‘One who receives or tries to follow the vows (even if they are not ordained) isn’t suddenly a “good” person. We don’t follow the vows to please each other, or to be better white people or better black people, or to be better people in general. Living the vows doesn’t even mean you have to or can accomplish anything, or that you can teach folks to be good people if you have been sanctioned to teach.
The goodness in everyone, revealed or not, is the devotion, the love, the enthusiasm to love all of life as much as we love to walk in the woods or by the ocean. We love being close to who we are, to feel our stillness within all that weighs heavy on us, or at least to have the time to sit with the heavy until it is understood as material for our own liberation.’ (from Lion’s Roar)
Shundo David Haye 