tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12416847613404676902024-03-13T03:40:36.416-07:00Zen NaturalismHere's where I attempt to explore an approach to zen buddhism that is firmly rooted in naturalistic, scientific, empirical understanding. It's a true non-dual 'spirituality' that has no need for the supernatural. Whether you do or do not believe in the supernatural, there's still a place for you here. What I am saying, is that if you do NOT believe in the supernatural, here's a zen that says, "you're home!"Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-52093136358668829242020-06-20T09:19:00.001-07:002020-06-20T09:19:57.982-07:00Born Of The Earth<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i>The following began as an essay about eco-biology; about how the human realm needs to be seen in ecological context to overcome the tendency to human exceptionalism. Over time, it morphed into a meditation on race and the spiritual bypassing that the misunderstanding of the 'two truths' doctrine can foster. Hopefully, it all comes 'round to making some sort of sense.... </i><br /><br />Two space aliens, one of which is holding a stick, are facing a dog standing in front of them expectantly wagging its tail when one alien says to the other, “The Earthling seems to be waiting for us to do something with the gift he has given us.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />We laugh at this cartoon because we harbor, whether consciously or not, a view of human exceptionalism that is so pervasive that we forget we and ALL OTHER FORMS OF LIFE are Earthlings! All life is ‘born of the earth’ and there is no hard and fast demarcation between the human and the rest of living beings.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Th <i>Millennium Ecosystem Assessment </i>estimates the total species on Earth as between 5 and 30 million. The gulf between those two numbers is evidence of the gulf in our knowledge, further compounded when we realize that fewer than 2 million have been described scientifically. Even at 7 billion, humans make up less than 1% of the biomass on Earth. To get a sense of this, imagine one fistful of moss from the forest floor: in that one fistful we may find 150,000 protozoa, 132,000 tardigrades, 3,000 springtails, 800 rotifers, 400 mites, 200 larvae and 50 nematodes, all Earthlings! And then, not to be forgotten, there are the myriad life forms found in the oceans where all life began!<o:p></o:p></div>
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We humans who consider ourselves the peak of “creation” were shocked to find that the human genome consists of 20 – 25,000 genes. That may sound impressive if you didn’t know that <i>C. elegans, </i>otherwise known as the nematode has about 20,000 genes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the more famous and oft-repeated quotes from Albert Einstein – but still not taken as seriously as it should – reminds us:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>A human being is part of the whole, called by us the universe. A part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Quoted in <i>Peace, A Dream Unfolding </i>ed by P. Crean and P. Kome<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sadly, the gendered language itself dismisses just over half of all the human beings!<o:p></o:p></div>
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All Earth life is based upon carbon with upwards of 40% of dry biomass being this single element!<o:p></o:p></div>
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After carbon, the next five elements ALL EARTHLINGS -- from the miniscule paramecium to the largest, the Blue Whale -- are made of are hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. The human body is mostly made up of oxygen which makes up more than half of your mass but only a quarter of its atoms. Carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen together with oxygen make up more than 99% of the atoms your body is composed of. Hydrogen was made at the Big Bang and all the other elements found in the human body, including elements such as iron, calcium, sodium, zinc, copper, and chlorine were created in stars that exploded as supernovae. These are not “exceptional” elements unique to humans, these are the elements we find not just in living beings but the so-called “environment”, the rivers, mountains, soil, rock and air of this Earth. We are born of the Earth AND the Earth is our body; our body is the Earth. This is the perfection of wisdom (<i>prajñparamita</i>) taught in the <i>Diamond Sutra.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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In fact, <i>The Diamond Sutra </i>asks us to see beyond the concept of “living being” since all living beings are made of non-living elements. Again, we see no strict demarcation between life and “non-life” which is why the cultivation of “reverence for life” (the first Buddhist precept) includes cultivating reverence for minerals.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We are all of us, born of the Earth, and for as long as we have existed, human beings have failed to act accordingly; today, specifically, one group with less melanin sees people with more melanin as being of a different race than them, and not only that, the lighter colored people see darker colored people as being of an inferior race, when the reality is that there is only one human race. We have created a system of oppression called White Supremacy literally upon what may be the most superficial thing about us, our skin color.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There is no scientific grounding for the concept of “biological race”. Despite what a political scientist like Charles Murray says about the concept of race being a good way of describing genetic variation, he is simply wrong. In 1972, evolutionary biologist Richard Lewontin showed that very little of the genetic diversity among humans can be explained by the social category of race. Indeed, only about 6% of such genetic variation can be attributed to race categorizations!<o:p></o:p></div>
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More recent research shows that the variation between you, dear reader, and me – or between any two individuals – is very small, on the order of one single nucleotide polymorphism, or single letter change in our DNA per 1,000.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In fact, it has been discovered that genetic variation <i>within</i> groups that societies tend to lump together as one “race” can be greater than it is between “races.” On average, two individuals in Africa are more genetically dissimilar from each other than either one of them is from an individual in Europe or Asia. This is the result of what is called the founder effect.<o:p></o:p></div>
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While science shows us the lack of any justification for the biological categorization of race, the <i>prajnaparamita </i>or “perfection of wisdom” teachings of Buddhism teaches the “absolute truth” of emptiness, which tells us that race – like all phenomena – is empty of any self-nature; that is to say, race is a socially constructed concept which makes it “conventionally true.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />Mahayana Buddhism distinguishes between what it calls the two truths: the “absolute” and the “conventional” or “relative.” Too many Buddhists have made the mistaken assumption that the absolute is “real” while the conventional is “merely” or “simply” illusory and thus tend to hyper-valorize the absolute while dismissing the conventional. When “socially constructed” is conflated with this misunderstanding of “conventional truth,” as illusory or “less true” than the absolute truth, it is assumed that whatever is socially constructed has no real causal power and that what is constructed socially is simply an error screening us from the absolute truth of emptiness. In the realm of race discourse, this takes the form of asserting “color blindness” and that “color” or “race,” being empty, can be dismissed and ignored as a factor for practice or consideration! I’ve even heard some practitioners say that those engaged in racial discourse are “caught in views” with the not so subtle implication that we are less “enlightened” than those who assert that they “see through race.” But, as Zenju Earthlyn Manuel writes in <i>The Way of Tenderness: </i>“… our identities in terms of race, sexuality, and gender cannot be ignored for the sake of some kind of imagined invisibility or to attain spiritual transcendence.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Those who argue that race, being a relative truth, is therefore not “real” and can therefore be dismissed, ignore the fact that the absolute and relative or conventional truths are understood to be both <i>equally</i> true! The concept of race has had, and continues to have, real and profound impact on living human beings, their bodies, their relationships, and their experiences. In the socially constructed system of oppression delineated as “White Supremacy” real Black humans suffer the inequities that are real and unjust.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Many seem to think that “oneness” should somehow exclude marks of diversity, yet inclusivity means that <i>everything </i>in our lives is really and truly included. Manuel calls this “multiplicity in oneness.” Race (as well as sexuality, gender, and ethnicity) are not simply categories but are made manifest in physical bodies as tangible lived experiences. Something that is also true of socially constructed concepts and systems is that they can be changed and deconstructed. To engage in this, however, first requires a heartfelt acceptance that race is real conventionally and that because of this, the oppressive system of White Supremacy is real and diminishes all of us held in its grip whatever the color of our skin.<o:p></o:p></div>
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While “empty” and not based upon any biological reality, race is real: not biologically, but it <i>is</i> a culturally created phenomenon that has real-world consequences. In the U.S., slavery based upon the false notion that race is biological ended only 150 years ago. It’s been over half a century since the pivotal Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s, and still the notion of race as genetic remains a governing ideology. And ideologies can be changed. It is well past the time when racial categorization should have been scrapped.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Black (and Brown) lives matter because all lives SHOULD matter and the lived reality of our darker brothers and sisters is that under the racialist ideology of White Supremacy they haven’t and still don’t. Saying “Black lives matter” in the context of White Supremacy means “Black lives matter, too!” When someone reacts to “Black lives matter” with “all lives matter,” they are either willfully and cynically ignoring this fact, which very likely is evidence of racism, or they are reacting out of a deep-seated fear and insecurity about the mattering of their own lives which blinds them to the reality. Perhaps due to some trauma they were made to feel that their life didn’t matter. They respond “all lives matter” as a plaintive cry from a wounded and hurt place in their lives. It’s “all lives matter, even mine!” I’ve tried to keep this in mind when discussing this with yogis who have responded in this way and have found that when what is meant and what is at stake in saying “Black lives matter” is explained to them, they come around to understanding why we need to say Black lives matter and <i>mean it!</i> Until the lives of Black people – and all other peoples who have been oppressed by racialist ideology – matter, all lives don’t matter.<o:p></o:p></div>
Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-39865404037320396402018-06-03T15:57:00.002-07:002018-06-03T20:23:02.549-07:00Suffering<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“Is suffering brought about by myself alone?” asked Kassapa.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“No, Kassapa,” replied the buddha.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“Then is it brought about by another?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“No, Kassapa.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“Then both together, myself and another?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“No, Kassapa.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“Then is it brought about randomly by chance?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“No, Kassapa.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“Then there is no suffering?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“No, Kassapa, it is not that there is no suffering. For there is suffering.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“Well then, perhaps you neither know nor see it, dear buddha.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“It is not that I don’t know suffering or don’t see it, Kassapa. I know it well and see it.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“But… to all my questions, you have answered ‘no,’ and yet you say you know suffering and see it. Please teach me about it.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“Kassapa, there are two wrong views: One says that oneself is the entire author of a deed and all consequent suffering one brings upon oneself and this is so from the beginning of time. The other says that it is deeds done by other people that bring about one’s own suffering. You should avoid both these views, Kassapa. Here we teach another way: All deeds, whether your own or another’s, are conditioned by ignorance and that is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. By ending that ignorance wisdom comes into being and suffering ceases.”<br />---Samyutta Nikaya<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In this exchange between Kassapa and the buddha, we see the buddha rejected some common views regarding suffering that were popular in the time of the buddha and are still often found promulgated today, especially in the contemporary yoga world so influenced by ‘new age’ thinking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">First, Kassapa asks if suffering is brought about by oneself. Today this is often voiced in the context of karma with some teachers and practitioners saying that all one’s suffering arises based upon one’s karma. The buddha rejected this idea and offered several other catagories of causality beside karmic actions which he characterized as only those actions done volitionally. Additionally, there are those who hold this view in new age circles claiming that one “manifests” their reality and if one is suffering it’s because they created it themselves. This is a pernicious idea that adds suffering to suffering: I’ve seen yogis dealing with serious illness like cancer being asked what they think they did that brought this upon themselves. They are told that if their practice is “pure” enough, they should not experience suffering.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When this view is shot down by the buddha, Kassapa then assumes that one’s suffering is caused by others. In a response later in this exchange it’s clear that other’s actions can create the conditions for one’s suffering, here the buddha is denying that others are the root cause of one’s suffering. But, in this exchange with Kassapa, the buddha is telling him that others are not the ultimate cause of one's suffering. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Today, in our culture, there has been a growing sense of victim consciousness that disempowers individuals. I am not denying that most likely every one of us has been victimized at some point in our life. Some have had to endure truly horrendous conditions. In this sense, those of us who suffered because of the behavior of others have been victimized. The trouble begins, however, when victimization becomes the whole of one’s identity, and with the rise of “identity politics,” there has been a rise among many who have been victimized that their identity is one of being a victim. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As psychotherapist <a href="http://www.thesuccessfulgrownup.com/categories/self-awareness/item/victim-consciousness-6-ways-to-overcome-it#.WxRy9i-ZMXq" target="_blank">Barbara Frazier writes</a>:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Being victimized is different than being a victim. A person who is victimized is still first and foremost that same person. It is a person who has had an experience or a series of experiences, and who is likely changed as a result or these experiences, yet is not reduced down to only those experiences.</i></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>A victim becomes the experience and stays there. He begins to see all of his life through this narrow </i></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>window. He attributes his feelings, thoughts, and experiences going forward to his reaction to the original victimization event. He talks about it, thinks about it, and holds on to it almost like a badge of identity. Strangely, it becomes his point of reference for his life.</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, after the buddha denies that others are the cause of one's suffering, Kassapa suggests that perhaps it's <i>both </i>oneself and another, but the buddha shoots down this possibility as well. The buddha is pointing to a more nuanced view regarding conditions that he shares toward the end of this exchange. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Kassapa keeps at it and then asks if suffering's arising is random and the buddha denies this is so as well. Today, there aren't that many I know of who would argue this, but there <i>are </i>those who speak of 'fate' and this too the buddha would deny. Fate implies that there is nothing one can do about suffering (or any other situation) because our actions do not have causal significance. Finally, a view many hold today is that suffering arises because it's the 'will of god' (or 'the gods') and the buddha again rejects this possibility because again, if it's the will of god, then there is really nothing we can do about it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Still, the buddha teaches that though we do not bring on our suffering ourselves, nor do others, there is still something we can do in response to ameliorate suffering and even end it! This is because suffering, he says, arises based upon myriad causes and conditions (many, if not most, that we have not chosen for ourselves) and that the root cause of our suffering is <a href="http://ignorance./">ignorance.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ignorance is generally the translation yogis use for the Sanskrit word <i>avidya </i>(<i>avijjā </i>in Pali). Avidya more literally means "not know," "not understand," or "not see." It is a cognate with the Latin <i>vidēre </i>("to see") and it's echoed in the English "vision." It's the understanding that the unawakening being doesn't know nor do they see the reality of emptiness, the absence of any essential self-nature in any phenomena.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But, I also think that when we say "ignorance," we can also understand it as "ignore-once," or as we might say nowadays, "denial," because so much suffering arises through ignoring what we do not wish to acknowledge; we know it's there at one level, but choose to ignore it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And the final point of the buddha is that because it is ignorance that is the ultimate cause of suffering and not any "individual" (which in a real sense doesn't even exist) then our focus in practice should be the removal of ignorance -- in ourselves and in others. Thich Nhat Hanh would often remind his students that "Man is not the enemy; our enemy is hatred, ignorance and fear." The bodhisattva works for the liberation of all, knowing that none can be truly free if all are not free, while knowing also that there are no 'beings' to be freed! </span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The bodhisattvas, grounded in perfect understanding, find no obstacles for their minds. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Having no obstacles, they overcome fear, liberating themselves forever from illusion, and realizing perfect nirvana. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">All buddhas in the past, present, and future, thanks to this perfect understanding, arrive at full, right, and universal awakening.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: medium;">---The Heart Sutra</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-5181297585663345812018-04-05T11:04:00.003-07:002018-04-05T11:04:53.172-07:00Expectations<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>A puzzled man asked the buddha: "I have heard that some monks meditate with expectations, others meditate with no expectations, and yet others are indifferent to the result. What is the best?"</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The buddha answered: "Whether they meditate with or without expectations, if they have the wrong ideas and the wrong methods, they will not get any fruit from their meditation. Think about it. Suppose a man wants to have some oil and he puts sand into a bowl and then sprinkles it with salt. However much he presses it, he will not get oil, for that is not the method. Another person is in need of milk. She starts pulling the horns of a young cow. Whether she has any expectations or not, she will not get any milk out of the horn, for that is not the correct method. Of, if someone fills a jar with water and churns it in order to get butter, they will be left only with water.</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"But... if somebody meditates with a wholesome attitude, with right attention and mindfulness, then whether they have expectations of not they will gain insight. It's like filling a bowl with oil seeds and pressing them or milking a cow by pulling the udders or filling a jar with cream and churning it. It's the right method."</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>---Majjhima Nikaya</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">There are some stories in the suttas where the buddha really comes across with a subtle sense of humor, using some pretty funny examples of behavior that is unskillful. This is one of my favorites and I especially enjoy that it's in response to a question about expectations.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">How many of us have heard -- perhaps repeatedly -- that we need to practice free of all expectations? In zen, it's been held up as a kind of emblematic feature of practice. And certainly, I am not denying that expectations can become a hindrance to practice. A beginner especially can fall victim to expecting things that are ultimately not possible or unrealistic or even nor useful. Also, if one holds too fast to expectations, they can become an obstacle keeping one from seeing what is actually happening because they are focused on what they expect to happen.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">That said, though, it's a bit ingenuous to suggest that anyone actually takes up this practice, which can be incredibly challenging, completely free of expectations. Perhaps with greater experience, expectations become less relevant, but the response of the buddha is pointing out that whether one has expectations or not, if one practices with right determination, a wholesome mind (which I take to be one committed to <i>sila </i>(the ethical training including the five precepts), and practicing the method correctly, then insight, awakening, will be the result.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">This points out the importance of practice, and of practicing correctly. Right attention and right mindfulness are aspects of correct method. Attention needs to be focused on what <i>is </i>free of reactivity so that mindfulness -- which includes an analysis of how what is arose, what keeps it present, what leads to its passing away -- can be honed and directed. It is this which leads to the insights that embody and promote liberation.</span></div>
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Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-58914825035948306132018-03-02T14:33:00.002-07:002018-03-02T14:33:48.278-07:00Not Too Tight; Not Too Loose<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>A comfort-loving student named
Sona was making violent effots to become physically and mentally vigorous. But
he seemed so unsuccessful that the thought came to him: “My family is wealthy;
perhaps I can enjoy my riches and yet do good. What if I were to give up the
training and return to a rich but worthy life?”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Buddha understood what Sona
was thinking and said to him, “Sona, were you not skillful at playing the lute
when you were a layman?” <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>“Yes, I was,” replied Sona.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>“And what do you think, Sona, was
it possible to play in tune when the lute was overstrung?” asked the Buddha.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>“No, indeed not. The strings
could snap if too tightened,” replied Sona.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>“And what do you think, Sona, suppose
the strings were slackened and became too slack. Could you play then?” the Buddha
asked.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>“Again, no. Without any tension,
the strings could not produce any tones” Sona answered.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>“But when they were neither overtightened
nor too slack, but keyed to the middle, not too tight and not too loose, then could
you play harmoniously?” the Buddha asked.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>“Certainly!” responded Sona.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>“Then, Sona, take heed that when
effort is too strenuous it leads to mental and physical strain and when too
slack to laziness and dullness. So, please make a firm determination that you
will adopt the middle way, not allowing yourself to struggle or to slacken, but
recognizing that confidence, energy, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom are
the fruits of a calm and equable middle way” the Buddha exhorted.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Sona followed the buddha’s advice
and in due course awakened.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>---Theragatha</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Based upon this story and the
teachings of Patanjali where he describes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Iccha
</i>or the proper “yogic will” toward practice as requiring both <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">abhyasa </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">vairagya </i>or continuous, diligent effort and a dispassionate,
non-clinging attitude, I offer a course called “Not Too Tight; Not Too Loose.” It’s
been my experience that many students without a firm understanding and
connection with a teacher can often fall into one of these extremes and then
give up altogether. <br />
<br />
Some students seem to throw themselves into practice and I am always concerned
with such aggressive determination because it tends to burn out swiftly and if
anything, this path of practice requires long-term commitment. Which is already
something not held in very high esteem in our quite superficial,
sensation-oriented culture. Others get interested, but never make a real
commitment, remaining almost aloof or lackadaisical in their approach to
practice. No roots are ever really planted and practice withers with a whimper.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Confidence and energy must be
there for a student to be able to commit to practice, and mindfulness helps to
balance efforts to concentrate. The middle way, neither not too tight nor too
loose allows one to practice in the face of all changing conditions without
losing sight of why we practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
That said, I always emphasize that it’s a disastrous mistake to take this
teaching as some kind of fairy tale where once the middle way is found we can
live happily ever after. Not too tight and not too loose is absolutely NOT a
static position or orientation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I play guitar and ukulele and if
you are at all familiar with string instruments (actually this goes for all
instruments, but keeping with the analogy the Buddha uses when speaking with
the lute-player, Sona, I’ll stick with string instruments) you know that if you
tune your instrument in a room that is 68-degrees F and 30% humidity, and then
walk into a room that is 95-degrees F and 80% humidity you will have to re-tune
your instrument.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Not too tight and not too loose is ALWAYS in relation to circumstances and
conditions. If you are well rested and feeling at ease, you can relax a bit in
your meditation practice, but if you’ve had a rough night tending your sick
child, and you are feeling tired, you will have to ‘tighten up’ a bit and use
more energy (that you will feel you don’t have!) in order to practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
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<!--EndFragment--><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sensing the ‘sweet spot’ of not
too tight, not too loose itself is the practice of mindfulness. Seek the
ever-changing middle way and practice in harmony with your present conditions.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-26742757340642923972018-02-19T14:01:00.002-07:002018-02-19T14:01:59.653-07:00Guarding The Senses<div class="MsoNormal">
The Buddha was talking with Uttara, a young pupil of a
teacher called Parasariya.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Uttara, does Parasariya teach you how to control your
senses?” asked the Buddha.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Yes, Parasariya does indeed teach us how to control our
senses.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“And how does he do this?” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“We are taught not to see material forms with the eye nor
hear sounds with the ear. This is how we are trained to control our senses.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“But, in that case, Uttara, the blind and the deaf must be
in total control of their senses, for the one does not see and the other does
not hear,” the Buddha replied.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Uttara was silent.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After several moments, the Buddha continued, “Well, Uttara,
Parasariya teaches you one way and here we teach a different way. Let me tell
you what we teach. When a yogi sees a form with the eye, usually a feeling of
liking or disliking comes into being. The yogi understands that liking or
disliking has arisen but that either one is not inevitable but is conditioned
and dependent upon myriad causes and conditions. So, the yogi cultivates a
state in which there is equanimity and finds that in so doing, the liking or
disliking begins to fade and the yogi can then see things as they are. This is
how the yogi can control their senses. That is what we teach.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">---Majjhima Nikaya<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I am often asked what are the
differences between the yoga taught by the Buddha and that taught by Patanjali
or the Classical Yoga tradition. While there are quite a few, this passage
points to a fairly central difference in actual practice. But first, it’s
helpful to remember that the earliest definitions of the word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yoga </i>emphasized the practice of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yoking. </i>And this “yoking” was itself
described as the practice of meditation. A common analogy of yoking the senses,
breath and mind was to parallel it to the yoking of horses to a chariot, where
the horses were the senses, the charioteer the egoic self and the owner of the
chariot, sitting within, the ‘True Self.’ The implication was that the horses
or senses, given free reign would cause havoc and needed to be restrained.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In Classical Yoga, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pratyahara, </i>the fifth limb of the
eightfold path described in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yoga-Sutra
</i>of Patanjali, was often defined as “withdrawal” and described as sensory
inhibition. The most popular image for this process of sensory inhibition is
offered in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Goraksha-Paddhati </i>(2.24):
“As the tortoise retracts its limbs into the middle of the body, so the yogin
should withdraw the senses into himself.” Of course there are other
understandings of the process of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pratyahara
</i>as in “the pleasant state of consciousness that beholds the Self in all
things” as stated in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tejo-Bindu-Upanishad
</i>(1.34) but in the contemporary yoga world it is the former view of the
tortoise withdrawing inwardly that is most encountered. As Georg Feuerstein
said to a group of us in 2002, “For Patanjali, yoga was a process of
in-up-and-out.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In this passage from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Majjhima Nikaya, </i>Uttara is describing
his teacher’s teaching on sense control as a process of shutting down the
process of perception: “We are taught not to see material forms with the eye
nor hear sounds with the ear.” It might be easy to miss the Buddha’s wry sense
of humor as he responds, “But, in that case, Uttara, the blind and the deaf
must be in total control of their senses.” I can picture poor Uttara standing
there, now mute in the face of this subtle smack-down!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The dramatic tension exists in
those moments where Uttara remains silent, until the Buddha rescues him with
his teaching. And note, he doesn’t completely negate Parasariya’s teaching as “wrong,”
but rather just says “Parasariya teaches you one way and here we teach a
different way. Let me tell you what we teach.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
And what the Buddha teaches is
what my teachers more accurately describe as “guarding the senses” in that the
senses themselves are not “controlled” or “yoked” but the conditioned
reactivity <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to </i>the sense perceptions.
In other passages, the Buddha exhorts his students: “In the seeing let there
just be the seeing; in the hearing let there just be the hearing.” What the
Buddha is getting at is that just about immediately upon a sense organ making
contact with a sense object (eyes making contact with form/color etc. or ears
making contact with sound) and the arising of sense consciousness, a
conditioned reaction of a feeling-tone of pleasant or unpleasant arises.
Without mindfulness, that conditioned reaction will condition and determine how
we then react through action that is either clingingly desirous or aversive.
The feeling-tone will present a kind of ‘veil’ that prevents us from actually
seeing or hearing with more objectivity and clarity. We react to our
feeling-tone and not the actual sense object (form or sound, in the case of eye
and ear).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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With mindfulness, we can stop,
take a backward step from the conditioned reactivity and then choose a more
skillful and beneficial way of responding. While Parasariya’s way may lead to a
deep samadhi-like state of peace, it ultimately is very limiting as there can
be no engagement with the world of “sound and vision.” With the practice of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">satipatthana </i>(mindfulness), the yogi
does not have to disassociate from the world, but rather changes the way they
relate to the world. From conditioned reactivity to creative response, the
practice of mindfulness can cultivate greater freedom here and now in the realm
of inter-relationship, or perhaps even more the reality of “interbeing.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-49697959852661345882017-12-08T21:42:00.000-07:002017-12-08T21:42:05.744-07:00The All (Sabba-Sutta)<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>I will teach you the all. Listen closely. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;">What is the all? It is the eye and forms, the ear and sounds, the nose and scents, the tongue and tastes, the body and feelings, the mind and thinking. This is called the all.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Someone might say, "This all is not enough. I reject this all. I will proclaim another all. But because this is a groundless assertion, such a person, when asked about it, would not be able to show another all because that all is not within their sensorium. Such an assertion is merely a thought arising in the mind.</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>--- Samyutta Nikaya</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">This passage may be one of the earliest explications of the <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/" target="_blank">phenomenological </a> experience of reality. It also describes the buddha's criteria for how and what we can know of reality: what is the source for knowing the nature of our experience? It is the totality of our sensorium (the six sense organs and the objects of the senses) because these six senses comprise the totality of our <i>lived </i>experience, our <i>lived </i>reality as opposed to our imagined, deluded story about reality.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Whatever the reality outside of the sensory apparatus, we can only know what we know through the sensory apparatus. The raw reality -- phenomena as they are -- cannot be known directly as our senses already condition what and how we can know and experience reality. It is in this way that we can say our sensory apparatus create our lived reality/experience.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">For example: you and I have been presented the same meal. I take a bite and begin to gag and feel like I could vomit. You take a bite, savor the taste, sigh and smile with pleasure. Can we say that the taste of the food was the same or different? We can imagine similar scenarios for any of the senses: a scent I find delightfully pleasant may make you gag in revulsion, etc.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Remember, the buddha is much less interested -- if he is at all -- in metaphysical speculation than the alleviation of existential duhkha. His teaching of <i>satipatthana </i>directs us to pay full attention to the experience of the sensorium because that is where the duhkha arises and it will be the place where it ends. As Glenn Wallis writes, "...your experience <i>is </i>your reality. And your experience is <i>your </i>reality." Thus, if your experience is pervaded by duhkha, then paying attention to the nature of your experience is much more to the point than speculating about "reality." </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">This passage from the buddha also points to a fairly radical notion. The buddha is asserting that your sense organs and the data that comprise the totality of your experience is 'the all,' which is to say this all is your (lived) world! The buddha seems to be saying that those who posit another 'all,' such as a supernatural realm are misconstruing what is actually known. Those who speak of "knowing god" (or knowing "god") are not really clear on what it is that they actually know. According to this passage from the buddha, what they know are thoughts, concepts, perhaps visual imagery arising in their minds. Such mental formations are part of the sensorium and the only thing we can know. The error is the extrapolation from these mental formations to an entity that exists in the 'external' world. Recently, I read a Facebook thread where two devotees of new age thinking argued about what the "higher dimensional entities" they were in contact with thought about sexual relations for enlightened beings. One said they are beyond any such relationships while the other said they were so open as to be polygamous!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">We all make all sorts of claims about the existence of things without taking the time and making the effort to look at just how we know them! The buddha is suggesting we get clear about just what it is that we know.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-9170386386952390612017-12-03T19:33:00.001-07:002017-12-03T19:33:39.876-07:00The Awakening Life<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Describing his awakening, the Buddha said: “Coming to be, coming to be!
Ceasing to be, ceasing to be! At that thought, yogis, there arose in me a
vision of things not before called to mind. Knowledge arose: such is form, such
is the coming to be of form, such is its passing away. Recognition arose: such
is its coming to be, such is its passing away. And the state of abiding in the
understanding of arising and passing away; that too arose.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">---Samyutta Nikaya</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In this description, the Buddha is
emphasizing the deep insight into impermanence and the emptiness of phenomena.
Form – the body – is the first of the five skandhas, and in an oral tradition,
often, just mentioning the first of a list implies the rest of the items on
that list. So, we can be assured that as with form arising and passing away,
the Buddha would say the same for feelings, perceptions, mental formations and
consciousness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">When seeing clearly, with deep
comprehension, the arising and passing away of the five skandhas, we come to
see the empty nature of them; and in seeing the empty nature of the five
skandhas, we loosen the clinging grip to the misidentification of them as “self.”
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">As a naturalist, I find the
possible implications of that final sentence quite profound: the “state of
abiding in the understanding” of impermanence may sound like a final, unchanging
state of being, but he’s saying here that that state of abiding itself arose! Anything that
arises passes away, so the importance of diligence becomes vividly clear: each
moment we must cultivate the conditions that allow the on-going abiding in that
understanding. It is moment after moment of understanding <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in relation to </i>the ever-changing experiencing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">My graduate studies professor,
Peter Harvey has said that the Pali would better be translated as “nirvana-izing,”
as a kind of action rather than a state. This passage seems to point to that
understanding. It may not satisfy a traditionalist and transcendentalist, but,
as a naturalist, it is a way of understanding that I can feel comfortable accepting. Rather than seek a final "awakened" life, we can live the awakening life here/now, moment-to-moment, breath-by-breath.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-86277756294283352942017-11-23T13:49:00.000-07:002017-11-23T13:49:01.035-07:00Danaparamita: The Perfection of Sharing<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In one of the most important and
influential Mahayana sutras, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Diamond
Sutra</i>, is found one extended response from the Buddha to Subhuti who asks him:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
“On what should a bodhisattva base themselves? On what should they base their
minds?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">A bodhisattva is an "awakening being" committed to awakening for the sake of all life. The first thing the buddha
reminds Subhuti is that the bodhisattva’s vows include the aspiration to help
all beings awaken. However, he adds the caveat that a real bodhisattva takes
such a vow while remaining uncaught in egoism, thinking that she is a being
helping other beings; that in fact, though they vow to liberate all the numberless
sentient beings, they must understand that in truth there are no such beings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Then, he continues to say that
the bodhisattva “ought to practice generosity (<i>dana</i>) without basing it upon anything….
Subhuti, when the generosity of a bodhisattva is not based upon any signs, her
goodness is as immeasurable as the vastness of space throughout the ten
directions.” Signs, or <i>lakshana</i>, are concepts that refer to something else. In <i>The Diamond Sutra, </i>the signs that we get attached to that must be seen through are perceptions, cognitions and emotions that arise and pass away. The problem is we often identify with these signs, creating a false identity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">He could have begun his extended
answer with any number of profound teachings, and yet he begins with what on
the surface can seem pretty mundane: “What’s so special about generosity?
Anyone can do that!” And <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that </i>is
specifically the point! Whenever the buddha taught to a new audience, he began
with the importance of generosity: “If you understand as I do the power of
generosity, you’d not partake in a single meal without sharing it with others.”
What the buddha also pointed out is that anyone, no matter their circumstances,
can share with others, whether it is time, energy, or material resources;
whether it’s the offering of a helping hand or a non-judgmental ear, a gentle
smile or simply bearing witness, we can practice <i>danaparamita, </i>the perfection of sharing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It is with danaparamita that the
buddha’s teaching on interdependent origination becomes mutual inter-support.
The important thing to take note of is that there isn’t a single thing
specifically buddhist about danaparamita. Emerson refers to the interdependence
of life when he says “The wind sows the seed, the sun evaporates the sea, the
wind blows the vapor to the field…the rain feeds the plant, the plant feeds the
animal.” Reading this, I am reminded of the poem, variously attributed to
Hafiz, Rumi or Daniel Landinsky:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ands still, after all this time<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Sun has never said to the Earth,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">“You owe me.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Look what happens with love like that.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">It lights up the sky.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-size: large;">This is the understanding that nothing ever really "belongs" to us; everything is recycled again and again: the water of our tears may have once been dinosaur piss. Every breath you take is said to contain, on average, one molecule from Caesar's last dying breath.</span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In traditional societies, all of
life was seen as a kind of natural generosity or sharing and so the first form
of economics was the ‘gift economy’ with various customs of gift giving and
circulating the gift kept primal human society fluid and healthy. In it’s
earliest form, the potlatch ceremony of northwestern America was a grand ritual
of giving away precious possessions by the tribe on the occasion of naming a
new chief. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In Pali Buddhism, there were
several categories of dana. One dual categorical model distinguished sharing
that is unconditional, looking for no reward or recompense and the other
sullied by the motivation for personal benefit. Another categorical model was
three-fold: sharing of goods; teachings; and services: we can share time, energy and material resources. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">There’s a zen story about dana:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">A monk asked Hui-hai, “By what means can the gateway of our school be
entered?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hui-hai responded: “By means of dana-paramita.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">The monk then said, “But there are six paramitas. Why do you mention
only the one? How can this one alone provide sufficient means for us to enter?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hui-hai then answered: “Deluded people fail to understand that the
other five all proceed from the danaparamita and that by its practice, all the
others are fulfilled.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">The monk then asked, “And why is it called ‘danaparamita?’<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hui-hai said: “Dana means relinquishment.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">The monk asked: “But relinqusihment of what?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">And Hui-hai then said: “Relinquishment of the dualism of opposites;
relinquishment of self and other.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It is this relinquishment that
Dogen means when he says with intimate awakening “body and mind drop away.”
He’s not talking about some non-physical, dis-embodied state of transcendence.
He’s talking about the relinquishment of our limited self-centered orientation.
Now, this isn't to say there isn't the unique individual with necessarily permeable boundaries; there is still a ‘center,’ but it’s relational and effusively
outflowing: we eat and nourish ourselves in order to be present to all life.
Self-care taken with this understanding can never be selfish. </span><span style="font-size: large;">For instance, as an older parent wishing to be present to my daughter as she grows up, I feel the need to do what I can (exercise, eat well and moderately etc.) in order to support her development. </span><span style="font-size: large;">This is not the
outflow of “obligation” nor is it “self-sacrifice.” It is rather the effusive outflow of love. Recreation or “re-creation” is a necessary practice to prevent the bodhisattva’s outflow from
drying up!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">For dana to become danaparamita,
we must move beyond the dualistic view of separation; of binary opposition and
see how the giver and receiver are equally empty of any self-nature. There is the
awareness that in giving we receive and in receiving we give. It becomes a
living dynamic practice of interaction; of mutual action. When thinking of
dana, of sharing, we may over-consider the role of the giver, but the receiver
is also practicing dana in her sharing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Receiving a share of something,
receiving a gift, we get to practice grace, gratefulness, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">while also</i> giving the person sharing with us the gift of an
opportunity for generosity. And acts of generosity bring joy to the giver, so we are also giving the gift of joy in our graceful and grateful reception of the gift. AND, when <i>we</i> give, we are receiving this precious
opportunity to go beyond ourselves by the one who receives our gift.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Dogen Zenji has this to say about
giving:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>“When one learns well, being born
and dying are both giving. All productive labor is fundamentally giving.
Entrusting flowers to the wind, birds to the season, also must be meritorious
acts of giving… It is no only a matter of exerting physical effort; one should
not miss the right opportunity.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Giving is to transform the mind
of living beings… One should not calculate the greatness or smallness of the
mind, nor the greatness or smallness of the thing. Nevertheless, there is a
time when the mind transforms things, and there is giving in which things
transform the mind.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The root of danaparamita is
bodhicitta, the aspiration and action towards awakening for the sake of all
beings. This is not the self-centered motivation for our own peace and joy, but
the realization that at the most fundamental root, none of us is free if all of
us are not free. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The thing to keep in mind, as we
look to practice danaparamita, is that we do not need to wait for some big
realization or experience. You and I can practice dana, the sharing of trust
and respect just as we are. Do so <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">as if </i>it
were perfected, and it is indeed perfected. We practice “as if” even in the
smallest acts, opening the door for someone, answering the phone, volunteering
at a soup kitchen, listening deeply to others, demonstrating in the streets. The only <o:p></o:p>prerequisite is the will do to so.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-78371282511373604822017-09-22T13:36:00.002-07:002017-09-22T23:50:32.222-07:00What "Energy" Are You Talking About?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">One of the confusions I find in
contemporary New Age, Yoga and Buddhist communities relates to the misuse of the word “energy.” It would be
helpful if the members of these often overlapping communities would
understand and admit that their use of the word is metaphorical. The word
“energy” has a very specific definition in science which gives us a very
definite way of measuring it:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In physics, energy is simply the ability to do work. Objects can have energy by virtue of their motion (kinetic energy), by virtue of the position (potential energy), or by virtue of their mass (see E=mc2). None of this can be said of <i>qi, </i></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i>prana, </i>or any other alleged 'vital life force.' When someone talks about the "energy of a group of people" and they are speaking metaphorically we can -- for the most part -- understand what they are saying when they say "the energy of this group is very strong."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The confusion arises when new-agers talk about "non-material energy" and invariably refer to Einstein's famous equation: E=mc2 using it incorrectly to assert it is saying that material mass can be turned into nonmaterial energy (and vice versa). In fact, the equation is stating that energy is a quantifiable property of a material object. That is to say, a material object doesn't turn into energy, but into other material objects that <i>carry </i>energy.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Einstein's equation is the 'rest energy' of an object that has mass. It is stating the possibility of extracting <i>E </i>amount of energy from <i>m</i> kilogram of mass. One kilogram of uranium sitting in a stock pile has no energy, but if it is lifted several feet off the ground, it now has some potential energy and once it's made to enter into nuclear interactions, it's mass turns into energy carried away by the nuclear particles produced by the interaction. There is no place for <i>woo. </i>So, when I say, upon entering a room of new yoga students, that the energy seems "strong" or "high" I am simply saying that there seems to be a general excitement shared by the group that I can sense.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, when new-agers and spiritualists use the term "energy" as in reference to one's body's "energy field," they're really saying nothing even remotely meaningful. Yet, as Brian Dunning has written, "this kind of talk has become so pervasive in our society that the vast majority of Americans accept that energy exists as a self-contained force, floating around in glowing clouds, and can be commanded by spiritualist adepts to do just about anything." For instance, alleged <i>Qi </i>or <i>Chi </i>Masters are said to be able to move objects without touching them. A whole school of martial arts is supposed to be based upon the control of <i>qi </i>where a master can take down a slew of opponents without touching them. Of course, if you have complicit students willing to believe anything can <i>seem </i>possible then near miraculous effects can be simulated, but when such woo fantasy meets reality, reality wins. Ironically, the MMA martial artists who exposed the delusion of this <i>qi </i>martial arts "master" was excoriated by many in China for insulting tradition!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Dunning suggests that "when you hear the word "energy"</span><i> </i><span style="font-size: large;">casually used to explain a mystical force or capability, require some clarification. Require that the energy be defined. Is it heat? Is it a spinning flywheel?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">He offers this good test: "When you hear the word <i>energy</i> used in a spiritual or paranormal sense, substitute the phrase 'measurable work capability.' Does the usage still make sense? Are you actually being given any information that supports the claim being made? Remember, energy itself is <i>not </i>the thing being measured: energy is the measurement of work performed or of potential."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Dunning gives a good example from a claim made by Kundalini Yoga adepts:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The release and ascent of the dormant spiritual energy enables the aspirant to transcend the effects of the elements and achieve consciousness.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He writes: "This would be a great thing if energy was indeed that shimmering cloud that can go wherever it's needed and perform miracles. But it's not, so in this case, we substitute the phrase "measurable work capability" and find that the sentence is not attempting to measure or quantify anything other than the word <i>energy </i>itself. We have a "dormant spiritual measurable work capability" and no further information. That's pretty vague, isn't it? For this claim to have any merit, they must at least describe how this energy is being stored or manifested. Is it potential energy stored in the chemistry of fat cells? Is it heat that can spread through the body? Is it a measurable amount of electromagnetism, and if so, where's the magnet? In any event, it must be measurable and precisely quantifiable, or it can't be called "energy" by definition." </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dunning continues: "There's a good reason why you don't hear medical doctors or pharmacists talking about energy fields: it's meaningless. I think it's generally good policy to remain open minded and be ready to hear claims that involve energy, but approach them skeptically, and scientifically. The next time you hear such a claim, substitute the phrase "measurable work capability" and you'll be well equipped to separate the silly from the solid."</span><br />
<br /></div>
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Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-82524079613827835192016-03-01T22:07:00.000-07:002017-07-11T10:18:30.321-07:00Here It Is (A Post-Midnight Reverie)<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Blue Cliff Record, </i>Case 52 is sometimes referred to as “Seppo’s
‘What is it?’” The introduction to the koan says, “As soon as there is
affirmation and negation you lose your mind in a flurry, but without descent
into stages, there is no way of seeking. So tell me, is it right to let go, or
is it right to hold still? Dogen-zenji said, “Breathing in or breathing out,
after all, what is it?” I'm asking now, "Who can tell?"</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Here is your crown</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And your seal and rings.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And here is your love</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For all things.”</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">My teacher, Samu Sunim, would
often remind us to pay attention to “Just this; Right here; Right now.” His
“just this” would reverberate through my bodymind and sometimes illuminate my
actions and sometimes dumbfound me. But today, listening to Leonard Cohen’s
“Here It Is” I felt a <i>frisson</i> of recognition. And I thought of one of my
favorite stories found among the koan collections:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Guishan asked Daowu, “Where are you coming from?”</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Daowu said, “I’ve come from tending the sick.”</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Shan said “How many people were sick?”</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Wu said, “There were the sick and the not sick.”</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">“Isn’t the one not sick you?” Guishan said.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Daowu said, “Being sick and not being sick have nothing
to do with the True Person*. Speak quickly! Speak quickly!”</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">Guishan said. “Even if I
could say anything, it wouldn’t relate.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">Later Tiantong commented on
this, saying, “Say something anyway!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">Who are the sick? Who are
the not sick? How can we tell? Is there a difference or is there not? Especially if being sick and not being sick are
ultimately irrelevant to living the authentic life. To help understand the questions being asked here, it may be helpful to know that from at least one understanding of this dialogue, all of us are sick, suffering from a fatal disease called "life." We all know the prognosis: we will die. Given this, who can the "not sick" possibly be?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Here is your cart,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And your cardboard and piss;<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And here is your love<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For all this.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">It’s all piss, isn’t it? We’re
born, we age, we love, we lose love, and we die. And yet, Cohen reminds us that
we can live from a place where we love “all this.” How is this possible? Or, again, might we understand this phrase, "For all this," to mean what does love matter in the face of all this? It seems the statement can go either way. And yet...<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“May everyone live,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And may everyone die.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Hello, my love,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And my love, goodbye.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">My daughter asked me this
morning, upon hearing this refrain, “Why does he say ‘goodbye’ to his love?”
Why, indeed? Can we ever say “goodbye?” Or, perhaps more accurately, when we
say “Goodbye,” (because we do and it happens more than we like to contemplate) what do we mean? What are we really saying? Everyone alive lives
and everyone alive dies. We’re alive until we’re not. There’s no discrete point
where we go from “living” to “dying.” Love, too, lives and dies in each heartbeat, each breath, each moment. And yet, what
is it? What is "love?" And what lives? What dies? Is it (love), like living-dying, something that cannot be pinned down?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Here is your wine,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And your drunken fall;<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And here is your love,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Your love for it all.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">Really? Even for the
heartbreak? Can we, do we love even the fall? When my heart breaks, as it does
now, I find it hard to even imagine loving the fall, and yet, if I’d never
loved; if I’d never felt loved, could I ever have experienced such a fall? So,
isn’t this fall an integral part of “it all?” And I do; I really <i>do</i> want to love it
all. And I remember this long night, that a Marist brother once told me, “We can love it; we don’t have to like
it.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Here is your sickness;<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Your bed and your pan.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And here is your love<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For the woman, the man.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">Daowu, when asked by
Guishan, “Where are you coming from?” responded by saying “I’ve come from
tending the sick.” But, as Guishan points out, we aren’t sure who and how many are
sick. How can we even tell the difference? He asks, “How many people were
sick?” After Daowu says there were the sick and the not sick, and Guishan then
further muddles down the path of discrimination by asking, ““Isn’t the one not
sick you?” Daowu’s retort, “Being sick and not being sick have nothing to do
with the True Person” can really put one’s knickers in a bind. Or turn our world upside-down. How is this
possible? </span>“As soon as there is affirmation and negation you lose your
mind in a flurry…” As soon as we speak of being ill and not being ill, our mind
is lost in confusion. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“And here is the night,</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The night has begun.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And here is your death</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the heart of your son.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And here is the dawn,</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(Until death do us part).</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And here is your death,</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In your daughter’s heart.”</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Here, in the play of night and
day, here is your love for it all, but, lest we forget, the <i>Sandokai </i>advises, “In the light there is darkness, but
don’t take it as darkness; In the dark there is light, but don’t see it as
light. Light and dark oppose one another like the front and back foot in
walking.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Notice that the front foot is
never the front foot for long; nor does the back foot remain the back foot.
“Each of the myriad things has its merit, expressed according to function and
place.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">And within the very hearts of our
children, those, in other words, who follow, perhaps including even the consequences of our actions, already lives our death. So what is “life?” What is
“death?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“And here you are hurried,</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And here you are gone;</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And here is the love,</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That it’s all built upon.”</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Such a fragile foundation to
build upon. And yet, can anyone propose something of greater strength and
value? What is it?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Like the beat, beat, beat of the tom tom<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>When the jungle shadows fall.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Like the tick, tick, tock of the stately clock<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>As it stands against the wall.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Like the drip, drip drip of the rain drops<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>When the summer showers through<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>A voice within me keeps repeating <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>You, you, you….<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cole Porter knows of what he
sings. Night and day, day and night, “it’s no matter” where s/he is. The
longing follows wherever we go. Whether in the traffic’s boom or the noisy
silence of one’s lonely room, there is the “hungry, yearning, burning” that
ceaselessly torments the lover. But what is it?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Here is your cross,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Your nails and your hill;<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And here is your love,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That lists where it will.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“And may everyone live,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And may everyone die;<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Hello, my love,<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And my love, goodbye.”</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Here it is...</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5x12oo8diKE/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5x12oo8diKE?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; font-size: large;">* The concept of the "true person" is a bit problematic. There is within the zen traditions, the influence of Vedanta and Taoism that has led to a persistent tendency to reify the "mind" as a kind of subtle atman. The "true person" in this understanding is the essence behind the deluded, ever-changing bodymind.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; font-size: large;">From a naturalist perspective, however, talk of the "true person" can be understood as merely a metaphor for living from intimate authenticity. </span></div>
</div>
Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-43752325327263824272015-09-26T16:28:00.001-07:002015-09-26T16:36:21.369-07:00International Blasphemy Rights Day<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Nilroy Neel is the fourth atheist
blogger in Bangladesh hacked to death by machete-wielding Islamic
fanatics in six months. Six men <i><b>entered into his house</b></i> and while four of them
“confined” his wife in another room, the remaining two brutally beheaded him. While such barbarity is not unheard of in Pakistan, prior to 2015, there were six attacks against free-thinkers resulting in two
deaths over a period of fifteen years. But, this year alone, four brave secular
writers have been hacked to death for the crime of raising their voices against
extremism and encouraging equal rights for all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
And this is at least one reason I
celebrate International Blasphemy Rights Day and invite and encourage all who
value free-thinking, religious freedom, and the free expression of all to join me. What
many fail to recognize is that all other recognized rights ultimately depend
upon this right to freedom of expression. After all, how could the oppressed
have fought for the right to vote, the right to be free from slavery, the right
to due process, and the equal rights of LGBTQ people without the ability to
publically criticize traditions, dogmas, and ideologies that have kept in place
unjustifiable restrictions on liberty, dignity, and autonomy?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Without the right of freedom of
expression, there’s no way to openly investigate and determine the truth of any
claim, whether in science, politics, philosophy or religion. The right of free
expression itself has value for the dignity of the individual in that only with
the guarantee of such expression can one express oneself as an individual.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As of 2012, nearly a quarter of the world’s countries (including some among the European Union, Canada, and several of the States of America) has
anti-blasphemy laws or policies, and ten-percent penalized apostasy and atheism,
with punishments varying from fines to capital punishment! And as we might
expect, <i>all thirteen countries that penalize apostasy with execution are
Muslim.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sadly, many “liberals” and “progressives” who, while not
favoring punishment of speech critical of religion, all-too-often will condemn
criticism of religion, especially when it takes the form of satire. And, if
that satire is directed at Islam, the accusation of “racism” or “Islamophobia”
is invoked. But make no mistake, those Muslims who object to satire (and any
and all criticism) of their religion (including Muhammad) pay little attention
to the color, religion, or nationality of the satirists and critics. Raif
Badawi, the founder of an online forum allowing diverse views to be expressed
freely is currently serving a ten-year prison sentence in Saudi Arabia and has
been sentenced to one-thousand lashes and a huge monetary fine. Punjab Governor
Salman Taseer, a Muslim, and Minister of Minorities Affairs in Pakistan, was
assassinated for criticizing that country’s blasphemy laws. Lawyers
representing individuals accused of blasphemy have also been targeted.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Blasphemy laws privilege beliefs over individuals. </b>Such laws
are used to suppress individuals, minorities and dissenters. Governments are
empowered to use these laws against dissenters, but extremists are also
empowered and encouraged to take it upon themselves to violently punish
blasphemers and their defenders. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Though such oppressive laws are often touted as necessary to
promote religious harmony, they actually lead to religious intolerance,
discrimination, and violence. Historical evidence shows that countries that
protect freedom of religion <i>for all </i>– including those of the majority faith,
minorities, dissenters and those holding no religious beliefs – tend toward
greater stability, prosperity and tolerance. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An in-depth exploration of the lasting influence of the
fatwa against Salman Rushdie, “The Importance of Being Blasphemous: Literature,
Self-Censorship, and the Legacy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Satanic Verses</i>” by Stephen R. Welch published in the October/November 2015
issue of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Free Inquiry </i>details the
chilling effect of the liberal appeasement of religious extremists. He writes:<br />
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“It is deeply troubling that the lesson learned from
Khomeini’s <i>fatwa</i> over the past twenty-six years has not been how to better
champion and protect our writers, playwrights, and scholars but rather how to
best emulate the ‘rage of Islam’ in order to suppress any speech and art that
an aggrieved party can claim has offended them. Free speech has become an
indulgence, whereas grievance culture is now an equal-opportunity entitlement.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The Rushdie affair, as Malik observes, was a watershed.
Rushdie’s detractors ‘lost the battle in the sense that they never managed to
stop the publication of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Satanic
Verses,</i>’ but, he says, ‘they won the war by pounding into the liberal
consciousness the belief that to give offence was a morally despicable act.’ We
have internalized the <i>fatwa</i>…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But perhaps, the tide can still change. In some circles the
realization that free expression simply must not be curtailed in a mis-directed,
naïve attempt to avoid giving offense to extremists who, if they were to
succeed to greater power, would extend no such courtesy to us. For the sake of
those who have died for the sake of speaking their minds, we must do all we can
to sustain free thought and expression for the sake of all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>RESOURCES:</u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/28/which-countries-still-outlaw-apostasy-and-blasphemy/">http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/28/which-countries-still-outlaw-apostasy-and-blasphemy/</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/10/atheists-death-penalty-_n_4417994.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/10/atheists-death-penalty-_n_4417994.html</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_blasphemy">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_blasphemy</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<a href="http://end-blasphemy-laws.org/countries/europe/">http://end-blasphemy-laws.org/countries/europe/</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><a href="https://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/articles/7728">https://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/articles/7728</a></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/articles/7730">https://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/articles/7730</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/articles/7731">https://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/articles/7731</a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2ThVzPQBilg/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2ThVzPQBilg?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-70077645630996567422015-07-23T11:58:00.002-07:002015-07-23T12:01:00.499-07:00Impermanence Permeates UsEvery morning, during prostration practice, our dharma students shout a line from this gatha after every 25 prostrations:<br />
<br />
GREAT IS THE MATTER OF BIRTH AND DEATH!<br />
IMPERMANENCE PERMEATES US!<br />
BE AWAKE EACH MOMENT!<br />
DO NOT SQUANDER YOUR LIFE!<br />
<br />
Before anyone thinks we're encouraging ever greater "productivity" and more things to do and accomplish with that last line, we're not. We're exhorting ourselves and anyone with the ears to hear it that we should actually <i>be here </i>for the life we have! We squander it when we fail to actually embody our life; when we take it for granted -- as we tend to do when we live as if we have unlimited time. The contemplation of our mortality is designed to wake us up to <i>this. </i>Whatever <i>this </i>may be in any moment.<br />
<br />
The original second line of the <i>gatha </i>was "Impermanence surrounds us" which to my ears sounded like we were these islands of permanence amidst an ocean of impermanence, so I changed it: "we" are permeated with it; it's not some defect or add-on.<br />
<br />
And here's something we can add to our contemplation when we consider the impermanent nature of the earth herself:<br />
<br />
1. In about 1.1 billion years, the sun will be 10% brighter. This will mean that Earth's oceans will begin to boil off into space. No more yachts; no more cruises; no more lemonade.<br />
<br />
2. In 3.5 billion years, the Earth will look like a true twin of Venus: dry, hot and dead. Yup. We and all life will be over.<br />
<br />
3. In 5 billion years, the sun itself is running down, its hydrogen fuel growing depleted. Its diameter expands out beyond the orbit of the Earth. Two scenarios here: the Earth may either be engulfed by the giant sun OR -- with the expansion of its size, it will lose weight and thus -- its lower gravitation may push the Earth away spiraling out into a more distant orbit.<br />
<br />
4. In 5.4 billion years, the sun is a full-on red giant, with only a little bit of hydrogen left in a shell around its helium core.<br />
<br />
5. By 6.4 billion years from now, the sun's outer layers will slough off, leaving behind a white dwarf, so dense that a teaspoon of it weighs 15-tons! If the Earth hadn't already been engulfed in the red giant stage, now the extreme gravity of the white dwarf may cause the now molten wasteland of the Earth to fall into the remains of its star,<br />
<br />
Enjoy your day!Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-64159388507802927712015-05-12T12:58:00.002-07:002015-05-12T12:58:40.355-07:00Strawberries
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">There’s a story about the human condition that is quite
well-known that goes like this:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">A woman is running from some tigers that are chasing her.
They are gaining on her when she comes to a cliff. She looks and sees a vine
growing out from the cliff, so she climbs out onto the vine and holds on tightly. The
tigers are now just above her head, pawing at the ground and sniffing the air.
Then she looks down and sees that there are tigers down there as well. Just
then she notices the mouse that had been there gnawing away at the vine above
her head, just out of reach. She also sees a few ripe, red strawberries growing
from a nearly clump of grass just within her reach. She looks up at the tigers,
she looks down at the tigers, she looks at the mouse. Then, she picks the largest
of the strawberries, pops it in her mouth and chews. It is lusciously delicious
and she enjoys it thoroughly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The first time I heard this story was at a yoga ashram back in the 70s, and
the metaphor was made even more obvious by having </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">two mice, </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">one white and one black, gnawing away at the vine. Yes,
day and night is eating away at our lifeline. We were born and we will die and
each moment is just what it is. At the ashram, I was told that this is the
human predicament, and that we commonly and foolishly ignore the reality of life and death
and distract ourselves with “strawberries.” The swami said that, rather then
indulge in the sensual pleasures of life, we yoga students should dedicate all our energies
to getting out of this predicament. After all, for much of yoga philosophy, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">moksha,</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> or “liberation,” is understood
as the ceasing of reincarnation, the constant ‘wandering forth’ from life
through death to life, again and again and again. </span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Early buddhism, too, teaches that the point of practice is to end the cycle of
rebirth. In this way, early buddhism is a world-weary, world renouncing path.
This is what is behind the perennial criticism of buddhism as ‘pessimistic’ and
‘life-denying.’ Now, to be clear, the fact that early buddhism also teaches that
there is indeed a transcendent state beyond the suffering of the world, and that this state can
be realized should be enough to see that it is<i> not</i> pessimistic. But it is life and
world-denying. Its "optimism" is based upon this transcendent experience outside this world.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Now, the second time I heard this story was in a zen
monastery and the teacher mimed the act of reaching for the strawberry, popping
it into his mouth and chewing with obvious delight. Only this time, the message
conveyed to us zen students was that given our life situation, with each moment our life hanging by a
thread, being caught in anxiety, resentment, bitterness, and anger prevents us
from fully experiencing our life; Such reactivity keeps us from fully seeing, hearing,
tasting and delighting in "just this." This might be the only moment of our life;
this may be the only strawberry. Do we really want to miss it because we are
anxiously focused on our existential state? Given our life situation, we can be
depressed about this, or we could appreciate our life, as Maezumi Roshi would
encourage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">
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</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I can see how this plays out in my own life. When I find
myself caught in anger or anxiety – usually about how things are going in my
life or the fears about what may happen in the future – I completely lose the
reality of this moment. Please don't misunderstand; this moment may be painful, indeed. It’s not all
sweetness. Some strawberries are sour. But, as difficult as it may be, when
push comes to shove, I’d much rather taste that sourness completely then be
swept away by mental fabrications. </span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">All this isn’t to say we should be all polly-annish about
life and the circumstances we must face. There’s a lot of oppression in this world, with lots of injustice that
we must resist, fight and change. And practice can challenge us to do this while engaging in each moment with as much integrity as we can muster. And that includes tasting
all the tastes life has to offer. </span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-8203653962489376862015-01-15T15:01:00.001-07:002015-01-15T16:38:20.289-07:00Confronting Abuse of Power...<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Winter 2014 issue of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/buddhadharma" target="_blank">Buddhadharma</a></i> had a dramatic, stark cover
with “Confronting Abuse of Power” emblazoned across its center. Under this, was
written, “How it harms practitioners and communities; What can be done to
prevent it; How to address abuse when it happens; Steps you can take to protect
yourself and others.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">When I saw this at the newsstand (I’ve
let my subscription lapse as I’ve grown increasingly disappointed with what
passes for contemporary buddhist ‘journalism’) I scooped it up and eagerly
looked forward to reading it with relief that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">finally </i>at least some buddhist media was willing to actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">confront</i> abuse. What I found was weak
and frustratingly superficial.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In the same way, now a group of
90 zen teachers has published an <a href="http://www.lionsroar.com/openletteronabuse/" target="_blank">open letter</a> at Lion’s Roar (a website sponsored by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shambhala
Sun </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Buddhadharma</i>), initiated
by Abbess Myoan Grace Schireson of the <a href="http://emptynestzendo.org/" target="_blank">Empty Nest Zendo</a> and Rev. Genjo Joe
Marinello of the <a href="http://choboji.org/" target="_blank">Choboji Zen Center</a>. To my mind, it is yet another anemic
response offering too little and coming, if not too late, certainly long
overdue.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The letter pointedly mentions in
particular the wonderfully researched and written <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/12/the-zen-predator-of-the-upper-east-side/383831/" target="_blank">article</a> written by Mark
Oppenheimer for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Atlantic </i>that
covered the abuses of zen teacher <a href="http://www.shimanoarchive.com/NEWindex.html" target="_blank">Eido Shimano</a> over the course of several
decades. Only now, with this “revelation,” the mainstream zen teacher community
pledges “to build more visible ethics codes” and work “toward consensus on
national standards of behavior.” The letter goes on to state that, “as Zen
Buddhist community leaders we are committed to changing the culture of silence
and the idealization of the teacher’s status that has been so detrimental to
students.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">After referring to “scoundrels
and sociopaths,” some of whom become teachers and priests, the letter states
that “revelations concerning Eido Shimano” are now taken “as a wake-up call to
each of us to pay close attention to the safety of the members of our community
and to monitor our own behavior as well as that of others.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">So, all this sounds good. What do
I have to criticize about such a sincere response? Am I simply being a
curmudgeon? Well, to begin, the letter suggests that Oppenheimer’s article
“exposed” a problem with Eido Shimano, and yet I – at best described as an
outlier of the zen community – had heard about such abuse twenty years ago. <i><a href="http://www.strippingthegurus.com/" target="_blank">Stripping The Gurus</a> </i>notes that "rumors" about Eido were already spreading in the early 70s, just before I began practicing at the New York Zendo. What I hadn’t known until only a few years ago, but still way before the
Oppenheimer article, is that such a respected teacher as <a href="http://robertaitken.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Aitken Roshi</a> had known
for even longer and had kept quiet about what he knew in order to “protect the
dharma.” Of course this is a classic excuse for justifying and maintaining
silence when the right thing to do is clearly to speak out. For someone who has
written a classic on zen ethics (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://us.macmillan.com/themindofclover/robertaitken" target="_blank">The Mind of Clover</a></i>) this is one major ethical fail! It speaks to the tightly wound
web of secrecy that is endemic to zen tradition. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Second, why only now after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this particular scandal</i> are mainstream
zen teachers pledging to do something? This after <a href="http://www.thezensite.com/ZenEssays/CriticalZen/Richard_Baker_and_the_Myth.htm" target="_blank">Richard Baker Roshi</a>, <a href="http://dangerousharvests.blogspot.com/2011/02/sexism-in-sangha-scandals.html" target="_blank">Taizan Maezumi Roshi</a>, <a href="http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/02/disrobing-genpo-brad-warner/" target="_blank">Genpo Marzel Roshi</a>, and <a href="http://www.tricycle.com/blog/buddha-buzz-joshu-sasaki-roshi-scandal-goes-viral-kind" target="_blank">Joshu Sasaki Roshi</a> which is <a href="http://www.strippingthegurus.com/stgsamplechapters/zen.html" target="_blank">already too many</a>. And it’s not about sex. Or finances. It’s about power, hierarchical
structures of power that become oppressive and de-liberating. It’s about
secrecy and the obfuscation promoted by much of zen culture. For too long,
teachers and students have turned a blind eye to the problem posed by
“scoundrels” because they are merely the symptom of a problem that lies at the
very heart of zen culture. And that’s why the focus on “scoundrels and
sociopaths” is ultimately the safest, most anemic, and irresponsible position
the zen teacher community can take! The problem is not simply “a few bad
apples,” but the mythic-based structures that enshrine dysfunctional power
relations within zen communities, most particularly the magico-mythos of
“transmission” and the elevated ideal of the “teacher” found in zen, and in
particular <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Japanese zen</i>, which has
had the biggest influence on American zen.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Interestingly, even <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/monkeymind/" target="_blank">James Myoun Ford</a> has written at his blog, “<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">So, I think we need teachers, but they need to be taken down a peg or
two. The analogy I’ve used in the past continues to hold for me. In the
Christian tradition the myth of Catholic apostolic succession and bishops as
magical successors in a lineage gives way to an Anglican view, where the form
of bishop is retained but seen as functional rather than magical. We need Zen
teachers in succession who see themselves not as magical inheritors but as long
time students entrusted with a terrible and beautiful responsibility.” What I
find ironic is that this is the same man who authored a book entitled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.wisdompubs.org/book/zen-master-who" target="_blank">Zen Master Who?</a></i> In that book, Ford
writes: “This transmission – perhaps more correctly with a capital <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">T -- </i>was clearly about spiritual
authority. It was the acknowledgment of realization and the right to teach in
the name of the lineage. This Transmission was now clearly distinguishable from
simple ordination into the monastic sangha.” I would assert that transmission
(most especially with a capital <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">T)</i>,
authorization, and lineage are at the heart of zen’s dysfunctional relationship
to power. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/buddha-9230587" target="_blank">legendary biography</a> of the buddha has him a Prince, the son of a
King who ruled autocratically, as kings do, in his kingdom. The reality,
however, is that the buddha was born into the Sakiya (Sakhya) republic.
Republics were named after the ruling clan. His father was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">elected </i>to a position equivalent to president of the republic and
speaker of the assembly. I think this is important to remember because it was
upon the structure of the republic and the council that the buddha modeled his
sangha, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i>the kingdoms that
were forming at that time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">It appears that the buddha did not grant himself autocratic control of
the sangha, though I’ve no doubt his word generally received greatest respect and was mostly followed. That said,
there is a story I’ve found amusing about a time when the monks were caught in
an argument amongst themselves, and when they refused to take the buddha’s
advice, the buddha left the sangha for a few weeks, finding the monks tiresome!
It was only after they had resolved their issues that they approached the
buddha and requested he return to the sangha. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">Before he died, the buddha was explicitly asked by Ananda, his cousin
and attendant, for “some last instructions respecting the community of bhikkhus.”
To this, the buddha responded: </span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">"What more does the community of bhikkhus expect
from me, Ananda? I have set forth the Dhamma without making any distinction of
esoteric and exoteric doctrine; there is nothing, Ananda, with regard to the
teachings that the Tathagata holds to the last with the closed fist of a
teacher who keeps some things back. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Whosoever may think that it is he who should
lead the community of bhikkhus, or that the community depends upon him, it is
such a one that would have to give last instructions respecting them. But,
Ananda, the Tathagata has no such idea as that it is he who should lead the
community of bhikkhus, or that the community depends upon him. So what
instructions should he have to give respecting the community of bhikkhus?<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Tathagata held no idea that he led the community or
that the community depended upon him! But zen’s founding myth is the
mysterious, subtle <a href="http://the-wanderling.com/birds_way.html" target="_blank">“direct mind-to-mind transmission”</a> from the buddha to
Mahakashyapa, the first of such “transmissions.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What American zen teachers choose to ignore is that
zen’s origins in China were as an upstart sect that created the “transmission
outside the scriptures” supposedly creating a lineage of enlightened masters as
a way to create a sense of legitimacy and to gain acceptance of the Chinese
populace. This is already a far cry from the buddha’s assertion that he made no
distinction between esoteric and exoteric doctrine.” Along with this myth, the
emphasis on “authority” and “lineage” comes as the inheritance of Confucian
ancestor worship that encouraged the reverence for the patriarchs of zen.
Finally, with the “transmission” to the fifth Chinese patriarch, Hui-neng, we
see more mystification and secrecy, the transmission taking place in the dead
of night, with no witnesses, only teacher and disciple. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-style: normal;">As I write in my <a href="http://zennaturalism.blogspot.com/2014/12/hui-neng-his-legendary-biography.html" target="_blank">essay on Hui-neng</a>,</span><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-style: normal;"> lineage “has come to mean the
“certification,” the “seal of sanctioned approval” of one Master’s
enlightenment by another through a “mind-to-mind” transmission, certifying the
legitimacy of the succeeding teacher to be a teacher and leader of the Sangha.
It is this idea of lineage transmission<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>that is greatly emphasized in Zen. This practice can be seen as a means
of ensuring that only properly certified and genuinely enlightened people are
allowed to teach, which would be seen as a protection for those of us who are
unenlightened from being exploited, or it can be seen as a system for
maintaining priestly power and creating mystique.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The elevating of the teacher found in zen is the
consequence of these various factors: the myth of “mind-to-mind transmission” certifying
one’s enlightenment; the emphasis on lineage inherited from Confucianism; and
the obfuscation to make the obvious non-obvious that I write about in the above
linked essay.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The blog post from James
Ford, and the open letter signed by 90 zen teachers both speak
of the need to “take teachers down a peg or two” and to “change the culture of
silence and the idealization of the teacher’s status that has been so detrimental
to students.”</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Cambria; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I’ve been arguing this was needed for decades. I’m
happy to see the more established, mainstream zen teacher community finally
getting onboard. But as long as the focus is on “scoundrels,” I won’t expect
too much to change. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
My teacher, <a href="http://www.zenbuddhisttemple.org/sunim_bio.html" target="_blank">Samu Sunim</a>, created a seminary program with a curriculum of
training leading to ordination as a dharma teacher (poep sa). This is a move of
great transparency. But the term “dharma teacher” has itself become idealized
through structures that treat the title and the person as “magical inheritors.”
A well-respected zen teacher told me that he thought decades of practice and
study are required before one can be authorized and authenticated to be a
dharma teacher. Yet, the fact remains that every one of the teachers mentioned
above who have shown themselves to be “scoundrels” were “authenticated and
approved” to be inheritors of mind-to-mind transmission and enlightenment. Why
not just treat them as teachers? Folk who know a bit more about the subject and
who can give guidance and advice? Like, you know <i>t</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">eachers!<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">It may be relevant to note that while
such examples of grievous misconduct are all too easy to find in the traditions
that idealize the role of teacher such as zen and Tibetan buddhism with its
guru-centric practice (to the point of adding going for refuge to the lama as a fourth
refuge!), there doesn’t seem to be the same issue in western vipassana (mostly
lay teachers who manage to keep precepts better than the zen priests!) or Theravada
buddhism. Perhaps among the reasons for this is that structurally, the
Theravada traditions view teachers <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">as</i>
teachers! They are not idealized, but rather appreciated, with reverence, as
friends-along-the-path (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kalyana-mitta). </i>This
is the difference Ford points to when he compares the apostolic succession of
Catholic and Anglican bishops. It is a function served, not mystical, magical
or even about the person <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">per se</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Here in Tucson, our sangha is modeled
after the republican council of the buddha’s sangha. All our meetings:
community planning meetings, board of director meetings and membership meetings
are open to the public. Not just members of the sangha: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the public</i>. All decisions other than practice related (and some of
them are open to discussion) are made by consensus. I have no unilateral, absolute
power to make decisions outside of spending two-hundred dollars a quarter. This
commitment to transparency has empowered all our members to speak up and speak
out whenever anything seems less than obvious. These are structural issues that were put in place prophylactically, so to speak. And, despite this, we are currently
working on a Code of Ethics, as well as a Grievance Process, because being
prepared with eyes open truly is already the best protection for teacher, student and community. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-29205386233271644052014-12-19T21:52:00.000-07:002014-12-19T21:52:07.545-07:00Hui-neng: His Legendary Biography, the Platform Sutra and the Diamond-Cutter
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<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Hui-neng,
the sixth Patriarch, asked, “Whence do you come?”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-align: center;">
<i>Huai-jang of
Nan-yueh said, “I come from Tung-shan.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-align: center;">
<i>Hui-neng
asked, “What is it that thus comes?”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Huai-jang did not know what to answer. For eight
long years</i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he
pondered the question; then one day it dawned upon him,</i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and he
exclaimed,</i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-align: center;">
<i>“Even to say it is something does not hit the mark.”</i><sup><i>1</i><o:p></o:p></sup></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To attempt writing this post, I
have read five translations and commentaries on </span><i>The Diamond Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> including Hui-neng’s, and four translations of </span><i>The
Platform Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, and I know nothing. Certainly I
know less than when I began, but it must be admitted that this is most surely a
good result. There are thoughts, reactions and opinions regarding what I have
read, but the </span>questions<span style="font-style: normal;"> are so much more
alive in me than anything I could positively say about any of this. To say </span>anything<span style="font-style: normal;"> is to miss the mark.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When I first read </span><i>The
Platform Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> many years ago, I wondered how this could be Buddhism? Indeed, there was much I recognized from other
readings, but there was also much that seemed foreign to what I had read
previously. I was especially taken aback by certain terms used by Hui-neng that
seemed terribly close to how Brahman is referred to in the </span><i>Upanishads</i><span style="font-style: normal;">. Additionally, I was displeased by the sectarianism
that seemed to penetrate much of the text, and when I later learned about some
of the political maneuvering, and how the lineage was more created myth than
reality – and considering how the practice of lineage had been so misused up
until this day – I turned away from what Hui-neng could teach me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This current engagement represents a new
grappling with Hui-neng and what his life has to teach me personally, as well
as all practitioners of Buddha-Dharma, and in no way is to be seen as
conclusive. It is but barely a beginning!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 18.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">]<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-style: normal;">The dates generally agreed upon for Hui-neng, also
called Wei-lang, are 638 to 713 CE. He is recognized as the sixth Chinese
Patriarch of Ch’an, and as such is sometimes regarded as the “real” father of
the Ch’an tradition because of the strong Chinese “stamp” or “flavor” he
imparted to what until his time had been strongly marked by traditional Indian
Buddhism. While he never formally transmitted the patriarchate to a successor,
he did have several outstanding students, and among them, Huai-jang and Shen-hui
had a great impact on the “five houses—seven schools” of Ch’an during the T’ang
period.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For centuries it has been taught
that he gave the teachings recorded in the only Chinese Buddhist work accorded
the status of sutra: </span><i>The Sutra Spoken from the High Seat of the Dharma
Treasure</i>,<span style="font-style: normal;"> more commonly referred to as </span><i>The
Platform Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;">. From this sutra, we learn that
Hui-neng came from a poor background, supporting his widowed mother by
gathering and selling firewood, and thus had never learned to read or write.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One day, while tending to his
business, he heard someone reciting </span><i>The Diamond Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, and upon hearing the sentence, “Let your mind flow
freely without dwelling on anything,” he had a spontaneous enlightenment (or
enlightening) experience. Upon questioning the man who had been reciting the
sutra, he learned about Hung-jen, the Fifth Patriarch of Ch’an and his
monastery on Mount Huang-mei.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Hui-neng left home (after
providing for his mother) to go see Hung-jen, who we are told, immediately
recognized his potential, but had Hui-neng assigned to the kitchen where his
chores were to split firewood and crank the rice mill. Apparently he worked
there for years, mostly unnoticed by all but the Fifth Patriarch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When the time came for Hung-jen
to transmit the patriarchate to a successor, he asked his students to express
their experience and understanding of the Dharma in a poem. All the students,
sure that the senior monastic, Shen-hsiu, was destined to become Hung-jen’s
successor because of his intellectual brilliance, refrained from writing poems,
so that the only poem written was by Shen-hsiu.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In his poem, Shen-hsiu compared
the human body with the Bodhi-tree and the mind with a mirror-stand holding a
mirror that must be continuously cleaned in order to keep it free from dust
settling upon it. When Hui-neng had Shen-hsiu’s poem read to him, he composed a
poem in answer and had someone write it for him:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Enlightenment
originally has no tree,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And
a clear mirror is not a stand.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Originally
there’s not a single thing –<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i>Where
can dust be attracted?”</i><sup><i>2</i><o:p></o:p></sup></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: center;">
<sup><i><br /></i></sup></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Hung-jen, recognizing Hui-neng’s
deeper understanding, and fearing internecine strife, called for Hui-neng to
meet with him in the middle of the night and explained </span><i>The Diamond Sutra </i><span style="font-style: normal;">to him. According to </span><i>The Platform Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, when Hung-jen got to the point where </span><i>The
Diamond Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> says, “You should activate the
mind without dwelling on anything,” Hui-neng had the overwhelming realization
that “all things are not apart from inherent nature.”<sup>3<o:p></o:p></sup></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><sup><br /></sup></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Realizing that Hui-neng had
realized original nature, Hung-jen transmitted the robe and bowl symbolizing
the transmission of the patriarchate, thus making Hui-neng the Sixth Patriarch.
Hung-jen told Hui-neng that the robe had become a “robe of contention” and that
its passing should stop with him, and that fearful for his safety if he should
remain, Hung-jen had Hui-neng leave the monastery under cover of the night and
go into hiding in southern China.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Fifteen years passed while
Hui-neng lived among hunters. Finally, it seemed to Hui-neng that the time had
come for him to start spreading the teaching, so he went to Fa-hsin monastery
in Kuang-chou where the doctrinal master Yin-tsung was expounding upon the </span><i>Nirvana-Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;">. It was at this time that Hui-neng’s famous dialogue
with the monks arguing over whether it was the flag or the wind in motion took
place. He stepped forward and said, “It is not the flag or the wind moving; it
is your minds moving.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>With this statement, all who
heard it were impressed and master Yin-tsung, recognizing Hui-neng’s deep
understanding surmised that he must indeed be the carrier of the Dharma as
transmitted from Hung-jen. When Hui-neng acknowledged that he indeed was the
Dharma successor of Hung-jen, master Yin-tsung shaved Hui-neng’s head and ordained
him as a monk, while requesting that Hui-neng become his teacher.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is how Hui-neng began his
teaching career, first at the Fa-hsin monastery, and then eventually at his own
monastery, the Pao-lin-ssu near Ts’ao-chi, near the port city of Canton. His
teaching became known as the Southern School of Ch’an, while Shen-hsiu and his
students taught what became known as the Northern School, also claiming the
true successorship of the Fifth Patriarch. As might be expected from the
respective verses of Shen-hsiu and Hui-neng, the Northern School advocated a
gradual approach to enlightenment along with the intellectual understanding of
the meaning of the sutras, whereas the Southern School stressed reaching
awakening through “a sudden, intuitive leap into intellect-transcending
immediacy of experience.”<sup>4<o:p></o:p></sup></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><sup><br /></sup></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Shen-hsiu’s approach seems more
in keeping with the Dhyana movement and emphasis of Indian Buddhism, while
Hui-neng’s approach took the definitive step toward assimilating Indian Dhyana
Buddhism into the Chinese cultural milieu, marked at least as strongly by
Taoism (and perhaps some elements of Confucianism) as by Buddhism. Hiu-neng’s
Southern School, with its radical rejection of mere book learning, which was a
view already exemplified for centuries by Taoist sages,<sup>5</sup> and the
more Chinese folk cultural traits of earthiness, combined with dry humor,
produced all the great lineages of Ch’an. During the T’ang and Sung periods the
successors of Hui-neng were responsible for what has come to be called the
“golden age of Ch’an” and it is many of their deeds and sayings that in the
form of koans have become an important component of Zen training.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 18.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">]<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Ching Ch'ing asked a monk, “What sound is that
outside the gate?” The monk said, “The sound of raindrops.” </i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Ching Ch’ing said, “Sentient beings are inverted.
They lose themselves and follow other things.”</i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>The monk said, “What about you, Teacher?”</i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Ch’ing said, “I almost don’t lose myself.”</i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>The monk said, “What is the meaning of ‘I almost
don’t lose myself?’”</i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Ch’ing said, “Though it still should be easy to
express oneself, to say the whole thing has to be difficult.”</i><sup><i>6</i><o:p></o:p></sup></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Reading the history of </span><i>the Platform
Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, as one may find in Philip Yampolsky’s </span><i>The
Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, we find
that by the middle of the eighth century in China, there was a great
intensification of internecine quarrels among the various Buddhist groups.
Works attacking rival doctrines (and personages) contributed to the rise of
“sectarian Buddhism.”<sup>7 </sup>According to Yampolsky, due to a combination
of historical circumstances, political patronage and the very nature of its
teachings, Ch’an emerged as the primary school of Chinese Buddhism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Yampolsky writes that as Indian
Buddhism infiltrated Chinese culture, its meditation teachings were adopted,
assimilated with the Taoist contemplative arts, and were put to use by the
various schools of Buddhism. Eventually groups of wandering ascetics who
emphasized meditation practice began to come together to form communities of
practice. By the end of the seventh century, one such community was that of
Hung-jen’s who had himself gained considerable prominence. It was with him and
his students that the story of Ch’an as a separate sect begins.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It can be somewhat disconcerting
to a Westerner to learn that the history of Ch’an she has been taught is no
more than “legend” or “myth.” And further, as Yampolsky says, “In the
manufacture of this history, accuracy was not a consideration; a tradition
traceable to the Indian Patriarchs was the objective.”<sup>8 </sup>Throughout the
eighth century, a two-fold movement took place: there was the primary attempt
to establish the upstart Ch’an as a legitimate sect within the larger fold of Buddhism, and
there was the internal struggle to gain acceptance for a particular school of
Ch’an within the Chinese society in which it existed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The lovely story about the Buddha
holding a flower and thus “transmitting” the Dharma to Mahakashyapa, while
perhaps hinting at a deep and profound truth, is itself but one of these
manufactured legends that were repeated over time until they became accepted as
fact. Many Western students of Zen are totally unaware of this, and feel almost
a sense of betrayal when they find out. This was true for me, but over time I
have found a way to relate to the deeper existential truth in this and other stories. But I do believe we should
critically look at the history and extract what is useful and at least
revaluate other aspects that have proven to have had a truly devastating impact
on the history of Zen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Yampolsky states that “To achieve
the aura of legitimacy so urgently needed, histories were compiled, tracing the
Ch’an sect back to the historical Buddha…”<sup>9 </sup>The whole lineage
chanted in many Japanese and American Zen centers rooted in Japanese Zen, is more fabrication than literal truth. Indeed, the
idea of lineage was Chinese manufactured, reflecting the more Confucian ideal
of ancestor worship and the hierarchal stratification of Chinese society. In
the Pali Canon, and throughout the Theravada tradition, it is explicitly made
clear that the Buddha rejected naming anyone as his successor. The almost obsessive
emphasis on lineage and authenticity of transmission found in Japanese Zen, in particular (we never chanted any so-called 'blood-line' in my Korean Seon training) has led to
much abuse, and ironically, we see its roots at the very beginning with the
story of Hui-neng and Shen-hsiu.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The various texts starting from
the eight century that purport to tell the history of Ch’an, and the
biographies of its major proponents have little to say about Hung-jen, who they
name as the Fifth Chinese Patriarch. One text, the </span><i>Ch’uan fa-pao chi</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> tells us that he died at the age of 74 in the year
675, after transmitting his teachings to Fa-ju. This same text tells us that
Shen-hsiu was the heir to Fa-ju, yet in all other works it is Shen-hsiu who was
the heir of Hung-jen. All the other works, that is, except for the </span><i>Platform
Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> that purports to tell us of the “true” transmission
line to Hui-neng.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Shen-hsiu (606? – 706) was
acknowledged as one of the great Ch’an masters, honored by court and populace
alike. He was the great leader of the Lankavatara School, which later came to
be known as the Northern Ch’an and was, according to all contemporary records,
one of the most eminent priests of his time. The first mention we have of
Hui-neng is found in the </span><i>Leng-chia jen-fa chih</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> where he is simply listed as one of the eleven principle disciples of
Hung-jen along with Shen-hsiu, Fa-ju, Chih-hsien and seven others. This same
text states that Shen-hsiu transmitted the Patriarchate to P’u-chi, and that
along with P’u-chi, Shen-hsiu had three other principle heirs: Ching-hsien,
I-fu, and Hui-fu. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">While this Ch’an of Shen-hsiu and his disciples was enjoying
great popularity and prestige, a then unknown priest from Nan-yang, Shen-hui,
intent upon promulgating a new school of his own launched an attack upon the
Ch’an of Shen-hsiu, and after years of struggle, eventually carried the day. Apparently,
Shen-hui had been a student of Hui-neng’s, and it is most probable that </span><i>The
Platform Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> was actually written by a
student of Shen-hui’s and includes much that is similar to the </span><i>Discourses of Shen-hui.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Paramount among Shen-hui’s
arguments is that "the true transmission" was from Hung-jen to Hui-neng, and not
to Shen-hsiu as had been accepted. This, of course, if true, would (conveniently) make
Shen-hui’s teachings, as a former student of Hui-neng, more “authentic” than
the teachings of students of Shen-hsiu. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Shen-hui did not criticize the
“Northern Ch’an” of Shen-hsiu only for its alleged usurpation of the
Patriarchate. He also accused the Northern School of holding erroneous views,
especially regarding meditation practice. In one of his </span>Discourses<span style="font-style: normal;">, which parallels the alleged teaching of Hui-neng in
</span><i>The Platform Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Shen-hui includes
the following passage:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">“Master Yuan said: ‘P’u-chi ch’an-shih of Sung-yueh
and Hsiang-mo of Tung-shan, these two priests of great virtue, teach men to
concentrate the mind to enter dhyana, to settle the mind to see purity, to
stimulate the mind to illuminate the external, to control the mind to
demonstrate the internal. On this they base their teaching. Why, when you talk
about Ch’an, don’t you teach men these things? What is sitting meditation?’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Shen-hui said: ‘If I taught people to do these
things, it would be a hindrance to attaining enlightenment. The sitting I’m
talking about means not to give rise to thoughts. The meditation I’m talking
about is to see the original nature.’”<sup>10<o:p></o:p></sup></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Further, in a passage that
closely resembles the passage in section 13 (of the Tun-huang text) of the </span><i>Platform
Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> and throughout chapters two, four, five
and eight of the other texts, Shen-hui elucidates his teaching on the identity
of prajna and dhyana:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">“Not to give rise to thoughts, emptiness without
being, this is the true meditation. The ability to see the non-rising of
thoughts, to see emptiness without being, this is the true wisdom; at the
moment there is meditation, this is the substance of wisdom; at the moment
there is wisdom, this is the function of meditation. Thus the moment there is
meditation, it is no different from wisdom, The moment there is wisdom, it is
no different from meditation. Why? Because by their nature, of themselves, mediation
and wisdom are alike.”<sup>11</sup></span></div>
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This point is further elaborated by Shen-hui and throughout the <i>Platform Sutra, </i>in the frequent criticism made against the Northern School that it taught a gradual method of attaining enlightenment (as epitomized in Shen-hsiu's poem) through diligent meditative practices, as opposed to the Southern School's "sudden method" of direct intuitive insight into "original nature."</div>
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In the following sections of this essay, I seek to describe some of my responses to these three points: 1. the issue of lineage and authenticity; 2. the issue of "practice" and 3. the issue of "gradual" or "sudden" ("immediate"), especially as to how these issues relate to the concepts of "Buddha-Nature" (dhatuvada) and "intrinsic enlightenment."</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal;">]</span></b></div>
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<i>“The Dhamma I have taught has no secret and public
versions: there is no ‘teacher’s closed fist’ about good things here. Surely it
would be someone who thought this: ‘I shall govern the Sangha’ or ‘The Sangha
depends on me’ who might make a pronouncement about the Sangha? A Perfect One
does not think like that…each of you should make himself his island, himself
and no other his refuge; each of you should make the Dhamma his island, the
Dhamma and no other his refuge.”</i><sup><i>12</i><o:p></o:p></sup></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Lineage as a concept meaning that
every student and practitioner of the Dharma has learned from other students
and practitioners, and that this line of succession goes all the way back to
the Buddha in India is both unexceptional and true. It might even be accurate
to call it a “truism.” But it helps</span> to deepen one's understanding of
continuity and connection to an ancestral stream. When I first took precepts, I felt like I was
stepping into a spiritual “ancestral lineage”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and I took great support and nourishment from this
awareness, that I am not “alone” and that I am truly a part of something much
grander than “this life” or “this lifetime.”</div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>However, lineage has come to mean
much more than this. It has come to mean the “certification,” the “seal of
sanctioned approval” of one Master’s enlightenment by another through a
“mind-to-mind” transmission, certifying the legitimacy of the succeeding
teacher to be a teacher and leader of the Sangha. It is this idea of lineage
transmission<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that is greatly
emphasized in Zen. This practice can be seen as a means of ensuring that only
properly certified and genuinely enlightened people are allowed to teach which
would be seen as a protection for those of us who are unenlightened from being
exploited, or it can be seen as a system for maintaining priestly power and creating
mystique.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is obvious that the idea of
transmission and lineage is intended to impart the aura of legitimacy, but this
begs the question of why would a school or a teacher need such “legitimacy?”
Presumably, the answer would be that what they have to offer is non-obvious.
What they have to offer is something those of us who are unenlightened would be
unable to evaluate. David Brazier, in </span><i>The New Buddhism</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, gives the example of using the services of a
greengrocer and a doctor. We do not ask to see certification from the
greengrocer. We just ask if he has cabbages for sale if that is what we seek and then we look to see their quality.
But we do ask to see certification from our doctor because if we wait to see if
he knows what he is doing through personal practical experimentation, it may be
too late before we realize he is a quack! The lineage system puts Dharma
Teachers in the same category as doctors and not in the same one as
greengrocers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Interestingly, Brazier points out
that the Buddha put himself in the greengrocer category. “Come and see and try
it out for yourself,” he said. If you like what I offer and it helps you to
overcome suffering, use it. If not, not. The Buddha did not appoint a successor
(although the Mahayana created the legend of the flower sermon to legitimize
the idea of succession through Mahakashyapa). The Buddha </span>did<span style="font-style: normal;"> offer his opinion as to who was enlightened when
asked about particular people. However, there is a passage where Ananda,
seeming to pester the Buddha with this question, is told by the Buddha that
Ananda could simply see for himself whether someone is enlightened or not,
telling him that the test of one’s enlightenment and understanding is how well
they follow the discipline. So it seems that the Buddha thought that the matter
was obvious, not non-obvious. If a person was enlightened, you could tell from
what he or she did. </span><i>You could know them by their deeds</i><span style="font-style: normal;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>After the death of the Buddha,
differing camps began to arise, each with its own slant on the teachings of the
Buddha. Once the Mahasanghika, the spiritual ancestors of
the Mahayana, began to express willingness to change the rules and the form,
criterion other than orthodoxy was required to establish legitimacy. Lineage
was grasped onto as a way of showing that while the way a particular school
practices or teaches may not look like the way the Buddha did; it is directly
descended from and derived from him. Lineage also implies that as all the
changes were made by certified enlightened Masters, they are not only authentic
and true, they are perhaps even improvements on what the Buddha taught and how
the orthodoxy practices! That is to say again, lineage becomes a means of
legitimizing the non-obvious.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This use and understanding of
lineage is highly problematic. First of all, lineage is a form of “argument
from authority” which Western logic regards as a fallacious argument (although,
unfortunately as we have learned all too sadly in the USA throughout the “war
on terrorism,” all too accepted by popular opinion). Just because someone holds
a high position does not, of itself, ensure that he or she is right. The Buddha
himself stressed this in his </span><i>Discourse to the Kalamas</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> when he told them not to believe and accept
something just because of the position of the person who has told you it –
including himself in this. Things are not true simply because the Buddha says
it. </span>They are true if they are true,<span style="font-style: normal;"> and
regarding things that matter, like birth and death and how to live a “noble”
life, while we may need wiser folk to point it out to us, we still need to test
what they say for ourselves. Sadly, humans like to shirk this responsibility
and simply accept authority all too easily. Those societies based upon
legitimization systems, such as the Roman Catholic Church, as seen most
recently in their handling of the sexual abuse crisis, tend to work quite
badly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The fact is that in the last
fifty years there have indeed been <a href="http://www.tricycle.com/blog/sex-sangha-apparently-we-still-havent-had-enough" target="_blank">some disturbingly significant examples</a> of
“legitimately authorized” Buddhist Masters acting in such ways that one must
question the usefulness of lineage. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/world/asia/zen-buddhists-roiled-by-accusations-against-teacher.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0" target="_blank">Recently,</a> there seems to have been a spate of such abuse, (<a href="http://www.thezensite.com/ZenEssays/CriticalZen/Richard_Baker_and_the_Myth.htm" target="_blank">Richard Baker</a>, <a href="http://dangerousharvests.blogspot.com/2013/08/why-genpo-roshi-controversy-just-wont.html" target="_blank">Genpo Roshi</a>, <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/14/the-shocking-scandal-at-the-heart-of-american-zen.html" target="_blank">Shimano Roshi</a> and way too many others) I will only address one, and that is the
case of Yasutani Roshi who received “transmission” and was legitimated by the
lineage system of the Soto Zen School two months after publishing a book on
Dogen which is full of militarist and anti-Semitic propaganda. The book uses
the teachings of Dogen to “support the war, deify the emperor, promote the
superiority of Japan, foster anti-Semitism and encourage people to exterminate
the enemy.”<sup>13</sup> Included in his commentary on the First Precept is the
following passage: “Failing to kill an evil man who ought to be killed, or
destroying an enemy army that ought to be destroyed, would be to betray
compassion and filial obedience, to break the precept forbidding the taking of
life. This is a special characteristic of the Mahayana precepts.” Thankfully,
most teachers within the Buddhist world do not hold this </span>non-obvious<span style="font-style: normal;"> “special characteristic”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The merits of a system that
rewards someone with its highest seal of approval and spiritual authority when
he is confirmed in such warmongering attitudes are also non-obvious! It is
clear that if the function and purpose of lineage is to offer a “guarantee” of
someone’s enlightenment it has failed to do so – in this case at least. A
guarantee that is unreliable is no guarantee at all. It seems to me that
lineage, as an authentication system is not a system that was accepted by the
Buddha and is not one he would have approved of. I believe that Buddhism is
hindered, not served, by unnecessary mystification, and much of “transmission”
and lineage reeks of mystification and obscuration. While I agree that people
rarely become enlightened without spiritual teachers, it is ultimately the
students who authenticate and authorize the teachers. It is our responsibility
to, as the Dalai Lama points out, examine the teacher before committing to
studying with him or her, and evaluate how he or she lives according to the
discipline. An enlightened being is one who embodies the precepts, and if
someone says they are above the precepts, they have not fully understood the
Dharma.</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What is perhaps even more
troubling is <a href="http://www.wiseattention.org/blog/2014/03/24/rude-awakenings-zen-at-war/" target="_blank">the response</a> of those who were given transmission by Yasutani to
the uncovering of their teacher’s ideology. All seemed to defend Yasutani
through various twists of non-obvious logic, but Jiun Kubota, the Third
Patriarch of the Religious Foundation Sanbo-kyodan founded by Yasutani
published an apology for his teacher’s expressions of support for war that
still harbors what I feel is a dangerous doctrine. He states in his “apology”
that Dharma and political ideology are two separate things and that Yasutani’s
disciples were only interested in the dharma and not in the ideology. I reject
this unequivocally. The task of the Dharma Teacher is, not to be perfect
perhaps, but surely involves “imparting values, vision and inspiration that
touch all aspects of the disciple’s lives.”<sup>14</sup> The doctrine that says
Dharma and social attitudes are unrelated is not what I understand to be the
teachings of the Buddha. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 18.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">]<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i>The farmer channels water to his land.</i></div>
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<i>The fletcher whittles his arrows.</i></div>
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<i>And the carpenter turns his wood.</i></div>
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<i>So the wise man directs his mind.</i><sup><i>15</i><o:p></o:p></sup></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Statements attributed to Hui-neng
that echo the statements from Shen-hui’s </span><i>Discourses</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> as quoted above, and other statements such as, “Do
not say there is a difference between stabilization coming first and then
producing insight, and insight coming first and then producing stabilization.
Those who entertain this view are dualistic in their doctrine;”<sup>16 </sup>and
“Deluded people stick to the appearances of things: they cling to the idea of
absorption in one practice as only meaning constantly sitting unmoving, not
letting the mind be aroused at random. They identify this with absorption in
one practice, but those who make this interpretation are equivalent to
inanimate objects,”<sup>17</sup> as well as his response to Shen-hsiu’s
student, Chih-ch’eng who asserts that Shen-hsiu “instructs people to stop the
mind, and contemplate quietude, sitting constantly without lying down” by saying,
“Stopping the mind and contemplating quietude is pathological: it is not Ch’an.
Sitting all the time constricts the body – how does it help toward truth?”<sup>18
</sup>have led many to conclude that Hui-neng and Shen-hui swept aside all
meditation and rejected sitting practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>However, if this is so, we would
find ourselves in the awkward position of studying and honoring the teaching of
a teacher while practicing the complete opposite, for as anyone who has ever
practiced in any Zen tradition knows, sitting meditation is central to
practice. We would have to conclude, based upon this fact, that Hui-neng’s
ideas were completely ignored by later Ch’an teachers. Yet, as Hui-neng makes
it explicitly clear in his response to Fa-ta regarding the latter’s recitation practice,
Hui-neng was criticizing the </span>method<span style="font-style: normal;">, not
the meditation. He was criticizing the attachment to the form of practice,
whether the ritualized and unmindful recitation of sutras, or the limiting of
meditation to formalized sitting practice; he was basically saying that it can
be and must be “practiced” at all times. Hui-neng was attempting to correct the
rather common misperception of meditation practice as being completely
immobile, thoughtless and actionless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As he asserts in </span><i>The Platform Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
“Freedom from form means detachment from forms in the midst of forms. Freedom
from thought means having no thoughts in the midst of thoughts,”<sup>19 </sup>which
is no more than the central teaching of </span><i>The Diamond Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> that first startled Hui-neng into spontaneous realization,
“Let your mind flow freely without dwelling on anything.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Indeed, within Hui-neng’s
teaching of the “Five Perfumes,” he says, “Once one’s own mind is not fixated
on anything, good or bad, it will not do to sink into vacuity and keep to
quiescence; </span><i>one should study broadly and learn a lot,</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (emphasis added) recognizing one’s own original
mind and master the principles of the buddhas, harmonize enlightenment to deal
with people, free from egoistic personality, unchanging right up to the
attainment of the true nature of enlightenment.”<sup>20 </sup>This is a
wonderful prescription for “engaged practice,” and the obviousness of the
non-dual nature of dharma and politics, among other things. It also puts to
rest that Hui-neng completely rejected scholarship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And yet, the truth is, this
teaching which is often claimed by Ch’an as one of its great innovations over
the original Indian Buddhist tradition is already present in some of the
earliest teachings of the Buddha as we find in the </span><i>Anapanasati</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> and </span><i>Satipatthana
Suttas</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> where the Buddha tells us that we
should be able to practice full awareness when sitting, walking, lying down and
standing. He goes on to include everything from eating to defecation, making it
obvious and quite clear that nothing of our moment-to-moment experience is to
be excluded from practice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The great Theravadin Vipassana
teacher, Buddhadasa Bhikkhu concludes his commentary on the </span><i>Anapanasati
Sutta</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> with a discussion of the three qualities
needed for correct practice: stability, purity, and readiness. He tells us,
“This kind of concentration can be used not only in formal meditation practice
but in any of the necessary activities of life… Obviously, concentration is
more than sitting like a lump of rock or a block of wood – stiff, rigid, and dead
to the world. Instead, with concentration, the citta is perfectly ready to
perform its duty, namely, to grow in knowledge and understanding from moment to
moment.”<sup>21 </sup>He concludes by emphasizing “the essential point: when
the mind is in samadhi, we can walk or stand or sit or lie down or work or
taste the fruit of our labor or help others or help ourselves… One who has
samadhi (is) able to perform every kind of duty.”<sup>22</sup> This seems to
perfectly coincide with Hui-neng’s exhortation above to “study broadly and
learn a lot, harmonizing enlightenment to deal with people.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 18.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">]<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 18.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b><b><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 18.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Wingdings;"><br /></span></div>
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<i>There are trivial truths and the great truths. The
opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is
also true.</i></div>
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<i>-- Niels Bohr<sup>23<o:p></o:p></sup></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>We used to think that if we knew one, we knew two,
because one and one are two. We are finding that we must first learn a great
deal more about ‘and.’</i></div>
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<i>-- Sir Arthur
Eddington</i><sup><i>24</i><o:p></o:p></sup></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the dialogue between Hui-neng
and Fa-tu alluded to above, Hui-neng continues to tell Fa-tu, “indeed, the
scripture clearly tells you, ‘There is only one vehicle of buddhahood, no other
vehicle, no two or three… The countless expedients, various stories, metaphors,
and expressions, these teachings are all for the sake of the one vehicle of
buddhahood.’ Why do you not realize that the three vehicles are provisional,
being for the past, while the one vehicle is real, being for the present? I am
only teaching you to leave the provisional and return to the real. After you
return to the real, the real has no name either.”<sup>25 </sup></span>This point made by Hui-neng goes
right to the heart of both the “gradual versus sudden enlightenment” debate and
the difficulties raised by Hui-neng’s and the Ch’an tradition extolling the
notions of “Buddha-nature” and “intrinsic enlightenment.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dating from the early 1990s, a
movement that has come to be known as “Critical Buddhism” arose in Japan as a
strong critique of the Soto Zen tradition, and as it is this tradition that has
had such a tremendous influence on the Western interpretation and practice of
Buddhism, its arguments present us with a serious challenge. While I do not
agree with all the points raised by the Critical Buddhists, much of what they
have to say relates to my initial difficulty with the teaching of Hui-neng as
presented in </span><i>The Platform Sutra</i>. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Critical Buddhists assert
that the teaching of Buddha Nature “is not Buddhist.” They say that this idea
and others closely related to it were introduced into Buddhism over 500 years
after the Buddha’s own time and hinder the radical critique and program of the
Buddha’s original teaching. They argue that these concepts were made to
accommodate popular spirituality first in India, and then particularly in
China.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Among the main elements of
“popular spirituality” that have in the Critical Buddhist view been
incorporated into Buddhism are:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">* Belief in an underlying, eternal, transcendental unity in the world
called God, Tao, the Great Spirit or what have you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">* Belief in an underlying, immortal, transcendental unity in the person
called a soul, spirit, atma, self, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">* Belief that these metaphysical entities are superior, magical and
more real than the things of the ordinary world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">* Because of this metaphysical reality, although bad things may happen
in the world, it is really all right because the world and what happens in it
are less real.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">* A sense that those who believe in this metaphysical reality are
“saved.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This then is the basic structure
of what the Critical Buddhists call “popular spirituality” found throughout the
world in various particularities. At the other extreme are those who reject
this whole idea and assert materialism, that is to say, that there is no
metaphysical realm and because of this it matters not what one believes or
does. Pleasure then is thought to be the only guide to action. The Buddha
rejected both these positions, and this is one of the reasons his teaching is
referred to as the Middle Way. The challenge, as articulated by Vasubandhu in
the early fourth century is to distinguish the middle from the extremes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="font-style: normal;">The problem with these “popular
spirituality” ideas is that they collude to put people in a less responsible
position </span><i>vis a vis</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> their life and the
situation they find in the world. These metaphysical ideas can even be used to
support social discrimination, since the metaphysical realm is hierarchical
itself. This is just how it was used in the time of the Buddha (and even, sadly
today) to justify the caste system that the Buddha, rejecting the metaphysical
basis, also rejected. As he put it, people are not “chosen” or “born noble,”
but it is by one’s actions that one becomes noble. The Critical Buddhists assert that Buddhism
was and should remain a critical countercurrent that can arise within different
religious contexts and that to align itself with such creeds, as just another
religion may be a serious mistake. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The main issue I would like to
address is that of the concept of the “dhatuvada.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Sanskrit word “dhatu” means “ constructing element,” and
any teaching that asserts that underlying manifest reality as we experience it
is a more fundamental, metaphysical substratum is referred to as “Dhatuvada.”
An example of a Dhatuvada is Brahmanism (Brahman is the substratum) and another
is the Tao of Taoism. Two related notions the Critical Buddhists challenge are
the concepts of Buddha Nature and the concept of original or inherent
enlightenment. These concepts evolved in China as Buddhism assimilated ideas
from Taoism. The related idea of the </span>tathagata-garbha<span style="font-style: normal;"> arose in India and influenced the other two
concepts. The scenario for how this happened over time is something like this:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">* The </span>tathagata-garbha<span style="font-style: normal;"> concept
entered into Mahayana Buddhism to appease those who wanted to be Buddhists but
couldn’t or wouldn’t give up some of their Brahmanical ideas. The </span>tathagata-garbha<span style="font-style: normal;"> clearly is a re-working of the Vedic idea of </span>Hiranya-garbha<span style="font-style: normal;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">* The Buddha Nature concept derived from </span>tathagata-garbha<span style="font-style: normal;"> appeasing and making more palatable to the Chinese
who were acculturated with Taoist ideas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">* Inherent Enlightenment gives even fuller expression to Taoist thought
in China.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">* Finally, in Japan the idea of inherent enlightenment was extended to
include even insentient objects through the influence of Shintoism. This is an
idea that has no basis in canonical texts and is often cited as the epitome of
the distinctively Japanese approach to Buddhism, as expressed in the popular
slogan, “even the grasses, trees, mountains and rivers all attain Buddhahood.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">So, what does it matter? Isn’t this an example of Buddhism’s flexibility
and tolerance for other cultures? Hasn’t Buddhism become enriched rather than
made poorer for its assimilation of these ideas from the cultures it has become
exposed to? No, say the Critical Buddhists, because they say these ideas
detract from the Buddha’s emphasis on personal responsibility, karma, and
clarity of understanding, as well as having been used to support the arrogant,
nationalist spirituality that accommodates itself to oppressive world powers
all too easily, and to rationalize all manners of social discriminatory
practices.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As Niels Bohr’s quote that opens
this section states, I think that they are right, </span>and<span style="font-style: normal;"> that these concepts can be useful, if we remember
Hui-neng’s advice not to get attached to the form. The “gradual versus sudden”
debate has its basis in the idea of “inherent enlightenment” and Buddha Nature.
The idea of “original enlightenment” first arose in China in the fourth century
in the text </span><i>The Awakening of Mahayana Faith</i><span style="font-style: normal;">.
Originally thought to have originated in Sanskrit, modern scholarship now
recognizes that the text was written in Chinese, and there was no Indian
version. The </span>tathagata-garbha<span style="font-style: normal;"> concept
arose in India in texts that use positive language to describe the ability of
all beings to attain enlightenment. The mainstream understanding is simply that
all people, including corrupt or evil people, can become enlightened in the
future. A later interpretation treated the </span>tathagata-garbha<span style="font-style: normal;"> as some kind of self-existent soul. In Tibet, there
are in fact two different readings of the</span><i> Tathagatagarbha Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> along these two lines of interpretation. The
non-soul one is, of course, the older.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In China, intrinsic enlightenment
became aligned with the notion of Buddha Nature, a Chinese notion that
reflected essentially Taoist ideas. In fact, early Buddhist missionaries to
China utilized many Taoist notions to combat the conservative thrust of
Confucianism that rejected Buddhism as “un-Chinese.” The presentation of
Buddhism that included the ideas of intrinsic enlightenment and Buddha Nature
allowed it to spread throughout China and those lands within the Chinese zone
of cultural influence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In India these ideas never took
root, with </span>tathagata-garbha<span style="font-style: normal;"> merely
signifying that enlightenment is always possible and for all beings. As one
Indian text puts it, “ordinary people have </span>tathagata-garbha<span style="font-style: normal;"> whereas buddhas do not,” which is to say we who are
ordinary have the potential for enlightenment, while buddhas really are
enlightened. If we do not take Hui-neng’s pronouncements of “essence of mind”
as literally referring to a dhatu (that which is an “only real” essence or
substratum to empirical existence) we could read his statement “When they’re
deluded, buddhas become beings. When they’re awake, beings become buddhas”<sup>26<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></sup>in this same vein.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Hui-neng uses many phrases in the
</span><i>Platform Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> that sound very much like
essentialist statements. It has always been a tendency for people to reify
ideas and concepts, making “emptiness” for instance into “The Void,” as if
emptiness were just another word for Tao, or Godhead or Brahman. Nagarjuna’s
dialectic, echoing </span><i>The Diamond Sutra’</i>s<span style="font-style: normal;">
approach reminds us that emptiness is not to be found outside of the 10,000
things. Tang Hoi the 10<sup>th</sup> century Vietnamese Zen Master told his
students, “Be diligent in order to attain the state of no-birth and no-death.”
He was asked by a student, “Where can we touch the world of no-birth and
no-death?” Tang Hoi responded, “Right here in the world of birth and death.”<sup>27</sup>
Thus we can see that there is a difference between the monistic notions of “The
One” and the highest teaching of the non-dual nature of reality as taught in </span><i>The
Diamond Sutra</i>.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 18.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">]<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i>If you do not comprehend
the middle way, but see and hear and think and ponder, fixated on the externals
of doctrine, talking about the conduct of Buddha without applying it in your
own mind, that is called thinking.</i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i>Confused people who sit in
meditation frantically trying to get rid of illusion and do not learn kindness,
compassion, joyfulness, equanimity, wisdom, and expedient skills, and so are
like wood or stone, without any function, are called nonthinking.</i></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-align: right;">
--Hui-neng<sup>28<o:p></o:p></sup></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The above quotation from Hui-neng’s
commentary on </span><i>The Diamond Sutra
</i><span style="font-style: normal;">elucidates that text’s profound teaching of non-attachment to forms and
concepts, and points out that to become a buddha is to act as a buddha. Our
problem as students of the Buddha is we do, repeatedly, allow ourselves to get
caught in thinking and non-thinking. We get caught in our notions about reality
and fail to see through and beyond the cage of self that is created though our
identification with the thinking mind. This is not to say, once again, that we
must stop thinking. Hui-neng makes it plain that to do so is to become as
insentient at a block of wood or a stone. </span><i>The Dhammapada</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> tells us that our work is to discover our work and
then to give ourselves to it with all our heart. It tells us, “So awake, reflect,
watch. Work with care and attention. Live in the way, and the light will grow
in you.”<sup>29<o:p></o:p></sup></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><sup><br /></sup></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When we learn in the </span><i>Platform
Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> that Hui-neng was chosen over Shen-hsiu,
many have taken this to mean that the poem of Shen-hsiu was wrong. Yet all
evidence points to the truth that his poem literally states the obvious – that
we do indeed need to practice in order to clear the mind of the hindrances.
Even Hui-neng tells us in his commentary to </span><i>The Diamond Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> that while “there are no habit forces or afflictions;
nirvana means complete purity, it is attained only by extinguishing all habit
energies.” Hui-neng’s poem may indeed state the non-obvious truth from the
enlightened perspective, but if we stop there and do not cultivate that wisdom
and vision, we are caught in thinking. If we do not act from the awareness of
buddhahood, than we are caught in nonthinking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>The Diamond Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> is clear that the bodhisattva is unsparing in his or
her work to liberate all beings. And it is equally clear in reminding us that there
is no self to do the liberating and no others to liberate. “All beings”
includes all the states of mind we “inhabit” or manifest throughout any given
day – throughout any given hour! Our task is to liberate all the beings in our
own mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In </span><i>Living Buddha, Living
Christ</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Thich Nhat Hanh writes, “When you begin
to practice, you need some tools, just as someone who comes to work on a farm
needs tools to work the soil. When you are given tools there is no use in
having them and not working the soil… Certain ideas and images can be accepted
as tools of spiritual practice. By using them you can acquire some peace,
comfort, stability, and joy. If you continue the practice and make some
progress, more sophisticated images and ideas will be provided. These are tools
to help you explore the soil of your own life. The Buddha described the
practice as </span>citta-bhavana<span style="font-style: normal;">, cultivating
the mind and heart.”<sup>30<o:p></o:p></sup></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Thay issues a warning that echoes
that of the Critical Buddhists when he points out that many Buddhists (and
Christians) do not truly practice – or if they do, they practice only in difficult
times or it is a mere superficial practice. He says that many practitioners align
themselves with those in power in order to strengthen the position of their
church or community. “They build up a self instead of letting go of the ideas
of self. This is a very dangerous attitude; it always leads to conflicts and
war. Its nature is intolerance.”<sup>31<o:p></o:p></sup></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><sup><br /></sup></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>The Diamond Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> teaches that the </span>Tathagata<span style="font-style: normal;"> cannot be seen through sounds or images. The </span>Tathagata<span style="font-style: normal;"> neither comes nor goes. “Great Doubt” in Zen practice involves the constant
questioning of all our beliefs. This includes questioning all our notions about
Buddha, nirvana, emptiness, self, no-self, god etc. Thomas Merton wrote, “Here
we are advancing beyond the stage where God made himself accessible to our mind
in simple and primitive images.<sup> </sup>Here He becomes present without any
image, beyond any satisfactory mental representation. ”<sup>32</sup> There is
no longer any notion we can have that can represent God, just as there is no
longer any notion that can represent suchness or nirvana – both words that
point to a reality beyond the cessation of all notions. But this
need not be posited as a transcendental substratum or dhatu – what are
transcended are the notions that stand between us and reality. But even
saying this is not right, because there never is or could be a “real”
separation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span>Prajnaparamita<span style="font-style: normal;"> is the wisdom that goes beyond all that keeps us intimately aware of all that is; beyond our ideas about reality and how reality is or should be so that we can be intimately engaged with what and how things really are. It is the direct
realization of what is beyond all representations in the way that a night in
New York City is beyond any and all maps representing it. It is the simply realization that we've no representation for whether the candle flame now is the same or different from the flame of five minutes ago. It offers the warning against taking the map for the land, the finger for the moon to which it points.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Buddha in </span><i>The Diamond
Sutra</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> could not be any clearer when he tells
us, through his dialogue with Subhuti, “Those who know that the teaching of the
good law is like a raft abandon it. How much more do they abandon that which is
not the teaching.”<sup>33</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Notes<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">1 Steve Hagen, </span><i>How The World Can Be The Way It
Is</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Wheaton, Ill.: Quest Books, 1995), p.17<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">2</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> Thomas
Cleary, </span><i>The Sutra of Hui Neng Grand Master of Zen</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Boston: Shambhala, 1998), p.10<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">3</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> <sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></sup></span>ibid., <span style="font-style: normal;">p. 11<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">4</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Stephan Schuhmacher & Gert Woerner, </span><i>The Encyclopedia of Eastern
Philosophy and Religion</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">(Boston: Shambhala,
1994), p. 148<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">5</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span>ibid.,<span style="font-style: normal;"> p. 148<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">6</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> Hagen,
</span>op. cit., <span style="font-style: normal;">p. 249<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">7</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> Philip
Yampolsky, </span><i>The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch </i><span style="font-style: normal;">( NY: Columbia University
Press, 1967), p. 2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">8</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span>ibid.,<span style="font-style: normal;"> p. 4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">9</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span>ibid.,<span style="font-style: normal;"> p. 4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">10</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span>ibid.,
<span style="font-style: normal;">pp. 32-33<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">11</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span>ibid.,<span style="font-style: normal;"> p. 33<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">12</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Bhikkhu Nanamoli, </span><i>The Life of the Buddha</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">(Kandy,
Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1992 3<sup>rd</sup>. edition), p.299<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">13</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> David
Brazier, </span><i>The New Buddhism</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (NY: Palgrave,
2002), p. 162<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">14</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span>ibid.,<span style="font-style: normal;"> p. 177<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">15</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Thomas Byrom, </span><i>The Dhammapada</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">(Boston:
Shambhala, 1993), p. 24<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">16</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Cleary, </span>op. cit.,<span style="font-style: normal;"> p. 31<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">17</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span>ibid.,<span style="font-style: normal;"> p. 32<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">18</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span>ibid.,<span style="font-style: normal;"> p. 61<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">19</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span>ibid.,
<span style="font-style: normal;">p. 32<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">20</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span>ibid.,
<span style="font-style: normal;">p. 38<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">21</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, </span><i>Mindfulness with Breathing</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">(Boston: Wisdom, 1997 Rev. Edition), p. 85<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">22</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span>ibid.,
<span style="font-style: normal;">p. 86<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">23</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Hagen, </span>op. cit.,<span style="font-style: normal;"> p. 251<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">24</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span>ibid.,
<span style="font-style: normal;">p. 109<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">25</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Cleary, </span>op. cit., <span style="font-style: normal;">p. 49<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">26</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> Red
Pine, </span><i>The Diamond Sutra</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">(NY:
Counterpoint, 2001), p. 82<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">27</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> Thich
Nhat Hanh, </span><i>The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">(Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1998), p. 130<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">28</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Cleary, </span>op. cit., <span style="font-style: normal;">p. 93<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">29</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Byrom, </span>op. cit., <span style="font-style: normal;">p. 8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">30</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> Thich
Nhat Hanh, </span><i>Living Buddha, Living Christ</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">(NY:
Riverhead, 1995), p. 162<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">31</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span>ibid.,
<span style="font-style: normal;">p. 169<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">32</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span>ibid.,
<span style="font-style: normal;">p. 170<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<sup><span style="font-style: normal;">33</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> The
Buddhist Publishing Group, </span><i>The Diamond Sutra</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">(Leicester, England: Buddhist Publishing Group, 1984), p. 10 </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></sup></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Bibliography<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">Brazier, D. </span><i>The New Buddhism</i>, <span style="font-style: normal;">New York, Palgrave, 2002<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">Buddhadasa, Bhikkhu. </span><i>Mindfulness with
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<span style="font-style: normal;">Hanh, N. </span><i>Living Buddha, Living Christ,</i> <span style="font-style: normal;">New York, Riverhead, 1995<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">Hanh, N. </span><i>The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching</i>, <span style="font-style: normal;">Berkeley, Parallax Press, 1998</span> </div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">Kim, J.W. </span><i>Polishing the Diamond, Enlightening
the Mind</i>, <span style="font-style: normal;">Boston, Wisdom Publications, 1999<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">McRae, J. R. </span><i>The Platform Sutra of the Sixth
Patriarch</i>,<span style="font-style: normal;"> Berkeley, Numata Center for Buddhist
Translation and Research, 2000<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">Nanamoli, Bhikkhu. </span><i>The Life of the Buddha</i>, <span style="font-style: normal;">Kandy, Sri Lanka, Buddhist Publication Society, 1992
2<sup>nd</sup> Edition<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">Price, A.F. and Wong Mou-Lam. </span><i>The Diamond
Sutra and The Sutra of Hui Neng</i>, <span style="font-style: normal;">Berkeley,
Shambhala, 1969<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">Red Pine. </span><i>The Diamond Sutra</i>, <span style="font-style: normal;">New York, Counterpoint, 2001<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">Schuhmacher, S. & Woerner, G. </span><i>The
Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion</i>, <span style="font-style: normal;">Boston,
Shambhala, 1994<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">Soeng, M. </span><i>The Diamond Sutra</i>, <span style="font-style: normal;">Boston, Wisdom Publications, 2000<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">Yampolsky, P. </span><i>The Platform Sutra of the Sixth
Patriarch</i>, <span style="font-style: normal;">New York, Columbia University Press,
1967</span> </div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-30905893661659257982014-06-30T15:37:00.004-07:002014-06-30T15:37:54.291-07:00Don't Know Mind? I Don't Know....<br />
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First off, I hope the respective titles of last week's post (<a href="http://www.mindfulness-yoga.blogspot.com/2014/06/beginners-mind-i-dont-think-so.html" target="_blank">Beginner's Mind? I Don't Think So...</a>) at my other blog, and this week's give some clue to what I'm doing here... Some may criticize me for "quibbling over semantics," but I could never understand this somewhat facile dismissal of a branch of linguistics and logic that is concerned with MEANING, for goodness sake! Semantics focuses on the relation between <i style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">signifiers</i>, like <a href="" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">words</a>, <a href="" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">phrases</a>, <a href="" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">signs</a>, and <a href="" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">symbols</a>, and what they stand for, their <a href="" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" title="Link: null">denotation</a><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">. And consider me pedantic if you wish, but I think it relatively important to get as clear and precise as we can about what we are really saying when we say something and try to work toward having a clear relationship between the signifier and the signified.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">So....</span></div>
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According to the Oracle at Delphi, Socrates was the wisest person in Athens. When Athenians asked Socrates why the Oracle declared him to be so, Socrates set out to see for himself by engaging with others, questioning and investigating myriad life issues. What he discovered, he said, was that he must be the wisest man in Athens because he knew he did not know, while others all presumed to know about things they did not actually know.</div>
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Almost a thousand years later, in China, when Bodhidharma was asked by Emperor Wu, “Who are you who stands before me?” Bodhidharma famously answered, “I don’t know.”</div>
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When zen master Poep An (Fa-yen; Hogen) was an itinerant monk, he arrived one day at Ti Tsang Monastery and met with the abbot there, who asked Poep An, “What is the meaning of your traveling?” Poep An replied, “I don’t know.” The abbot then said, “Don’t know is closest to it. Not knowing is most intimate.”</div>
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A monk asked zen master Yun-men, “What is the straight way to Yun-men Mountain?” Yun-men responded immediately, “Intimacy” (in Chinese, <i style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">chin</i>). This tells us that intimacy is the straight way; it is the path and the fruition of the path. In light of the exchange between Poep An and the abbot of Ti Tsang monastery, we see that don’t know mind <i style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">is</i> the mind of intimacy. Or as my teacher, Samu Sunim would often say, “don’t know mind is most intimate.” Whenever I was struggling with anything, especially a major life decision, he would encourage me to “go to don’t know mind.”</div>
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In Case 44 of <i style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">The Blue Cliff Record, </i>we see a monk ask Ho-shan:</div>
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“What is true passing?”</div>
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Ho-shan says, “Knowing how to hit the drum.”</div>
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Again the monk asks, “And what is real truth?”</div>
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And Ho-shan replied, “Knowing how to hit the drum.”</div>
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The monk persists, “’Mind is buddha,’ I’m not asking about this. What is no mind, no buddha?”</div>
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Ho-shan says, “Knowing how to hit the drum.”</div>
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Once more, the monk asks, “And when a fully realized person comes, how do you receive her?”</div>
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Ho-shan answers, “Knowing how to hit the drum.”</div>
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Ho-shan replies with what is often called “flavorless speech” in that he is not offering anything deeply philosophical or esoteric. It is just Ho-shan, revealing himself intimately, “knowing how to hit the drum.” We might ask, “Why does he keep repeating himself?” But if we think this, perhaps it’s because we’ve failed to see that he’s actually not repeating himself at all. Isn’t it true, after all, that the last “knowing how to hit the drum” is not the same as the one before that, nor is that the same as the one before <i style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">that</i> and so on. And this is just as true for anything. The downward-facing dog we do this morning is not the same we did yesterday. Who we are today has yet to do downward dog. Our sitting meditation today is not the same as our sitting practice yesterday, nor is it the same as the day before that, nor is it the same as our sitting practice we did last week or last year. And yet, everyday we take the “same” asana, sitting on our cushion, crossing our legs just so, placing our hands just so, our tongue just so, and our eyes and mind just so. We do this practice the same way everyday and yet it is not the same. We don’t know what it is. And <i style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">that</i> is intimacy.</div>
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I believe that much of what is signified by the term “beginner’s mind” is pointing to this “don’t know mind.” Yet, as I argued in my previous post, beginners rarely come to practice – or any endeavor – with a blank slate, but rather they generally hold a mind full of expectations and pre-conceptions. Rather than seeing many possibilities, they often grasp after one simple understanding, and it is those with expertise, holding a deeper understanding, that can often see possible causal chains that would escape any beginner.</div>
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<br style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" />However, what the most successful experts maintain – if they don’t fall into hubris and arrogance – is the knowledge that they “don’t know.” For instance, the great physicist, Richard Fynman, in response to an interviewer said, "I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong. If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives. We will not become enthusiastic for the fact, the knowledge, the absolute truth of the day, but remain always uncertain. In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar."</div>
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This is what Bodhidharma was pointing to when he said, “I don’t know” when asked who he was. When we begin dating someone, we hang on every word they say. We know we don’t know, so we remain close, intimately engaged. Live with that person for five years, and we may find ourselves deaf to his or her voice, taking their presence for granted, thinking we know them. And the truth is, we’ve gathered a lot of knowledge about them, about their habits, their proclivities, preferences and foibles. And yet, we can never fully, “really” know them. And if we remember that, and keep “don’t know mind,” we’ll avoid taking them for granted and thus remain truly intimate with them.</div>
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Bodhidharma's "I don't know" reminds us that what is true in terms of our lover, is also true of "ourselves." As we are constantly changing, as it is not quite the same person who sits in meditation today that sat yesterday, if we remember that we don't know who or what we are, we will stay intimate, engaged, awake to what reveals itself now... and now.... and now...</div>
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Beginner’s mind implies a mind wide open, not caught in already held knowledge, and that would be fine if real people who were actually beginners (including beginners in meditation or zen practice) truly had such a mind. But rarely, if ever, is this so. For instance, one reason Robert Buswell wrote “The Zen Monastic Experience” was because of the rampant misconceptions people have about zen practice.</div>
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Someone with experience and knowledge may fall into arrogantly thinking they know everything, but if one has truly been paying attention along the way to gaining experience, and if they remain honest, and maintain integrity, they, like Socrates and Richard Feynman and Bodhidharma, will also know they don’t know. That is the wisdom of intimacy; the intimacy of wisdom.</div>
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Now, I’ve often heard over the 40 years that I've been practicing, that buddhism encourages questioning, but I’ve seen repeatedly that large areas of practice, teaching and culture are off-limits to any real questioning. Stephen Batchelor reports the same experience with his Tibetan Buddhist teachers, where the debate training was clearly designed to lead to pre-ordained authorized results; the debate was “rigged” in a sense and any authentic questioning was disallowed.</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">In a forum published in <i style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Shambhala Sun </i>back in Janurary, 2008 on the theme of atheism, Ajahn Amaro showed either a perplexing confusion or down-right ignorance about science, by saying that "what makes scientific materialism, which would aptly describe the atheist view, unrealistic and therefore unappealing is the incredible conceit that sooner or later we'll have the whole thing figured out." I find such a statement by a Theravadin monk quite ironic! I have found many Buddhists who feel that the Buddha “figured it all out” long ago, and though we are told to “see for ourself,” there's always the caveat behind the invitation that if what we find doesn’t jibe with a particular teacher or sect's doctrine then we’re just wrong! Elsewhere in the same article, Ajahn Amaro says that the Buddha encourages inquiry, and that we don’t need to figure it all out, yet the unspoken assumption continues to be that the buddha did it for us! The Ajahn's assertion that "Scientific materialists are often frightened of uncertainty and not knowing" is absurd. In fact, as the quote above from Richard Feynman shows, scientists work happily with the understanding that all claims to any validity for both data and theory are provisional. I would like to see more of this attitude among buddhist practitioners.</span></div>
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Ann Druyan speaking of Carl Sagan wrote: "Sciences's permanently revolutionary conviction that the search for truth never ends seemed to him the only approach with sufficient humility to be worthy of the universe it revealed. The methodology of science, with its error-correcting mechanism for keeping us honest in spite of our chronic tendencies to project, to misunderstand, to deceive ourselves and others, seemed to him the height of spiritual discipline. If you are searching for sacred knowledge and not just a palliative for your fears, then you will train yourself to be a good sceptic."</div>
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I think it’s a sad commentary on our culture that this noble word, “sceptic,” has become something of a pejorative. It simply means "thoughtful" from the Greek skepscepticus and its Latin derivative, scepticus means "inquiring" and "reflective."</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Carl Sagan's Gifford Lectures, published (in a nod to William James), as <i style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Varieties of Scientific Experience, </i>states the position of naturalism: "I think this search does not lead to complacent satisfaction that we know the answer, not an arrogant sense that the answer is before us and we need do only one more experiment to find it out. It goes with a courageous intent to greet the universe as it really is, not to foist our emotional predispositions on it but to courageously accept what our explorations tell us."</span></div>
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This is the kind of dharma to which I can go for refuge.</div>
Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-84604883899811991572014-04-27T14:28:00.001-07:002014-04-27T14:28:08.276-07:00Living Buddha Zen or What I Hate About Zen, Part Two<span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Lex
Hixon</span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> (1941–1995) (born <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Alexander
Paul Hixon Junior</span>, also known as <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Nur
al-Anwar al-Jerrahi</span> in the Sufi community) was an American </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufi"><span style="color: #002da3; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Sufi</span></a><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> author, poet, and spiritual teacher and a true believer in the
so-called “Perennial Philosophy,” practicing and holding membership in several
of the world's major great religious traditions. His faith what that all the
world’s “great religions” are true, and like many such believers, completely
ignored the sometimes radical differences. While it would be extremely suspect
if the various religious traditions <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">didn’t
</i>have much in common (we’re all human beings, sharing one evolutionary
heritage), I have long believed it a form of dishonesty to discount the
dissimilarities in the world’s religions.</span><br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Living Buddha Zen </span></i><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">is Lex Hixon’s commentary in zen
master Keizan’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Denkoroku: The Record of
Transmitting the Light </i>which had been translated by Francis Cook and
published by the Los Angeles Zen Center’s Center Publications in 1991. You know
you’re in for some blatant zen obfuscation, mystical mumbo-jumbo and just plain
bullshit when you read in the “Foreward,” “The modern, secular, skeptical,
scientific view has not been casually jettisoned by Hixon, but shed slowly,
through trial and error, personal inquiry, reliable spiritual guidance, and
fearless commitment to a naked vision.” Such reasoned, empirical, skeptical thinking is anathema in zen and I've criticized it before. It's truly <a href="http://zennaturalism.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-i-hate-about-zen.html" target="_blank">what I hate about zen</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Denkoroku</i> traces a mostly fabricated tale of the “transmission of
Shakyamuni’s enlightenment down fifty-two generations,” beginning with the
mythological transmission to Kashyapa in a story so made up to give
“legitimacy” to an up-start new school of buddhism in China. Zen has used this
story and the narrative of these alleged “transmissions” as its major sectarian
polemic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">On every single page of this 253
page screed you will come across statements like: “Without verifiable
transmission, there can be no fully manifest jewel of Sangha… Without this
outward demonstration of transmission, there cannot be the authentic leadership
that makes the Sangha an accessible place and principle of refuge.” I wonder
what “the buddha” who is said to have said the following would say to Lex
regarding such “transmission” and “authentic leadership?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0e0e0e; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Ananda said, “Lord, I still
had some little comfort in the thought that the Blessed One would not come to
his final passing away until he had given some last instructions respecting the
community of bhikkhus."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0e0e0e; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Thus spoke the Venerable Ananda,
but the Blessed One answered him, saying: "What more does the community of
bhikkhus expect from me, Ananda? I have set forth the Dhamma without making any
distinction of esoteric and exoteric doctrine; there is nothing, Ananda, with
regard to the teachings that the Tathagata holds to the last with the closed
fist of a teacher who keeps some things back. Whosoever may think that it is he
who should lead the community of bhikkhus, or that the community depends upon
him, it is such a one that would have to give last instructions respecting
them. But, Ananda, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the Tathagata has no
such idea as that it is he who should lead the community of bhikkhus, or that
the community depends upon him. So what instructions should he have to give
respecting the community of bhikkhus</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What you’ll find on every page is the reified
capitalized “Wonderful Mind,” “Unborn Nature,” “Total Awakeness,” “Mind of
Luminosity,” “Great Way” etc. ad nauseam. Talk of “destined successors” and
“the wisdom spring” that can “gush forth only from the lineage holder.” What
such zen teachers seem to not understand is that all talk of “essential mind
simply abiding by itself” may be good Vedanta, but it’s not a buddhist
teaching. The essentialism of zen, along with the transcendentalism and monism
are as far as one can get from anatta, the core teaching of the buddha. Such
teachers and teachings flinch in the face of the radical nature of this
understanding of not-self. “I am essence, not name,” is a turning away from the
shattering realization of the buddha, not it’s fulfillment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">That Hixon can speak for zen and be taken seriously
when he writes “Sutras basically teach non-self. Clear, brilliant, ever-present
awareness, or Original Self, bears no resemblance at all to the imaginal
self-entity clearly refuted by the Sutras. The Sutra teaching of non-self is
therefore extraneous to that Original Self. Non-self is the teaching, whereas
Original Self is the reality behind the teaching” is enough for me to reject
such distortion. Zennists will say I don’t understand. As Ernest Becker wrote,
“</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">No </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">purposeful </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">argument
can be held with the mystic because in ultimate defense against a logically </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;">untenable
</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">premise, </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">he </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">invokes
the </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;">bankruptcy </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.5pt;">of </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;">thought
</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">process </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.5pt;">to </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.0pt;">arrive </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.5pt;">at
</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">what </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">he </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.0pt;">"really
</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;">means." In other words, as Richard Payne writes: </span><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">“there is no way that reasoned, reflective thought can be applied
to the claims made on the basis of ‘religious experience.’” This is the true
refuge of the mystic scoundrel.</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Finally, I find it ironically amusing that the full
moon is an image repeated incessantly representing full awakening. Hixon
writes: “Can the moon’s reflection in the lake shine light on the great
mountain? All Zen phrases and Zen gestures are merely reflected moons. We must
encounter their true source. Only self-luminous awareness – the moon which
remains always full – constitutes transmission.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Pre-scientific people may have thought of the moon
as “self-luminous,” but perhaps those of us who understand the moon is an arid
rock in space whose light is but a reflection of the sun might rather – as
Stephen Batchelor writes – think in terms of a solar buddhism. These zen
teachings Hixon calls a mere reflection of the moon are actually reflections of
a reflection – and one severely distorted at that!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-58080683715196106302014-03-24T12:15:00.002-07:002014-03-24T12:19:03.649-07:00Motivated Reasoning: Implications For Contemporary Buddhists<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Tartullian, the Christian apologist, in the year 208, could
actually write: “the Son of God died; precisely because it is absurd, it is to
be believed. And that he was buried and rose again, it is certain because it is
impossible.” Nowadays, post-scientific revolution, we tend not to hear people
making such claims. Today, even the wildest woo-miesters, as well as
conventional religious believers, attempt to apply at least a veneer of
rational justification and what they believe to be evidential support. Even
Mormons and Scientologists! And even those who adhere to the myriad versions of
quantum-woo. As Ian Hayward Robinson writes in “Exploring the Limits of
Christian Rationality” (<i>Free Inquiry</i>; Feb/Mar 2014): “We can’t believe in just
anything that takes our fancy if we are to demand intellectual respectability.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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Robinson bases his assertion on the very interesting and
provocative research of Ziva Kunda, whose seminal 1990 paper, <a href="http://cogsci.uwaterloo.ca/ziva/psychbul1990.pdf" target="_blank">“The Case for Motivated Reasoning”</a> established that “People do not seem to be at liberty to conclude whatever they
want to conclude merely because they want to. Rather…people motivated to arrive
at a particular conclusion attempt to be rational and to construct a
justification of their desired conclusion that would persuade a dispassionate
observer. They draw the desired conclusion only if they can muster up the
evidence necessary to support it. In other words, they maintain an ‘illusion of
objectivity.’”</div>
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<br /></div>
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The main point of Kunda’s paper is that there are two
distinct orientations that people can take toward examining and analyzing
evidence that depend upon one’s motivation. If your motivation is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to be accurate,</i> you will be more likely
to use analytical cognitive tools (critical thinking) that are most appropriate
to the context, regardless of the possible outcome. It requires not a
commitment to a particular outcome, but rather a commitment to the process of
determining the most accurate outcome regardless of any preferences one may
hold. It is, as Gil Grissom often reminds his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSI:_Crime_Scene_Investigation" target="_blank">C.S.I.</a> team, the commitment to
“follow the evidence” and to not let personal beliefs waylay you. </div>
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Studies have shown that those who are motivated by “accuracy-driven
reasoning” expend more cognitive effort on issue-related reasoning, attend to
the relevant information more closely, and engage in deeper processing of the
information, often using more complex rules. As may be evident by now, this is
the orientation of science.</div>
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The research suggests that, on the other hand, if your
motivation is to arrive at a particular, preferred conclusion, you will be
prone to account only for those beliefs, and to follow those investigative
strategies that you may consider most likely to yield the pre-determined
conclusion. People so committed will mold the path to the desired conclusion
through the way they frame the question they are “investigating;” in the type
of evidence they take into account and find acceptable; and in the amount of
evidence they settle for.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Obviously, religious adherents, especially theologians and
apologists, are by definition engaged in a process of arriving at a particular
set of conclusions determined by their particular religious dogma. Such an
orientation begins with how the investigation is framed: they do not start the
investigation and reasoning in order to see if their religious dogma is true,
but to demonstrate that it is! The important point to consider here is that
they do this not necessarily motivated by any desire to convince unbelievers,
but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to prove to themselves</i> that their
beliefs can be intellectually accepted. When I was studying the philosophy of
religion in college, this was made vividly clear in Thomas Aquinas’ “Five Ways”
to establish the existence of god. He wasn’t out to convince anyone that god
existed; he was writing to reassure his followers that their belief was not
irrational and that it could find intellectual justification.</div>
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Of course, we see the same dynamic at work with committed
buddhist and yoga true-believers, as well as those in the new-age movement, conspiracy
theorists, anti-vaxxers, and those who rile against science-based medicine and
technology – even while, ironically, posting their diatribes on the internet
that is made possible <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">by</i> science and
technology.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Stephen Batchelor writes about his experience as a Tibetan
Buddhist monk and the “debates” he was taught to engage in. He notes that it
soon became evident that the debates were actually training grounds for
cleverly coming up with ways to come to the pre-ordained conclusion the
particular school of Tibetan Buddhism held as true. Genuine doubt and
questioning was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i>encouraged, nor
welcome. I too experienced a similar dynamic, though my teacher was more open
to my critiques then Batchelor’s Tibetan lamas. In zen, we are often told to
keep questioning: “Great doubt, great enlightenment.” And yet, as my training
progressed, I began to see that there were some areas where questioning was not
actually appreciated by the tradition, and that if you came to any conclusion
not in line with doctrine, your position was marginalized and rejected out-of-hand
as simply “wrong.” It was suggested that you had not practiced deeply enough or
correctly, that your understanding was still unripe, or otherwise you would surely
have come to the same conclusion held by the zen schools.</div>
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One issue where this comes up again and again is that of
karma and rebirth. Those who believe in rebirth set out to find ways to
rationally justify their belief. Those who have rejected rebirth, most often
come to that conclusion – often reluctantly – because they have engaged in
accuracy-motivated reasoning. Over the nearly 40-years I have been practicing,
I have had to let go of quite a few beliefs I’d have preferred to hold as true
and accurate, but I cannot honestly do so without jettisoning my commitment to
“follow the evidence” regardless of where it may lead. I am quick to add that because I've had to change my beliefs several times over the years, I am under no illusion that my understanding is fully formed and settled. If anything, I know I can expect further study, practice and investigation to force me to reconsider my beliefs and I find great value in this.</div>
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Glenn Wallis details <a href="http://speculativenonbuddhism.com/categories/" target="_blank">categories of buddhist believers</a>: the
following are examples of those who often use reason to justify their faith commitments,
but are not really engaged with a no-holds-barred investigation. What they have
in common is the tendency to flinch in the face of the truly radical
implications of the buddha “event”:</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Apologists</span></b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">.
For whatever reasons, these figures seek to have x-buddhist teachings,
theories, practices, etc., come out on top—always. Thus, <i>they act in defense
of x-buddhism</i>. Quite often, they must resort to logical contortions and,
more seriously, omission of contrary evidence. But not always, of course;
sometimes they do indeed correct misunderstandings and misrepresentations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Conservatives</span></b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">.
They are <i>disposed toward the status quo</i>—of whatever
school/text/practice/community/ institution/teacher, etc., they hold
sacred. And they do tend to hold it all sacred. Everything in the
universe changes except, of course, whatever the conservative x-buddhist holds
dear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Fundamentalists</span></b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">. <i>They
are the gardes suisses</i> <i>at x-buddhism’s holy vallation</i>. Their
reasoning for, say, the truth of rebirth, is hyper-precise. They are master <i>exemplifiers</i>.
Scripture, after all, is always on their side, even when it isn’t. And how they
know their scripture! Thumpers here to put <i>Stomp!</i> to shame.
Sutta-thumpers, sutra-thumpers, Shobogenzo-thumpers,
Lotus-sutra-thumpers–thumpin’ their way to certainty—messy reality be damned!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Interpreters</span></b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">.
They explain, clarify, expound on the teachings of the literary conceit known
as “the Buddha.” They make it all make sense, even when it doesn’t. <i>They
tend to be benign</i>. They value description over analysis, since the latter,
done well, veers toward the dark depths of critique.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Post-traditionalists</span></b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">.
Like traditionalists, they uphold the values gleaned from the Asian
dispensation of x-buddhism. However, <i>they seek a renovation</i> of the
archaisms and (certain) superstitions favored by their Asian patriarchs. They
do not want a new house, only a freshly painted one with, perhaps, a modern
kitchen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Secularists</span></b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">.
They claim the values of modern scientific methodology, such as evidence-based
claims, critical thinking, rigorous debate, and the light of reason. But they
hesitate to test their cherished beliefs against these values. They do do so;
but not <i>too</i> robustly, lest the house collapse. While respecting
tradition, <i>they seek a contemporary application.</i> Yet, what they have
produced is just the same old thing. Nothing new here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Traditionalists</span></b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">.
They are committed to the forms—doctrines, practices, beliefs, etc.— that are
preserved in Asian institutional structures. Some of these structures are of
ancient or medieval origin, some are modern. They espouse pre-scientific
worldviews. They axiomatically adhere to archaic cosmologies. They often
believe in a world animated by spirits and hidden forces. <i>They know no other
possibility.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 11.0pt .5in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">True Believers</span></b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">. <i>They
raise the (western) x-buddhist banner</i>. They heart Buddhism, though
“Buddhism” is always proscribed by their particular school. Some true believers,
of course, literally love all things Buddhists. This person, I think, is a
peculiarly recent, North American type. They subscribe to some version of “One
Dharma,” and are desirous of finding unity in diversity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-31432078409341849932014-02-28T11:14:00.004-07:002014-03-02T14:03:24.456-07:00Contemplating Impermanence<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There are many passages where “the buddha”
encourages the contemplation of the inexorable reality of change: impermanence.
One such practice is the contemplation on the decomposition of a corpse while
reflecting on the fact that this too will be the fate of your body. Another is
called “the five remembrances.” The first three, briefly, are that you, I, and
all beings are of the nature to age, experience illness, and die and that there
is no way to avoid these realities. The fourth reminds us that everything we
treasure and all whom we love are of the nature to change and there is no way
to avoid being separated from them. And the fifth states that we are the heirs
of our actions and there is no way to avoid the consequences of our actions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">One practice that the Tibetan tradition offers, "the four reminders," also called "the four reversals" as in the four thoughts that turn the
mind, are often presented in such a way that the world-denying and escapist
metaphysical tenets of some Tibetan Buddhisms become clear. As Andrew Holecek
writes in his article on the four reminders in the Winter, 2013 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tricycle</i>: “These contemplations develop
revulsion to conditioned appearances, point out the their utter futility, and
cause awareness to prefer itself rather than outwardly appearing objects. They
turn the mind away from substitute gratifications and direct it toward
authentic gratification – which can only be found within.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Among other things, this notion that awareness might
“prefer itself rather than outwardly appearing objects” posits awareness as yet
another subtle atman despite the rejection of atman by “the buddha.” Awareness
arises in relation to some phenomena; positing an awareness independent of all
causes and conditions is no different than positing a soul/self/atman! I find it striking that so many contemporary buddhists have such a difficult time seeing this! Also,
common to some forms of Tibetan Buddhism is an idealism that can become a form
of solipsism that seems to be rearing it’s ugly face here in the disparagement
of “outwardly appearing objects.” Research on happiness seems to suggest that
happiness comes from both within and without and that learning the proper balanced ratio is
what is necessary; not to discount one or the other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">That this life only has value in terms of the
“afterlife” is made overtly clear when he adds: “Don’t worry so much about
social security. Finance your karmic security instead. Invest in your <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">future </i>lives now. Investing so much in
this life is like checking into a hotel for a few days and redecorating the
room; what’s the point?” This emphasis on “reincarnation” which is only seen in
Tibetan Buddhism (yes other forms of buddhism teach rebirth, not the same thing
and equally wrong when taken as the rebirth of some atomistic entity, one even
as nebulous as a specific ‘stream of consciousness’) is another aspect of this
life-denying tendency and is very selfish. Taken literally, this statement equating life to time spent in a hotel, and thus there being no point in
redecorating it, could lead one to wonder why we should bother to confront
structural forms of oppression, catastrophic climate change, or systemic
economic inequities; if this life is no more than a hotel, what’s the point? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Holecek quotes B. Alan Wallace: “In light of death,
our mundane desires are seen for what they are. If our desires are for wealth,
luxury, good food, praise, reputation, affection, and acceptance by other
people, and so forth are worth nothing in the face of death, then that is
precisely their ultimate value.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Now, I practice the five remembrances regularly, and
emphasize to my students that we should </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">never forget impermanence. The “gatha of encouragement,” which begins our daily practice, reminds us: “Great is the matter of birth and death. Impermanence
permeates us. Be awake each moment. Do not squander your life.” But as a
naturalist, this isn’t a practice designed to create revulsion for this life,
it isn’t a mere “investment in future lives” (other than the metaphorical “lives”
we live throughout this one life that we know exists and the equally important lives of those who will come after, as our actions now will definitely impact them) but it’s a practice to
awaken us from our complacency; indeed it can be seen as a fierce compassionate
shattering of the placid denial we too easily fall prey to, taking this life
for granted. And no mistake, that can be a brutal awakening!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">To me, though I agree desire for "wealth, luxury and praise" hold little value and may derail our attention from what is of real value, it’s sad that Wallace feels affection and the
human need for relationship is “ultimately worthless,” literally “worth
nothing” just because we all die! It is the fact that we will die, that we will
be separated from all we love that makes my time with my loved ones so very precious; so
precious that I don’t want to take one moment with them for granted. Ideally. And through this contemplation, who "loved ones" are becomes vast and ever more inclusive. And that’s why constant contemplation and remembrance of impermanence is
important and can be so thoroughly a “turning of the mind,” because the default
seems to lull me – us – into a kind of somnolent, zombie-like walking through
life. Beyond this, I think it’s intellectually and morally dishonest because I
somewhat doubt Wallace, and those who teach this life-denying perspective
actually live with the full implications of what they are saying. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So yes, contemplate the fact of impermanence in
order to live life fully, intimately, to come to see its absolute value in its
ephemeral nature. Practice in order to avoid living this precious human life
grasping at impermanent objects or experiences, and not ignoring them either,
but savoring the good, and working to change what you can that is harmful to yourself
and other real living beings who are also precious because also mortal. Don’t
waste this life as if it were some dress rehearsal for future lives or some transcendent state of being. Immerse yourself in the
world because you really are of it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Here’s something I've written about the five remembrances if you’re
interested…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 11.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Ignorance, or
avidya, is a root cause of suffering, according to Patanjali’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yoga-Sutra </i>(II.5). But the ignorance
Patanjali refers to is less a lack of knowledge than an almost willful ignoring
of reality. Today we call it denial. For instance, we may intellectually know
that all things change, yet we desperately deny this truth; a denial that leads
to anxiety, fear, and confusion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">At a past lecture,
I led a group of interfaith seminarians in the contemplation of the five remembrances, "the buddha's" teaching on impermanence, aging, health, change, and
death. Afterward, one of the students asked, "Isn't this just negative
thinking?" On the contrary, I would argue that the five remembrances is
what "the buddha" offers to awaken you from denial, to cultivate an appreciation
for living, and to teach you about nonattachment and equanimity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 11.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">If you think of it
this way, the meditation is not a bleak, depressing list of things you'll lose,
but a reminder of the existential situation of the human. When you accept
impermanence as more than merely a philosophical concept, you can see the truth
of it as it manifests itself in your mind, your body, your environment, and
your relationships, and you no longer take anything for granted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 11.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Once you accept
the reality of impermanence, you begin to realize that grasping and clinging
are suffering, as well as the causes of suffering, and with that realization
you can relax and celebrate life. The problem is not that things change, but
that you try to live as if they don't.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">To work with the five remembrances below, it helps to memorize and repeat them daily. Say them
slowly and let the words seep in, without immediately analyzing or interpreting
them or your experience; that can and should come later. Just notice your
reactions. Let them rest until they shift and pass away—as all things do, being
impermanent. Stay with your breath and observe the sensations under all your
thinking. You may experience dread at the thought of any or all of these realities. You may experience huge relief as the energy you've spent denying and
hiding from the truth is liberated to move freely through your body. Who knows what you'll experience until you try it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 11.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Some remembrances
are easier to accept than others. For me, it was easier to consider that I'm
aging and will die, than it was that I have the potential for ill
health. I have a strong constitution and am rarely ill; I had believed that
if my practice were "good" enough, I wouldn't get sick. So, on those
rare days when I was ill, I often reproached myself for being sick and was a
pretty cranky person to be around. But with the help of the second remembrance,
I've grown more accepting of illness and can now feel a profound sense of ease even while ill so that
I don’t needlessly suffer my illness. What this has shown me is that there is indeed a difference
between disease and dis-ease.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 11.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Another way of
practicing the five remembrances in relationship is through<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>hugging meditation. When your partner
or children leave for work or school, hug each other for three full breaths,
and remind yourself of the fourth remembrance: "All that is dear to me and
everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being
separated from them." If you're having a disagreement with someone, remind
yourself, before getting swept away by heated emotions, of the fifth remembrance: "I am the heir of my actions. I cannot escape the
consequences of my actions." None of this means you should be passive or
reluctant to advocate your views. Instead the meditation helps you respond more
skillfully with awareness rather than simply from conditioned reactivity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 11.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">You can also get
used to the concept of impermanence by listing things that have changed in your
life over the past month or two. Perhaps a difficult posture has become easier,
or an easy posture has become challenging. Perhaps a problem with a family member
has resolved or grown more complicated. You'll be hard-pressed to find
something that hasn't changed! As I post this today, I look back over the month
and review my mom’s illness and death; a teaching engagement that took me to
Los Angeles; and a political fight to influence Arizona’s governor to veto an
immoral, discriminatory bill that the state legislature had passed!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Again, facing the truth of impermanence
shouldn't depress you; it should free you to be fully present. It should help
you realize that the peace and ease you seek are available in the midst of
changing circumstances. When you really see that all things change, your
grasping and clinging fade under the bright light of awareness, like the stains
in a white cloth bleached by the sun.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">If nonattachment sounds cold and
unappealing, you may be mistaking it for indifference. It's the experience of
attachment, based on the denial of ceaseless change, that is lifeless. Life
without change is a contradiction in terms. When you're attached to something,
you want it to stay the same forever. This attempt to "freeze-dry"
elements of your life squeezes the vitality out of life. The practice of
nonattachment allows you to enjoy life wholeheartedly in its very passing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Through your attachments you create mental
manacles that bind you to the limited view that life is <i>your</i> life, <i>your</i> body,
<i>your</i> lover, <i>your</i> family, <i>your</i> possessions. As your insight into impermanence
deepens you start to see the truth of "not-self." When you can
extend beyond the limits you've created you see that your life is not really
"yours" but ultimately simply one manifestation of life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">As “the buddha” tells us: "When one
perceives impermanence, the perception of not-self is established. With the
perception of not-self, the conceit of 'I' is eliminated, and this is nirvana
here and now."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><u>The Five Remembrances</u></span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I am of the nature to age. There is no way
to escape aging.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I am of the nature to experience illness.
There is no way to escape illness.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I am of the nature to die. There is no way
to escape death.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">All that is dear to me, and everyone I love,
are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from
them.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I am the heir of my
actions. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the
ground upon which I stand.</span></i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-31720602562362308842014-01-06T13:58:00.002-07:002014-01-06T14:05:05.701-07:00There Is No Brad Warner and He Writes A Lot Of Books<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Brad Warner’s new book has the clever and catchy
title, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">There Is No God and He Is Always
With You. </i>And with this book as well as in a recent essay for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tricycle, </i>titled “How To Practice With
God” he shows himself to be the traditionalist, conservative, safe zen
practitioner and teacher that he actually is: “hard-core” be damned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In a blog posting earlier this year, Warner wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>“God does not exist, says Eriugena, because he is
beyond existence. To say that he exists is to place him in contradistinction with
that which does not exist. But if God is really God, then he cannot be bound by
such categories as existence and nonexistence.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>"This is a nice piece of logic, and I happen to like
it quite a bit. But in the end that’s all it is. Because in order to agree with
the logic, you have to first accept that there is something called God who is
infinite and omniscient and transcendent and so on. But what if you don’t
believe in that in the first place? What if you’re coming to this discussion
from the standpoint that all matter is essentially dead and that consciousness
is just an accident arising from the movement of electricity in the cerebral
cells of animals who think far too highly of their own random brain farts?<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>"Pseudo Dionysus has an answer: “Find out for
yourself.” You cannot answer the question of God’s existence or lack thereof
through reasoned analysis. So rather than just stopping at a logical
explanation of God he goes further. He says, ‘In the diligent exercise of
mystical contemplation, leave behind the senses and the operations of the
intellect, and all things sensible and intellectual, and all things in the
world of being and nonbeing, that you may arise by unknowing towards the union,
as far as is attainable, with it that transcends all being and all knowledge.’
These instructions sound very much like the ones the Japanese monk Dogen gave
seven hundred years later and five thousand miles away for sitting zazen
meditation. Dogen said, ‘Do not think of good and bad. Do not care about right
and wrong. Stop the driving movement of mind, will, consciousness. Cease
intellectual consideration through images, thoughts, and reflections.’"</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The problem is, as neural beings, we cannot “leave
behind the senses” and to posit something, or some realm, that “transcends all
being and knowledge” already assumes that which you are trying to prove. As a
naturalist, I argue that such a transcendent realm doesn’t even exist, but if
it did, by definition we could not know it (or ‘un-know’ it) because we are
thoroughly natural animals. And, by the way, Warner and all zennies spout on
endlessly about nonduality but seem to be confused about the idea because
positing some transcendent realm beyond all being (or non-being) is exactly what dualism
posits!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tricycle
</i>essay, Warner writes: “I think the ultimate object of inquiry in Buddhist
practice can be called God if we choose to call it God. Dogen Zenji, the
founder of the order of Buddhism that I belong to, preferred not to name it at
all. He just called it “it.” He said this “it” was infinite and intelligent,
that “it” sees and knows all, that “it” is the source of compassion and truth,
and that we are intimately connected to “it.” Medieval Japan had no other name
for “it.” But we do. And that name is God.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Whew! This may be what Dogen and Soto Zen believe,
but it has little to do with what the buddha seems to have taught! This is more
in line with Vedanta and Daoism. Repeatedly throughout his work, Warner shows
he is in line with standard zen doctrine (deeply influenced by monistic Daoism)
that reifies mind (as Mind) and speaks of “the Way” and now “it” as a
substratum – a “source” of compassion and truth. The problem is, the buddha
rejected any such substratum. Warner's description of the attributes of his "it" are no different from those posited by Vedantins about brahman, which the buddha criticized.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What zen has done – as well as many other forms of mahayana buddhism – is to reify the description of phenomena as being empty of
any unchanging, independent and persistent essence into “emptiness,” described <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">as</i> essence, a “source” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">of</i> phenomena! When adjectives such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">shunya </i>(empty) are made into nouns such
as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">shunyata</i> (emptiness) this is the
kind of lax thinking we find.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But of course, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thinking</i>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">itself </i>is seen as an obstacle to some
“ineffable” understanding or “vision of reality” (more often written as
“Reality” – and note the reifying symbolized by capitalizing such words as truth,
reality and mind that is quite common among contemporary buddhists). This anti-thinking stance pervades much of contemporary
buddhism, but it can be found in much traditional east Asian buddhism, despite the
rich and varied intellectual tradition of early Indian buddhism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Witness the following random quotes collected by Glen Wallis at his blog:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Stop talking
and thinking and there is nothing you will not be able to know. (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hsin Hsin Ming</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">No thinking,
no mind. No mind, no problem. (Seung Sahn)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Names and
forms are made by your thinking. If you are not thinking and have no attachment
to name and form, then all substance is one. Your don’t know mind cuts off all
thinking. This is your substance. The substance of this Zen stick and your own
substance are the same. You are this stick; this stick is you. (Seung
Sahn)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Zen has
nothing to teach us in the way of intellectual analysis. [Sutras are] mere
waste paper whose utility consist in wiping off the dirt of the intellect and
nothing more. (D.T. Suzuki)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Mindfulness
is not thinking. This is one of the reasons it is so powerful. (Trevor Leggett)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">It’s like
this. If you start <i>really</i> paying attention to your own thought process,
you’ll notice that the thoughts themselves don’t go on continuously. . . . Most
of us habitually fill these spaces with more thoughts as fast as we can. . . .
Try to look at the natural spaces between your thoughts. Learn what it feels
like to stop generating more and more stuff for your brain to chew on. Now see
if you can do that for longer and longer periods. A couple of seconds is fine.
Voilà! (Brad Warner)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">And of course, that quote from Dogen that Warner shares! </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“Do not think of good and
bad. Do not care about right and wrong. Stop the driving movement of mind,
will, consciousness. Cease intellectual consideration through images, thoughts,
and reflections.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f1f1f; font-size: 19px;"><br /></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f1f1f; font-size: 19px;">In other words, become a vegetable (though recent research seems to point to
the ability for plants to form memories!).</span><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">As such
commonly repeated statements demonstrate, a particularly despicable aspect of much
buddhist propaganda is a disdain of thinking. Yet despite these common
pronouncements, the early buddhist understanding rejects such monist notions as
promulgated by Seung Sahn above (it’s not merely that we are not in fact all
one substance, there is no substance – and here, make no mistake, the word
“substance” is a stand-in for “essence”). And Warner’s latching on to the
“space between thoughts” as something more real (more essential) like “pure
awareness” or “pure consciousness” (terms often bandied about by contemporary
buddhist teachers) simply reifies awareness into a stand-in for atman. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">This kind of
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thinking </i>about the need to stop
thinking (kind of ironic, ain't it?) or somehow “go beyond thinking” is currently favored in the mainstream
mindfulness movement as well. Mindfulness is often described as “bare
attention” which entails cultivating and maintaining a </span><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">“non-discursive, non-judgmental,
non-reactive attending to the present moment” and is, in fact, a relatively
recent understanding, dating from the early 20</span><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">th</span><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">
century. Historically, buddhist philosophical thought more generally rejected
the idea of an awareness outside of all cultural and cognitive conditions. Indeed,
many schools of buddhist thought would understand such bare awareness to be
impossible, just as contemporary neural science shows. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Cognitive science shows us how awareness
is constructed at every level. Since we are neural beings, our experience is
categorized (constructed or conceptualized) from the cellular level. Categories
are part of our experience from the first stage of contact, “the simultaneous
coming together of a sense organ, a sense object, and a moment of consciousness
that cognizes one by means of the other,” as the buddha is reported to have
taught. The assertion that basic awareness carries no content or qualities of
its own goes a bit further than the evidence provides and is more a Vedantin
idea than anything the buddha seems to have said. As George Lakoff and Mark
Johnson write in <i>Philosophy In The Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its
Challenge to Western Thought,</i> a book I believe every practitioner should read
– if for no reason other then to be challenged to look deeper into their own
concepts – “Categorization is not a purely intellectual matter, occurring after
the fact of experience. Rather, the formation and use of categories is the
stuff of experience. It is part of what our bodies and brains are constantly
engaged in. We cannot, as some meditative traditions suggest, “get beyond” our
categories and have a purely uncategorized and unconceptualized experience.
Neural beings cannot do that.” </span><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">This
is important to bring to attention because there are definite effects of
placing one’s faith in the possibility of such awareness. As Tom Pepper writes:
“Certainly, as a social practice, convincing oneself that one has reached a
state of “non-conceptual consciousness” can function as a kind of support for
the ego, cathecting mental energy and helping to reify and naturalize one’s
socially constructed construal of the world. In a word, so long as one is
convinced of the dual ancient <i>and </i>scientific power of this practice, and
participates in the social institution of mindfulness, it is possible that it
can serve to more fully interpellate the individual into the dominant ideology,
of which empiricism and belief in a transcendent soul are powerful components…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Read
those quotes above again and you can see how such thinking has led to a
generally quietistic, accommodation to oppressive social structures thoughout
buddhism’s history in Asia and in many contemporary sanghas where dharma and
political and social action are seen as separate realms. Even in most so-called
“engaged buddhist” sanghas, the engagement is rarely of a radical critique of
institutionalized structures of oppression, but more often 'band-aid' types of activity that, while perhaps helpful in the short-term, with the lack of deeper critical activity, simply serves to prop up the very structures at the root of social inequities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Pepper
continues: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">“Simply
put, to be able to achieve “bare awareness” assumes that there is some kind of
mind or consciousness that is uncreated by, not dependent upon, the phenomenal
world, and which can therefore become aware of this world “as it really is,”
separate from this radically dualistic mind that does not affect and is not affected
by it. On this understanding, all of our cognitions are part of this
phenomenal world, but our “pure consciousness” is not. (Sharf refers to
this as the “filter theory,” in which language and cultural conditioning
“filter” or obscure the eternal mind’s direct access to the reality separate
from it.) Locke seems to have believed in such a pure consciousness (he
suggests that the soul “thinks” outside of language, for instance), but it is
antithetical to much of Buddhist thought, which assumes that consciousness and
object arise dependent upon one another (as well as upon other conditions)."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">It
is a deeper engagement with, and understanding of, dependent origination, and
the support and encouragement of critical thinking (thinking better), not some
escape into non-thinking, non-conceptual, blissful, “pure awareness” (a pipe
dream in any case) that is needed in contemporary buddhist practice if we have
any hope for deconstructing the structures and ideology that are at the root of
oppression and the creation of new ideologies and structures supporting greater
liberation and equality for all.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #343434; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">Glenn Wallis' list can be found somewhere on this interesting and entertaining blog:</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #343434; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"><a href="http://speculativenonbuddhism.com/">http://speculativenonbuddhism.com/</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #343434; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #343434; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">Tom Pepper's writing can be found both at the Speculative Non-Buddhism blog and <a href="http://faithfulbuddhist.com/">here</a>.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #343434; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #343434; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">I've written more about the distorted contemporary view of mindfulness <a href="http://www.mindfulness-yoga.blogspot.com/2012/03/so-what-is-mindfulness.html">here</a>.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #343434; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #343434; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">And this talk by <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6Avs5iwACs&list=UUvwynGKKFos42dGxeU_TvnA&index=11">Robert Sharf</a> is an even better critique of the contemporary view of mindfulness.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-48943712544939951642013-11-05T12:49:00.001-07:002013-11-05T12:55:17.436-07:00All Beings Are Without Blame (Part Ten)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Previously, I’ve put forward the
argument that while taking responsibility has been shown to be generally good
and psychologically healthy, it is not moral responsibility that is actually
taken. Despite the intuitive feeling and tendency to strongly identify with
one’s “character traits” as one’s “authentic self,” claims of moral
responsibility that open one to punishment or reward cannot be founded upon
such “feeling.” And yet, not only do some advocates of moral responsibility say
we take moral responsibility for the character you happen to have, some say you
gain moral responsibility because you literally “make yourself.” It is to that
claim, I wish to now turn attention.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The Renaissance philosopher, Pico
della Mirandola, in “The Dignity of Man” says that god has granted “man” a
supernatural power of unlimited self-making. He writes: “Thou, constrained by
no limits, in accordance with thine own free will, in whose hand We have places
thee, shall ordain for thyself the limits of thy nature…. thou mayest fashion
theyself in whatever shape thou shall prefer.” Such positing of acausal
free will requires the belief in a supernatural soul. Buddhists, allegedly
rejecting such an essence, must face the implications of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anatta </i>teaching and reject such a belief.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
While rejecting god, Jean Paul
Sartre, the existentialist philosopher, also settles onto a miraculous
assertion when, insisting that our existence precedes our essence goes on to
assert that we are “self-conscious, self-creating ‘being-for-itself’ with the
free power – indeed, the necessity – to make ourselves; we are different in
kind from entities with their own given natures, the unfree ‘being-in-itself.’”
(2011, 115) Sartre argues that humans alone are uniquely self-creating, and
that we make ourselves unconstrained by natural causes and natural processes. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
To this, the buddhist and
naturalist must ask: “who is doing the making?” The positing of “self-making”
infers that there is already a self that is doing the making. Infinite regress
follows! Or, if it’s a miraculous process (as with della Mirandola) or if it
defies natural understanding (as with Sartre) then there is nothing that can be
said about it and it by definition cannot fit into a naturalist system of
thought or worldview.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
And yet, there are avowed
naturalists, like Daniel Dennett, who argue that one does indeed create and
unleashes an agent who is oneself, and therefore should be held morally
accountable. Not denying that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>there is indeed a sense in which we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do
indeed </i>make ourselves, it is also undeniable that we start with different
resources and abilities <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">which we neither
chose nor created for ourselves! </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you have a loving and supportive early family life, an
excellent education, good genetic dispositions and financial security, you are
likely to create a superior character; someone starting with the opposite
extreme is likely to fashion a ‘self’ with serious deficiencies and flaws. It
remains unclear that you deserve reward and the other deserves blame.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Others say while we may not be
“self-made,” we “choose ourselves” through the various choices we make. But
even here, to speak of choices free of influences and conditions makes no sense
in a naturalistic worldview. Yes, we all make choices, but we come to make
those choices with differing capacities of rationality, self-efficacy,
different temperaments and experience. It remains unclear how one becomes
morally responsible for choices that have been conditioned by conditions out of
one’s control.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Once again, Bruce Waller puts it succinctly
and clearly: “… when I make my own choice – a choice that shapes my further
character development – that choice is not made in a vacuum, nor is it the
product of some miraculous power that transcends my causal and social and
genetic history (at least naturalists cannot claim such transcendent choices).
For the issue of moral responsibility, the key self-making question is whether
it is fair to punish or reward for the results of choices that are themselves
the product of vastly different conditions that ultimately were not the product
of choice.” Some may argue that it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is </i>fair,
but they must them offer convincing reasons to accept this, which I’ve not
heard, yet. In fact, I believe that the weight of evidence shows that it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i>fair.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Dhammapada </i>is replete with verses that extol
“self-cultivation.” Many distinguish between “the foolish” and “the wise.”
Verse 85 reminds us:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Few are the people</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Who
reach the other shore.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Many are the people</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Who
run about on this shore.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
It should be clear to any
practitioner that we do shape ourselves “as a fletcher shapes arrows; as
carpenters fashion wood; as irrigators guide water.” In important ways my
practice has shaped my life and has led to me being who I am today. But it
should be equally clear to every practitioner that the “shaping” never
transcends the causal history that set us on the trajectory we have followed.
Zen Naturalism is not fatalism: our decisions, evaluations, and actions play a
hugely important role in shaping who we become. We, and our practice, are part
of the shaping process, not simply pawns or automatons. But this “self-shaping
process” (including our own values and choices) among individuals proceeds upon
differences in capacities, opportunities, circumstances and situations that were
not created by the individuals. Thus, if one practitioner shapes the character
of an <i>arahant</i>, and another remains tethered to "foolishness"; if one yogi shows
fortitude and commitment to her practice and another falls into “laziness,”
these differences are based upon differences in resources and capacities that
were not created or chosen by the individuals. How then, does the one morally
deserve praise and the other blame?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I end the current post by arguing that the
system that asserts moral responsibility is unfair in another, perhaps more
pernicious way. It is a system that blocks and forestalls any deeper inquiry
into the causes that shape our values, our choices and our behavior. As soon as we say someone is morally responsible, we stop investigating the factors that
underlie their behavior: from the “personal” factors such as cognitive capacities,
differences in self-efficacy, and locus-of-control to “external” factors
including specific circumstances, as well as cultural, social, economic, and
political influences. The status-quo goes unquestioned. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Waller, Bruce, 2011: <i>Against
Moral Responsibility. </i>Cambride, MA: MIT Press</span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-10764530482164092472013-07-24T13:55:00.001-07:002013-07-24T14:44:56.677-07:00All Beings Are Without Blame (Part Nine)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
It’s been a while since I last posted to my series, “All
Beings Are Without Blame.” If you haven’t followed the argument laid out so far
over eight previous posts, I invite you to do so. If you have followed my
argument, you may wish to refresh your memory as to what is meant by “<a href="http://zennaturalism.blogspot.com/2013/02/all-beings-are-without-blame-part-eight.html">taken responsibility</a>” as opposed to “moral responsibility."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Those who believe that it is moral responsibility that is
taken argue that people must therefore be coerced into taking such
responsibility, as Daniel Dennett does, because he says, “… there will always
be strong temptations to make yourself small, to externalize the causes of your
actions and deny responsibility…” Therefore, he adds, “If you want to be free,
you must <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">take </i>responsibility.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
But the only real responsibility that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>can be “taken” is “take-charge
responsibility” and no coercion is required. As Bruce Waller says, “Take-charge
responsibility is not the price we pay for freedom, but is instead a vital
element of living freely and exercising free control. It is very satisfying to
take responsibility for my own life, my own decisions, my own projects, my own
health care choices.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Yes, it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is </i>very
satisfying to do so – much of the time. However, it is often enough not very
satisfying at all! It can be distressing and burdensome. When there is
knowledge and confidence to act efficiently and skillfully, exercising control
feels quite satisfying. It has been shown that patients with such knowledge and
confidence who exercise take-charge responsibility for their own health care
decisions recover faster and are more compliant with following their
health-care regimens. I think it safe to say that this plays into the success
many people have when they undertake some “alternative” medical regimen even if
it’s been shown that the so-called therapy is objectively ineffective!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The benefits of “take-charge responsibility” have also been
studied in long-term care situations (such as nursing homes) when patients have
been asked to care for plants or kittens. Such patients exhibit greater
resistance to infection, less depression and greater participation in community
activities. And factory workers who have more control over their environment,
and are given the opportunity to have greater involvement in the company show
greater job satisfaction, are less likely to suffer depression and have fewer
days lost to illness. But… if one is placed in a position of having to make a
big decision without the appropriate knowledge and ability to make such a
decision, then such control and responsibility becomes a stressful burden.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Those who have a strong sense of what Alfred Bandura calls
“self-efficacy” find great satisfaction in exercising take-charge
responsibility in making decisions and carrying on projects. They do not need
to be forced to take responsibility; they welcome it! Better than thinking
people need to be forced to take responsibility would be to create the
conditions of solid, grounded knowledge, self-confidence, sense of
self-efficacy in which people happily embrace and enjoy taking responsibility.
Any parent knows that when children are young, they seek taking on
responsibility – sometimes to the consternation of their parents for activities
they are not developmentally ready to perform! My three-year old daughter loves
to make her own eggs in the morning. Her mother and I have helped create the
conditions where she knows what to do, understands what she can do (now, she
can do every part of the operation but light the stove), and feels confident
that she can do it, and so she embraces the opportunity. And to be sure, if she
drops an egg, that doesn’t make her morally responsible! What she has taken
upon herself is “take-charge responsibility.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
And this is important to distinguish and point out because
when take-charge responsibility is confused with moral responsibility the
conditions that favor the effective taking of take-charge responsibility are
actively denied! When we hold people morally responsible and blame them as
individuals for their bad acts or character, we are willfully blinding
ourselves to the forces that shaped them. If we look closely – as did the
buddha – it becomes quite clear that we are blaming and punishing people for
acting as they do but such behavior is in fact the product of their unfortunate
conditioning. And again, make no mistake, this is quite the willful <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">avidya</i> or ignoring and not seeing.
Dennett again: “Instead of investigating, endlessly, in an attempt to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">discover</i> whether or not a particular
trait is of someone’s making – instead of trying to assay exactly to what
degree a particular self is self-made – we simply <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hold </i>people responsible for their conduct (within limits we take
are not to examine too closely.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Whew! Dennett, and those who argue alongside his form of
compatibilism are literally telling us not to investigate how one’s character
was formed, and to take care not to examine how responsibility actually
functions. And our whole society does this quite well! For our punitive,
retributive form of “justice” that holds people morally responsible and
possessing free will, we must not look too closely. But it is imperative that
we – as a society – begin to look seriously and deeply into the cultural,
social, political and psychological conditions that foster and impede the
exercise take-charge responsibility.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
There is plenty of evidence that even those handicapped by
conditions can learn, with the proper support, to make more skillful decisions,
act less uncritically impulsive and develop a greater sense of self-efficacy.
But certainly, nothing at all is gained by forcing someone to accept
responsibility if they are not able to effectively; in fact, we are
contributing to their suffering by doing so. The better response is to offer
restorative and rehabilitative opportunities for such a person to grow in
self-efficacy and the desire to exercise skillful control. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Bruce Waller strongly condemns the conditions that lead so
many in our society to lack the sense of ‘self-efficacy’ and freedom: “We
aren’t born free, but must develop the capacity for freedom. And we are in
chains, but they are the chains of substandard education, hierarchical
authoritative religions, standardized jobs that require obedience rather than
thought, and a consumer culture that encourages and rewards mindless
conformity.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Not seeing the causes of duhkha <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is </i>duhkha. Seeing the causes of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">duhkha,
</i>we see the path to ending <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">duhkha. </i>The
buddha argued against those who said <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">duhkha
</i>was a matter of fate, the will of the gods or random. There are causes and
conditions. Recognize and understand the causes and conditions, and then change
them. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That</i> is the way to “freedom”
and the challenge, as we’ve come to see, is that this is by necessity a
collective movement. The very reason we must act as a collective is the same
reason all beings are without blame: there are no atomistic selves independent
of causes and conditions that can be deserving of blame or praise.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Dennett, Daniel, 1984: <i>Elbow Room. </i>Cambridge, MA: MIT Press<br />
<br />
Dennett, Daniel, 2003: <i>Freedom Evolves. </i>New York: Viking<br />
<br />
Waller, Bruce, 2011: <i>Against Moral Responsibility. </i>Cambride, MA: MIT Press</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-58701432432177363032013-06-28T11:50:00.000-07:002013-06-29T10:37:37.216-07:00On the "Gen X Dharma Teacher Gathering"<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">For those unfamiliar with the Gen X Dharma Teacher Gathering that took place earlier this month at <a href="http://deerparkmonastery.org/">Deer Park Monastery</a>, please read the summary <a href="http://shambhalasun.com/news/?p=47787">here</a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Lucida Grande';">On the surface, such a gathering seems simply and only positive: what could be better than teachers from the various buddhisms
gathering to dialogue with one another? But there are so many questions and
issues that simply remain transparent for such participants, too many
unquestioned assumptions that the “shadow” appears in the very light the
conference was meant to shine.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"><i>First</i>: the opening paragraph states that the
conference was for “Western teachers – of any recognized Buddhist lineage that
offers refuge in the Buddha, dharma, and sangha…” As a Gen X conference, the
invitations were limited to said teachers from “recognized Buddhist lineages” “for
whom teaching is a major life direction” born between the years 1960 and 1980. Someone born in 1960 would be 53! Seems a bit old to be considered "Gen X!" That's still well within the "Baby Boomer Generation."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"><br /></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">This question of "lineage" and being "recognized" or "authorized" is one that gets little superficial attention. I would hope younger teachers would be questioning this very notion rather than seemingly unquestioning the very structure of "lineage." I recently had a personal experience around this when a few months back, <a href="http://www.centreofgravity.org/michael_stone/">Michael Stone</a> passed along in
an email to me that he was being asked by some elder zen teachers who had only just heard
of me, “</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Why
wasn't Frank nominated to come to the Gen X meeting?” (I am so outside the
radar of contemporary mainstream, ‘consensus buddhism’ that the fact <i>I’m too
old</i> to be invited had they even known about me made me laugh when I read that
question). The other questions asked bear some relevance to the first point I
wish to raise: “Who has the right to “recognize” whom or what is “legitimate?” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> How is such "right" granted? And by whom?</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">These zen teachers – rather than reaching out and asking me directly
their questions – went through Michael, which at best seems a breech of their
holy “right speech” ethic! Michael, as a friend of mine, was put on the spot by these zen elders, and forwarded their questions to me. What prompted their questions was their having
become aware of a dharma training program I am offering two-dozen
students that had only just begun! Keep in mind, this is a multi-year program requiring a commitment
that will be for over five years, and this was only in its first week! You’d never
know from the urgency of their questioning!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Their questions: “Who is he? Can he empower dharma teachers? Why not a mentorship
program? Why dharma teacher? It's a 2000 year old lineage that isn't perfect
but... What lineage exactly? Does he have a teacher now? Do you know the
students? Are they ready? Why is this the first I have heard of Frank? How come
the lay Zen teachers associations have not heard about this? Are these going to
be Zen teachers?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Can you hear the mixture of proprietary investment and status preservation? So, who determines whom is “recognized?” Who determines what “lineages”
are recognized? When zen started out, it was a bunch of upstarts not recognized
by the mainstream contemporaneous buddhist schools in China. The fact that they
made up a lineage going back to the buddha was clearly an attempt to create a
sense of legitimacy, and over time the zen school became rather powerful and
dominant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The story of Hui-neng’s dharma transmission in a “secret” meeting
with his teacher one night (for me, such “family secrets” are a red flag alert)
was created by Shen-hui, a student of Hui-neng in yet another upstart movement
designed to wrestle institutional power from an established lineage holder, </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Shen-hsiu. Shen-hsiu was
acknowledged<i> </i>as one of the great Ch’an masters, honored by court and
populace alike. He was the great leader of the Lankavatara School, which later
came to be known as the Northern Ch’an and was, according to all contemporary
records, one of the most eminent priests of his time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The first mention we have of Hui-neng is found in the </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Leng-chia
jen-fa chih</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> where he is simply listed as one of the eleven principle disciples of
Hung-jen along with Shen-hsiu, Fa-ju, Chih-hsien and seven others. This same
text states that Shen-hsiu transmitted the Patriarchate to P’u-chi, and that
along with P’u-chi, Shen-hsiu had three other principle heirs: Ching-hsien,
I-fu, and Hui-fu.<i> </i>While this Ch’an of Shen-hsiu and his disciples was
enjoying great popularity and prestige, a then unknown priest from Nan-yang,
Shen-hui, intent upon promulgating <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i>a
new school of his own</i></b> launched an attack upon the Ch’an of Shen-hsiu,
and after years of struggle, eventually carried the day. One of his methods was the disparagement and undermining of Shen-hsiu. <i>The Platform Sutra </i>is a wonderful example of propaganda, even if it contains some cool teachings.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Despite the self-congratulatory nonsense about the “different views”
expressed at the Gen X conference, there is a ringing hollowness in the
proclamation that “</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">No one voice was dominant. No one tried to take
over and make it their show.” This hollowness is the shadow peaking out over
this movement to create and maintain a hegemonic monopoly on what they might refer to as the “true dharma.” The “one
voice” that dominates is the “one voice” of contemporary mainstream, ‘<a href="http://meaningness.wordpress.com/category/buddhism/consensus-buddhism/">consensus buddhism</a>.’ Where are the current “upstarts” looking to create truly new
expressions of the dharma – maybe even a new dharma? The real questions are
being asked <a href="http://jsri.ro/ojs/index.php/jsri/article/view/710">outside</a> the accepted, “recognized” lineages as it has been true
throughout buddhism’s history. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">I don’t know if I can find the words to express the dismay I felt when I read “And so it seems that a kind of template has been set…there are
already several groups and projects forming from the retreat that will in some
way shape the direction the dharma takes going forward.” Can they not hear the
egoic, self-inflating tone of this statement? Of course not, because real
dialogue would include questioning the decisions made before the conversation
even began. All the differences in opinion and perspective expressed in such
gatherings take more for granted than they acknowledge and are nothing compared
to what a real dialogue would require. While I don’t agree with every argument
they make, the only real "dangerous" and vigorous questioning that dares to investigate what "goes without saying" that I see regarding buddhist
teachings and practices is at <a href="http://speculativenonbuddhism.com/">speculative non-buddhism. </a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">The second point I’d like to raise is the
blindness evident in the following:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">“Gone are the days of the culty and isolated
rockstar dharma teacher beyond question — or at least the Gathering’s
participants hope them to be gone. Those who would assert that they or their
lineage alone hold the sole keys to the Buddha’s truth would have been very out
of place in the midst of those of us who gathered at Deer Park Monastery for
our sessions of conversation and interaction.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">Are they insane???? The contemporary commodified
buddhist “marketplace”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>couldn’t be
any more obvious to me if it hit me in the face! Oh, they <i>“hope” </i>such days are
gone! Good one, that! From the cult of personality around Thich Nhat Hanh and
the Dalai Lama to the newest ones being created around Lodro Rinzler, Brad
Warner and Noah Levine, (among others) I see “dharma rockstar” trappings in the
packaging, in the way they brand themselves, and how they market their image to a degree
not possible before social media and the ubiquity of advertising and public
relations. It’s actually hard to resist this momentum!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">That this statement could be expressed in the same year we became aware of four scandals (Geshe
Roach, Eido Shimano Roshi, Genpo Roshi, Sasaki Roshi) alone in the buddhist
world strikes me as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">avidya (ignore-ance) </i>plain and
simple. And, do I need to point out these were “authenticated, recognized”
teachers? </span><!--EndFragment-->
<br />
<div>
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica;">Laying my cards on the table, not that it matters or is in any way necessarily </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica;">relevant to the discussion, but for the record, I was ordained as a dharma teacher by Samu Sunim on July 4th, 2007, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. By 2008, I declared myself independent of the Buddhist Society for Compassionate Wisdom, the order established by my teacher. There were no secret dharma transmissions or empowerments. I'm a nobody, that way. In 2009, I established the <a href="http://www.emptymountainsangha.org/empty_mountain_sangha_about.html">Empty Mountain Sangha</a> in Tucson, Arizona. I cannot foresee us ever being "recognized" or accepted by the growing cultural institutionalized western buddhism as evidenced in this and other conferences such as the one held by <a href="http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/">Buddhist Geeks</a>. If you find yourself passing through Tucson, please feel free to come and sit with us. </span></div>
Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-62841939520624141632013-06-16T11:57:00.006-07:002013-06-16T11:57:58.494-07:00The False Consensus Effect and Some Consequences
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">My opinion, my
conviction, gains infinitely in strength and success, the moment a second mind
has adopted it.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Novalis<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In the aftermath of the shocking revelations of
scandal such as we’ve seen all too much in the buddhist and yoga communities
lately, one salient point is often ruminated upon and just as often with great
anger: why do so many practitioners “enable” the abusive behavior? How is it
that people can know a guru/teacher is engaging in inappropriate and damaging behavior
and not speak up? And most hypotheses revolve around psychological causes and
conditions. Here I’d like to look into another potential cause that
metacognition studies (involving thinking about how we think and perceive)
offer: the imagined agreement of others and the exaggerated impressions of
social support.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It should be obvious that what we believe is heavily
influenced by what we think others believe. One typical example I’ve often
found humorous is the office collection for a co-worker’s gift to celebrate the
birth of her new baby. When asked for a donation towards the gift, most of us
try to find out how much others have given and then decide our own contribution
accordingly. I’ve often wondered what operations lie behind the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">first </i>person’s calculations!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Within limits, the tendency to be influenced by the
beliefs of others is valid and justified. What others think and how they behave
provide us with important sources of information about what is correct, valid
or appropriate. However, our ability to effectively utilize this information is
compromised by a systematic defect in our ability to accurately estimate the
beliefs and attitudes of others. We tend to exaggerate the extent to which
others hold the same beliefs we hold, and because of this tendency to think our
beliefs are shared by others these beliefs are more resistant to change than
they would be otherwise. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In a form of projection (which we usually think of
in Freudian terms as the projecting of unwanted or distasteful characteristics
onto others that one is unaware of possessing themselves) we tend to also
attribute to others characteristics that we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do
know </i>we possess onto others. Thus, we tend to over-estimate how many people
like what we like. This tendency has come to be called the “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False-consensus_effect">false consensus effect</a>.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The false consensus effect refers to the tendency
for people’s own beliefs, values and behavior to bias their estimates of how
widely such views and behaviors are shared by others. For example, fans of
country music think that more people like country music than those who dislike
country music; yoga practitioners tend to think more people practice yoga than
those who do not practice. Perhaps relevant to the “guru scandals” that have
come to our attention, one university experiment involved asking students if
they would be willing to walk around campus wearing a sandwich-board sign with
the message “REPENT.” There were fairly substantial percentages of those who
would be willing and of those who would not. After agreeing or declining to
wear the sign, the students were than asked to estimate the percentage of their
peers who would agree or decline. As the false consensus effect would predict,
the student’s estimates reflected their own choices: those who had agreed to
wear the sign estimated that 60% would do so while those who refused thought
only 27% would agree to wear it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Note, the false consensus effect is of a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">relative</i> nature; it is not that people
think their beliefs are shared by a majority of other people, but simply that
people’s estimates of the commonness of a given belief is positively correlated
with their own beliefs. It is not that religious fundamentalists believe most
people share their beliefs, but rather their estimates of the percentage of
religious fundamentalists in the general population can be counted on to exceed
similar estimates of their more secular peers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Why should this be so? Research seems to point to
the mediating role of a host of cognitive and motivational variables. For
example, one motivational factor stems from our desire to maintain a positive
valuation of our own belief or judgment. If we have a strong emotional
investment in a belief we tend to exaggerate the extent of perceived social
support for the belief. Interestingly, research shows that people are
particularly likely to exaggerate the extent to which attractive, respected and
well-liked people share their beliefs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A major factor behind the false consensus effect
that we can definitely see in cults and cult-like communities (such as we’ve
seen in the <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/15/john-friend-anusara-scandal-inside-the-wiccan-sex-coven.html">Anusara</a>, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/10/buddhist-retreat-s-death-saga.html">Diamond Mountain</a>, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">and <a href="http://sweepingzen.com/everybody-knows-by-eshu-martin/">Mt. Baldy</a> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">communities to name three of the more recent and
infamous scandals) is the more generalized tendency to selectively expose
ourselves to information that supports our beliefs. Conservatives read
conservative periodicals and watch Fox News and thus receive support for their
conservative political ideology; religious creationists read creationist
literature rather than contemporary evolutionary biology and thus bolster their
creationist beliefs. With the fracturing of discourse found on the internet,
where we can choose to follow blogs and websites that support our views, it takes
a concerted effort and willingness to seek out opposing viewpoints. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">
<br />
Besides selectively exposing ourselves to a biased set of information relevant
to a particular belief, we are also exposed to a biased sample of people and
their views and beliefs. Liberals associate with other liberals; yoga
practitioners associate with other yoga practitioners. It is a fact that
similarity of beliefs, values and habits is one of the primary determinants of
those with whom we associate. In fact, this is consciously valued, celebrated
and suggested in the buddhist and yoga community as “the company of like-minded
people” or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sangha. </i>And while such
association does indeed have great benefit, if such a sangha grows insular and
isolated, it can lead to the cultishnness we also often see. The importance of
“transparency” for the health of a community becomes quite clear and pronounced
when we come to understand that if we become insular in our association with
others, the false consensus effect will lead us to see our beliefs as “common”
because they are shared by “everyone we know.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There are other factors that contribute to the false
consensus effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One more I would
like to touch upon here is the mechanism that involves the resolution of the
ambiguities inherent in most issues, choices, or situations. Before we decide
what we think about some issue, we have to be clear about the terms. For
instance, if I’m asked for my opinion about Christianity, it would be helpful
to know what the term<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Christianity” refers to: the Pope and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholicism">Catholicism</a>, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Graham">Billy Graham’s</a> Evangelicalism </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">or <a href="http://www.radicalchristianity.net/">Radical Christianity</a>? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">Knowing
what is meant will not only help determine my own opinion, but will also
influence my estimates of the preference of others.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">With the false consensus effect seen to be as
prevalent as it is, the question becomes why aren’t our misconceptions about
what other people think corrected by the feedback we receive from others?
Shouldn’t we expect others to let us know if our beliefs or assumptions about
them are wrong? While in the most bizarre and erroneous cases we can count on
being called out, the fact is that generally such corrective feedback is not as
common as we might think. And this is yet another factor that leads to the cult-like,
group-think behind the silence that allows dysfunction to breed and persist in
closed communities. To some extent, cult members don’t get the corrective
feedback from others that their beliefs may be wrong, irrational and harmful or
that certain behaviors may be dysfunctional, because they are associating with
those who share their beliefs, values and behavior. However, even more telling,
it has been shown that even when we do cross paths with those whose beliefs and
attitudes conflict with our own, we are rarely challenged. People are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">generally </i>reluctant to openly question
other people’s beliefs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I should clarify that it’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">adults</i> who are generally reluctant to do so; children tend to be
brutally open and honestly revealing. Just think: as an adult have you ever
gone to the restroom while out at a social gathering to find your zipper undone
or some green salad remnant<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>obviously caught in your teeth? Yet I’m sure we can all remember how
gleefully our grammar-school friends would chant and point out our open fly or
the bit of food caught in our teeth!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I can speak from my experience as a naturalist that
when I lecture at yoga centers and hear some bit of new age, magical thinking,
it’s taken me years to get over my reluctance and discomfort in offering
contradictory information and evidence. Our reluctance to voice our
disagreements has been repeatedly demonstrated in psychological research:
people generally try to avoid potential conflict with others. Such reticence is
exacerbated in yoga and buddhist communities where any hint of dissent or
critical thinking is often met with silence or charges of “wrongful speech.” In
fact, in many contemporary communities, “right speech” has become a kind of
yoga/buddhist political correctness, marginalizing and devaluing any real
difference of opinion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The emphasis on “right speech” amplifies the
cognitive tendency we already possess to avoid the unpleasant emotions produced
by disagreement and criticism. In social situations, people feign agreement to
head off conflict and disharmony. Social psychology tells us that we tend to
like people who are like ourselves and so the flip side of this, that if we
express disagreement we risk being disliked and ostracized, keeps us from
speaking up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The buddhist and yoga communities tend to be
extremely uncomfortable with disagreement, conflict and criticism. And again,
such discomfort is a more particularized example of a general tendency shared
by us all. In everyday life, the hesitancy to speak up often has only minor consequences.
However, there are situations where this tendency can contribute to great harm
for individuals and for the community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Psychologist Irving Janis’ work on “<a href="http://www.afirstlook.com/docs/groupthink.pdf">Groupthink</a>” </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">shows that even members of highly cohesive advisory
groups whose task is to suggest effective courses of action can become
paralyzed by the concern with maintaining apparent consensus within the group
and will sometimes censor their personal reservations to accomplish it. Janis
quotes Arthur Schlesinger’s account of the <a href="http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/bay-of-pigs/failure.pdf">Bay of Pigs</a> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">debacle
where Schlesinger confesses to “having kept so silent during those crucial
discussions in the Cabinet Room…. I can only explain my failure to do more than
raise a few timid questions by reporting that one’s impulse to blow the whistle
on this nonsense was simply undone by the circumstances of the discussion.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Over and over again, whenever a scandal is finally
revealed, the questions immediately arise as to how such behavior had been
allowed to continue. When the John Friend scandal broke, it became clear that
many senior teachers had known of his breech of ethics; when the tragedy at
Diamond Mountain was made known, it became clear that many had known of <a href="http://badkarmanews.blogspot.ca/2010/05/lama-christie-mcnallys-personal.html">Lama Christie’s</a> apparent magical thinking, irrationality and narcissistic disconnect
from reality </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">and her
husband Ian’s instability and aggressive tendencies; and when it was finally
revealed that Sasaki Roshi was a sexual predator <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">over the course of 50 years or more</i> it was also revealed that many
knew about his despicable behavior all along!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Because of the cognitive tendencies that are than
exacerbated by yogic and buddhist teachings that can be twisted to inculate a
culture of repression of expression and diversity of opinion, the failure to
express dissent is all too prevalent and has led to severe and painful
consequences. Because of the culture of silence and the false consensus effect,
our beliefs and behavior all too often lack healthy scrutiny and debate. This
lack of critical discussion leads us to exaggerate the consensus for our
beliefs and behavior. Bolstered by such a false sense of acceptance and social
support, our beliefs may strike us as more valid than is actually the case, and
they become ever more resistant to logical and empirical challenge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I wish to end by expressing my gratitude and
appreciation to those, like <a href="http://matthewremski.com/wordpress/?p=1817">Matthew Remski</a>, who have taken on the generally
thankless task of speaking up and speaking out. May such critical thinking and compassionate inquiry continue to grow within the contemporary buddhist and yoga communities so that perhaps we can finally correct (and compensate for) some of our cognitive errors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241684761340467690.post-74228494106708963052013-04-09T16:25:00.001-07:002013-04-09T16:25:34.710-07:00Reading Texts
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">Recently,
a correspondent wrote to me asking: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">“How
do you deal with the fact that nearly every work on zen buddhism available on
the market is either infected by new age thought or riddled with information a
naturalist can hardly be happy with? What's your criteria (for) which books are
a good read? Do you extract the thoughts that are sound for naturalists or do
you reinterpret the infected thoughts so that they can be embraced by naturalists?
What's your motivation to deal with zen buddhism even if so many ideas inherent
in it are so unsound for naturalists?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">These
are good questions, and need to be addressed by any practitioner professing to
reject any supernatural or transcendent ideas or teachings. In fact, if you
were to look into the pages of any buddhist (zen or other) book that I’ve read,
you are likely to find lots of marginalia where I am in argument with what is
written! So why do I read such material? I could say I’m a glutton for
punishment, but actually, what I find is that engaging with other perspectives
keeps me on my toes; engages me in questioning what I truly believe; and
sharpens my critical thinking skills. But yeah, it’d be nice to read a book now
and then that truly captures a naturalist perspective. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">In
direct response to my questioner:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">My criteria is whether the topic seems interesting to me;
whether the author is someone I’m familiar with or not (if not familiar, I may
read to see what they offer); and whether or not I can find something useful
for practice and/or teaching purposes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">I both ‘extract’ ideas and perspectives that I believe are in
harmony with a naturalistic perspective where possible, and also find myself
engaged with some creative re-interpretation of other material so as to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">be </i>in harmony with such a perspective. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">My motivation to remain involved in zen buddhism despite so much
of it being at odds with a fully naturalist perspective has to do with my love
of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">practice </i>as well as some of
it’s imagery that is either naturalistic or easily framed as such. In honesty,
part of the reason is most likely due to the fact that it’s the tradition I
trained in and found – despite all else – most simpatico!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">Now,
I teach two Mindfulness Yoga classes a week here in Tucson, and the format is a
short reading (3 – 5 minutes) followed by a short dharma talk (5 – 7 minutes)
where I either draw out a point made in the reading, add my thoughts and
responses to the reading, or critique the reading. I find many students
surprised by this last response; they seem to assume if I’m reading it before
class I am ‘endorsing’ the teaching! Just this past Sunday, it was an example
of the latter that, in partial response to my correspondent’s question, I offer
here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">For
quite some time (as the readings are always short, it may take a year or more
to get through a book) I’ve been reading from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Meditation-Now-Never-Steve-Hagen/dp/0061143294/ref=la_B001ILMDIW_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1365549888&sr=1-4">Steve Hagen’s </a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Meditation-Now-Never-Steve-Hagen/dp/0061143294/ref=la_B001ILMDIW_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1365549888&sr=1-4">Meditation: Now or Never</a>. </i>I find it
generally useful for my purposes of setting intention and for developing a
theme for class. Most of his book (and his other writings) falls into the
category of being good for extracting ideas that do not conflict with a
naturalist perspective. However, like most zen teachers, he does fall into
idealist, transcendent, super-mundane ideas (even if he isn’t aware of doing
so, and most likely would reject the suggestion that he does).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">For
instance, on Sunday, I read the following from his chapter “It’s Not About
Getting Things Done”:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">Meditation is not about throwing things out of your mind or
trying to make your mind blank. For starters, this is impossible. If you try to
throw things out of your mind, how will you throw out the final thing – the
willful mind that has been busily throwing things out?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">Now,
this first paragraph is a good example of a teaching in line with naturalism. I
think it important to address the common misunderstanding that all meditation
has a blank mind, free of all thoughts as its goal. Despite this, there are
reams of texts from the zen traditions that actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do </i>assert a mind free from thought as an ideal!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">Hagen
continues:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">Meditation is not about doing anything. It is pure attention
without grasping, without interference. It is simply paying attention.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">Here’s
where he begins his step into hogwash. Paying attention <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is </i>doing something; not grasping or interfering <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is </i>an action and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">relationship toward experience</i>. Attention <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is </i>a mental formation (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">citta-samskara</i>).
Many teachers and practitioners fool themselves into thinking (ha!) that
“non-reactive attention” is not itself a mental activity/stance and chosen
relationship to other mental activity! This is a subtle positing of an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">atman</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">He
writes:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">If our will is directed toward any object or purpose – even
toward meditating correctly – then we’re not in meditation. We’re doing
something.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">But isn’t paying attention doing something? Actually no – not if
it is pure, simple attention devoid of hope, fear, dread, or expectation. Bare
attention, in fact, is the only activity that does <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i>involve doing something. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">This
whole passage reflects the influence of Taoism upon zen. Whatever one thinks of
Taoism, whatever poetry one finds there, it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i>what the buddha taught!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">The
buddha is said to have described his awakening as “gradual” and specifically
says “I directed my mind to the understanding of…” what we would call rebirth
and karma. It is plain to see that the buddha’s meditation involved willful
direction of attention and analysis. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">The
buddha also apparently rejected any idea of “pure awareness.” “Bare attention”
is a mental activity, and you can see the related brain activity in an MRI.
Such terms as “pure awareness” can only make sense if you posit a transcendent,
independent self. This is the back-peddling from the radical implications of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anatman</i> we see in much of the later
Mahayana buddhist thought (whether called ‘original face,’ ‘true nature,’ or
the more traditional terms ‘buddha-nature,’ or ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tathagata-garbha</i>’ these are simply the reappearance of an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">atman</i> in new garb, but it shouldn’t fool
anyone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">In
the above passage, Hagen posits a “pure awareness” devoid of characteristics.
That’s a formulation of the absolute – and to be sure, Hagen often uses
capitalization of words like “Reality,” “Truth” and “Awareness” as in a
sentence where he writes, “Actually, this is how things are in Reality.” Watch
for those capitalizations! They are semantic signifiers of the Absolute that,
by definition, is Super Natural and Transcendent. All rejected by zen naturalism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com6