The Zennist

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.

Awareness of an emotional state

Alluded to in many conversations, ironically, the word emotion and its various forms, is extremely difficult to define.  Emotions seem to emanate from the physical body (our desire for it).  Closely related are feelings.  How we feel is a kind of awareness of an emotional state such as enjoyment, sadness, disgust, fear or anger. 

How we practice zazen, for example, could fall under the emotion of enjoyment.  I feel so calm and relaxed after doing zazen.  At other times, I lack this kind of enjoyment.  At times, I worry too much about my job and my family.  What will I do if I get laid off?    

Our body can be excited and moved in many different ways, both positively and negatively.  In light of all this, we are involved with many emotional changes that are taking place within us throughout the day.

A Buddhist monk or nun tries to keep a tight rein on their emotions exercising more discipline and control over them than an ordinary person who lives in the secular world. 

The monastic life does not allow us to indulge too much in the body where all the emotions live.  By indulging in our emotions we soon lose sight of Buddhism's goal which is to realize the unconditioned which lies above the conditioned world into which we have been thrown. 

For those who live emotional lives, but decide to dabble in Buddhist meditation or zazen, there is some enjoyment to be derived from sitting in meditation and joining a Buddhist community.  Still, such people have no idea what it is like to begin to detach from the emotions.  This, of course, is the life of a Buddhist monastic which is not an easy life.  One cannot come and go like a lay person when they join a Buddhist community. 

A major part of Buddhist training is to have your emotions always confronted until you learn to stop overreacting so them when they are triggered.  Needless to say, this is very difficult for the modern person living in today's culture to do.  They would rather run away into their safe space and not have to learn how to control their emotions.  Others, I have noticed, want Zen Buddhism to adapt to their emotional world even though they suffer from difficult psychiatric disorders.

Do I hate my neighbor?

The authentic student of Buddhism naturally seeks to emulate the Buddha, or his own teacher or Lama, or some quality or qualities that comprises the spiritual person.  This is never taken to the level of envy.  When a student begins to envy their teacher their journey to the other shore of Buddhism has stopped. 

Today, envy has become a deep-seated negative emotion that we find in every facet of society from politics to a simple Zen community. According to Schopenhauer, the lowest form of envy is to hate what we should love and respect.  The antidote to this type of envy is emulation which is a striving by imitation.  In the example of Buddhism, it is to see what Siddhartha saw who became a Buddha.

But presently, we are confronted with a very revengeful form of envy.  The envious cannot emulate.  Social justice is their answer using force to achieve, somehow, their desire to punish those whom they envy so they might have their advantages.

Such envy can be quite mean-spirited, even cruel.  Instead, what these people should emulate they instead attempt to destroy without ever overcoming their own inadequacies.  Their envy only grows and becomes more monstrous.  These kind of people make the worst students and the worst leaders.  Their incompetence foreshadows all that they do or might attempt to do insofar as they are bearers of envy. 

This brings me to say that modern society is facing an interpersonal crisis where we do not love thy neighbor as thyself (Mark 12:31) but secretly envy and hate our neighbor as we do ourself born of our self-hatred.  This self-hatred harbors feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and lack of confidence in one's own worth.  All this is then projected on thy neighbor who we believe makes us feel this way—thus, do I hate my neighbor.

A different consciousness than consciousness engaged with the emotions

According to Buddhism, our consciousness (vijñāna) is deeply engaged with the flesh where, as a result, we have become emotionalized (for want of a better term) suffering under the precarious conditions of the body together with its unfulfilled drives. 

This suffering that we sense in the body which we have identified with becomes, automatically, an emotionalized burden for us.  And we have become the bearer of this emotionalized burden.  With a little bit of self-reflection we know what it means to bear this burden.  Moments of frustration, anger, passion, resentment, etc., arise from this burden.  We want to pin the blame on somebody else or some other kind of misfortune that has befallen us.  But for the recluse it is a different picture.

At some point the recluse understands that consciousness free of the body is a different consciousness than consciousness engaged with the emotional travails of the body. 

“Where consciousness is unmanifest, eternal, luminous all around, that's where earth, water, fire, and air does not exist.  Here long and short, fine and coarse, beautiful and ugly, name and form, cease with nothing remaining.  With the transcendence of [manifest] consciousness this is all ended” (DN 11).

This unmanifest consciousness, however, even for the recluse remains as yet unrealized (a Buddha has realized it).  In fact, manifest consciousness is always polarizing.  This condition makes the intuition of unmanifest consciousness that much more difficult because of the subtlety of this polarizing process.  We keep deceiving ourselves at ever finer levels.       

The Power of Intuition

Truth is never realized when it is always a product of our imagination including our linguistic imagination (the intellect).  Direct intuition of the truth (kenshō) is more important than an intellectual grasp which comes through the imagination.  We could even say that direct intuition bypasses our intellectual imagination and its attempt to reify what is only imaginal.  

Zen (dhyāna) is only a path to direct intuition.  While it includes all the literature found in Buddhism it fundamentally understands that Siddhartha's revelation can only be achieved by intuition, a sudden direct seeing of the absolute, which certainly surpasses the imagination and all that comes from it.

Scarcely is the subject of intuition taken up in today's Zen Center and very seldom written about in the academic literature if at all.  This fact suggests that intuition is being ignored as the royal road to enlightenment having been replaced by just sitting which becomes more of a therapy for relaxing the body, somewhat like a massage.  Does such a practice reveal our true nature or the same our Buddha nature?       

The mystical tradition is also ancient in origin.  The oral teachings recorded in the Upanishads, Buddhist sutras, and similar records go back thousands of years and provide evidence that mystical teachers of widely different cultures say remarkably similar things.  Also concerned with human suffering, they propose that human beings are ignorant of their true nature and that ignorance leads to the lives of pain and futility.  The sages describe a Way that leads to a higher level of existence, one infinitely more desirable than the level on which most people conduct their lives.  The mystical tradition does not offer therapy in the usual sense of the word, but achieving the goal of mysticism — experiencing the Real Self — is said to cure human suffering because its very basis is thereby removed (Dr. Arthur Deikman, The Observing Self, p. 3 ).

 Intuition is the mystical tradition and the mystical tradition is intuition. The problem we face is how to keep ourselves open to intuition and not close it off by overuse of intellect.  There is no reason to believe that Siddhartha found a way other than by direct intuition.  Such intuition is independent of just sitting or any physical effort for that matter.