The Mind of Clover: Essays in Zen Buddhist Ethics

by Robert Aitken

In Taking the Path of Zen , Robert Aitken provided a concise guide to zazen (Zen meditation) and other aspects of the practice of Zen. In The Mind of Clover he addresses the world beyond the zazen cushions, illuminating issues of appropriate personal and social action through an exploration of the philosophical complexities of Zen ethics.

Aitken's approach is clear and sure as he shows how our minds can be as nurturing as clover, which enriches the soil and benefits the environment as it grows. The opening chapters discuss the Ten Grave Precepts of Zen, which, Aitken points out, are "not commandments etched in stone but expressions of inspiration written in something more fluid than water." Aitken approaches these precepts, the core of Zen ethics, from several perspectives, offering many layers of interpretation. Like ripples in a pond, the circles of his interpretation increasingly widen, and he expands his focus to confront corporate theft and oppression, the role of women in Zen and society, abortion, nuclear war, pollution of the environment, and other concerns.

The Mind of Clover champions the cause of personal responsibility in modern society, encouraging nonviolent activism based on clear convictions. It is a guide that engages, that invites us to realize our own potential for confident and responsible action.

Genres: Buddhism, Zen, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Religion, Meditation

218 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Robert Aitken was a retired master of the Diamond Sangha, a Zen Buddhist society he founded in Honolulu in 1959 with his late wife Anne Hopkins Aitken.

A lifetime resident of Hawai‘i, Aitken Rōshi was a graduate of the University of Hawai‘i with a BA degree in English literature and an MA degree in Japanese studies. In 1941, he was captured on Guam by invading Japanese forces, and interned in Japan for the duration of World War II. In the camp, he met the British scholar R.H. Blyth, who introduced him to Zen Buddhism. After the war, he practiced Zen with Senzaki Nyogen Sensei in Los Angeles, and traveled frequently to Japan to practice in monasteries and lay centers with Nakagawa Sōen Rōshi, Yasutani Haku'un Rōshi, and Yamada Kōun Rōshi. In 1974, he was given approval to teach by the Yamada Rōshi, Abbot of the Sanbo Kyodan in Kamakura, Japan, who gave him transmission as an independent master in 1985.

Aitken Rōshi is the author of more than ten books on Zen Buddhism, and co-author of a book-length Buddhist-Christian dialogue. In Hawai‘i he was instrumental in founding the Koko An Zendo, the PĀlolo Zen Center, the Maui Zendo, and the Garden Island Sangha. A number of other centers in Europe, North and South America, and Australasia are part of the Diamond Sangha network.

Aitken Rōshi is co-founder of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship (now with a local East Hawai‘i Chapter) and serves on its international board of advisors. He has been active in a number of peace, social justice, and ecological movements, and his writing reflects his concern that Buddhists be engaged in social applications of their experience.

Aitken Rōshi has given full transmission as independent masters to Nelson Foster, Honolulu Diamond Sangha and Ring of Bone Zendo in Nevada City, California; John Tarrant, Pacific Zen Institute in Santa Rosa, California; Patrick Hawk, Zen Desert Sangha in Tucson, Arizona, and Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Joseph Bobrow, Harbor Sangha in San Francisco, California; Jack Duffy, Three Treasures Sangha in Seattle, Washington; Augusto Alcalde, Vimalakirti Sangha, in Cordoba, Argentina and Rolf Drosten, Wolken-und-Mond-Sangha (Clouds and Moon Sangha), in Leverkusen, Germany. He authorized Pia Gyger, One Ground Zendo in Luzern, Switzerland, as an affiliate teacher of the Diamond Sangha. He joined with John Tarrant in giving transmission as independent masters to Subhana Barzaghi in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; and to Ross Bolleter in Perth, Western Australia.

As a retired master, Aitken Rōshi worked with a few long-time students, and continued to study and write. His work, Zen Master Raven: Sayings and Doings of a Wise Bird , was published by Tuttle in 2002 [review]. His more recent publications, The Morning Star: New and Collected Zen Writings , and a new edition of A Zen Wave: Basho's Haiku and Zen , were released in October, 2003, by Shoemaker and Hoard.

Reviews

[Gabrielle (Reading Rampage) · Rating 5 out of 5]

In “Hardcore Zen”, Brad Warner wrote a chapter about the Precepts and he said: “Real morality is based on seeing how the Universe actually operates and avoiding doing things that make ourselves and others miserable.” While I think this is the best way to summarize Buddhist ethics and morality, this is a topic worth exploring a little deeper.

An excellent follow up to Aitken’s “Taking the Path of Zen” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), which was a great introduction to the practice of zazen, “The Mind of Clover” explore in great depths the Buddhist Precepts, in order to make them as clear as possible, especially for Western students. Aitken devotes one chapter to each Precept, and explores its meaning from different angles, to give the reader the most complete grasp possible of the meaning behind the words. These chapters are followed by essays on ethics, and how they can be applied in Zen students’ everyday life.

Most Western Buddhist student’s frame of reference when it comes to the Precepts is the Christian Commandments, which are usually considered to be pretty rigid rules, and Aitken especially wants to clarify that the Precepts are a much more fluid code of conduct (“guidelines to show you how to proceed”) that should be considered very carefully when one aims to apply Buddhist ethics in their daily life. He is also well aware that Western students have a tendency to feel horribly guilty when they break rules they care about, and he is careful to point out that this attitude is not helpful in the context of Buddhist practice.

I enjoy Aitken’s writing, which is both very firm, but also has plenty of good humour, insight and gentleness. The book is rather short, but it is simply jam-packed with important and wise discussions on a fundamental part of Zen Buddhism. I would tend to agree with Aitken when he writes that “The Buddha Dharma with its integration of wisdom and compassion must be taught in its fullness. Otherwise its part may be poison when misused.” This means that sitting zazen is great, but of you aren’t also trying to use the Precepts as a compass for your actions, what are you even doing?

I really liked how he expands on the various ways of phrasing the Precepts, and the possible translations of the ideograms used in older sources, to lead to a much richer understanding of the reasoning behind the rule. He often brings up mundane examples to demonstrate that there must be a capacity to be flexible with the Precepts: when they are applied too rigidly, or followed too loosely, things tend to go wrong. It is a great way to illustrate the idea of the Middle Way when it comes to living the Precepts.

If Brad Warner is a little too irreverent for you and you are interested in Zen, Aitken’s books are (in my humble opinion) the next best thing, and should be read by all Zen students, especially beginners. Informative, inspiring and important stuff – completely devoid of the fluff and BS that all too often clutters the Buddhist section at the bookstore…

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was mostly fine, but the essays at the end were difficult to follow. Aitken has a way of quoting many sources to make a point--which is good when it comes to precept discussions and koans, but bad near the end when talking about general worldly issues and quoting constantly, of all things, the Bible. I think it's probably not best to quote a source that many people are actively trying to get away from by entering a practice like Zen.

Also, god, I wonder what Aitken would think of living in 2023--the incessant use of social media, phones, the Trump era, overturning of Roe v. Wade. It's funny to witness the datedness of this text, with him talking about using type writers and how people are addicted to television, of all things. Life has gotten so much worse since then. He mentions a feeling that the 80s feel like the end of humanity but that things surely have to get better. Sigh. Buddy, I live in 2023, it doesn't get better.

Anyway. Good-ish book, but pretty dated and somewhat convoluted at points. I enjoyed discussing it with a group, though!

[Saúl Girón · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitivamente, un libro complicado. Existen muchas eventuales causas por las que yo no asimile bien este libro. O mi mente no estaba preparada o dispuesta, no es mi momento, mi espíritu y alma están en una etapa de desarrollo muy incipiente, el libro está escrito para budistas ya formados, hay que tener conocimientos previos, o el autor no sabe transmitir lo que desea.
La cosa es que asimilé poco! 😒

[Kasey Jueds · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me so long to finish this because I read it so slowly... so much to absorb, in the best way. Compassionate, wise, moving, down-to-earth.

[Beanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book discusses the precepts thoroughly, but the language is somewhat complex. Although some parts of the content were inspiring and precise, others were too obscure. I could not relate to them, or they did not connect with his teachings. Robert Aitken is a well-known contributor to American Zen practice, but the book's blatant sexism was a big turn-off.

The book is a good starting point for those who want to delve into the precepts in detail. However, reading other authors' perspectives, such as Tich Nhat Hanh's, is crucial to understanding the topic better.

The book feels incredibly outdated! Aitken talks about the use of typewriters and people's addiction to television, making it seem disconnected from today's world. Aitken mentions feeling like the '80s were the end of humanity, but it had to get better. However, living in 2024, it is clear that things have only gotten worse. Despite its shortcomings, the book was enjoyable to discuss with the book group, but there are a lot of better Zen books out there! It also took me FOREVER to get through this and finally "put it to rest"!!

[William Sowka · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was recommended to learn more about the Buddhist precepts but actually it went far beyond them, which I see now is necessary. Understanding and appreciating the dualities of good and bad, right and wrong, is necessary, but to go beyond them is the challenge that brings realization. This book offers a path toward that in its final chapters but it is just a touchstone and perhaps not something you can acquire simply by studying these concepts. Regardless, this book is very helpful and was definitely worth re-reading. My only complaint is that the authors does skip around quite a bit, making the text difficult to read at times.

[Ryan Spellman · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much to think about in this book. I really enjoyed going over the precepts one by one with Aitken's commentary. His use of quotes from Bohidharma and Dogen and others was very nice as well. Highly recommended for precept study.

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books of Zen.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aitken is dope.

Very rational, down to earth exploration of Buddhist ethics.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very useful and rewarding collection of chapters/essays on Zen Buddhist ethics including taking personal responsibility in society and non violent activism.

[Elizabeth Knappert]

Brilliant

[Liam B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this one. Aitken's writing is clear and presents such a balanced call to action; it is inspiring.

[Peter Thwaites · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the numerous books I've read on Zen, this is the one that sticks in my mind with the greatest insight.

[Adam Ellsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoughtful, thought-provoking, and accessible.

[Jan van Leent · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Mind of Clover – Essays in Zen Buddhist Ethics” starts with chapters on the ten precepts for Buddhist.

In the chapter on the second precept "Not Stealing", Robert Aitken cites Unto Tahtinen:
"There are two ways of avoiding war: one way is to satisfy everyone's desire, the other way is to content oneself with the good. The former is not possible due to the limitations of the world and therefore there remains this second alternative of contentment"

And then he cites Mahatma Gandhi:
"In India we have many millions of people who have to be satisfied with only one meal a day. This meal consists of a chapati containing no fat and a pinch of salt. You and I have no right to anything until these millions of people are better fed and clothed. You and I ought to know better and adjust our wants, and even undergo voluntarily starvation in order that they may be nursed, fed and clothed."

So true in our contemporary Western world full of abundance.

This small books continues with essays on the Mind, and Robert Aitken cites from the Diamond Sutra:

“Don’t dwell upon colours to bring forth the Mind, don’t dwell upon phenomena of sound, smell, taste or touch to bring forth the Mind; dwell nowhere and bring forth that Mind”.

So true: Always at home, nowhere lost.

Highly recommended.

[Manny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very deep. I got a lot out of it, but I knew I'd be re-reading it right after I finishing. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in morality,/ethics, or their place in the world.

[Sophia Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book to be read over and over; to read in small chunks and spend time reflecting. This book is simply, clearly inspirational. It will encourage and inspire your practice at its core.

[Vicki Dotson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It providesa good discussion of the Buddhist precepts.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just the ticket.

[Walter Burton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good source of how to interpret and apply Buddha's Precept in our daily life.

[Stephen]

Still working on it. Started as part of study with Daniel. I have read some of it, but I am not done with it.

[Bremer]

Zen Buddhists take refuge in the Buddha, in the Dharma, and in the Sangha. These terms can be more easily understood as “realization, truth, and harmony.” Dharma may be seen as a cosmic law of cause and effect, of one thing depending on another thing depending on another thing, within “the infinite, dynamic web of endless dimensions.” When expressed, this law is karma.

Nothing is independent, but rather, intimate in relations. Everything exists in the context of something else existing or not existing, potentially existing or not existing. In such an interconnected universe, the one who clearly sees the nature of reality is a Bodhisattva. “’Bodhisattva’ is a compound Sanskrit word that means ‘enlightenment-being. There are three implications of the term: a being who is enlightened, a being who is on the path of enlightenment, and one who enlightens beings… Learning to accept the role of the Bodhisattva is the nature of Buddhist practice.”

Buddhists view people as not being above the rest of nature. They are not separate from animals, rocks, clouds, trees, mountains, rivers. They grow out of a “net of relationships,” just as the movement of stars and ocean waves. People rationalize their identities and “other” identities into categories of “I and you, we and it, birth and death, being and time,” desensitizing themselves from accepting the changing flow of life. “But if you can see that all phenomena are transparent, ephemeral, and indeed altogether void, then the thrush will sing in your heart, and you can suffer with the prostitute.”

When one sees clearly, one can cultivate compassion and reverence. One can learn to love those who need love and those who give love back. In the First Precept, one should not kill. Likewise, one should encourage life to flourish, not thinking of harming others, for one cannot survive alone. One lives for others as others live for one, interrelated in both the community and nature.

The three poisons of greed, hatred, and ignorance dissolve families, communities, and nations, not love and compassion and caring. These poisons “blight the grasslands, deplete the soil, clearcut the forests, and add lethal chemicals to water and air. In the name of progress, some say. In the name of greed, it might more accurately be said.”

To a Bodhisattva, destroying nature or people for idealized progress is not the way. “The practice of peace and harmony is peace and harmony, not some technique designed to induce them.” Rather than searching for a means to achieve a vague notion of peace or justice, to directly serve others is to forget the self, to forget the self is to serve others. This can only be done now, not later or under the guise of a lofty abstraction.

To be peaceful is not only to be a peaceful person now, but to never ignore the implications of the world. “The practical way to practice not-harming begins with a lifestyle that acknowledges all the implications of popular Western culture, and popular Eastern culture too… When I look at my camera, and in tiny print I read, ‘Made in Singapore,’ I reflect upon the women who are employed at the factory there for low wages, who have no room in their lives for anything creative. I reflect upon the American workers who have no jobs because the factory has moved to Asia. There is no quick remedy for this injustice, but awareness is the beginning of Right Action.”

When the mind is at peace, it does peaceful things. When the self is forgotten, one (or nobody) serves others. When there is no self, everything is boundless. There is no thought of obtaining or taking away from other people. There is only a full appreciation for what is.

While the modern world grows in economic inequality—where stockholders care about increasing quarterly profits as workers in third-world countries are exploited and subdued in impoverished neighborhoods—principles such as not-stealing and not-killing come from a mind that sees “the transparency of all things.”

When one sees the world clearly, one is not deluded enough to indulge in a selfish lifestyle while the poor starve without electricity or clean water. To buy an expensive coat while a child shivers nakedly in the dirt, to drink to excess while a village is bombed under orders from a government. These destructive events will impact anyone who is sensitive to living. Instead of selfishness, a Bodhisattva knows the preciousness of simple things. To carelessly use objects and time and people, despite claims about justice and peace and truth, is insidious.

Nothing is isolated or alone in the world. Everything depends on everything else. All relationships are grounds for deepening one’s own spiritual practice. Even the most difficult romances can be enlightening teachers. Immersing oneself in life, seeing everything as clearly as possible, involves the forgetting of self. In forgetting the self, one joins in on the dance. Without self-consciousness, balanced before all things.

From the great silence of awareness, there is no deception, cheating, gossip, and disloyalty. To work for peace, one is peace. To feel compassion, one is compassion. One responds to the dynamic conditions that arise in life, learning what is destructive or not, and how to prevent suffering. For example, to not be a liar, don’t lie to oneself or others or be complicit in lying. “Not only must I not work for an ordinary advertising agency, but I must not swallow advertising lies either. Not lying means no complicity with lies.” Avoid what damages relationships, what causes suffering in families, communities, and nations.

Begin with oneself.

While responding to each circumstance—which changes in context—see the entire picture. Do not choose honesty over compassion or kindness over honesty, for example, out of convenience. Open oneself to all feelings and make friends with them. Do not neglect one aspect of life while affirming another. Be truly transparent. Understand the poisons of greed, hatred, and ignorance—how they destroy a society, how they cause the suffering of others, from air pollution to heroin, from wars manufactured for oil to the “corporations dumping carcinogenic insecticides on Latin American populations.”

Silently be aware of the ephemeral world. Notice its relative aspects—good, bad, light, dark, pleasure, pain. Look at everything without judgment. It is easy to see something distasteful, disgusting, dark, or scary, and reject it. Simply say, in the same sense of “he has blue eyes” or “she is a pianist” what has happened or is happening. The world is made of intricate relations. Clouds and streams and trees and stones, sunlight and wind and water and earth. There is no self, because there is no self that is isolated from everything else. One is nurtured from the world just as the world is nurtured from one. There is truly nobody that is “other,” even though old perceptions may be fixed on othering, on putting people in categories of good and bad, right and wrong. People often concentrate on their past or on another person’s past, unable to let go of who they were, of how they felt, of what they believed to be true. They “participate in the continuation of their faults” without acknowledging a person as they are or could be.

“Like Frankenstein, we create monsters with words, and while our creations have no fundamental validity, they fix images in the minds of all, including those whom we gossip about. Even when we can support our condemnation with data, we may be preventing growth. With growth, insecurity becomes true love. With growth, conceit becomes leadership. But if negative qualities are fixed in everybody’s heads, growth is made very difficult.”

From the Platform Sutra, if one condemns the world, that is one’s own condemnation. To be arrogant is to show others that one doesn’t feel at ease, so self-praise must be conjured up. Abusing others then is a means to establish a false sense of security.

To be open, to be modest in understanding, is to accept the teachings of everyone and everything. From the insight of a child to a mangy dog, from the wind to a cruel dictator, there are always lessons for those who learn to see. Likewise, one must look within to see their own shadows and not only pretend that they possess the light. To see everything—without comparing, judging, resisting, and craving—is to realize what is.

“By not praising and abusing others, by using yourself in concert with others to realize the potential of the biotic community, you are saving all beings. And, as Hui-neng says, saving all beings is saving them in your own mind. When your mind is one with all mind, then comparisons are half-truths at best, and your work is the work of the world.”

The more one knows the transitory nature of phenomena, the more one knows nothing. Without delusions of mine and his, ours and theirs, without the divisions that arise in the comparative mind, without the separate self, there is emptiness. Most people speak in abstractions of wanting peace, love, justice, and truth, but do they speak from an empty center, one free of fixed categories? They desire justice for them, truth for us, but they are caught in their allegiances. In a trap of abstractions, they think, they think about thinking, they think about action, they think about their actions, and so on. Working from self-centeredness more than from emptiness. They do not see a universe in a flower.

“It is important to cultivate as best you can your own empty ground of action and expression, so that you are not blown about by the reactions of others. Then when you come forth with your response, you will learn clearly whether or not you are being self-indulgent, and this can be your whetstone.”

As Thich Nhat Hanh said, “Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.”

Be open in awareness, tender toward all feelings, thoughts, and sensations. Without a desire to defend one’s image, without a need to judge or complain, one is open to growth. One surrenders to a unique moment every moment. Don’t block what is happening, don’t resist the dance. Become the dance. Whether it is in teaching a child or feeding a homeless person, whether it is in sweeping a floor or building a house, everything is precious, ready to be taken care of.

There is eternity in the unfolding moment.

“’Eternity’ does not refer to beginningless and endless time, but rather to the great timeless void of which we are formed. It is another word for nirvana—not something to be achieved, but the fundamental, potent emptiness that is our essential nature.”

One does not stand apart. One is fully absorbed in action and intention, simultaneously. There is no expectation or conceptual posturing. Everything is integrated into a “purity of action” without self-consciousness. There is no outside goal. The path is the goal. To value something as worth saving, whether a flower or a person, is to be deluded by a mental category. It is to rank something as a beautiful thing or an ugly thing, a good thing or a bad thing, rather than realizing what it is.

“Not dwelling upon colors, not dwelling on phenomena of sound, smell, taste, and touch, but dwelling in nothing at all, we bring forth that mind. And in a Sangha of mutual trust, we find skillful means to bring forth that mind, steadily and steadfastly, in the midst of our poisonous world.”

A mind of emptiness is vast and nothing special. It is unfathomable, nameless. People are prevented from realizing this emptiness because of their attachments to ideas, because of the poisons of greed, hatred, and ignorance. To be realized is to be compassionate with other people and their suffering, knowing them in yourself, knowing yourself in them. To be selfish is to never be at rest, consumed endlessly in defensive thinking, unable to sleep, hating, judging, blaming. There is never any peace.

“If you foolishly seek peace through alcohol, you end up sedating yourself, harming your body, and destroying what peace there may be in your family. If you seek unity in the universe through a multinational corporation, the unity you achieve is your greed with that of many others. The search for peace and unity is correctly the search for realization of the empty, infinite self and the empty, infinite universe—free of concepts, with all things appearing as their own reason.”

From emptiness, one saves what can be saved—using what resources one can, using whatever skills there are to be used. There is no true inside or outside. There is no division between people, birds, lakes, and deer. Energy manifests in matter of all types—interrelated and coexistent in a process of becoming, in the ephemeral. All objects and creatures, Gary Snyder once said in “Buddhism and the Coming Revolution,” are necessary in a vast interrelated network. “The mercy of the West has been social revolution; the mercy of the East has been individual insight into the basic self/void. We need both.”

To have a social revolution, action springs from awareness. Whether it’s in letting go of hatred and envy, standing with equanimity on the front lines of a violent opposition, or in giving to those in need of help, one must be wise. In this fathomless universe, to be aware of the interpenetration of all things, makes one responsible for preserving what is so precious.

“Breathing in and out, you let go of poisons and establish the serene ground of the precepts. You release defenses of the self and the mind comes forth boldly with the count of ‘one,’ ‘two,’ ‘three.’ Focused and serene, you are ready for the instruction by the ten thousand things.”

From breathing in and out, in and out, seeing all that is, one is already divine, intimately connected to life. Only people are not always aware of their true nature. “Thus, we live selfishly and create poverty, exterminate Jews, and bomb innocent peasants; we drug ourselves with chemicals and television, and curse our fate when the cancer of human waste appears in our own precious bodies. We ignore the near, intimate fact that heaven lies about us in our maturity, and thus we cannot apply any of its virtues.”

To not be intimate with life is to be distracted. It is to be self-preoccupied, consumed with abstractions. While concepts can be used effectively in a practical and ethical way, they should never use the person. Falling into a net of ideas is to be caught once again. One should not look “out there” for a solution to a problem that is happening here, now.

Often people impose upon the environment, on other people, because they live in abstractions. They believe they are here and everything else is out there. They perceive an inside and an outside, being aligned to one group and not another, to one idea and not another. When the self is forgotten and everything simply is, then there is no lording over nature, no superiority over plants and animals. Delusions of humans being separate from nature, ideas of them as better than other animals and people, has led to the poisoning of rivers, cutting down of trees, slaughter of endangered species, depletion of minerals, extermination of indigenous populations, disruption of ecological balances, endangering the entire planet and future generations.

To practice being with rather than excluding people into us and them, he and she, me and you, from serving the poor and hungry and homeless, from speaking to politicians and police officers and corporate leaders, from forming movements based on an interconnected consciousness, from respecting mountains and rivers and streams, from being open, truly open to the intimacy of the moment, is to achieve nothing, being nowhere. From nowhere, there is peace within. The woman or man of peace, feeling compassion for the suffering of all things, helps in communities that others wish to destroy.

To serve them is to be forgotten, to be forgotten is to serve them.

Because they are us and we are them.