What's In Your Mind?

Know who you are: a Zen story

From Zen Flesh, Zen Bones:

"The Zen master Hakuin was praised by his neighbors as one living a pure life.
A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near him.
Suddenly, without any warning, her parents discovered she was with child.
This made her parents angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment at last named Hakuin.
In great anger the parents went to the master. "Is that so?" was all he would say.
After the child was born it was brought to Hakuin. By this time he had lost his reputation, which did not trouble him, but he took very good care of the child.
He obtained milk from his neighbors and everything else the little one needed.
A year later the girl-mother could not stand it any longer. She told her parents the truth - that the real father of the child was a young man who worked in the fish market.
The mother and father of the girl at once went to Hakuin to ask his forgiveness, to apologize at length, and to get the child back again.
Hakuin was willing. In yielding the child, all he said was: "Is that so?""

When you know yourself, you do not feel the need to defend yourself when you are being criticized. Your truth you will not find outside of yourself, and especially not in anyone’s opinion! When you know who you are, what people say has no importance. Even if the entire world says something that goes against your own experience, you may want to just laugh about it. But do not try in any case to change people’s opinions. Who are they? They don’t know themselves and try to put a label on you. On the contrary, when you know yourself, you can say: "I am what I am, and this is what I am going to be".

Are you still carrying her?

Another Zen story that I like, from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones:

"Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling.
Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection.
"Come on, girl", said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.
Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple.
Then he no longer could restrain himself. "We monks don't go near females," he told Tanzan, "especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?"
"I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?""

The gates of Heaven and Hell

From Zen Flesh, Zen Bones:

"A soldier came to Hakuin, and asked: "Is there really a paradise and a hell?"
"Who are you?" inquired Hakuin.
"I am a samurai," the warrior replied.
"You, a soldier?" exclaimed Hakuin. "What kind of ruler would have you as his guard? Your face looks like that of a beggar."
The soldier became so angry that he began to draw his sword, but Hakuin continued: "So you have a sword! Your weapon is probably much too dull to cut off my head."
As the soldier drew his sword Hakuin remarked: "Here open the gates of hell!"
At these words the samurai, perceiving the master's discipline, sheathed his sword and bowed.
"Here open the gates of paradise," said Hakuin.""

More finger and moon Zen wisdom

I also love this slightly cruelish one, also from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, about not clinging to the finger…

"Gutei raised his finger whenever he was asked a question about Zen. A boy attendant began to imitate him in this way. When anyone asked the boy what his master had preached about, the boy would raise his finger.
Gutei heard about the boy’s mischief. He seized him and cut off his finger. The boy cried and ran away. Gutei called and stopped him. When the boy turned his head to Gutei, Gutei raised up his own finger. In that instant the boy was enlightened."

What you see is what you are

Buddhists say: when you have jaundice, the world appears yellow. What you see is what you are. The world is the color of the glasses you’re wearing, etc.

Sages of all times have expressed that truth in many ways. Jesus said "The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light; but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness." (Luke 11:34) He also said: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8), etc.

This is a very basic spiritual truth. Inside world = outside world. One can see outside only what one has inside.

Gardening

Another recurrent Buddhist metaphor is that of planting seeds. In yourself, in people: if you want flowers (good qualities), you first need to plant seeds. In a fertile soil, hopefully. Then you need to be patient. And water from time to time. And be more patient. This is especially what a spiritual teacher will focus on.

Jesus used the exact same metaphor (Mark, 4:3-8):

"A farmer went out to sow. As he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and devoured them. Others fell on rocky ground, where they didn't have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of earth. When the sun had risen, they were scorched. Because they had no root, they withered away. Others fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked them. Others fell on good soil, and yielded fruit: some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty."

Dying of thirst by the river

Email to Richard:

"I found this quote:

"It is only when we realize that life is taking us nowhere that it begins to have meaning" – Oupensky

As Buddhists say: we all act all our lives like we are in a desert dying of thirst while we are surrounded by water – we are just BLIND to it.

All we want and crave for all our lives is love and meaning but we don't see that it's right there with us pervading all things all the time – like, for the love part, me and my parents for the last 20 years, or you and I when we were together, or Kathrin and I when we were living together, etc, playing games or sinking into aloofness instead of just feeling/giving the love... Meaning is everywhere also. All we are looking for was with us ALL THE TIME.

It is amazing when you realize this."

What is "the spiritual path"?

Richard gets antsy every time I use language like "the spiritual path". Says he, everyone is different, everyone has their own path, there is not one path but many paths. "This is what the Buddhists say", he adds. I feel I need to clear this up a bit, i.e.:

1. the paradox that, while it is true that there are as many "life paths" as there are people, people who declare themselves to be "on a spiritual path" know exactly what path they are talking about (we don’t say "which path?"), they know they are talking on "the path to get from here to there";
2. what Buddhists actually recommend as the way to get "there".

"One word on Buddhism, as it is my current "hobby" :-)

Actually Buddhists often refer to "the path to enlightenment", like as if there was only one path. One way to describe it is the "Noble eight-fold path", which is also the fourth "Noble truth of Buddhism". No need to be a Buddhist to follow this path, and no need to follow anyone. From a Buddhist perspective there are no Buddhists and there is no such thing as Buddhism: for Buddhists, we are all Buddhas whether we know it or not! What we seek to do is get in touch with our Buddha nature, our "true face", i.e. our full development as humans – and Gautama Buddha endeavored to give us a recipe to get there. The eight folds of the Noble eight-fold path are:

• Wisdom training:
  • right views
  • right intentions
• Ethics training:
  • right speech
  • right action
  • right livelihood
• Meditation training:
  • right effort
  • right mindfulness
  • right concentration.

Each "fold" is declined in many chapters, paragraphs, etc, which constitute hundreds of books (a bit like a huge Bible) that is called the Dharma (or the Truth). The four "Noble truths" are:

1. Life is suffering
2. The cause of suffering is attachment
3. There is a way out of suffering for everybody
4. That way is the 8-fold path to enlightenment.

Of course the whole charm in Buddhism is that it is not a dogma, and that Gautama Buddha just prior to passing away said: "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many (…). But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."

The idea is that one must look inside oneself, and this is where we find what we seek, given that we are all Buddhas :-).

And, roughly, all great spiritual traditions, and all great mystics, describe the same path – but using different words – and sometimes the dogma of a religion was added to it, which muddles things quite a bit.

Generally, "spiritual people" refer to "the path", not "the paths" :-) and they seem to understand each other. Of course you don’t need to be on "the path" – Buddhists don’t proselityze! And, as I say, no need to be a Buddhist to be Buddhist: we all are, by definition, according to the Buddhists ;-). You, for example, have lots of highly developed "Buddha aspects", e.g. non-attachment, live in the now, understand impermanence, no anger, no jealousy, fearlessness, help others, etc.

In summary: I think all this talk of "the path" is pretty much gibberish as long as you have not "experienced" the "there" the "path" is supposed to lead to, i.e. some form of "mystic" awareness – the spiritual path is "experiential" as they say. Everyone experiences mystical states of consciousness, but most people don’t really pay attention to them, like it happens when it happens. To be "on the path" is to start examining these things a little more closely. With meditation as a handy tool.

Like scuba divers explore the underwater world, Buddhists explore the human mind! :-)"

Taking the Bodhisattva vow

I went to my first Buddhist meditation retreat last week-end. It was quite powerful. Among other things, I took the Bodhisattva vow. It goes something like this:

"The passions of delusion are inexhaustible. I vow to extinguish them all at once.
The number of beings is endless. I vow to help save them all.
The Truth cannot be told. I vow to tell it.
The Way which cannot be followed is unattainable. I vow to attain it."

It just means that you feel like helping as many people as you can "awaken". To Spirit, to their Self, to Freedom, to Happiness, to Love (starting with your own self of course). Which is pretty much exactly how I feel.

Heaven, Hell and chopsticks

An old Chinese story my friend N. told me once and I heard many times since:

"- What is the difference between Heaven and Hell?
- Well, in Hell, all the people are seated around a long dining table piled with delicious food. Each of them has six-foot-long chopsticks. They are all starving because the chopsticks are too long and they can’t eat.
- And in Heaven?
- Well, it is exactly the same, long table, tons of food, six-foot-long chopsticks, but everyone is well-fed and happy.
- Why is it so?
- Because they are feeding each other."

My Buddhist teacher Ole Nydhal commented on this story once saying:

"When you see yourself and the world as separate, your life is full of problems.
When you see yourself and the world as one, your life is full of interesting jobs."

Also, in Tao Te Ching:

"What is a good man but a bad man's teacher?
What is a bad man but a good man's job?"