of all buddha-fields — who, from their first arousing of the mind for the sake of omniscience, diligently amassed blessings, never begrudging body or life, through kalpas beyond telling, in each kalpa giving away heads, eyes, hands, and feet beyond telling, and all such hard and bitter practices … accomplishing the unsurpassed awakening of the Buddhas and their parinirvāṇa, and distributing their relics — all their roots of goodness I rejoice in.

First, rejoicing in the Buddhas. All the Buddhas of the ten directions and three times, from the moment of first arousing the mind, seeking omniscience, kalpa upon kalpa cultivating blessings, never begrudging body or life, giving away heads, eyes, hands, and feet past all counting, undergoing every hard and bitter practice, perfecting every pāramitā, all the way to awakening, to nirvāṇa, to the distributing of relics — in all the roots of goodness of this whole road I rejoice, gladdening for the Buddhas in it all.

Having rejoiced in the Buddhas, Samantabhadra's gladness spreads downward:

And of all the merits of every kind of being of the six destinies and four modes of birth, in all the worlds of the ten directions — though it be no more than a single dust-mote — I rejoice in it all. Of all the merits of the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, the learners and the adepts of the ten directions and three times, I rejoice. Of all the measureless hard and bitter practices of all bodhisattvas … I rejoice.

In all the worlds of the ten directions, of the six destinies and four modes of birth, whatever merit any being has — though it be small as a single dust-mote — I rejoice in it; the merits of all śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, I rejoice; the vast merits of all bodhisattvas' hard and bitter practices, I rejoice. From the Buddhas, to beings, to the two vehicles, to the bodhisattvas — wherever there is good, gladness without exception.

Rejoicing Is "Recollection" Turned a Direction

This vow looks far from buddha-recollection; in fact it lies very close.

Rejoicing is moving the thought of the heart from one place to another. The ordinary person's heart stares at himself — his own gains and losses, his own long and short; and the moment he sees another's good, that flicker of envy and comparison rises in him. Rejoicing is turning this heart from "staring at oneself" to "recollecting another's good": see someone practice, gladden for him; see someone recite the Buddha, gladden for him; see any good at all, gladden without exception. This turn is precisely the work of recollection. The last vow, repentance, was "reflecting" — recollecting one's own faults; here rejoicing is "recollecting" another's goodness. The same one heart, one facing inward to its shortcomings, one facing outward to its strengths.

Rejoicing Is the Best Bargain in Merit Under Heaven

Reading the Lotus Sūtra's Chapter on the Merit of Rejoicing in Part Five, we met that "fiftieth-hand" passing — the first person, having heard the Dharma and rejoiced at the assembly, tells it to a second; the second passes it to a third … all the way to the fiftieth person. That fiftieth person, forty-nine retellings removed from the assembly, hears something long since no longer the original words; yet his one thought of rejoicing has, the Lotus says, a merit still inconceivably great.

Why is rejoicing so cheap, and yet so great? Because it costs nothing. Giving costs money; keeping the precepts costs endurance; meditation costs labor; rejoicing costs only that one thought — your being willing, in true heart, to gladden at another's good. Not a cent spent, not a hair's effort taken, and yet the merit is shared equal with the very one you rejoice in. For a person grown old, who can no longer do any great work of merit, this is the broadest road of all: you cannot move your legs to give, cannot recite a long sūtra, but you can sit there, and hearing that someone recites the Buddha, that someone does good, gladden from the heart — and that one gladness shares a portion of his merit onto you.

More to the point, rejoicing cures an old sickness: envy. Envy is the inability to bear another's good; it is a fire, and the first thing it burns is one's own heart. Rejoicing is that fire's nemesis — it tunes "cannot bear another's good" into "another's good gladdens me." And the power to tune it is, again, recollection: one who recollects the Buddha keeps his heart pressed close to the Buddha's goodness; pressed there long, he comes to see others' good with an easy eye, and to gladden at it. Envy is a heart without the Buddha; rejoicing is a heart with the Buddha, brimming over, spilling onto others. So rejoicing is no gladness forced and feigned; it is the gladness that wells up of itself once buddha-recollection has loosened and softened the heart.

This Vow, the Verse Sings It Thus

All beings of the ten directions, the two vehicles, learners and adepts, all Tathāgatas and bodhisattvas — in all their merits I rejoice.

All beings of the ten directions, the learners and adepts of the two vehicles, and all Tathāgatas and bodhisattvas — in all the merits of these Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and beings, I rejoice. One word, "in all I rejoice," gathers the good of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, two vehicles, and beings into this one thought of gladness.

The rejoicing closes, again, on those eight words: "moment by moment continuous, without interruption; my actions of body, speech, and mind without weariness." Rejoicing, too, is moment by moment continuous — keeping that one thought of "gladdening at every good" up, joined and unbroken.

The Buddha, oneself, others — all are settled. But there is a weightier matter: the Dharma the Buddha teaches must have someone to request it, someone to receive it. The next vow, requesting the turning of the dharma-wheel: asking the Buddha to speak out the Dharma that can deliver beings.