Chapter Thirteen: On the Order 2

At the ceremony commemorating the twelfth anniversary of the order’s foundation, the Founding Master addressed the congregation, “You have just heard the project reports and assessments of our individual accomplishments over these last twelve years. Let’s hear each of your impressions of them.” Many disciples came forward to express their impressions. After listening to each of them, the Founding Master said, “Your impressions are for the most part reasonable, but there is still an important point that hasn’t been brought out yet, so I’ll expound it for you.
“Currently in this dharma hall there are people who have been associated with me for many years and others who have followed me for just a few, inevitably creating a distinction between the senior and junior members. Today, celebrating this anniversary allows both to feel renewed gratitude for, and renewed awareness of, one another.
“Thanks to the preexisting institutions and established dharma, the junior members have been able to practice comfortably from the first day they entered this order, even though they have not exerted much effort in founding this organization. This they owe entirely to the results of the senior members’ wholehearted exertions and utmost dedication; for, without them, what would the junior members learn and on what would they rely? Therefore, the junior members should always be grateful and respectful toward the senior members and revere them all, ready even to carry them on their backs.
“As for the senior members, even though they have dedicated themselves since the foundation of our order to establishing its dharma and creating its institutions, where would they manifest the value of their hardship over these many years, and how could our institutions and teachings be transmitted eternally throughout the future, thereby displaying endless merit throughout numerous lifetimes, if the junior members did not in this way make use of our facilities, uphold our teachings, and operate our institutions? Therefore, the senior members also should always be grateful and appreciative toward the junior members and welcome them as if ready to carry them all on their backs. If all the senior and junior members always feel this way toward each other, I have no doubt whatsoever that our order will endlessly thrive and your merit be endlessly transmitted.”