As Requested

Please forgive the unoriginal post...

Everything read or heard is just a provisional teaching. Especially if it is coming from some unreliable source like me.

That said there are a lot of great provisional teachings out there.

I am grateful for the efforts Master Dogen and the folks who translated his works into English.

There is other great stuff out there, but when I need inspiration for my practice Dogen always does it for me.

Someone asked me "Do you know how to discover what true self is?"

I don't remember my answer. But it was likely something coy like:

"what is the true self?"

Thats kind of a lame answer now that I think about it. And I suppose I could have directed them to a chapter or a few of the Shobogenzo and told them "Look here!" But I don't know if that is really in the proper spirit of things either.

So, and this is likely not original at all either, My recommended instructions for discovering the true self are as follows:

Familiarise your body/mind with The Rules for Sitting Zen, then just allow everything that is not your true self to drop off.

This may take some time, and your results may differ.

All the best,

Jordan

Dogen's Bible and Enlightened Teachers

This is why I intend to gather together the few experiences I

had abroad, and to record the secrets of an enlightened teacher, so that they

may be heard by any practitioner who desires to hear them.

Shobogenzo Bendowa Nishijima and Cross translation

There has been a bit of scuttlebutt about internet teachers/communities versus real life flesh and blood teachers/communities that I caught wind of recently.

That, coupled with what ideas of mine of things like teachers and organizations that have been totally smashed, I would like to put forth that the argument either for and against is pretty lame.

First of I think this is a phenomenon that is primarily occurring in the western zen communities so that is where I'm coming from.

The first idea I'd like to smash is that there is a fundamental difference between the two.

Lets think about why we committed ourselves to this practice for a moment. It should not take very long. Most of us came to this practice because we know that something is not quite right and we want to get to the bottom of it. After a bit of practice most people (who are not mentally disabled, or acutely insane) figure out that it is themselves that is not right.

The more not right the person is or the more they are affected by this not rightness is frighteningly proportionate to how dedicated they are to the practice. So the most messed up people end up being zen teachers (or at least zen bloggers.) Just because they have become teachers doesn't mean that they have solved all of their problems either. From what I have seen Dharma transmission doesn't make someone a perfect human being. That goes for pretty much any of our zen sanghas weather online or physical here in the west. I'm sure there are exceptions, but the exceptions are pretty small and are likely not part of the echosphear. Anyone of these zen teachers who present themselves as being anything but a flawed human being is probably a U.S. Marine... unh no I mean a liar liar pants on fire. Yeah, they have likely been practicing for a while, they are likely well versed in dealing with their stuff (maybe) and most of them can actually be quite helpful in coming up with ways to help point you in the right direction for you deal with yours. You may even get really lucky and find a good friend that can point you to see things as they are instead of how you are.

In the interest of full disclosure, at the time of writing this, I have no pretty bolt of silk with a list of names on it to indicate I am a somebody in the zen community. After publishing this, I probably will never get one. Oh, I'd like one, but I think what I am doing right now is more important.

Ok, on to Dogen's bible, The Shobogenzo. While as my friend Ted pointed out it is only 95% complete, it is what Dogen left behind so that we could get the stuff from the guy who kicked off this whole tradition.

So, if you can get together with a group of folks, practice sitting-zen, and clarify the Shobogenzo for the benefit of all sentient beings (it's OK if your just doing it for yourself too, I think the sentient beings will benefit regardless), I think your going in the right direction. Along your way when the time is ripe, your probably going to run in to some guy or gal that might just help you out. They may not have anything to do with zen or be a kind of zen pariah, you may meet them in the flesh or out on the interwebs. But you are going to know when you meet your real teacher. I meet them everywhere.

Tso-ch’an I (fundamentals of practice)

Tso-ch’an I (fundamentals of practice)


*Note* If you are attached to your dogma don’t bother reading this post.

I guess I thought everybody was doing this. But most “Buddhist” books don’t really address it. This post was spontaneously vomited out after I read an article about a monk with PTSD recently and I guess I found it rather shocking. Not to make light of his situation, it is tragic, but that his practice did not support him as he was going through his ordeal may be the larger tragedy.

Here is the deal from my limited perspective. Just about everybody everywhere more than likely has some type of diagnosable psychological disorder to some degree or another. I don’t know if that is quantifiable or true and I am admittedly just taking a stab at this, but if you examine your so called self for a while you will probably figure it out and come to a similar conclusion for yourself after a while too. I think.

*And no I do not think that Buddhism has every answer for every little jot and tittle out there, but keep in mind that the word Therapy is derived from Theravada, the old teachings of Buddhism.

I am not an accredited teacher at all, just so you know what you’re getting into before reading further. But I have found a certain system of training to be gradually helpful and to have something that people always try and steer you away from expecting from this type of practice… Results.

Now the hard part is that I could and probably should write a whole book about this. Right now I just don’t have the time. There have also been a number of books ranging from modern to ancient that cover everything I have to say too. I don’t know the exact number but I have heard that there are 84,000 sutras in the Pali Cannon alone, and that is just the start of it. They are all pretty much saying the same things.

All of the worthwhile teachings almost across the board seem to always start off with ethics. From Gautama Buddha saying “Avoid the two extremes” and even the teaching of the Four Noble Truths can be looked at as a teaching in ethics. (I know it is more than that, but it is a view) Many of the more idealistic religious organizations make ethics their sole focus with good reason. The most popular book of the last 2000 years was really just a treatise on ethics. When people commit themselves to Buddhist practice the first step is generally taking the precepts, which is nothing more than guidelines for ethical conduct. Sadly a lot of teaching lineages nowadays seem to only give the precepts lip service. This is a great tragedy.

Some of the most basic ways of cultivating ethical conduct are of course through practice. Three that I have found helpful are practicing generosity, gratitude or appreciation, and empathy. The “How too” is a little complicated and I think is dictated a lot by each individual person’s particular situation. But what is important is not stacking things against another or expecting an immediate (or any)return. For example; when I offer you tea I do not expect you to give me anything at all in return. Or when accepting a cup of tea, considering all the wonderful steps that it took to get that tea to your lips, going all the way back to the means by which that tea was cultivated and beyond. As to empathy that is a hard one to put into intelligible terms, but just truly being able to put yourself in another persons slippers is what I have in mind.

The next important step is cultivating concentration. It seems to me lately that some of the institutionalized “Meditation establishment” would have people skip over this step and jump right into developing wisdom. I do not see how this can work and I tend to think it could be quite dangerous for people to do as developing wisdom is tricky business since the mind is such an immensely vast thing, combine with every persons idiosyncrasy’s and neurosis’s it appears to me that without a firm development in concentration one could go off track real quick and in a hurry.

The hard part is it is often difficult to tell the difference between developing concentration and developing wisdom. Particularly as they both often take their form in practice of seated meditation. But what you are doing in that seated meditation is entirely different even if the physical posture might seem the same. It is also important to point out that you can also develop these things outside of seated meditation even though this might interfere with some people’s dogmatic approach to practice.
I am only going to touch on stuff I have done on the meditation cushion for simplicity sake but I want to give an honorable mention to the practice of making a sound on the end blown flute as falling under both concentration and wisdom too.
Aside: I would really like to expand this whole post into a book. Oh well.

So on developing concentration; yes you should try to sit either full lotus or half lotus. See a yoga teacher if you can’t figure those out. Seriously they are the professionals at that sort of thing and I am sure I do not have anything resembling perfect posture. Sometimes I even sit in a Burmese posture depending on how my bones and blood circulation is doing day to day.

But on to business of focusing the mind, when you get in front of a real teacher instead of “Just Sitting” you will often get an instruction to count the breath. This is kindergarten Zen. But I think it is important. To my mind you have to go through kindergarten before going through grade school and high school and on to university. Learn to focus the mind on just counting the breaths. This foundation of concentration is going to pay dividends for you later. You can count the inhalations and exhalations one to ten or you can just count one over and over. The important bit is learning that single pointed concentration. When your mind starts to ruminate, just count. Start thinking about your day, just count. My knee hurts, just count.

Once you have gotten proficient at counting the breath than you should move on to following the breath. I think there are some funny ancient names for this but just be aware of the breath as you inhale and exhale, it might be difficult starting out doing this as you might find yourself going back to following the breath. That is ok. This is not a competitive practice. Just work on following the breath until you can do it well enough to where your mind does not go into the routine of rumination about the day to day.

I know a bunch of the readers are saying in their heads right now that “Master so and so doesn’t teach all of this! You’re just making this up!” I assure you I am not making this up and if master so and so is who I think he is than he may not have mentioned it but he did indeed practice what I am going over right now cause this is what was taught in the schoolhouse he came from.

So the next thing you want to get into is body awareness. This is likely going to have been happening throughout but now is the time to focus on it. This is also where you are likely to begin to become a posture Nazi as well, please do understand that everyone has a unique posture, you really just have to concentrate on your own. I also think it is important to come back to it just to pay attention to what your body is going through AFTER you have gotten your posture down pat. And while this is still filed in with concentration it also gets a little gray here; up until this point the main effort is just getting you mind prepared for what comes next. However this portion may lead to some insight, particularly impermanence, as you stay with the sensations of your body you may begin to understand that there is nothing about you that is permanent. This is an important insight that you can’t just learn through reading or intellectual understanding but can experience happening in real time as you follow the sensations of the body. There are various other concentration practices out there often going under the guise of "Mindfulness" and many of them also wander back and forth from concentration to wisdom. I am not here to condemn anyone practice just so you know.

Developing wisdom/insight:
This is where most of the modern writings seem to focus. And that is a good thing but in my view kind of pointless without a grounding in the fundamentals. I won’t get into the dogmatic argument of koan practice vs. silent illumination vs. sole sitting or shikantaza or whatever. In my view they are all wonderful and wondrous practices and I find it pointless to stack one against another. I think what is most effective for each individual will depend largely on each person’s own circumstances. But it is important to go back to the fundamentals of ethics and concentration constantly while you are developing your wisdom practice. I say again it is important to go back to the fundamentals of ethics and concentration constantly while you are developing your wisdom practice. It is important to go back to the fundamentals of ethics and concentration constantly while you are developing your wisdom practice. I say it three times because this is where people get stuck and or go off into extremes. This is where the koan is warning about all the skulls littering the meditation platform. This is where it is important to find a good friend to help you along the way, and where the grounding of a meditation community comes in helpful. And for me this is where the playful ease of freedom is found. Do not get stuck.

Ethics and Morals

This morning I have been thinking about “Metta” or loving kindness.
And how it is important to me, or how important it is to me.

Ethics and ethical conduct is not the same to me as prescriptive morality. My own skewed view is that ethics is what we apply to ourselves and morality is what we try and apply to others.

I am guilty of a little bit of my own prescriptive morality, but not as much as I used to be.

This morning I offered the merit of my practice to another, and with the aid of a home made mala I recited, “May you be well and happy” 108 times. I do not think this is exactly any type of orthodox practice, but it was expedient and helpful for me at the time.

On the way to work, I must have been driving a little too slow for the person behind me and I found I was being tailgated. I slowed down even more.

Shaving the head, again and again, these bonds of attachment are hard to cut.

BOOGER

Boogers happen. That I can not reject.
From time to time everyone is going to have a booger and it may peek out or even hang from the tip of ones nose.

Now the polite thing to do is take someone aside and let them know about the booger privately, perhaps even offer them a tissue. I would not go so far as to wipe someone’s nose for them unless they were simply unable to do so for them selves, for example the booger appearing on the nose of a young child or an old and feeble person.

Normally I am not one to point and yell booger in a crowded auditorium.
That kind of action seems to have all kinds of strange effects. Particularly in small groups where someone might be particularly attached to the person with the booger.
Or the person for some strange reason is fond of the booger.

Some might simply agree, yes there is a booger there, please remove it.
Others may laugh or even jeer causing pain to the person with the booger.
Others will perhaps out of kindness, or obliviousness, ignore the booger.
Some really deluded people may begin to worship the booger as if the booger was something that should be praised.

Now the person with the booger upon being made aware of the booger has a lot of different choices to make.

Does he remove the booger, in effect admitting he had a booger in the first place?
Dose he deny that there is a booger there?
Dose he simply accept that there is a booger, but just allow it to simply hang off his nose?
Dose he begin some sort of strange booger cult where people praise the booger?

What of the person pointing out the booger?

If his pointing out the booger helps someone to realize that they have a booger he will feel like he has done a good service for a friend.
If the fact that a booger is there is denied he may be confused.
If the booger is treated indifferently than he may get angry.
If he sees a strange booger cult developing he may just walk (or run) away.

Now I think the proper action would be for one to remove the booger.
However in some strange circles it seems that praising the booger and venerating it as an object of worship is the hip thing to do.

Good friends, do not be deluded about boogers. If someone out of grandmotherly compassion points out a booger to you, please have the sense to remove it.

Please never venerate my boogers, but instead privately explain to me that I have a booger and should take care of it. If you are sensitive about your boogers and I have pointed them out to you in the past or do so in the future, please do not reject the fact that there is still a booger to deal with.

Hurt Feelings Report

This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech.
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.
Wishing: In gladness and in saftey,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings:
Radiating kindness over the entire world
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.
Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.





OK, I know this isn't "nice."
Sometimes the truth is just like that.
When your feelings are hurt, look inside before projecting your own pain on everyone else, please.

From Robet Aitkin

I picked this out of the comments section of Robert Aitkin's Blog.

"Care too has Karma. Choose care and the Buddha will smile."

That impacted me in a nice way.

THE THING ABOUT VIEWS

OK; Jeff talked about being on the razors edge between viewpoints and he is kind of right.
I tend to be able to hold multiple seemingly conflicting viewpoints at the same time, which is surprisingly not a sign of schizophrenia, and is also a desirable quality for executives…

Anyway, Ajan Bram (who I feel a great deal of gratitude to) has a great story about this which have listened to via podcast made available through the BSWA. I don’t remember which podcast or I would link it here so you could get it straight from him. But in I think a traditional sense I will just try and repeat it here:

In an old monastery a couple of monks were having an argument about Buddhist doctrine. The subject of the doctrine in question was the relevance of re-birth to the teaching and understanding of the Dharma.

One monk said that it was traditional and passed down from the Buddha and was essential to the teachings of Karma and ethics and many other interconnected teachings.
The other monk was sure that those teachings were just provisional and that the true message of the Buddha was for us just to act here and be mindful in the present moment. And that all those provisional teachings just confused people and could be a hindrance to enlightenment. So they get in brouhaha and finally the first monk says fine! I say you wrong and I’m right and we can’t find a middle way. I am going to take my argument to the Abbot!

So the first monk makes his case to the Abbot saying the teaching of rebirth was a tradition passed down from the Pali texts and is essential to the teachings of Karma and ethics and many other interconnected teachings, yada, yada, yada.

The abbot agrees and says “Yeah your right.”

So the first monk goes to the other monk and tells him that “The abbot says I am right so therefore you are wrong.”

Well the second monk was not going to take that! So he storms up to the Abbot and makes his case that the Buddha wanted people to be mindful of that the true message of the Buddha was for us just to act here and be mindful in the present moment. And that all those provisional teachings just confused people and could be a hindrance to enlightenment, yada, yada, yada…

And the Abbot says “yeah, your right”

So the monk excitedly rushes out to tell the first monk that the abbot agrees with me (the second monk) and there for you are wrong!

The first monk protests that the abbot says he is right and the second says no I’m right and the brouhaha continues until a senior monk gets fed up with the ruckus and sends them both to the Abbot.

So now our monks are in front of the abbot and make their cases the first monk exclaiming that the Abbot told him he was right and the second making the same claim and now they want some explanation because surely they can’t both be right…

And the abbot says….”Yeah, your right”


A lot of times people get polarized by their views and they find them in conflict with the views of another. Arguing with the other person just seems to cement them into their way of thinking so it is usually pointless to try and change their point of view directly unless they are actually open to it. What I have found is that often times both sides of an apparently polarized view has merit. I was going to put an example up, but I have decided to abstain. There seem to be plenty of examples pretty much everywhere I see an argument.

I got to get back to work now!

Danger!

There is a big pitfall on the contemplative path that I have been lucky enough to have good friends point out to me, some times making me feel a little dumb and by dumb I mean a little more wise.

One of the big ones is what I call, being all in my head. I am sure someone somewhere has come up with a more eloquent way of expressing it, but I am not always so able to be eloquent.

What I mean by this is I think pretty straight forward. We get caught up in the reality of our philosophical theory and can come up with some pretty lofty ideas that sound great!

But they just totally fall apart in practice.

The theory of “No-Self” comes to mind pretty heavily on this, and a lot of wonderful people have gone on and on about No-self. But theory doses not make a law. Practical application is the best way to test a theory. Go out side and find a large rock and drop it on your bare foot, but be careful not to damage your “Non-Self” too badly. That hurts doesn’t it? If there is “No-self” than tell me what it is that is hurting? Ah! There is a self.

Now, pay attention to the pain. From the first moment the pain starts follow it. The pain arises and passes away. That “Self” that existed when that pain began though the time when the pain subsides is also arising and passing away moment to moment and there is only an impression remaining.

Conclusion, there is a self when the self arises, and no-self when it passes away. With a note that this arising and passing away is happening so quickly that to say there is one or the other is impractical.

Now, please stop dropping rocks on your foot. That is just silly behavior.

Dogen!

Hey folks in Japan, If this comes out with some english subtitles,I would really like and appreciate a copy.

Thanks,
Jordan


Merry Christmas Everyone!

OM

There is a path...

Really?

AP photo

Our stop sign has eight dimensions.

Guess what!

You're not going to find lasting satisfaction looking at this!

But this is exactly what I sat down at my computer to look for this evening.


Stop!

Good Roots

When I was young, I saw my fathers Buddha statue in a terrarium. That lead to reading the Dhamapada when I was barely old enough to read.

Happy Halloween y'all!

Jordan

Fun fact!

The word “Therapy” is derived from the Greek word therapeia, which is derived from the Hellenization of the Pali/Sanscrit word Theravada. The first order of Buddhists.

Source


Take care,
Jordan

Just for today:

Just for today:
Do not be angry
Do not worry
Be grateful
Work with integrity
Be kind to others.

I found this mantra on the web. I think it is intended as a morning mantra. Looks like a good way to start off the day.

Be well and happy!
Jordan

Edit: maybe it should read just for this moment, ha!

Just do good

Sometimes something is so simple, we find it impossible to comprehend or understand.
We want to relate it to everything in our lives and we do, but in the process we overcomplicate things. Yes! Everything can be explained with complex algorithms or a whole lot of special jargon. And yes sometimes it takes all of that to get us to wrap our heads around the facts. But here it is, pure, simple, unrefined and unadulterated.

Just do good.

Volumes of confusing doctrine have been written about this subject. Everything outlining what is doing good to the ways to accomplish good, what is not good. The duality and non-duality of good. Blah blah blah. It goes on and on and on. It spans every religion and philosophy. This simple message. This simple instruction. This simple imperative. This simple key.

Just do good.

I thought about writing a whole lot more about this but it has already been done. I will undoubtedly write about it some more sometime. But that will likely be in the name of “just do good.”


Just do good
Jordan

My good friend

My good friend Ted, Who has been avoiding tea with me, has a new blog!

It is linked in the title post and again here FLATBED SUTRA

Even though I think he can be a bit long winded (and all that wind might be better served blowing Ro) His efforts are most certainly worth the read.

Go check it out!

May you be free from suffering,
Jordan

Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness

I just finished reading Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness.

GOOD BOOK!

Here is an excerpt, don’t cling to it:

We study Buddhism like this, just as we arrange our food in different dishes and appreciate its color and form. But eventually we must eat it, and then there is no teaching whatsoever. When you actually eat it, there is no teacher or disciple; there is no Buddha or Christ.

How to eat is out practice. We are fortunate that even though we chew things up and mix them together, we also know how to analyze them in various ways, and we know what we have been doing. To analyze your psychology or your practice is important, but that is the shadow of your practice, not the practice itself.

Shunryu Suzuki


I have come by a copy of Dogen’s Extensive Record. That may keep me busy for a while.

Take Care
Jordan

Karma, Cause, and Effect re-revisited

The other day a friend had brought up that old dilemma about predetermination regarding cause and effect.
I have been trying come up with my own words to express it and up until a few moments ago I did not know how so I fed him some of the stuff I had found in my research on the web and an answer I had received from Nishijima Roshi on the same subject.

But a few moments ago I had a bit of an epiphany.

To explain, for those who have not been following along, I want to first say that Karma is just a foreign word for action. It might be helpful to just drop the idea of karma all together. Put it out of your head.

Now we have Action, Cause and Effect. But it is out of order!
It should be Cause, Action and Effect!!!

You see the cause is everything that brought you here to this present moment. That’s it. Nothing mystical about it at all. Stuff happens. So we could say that the cause is just the past that led you to this present moment. Now here is the Important Question… In this present moment are things predetermined? Well yes and no. You see, because Iris is not sleeping when she should be it had the effect of me being awake. Because I was awake I was pondering a thought loop, which brings me to the present moment of typing away at this blog. Sound predetermined? Maybe so when it is written. But while I am typing this now I could have just rolled over and went to sleep. In the present moment anything can happen. Limited by all those causes for sure, but not totally predetermined. For example I find it doubtful that because of this explanation you will begin levitating off of your chair, but you may for just a moment see something the way I do, or not.

So to sum up:
Cause is just because. As in: this happened because… A side note that this can be a real rabbit hole to go down since we can’t always tell the cause.  Because might also be before's cause

Action is the choice you make in the present moment.

Effect is just what happens afterwards, and also the next cause.

I hope someone will find this helpful.

May you be free from suffering.
Jordan