In “The Power of Tenderness” Rev. Clairissa continues to reflect on the Four Wisdoms from “Awakening to the Mind of the Bodhisattva” in the Shushōgi, this time in the passage on tenderness. She considers what it means to offer friendship to all beings, especially those beings we encounter in the course of ordinary daily life.

Second in a series of four talks by Rev. Clairissa on the Four Wisdoms: charity, tenderness, benevolence, and sympathy.

From the Shushōgi: “To behold all beings with the eye of compassion, and to speak kindly to them, is the meaning of tenderness. If one would understand tenderness, one must speak to others whilst thinking that one loves all living things as if they were one’s own children…”

The Shushōgi (What is Truly Meant by Training and Enlightenment) is the distillation of the essential teachings of Dōgen and the Sōtō Zen tradition, compiled in the late 1800s in Japan. The text in English can be found in the book Zen is Eternal Life by Rōshi P.T.N.H. Jiyu-Kennett (Shasta Abbey Press, 1999).