True Passion

No matter what activity we undertake, the same universal laws apply. When this awareness permeates our life, we will pursue the creative arts with the same passion that we wash the morning dishes, tend our gardens, or skip stones on a glassy lake.

Fate

It is not true that we are guaranteed a comfortable and secure existence. Until we die, we are more or less exposed to every possibility. The complex mechanism of cause and effect limits our power to control events. We can put the odds of a desired outcome in our favor, but we can never be certain that the future will be as we imagine it.

Even a cursory reading of the newspaper will turn up an example of a surprise ending to an ordinary life. The New York Times recently reported a Christmas gathering that ended tragically when a fire killed several family members. This is an unpleasant story and we may feel horror at the harrowing events and sympathize with the human suffering.

But we seldom simply fold the newspaper after commenting to our wife or children that here is another clear instance of cause and effect. C'est la vie.

Such is life. We attempt to drive circumstances in a corner where we fancy that we are masters of our fate. This is a terrible delusion. We cannot control events in that way.

The only way to be the master of your fate is to practice accepting things as they are--whether agreeable or disagreeable. This may be easy to talk about, but it is a very difficult practice.

Why wait until a challenging circumstance finds you out of practice? Study how to act without fear.

Do as a wise man should and prepare for ill and not for good.

The Human Family

It is not the ties of fate that bind us, but those of Love.

Finding a True Teacher

The problem is that your chances of bumping into a true sage are small. You are more likely to run into a charlatan.

If I were to start over again, I would approach the Truth by choosing a teacher from a familiar tradition. I can recommend three whom, from my studies, I now know that I could trust to lead me back to myself.

From the Christian tradition, I would choose the great Trappist monk, Thomas Merton. I would metaphorically sit at his feet by reading and re-reading New Seeds of Contemplation until I mastered his Way. Then I could express my true being in my own way.

From the Buddhist tradition, I would choose Shunryu Suzuki to whom I am very much indebted. Although Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind is a spiritual classic, I have found that it was easier for me to master my teacher's way by reading Not Always So.

The reason is rather interesting. Both Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind and Not Always So are transcriptions of talks given by Suzuki. Both books were edited by one of his disciples. Trudy Dixon, who edited Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, is the more capable of the two. The lectures flow smoothly. The polish evident in the final work, however, seems to hide the true spirit of Suzuki. It is as if his personality was partially rubbed out.

The more rough-hewed editing of Not Always So unintentionally captures a fuller, more realistic, portrait of the great Zen Master. Both books have value.

But if your mind is inclined toward science and you are suspicious of organized religion, then I would recommend the Free-thinking tradition of Krishnamurti. Even the titles of his books such as The Awakening of Intelligence and Freedom from the Known hint at a new approach and a spiritual challenge.

Although I would choose one teacher to begin my study of THE WAY, I would not hesitate to read the others as well. I have found that a different point of view can invigorate my conviction that being is all.

Crime

“It is a crime not to know the meaning of life.”--Jessica Ramos

Realization

How many of us realized before death that fear is the problem? The few that did were either ignored, misunderstood, or crucified.

Mystery of the Universe

The study of objective truth requires science. It is the study of cause and effect.

The study of subjective truth requires intuition. It is the study of reality as a direct experience without the intermediary of thought.

Memory

Memory rewrites our actual experience of the present moment so that what we recollect is not what really happened.

When recalling our past, it is as if we were reading the Cliff Note version of a complex novel. Nor does the editor consult us on what to include in this brief synopsis.

Thoreau wryly asks "why is it that men give so poor an account of their day if they have not been slumbering?"

To be fully awake is to have the direct experience of reality in each moment of our lives, to see things as they actually are without viewing our experiences through the distorting prism of memory.

Despair 3

True understanding is a bulwark against despair.

Despair 2

To give into despair is a desperate attempt to escape responsibility and to shift the blame for our shortcomings:

Man would fain be great and sees that he is little; would fain be happy and sees that he is miserable; would fain be perfect and sees that he is full of imperfections; would fain be the object of the love and esteem of men, and sees that his faults merit only their aversion and contempt.

The embarrassment wherein he finds himself produces in him the most unjust and criminal passions imaginable, for he conceives a mortal hatred against the truth which blames him and convinces him of his faults.

--Pascal, Pensees

Despair 1

Without true hope, despair transforms man from a noble, rational, and wise being into a degraded, irrational, and stupefied animal.

Aphorism 5

We often underestimate the power of our fear and overestimate the strength of our faith.

Aphorism 4

Ingratitude is the greatest of sins.

Aphorism 3

In order to achieve the ideal, there must be a solid foundation, a vigorous reality, which forcefully manifests itself moment after moment.

Aphorism 2

Beware of the arrogance and contempt that doesn’t respect nature and reality.

Aphorism 1

The fanged memory that fills us with remorse marks the awakening of our true moral conscience.

The Enemy

The truth is difficult to realize because the fraud that is perpetrated on us is so close to home. It is our own ego that is the enemy.

Revolution

We are born innocent, but we are not born free.

To overthrow the tyrant Fear, one needs a battle plan. No great military leader would ever come up with a single plan for use in every circumstance. He would start with a plan of attack and then adjust the strategy as conditions change.

The essential experience of Christianity is a revolution of the heart. It has nothing to do with conformity to a doctrine or religious program. It may make sense to start with such a plan, but it is suicidal to stick with it when the battle turns and fear gets the upper-hand.

The war can only be won by studying the enemy and adjusting our battle plans accordingly. We must be very careful, observant, and alert. We must learn to keep our fear at sword point until the tyrant finally surrenders.

Shame

The question of whether children are born with an innate moral compass is an interesting one.

Case in point: I took my 4-year-old grandson to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus. I was aware of the controversy surrounding the treatment of circus animals. I assumed that conditions had improved--that those who directed the organization were not only sensitive to the criticism of animal rights activists, but were also motivated by business interests.

After all, it did not make sense to mistreat the animals who were among the stars of the show. I also vaguely answered concerns in my own mind with the plausible assertion that life in the wild is a ruthless affair. I thought of the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson's description of nature:

                                                   Who trusted God was love indeed
                                                   And love Creation's final law
                                                   Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw
                                                   With ravine, shriek'd against his creed

In addition, I had seen several nature documentaries in which the struggle to survive was brought vividly home.

It was easy to believe that the taming of wild animals for our entertainment was a mutually beneficial arrangement.

While my grandson looked with curiosity at the clowns, trapeze artists, and strong men, the big cats were paraded into the ring. I felt somewhat uneasy when I saw that the lion tamer had his traditional whip in hand which he would occasionally flourish with a loud crack at a sluggish performer.

As the lions and tigers rolled over, jumped on pedestals, and lifted their paws in unison, my grandson sat in silence. It was only as the last animal departed from the stage, that he turned to me and ask, "Are they happy?"

It was then that I knew that I would never buy another circus ticket again.

Joy

What great joy to despise your own ego and eagerly await its annihilation!

666

I recently took my 4-year-old grandson, Stephon, to play miniature golf. He seemed unconcerned about the various twists and turns and obstacles that were par for the course.

With a little coaching, Stephon was soon putting his way past the windmill and down the fairway toward a hole-in-30.

By the fourth hole, the backlog of golfers behind us was rapidly growing with each additional stroke. It soon became necessary to institute a new rule: Each golfer was permitted a maximum of six strokes per hole.

Stephon seemed just as unconcerned about this new rule as he was about the course itself. He continue to putt this way and that way until the ball rolled into the hole. Then he would look up at me and ask, "How many?"

"Six."

After a particularly challenging hole that had Stephon chasing the ball over several fairways and that had me smiling apologetically at the bored competitors behind us, I was forced to picked up Stephon's ball and shoo him to the next hole as I told him, "Six."

To my amazement, Stephon even managed to surpass the magic number of six on the final hole which usually only requires one shot. His ball ricocheted, bounced, sailed, and hopped past the wide opening that would put an end to the game.

Undeterred, Stephon finally hit the mark. "Six," he said.

When I saw the smile of satisfaction on his face, and when he showed no disappointment at the announcement that he did not win the game, I thought that there could be no more innocent number than 666.

Wisdom

We are born wise, but we fall into ignorance. "I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born."

It is strange that the road to spiritual enlightenment leads us back to where we started from. It is as if, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, we were only dreaming and, with a click of our heels, we discover that we were always home.

All that is required is that we awaken to this fact.

Call Me Bacchus

                                                    Bacchus we thank who gave us wine

                                                    Which warms the blood within our veins;

                                                    That nectar is itself divine.

                                                    The man who drinks not, yet attains

                                                    By godly grace to human rank

                                                   Would be an angel if he drank.

Los Borrachos

King of Misery

Better to be the least in the Kingdom of Heaven than the greatest in the Kingdom of Hell. For the greatest in the Kingdom of Hell is great only in misery.

A Conversation with Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau writes that "Shams and delusions are esteemed the soundest truths, while reality is fabulous."

Reality is fabulous. But most human beings are not awake enough to appreciate the miracle of Life.

"The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life."

"We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep."

Thoreau adds that "Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep." That is, merely to conform to social norms is not true moral behavior.

When all we do is a direct expression of our true nature, then even if people criticize our behavior, we will not mind so much. "The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior."

Like Thoreau, I want to encourage you to find your true self:

I have read in a Hindoo book, that "there was a king's son, who, being expelled in infancy from his native city, was brought up by a forester, and, imagined himself to belong to the barbarous race with which he lived. One of his father's ministers having discovered him, revealed to him what he was, and the misconception of his character was removed, and he knew himself to be a prince.

"So soul," continues the Hindoo philosopher, "from the circumstances  in which it is placed, mistakes its own character, until the truth is revealed to it by some holy teacher, and then it knows itself to be Brahme."

Nostalgia

In recalling past events, I seem to remember an atmosphere that I was unaware of at the time of the event.

When given free play, my memory will paint a picture of brightly colored tulips that had pushed their way through the moist ground of early spring. Or I will recall the high pitched voices of children sweetly singing at a grade school Christmas concert. Or I can almost hear again the sharp crack of an ax as it split a log on a crisp autumn day.

At such times, a longing to return to the place where I was raised would seize me. I suddenly wanted to relive those experiences and revisit those places that now evoked such feelings of nostalgic wistfulness within me.

I am aware, however, that I often wear rose-tinted glasses when reviewing my past. I realized that if I could travel back in time, I would not feel any special thing. I would have little appreciation for the "mad dance of life" that was unfolding around me and that I would later so fondly recall.

Daniel Gilbert, in Stumbling on Happiness, points out that "Experiences are like movies with several added dimensions, and were our brains to store the full-length feature films of our lives rather than their tidy descriptions, our heads would need to be several times larger. And when we wanted to know or tell others whether the tour of the sculpture garden was worth the price of the ticket, we would have to replay the entire episode to find out. Every act of memory would require precisely the amount of time that the event being remembered had originally taken, which would permanently sideline us the first time someone asked if we liked growing up in Chicago."

In other words, memory is a greatly compressed version of what actually happened with the editor freely choosing to include some details and to leave others out. When we recall an event, memory weaves a recognizable portrait that is more a fictionalized account than an actual experience.

Although my memory did record the brightly colored tulips, the angelic voices of the children singing, and the sharp crack of the ax, it failed when reconstructing the past to include that I was also worried about finding a job on that spring day, or that I was nervous about singing on stage in front of a large audience of parents and teachers, or that I was exhausted from swinging the ax on that autumn day in the woods.

You can prove to yourself how unreliable our memories of the past are and you do not need to be a time-traveler to do so. After all, the laws of physics that were in effect then are the same laws that are in effect now. Perhaps in our current circumstances, it is red roses instead of brightly-colored tulips, the Red Hot Chile Peppers instead of children singing, and the crack of a bat as the ball sails toward the fences instead of an ax.

Are you aware that the phenomenon of life is occurring now? Or are you sleepwalking through the event and only become aware that you were slumbering when the experience is already past?

Thoreau said that "To be awake is to be alive." It may be true for most people that the worst revelation at death is that they never really lived--that they were only dreaming--and that to die is to awaken from a nightmare.

Unaware

The devil uses fear to break the spirit of those unaware of the liberating power of the Truth.

Rebellion

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."--Albert Camus

Fear

Fear is the enemy.

We are born with it. The system exacerbates it. Exploits it. Intensifies it.

If you want to escape fear, you must find a way to realize that you are part of something that is infinitely meaningful and that your destiny cannot be undertaken by anyone but you.

It is self-realization that opens the door to a life that is free from fear.

Do not wait. Seek the truth for the answer lies within you.

Ignorance

The devil has us by the balls of ignorance.

(Ladies, you get the point.)

The Way of Tea

The Japanese tea ceremony developed as a "transformative practice", and began to evolve its own aesthetic, in particular that of "wabi-sabi".

"Wabi" represents the inner, or spiritual, experiences of human lives. Its original meaning indicated quiet or sober refinement, or subdued taste "characterized by humility, restraint, simplicity, naturalism, profundity, imperfection, and asymmetry, emphasizing simple, unadorned objects and architectural space, and celebrating the mellow beauty that time and care impart to materials."

"Sabi," on the other hand, represents the outer, or material side of life. Originally, it meant "worn," "weathered," or "decayed." Particularly among the nobility, understanding emptiness was considered the most effective means to spiritual awakening, while embracing imperfection was honored as a healthy reminder to cherish our unpolished selves, here and now, just as we are - the first step to "satori" or enlightenment.--Source: Wikipedia

The Japanese tea ceremony reminds me of two important spiritual truths concerning Zen practice:

1. It takes time to realize that no time is required. As we strive to realize our true being in practice, time imparts a beautiful patina to our lives (Wabi) that we express on each moment.

2. Emptiness is always present in our lives. Because we accept ourselves as we are in this moment, we discover reality in our very imperfections (Sabi).

Poets

Where are our poets? Where is the next Whitman who knows how to beat a drum on behalf of humanity?

Animals

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and

         self-contain'd,

I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,

They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,

They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,

Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of

         owning things,

Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of

         years ago,

Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.

So they show their relations to me and I accept them,

They bring me tokens of myself, they evince them plainly in their

         possession.

I wonder where they get those tokens,

Did I pass that way huge times ago and negligently drop them?

                                                 --Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

Zorba the Greek

To live passionately without being ruled by your passions is a fundamental law of radical Christianity.

Saint Paul knew this truth:

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.--Philippians 4:11-12

Christ was the original Zorba the Greek. He did not fear Reality so He alone knew the fullness of life.

The religious leaders of His time wore long faces and acted out a pious charade. They inspired no one and were kith and kin of the fundamentalist leaders of today.

Turn the Other Cheek

According to Wikipedia, "turning the other cheek is a phrase in Christian doctrine that refers to responding to an aggressor without violence." The intended result is to blunt the aggression of your adversary.

It has been my experience that this doctrine is patently false which probably explains while so few Christians actually put this teaching into practice.

It is not just that violence is often necessary to stop violence--no amount of preaching or reasoning would have convinced Hitler to call for an end to his Blitzkrieg.

Rather, as Eric Hoffer noted, it is because when others have a just grievance against us, we have a more potent reason for hating them. It is a guilty conscience that drives us to mistreat others.

An aggressor will attempt to silence his guilty conscience by insisting that those he has harmed were worthy of the abuse. The inevitable result is that more violence will be aimed at the non-violent in a desperate effort to shift the blame and to prove this perverse theory.

In hindsight, it is easy to see that when Christ turned the other cheek, He almost guaranteed his own crucifixion.

Faith

If you have faith in God, it is impossible not to have faith in humanity.

Paradise Lost

 Death is really not the tragedy most people make it out to be:

“That’s what it was like to be alive. To move about in a cloud of ignorance; to go up and down trampling on the feelings of those...of those about you. To spend and waste time as though you had a million years. To be always at the mercy of one self-centered passion, or another. Now you know- that’s the happy existence you wanted to go back to. Ignorance and blindness” - Simon Stimson in Our Town by Thornton Wilder

Every once in a while we need to be reminded that we really are not happy. It is the awareness of our misery that encourages us to awaken our real, way-seeking mind.

A Plan for Life

"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."--E.M. Forster

Prejudice

Prejudice springs from the refusal to recognize God in man.

Angelic Vision

What misery to always see your own wretchedness in others—better had the angel in you seen the angel in them.

Infamous

To what horrible depths the tormented soul will descend only to win infamy!

Translation

It is very dangerous to translate the truth in terms of your own egotism.

Desire

A desire with the purest intent is often savagely twisted to diabolical ends.

Responsibility

What we hate most is the truth that we are miserable, helpless, and responsible for all the suffering and evil in the world.

Presumption

THE PRETENSIONS OF POVERTY

                "Thou dost presume too much, poor needy wretch,

                To claim a station in the firmament,

                Because thy humble cottage, or thy tub,

                Nurses some lazy or pedantic virtue

                In the cheap sunshine or by shady springs,

                With roots and pot-herbs; where thy right hand,

                Tearing those humane passions from the mind,

                Upon whose stocks fair blooming virtues flourish,

                Degradeth nature, and benumbeth sense,

                And, Gorgon-like, turns active men to stone.

                We not require the dull society

                Of your necessitated temperance,

                Or that unnatural stupidity

                That knows nor joy nor sorrow; nor your forc'd

                Falsely exalted passive fortitude

                Above the active.  This low abject brood,

                That fix their seats in mediocrity,

                Become your servile minds; but we advance

                Such virtues only as admit excess,

                Brave, bounteous acts, regal magnificence,

                All-seeing prudence, magnanimity

                That knows no bound, and that heroic virtue

                For which antiquity hath left no name,

                But patterns only, such as Hercules,

                Achilles, Theseus.  Back to thy loath'd cell;

                And when thou seest the new enlightened sphere,

                Study to know but what those worthies were."

                                                                        --T. Carew

Reason

Reason, uninformed by Truth and enslaved by pride, often misleads the soul of man.

Conclusion

Before cultivating talent in an individual, there must be a willingness to make an effort and the opportunity to do so. If either of these two conditions are missing, the result will be existential frustration.

We should expect to find rampant escapism in a society where individuals lack the will to do something worthwhile and where the social milieu fails to provide opportunities for creative, useful work.

In fact, you do not need to be a close observer of American society to discover that most people are bored stiff. Most see work as a biblical curse, a necessary evil.

Even when people are not working, they are still very busy trying to forget how miserable they are. If they experience happiness at all, it is in its negative and ephemeral form as when you experience pleasure from the cessation of pain.

It is not likely that the capitalist system will conform to our wish for meaningful work anytime soon. The good news is that you do not have to wait for a utopian society to arrive at your doorstep.

You can begin to make your own way and to discover for yourself how to live a full life. If you awaken your true desire for a meaningful existence, society will grow out of you.

As you walk along the road toward happiness, taking advantage of the opportunities to live a full life in each moment, you will find that you do not have to wait to reach your destination in order to find happiness. Happiness will find you and, like a good friend, she will accompany you on your journey home.

New Project

Recently, I have been cornering all my family members, friends, and associates: Do you have a minute?

I usually do not wait for a reply. I bellow, "Good!" and then plug in my laptop and start my presentation.

The economic act takes up a good part of our lives. I could not help noticing, however, that I seemed to have struck a Mephistophelian bargain with most of my employers. In exchange for 51 weeks of labor, I was entitled to 1 week of leisure. Sometimes when working even two jobs, I was paid just enough for a bare level of subsistence.

I seriously considered Thoreau's solution of heading out to the woods and squatting on a piece of land. I would build a yurt, not a cabin--for I have limited carpentry skills--and plant beans and potatoes.

Then it dawned on me that I never enjoyed mowing the lawn, much less gardening, and that a diet of beans and potatoes was too close to prison fare.

There must be a better way. The joys of Capitalism notwithstanding, there must be a way to get more out of a job than just the means of subsistence and a yearly jaunt to the Hawaiian Islands.

I am currently employed as a manager in the hospitality industry. I am now entitled to three weeks of vacation and I can afford to travel more frequently. I have come to appreciate the finer things in life. As much as anyone, I enjoy sitting in the lap of luxury.

And yet I must confess that I was not truly happy. I could no longer blame Capitalism entirely. The problem seemed to lie within.

A colleague suggested that I read Daniel Pink's book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. The ideas presented resonated within me.

Since a manager must find a way to motivate his employees to work for him, I began to look at the workplace as a laboratory. I wanted to discover a way to tap into an employee's true potential.

If the theories outlined in Drive were true, I should be able to create a work environment that encouraged employees to find their own way. The result would be a motivated work force that would effectively accomplish the task at hand.

So, do you have a minute?

GOOD!

Action

Everything should be done with sacred intensity.

Addiction

You cure an addiction by remembering God.

God is reality. If we ignore the reality within us, we will be compelled to seek it elsewhere. Like Esau in the old biblical fable, we will end up selling our birthright for a mess of pottage.

"The Kingdom of Heaven is within you" means reality is always here. When we are aware of the reality within us, we will be self-sufficient and we will have no need to attach to things.

Attachment is just another word for addiction. When we fear losing something, we will hold onto it as if it were the tree of life.

But when we realize that we already have what we are seeking, we will be free from the fear that fuels our addictive behaviors.

Indifference

Worse than the crimes we commit is our indifference to those who commit them.

Virtue

Virtue cannot spring from the barren and cursed soil of egotism.

The Holocaust

You who live safe
In your warm houses,
You who find, returning in the evening,
Hot food and friendly faces:
     Consider if this is a man
     Who works in the mud
     Who does not know peace
     Who fights for a scrap of bread
     Who dies because of a yes or a no.
     Consider if this is a woman,
     Without hair and without name
     With no more strength to remember,
     Her eyes empty and her womb cold
     Like a frog in winter.
Meditate that this came about:
I commend these words to you.
Carve them in your hearts
At home, in the street,
Going to bed, rising;
Repeat them to your children,
     Or may your house fall apart,
     May illness impede you,
     May your children turn their faces from you. – Primo Levi

***

The lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten. The terrible cost in suffering and the countless millions of lives sacrificed even now cast a pall over history. Mankind can ill afford to pay such a price again.

Fate

Fate: The circumstances through which we express our being.

For Sale

I am always suspicious when I find a writer, composer, or artist surrounding himself with the trappings of wealth; for it is almost always a dead giveaway that he or she has attempted to sell a talent to which the Muses alone had rights of ownership. Having betrayed their trust, the offender often finds that his license to create has been revoked and his mind condemned to artistic sterility.

Essence

The command “Be merciful” is the essence of Christianity.

Art

All great art is the direct expression of the Truth that is within us.

Blasphemy

The greatest blasphemy a man can commit is to call into question the salvation of all mankind.

Self Contempt

Self-hatred is rooted in the misconception that our lives have no meaning.

Judgment

If you are a saint, you will not judge; and if you are not a saint, you have no right to judge.

Existence

Man's meaning is in being born.

Epilogue - Zen Mind

"There is nothing but fish."--Shunryu Suzuki

This is the conclusion of Buddhism and the conclusion of my project. I started my commentary to express the true purpose of Zen practice.

But the best way to practice zazen may be not to say anything at all. And if I had to say something, then I would encourage you to give Zen a try:

If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.— Charles Bukowski (Factotum)

Buddha's Enlightenment

"Buddha nature is our original nature; we have it before we practice zazen and before we acknowledge it in terms of consciousness."--Shunryu Suzuki

If we already have Buddha nature, then why do we practice zazen?

Even though we have Buddha nature, as long as we live under a delusion, we will behave as if we do not have it. We have difficulty because we do not realize that we are a part of reality. We imagine that we are separate from life.

That is why we practice zazen: To become aware of our true existence. We must learn how to turn our desire back to a universe that knows no good or evil.

Beyond Consciousness

"You should establish your practice in your delusion."--Dogen-zenji

Strictly speaking, there is nothing else for us to work on except the present moment. To express our sincerity and true nature on each moment is the way of practice.

If we think otherwise, that is a delusion. When we live in the past or the future, we wander around the goal with our monkey mind. But when we make our effort in the present moment, then even though we live under a delusion, our true mind is there.

The purpose of Zen practice is to strengthen our conviction that we already have what we are looking for.

The Christian monk understood this point when he prayed, "Help my unbelief!" We have to believe that we are worthy of the gift of life even though we can do nothing to make ourselves worthy. When we are aware of this truth, there is enlightenment.

Original Buddhism

"How to sit is how to act. We study how to act by sitting, and this is the most basic activity for us."--Shunryu Suzuki

We must seek to understand how we are trained by darkness and enslaved by fear. We must seek the Truth.

Experience, Not Philosophy

"To find the meaning of our effort is to find the original source of our effort. We should not be concerned about the result of our effort before we know its origin."--Shunryu Suzuki

There is a certain danger in education. In American society, many people are educated. We have specialists, pundits, loud mouths and know-it-alls.

But, perhaps, the best way to obtain wisdom is not to gather knowledge from books. Perhaps the best way is to let go all you have learned and to discover something new and different in each moment.

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few.

Calmness

"We should find out the meaning of our effort before we attain something."--Shunryu Suzuki

This attitude and understanding is very, very important. If we think the purpose of Zen is to attain enlightenment, we will lose our way. It is the effort that counts. The meaning lies in the effort.

Because we are usually attached to the result of our effort, we end up sacrificing ourselves now for some future attainment. As Zen Master Suzuki points out, we end up with nothing.

The purpose of Zen to to express our true nature on each moment. When we practice on this moment, we already have enlightenment even if we are not aware of it.

Which is more important: ...to make a million dollars, or to enjoy your life in your effort, little by little, even though it is impossible to make that million; to be successful, or to find some meaning in your effort to be successful? If you do not know the answer, you will not even be able to practice zazen; if you do know, you will have found the true treasure of life.

Attachment, Nonattachment

"Zazen practice and everyday activity are one thing."--Shunryu Suzuki

We practice zazen in order to discover the one activity that includes all activity.

So, what is it? We cannot know. We must discover for ourselves what true zazen practice is.

There is much wit and humor in the following anonymous saying: Zen is not what you think!

Believing in Nothing

"Using the Buddhist terminology, we should begin with enlightenment and proceed to practice, and then to thinking."--Shunryu Suzuki

The great Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, speaks of Christian contemplation as turning our spirituality right-side in. This is true of Zen practice as well.

The purpose of zazen is to have a well-ordered mind. When we move from enlightenment to practice and then to thinking, we see things are they are and we accept things as they go.

This is a very scientific understanding. Here there is no superstition. Here there is no fear.

Most of us are walking around unaware that our shirts are on inside out. This may be cute in a child, but it is hardly fashionable in an adult.

When someone points out that we are wearing our shirt inside out, we may feel chagrined. But no matter how we feel, we should at once work on fixing the problem. We should work on turning our spirituality right-side in.

Readiness, Mindfulness - Part II

"To realize the truth is to live--to exist here and now."--Shunryu Suzuki

I have heard it said that life is what happens to us when we are busy making other plans. We are not aware that we are the experience. When we are not aware of reality, we are sleepwalking through life.

Zen practice is the effort to throw off sleep. When we are wide awake, everything we do will be done with sacred intensity.

Readiness, Mindfulness

"It is not after we practice zazen that we realize the truth; even before we practice zazen, realization is there."--Shunryu Suzuki

In English, the conditional tense is known as the if-then clause. As long as our zazen practice remains in the conditional tense--"If I practice well, then I will attain enlightenment"--we are sacrficing ourselves now for a future idea. We end up with nothing and we just continue in our difficulties.

In zazen, we break the karmic chain of the conditional tense. This is the true purpose of Zen.

Emptiness

"As long as we have some definite idea about or some hope in the future, we cannot really be serious with the moment that exists right now."--Shunryu Suzuki

We are born under a delusion. We are born with fear. This is the doctrine of original sin. We must work hard to discover the reality that is our birthright. When we sacrifice this birthright for an idea, we end up with nothing.

The present moment is all we have. When we live fully in the present moment, we have no need to cling to our possessions or to worry about the future. We are free from the prison of self-concern.

That is the purpose of zazen practice: To study how to live in the world without fear.

Naturalness

"If you want to study Zen, you should forget all your previous ideas and just practice zazen and see what kind of experience you have in your practice."--Shunryu Suzuki

The Kingdom of Heaven is within you and the road home leads back to yourself. To know yourself is to experience a transcendent reality that is not dependent on a social standard of good or evil, better or worse, or fame and profit.

Dante wrote, "I love to doubt as well as know." The purpose of Zen is to learn to doubt everything.

The Quality of Being

"The purpose of zazen is to attain the freedom of our being, physically and mentally."--Shunryu Suzuki

I have heard it said that he who sins is a slave of sin. It is important to understand the difference between true freedom and licentiousness.

Licentious behavior is rooted in the the blind, subconscious desires that we inherited from our ancestors who climbed out of the primordial jungle. It is an almost instinctual drive and it usually has pleasure as its goal. It can lead to a bovine-like contentment, but not to true happiness.

"The freedom of our being" means that when we discover the true reason for our existence we will have no difficulty finding our way under any circumstance. When our motivation changes from a desire for pleasure (or, from the more dangerous desire for power) to a desire oriented toward meaning, we will be fully satisfied with everything we do.

When we know the true reason for our activity, we will not fear anything. This is true freedom--freedom from fear. Without this freedom, we cannot be truly happy.

Transiency

"That everything changes is the basic truth for each existence."--Shunryu Suzuki

This teaching reminds us of the fabled monarch who "once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in his view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him with the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.'"

When we learn to direct our will toward a Universe that knows no good or evil, we will not have difficulty accepting the truth that everything is in constant flowing change.

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

                     - from Hamlet , Wm. Shakespeare; Act II, scene ii

Traditional Zen Spirit

"The purpose of our practice is to cut off the karmic spinning mind."--Shunryu Suzuki

I believe it was Pascal who said that the imagination is the madwoman in the house. In zazen, we cut off the ego--the imaginary eternal self--and discover our true transitory self. We do not live in the past and we do not live in the future. We settled ourselves on each moment, moment-by-moment.

This is the true way of living!

Sick Call

"Before we were born we had no feeling; we were one with the universe....After we are separated by birth from this oneness, as the water falling from the waterfall is separated by the wind and rocks, then we have feeling. You have difficulty because you have feeling. You attach to the feeling you have without knowing just how this kind of feeling is created. When you do not realize that you are one with the river, or one with the universe, you have fear. Whether it is separated into drops or not, water is water. Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact we have no fear of death anymore, and we have no actual difficulty in our life." —Shunryu Suzuki in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Christ is quoted as saying, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick." When we live under the delusion that we are separate from the Universe we live in fear; we are sick in heart.

Like a good doctor, those who have mastered the healing arts can show us the way back to ourselves.

A Wordless Betrayal

"To understand reality as a direct experience is the reason we practice zazen, and the reason we study Buddhism."--Shunryu Suzuki

The dogmatist and the true believers of the world may not agree, but words alone cannot capture reality. Yet words can act as a charm and conjure up reality in the same way that a painting can express the character and life of an individual or landscape.

It is not technical skill alone that is required. A painting can appear lifeless. Words are dead.

In order to understand the great artist, writer, or teacher, we must learn to communicate without words. We must deepen our awareness of a reality that is always present. We must understand the spirit that flows between the words:

The volatile truth of our words should continually betray the inadequacy of the residual statement. Their truth is instantly translated; its literal monument alone remains. The words which express our faith and piety are not definite; yet they are significant and fragrant like frankincense to superior natures.--Henry David Thoreau in Walden

What Do I Know?

"It is quite usual for us to gather pieces of information from various sources, thinking in this way to increase our knowledge. Actually, following this way we end up not knowing anything at all."--Shunryu Suzuki

It is a strange truth that we can have a doctorate in psychology and not know ourselves. We can be educated and remain ignorant.

Unfortunately, because of our ignorance and our vanity, much of what we need to know will be learned by the painful process of trial and error.

But by Zen practice, by remaining careful, observant and alert in our daily lives, we can avoid making the same mistake over and over again. Instead of just gathering knowledge, we will study ourselves.

To study yourself is to forget yourself. It is to dare to enter the Unknown. That is the purpose of Zen.

A Constant Problem

When Monk NoDoz becomes Monk NoDoz, Zen becomes Zen.--Dogen-zenji

I admit it--Dogen-zenji never said that. But he said something like it. Put another way, when you are you, "you see things as they are, and you become one with your surroundings. There is your true self."

Zen Master Suzuki makes this point and also warns that when we start to wander about in some delusion which is something apart from ourselves, then our surroundings are not real anymore, and our minds are not real anymore. "Most people live in delusion, involved in their problem, trying to solve their problem."

We solve, or dissolve, our problems by constancy which is the power to accept things as they are whether they are agreeable or disagreeable. That is why we practice Zen. We must discover for ourselves how to accept our problems and how to work on them. Only in this way can we realize true freedom.

Dwell.

You are the Light.

Rely on yourself.

Do not depend on others.

A Moment of Forgetfulness

"But the purpose of studying Buddhism is to study ourselves and to forget ourselves."--Shunryu Suzuki

This is where most psychologists get it wrong. They study human nature the way a Zoologist studies animals. But man is much more than a psycho-physical organism.

If you truly want to know who you are, dare to enter the unknown. Zen practice is the effort to forget ourselves on purpose. At first we study ourselves and we are soon convinced by our study that it is absolutely necessary to forget ourselves.

When we forget ourselves, when the ego vanishes, we discover the true meaning of our existence.

A Goalless Life

"In our practice we have no particular purpose or goal....You may think that if there is no purpose or no goal in our practice, we will not know what to do. But there is a way."--Shunryu Suzuki

Usually, before we act, we think. "I have to get up and go to work."

Then the difficulty begins: Why do we have to go to work?

We answer this question. We are satisfied with the answer. We have a reason or purpose or goal--I am going to work to support my children or to earn a paycheck so that I can go shopping tomorrow.

If we have no reason or purpose or goal in our activity, we often become confused. Since we do not know the true reason for our activity, we may be tempted to give up our practice and go back to bed!

But Zen Master Suzuki tells us there is a way. The secret is non-attachment. When we are not attached to any reason or purpose or goal, we can just concentrate on expressing ourselves in the present moment.

That is the purpose of Zen practice: To express our true nature and our sincerity on each moment, moment-by-moment, with a constantly renewed appreciation of the phenomenal world.

Without this practice, we may lose our respect for each other--and even for ourselves.

Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other.  We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are.  We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not come to open war.--Henry David Thoreau

I Was Unaware of That

"Do not think that you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment."--Dogen-zenji

Most of us who practice zazen imagine that enlightenment is something that we will obtain through our own effort. But this is not so. That kind of effort is no different than striving after material goods or reputation.

Dogen-zenji is warning us that if we think we will obtain enlightenment, we are only wandering around with our eyes closed. We may be sleepwalking!

Because we already have enlightenment, we can practice. The purpose of practice is to be aware of our own enlightenment. We must study how to awaken to a reality that is the very essence of our existence.

Step This Way

"Our life can be seen as a crossing of a river. The goal of our life's effort is to reach the other shore, Nirvana. Prajna paramita, the true wisdom of life, is that in each step of the way, the other shore is actually reached."--Shunryu Suzuki

This is true. It takes time, however, to realize that no time is required. The purpose of Zen practice is to awaken us to this fact.

True Recognition

How can you recognize a true spiritual teacher or guide?

• A true teacher will always lead you back to yourself.

• A true teacher will never allow you to transfer responsibility for your actions.

• A true teacher may offer encouragement and point out mistakes, but she will never claim to know all the answers to life's many questions.