禪林寶訓 3.28

3.28

Caotang said: "Being an abbot is nothing else: the essence lies in examining human feelings and fully understanding those above and below. When human feelings are examined, the inner and outer are in harmony; when communication between above and below is open, all affairs are properly managed. This is how an abbot maintains peace. If human feelings cannot be examined, and the sentiments below cannot reach above, then superiors and inferiors will clash, and all affairs will be contradictory. This is how an abbot falls into ruin. Should an abbot rely on his own clever endowment, be fond of clinging to biased views, and fail to comprehend the conditions of beings, discarding collective deliberation while prioritizing his own power, and setting aside public consensus while dispensing private favors, this will cause the path of promoting goodness to gradually narrow and the way of employing the multitude to decline further. Condemning what he has not seen or heard, and being complacent in what he is accustomed to and obscured by, yet wishing his abbacy to be great and passed down far into the future—this is like walking backward while seeking to move forward; in the end it can never be reached." (Letter to Shantang)