The Zennist

Against the Stream

Desire pertains to the conditioned world of samsara not the unconditioned absolute Siddhartha realized.  From the moment of our conception in our mother’s womb desire has taken hold of us, that is, a powerful passion for what is external to our true nature.  We are confused, immersed and enclosed by this antithesis which is prison-like.  In the end, even death will not save us. 

The synthesis between the innate ignorance of our true nature and the world of appearance neither this life nor the next life (after death) can overcome through the force of desire.  The direction itself is all wrong.  Nothing truly will be gained by taking it.  What is gained is an accumulation of delusions which leads to a false authority that can never amount to truth. 

On the other hand, going in the opposite direction of desire is the most difficult way of all.  It goes against our natural inclination to seek and grasp at the conditioned—an important and key part of Darwinian fitness.  The Buddha was right to say:  “The way which goes against the stream is a profound one, very difficult to see.  Those who are afflicted with passion will not see it; they are enveloped by a heavy darkness” (Catuṣpariṣat Sūtra).

We were born into heavy darkness by our desire for the conditioned. We cannot see it as dreamlike or māyā like a Buddha does.  The pain which comes with living in a human form seems very real making the illusion that much more intense and serious.  The way the Buddha has given us is very difficult.  For Buddhism is all about transcending the conditioned world which includes birth and death.

The Unborn Plenum of the Deathless

Looking at the world from the standpoint of the conditioned there is no real unconditioned or so one might imagine (an absolute unconditioned medium from which conditioned things arise).  This is further to imply, there is no evidence of the unconditioned in terms of the conditioned which might prove to those who are skeptical there, indeed, is the unconditioned.

From Zen’s perspective, the unconditioned can only be arrived at by the complete cessation of the conditioned this being thoughts which make up the conditioned microcosm (mano/manas), i.e., mentation.  The world of Zen is an antidote for overcoming the conditioned from a microcosmic perspective; having a sudden and profound glimpse of the unconditioned which is the essence of thought.

From this, the fundamental problem Zen faces which confronts each student is to wean them off off of using thought, almost exclusively, to gain access to Zen’s crown jewel.  Instead, they must leap beyond the conditioned to gain access to the unconditioned.  How this is accomplished for each individual depends on how much they identify with the conditioned, in this case their mental world.  They must accept the fact that Zen demands of us a special cognition free from appearance and beyond mentation.

But even this insistence can be easily misunderstood.  It is difficult to grasp that thoughts as concepts represent something standing in place of the actual.  Our thoughts about enlightenment actually hide it.  Even the time we spend trying to see what Siddhartha realized by many hours of seated meditation only serves to obfuscate and confuse our quest.

From the Buddha's Perspective

As a thought exercise think of water translucently clear that has the potential to recognize itself but so far cannot see anything distinctive of itself.  There is nothing there or so it would seem.  However, in a state of agitation it sees something.  But these wave forms it sees are different from itself.  In fact they act to hide the water’s translucently clear presence.  This is implying that wherein there is no distinction there can be no kind of knowledge.

But this further implies that there has to be a separation between the knower and the known; that if there is no such division there can be no knowledge.  But in Buddhism absolute knowledge is different.  Such knowledge consists in getting rid of the illusion of separation.  But how does one do this?

Sub specie aeternitatis, there is not the slightest difference between the conditioned and the unconditioned.  But if we cling to the conditioned which is illusory, failing to realize the unconditioned nature, we are lost.  Making matters worse, our intellect bound up with the imagination will always lead us astray such that we can only imagine the unconditioned believing we have realized it.  But the truth is we have failed to liberate our self even with metaphysics not to mention all of its captivating thought forms.

The core of Buddhism is about awakening to the fundamental essence of thought, thought being the smallest building block of the conditioned.  No amount of thinking or speculation will liberate us.  The Buddha’s awakening went beyond this.  We are not there yet.  Yes, we have the potential to become enlightened but we must still actualize that potential.

A Finger Pointing to the Moon

Teachers of traditional Zen redeploy words and concepts to point beyond themselves to true reality that ultimately transcends composition (samskrita), that is, composed everyday reality.  When the word or concept is suddenly canceled out by direct intuition what remains is true reality before it is formed or composed into thought.

With today’s Zen, its various meanings are expected to precede the uncomposed reality its words are supposed to represent.  This is the mess contemporary Zen faces.  It is under a fictional “narrative” which is supposed to be Zen’s truth or ultimate fact.  No longer does one have to search within for this reality beyond words and concepts.  It even goes as far as to suggest ‘just sitting’ is enlightenment.

This is a huge barrier to understanding Zen.  It is a distorted Zen because it either sticks with sitting and/or sinks into an imitation of Zen: to copy it by words and actions.  Neither way calls upon us to abandon, thoroughly, reliance on the world of thoughts; to intuit what they are actually composed of.
This is why Zen teaches no-thought (無念).  To come to the abode of no-thought is like seeing the unformed clay before it becomes a brick.  Suddenly, the invisible light or formless spirit is intuited.  With this the sixth sense is transcended including all that which comprises it.

Teachers of traditional Zen use the Buddhist Sutras and Zen words to bring us to a specific intuition.  Those who have to rely on words to transcend words cannot hope to attain the fruit of Zen.  In their ignorance they make Zen into a celebration of ignorance.  One modern Zen master said,  “Wisdom is to see that there is nothing to search for.”

The Spirit is Inconceivable but Knowable

The ideologists who dominate present day culture, whose knowledge is mainly derived from their sensations and feelings, are not at all concerned with what really exists much less the path of spirit.  They only seek to change what already exists such that it conforms with their feelings.  This means they suppress everything which might shake their ideology.  How far will their wishful fantasies take them?  We do not yet know.  Maybe this is new territory for humankind.

Although ideology shouldn’t be in Buddhism, it is not immune to it.  We see it in the aesthetically portrayed world of Zen which is sensuous knowledge whose goal is the beautiful experience which could be characterized as reaching a pure aesthetic moment without traces of agitation, trouble, tension, or instability.  But Zen is not entirely aesthetical so much as it is a path of inner purification and solitude where spirit is one day met with which transcends all concepts.

The outer practice of seated meditation which serves to buttress Zen aesthetically is only intended to reduce the body’s influence over the mind so that mind or thought can be stilled and stress reduced.  But Zen doesn’t end here.  This is not its goal.  One still has to reach the core or foundation of thought which is transcendent and unthinkable (無念) this being absolute spirit from which thought is composed (saṃskṛta).

The real world of Zen is not within the grasp of today’s culture with the exception that it has been altered for ideological consumption, that is, realized as the aesthetic moment of pure feeling, this being the emptying out of anxiety which is quiet sitting (宴坐).

Wikipedia and True Dharma

Wikipedia’s co-founder Larry Sanger recently said that the site is “badly biased,” “no longer has an effective neutrality policy”.  This is somewhat less so when it comes to Wikipedia Buddhism although it is still there in some subjects in the example of anattā, which according to Wikipedia is “the doctrine of ‘non-self’, that there is no unchanging, permanent self, soul or essence in phenomena.”  The good news, as far as I know, Wikipedia isn't allowed as a source in academia.

As we might guess and be right, the Buddha said there is no self or essence in phenomenon such as the five aggregates which among other things he called “the bait of Māra” (the demon of the aggregates).  It is also true that the eternalist Brahmins claimed there is a self or atthattā while the annihilationist Brahmins claimed there is no self or natthattā. The terms refer to an existent (atthi) self and a non-existent (natthi) self; not a transcendental self which attains nirvana (MN I.255-256).

The modern belief of the Buddha rejecting a self (attā/ātman), making him preach a veiled natthattā doctrine, is more the result of a modern problem with our transcending the sensory and intellectual world we have created and are passionately attached to.  A mystical intuition is required in Buddhism which is a sudden leap into the transcendent world (lokuttara).  There is no other way to understand Buddhism without continuing to delude oneself.

So far modern Buddhists have only managed to recognize contingency and pain. This is the beginning of the acceptance of nihilism (a veiled natthattā doctrine). In our personal depth this is a problem with our self: a willingness to believe I am nothing. Both an absolute and the self are non-existent.

Emotions Cloud the Moon of Enlightenment

The word “emotion” proves a difficult word to define despite its wide use in conversation.  Emotions tend to be studied from the behavioral changes they produce.  A look at the seven emotions in Chinese Buddhism such as pleasure, anger, sorrow, joy, love, hate, and desire, they all serve to affect the body, psychosomatically, in various ways and degrees.  All the emotions we experience eventually culminate in distress/sadness (duḥkha) when the carnal body, which we have invested so much in, is on the verge of passing away.

In light of this, does Buddhism seek to eradicate the emotions or at the least try to control them?  It must be that there is an inherent danger in following our emotions too much which will lead to mistaken judgments and hinder our spiritual progress to the unconditioned.

This biological body that we inhabit symbolizes both spirit’s loss within itself and a means to the highest, i.e., nirvana by which spirit self-awakens to its own boundless nature.  In other words, life is a struggle inasmuch as it represents the sublation of innate error (avidya).  Tied up with this are countless false and mistaken judgments which bind us to error led by the emotions.

The work of drawing knowledge from our emotions (sensations and feelings) making them into judgments is an ideological process which I hasten to add dominates today’s closed-off thinking giving it its seeming certitude which means that it is not open to correction.  Thus the emotions develop into a method of authority but false nevertheless. 

In the face of this there can be no real spiritual progress. Unconscious evildoing has taken root no longer able to see certain facts which might undermine its drive for dominion.  This drive for dominion in determining and directing the actions of others is certainly at the core.  It cannot be easily removed as one might imagine.  It is hubris with impotency.  It easily turns into psychological cruelty.  It can be thought of as Nietzsche’s “will to power” or the daimonic in man (Rollo May).

The Buddha's Prescription for Happiness

Annihilation does not assume a state or special condition where something does not exist where normally it would in the example of a city without people but instead universal non-presence of the negated such as a self (P., natthattā). Anattā, on the other hand, can be adjectival referring to something ‘without self’ such as the five aggregates which belong to the demon Māra.  Natthattā and anattā are therefore different.  This difference is generally glossed over in most Buddhist circles but should’t be. 

The Buddha was not a self denier or an annilationist.  He said, for example, “This is the path by which those with great selves (mahattehi), great seers have fared” (It. 28—9).  Also it should not be surprising that nirvana shares most all of the characteristics with the supposed Hindu ātman.  In the Pali canon we even discover a number of times that it is in the very self that nirvana is attained (e.g., MN III.244).

The Buddha understands that ordinary people are identifying as their real self merely an aggregate of unreal constructs.  This misidentification proves to be their downfall; it is the real source of suffering.  Here the Buddha points out such a misidentification:

    “Monks, if people were to carry away, burn or do what they liked to the grass, sticks, leaves, and branches in this Jeta's grove, would it occur to you people are     carrying us away, burning us or doing what they liked to us?
    "Venerable sir, it would not occur to us thus."
    "What is the reason?"
    "Venerable sir, they are not our selves or our belongings."
    "Monks, in the same manner, form is not yours; give it up, it will be for your happiness and pleasantness. Feelings are not yours, give them up, it will be for your     happiness and pleasantness. Perceptions are not yours, give them up, it will be for your happiness and pleasantness. Intentions are not yours, give them up, it will     be for your happiness and pleasantness. And consciousness is not yours give it up, it will be for your happiness and pleasantness” (SN 22:33). 

Before the Buddha said this to his followers he also said: whatever is not yours abandon it.  Clearly a self composed of the aggregates is not our authentic self.  But we don’t abandon it.  We abandon the transcendent self instead!

In Zen Buddhism our authentic self or true nature has to be realized by us which is beyond all human mental activity.  Such activity is only a construction of spirit—not spirit itself.  Those who insist that spirit is also just a construct are lost.  They are incurable.  They believe the finger pointing to the moon is the moon.  These people tend to be annihilationists who don’t believe in the transcendent; who can only reach the limit of thought.

Looking for Nirvana in all the wrong places.

The first noble truth of suffering which concerns the five aggregates (skandhas) of form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness is more about our discontent with our embodiment together with its limitations and uncertainties. 

For those of us who decide to embark upon the Buddha’s extraordinary voyage we seek what is beyond the body and even mentation (manas) which leads to the spiritual world.

Growing up, we find that our sensory awareness is always changing, never the same or stable.  There is no rest or ease to be found here.  The heteronomous world of cause and effect dominates us.  Nirvana is far away. 

For most people nirvana, which is unconditioned, is only something they can imagine.  They haven’t as yet developed the intuition which dispels ignorance and reveals the absolute.  They are limited by the countless shapes of thoughts which, in the end, only veil and conceal, unable to disclose the very stuff of thought which is universal, unthinkable and unconditioned.

Slouching more and more to the closed mind

There are many kinds of reformers.  Those who feel the need of introducing if not enforcing a better course of action with regard to the status quo.  This is what is hoped for in the mind of the reformer.  But any such reformation brings with it, its own set of problems, that is, unintended consequences. 

This is apparent when we look at the history of educational reforms starting with Horace Mann (1796–1859) who was perhaps one of the most influential of American educational reformers, going all the way to Allan Bloom with his book, The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students (1987).

No one can say today’s educational system is not without its problems many of which, arguably, came from the reformers themselves, especially, on the left of the political spectrum.  In other words, no reform can guarantee to solve the problems which it tries to address.  The problems continue and may even grow worse over time.  Most are simply swept under the carpet or ignored: see problem, say nothing.  Then a new narrative is put into place to hide the failure of the reform.

But now let’s look at Buddhism in America and then how it connects with our educational system. 

Buddhism’s reformers are more like interpreter-gatekeepers who wish to make the words of the Buddha palatable for the general population who don’t have a mind for religious thought, in part due to reformers like Horace Mann who feared the passions that might be raised by the study of religion and also politics; only allowing a limited, watered down study of religion and politics in the curriculum.  This results in a false “openness” (closer to credulity or blankness) by keeping the mind closed, especially, when it comes to religion.

The educational system seems then to have been created and maintained as a kind of academic Peter Pan world for dreamers.  These young dreamers have avoided, thus far, a serious life which includes the depth of religious thought and a political landscape that affects wages and the options they might have by which to live a life without poverty.  Moreover, they have no idea of the risk and hardship behind important choices they will have to make in the future.  For them choice is somewhat of a triviality.  This may explain the phenomenon of Dr. Jordan Peterson but also the popularity of his book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (2018). Peterson’s book comes on the heels of academia’s slide into the closed mind: a mind that refuses to acknowledge or live in the real world.

When today’s graduate steps into the real world for the first time with such a closed mind with its fake openness, they are shocked.  Over time, they can’t help but grow more resentful and vengeful because their promised entitled life is slipping away.  As a result of this growing problem, and even in some cases depression, they try out Buddhism or Zen only to find out that their mind becomes even more closed.  In other words, reality is never allowed to set in.  They try their best to stop it. 

A Dharma center or a Zen center is really a group of lost, close-minded people who huddle together in subconscious fear using meditation to overcome their immaturity.

The parts of Buddhism that are usually closed off to such people have to do with rebirth and the transmigrant who survives death, the self or ātman, attachment to this world of appearance, and the fact that nirvana is not third-person knowledge which makes its realization mystical in the sense of requiring spiritual intuition.  With the absence or playing down of these important components of Buddhism what is left?  It’s western Buddhism which to be honest is Buddhism in name only.