The Zennist

Dangerous knowledge

Dhyāna (Zen) like its counterpart gnosis moves in the direction of transcendence, that is, transcendence of all phenomena.  It seeks to go beyond even the human range of perceptions and this includes perceiving and perceiver.  It is like a cup of water poured into a vast ocean.  Nothing fundamentally changes, but there is a decisive shift that takes place from the amount (quantum) of water to a boundless ocean.

Accomplished transcendence in Buddhism is our first connection with unconditioned spirit which is beyond all the six senses and our dualizing consciousness (S., vijñāna).

Spirit has found itself and looking back it understands that it really never left its home.  While others have to take this on faith the one who has experienced spirit by  spirit, directly, knows it absolutely; yes it even transcends faith.

The result of this gnosis is to throw light on the amazingly unreal status of human beings and maybe to help them escape from the seemingly endless cycles of suffering.  Mankind in its present state of ignorance still does not understand how the passing of one life connects with the cells of the next life, only to become another life subject to suffering.

The great wisdom gained from gnosis has been repeatedly under attack throughout history.  Incredibly, it is knowledge that is even considered dangerous for the religious and for the political authorities.  This type of knowledge cannot be allowed to spread.  But it does, especially in Buddhism.

Cannot be allowed to spread

Dhyāna (Zen) like its counterpart gnosis moves in the direction of transcendence, that is, transcendence of all phenomena.  It seeks to go beyond even the human range of perceptions and this includes perceiving and perceiver.  It is like a cup of water poured into a vast ocean.  Nothing fundamentally changes, but there is a decisive shift that takes place. 

Spirit has found its home and looking back it understands that it really never left its home.  While others have to take this on faith the one who has experienced spirit by  spirit knows it absolutely; yes it even transcends faith.

The result of this gnosis is to throw light on the amazingly unreal status of human beings and maybe to help them escape from the seemingly endless cycles of suffering.  Mankind in its present state of ignorance still does not understand how the passing of one life connects with the cells of the next life, only to become another life subject to suffering.

The great wisdom gained from gnosis has been repeatedly under attack throughout history.  Incredibly, it is knowledge that is even considered dangerous for the religious and for the political authorities.  This type of knowledge cannot be allowed to spread.  But it does, especially in Buddhism and Vedanta.

The real global catastrophe

A nefarious group of people believe the best way to unite mankind is by inventing a new enemy such as climate change.  Instead of our star, the Sun, being responsible for climate changes or the changing orbit of the Earth around our star, etc., we will become our own enemy! 

The source of climate change will be blamed exclusively on human agency!

"The common enemy of humanity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill” (The First Global Revolution, 1991).

Does that make any sense?  Hardly.  It is still a divide and conquer political manipulation.  First, get the public to believe in the coming of some great global catastrophe.  Then sell them on the solution.  Cut back on the use of petroleum which causes carbon dioxide to accumulate in the upper atmosphere creating a greenhouse like effect.  This solution of course is all wrong.

In the meantime, humanity has been divided not unified.  There are those who believe the hype and nonsense and those who say, wait a minute none of this is true. 

We are at a very low level of carbon dioxide the way it is.  Carbon dioxide is plant food.  It is not poison  The average for the last 600 million years has been 2600 ppm not 400 ppm.  No wonder it takes a long time for vegetation to grow and our forests to regenerate.

Beware of any Buddhist temples or organizations that tries to sell climate change or some other coming global catastrophe.  The biggest catastrophe is to be caught up in the cycles of rebirth (saṃsāra) never to realize the unconditioned.

“Monks, the bones of a single person, running on and wandering in this journey of rebirths for an eon, would make a heap of bones, a pile of bones as large as this Vepulla Mountain if there were someone to collect them and the collections were not destroyed” (Iti 24).

Life the great video game

Our bodies, which came through our mother's birth canal, are like avatars in a video game.  In our ignorance we attached to them.  We believe the avatar is who we really are. 

And so we go from one game to another otherwise called the cycle of rebirth.  When finally we awaken to our true self or ātman which is unconditioned, the game is still going on but now we transcend the entire game. 

Accordingly, all is a grand illusion (māyā) but nevertheless appears and seems real.  By this awakening we no longer attach to illusions.  Our life in the womb, our birth, our adult life and death, even a heaven or hell are all an illusion!

Those who don't accept this vision and don't strive to awaken from the illusion are doomed to transmigrate in a world of suffering.

Monks, this cycle of rebirth (samsara) is without discoverable beginning.  A first point is not discerned of beings roaming and wandering on hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving (SN 15:3).

At the end of the conditioned

War is one of life's reminders of our finitude and eventually our suffering and death.  Peace then is a time not to indulge our sensory pleasures but to successfully escape from life’s coming conflicts.  (By escape I'm alluding to the word transcend.)

To stop this eventual doom we cannot afford live in a utopian fantasyland while the hard evidence shows plainly that we are in deep doo-doo. 

But life is a work (or rather an escape) in progress.  The work is truly complete when we achieve its goal which is nirvana:  a return to life’s very source which is unconditioned. 

Right now, we humans can only imagine what life is about.  Presently, it seems to be about preserving our memories in this particular lifespan.  But they are only conditioned.  But T.S. Elliot said it better with these few lines.

And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

Where conditionality began for us is not in anything conditioned or even imaginable.  Certainly not in a conditioned womb.  The senses, including the sixth sense or mentation/manas, which make up our conditioned body, serve to localize spirit into a finite, conditioned system.  A mere representation.

And so it follows that what we perceive from this localized position is not true reality or even our true self.  It is a false self or anātmam which is suffering (S. iii. 22) according to the Buddha.

The gnostic journey

The notion of a universal gnosticism cannot be easily dismissed at least when we look at the subject from the side of Buddhism and the enlightenment of Siddhartha which I hasten to add is the actual context of Buddhism. 

Yes, Buddhism is about accomplishing a "gnostic" journey.

This gnosis shows him all beings as like an illusion,
Resembling a great crowd of people, conjured up at the crossroads,
By a magician, who then cuts off many thousands of heads;
He knows this whole living world as a mock show, and yet remains without fear.”
(Astasahasrika Prajñaparamita).

Even religion today, in its various secularized forms (which even includes Marxism), cannot manage to accomplish such a spiritual journey.  The followers of modern day religions, without realizing it, pray to a divine image composed from their imaginations.  A lot of wishful thinking is also to be found here.

The mystery of gnosis is only understood by those who walk completely through the dark forest of the six senses (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body & mentation/manas) by which all phenomenal appearances are experienced.  They alone succeed.  The rest are entangled in the senses and their respective fields like the gastronome is entangled in the flavors of a sumptuous dinner, who is unable to transcend it.   

The reincarnation trap

Perceiving and perceiver are necessary for rebirth.  Both make up consciousness or in Sanskrit vijñāna (perceiver-perceiving consciousness) which is the means by which this life becomes another life and so on. 

Even dying is part of consciousness and cannot escape it.  We perceive our living and just as much our dying or passing away.  Above all, when we die consciousness along with the mind (the constructor of illusory existences) continues. 

Karma (the force of previous memories) is eventually transferred to a suitable womb were memories become transferred into the cellular life which, for us, is the emptying of memories or so it seems. This is what is called reincarnation.  A new life is always the cellular or biological manifestation of memories of the previous life, especially sexuality. 

A new life then amounts to a working out of the previous karma which can interfere with our ability to transcend the many cycles of reincarnation.  This then becomes a kind of living hell or in other words a trap that we cannot escape from well unless we learn transcendence which is the passage from dyadic consciousness to absolute Spirit which is ever one (ekāyana).

What is it that comes through mother's birth canal?

We generally refer to our bodies which came through our mother’s birth canal has our true self.  In Buddhism this would be a temporal self or the concept of "I" (asmimāna). 

The Ātman or spirit is a different subject altogether (which is a difficult subject for modern day Buddhist to grasp).  It’s somewhat like the difference between a computer that I have on my desktop and the electricity that runs it all.  In this regard, Ātman is like the electromagnetic force.

If the power goes out in my house it's usually because some tree fell on the powerlines that bring the electricity to my house.  But if the computer malfunctions it's not the fault of the electricity.

When the body that went through the mother’s birth canal finally dies showing a flat line on the monitor, this is saying that the monitor cannot detect any subtle signals from the body.  It doesn't mean we are not present or in some other state.

What animates our temporal body cannot be the body that is animated anymore than the electricity that runs our computer is the computer! 

For the sake of discussion, let's say that Siddhartha's enlightenment consisted of identifying with this animative spirit (ātman) which is not some measurable amount or quantum.  It can be likened to a boundless field but nevertheless real.  This is what the Mahāyānaśraddhotpāda-śastra (Treatise on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna) is telling us when it says:

“All objects are originally of One Mind and are beyond thought determination. Because unenlightened people perceive objects in their illusion, they impose limitations in their mind. Since they erroneously develop these thought determinations, which do not correspond to Reality (dharmata), they are unable to reach any inclusive comprehension.”

Said another way, all phenomena originate from the One Mind or primary spirit.  Such spirit is beyond the perceiver and perceiving.  Spirit is also Buddha nature, Mind (G., Geist) and Ātman all of which are immeasurable yet real.

In search of what transcends the searcher

Looking for our glasses when they are perched on our nose is something akin to a fool's journey as is riding an ox in search of an ox.

"What is Zen?" asked a novice monk.
Master Hyakuja replied, "It̍s like riding an ox, and seeking to find it."
Said the student, "After we understand; then what is it?"
The master replied, "It̍s like riding an ox, and going home on it."
Asked the student, "Then, what do we do with it?"
"It̍s like an ox-herd who keeps it out of other peoples rice fields."

Zen understands that the beginner is such a stubborn fool.  While the fool searches for the mysterious awakening (the ox) he or she has no idea what moves this mysterious search.  The beginner, also, has no idea what puts on the robes and bears the body’s pains and delights.

The madman whips the ox furiously trying to reach the goal that he imagines in his imagination.

The cultures or institutions of Zen Buddhism have little to do with Zen which is a Japanese word meaning in Sanskrit dhyāna.  This, by the way, is the methodology/investigation Siddhartha used to attain enlightenment.  In English, dhyāna would be intuition or gnosis.  Both of these terms cover transcendental knowledge.

As long as we project our ideas and our values on what Siddhartha sought we will never arrive.  Zen tries to take away all of our assumptions and presuppositions of what Siddhartha attained.  Siddhartha's attainment will only begin to resonate with us when we start to give up trying to be the knower of this mysterious state.

The decision to quit the game

Perhaps Nietzsche’s will-to-power is just another way of saying humans want control over nature and other humans.  In this picture there are many attempts for power all of which eventually fail because true power is absolute spirit which comes prior to creatures, which exceeds their creaturely grasp. 

But Nietzsche’s will-to-power is really the cry of those who have little or no power and wish more power.  They envision more power and with it more control yet they have little power and control even over themselves.  In the final analysis, they are truly powerless.

Here before us is the real problem with Nietzsche’s will-to-power.  Power is never achieved because we are an illusion chasing illusions wanting power over them.  In this mess, we have not yet awakened from our own sleep of illusion which we are deeply attached to.  We are dream chasers—players in a dream-like game.

In other words, as I have mentioned before, our actual human existence is like that of avatars in role-playing games in which our present life is the sum of knowledge of previous lives.  But we will never escape this game so long as we delight in the game.  The game itself does not allow avatars to escape the game.

The advice from those whom we believe have escaped the game, like the Buddha, is all that we have—and that can become very confusing.  Especially when we choose to play the game on its own ironclad terms:  we must not discard consciousness (vijñāna), i.e., duality.  The game needs its avatar, perceiving needs its perceiver, and knowledge needs its knower.

Ultimately, we must come to the conclusion that life is suffering in virtue of the fact that we've chosen to participate in the game as one of its players.  After many games, hopefully, we come to the conclusion that it is possible to leave the game.

Thus, Ananda, for beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving, kamma [karma] is the field, consciousness the seed, and craving the moisture for their consciousness to be established in an inferior realm.  In this way there is the production of renewed existence [punabbhava] in the future (AN III 76).