Jumping the shark Zen

The idiom “jumping the shark” is generally used to refer to some misguided attempt to add new life to something no longer popular.  Involving Zen with identity politics is one such example of jumping the shark Zen. Let me back up and say, this is not an overt involvement but a quiet involvement; one that almost goes undetected. 

Identity politics is one of those things that's easy to see but hard to define.  One writer defined it as the struggle for political "voice" by marginalized groups in society.  In other words, I want control over the discourse about who I am and what I need from society to make me happy.  Even deeper, I don't want you to label me as a psychiatric disorder!

Today, Zen, including Buddhism in general, are facing an influx of people who are attached to identity politics; who feel that they no longer have a voice but hope to find a voice for their identity in Zen or Buddhism.  In answer to this wish, I can only say that Zen will not give you a voice for your identity but will rather take it away from you! 

Whether it's gender or sexuality Buddhism doesn't want us to identify with the five aggregates (skandhas) of physicality, feeling, perception, karmic formations, or consciousness.   This much is very clear in Buddhism or should be.  These aggregates, by the way, are conditioned.  Attachment to them means being swept away by the flood of samsara. 

We humans suffer from a bad case of mistaken identity, identifying with what is conditioned rather than seeing, firsthand, what is unconditioned, that is, nirvana.  What is unconditioned is pure spirit or Mind; what is conditioned is thought which is congealed spirit.  But few understand this.  More people, in fact, disbelieve this.  As we can see, teaching Buddhism or Zen is an uphill battle.  It is difficult to give up one's identification with a figment of the imagination.  Incidentally, this is where “power” kicks in (a fight for control over the discourse).

Those misled by identity politics need power.  Who they believe they are, are also convinced they need to control others for fear others will control them.  One constantly feels bereft of power and status.  They think of themselves as victims. 

Buddhism pushes its students to get past identification with a false self comprising the five aggregates.  The student must regard the five aggregates as not their self.  In the Paṭisambhidāmagga, to help the student get past the five aggregates, it says:

See the five aggregates as impermanent, as painful, as a disease, a boil, a dart, a calamity, an affliction, as alien, as disingegrating, as a plague, a disaster, a terror, a menace, as fickle, perishable, unenduring, as not protection, no shelter, no refuge, as empty, vain, void, not self, as a danger, as subject to change, as having no core, as the root of calamity, as murderous, as due to be annihilated, as subject to cankers, as formed, as Mara's bait, as connected with the idea of birth, connected with the idea of aging, connected with the idea of illness, connected with the idea of death, connected with the idea of sorrow, connected with the idea of lamentation, connected with the idea of despair, connected with the idea of defilement.

There are a few these days in the circle of Zen or Buddhism who will tell the student that these aggregates are evil and that the reason they are not our self should be obvious.  In fact, it is our very self (paccatta) which realizes nirvana according to the Buddhist canon.

Comments

[Jung]

Clyde, you got the proper explanation for your incorrect proposition in the first paragraph of my previous comment. That is how I always work. Right to the point before proceeding to more concerning aspects of the questioner´s divided mind.

Your inept understanding of said fact is not my problem but certainly not foreign to a certain measure of compassion.

You should thus consider the rest of the comment, not an explanation, but a generous act of plain mercy for your confused spirit, which I am afraid, considering its coming destination in the upcoming transmigration of its consciousness, is in dire need of awakening before it leaves that aged matrix it is entrapped in presently and experiences the painful re-boot in another body in a not too distant future.

[n. yeti]

Clyde:

Have you lost your mind? This spasm of incoherent gestures you keep making here arouses pity in my heart. I care nothing for your teachers or your externalist delusions.

Clyde, I fear a demon has taken hold of you. I advise you to take up recitation of the Shurangama mantra, whose power is unsurpassed. Failing that, due to your karma, you can appeal to Avalokitesvara, who also has the power to bind demons and whisk them away if you can summon up a single thought of faith.

[TheZennist]

Clyde: Your question to me shows that you are more interested in third-person knowledge than first-person knowledge which is what Zen is actually about. What I post on this blog comes from my own awakening which, by the way, is self-verifying, that is, independent, not relying on others. Ultimately, the true Zen adept has no recourse but to come to a dead-end where all practices fail and where thoughts and concepts fail to capture pure Mind. Only then does one become open to kenshō realizing un-congealed spirit which transcends all thought constructs. I don't even ask you to believe me but you must attain first-person knowledge independent of the teachers you depend on. They have no authority to verify anyone. You are living in a fantasy world if you believe that they can impart enlightenment to you.

"If you try to seek a teacher outside and hope to obtain deliverance, you will find it impossible. If you have recognized the good teacher within your own mind, you have already obtained deliverance. If you are deluded in your own mind and harbor erroneous thoughts and contrary concepts, even though you go to an outside teacher [you will not be able to obtain salvation]" — Huineng

[clyde]

Yeti; I urge you to consider Meido Moore as he is ‘the real deal’, a strict traditional Rinzai Zen Roshi and Akido Sensei.

“Meido Moore Roshi (1968) is the abbot of Korinji, our monastery in Wisconsin, and guiding teacher of the Korinji Rinzai Zen Community. He is the author of The Rinzai Zen Way: A Guide to Practice and Hidden Zen: Practices for Sudden Awakening and Embodied Realization (both from Shambhala Publications).

Meido Roshi began Zen practice in 1988 and trained under three teachers in the line of the great 20th century Rinzai master Omori Sogen Roshi: the late Tenzan Toyoda Rokoji, in whose training hall he resided for seven years while also enduring a severe training in traditional martial arts; Dogen Hosokawa Roshi (Omori Roshi’s main dharma heir), with whom he trained for fifteen years; and So'zan Miller Roshi, with whom he trained for three years. He has completed the koan curriculum of this lineage, and in 2008 received inka shomei or "mind seal": recognition as an 86th-generation Zen lineage holder empowered to transmit the full range of Rinzai Zen practices. 

Aside from Zen, Meido is also ordained in the Mt. Koshikidake tradition of Shugendo and works to establish Shugendo practice places within natural areas near Korinji. Before his ordination he traveled internationally for many years as a professional martial art teacher. He continues to travel widely, conducting retreats across the United States and Europe.”

https://www.korinji.org/about-korinji

[clyde]

Zennist; Yeti mentioned that in the past you had spoken about your teachers. I'm not a regular reader, so I may have missed it.

Who was your teacher(s)?