Reflections

Attainment too is emptiness ~ Heart Sutra Rinzai Zen emphasizes the importance of kensho or satori , that is, a sudden awakening after an intense and often bitter spiritual struggle. According to Hakuin, father of the Rinzai tradition that has survived today, kensho is the touchstone of authentic Zen practice. Rinzai Zen uses koans that are designed to bring doubt to such a pitch that one ultimately breaks out of the cocoon of dualistic understanding. The process can be very painful. One could even call it “extreme meditation”. Shibayama puts it this way: One has to be prepared to risk his life and, even then, satori may not be accessible. Zen has been described since the olden days as the way for only a handful of geniuses. A Flower Does not Talk (Hakuin's tough love attitude has been passed on to his Rinzai heirs, and not without his unfortunate elitism.) Looking beyond the fact that Rinzai poses as superior to other practices that lack its machismo, there are other questions...

Form is emptiness, emptiness is form form is not other than emptiness; emptiness is not other than form. ~ Prajnaparamita (The Heart Sutra) There are no essences, experiences or insights that capture what is: form is emptiness. But emptiness is not nothing; for then it would be something other than what is, or its negation. And it is not: emptiness is no other than form. Emptiness and form are flip sides of the same coin. They are what is , ever-present but never anywhere in particular. This cannot be grasped by the mind because being cannot be known as being. Only thoughts can be known. This is the challenge of being awake: to be without knowing it. One tries to negate thoughts by thinking not this, not that... as in MU! Or as in the Heart Sutra's “No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body mind: no color, sound, smell, taste, touch or what the mind takes hold of”. Still, thoughts keep splitting the mind off from itself, reproducing separation from being, constantly knowing....

Just as the lotus, born of mud, is not tainted thereby, So the lotus of the Buddha preserves the realization of voidness. ~ Vimalakirti Sutra The iconography associated with awakened mind can be violent, depicting angry-looking spirits that bare their teeth while holding up the skulls of various enemies they've slain, or sword-wielding warriors mounted on animals — a lion, bull or elephant — emerging victorious from battle. A typical symbol of awakening is Manjushri, the bodhisattva of discriminating wisdom. Although his name is translated roughly as gentle glory , he encourages aspirants to transcend duality by cutting through it and is often depicted with a shining sword in his right hand. In my practice center, we place a handsome statue of him on the altar to inspire aspirants during sesshin. I can assure you, there is nothing gentle about it. Though cutting metaphors effectively convey the incisive nature of a clear and determined mind, they symbolize a top-down virile appr...

Two cocks were fighting and a monk asked: "Why do they do this?" and the master replied: "It is because of you." You are Hell, as Sartre would say. You disturb the placid stream of awareness that is my own limpid dream. You want me to see you but I’ll fight to the death for you to see me first. But how quickly my rage melts into the mirror of your gentle consideration, reflecting back an image that is faithful to how I want to be seen. And then You are Heaven. To know me is to love me . Attunement, acknowledgement, validation. The Shaolin monks train to be impervious to You, to become like the well-trained cock whose eyes, according to Chuang Tzu, “do not even flicker when another bird crows. He stands immobile like a block of wood. He is a mature fighter. Other birds will take one look at him and run”.

In her book Start Where you Are , Pema Chodron recounts an incident when her desire to help a student was frustrated by his relapse into an addiction. She felt quite angry and disappointed about it and went to her teacher Chogyam Trungpa for advice. She quotes him as saying to her that, instead of having any expectations of people, she should “just be kind to them”. Her point is that helping behaviours, while appearing to be altruistic, are often “really about wanting success for ourselves” i.e. self-serving. I have heard several Buddhist teachers echo this observation. They are pointing to a kind of moral activism latent in spiritual seekers, a covert form of intrusiveness motivated by the compulsion to rescue. Moral activism of this kind is neither loving nor compassionate. Rather, it is an attempt to exercise one’s power over a person or situation. And it is aggressive. By penetrating another’s space or violating his boundaries, separation is resisted rather than transcended...

Even if my skin should parch even if my hand should wither even if my bones should crumble into dust, until I have attained the truth I shall not move from this seat . Thus spoke the Buddha on the eve of his awakening. He had been following the example of ascetics and had endured five years of mental and physical deprivation, believing that austerity was the path to freedom. But it was not. He only became more confused and distraught. Then along came a woman by the name of Sujata who offered him milk and rice which he took to satisfy his hunger and, all at once, he was invigorated and, as the next day dawned, came to full awakening. This story teaches us that perseverance is important but not to the point of extremism. Extremism is just another trap engaging the mind in battle and leading to more suffering. No matter how hard we try to free ourselves, trying is not the way out. The way out is the way out. Respecting our capacity enables us to find it.

Look at the theatre masks. The smile turned upside down is a frown, and the grimace a grin; the same muscles contract in different directions. Now imagine the sound each makes; the sound of laughter or sobbing. They sound similar too except that laughing is “drier” like an explosion of fiery air, whereas sobbing is “wet” like the gushing of a dam when it breaks. Although laughing and sobbing move energy in different directions*, they both release tension from the solar plexus and are accompanied by convulsions of the diaphragm and the shedding of heat and often tears. They both split us open. That is why we say that something tragic causes us to “break up” or “burst into tears”, and that something very funny is “side-splitting”, or “cracks us up”. Like a kernel of popcorn that explodes with the heat, the fine shell that holds us together gives way. It is a form of deliverance or catharsis . But what am I delivered from? What laughs when I laugh? What cries when I cry? And why is it tha...