The Zennist

Form the conditioned to the unconditioned

The Buddha teaches that our world is a conditioned world.  It is something formed or constructed.  Because it is conditioned it cannot be absolute.  In this respect, it is always 'becoming' which also implies it is impermanent.  Today's new car is, in twenty-years, a junk heap. Today's baby will eventually become an adult.  My body of twenty years of age is today's dung bag.  It is hard to escape looking at the world this way.  No, it is not a pleasant picture.  We are doomed to growing older, getting sick, and eventually dying (usually with much sorrow).

Conditionality serves as the cornerstone of our great universe with all of its galaxies.  We are always reminded of it every single day.  If we are not aware of it, then we need to be.  We will, in time, be devoured by this conditioned world.  In many ways, we have to learn to cope with it in order to lessen the blow of impermanence.  It will not disappear on its own accord.

Given the fact that our world is conditioned, for us, there is only one thing that is unconditioned (S. asamskrita) this is nirvana (which comes in many different epithets such as the 'island', 'refuge', 'immortal', 'unborn', etc.).  If we were to realize nirvana, in this seeming omnipresent sea of conditionality and suffering, we would see an essence or substance that ever remains unaffected by the tumultuous state we find ourselves in.  Let's put it this way: if the conditioned is like waves, the unconditioned is water.  Using a more subtle illustration, if we are only aware of our thoughts be they pleasant or painful, with nirvana we would see the very substance of our thoughts.  As we might look at this essence, more and more, the thoughts would be seen to be illusory.  They eventually lose their sound and fury including all of their sensual passion.

To achieve final release from conditioned existence implies seeing, exactly, what is unconditioned, unborn, increate, and so on.  It is not a matter of just being aware of the conditioned—it is, instead, a matter of realizing nirvana, directly, in our very self (S., pratyâtma).  In a number of respects this is the end of our conditioned journey and the beginning of our unconditioned journey.  With nirvana all our practices effect a disenchantment with the conditioned world, a turning away from our bewitching thoughts and a turning away from the foolishness of the external world having the vision of things as they really are from the perspective of nirvana.  

It is not an authentic turning away from conditionality without having first attained nirvana.  There must first be something to turn to.  With disenchantment, there cannot be authentic disenchantment without first beholding the immortal; that which is truly blissful and eternal.  We are deluding ourselves by trying to imitate nirvana.  But we are also deluding ourselves by becoming hedonists, chasing after pleasure and wallowing in materialism.

Eyes wide closed

I don’t think we in the West have sufficiently understood, in a general way,  that Buddhism and especially Zen Buddhism are not based on a particular knowledge or a particular kind of knowing so much as they are based on ‘awakening’ (bodhi, sambodhi).  In other words, I wouldn’t put awakening, strictly, under the category of knowledge although it leads to direct gnosis.  

I think awakening is somewhat different having more to do with overcoming a kind of spiritual sleep in which one is deeply immersed in a dream like state of being which prevents true knowledge or the same, prevents us from seeing things the way they really are.  Part of maintaining this dream like state requires of us that we live a certain way which excludes awakening.  We will not allow our dream, out of habit, to come to an end.  Foremost, we will not allow ourselves to be put under a special kind of psychic pressure which will bring us to awakening. 

Using the example of the Buddha, his unsurpassed awakening consisted in awakening from the sleep of being immersed in composite existence, being unable to see directly the single essence from which all is composed.  Presently, our minds won’t allow such an awakening.  Perhaps we enjoy the sleep and would prefer to have a knowledge that comes from within the dream.  Even moving gradually towards awakening might prove to be difficult.  In other words, we are not really looking to awaken.  We would rather find a better dream if possible.

As far as the method of awakening goes, I don’t think the institution of Zen has the final answer.  Neither koans nor sitting in zazen are sufficient to propel us out of the dream of composite existence.  By habit, we are so nailed to phenomena, both external and internal, that it seems unlikely that we can ever awaken from the dream, so pervasive is it.  We have even developed rationalizations for not looking beyond the veil; to stay asleep as if life is a journey from one dream to another; life and death being within the dream.

Still, we must have faith that one day, in the near future, we will see the essence or substance of Mind from which our thoughts and the external world are composed.  Our life has within it the ability to help us awaken because we are that substance of Mind despite the fact that we are transfixed to what we are not, unable to awaken to the obvious.  The second we let go of this dream, we see what we really are and what this universe is composed from which we are free from.

The mysterious basket

In Zen, we all imagine that we can see our true nature.  Just tell us what it looks like so we can see it.  But seeing our true nature, or the same, pure Mind is not that easy.  Our spiritual eyes are occluded; they are not yet fit to see it. We still have to go through a long process of orentitation and purification.  The greatest danger we face is to believe there is nothing to realize.  When we have made such a decision like that we have ended possibility.  We will never realize our true nature.  Here is a story about that.

Sky Woman’s Basket

There was once a man among the first people who had cows. The were marked black and white like day and night. He loved his cows because every morning they gave him sweet, fresh cream. Afterwards, he took them to green pastures to graze.  When his cows were done grazing he brought them home and locked them safely in the corral. Then he went to sleep and dreamt of all the cream the cows would give him in the morning. One morning he discovered his cows were dry. They had no milk or cream. Then he thought that he needed to find greener pastures for his cows. When he found a good pasture he let his cows graze until they were satisfied. Then he brought them home and locked them safely in the corral.  After that, he went to sleep and dreamt of all the cream the cows would give him in the morning.  But the next morning, like before, the cows had no milk or cream. Once again, he took his cows to beautiful pastures to graze. But the same thing kept happening.  His cows were always dry the next morning.  So he decided one night after the cows were safely locked up in the corral to see what was happening.  He crept up to the corral and hid so that he couldn't be seen and waited. Then late into the night he saw a bright star appear in the sky over the corral. And down from the star stretched a long bright ladder of light. Then to his amazement, many beautiful young women came down the ladder of light with buckets and milked his cows dry. He jumped up from his hiding place and yelled, "Stop—thieves! Comeback!" The young women were quick, but he was able to catch one of the beautiful women by the ankle. Then her sisters pulled the ladder of light up and the beautiful woman fell to where the man was standing. The man said to the woman, "You have taken from me; you owe me!"  The beautiful woman said, "You're right. I will stay with you and repay this debt my sisters and I owe to you." The man said, "That is fair." Afterwards the man and the woman worked side by side for many days taking care of the cows.  After the woman had repaid her debt, the man having grown very fond of her, asked the beautiful woman to marry him. She admitted that she too had grown fond of him and consented to be his wife but on one condition, "You must not look in the basket I have  been carrying that comes from the sky unless I bid you to do so." The man thought about it and agreed. Afterwards they were married. Eventually, over time the man became more curious as to what his beautiful wife had hidden in the basket.  Finally, it reached the point where he could not restrain his curiosity. He had to know what was in the basket after all she was his wife. He had a right to know the secret. Then one day when she was not around, he lifted the lid of the basket and looked inside. Much to his amazement there was nothing in the basket. He began to laugh and laugh. His wife hearing the laughter came to see what it was about. She saw that he had opened the basket. "Husband!" she cried, "You have broken your promise." Without any hesitation, the beautiful woman took her basket and left never to return. The man became sad always looking at the sky for the return of is wife which never came. Some people say she left him because he couldn't be trusted; there was nothing in the basket. It was just a test, in other words. Others say, when the man looked into the basket his eyes were unable to see her mysterious treasure, after all she came from a star which made her special. (According to Laurens van der Post this is a story told to him by his Zulu nanny.  I have modified it somewhat to fit The Zennist.)  

 

Transmission or no transmission

The so-called Zen transmission which is from Mind to Mind is not an intellectual transmission, nor can it be considered to be a conceptual, semantic transmission.  In the strict sense, there is no transmission.  There is just a waking up to our true nature.  Before this awakening, even though our true nature has always been present in all of its glory, we did not recognize it.  When the Buddha awakened he said:

“Strange! How Strange!  How can it be that although all sentient beings are fully possessed of the wisdom of the Tathagata, because of their ignorance and confusion, they neither know nor see that?” (Avatamsaka Sutra) 

In light of the above, was anything really transmitted or conveyed?  Not really.  Mind is always present. But this does not mean everyone recognizes it. The people the Buddha saw looked like blind Buddhas or were like poor people bemoaning their poverty with gold all around them which they couldn’t recognize. Ordinary people, let’s not forget, are fast asleep.  The Buddha had to teach spiritual somnambulists whose eyes were ‘open wide shut’ against the clear light Mind. 

Eventually, the time comes when people who say they are Buddhist begin to doubt there is such a thing as pure Mind which can awaken to itself.  Eventually, the idea of a transmission turns into there is no transmission.  It’s one big joke, in other words.  If in Blofeld’s translation of Huang-po’s sermons, Huang-po says:

Transmitting and receiving transmission are both a most difficult kind of mysterious understanding, so that few indeed have been able lo receive it. In fact, however. Mind is not Mind and transmission is not really transmission.

Can we say that there is really no Mind and no transmission; it’s all a big joke?  No, far from it.  There is no Mind and no transmission that can be intellectually conceived.  Mind is beyond the ken of mental images no matter how subtle and fine.  When there is no mind of deluded thought and mind stirrings, we have our one cubic centimeter of chance to experience the Mind to Mind transmission.

For those who have had the good fortune to awaken to Mind; who also realize Mind was there all the time, they enter a world where few are able to go.  Of those who imagine Zen is one big joke; that there is no Mind to realize, have fallen into the abyss of nihilism from which there is no escape.  They have imprisoned themselves in a hell from which there is no escape or redemption.

 

Faith beyond reason

Unlike with Thomas Aquinas, Buddhism does not require the dyad of faith and reason.  For the Christian, faith has to be reasonable otherwise superstition enters into the picture.  In the Catholic seminary, one studies philosophy (reason) before they study theology.  Faith, in this respect, is the servant of reason one might conclude.  In this, faith seems to have been reduced to a Sancho Panza while reason is Don Quixote whose imagination is fed by his books.

In Buddhism, faith is more of a conviction that the mind which seeks the Buddha Mind (the awakened or bodhi mind) is really seeking a realization of itself; its most profound essence.  We can become awakened, that is, become Buddhas, but only if we awaken to our true nature which is veiled from us by our ignorance.  On a humorous note, it is like riding an ass in search of an ass, the rider being convinced he will sooner, than later, find the ass.  This is sometimes called trusting the mind (xinxin).  One cannot call this reason or an explanation since it goes beyond reason being much more profound.

On another note, it is said that the door to immortality opens if one rejoices to hear the Dharma and thus have true faith.  This hearing the Dharma is connected with Buddhist divine revelation which is not the same as reason. In fact, one has to strive for faith—not everyone hears the true Dharma (saddharma).  Such faith is not the same as belief which can simply be taken up by anyone.  In the Avatamsaka Sutra, faith is said to reveal the peerless way.  This connects with the sense of divine revelation which is beyond calculating reason whose head is turned to the constructs of imagination and the sensory world.

One, of course, can doubt such faith but, paradoxically, only on grounds which are not doubted; which must rest on some kind of assumed belief!  Behind reason there always lurks faith or his cousin, belief.  If one chooses to doubt rebirth and karma, that is, have little or no faith in them, one can only stand on grounds that are not doubted.  So just what is this ground?  Is it the strong belief that there is nothing after this life nor anything spiritual like karma?  Do we rest on the ground that science has not proven rebirth therefore it does not exist?  This is nothing more than a belief—a faith in science.  And how solid is science? Let’s let Richard Feynman answer: “But nevertheless, we now have a much more humble point of view of our physical laws—everything can be wrong!” 

The qualities for awakening

The Buddha's awakening to ultimate reality which is transmitted in Zen Buddhism, beginning with the first transmitted disciple, Mahakashyapa (or so the story goes) is something transcendent, mysterious, and ineffable. It cannot be taught as a course in some university, nor is going to a Zen monastery in South Korea or Japan going to be of much help either.  What is first required is a certain kind of attitude or qualities to become awakened. There has to be the will to awakening, the commitment to awakening and a spiritual aptitude since we are not dealing with a subject of this conditioned world.  It is a spiritual subject that we are dealing with which is unconditioned. 

The will to awaken is the will that finds itself in the midst of false ways of being and false engagements with the world which strives, above all, to supersede these conditions to reach parayana (the final destiny). The will to awaken is not just will power but also awareness.  We might think of this awareness as an intense looking or seeking for clues to the awakening path.  Thinking more about this, one has to will their awareness; not just awareness of everyday doings but awareness as being on the lookout for the trace of the awakening path.  It is like the thirsty cow who smells moist air following it; who then discovers a path taken by other cows which leads to a fresh water pond.

Being committed to awakening has a lot to do with priorities.  Do we put our family and friends first on the list of our priorities placing awakening somewhere at the bottom?  Or do we change the list once a week or whenever we like always shifting our priorities?  When we look back upon our years of studying Buddhism, how committed and dedicated were we?  Are we awakened?  If not, why not?  If our commitment has been a superficial one, what else can we expect except failure?  In light of this, our understanding of what the Buddha taught can only go so far.  We might be an excellent monk or nun.  But our commitment was not deep enough.

Finally, we come to the most difficult quality necessary for awakening, namely, a spiritual aptitude.  Without it, how might we recognize the luminous Mind or the same, the pure Mind?  If we begin the path firmly believing that the Buddha taught no such thing, unbeknownst to us, we have cut ourself off from ever awakening.  As a result of this, we will never accept the truth that what animates this carnal body of ours is wholly spiritual which transcends the body.

These three qualities are coordinate.  The awakening path is most difficult.  It requires a certain kind of individual to make real progress on it.  It is not for everyone. 

 

The big attack

Typepad which carries The Zennist blog just experienced a huge DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack. You can read about it here.

During the attack I have been trying to get a few new ideas for a blog by reading Donald Crosby’s book, The Specter of the Absurd: Sources and Criticisms of Modern Nihilism.  For a long time I have held the opinion that Zen runs the risk of falling into nihilism.  It is a kind of nihilism in which there is disbelief in a higher reality than the present one which is never other than impermanent and unsatisfactory as in today’s dreams may turn into tomorrow’s nightmare.  It also includes disbelief in gnosis of the transcendent, for example, that we can directly intuit our true nature.

This goes with what Cosby describes as epistemological nihilism which I read as a denial of absolute truth other than relative truth.  This means there is no ultimate reality or higher world (lokuttara)—certainly no parayana (the final destiny or chief object of realization).  This leads to cosmic nihilism which asserts the meaninglessness of the cosmos or nature itself.

Already we have entered into what Crosby calls moral nihilism.  Look at the great wars of the 20th century and the senseless slaughter.  Look at our leaders who are moral cowards (this is  political nihilism).  It is like the world is being run by psychopaths who could not care less whether they blow up the world, as long as they get what they want.  This moral nihilism has trickled down to the average person, or should I say teenager, who thinks nothing of committing mass murder.  There is also economic nihilism which finds no reason for market place regulations; doesn’t blink an eye when the entire nation collapses into an economic recession caused by gaming the system to the advantage of a few.

Moral nihilism declares the sole obligation of individuals is to themselves and their own set of values (which are nothing more than personal desires).  It takes an ugly form in Buddhism when some Buddhists say they don’t believe in karma or rebirth!

These are some of my thoughts for the day, during the DDoS attack.

A couple of time a year

Over the years, I have come across  two or three of these types of questions a year on forums going back to the 1990s and in emails.  I just came across this one recently (I have modified it somewhat). 

For a couple of years, I have been practicing Buddhism. My family is what you might call fundamentalist Christians. We live in a very Christian oriented community. I first told my friends about my interest in Buddhism who didn’t understand. Then I told my girlfriend who also didn’t understand.  How should I tell my parents?

For any young person who is still living with their parents being dependent upon their generosity, it is not always a good time, if their parents are devout Christians, to tell them that they’ve decided to practice Buddhism.

Not only is such a young person a beginner but they don’t understand Buddhism sufficiently to argue with fundamentalist Christians who are deeply entrenched in their faith; who are far from having an open mind.  

One also needs to be careful that their decision to study Buddhism is not a simple case of adolescent rebellion which is not unusual given that Western culture has sort of combined adolescent rebellion with the rite of passage.  This is to suggest that shocking one’s parents or community is a sign that establishes one’s individuality!

However, I am sympathetic with this kind of youthful rebellion which may not be adolescent rebellion so much as a rebellion against the meaninglessness of Western culture which has inadvertently drifted into a kind of existential nihilism in which life seems to have little or no meaning other than learning to live in the moment which is no answer to nihilism.  It doesn’t take an adult to sense this kind of nihilism.  I believe any intelligent young person senses it all through high school—they just haven’t learned what its name is.

Still, one has to be cautious with how they rebel (if I may use the word for now); it is not best to rebel, openly, especially against one's parents who being devout Christians have no ear for Buddhism.  Based on my on personal experiences, unless our parents are open-minded it is best to wait until we are independent of them.  What is more important is our own spiritual maturity which doesn't need the blessings of people who are intolerant and suffer from negative karma.

 

Those who have fallen into despair

If Buddhism seems to be nihilistic, it would be because those who have fallen into despair, who have found life almost meaningless, have embraced it, thus making it appear such.  In this despair they cannot see that the Buddha is condemning the conditioned world to which they cling.  They have not the strength to shake off nihilism’s bewitching power which makes all spiritual endeavors seem meaningless and a lie.   

Even when it is in front of their eyes they cannot see the Buddha’s great saving light which lies  beyond their walls of despair; which reveals the stream to nirvana where begins the awakening from the poisonous sleep of nihilism.

When the Buddha declares, in so many words, again and again that there is no self in this corporeal body why do the nihilists, who make up the bulk of the Buddha’s flock, say the Buddha is a denier of the self or âtman?  Has he really proclaimed such? 

But where and in what discourse, has the Buddha taught his followers other than their self is not the physical body (rûpa), the physical body being impermanent and suffering?  Has he also not taught these same followers that the physical body is murderous and is Mara the killer?  Did he teach them that they should reject the self and cling, instead, to the murderous five skandhas of physical form, feeling, perception, volitional formations and consciousness?

Only a person fallen into despair would declare there is no self using their physical body as the criterion.  On the other hand, only a wise person would understand that an island and a refuge, such as the self, cannot be found in the physical body which is impermanent and suffering.  The Buddha only taught his followers to abandon desire for what is not their self which is all that is conditioned. 

To the Buddha refuge

When someone to the Buddha refuge goes (buddham saranam gachchhami) they are not going to Gautama but, instead, to awakening itself.  When we go to the Buddha refuge we are trying to awaken to our true nature.  The term Buddha is not actually the name of a sage who lived a long time ago in India.  It is like the name Jesus the Christ meaning, Jesus the Anointed.  When Gautama awakened to pure Mind he became buddha or awakened—thus, Gautama the Buddha.  Now, today, we must awaken.  If we should get lucky and awaken, we will become a Buddha.

Intrinsically, our mind is the Buddha but we don’t know that yet.  Nevertheless, we have to have faith that it is.  We have to start there.  Our journey to the Buddha refuge must consist in penetrating through our all-too-human monkey mind (kapicitta).  This mind is constantly changing.  It is one thing one moment another thing the next.  Mind, undisturbed, is the Buddha Mind that we are looking for.  It is deep and profound;  hard to see for anyone caught up in desire which acts to blind them as to the proper course.

Bodhidharma said, “Whosoever sees his nature is a Buddha,” which means that the adept has awakened in virtue of the fact that Mind has seen itself which we could say is the same as the Mind to Mind transmission of Zen.  This Mind has also attained nirvana according to Bodhidharma.  Before nirvana our mind was in samsara.  It was rising and perishing like ocean waves being constantly disturbed.  We were totally clueless as to its real nature or essence.

By being caught up in minds disturbances, which is all we have ever known since our birth, we continually deceive ourselves.  The more and deeper these deceptions become after many years of clinging to them, proportionally, the more distant and obscure becomes the Buddha refuge.  In other words, awakening becomes less likely.  The only antidote is to read the words of the Buddha more and practice more until it becomes a part of our life.  To do less is to become completely deceived.