Alan Clements was a Buddhist monk who lived in Burma for ten years and eventually was forced to leave Burma by the government in 1984. He is mainly famous for his interviews with the legendary Aung San Suu Kyi (these interviews made up the popular book, The Voice of Hope). He is what can only be described as a standup social satirist and a diehard humanitarian activist (I hesitate to use political), among other things (he is quite talented). I think the following quote, which I recently transcribed from YouTube, is from his one man act, Spiritually Incorrect (if I got this wrong, dude, I apologize).
“I am essentially an addict for dogma. I have the dubious distinction of being the first American Buddhist monk in the country of Burma; second most dubious distinction of sitting perhaps more meditative hours on my ass than anyone that I've ever met. And like what do you think the fucking insight was? I'm looking and looking and looking; it's like what in the hell is going on? In breath, out breath, in breath, out breath. Okay, I am gonna get it now—another year—give me another year [...]. In breath, out breath, in breath, out breath. What do you think the insight is? "Dude you're breathing!"
I like Clements’ characterization of this kind of meditation. It is brutally honest (okay, it made me chuckle). It may go so far as to be really saying, “The king has no freaking clothes on” insofar as sitting on one’s butt, following the breath, is spiritually unproductive. It is not unlike walking in a small circle for many years, expecting to end up in Paris one day. Observing the breath, I dare say, is not what the Buddha taught; he, in fact, taught that we should be before or mindfully (sati) anterior to the whole breathing machinery. This acts to mimic what is the actual reality of the body (including breathing) from the perspective of a Buddha, namely, we are not of this body.
Our belief that we are this body as its epiphenomenon amounts to a kind of super illusion—but a real and painful super illusion, nevertheless. The ties that bind us to the body, the beliefs, assumptions, and habits work to reinforce the illusion. It is somewhat like the universe attached to a tiny spinning electron believing it is this electron. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. The whole being attached to the part so as to suffer from total amnesia of itself and its freedom is a kind of primordial psychosis. Given all this, why should meditation, that is, observing the breath be taught in such a way that the illusion of embodiment is reinforced?
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