Zenatrophy

Right View

2012-01-19T02:43:00.000-08:00

For some reason people today ignore Buddha’s first sermon. It dose not promise enlightenment. It dose not promise magical powers or omniscient insights. The first and only promise Buddha ever made was that he knew how you could reduce the suffering of this life.

The Four Noble Truths

Life means suffering
The origin of suffering is attachment
The cessation of suffering is attainable
The way to the reduction of that suffering is the noble eightfold path

The Eight Fold Path

Right View
Right Intention
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood
Right effort
Right Mindfulness
Right concentration

When considering the Buddha’s prescription for reducing the suffering of this world the first two admonitions Right View and Right Intention can be called wisdom. They are in fact referring to our fundamental world view, how we see the world and what motivates us to do what we do. Right view is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the entirety of the individual or society's knowledge and point of view, including natural philosophy; fundamental, existential, and normative postulates; or themes, values, emotions, and ethics. In fact it is both the beginning and the end of the path.

              The physical and social world we live in can be brutal, merciless and random in how it treats us. Too many modern Zen practitioners think that they can achieve this without teaching or guidance. They often see this as “belief” and equate that with superstition and nonsense. What they ignore is the simple fact that they are not changing themselves. No matter how many hours they sit in meditation, no matter what hoops the have jumped through to gain recognition, until they change, they have achieved nothing. Under their robes they are still whoever the have always been. All the teachings and all their words are just a coat of paint smeared over their surface self.
             It is not until the world begins to squeeze you hard. Not until the suffering gets to a point where it is unendurable do you begin to see what you have done. When you reach for the support that that world view grants and find your hands grasping nothing but air. Then the world will show you the arrogant crap that glib statements like, “I don’t believe in anything” are made of.   If you really think you don’t believe in anything, you are both unaware of how your mind functions and perhaps just a self deluded fool. Buddha was not such an arrogant fool.
          You have a world view it is the fundamental basis of your mind. If you don’t change that view, not coat it with a coat of paint your wasting your and everyone’s time. No good act without true good intentions will generate good results. No Dana given will have any value.
          Are you obsessed with money? Do you worry more about buildings and cars and robes than about people? What do you really care about?   The Buddha said you must make the Buddhist world view yours. You must as they say make it real. This world view is usually called the Dharma. You must do more than take refuge you must make it the world you live in. If it is not your reality your just fooling yourself and eventually your real world will come calling and there will be no place to hide.

Birth and Death

2011-09-07T22:51:00.000-07:00

Birth and Death are elements of natural time. They help time obscure eternity. They are a mask on the face of our real selves.

Āditta Sutta - the Buddha's 3rd sermon

2011-09-02T02:35:00.000-07:00

At one time the Blessed one was living near Gayā, at Gayā’s head, with a thousand bhikkhus. Then the Blessed One addressed them:

“Everything, monks, is burning. What, monks, is everything that is burning? The eye, monks, is burning, form is burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact is burning. The feeling that arises dependent on eye-contact, whether pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, that also is burning. With what is it burning? It is burning with the fire of passion, the fire of hatred, the fire of delusion. I declare that it is burning with the fire of birth, decay, death, grief, lamentation, pain, sorrow, and despair.

The ear, monks, is burning, sound is burning, … and despair.

The nose, monks, is burning, odour is burning, … and despair.

The tongue, monks, is burning, taste is burning, … and despair.

The body, monks, is burning, touch is burning, … and despair.

The mind, monks, is burning, thought is burning, … and despair.

Seeing thus, monks, the well-informed noble disciple is disgusted with the eye, is disgusted with forms, is disgusted with eye-consciousness, disgusted with eye-contact. He is disgusted with the feeling that arises dependent on eye contact, whether pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. He is disgusted with the ear … with the nose … with the tongue … with the body … with the mind, with thoughts, with mind-contact, with the feeling that arises dependent on mind-contact, whether pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.

Being disgusted, he is dispassionate, being dispassionate he is freed. Being freed, he knows he is free, and he knows, “Birth is destroyed, the holy life has been fulfilled, what should be done has been done, there is no more of this.”

Thus spoke the Blessed One. Those monks delighted in what the Blessed One had said. And while this discourse was being delivered the minds of those one thousand monks were liberated from defilements without any remainder.

Eating is a fire, breathing is a fire, the fire is the mouth of the Gods who accept this offering and that to is a burning ...

Just a frog

2011-09-02T02:13:00.000-07:00

There is the absolute and the realization of the expressions of the absolute. Love is such a realization. A sunset is such a realization. Living and dying are such a realization. Time has noting to do with eternity; time is simply what obscures eternity from our perception. A frog can sit on a lily pad for a million culpa and still just be a fucking frog.

Walking Zen.

2011-03-06T18:39:00.000-08:00

       The other day I was sitting in a crowed restaurant. I saw this elderly man trying to walk among all the bustling people fighting for their place in the buffet line. His was taking small careful steps, walking very slowly and more over with a focus and intent that can only be described as mindfulness.

       All the people around him were focused on the mechanics of getting their food and getting back to their table to eat. He on the other hand, probably due to his own frailty was focused completely at the time on walking.
      As I observed him I suddenly had several realizations about “walking meditation” or “Kinhin” as it is called in Japanese Zen and “Cankama” in Pali, as practiced by the Theravadin monks of Thailand and Sri Lanka.
       This was one of those slap your own forehead moments when you are absolutely positive you’re the last person in the auditorium to get the joke.
        Frankly I had never really utilized our sessions of Kinhin for much more than an opportunity to bring the circulation back into my lower extremities after a long period of sitting meditation (zazen). My focus was almost always on getting the feeling and blood back in my legs.
       In that moment I saw that walking mediation was truly a powerful form and practice. It became clear to me that done with true mindfulness it could be the bridge between sitting on the cushion and my everyday life and activity, if done correctly it was Zen in action. It would be the ground for a steady and alert mind as I walked into my daily activities.
        As we baby boomers age and become afflicted with arthritis, broken hips slipped or ruptured discs I can see Kinhin becoming more and more a way we older folks can practice Zen, not just as a break between the “real” Zen, but as a powerful meaningful practice. It can be practiced almost every where and by almost every one. I know this seems stupid but realizing all this made my heart feel very good.

(A Navajo Indian Prayer of the Second Day of the Night Chant (anonymous)

In beauty may I walk.

All day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons may I walk.
Beautifully will I possess again.
Beautifully birds . . .
Beautifully joyful birds
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.
With dew about my feet may I walk.
With beauty may I walk.

With beauty before me, may I walk.
With beauty behind me, may I walk.
With beauty above me, may I walk.
With beauty below me, may I walk.
With beauty all around me, may I walk.

In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.

It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.

Refrigerium

2011-01-25T19:50:00.001-08:00

With the loss this Saturday of my wife of 35 years I have been cut in half. I can not even feel the loss, I am just numb. Can half a person sit and find wisdom? I can now speak to some but have nothing to say to anyone. I do not dream.

This morning early in the hours of the day, I told myself I must finish what I have started. Her death was not about me, her life was not about me, she is the one who is taking the journey past knowing, not I. All this pain is mere self indulgence and ego.

All that I have chosen to accept, rebirth Karma and the words of the tathagata say I will dance this dance with her a million times and a million more, that we will spin off through eternity in different guises and different aspects sharing tears that will fill the oceans and joys that will light the sky’s of a million worlds.

How I would rather that the Christians were correct, that she resides in their heaven, and that once in a million eons the dammed are allowed out of hell for a short time, the so called Refrigerium. Then I could visit her and we could laugh for a while. But I think not.

Causality

2011-01-06T07:34:00.000-08:00

      Causality describes the relationship between causes and effects, is fundamental to all natural science, especially physics, and has an analog in logic. It is also studied from the perspectives of philosophy, computer science, and statistics. I think it is fair to say that the study of and analysis of Causality Is fundamental to our so called modern scientific world view. All of the so called Laws of Newtonian Physics were simply statements of material causality.
      We humans have always had a very practical interest in why things are occurring as they do. History has also shown that as a species we are simply unable to accept the idea that things “just happen” without an underlying explanation as to what caused these things to occur. This resistance to the “shit happens” world view has in fact served the human race well.
       Learning what has killed the sheep is an important step in protecting the herd. Was it wolves, bad clover or space aliens? If a sheep herder is to succeed he has to have an answer. Knowing what causes to things to happen has allowed us to survive and prosper. In cases where an obvious cause is not discovered, humans may attribute the events to miracles or to evil supernatural agencies. But the one thing we have always rejected is the idea that events are just random, that things occure without a cause. There is a learned preference for some alternative to saying that something occurred without there being a reason for it.
       I have found that in both Tibetan and Chan Buddhist teachings there is a very fundamental teaching as to what a student of Buddha must have as a mind set if he or she is to proceed successfully. In his book on the fundamentals of Buddhism Geshe Kelsang Gyatso states these clearly. In “Master HSU Yun’s discourse in the CH”AN HALL” Lu Kuan Yu quotes his master , Hsu Yun, ( Hsu Yun was perhaps the greatest Chan master of the last century) as stating these very same criteria that Gaytso avers as fundamental to Tibetan Buddhism.

As stated by Master hsu Yun the prerequisites to all Ch’an training are:

1. Firm Belief in the law of causality (i.e. Karma)

2. Strict observance of the rules of discipline ( i.e. The Ten Major Precepts)

3. Faith: The firm belief that the Buddha’s teachings are true, not false and that we all have the tathagata’s wisdom within us.

      These three basic mindsets that both these schools teach have become antithetical to modern Zen. Teachers like Brad Warner’s head would explode at the mere sounding of these teachings. In every modern so called book on Zen I see clearly the modern Deism and the new religion science’s worldview that disconnects spirit and matter. I don’t see these modern Zen teachings as Zen founded but rather a result of the now faltering “rationalistic” world view of the 19th and 20th centuries.
       Perhaps the least supported one of these mindsets in modern Zen is the very first one; a firm Belief in the law of causality (i.e. Karma). Despite the fact that causality is fundamental to all our so called modern sciences and despite the fact that virtually every social system presently in the world operates in the firm belief in causality modern western students of Buddha reject the very idea of spiritual causality. Even quantum theory has several theories of causality. So I must ask myself why so few modern students of Buddhism feel comfortable admitting to the idea of Karma.
       Modern quantum theory suggest that everything material is also mental and everything mental is also material that matter isn’t different from mind. That form is emptiness and emptiness is form. Why then should the law of causality not rule the entire spectrum of reality?
      I can only believe that as the world view of the last so called modern era crumbles this resistance to the nature of Karma will fall away.
     Maybe one day American Zen teachers will again feel entirely comfortable teaching the above three “prerequisites to all Ch’an training”.

Mind and Matter

2011-01-06T06:21:00.000-08:00

      Back before westerners got involved in Buddhism there was no discussion about whether or not Buddhism was a religion. To the Buddhist in the east Buddhism was his religion and not a so called philosophy of natural law. All of these attempts to make Buddhism not a religion began when people simply couldn’t squeeze it into the same mold as Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
       The very term “religion” in most Americans world view is simply another word for theism. As science and “enlightened” thinking progressed a new world view developed even among Christians that any idea of spiritual or mystical or magical beliefs was all to be labeled “superstition”. Physiologist in the west have even developed a clinical term for what these oh so rational scientists see as horribly irrational world views, they call it magical thinking.
       The Christians philosophers of the 17th century developed the idea they called Deism. A Deist typically rejects supernatural events such as prophecy and miracles, tending to assert that God (or "The Supreme Architect") has a plan for the universe that is not to be altered by intervention in the affairs of human life. That is to say they adopted Mechanistic thinking - the universe is a machinelike entity that God simply made wound up and sits back uninvolved and observes as it ticks away.
        As the new religion of Science took root in western thinking this idea of the Universe as a giant clock work mechanism was the underling view of the material world. In 1642, the year Galileo died, Isaac Newton was born. Newton was a mathematical genius whose laws of the physical universe became the handbook for Mechanistic thinking for centuries.
       The new religion science created a worldview that disconnects spirit and matter, in fact a world view that rejected the very idea of spirituality. Of course the problem was that we simply couldn’t escape our own awareness of spirituality. Philosophers and scientists and every kind of so called rational thinker have for the last two hundred years spent hours upon hours writing, arguing and “proving” that there is no such thing as spiritual matter or matters. The communist tried to stamp it out, burned murdered and savaged their own cultures relentlessly for a hundred years and still have been unable to convince the majority of humanity that they are nothing more than a temporary, meaningless assortment of organic sludge. Then of course the scientists delved deep enough into matter to discover the so called Quantum theory.
       A quantum system is represented mathematically by a wave function. What is so frustrating to the worldview that has developed over the last few centuries is that Quantum theory is generally regarded as one of the most successful scientific Theories ever formulated but its view of reality is much closer to the so called classical “mystical” worldview than modern scientists would allow. The standard interpretation of quantum theory implies that all the macroscopic objects we see around us exist in an objective, unambiguous state only when they are being measured or observed. This leads to the suggestion that it is consciousness that collapses the wave function and thereby creates reality. In this view, a subatomic particle does not assume definite properties when it interacts with a measuring device, but only when the reading of the measuring device is registered in the mind of an observer.
          This was of course the bases of a major school of Buddhist philosophy, the mind only school, a thousand years before Newton was born. The similarity between these two theories of reality has caused great conflict in both science and Buddhism with each system of beliefs now frantically trying to integrate the other into itself.
            In considering all of the above, and yes Dorothy Zen is a Mind Only School, I have come across another issue that I would like to address in context with this sundering of spiritual and material in our world view: “Causality”. Causality then will be the subject of my next Blog.

Sutra and Tantra

2010-12-31T06:53:00.000-08:00

               In another forum I recently was asked, what exactly was the difference between Sutra and Tantra ? I wrote the following response. It seemed like a worthy question so I am reprinting my response here.
                  The word Sutra is Sanskrit and literally means a thread or line that holds things together. Sutta is the Pali translation of the Sanskrit word Sutra. Sanskrit originally meant “refined speech” and is the historical language the Indo-Aryan peoples. It was the primary liturgical Language of both Hinduism and Buddhism. That is to say all the original religious texts of both were written in Sanskrit. So in Buddhism, the sutra refers mostly to canonical scriptures, many of which are regarded as records of the oral teachings of Gautama Buddha. A Sutra is usually a scriptural narrative, especially a text traditionally regarded as a discourse of the Buddha.
           Pali is a literary language of the Prakrit language family. When the canonical texts of Buddhism were written down in Sri Lanka in the first century BCE they were translated from Sanskrit to Pali. According to traditional Sri Lankan chronicles (such as the Dipavamsa), Buddhism was introduced into Sri Lanka in the 2nd century BCE by Venerable Mahinda, the son of the Indian Emperor Ashoka, during the reign of Sri Lanka's King Devanampiya Tissa. During this time, a sapling of the Bodhi Tree was brought to Sri Lanka and the first monasteries were established under the sponsorship of the Sri Lankan king.
         When the Turkic Muslims invaded India they literally wiped Buddhism off the face of India. They burned the Buddhist texts in India, therefore the majority of remaining Buddhist scripture was preserved in what is called the Pali Cannon. Later Large volumes of Buddhist sutras were found in both Tibet and China. The Pali Cannon are the only texts recognized by Theravada Buddhism as canonical.
           Tantra in Sanskrit meant loom; also specifically, the warp thread that dresses the loom and gives support to the fabric formed by the moving shuttle or, in a rug, the individual knots. Without it, there can be no cloth. It can also refer to the cord used for stringing beads to make a necklace, a rosary, mala. Tantric or more rarely, tantrik, is the adjectival form of tantra and it has come to mean continuous, or continuity in the sense of unbroken.
                    Tantrism refers to a specific approach or type of practice which has the connotation of an esoteric system in which exercises, practices and rituals are handed down directly from teacher to student by word of mouth, though often with the aid of teaching materials in the form of pamphlets and pictures. Such a manual can also be called a tantra. Any tantra is usually part of a system that was discovered, developed or established to explain, teach and initiate people into a radically different way of looking at, and acting in, the world. The esoteric, concealed, or secret part is often misunderstood as a reference to the intentional concealment of ancient practices.
                The form of Tantric practice most familure to western students today is Vajrayana, a form brought to the west primarily by the Tibetans. Vajrayana Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle. Be aware that there are also tantric forms of Hinduism. So in English today Tantras are defined as a scripture taught by the Buddha describing the Vajrayana practices.
                  According to Vajrayana scriptures Vajrayana refers to one of three routes to enlightenment, the other two being Hinayana and Mahayana. (Hinayana being a insulting term (smaller vehicle) they apply to Theravadin Buddhism). Sutra practice called Sūtrayāna, (Sanskrit) in the Indo-Tibetan three-fold classification of yanas, is the yana (mode of practice) that leads to the realization of emptiness. It consists of Hinayana and Mahayana. The other two yanas, according to this classification, are Tantrayana and Dzogchen, which together constitute Vajrayana. Of course the Vajrayana folks see themselves as more advanced since they employ methods they believe can lead to Buddha hood in a single lifetime of practice. Some of which are Deity yoga, Four complete purities and Guru yoga. These forms usually require an initiation called an empowerment ceremony.
Zen is considered a form of Mahayana, Sūtrayāna in this classification system.

Ceremony

2010-12-20T22:20:00.000-08:00

                This has been a month of ceremony at my Zendo. We had Shukke Tokudo Ceremony (ordination ceremony) and Zaike Tokudo Ceremony (discipleship ceremony) along with our usual weekly ceremonies. If there is one thing that all Buddhist seem to have in common it is their seeming love of rituals and ceremony.

       Just so we are clear a ceremony is an event of ritual significance, performed on a special occasion. A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers.
     As some of you know I practiced Vajrayana Buddhism before I came to practice Zen. With all respect and no insult to them my old Tibetan teachers loved ceremony and could put on a ritual at the drop of the preverbal hat. Until I actually joined a Zen group I had thought they would be real low on the ceremony meter.
         I guess my idea of how Zen was practiced was shaped by the Books and stories I had read. I saw Zen as shedding all paper and all standardized practice. You know what I mean, the Zen master who appears out of no where, says something both profound and confusing and then disappears over the hill in a cloud of dust.
         So I was surprised when I found that they were generally speaking as fond of ceremony as the next school of Buddhism. Earlier this year I read a wonderful book called “Soto Zen In Medieval Japan” by William M. Bodiford. I am by the way, after reading several things written by him, beginning to believe Mr. Bodiford is the greatest Soto Zen scholar the English speaking world has ever produced, just so you know.
        Historically speaking if Mr. Bodiford is correct ceremony and rituals were very much what Soto Zen was all about after the third generation of the Soto Zen School in Japan. Rituals for weddings and funerals paid the monks rent for centuries. Rich patrons paid monks to do blessing rituals for their relatives both living and dead. The monks would chant and pray for Granny two times a day and the grand children would fork over the land or the cash you needed.
         In fact it appears that for many years teaching someone how all the rituals were performed was how the early Soto Zen Masters “made” Dharma heirs and transferred their lineage. Bodiford claims that one great master asserted knowing the rituals is the complete essence of Zen. That the ceremonies Dogen brought from China were the sum total of his gift to Buddhism. I don’t think anyone can doubt the importance Dogen placed on ceremony; however I really doubt that he himself believed that the ceremonies he taught were all there was to his Zen.
         In Japan today Soto Zen still seems awash in ritual and ceremony. In the Temples and Monasteries It appears to me that the Zen monks of today’s Japan do as many ceremonies as anyone else in Buddhism.
         In America I think explaining Buddhist ceremony especially to the kind of people Zen attracts is often a hard sell. Unlike Buddhist of the past most Americans who come to Zen today reject the idea that ceremonies are a valid form of magic that can have a real influence upon them in this world and the next. The most common stated reason I encountered early on was that performing and even watching and listing to a ritual gained you merit.
           I have heard my teacher explain the meaning and significance of ceremony and for the life of me I just seemed to hear noise. This happens to me sometimes when explanations, true or not, just don’t make any sense to me. I mean no disrespect to him, it's just sometimes I just don't get it.
          Of course there is the standard fall back position that ceremony and ritual in Buddhism are upaya, which is Sanskrit for "skillful means." If they are upaya that would of course imply that performing or watching them somehow is of a spiritual benefit to the practitioner on his way towards enlightenment, or a relaxing sit, whichever comes first?

           Dogen said, “To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening.” I suppose that treating the ritual or the ceremony the same way you treat kinhin (walking meditation) might make that verse apply to ceremony.
          On the whole my experience with the ceremonies conducted this month was an enjoyable one. But I do have a concern to express here.
           We seldom have a talk on how to experience a ceremony. I know I have heard it said to do a ceremony like you do zazen, but my real worry is that zazen is becoming a ceremony in and of itself. I see people grasping for the proper posture and sitting as ridge as a post, looking good and fearful of even scratching their nose, because we all know how the ceremony is performed, how it should look and what it should sound like.

          So I really have no problem with ceremony in zen, its zazen as ceremony that worries me.

Water

2010-12-14T14:42:00.000-08:00

“The universe exists because of the karma of the beings who wish to live in it.” - HHDL

       The glaciers feeding the Indus River are melting at an unprecedented rate due to global warming. The Indus provides a major agricultural irrigation source for both India and Pakistan. Both countries are putting extreme pressure on the river by over extraction of water for agriculture. If the Indus dry’s up this will not only decimate crops in both countries but will endanger freshwater fish populations which is also another important food source for both countries. Both India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons and a long history of animosity. This is just one possible scenario for the end of civilization, at least on the Indian sub content.

       Of course the Indus is not the only major river system in danger of drying up. Among those rivers considered in immediate danger are the Yangtze, the Salween and the Ganges. In serious danger are also: Danube, that flows in Europe, African Nile and Rio Grande, flowing in South America.

       In recent years, locally, we have seen Alabama and Georgia become entangled in a major legal battle over water. The two states endured a 4 year drought that had them at each others throats. In Australia their so called drought has lasted almost ten years. Mongolia’s recent five year drought has just ended. All across the world fresh water is being polluted and its sources destroyed through the stupidity of man.

      Many people may doubt that our Karma created this world, but the time is fast approaching when no one can debate the sad fact that we are destroying it with our own hands. Of course what that really means is we are simply making this world uninhabitable for human beings. No matter what we do the planet will continue, it is only ours selves we are really destroying.

        Water has always seemed magical to me. It flows; it rises as steam and clouds and falls as white silky snow or pouring rain. Water is a universal solvent that forms and sculpts rock like an artist’s unseen hand. Since our bodies are 98% Water you might even say we are water in walking form.

It was our beginning, when it leaves here so will we.

Rebirth

2010-12-02T02:37:00.000-08:00

There are no unique events. Nothing in the universe ever happens just once.

I desire!

2010-11-27T15:47:00.000-08:00

        The things we desire are never what we have. Therefore desire resides in the past and the moves the mind into the future. You desired something in the past and sought to obtain it, or you felt aversion to something and sought to avoid it. You desire to “get” something in the future or to avoid something in the future and this drives you into the future like a hungry ghost never being able to satisfy your hunger. So desire has no end, except in the now. What would we be like if we truly desired nothing, truly wished to avoid nothing?

           To truly sit in the now, to maintain the now can end desire or at least reduce it considerably. How real would we seem if we wanted nothing? If I become less and less real in the now is that an observation of emptiness? If I could sit exactly in the now would I simply disappear? Or would that be an observation of emptiness, would that be the ultimate “I”.

      In most schools of Buddhism they define a person as an “I” or ego that arises from or is imputed from the five aggregates:

1. The aggregate of Form

2. The aggregate of Consciousness

3. Feeling

4. The aggregate of perception or discrimination.

5. The aggregate of mental formation or volition.

               It is the function or simply the activity if you wish of the “person” to perform actions and experience their results. This is then is the nature of our existence and it is also a very good description of the process we call Karma. But my true face is not found in these aggregates, it is empty.

               Walls, rivers and great distance all act as obstructions to my body, but what obstructs my mind are the constant delusions these aggregates create. The most destructive of these delusions are the constant desires that drive it along like an ox before the wipe. My experience has been the more I hate, love, want and desire the greater my sense of myself, the more real I seem and the more I suffer. The “I” takes this constant stream of wants, wish’s and desires, it feeds upon this unending activity of desire and aversion.

                So what wisdom, when my mother was always asking me to sit still, to stop my constant fidgeting and squirming, but I think it is the constant fidgeting of our minds that we most stop by resting it in the now.

                 I think it would be fair to say that our true function is to experience emptiness, then we can all go home.

Don't Mind if I do!

2010-11-10T16:57:00.000-08:00

   "After arriving in China, Dogen traveled and practiced in several monasteries with different teachers before finding Ru Jing, or Tendo Nyojo, who was to be his main teacher. According to Dogen’s diary, one morning when Ru Jing was circumambulating the Zendo, doing the morning greeting at the beginning of zazen, he found a monk dozing. Dogen heard Ru Jing scolding the dozing monk, "The practice of zazen is the dropping away of body and mind. What do you expect to accomplish by dozing?" When Dogen heard this, he had a realization and went to Ru Jing’s room and offered incense and bowed. When Ru Jing asked why he was doing this, Dogen said, "Body and mind have been dropped, that is why I have come!" Ru Jing approved saying, "Body and mind have been dropped; you have dropped body and mind!"

         In traditional Buddhist philosophy the mind of a sentient being is not a product of biological processes, but something primordial which has always existed outside of time itself. The basic Buddhist view point as described by the Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna is that Mind and Body are two distinct and completely different kinds of phenomena and therefore given the nature of cause and effect the physical body can not be the cause of the mind. In other words he flatly rejected the idea that mind is caused by physical processes in the brain.
           Nagarjuna did acknowledge that the physical brain was an instrument through which information was received and that it was also the instrument through which actions were generated and cognition of physical events were perceived. Generally speaking upon death what Buddhist philosophers call 'The Very Subtle Mind' Continues on after the death of the body. Having previously had countless previous lives, depending upon its state of development, this very subtle mind may proceed to experience the physical world through countless future lives.
          This physical/mental duality is not confined to eastern philosophy. In modern philosophy of mind, this dualism is defined as a set of views about the relationship between mind and matter, which begins with the claim that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical. Plato and Aristotle and certainly Descartes and Spinoza are perfect examples of this very same dualism in western philosophy.
         It has been almost universal that since man became sentient he has rejected the idea that sentience is nothing more than a by product of physical interactions. The effort by both philosophers and scientists to reconcile this duality has been ongoing for centuries simply because the observable interconnected nature of the physical brain and the phenomena we call a mind can neither be ignored nor easly and rationally explained.
           The basic recognition of the above paradox is called Substance Dualism. This so called Substance dualism is a type of dualism most notably proposed by Descartes, which states that there are two fundamental kinds of substance: mental and material. According to his philosophy, which is specifically called Cartesian dualism, the mental does not have extension in space, and the material cannot think. This is the position of virtually all theology including Buddhism. Of course some people have claimed that this is only true of humans and for some reason excludes all other thinking and feeling creatures. But there is nothing native to substance dualism that would require such a distinction and Buddhism dose not make that distinction.
      In theology the mind and or the soul, depending upon the belief system, claims that mind or souls occupy an independent "realm" of existence distinct from that of the physical world. This is a version of reality that is routinely rejected by modern materialists and many scientists. Rejecting the obvious evidence of the mind and mental phenomena itself, they attest that there simply is no evidence to support this position. In this view mind is no more than condensation on the brain and is in fact a figment of the imagination we don’t really have.
      Recently professor David chambers, a philosopher at the Australian National University, aka Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Consciousness, developed a thought experiment inspired by the movie “The Matrix” in which substance dualism could be true: Consider a computer simulation in which the bodies of the creatures are controlled by their minds and the minds remain strictly external to the simulation. The creatures can do all the science they want in the world, but they will never be able to figure out where their minds are, for they do not exist in their observable universe. This is a case of substance dualism with respect to computer simulation.

     One modern explanation of the mind/body problem is called “property Dualism”.

    “By Property Dualism the brain possesses at least two types of properties, physical and mental. From this it follows that all conscious experiences are properties of the underlying substance which manifests itself physically as the brain. Furthermore, in this line of thinking consciousness is itself a property. This is absurd, however, because if this is true then I (and you) am (are) a property (ies).” OOPS! Once again we are simply condensation on a brain.
      The simple truth is science and materialism would require that either the electro chemical processes of the brain 'create' or 'give rise to' the mind; or is it that the electrochemical processes are the mind?”
In short Consciousness is either generated by brain activity, or, is brain activity.

           The only way many modern materialist have been able to justify their claims is through the theory of Emergent Properties. This so called Emergence is a well developed philosophical term of art. A variety of theorists have appropriated it for their purposes ever since George Henry Lewes gave it a philosophical sense in his 1875 Problems of Life and Mind. We might roughly characterize the shared meaning thus: emergent entities (properties or substances) ‘arise’ out of more fundamental entities and yet are ‘novel’ or ‘irreducible’ with respect to them.

        So many modern materialists, notably John Rogers Searle an American philosopher and currently the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley and Buddhist philosopher, Stephen Batchelor now claim that consciousness is simply an emergent property of the physical process of the brain.

          As I previously said the definition of emergence given in the Dictionary of Philosophy of Mind is:

“Emergence - Properties of a complex physical system are emergent just in case they are neither (i) properties had by any parts of the system taken in isolation nor (ii) resultant of a mere summation of properties of parts of the system.”

“Thus a boat which drifts northwestwards in response to a southerly wind and a current flowing from the east is not exhibiting emergent behavior, whereas the products of chemical reactions could be considered emergent.”
See: Dictionary of Philosophy of Mind.

There is however one major problem with this theory.

      "The notion of reduction is intimately tied to the ease of understanding one level in terms of another. Emergent properties are usually properties that are more easily understood in their own right than in terms of properties at a lower level. This suggests an important observation:
       Emergence is a psychological property.
      It is not a metaphysical absolute. Properties are classed as "emergent" based at least in part on (1) the interestingness to a given observer of the high-level property at hand; and (2) the difficulty of an observer's deducing the high-level property from low-level properties"
See: David Chalmers “notes on emergence”
        “So we can dismiss all claims that consciousness, mind and awareness are emergent properties of matter or brains, because we need the presence of a mind for emergent properties and phenomena to appear in the first place. The subjective activity of the mind of the observer, together with the 'objective' procedures and the structures upon which they operate, is an irreducible component of emergent phenomena.” So we find that the emergence theory is impossible because it requires a mind to preexist mind. Not even a quantum theorist could accept this, wait maybe he could at that.
         It is of course beyond the will power of most modern thinkers to say to themselves maybe we simply don’t have enough information to solve the mind/body paradox at this time.

           But being Zen I will investigate this problem on the meditation cushion. I think that deep in the writings of Master Dogen this question may have been answered. So I will simply doubt that any present theory on the issue is “True”. I will wait for mind and body to drop away, as Master Dogen has suggested I do, and then I may become aware of the truth.

Getting Old and Sitting

2010-11-09T23:39:00.000-08:00

In Fukanzazeng (Rules of Zazen) Master Dogen says:

“In meditating you should have a quiet room. Eat and drink in moderation. Forsake myriad relations-abstain from everything. Do not think of good and evil. Do not think of right and wrong. Stop the function of mind, of will, of consciousness. Keep from meaning memory, perception, and insight. Do not strive to become the Buddha. Do not cling to sitting or lying down.”

…………………………………………………

“This cross-legged sitting is not step by step meditation. It is merely comfortable teaching. It is the training and enlightenment of thorough wisdom. The Koan will appear in daily life. You are completely free - like the dragon that has water or the tiger that depends on the mountain. You must realize that the Right Law naturally appears, and your mind will be free from sinking and distraction. When you stand from zazen, shake your body and arise calmly. Do not move violently. That which transcends the commoner and the sage - dying while sitting and standing is obtained through the help of this power: this I have seen. Also the supreme function (lifting the finger, using the needle, hitting the wooden gong) and enlightenment signs (raising the hossu, striking with the fist; hitting with the staff; shouting): are not understood- by discrimination. You cannot understand training and enlightenment well by supernatural power. It is a condition (sitting, standing, and sleeping) beyond voice and visible things. It is the true beyond discriminatory views. So don't argue about the wise and foolish. If you can only train hard, this is true enlightenment. Training and enlightenment are by nature undefiled. Living by Zen is not separated from daily life.”

__________________________________________________
“Buddha’s in this world and in that and the patriarchs in India and China equally preserved the Buddha seal and spread the true style of Zen. All actions and things are penetrated with pure zazen. The means of training are various, but do pure zazen. Don't travel futilely to other dusty lands, forsaking your own sitting place. If you mistake the first step, you will stumble immediately. You have already obtained the vital functions of man's body. Don't waste time in vain. You can hold the essence of Buddhism. Is it good to enjoy the fleeting world? The body is transient like dew on the grass-life is swift like a flash of lightning. The body passes quickly, and life is gone in a moment.”

Dogen wrote these words when he was 28 years old and in the prime of his life. He had just returned from China and he was just starting his life’s work. Four years later at the age of 32 he wrote Bendowa, In which he comments:

“All the Buddhas and patriarchs who transmitted Buddhism considered sitting and practicing self-joyous meditation the true way of enlightenment. The enlightened ones in both the East and West followed this style. This is because the masters and their disciples correctly transmitted this superior method from person to person and received the uncorrupted truth.”

Again:

“It is a condition (sitting, standing, and sleeping) beyond voice and visible things.”

“It is a condition (sitting, standing, and sleeping) beyond voice and visible things.”

“It is a condition (sitting, standing, and sleeping) beyond voice and visible things.

Wake up, stands up, walk --- lay down, sleep,

“This cross-legged sitting is not step by step meditation. It is merely comfortable teaching. It is the training and enlightenment of thorough wisdom. The Koan will appear in daily life. You are completely free - like the dragon that has water or the tiger that depends on the mountain.”

Maybe - there is zazen that is all of this and more, maybe even when we can no longer sit, we can walk to enlightenment-- or stand our way there.. it is after all the "merely confortable teaching"

The invention of an ancient and honorable tradition.

2010-11-08T11:52:00.000-08:00

In the middle 60’s in Japan some nuns located at the Kaizenji Monastery in Nagoya Japan , under the direction of their new Abbess Yoshida Roshi, decided to sew their own robes. This practice spread to a few other temples in Japan being over seen by female priests and nuns. This was and never has been a requirement supported by the Soto Shu (Soto Zen School) in Japan; in fact they have their own (official) supplier of their robes and garments.

In 1970 Abbess Yoshida Roshi visited the San Francisco Zen center and while there suggested to Zenkei Blanche Hartman that the center should adopt the so called Nyoho-e, or “clothing made according to the Dharma.” Tradition that she and some other abbesses in Japan had more or less recently invented. Yoshida Roshi suggested that one of the centers members visit a Japanese nun involved in creating this practice to learn to sew. So at least 3 of the centers female members went to Japan to learn sewing from the nun’s.

Sewing practice as a (tradition) however would have to wait for Suzuki Roshi’s death. Suzuki never endorsed the practice as a requirement in Zen. Once Zenkei Blanche Hartman (a nice Jewish lady born in Birmingham Alabama) became abbess of the center the new “ancient” tradition was officially born. The founders of this tradition in the Untied States were Zenkei Blanche Hartman, Joyce Browning, Virginia Baker, Kasai Joshin and Pat Herroshoff. The practice was concurrently accepted by and endorsed by Shohaku Okumura, whom I am willing to bet never sewed a robe in his life up until that time. Doctrinally this practice has been supported by two essays in the Shobogenzo in which Dogen praises the importance of and symbolic nature of the Zen monks robes. Neither essay mentions sewing. It has now become popular with many western Zen Centers and/or centers run by American teachers in Japan.. It is however still not endorsed by the Japanese Sotoshu.

So there you have the complete history (more or less) of the sewing linage in Zen.

Zen and The Lay Practitioner

2010-10-24T22:15:00.000-07:00

       Ladies and Gentleman in this corner we have Sariputra a monk who we all know and love. He has appeared in countless Theravadin sutra’s and is best known for his bumbling comic repartee with the Buddha and friends. He has decided to appear in one of the first Mahayana sutras, never a good idea, were he will reprise his role as the guy who always gets it wrong. He represents Theravadin Buddhism in this play.

         Now in the other corner we have Vimalakīrti, appearing for the first time in his role as the ideal Mahayanist lay practitioner and a contemporary of Gautama Buddha. The first records of this play are believed to be from around 100 CE. It appears to have had a very short run in India but to have been extremely popular for centuries in China and later Japan. That’s right folks the “VIMALAKIRTI SUTRA” is in town.

       This play is surely the foundation of so much that we know and love in modern Zen Buddhism. Here we have a non-monastic so enlightened virtually every one but Buddha is intimidated by him. Vimalakirti kicks doctrinal rear literally working his way through the Buddhist pantheon with ease, and get this he isn’t a monk or an ascetic. So along with the foundational Mahayanist teachings he for the first time demonstrates that Lay Buddhist can be more than cash donors for Buddhist monks.

         Then to top it off this layman will now teach the Dharma of non duality. Yes Zen lovers here is that now famous scene:

("Salutation to the Sangha").

“Then the crown prince Manjusri said to the Licchavi Vimalakirti, "We have all given our own teachings, noble sir. Now, may you elucidate the teaching of the entrance into the principle of nonduality!"

Thereupon, the Licchavi Vimalakirti kept his silence, saying nothing at all.

The crown prince Manjusri applauded the Licchavi Vimalakirti: "Excellent! Excellent, noble sir! This is indeed the entrance into the nonduality of the bodhisattvas. Here there is no use for syllables, sounds, and ideas."

When these teachings had been declared, five thousand bodhisattvas entered the door of the Dharma of nonduality and attained tolerance of the birthlessness of things. “

              That’s right Zen lovers he expounds non duality by his “silence”. And what about our friend Sariputra who after arguing Dharma with a Goddess who has been crashing at Vimalakirti’s house is rendered, you got it absolutely silent. Well could anything be more Zen than that, I ask you, wait! No don’t answer that.

              Now can we have a round of applause for the prototypical Zen master of the 21st century? Vimalakirti is a Mahayanist, he is a layman, yes folks he has a job and pays rent. And what is this guy into, that’s right non duality as he sits around the house in silence. As for our Theravadin hero Sariputra, well he has been taught the value of keeping his mouth closed.
            Now I know I don’t sit as much as my teachers want, but I am a laymen and after all Dogen said if you sit for five minutes a day your Buddha five minutes a day, didn’t he? Well isn't it better to be Buddha for five minutes than not at all, but I digress.

You could say that Zen is the Vimalakirti school of Buddism, but if your really Zen, you won't say a word.

“The purpose of Zen Buddhism is to become deeply aware of the fact that the Buddha-nature is within and to develop it. When you sit in meditation with this realization or faith, the original enlightenment of the Buddha permeates your body and mind. Continued sitting perfects them. You are sitting in the same bodily position as the Buddha when he reached enlightenment, and you have the same Buddha-nature within you. Your mind cannot be separated from this sitting, and your meditation "becomes" that of the Buddha. Your life is like a diamond. Under the surface of the raw diamond is a precious jewel, but without polish it does not shine. The jewel is the Buddha-nature, and the polish is practice. The practice is both sitting in meditation and daily work.”    ---- Rev. Dr. Soyu Matsuoka, Roshi
                    January 12, 1964
©August 10, 2000 Zenkai Taiun Michael J. Elliston.

          We laymen are the past present and future of Zen, we always have been and always will be. So cheer up sensei, we can not lose.

We will sit.

Compassion

2010-10-24T16:50:00.000-07:00

             In a way I think we can say that ultimately we see the practice of Buddhism in all of its forms and schools as the practice and implementation of compassion. The ground of all Mahayana is wanting all sentient beings to be free from delusion and suffering. The skillful means to accomplish this is Buddhism.
              We insist that true compassion is based upon both logic and reason; by elevating it out of the mere emotional realm we can practice it despite the fact that people are often jerks and even sometimes monsters. We can accept our own deluded nature and that of others and not get “depressed” and thereby avoid falling into hopelessness. Therefore if you ask me how a Mahayana Buddhist implements compassion I must respond by implementing Buddhism in his life.
           We call logic and rationality combined with insight gained through meditation wisdom. Often wisdom and compassion seem to conflict. But Zen is paradox and of course paradox is Zen.
             To point you to a source for implementing compassion in Mahayana is asking me to point you to virtually everything that has been written on Mahayana because Mahayana is the great compassion. The best book I know on the paradox of practicing both compassion and wisdom is in French but here are some excerpts from it in English.

“Compassion is Mahayana, Mahayana is Compassion’, proclaims the Mahâparinirvâna Sutra. Compassion is the foundation or root of the entire Mahayana edifice. Vimalakîrti’s goddess says she is a Mahâyânist because she never abandons great compassion. It is the defining trait of the bodhisattva. The Abhidharmakosa-bhâsya tells us:

People without compassion and who think only of themselves find it hard to believe in the altruism of the bodhisattvas, but the compassionate believe in it easily. Do we not see that certain people, confirmed in the absence of pity, take pleasure in the suffering of others even when it is of no use to them? In the same way one must admit that the bodhisattvas, confirmed in compassion, take pleasure in doing good to others without any selfish design.”

From Ludovic Viévard’s book, Vacuité (sûnyatâ) et compassion (karunâ) dans le bouddhisme madhyamaka (Collège de France, 2002),

“One may say that ‘wisdom without compassion is empty, compassion without wisdom blind,’ but only rarely do Mahayana texts claim that compassion arises naturally from insight into emptiness. Compassion, directed actively to the welfare of all beings, seems to presuppose their real existence. It is based not on emptiness but on the ‘golden rule’ that treats the sufferings of others as equal to one’s own. Compassion gives a substantial presence to self and other, which wisdom would deny. There is no natural harmony between these two, for they go in opposite directions. Yet the essence of Mahayana lies in establishing the ultimate unity of compassion and wisdom. They are unified in practice in the figure of the bodhisattva, who move upward in wisdom and downward in compassion at the same time. The path to that unity is a difficult balancing act. ‘If one begins a career through wisdom, one will have to develop compassion, and vice versa the one who begins through compassion will have to purify it by wisdom’ (p. 17). Ludovic Viévard’s book, Vacuité (sûnyatâ) et compassion (karunâ) dans le bouddhisme madhyamaka (Collège de France, 2002),

Ludovic Viévard’s book, Vacuité (sûnyatâ) et compassion (karunâ) dans le bouddhisme madhyamaka (Collège de France, 2002),

Compassion extends first to beings, then to all dharmas, then it becomes objectless. The Buddha’s’ objectless compassion radiates spontaneously. It has become their very being. ‘Compassion is truly gratuitous and evident only for the Buddha’s and the great bodhisattvas, when it no longer has an object. The others are still tainted with views of me and mine, and thus prisoners of an egocentric vision… The great bodhisattvas and the Buddha’s practice a natural, “radiant” compassion without object (anâlambana-karunâ), which, says É. Lamotte, “acts mechanically”’ (p. 175).

Ludovic Viévard

Here the ultimate reality of compassion is defined as without object. Therefore compassion starts on the mundane level and becomes something different as we progress. But is in fact your wife not asking how can wisdom, i.e. Emptiness and Compassion be seen as compatible. Do they not logically oppose one another?

“For all who have not attained the objectless compassion of a Buddha, compassion, in practice, involves a descent from the heights of wisdom and a compromise with the dodgy realm of conventionality. Compassion accepts a certain residual bondage to the fleshly samsaric world in order to work toward a greater enlightenment, surpassing mere individual liberation. Bodhisattvas advance not by eventually abandoning compassion, as an entanglement with merely conventional beings, but by deepening it and applying to it the wisdom of emptiness at every step. “

Ludovic Viévard

“In essence the Madhyamaka see this conflict as merely illusory and say it has reality only for the ignorant and in convention and suggest Long meditation on the non-duality of wisdom and compassion as a practical project can perhaps prepare us to make better sense of the of an ultimate non-duality.”

Buddha -- news

2010-10-19T23:10:00.000-07:00

One must be fair and one should admit that even Buddhism has its problems.
We western Buddhist often like to think of ourselves and Buddhism as so superior and aloof. I am feeling playful tonight so I thought I would post some news items from Buddhist countries.

– Buddhist Monks Held Over Tax Scam (AAP/ReligionNewsBlog; July 5, 2007)

Four South Korean Buddhist monks have been arrested for their part in an income tax scam involving the sale of fake donation receipts, a report said. The temple chiefs in the southwestern city of Gwangju were detained on Monday, the JoongAng Daily said.The scheme aimed to help 2,570 workers evade a total of $2.1 billion won ($2.28 million) in tax in 2005-2006, the paper said. Donations to charities, schools and religious organizations are tax-deductible up to a certain amount. Some monks even distributed pamphlets advertising the fake donation service, prosecutors were quoted as saying. “These temples were businesses selling fake receipts rather than religious organizations,” said prosecutor Jo Myeong-Sun. The finance ministry said it plans to crack down on the racket, including tougher punishment for offenders.

—– Experts Claim Buddha Tooth Relic In Singapore Temple Actually Came From An Animal (The Nation/The Buddhist Channel; July 15, 2007)

SINGAPORE: Dental experts have raised doubts over the authenticity of a purported Buddha’s tooth in a Singapore temple, claiming it could not have come from any human being, The Sunday Times reported.
More than 60,000 donors poured 45 million Singapore dollars (29 million US dollars) and 27 kilograms of gold into the four-storey building where the tooth, said to be one of Buddha’s molars, is kept in a 3.6-metre-high stupa made of gold. “There is absolutely no possibility that it is a human tooth,” Dr Pamela Craig, a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne’s school of dental science, was quoted as saying.
After examining photographs, Craig said it probably came from a cow or water buffalo.Human teeth should be rounded with a short crown and a comparatively longer root, but the picture clearly shows a long crown and a shorter root, she noted.“Looking at a photo is clear enough, because it’s so obvious that it’s not a human tooth,” she said. “It’s like comparing a pear and an apple.”Four other dentists, including two forensic dental experts, said the tooth could not have come from a human. “This is an animal cheek tooth – that is, a molar at the back of the mouth,” Professor David Whittaker at Cardiff University in Britain told the newspaper. The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Singapore’s Chinatown said that the tooth was discovered by a monk in 1980 in Myanmar (Burma). He gave it to Venerable Shi Fazhao, the temple’s abbot, in 2002.
The public is allowed to see the tooth twice a year, on Buddha’s birthday and the first day of the Chinese New Year.“To me, it has always been real, and I have never questioned its authenticity,” Venerable Shi Fazhao told the newspaper. As for the assessments of the dental experts, he said: “I don’t care what they say. If you believe it’s real, then it’s real.” The temple dismissed the suggestion of conducting DNA tests on its relic. “It is unlikely that any Buddhist temple or its devotees will agree to subject any sacred Buddha tooth or relic to such a test,” the temple said in a statement.

—– Taiwanese Monk Jailed For Sexually Abusing Pupils (AFP/The Buddhist Channel; July 28, 2007)

TAIPEI, Taiwan: A monk has been jailed for eleven-and-a-half years for sexually abusing eight boys, a court official said yesterday, bringing an end to the long-running scandal. Shih Chih-hao, who ran a Buddhist academy in Taipei County, was found guilty of molesting and sexually assaulting the boys, all under 14 years old, said Wen Yao-yuan, spokesman for the Taiwan High Court. The scandal erupted in 2000 when police began investigating allegations by some 25 pupils at the academy — a shelter for abused, runaway and impoverished boys — that they were sexually abused by Shih. The boys reportedly said they were molested by Shih during meditation sessions or forced to have sex with him while they were taking baths. In 2002 the Taipei District Court sentenced Shih to 12 years in jail. He appealed the ruling to the High Court, which upheld the previous verdict in 2004. Shih, who claimed innocence, later appealed to the Supreme Court which ordered a new trial. The High Court on Thursday handed down a guilty verdict, but reduced the prison term to 11 years and six months plus mandatory therapy. The 43-year-old monk first caught public attention when he took his pupils to a graveyard and told them to sit on tombs and meditate to overcome their fear of death. The Buddhist academy, which had sheltered some 30 boys since its opening in 1999, was shut down after the scandal came to light.

—– Factional Feud Deepens In Buddhist Groups (Kim Tae-jong/The Korea Times/The Buddhist Channel; Sept 3, 2007)

SEOUL, South Korea: The diploma forgery scandal of a university professor has initiated a factional feud between Buddhist groups. The strife came as some Buddhist groups argued over the controversial appointment of Shin Jeong-ah as a professor at Dongguk University, and has revealed deep-rooted areas of conflict that exist between the nation’s Buddhist sects. Eight Buddhist groups Monday urged Buddhist leaders to take action to deal with the scandalous issue. “We are in a total crisis,” a representative from the groups said Monday during a news conference at the Jogye Temple in Jongno, downtown Seoul. “We now urge Buddhist leaders to take responsibility for the scandal and clarify all the allegations.” The move came after a series of scandals in Buddhist circles such as the appointment of Shin, dispute over the appointment of the head monk at Jeju Gwaneum Temple and embezzlement by the head monk of Baekdam Temple.
The eight Buddhist groups include Buddhist Solidarity for Reform, Korea Youth Buddhist Association and Buddhist Environmental Solidarity. But the appointment has spawned speculation that high-profile Buddhist leaders were involved in the scandal as Shin was hired at the university, which has a Buddhist foundation. The matter is developing into factional feud between mainstream and non-mainstream Buddhist groups.
On Aug. 31, Muryanghoe, a monk’s group which belongs to the nation’s biggest Buddhist sect, the Jogye Order, called for the dismissal of all the board directors of Dongguk University Foundation for their responsibility over Shin’s scandal. But the action is allegedly part of the Jogye Order’s attack on Borimhoe and Geumganghoe, two mainstream groups in the university’s foundation. The allegation is raised that the Jogye Order had Ven. Jang Yoon serve as a board director of the university’s foundation to have an influence on the university; but when the attempt to exercise influence failed, he disclosed the scandal over Shin’s appointment. Ven. Jang Yoon, who first raised the suspicion about Shin’s educational background, belongs to the group and also serves as a board director of the university’s foundation….
The involvement of Buddhist sects in the bogus diploma scandal will be clarified after the interrogation of Hong Ki-sam, the former president of the university. The prosecution will summon him for interrogation over questions about how Shin was appointed despite opposition based on the authenticity of her diplomas….

—– Buddhist Priest Stole $1.5 Million (Japan Times; Nov 30, 2007)

KYOTO: Police arrested an unfrocked Buddhist priest Thursday on suspicion of embezzling about 150 million yen [about $1.5 million US] from the Kyoto headquarters of the Jodo Shu sect.
Yoshifumi Kuwao, 52, is suspected of withdrawing the money from the Buddhist faction’s bank account on about 30 occasions from January 2003 to September 2004 and pocketing it while he was in charge of treasury affairs at the headquarters, police said. Kuwao has owned up to the allegations, they said.
Police sources said Kuwao is believed to have used most of the funds to invest in futures trading.

—– Scandal Gnaws At Buddha’s Holy Tree In India (Reuters/ReligiousNewsBlog; Feb 3, 2008)

BODH GAYA, India: Tales of corruption, looting and religious rivalry are swirling around the spot where Buddha is said to have gained enlightenment in eastern India some 2,500 years ago, sullying one of Buddhism’s holiest sites. Buddhist scriptures describe it as the “Navel of the Earth,” and 100,000 pilgrims and tourists visit every year, packing the town of Bodh Gaya in Bihar state and its Mahabodhi Temple.
An ancient pipal tree, Ficus religiosa or sacred fig, grows at the back of the temple, said to be a descendent of the one Buddha sat under for three days and nights in the sixth century BC, before finding the answers he sought under a full moon. But with the tourists and pilgrims comes money, and with the money has come mounting charges of less than saintly behavior. Priests and monks allege that thousands of dollars in temple donations have mysteriously vanished, that a thick branch of the ancient holy Bodhi tree was lopped off and sold in Thailand in 2006, and that ancient relics have disappeared. Hindus also revere the site and it is a Hindu monk, Arup Brahmachari, who is leading a campaign to expose the wrongdoing. “I am not fighting as a Hindu, I am fighting because I love God,” he said. “Buddha was a son of God, and someone is misbehaving with his property.” Many Hindus accept Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu. The temple land has been owned by a nearby Hindu monastery for centuries, and the temple is managed by a committee where Hindus retain a majority over Buddhists. But representatives of both religions stand accused.
Charges have been brought against the powerful former secretary of the Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee, a Hindu, as well as the committee’s former public relations officer and the former Buddhist chief priest of the temple. A police report obtained by Reuters accuses the three men of “nefarious activities” and asks for their private wealth to be investigated. Witnesses questioned by police said the priest had ordered an employee to cut off “substantial parts” of the tree and take them to his home. The trio were also accused of selling off fallen leaves to pilgrims and pocketing the proceeds….
“They sent the branch to Thailand, and sold it for 6 crore (60 million) rupees ($1.5 million),” he [Brahmachari] said, adding he had been beaten up twice and had received several death threats since starting his campaign. The government, he said, was simply not interested. “Nobody is listening. I am fed up of writing letters.” But he is not alone in his anger, joined by Buddhist priests running many of the other temples and monasteries which have sprung up in Bodh Gaya. Although its accounts are audited, the priests complain the temple does nothing to support local schools and hospitals, despite having a substantial income.
“Money is coming in, but where the money is going nobody knows,” said Bhante Pragyadeep, treasurer of the Buddhist Monks Association of India. District magistrate Jitendra Srivastava has been running the temple committee since the scandal surfaced and the last committee’s term expired. “All secretaries have been embroiled in controversy,” he said. “It is very unfortunate.”…

—– Monk Indicted For Document Forgery (Kim Tae-jong/The Korea Times/The Buddhist Channel; Feb 26, 2008)

SEOUL, South Korea: The prosecution Tuesday indicted without physical detention the head of a Buddhist sect for forging documents to get billions of won in government subsidies. Ven. Woonsan, head of the Taego Order of Korean Buddhism, received 6 billion won [about $4.5 million US] from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as a subsidy for the construction of a new temple in 2005. Prosecutors found he manipulated the sect’s bank balance to apply for the subsidy, a prosecutor said. According to the related law, the government can provide a religious leader with half of the construction costs a new building to be used for religious purposes as a subsidy. One of the requirements for this, however, is that the religious group should be able to afford half of the construction cost with their own funds. Ven. Woonsan allegedly increased his balance to 60 billion by temporarily putting money from members of the sect into the account. He admitted putting money from sect members into the account to be eligible for the program and withdrawing it after receiving the subsidy. “It was just to meet our share in the construction cost,” an official from the sect said. “But it was just a temporary move and right after we received the subsidy, we managed to save the half of it by ourselves and put it into the account. There was no embezzlement or anything.” The Buddhist monk is also suspected of manipulating the construction budget. Prosecutors said that the total cost was estimated at around 10.2 billion won but the Buddhist sect claimed 12.3 billion won to get extra money. The official from the Buddhist sect denounced the suspicion, citing that the extra money was calculated for the construction of the interior of the new temple and other small projects.

—– Buddhist Sect, Woman Reach Settlement Over “Purification” Sex Assault By Priest (Mainichi Daily News/Religion News Blog; March 30, 2008)

CHIBA, Japan: A woman has received a 1 million yen [about $10,000 US] payout from a Buddhist priest who indecently assaulted her during what he called a “purification ritual” in a settlement mediated by the Chiba District Court. The 36-year-old woman received the cash payment from the 75-year-old former head priest of the Komeizan Saizenji Temple in Isumi, Chiba Prefecture. In return she dropped a lawsuit she had filed against the priest and the Tendai Buddhist sect to which he belongs. “He has resigned as head priest and has repented, so we decided to come to a settlement,” the woman’s lawyer said. Tendai officials were unavailable to comment on the case. On four different occasions from December 2005 to May 2006, the old priest performed indecent acts on the woman, using the excuse of her needing to undergo purification to rid her body of eczema that was plaguing it and feeling her up. In May last year, the woman sued both the priest and the Tendai sect, seeking 7 million yen in compensation. The priest resigned on Jan. 31. The woman agreed to end her litigation against Tendai as part of the settlement.

—– Buddhist Monk “Confesses” To Rape Of British Tourist; Just The Latest Scandal In A Series (Thomas Bell/The Telegraph; Nov 19, 2008)

BATTAMBANG, Cambodia: According to police the 39-year-old victim was trembling with fear when she reached the police station to report the attack on Tuesday afternoon. The monk, 17-year-old Thorn Sophoan, was immediately arrested and defrocked. Police said that he has confessed to the crime.
“While the monk was guiding the British woman to see caves on the top of Phnom Sam Pov mountain, he raped her,” the local police chief Mey Chhengly said. The victim reportedly told the monk that she did not want a guide but he insisted on following her anyway. The attack took place in Battambang province in the north west of Cambodia. The victim’s right leg was injured as she attempted to fight off her attacker, who also stole her money, camera and mobile telephone. Buddhist monks in Cambodia are frequently accused of sexual assaults. This week two other monks were arrested for allegedly raping two teenagers in a school classroom. In January a monk was arrested for allegedly molesting an 8-year-old French girl at the famous Angkor ruins and in August a monk was arrested and defrocked after being accused of the rape and murder of a 10-year-old child. There is also a problem with fake monks, who police say deceive the public into giving alms or disguise themselves as holy men before committing crimes such as armed robbery.
“Buddhism educates monks to have physical, verbal and mental purity,” said Nun Nget, supreme patriarch of the Mohanikaya Buddhist sect in Cambodia. “(Such crimes) heavily affect our religion, which is why it is necessary to defrock bad monks.” Thorn Sophoan had been a monk for only a few days month before he was arrested. Many young Cambodians become monks for short periods of time without necessarily devoting their lives to the clergy. They could be briefly ordained to show gratitude to their parents, honour a dead relative, or study Buddhism.

—– Buddhist Clerics In Bangladesh Take Christians Captive (OneNewsNow; Dec 20, 2008)

DHAKA, Bangladesh: Buddhist clerics and local council officials are holding 13 newly converted Christians captive in a pagoda in a southeastern mountainous district of Bangladesh in an attempt to forcibly return them to Buddhism. A spokesman for the Parbatta Adivasi (Hill Tract) Christian Church told Compass on condition of anonymity that “the plight of the Christians is horrifying.” Local government council officials in Jorachuri sub-district in Rangamati district, some 300 kilometers (186 miles) southeast of Dhaka, are helping the Buddhist monks to hold the Christians against their will, he said. “The 13 tribal Christians were taken forcefully to a pagoda on Dec. 10 to accept Buddhism against their will,” he said. “They will be kept in a pagoda for 10 days to perform the rituals to be Buddhists – their heads were shaved, and they were given yellow saffron robes to dress in.”   All the captive Christians are men between 28 and 52 years old, he said. They became Christians around four months ago at various times in the country, which has a Buddhist population of 0.7 percent. Muslims make up nearly 90 percent of the Bangladeshi population, with Hindus accounting for about 9 percent, according to government figures.   According to the source, two Buddhist clerics, Pronoyon Chakma and Jianoprio Vikku, and two local council members, Vira Chakma and Rubichandra Chakma, were behind the anti-Christian activities along with nine other Buddhist leaders.
“It’s the first time they have taken 13 Christians to the pagoda to make them Buddhist – this is how they plan to make Buddhists of all the converted Christians in that area,” he said. “The pagoda has little capacity to accommodate them; otherwise they would hold captive more than 13 people.”…
In another mountainous neighborhood in the Khaokhali area near Jorachuri, about 50 recently converted Christians have been cut off from all communications. They are barred from going to Rangamati town and are living in isolation. “Those captors and other influential Buddhists leaders are threatening other converted Christians that they will face the same consequences as the 13 captives are facing,” the source said. “They are warning us, ‘All of you should be reconverted to Buddhism in the same way.’”…

—– Singapore Monk Shuns Middle Path For Fast Lane (Thaindian News/DPA; April 19, 2009)

Singapore’s top Buddhist monk has lived a lavish lifestyle with name branded goods and nine gold credit cards, according to a report in the Sunday Times. “We are living in a modern world,” the newspaper quoted monk Ming Yi as telling auditors and police during an investigation into a charity hospital that he had headed.
The report said Ming Yi was a high-end shopper who spent on brands like Louis Vuitton and Montblanc, and had given three supplementary credit cards to his friends including a monk based in Hong Kong.
“A lot of religious people, not only myself, are very different now,” he was reported as saying.
The 47-year old former chief executive officer of a charity-run hospital is under investigation for making an unauthorised loan of 50,000 Singapore dollars to a friend. The loan is also subject of a court case.
Ming Yi’s choice of hotels included five-star St Regis, The Regent, Four Seasons and Banyan Tree, the report said. But he stressed to police that his profligate spending was legal, being paid for out of the red packets, or “hong bao”, a traditional Chinese way of giving gifts, he had received from devotees. “I always don’t look upon money as important,” Ming Yi said. “What I can, I spend and that’s it; what I don’t have, I don’t spend.”

Thailand - Buddha is not smiling - 2010:

In Thailand until now, to criticize the Buddhist clergy was to reap bad karma. Few dared to do so until last year when the laughable sexual antics of Phra Yantra Amaro Bikku were exposed. Probably Thailand's best-known monk, Phra Yantra counted among his 150,000 devotees cabinet ministers, princesses and an MP who swore by the curative effects of drinking the monk's urine. But it emerged last year that when Phra Yantra was supposed to be meditating in the wilderness of New Zealand, he was sneaking off to the massage parlors of Auckland. The ladies there nicknamed him "Batman" since he refused to remove his monk's robes during sex. He also made one of his followers pregnant and made love to a nun on the icy deck of a ferry going to Finland.

After Phra Yantra was defrocked and disgraced last April by the country's religious leader, the Supreme Patriarch, it set off a chain reaction of scandals that tarnished Thai Buddhism's sanctity. A venerated abbot in a northern monastery was accused of raping six hill-tribe girls, aged between 12 and 16. Next came the grisly incident in which a monk was arrested for "barbecuing" a still-born baby to extract oil for love potions. Then, another monk was charged with raping a 14-year-old girl; during his first assault he recorded her cries and tried to use the tape to blackmail her into having sex with him again. Most recently, six monks were charged with murdering a fellow monk. Some Thais are repelled by the avidity with which the media has revealed the clergy's seamy side, while reformers claim that it is time to cleanse the monasteries.

Belatedly, the Thai Buddhist clergy is realising that monks can no longer stand aloof from samsara, the Buddhist term for worldly cravings. For centuries, the Buddhist laity in Thailand have pretended that monastic life was pure and simple, above reproach. But the proof otherwise cannot be ignored. Some monasteries have opened up drug detoxification centres. The Supreme Patriarch has also set up a new school at which senior abbots can be taught how to reform errant monks.

This has all come too late for the young Cheshire woman who went to Kanchanaburi's caves for a glimpse of Buddhism's gentle promise. When Miss Masheder did not return to Cheshire in time for Christmas, her parents, Stuart and Jackie, both 49, flew to Thailand to search for her. Desperate, they looked everywhere, stopping sun-bathers in the Thai beach resorts to show them a photograph of their missing daughter. Their last snapshot of her was taken a few days before she was murdered, while she was enjoying an elephant- trek in the jungles of Chiang Mai. The Masheders also placed photographs of Jo in the Thai newspapers, and the woman's friend - the English teacher she refers to in her diary - recognised it and called the police. They found her hired bicycle still parked at Yodchart's monastery. A search of the monastery's rooms and the temple grounds turned up her charred passport, diary and air ticket back home.

Cat Banned From Visiting Buddhist Bank Robber In Jail
(Allan Hall/The Telegraph; Nov 3)

       Peter Keonig, 46, is serving five-years for armed robberies in Werl, Germany. He went to court this week demanding the right for his cat Gisela to be allowed to visit him in jail “because she is my dead mum”. Buddhists believe that people come back as other animals after death. He said: “I know it is mummy. She looks after me just the way she did. I need to see her like other prisoners see their wives and children.”
          But the court turned him down. “While we respect the religious freedom of individuals, the accused has not been able to furnish proof that his deceased mother has been reborn in a cat. Therefore, the request for visiting rights for the feline is rejected.”

The court did say he would be allowed to write to the cat.

So there you go -- we are more or less just like everyone else -- what a suprise.

Happiness

2010-10-14T15:17:00.000-07:00

One of my most precious memories of my daughter is from her childhood. It was a cold winter’s day and I had taken her to the play ground of the school down the street from our home. She had been cooped up for a couple days due to the cold. We had the place to ourselves so I just sat down on a swing and told her to have fun. She turned her nose up at the swings and teeter totters and simply ran up and down the play ground her eyes half closed with a look of such happiness on her face. I took this photo in the park the other day because these little girls seemed to be having the same experience as my daughter had that day.

In 2008 4,000 books were published on happiness, while a mere 50 books on the topic were released in 2000. The most popular class at Harvard University is about positive psychology, and at least 100 other universities offer similar courses. Happiness workshops for the post-collegiate set abound, and each day "life coaches" promising bliss to potential clients hang out their shingles.

"If we were to ask the question: "What is human life’s chief concern?" one of the answers we should receive would be: "It is happiness." How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness, is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure. The hedonistic school in ethics deduces the moral life wholly from the experiences of happiness and unhappiness which different kinds of conduct bring; and, even more in the religious life than in the moral life, happiness and unhappiness seem to be the poles round which the interest revolves. "

From "The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature by William James, 1902"

So what dose the science of the twenty first century know about happiness?

"Some researchers, such as David T. Lykken, have found that about 50% of one's happiness depends on one's genes, based on studying identical twins, whose happiness is 50% correlated even when growing up in different houses. About 10% to 15% is a result of various measurable life circumstances variables, such as socioeconomic status, marital status, health, income, sex and others. The remaining 40% is a combination of unknown factors and the results of actions that individuals deliberately engage in to become happier. These actions may vary between persons; extroverts, for example, may benefit from placing themselves in situations involving large amounts of human interaction. Also, exercise has been shown to increase one's level of momentary subjective well-being significantly"

From Psychology Today

So there we have it the great plague of the modern age is unhappiness. The great hunt of the modern age is the hunt for happiness. Thousands claim to have the cure for unhappiness; billions of dollars are being spent in the quest for happiness.

If there is one truth I have learned about happiness and the search for happiness it is that it never what you think it is. It is not bliss and it is not the zillion things that we are all told will make us happy. I like happy people; the sexiest women are the ones that are exuding happiness. Happiness sneaks up on you and then laughs in your face. If there is one word I would use to describe happiness it would be "mystical".

"The words "mysticism" and "mystical" are often used as terms of mere reproach, to throw at any opinion which we regard as vague and vast and sentimental, and without a base in either facts or logic. For some writers a "mystic" is any person who believes in thought-transference, or spirit-return. Employed in this way the word has little value: there are too many less ambiguous synonyms. So, to keep it useful by restricting it, I will do what I did in the case of the word "religion," and simply propose to you four marks which, when an experience has them, may justify us in calling it mystical for the purpose of the present lectures. In this way we shall save verbal disputation, and the recriminations that generally go therewith.

1. Ineffability.-- The handiest of the marks by which I classify a state of mind as mystical is negative. The subject of it immediately says that it defies expression, that no adequate report of its contents can be given in words. It follows from this that its quality must be directly experienced; it cannot be imparted or transferred to others. In this peculiarity mystical states are more like states of feeling than like states of intellect. No one can make clear to another who has never had a certain feeling, in what the quality or worth of it consists. One must have musical ears to know the value of a symphony; one must have been in love one’s self to understand a lover’s state of mind. Lacking the heart or ear, we cannot interpret the musician or the lover justly, and are even likely to consider him weak-minded or absurd. The mystic finds that most of us accord to his experiences an equally incompetent treatment.
2. Noetic quality. -- Although so similar to states of feeling, mystical states seem to those who experience them to be also states of knowledge. They are states of insight into depths of truth unplumbed by the discursive intellect. They are illuminations, revelations, full of significance and importance, all inarticulate though they remain; and as a rule they carry with them a curious sense of authority for after-time.

These two characters will entitle any state to be called mystical, in the sense in which I use the word. Two other qualities are less sharply marked, but are usually found. These are:--

3. Transiency. -- Mystical states cannot be sustained for long. Except in rare instances, half an hour, or at most an hour or two, seems to be the limit beyond which they fade into the light of common day. Often, when faded, their quality can but imperfectly be reproduced in memory; but when they recur it is recognized; and from one recurrence to another it is susceptible of continuous development in what is felt as inner richness and importance.
4. Passivity. -- Although the oncoming of mystical states may be facilitated by preliminary voluntary operations, as by fixing the attention, or going through certain bodily performances, or in other ways which manuals of mysticism prescribe; yet when the characteristic sort of consciousness once has set in, the mystic feels as if his own will were in abeyance, and indeed sometimes as if he were grasped and held by a superior power. This latter peculiarity connects mystical states with certain definite phenomena of secondary or alternative personality, such as prophetic speech, automatic writing, or the mediumistic trance. When these latter conditions are well pronounced, however, there may be no recollection whatever of the phenomenon and it may have no significance for the subject’s usual inner life, to which, as it were, it makes a mere interruption. Mystical states, strictly so called, are never merely interruptive. Some memory of their content always remains, and a profound sense of their importance. They modify the inner life of the subject between the times of their recurrence. Sharp divisions in this region are, however, difficult to make, and we find all sorts of gradations and mixtures."
From "The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature by William James, 1902"

The true mystic is the one who has and or can produce this most elusive of states we call happiness.

Here is hoping we all find the answer to this great mystery.

The Promise of Buddhism

2010-09-29T16:19:00.000-07:00

I was reading Brad Warner’s blog today which ended with:

“One of the people I met at Tassajara and talked to about this stuff had been involved in promoting spiritual masters before. He told me the secret was to include what he called a "promise." You have to tell folks they're gonna get something of value from coming to your talk or seminar. That's a tough one for me because I'm so steeped in the "Zen is good for nothing" tradition established by Sawaki Roshi. So maybe I'm screwed.”

           It seems Brad is dealing with the same problem many traditional Buddhist teachers have, how to pay the bills. This started me thinking about just what, if anything is it that Buddha did promise. After a lot of looking over my books and considering all the teachings I have more or less absorbed for the last few decades I came up with a list of things that Buddhist teachers past and present seem to be saying Buddhism promises. The list is not necessarily in any specific order.

1. The promise to alleviate suffering, both in your life and in others lives. This is what I call the promise of the four noble truths and the eightfold path.

2. The Promise to provide a path to break free of the cycle of rebirth. This promise seems to be more or less meaningless in the twenty-first century as few people today, even those who claim to accept this theory, seem concerned with it.

3. The promise that everyone without exception has the potential to become a Buddha. (This may or may not be the same as promise number 4.)

4. The promise of enlightenment, of the attainment of nirvana, of becoming a perfected person. The promise of attaining spiritual fulfillment.

5. Today the promise that many of the esoteric schools are pushing and pushing hard is the promise of “Happiness”.

6. In Pure land Buddhism we must add the promise of heaven. A Pure Land you are reborn in after you die.

7. In contemporary Nichiren Buddhism we can add the promise of worldly success. Please don’t argue here I have been to the meetings and heard what is said.

                Now most ethical Zen teachers in America and in the west don’t promise any of these things. The teaching of Zen is clear “Zen is good for nothing” it makes no promises. Of course some so called Zen teachers have jumped off the reservation and started “Big Mind” groups and such and are thereby racking in the cash.
                  Many so called spiritual teachers have simply taken Buddhism and Zen, stripped off the name and cranked up the marketing and the promises and they two are reaping the rewards. Eckhart Tolle Takes basic Buddhist teachings and adds a little Christian mysticism and says he teaches the transformation of consciousness and the arising of a more enlightened humanity. Along the way he rakes in the millions.
                  In Japan Buddhism has become so stifled and shop worn that most Japanese simply say “Buddhist temples . . . are for sightseeing. They have no commitment to the modern world, and their teachings are outdated.” So literally thousands join so called new religions , loosely based on Buddhism. Kōfuku-no-Kagaku? is a new religious and spiritual movement founded in Japan in October 1986 by Ryuho Okawa. In February 2008, the official English name for the group was changed from the Romanized Japanese Kofuku-no-Kagaku to the English rendering "Happy Science". Happy fricking science … and it has thousands of followers and is raking in billions of dollars world wide.
          The research firm Marketdata estimated the "self-improvement" market in the U.S. as worth more than $9 billion in 2006 — including infomercials, mail-order catalogs, holistic institutes, books, audio cassettes, motivation-speaker seminars, the personal coaching market, weight-loss and stress-management programs. Marketdata projected that the total market size would grow to over $11 billion by 2008. Leading The pack are the spiritual leaders and gurus teaching Zen and Buddhist teachings and adding the standard self help promise :

“You Can Change Your Life!” A Program To Reinvent Yourself Start Today For A New Tomorrow. Send cash check or money order."

              Buddha was a self help guru, and a spiritual teacher of his time. People gave him gardens and parks for him to sleep and teach in and he accepted a few of these gifts. I am sure they also offered him great riches. The thing was he wouldn’t and didn’t take them. One basic element of Buddha’s teaching you simply won’t find in “Happy Science” or. “Eckhart Tolle ‘s” teachings is renunciation. Just as Christ told the rich man if he wanted to be a perfected person to sell all he had and follow him, Buddha said to renounce your lust for the wealth of this world if you want real happiness.
                As recently as last week I heard that eternal phrase repeated “I just want to be Happy.” The problem is most folks, not even most contemporary Zen teachers have come to terms with the essence of the reality of Samsara and Buddha’s teachings. Today both Buddha and Christ would be considered homeless wandering bums. As time passed and Giant Churches and Temples were built by Popes and Kings this fact seems to have become in substantial.
               To be fair many a Christian and Buddhist monk and laymen have over the years been true to this fact. But nonetheless the majority has always ignored it. The secret to this teaching of course is not to really care, one way or the other. If you teach in a giant televised internet connected Temple in front of thousands or under a tree in some park, the real transformation is that you really don’t care. That’s the trick, and it is a hard one.
             Buddha said to live without hate among the hateful, live without domination of the passions among those who are dominated by the passions, Live without yearning for sensual pleasures among those who yearn for sensual pleasures, live without being impeded by the Three Poisons of craving, anger and ignorance. He taught that we must give up thoughts of winning or losing. Happiness is accomplished by subjugating the passions and to try and not buddy up with the foolish but rather to hang out with the wise and to accept our Karma with the simple courage that all these things bring.
                   He said he knew a path to follow that would help us lower the pain level and make life easier to bear. But he didn’t even Promise it would work for everyone really. From my years of study I believe he made no promises he said simply “try this and see if it works for you.” I can see him as a man watching idiots jumping off a cliff day after day, and one day saying to them I found a path along the cliff face, give it a try. This is very helpful information, not a promise.
                  The reason why there are billions of dollars to be made in making spiritual promises is because so many people are suffering in spirit and this suffering can not be eased by material things. No new electronic gizmo is going to ease this pain and no amount of sex, drugs, and rock and roll will cure it. Those that are suffering want to believe someone out there can make it stop. The sad thing is they will pay millions to hear the promises, but almost never to hear the simple truth. There simply is no money to be made in teaching people the truth.
         So all you ethical Zen teachers out there must follow the Buddhist tradition that takes the form of accepting one’s karma. The odds are you are going to be poor, or your going to succumb to the self delusion that any means of seduction used to lead people toward virtue is acceptable. Many Buddhist teachers and schools have given up and are making those wonderful promises of happiness, enlightenment worldly prosperity, a utopian society, worldly wealth and a heaven or “pure land” after death. But in the end of course the choice and the fruits of that karma are all yours to make and have.

I don’t know why, but I seem to smell sulfur and brimestone in the room, or is it just my imagination.

"Everything flows”

2010-09-20T19:34:00.000-07:00

          I was sitting in a bar in Assos , I think it was the summer of 472 BC. , they had just completed the temple of Athena up on the hill above the city and everyone was celebrating. Assos was the major port and trade city of Mysia , so every body that was anybody was there for the opening of the Temple.
          I usually don’t pay attention to arguments in bars but it was Greece and you know how they love to argue. There was this little guy named Heraclitus of Ephesus, who had had a few and was waxing morose about the nature of the world. He stood up at his table and shouted Ta Panta rhei,! "Everything flows”. We all laughed as we thought it was his cute way of ordering another beer. But you know these dam Greeks..
           The guy just can’t shut up his focus shifts continually between two perspectives – the objective and everlasting processes of nature on the one hand and ordinary human beliefs and values on the other. He challenges everyone in the bar to come to terms, theoretically and practically, with the fact that they are living in a world 'that no god or human has made', a world he describes as 'an ever-living fire kindling in measures and going out in measures'. His great truth he claims is that 'All things are one', but this unity, far from excluding difference, opposition and change, actually depends on them, since the universe is in a continuous state of dynamic equilibrium. Day and night, up and down, living and dying, heating and cooling – such pairings of apparent opposites all conform to the everlastingly rational formula (logos) that unity consists of opposites; remove day, and night goes too, just as a river will lose its identity if it ceases to flow. He then shouts at the top of his lungs, "You cannot step twice into the same river!”
           Just then a tall lanky looking guy with a turban stands up, I think he said his name was Siddhartha Gautama and grabs this guy Heraclitus by the toga and starts shouting about how Heraclitus was ripping off his stuff and how there were copyright laws and such. Heraclitus takes a swing at the guy and I find myself in a bar fight in the only place in the world were a couple of drunk philosophers could cause a riot. Just as its getting good this guy Ananda who was drinking with the tall guy jumps up and breaks up the fight just after the guy from up north lands a sound one on Heraclitus’s jaw.
           Times being what they were I decided to take the guy from Nepal’s case and off we go to see the magistrate. All in all I think I did a good job, in the end the only thing left published by Heraclitus and his work consisted of little more than 100 epigrammatic sentences. Mean while I got his cousin, we decide on the pen name “Buddha“ for the tall guy,  Ananda unlimited publishing rights for the next 2500 years. Not Bad for a country lawyer if I do say so myself.

***********************
Heraclitus of Ephesus
Greek Philosopher   540–480 BC
(Asia Minor)

Siddhartha Gautama
563-483 BC

Lumbini in the small kingdom or principality of Kapilvastu,

both of which are in modern day Nepal

Hay, it could happen...

Ancient Wisdom

2010-09-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

                    When I was about six years old I visited my great aunt on her place in Mississippi. Her name was Nora and she lived in an old colonial mansion set off of the side of the road in rural Tippah County , about 10 miles out from the small town of Ripley Mississippi. She was a self made women who had made her small fortune by being the only trained hair dresser in the county for many years. I was told that in the 1920’s women would ride all day in a wagon just to come and have her “do” their hair. For me her home was like a fantasy land. She had horses and cows, chickens and turkeys that just wandered between the giant oaks around her house. She had rabbits in hutch’s by the well house and out by the tumbled down slave cabins behind the mansion she had half a dozen bee hives. She loved flowers and had the front of the mansion converted into a hot house so she could grow her flowers year round. I will forever remember her wonderful humor and almost pixie like laughter. She lived to be ninety nine, I remember my father throwing a fit when she sold the place at 60, giving the buyer a 20 year mortgage which she herself financed, and she collected every payment.
        But there was something in her home that baffled and bewildered me. I was lead into a small room, little more than 20 feet square. I remember the room was hot and humid almost like a steam room. There in that room lay an old man in a small caste iron bed. His hair was solid white and his face was brown and cracked almost like old saddle leather. I remember him reaching out to me with hands with long emaciated fingers and stroking me on my head. Frankly it was very scary.
         My Aunt told me to say hello to my great grand father. This I was told was my father’s grand father. His face was chiseled and his nose looked like a bird’s beak but despite that I could see my dad in his face. I had never met a great grand father, didn’t know until that day I had one still living. For that matter I had never met my father’s father, I would not meet him until I was sixteen years old. He had abandoned my father and his mother during the great depression and no one knew were he was until he was located by my uncle years later.
        I spent a few minutes letting my great grandfather talk to me and stroke my head; I have no idea what he said I was too freaked out to hear him. He died a few weeks later and I never saw him again. I have one small ancient picture of him feeding chickens when he was about the age I am now.
         I followed Nora from that sick room and its oppressive air into her large bright kitchen. She put on an apron and started working on making us all supper. My Great grand father she told me was a Choctaw Indian. He had been collected up by the Yankee soldiers when he was a boy and put on a wagon for what was to become known as the “Trail of Tears”, President Andrew Jackson’s forcible relocation of the Indian tribes of the south east. He had stolen a horse somewhere along the way and escaped back into the depths of the Mississippi woods. He had changed his name to White so he would be seen as an American. I was told this was a family secret as grand dad had killed a guard during his escape. It was as if they really believed that should the secret get out Yankee soldiers might bang down her door and take the old man off to the gallows.
          I asked about my grandfather. She said he was a brutal man who would beat my father unmercifully. My aunt told me once she had had to use hot towels to separate the cloth of my father’s shirt from his back were my grandfather had beaten my dad so badly stripes of the shirt were embedded in his back. He had run off and left his wife and children to starve to death during the depression. Dam! I never looked at my father after that in quit the same way I had before.
          What you may ask has any of this to do with Zen. For me Zen is ultimately a personal event. While Zen transcends here and now it is still embedded in all the things that we have experienced and are still experiencing as we sit. My father married a red head of Scots descent. My pale skin and shining red hair have always seemed to be a wall between myself and my father and his family history. He looked every bit an American native. His skin was dark and his hair jet black, his cheek bones were high and pronounced he could have walked among his ancestors without comment. I can not.
         In 1831 the Choctaw were the first of the five “civilized Indian tribes” to be removed from the Deep South, and they became the model for all other removals. They were the first Native Americans to walk the Trail of Tears. The process of removal continued until 1838. This means that Great Grand dad was in serious peril for most of his young life probably lived in fear for most of his youth. I can not even begin to understand what his life must have been like. I wonder if his pain was somehow transferred to his son and caused him to be what he was. What part of that history had made my Grandfather a monster and his sister Nora a fountain of love and compassion? I marvel at my father’s loving kindness to me considering his experiences with his own father.
         Zen says there is no me as we would normally understand that word. But I have found as I sit facing the wall that what we call emptiness is in fact complete wholeness. Being empty is my connecting with that sick old man in that room. It makes me party to all the ancient wisdom of his people and part of his pain and his joy. He and I may walk together and share what is timeless.

"All You Zombies." or " Daigo"

2010-09-15T22:34:00.000-07:00

Those who know do not speak;
Those who speak do not know.
~Lao-tzu

Then it is only fair to assume you, Loa-tzu
Do not know. – Togen

                                             Daigo
                              On the Great Realization
                                  Dogen - Shobogenzo

               In this essay Dogen used the symbol “go” which could mean ”realization” or ‘enlightenment’ or ‘awakening’ or in Japanese satori, or even kenshō usually translated as ‘the encountering of one’s True Nature’.

                     "The inborn abilities of human beings are of many kinds. For instance, there are those who innately know what life really is. Once born, they free themselves from the sufferings and delusions of living. That is, through their own bodily existence they thoroughly master what life really is, beginning, middle, and end. And there are those who realize the Truth through learning. They undertake study and ultimately master themselves. In other words, they thoroughly exhaust the skin and flesh, bones and marrow of learning. And there are those who know what Buddha is. They go beyond those who realize the Truth through living and those who realize the Truth through learning. They transcend the bounds of self and other, are unbounded in the here and now, and are beyond having opinions when it comes to knowing self and other. That is to say, they have a knowledge that has no teacher. They are not dependent on a good spiritual friend, nor on Scriptural writings, nor on the nature of things, nor on external forms; they do not try to open up and turn themselves around, nor do they try to be interdependent with others; rather, they are completely transparent, with nothing hidden. Of these various types, do not conclude that one is smart and another dull. Each type fully manifests the merits from their training.

                 As a consequence, you would do well to explore through your training whether there are any beings, sentient or non-sentient, who cannot come to know the Truth simply by living their daily life. Any who have come to know the Truth through living life will have come to realize that Truth as the result of their living an everyday life. Once they have awakened to the Truth, they will reveal It in their everyday lives as they do their training and practice throughout their lives. Thus, the Buddhas and Ancestors, who are already Trainers and Tamers of Human Beings, have come to be called ‘Those who have fully realized what life really is’ because They have fully grasped what realization means. It will be your realization of what life is that leads you to partake of the great realization, because it will manifest from your study of Their realization. "

********

          What a nice word "training" is.. what a nice phrase "the Buddha’s and Ancestors, who are already Trainers and Tamers of Human Beings" It is a simple image of what a student of a teacher needs for his mind from his friend, yet we seldom see it, we ride the wild horse of body and mind and it carries us so far from home and into darkness. -Togen

     " Kegon Kyūjō was a Dharma heir of Tōzan. Kyūjō was his personal name. A monk once asked him, “What is it like when a person who has experienced the great realization returns to being deluded?”
         The Master replied, “A broken mirror does not shed its light again: it would be difficult for a fallen blossom to climb back up on the tree.”

      Tears, it is like tears in the rain. sweet monk, just tears in the rain. --Togen

Tolerating the Intolerant

2010-09-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

              Today is the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. I listened today as President Barack Obama Saturday urged Americans to remember that it was al-Qaida - not the Muslim faith - that hijacked and crashed four jetliners New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a grassy field near Shanksville, Pa.

             Our President calls for tolerance and calm came as anti-Muslim sentiment continues to rise in the U.S. and amid controversies over construction of an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero and a Florida preacher's aborted plan to stage a public burning of Qurans.
               But Obama must know that this is not just a question of our smiling and being tolerant, that the issue facing us is much deeper and much more complex. I am republishing a post that was made several years ago, that expresses my own ideas about these questions as well or better than I could. I publish it in its entirety because I have found that postings on the internet, especially thoughtful and well reasoned ones have a short life expectancy.

                          Tolerating the Intolerant

                              By Callimachus

                I've been going back to the sources to try to discover whether the religious tolerance of the American Founders would or should extend to Islamist preaching. Even in a tolerant society, not all things are or should be tolerated. You have freedom of speech, but you can't shout "fire" in a crowded theater.
               Freedom of religion -- or liberty of conscience to give it its broadest name -- seems to admit very few exceptions. An astonishing range of religions thrive among us, from Santaria to Southern Baptism. In the name of liberty of conscience we tolerate religions that require their followers to surrender liberty of conscience and follow a preacher or a book.
               But what about Islamist religion, which preaches identification with the worldwide Muslim ummah rather than local civic society, which sets religious authority above any secular state power, and which has a long-term goal of plowing under Western freedoms, including liberty of conscience, and replacing them with shari'a law? Such things existed in the world in the 18th century, too, but the American Founders never addressed them.
             America is not re-invented every generation, despite the appearance, and it has underpinnings in certain currents of philosophy and the thoughts of specific men. Yet to discuss the Founders as a guide to present policy seems anathema to many otherwise thoughtful people on the liberal side; as if to accept the relevance of Madison and Jefferson is to accept the conservative vision of America. To less thoughtful leftists, I suspect, the past is a dead land, populated by monstrous slave-owning philosophes and Indian-killers and sexually repressed Puritans.
           John Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration is the philosophical foundation of the American separation of church and state, religious equality and freedom of conscience -- key elements of the Western pantheon, and hateful poisons to its Islamist enemies.
          When it comes to religion, Locke politely tells the political authorites to butt out. He enjoins the would-be religious meddlers:
           If any man err from the right way, it is his own misfortune, no injury to thee; nor therefore art thou to punish him in the things of this life because thou supposest he will be miserable in that which is to come. Nobody, therefore, in fine, neither single persons nor churches, nay, nor even commonwealths, have any just title to invade the civil rights and worldly goods of each other upon pretence of religion.
          Locke mainly was concerned with mutual toleration among Christians in England. But he extended this philosophy beyond the Christian churches. Even pagans, who in his day would have been regarded with abhorrence, came in for the hands-off treatment.
          But, indeed, if any people congregated upon account of religion should be desirous to sacrifice a calf, I deny that that ought to be prohibited by a law. Meliboeus, whose calf it is, may lawfully kill his calf at home, and burn any part of it that he thinks fit. For no injury is thereby done to any one, no prejudice to another man's goods. And for the same reason he may kill his calf also in a religious meeting. Whether the doing so be well-pleasing to God or no, it is their part to consider that do it. The part of the magistrate is only to take care that the commonwealth receive no prejudice, and that there be no injury done to any man, either in life or estate.
             Locke wrote at the close of a generation rent by a civil war and a revolution, and in a century when the clash of Crown and Parliament and the overlapping conflicts between Protestants, Anglicans and Catholics, bloodied England.
             Locke's "toleration," however, was not universal. It expressly excluded atheists, because, as is still commonly believed, they had no motive to be moral and therefore could not be trusted to be so. And Locke's toleration, like John Milton's, excluded Catholics, who, at that time, acknowledged the authority of a Pope who was prince of a secular realm, and a power-rival and dangerous enemy of the ruler of Britain.
And it certainly would have excluded the type of religion preached in the West by many Islamist imams. Locke excludes the intolerant from his toleration, a needle's eye that probably excludes a few modern Christian fundamentalists as well.
              These, therefore, and the like, who attribute unto the faithful, religious, and orthodox, that is, in plain terms, unto themselves, any peculiar privilege or power above other mortals, in civil concernments; or who upon pretence of religion do challenge any manner of authority over such as are not associated with them in their ecclesiastical communion, I say these have no right to be tolerated by the magistrate; as neither those that will not own and teach the duty of tolerating all men in matters of mere religion. For what do all these and the like doctrines signify, but that they may and are ready upon any occasion to seize the Government and possess themselves of the estates and fortunes of their fellow subjects; and that they only ask leave to be tolerated by the magistrate so long until they find themselves strong enough to effect it?
                 In America a century later, James Madison took Locke one step further. Madison scholar Robert Alley writes that, "toleration presumed a state perogative that, for Madison, did not exist." Madison wrote that "the right to tolerate religion presumes the right to persecute it." Instead Madison argued for "liberty of conscience." The "natural rights of man," centering in the concept of "liberty of conscience," stand, without question for Madison, above and before any other authority.
              No religion, or irreligion, can be banned by the state, even religions that make it a central aim to overthrow the state (up until the point where they act on that aim).
               When Madison took his place in the Virginia legislature after the Revolutionary War, a bill stood in the General Assessment, sponsored by Patrick Henry, that would funnel tax money to support religious education in all denominations.
              Henry justified this as a way to curtail the sin and immorality of young people. But the General Assessment bill would have hatched the monster Madison feared most: a "tyranny of the majority." If the ministers from all the major Protestant denominations were paid from the state treasury, a coalition of Protestant groups would relegate minority views to a "tolerated" status or worse.
             The legislature was on the verge of passing the bill, but Madison convinced his colleagues to postpone a vote until the next session in 1785. Madison used the postponement to take his case to the public, writing a broadside critique, the "Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments," which has become the classic statement for religious freedom in North America.
             I cannot find that Madison, here or anywhere else, made exceptions, as Locke did, to what the state ought to tolerate in the way of religion. His sole concern was protecting the individual conscience from the intrusion of state power.
            The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right. It is unalienable, because the opinions of men, depending only on the evidence contemplated by their own minds cannot follow the dictates of other men: It is unalienable also, because what is here a right towards men, is a duty towards the Creator. It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent, both in order of time and in degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society.

Madison insisted government keep its hands absolutely off religion.

               Before any man can be considerd as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governour of the Universe: And if a member of Civil Society, do it with a saving of his allegiance to the Universal Sovereign. We maintain therefore that in matters of Religion, no man's right is abridged by the institution of Civil Society and that Religion is wholly exempt from its cognizance.

                    Madison, it seems, took no cognizance of what Karl Popper, in a later, darker century than the 18th, would describe as the “paradox of tolerance.”

                     Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even though those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.

                      In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise. But we easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols.
                  We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade as criminal.
                 Who is more suited to the 21st century, Locke, Madison, or Popper? Popper's answer seems closer to the European laws regarding liberty of conscience: General tolerance up to a point, but with clear exceptions. Though Locke is in both the American heritage and the European, America alone seems to have Madison's radical insight that government has no right to "tolerate," because doing so implies a right to refuse toleration.

Posted by Callimachus at July 9, 2006 1:12 PM

               This question of tolerating the Intolerant is going to be the deciding factor of the 21st century -- I wonder if it will be decided by reason or reflex, compromise or genocide? In any case the "Why can't We all just get along?" aproach just isnt going to work here.

The Nature of Karma

2010-09-04T22:20:00.000-07:00

       Much has been written over thousands of years by Hindu’s Jan’s and Buddhist about Karma. In its basic nature I was taught that it is pure cause and effect, that it simply is justice in its purest form. Karma gives no one a pass. Karma I was taught has a few simple principles that once known can help you be the architect of this and future lives.

       The first principle of karma is that it is assured. Karma is definite. Every intentional action of mind body and speech will have a result. Karma exhibits the ultimate fairness and equality. There are no results without a cause there are no actions without a result.
       The second principle of Karma is that like begets like. It is we who assign the labels good and evil, positive and negative to the fruits and actions that generate Karma. In other words as you sow so shall ye reap. Karma in the end is only moral because that is what we call things dealing with ethics. Some folks in Zen become upset when you add the labels like good and evil, but what the heck, Dogen had no problem saying morality was based on Karma. Buddhist have used the terms good and evil karma for centuries so I say lighten up, don’t be so dogmatic. They are just words after all.
       The third principle of Karma is that it has a tendency to take root and grow. This is why many Buddhist speak of Karmic seeds. Karma expands in such a manner that actions become habitual and these habits leads to others of similar nature. These habits seem to travel with us from life time to life time. This means what we call good or bad habits, and their like results do carry over from life time to life time. The good news here is that if your practice becomes so ingrained as to become habitual it will travel with you. I know there is no you, get off my back I am trying to make a point here ok.
       The fourth principle is once an action is done its results are never lost. But karmic actions and their fruits propagate through time and space like waves traveling through water or air and you can create interference patterns that can cancel or at least mitigate the results you experience. This is true of both good actions and bad. What there is room to do there is also room to undo, or at least mitigate. We do not accept predestination and Buddhist totally reject the kind of karmic analysis that resulted in the caste system in India.
       The really great thing here is that now with these four simple principles you can take control of your karma by accepting absolute and total responsibility for your life. Every moment you live a human life there will be no end to your opportunities to create joy and happiness.
       As the sun rose on the first day of the new millennium a happy little monk named Tenzin Gyatso also know as His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama published a post on the internet  what he called 20 ways to assure good Karma.

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three R’s:

- Respect for self,

- Respect for others and

- Responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.

7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and

think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

19. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.

20. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

I am not much into formulas for good living but these
sound ok to me, I say we give em a shot.

American Zen

2010-08-31T21:53:00.000-07:00

         I have often heard it said there are 84,000 gateways to the Dharma (Buddha's teachings). Buddha presented the same underlying philosophy with different techniques and methods according to the predispositions of the students.

        With so many different schools it is almost impossible for Buddhists not to accept and respect diversity. Historically speaking the various schools of Buddhism simply don't persecute one another. There have been a few local exceptions, but history has shown few cases were the schools went to war against each other.
          There is Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana schools, Zen Buddhism, Pure Land Buddhism, Yogacara Buddhism and Vajrayana Buddhism but in the end it is all Buddhism. You have your the Vinaya School, the Esoteric School, the Chan School, and the Pure Land School and still it all is Buddhism.
          Wherever Buddhism has traveled it has taken on the trappings and tastes of its new home, but in the end despite the conviction that they are right and the other schools wrong, mostly they have just ignored each other or upon occasion traded a few insults. And almost without exception, there is one glaring exception I won’t name; the core message has remained unchanged.
           The Buddhism we practice and the first generations of teachers that have brought Buddhism to American have done their best to hold on to the ceremonies, the costumes and the traditions developed in their countries. But looking back we can see that Buddhism has always adapted itself to its surroundings.
             The Americanization of Zen and Buddhism is inevitable. I am sure in the end all the past teachers who traveled to far away lands, simply laughed and made a comment about the inevitability of change when they saw their teachings putting on new clothing. There of course will no more be “one” American Zen than there is one type of Chinese or Japanese Buddhism.
          I wish I could be around in a hundred years to see what real American Zen looks, tastes and smells like.

I wonder if Buddha had a dog.

2010-08-30T21:38:00.000-07:00

           Truly it is our expectations and our judgments that trap and enslave us. Surely if there is a Buddha Nature it resides within and is the cause of nothing, like music in a world of deaf mutes it has all the aspects of nothing until we learn to hear it, but how hard it can be to hear.

           Do you suppose it was sunny the day music was invented, or was it found just lying there among the clutter of the world, unnoticed until that day. Did the person who found music bring it home with him or spin it into existence in front of his community like a wizard conjuring up a ghost. How do you suppose it traveled to every place and all places?

             Buddha had a wife named Yasodhara and a son named Rahula. I wonder if he had a dog. Surely as a prince he must have had a dog. Then we could well ask its name and its nature and if he carried it with him when he left home. I always see Buddha as essentially a good man a decent fellow. How hard it must have been to leave his wife and child behind the night he left home. But the real question is did he take his dog with him when he left.

The Trikaya doctrine

2010-08-25T15:36:00.000-07:00

What exactly is it do you suppose about the number three?

Trikaya is a Sanskrit word meaning "Three Bodies" in this case it refers to the three bodies of the Buddha. Kaya simply means body and tri means three.

The Trikaya doctrine refers to an important Mahayana Buddhist teaching about the nature of the Buddha. According to this doctrine, the Buddha has three kayas, or bodies, which are said to be manifested in different ways: 1) the nirmanakaya (created body), which appears in time and space; 2) the sambhogakaya (mutual enjoyment body), which is an archetypal manifestation; and, 3) the Dharmakaya (reality body), which embodies the very principle of enlightenment knowing no limits or boundaries.

The doctrine itself is a formulation of the Yogachara or Vijnanavada schools, and was later taken up and developed by the other Mahayanist schools as well. It is essentially a mechanism to reconcile the various and potentially conflicting teachings about the Buddha found in Buddhist texts. As with earlier Buddhist thought, all three forms of the Buddha teach the same Dharma, but take on different forms to expound the truth.

Here is a short description of each form and its function:

1. The Nirmanakaya (Sanskrit: "Created Body") refers to the actual physical Buddha(s) who have existed on earth. Typically, the Nirmanakaya denotes the historical Gautama Buddha, the last recorded Buddha. This level/body is also sometimes called the Putikaya (meaning "decomposing" body) denoting the material body of the Buddha that was used to teach and was present amongst humanity, but was subject to decay (Samyutta Nikaya).

2. The Sambhogakāya (Sanskrt: "body of enjoyment") is the supramundane form of a fully enlightened Buddha following the completion of his career as a Bodhisattva. This body is an idealized form, similar to that seen in Buddhist iconography and in meditational visualizations, of a human figure manifesting all of the thirty-two marks of a Buddha. The place where the Sambhogakāya body appears is an extra-cosmic realm called Akaniṣṭha, similar to but perhaps distinct from the Akaniṣṭha that is the highest realm of the Śuddhāvāsa devas.

3. The Dharmakaya (Sanskrit: "Truth Body" or "Reality Body") is a central concept in Mahayana Buddhism forming part of the Trikaya doctrine that was first expounded in the Saddharma Pundarika Sutra (The Lotus Sutra), composed in the first century B.C.E. It constitutes the unmanifested aspect of a Buddha out of which Buddhas and indeed all phenomena arise and to which they return after their dissolution. Buddhas are manifestations of the Dharmakaya called Nirmanakayas. Unlike ordinary unenlightened persons, Buddhas (and arhats) do not die (though their physical bodies undergo the cessation of biological functions and subsequent disintegration). In the Lotus Sutra (sixth fascicle) Buddha explains that he has always and will always exist to lead beings to their salvation. This eternal aspect of Buddha is the Dharmakaya.

Which it seems clear to me is why we can never have any nice things ---

Information

2010-08-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

          In the jargon of modern physics virtually all configurations of matter and energy are simply referred to as “information”. There is physical information which refers generally to the information that is contained in a physical system. An embodiment of information is the thing whose essence is a given instance of information. A subject of information is the thing that is identified or described by a given instance or piece of information And so on and so forth. So as we move our minds along the time line we find that in physical systems according to modern quantum physics, we must distinguish between classical information and quantum information. But all things that were, have been and will be are information.

           You are information, a frog is information a rock or a sun is information. When I was born and set in my crib I was information. Years later as I stood shivering in the snow at a bus stop waiting to go to school I was information surrounded by information as far as the universe extended.
          When I was but a child my teachers taught me “the law of conservation of matter and energy.” Please repeat after me children, Conversion of one type of matter into another are always accompanied by the conversion of one form of energy into another. How comforting it was to know that The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but can change its form. The total quantity of matter and energy available in the universe is a fixed amount and never any more or less. If they did not teach you I can only say you should have gone to better schools or perhaps opened a book.
         So many years ago I can not remember the exact year I was told that “information” is never lost it can only be converted. I was told that scrambled as it might become it was always still there. That jerk that used to pick on me in grade school is still there. All the oysters in the sea are all still there no matter how many you may eat. Of course there was those twenty years or so when Stephen Hawking Claimed that Black holes destroyed information. But after twenty years he has finally admitted he was wrong.
           I have listened to Thich Nhat Hạnh ‘s teaching on death and it is simply the same old song, “No Information is ever Lost”. I will give it a 65 Dick, it has a beat and you can dance to it. After all wasn’t American Band Stand information and were we all not convinced that Dick Clark was immortal and had made a deal with the devil to stay forever young. He is not dead yet, maybe he is immortal.
              I know all the analogies like waves on the ocean and clouds in the sky. While I think a thousand years of living with myself might quickly turn into hell I can not help but feel this kind of immortality, you will be wind and rain and perhaps in a billion billion years you may reoccur in fact there may be an infinite number of almost or sort of you over eternity is in the end more than a bit dissatisfying.
          We are certainly all born with the potential to be countless men and women and as each instant arrives we are certainly born again and again as sort of who we once were and all of who we will ever be. Born as many but finally ending as one for the observable instant and then some information are certainly stripped from the body. So Dogen was right, there are no prophets in Zen.
          Wake up little Suzy we are late.
         When I was much older than I am now I was told by men in orange robes that this was the version of Buddhism for smart people. (I will let you guess what version it was.) All my life I have wondered what real advantage there was to being a “smart” person. If my vanity lets me believe I am a smart person then I must admit being smart has made me more miserable than happy for many years.
          Taking comfort in the fact that no information is ever lost is a task I am still working on. Some days I would trade 40 points in IQ for a simple blind faith belief ...

The Third Jewel

2010-08-20T11:14:00.000-07:00

         When we first aspire to declare our intention to follow the dharma we open that first gate by making or taking the vow of refuge. As far as I know it is universal among all who call themselves Buddhist that the story begins by reciting these lines:

I take refuge in the Buddha.
I take refuge in the Dharma.
I take refuge in the Sangha.

        In Pali, the literal translation of the refuge statement is correctly translated not as "I take refuge" but as “I will undertake to find my home in the Buddha," and then the Dharma and Sangha. “The Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha are called the three jewels or the three treasures. So it may be said we are aspiring to find a home in these three great treasures of Buddhism.
        In the Shobogenzo Master Dogen wrote in his essay Kie-Sanbo, that devotion to the three treasures is both the beginning and the end of Buddhism. It is worth noting that he worked on that essay for years and never really completed it before he died.
        So many of us in the west begin on the path to the Dharma alone, few of us grew up in a Buddhist home or culture. One day we read a book or hear a lecture and we discover the Buddha and then his teachings but I think for the majority of us the Sangha is another story. It seemed strange to me when I first read the refuge statement that the Sangha should hold a place of equal value and honor with both the Buddha and his teachings. In fact I think many of us are uncomfortable with the Sangha having a coequal position with the Buddha himself and the great truth he preached.
         In our minds I think we all step back, our first reaction is to see the term Sangha as clearly referring to a monastic community of monks living and meditating in some remote location a million miles away from our world and our life. If the word Sangha is applicable only to the ordained nuns and monks of Buddhism, we know we are never going to make it our home. Then of course all the books we read now tell us it actually refers to all the practitioners of Buddhism in the world. Well that’s better for us isn’t it, if that is the case we can find a home in the Sangha.

“I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was living among the Sakyans. Now there is a Sakyan town named Sakkara. There Ven. Ananda went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to the Blessed One, sat to one side. As he was sitting there, Ven. Ananda said to the Blessed One, "This is half of the holy life, lord: admirable friendship, admirable companionship, and admirable camaraderie."
      "Don't say that, Ananda. Don't say that. Admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie is actually the whole of the holy life. When a monk has admirable people as friends, companions, & comrades, he can be expected to develop & pursue the noble eightfold path.”

                                               ----- From the Upaddha Sutta

           Traditionally few of us in the west have the rare opportunity today to really be part of a Sangha other than in the broadest sense of the word. But as Dharma centers grow and spread more and more of us begin to participate in these centers the vow to undertake to find our home in the Sangha begins to stare us in the face. My Sensei calls this “Sangha practice”. It presents us all with many challenges we never really considered before.
           What a joy “admirable friendship, admirable companionship, and admirable camaraderie" is to have and what a task it is today to make it so. It turns out that in Zen a Sangha is a collection of individuals. Now nothing can be more frustrating than an individual and when you have 300 individuals you have at best a stampeding herd of cats.
            I would like to take the time to praise this collection of individuals we call a Zendo. In most groups and organizations you see adaptive behavior and conformity quickly develop. The world is full of religious groups were the members become dependent and renounce some or all of their freedom of thinking and free will. They lose a part of their personality as the crowd or the group pulls their strings. They take refuge in going along with the others and letting others do their thinking for them.
            In a group of individuals such as we have accumulated in our zendo I see little danger of us ever becoming a group in the usual sense of the word. Since I have been there I have indeed found “admirable friendship, admirable companionship, and admirable camaraderie" and frustrations by the score. Isn’t it wonderful….

My Little Buddha

2010-08-19T23:27:00.000-07:00

      The Buddha forbade any likenesses of himself during his life time. Throughout the Theravadin Suttas the Buddha repeatedly forbids his disciples to make Buddharupa (Buddha Image).
      One story says an old Disciple of Buddha Vakali was so eager to see Buddha before he died he created a Buddharupa . One day Buddha came and said to him “O vakkali why do you crave to see this body of impure matter, one who perceives Dharma Perceives me. One who perceives me perceives Dharma” On different occasions through dialogues and sermons Buddha spoke against adoration of his Rupakaya or Buddha Rupa.
      For the first 600 or so years after his death, the Buddha and his teachings were represented in art by symbols such as the wheel, footprints, or empty thrones. But of course as Buddhism spread along the Silk Road various cultures had traditions that lead to the creation of Buddha images.
     The Oldest know image of Buddha was found in Afaganistan. Two monumental statues of standing Buddha are carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan. The Taliban held it for ransom and destroyed it when the United Nations refused to pay the ransom. So they were intentionally dynamited and destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban, on orders from leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.
       I think Buddha saw himself as a human role-model to be followed but not idolized. Of himself he said, 'Buddha's only point the way'. He didn’t want to become an idol or a god to be worshipped.
      So for 600 years a few images were used to represent him and his teachings. There were six images most commonly used By Buddhist.

1. The Buddha's footprints which were often created at a place where he was know to have walked.

2. The Bodhi-tree which is symbolic of Gotama's enlightenment at the age of thirty-five.

3. The Lotus Flower which symbolizes both purity and enlightenment.

4. The Wheel which is a reminder of the Buddha's First Sermon. 'The Turning of the Wheel of the Law" delivered at Sarnath in Northern India.

5. A riderless horse which recalls Prince Siddhartha’s renunciation of worldly life for the ascetic life and the beginning of his search for the path to Enlightenment.

6. An empty throne which serves as a reminder of his passing away and attainment of Parinibbana.

      All of these images should have been enough you would think, sufficient images or a symbols that help people to recall the qualities of the Buddha.

      I have a little Buddha about 4 inches tall that sits on my desk. I have had it for years and used it as my point of focus when I was training for single pointed concentration in meditation.
      I know for me this little Buddha is like Linus van Pelt’s baby blanket. In the cartoon "Peanuts" Linus Perhaps paradoxically, given his advanced intellect, is almost never without his blue blanket. He holds the blanket over his shoulder while sucking his thumb. It was in fact he who coined the term "security blanket”.
      My little Buddha gives me hope in showing me clearly that Buddha was a man, not a god. That he had hopes and fears and in-laws. When I feel at odd’s with all things I can summon this little Buddha and tumble him in front of my face and I become calm.
       I am not sure if those other images would have worked as well --- but then Buddha gave us the 3 jewels in which to take refuge and in his last moments advised us to find our salvation within ourselves – I think Buddha would forgive me for my use of his likeness, but then kick me in the ass for doing it.

Zen and the Evolution of Man.

2010-08-15T10:35:00.000-07:00

        First let’s stop the debate concerning evidence that man has evolved in the past. All those who still think evolution is a theory generated by the devil to corrupt the minds of man please pay attention.

        Let’s start with goose bumps. We modern humans get goose bumps when we are cold, frightened, angry, or in awe. Now lots of other creatures you know get goose bumps such as cats, dogs and porky pines. These animals have hair and quills and when they get cold the rising hair traps air between the hairs and skin, creating insulation and warmth. In response to fear, goose bumps make an animal appear larger like a puffer fish this is intended to scare away the enemy. Now you, unless you’re very, very hairy, have little use for goose bumps, But there they are, a simple sign that you have evolved.
         Then there is that kid in class that always made everyone laugh by wiggling his or her ears. They are using the Auriculars muscles or extrinsic ear muscles used by some animals to swivel and manipulate their ears (independently of their head) in order to focus their hearing on particular sounds. Watch your cat use them when it is hunting a bird or mouse. We still have them but they are so weak now that their only use is to entertain children during class when the teacher isn’t looking.
          Next time you get a chance take a look at an x-ray of your coccyx that my friend is the remnant of what was once a human tail. Then ask your doctor if this new healthy diet you are on will help you revolve your appendix, an organ once used to help digest the leaves of trees. If your nerd friend is having trouble finding a girl friend suggest he work and try to redevelop his Jacobson’s organ. This organ is in the nose and it is a special “smell” organ which detects pheromones (the chemical that triggers sexual desire, alarm, or about food trails). It is this organ that allows some animals to track others for sex and to know of potential dangers. Humans are born with the Jacobson’s organ, but in early development its abilities dwindle to a point that it is useless.
         For some time scientist believed that modern man evolved until about 100,000 years ago and then was thought to have stopped evolving. Evolution since that time, it was claimed, has been "cultural and social evolution." Biological evolution was thought to be unknown among humans in historical times.
          In 2005 University Of Chicago researchers found that the human brain is still Evolving. (See Science Daily Sep. 9, 2005). Two independent research projects have shown that there are at least two genes microcephalin and ASPM have been demonstrating a pattern of evolutionary variation and change in modern man.

“In the two Science papers, the researchers looked at variations of microcephalin and ASPM within modern humans. They found evidence that the two genes have continued to evolve. For each gene, one class of variants has arisen recently and has been spreading rapidly because it is favored by selection. For microcephalin, the new variant class emerged about 37,000 years ago and now shows up in about 70 percent of present-day humans. For ASPM, the new variant class arose about 5,800 years ago and now shows up in approximately 30 percent of today's humans. These time windows are extraordinarily short in evolutionary terms, indicating that the new variants were subject to very intense selection pressure that drove up their frequencies in a very brief period of time--both well after the emergence of modern humans about 200,000 years ago.
      Each variant emerged around the same time as the advent of "cultural" behaviors. The microcephalin variant appears along with the emergence of such traits as art and music, religious practices, and sophisticated tool-making techniques--which date back to about 50,000 years ago. The ASPM variant coincides with the oldest-known civilization, Mesopotamia, which dates back to 7000 BC. "Microcephalin," the authors wrote in one of the papers, "has continued its trend of adaptive evolution beyond the emergence of anatomically modern humans. If selection indeed acted on a brain-related phenotype, there could be several possibilities, including brain size, cognition, personality, motor control or susceptibility to neurological/psychiatric diseases...The next step is to find out what biological difference imparted by this genetic difference causes selection to favor that variation over the others," Lahn said. Both microcephalin and ASPM have numerous genetic variations. The author’s show that certain variants are subject to very strong positive selection over others:”

(See: University Of Chicago Researchers Find Human Brain Still Evolving – Science Daily (Sep. 9, 2005))

      Now just because the human brain may be evolving right before our eyes doesn’t necessarily mean this is a change in our intelligence.
      “Lahn said.”We've evolved genes for selfishness, violence, cruelty--all of which are in place because they may make survival easier. But in today's society, they're certainly not condoned."
    Same article as above...

     But it is clear that our evolutionary development has created more than just a tendency for negative feelings and emotions. New evidence seems to show our evolution has including the development of compassion. Further that meditation, contemplation and practices such as Zen are reflected in the physiology of our brains.
      A new Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education has been launched at the Stanford University School of Medicine, with the aim of doing scientific research on the neural underpinnings of these thoughts and feelings. Science has been researching the effect mediation has on the brain. Recent brain-imaging studies have demonstrated a burst of activity in an area of the brain known as the nucleus accumbens when these practitioners think compassionate thoughts. The center is also examining individuals' response to the suffering of others, which can be either disgust or recognition of another's suffering, followed by empathy and a desire to take action (this is signaled by activation of the prefrontal cortex, the seat of initiation of motor movement).

            Now the dirty little secret of all evolutionary change is that it begins with a single individual. It only becomes a group effect when that trait spreads from that individual across the population base. So the real key to our future may be said to reside in every person that is born.

                In the practice of compassion you may hold the genetic future of us all. We are all a part of the genetic stream of the human animal and each person who finds himself or herself accepting the necessity to care, love and be a bodhisattva is generating a evolutionary environment in which those traits are creating genetic pressure in our species for natural selection in that direction.

So go forth my Buddhist friends and help those other apes evolve.

The pataphysician -

2010-08-14T21:55:00.000-07:00

       Pataphysics was defined by the man who invented the term Alfred Jarry (1873–1907) as “the science of imaginary solutions”. Raymond Queneau has described 'pataphysics as resting "on the truth of contradictions and exceptions." It is described as the physics beyond metaphysics. What better description of a Zen practitioner than that of the pataphysician. Once you have become saturated in Zen I can see no other way to see the world and history than as a pataphysicist.
       Perhaps the real defining characteristic of social and religious movements throughout human history has been each group’s belief in a specific and clearly defined Utopia. Every mass movement in our recorded history seems to have had a Utopian ideal.
       The word utopia was invented by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. It has entered our language as a name for an ideal community or society possessing a seemingly perfect socio-politico-legal system. Clearly Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, Christianity and Islam all have their own versions of Utopia. These ideals of a kind of heaven on earth act as the foundation of each of these systems of belief and as a “Holy City on the Hill” that each group’s core of “true believers” has firmly fixed in their minds.
       Now in this first decade of the twenty first century I seem to find myself surrounded by a world of willing and enthusiastic victims. This world could I think be described as a maelstrom of crumbling utopian beliefs. It is a world were the last desperate priests of each world view is swinging wildly in all directions trying to save the shattered idea’s upon which their beliefs are based and in which fewer and fewer people take seriously anymore. These true believers have become defined by a remorseless savagery, an obsession with blood and death, and a utopian vision of purity and power.
       Across the Muslim world the majority of Arab Muslims are more and more just the victims and dupes of repressive regimes and power-hungry, rabble-rousing clerics. The Glen Becks of our world continue to show their tattered wares of demagoguery. But there is now more often than not little to distinguish these leaders of the true believers from psychopaths or “con men,” who consciously claim to endorse and exploit any belief system for financial or political gain. These men are nothing more than disingenuous cynics who have seized the opportunity of a dying belief system to obtain to power.
       Cut adrift from their ideals as a serious reality regardless of their intelligence, these true believers cannot permit in themselves the freedom of cognitive speculation that is a requisite for imagination or creativity, as that would be too threatening to the stability of their brittle and limited base. Thus the poor and lower middle class line up to fight for the rights of the rich and powerful to exploit them. They fight with the moral indignation of the true believer and as Eric Fromm said; “There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as moral indignation, which permits envy or to be acted out under the guise of virtue.”

       I have tried to find the Utopian ideal of Zen, and have happily been unable to locate it. In our belief system (Ok, he mumbled to himself, go away I can hear you sensei, we have no belief system we are in fact a non belief system)   there is no reason to panic, no call for desperate measures in times were ideals are crumbling.

       I wonder if that is our fate to simply sit through the end times as the world as they know it crumbles around their ears.

The Problem of Pain

2010-08-10T21:27:00.000-07:00

       In this short essay I want to talk about something that has been fundamental to my spiritual development since I was a very young man and first casting about to understand this strange world we are all born into. To put it simply: why is there so much pain and suffering in the world?

       I was born into what could be called a Christian family, my mother was a Baptist and my father was a career solder who would from time to time get loaded and quote the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam to me. All things considered this was passing profound for a man from Mississippi with a 5th grade education who participated in his first battle when he was 17.

      But not being unobservant even as a young man I realized that the existence of suffering in a world created by a good and almighty God—“the problem of pain”—is a fundamental theological dilemma, and perhaps the most serious objection to the Christian religion.

       I did more than my fair share of reading and it seemed to me that most people and most cultures didn’t really see God as a particularly loving, just or fair kind of guy. Most primitive peoples as we liked to call them seemed convinced that what god really wanted was to enjoy our pain and suffering. Killing, torture, and human sacrifice seemed to be almost universal as a means to make God happy. Even today there is a large festival in India were hundreds of people do “hook-swinging” hanging themselves from hooks in a bargain with one of the Hindu god’s trading their pain and suffering for a little help from their God.

       The Old Testament describes the Jewish God as both angry and jealous; he is the kind of guy who asks you to murder your son, as a display of faith and loyalty. He instructs the Israelites to commit genocide on 8 different tribes and tells Moses he can’t come into the Promised Land after a life time of toil and commitment. Let us not even discuss wiping out Job’s entire family on a bet with the devil about Job’s character.

       And of course just as a matter of record humans through out history of all cultures and religions seem to spend more time killing and torturing for god than any other reason including wealth and sex.

       One day I ran across some books by CS Lewis and found him to be a wonderful writer and really came to admire him. So you can image how elated I was when I found he had written a book on “The Problem of Pain”. I had spent a lot of time asking people who said they knew about this and nothing any of them had said made a lick of sense to me.

       Now here was CS Lewis that giant of twentieth century Christianty and doctrine, the formost Christian apologist of our age and he was going to straighten it out for me. Then of course I read the book. After the usual introductions and apologies of the first chapter he got down to it in Chapter two. He opens that chapter with the following”

"The possibility of solving [the problem] depends on showing that the terms 'good' and 'almighty', and perhaps also the term 'happy', are equivocal: for it must be admitted from the outset that if the popular meanings attached to these words are the best, or the only possible, meaning, then the argument is unanswerable".

       He then spends the next nine chapters redefining the terms “pain” "suffering” “happy” and even what it means to be a “Loving God”. Even at the tender age of 14 I knew this was a load of Bull. You’re not suffering, that isn’t pain and a loving, kind, just God kicks the crap out of you for your own good. I had seen him play this trick in “Mere Christianity” when he told his listeners that these young Christian solders should kill with a joyous and light heart because the Hebrew word for kill in the bible really meant “murder” not kill and killing for your god or your country wasn’t murder. I am sure he pulled that one right out of the crusaders hand book. But this slight of hand was on a whole different level.

       So if your not brain dead and your fairly sure that most folks know pain and suffering when they experience it your still left with a world that could not possibly be the construct of an all powerful, just and loving God.

       Over the years I have read many books written by authors of many different religions on this subject and they all are more or less just a load of Bull as well.

       Then I encountered Buddhism and Buddha’s explanations of “The Problem of Pain”. We are living in a world created by our own actions. Our own delusions and ignorance of how things actually exist cause almost all our pain and suffering. There is not a Devil or vengeful sadistic God behind it all. It’s just us. We have no one to blame for the world and what happens here but ourselves and we are living in a world of our own desires and it is our own creation. We are here because we at some level want to be.

       Well now I gave this idea some serious thought. I measured the level of anger, lust and delusive behavior in myself and everyone I had ever run into or read about. Hell this explanation even let God off the Hook. If he was dedicated to the concept of free will, he was totally not to blame. Assuming of course he, she or it existed. We it seems are living in a universe created by our own volition and actions, call it Karma.

       Assuming a God with no name, after all a name instantly ties him to a culture and straps a ton of assumptions and baggage to his back, maybe he was just letting us grow up in the way we ourselves chose to. I still have a hard time believing that we singularly or jointly have the sheer imagination to make a flower or a honey bee. So despite our Buddhist belief that there is no creator God, I am willing to let him exist if that’s what he really wants to do.

        And I now have no problem taking responsibility for my fair share of the pain and suffering in the world. This was a major factor in my finally saying I am a Buddhist and it is because, what Buddha said was true.

         My own suffering over the past year has taught me that suffering like all other mental formations is empty. Buddha said all things proceed from the mind. Suffering is a dependant arising and its first and greatest dependency is my own moment of mental discrimination of that suffering.

         Now I have that off my chest, getting old still sucks. But I can live with that too.

The Zen of Diabetes

2010-08-09T15:34:00.000-07:00

          I have recently been diagnosed as having Type 2 Diabetes. I know personally that two of the folks that follow this blog have conditions that make Diabetes look like a walk in the park so this is not an attempt to elicit sympathy.

         Type 2 Diabetes - A Progressive Disease whose natural course in most cases is the worsening, growth, or spread of the disease. This may happen until death, serious debility, or organ failure occurs. But it is it appears also a booming new industry. I have found myself shoved aboard into a freight train of diabetic information, products, medications, testing systems and the list goes on and on.
          Interestingly enough the first thing I noticed was as soon as I was diagnosed I was more or less passed from my doctors to the care of the “Diabetes Certified Nurse Practitioner”. The epidemic of Diabetes has apparently created a boom career path for nurses. All the diabetes education programs were run and taught by these ladies.
          The next thing I noticed was just how much the big drug company’s cared about me and my health. Here is a wonderful example. It is from an online article (sponsored by Abbot Laboratories, the corporation voted by someone or other as the drug company they most admire (this is no joke its on their web site.) In the new Diabetes jargon I am learning it’s called a “well-being article”

“Meditation and Diabetes Control”

                                                     What Meditation Is — and Isn’t

                " Meditation is a type of relaxation technique. It’s about paying attention to what you’re doing, focusing on the present moment, and promoting a sense of inner calm and self-awareness. Meditation helps you enter a relaxed, restful state of mind, which can help you manage stress and anxiety — conditions that can contribute to a variety of diseases, like heart disease, or make an existing health problem worse. It’s not about crystals and it’s not necessarily about burning incense, looking for the meaning of life, or sitting cross-legged on the floor and chanting “ommmm” for hours on end.
           Meditation is an area of mind/body medicine in which the workings of the mind influence the health of the body. It originated as a religious practice in India some 3,000 years ago, and exists in a variety of forms in most religions: prayer, reading scripture or religious writings, or saying the rosary.
            Whether it’s transcendental meditation, relaxation-response meditation, or mindfulness-based stress-reduction meditation, the principle is the same: to focus one’s full mental attention on something. The object of attention can be an image, a sound, a word or repeated phrase, or one’s own breath."

                    I can not tell you how impressed I was with Abbot Labs take on meditation and what it is, no really I just can’t.
              Interestingly enough in another article by another drug company they warn against such things as sitting crossed legged.

                " It can cause both Nerve damage - neuropathy (nu-Rop-a-thee) and Poor blood flow - peripheral (puh-rif-er-uhl) vascular disease, casing gangrene (GANG-green) - a condition in which the skin and tissue of the infected area dies and becomes black and smelly. Amputation is the most common treatment for gangrene."

             You have just got to love the flood of information they send you and the advice you get poured down upon you. such as;

                     People with diabetes are at higher risk for foot problems. Nerve damage, circulation problems, and infections can cause severe foot problems: sooooooooooooooo

"You should never wear sandals that require a strap to go between your toes."
"Avoid wrinkles in your socks, they could create pressure points."
"Never use a hair dryer on your feet."

"Avoid sitting cross-legged for a prolonged period of time, as sitting cross-legged can cut off blood flow to your feet."

               I guess I will go to the Zendo tomorrow and apply some mind/body medicine, but it seems I must not go bare footed (I swear this one was on the end of the class test for the last class I took a diabetic must never go barefooted anywhere) or cross my legs …

Separation

2010-08-05T02:08:00.000-07:00

        In the Aitareya Upanishad we are told that there has taken place a kind of cosmic catastrophe. It tells of a separation or division that occurred when individuality asserted itself. It says that this event separated “us” from the ultimate reality and that now we struggle to free ourselves of this catastrophic separation.

        In the Torah or Bible we are told in the book of the Genesis of the “fall” of man from the grace or presence of God. In the book of Isaiah it says: “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

      The Christian evangelist Billy Graham said that “The only thing I could say for sure is that hell means separation from God. We are separated from his light, from his fellowship. That is going to be hell.

Surely we sit in Zen to deal with separation:

The Four Noble Truths

1. Life means suffering.

2. The origin of suffering is ignorance.

3. The cessation of suffering is attainable.

4. The 8 fold path to the cessation of suffering.

     A wonderful Jewish poet and song writer named Leonard Cohen has practiced Zen for most of his life, He wrote:

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.

But I think Leonard was wrong, we are ourselves the great crack in reality that lets the light into this universe.

         Without us the universe would just be s swirling mass of atoms and energy without meaning of any kind. Grind it all up and you find no art and no beauty. Even in our suffering we give the universe meaning.

        C.S. Lewis said, “If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.”

Sit and be that crack, without you the sun would just be a ball of burning gases, and a sunset just a meaningless cascade of photons.

       In fact the separation we suffer is from our true selves. But what more evidence do you need that we are ignorant and separated from that truth only by a hairs distance. In all our suffering and pain we struggle to end that separation: but can the fact that there is a supreme truth, that every life has meaning that each of us, each life lived, has value be more assured?

Light and Dark

2010-08-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

"Once a very old king went to see an old hermit who lived in a bird's nest in the top of a tree. 'What is the most important Buddhist teaching?' The hermit answered, 'Do no evil, do only good. Purify your heart.' The king had expected to hear a very long explanation. He protested, 'But even a 5-year old child can understand that!' 'Yes,' replied the wise sage, 'but even an 80-year-old man cannot do it.'

Indeed or even a 58 -year-old man.

I apoligize to my friends if my posts seem to be dark of late, but fear not, the secret that I have learned recently is that darkness is not the absence of light, darkness is simply a misunderstanding.

The Eternally Burning House

2010-07-19T12:02:00.001-07:00

        We all live in an eternally burning house, we move from room to room and refuse to smell the smoke or see the flames, but we are never unaware that the house is burning. One day we find ourselves cornered and we can no longer avoid the smell of the smoke or refuse to see the flames. Like rats cornered we panic and we hiss and snarl as if we could scare the fire away. In this no one is alone.

        My Sensei and his teacher Soyu Matsuoka-roshi ask me, what the rat now does.

                    My only answer is that the flames are as real as I am.

Shadows of the moon –Soto Zen Death Poems

2010-07-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

There was a man who was to become known as Dogen Zenji. He left his home and traveled to China and there meets his true master Tiantong Rujing. Master Rujing (1162-1228) is called Tendō Nyōjo in Japanese. He was a member of the Caodong school of Buddhism in China. Dogen meets him when he was living in Jingde Temple on Tiāntóng Mountain in Yinzhou District, Ningbo. He taught and gave dharma transmission to both Dogen and the Soto monk Jakuen. Ruijing’s remains rest in his Stupa which is located at Jingci Temple in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Master Rujing is believed to be the originator of the terms shikantaza and shinjin-datsuraku "casting off of body and mind". So Says master Dogen.

Rujing’s death poem

For sixty-six years committing sins against Heaven,
Now leaping beyond, while still alive.
Plunging into yellow springs; amazing!
I used to believe life and death were unrelated.

Death poems have been written by Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Zen monks for centuries. It was an ancient custom in Japan for literate persons to compose such a poem on their death bed.

Dogen’s death poem

Fifty-four years lighting up the sky.
A quivering leap smashes a billion worlds.
Hah!
Entire body looks for nothing.
Living, I plunge into Yellow Springs.

(In Chinese “yellow springs” means the concept of “Yomi” or underworld, this concept of Yomi was later transferred to Japan.)

Kozan’s Death Poem

(Our history relates that a few days before his death, he called his pupils together, ordered them to bury him without ceremony, forbidding them to hold services in his memory. After writing this poem on the morning of his death, he lay down his brush and died sitting upright.)

Empty handed I entered the world.
Barefoot I leave it.
My coming, my going-
Two simple happenings
That got entangled.

(Kozan Ichikyo is usually considered the 2nd founder of Soto Zen in Japan – he died February 12, 1360 CE, at age 77.)

Gesshu Soko’s death Poem

Translation 1.

Breathing in, breathing out,
Moving forward, moving back,
Living, dying, coming, going --
Like two arrows meeting in flight,
In the midst of nothingness
There is a road that goes directly
to my true home.

Translation 2.

Breathing in, out,
forward, back,
living, dying.
Two arrows meet in mid air,
slice and sail on through
into open space.
I turn around.

(Master Gesshu Soko, 1618-1696. Was a Soto Zen reformer who brought attention to Dogen’s writings, after centuries of neglect by the Soto community.)

The Enso as a Death Poem:

"During his last moment, Shisui's disciples requested that he write a death poem. He grasped his brush, painted a circle, cast the brush aside, and died. The circle— indicating the void, the essence of everything, enlightenment—"

The death poem of Basho, one of the greatest haiku poets of all time:

On a journey, ill;
my dream goes wandering
over withered fields.

Disciple:

2010-07-04T22:14:00.000-07:00

        In the practice of Zen a disciple is one who follows the teachings or doctrines of a person whom he or she considers to be a master or authority.
   “Tozan, a famous Zen master, said, "The blue mountain is the father of the white cloud. The white cloud is the son of the blue mountain. All day long they depend on each other, without being dependent on each other. The white cloud is always the white cloud. The blue mountain is always the blue mountain." This is a pure, clear interpretation of life. There may be many things like the white cloud and Blue Mountain: man and woman, teacher and disciple. They depend on each other. But the white cloud should not be bothered by the blue mountain. The blue mountain should not be bothered by the white cloud. They are quite independent, but yet dependent. This is how we live, and how we practice zazen.”

From, “ZEN MIND, BEGINNER'S MIND” by SHUNRYU SUZUKI

     I have asked myself what qualities a disciple should try to adopt in Zen and have not found any better advice than Mr. William Howard Stein’s advice to his own students. When the Nobel Prize winning biochemist was asked what his advice to aspiring students would be, he replied:

“Keep high aspirations, moderate expectations, and small needs.”

          I must observe that people have a tendency to project onto a spiritual teacher all their own fantasies and expectations; this often leads to great disappointment. To maintain the relationship of the blue mountain to the white cloud requires a certain natural balance that can be easily disturbed.
        When I asked my teacher if I had accomplished anything this year, he said stop trying to accomplish something. So I gave up having goals in my practice and expanded my striving to objectives instead. Objectives are more general in nature than goals and very hard to measure. Objectives have no real time frame and are very hard to miss. He told to give up my expectations of Zen but to keep my aspirations. I had to ask myself what I was in fact aspiring to. What I decided during this week end was that I was aspiring to find the truth. I am not sure I even know what it means “To aspire to find the truth”, but it’s what I found in the bottom of barrel, so for now I am stuck with it.

               I still have an expectation that to practice will somehow make me able to achieve spiritual progress. An expectation that there can be for me a thing called spiritual progress. That practice over time will remove obstacles in my path to that progress. I realize holding onto expectations is often simply asking for disappointments, but I can live with a few disappointments. And of all my delusions these I admit to and will hold onto for a bit.

     “This is the substance of Zen. Just action! You will not learn the Zen spirit from a myriad of words, long discourses. Just do it. Just sit in meditation and then just act—all of your actions contain the Zen spirit. Zen is not just sitting in meditation or talking. It is also making and drinking tea; it is cleaning and dusting and making it immaculate by washing the toilet and mopping the floors; it is making items out of wood in carpentry; it is raking leaves; it is hauling water for a garden or pruning the young plants and leaves; it is looking at the sky and standing in the rain. Each of your movements will come to reflect the spirit of Zen within your life. Your manner will reflect the depth of the Zen spirit of Enlightenment that has come to be unraveled through your work and meditation. It will be seen in the quietness of your voice and in the calm of your brow; it will be seen in the surety of your steps and in the strength of your sitting.”

                                             Soyu Matsuoka-roshi
We, shall see.

Mike and Ed Discuss Brads New Book.

2010-06-30T09:39:00.000-07:00

Mike was but a child when his brother asked him, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

Mike was a bright child of a precocious nature and he said to his brother Ed, are you asking me if something can exist without being perceived?

Ed, replied, “Reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or may be thought to be. Reality I would think includes everything that is and has being, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible.”

Mike, gave this some thought and said, “are you suggesting that there exists an objective reality that exists whether we as humans can observe and comprehend it or not?”

Ed replied, ” Are you suggesting that Heisenberg’s observer effect, the theory that there will always be changes that the act of observation will make on the phenomenon being observed, makes unobserved reality a fiction? Are you suggesting that objective reality is a fantasy?”

      " Once, at a funeral, a monk named Zengen tapped on the coffin and asked his teacher, Dogo, "Living or dead?" Dogo said, "Living, I won't say. Dead, I won't say." Zengen said, "Why won't you say?" Dogo said, "I won't say, I won't say." Later, as the two were walking home, Zengen said, "Living or dead? If you will not tell me, I will hit you." Dogo said, "You can hit me, but still I won't say." Zengen hit him. Later, after Dogo died, Zengen related this incident to Sekiso, his new teacher at the time.
      Sekiso asked Zengion to ask him the same question, to which Sekiso replied, "Living, I won't say. Dead, I won't say." Again Zengen asked, "Why won't you say?" Sekiso said, "I won't say, I won't say." At these words, Zengen became enlighted."

      The body and the mind are one and the same; the body without the mind is a dead body. It cannot move even an inch or act without the mind. In zazen the body and mind drop away, they are shed like a snake sheds its skin. The body is a material object; it is made out of matter. The mind is not a material object it has no mass and occupies no space.

      Matter is any substance which has mass and occupies space. All physical objects are composed of matter, in the form of atoms, which are in turn composed of protons, neutrons, and electrons.

      But light is made of photons and photons have no mass, so they are an example of something in physics which is not comprised of matter. They are also not considered "objects" in the traditional sense, as they cannot exist in a stationary state. Mind has no mass and cannot exist in a stationary state.

I won’t say is not the same as I don’t know!

     Ed was an old hand at confusion and spoke to mike in this manner:

“In arriving not an atom is added,
Thus life is called “the unborn.”
In departing not a particle is lost,
Thus death is called “the unextinguished.”

      Mike responded in this manner: “Nothing is more usual than for philosophers to encroach on the province of grammarians, and to engage in disputes of words, while they imagine they are handling controversies of the deepest importance and concern.” --- David Hume

     Ed was not going to take this so he said: “In Buddhist philosophy and psychology, the mind and body are not separate entities.”
     Mike asked Ed, "If all that exists is matter only, where did the natural laws that govern it come from?" Mike lost control and expressed his feelings; “spirit (from Latin spiritus "breath") is a non-corporeal substance; it is the vital principle or animating force within living things. It is the aspect of our being which animates us -- makes us live, move, change, do, be active, feel, think, interact with the world around us.

      Ed said, “Matter is described by its properties. Matter can exist in various phases: solid, liquid, gas, or plasma. Most substances can transition between these phases based on the amount of heat the material absorbs (or loses).
    Mike said, “Did Einstein not show that matter and energy are essentially the same, that matter can be transformed into energy and energy into matter?”
    Ed, responds, “There is a rumor to that effect, yes.”
    Mike snorts, “Then Energy makes change possible and is not mind a kind of energy, is thought not a kind of energy? Does mind not in fact do work, and accomplish much that is observable in the material world? ”
    Ed,” I suppose since all energy can and does change from one form into another constantly and seems not to be capable of being destroyed just converted from one form to another it might be said that mind is one form among many that energy takes from time to time.”
   Mike softly says, “And matter and energy is in fact the same thing simply existing in different states. And the body and the mind are one and the same!”
   Ed, taps his foot and smiles, “you are a crafty little devil my brother.”

“Words are our servants, not our masters. For different purposes we find it convenient to use words in different senses.” —Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker

   My buddy Brad says:

There is no rebirth!!!!
There is no such thing as a spiritual aspect to Zen!!!
Zen is not a religion!!!

   I say, Materialism cannot explain matter, you fool.

More than that I will not say!

Feed on Joy

2010-06-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

“Let us live most happily, possessing nothing; let us feed on joy, like the radiant gods.”

Buddha from the Dhammapada

An old Zen saying: “In matters of religion, most persons prefer chewing the menu to actually eating the food!”

a Zen master who lay dying. His monks are all gathered around his deathbed, and the senior monk leans over and asks the master for any final words of wisdom for his monks. The old master weakly says, "Tell them Truth is like a river." The senior monk relays this message on to the other monks. The youngest monk in the group is confused, and asks, "What does he mean that Truth is like a river?" The senior monk relays this question to the master, and the master replies, "O.K., Truth is not like a river."

Zen Pride…

Many Zen teachers, in their pride, vainly boast that they know nothing, but it is I alone who have truly succeeded in achieving total ignorance....

Zen Gratitude…

Student: "Why must we bow at the end of a meditation period?"

Zen teacher: "To thank Buddha it's over."

Getting hold of emptiness…

Sekkyo said to one of his monks, "Can you get hold of Emptiness?"
"I'll try," said the monk, and he cupped his hand in the air.
"That's not very good," said Sekkyo. "You haven't got anything in there!"
"Well, master," said the monk, "please show me a better way."
Thereupon Sekkyo seized the monk's nose and gave it a great yank.
"Ouch!" yelled the monk. "You hurt me!".
"That's the way to get hold of Emptiness!" said Sekkyo.

It will pass …

A student went to his Zen teacher and said, "My meditation is horrible! I feel so distracted, or my legs ache, or I'm constantly falling asleep. It's just horrible!"
"It will pass," the Zen Master said matter-of-factly.
A week later, the student came back to his teacher. "My meditation is wonderful! I feel so aware, so peaceful, so alive! It's just wonderful!'
"It will pass," the teacher replied matter-of-factly.

Mouth over Mind ---

Once there was a monk who was an expert on the Diamond Sutra, and as books were very valuable in his day, he carried the only copy in his part of the world on his back. He was widely sought after for his readings and insight into the Diamond Sutra, and very successful at propounding its profundities to not only monks and masters but to the lay people as well.

Thus the people of that region came to know of the Diamond Sutra, and as the monk was traveling on a mountain road, he came upon an old woman selling tea and cakes. The hungry monk would have loved to refresh himself, but alas, he had no money. He told the old woman, "I have upon my back a treasure beyond knowing -- the Diamond Sutra. If you will give me some tea and cakes, I will tell you of this great treasure of knowledge."
The old woman knew something of the Diamond Sutra herself, and proposed her own bargain. She said, "Oh learned monk, if you will answer a simple question, I will give you tea and cakes." To this the monk readily agreed. The woman then said, "When you eat these cakes, are you eating with the mind of the past, the mind of the present or the mind of the future?"
No answer occurred to the monk, so he took the pack from his back and got out the text of the Diamond Sutra, hoping he could find the answer. As he studied and pondered, the day grew late and the old woman packed up her things to go home for the day.
"You are a foolish monk indeed," said the old woman as she left the hungry monk in his quandary. "You eat the tea and cakes with your mouth."

"Hell was OK, until some wise guy went to heaven and came back."

-- Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

WHAT IS BUDDHA?

A monk asked Master Chao-chou (778-897): “What is the Buddha?” The master replied: “The one in the hall.” The monk said, “But the one in the hall is an image, a mere statue, a lump of mud.” Chao-chou agreed, “That’s true.” “So,” persisted the monk, “what is the Buddha?” Chao-chou responded: “The one in the hall!”

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

Buddha and the Snake-king

2010-06-23T08:29:00.000-07:00

          Whenever a new religion appears it must find a way to cope with the old religions that surround it. Buddhism is no exception. We all know that the religion practiced in India during Buddha’s life time was as it is today Hinduism. Today Hinduism is said to be the third largest religion in the world. But Hinduism does not have a "unified" system of belief encoded in declaration of faith or a creed but is rather an umbrella term comprising the plurality of religious phenomena originating and based on the Vedic traditions. Various schools of Hinduism may adopt beliefs spanning monotheism, polytheism, pantheism, monism, and atheism.

            One of the oldest “denominations” of Hinduism is what we would call snake or serpent worship. It is known in fact to predate the Aryan culture on the Indian continent. I think it would surprise many folks to know that the worship of snakes and/or Naga arose in India over 500 years before Buddha’s birth and is still alive and well all over India today. This cult of the serpent has been shown to have existed over the entire continent and in fact from around 1250 BC until around 550 AD Snakes were worshiped in Persia and what is now called Arabia and Egypt. It would appear that snake worship originated in India and spread across both the near, middle and Far East.

         As in all religions there were different types of serpent worship in India. In Northern India, a version of the serpent worship evolved around the Naga called Vasuki and known as the “king of the serpents” was worshipped. These were the Naga of both Buddhist and Hindu religion. Innumerable shrines containing images of the snake king Vasuki bear testimony to the influence of serpent on the social and spiritual fabric of India. In southern India the serpent cults had a tendency to simply worship actual live snakes.

        In Sanskrit the world naga simply means serpent or snake. But in both Hindu and Buddhist writings and art the nagas are serpent creatures that are depicted as having human upper torsos but are snakes from the waist down. In Buddhist iconography, nagas sometimes are giant cobras, and sometimes they are more like dragons, but without legs. They are shape shifters who can take on the form of large snakes or even humans.

         It would appear that just as there was one kind of serpent worship in northern India and another in southern India. Buddhism itself divided in what was for years called Northern Buddhism and Southern Buddhism; Mahayana in the north and Theravada in south. The way each of these schools chose to deal with the snake cults is significant and may in fact reflect one of the causes of schism between the two schools of Buddhism.

        It is clear that the Mahayana schools chose to adopt and assimilate the northern Hindu system of serpent worship into their own beliefs and myths. In Mahayana Buddhist sutras and myths, nagas usually are wise and beneficent. While one Theravadin story recounts that Sanghamitra, daughter of king Ashoka, had once to assume the form of Garuda (a bird deity and enemy to the Naga) to counteract the magic power of the Nagas who tried to snatch the branch of the Bodhi tree she was carrying with her on her way to bring Buddhism to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. Most Theravadin stories about snakes are ways of warding off snake bites and other more particle issues.

         In Mahayana Buddhism, nagas often are depicted as water deities who guard the sutras in their palaces. For example, it is said the Wisdom Sutras were given to the nagas by the Buddha, who said the world wasn't ready for their teachings. In Mahayana Mythology it is the Naga-King Vasuki known as the “king of the serpents” That comes to Buddha in the form of a giant Cobra under the Bodhi tree and spreads his hood like an umbrella over the Buddha for seven days and nights to protect him from the monsoon rains.

            The Lotus sutra is said to be the primary Mahayana sutra and key to its development across Asia. In the Lotus sutra eight great Nagas come to hear the Buddha teach and are converted on the spot. From that day on words the Nagas were said to be the protectors of the Dharma.

              Perhaps the first Buddhist female hero was the daughter of the Naga-King whose story is recounted in the Lotus Sutra. She is said to have come to the Buddha and to have given him the famous “Wish Fulfilling Jewel” said to be more valuable than the entire earth.

      That Mahayana Buddhism was still dealing with the serpent cult’s years after Buddha’s death is clear in the story of Nagarjuna. This sage who is sometimes called the second Buddha is said to have been given his name because of his relationship with the Naga.

         The story goes that “Two youths, who were emanations of the sons of the naga king, came to Nalanda. They had about them the natural fragrance of sandalwood. Nagarjuna asked how this was so and they confessed to him who they were. Nagarjuna then asked for sandalwood scent for a statue of Tara and the nagas’ help in constructing temples. They returned to the naga realm and asked their father, who said he could help only if Nagarjuna came to their realm beneath the sea to teach them. Nagarjuna went, made many offerings, and taught the nagas.”

          The legend goes that when Buddha taught the great perfection of wisdom teachings his cousin Ananda gave a copy to the Naga king for safe keeping. The Buddha said that the people of his day were not ready for those teachings. It was Nagarjuna that requested a copy from the Naga and brought back with him The Hundred thousand verse sutra on the prajna Paramita. It is said that once while he was teaching the prajna Paramita six Naga came and sheltered him from the rain much as the Naga-King had done Buddha. From these stories it is said, he got the name Naga. And from the fact that his skill in teaching Dharma went straight to the point, like the arrows of the famous archer Arjuna (the name of the hero in the Hindu classic, Bhagavad Gita), he got the name Arjuna. Thus, he became called “Nagarjuna.”

             Historically speaking at some point the myths of the Naga and the serpents clearly allowed Buddhist to assimilate local snake cults into Buddhism and allowed the two belief systems to coexist. In most of the Mahayana stories the Nagas are either converted to Buddhism or seen as protectors of Buddha and the Dharma. When Buddhism made the trip through China the Naga became dragons as well as snakes and once again were incorporated in the Buddhist belief system. When Buddhism reached Japan The Shinto shrines to the Dragon spirits or Kami were easily incorporated into a long established mythology of the Naga. This certainly eased the relationship between the Shinto priests and the Buddhist priests.

I will end this essay with a nice little tale from Tibet about the Naga.

“According to the Vinaya or Buddhist Monastic Rule, an animal cannot become a monk. At one time, a Naga was so desirous of entering the Order that he assumed human form in order to be ordained. "Shortly after, when asleep in his hut, the naga returned to the shape of a huge snake. The monk who shared the hut was somewhat alarmed when he woke up to see a great snake sleeping next to him! The Lord Buddha summoned the naga and told him he may not remain as a monk, at which the utterly disconsolate snake began to weep. The snake was given the Five Precepts as the means to attaining a human existence in his next life when he can then be a monk. Then out of compassion for the sad snake, the Lord Buddha said that from then on all candidates for the monkhood be called 'Naga' as a consolation. They are still called 'Naga' to this day." “

Author Unknown

Karma - for beginners

2010-06-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

            I suppose it is not surprising that one of the things that is seen as a major obstacle to teaching Zen in the west is that most westerners have no understanding of the basic concepts underpinning Buddhism. I was surprised myself to hear from many people having traveled to the east how ignorant many easterners are today of these same basic concepts, even many of the new monks in Japan seem to have little education in their religion when they enter the monasteries there. So I decided to write this little essay.
          The purpose of this essay is to give a basic understanding to the reader of the Buddhist concept of Karma. It is not intended to be an exhaustive examination of either Buddhism or Karma. This essay is not a synopses or replacement for the thousands of sacred texts now available for the beginning reader on Buddhism. It is intended to interest the reader in the subject and give him or her the flavor for the idea, nothing more. I am sure it will not be spiritual enough for more advanced Buddhist and not scholarly enough for most Buddhist scholars. But it is not being written for advanced practitioners or scholars. If this little essay is in any way a help to your understanding just consider that it was meant for you. If it is no help to you just ignore it. I hereby give anyone who wants it to copy, distribute it. Please just don’t change it and say I did it.

                               Basic Buddha Dharma

         Any belief system, be it a philosophy, a religion, a superstition or even a culture, will have at its heart an underlying set of concepts or ideas upon which it rests. Karma is one of the basic ideas upon which Buddhism or more properly the Buddha Dharma is based. The Buddha Dharma most simply put is the truth taught by the Buddha.

     The Buddha was born in the sixth century B.C. in a grove of trees at a place called Lumbini, near the city of Kapilavastu, at the foot of Mount Palpa in the Himalayan Mountains in what was then part of northern India but is now called Nepal. His father was Suddhodana Gautama king of the Shakya Klan. The King named his son “Siddhartha”. Today Siddhartha is called Buddha Shakyamuni that means the sage of the Shakya Klan; he is also called Gautama Buddha or just Buddha.
      At around the age of Thirty-two Siddhartha was so moved by compassion for the suffering of the peoples of this world that he left behind his wealth, power and riches to seek enlightenment. Six years later he achieved his goal while meditating under a Bo tree. Once again moved by his compassion for all the suffering peoples of the world he dedicated his life to teaching what he had learned. He died at the age of eighty on a couch set between a pair of Sal trees near Sravasti the capital of Kosala India. His teachings became known as the Buddha Dharma.
      The Buddha Dharma is often seen as having a nature of its own separate from any one man or time. It can be seen as a golden thread leading the confused and lost wanderer back home. In fact most Buddhist look upon the Buddha Dharma as a truth so powerful that it provides shelter and grace for anyone who hears it?

                                     Karma Defined

                Karma or Kamma is a Sanskrit word, which has been alternatively defined in English as “action” or sometimes “intentional action”. But when used in the Dharma it would be more accurate to describe it a dynamic process involving intentional actions by sentient beings and the associated effects caused by or resulting from those actions.
               While the idea of a process called Kamma or Karma predates Buddhism and seems to begin, as far as the written records we have show, with what are now called Hindu scriptures or sutras; there is no way to determine the exact origin of the concept of Karma. It is important to understand that the basic concept of Karma was accepted as a given fact of life in the time and place that the Buddha first taught. But while the concept existed at the time of the Buddha it can be safely suggested that the Dharma of Buddha rewrote the existing Hindu concept of Karma in a fundamental way.

                                         Freedom from Fate

                  In India at the time of the Buddha “Karma” meant that each person had a predetermined destiny that was almost, if not completely, impossible to change. A persons Karma was his fate. This destiny was inherited and could never be altered for the persons and families involved. The result was the creation of a rigid Caste system where entire generations of families were doomed to be “untouchables”. It also meant that other persons and families, no matter how horrible they seemed, were destined to rule over the lower castes. This system still exists to this day in many parts of India.

                              If a person understands nothing else about the Buddha Dharma they should understand that it promises that Karma can be altered, changed and even destroyed. This idea alone has given hope to millions over the two and a half thousand years that the Dharma has been with us. The Dharma is a message of hope for a better future for anyone who understands and practices it.

                 When the sutras talk about a child of good linage it should be understood that anyone who takes refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha has forsaken his biological family and taken up the linage of the Dharma. In the time of the Buddha princes, dishwashers and merchants all abandoned their old castes and became equal in the Dharma. This was true of men and women. The Dharma was truly the first voice for equality of all persons.

                            Like any complex idea Karma has within it other equally important and complex ideas without which it becomes so obscure as to be almost meaningless. Ideas like “rebirth” “merit” and “virtue” are needed to understand how the dispelling of bad Karma works. But the basic formula is simple and almost universal in human thought. It is the belief that each person shall reap what he or she has sown. In one Buddhist text it is stated simply as “Whatever deed I shall do, be it good or evil, I shall become heir to it”.

                                        The Ethics of Karma

                  This idea of reaping what is sown has an ethical element to it that cannot be ignored by the western seeker. The initial response of many westerners is to see Karma as the great enforcer of right and wrong. Strangely enough this ethical element is often just by passed in many Buddhist teachings. To make matters worse the Buddhist then has the gall to say “and by the way, there is no such thing as right and wrong, good or evil”.
                    This creates a lot of frustration among western seekers. They are used to there being a big angry God out there who has this code or law to which you must adhere or be punished. Further, they are used to competing groups of “believers” who claim to have a monopoly on just what that law says. These groups seem to spend most of their free time trying to impose their version of the cosmic right and wrong on everyone else.
                        When westerners encounter the concept of Karma they see it as the same thing as “God’s Law”. Their first question is, “well who is enforcing this karmic law?” They want to know who is calling the shots. I will try and address these questions later on in the essay. It is at this point that many people “spin out” and lose track of the concept so I will acknowledge the question for now and move on to other aspects of Karma.
                                         Cause and Effect

                    If we peel back the outer skin of Karma what we find is an idea almost everyone in the west learned in grade school. That idea is cause and effect. Cause and effect is so familiar and we are so comfortable with it that we hardly ever discuss it. In the west cause and effect is a given just as Karma was a given in the time of the Buddha.
                  It might even be suggested one of the real differences between the worldview of the modern westerner and the worldview of most Buddhist is that the western worldview limits cause and effect to what they call the physical world. H.E. Kalu Rinpoche states in his book “Foundations of Tibetan Buddhism” that this unwillingness to extend the law of cause and effect into the spiritual world is “actually” a separation of people who have adopted a secular worldview as opposed to a spiritual worldview rather than being a difference between east and west.
                Therefore it should be noted that the concept of “yea shall reap what yea shall sow”or“He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword” is stated in the Bible, the Torah and the Koran, yet most westerners don’t really think about applying it to the spiritual or metaphysical world as a system of cause and effect, rather they see it, if at all, as punishment wrought by God.
                 In the west the common understanding of cause and effect is that if you ignore cause and effect in the physical world you aren’t evil just stupid. In Buddhism most Buddhist would say the same for Karma. If you walk down a railroad track long enough sooner or later a train will run over you. If you drop a bowling ball on your foot it will hurt. If you do evil acts you will reap evil karma.

                                          Rebirth

                 Now we come to the concept in Buddhism that is woven into the idea of Karma so tightly that they seem almost inseparable. I am speaking of the idea or concept of rebirth. This idea itself has at least two levels in Buddhist thought. One way of thinking of rebirth is as a succession of life times lived across infinite time and space. This process is sometimes called reincarnation or transmigration.

                           Another way of looking at rebirth is in understanding that what you call you is in fact a stream of awareness that is in fact being “reborn’ every second that it exists. In this process of “dependant origination” what you call “you” is born new from the ashes of the old you second by second and day-by-day and each new you is related to the old you by the actions and thoughts of the old you.
                        This stream of consciousness can be seen as a series of events rather than a continuous stream of thought. This new you is similar but not the same you as the old one; It is as if what is called you is in fact a series of separate but connected karmic actions and events.
                        For those Buddhist that accept rebirth into other lifetimes there is also a belief that rebirth can involve being reborn into other life forms. A human male can be reborn as a human women or a woman as a man. The stream of thought and Karma that is you may be an animal, a hell beast or even a god in its next reincarnation. You may even be born again on another world or in another dimension.

                                         Heaven and Hell

                         It surprises many westerners that most Buddhist believe in heaven and Hell. In fact most all do believe in a heaven and hell and several stops in between. There is always a great danger is generalizing about Buddhist beliefs. Over the last two thousand five hundred years those that take refuge from the trouble of this world in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Spiritual Community (Sangha) have had a lot of time on there hands to come up with a lot of variations on Buddhist thought. But it is generally agreed that with the exception of some those Zen rascals most Buddhist see the universes as having many worlds and several planes of existence.
          The Loki or “world” is seen as having three major divisions, 1) heaven 2) earth 3) hell. These three levels of samsara (cycles of existence) have six subdivisions. Heaven contains the 1) realm of the gods and below that the 2) realm of the jealous gods. Earth contains the 3) realm of man and 4) the Brute or animal realm. Hell Contains the 5) world of Hungry Ghosts and 6) realm of the Hell beings.
           While the above description may vary from time to time in Buddhist scriptures the important thing is that they are all part of samsara. Buddhist differ on the definition of samsara and nirvana but it is enough here to understand that each realm is karmic in nature. A sentient being may be reborn into any of the worlds as his or her karma demands. The good news for the reader, at least for now, is that most Buddhist would agree that the only way out of samsara is through the human realm.

                                        Karmic Connections

                        Some Buddhist believe that this “Karmic” connection between the old and new life times can also extend to other sentient beings and draw them together across space and time. The image here seems to be of force fields generated by karma that surrounds each actor with each having an effect upon the other on a karmic level of some kind. It is believed that some people have a karmic connection to each other that draws them together lifetime after lifetime.
                       But despite these Karmic connections one solid rule of Karma is that while the acts of one person often have an effect on the fate of others; your karma is your own to live with. No one can free you from the results of your own actions but yourself. Buddha said he could show you the way out, but you would have to walk through the exit yourself. The good news is that Buddha said that everyone could make the trip.
                   The basis of this assurance is the belief that all of us have a Buddha nature. Each of us has a pure core of clear light that makes us fundamentally sound and capable of dispelling our bad Karma. This pure nature has many names but what ever it is called you have it and therefore have hope.
                   In simple terms humans are not fundamentally bad or flawed beings. While Karma and the way it works is seen as universally valid and a power that cannot be ignored it can be understood and through skilful means dealt with by the Buddhist practitioner.

                                         Conditioned Existence

                      The Buddhist sees that there are conditions and states of being that impinge upon the timing of the effects of Karma other than just the action that precipitates the results. When anyone analyzes cause and effect in the physical world they soon realize that this is true and part of the process of cause and effect in our every day world.
                     One image that may help here is that of a person who throws a rock out upon the surface of a frozen lake. The rock will slide across the surface but it will not sink into the lake until the summer thaw. In other words while the intent of the thrower might or might not be to throw the rock into the lake, the rock will not fall to the bottom until conditions are right.
                   One of the most ancient analogies of this conditioned nature of Karma is that of the archer. The arrow sticking out of the target, or your chest if you prefer, is the karma that is acting on you at this moment. The arrow in flight is Karma on its way. The arrow noticed in the bow and ready to fly is Karma waiting for conditions to be right for it to take effect. And of course the arrows in the bowman’s quiver are your potential Karma.

                                    Different kinds of Actions

               In some Buddhist texts speculation as to the results of a given action is considered taboo. The Anguttura Nikaya states that the fruits of Karma cannot be know by thought or analysis and therefore should not be speculated about.
               In that sutra trying to judge peoples karma is referred to as one of the unthinkable acts. Buddha’s follower cousin Ananda is warned against judging people. The Buddha says that, “a person is destroyed by holding judgments about other people” Despite this many Buddhist scholars have tried to apply logical analysis to the subject of Karmic actions.
               In a sutra or book called the Sutta-Pittaka, Karmic actions are separated into four categories. (1) Black acts that have black results. (2) White acts, that have white results (3) black and white acts that have mixed results (4) neither black nor white acts that destroy other Karma.
                But here we encounter the universal problem with speculation. Some Buddhist schools have developed varying categories of actions and supposed results.
                There are intentional acts and none intention acts. There are acts that the actor intended to have good results and ended up having bad results. There is an old saying in the west that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It may be natural to ask if the same acts done by two different people will have the same Karmic results? But these speculations can and do go on forever.
                It is little wonder that the Buddha warned against this kind of speculation. The temptation to judge others and ourselves by such speculation is strong but can come to no good end.

                                     The Karma of Nations

                       Some Buddhist hold to the belief that the law of Karma applies to groups of people as well as to individuals. Persons bound together as a group develop karma by taking action as a group. The destruction or the raising up of one nation or another may be seen as a karmic result caused by their past actions as a group. But again one must beware of speculations that draw on a limited knowledge of a groups karma.

                      The destruction of Tibet might be seen as a disaster to Tibetans but as a boon to mankind as a whole. Driven from their country they have worked diligently to bring the Buddha Dharma to the west. Those that have encountered the dharma through them would be hard pressed to see that as a bad result. At the same time the Chinese may suffer greatly for what they have done to the Tibetans.

                                The Roman Empire persecuted the Christian church for generations. But in a mere three hundred years Rome Became a Christian empire and then fell into oblivion. Prediction of the fruits of Karma is, as Buddha said, an unthinkable task.

                                              Virtue and Merit

                       In Buddhist schools there is an almost universal belief in the concepts of virtue and merit. If you see bad karma as a debt and good Karma as a way to “pay off” that debt you will understand how these concepts work. Now it should be noted that the ultimate aim of a Buddhist is to do away with karma altogether. They see the world as a state of being called samsara. Samara is a never-ending cycle of the accumulation of good and bad Karma. In short the process of Karma is a train that they want to get off of. But while you are riding the train it never hurts to understand the rules. It is by this understanding that the Buddhist believes he or she can eventually overcome Karma and exit the train.
                    Merit in Buddhist thought can be seen as a quality you accumulate through actions usually referred to in common language as being “good”. A good deed is seen as being meritorious and a good person is seen as having obtaine virtue by gaining merit. It is often said that one can accumulate merit by doing good deeds. Simply put merit counteracts bad karma. It pays off part of your “Karmic debt” so to speak.
                    The motivation and will behind the actions called meritorious is seen as effecting the quality and quantity of merit earned. A bad person trying to buy his way out of hell may earn some small merit by building a temple or hospital for the good of others but in the end such acts done out of fear or cynicism are at best small change in your bank.
                     But keep in mind a person raised in poverty, abused by his parents and loathed by society who turns away from those influences to do a good deed may earn much more merit in the end than a saint, raised by loving parents and honored by the world for his purity when he takes the same action the next day.
                    A meritorious act may be helping the poor or sick. Helping a holy man or building a temple may also be meritorious action. The act of praying or striving for enlightenment may be a good act. Even just listing to a talk given by a holy man can obtain merit for you. All these acts can be seen as external to the person that takes the action.
                  Virtue on the other hand is an internal thing. You might even see virtue as a quality you gain by having the right motivation and doing meritorious acts. Virtue it would seem accumulates much like merit over many life times. The saying that virtue is its own reward may be seen as true. The happiness and stability obtained by developing a virtuous state of mind is an internal reward beyond measure.
                      In the Mahayana school of Buddhism the ultimate form of virtue is called Bodhicitta or “The Mind of Enlightenment”. This is the aspiration to become enlightened for the sake of helping all sentient beings to become enlightened. The cause or basis of Bodhicitta must be a universal and limitless compassion for all sentient beings. It is said that there can be no more powerful virtuous act than to cultivate true Bodhicitta. It is said to destroy karma.
                Many Buddhist believe that insight into the true nature of things automatically generates compassion. As a person grows in wisdom there is an accompanying growth in their understanding of the need for compassion and good acts in the worlds that comprise samsara. To have perfect Bodhicitta is to be called a bodhisattva.
                   The key here is how you see those people around you. It is nonsense to talk about doing a good turn for a rock or a river. In the Vimalakiti-Nirdesha Sutra a saint named Manjushri asked how should a bodhisattva see other living beings? He was told to see others as his own face in the mirror, the echo of a calling voice, a flash of lighting, or as a Buddha still suffering from the illusions of this world or even as a smokeless fire. Despite the tentative or illusory nature of others and ourselves it is clear that great understanding and compassion is needed by all of us.

                                  Skilful Means and Meditation

                        One of the basic precepts of most Buddhists is that a true understanding of the concepts of Buddhist doctrine cannot really be understood just by hearing or reading about them; they must be experienced. The mechanism for gaining insight into reality is meditation. Meditation increases insight and insight increases compassion. True compassion destroys bad Karma.
                      Several teachings of the Buddha state that despite ineffectualness of words there can be no Buddha Dharma without words. A Zen Buddhist monk once wrote that first there was the Dharma, and then the dharma was put into words, after that those words were subject to interpretation and then came hell. This is why so many Buddhist believe that there can be no real understanding of the Dharma without meditation. It is also why most Buddhists teach tolerance of other Buddhists and other religions.
                      Not all Buddhist meditate the same way. The types and methods of meditation is a subject that has filled many a page of many a book. Some Buddhist chant mantras and call out to gods or Buddha for power and insight. They call out names and words of power to draw the power that these words contain into their selves. Other Buddhists recite sutras and do repetitive acts to gain merit and virtue. It is up to you to decide which path to follow. But all Buddhist believe that these actions have an effect upon their karma.

                                         No good and No Evil

                          For the beginner perhaps the most contradictory teaching in Buddhist doctrine is that there is no good and evil. Then the monks and gurus go on to demand that there be no end to good actions in this life. Here are these crazy Buddhist saying there is good and bad karma but then they turn around and say there is no such thing as good and evil.
                       I am no Zen master but I would like to take a stab at this seeming contradiction for those at the beginning of the path to enlightenment. Many immature people who hear that statement that there is no good or evil see it as a license to go out and do whatever mischief suites their fancy.
                      Keep in mind that the goal of Buddhism is to transcend the world of Karma or “actions”. Since all intentional actions generate or influence Karma the teaching that there is no good or evil must refer to a state of mind beyond action. I would suggest that until a person perfects perfect “non-action” he consider good and evil a working reality with which he or she must contend.
                      One of the benefits in believing in Karma is to realize that while all experiences may not be pleasant all experiences have some value. If you are suffering from the effect of bad Karma your experience is not random or meaningless. You can learn from your mistakes.
                     When my son was young he started to reach out and touch the hot eye of a stove. I saw what he was about to do and shouted “Hot” as I raced across the room. But I was to slow and he learned the meaning of hot by having a most unpleasant experience. Despite the “ugly” nature of the lesson he now had experienced “hot” and would never intentionally touch a red-hot object again.
                      Now consider the examples given earlier of cause and effect. If you walk down a railroad track long enough sooner or later a train will run over you. If you drop a bowling ball on your foot it will hurt. If you do evil acts you will reap evil karma.
                     If you believe as many in the Mahayana school of Buddhism do that eventually every sentient being will escape from the trap of ignorance in which we live you can see that some will certainly escape it before others. That being the case the lessons learned from bad Karma may eventually teach the slow learners among us to move along toward enlightenment. Many believe that no one can be really free until all sentient beings are free.
                       In any case you could imagine that an enlightened being could see evil as nothing more than stupidity. They might say that ethical behavior is nothing more than learning the true nature of reality and that the understanding of reality will necessarily destroy the stupidity or ignorance that we call evil.

                                        The Big Bang Theory

           I have saved for last the question as to who created samsara and set the process of Karma in Motion. The most current theory in science of the creation of the universe is that once the entire universe was a singularity. That is to say a single point that existed outside of space and time. Then for some unknown reason there was an explosion or imbalance in the singularity and in a Big Bang or explosion the universe, as we know it was born. They don’t mention a creator God in this event.
               When the Buddha was asked who made the world he told the story of the wounded soldier on the battle field who refused to allow the doctors to remove the poison arrow in his chest until he knew just who had shot him and what type of person he was and a dozen other questions involving the incident.
                  The Buddha observed that if the doctors stopped to find the answers to these questions the patient would be dead long before they had the answers to his questions. In the same way anyone who would refuse to follow the path until he had all the answers to the nature of the universe would die several million deaths before all the answers could be given to him.
                        It may help to observe that the basic teaching of the Buddha known as the four noble truths and the eight-fold path are presented in the form of a medical diagnosis being made by a doctor of his day. He was not trying to answer questions about God and the creation of the universe and often flatly refused to address those issues involved as having no particle value. He was presenting a cure to frustration and suffering, nothing more.
                        It is perhaps best then to ask the questioner to view the law of Karma as having the same nature as the law of gravity. The necessity to comply with the law of good and evil and the knowledge that we usually don’t is a quality held only by sentient creatures. Even my dog knows when he has done something in the house he is supposed to do outside. He doesn’t need to know who owns the house or who made the carpet to act accordingly.
                        Everyone understands that if you jump off of a cliff you will hit bottom and depending on the height of the cliff the result could be a disaster for you. Having such awareness does not require an understanding of God, just common sense. It should not be so hard then to believe that there are universal laws that govern the actions of sentient beings and whose understanding offers the advantage of limiting your suffering.
                       There are as many explanations and theories about how the world began and who made it as there are cultures and religions. Buddha’s prescription for defeating Karma is a particle one for avoiding frustration and suffering. It is based upon and provides a logical understanding of the world around us. Further it gives a meaningful basis to the world as we experience it on a daily basis.
                       Mark Twain wrote that if there is a God he is a hoodlum and a thug. People like him see the world as a meaningless caldron of senseless death and destruction. They see no way that this world was made by a loving and compassionate God. What Kind of God would allow a tidal wave to kill a hundred and fifty thousand innocent people?
                      Of course some people make themselves feel better by believing that those killed were “Bad” people. However this answer usually falls short when the victims are themselves and their loved ones. So who is calling the shots here?

                              The Ultimate Karmic Connection

                              In Buddhism it is usually accepted that the sentient beings that dwell in samsara created this world through our own actions. We sentence ourselves to hell or heaven not God. The creation of this world is our ultimate Karmic connection. Every sentient being in this “samsara” has a “Karmic” connection to every other sentient being here, as proved by their being here. Here we come to the idea that everyone has at one time or another had some relationship with everyone else. The Tibetans say everyone was at one time your Mother. You and I see the same world as we share a common Karma.
                           In the Kalachakra Tantra the cosmic karma storm created by the actions of the whole of sentient beings actually brings entire worlds into existence in order that they may fulfill their Karmic destiny. Now that is what I call a big bang theory of the universe.

PS: So many people I have met complain that rebirth dose not make sense to them because they can not remember their pasts lives, how can they learn from them, what good are they? Consider this, if the test is to test who you truly are, what you have become, then knowing your past lives would be cheating, testing what you remember rather than who you are in truth. Just a thought.

The Alaya Consciousness - ?

2010-06-19T08:22:00.000-07:00

     As I said in my post the Tibetan Buddhist propose six distinct consciousnesses as I stated they are:

First consciousness: "Eye-consciousness" ; seeing apprehended by the visual sense organs;
Second consciousness: "Ear-consciousness" ; hearing apprehended by the auditory sense organs;
Third consciousness: "Nose-consciousness" , smelling apprehended through the olfactory organs;
Fourth consciousness: "Tongue-consciousness" , tasting perceived through the gustatory organs;
Fifth consciousness: "Body-consciousness" ; tactile feeling apprehended through skin contact, touch.
Sixth consciousness: "Ideation-consciousness" ; the aspect of mind known in Sanskrit as manas or the "mind monkey"; the consciousness of ideation.

        These six are all identified in the Sutta Pitaka:

           But please remember that The Sutta Pitaka, the second division of the Tipitaka, consists of more than 10,000 suttas (discourses). All said to have been delivered by the Buddha and his close disciples during and shortly after the Buddha's forty-five year teaching career. However Sutras written much later such as the Lankavatara Sutra and the Shurangama Sutra both incorporate these teachings.

           But these later writings have introduced the so called seventh and eighth consciousnesses.
      The Yogachara School that espoused the Cittamatra Doctrine proffers these that there are two more consciousnesses:

(The Yogachara and their Cittamatra doctrine are called by the most Buddhist scholars the consciousness-only or mind-only schools)
      The Seventh consciousness: "Obscuration-consciousness" called the klistamanas = "obscuration", "poison", "enemy"; manas "ideation", "moving mind", "mind monkey" (volition?); a consciousness which through apprehension, gathers the hindrances, the poisons, the karmic formations.
    The Eighth consciousness: "store-house consciousness”; the consciousness which is the basis of the other seven. The seven prior consciousnesses are based and founded upon the eighth. It is the aggregate which administers and yields rebirth. Oddly enough this idea may be ultimately traceable to the "luminous mind" of the agamas. Which is in fact tractable to the Sutta Pitaka as well?

This Eight Consciousness as I understand it is the Alaya Consciousness.

           The Alaya Consciousness as defined by the Yogacara School,( "All three worlds are mind only") also know as the mind only school, Alaya means the "storehouse", implying that this consciousness contains and preserves all past memories and potential psychic energy within its fold; it is the reservoir of all ideas, memories and desires and is also the fundamental cause of both Samsara and Nirvana.

          Now we come to the question the Alaya Consciousness and Zen.

         According to the Lankavatara Sutra which is a major sutra used by Chan and Zen schools in contrast with the Yogachara position, the store house consciousness (alayavjnana) is identical with the tathagatagarbha (i.e., the womb or matrix of the Thus-come-one, the Buddha), and is fundamentally pure.
        From this point of view, it is because the store house consciousness, while being originally immaculate in itself, contains a "mysterious mixture of purity and defilement, good and evil" that the transformation of consciousness can take place and enlightenment can be experienced. In this analysis, mental and physical manifestations are nothing but discriminations of Mind and all aspects of the first seven enumerated consciousnesses are just the reflections of the store consciousness (Alaya) also known as the Tathagatagarba.
         In the development of Chan and later Zen the doctrines of the Alaya Consciousness and The idea of suchness or thusness seems to have resulted in the philosophical idea of the universality of Buddha nature. The Sutra most Chan and some Zen schools rely on here is the Shurangama Sutra.
          This all being said I believe that it would be incorrect to say that most modern Zen practitioners espoused the idea of the Alaya Consciousness. While there are many Chan schools that strongly espouse the tathagatagarbha (i.e., the womb or matrix of the Thus-come-one, the Buddha. All my experience and the results of my reading has been that many modern Zen masters would laugh at this idea. They see the transference of karma and aspects of memory and personality as more or less a kind of kinetic residual energy that simply gets transferred much like what happens when one billiard ball strikes another one on a billiard table. If you suggested too many Modern American Zen masters that there was a store house consciousness that was traveling from life to life they would laugh at you. Of course many of them I think would not have a clue as to what you were talking about.
       So if this is so dose a dog have Buddha Nature? What if the dog thinks he is a Zen Master?

The Buddhist concept of Mind

2010-06-19T05:12:00.000-07:00

            In Buddhist philosophy the mind of a sentient being is not a product of biological processes, but something primordial which has existed since beginningless time and which will be drawn into another body once the present one has died. The mind is capable of existing independently of the body, but an unenlightened mind finds this situation (known as the Bardo) unstable and is drawn into (rather than seeks) another body. In biological terms the mind and body form a symbiotic association.

   The mind is neither physical, nor a by-product of purely physical processes, but a formless continuum that is a separate entity from the body. When the body disintegrates at death, the mind does not cease. Although our superficial conscious mind ceases, it does so by dissolving into a deeper level of consciousness, called 'the very subtle mind'. The continuum of our very subtle mind has no beginning and no end....'
    The only way that the mind can escape Samsara - being endlessly captured and used by biological systems - is to escape from the recurrent process of death, attraction to a body, and rebirth. Training in the Buddha's Dharma is stated to be the path to individual liberation, which is why a mind born into a human body is regarded as extremely fortunate.
     Simply put you state that “Because if mind is consciousness, then I would argue that it does have a beginning and an end. It begins the instant the sperm meets the egg, and then grows and becomes more sophisticated with experience and as the brain develops. What we call consciousness is just the by-product of the brain organ, similar to the eyes seeing”     This is a frequently used materialist argument against the existence of the mind as a non-physical continuum. In essence it claims that mind is an 'emergent property' or 'emergent phenomenon' of the brain.

         But " modern science itself, quantum analysis to be exact, would show that the mind cannot be an emergent property of the brain or any other physical system, since emergent properties and emergent phenomena are psychological in origin, and require the pre-existence of an observer's mind in order to become manifest emergence- Properties of a complex physical system are emergent just in case they are neither (i) properties had by any parts of the system taken in isolation nor (ii) resultant of a mere summation of properties of parts of the system.

" Roberson on the nature of the mind"

     Your world is a probability wave defined by those who look for and observe it. Werner Heisenberg developed the uncertainty principle which tells us that we (the observer) can never exactly know both the position and momentum of a particle. As every observation requires an energy exchange (photon) to create the observed 'data', some energy (wave) state of the observed object has to be altered. Thus the observation has a discrete effect on what we measure. i.e. We change the experiment by observing it! (A large part of their problem though was to continue to assume the existence of discrete particles and thus to try to exactly locate both their position and motion, which is impossible as there is no discrete particle!) Further, because both the observed position and momentum of the particle can never be exactly known, theorists were left trying to determine the probability of where, for example, the 'particle' would be observed. But it was Max Born (1928) who was the first to discover (by chance and with no theoretical foundation) that the square of the quantum wave equations (described by the Wave Structure of Matter as Wave-Density) could be used to predict the probability of where the particle would be found. Since it was impossible for both the waves and the particles to be real entities, it became customary to regard the waves as unreal probability waves and to maintain the belief in the 'real' particle. Unfortunately (profoundly) this maintained the belief in the particle/wave duality, in a new form where the 'quantum' scalar standing waves had become 'probability waves' for the 'real' particle. Thus all matter exists only once actually observed. The material world requires an observer to manifest. Thus modern quatum theory would suggest that matter is in fact manifested by the observer, i.e. the mind. It would seem then that modern physicists are in fact members of the Cittamatra (Mind Only) School of Buddhism.
    The first Buddhist Philosopher to comment on the separate nature of mind and matter was Acharya Nagarjuna who simply expressed it in this form. " Mind and body have two separate natures. The first instant of the mind you are experiencing arose from the preceding instant of the mind in Bardo or if you will your previous life. Just as your body did not arise from a “mind” but rather from the act of fertilization of an egg and sperm from other bodies, your mind did not arise from your body. "
        To see the truth of this argument one must have done the mediation required to develop the self awareness to perceive that mind is not simply composed of those mental functions most people believe is their “mind”. This superficial conscious mind you talk to while your reading or argue with when making a decision.

********

       I would like to restate that the purpose of the Buddhist science and analysis of the mind is not to give a scientific definition of the mind but to develop a functional description that allows the practitioner to observe his own mental process’s and use those observations to overcome delusion. The Buddhist science of mind is basically a system of understanding and observing mind with mind. This science has developed over a couple thousand years and there are many texts on mind as it is paramount in Buddhist practice. Starting with the Dhammapada were Buddha states that mind is paramount to various and different schools of Buddhism mind has been at issue.

THE MONOLITICH MIND:
   Modern westerners refer to the mind as if it were an object, a single thing a monolithic structure contained within itself. We may see it as intellect itself or the power to reason do analysis. But essentially we see it as a unity.

THE MANY MINDS OF BUDDHISM:

Buddhist mind science defines “mind” as “Luminous and knowing”. Another translation might be that which is clarity and cognizes. In either case Luminosity or clarity refers to the nature of mind while knowing and clarity refers to its function.

WARNING – WARNING – WARNING— BEWARE WESTERN STUDENTS –

    Ok you say my mind, her mind; its mind is Luminous and knowing. STOP RIGHT THERE – dislodge you conceptual frame work of analysis – remove your underlying assumption of “THE MONOLITICH MIND”

“Mind and its types” (Sanskrit and Tibetan words from which the English is translated are in parentheses:

“Consciousness ( jnana, shes pa) awareness (buddhi, blo) and knower (sanvedana, rig pa) are synonymous: they are the broadest terms among those dealing with the mind. Any mind (chitta, sems) or mental factor (chitta, sems byung) is a consciousness, is an awareness, is a knower. These terms should be understood in an active sense because MINDS ARE MOMENTATY CONSCIOUSNESS which are active agents of knowing. In Buddhism mind is not conceived to be merely a general reservoir of information or just the brain mechanism, but to be individual moments of knowing, the continuum of which makes up our sense of knowing.”

Quote from “Mind in Tibetan Buddhism” by Lati Rinbochay

So in Tantric Buddhism the mind of clear light may be located in the central channel and other “minds” mounted on winds located at other chakra’s and the minds may be certain afflictive emotions and called a mind. One may do the practice of generating Bodhi chitta – or generating the Buddha mind --

I myself have observed that you can think but one thought at a time each of these thoughts and perceptions may be called a mind. The thought that immediately follows the last thought would be another “mind”.

Two different (but basically similar) systems were developed for the learning and study of these “minds” by the esoteric Buddhist. Remember these systems were not devised to give scientific definitions but functional ones that allow the practitioner to observe his own mental process’s and use those observations to overcome delusion.

These systems are the Sautrantika and the Prasangika .

These systems divide the process of luminosity and knowing up into different discreet types and allow you to be aware of what is happening as you cognize.

Example: Five sense consciousnesses

Eye sense consciousness

Ear sense consciousness

Nose sense consciousness

Tongue sense consciousness

Body sense consciousness

Gratitude and Buddism

2010-06-17T09:07:00.000-07:00

I am writing today on the subject of Gratitude in Zen Buddhism. This subject came to my mind the other day as I was leaving a coffee shop were I had just spent an hour talking with my Sensei. I was thinking about something he said and I realized the truth of it and there was an almost instant benefit to myself as the realization happened. My next thought was not so much a thought as a feeling. I can only describe that feeling as gratitude.

Gratitude is derived from the Latin root gratia meaning grace, graciousness, or gratefulness. It is defined as, thankfulness, or appreciation, a positive emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive.

      There is an old Buddhist saying: “It is more rewarding to pull a dead log from the river than to save an ungrateful man.” But on the whole Buddhist teachings on gratitude itself seem very limited. Teachings on gratitude appear frequently in religious writings mostly the religious traditions of Christianity, Judaism, Islam were it seems to be limited more or less to gratitude to their particular version of God.

       There is a rather obscure Sutra called the “Mind Ground Sutra” which deals with gratitude. This Shinjikan Sutra as it is named in Japanese was commented on by Nichiren Daishonin in a writing called “Meditation on the Mind Ground Sutra” In essence this sutra states that all Buddhist have four great debts, for which they must express gratitude. 1) The first debt is to all living beings. Without which we could not make our vows to save them and accrue merit. 2) The second great debt is to our Mother and Father for giving us birth. 3) The third great debt is to your King (this one has been used to grind some political issues from time to time). And fourth but not least are to the three jewels i.e. the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha.
          A Korean Buddhist Teacher named Sot'aesan Taejongsa's also wrote on this sutra, calling these debts the four graces. His interpretation of the sutra is very different from that of Nichiren. While Nichiren was more or less promoting both the lotus sutra and his own political views, Taejongsa’s intent was to make use of gratitude as a very particle tool for improving the individual practitioners’ quality of life. What he called a method to "change a life based on resentment into a life based on gratitude." His intent was to reform Buddhism, not unlike Nichiren, and he created what is called “Won” Buddhism in Korea.
         The Won Buddhist web site says “The practice of Won Buddhism has two aspects: realization of Buddha-nature and "time-less and placeless Zen." This means that the adherents of Won Buddhism seek to see the Buddha in all things and to live in accordance with this insight.” In short he like Nichiren reworked Buddhism, changed some basic terms and generally tried to make Buddhism more useful for the common man practitioner in his time and place in history. He did this by making the Dharmakaya the equivalent to god and following the path used by the religious traditions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam in teaching gratitude to same. He says “By awareness of Graces and Requital of Graces is meant that one should be aware of, and feel deeply, the way in which one is indebted to Graces of Heaven and Earth, Parents, Brethren and Laws; when following the way of being indebted, one is to requite these Graces.”
         Now that I have written a short history lesson on Buddhism and Gratitude I will express my own feelings on the subject for those of you who have had the patience to read this far.
           Buddhist sutras often talk about generating Bodhicitta and the underlying foundation of Bodhicitta and Mahayana is compassion. I have found in my own practice that this is almost impossible without a true feeling of gratitude. When things get rough in this life and we all take our licks compassion is often shoved over the side of our boat. It is hard to feel gratitude or compassion when it seems like the very universe is out to get you, to make you suffer.
             In Buddhism there are two main types of Buddhist meditation: vipassana (insight) and Samantha (tranquility). In Soto Zen we have a very specific style of Zen Meditation, which could be called insight or vipassana meditation. But Dogen’s style of meditation is different in that we don’t teach the student to focus or concentrate on a specific idea or object as most Buddhist schools do. I think this may be a misunderstanding; Dogen was constantly instructing the reader to “investigate” specific subjects and teachings. So while it is clear he taught his primary method of meditation without a subject or object it appears to me he took the established “wisdom” meditation used throughout Buddhism as a given. I believe That he never meant to exclude the established form of insight meditation from his students tool box.
           I think we could all use a few minutes a day generating a mind of gratitude. You can be grateful for this opportunity to work your way out of ignorance. You can be thankful to and for so much in this life, and despite it brutal nature samsara itself is an opportunity. If I were a Zen master (which I am not.), I would teach gratitude and the benefits of it often. It would be one of the first things I would ask my students to be mindful of.

Jay and Vas have tea .

2010-06-07T10:23:00.000-07:00

Jayata said “I do not seek the way, yet I am not confused. I do not pay obeisance to Buddha, yet I do not disregard Buddha either. I do not sit for long periods, yet I am not lazy. I do not limit my meals, yet I do not eat indiscriminately either. I am not contented, yet I am not greedy. When the mind does not seek anything, this is called the Way”

When Vasubandhu heard this, he discovered uncontaminated knowledge,
Manor asked Vasubandhu, “What is the enlightenment of the Buddha’s? Vasubandhu said, “It is the original nature of the mind?”

(From – Keizan’s Transmission of Light, ed Thomas Cleary)

           Vasubandhu is considered the 21st Patriarch of Zen. He is also considered one of the first Buddhist logicians, which I find rather strange myself. His work the “Method for Argumentation” is considered one of the first attempts at developing a system of formal logic for Buddhism. He was a well known and famous teacher of Theravadin Buddhism for years when he was converted to the Mahayana school, supposedly by his half brother Asanga. But all other things aside he and his brother Asanga are said to have co-founded the Yogachara school of Buddhism.
       Yogachara literally means “one whose practice is yoga”. But this school is sometimes called the mind only school because they argued that there is nothing that people experience that is not mediated by mind. This is a teaching which is in fact taught in the Dhammapada which is one of Buddhism’s earliest texts, said to be quoted from the Buddha himself. Supposedly the Madhyamaka school of Buddhism systematized by the great Nagarjuna, the 14th Patriarch of Zen, and the Yogacharins had their differences of opinion on this and that bit of philosophy. But in the end this has usually been found, in my opinion to be a case of hair splitting by later scholars.
             In the end sitting in meditation is the yoga of Vasubandhu, the yoga of Nagarjuna, and the way of Dogen and Keizan. This practice of sitting is the way of the Buddha and always has been.
            I think When Dogen tried to cut his way through 2000 years of Buddhist teaching and philosophy, when he tried to weed out the superfluous and the petty, wade through the bickering and the name calling, he always found sitting in meditation at the core of all the teachings.

              But for me the trick has always been to get up off the cushion and carry what I found there with me through out the day. This is what I would call a “Mountain Walking”. This may not be what Dogen ment by mountain walking but it has stuck with me as its meaning. For me it is the real Zen, when I am sitting even when I am standing and walking.

Or as Jay would say:

“I do not seek the way, yet I am not confused. I do not pay obeisance to Buddha, yet I do not disregard Buddha either. I do not sit for long periods, yet I am not lazy. I do not limit my meals, yet I do not eat indiscriminately either. I am not contented, yet I am not greedy. When the mind does not seek anything, this is called the Way”
    Yes you see Cherry what I mean when I say you can sometimes win the door prize, but simply not be able to do anything with it.

Mazu Daoyi

2010-05-27T08:27:00.000-07:00

           I held a séance a couple of days ago, and I summoned the spirit of Mazu Daoyi, I was so sick and in such pain that the force of it was shaking the night sky.
           The windows rattled and the floor creaked and I asked the old faker, Sun Faced Buddha, Moon faced Buddha?
            His answer still lingers, when I wake.

Zen Master as Practical Metaphysician

2010-05-24T18:32:00.000-07:00

     Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. It would be fair to say that it is enquiry of a non-empirical character into the nature of existence. This has lead to three views of it in the west. David Hume a pure empiricist would say “Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.” Sir Alfred Jules Ayer in "Language, Truth and Logic" using the verifiability theory of meaning concluded that metaphysical propositions were neither true nor false but strictly meaningless, as were religious views. Immanuel Kant was a little more kind to metaphysics. While admitting that rational analysis had its limits. He argued against knowledge progressing beyond the world of our representations, except to knowledge that the noumena existed.
         The third and probably the least accepted view is that of French philosopher Henri Bergson. Bergson held that anything can be known in one of two ways, either absolutely and relatively. The method of inquiry for knowing something relatively was the empirical method. He stated that empirical analysis is always an analysis ad infinitum and can never reach the absolute. It consists in dividing the object based on the chosen viewpoint and translating the divided fragments into symbols, wherein a specter of the original can be reconstructed. These symbols always distort the part of the object they represent, as they’re generalized to include it and every other part they represent. Thus they ignore the object’s uniqueness. *

*(See: Henri Bergson, The Creative Mind: An Introduction to Metaphysics, pages 165 to 168.)

            The method for understanding and enquiry into the absolute was what he called intuition. He defined intuition “as a simple, indivisible experience of sympathy through which one is moved into the inner being of an object to grasp what is unique and ineffable within it. The absolute that is grasped is always perfect in the sense that it is perfectly what it is, and infinite in the sense that it can be grasped as a whole through a simple, indivisible act of intuition, yet lends itself to boundless enumeration when analyzed”*

*(See: Henri Bergson, The Creative Mind: An Introduction to Metaphysics, pages 159 to 162.)

           The problem then that the west has always had with both metaphysics and religion is that neither is subject to empirical analysis and therefore are beyond empirical proofs.

Lets talk Zen:
            D.T. Suzuki was perhaps the person most responsible for bringing the idea of Zen, and its nature, to the west. Suzuki and his disciples constantly stressed the idea that Zen is illogical, irrational, and beyond our intellectual understanding. This of course places it squarely in the class and set of metaphysics and religion, as rejected by western thought.

              In western philosophy and in Buddhism and Zen we seem to universally encounter a problem in almost every debate I think is best summerized as follows:

     “That is, those who have described the core of religion as the ineffable experience of the numinous, or of the sacred, or of Satori, implicitly draw a self-serving line between, on the one hand, those people who have had religious experience (like themselves, practitioners of a religion) and are therefore empowered to be judges of truth and falsehood in matters of religion, and, on the other hand, those people who have not (like the secular and scientific critics of religion) and are therefore incapable of distinguishing truth from falsehood in matters of religion. I do not mean to deny that the notion of “religious experience” has been used in the ideological way described here, to anoint certain persons with the authority to speak on religious matters and disenfranchise others. But “religious experience” is not the only fabled beast lurking in the ideological woods. “Empirical scientific analysis,” also known as “Academic objectivity,” is another such epistemological concept. Proponents not only claim it exists but also use it to draw a self-serving line between those who have it (like themselves, academic scholars) and who are therefore empowered to be the judge of true and false, and those who do not have it (like practitioners of religion)and are therefore incapable of distinguishing the true and the false. In this conflict over who has authority to speak on matter religious, both sides posit epistemological Entities, “religious experience” and “scientific objectivity,” and both sides claim possession of it to grant themselves authority and to disenfranchise the other. In this conflict, it sounds like two hands clapping, but underneath it is really only one.”
(See: “Victor Sogen Hori- "Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Koan Practice”)

           If we examine the public dispute between Hu Shih and D. T. Suzuki we see a perfect example of what I am talking about. “In the April 1953 edition of Philosophy East and West, Hu Shih and D. T. Suzuki published their debate on the history and method of Chan (Zen) Buddhism. Suzuki’s final refuge was that Hu Shin, was not enlightened and therefore had no right to debate him. It is sad when looked at closely, for as James D. Sellmann, pointed out in his review of the debate; neither man was even using the same definition for the word “Chan” or “Zen”.
        But I am going to suggest that there is a resolution to this age old dilemma between the Empiricist and the Metaphysicians.   I am taking the position here that the Zen master is a practical metaphysician. Further, that the practice of Zen meditation is a method of proof of the nature of the absolute. That Zen is neither rational nor irrational and that as Mr. Sellman states:
    “It seems to me that describing Zen as illogical or irrational is a misunderstanding not of Zen, but of the nature of the illogical and the irrational. “ (See: James D. Sellmann, Philosophy East and West Vol. 45, no. 1 January 1995 p. 97-104, © University of Hawaii Press )
          Zen is by its nature “a-logical” That is to say that it is beyond or outside the bounds of logic, or to those things to which logic can apply. But that Zen is a practice that can be learned by anyone and therefore the truth of which is verifiable by anyone. It is a means by which as Henri Bergson espoused, that by intuition, anyone can come to grips with and know the absolute.
         We will always need aids to help us negotiate the relationship between insight and language. We will need teachers and koans and experiences of both a mundane and spiritual nature. And I am sure we will always have a tendency to be in love with our own beliefs and practices.
          But it is a fact that Zen is the tool that western philosophy denied could exist. It is the practical method of proving metaphysics. Buddha’s first rule was always forget the philosophy, forget the debate. You should accept nothing just because I said it. Try it out and see if it works, see if it is true. That is the nature of Zen.

Emptiness – what’s the big deal?

2010-05-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

                 This observation is of course subjective, but it seems to me people hear the word emptiness and immediately start spinning their mental wheels. The concept of emptiness as used in most modern Buddhist teachings was expounded or elaborated on by Nagarjuna.

        Emptiness is the English translation of the Sanskrit word Sunyata. Sunyata means to have no inherent existence or Svabhava in Sanskrit. Now before you go tilting off on a tangent what dose it mean to “inherently exist”?

To have or be Svabhava:
(1) An inherently existing entity exists in splendid isolation without the need to reference any other entity. It is completely defined by its own nature.
(2) An inherently existing entity is uncaused.
(3) It is indestructible.
(4) It is eternal.
(5) It is unchanging when viewed externally.
(6) It cannot undergo any internal changes of state.
(7) It either has no constituent parts, or if it has parts those parts are inseparable.
(8 consequently, nothing can be ejected or removed from it.
(9) Nothing can be added to it (this would change its definition).
(10) No change in external conditions (up to and including the destruction of the entire universe) can affect it.

                 To be empty of inherent existence means “you” are not any of the above 10 things.

             So, now that you have a clear idea of what it means to “inherently exist” I must ask if you ever really believed that you or anything else did or dose inherently exist?

            Nagarjuna said that everything that exists by the nature of reality dose so dependant upon prior causes and conditions.   Everything is both a cause and an effect. He rejected the idea of a primary or first cause and took the position that reality was by its nature an infinite progression/regression: i.e. to be without beginning or end. He said that we suffer from a misperception caused by the psychological tendency to grasp at all objects of perception as if they really existed as independent entities. This is to say that ordinary beings believe that such objects exist "out there" as they appear to perception.

Now that’s not such a big deal is it? Welcome to the middle –way.

The Value of Zen

2010-05-19T21:56:00.000-07:00

         There I was. The universe was vast and filled with violence. The rules were simple you have between now and perhaps a few years. Everything here consumes everything else and the only thing you can be sure of is you are a temporary item with a short shelf life. You, everyone you know, the earth beneath your feet and the sun that burns above all have an expiration date stamped upon them. This makes me unhappy.

“My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will." --- William James

      The material world is of little comfort, everyone and everything moves and changes, the nature of any pleasure is that it will end and too much of any of it will kill you. The more I have the more I want and the more I get the more it weighs upon me.

      Wait! I see:

The Four Noble Truths

1. Life means suffering.
2. The origin of suffering is attachment.
3. The cessation of suffering is attainable.
4. The path to the cessation of suffering.

I see this is true. I see this could work. But:

            "Grant an idea or belief to be true, what concrete difference will its being true make in anyone's actual life?" --- William James

               But that would mean that the value of any truth was utterly dependent upon its use to the person who held it. I suppose the theory of relativity has some worth to me, it seems to have some cash value. Knowing that gold fish are a type of carp, yes I see it all now.
            I suppose, this small formula, well it just might be that this could have value. It could provide me with a moral anchor, emotional stability, even provide benefits of an, aesthetic, psychological, existential, communal, and even physical-health, nature. I suppose it could.

But of course I would have to apply effort, this don’t seem to be a free ride.

“Happiness is that which can be borne with ease;
suffering is that which cannot be borne with ease.”
Old Buddhist saying

Can this be born with ease?

I think I will sit down and meditate on this.

A teacher -

2010-05-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

                   An aspiring monk wanted to find a Guru. He went to an monastery and his preceptor told him: "You can stay here but we have one important rule - all students observe the vow of silence. You will be allowed to speak to me once every 12 years".

After practicing silence and meditation for 12 long years, finally the student could say his one thing, and : "The bed is too hard."
After another 12 years of hard silent meditation, he had the opportunity to speak again. He said: "The food is not good."
Twelve more years of hard work passed. His words after 36 years of practice: "I quit."
His Guru quickly answered: "Good, all you have been doing anyway is complaining."

"To find a Buddha, all you have to do is see your nature. Your nature is the Buddha. And the Buddha is the person who's free: free of plans, free of cares. If you don't see your nature and run around all day looking somewhere else, you'll never find a Buddha. The truth is, there's nothing to find. But to reach such an understanding you need a teacher and you need to struggle to make yourself understand..."

Bodhidharma

          It is important that we familiarize ourselves with the characteristics [of a spiritual teacher] discussed by Kongtrul Rinpoche. Second, we must maintain awareness of our own motivation during the process of finding a teacher. Am I seeking a teacher in order to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, or am I seeking to fulfill my need to acquire the prestige associated with a famous teacher, or am I merely attracted to a lama's beautiful retreat land or the social scene of a hip Sangha, and so on.
These motivations need to be acknowledged if we are to recognize an authentic wisdom teacher, because the teacher you find is related to your karma, and your karma is intimately connected to your motivation.

Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye from “The Teacher-Student Relationship”

QUALIFICATIONS FOR A SPIRITUAL TEACHER OF BASIC PHILOSOPHY

1. Proper ethical behaviour - a guru should not harm others but try to help
2. Single pointed concentration
3. No self-grasping or egoistic thoughts
4. Having love and compassion as main motivations to teach
5. Realised emptiness, at least have a proper intellectual understanding
6. Perseverance in teaching
7. Wealth of scriptural knowledge
8. More learned and realized than student
9. Skilled speaker
10. Given up disappointment in the performance of the students

If possible, try to find a guru who possesses all these qualities, but at least the first 5. This may be difficult enough...

QUALIFICATIONS FOR A SPIRITUAL DISCIPLE

Just like a teacher requires certain qualifications, so should a proper disciple fulfill some criteria.

A disciple should consider him/herself as a patient, the teacher as a doctor, the Dharma as medicine and should take the medicine by practicing. Like His Holiness the Dalai Lama says: "There is no substitute for hard work"

A proper disciple should avoid the so-called 3 faulty attitudes:
- being like an upside down vessel: refusing to learn and scepticism
- being like a leaking vessel: forgetting everything and showing no interest
- being like a polluted vessel: being very prejudiced and believing to know everything better than the teacher

A proper disciple should fulfill the 3 requisites:
- lack of prejudice, being open-minded
- intelligence and a critical mind: not blindly following orders
- aspiration: wanting to practice and experience results (not just scholarly study)

           From The Tibetian Buddhism Guide to the student teacher relationship

        To see through all things you must depend on yourself, no one else can do it for you, however a good teacher can choose the most appropriate time to call out a students potential.

                                         Tsai Chih Chung

We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up.
                                         Phyllis Diller

With my complements to Rudy

“Riding a mule while seeking a mule”

2010-05-17T08:28:00.000-07:00

“Riding a mule while seeking a mule”
                                    Old Zen Saying

"Investigate Right Where You're Standing"
                                     Master Chu-hung

                      Dogen, described meditation as an easy practice open to everyone. But I have found it requires resolve and determination to continue it over the years. My Sensei says it becomes easier the more you do and can even become addicting. But over those long years my body has rebelled and now my sitting can involve 10 times the pain it did when I was younger, in fact when I was younger there was little or no pain in sitting, now my arthritis strikes at me like some demon from another world. And in truth I am embarrassed and ashamed when the flames of time drive me to sit in a chair rather than on a cushion. I some times think my time has passed, that I have somehow missed the boat on this go around. Other times I simply sit and just don’t have a care one way or the other.
      Taking the 2 positions at once, seeking without trying to obtain, I often seem to sense the truth lurking in some dark corner of my mind, and then it’s gone, nothing left but the wind and the dew upon the grass. No wonder, no awe, just the emptiness of a field left unplowed. I don't know why but there seems to be a sadness in it.

Religious freedom and Zen in the year 2010

2010-05-15T19:28:00.000-07:00

               In 842 CE the Tang Emperor Wuzong declared war on Buddhism in China. He was a Taoist, he had a money problem, his last war had all but bankrupted his government, and so he declared Buddhism an outlawed religion.
                He ordered that all Buddhist lands and property be forfeited to his government. This went a long way towards ending his economic problems. 44,600 monasteries and temples were either seized or destroyed. Over 260,000 monks and nuns were stripped of their robes and sent into servitude or told to return to lay life. Buddhist writings and sutras were outlawed and destroyed. The only school of Buddhism to emerge from this more or less intact was the Chan (Zen) School. Even with their buildings gone and their writings destroyed and outlawed, the heart of Zen kept beating.

           I was thinking about this today and about religious freedom. I wonder how many of us realize how fragile our right to worship as we please is in the year 2010. So I decided check it out. Here is what I found.
          In the following countries the government Licenses religion and will only allow those religions it has decided to license and regulate.

China, Population: 1,313,973,713.
North Korea, Population: 23,113,019.
Vietnam, Population: 84,402,966
Cuba, Population: 11,382,820

            The following countries are either a religious state or have a official state government religion with little or no toleration of other religions:

Afghanistan (Islamic state), Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh (Islamic state) Brunei, Comoros, Egypt

Indonesia (Uses Islamic jurisprudence in private law, and in Aceh special territory as a basic law. Officially also recognize Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism as religion, but the penalty for converting from Islam to another religion is death.

Iran (Islamic state), Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya
Malaysia (Not exactly an Islamic state but does have Sharia courts along with the secular courts), penalty for conversion, death.
Maldives, Mauritania (Islamic state) Morocco, Oman
Pakistan (Islamic state) Qatar, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Saudi Arabia (Islamic kingdom)Somalia (the newly established coalition government announced in March 2009 that it would implement shari'a as the nation's official judicial system. Tunisia United Arab Emirates, Yemen (Islamic state) Algeria, Bangladesh, Comoros, Somalia, Jordan, Indonesia (Aceh Special Province Only)
Iran
Buddhist state governments:
Bhutan, Cambodia, Kalmykia, A republic within the Russian Federation (Tibetan Buddhism- sole Buddhist entity in Europe) Sri Lanka (Theravada Buddhism) - The constitution accords Buddhism the "foremost place," but Buddhism is not recognized as the state religion. Thailand.

Jewish states: Israel,

         In Cameroon, Kenya and Zambia, the new Christian regimes, backed by western evangelicals are passing laws to stifle other religions and make homosexuality a crime punishable by death. Showing that Christianities will to theocracy is not dead and still thriving.
         The above is not an exhaustive list by far, but if you just “assumed” religious freedom was the normal state of affairs in the world, I think it shows you are wrong.
         Religious liberty is in fact atypical in our 21st century and should be guarded at all costs.

I wonder how well Zen would fair should we face another Emperor Wu?

The First Great Vow.

2010-05-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

“Shigu Seigan” (Fourfold Great Vow)

Beings are numberless, I vow to free them
Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them
Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them
Buddha's way is unsurpassable, I vow to realize it.

      These four vows, or a variation of them, are repeated daily in Zen temples, Zen centers and monasteries all over the world. I myself prefer "Sentient beings are numberless; I vow to liberate them," to “Beings are numberless, I vow to free them.” But there you go…

       Before I decide to write on something as pervasive as the 4 great vows I usually check around, read a bit of what the Zen and/or Buddhist teachers are saying on the subject, and see if I should even bother writing my blog on it. I have felt an urge to write on this for a while and today I checked out what the Zen masters of the Internet had to say about them.

If any of you internet Zen Masters ever stumble across this blog, listen up!

      The first great vow has nothing to do with soup kitchens, contributing to charity or visiting people in mental institutions. You can not free a person or liberate them by paying their bills, mowing their lawn or even feeding them food. These are all wonderful things to do, but they have nothing to do with this vow.
      The first and only being you can free or liberate is that amalgamation of delusions you tentatively call “you”. The only way to accomplish this is by the next three vows.
           You have within you at all times every one you have ever been and will ever be. These sentient beings reside within you from instant to instant and from life time to life time. Attention: If you ever manage to free or liberate one of these beings then you free and liberate numberless others both past and future.

As Dogen would say, investigate that!

Birth, Life and Death

2010-05-05T10:35:00.000-07:00

      I would say that Birth, Life and Death are the issue that underlies all religion. If you disagree with that then this little essay is not for you.
     In Buddhism we have adopted a view that sentient beings, at least most of us, are subject to an endless cycle of Birth, death and rebirth, we call this among other things being trapped in samsara. We wander through the countless cycles of Life & Death, bouncing between the lowest hells (Avici - the unrelenting Hell) to the highest heaven (Akanistha - the ultimate peak of Heaven). Among the goals, or intent of Buddhism is to escape this cyclic existence.

Zen master Dogen wrote a small essay called “Shoji” or On Life and death” It begins:

“Because there is Buddha within living and dying, life and death do not exist.” And in response, the following was said, “Because the Buddha did not exist within life and death, He was not infatuated with living and dying.” These words are the very heart of what was said by the two Meditation Masters Kassan and Jōzan. Since they are the words of persons who had realized the Way, we can certainly profit by them, and not in vain. Anyone who wishes to be freed from life and death should clarify this principle. Should you seek for Buddha outside of living and dying…”

        I had a moment, a realization that I suppose my logical mind would say was self evident, yet that moment was some how more profound than understanding, I can’t explain it, but subjectively it was.

       My Zen teacher was discussing life and death during a talk, and I suddenly realized that life and death are not different things at all, that birth, life and death are one single event, one single thing having the same nature. I somehow had always seen birth and death as polar opposites, like light and dark, sweet and sour, hot or cold. But in that moment I seemed to pierce this illusion and see. Suddenly tons of what I had read by Dogen, not just in Shoji but in many of his writings, made perfect sense, not a small feat in itself if you have read much of Dogen.

Well that’s all I wanted to say…

That and Thank You Sensei!

“O, that way madness lies; let me shun that; No more of that.”

2010-05-03T11:20:00.000-07:00

One of the wonderful things about Buddhist history and thought is that it has so many flavors and varieties. One of the sad things about humans is that once they decide on a flavor it seems to drive them crazy when they see others enjoying a different one.

A little Jewish man who history called Jesus taught a philosophy of love and compassion. Humans calling themselves Christians have then spent over 2000 years killing, torturing, murdering and burning to death anyone who disagreed with them on even the slightest point of doctrine.

A little Hindu man who history calls Shakyamuni Buddha wondered the world for 40 years teaching a way to ease the pain of life and reach for enlightenment. In the 3000 years since his death there have been schools of philosophy by the score expounding upon his teachings and almost to a school teaching things in direct contradiction to his basic teachings.

I see in this not a flaw in the teachings so much as a flaw in human nature.

I am Buddhist and from that I cannot retreat. But when deciding to write on being a Buddhist in the twenty first century I had to face my own Karma, my own world view is bound up in my karma and yours and the two can not be separated. In a way this is a missive from my world sent out to yours. And despite my own faith I am aware that whenever someone address’s the subject of religion they are moving into shadow and danger, for history and Shakespeare have told us truly that “O, that way madness lies; let me shun that; No more of that.” Shakespeare's King Lear, 1605.
Men have been presuming to talk and act for God since before recorded history.

“ When Anu the Sublime, King of the Anunaki, and Bel, the lord of Heaven and earth, who decreed the fate of the land, assigned to Marduk, the over-ruling son of Ea, God of righteousness, dominion over earthly man, and made him great among the Igigi, they called Babylon by his illustrious name, made it great on earth, and founded an everlasting kingdom in it, whose foundations are laid so solidly as those of heaven and earth; then Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak; so that I should rule over the black-headed people like Shamash, and enlighten the land, to further the well-being of mankind.”
Prologue to the Code of Hammurabi, c. 1780 BCE one of the oldest texts of laws known to man.

It is clear from the well developed text above which was written about 3787 years ago men were killing each other in the name of God and justifying their actions as authorized by God long before recorded history.

For some unknown reason contemplation of God seems to drive men mad and by madness I mean abandonment of reason and moral character. When this madness strikes it more often than not drives those afflicted to strike out against all those around them but its most fundamental symptom is the affected seem to become enemies to life, even their own. This madness seems confined to no particular religion or age. Below I have listed just a few examples or mile stones of this madness for your consideration. This list is far from exhaustive and if I have left anyone out I apologize.

Of course the exact date is not know but most scholars seem to estimate a date of around 1272 BC when God drops by personally to give Moses a laundry list of nations and people to exterminate. According to the book of Deuteronomy, God orders the Jewish tribes to exterminate every man, women and child of the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzities, Hivites and Jebusites. God directs that these people be “destroyed totally”. This they do and take their promised land, and that leads to trouble that still has not ended.

Somewhere between 300 and 400 AD Polynesians land on Easter Island, an isolated island 2000 miles from any other land. By 500 AD the inhabitants adopt a religion which requires that they carve large stone figures called moai. Over the years they start carving more and bigger statues. Every year they poured more and more scarce resources into these religious objects. Eventually the islands entire resources are consumed by this religion until the society collapses and the natives are all but wiped out. They are forced to resort to cannibalism to survive. On the verge of extinction with only about 111 people left alive they dump the old religion and make a new one dedicated to the God Make-make, called the Bird man Cult.

In 415 AD Hypatia of Alexandria, one of the most brilliant minds of her age and the first woman to make a substantial contribution to the development of mathematics in human history is torn to pieces with glass fragments by hysterical Christian monks. There follows a purging of much of the scientific and mathematical work done in Alexandria.

Muslims invade India in 1000 AD. Mahmud Ghazni leads a Jihad against the Hindus and Buddhist of India. These invasions lasted for centuries even continued when the Muslims controlled almost the entire sub continent of India. The Hindu population is said to have been reduced by 80 million people during between 1000 AD and 1525 AD by these religious wars. Others estimate the dead to be closer to 100 Million. Buddhism is all but wiped out in India during this time. The Muslim war lord Nadir Shan was infamous for creating a mountain of Hindu skulls in Delhi India as a monument to Ali.

From 1095 to 1291, the Catholic Church started a series of military invasions of the Middle East that are now called the crusades. The Christians go on a killing rampage across the world. These bloody and ruthless wars were fought primarily with the Muslims that lived there. The stated goal for these invasions was to take back the Holy land. The number of dead on both sides reached into the millions. The Christians also held various less publicized military crusades against the tartars, the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, and many other groups around Europe during this period. The most infamous being against a group of Christians called the Cathars.

In 1208 The Pope, Innocent III, apparently tired of having to go to the middle east to kill for God turned his eyes upon France and calls for a formal Crusade against the Cathars there. The Cathars are a group of Christians that believed in poverty and chastity for all its members. The pope gathers and army whose command is “Kill them all. God will know his own”. The war against the Cathars of France continued for two generations and resulted in the mass murder of over half a million men women and children. The Catholic Church still maintains it was justified on religious grounds.

In 1478 the Catholic monarchs of Spain decide make sure Catholic orthodoxy is maintained by starting the Spanish Inquisition. For the next hundred years or so Protestants and Jews are harassed, tortured and killed by the inquisition.

There seems to have been nothing like a good human sacrifice to get the god’s on your side. People have been murdering friends family, strangers and captives in search of god’s blessing all across the world for years. Human sacrifice has been part of religious ceremony since before recorded time. In central and South America it was practiced by the Aztec, the Maya, the Inca, the Mixtec and the Olmec. In India the wives of deceased Hindu husbands were expected to perform Sati, throwing themselves on their husbands funeral fire. The Chinese used to tossed folks bound hand and foot into rivers to make the river gods happy. The Romans and the Etruscans loved a good human sacrifice and even turned it into entertainment. The list is endless. But no one seems to have been able to top the Aztec’s. I have given them special note.

From about 1250 to 1512 the Aztec peoples decide that the gods want humans to have their hearts ripped from their living breasts for their pleasure, so among other quaint religious rituals they would place people a sacrificial stone. Then the priest would cut through the abdomen with an obsidian or flint dagger. The heart would be torn out and held towards the sky in honor to the Sun-God; the body would be carried away and either cremated or given to the warrior responsible for the capture of the victim. He would either cut the body in pieces and send them to important people as an offering, or use the pieces for ritual cannibalism. This was done to about twenty thousand people a year. In 1512 The Spanish Christians Shocked by this behavior put a stop to it by wiping out almost the entire Aztec peoples by war and disease. Back in Spain the Spanish Inquisition was still in full swing.

Ever busy from the 15th to 17th century the Christian Church goes on a witch burning program in Europe. Some 50 thousand women are tortured and burned at the stake.

1614 to 1648, Japan’s Buddhist government makes being a Christian punishable by death. All citizens are required to register with a Buddhist temple. Thousands of Christians are killed many are crucified or burned alive... This ban lasts for years even when no longer enforced.

In 1691 the Catholic country of Ireland was controlled by the protestant country of England. Knowing a good thing when they saw it the English proceeded to pass laws punishing the Irish for being catholic which of course resulted in a religious war that still bubbles up today. Thousands of people have died, been imprisoned, tortured and held in abject poverty based upon their religion from then to now.

In 1933 Adolf Hitler is appointed chancellor of Germany and the Nazi party starts its rule of Germany. This eventually leads to the development of death camps and mass murder of Jews throughout Europe. Conservative estimates of the Jewish dead range from 2 to 3 million at the death camps. Over a million Gypsies are rounded up and killed, 200,000 freemasons and another million people from various religions and groups are murdered.

On 15 August 1947 England transfers power to India and Grants India self rule. Almost immediately religious war breaks out between the three major religious groups in India. The fighting takes the lives of an estimated 1 million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, followed by the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi.

In July 1946 Jewish nationalist bomb The King David Jerusalem, killing 91 people and ushering in the new age of terrorism. The methods used are later adopted by both the Muslim extremist and the catholic IRA in their religious struggles.

In 1950 Communist China Invades the predominantly Buddhist nation of Tibet and Over 2 million Tibetan Buddhist including Thousands of monks are killed. Thousand more are arrested and tortured for their religious beliefs by the communist. This process continues into the 21st century with Red China claiming it “owns” Tibet.

What madness rolls across the mind of a man who thinks he knows what God wants done...

Zen and Demons

2010-04-30T20:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to today’s runaway train of thought. Today, as Mel would say “I intend to misbehave”.

Words are like a vapor and meaning like the odor of that vapor. What subtle aroma shall we find in anything that is written or said?

“When you have advanced to a certain level in your cultivation, the demons will come to test you out, to see if you have any skill. The more you’re polished, the brighter you become; The brighter you get, the more you must be polished. You’ll be polished until you’re like the autumn moon, illumining all the demon hordes from space. When the demon hordes are scattered, the original Buddha manifests. Cultivators should not fear demons. Demons just come to test you to see if you have spiritual skill. Right now there are many demons coming to test all of you: heavenly demons, earthly demons, human demons, ghostly demons, and demons of sickness. They are testing you to see if you are genuine or phony. If you are phony, the demons will leave you alone. If you are genuine, the demons will be subdued and will also leave you alone. It’s only to be feared that you are partly genuine and partly phony. Then the demons will advance some and retreat some. They will get close to you, then draw away from you, then get close again, always hanging around you. Though they hang around, you need not be afraid. You can either become more genuine, or become more phony.”
                                        Buddha, The Flower Adornment Sutra

Mara, a Buddhist Asura, Asuras are Vedic demons by the way, came to stop Buddha from becoming enlightened. Why, well as a demon he just seems to be that kind of guy. After all the Buddhist Asura lived in the 33rd heaven atop mount Sumeru, the Buddhist Mount Olympus, they all Got raging drunk one night and everyone to a man was kicked off the mountain by Sakra, the Buddhist Zeus, and now are forced to live in the foothills of heaven. So Mara, not quite Satan but certainly a real prankster had an attitude about letting someone become enlightened. We all have our demons, our own personal Mara come to call. I love the idea of, become advanced and they will leave you alone, Become a phony and the will leave you alone. But waiver, try and preserve your select and favorite delusions and they will bang on the walls all night long.

“I have taught you the method of correct cultivation but you still do not know the subtle states of Mara which appear when you practice meditation When they manifest, if you fail to distinguish them and if your minds are not in a right state, you will fall into the evil ways of either the demons or your five aggregates, of the heavenly Mara’s, of ghosts and spirits, or of mischievous sprites, If you are not, clear about them, you will mistake thieves for your own sons.”
                                             Buddha, The Shurangama Sutra
      Long ago I was seeing demons when I would meditate, my teacher at the time told me to just laugh at them and they would run away. I did and they did.

      This samsara, this realm in which ordinary folks like you and me are said to wander through the countless cycles of Life & Death, bouncing between the lowest hell (Avici - the unrelenting Hell) to the highest heaven (Akanistha - the ultimate peak of Heaven) is a place of mist and shadow, and demons lurk in those dark places. But look closer and its just the threads in the carpet or the peeling paint on the wall. All these worlds are mind, and all the demons conjured by the landlord, yourself.

Soto Zen and Morality

2010-04-21T21:23:00.000-07:00

     As I observed before morality in Mahayana Buddhism is based upon the bodhisattva ideal. This ideal is a concern for others usually called compassion. This morality is seen as the foundation of all Buddhist practice. In traditional Buddhism this is accomplished by training the mind from falling into selfishness and reframing from deeds and words that will cause harm to others. .
    We see this part of the training of morality in Soto Zen as we Chant the “Shigu Seigan” (Fourfold Great Vow) at almost every gathering. We vow “to liberate sentient beings, however innumerable” and to eliminate our own mental afflictions. We chant the Heart Sutra and call upon the “great compassionate Boddhisattva” Avalokitesvara.
   Writers like D.T. Suzuki seem believe that this great compassion is accomplished in Zen by the realization of emptiness and the intuitive wisdom obtained in Zazen: That the realization of your true nature, your “Buddha Nature” would provide it without any other effort. It should be noted that D.T. Suzuki never once wrote about Dogen or his Shobogenzo.
    Passed down from Dogen himself, Soto Zen practitioners take sixteen vows or precepts based upon this morality of compassion.

The Three Refuges
I take refuge in the Buddha;
I take refuge in the Dharma;
I take refuge in the Sangha.

(In these first three we are making a volitional vow to stop taking refuge in sex, booze and the love of money etc. etc.)

The Three Pure Precepts
Cease from evil;
Do only good;
Do good for others.

(In these three precepts we have the basis of all our aspirations and hope to be moral creatures)

The next ten are:
Do not kill.
Do not steal.
Do not covet.
Do not say that which is untrue.
Do not sell the wine of delusion.
Do not speak against others.
Do not be proud of yourself and devalue others.
Do not be mean in giving either Dharma or wealth.
Do not be angry.
Do not defame the Three Treasures.

       In his writing “Jukai” (Receiving the Precepts) in the Shobogenzo Dogen says:
“Unless we accept the Precepts, we are not yet a disciple of the Buddha’s, nor are we an offspring of our Ancestral Masters, because they have considered one’s departing from error and resisting wrong to be synonymous with practicing meditation and inquiring of the Way. The words, “They have made the Precepts foremost,” are already precisely what the Treasure House of the Eye of the True Teaching is. Realizing Buddhahood and becoming an Ancestor have Invariably been based on receiving and preserving the Transmission of the Treasure House of the Eye of the True Teaching.
      Ancestral Masters who have authentically transmitted the Treasure House of the Eye of the True Teaching have invariably received and preserved the Buddha’s Precepts. There cannot be an Ancestor of the Buddha who has not received and preserved the Precepts. There are those who received and preserved them in compliance with the Tathagata, and there are those who received and preserved them in compliance with a disciple of the Buddha, all of whom received the bloodline thereby.”
      When Dogen started the Temple he named Eiheiji there was a group of monks from the then discredited Bodhidharma School or Daruma Shu he invited to join him there. The Daruma Shu had been driven out of the Buddhist community in Japan because they ascribed to a kind of Buddhist Antinomianism. They believed they were under no obligation to obey the laws of ethics or morality given forth by the Buddha. They held that since they had Buddha nature anything they did was true to that nature. They taught that the Buddha’s teaching “All evil reframe from doing, All Good reverently perform” actually meant that all evil has been refrained from and therefore all activities are Buddhism.”
       When they came to Eiheiji Dogen attempted to teach them and correct this thinking among these new members of his temple. But a group of these Darmu Shu led by a monk named Genmyo insisted on his belief that Zen Morals meant he could do no wrong and that he was bound by no morality.
        Dogen expelled Genmyo and his followers from Eiheiji and had the mediation platform Genmyo used ripped out of the monk’s hall and burned.
       Throughout the Shobogenzo Dogen is constantly saying, “investigate that!” at the end of a phrase.
I am going to make the suggestion that perhaps if you sat out of compassion for others and not to gain something for yourself your motivation to practice, your will to proceed, might improve. That Soto Zen has a long established history and tradition of having morality at its base.

“Investigate That!”

Zen Morality - Who are you kidding?

2010-04-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

Zen as it has been popularly portrayed in the west for the last 30 years might be listed in Webster’s as a synonym for Ambiguity. We love ambiguity. In Fact we thrive upon it. Popular teachers and popular culture has established a stereotype of Zen as an “anything goes” philosophy. And what is more ambiguous than the word Morality.

Even Philosophers have struggled to distinguish between morality and etiquette, law, and religion. It’s just not polite to reach over and grab a bite off the plate of the person next to you but is it immoral? Spitting on the big guy in line of front of you may not be immoral but reframing from doing so may save you a severe lesson in manners. It isn’t really immoral to run a red light but the law will make you pay a fine. But if you break into a house and steal a big screen TV it is probably both immoral and against the law. In religion we have morality usually in the form of a set of rules like the law but it’s usually God who will punish your transgressions and God who has made the rules he is imposing upon you.

In Buddhism the underlying principle of Mahayana Buddhist morality is to help others or at least to reframe from harming other sentient beings. The word most used to describe this morality is compassion. In most Mahayana schools of Buddhism you are taught that this morality, this great compassion, is the foundation of everything else you will do as a Buddhist. This compassion you are taught is what drove the Buddha to turn the wheel of the dharma. This great compassion is the reason why they believe in the Bodhisattva ideal.

Now we come to Zen. In the west people have heard of Zen and often don’t even know it is a form of Buddhism. But in modern western Zen we seem to have little practice or even discussion of Morality. Teachers believe that no one wants to be preached to about being moral. Many people who come to the Zendo don’t see Zen as a religion and they see morality as “religious stuff”. They want to be less stressed out and want to be more relaxed. Others want to become enlightened or liberated nursing a preconceived idea of how the whole world will become warm and fuzzy when they “see the light”.

There are of course two ways to look at Zen morality. You can take the high road espoused by Zen scholars like D.T. Suzuki and look at the “Mystical Zen” as an ideal. Like Suzuki you can talk about what Zen” is and means. Then there is the “Historical Approach” in which you examine what Zen practitioners have done over the years. You can discuss the “morality” of samara cutting off heads and committing suicide. We could discuss those Japanese Zen masters that supported wars and talked about compassionate killing.

But, who are you kidding? The ability to know right from wrong is innate in you. No one knows the huge amount of room to move within the ambiguous word or phrase more than a lawyer we make our living off of it. And no one knows more about spiritual ambiguity than a Zen practitioner. As a Lawyer who practices Zen I make claim to being an expert in ambiguity.

I am going to write another Blog entry on Soto Zen and morality that will follow this one.

But as you close the door and slip into bed with your neighbor’s wife, don’t stop to blow smoke up your own ass. Who are you kidding?

A Mind of Resentment

2010-04-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

Shenhui said to his master Huineng, “Master when you meditate do you see or not?”

Huineng, then responded by striking Shenhui three times on the head with his wisp.

“When I hit you does it hurt or not?” said Huineng.

“It hurts and yet it doesn’t,” said Shenhui.

“I see and yet I don’t”’ said Huineng.

“How do you see and not see at the same time,” said Shenhui.

“What I see are my own failings, and what I don’t see are other people’s right and wrong, good or bad. As for you, if it doesn’t hurt, you have no feeling, like wood or stone. If it dose hurt you have a mind of resentment, just like the common people,” Huineng said. Seeing and not seeing are the simultaneous holding of two positions, feeling and not feeling pain belong to the realm of generation and extinction.

Shenhui felt embarrassed and bowed to his master.

The master strikes us every day, in words deeds and in the darkness of our minds.. the entire universe is waiting for us to see and not see. Closing your eyes is of little help.

Zenji - A Mountain Walking

2010-04-13T16:21:00.000-07:00

It might be a fair statement that Buddhism and Zen were born in the mountains of the earth.

"Thus it has been said when Shakyamuni Buddha was in Grdhrakuta Mountain, he twirled a flower in his finger and held it before his congregation. Everyone was silent. Only Maha Kashapa wholeheartedly smiled. Buddha said, 'I have the eye of the true teaching, the heart of Nirvana, the formless form, the mysterious gate of Dharma. Beyond the words and beyond all teachings to be transmitted, I now pass this on to Maha Kashapa.'"

Case Six of the Mumonkan

        Bodhidharma the 28th patriarch of Buddhism (28th direct descendant of the historical Buddha) and the first patriarch of Chinese Chan (Zen) Buddhism taught at the Shaolin Temple on the Song Mountain in Henan. As Buddhism spread into China the Buddhist monks like the Taoist hermits before them favored quiet mountains for their meditative practices. Small hermitages and later great monastic complexes sprung up upon many peaks and mountains across China. Eventually many of these mountains were said to be sacred and the homes of a Bodhisattva. These Bodhisattva were seen as spiritual beings that have dedicated themselves to the service of assisting all sentient creatures in the transcendence of worldly suffering and the attainment of enlightenment and are said to dwell in the mountain.

Long before Buddhism arrived in Japan Mountains were considered sacred places. Mountains were strange remote and seldom walked.

“Shintoism, the indigenous, religion of Japan. Shintoism viewed each and every natural object - trees, rocks, springs, caves, lakes, and mountains - as the abode of spirits called kami. These kami spirits were believed to exercise a powerful influence on human affairs, while human beings, through the agency of prayer and ritual, were likewise able to influence the kami spirits. The kami spirits were especially concentrated in mountain areas.”

“Concurrent with and contributing to this development of regional sacred space was the emergence of a religious movement of mountain ascetics known as Shugendo. A blend of pre-Buddhist folk traditions of Sangaku shinko and Shinto, Tantric Buddhism, and Chinese Yin-yang magic and Taoism, Shugendo may be roughly defined as the 'way of mastering magico-ascetic powers by retreat to and practice within the sacred mountains'. Shugendo practitioners were called Yamabushi, a term which meant 'one who lies down or sleeps in the mountains' and the sect included various types of ascetics such as unofficial monks, wandering holy men, pilgrimage guides, blind musicians, exorcists, hermits and healers.” *

* Extracts from the Sacred sites news letter.

        In the sixth century CE Chinese culture and religious ideas were beginning to migrate into the Japanese culture of the time. These new ideas and religious beliefs melded with the old Japanese religion and the nature of the religious use of the sacred mountains began to change. The sacred mountains of Japan began to be used for Buddhist hermitages’ and small temples by wandering Buddhist monks and scholars. Eventually they became pilgrimage destinations for members of the Imperial family and the ruling aristocracy.
        This change in the use of the sacred mountains from a sacred place to a home for these monks lead to what became to be known as mountain training or "jogyo" the “pure practice” to put it simply meditation practice “zen-gyo”. The Buddhist monks who trained in these mountain retreats were called “meditation masters” or "Zenji". Please note the mediation system used at this time was primarily visualizations of Amida Buddha and was not the system introduced later by Dogen called “silent enlightenment”.

        Thus the title Zenji was introduced in Japan. To obtain this training was much sought after as it was said to inspire great spiritual power and so called “natural wisdom”. It was believed that it was this great spiritual power that infused the Buddhist rituals with their efficacy. It was the power of the Monk that gave the rituals their power and assured that they would accomplish their purpose.

     As can be expected with all things human as soon as it was generally accepted that meditating in the sacred mountains imbued the practitioner with mystical powers the state seized control of all access to the mountains and regulated who could train there. The aristocracy and the state forbad the wandering ascetics access to the mountains on pain of death and made sure all those who trained there were under their control and working for them. of course this proved almost impossible to do. By 770 CE the Japanese government gave up trying to control mountain based mediation centers and practice. But they still acknowledged the power of the Zenji and even named ten official "Zenji " known for their great spiritual power and gave them a government stipend to assure their good will.

     Most schools of Japanese Buddhism eventually ended up with temples in the mountains. Dogen founded Eihei-ji in 1246 in the hills of rural Japan.

“Although mountains belong to the nation, mountains belong to people who love them. When mountains love their master, such virtuous sage or wise person enters the mountains. Since mountains belong to the sages and wise persons living there, trees and rocks become abundant and birds and animals are inspired. This is so because the sages and the wise people extend their virtue.” Dogen Zenji - "Mountains and Waters Sutra"

Those who claim to know say that Dogen used the term mountain to refer to a person who is sitting in meditation or they say he was actually talking about ‘mountains’ and ‘water’ as terms used by previous Masters. Then again they say that he called the ancient Chinese Buddhist masters mountains that were forever green and flowing as their teachings were ...

Well you get the picture.

I give you Dogen Zenji -- the only Zenji I know, a mountian still walking.

All sounds are the voice of Buddha

2010-04-07T15:04:00.000-07:00

There is a freedom to being unenlightened. You can hide among the habitually ignorant and never be seen. Confucius said " I wish I could remain silent, but how can I say nothing?" Its simple Confucius old boy just sit down and be quite.

Zen holds no dogma it has no set philosophy or prescribed musts. Those who try and give it one always are teaching donkeys who are following an ass up the hill. We dip into the surrounding state of things and teach with sticks and rocks lying about on the ground. The trick of course is to let nothing stick to you when the dung hits the fan, which is of course the nature of the world.
I don't know why I am writing these things, I suppose like Confucius I haven't learned to sit down and shut up yet. But whatever you may think please don't think I am teaching Zen. I am simply experiencing it and coughing in your face. If it is true that all sounds are the voice of Buddha I suppose this hacking cough has its place in the symphony.

____
____

Dogen said that when he came back from China he felt a need to help free the countless sentient beings, that it was a great weight upon his shoulders. Avalokkitesvara's head exploded just trying to think about doing this. I suppose we had better get started then, has anyone seen my orginal face lying around here . I am positive I had it when I walked in here?

There was a time ....

2010-04-07T11:38:00.001-07:00

There was a time when I was a warrior. A time when I lived like a flame that burned the earth. My father was a professional soldier and he raised me to be as he was taught and as he had lived. There was a time when I saw the dust rise from the Captain's chest, as a bullet ended him then and there and I saw the dust like moats in a sun beam sparkling like stars.

___

There was a time when I looked at an acorn and it seemed to me I could see all the oak trees that it had always been and would forever be.

___

" There have also been those who awakened the mind in dreams and attained enlightenment, those who awakened the mind in the midst of intoxication and attained enlightenment, those who awakened the mind and attained enlightenment from flying flowers and falling leaves, those who awakened the mind and attained enlightenment from peach blossoms and green bamboo, those who awakened the mind and attained enlightenment in heaven and those who awakened the mind and attained enlightenment in the ocean."

Dogen from "Awakening the Unsurpassed Mind".

____

What refuge is there from Ghosts and Demons. I write this in the midst of a haunting in a time when I would be better served by silence.

____

A monk asked Tosu, "Is there a dragon howl in a dead tree?"

Tosu said " I say there's a lion roar in a skull."

___

A monk also asked Sozan "What is a dragon howl in a dead tree?"

Sozan said "The blood line is not ended"

The monk asked, "What are eyes in a skull?"

Sozan said " Not entirely dry."

The monk asked "Does anyone hear?"

Sozan said, There is no one in the world who does not hear."

The monk asked, "What writing does the expression "Dragon Howl" come from?"

Sozan said, "I don"t know what writing the expression comes from, but those who hear it all die."

____

Perhaps it's just that simple, that Buddha's don't know they are Buddha's and there was a time when as Dogen says:

"Now the dragon howling of Kyogen, , Sekiso and Sozan make clouds and water."

But not today, not for me.

Painting of a Rice Cake

2010-04-05T21:28:00.000-07:00

"An Ancient Buddha said, " A painting of a rice-cake does not satisfy hunger".

-----
-----

"When they transmit their teaching, they say, "This statement means that studying the sutras and commentaries dose not nourish true wisdom." Or they suppose it means that to study the sutras of the Three Vehicles or the One vehicle is not the way of perfect enlightenment. To think this statement means that expedient teachings are useless is a great mistake."

Dogen -- from Painting of a Rice-cake" ----- "Moon in a Dew Drop"
----
----

"The Buddha way cannot be attained unless you practice, and without study it remains remote."

"To study with the mind means to study with the various aspects of the mind, such as consciousness, emotion and intellect."

Dogen --- from "Body and Mind Study of the Way" -- "Moon in a dew Drop"

Take that you ugly sacks of mostly water who say that you need not study and want to be spoon feed all the teachings...

Sorry its been that kind of day, month year...

Or as a sock puppet once said, "Read a Book!"

What are you saying?

2010-04-04T10:04:00.001-07:00

The Zen Master Munan had only one successor. His name was Shoju. When Munan was getting old he called Shoju in to see him.

"Shoju, "he said, "I am getting old and as far as I know , Shoju, you are the only one who will cary on this teaching. Here is a book, this book was handed to me by my teacher, to him from his teacher for seven generations. I also have added many points according to my understanding. You will succeed me, and I am now passing the book to you."

Shoju declined to accept the book. "I have received your teaching without writing and am satisfied. I have no need for the book. Perhaps you should keep it."

"Even so," said Munan "you should take the book as a symbol of my teaching, this has been so for seven generations." And he passed the book to Shju.

Shoju threw it into the fire.

"What are you doing!" Shouted Munan.

"What are you saying!" Shouted Shoju back.

Koan from "Zen Flesh and Zen Bones"

Dogen says the rocks and the mountains teach the Dharma, did that book burn?

Zen -What's in it for me?

2010-04-04T07:53:00.001-07:00

It is so amazing that humans want to be more than they are. We have crossed the sea's and touched the stars and yet we all seem to want to be more than we are. We are seldom content with being as we perceive ourselves to be. Don't seek enlightenment, let it seek you, but never is this less true than when we first start to wonder what we could be.

It is said that one day while entering a small village someone asked the Buddha if he was a god or a saint, it is said he simply laughed and said no. Well they demanded, "what are you"?
" I", replied the Buddha am simply "awake".

It would seem to be so little to ask, so minor a thing to accomplish this just being awake. How hard could it be? Not to ask for powers or wealth or to be able to heal the sick or raise the dead, but to simply be awake, to be able to really see the world and ourselves as we truly are seems so doable. But here we are almost three thousand years into the quest and so few, so very precious few have managed to wake up.

It is one of the most startling revelations of Zen that just siting is so dam hard. We sit and it hurts. We sit and we are board. We sit and then we stand and then we sit again. Sometimes we see things in the walls and the floor and other times we can only hear our heart beating like a great clock slowly going around and around and we ride it in great circles going nowhere, or so it seems. Of course we ask ourselves why we bother, it is so frustrating and so confusing that to just sit down and be still takes so much effort and so much will power. Somehow it doesn't seem fair and it doesn't make sense that such a simple and natural act as sitting is so dam hard.

Who would have thought that one of the evolutionary efforts towards the progress of man would be learning to just shut up and sit down? I wonder if a million million years ago some half fish like beast lay gasping for air on a beach his brain fogged by hypoxia as he struggled to find a way to live out of water , saying to himself, "what's in it for me?"

Rebirth - The short answer

2010-03-25T06:23:00.001-07:00

Perhaps the thing I get asked most often by folks new to Buddhism and non Buddhist as they cock a skeptical eye in my direction is "Well if there is no self, or no soul what gets reincarnated, and just how do you explain our new huge worldly population, were are all these new souls coming from? "

So here is Togen's short form for those questions. I know its not as obscure as zen is supposed to be, but I can't always be as cosmic as I should be.

First off Buddhist don't subscribe to reincarnation. reincarnation is the transmigration of the soul from one life time to the next. We believe in rebirth. This is rebirth without a transmigrating eternal, unchanging intrinsically existing soul or self.

So you ask what is going on here? The best thing to do here I think is to look at how Buddha explained our identity in this single life time. Buddha said , what we are, how we really exist is as a functionally unified combination of five aggregates. These five aggregates fall into two groups or types of processes.

First there is a material process, our body, which can be seen as a current of material energy. Then there is a mental process , a current of cognitive happenings. Discrete events of cognition. Both these currents consist of factors that are subject to momentary arising and passing away. The mind is a series of mental acts made up of feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness. I suggest you look at my blog on mind.

In Pali these mental acts are called "cittas". Each citta arises, breaks up and passes away. When it breaks up it dose not leave any traces behind. It dose not have any core or inner essence that remains or is passed on. But as soon as this mind or citta breaks up, immediately afterwards there arises another citta. So we have a succession of cittas, or a chain of momentary acts of consciousness.

When each citta or mind falls away it transmits to its successor whatever impressions have been recorded on itself, whatever experiences it has undergone. Its perceptions, emotions and volitional force are passed on to the next citta. Imagine one pool ball on a pool table striking another and passing on its speed, direction and momentum. Each of these emotions and the very volitional force or our intentions is passed on to the next citta and in that way all the experiences we undergo leave their imprint on the onward flow of consciousness which is called the "cittasantana" or the continuum of mind.

This transmission of all our experiences and intentional actions , this causal continuity, gives us our continued identity. We remain the same person yet not the same person throughout our lifetime. From moment to moment and from life time to life time we carry the imprints of the cittas that proceeded us. So there is no self, but you have a valid sense of "I" so don't think you don't exist, you simply don't exist in the way you thought you did.

The traditional Buddhist believes that rebirth takes place through out six realms of existence. These we call the desire realms.

They are:

The god domain

The jealous god domain

The human domain

The animal domain

The hungry ghost domain

The hell domain

All these realms are just associated with this one universe; they also believe that there are countless universes in existence at any one time. So the current population of this human realm on this one planet is and has been just a small percentage of the sentient beings in existence.

Should the population here reach a hundred billion humans it would not begin to reach the countless population of all sentient beings.

I hate defiling the concepts here, I am sure Dogen would say I am just passing along a mundane view of a inexpressible truth. But we gotta start some where.