Modernity and Zen

Everyone who ever lived has lived in the most modern of times. Dominant cultures come and go and humanity ratchets its way to the future as civilization morphs in place to this-now-that configuration.

Zen benefits from modernity by virtue of the increasing efficacy of language. The maturation of secular thought has richened the ability of modern English to express in objective terms concepts that a mere hundred years ago would have to be relegated to mysticism.

Zen benefits from the richness of modern language, but the essence of Zen is the unchanging ultimate realization of the core of life its self. Like a faceted diamond that is immune to the collapse of civilizations or to the rise and fall of ideologies Zen abides. Recognized or unrecognized, anywhere in the Universe, Zen is unchanging and unchangeable.

So what's in a word? What's in a word is a key that opens the door behind which the mystery of our own existence is revealed.


Zen.

The Use of Language and Zen

Words are discreet elements with which one builds artifacts of consciousness in the mind. Mind is an action made inevitable when Transcendental Awareness inhabits a creature with a nervous system. The ultimate Life of life is Transcendental Awareness, and we find examples of learning and will in creatures that consist of just a single cell. Life in every case is Transcendental Awareness, and Transcendental Awareness seems to be a field phenomenon generated by certain aggregates of matter.

So what would it mean for this "Awareness" to become self aware and begin to do the living, rather than being wholly identified with the imperatives peculiar to its archaic hardware?


It would be rather like one of those movies in which people ride dragons.

It: "The Ten Bulls"

"The Ten Bulls" visual didactic parable has been around for about a thousand years, and has been variously interpreted.  Most interpreters see an allegory of the soul subjecting the personality to its authoritative sway.  The fact is much darker and lighter than this sophomoric reduction.

Let us consider all creatures as configurations of "Transcendental Awareness". And then let us consider should that "Awareness" which is the ultimate existence of such a creature awaken to the simple essence behind its genetically driven behaviors.

The animal is the ride.


ZEN

Intuition and Whim

It is not uncommon to encounter admonitions agains the dangers of the sway of "intuition". It seems to me that the advocates of such caution are unable to differentiate between whim and intuition.

Whim is an intellectual construct. The monkey mind, in connecting the dots, discovers an advantageous aggregate and is swayed to performance that will affect the desired shapes in the field of reality. Whims are ideas. Intuition is a scent on the wind: subtile forms surround and presage the hard form of the real. Intuitions are a form of touch. 

Since both whim and intuition must use the mind to communicate with Awareness it is vitally important to be able to taste the difference between them.

Meditation is such training of Awareness.

Meditation is the silence in which sound is discovered.

The Method of Zen

Zen is not an ideology: not a conceptual framework that needs must be adopted and adhered to. Zen is the furthest of all things from a belief system. Zen is a technology of being so constructed that if applied to ones self with sincerity and diligence there is a reasonable expectation of the transformation of being known as "Satori".

Satori or "Enlightenment" as it is known, is that event where, as if awakening from a dream, the human animal comes into possession of the Transcendental Awareness which is the substrate of all life, and which is experienced as "one's original face before one was born". We are born the children of the earth, and we are capable of rebirth as the children of the Universe. Enlightenment is no less than such rebirth.

The method of Zen is twofold. First, there are certain principles which exert an ordering influence on all subsequent thought: they act as a lens through which light and dark are made apparent. These principles are Emptiness and Suchness. The ordering of our thoughts must have a foundation, and here it is. This could be thought of as the Yan aspect of Zen. Secondly, the mind must become the possession of Awareness. This is attained by the practice of meditation. Meditation is not an end in its self, meditation is the exercise by which we bring the mind under the control of Awareness. When mind has completely surrendered to Awareness we enter the state of "no-mind". This is the Yin aspect of Zen.

When we cultivate the Yin and the Yan aspects of Zen in ourselves we fecund that Transcendental Awareness which is the essence of our existence, and after a period of gestation proper to our state, Enlightenment is sure to follow.

Chuang Tzu and Zen

Chuang Tzu lived roughly one thousand years before Bodhidarma. China at the time of Bodhidarma's immigration from India was infused with Taoist thought and only needed the catalytic doctrine of Satori to produce the brilliant gem that is Zen.

The writings of Chuang Tzu shine as an operators manual for the human vehicle. His understanding of the pitfalls and stumbling blocks inherent by nature in a creature of human birth is flawlessly lucid. His suggestions as to how one should comport ones self in accord with the vagaries of circumstance are succinct and universal. And his use of Confucius as a foil to explore the limitations of intellect and rectitued are nothing short of genius. Chuang Tzu contrasts The Way of Heaven and The Way of Man, and finds that they can mingle and marry (or not). What we do not find in the writings of Chuang Tzu is a method where by one might discover within one's self and by one's own efforts The Way of Heaven.


This is what Zen is all about.

In a Nutshell

Our "humanity" is a conditioned state of Awareness.


Enlightenment is Awareness awakening to its state.

Tea Cups and Clay

If the clay that is a tea cup woke up, it would still be a tea cup.

Mystery and Materialism

Nothing has been explained. We know that matter is congealed energy, but of the ultimate nature of energy we know nothing but shadows. That Awareness should emerge from stacks of otherwise ordinary matter is a mystery of which not even the surface has been scratched.

The Times

2,500 years is a long time in human terms, and much has change since the days of the Buddha, Chuang Tzu, and Plato. Oddly enough though, when thought of in terms of humanity awakening to the true nature of individual existence, all the changes are superficial. The industrial revolution, the advances in medical knowledge, the broad scope of physical science: all of these things are superficial and unnecessary to the fact of coming of age as a child of the Universe.

All the progress we have made in understanding and manipulating the world around us tells us nothing about "what is the who".  The behavioral sciences are making excellent progress in elucidating the genetic imperatives of our humanity, but the fact that there exists the possibility of an evolutionary leap to a higher plane of existence is generally considered exotic nonsense. The Enlightenment which is transformation of being has been around for a long time, and some of those enlightened beings have given their lives to the attempt give others a hand up (with varying degrees of success). More often than not the teachings of these beings get turned into a belief system when what they were trying to do is build a tool kit to enable genuine transformation of being. Belief is a powerful attenuator of truth, leading to a situation where the message is obscured by worship of the envelope.

The fact is so simple, and so mind bogglingly self evident, that it is invisible. Or perhaps like cave fish the hardware necessary to sight just isn't there. In any case, there is nothing about the times in which we find ourselves that would interfere with answering this simple question.


What is the sound of one hand clapping?

Secrets in Plain Sight

It is said that the Buddha when first enlightened was reticent to go public because he knew that the subtlety of his revelation was all but impossible for an ordinary being to grasp. Chuang Tzu (who lived about the same time as the Buddha) also goes on about the problem of subtlety for a complex mind, contrasting the Way of Heaven and the Way of Man. Plato had his Cave. What all were referring to was the fact that Transcendental Awareness is always first encountered completely identified with its host. When housed in a lion it serves the lion's purpose. When housed in a lamb it knows only lamb-ness.

One of the high purposes of the practice of austerities and of meditation is that resistance to the flow of our humanity reveals our humanity. Humanity is a conditioned state of Transcendental Awareness. Humanity is a condition of being made inevitable as the Awareness which is the substance of the universe makes its way to self recognition through the vehicle of living organisms.

The mind wants it's individuality, self expression, and so-on; well it can have them. But as long as Transcendental Awareness is a slave to its host where is the individuality in that? It is the self expression of an automaton. For the Enlightened being the body is the magic carpet and the mind is the wish-fulfilling gem.

The tree of life is a wondrous occurrence in the fabric of the universe. Transcendental Awareness is the sap of that tree, and Enlightenment is its finest flower.

The Zen of Bodhidharma

Bodhidharma brought his special brand of Buddhism to China in A.D. 520. He is considered the first patriarch of Zen. He claimed a special transmission outside the sutras, and a direct seeing into one's nature. He noted that the enlightened being's mind is tranquil and its body moves freely in accordance with circumstances. What more could one ask? I would like to draw attention to the "tranquil mind" and how it relates to the human condition.

A mind caught up in illusion has a narrative to protect and can not possibly achieve tranquility. The animal mind exists in a narrative-rich environment and is pathologically drawn to romance and intrigue. So we find the Enlightenment of the Buddha early on entangled in superstitious ornamentation. Zen represents the refusal to gild the lily of Enlightenment.

The singular difficulty the doctrine of satori faces is the human appetite for narrative. When we "enter in to that which can not be entered" this becomes staggeringly obvious. The "not entered" is not entered because it was there all along. And entry to the "not entered" is barred by any narrative sacred or otherwise. Bodhidharma advocated a direct seeing into one's nature. This is no less than consciousness awakening to the Transcendental Awareness which is its progenitor. Awareness has no axe to grind, and the artifacts of consciousness are clearly seen to be the fabrications that they are.

The romance involved in throwing the word Zen around is made inevitable as mediocre minds seek to wrap themselves in an exotic triumphal narrative, and I suppose "honky zen" is better than no Zen at all.

The Zen of the patriarchs is the living meristem of the enlightenment of the historical Buddha.

The Buddhism of Huang Po: consciousness and sudden enlightenment

The great Huang Po (died 850) was the teacher of Lin Chi, the father of Rinzai Zen. And when Lin Chi achieved his enlightenment he is reported to have said "So after all there is not much in the Buddhism of Huang Po." What he meant by "not much in the Buddhism of Huang Po" is that the substance of Enlightenment was there all along, though tangled in the effects of consciousness. By the twin virtues of meditation and study, when the spell of consciousness snaps, that Awareness which is the stuff of Enlightenment is already in place, and the obvious is suddenly apparent.

The genius of Huang Po was the spareness of his method.

Being Here Now

Now is the then that was and will be.

Awareness, Consciousness, and Buddha Nature

There has been a recent buzz questioning if insects possess consciousness. This is a classic example of the confusion made inevitable when we do not differentiate between consciousness and awareness.

Awareness is the ultimate property of life, and the ultimate truth of Self. Awareness could be thought of as composing what religionist call the "Spirit". Consciousness is the result of awareness inhabiting a nervous system, and varies with the mechanical capabilities thereof. Consciousness could be thought of as comprising the realm of the "Soul".

As to whether or not insects have consciousness I will relate a personal anecdote.

Once, years ago, I came down from the sleeping loft to find that the huge black wood ant so common around here had discovered the honey-bowl. The bowl was very nice porcelain, hand thrown by a friend, and had a notched lid for the cherrywood honey dipper (all broken and discarded long ago). Well anyway, I came down that morning to find a steady line of very large black ants climbing the side of the bowl, slipping through the dipper notch, and getting after the honey. I opened the bowl to find about a half inch of ants flailing in the upper reaches of the honey like sabertooth tigers in a tar pit. My first thought was "Damn, now I'll have to throw the honey out." My second thought was that since the ants were a nuisance and since they were exterminating themselves why not let them have at it. That is what I did. I left the honey bowl untouched on the counter and went on about my business.

The following morning I came down from the sleeping loft to find a ring of ants surrounding the honey-bowl. Like a ring, shoulder to shoulder, of tundra musk ox defending their young: all were facing out.



Does a dog have Buddha Nature?

Post-Modern Possession and Zen

The equanimity displayed by the masters of Zen, past and present, is an illustration of the qualitative differences in a mind informed by Awareness and a mind blinded by consciousness.

The consciousness which moderns are so quick to celebrate is driven by the sway of unconscious forces. A description of demonic possession quite accurately fits the situation of that mind to which the archaic structure of congenital preprograms is invisible. A mind in this state believes its self to be "self possessed" when actually its behavior is dominated by autonomous forces (referred to by Carl Jung as the Collective Unconscious) to which the mind has said "I". They are possessed.

The Enlightenment which we seek in Zen is no less than Awareness pulling down the curtain of consciousness which insulates Self from archetype. Awareness is stillness in the midst of movement, and that stillness betrays the machinations of the ancient deep-mind.

The ills of the modern world are the knock-off results of a clever creature in spiritual infancy. The general population, the captains of industry, the political classes, are all of them in a state of demonic possession: their behaviors public and private are those of a mind which does not suspect the existence of an Awareness which is the true substance of Self and of all life, and which transcends consciousness. They therefore serve invisible forces in darkness: the latent contents of the unconscious mind. They are conscious, yes; but they are not Aware.

An ancient Master once remarked that Zen is the brick with which we knock at the door.



What then to do when the door has opened.

Another ancient Master while walking in the imperial garden remarked to the Emperor "Sire, when the people of the world look upon these flowers they see them as if in a dream."

Divinity and Archetype

Those familiar with the state of deep meditation will come to recognize that our lives are dominated by mental artifacts. The vagaries of experience present us with a plethora of examples with which to people and to decorate the schematic of archetype which is the unconscious mind. The value of these elements is in their proximity to an unconscious ideal made inevitable by patterns of electrons within the tissue of the brain.

The ancients were closer in their pantheon of gods to the true relation of Awareness to the terra incognito of genetic imperatives than the modern with his monad. The concept of a demiurgic monad puts the individual in a false state of responsibility by assuming unity of personhood......we are many, and that "many" is woven into a chord of seeming unity by consciousness. Hence domination by the principle of consciousness of the mind in modern humanity. The "I" with which consciousness flatters its self is a convenient illusion, and a cover for the more inconvenient truths of archaic archetype.

The Awareness which emerges from deep meditation is not at war with consciousness, but rather has a relationship to consciousness as that of parent to child. There is much consciousness is not aware of and its fascination with its representations is not to be trifled with.

Well did the ancients ascribe divinity to the powers of archetype. And when Awareness consciously engages archetype we people our lives with divinity.

A Return to the Garden

The Garden of Eden is oft used as an alegory for a previous state of innocence, but it brings to mind a metaphor of more immediate value. The gardens that we moderns are familiar with are sources of aesthetic and physical nourishment. We care for the soil and pull the weeds that we will have a feast for the eyes and food on the table. The mind is exactly the same.

Ideas are the fruits and the flowers in the garden of the mind. If the mind is not cultivated and weeded it becomes an overgrown jungle fit for starvation. It is not at all difficult to see that ideas which should be torn out by the roots are crowding out the flowering of peace on earth and good will toward men.

Meditation and the ideas emerging from the ensuing Enlightenment can make possible, individually and collectively, a return to the Garden.

Meditate

The Long View of Enlightenment

When the long view of human existence is taken it is immediately obvious that evolution exhibits a fascinating plasticity in its plodding path to Enlightenment. The branching tendrils of speciation have tried this avenue and now that in the Universes's inclination to awaken, and there is no reason to suppose that this process is now in abeyance. For a long time it has seemed to me that humanity is even now in the process of speciation, and is, as we speak, busily developing (as did Darwin's finches) into quite identifiable sub-species of creature-hood.

The characteristic that fascinates me is that of mind, and of course mind is a function of the physical form of the brain. The characteristics of clairvoyance and perspicaciousness are such that those possessing these attributes would necessarily self select in their vulnerabilities to sexual partners, and so pass on to their progeny these qualities that are the prerequisites of Enlightenment.

Even the greatest of natural abilities must need cultivation, and one is reminded that the only measure of equality is the respect we accord the confusion of those around us.

Meditate.

The Language of Intuition

Intuition does not speak a language. Our intuitions do not come to us in voices. Intuition comes as a scent on the wind. Immediate, experienced, palpable form in the mind; this is the stuff of intuition. For all the efficacy of words they are clumsy tools compared to the infinite nuance of intuition, and when when intuition is compelled to drape its self in language something is bound to be lost in translation.

It is by way of meditation that we come to realize the limitations of thinking in words. We learn a language by imbued association in infancy and childhood, and it is quite natural that we in later life begin to talk to ourselves and to refer to this "talking to ourselves" as thought. The silent mind that we cultivate in meditation is the clay upon which life makes it's cuneiform impressions, and it is this shaping of mind in and of its self that is the essential stuff of thought.

The clarity that emerges when we cease to compel thought to form an audio track is remarkable and immediate. This clarity is the signature of a change of being. This clarity enables a genuine metamorphosis: the earth worm becomes the child of the universe. The Universe's desire for self recognition has come full circle.

Enlightenment is not a thought process. 

Meditate.

The Articulation of Experience

The articulation of experience: this is what an artist does. The artist, in creating, willfully manipulates the received experience of an audience. The painting, the music, the theater; play upon the human intellectual and emotional vulnerabilities as a hand might pluck the strings of a harp. The articulation of experience in the minds of others is also the purpose of the conventions of social groups. Every day language is a means of this same manipulation. All communication is a creation of form in the mind of another......an articulation of experience.

People are by and large too busy trying to express themselves to understand the Self, and the mind of the non-meditator is spontaneously opaque.

Kindness and generosity are advised.

The Inevitability of Enlightenment

Recent theories concerning the origins of entropy dissipating micro systems at undersea volcanic vents lends credence to the image of life forms as not rare and random, but inevitable.

To consider the existence of one's consciousness as the result of an unbroken flow of inevitability beginning with the beginning of anything at all, implies that awareness inheres in the field phenomenon, and that those alignments of subatomic events leading to entropy dissipating forms, self replicating and aware, are the natural refinement of what ever the stuff of existence is.

Enlightenment is not a personal event: Enlightenment is the Universe awakening to its Self. The individual is a fresh bud of that vine rooted in the dawn of time, and Enlightenment is its finest flower. The ancient image of the self-consuming snake comes to mind, and it makes one a bit impatient with the ideologues that trade in the various subtleties of death and destruction. What world might ensue in the sway of a culture of Enlightenment?

It is a race against time for this particular experiment in life forms, but the achievement of Enlightenment in it's progeny is the denouement of the stars.

An Exercise in Meditation

It is often said that swimming is the best exercise. Yes, it's good, and to that I would add a personal favorite: playing in big waves. That said I submit as the premier exercise for those reasonably fit: cutting fire wood.

The woods in which I cut are crowded second growth hardwoods about 70 to 80 years old. I have live here for over 45 years and the prettiest forests are the ones I cut in all those years ago. I have always thinned for variety and firmness.....but that's not the point.

When cutting wood on a rocky Ozark hillside one must practice absolute attention. A chain saw is as dangerous as a loaded gun, and boulders and fallen branches are everywhere. In felling one must read the tree and read the woods: where does the tree want to go.....can you nudge it where you want it....will it hang up in in being felled. Trimming the branches and limbs there is spring-back to watch for, and pant-legs and boots to avoid tangleing.  When sectioning into firewood there is a danger of pinching the blade in the cut or clipping a rock. One split second clip of a rock is a half an hour sharpening a blade. You can't drift off for a split second or you will get hurt....perhaps badly. Wood cutting is for me an extreme meditation: no thought, absolute attention, the tree leads the way and one silently follows. Always aware of the blade. Aways aware of ones footing. Always aware of the tree.

Then there is splitting the rounds. A well-placed blow of the splitting maul on a 18 inch oak round will split the log with a sound that is like nothing else. It is a sound that after all these years still gives me an indescribable pleasure. The dull thud of the off center strike also sticks with one. And again it is the thud of the off strike that tells one that one has drifted off, lost ones concentration. Bending....lifting....throwing....bending.....lifting....throwing. Loading and unloading the truck a rhythm emerges that sets its own pace, and the forest floor is an obstacle course of worthy tenor.

Every phase of the process requires absolute attention and each phase makes its separate demands on the various muscle groups. Yes, it is an exercise and a meditation most excellent.

And....
It's getting chilly in here.....time to load the stove.

The Physics of Enlightenment

When life forms are considered as entropy dissipating systems the natural and inevitable denouement of Awareness is Enlightenment.

Fantasy Land

Though usually unnoticed, it goes without saying that all ideas are imaginary: no imagination: no ideas.

All animals are born with a repertoire of instinctual behaviors into a world that under normal conditions changes very very slowly. Ideas are not necessary in a stimulus-response jungle, but advantage is to that creature with the ability of intellectual synthesis. Enter Humanity.

Culture is imagined into being. From flint-and-steel to A bombs, from loin cloths to tuxedos. from rat-on-a-stick to haute cuisine, from water-in-a-bowl to trainloads of insecticide, the world in which we find ourselves is the cumulative realization of fantasy. And all this in a creature whose motivations are still hostage to blind instinct.

In an environment where every aspect of existence is charged with the products of imagination where is one to find a foundation of existential being? In a maze of ideas where is one to find a firm footing from which to take a step in the right direction. It seems obvious that a podium built of further fantasies (regardless of how exquisite) will be a poor jumping off place.

The core of being which in every case labors under its "repertoire of instinctual behaviors" is Transcendental Awareness. Transcendental Awareness is the ultimate truth of the sparrow, and the paramecium, and the beggar in the alley. Transcendental Awareness is anywhere and everywhere the Alpha and the Omega.

The world of illusion of which the ancients spoke is no less than the normal day to day existence of any unenlightened creature. That which we are is not running away from us. The mystery of being is the presence of our existence. If we relax our hold on our fantasies and are motionless at the core of our being we discover Awareness: lucid, un-configured Awareness.

How are we to re-imagine the world when the cumulative fantasies of humanity are leading us to oblivion.


Enlightenment is the only balm that can soothe the sorrows of the world.



Meditate.