The Zennist

Still a long way to go

In my own ad hoc backward glance of Buddhism and Zen on the Internet since the advent of Netscape (remember that?), I would have to say that the majority of people who become interested in Buddhism are looking for something other than the Judeo-Christian religion; something without dogma and God.  In this same group there are agnostics and atheists many of whom put their faith in science and the materialistic view of the universe which has been around for over 300 years.  Almost all accept the belief that the Buddha denied the soul or Ātman.  This could be interpreted to mean that these same people believe that Buddha did not teach gnosis of the transcendent.  If he did this would be akin to Vedanta which is Hinduism, which the Buddha rejected.

I dare say that if one fits into this mold, they will have many rebirths before they even get close to learning what Buddhism is about.  It would be better to imagine that the Buddha's teaching is that of a space alien.  Imagine that he came here in his flying saucer to rescue stupid human beings, and as much as he dumbed-down his message it was still too recondite for the average knuckle-dragging human to comprehend.  There are several Buddhist works which border on being incomprehensible but nevertheless present Buddhism, accurately.  Three that come to my mind are the Lankavatara Sutra, Surangama Sutra, and the Awakening of Faith.  There are others.  But these go to the pith more directly in my estimation.

But more than these discourses of the Buddha what he taught can be boiled down to a spiritual substance such that when you receive it there is blissful light beyond belief.  It is overwhelming and, oddly, productive of intelligence.  It is aiming to include all things in its field, from a sand flea to the human race.  If this were film, we could imagine something akin to Stanley Kubrick's film, 2001: A Space Odyssey.  In our film, the monolith would direct human consciousness to this light by putting it through several hundred years of social purifications.  Step by step human beings would discover that their universe is highly intelligent which has been waiting a long time for them to mature!  They would eventually discover what love is (S., karuna) and also realize that what they thought was love was only fellow feeling in which I can love my child but hate an Arab child.

People who are sympathetic with the teachings of Buddhism have a long way to go before they meet real Buddhism face to face.  The are still wallowing in the mud of Judeo-Christian values and scientific materialism.  Just look at the history of the Judeo-Christian (and Muslim) faith.  Then look at the history of scientific materialism with its wars of annihilation and its nuclear weapons.  This is not civilization.  It is barbarism propagandized as civilization.

A much deeper under-meaning

Bodhidharma did not say much if anything about Zen as if it were a lineage or a particular sect.  He did say that the Lankavatara Sutra, if followed, may lead to salvation.  This particular discourse of the Buddha formed the School of Lanka to which Bodhidharma and others belonged; which later helped to legitimize and form the basis of the Zen lineage (chan-zong).  Even if the story of Bodhidhamra, including his sermons, amount to a fabrication as well as the Chuandeng lu (Transmission of the Lamp), published in 1004, both serve a necessary spiritual purpose.  Behind the surface meaning a much deeper under-meaning can be found that points to the One Mind or the same, the Buddha Mind.

The value of this unique literature is to be found in its under-meaning.  The surface meaning attracts us.  It is easy to imagine a character like Bodhidharma and many of the Zen masters found in the Chuandeng lu which we also find in later works such as the Mumonkan, a collection of koans.  The only problem with this genre is the surface meaning can turn into history.  We begin to place more emphasis on the behavior and personality of the Zen teachers as if Zen were some kind of special way of behaving.  For example, when I'm hungry, I eat. When I get thirsty, I have something to drink. That's all there is.

Sorry, but that is not all there is.  The lives of the Zen masters found in the Chuandeng lu are incapable of showing us, directly, the Buddha Mind.  Their sermons can only hint at it.  They have to rely on inadequate words because the nature of the Buddha Mind is so subtle and transcendent.  Nor can they remove our defilements.  It might take us many kicks and shouts to drop all of our presuppositions; being at a point when we are fully open to seeing this Mind.  But this is extremely unlikely.  These days there are no good kickers and shouters!  It takes special skill to first freeze the adept's concept forming intellect, then jar him with a sharp, penetrating shout sufficient to push him through the gateless gate.  

The spirit or light is all that really matters in Zen—the under-meaning.  If you don't see the importance of spirit, that is, the Buddha Mind, or if you like, the light of Mahayana, then you are wasting your time.  My only job is to tell you this spirit is real and by it Buddhahood is realized and without it, there is no escape from samsara.

Falling into the stream

It is natural to want to know what something is like before you actually do it or get there.  Hegel called this "knowing before you know."  It's like a kid wanting to learn how to swim but who doesn't want to go into the water because he is afraid of it.  Growing up, I remember some kids being frightened of the water at the Red Cross swimming class.  But the swimming instructor had a way of teaching us all how to swim.  But first, we all had to get used to the water and even experience getting a little water in our nose!

Buddhism has something like a fear of the water, with those who are afraid to enter.  Most of us have encountered this personally.  We ask a lot of questions.  We want to know about awakening or kensho before we have it.  There remains a huge divide between our imagination with its needs and awakening.  Still, we like to think that we can partially imagine what kensho is like before we get there.  We might read a lot of Zen books to help us get an idea of what enlightenment is like.  Still, we haven't entered the water.  Not even close.

When we finally decide to enter the water, that is, fully realize our true nature, something inside of us clicks.  A strange kind of determination or resoluteness comes over us.  It's not about becoming a dedicated monk or nun as if jumping through some monastic hoops will suddenly bring us to kensho.  It is more of an inner thing that first of all we know the search is going to take place within us.  We have to personally see this unborn, pure Mind which has no distinguishing features which, otherwise, would make it something that is conditioned which is not what we are looking for.

I can remember the days I spent looking for this pure Mind.  Sometimes I thought it was my awareness as in being aware of my awareness.  But this quickly got me no place.  There was something more profound I was missing.  I knew it.  So I pushed on with my inner search night and day, when I hiked, cut firewood, cooked and studied the Lankavatara Sutra and other helpful books.  I sat for long periods of time in an old abandoned mine looking within my being for a clue—all to no avail.  Looking back, thank the gods I was looking in the right direction.  I even had the hunch that I was dealing with an immense subtlety—far more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack. 

Sooner or later, one runs out of possible hunches of what this pure Mind is.  You find yourself going over the same stuff.  But not once do you give up your search.  Then eventually you fall into the water—or should I say, accidentally fall into the stream to nirvana?  In any event, you see something you've never seen before.  There it is in all of its glory.  How else could you describe it except by saying it's pure Mind!

Less than adequate parenting

Modern parenting practices, I dare say, are less than adequate.  Today's parents will rear tomorrow's immature adults in which desire and emotions rule.  Looking at the typical Dharma center, what teachers and their staff are teaching is not Buddhism, it is how to become a mature adult which means to be in control of one's desires and emotions.  Most of the people who attend Dharma centers are the victims of less than adequate parenting (child neglect and abuse, for example).

The huge majority of parents believe they know how to rear their children.  This is where the problem begins.  They fail to see that day in and day out they are reinforcing immature behavior and ignoring mature behavior—mainly because they are themselves immature.  Mature behavior gets no reward and certainly little if any attention.  Parents what their children to be children which means parents will inadvertently reward a child's immature behavior without knowing it.

When these children become adults, their immaturity is still with them.  Now it consists of adult desires and emotions which lay hidden behind a facade of maturity.  Their immaturity is their temporal soul—and it doesn't serve them well.  These are the same people who, eventually, seek out a Zen or Dharma center.  They sense something is really wrong.  The Zen center eventually becomes their new family hopefully taking over where their parents left off. 

The real task of the Zen or Dharma center these days seems to be concerned with making mature adults whose temporal soul is not based on desires and emotions.  They have learned, to some extent, to control and manage their desires and emotions; rather than being their slave.  With this new found ability they can look towards a spiritual horizon and begin their voyage of discovery seeing one day their true nature which is pure and radiant, and certainly undying.

 

Two kinds of practice

 I tend to put what people today call "practice" into two categories.  There is practice for getting us to the gnosis of pure Mind, or the same, seeing our true nature (kensho), and there is practice after gnosis for the perfection of pure Mind.  It is my impression, that 99% of the so-called practitioners today are working of the first practice with very little success in the way of gnosis or kensho.  Practice, we might say, has become something close to going around in circles. 

If our practice were on the right track, that is right practice, more people would be experiencing authentic kensho in which pure Mind reveals itself all at once.  I dare say that this is not happening.  Part of the reason might be because some practitioners believe practice is kensho which is almost equivalent to saying, if you're prospecting for gold you've found it, so you are rich.  This is Soto Zen's logic.

Dogen's version of Soto Zen, the way I read it, understands that with each moment of practice there is also a moment of enlightenment.  Practice and enlightenment are inseparable; they are coordinate.  This seems like wishful thinking to me.  Wouldn't it be nice if in one minute of doing zazen (tso-chan) there was one moment of enlightenment?  Wow!  Sorry, but the first category of practice is more like looking for our glasses when they are perched on our nose or, in the words of Zen Master Hyakuja, "It's like riding an ox, trying to find it."  Even though pure Mind is omnipresent—we have never seen it before.  That's the problem.  If I ask you to bring me a cup, well, you already know what a cup looks like.  But you've never seen pure Mind.  Now, if I ask you to bring me the pure Mind, is that going to work?  Likely not.  Finesse is required because you've never seen the pure Mind.

In my own example, between the years of 1965 to 1969 I grew more and more cognizant of the fact that not only does Zen teach kensho, but I am required to experience something that I am not seeing or experiencing right now that is profound.  Sitting  in zazen is not the answer anymore than chanting the Heart Sutra day in and day out or making my robes.  Practice, rightly understood, is going from the gross to the subtle.  Hopefully, one day sitting on the ox, in search of an ox that you haven't found yet, you think to yourself, what am I riding?  This is practice which leads to the second kind of practice. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The people the Buddha truly taught

When Gautama realized ultimate reality (the Dharma) he emitted, simultaneously, spiritual light which was also compassionate. Like rays coming from the sun.  Few people could sense it because it was so subtle and fine.  The people who could sense it, were people who had developed spiritual roots over many rebirths.  These where the people that he truly taught.  In that time, if anyone sensed the Buddha's spiritual light/compassion which was luminous as well, they entered the stream of nirvana.  The more these 'entered' followers let go of clinging to the the Five Aggregates (material shape, feeling, perception, volitional formations and sensory consciousness) the more  of the spiritual light they became.

With the passing away of the physical body of the Buddha there were still some of his old followers who understood the Buddha's awakening at a very subtle level.  They also understood that the spiritual light that he emitted, which was also compassion, could still teach the highest awakening.  However, with the Buddha's physical passing the spiritual light of the Tathagata who, it is said, is the giver of light and vision, could still manifest itself.  But then faith began to decline.

Of course, these days, all this stuff sounds like mumbo-jumbo.  They can't be real occurrences.  Many believe this kind of language is metaphorical which means certain things the Buddha said are not to be taken, literally.  For if they were real occurrences, we should be in deep doo-doo, which is to say, we don't know what the Buddha is actually trying to teach.  However, in my own example, the light of Mahayana I had experienced was at a very literal level and real beyond a shadow of a doubt.  By it, I was able to understand Buddhism as opposed to just-guessing-Buddhism.  What this all means for the average Buddhist, is there is a lot more to this religion than you can even imagine.  But more importantly, you must have great faith in Buddhism.  It won't let you down.  

While all of this may sound exceedingly complicated and heady, it is because of a lack of spiritual light.  I try to tell people, again and again, that what animates them is eternal and undying, the animated is not.  It is finite, subject to birth and death.  When one, through meditation, turns to the animative—meets it face to face—they see the Buddha which is spiritual light.  This is what Bodhidharma said: Everyone wants to see this Mind, and those who move their hands and feet by its light are as many as the grains of the sand along the Ganges, but when you ask them, they can't explain it. . . .Why do they not see it?  

Karmic affinity

Not everyone has the necessary karmic affinity to practice the road to kensho or, the same, to see their true nature (dṛṣṭi-svabhāva).  In fact, I would argue that there are many Buddhists who have the karmic affinity to take a dislike to seeing their true nature; who feel uncomfortable around those who have the necessary karmic affinity to see it, even becoming hostile (while keeping their anger hidden).  These are the same people who cherry-pick the Buddha's discourses leaving out such things as nirvana placing emphasis, instead, on moral behavior as if this is the other shore.

Make no mistake about it, there are Buddhist teachers who claim to be Zen teachers; who pretend to know where Zen is heading.  But their teaching has little or no resemblance to Buddhism and the teachings of the Zen masters.  It is a muddled teaching which lacks any systematic overview being unable to explain what Zen is in simple words such as it is a teaching that points to the original or pure Mind which is the mind of the Buddha.  What else might Zen be about? 

 A teacher who teaches false views doesn't understand the purport of Zen.  He or she makes no effort to first orient their students in the right direction, that is, to instruct them to see their true, inherent nature which is pure Mind.  Everything follows from this such as meditation which is about trying to see this pure, radiant Mind. 

 Students today talk about finding the right teacher.  But if they lack the right karma, their search will be in vain even when they imagine to have found the perfect teacher.  These are the same people who are impressed by robes and big temples; who believe enlightened teachers have a transmission certificate!  Obviously, these teachers have not realized their true nature which is an eternal and deathless confirmation—not one on a piece of paper.

It almost goes without saying this, but one who has karmic affinity for evil finds a devil teacher; while one who has affinity with awakening finds and awakened teacher whose teachings comport with the Buddha's discourses. 

The best teacher demands spiritual maturity

I was a young adult in the '60s.  It was a time of change.  It was by no means a boring time.  Everything was subject to change, even parenting.  Permissive parenting was not working as advertised which had just replaced authoritarian parenting (parent's word is law; parents show little affection or nurturance).  There was an attempt to work towards a synthesis called "authoritative parenting" which expected more mature behavior out of a child without abusing and punishing the child when maturity demands were not met.  The parents are more nurturing, accepting, forgiving and understanding of their children—still, there are very definite expectations and rules.  This is not an easy synthesis to achieve.  It is much easier to swing back to either permissive or authoritarian parenting which are not without a lot of problems.

My dad, who was born in the 19th century; who grew up to become a very skilled and highly trained boxer—you might call him a modern day gladiator—was neither permissive with me nor authoritarian.  Nevertheless, whatever he told you to do as a child, you did.  He had a commanding presence like no other males I have ever met since that time.  He never struck me nor yelled at me; but he was no pushover.  I think kids who come from boxing families have a sacred respect for their fathers.  Boxers have to tame the wild beast within them so as to make the beast effective in the ring.  Courage dominates, fear is subservient.  A boxer's wisdom is able to size up his opponent in an instant, sensing the opponent's weakness and strengths.  All these things, with some modification, help us with the Zen path.

Especially, we need courage to face the almost impossible and frightening odds that we may fail to achieve kensho (seeing our true nature).  Still, we have to go forward come hell or high water knowing the odds are against us.  And yes, there is a wild beast in us that we must tame as well.  It prevents us from seeing our true nature which is mind without the interference waves.  In fact, during kensho, for a split second, there are no waves.  Just pure Mind, luminous and transcendent.  Wisdom is also required. We have to be able to distinguish the right path from the wrong path; pure Mind from defiled mind.  None of this is easy.  

That the path is easy is a delusion.  The more beginners cling to their wrong-headed ideas and beliefs the more difficult becomes the path until it is impossible to proceed.  At this point, I think how we were parented starts to kick in.  Most beginners either gravitate towards a permissive teacher or to the authoritarian teacher.  Neither one is what they should be looking for.  Foremost, the best teacher demands spiritual maturity.  He or she is not interested in becoming a person's personal psychologist or their brutal task master.  

 

What we connect with

Continuing in samsara or realizing nirvana, hence, escaping samsara, depends upon what we connect with.  To be bound down to samsara, i.e., connecting with it, means we only see our psychophysical organism (the five aggregates/skandhas)—not what this organism is not or what transcends it.  We take our physical shape, the first aggregate, all the way to consciousness, the fifth aggregate, as comprising our totality.  We may further believe that after our psychophysical organism dies, that's it.  There is no more. 

On this same track, nirvana means connecting, precisely, with what transcends the five aggregates, including even consciousness, reaching the undying.  We get a flavor for this from the following passage from the Mahāpuṇṇama Sutta (M. iii. 20):

"Seeing it thus, monks, the instructed disciple of the pure ones turns away from material shape, he turns away from feeling, turns away from perception, turns away from the habitual tendencies, turns away from consciousness; turning away he is detached; by his detachment he is freed; in freedom there is the knowledge that he is freed and he comprehends: Destroyed is birth, brought to a close the Brahma-faring, done is what was to be done, there is no more being such or so."

One can completely turn away and detach from the aggregates only because one has never been an aggregate, although the present condition seems otherwise.  Yes, these aggregates appear to be mine, or the same, appear to be my self or ātman.  But appearances are deceiving especially when we believe that our psychophysical body is our totality and we haven't the slightest clue of what lies beyond it if anything.  

Short of connecting with the transcendent, we remain deluded because we continually connect with the aggregates which are never other than conditioned; which are in samsara.  They represent the limit of what we know.  However, we cannot be content to stay here.  This is the burning house of the triple world (Chapter III) of which the Lotus Sutra speaks.  The flames haven't reached us yet, but they soon will.

Eliminating our old habits

We are even unconsciously habituated to a limited way of searching for truth, so that in the example of Zen what we often discover to be the truth is still stuck within our human sensory sphere.  We haven't pierced through this sphere which is what Zen is asking us to do.  We prefer our old ways.  They served us well in the past and they will work when it comes to seeing our true nature or kensho.  But in the past our attention was mainly directed to the outside—not the inside.  Nope, our old ways ain't gonna work.  

Our life's great journey began on the outside and we expect that it will end there in some as yet, unimaginable way.  Who knows we might become wealthy and famous.  This, however, is all wrong.  As regards Zen, the journey begins on the inside, and this is after we jettison our old habits.

We can't afford to search for truth using our former methods.  If we choose to search in this way, we will fail at Zen except to be able to sit on a zafu for forty minutes.  Is this a great accomplishment?  Not really.  We just conformed to what someone else imagines Zen to be who, obviously, has only read the parts of Zen he or she agrees with which concerns zazen.  Yes, groups zazen can be fun but awakening to our true nature which is luminous is infinitely better.  This is what the old Zen sages were trying to get their students to realize.

Eliminating our old habits, which help to keep our spiritual blinkers on, is half the battle.  We can't expect kensho, that is, seeing our luminous nature, by letting our old  habits do the thinking for us.  This is when it sometimes requires a good teacher, but not one who is going to say the magic word and make us a Buddha.  I hate to say this, but becoming a good student takes a lot of hard work.  One has to get to the point where they have internalized the teacher.  Students who, after five or more years, are still "teacher dependent" have not as yet internalized the teacher.  To be honest, a good teacher's job is to help the student to internalize the proper Zen teacher.  From there one can work their way to kensho.  They have what it takes to realize pure Mind.