The Purpose of Zen Practice

With the advent of electronic books, searching for a particular word or phrase has never been easier. Perhaps more importantly, making a connection between words and phrases within a book may lead to new insights.

In Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Shunryu Suzuki frequently refers to the true purpose of Zen practice. Although the underlying theme is the same, the many contexts in which the word appears allows us to view the approach to the awareness of this purpose from different angles.

And just as light that passes through a prism is refracted into a rainbow of colors, so too can the meaning of one word or phrase appear differently to the mind.

Therefore, I am undertaking a new project for my readers. I will present each instance of the word "purpose" in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind with a commentary intended to further elucidate what, after all, is the very foundation of the spiritual quest: the discovery of the ultimate meaning of our lives.

This purpose cannot be found in philosophy and only you can make the discovery. No one can tell you the true meaning of your life. In his talks, Suzuki encourages us to seek the answer in our daily lives through Zen practice.

Let us begin the journey, then, and see if we can gain new insight into the question of purpose.

The Plug-in Drug

All I know is that there is sufficiently general agreement, among men whose judgment I respect, that commercial television is degraded, meretricious and absurd. Certainly it would seem that TV could become a kind of unnatural surrogate for contemplation: a completely inert subjection to vulgar images, a descent to a sub-natural passivity rather than an ascent to a supremely active passivity in understanding and love. It would seem that television should be used with extreme care and discrimination by anyone who might hope to take the interior life seriously.—Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

I suspect that most of us do not realize how television has negatively impacted our lives. You are probably unaware of the connection between your behavior and the heavy conditioning that you endured as a child—a conditioning that had an ulterior motive which had nothing to do with ensuring your ultimate happiness as a human being.

This much I can tell you: You cannot be sincere about meditation if you spend most of your free time watching television.

This does not necessarily mean that you should never watch television. I understand that the programming can be entertaining or even, at times, educational. But just as you would never eat only cake and cookies if your intent was to maintain your physical health, you should seriously consider if a diet of constant television watching is conducive to moral and spiritual rejuvenation.

For those interested in knowing more about television's effect on the brain and neurological system, I recommend a short article by Wes Moore entitled Television: Opiate of the Masses.

A True Conviction

More important than attaining enlightenment is the strong conviction that whatever experience we are having in the present moment has an ultimate meaning.

Without such a conviction, it is impossible to attain enlightenment.

But if we attain enlightenment before we attain enlightenment, if we are aware that our existence is inherently meaningful, then we will not be tempted to sacrifice our true self now for an imaginary self in the future.

We will seek for truth in the ordinary everyday circumstances of our lives and we will learn to express that truth through our daily activity.

Mind Games

The fraud committed on us is so close to home that it is difficult to realize how we are conditioned to love our slavery.

In The Ultimate Revolution, Aldous Huxley exposes some of the methods used by those who practice the black magic of brain washing: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31319.htm

The transcript is accompanied by a YouTube narration of the lecture. I highly recommend that you play the narration while you follow along with the text.

Tip: Use your computer's space bar to pause and start the narration as you scroll through the transcript.

It Does Not Concern Me

For the man who understands the meaning of life,
his mind is like a mirror.
When something crops up,
he fully understands the situation
and responds with all his being.
When it is over, he holds nothing.
Have no concern for what is to come
and what has passed.

--Zhuang Zi

A Worshipful Attitude

"God has implanted in us the seed of all greatness and it is up to us to see that the seed germinates and grows. Learning and growing should be a kind of worship. For God has given us capacities and talents and it is our sacred duty to finish God's work."--Eric Hoffer in Before the Sabbath

Strength of Purpose

Power corrupts the few while weakness corrupts the many.--Eric Hoffer

The cure for personal weakness is to accept full responsibility for working out the purpose of our lives. This is our avocation. For when we discover the true meaning of our lives, we become very strong.