Gasshō,
I wish to tell you about some recent events in my life and perhaps together we can see the practical—in terms of practice—application of these. For, if I am remembering correctly, that is the purpose of these communications. As we began to focus more of our time and attention on Living Compassion, people who had been with the Zen Center for many years became concerned that we were heading off in some strange un-Zen-like direction and that our practice would be lost in the transition. It turns out we have gone nowhere except to a deeper awareness of what it means to be “living compassion,” however, the concern has resulted in a commitment from me to communicate with all of you at least once each month, and for that I’m grateful. Twenty years ago we, the Sangha, would gather a couple of times a week at the Zen Center in Mountain View and communication was pretty easy. Well, as easy as communication ever is, which usually isn’t very easy. Now we, the Sangha, are scattered all over the world, most of us rarely seeing one another, so I appreciate this opportunity to stay in touch.

Recently a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism passed along the information to me, via a third party, that what we do is not Buddhism. I was shocked. It isn’t? Gosh, it never occurred to me that it’s not, though I have considered on more than one occasion that perhaps I don’t actually know what Zen is. I encounter Zen teas and Zen computer parts, “Zen moments,” and Zen “things” (as in “it’s a Zen thing”), but I’ve never been sure what those folks meant by that, and I was pretty sure they didn’t know either. I even ate at a restaurant called Zen, but that wasn’t particularly illuminating. Not a single koan or paradox anywhere—unless you count the service and the prices.

I decided to do some research to see if I could find out what Zen is and if it’s what we’re practicing. I picked up a copy of a little book called The Zen Teachings of Huang Po. Huang Po was a ninth century Chinese Buddhist, and a brilliant teacher of Zen. But while I thoroughly enjoyed this excellent translation by one John Blofeld, it was Mr. Blofeld’s own words, rather than those of Huang Po, that most convinced me that what we are practicing is, indeed, Zen. (If the Tibetan practitioner’s opinion was that Zen is not Buddhist, well, I just can’t help a person with that.)

“The single aim of the true Zen follower is to train her mind that all thought-processes based on the dualism inseparable from ‘ordinary’ life are transcended, their place being taken by that Intuitive Knowledge which, for the first time, reveals to a person what she really is. If All is One, then knowledge of a being’s true nature—her original Self—is equally a knowledge of all nature, the nature of everything in the universe. Those who have actually achieved this tremendous experience, whether as Christians, Buddhists, or members of other faiths are agreed as to the impossibility of communicating it in words. They may employ words to point the way to others, but until the latter have achieved the experience for themselves, they can have but the merest glimmer of the truth—a poor intellectual concept of something lying infinitely beyond the highest point ever reached by the human intellect.”

Hmm. “…all thought-processes based on the dualism inseparable from ‘ordinary’ life are transcended.” We may not have accomplished it, but we are attending in that direction.

Earlier today I was speaking with someone from a socially responsible business organization in which I participate. We were talking about the gap that often exists between business and spirituality. Most of the folks in the organization are interested in business and see conscious, fair business practices as a way to bring about social change. Some of them are interested in matters spiritual, but few can see a real connection between what are viewed as two separate worlds, two different approaches to life. There are the business people and the spiritual people—not much in common there.

That’s true from a dualistic perspective, and in many cases both sides would agree equally. “We business people need to be practical and down to earth. Spirituality is a little airy-fairy for us and probably isn’t good for business.” “We spiritual folks need to keep our ‘eyes on the prize.’ The world is a place of temptation, and we need to avoid temptation.” (Hence the mistranslation of “the love of money is the root of all evil” into “money is the root of all evil.”)

A while back I was having a conversation with a fellow from an organization that is interested in promoting spirituality and social activism. I was surprised that he saw me as someone involved in that. “But I’m not a social activist.” A few days later I began recording When You’re Falling, Dive, a book I wrote in 2003. Now, someone who didn’t know better could sure read that as the views of a person who is active in social issues…

And, by golly, I am. I am interested in social issues as I’m interested in everything—as an opportunity to “transcend the duality inseparable from ‘ordinary’ life.”

What is self-hate? It is an illusion-of-duality-creating-and-maintaining machine. You are this way; you should be that way. They are that way; they should be another way. You did such and such; you should have done so and so. It’s like this; it should be like that. Something wrong/not enough. There’s something wrong. Something needs to be done. Something needs to be figured out, changed, fixed, improved. Knowing, seeing, realizing, ascertaining, assessing, understanding—all designed to create the illusion of an “I” that is other than, different from, outside of, separate from life. Basic duality. “…the duality inseparable from ‘ordinary’ life.”

Here is a favorite exchange between Master Huang Po and a student:
S. From all you have just said, Mind is the Buddha; but it is not clear as to what kind of mind is meant by this “Mind which is the Buddha.”
M. How many minds have you got?
S. But is the Buddha the ordinary mind or the Enlightened mind?
M. Where on earth do you keep your “ordinary mind” and your “Enlightened mind”?
S. In the teachings of the Three Vehicles it is stated that there are both. Why does Your Reverence deny it?
M. In the teachings of the Three Vehicles it is clearly explained that the ordinary and Enlightened minds are illusion. You don’t understand. All this clinging to the idea of things existing is to mistake vacuity for the truth. How can such conceptions not be illusory? Being illusory they hide Mind from you. If you would only rid yourselves of the concepts of ordinary and Enlightened, you would find that there is no other Buddha than the Buddha in your own Mind. When Bodhidharma came from the West, he just pointed out that the substance of which all people are composed is the Buddha. You people go on misunderstanding; you hold to concepts such as “ordinary” and “Enlightened,” directing your thoughts outward where they gallop about like horses! All this amounts to beclouding your own minds! So I tell you Mind is the Buddha. As soon as thought or sensation arises you fall into dualism. Beginningless time and the present moment are the same. There is no this and no that. To understand this truth is called complete and unexcelled Enlightenment.

But just to show how conditioned mind is shared, there’s more!
S. Upon what doctrine (Dharma principles) does Your Reverence base these words?
     (Kind of makes you understand why Zen masters of old wielded sticks, doesn’t it?)
M. Why seek a doctrine? As soon as you have a doctrine you fall into dualistic thought.
S. Just now you said that beginningless past and the present are the same. What do you mean by that?
M. It is just because of your seeking that you make a difference between them. If you were to stop seeking, how could there be any difference between them?
S. If they are no different, why did you employ separate terms for them?
     (Kind of makes you wish you had a stick, doesn’t it?)
M. If you hadn’t mentioned ordinary and Enlightened, who would have bothered to say such things? Just as those categories have no real existence, so Mind is not really “mind.” And, as both Mind and those categories are really illusions, wherever can you hope to find anything?

This could go a long way toward explaining why Ram Dass’s Be Here Now is such a perennial favorite! But of course it doesn’t work, this “just be here now,” does it, because conditioned mind—that illusion of duality machine—comes right in with something like, “But what does that mean”? or “Well, okay, but you’re not here now,” or “Oh, I get it, so that means I should…”  And, we’re off and running again.

One of our favorite practice reminders is, “I will use everything in my experience to see how I cause myself to suffer so I can drop that and end suffering.” We agree to use our experience of duality to take us beyond duality. Who is this “I”? What is this “my”? What is that? If I hadn’t mentioned it, who would have bothered to say these things?

So, here we are, practicing Zen as best we can, using everything in our experience to help us transcend “the duality inseparable from ‘ordinary’ life”—including the idea that there is a duality to transcend!

 

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