The Zennist

What it takes to attain Zen's great mystery

Among other things, a personality suited for Zen is one that is never easily disappointed or depressed; that in the face of countless ups and downs it still manages to have a great deal of respect and gratitude toward the teachings of the Buddha and the Zen masters.  It is also a heaven soaring personality whose faith in the Buddha's teachings never diminishes.

On your journey to intuit your true nature, you will have lots of fake enlightenments—too many to count.  It’s somewhat like getting excited at finding gold but only to discover later that you’ve only found fool’s gold (iron pyrite).  If you’ve seen only fool’s gold and not real gold it will be difficult for you to let go of your belief even though you worked many months or maybe years to find this fool’s gold.  But you have to let go of it.  You are far from finding El Dorado.  In some of the Buddha’s discourses he teaches that there are ten false enlightenments for each one of the five constituents (skandha) making a total of fifty false enlightenments!

Most important, a personality suited for Zen must have a strong inclination towards intuition where the new is discovered or where a great breakthrough is made which might at first seemed impossible.  Zen’s method is not through the analysis of the various parts or their possible connection with each other as if trying to construct an accurate picture of Zen’s mystery.  In fact, the parts have very little to do with the kind of intuition that Zen demands. 

What Zen hides—its great mystery—you must intuit.  There is no other way to comprehend Zen.  Intuition, is like looking at an out of focus picture such that you want to know what it is.  Sometimes you can almost make out what the picture is, but still you are unable to recognize it.  At other times, it almost seems that the more you look at this out of focus picture it becomes even more blurry!  After many years of looking at this out of focus picture, one day, without thinking about it, you see what the picture is. You know now what all the strange sections are part of, whereas before you didn't.  It’s so easy to see what the picture is even though others can't.  With directly intuiting your true nature, the teachings of Buddhism and Zen make perfect sense whereas before they didn't.

Zen’s real goal seems to have been banned

Today’s Zen and Zen institutions have either consciously or unconsciously decided to adapt to the ways of the world so that Zen is supposed to teach us how to get along with people that we either don’t like very much such as a co-worker, or people we dislike for no apparent reason.  It’s also supposed to help us handle our everyday tensions and depression owing, in some cases, to deep-seated resentment that we can’t seem to let go of.  Oh, I almost forgot, Zen is supposed to help us to curtail our desires and addictions. 

Do you see what is happening?  To be frank with you, none of this is what Zen is supposed to do!  A real Zennist is supposed to have all of their ducks in a row before they undertake the upward climb of Zen's path.  Zen requires a person who is tough yet humble and open to radical change—not some crybaby who can’t let go of their toys. 

Yes, it’s typical to want some help.  But in Zen we are pretty much on our own.  Think about it, it’s our responsibility—not our teacher’s—to raise ourself up by our own bootstraps.  Without a love for this arduous, mysterious path we will eventually falter.  Wanting to learn the heart of Zen whereby we see our true nature should be foremost on our mind.  Everything else is secondary.

In the story of the Buddha, remember that Siddhartha took up dhyana only after he had practiced difficult and painful austerities even attaining the meditation called “asphanaka” in which he cut off inhalation and exhalation, a meditation that is connected with the ether (akasha).  When Zen adapts to the ways of the world it turns into something akin to an outpatient clinic for the mentally disturbed.  Zen on this level is really making a concession to worldly values and worldly people who could not care less about Zen’s real goal whereby we see our true nature and come to realize Zen's secret.  As odd as it sounds, Zen’s real goal seems to have been banned!

The teachings of the 1926 Maytag Buddha in appliance world

In appliance world there were many kinds of different machines from vacuum cleaners, toasters, hair dryers to washing machines. 

One day some young washing machines happened to come upon an old Buddhist washing machine. He was a 1926 Maytag.  He could still do the job of any young washing machine.  But there was something about this old washing machine that despite its age seemed timeless and had a certain flair that seemed unusual and unaffected by the years.

The young washing machines, attached to their youth had, as we might expect, a certain arrogance about them as is natural with all youth; who hadn’t really accomplished anything of worth and knew even less about themselves.

Still, they managed to be polite to the old Maytag, after all he was a venerated Maytag who many appliances said was fully awakened and knew the very essence of an appliance—what made them run.  After an exchange of polite words and the customary greetings expected between washing machines one of the young washing machines asked the old Maytag if it was true that he knew of the universal essence of all appliances.  The old Maytag quietly nodded and said that he did.

“But what could this universal essence be?” inquired the young washing machine somewhat seriously.  “We all know the parts we were made from.  We have an outer frame which contains all the parts such as a water pump, transmission and motor, the agitator, tub and various kinds of controls.  This is all we are sir.”

The old Maytag looked at all the young machines. Then in a jovial voice he said, “Relax friends and listen to my words.  Although you are much younger than I, your parts very new and made with plastics that are quite light as compared with what this old machine is made from, in the example of the agitator, there is something ageless within us that suffers no change whatsoever.  Of course you can’t see it.  You only know the parts of the washing machine such as the spin pulley and the water supply hoses.  But as for what makes this odd contraption work and give the motor its power, you do not know.  But this is what I know.”

The young washing machines didn’t know whether to laugh or to take this old Maytag seriously. They were stuck in between you could say.  Then the old Maytag sensing their unease said something strange they never heard before.  “Have you ever heard of electricity?”

All of the machines remained quiet except one who said that he had not heard of electricity before.

“Listen carefully my young friends,” said the old Maytag.  “We are all fundamentally electrical machines.  This electricity is the power that runs our motor and makes the agitator swish back and forth.  It is ageless, you could say, and undying too.  It never grows old in other words.  It is all around us.  Even our sun is electrical.  Some call it energy some call it a force, but these are just names.  Electricity is fundamentally one thousand, billion, billion, billion, billion times more powerful than gravity.”

The young washing machines were dumbstruck.  What could they say? They knew nothing about this mysterious power that made them work and made them useful.  With their new knowledge, they bowed in respect to the old Maytag as asked if they could become his disciples.  He nodded indicating that they could.

Stuck in the house of mirrors: a world gone dark

I found myself this morning humming a Beatles’ song, “Eleanor Rigby” trying to recall the lyrics. For me is like stepping into a time machine.  This period in my life was before I set off on my enlightenment quest to eventually sit in meditation in an abounded copper mine searching for pure Mind, which at the time I believed was possible to attain.

This is only a guess on my part based on what I have seen on social media and elsewhere, but this age has gone dark.  It seems to have lost or sold its soul having exchanged it for a maze-like house of mirrors in which images of the false self dominate but not a single image in this house is who any of us really is.

These images are, in fact, obstacles which make up the house of mirrors not unlike the one found in the 1928 Charlie Chaplin movie, The Circus, when Chaplin is chased into the ‘Mirror Maze’ by a thief then a policeman.

Looking at our self in a mirror is the first loss of one’s path to the authentic self which, by the way, is imageless.  Next, add to this the house of mirrors where now our image can be stored electronically—a fixed mirror at a particular time.  I am the young teenager. I am now the aspiring college student. Now I am married.  Here is our first child.  So many images and not one is our true self.  But who is the real self?

This reminds me somewhat of Mumon’s comment to the koan, Zuigan Calls His Own Master.

Old Zuigan sells out and buys himself. He is opening a puppet show. He uses one mask to call "Master" and another that answers the master. Another mask says "Sober up" and another, "Do not be cheated by others." If anyone clings to any of his masks, he is mistaken, yet if he imitates Zuigan, he will make himself fox-like.

Mumon could also be saying, “If anyone clings to any of these images, he is mistaken.”  There is, of course, a right answer to this koan.  It is eternal and invariant and most certainly unconditioned.  But it never appears the way an image does in the example of this corporeal body from birth to old-age and death.  Fa-Yung  Niutou Farong (594-657) said: 

“The Ultimate Essence of things is what is most important. But in the realm of illusion it becomes different from what it is. The nature of Reality is invisible and cannot be understood by our conscious mind.”

Unmasking atheism: what it really is

What is atheism?  The simple answer comes from my dictionary:  a lack of belief or a strong disbelief in the existence of a god or any gods.  More, specifically, “god” in this definition should be thought of as a “creator god.” 

In Buddhism the idea of a creator god is rejected.  How the world comes into being is treated much differently in Buddhism and for that reason it is difficult to understand for those who have been brought up believing in a creator god. 

But today atheism goes much farther insofar as there is a sinister side to it that needs to be unmasked.  What I mean by this, is that atheism in the modern sense really refers to someone who is anti-religious; someone who rejects any kind of ultimate reality such as described in Buddhism.  This could be the state of nirvana which is immortal and unconditioned.  Another example is the One Mind which is very important in Zen.  In his book, The Records of Mazu and the Making of Classical Chan Literature, Mario Poceski informs the reader that,

“One Mind is a concept that appears in a number of canonical texts, such as the Huayan Scripture [華嚴經]—there are no fewer than forty-two references to it in Śikṣānanda’s translation of the scripture—the Laṅkāvatāra Scripture […] The notion of One Mind points to the absolute nature of the mind, which is equated with ultimate reality. It is also envisaged as the essential source of all things or phenomena in the universe.”

Over the years, this anti-religious sentiment has been carefully inserted into the academic world by way of postmodernism which is an attempt to salvage Marxism which I have noticed has no sense of the transcendent which  I take to mean that we are greater than the sum of our biological parts.  The Marxist view of man is not unlike that of Thomas Hobbes who saw mankind doomed to a life that is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.  There is nothing after that—and worse, we could fall into Nietzsche's nihilistic "eternal return" which is inescapable rebirth.  

Another name for this anti-religious sentiment is secularism which insists that religious considerations—and that includes the transcendent—should be ignored if not purposely suppressed.  Have we come to this in Buddhism?  I think modern, popular Buddhism is moving in this direction.  But for every such movement there is an equal attempt to counter to this.  We should join this side.

The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination decoded?

The Buddha is said to have discovered dependent origination (P., paṭiccasamuppāda; S., pratītyasamutpāda) during his enlightenment but hesitated to teach it because of its difficulty for the unenlightened person to comprehend, properly.  In fact, not much about it is mentioned in the Nikaya that unpacks it in a meaningful way. According to Govind Chandra Pande in his book  Studies of the Origins of Buddhism:

“Buddha dichotomies his Dhamma into paṭiccasamuppāda and Nibbāna. Such a division of Truth into a fundamental two [sic] is not unknown in several other philosophies. Since Nibbāna is apparently the final principle or experience, paṭiccasamuppāda may be designated as the principle of non-ultimate experience and what corresponds to it; in short, as the principle of phenomenality, of the nature of things transcended in Nibbāna” (p. 414).

It seems to me that, on the one hand, we have the ‘bad infinite’ with dependent origination and on the other, the ‘good infinite’ with nirvana which among other things is deathless and the cessation of rebirth which is not so with dependent origination. 

In the bad infinite, all phenomena/appearances arise from dependence upon causes and conditions.  These same phenomena are thoroughly empty of intrinsic being or an essence.  In short, they are illusory.  Thus it would seem that we are forever stuck in 12 nidānas or links beginning with ignorance (avidyā) leading to old age and death (jarāmāraṇa) and can’t manage to escape.

In the good infinite we find an escape (nirvana) from dependent origination which is the driving force behind the twelve links (one discourse speaks of ten links another of nine links).  So, where did the Buddha come up with his idea of dependent origination and the links?  We might ask is such ideas were already present in the Vedas?  Some scholars like Joanna Jurewicz would argue they were.  At the time of the Buddha, the Vedic fields just needed someone to harvest this rich crop.  It happened to be the Buddha. 

Jurewicz in her paper notes, “Buddha extracted the essence of Vedic cosmogony and expressed it in explicit language” (Playing with Fire: The pratītyasamutpāda from the perspective of Vedic thought).  Through his awakening the Buddha saw the world the way it really was.  At the same time, the Vedic cosmogony, which was known to him, was still very metaphorical.  Nevertheless, it came in handy for the Buddha and could easily be made systematic in a form we know as the twelve links.

The first three links beginning with avidyā, saṃskāra then ending with vijñāna constitute a process of self-othering/objectification in which the one (it could be the One Mind) or the actual self, gives rise to formations of its will (saṃskāra) that are other than the self or the one in which consciousness (vijñāna) is only aware of the false formations (which are conditioned).  Jurewicz observes:

“We may then assume that the avidyā link refers to all the states of ignorance (objective states) which manifest themselves in the cosmogony. So the saṃskāra link refers to all the acts of the creative will to dispel ignorance, and the vijñāna link refers to all the subtle manifestations which realize this will. This means that the sequence avidyā — saṃskāra — vijñāna can be used to express the whole Vedic creation” (Playing with Fire).

This triad preexists the fourth link which is nāma-rūpa (name and form), that is, the totality of physical and mental processes.  This is also the embryo which the vijñāna takes up during intercourse and conception.  Connected with nāma-rūpa are the fifth, sixth and seventh link, respectively, the six sense-organs, sense contact, and sense experience.

Matching the Vedic cosmogony  are the next links of tṛṣṇā and upādāna which I think describe the drive for intercourse and conception.  Tṛṣṇā is the craving for another which means it is the basis for sexual activity according to Jurewicz which is a fiery activity; which is also a kind of hunger.  Upādāna is mental clinging not unlike tṛṣṇā but is directed to mentally clinging to sensual pleasures, views and theories, rules and rituals, and a view of the self connected with the five skandhas as being the self.

The last three links are of coming into existence (bhava), birth (jāti) and old age and death (jarāmāraṇa).  This I think adds up to the truth of the first three links, viz., avidyā, saṃskāra and vijñāna.  For us, they end up making not only a false and illusory world but a false conditioned self, i.e., the five skandhas, which we unconsciously chase after—the carrot at the end of the stick.    

We do not find our true self in such a cosmogony which is only an empty appearance that is forever changing, unfulfilling and not our real self.  In order to find our true self it is by the cessation of desire for the conditioned.  Thus we come to personally realize the unconditioned, this being nirvana.

In what direction is Zen is going?

I suspect that most Zennists have read D.T. Suzuki and Alan Watts, Cleary and a few other authors that are popular among the Zen community.  But we need to keep in mind that their books are about people who awakened to what the Buddha realized, people who say things like, “True Reality is the substance of thoughts.”Or, “No-thought is nothing other than true Mind.” 

Right now, almost everyone who studies Zen can only imagine that they can understand these words.  And it is likely most will never realize true reality or true Mind like the Zen masters in old China.  Reading about Zen is not enough because words at some point block the path.

If you are lucky enough to find a great teacher, do not let this person out of your sight.  They know what Zen is really about.  But now let’s be honest.  For the huge majority who take up Zen, their chances of meeting a real teacher, the kind they’ve read about, who are enlightened, is very slim to non-existent.  It’s safe to say that the teachers most people will encounter today do not know what Zen is really pointing to which is beyond words.  So what should the individual do?  Best advice, a person had better learn to rely on their own abilities—trust in yourself and your innate Buddha-nature. 

The first lesson in Zen is to know in what direction Zen is going and that Zen is difficult.  It’s not a cakewalk.  What makes Zen so difficult is that it rests upon a mystical intuition (that’s the direction).  Those who have had this mystical intuition are the Buddhas.  Those who haven’t are ordinary people of the world who could not care less about such an intuition because they are so enthralled with the world.  And because they are so enthralled with the world.  If they are curious about Zen, they want a Zen that speaks to them in which mystical intuition is ignored.

Zen and the left and right hemispheres of the brain

The way I see it, those who use the right hemisphere of the brain more than the left in which the left is secondary, are much more likely to understand Zen because this hemisphere favors intuition and insight.

The left hemisphere is more concerned and focused on identification by parts, or bits and pieces of data which have not yet been contextualized remaining, in this regard, abstract, that is,  insufficiently factual.  The right hemisphere, on the other hand, is looking for the underlying unity, what connects and holds the parts together in their unity.  As we might expect, the right hemisphere understands both context and the metaphor. 

It also appears that the left hemisphere is ultimately dependent on the right.  But while the left depends on the right hemisphere the left can also block our access to the right hemisphere where we might encounter another reality closed off to the left hemisphere.  I think a good example would be kenshō in which we suddenly intuit the underlying essence of the universe and our true nature.

I think related, the chattering that goes on in our head when we sit in meditation is from the left hemisphere (its blocking maneuver?).  I find it interesting that Zen always stresses no-thought 無心 in which the chattering left side is stopped which culminates in kenshō. 

While both Asian and Western culture use both right and left hemisphere, the history of ancient Chinese Buddhism appears to rely much more on the right hemisphere where intuition is used although it is true that Chinese culture during this period and before had achieved great advances in engineering and the sciences which is the principle concern of the left hemisphere which favors the abstract, utility and the mechanical. 

It seems that ancient China found a harmony between the two sides.  One might even argue that this harmony is what gives a civilization its longevity in which the right hemisphere leads the way—seeing the big picture.  The fall of a civilization then occurs when the left hemisphere dominates which then proceeds to cut off access to the right.  

 

Zen's great escape from the cage of thought, language and concepts

The goal of Zen is the actual realization of ultimate reality.  This realization called kenshō is really about our escape from the invisible cage of thought which includes language and concepts. Ultimate reality viewed from within this cage is not ultimate reality anymore than the finger pointing to the moon is the moon, itself. Kenshō is only possible if we can break out of this cage, staging a prison break so to speak.  Those who have escaped from this cage are the only ones who know what the term "ultimate reality" is pointing to.  These are the Buddhas.

For Zen Buddhism, the koan is about a prison break from the invisible cage of thought, including language and the concepts words evoke.  In Zen, the signifier includes thought, language and concepts whereas the signified is the hua-tou 話頭, what is actually prior to thought, language and concepts being the real substance of the universe. 

In the West things are a bit different.  The signifier refers to a symbol, sound, or image whereas the signified is a concept which is distinguished from the sign. This difference is significant.  It is all still within the cage earlier mentioned.  That it is still within the cage is enough to make Zen almost impossible to understand from a Western perspective.

Looking at this matter further, we can see the difference between Zen and the West in Joshu’s ‘Mu’ 無.  It begins when a monk asks Joshu, “Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?" Joshu answers, “Mu!”  Mu means no.  Both the question and Joshu’s response belong to the invisible cage.  We could say that Mu is one of the bars.  But as for the real Buddha-nature, it is beyond the cage.  It is the hua-tou which is also true reality.  It is before the arising of a single thought, word or concept.

This is where the Zen adept has to go.  The adept is not interested in a conceptual interpretation of this koan through language.  In fact, that is the problem.  The koan has no answer other than personally to see the hou-tou. 

Put another way, in order to know our Buddha-nature we have to break out of this invisible cage which is represented by Mu; which acts both like a barrier and a checkpoint 關 through which we cannot pass owing to the fact that we are attached to words and the concepts they evoke. 

And would it be true to say that Zen is always showing us the invisible bars of this cage? Yes! But it is also saying that we have to escape from this invisible cage.  We have to effect a prison break! 

 

Zen is a barrier—only pure Mind can pass

At sometime in our brief life, in our study of Zen, we have to pass through the world of the conditioned to apprehend the transcendent (the unconditioned).  Metaphorically, in Zen it is like a gate or a checkpoint that acts as a barrier.  It will not permit us to go through to the other side which is unconditioned called the “no-gate”.

In Zen we come to face this gate with a special word of phrase like “Mu” or “One has it, the other hasn’t.”  It could even be Jōshū’s, “Go wash your bowl.”  We could repeat Mu for a lifetime and never would we be able to pass through the barrier gate to the no-gate.  Likewise with the various mysterious other phrases and gestures.

In working with these mysterious words and phrases that come from the Zen masters it’s like we are butting our heads against an invisible barrier.  No matter how hard we try—no success.  It’s also like we are approaching the edge of a dark and terrifying abyss, fearing to fall into it.  At this point, no one can help us.  We have become our own obstacle. 

The next phase is to further delude ourselves and imagine that we’ve solved a koan or at least can understand the sense of it.  Ironically, this is where most beginners are stuck making no advance whatsoever.  No matter how many koan books they've read even with good translations they are no closer to the no-gate.

We cannot gain access to the no-gate by words and concepts.  This means our ordinary understanding cannot enter.  This includes our intellect, too.  Not even a single thought can enter or silence and stillness.  If this is disheartening it is meant to be.  In Zen we are supposed to give up our presuppositions not cling to them.  You can have nowhere to run and no place to hide.  In truth, there is only one koan: See pure mind.