Seeing Forests

I have been reflecting on the meaning and value of work from a Chan perspective, particularly looking at the way work sometimes puts a person in a position of seeing the “trees” instead of the “forest”. If a person is burying themselves in one single thing, do they not sometimes lose sight of the whole purpose of what they are doing? This sometimes does happen when a person is doing repetitive work or is engaged in assembling one particular part over a long stretch of time. In these cases, it can at times be hard to know when one is too involved in particularities and might be losing sight of the totality.

Master Sheng Yen uses one example, which is the rallying of people together on Earth day. He remarks

I gave a talk in Boston three years ago which happened to coincide with Earth Day. The Earth Day organizers and participants passed out a great number of posters and fliers filled with advice on how to save the environment. All that paper wound up creating a huge mound of garbage. Were these people part of the solution or were they part of the problem? Again, a couple of years ago, there were two opposing demonstrations in Central Park. One group was pro nuclear power the other anti. Which group was right? Whatever the answer, at least in that situation, it seemed both groups contributed more to the disharmony of the environment than to any real solution (p.23)

Now what happened in this example? Two things seemed to happen. Firstly, the way in which the Earth Day organizers and participants disseminated their purpose lost sight of the bigger purpose which has nothing to do with the local communications. In fact, in the process of communicating and sending their message out, the organizers ended up undermining their own cause through the medium of posters and fliers, which was creating waste (not to mention wasting trees!). The second problem is that, in the case of the anti-nuclear protesters, the actual message of peace is lost in the ways they engaged in conflict. Rather than seeking to harmonize with the other protesters, they simply created more disharmony, thus contributing to the message that conflict is the only way to resolve difficulties. 

       This again is like seeing the trees (working hard on communicating a heartfelt cause) without seeing the forest (the total picture of what they are doing and why).

Master Sheng Yen suggests that in order to operate from a totality rather than looking only at part of a problem, it’s necessary to cultivate an inner space where one is clear about their intentions, rather than contributing more to a given problem. He writes, “Buddhadharma counsels each of us to maintain purity of mind and heart. In other words, we must each try to have less greed, hatred, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt in our minds. This will naturally lead the world in a better direction. It will become a purer, healthier, and safer place in which to live.” (p.24). In this way, the inner cultivation is necessary to seeing totality, as well as avoiding the mistake of getting attached to one particular way of solving a problem and not seeing its consequences.

SeSheng Yen (2013). Tea Words Volume II. Elmhurst NY: Dharma Drum Publications