The Zennist

The self-destructive nature of religion

Zen Buddhism will eventually destroy itself by its own hand (perhaps it already has).  This goes for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and other religions.  It shouldn’t be strange to hear this.  Nevertheless, the signs are everywhere in the example of trying to experience religion in a literal and historical way instead of in the inner-most self (pratyātman) which no words or books, no matter how elegantly written, can communicate.

Nor will building temples or churches suffice.  No matter how many minarets are erected, religion will always remain empty and dead which rests upon a foundation of literalism.  Religion presented this way is but a reflection of just how blind man’s spiritual vision has become.

Without the opening of the spiritual eye mankind has nowhere to run or to hide except in evil with his technology helping him.  But all of his technological marvels will not save him from his blindness and corruption—it will only deceive him that much more.  And since the truth of evil is to be found in ‘excess’ man will come to crave more and more wealth, sexual perversions, and dominion over others so as to ruin them, spiritually.  Over time mankind will become weaker and weaker suffering from akrasia which is a state of mind in which a person lacks self-control; who is unable to resist their own downfall.

For the truly religious few, it is easy to see these walking, spiritually dead people and get out of their way, avoiding them at all costs.  In Zen, I have to confess, it took me a while to see just how spiritually vapid and empty Zen had become.  Just sit—you’re kidding, right? 

Meditation is practiced in virtually all Buddhist traditions, including Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhism).  The only thing that makes Zen unique is the fourth Zen slogan—not meditation.

"See one’s nature and become Buddha" 見性成佛

It was the practice of Siddhartha by which he awakened and became the Buddha.  From its beginning to the present, Zen has been very consistent on selling this idea.  It’s in all of the Zen texts.  But oddly, it has not made it to the West as it should because of Japanese Soto Zen which rejects the fourth slogan and sets up just sitting as the goal of Zen.  Here is the way Zen destroys itself by its own hand.  What we have as Zen in the West is not Zen at all.  Just sitting is not Zen.  Zen is jiànxìng, that is, seeing one’s nature or the same, seeing one’s Buddha-nature.  If you haven't seen it you're wasting your precious human life in which your next life will be a roll of the dice.

 

 

 

 

 

The Zennist says it’s okay to be Islamophobic

The term “Islamophobia” is not a new term but one that’s been around as far as I can tell since 1991 and was later defined by the Runnymede Trust in 1997 as “an outlook or world-view involving an unfounded dread and dislike of Muslims, which results in practices of exclusion and discrimination.”

But now we need to ask ourselves if a fear or phobia of Islam is unfounded?  Shining a historical light on Islam’s 1400 years of existence, for Buddhists, Hindus and Africans such a fear is certainly well founded. Buddhists and Hindus suffered what could only be called ‘genocide’ under Muslim forces that invaded the Indian subcontinent from the 12th to the 16th century.  Turning to Africa, it is estimated that 120,000,000 Africans have been killed to furnish Islam with its profits from slavery.  Nor should it be forgotten that earlier Muslim forces were constantly making inroads into Europe fighting many, many battles from 640 to the 20th century!  

All the military actions by Islamic forces directed against nonbelievers fall under the rubric of Jihad, the Muslim equivalent of the Crusades.  But while the Crusades have ceased which are not part of the New Testament, Jihad still continues to this day and will likely continue into the future since it is part of the Quran (164 Jihad verses are contained within the Quran; few if any of the so-called ‘holy war’ verses have been abrogated).

Unlike Buddhism, Islam is not a religion of toleration or compassion in which violence is rejected.  Violence is an important part of Islam—there would be no Islam without the sword. There are over a hundred verses in the Quran that call on Muslims to war with nonbelievers like Hindus and Buddhists. Islam is thus not a religion of peace but, instead, a religion of submission which is the more accurate definition of “Islam”.   

The real history of Islam does not chime with the current European politically correct view of Islam which is largely a work of propaganda in such examples as, Guidelines for Educators on Countering Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims: Addressing Islamophobia through Education, published by OSCE/ODIHR, Council of Europe, UNESCO, 2011.  Reading this publication and other’s like it, one would never learn the slightest thing about Islam, not even the name of Islam’s most holy book.  One just assumes that all Muslims are like innocent newborn babes who bear no malice towards their non-Muslim hosts—and that anyone who discriminates against Muslims out of fear is a hate filled psychopath!

Without exception, new immigrants have always been on the low end of the totem pole in any country.  Read the history of the Irish coming to America or the Chinese.  But none as I recall were given the red carpet treatment like Muslims who are permitted to rape, rob and murder—almost with impunity when they enter the EU, for example.

I dare say there is a sinister reason for such toleration on the part of the EU, the UK and even in the US.  It comes from the mouth of Peter Sutherland, one time Director-General of the WTO and its principle architect who was also the former Chairman of Goldman Sachs International.  He said:

“I will ask the governments to cooperate, to recognise that sovereignty is an illusion. Borders are outdated. And that means taking on old shibboleths, some of the old historic memories and images of our own country and recognising that we’re part of humankind.”

Sutherland is really saying that he is asking governments to put an end to themselves and let in the Muslim hordes to further destroy ‘old shibboleths’, a code word for Western culture. 

Let’s be clear about one thing, Sutherland and his elitist ilk are evil men.  Their evil hides behind the mask of multiculturalism and political correctness.  Right now they have more use for Islam because of its history of intolerance and violence.  In this regard, neither Christianity nor Buddhism mean anything to them—nor will the deaths of those who will die in future terrorist attacks.  After every terrorist attack, the unelected elitists who run the EU will once again claim to know better than anyone else what to do about terrorism — but nothing will actually change.  Their plan is still the same, get rid of old shibboleths.

 

Cultural Marxist Ideology (CMI): our dystopian future

Cultural Marxist Ideology (hereafter CMI) started to become popular in the 1960s when I took up the study of Zen just before 1965.  I knew it in the form of cultural studies.  Not being called “cultural Marxism” at that time it was pretty much a criticism of Western culture; not as a reformation of its institutions but, instead, as an insidious way to bring about its end.  Today, terms like political correctness and multiculturalism are generally identified with CMI.

During that same period, what I saw lacking in Western culture was a science of spirit akin to Buddhism in which Zen was China's cultural expression of Buddhism—a brilliant one in fact—that could adapt to Western culture and enrich it.

To be sure, Western culture is always in need of reformations (the formation of the United States of America was one such example) which can be seen as series of navigational course corrections.  However, what is not needed is a deliberate attempt to sink the ship of Western culture which was the goal of Marxism going as far back as the Revolutions of 1848.

The Second World War grew out of a continuation of Marxism’s need to destroy Western culture.  Modern history I dare say is an attempt to hide how much of a role Marxism played in bringing about the Second World War in which Hitler became the unwitting stooge of Stalin who had planned to attack all of Europe, including Germany and the UK, during the first part of July 1941.  No one should underestimate how powerful and ruthless the USSR had become under Stalin. 

This same destructive dynamic is still present but as CMI which is not so much anymore about sinking the ship of Western culture as it is about creating, by its irrational policies, a dystopian world much like what is taking place in Venezuela which I hasten to add has become the truth of CMI.

None of this helps Buddhism.  Zen Buddhism and overall, Buddhism, eventually become the victims of CMI. The true Bodhisattvas eventually become outcasts who are despised because they teach the seeing of one's true nature which is kensho.  CMI, by comparison, smugly assumes that its vision of the world is the right one.  Just change the outside and the inside changes.  The outside begins with political correctness.  Failing to conform to political correctness signals hatred—hate is a crime.  Hatred is thoughts against CMI.

Different ways nirvana is used

Nirvana is described in different ways in the Pali canon.  Here is one of the most popular examples which is from the Udana:

“There exists, monks, that which is unborn, that which is unbecome, that which is uncreated, that which is unconditioned. For if there were not, monks, that which is unborn, that which is unbecome, that which is uncreated, that which is unconditioned, there would not be made known here the escape from that which is born, from that which is become, from that which is created, from that which is conditioned. Yet since there exists, monks, that which is unborn, that which is unbecome, that which is uncreated, that which is unconditioned, there is therefore made known the escape from that which is born, from that which is become, from that which is created, from that which is conditioned.”

From the Mahayana cannon here a a few examples of the different ways nirvana is used.

Nirvana is described in many ways throughout the Buddhist sutras and commentaries, and one of the most common ways is through describing what nirvana is not. The Treatise on Abhidharma-skandha-pada describes nirvana by saying it is “non-action, non-abiding, non-doing, without boundaries, without outflow, without arising, without expiring, without beginning, without defilements…” The Treatise on the Four Noble Truths describes nirvana by saying that it is “without destroying, without loss, without equal, without hindrance, without desire, without anything above it, without limit, without attachment…”

In terms of positive descriptions, the Treatise on Abhidharma-skandha-pada describes nirvana as “truth, the other shore, marvelous, tranquil, eternal, secure, supreme, the most wholesome, and unique.” The Treatise on the Four Noble Truths describes nirvana positively as “liberation, transcendent, the one and only, complete, pure, supreme, truth, suchness…” These are affirming descriptions that give nirvana broader interpretations.

In addition to these descriptions, the Mahaparinirvana Sutra says that nirvana is Buddha nature. The Flower Adornment Sutra says that nirvana is the intrinsic nature of all phenomena. The Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra says that nirvana is “Prajna that is beyond common knowledge and knows everything.” The Surangama Sutra says that nirvana is “the truth in which activity and stillness cease.” The Vimalakirti Sutra says that nirvana is the “the ten grounds of Dharma method of non-duality.” The Lion’s Roar of Queen Srimala Sutra tells us that nirvana is the “storehouse of the Tathagata” and “the inherently pure mind.” Nirvana is intrinsic nature that does not arise or cease” (Zen master Hsing Yun, The Core Teachings).

By whatever name we call the absolute it is unconditioned and not arisen.  If two radios could have such a thing as a conversation the unconditioned would be the radio signal.  They probably wouldn’t have a clue as to what a radio signal was, like the average human has no idea what nirvana is.

Getting to the threshold

If we have never met our Buddha-nature or true essence face to face, the only thing we perceive are phenomena, including our mental world, so that if a sage talks about a Buddha-nature or essence, we scratch our heads, puzzled.  It is the same with the unconditioned.  If we have never realized the unconditioned, i.e., nirvana, we only perceive the conditioned world of dependent originations having to follow the path of samsara.

Nevertheless, people try to conceive of their Buddha-nature as if it were something determinate failing to understand that they placed it into the category of conditioned things.  This doesn’t work—not in the slightest.  It may suffice for a metaphysical discussion but this is certainly not the same as seeing our Buddha nature.

There is much we have to do to prepare ourself for seeing something we have never seen before such as our Buddha-nature.  The first thing is to stop trying to conceive of it.  It can’t be done.  Imagine if all the Knights of the Round Table just sat around and drew pictures of what they imagined the Grail might look like.  Sir Galahad might never see the Grail and have the angels take him to heaven!

In all Buddhist traditions the biggest hindrance is our habit of automatically conceiving of our Buddha-nature as if we had seen it.  The only thing we have managed to see is the workings of the mind of false thinking, not the Buddha’s Mind which lies beyond the sphere of phenomena and concepts.

The means to at least getting us to the threshold of where we might leave the conditioned and enter the unconditioned or Buddha-nature is one of exhausting our tendency to conceive of Buddha-nature while still accepting an experience that will shatter our former understanding of what Buddha-nature is.

It’s somewhat like a koan in which a teacher asks the student, “What is beyond existence and non-existence?”  Then after a year or so of working on this koan, one afternoon a gust of wind slams the front door shut and the student awakens.  At that point the student was at the threshold, the door slamming was the push.  Subject and object perfectly merged.  The Buddha-nature was revealed.

Tricycle: putting Buddhism into an ideological box

Yesterday I was looking through my old somewhat dusty stack of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.  I said, What the heck—I’ll do a blog on it.

Tricycle: The Buddhist Review touts itself as an independent, nonsectarian Buddhist quarterly.  Its main goal in its own words, “is introduce fresh views and attainable methods for enlightened living to the culture at large”—I would add a culture in the eyes of Tricycle that is left of the political spectrum which is rubbing up against cultural Marxism.

In this light, Tricycle is not really introducing Buddhism to the culture at large but, instead, is trying to make Buddhism appeal to those who have bought into cultural Marxism’s ideology, for example, political correctness, identity politics, multiculturalism, transgenderism, etc.  Such people have no sincere intention of changing, that is, adapting to Buddhism. Tricyle is really trying to meet their needs.

Analogous to Tricycle's endeavors, if I wanted to start a Buddhist review that would mainly appeal to members of motorcycle gangs calling it Aryan Riders my context would have to somehow relate the life of bikers with Buddhist monks.  My first article might be about how Adolf Hitler lived almost the life of a Buddhist monk.  He did not eat meat, drink alcoholic beverages, or smoke.  Nazis were ardent supporters of animal rights and believed in environmentalism. 

I realize that this is quite an extreme analogy.  Nevertheless, it serves to illustrate an important point: that making Buddhism appeal to a particular non-Buddhist group or culture has often the unintended consequence of making members of this particular group or culture believe that this is the essential teaching of Buddhism when, in fact, it is not.  In a nutshell this is not Buddhism.

"The dharma [is] taught by the Blessed One for the sake of final nirvana without clinging" (S. iv. 48).

Overall, Tricycle’s treatment of Buddhism is not so much about Buddhism but, instead, an attempt at putting Buddhism into an ideological box to fit alongside various sociopolitical views of the world.  I can understand this, because most people today are unaware how much ideological thinking has impacted their lives.  In this regard, they are unable to see that reason has given way to sociopolitical views of the world in which truth becomes problematic.

But Buddhism it not unreasonable because it is truth-oriented in the highest sense of the word.  In fact, we expect it to be reasonable for us but not given to an ideological reshaping employing a kind of cloudy metaphysics which makes the attainment of truth about myself impossible.

Siddartha's path to awakening

The spiritual journey of the Buddha when he was not yet a Buddha (one who is awakened), who is sometimes referred to as Siddhartha or the Bodhisattva in the Lalitavistara Sutra, was really about a person in search of the right means or path. 

Beginning with an ascetic means, Siddhartha tortured his carnal body through various means such as fasting and cutting off all movements of the breath. 

He did these brutal, ascetic practices for six long years but to no avail.  He neither found wisdom in them nor the answers to his questions. He finally decided, "These austerities are not the way to awakening.” In fact, he regretted having done these kinds of practices.  In the Lalitavistara Sutra he says,

"Monks, I continued to think: “With these acts and methods I have not been able to manifest any true knowledge that would be higher than manmade teachings. This path does not lead to awakening. This path is incapable of eradicating the continuation of birth, old age, and death in the future. But there must be another path to awakening that can eradicate the future suffering of birth, old age, and death.”

At this point, he soon finds the right means which is dhyana.  Again, in the Lalitavistara he says,

“Once, when I was sitting in my father’s park under the shade of a rose apple tree, I rejoiced as I attained the first level of concentration, which is free from desires and negativities, endued with good qualities, reflective, investigative, and full of joy born out of discrimination. I rejoiced as I attained the levels of concentration up to the fourth [dhyana]. That, indeed, must be the path to awakening, which can eradicate the arising of the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness, and death. And so a conviction was born in me: ‘This is the path to awakening!’”

What we notice here is that when young he want through all four dhyanas but did not yet become a Buddha.  Dhyana is certainly important and finally, after overcoming the opposition of Mara who is the demon of the Five Aggregates, Siddhartha again goes through the four dhyanas in which his mind then becomes luminous which is also free from emotionality, fettering passions, and unwavering.  It is during the last watch of the night, in a single instant, that Siddhartha (or the Bodhisattva) attained Buddhahood.  He had finally reached the true end, entering reality, understanding well the sphere of Dharma.

Personally, I liken dhyana to a method for overcoming the dualizing trap of consciousness (the fifth aggregate that belongs to Mara)—better understood by the Sanskrit term vijñāna which can literally mean "in two parts knowing" which, for us, would be subject and object knowing.  The overcoming of consciousness and the return to the One Mind occurs when the pure subject meets the pure object.  It does not occur when there are subject-presuppositions and object-determinations.  Subject and object have to be transcended simultaneously. 

 

 

 

 

The blindest of ages

We believe that we live in a unique age of technological marvel the credit of which adds to our growing hubris.  We tell ourselves that we are the greatest age of mankind.  But when it comes to understanding religion such as Buddhism or early Christianity before the Nicene Creed (325) we can only manage to scratch the surface while some scholars have convinced themselves there really isn’t much to religion after all—it’s pretty much superstition.  I can’t agree.  We are trying to hide our ignorance with such a smug attitude.  Alvin Boyd Kuhn writes,

"But in religion and philosophy it is one of the blindest of ages. It is not overstating the case to say that in these areas of human enterprise the mind of this era still slumbers in a state of ineptitude and gross darkness at least a degree or two below that commonly termed barbaric" (The Lost Light p. 21).

In my Zen Buddhist journey over these many years I have to agree with Kuhn.  This age has, certainly, its marvels but it also is utterly blind when it comes to understanding religion—by ‘religion’ I mean the personal realization of ultimate reality.

It is not all that difficult to read the wisdom of a sage like the Buddha or even a Zen master like Bassui.  But his words cannot tell us about his awakening to ultimate reality.  We have only the sage’s doctrine absent of any direct knowledge of the super reality he saw.  Oh yes, we can describe his doctrine but not his realization.  What we have before us is a map to, let us say, the luminous jewel in the cave of the blue dragon but with no clear idea of the territory (it is certainly not external) or what within us this “luminous jewel” is a symbol or metaphor of.

It would certainly make all the difference in the world if our inward journey led us to the cave of the blue dragon.  Instead, we are left with a most mysterious metaphor: a word or symbol pointing to a state of which we remain clueless.  This is when we feel our ineptitude.  And try as we might we are unable to locate the luminous jewel.

You could say that, presently, we live in a technological dark age in which spiritual and religious degeneracy are almost at their apex.  In the modern religious world around us we sense hypocrisy and insincerity.  The human soul, i.e., the animating principle, has become like the setting sun now hidden from view in which everything grows darker and darker.  Buddhism and Christianity have turned against the soul.  Buddhists worship the not-soul when the Buddha has never once denied the soul.

Hidden by literalism and history

Religion in the West such as Christianity is generally understood in a literal and historical context.  This is in direct opposition to religion understood allegorically in which the proper interpretation of text reveals itself to be an inner spiritual journey meant to take the adept directly to gnosis of ultimate reality (which I can say happened to me in a most extraordinary way).

How disheartening it is to see the literal and historical context growing in Zen when, for example, I look at the Jingde chuandeng lu (The Transmission of the Lamp, 1004), seeing how it is treated.  This particular work is, generally, taken to have historical significance as an actual transmission. In truth, however, the Jingde chuandeng lu is nothing more than an ingenious Zen myth, the purpose of which, is to show the continuity of enlightenment as it enters into the temporal world being recognized and passed on. 

This is as much as telling us that we all have the potential to realize our Buddha-nature or essence which is concealed within the temporal body of our birth and kept hidden by our worldly ways.  But by practicing Zen, we hope to awaken to this spiritual nature or essence and join the line of eternal Buddhas.

Western Zennists will, of course, not get my message.  They will just politely nod their heads.  As I judge them, they have been the unfortunate victims of Christian religion and culture which has a mistaken view of Christianity in which its true spiritual context and meaning has long been anathematized and suppressed going as far back as the time of Constantine the Great (272–337).  Even today, most Westerners who take up Zen, specifically, or some other Buddhist tradition like Tibetan Buddhism seem thoroughly ignorant of the fact that there is an spiritual inner quest involved in Buddhism; that ultimate reality is found within the darkness of the corporeal body of birth like a lamp hidden under a bushel basket. 

The interest these unfortunates have in Zen is largely psychological; moreover I would have to say also that their interest leans more towards being irreligious—not quite Marxism but close.  They are unable to escape the ideology of Western culture which vacillates back and forth between a deep sense of meaninglessness and engrossment in objective materialism.

Zen's fallback position

Realizing our true nature cannot be understood by trying to think about it, coming up with various ideas as to what it might be. Paradoxically, this nature is concealed by our very intellectual attempts to realize it which is to say, the more we think about it, the more it conceals itself. We are like crazy people who refuse to give up their ill fated methods no matter how many times they’ve failed.

Whether or not we are a billionth of a second away from realizing this nature or a year—maybe 50 years—we are not there.  Layers and layers of intellectual speculation and clever ideas as to what this nature might be is all that we can show for our efforts.  This would include hundreds of hours of doing zazen.

Instead of acknowledging the problem and trying to correct it, which is intellectually trying to comprehend our true nature, there is always the fallback position we can rely upon which is humbly doing our daily activities with awareness whether it is walking the dog, raking leaves or cooking the rice.  We must put all our awareness into whatever we happen to be doing.  We may even assume that this is what Zen is really all about. 

To this method I have to say, “Are you kidding me?”  This is not overcoming the great matter of the continuation of our conditioned existence which includes the cycles of birth and death.  It seems like an easy way out that on second glance is not easy.  Again, our nefarious intellect is at work with another plan, call it the fallback plan. 

This is where most modern day Zen teachers are.  Don’t listen to what they say, but take note of what they don’t say.  Yes, a few will talk about the necessity of seeing our true nature or kensho.  But the majority in Soto Zen, for example, never mention it except to reject it.  What’s going on here?  Hakuin Zenji had the answer: “If a person who has not achieved kensho says he is a follower of Zen, he is an outrageous fraud.  A swindler pure and simple.”