The Zennist

We must even overcome harmony?

The division of our world into utopian and dystopian have their origin not so much in the human heart as they do in the human brain with the asymmetry between the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere. 

By the way, this division is not always diametric; rather the division arises because there is little or no harmony (a kind of corrective oscillation between two differing sides is lacking).

In this regard, it is entirely possible to live a life of harmony in which a kind of corrective oscillation is going on between, let us say, the husband and the wife or the teacher and the student.  But I dare say this is seldom achieved as one might wish.  It seems that one is always viewing the matter from their own position:  either accept my position or we remain opposed.  Thus comes the sudden or gradual rise of disharmony.  It rests on side-taking rather than transcendence.

In the matter of Zen, we must even overcome harmony since it can be easily transformed into disharmony.  When we look at suffering or in Sanskrit, duḥkha, it is a kind of disharmony.  This disharmony is the inevitable outcome of a life lived in maladaptive oscillations with others and one’s own being.  We may escape others but we cannot escape our consciousness even in death.  The inherent disparity within consciousness (vijñāna), itself, continues unbroken which makes individuation/nāmarūpa, inevitable.  Only achieving nirvana is the answer which at the very least shows us the limits of even harmony.

Perfection is the enemy of the good?

I think it was Voltaire who said that perfection is the enemy of the good.  His words can be at first a kind of head scratcher.  But putting his words into a Buddhist context maybe like, conduct is the enemy of the good, works better. 

We can imagine this conduct to be like virtue signaling or a standard of proper behavior.  It's about trying to appear perfect in conduct as if conduct and the good are one and the same.  We can even imagine zazen to be perfect enlightenment.

But conduct, no matter how perfect, is not the same as seeing our true nature or the good.  Maybe we can think of the problem another way when we look at sports in the example of diving.  Even with a perfect score in which all the judges agree that the dive was perfect this has nothing to do with enlightenment or the good. 

Even a Buddhist monk or nun of long-standing who has never had any problem with obeying the regula of the order does not translate into enlightenment.  In all religious communities there is that species of human being called holier than thou.  These are people who are pretending moral superiority.

In the religion of Buddhism nirvana counts most (realizing the unconditioned).  And on the path to nirvana, Zen or intuition counts most.  It's not conduct or perfect conduct or even perfect moral behavior that gets us to the other shore of nirvana.

I will say that good conduct is necessary to lead a happy interpersonal life.  But when we turn to look within at our self it doesn't work so well.  All of our weaknesses and strengths lie within us as does enlightenment and our ignorance of it.

The postmodern world where reality is only a social construct

Somehow atheism (anti-Christianity) morphed into anti-religiousism and with it a dangerous fall into nihilism.  Here, I become a problem for myself in that I don't have any identity other than clinging to this physical body and its sensory experiences (mainly sexual).  This problem is further highlighted by the conclusion of Richard Rorty:

"Nothing grounds our practices, nothing legitimizes them, nothing shows them to be in touch with the way things are" (From Logic to Language to Play, 1986).

This view lands us in the postmodern world where reality is only a social construct including even the intuitive wisdom of the Buddhas.  But this view, from a Buddhist perspective, is really saying that we have found no absolute truth with our five senses nor the sixth, which is our theoretical imagination.

Our choice of how we look for truth has brought us finally to nihilism.  But in this failed journey we have never trusted intuition.  We gave that up very early with the rise of the modern age.  We turned our back on intuition and sought, instead, technology.  But our technology has only amplified our own immaturity even our decent into nihilism.

While our theoretical imagination has yet to find absolute truth, but is still looking, our everyday imagination has become a kind of fantasy world where there are no restraints or morality.  This anchoring of our identity in the sixth sense or imagination is certainly not without some serious dangers.  It turns into a kind of magical thinking even denying the biological facts of gender. 

Even the divide between sanity and insanity becomes blurred.  We cannot tell one from the other.  If as Alexandr Solzhenitsyn said, the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being, then the line between sanity and insanity also cuts through the human heart.  We have yet to play out our imagination and find its limits.  Right now it is open to exploration and with that opening we are subject to many delusions.

  

From immaturity to maturity

Youth almost always with few exceptions eventually betrays its own causes and aspirations.  Such youth is not so much about being in a young, still developing body, as it is being immature where practical experience is lacking. 

Such immaturity suffers from the Dunning-Kruger Effect in which one is so incompetent that they don't know they're incompetent.  There are even shields youth puts up which prevents them from looking at their own likely incompetence thereby overcoming it to some degree.

This effect is not lost upon those who come to study Zen.  For the most part they are young adults who are making a transition from youth to maturity.  A lack of awareness governs their conduct as does a lack of conscientiousness.  It is not surprising that they often fail in the first stages of Zen which I would characterize as learning what Zen’s path is about.

As expected, learning about Zen Buddhism, at first, has to do with reading a lot of Zen literature and thinking about it.  But this is not the same as mastering Zen having walked its mysterious path finally overcoming one's spiritual ignorance; having met and passed through Mumon’s barrier (無門関) which is closed off to human thought. 

While it is true that human ingenuity can pass beyond the barrier of thought few are able to do this.  It is a feat like no other.  For a Buddhist it is like seeing the unconditioned (asaṃskṛta), directly, where spirit has not been formed into thought, that is, Mumon’s barrier. 

In other words, our own imagination and thoughts cannot pass through imagination and thought!  Whatever faces the barrier of imagination—it cannot pass through.  And whatever we think, nevertheless, is still a thought that cannot pass through.  The human mind produces thought while the mind of a Buddha transcends thought.  The youth and immaturity that come to Zen have to be forged into maturity and that is a difficult task. 

Wokeism vs Siddhartha's awakening

Does the political term being woke carry any trace of Siddhartha's awakening under the Bodhi tree whereby he realized absolute spirit which is unconditioned?  The answer is, of course not!  Wokeism comes from a political ideology.  It does not require the religious mind which seeks the attainment of ultimate reality.

Still, wokeism is somewhat like a religion insofar as it contains a redemption narrative which seems to speak to people who feel resentment:  that they have been taken unfair advantage of (it's the opposite of gratitude).  With this, wokeism offers to restore to people what secular society has been unable to provide because it has been dominated by a white male patriarchy.  But unlike with religion in wokeism there is no forgiveness for the wrongs done to other people which still must be avenged (resentment never ends). 

The religious mind has its narrative arc, too.  But overcoming the misfortunes in one’s life is not through pointing the finger at society, but through first recognizing that the human heart contains both good and evil which is cloaked in ignorance.  Until the cloak of ignorance is removed, good and evil remain a problem that begins in every individual.

Complicating this matter if we lack enough empathy then it follows that everything we do is selfish.  We might unconsciously treat others with contempt or even injure them to get our way.  Having our away is of paramount importance.  This cloak of ignorance that all beings have makes possible both good and evil but seldom realized by the doer.

In fact, there is an ongoing struggle going on beneath this cloak.  In the midst of this struggle we are not sure whether we are becoming good or becoming gradually more evil.  It is only when the cloak of ignorance is removed so that the light comes in that we can truly see what is good and what is evil thus avoiding the latter.

But in the world of wokeism where the cloak of ignorance has not been removed good and evil are relative to each other so that they become confused.  Doing good which ends up as evil or doing evil because the cause is good are both possible and likely.

Imagination is in control and wants to stay in power

Our five senses and our power of judgment are more or less controlled by our imagination (manas) which happens to be the sixth sense in Buddhism.  The imagination sort of fills in the gaps where there is no reliable sensory data.  An example of this is when imagination is tied to architecture.  Mankind can build great cities and create a virtual but, nevertheless, practical world where humans can live and feel safe. 

To be sure, we can erect fictional worlds for the sake of survival when it is necessary to do so.  In other words, for practical purposes we have to accept certain kinds of fictions as if they are non-fictional reality.  But overtime the difference between fiction and reality loses its distinction.  We can no longer tell fiction from fact.  The full impact of our imagination now engulfs and controls us. 

Imagination’s various trends and fashions, including popular thought, or popular ideology, are not the exceptions but the rule.  The imagination is in control and wants to stay in power even if it means it will lead to chaos and the downfall of all.  To break the control of the imagination takes great skill.  It is not easy to do.  Guarding the imagination are the emotions which are fierce and bewitching.

Mind as spirit (citta) is certainly hidden and entangled with the imagination.  It is like a prisoner trying to escape.  Surprisingly, with the death of this illusory body and spirit’s rebirth (paṭisandhi-citta), also known as gandharva (P., gandhabba), it has no choice, or so it seems, but to follow the course of its downward fate. 

As we can see the purification of citta or spirit is essential since it is defiled having been mixed up with the imagination.  The minimum defilement of spirit is a thought.  Here we come to Zen's no-thought in Zen.  This is when the adept experiences freedom from the imagination and all that comes with it.

Eventually lost in a psychological wilderness

Modern religion has not given up its reliance on the emotions, on feelings, on the belief that the conditioned life is the only life possible.  Modern religion must also satisfy secular consciousness.  It must help me in achieving my worldly goals but also help me to cope with my unhappiness and misfortunes.  If religion cannot do this then what good is it? 

It seems that modern religion is unknowingly undermining itself by its over willingness to please those who have not renounced, sufficiently, the secular or worldly life. 

What hope religion at one time offered has shifted over to the miracles of technology.  Unless religion can out miracle technology it doesn't have much of a chance of winning the hearts and minds of the people.

But wait a minute, during the period of the golden age of Egypt, India, China, Greece and Rome religion was very important.  What we have today is an extremely watered down version of what the religious mind actually was. 

What has been substituted for the religious mind over time has been the ecclesiastical mind which has been allowed to merge gradually with the secular mind and its demands in which the interpersonal life overshadows the intrapersonal life in which the contemplative life has its existence. 

Everyday life eventually falls into a kind of conformism as a result of degradation of the intrapersonal.  As a result, the socio-cultural landscape becomes all too mechanistic.  Human existence becomes confined to what is biological and physical and therefore measurable. 

This limitation eventually finds an escape.  It expands itself into a kind of psychological wilderness in which people anchor themselves in the imaginal and the ideological, that is, filling fiction with a density of feeling tones and emotionalizing the formation of ideas.  Incidentally, perhaps this gave rise to the popularity of the novel, a work of narrative fiction which we fill with our own personal feelings which originated from our life experiences. 

Those who are destined to walk in this psychological wilderness (most of us) cannot escape from this wilderness because even the escape, itself, is imagined.  The truly real is absent from it.  And so we turn to Buddhism and with it, especially, Zen.  It is a search for true reality or the same, ultimate reality, which necessitates the religious mind.

Times of uncertainty

We live in a time of uncertainty.  But haven’t all times been uncertain times?  We proceed with our everyday life being dependent on sensory perceptions that are incomplete and reveal, at best, only a fragment of reality.  To be sure, we have an incomplete picture of the reality we live in since the input of data leaves huge areas out of the picture, so to speak.  This makes us uncertain.

This uncertainty, if we don't think about it is, eventually, covered up by our imagination.  It gives us a kind of virtual/fictional reality which can be pleasurable and comforting at times.  Yes, too much uncertainty can be a problem as with too much certainty that, unbeknownst to us, is the result of the imagination filling-in the incompleteness. 

Probably the worst way of dealing with uncertainty is by having too much reliance on the imagination which can lead to delusional disorders in which people cannot tell what is real from what is imagined.  The dangerous side of this inevitably leads to political delusions that can be socially engineered by means of illogicality, that is, by spreading disorganized thought and communication.

Most of us are already caught in the net of political delusions from global warming to a borderless world.  The power that religion once had has been taken away and handed over to the ideologues whose half baked ideas are infused with raw emotion so that they are unable to resonate with the truth.

During the late 60s the Zen that I eventually came to reject could be thought of as a halfway house for those who are in a kind of twilight zone, who would either see darkness or light.  Zen when I left it had chosen to go down a path to attain darkness in the sense of resting enlightenment on the subjective and absence (non-findingness).

Creating the demons which guard the open mind

The Zen student's mind before it intuitively awakens to what is actually the Buddha-nature, is engaged in trying to predict what Zen is saying as regards direct intuition of this Buddha-nature.  I will say that there is very little if any success in such an undertaking.  It is like trying to know before we actually know. 

Nevertheless, the process of predicting goes on in the study of Zen.  In fact, it goes on to such a degree that it actually reinforces this predictive process.  As a result of this process it becomes even more difficult to overcome and have an open mind. 

Have an open mind is easy to say, but actually having one's mind open is next to impossible.  We are always hampered by the habit of trying to predict, that is, to know before we know or to estimate what the future will be.  Such a course of action always ends by going down the wrong road ending up at a dead end.

How does the student of Zen obtain an open mind?  First of all, it is perhaps easier to look and see what an open mind is not. This would be a closed mind.  This also would be a mind engaged in the process of prediction.  This might even include anticipation or guessing what Zen means by an open mind!  But how can you know before you know?

The scary thing about an open mind is you lose all sense of direction and purpose.  You give up seeking Zen’s holy grail without knowing that you are giving up.  It sounds like this person might be hopelessly depressed.  But this is not always true.  How do you get into a state where you lose all sense of direction and purpose?  Pretending that you are in this state like a movie actor is out of the question.

The experience of having an open mind is much different than pretending to have an open mind.  We could say that an open mind is guarded by demons which are powerful.  The Zen student must fight their way through these demons.  This involves outguessing yourself which has created all these demons to guard the open mind!  Eventually, you don't create any more demons.  One moment you just forget to create them.  That is when you enter through the mysterious Dharma gate.

Swimming in a sea of words

The intellectual mind swims in a sea of words and therein drowns in the same sea without ever finding terra firma.  Zen or dhyāna is intended to rescue us from this sea by delivering us to solid ground.  At the back of our words with their word-based meanings there is a more profound reality.  It can be met with face-to-face but not with words or mental images which are born from our imagination. 

It is not enough to say don't conceptualize or don't use words, or just sit in silence.  Such a practice is doomed to fail.  Yes, it is true that Zen uses words but these words are meant to point to that which cannot be put into words.  Only a few manage to accomplish this, the rest fail. 

What is our Buddha-nature?  First of all, it is not something we can share with others.  And it is certainly not our awareness which only attends to things which are conditioned and finite (this even includes our thoughts). 

The Buddha never shared his enlightenment with anyone.  Sure, he talked about it and made constant references to it but he didn't hand it over to a single person.  The transmission of the True Dharma is not interpersonal.  Not a thing is transmitted to the student.  One simply awakens to what Siddhartha himself intuitively realized.

But how long is it before Zen and with it Buddhism finally become taken over by the intellectuals of our age?  How long did it take the Chinese literati to dominate Zen, who had enormous political power, and by doing so seemed to forget that Zen is an intuitive path which transcends the intellect?

Personally, I have nothing against the intellect or intellectuals except that they cannot go where Zen goes which is on a path of intuition.  Eventually, we come to a point in our Zen practice where we have to drop mentation, including our prized intellectual approach.  We have to leap out of this sea of words to draw our first breath of spirit.