A Moment of Zen Noir

I don't know, I found this trailer almost impossibly sad. But very funny.

Enlightenment in the space and time of a gunshot. 

Then there's this clip in which a monk says: "You going to freak out, or eat the orange?"

Seeking A Path Beyond Thought. But How?

I recently got this e-mail from a close friend of mine in New York:

On the whole, I'm a firm believer in meditation, yoga, mindful living and the like. But of late I haven't been living that way. Mindful living is just that and it was getting very emotionally exhausting to basically be thinking all day. Don't get me wrong, I still do breathing, but I've taken a meditation hiatus... I'm trying to follow the whole "go with the flow" philosophy, but every so often the other side of my brain pops in and starts making trouble.

Trust me, I've been there--the thinking flooding in during meditation. Frustrating.

At those times, it seems like meditation is actually conspiring to create its own worst nightmare: more thought.

People usually abandon meditation at this stage. But they risk not realizing that the massive and exhausting inner noise is the ego's last gasp attempt to keep its integrity. It always--hear me--always gets better under these battle conditions. It is here that the mind is about to make a leap. Let it. Keep working.

Actually, at this stage, mind has already made the jump.

The Zen Masters teach us that we are already enlightened! We just don't recognize this.

At first blush, this may look like a typical religious tautology. But it's not circular thinking. I can report this is so from repeated experiments. The result: all training becomes redundant when you get the flash of insight. This is "Beginner's Mind."

OK. Fine. But how to do this?

Imagine your happiness as always with you, already smiling under your conscious mind. I'm guessing that we all trend towards desiring help from the outside. Especially when we want in to "the zone."

I'm not sure, but if most people see life this way, I think they are partially correct. While everybody (everybody) in our life are wrathful Bodhisattva (literally: compassionate warriors), helping us to slice away at our delusions of mind, they cannot ultimately go to war for us.

And so sadness always follows peak experience because at some level the drug of outside help wears off.

However, when we encounter that favorite helping other again, we naturally give ourselves permission to enjoy ourselves with them. This unconsciously cements the mistaken understanding that they are meeting our needs.

No. Primarily, we make ourselves happy. Mind is fully responsible for this state. But we've been conditioned to interpret the source of that happiness as external. It's not.

The ego has a great deal of trouble with this cognitive shift. And it even seems somehow ungrateful not to acknowledge external sources of joy.

And, indeed, it would be incredibly selfish if one remained stuck in a solipsistic framework wherein we were totally obsessed about our own inner worlds.

However, I cannot overstate how valuable it may be as an exercise to vigorously work out just how much mind creates our external reality.

Once you enter meditation from this vector--and, if possible, remain inside this angle of approach--I suspect you will better know what you already know.

However, if you would like some "outside" assistance in this process from a guided point of view, please watch the video below. It is the first in an eleven part series on "Facilitating Big Mind" (all the lectures are on youtube). The workshop is led by Genpo Roshi.

Despite very valid criticisms of this method, I believe this is a powerful adjunct to zazen.

If you wish to go through the process, it is advisable to set aside about 90 minutes for uninterrupted engagement with the material.

Celibacy: A Zen Perspective

Recently, a question was sent to me by a friend:

"I'm thinking about this celibacy thing for you... why would you elect to adopt the monastic aspect of this? It would seem to me that a family and a spiritual life of this sort are not antagonistic to each other... Just curious how a young guy like you could be thinking of this..."

Well said, right? It's a classic question.

I answer in this way, hopefully without apology:

As I learn more about integration as a core gesture, the more I'm becoming convinced that compartmentalization while training is important. At present, my life is overdetermined. My mind is underdeveloped.

In other words, when I am really learning to do something different, I think it is best to mindfully devote my resources to that practice. Afterwords, after all the pieces have been disassembled rigorously, only then can I put them together as a free functioning, fully integrated unit.

The key here is: free functioning--and the choice to be so.

In Christianity (and I dare say some Jewish streams of thought), monastic tradition is driven by competitive suffering. Deprivation is seen to be somehow transportive. In that model we might say: pain = progress.

In the Zen model, the spiritual economy works very differently: we simplify. And then we simplify some more. We even simplify our attachments to Buddhism. This is a bottomless process. The goal is complete receptivity. Total presence, total non-judgement.

Why be so present?

--here's the Buddha's thesis--

MAXIMUM HAPPINESS.

And, ideally, maximum sustainable happiness for the maximum number of beings.

Now, sex is unquestionably one of the greatest pleasures. It is clearly part of life's best. Everybody (laypersons) should be having responsible, non-harmful sex according to Buddhism! It's natural!

The only problem I can see is not with sex. I think the world has had quite enough of sex bashing.

The problem is with unskilled mind. In the Western mode of desire, our minds do not realize that pleasure may not facilitate happiness. Not sustainably.

So what if it's not sustainable? Nothing is.

Yes, but what if confusing pleasure with happiness makes happiness somewhat unavailable?

I'll provide some examples of this which I used earlier in this blog:

• Things we do which we say "make us happy" are said to do so because they function as a "relief" from a prior state. For example, after work, we might go golfing. Perhaps the day at the office did not make us happy.

• However, after sufficient time, happy at the links, we need relief from the golfing as well. Every golfer has to and wants to call it a day after a point. In fact, it would make them unhappy to continue.

• One could imagine a version of Sisyphus' hell as a never ending golf tournament, caddying one's irons from hole to hole. Indefinitely.

• The same could be said of any thing outside ourselves which provokes a "happy" state of mind.

• For example, I might say: Pizza makes me happy. So, theoretically, the more pizza I eat, the happier I'll be. But after two or three slices... a fourth, let alone a fifth becomes nauseating. The effort will not repay itself.
  
  
• Even more precariously, we can harm ourselves and others in an endless cycle of trying to get at happiness.

Is there another happiness? One which you couldn't give or get enough of when you were a child and--hopefully--when you are an adult? One which will not tend to burn you or itself out, even though it requires sustained effort?

I think so. And it's always, already inside. It is not an external sublime. Personally, I never get tired of this form of pleasure/happiness. What it is exactly, for you, I cannot tell. But it's there.

Find it. But find it with precision. Celibacy is only one path towards assisting this exploration and it is not explicitly recommended by the masters. In particular, the Japanese Zen teachers are suspicious of the righteousness and seperationist biases of celibate practice.

I am mindful of this. However, I have found that it can dissolve desirous attachment. With reduced attachment, the mind can live in an empty space and flow towards openness.

Emptiness allows for the realization that all energy is just energy. Ki is Ki. Therefore, if I'm of an intention to direct my energy towards any part of my body--this can be accomplished when there is emptiness or "mushin" (lit: "mind like water").

In Karate, we put our hands through blocks in this manner. In Kundalini Yoga, we utilize tantra to refine our postures and perspectives. In Aikido and Zazen, we become observers of the wind and change. The list of conduits is extensive... And for those practicing sexuality, it goes without saying that energy can be accessed and channeled most directly through this powerful discipline.

In this way--and somewhat ironically--celibacy becomes a very sexual process. It is a sexuality of silence. If the silence can be improved upon, we should speak, if not, we should not speak.

But none of these words should be taken on faith. This is a matter of personal intuition.

According this way, Zen never, ever suggests renouncing sex unless your experience validates that without it you may refine your life and your senses. All things, in Zen and life, must be researched and tested.

As we say: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him." Nothing is sacred, all is subject to inquiry.

In my case, my psychological makeup is so challenging that I think the monastic path can be most helpful is assisting me to find the middle way. However, this is a deeply subjective and not prescriptive view of the world.

To sum up then, even indefinite celibacy is non-definite. "Everything changes."

Is this hedging my bet?

I don't think so. And if it is, then celibacy is not ideal because it is somehow facilitating delusion.

If, however, my celibacy is clear-eyed, then I may view the monastic life as a model for progressive training. And, in practice, the monastic energetic commitment is so hard-core, that discipline quickly becomes second nature.

But having integrated the lesson of "everything changes," I know that discipline itself changes. In this way, we must meet our lives moment-to-moment, in the spirit of genuine scientific inquiry.

On some level, this also means I affirm or reject my experimental celibacy every day. But no matter what my daily conclusions, I do not act on swaying mind. I merely observe its fluctuations.

As Dalai Lama, Kundun says: "if science proves an aspect of Buddhism incorrect, then we have an obligation to render that aspect of Buddhism obsolete." Similarly, if I determine my path is incorrect, it will be corrected.

But for now, for today, it is most appropriate, I think.

Ask "Zen Cat"

http://www.movingsky.co.uk/zenCat/

Click on the above link for a fascinating discussion with Zen Cat, a new technology which allows you to interact with a "virtual personality"--in this case, your statements and questions will be met with specific replies in the tone and cognitive perspectives of a Zen Master. Actually, a cat who thinks he's a Zen Master. No, really, a programmer's impersonation of a cat impersonating a Zen Master.

You see the possibilities.

Enjoy. Or. Do not Enjoy.

P.S. Below you'll see a photo which describes two of our more prominent minds: the monkey mind and the dove mind. For those practicing Zen, please remember that it is important to integrate the chattering monkey mind, not to "annihilate" it.

The Angels From America Spoke: YES WE CAN!!!

CONGRATULATIONS AMERICA!!! CONGRATULATIONS WORLD!!!

LOOK UP, LOOK UP!!!

It's not very Zen of me, but I cannot contain my happiness! I don't remember the last time I felt so utterly hopeful!

It's been a long time coming...

To be on the East side of Earth for this wonderful day is humbling. The day belongs to every person around the world who said NO to fear! Around me, I meet people who feel planetary today.

To quote my teacher, Tony Kushner:

"The great work begins!"

All forms of theatre, all action can be theurgic ways of repairing the self, the nations, the world.

Do lots of yoga, meditation, eat well, die anyway--but love the people in your life with ferocity and unconditional kindness.

"To do this, every Kabbalist on earth would sell his right nut." (Rabbi Chemelwitz, Act 5, Scene 6, ANGELS IN AMERICA)

The time is now.