One bad habit of beginners is trying to dumb Buddhism down, especially, Zen Buddhism. First of all, beginners are those who have yet to see their true nature and awaken (i.e., become Buddha). This means that they could have been studying Zen for 20 or more years, practicing seated meditation. Nevertheless, they are still walking the path to awakening—they still haven't arrived. They have not yet grasped that Zen is about this mysterious seeing—not about doing zazen. All Buddhist traditions do seated meditation. Only Zen comes forth and boldly says, "You have to see your true nature, now! Stop screwing around!" But this is the hard way.
So now enters dumbing down which is easy to sell to beginners. For example, just do seated meditation. That's it. Or just be aware of what you do, living in the here and the now. That's it. You are already enlightened because you have the Buddha-nature according to the Buddha. That's it. I am sure there are more examples such as our ordinary, worldly mind of birth and death is the Buddha mind! Here, clearly, the concept constructing intellect is hard at work trying to assure us that there is not much to Zen or for that matter, Buddhism. No major changes are demanded of us.
No, we can't dumb down Buddhism or Zen. It's a cold, hard fact that the path of Buddhism including Zen Buddhism is not a cake walk. We will be challenged during the whole time. We might even stray from the path, giving it up altogether. Dumbing down the Dharma helps us to cope with the guilt of not doing our best; at the same time, it helps us to believe that we are baby Buddhas but Buddhas nonetheless.
Not dumbing down Buddhism or Zen means to accept, first of all, that we don't really understand the Buddha's teaching. Much of what we read, in fact, we don't comprehend. So we just skim over it. Our understanding can reach only so far; certainly not as far as a Buddha. This means that we require lots of spiritual work until we can begin to understand the basics of Buddhism—not dumbed down of course! This also means that the path we take will be a huge challenge for us; bringing our delusions, anger and desires to the surface which is painful.
(By the way I am talking about two separate trials I have faced on the way, not one-- the first a sense of bring crushed or unimaginably compressed, and the other a rather jolting encounter in meditation. I should have used a comma). Zen skips the intermediate stages, and maybe other paths of Buddhism are better suited for some people. I might also add these harrowing experiences were both transitory. Sorry to take up so much space...I just wanted to avoid confusion about what I intended to say.
Posted by: n. yeti | January 20, 2016 at 11:23 AM
Perhaps there should be a warning label on Zen. Then again explaining that one must eventually cultivate the power to pass through unbelievably cramped spaces or risk meeting up with some embodied terror conjured by karma in some spooky place...well I suppose donations would drop off and book sales dwindle.
Posted by: n. yeti | January 19, 2016 at 08:52 AM