Reflections

As far as I'm concerned, if you're going to make things right and wrong you can never even talk about fulfilling your bodhisattva vows. ~ Pema Chodron; No Right or Wrong , an online interview published on Tricycle I am no moralist.   My doctoral thesis explored the reasons why women in various countries endorsed the practice of female circumcision.   The thesis called for cultural sensitivity and was, in a sense, an apologetics more than a dissertation.   Even if the tradition of circumcision appeared to me as harmful and senseless, I argued, there is no absolute right or wrong, no absolute moral standard, by which I, as a cultural outsider, can judge this practice or the people who endorse it as intrinsically “bad”.   Moral values and judgments are relative to our cultures and traditions.   Far be it from me to declare any action universally wrong even if I may see it as wrong myself. I stand by this argument.    What I cannot stand i...

Don't confuse symmetry with balance.  ~ Tom Robbins What is good, what is right, what is wholesome?   What is awakening, moral wisdom or sanity?    Despite obvious epistemological divergences in how they understand “mind”, there is significant convergence between the moral, philosophical and psychological points of view.    Moralists describe goodness, or moral conscience, as a sense of responsibility that motivates compassionate action.    Philosophers and mystics describe awakening as a quickening of awareness that reveals the nature of experience more clearly.   Psychologists describe mental health in terms of our adaptability, the ability to adapt to our lives and the people in it.     Responsibility, awareness, adaptability.   These are qualities that characterize a sound person, whether from the point of view of morality, psychology or religion.    What do th...

 The social connections between the community of practitioners, the so-called sangha, are based mainly on the shared ideology and not on a truly personal level.  A sure sign of this is that any open criticism of the “master” or the ideology leads to more or less immediate distancing from the other group members, or even to aggression.  ~ Ralf Halfmann on “groupthink” Recently, Christopher Hammacher read a paper at the International Cultic Studies Association conference in Montreal in which he presented two well-known cases of teacher misconduct taken from within the Zen community*.  His paper was of interest to me in that, beyond a description of the individual or group pathology of students and/or followers, or the usual emphasis on the sleazy qualities we tend to equate with “cult leaders”, Mr. Hammacher elucidates some of the subtler characteristics of these two Zen teachers that, unchecked, allowed their misconduct to continue, in some c...

 See the fowls of the air: they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? (Mathhew 6:26) Like one in water crying I thirst (Hakuin; Chant in Praise ofZazen) There’s a leak in the roof and a crack in the foundation.   You’re single and alone with no money and two kids to feed.   You have no idea what you’re going to do.   It’s a disaster and you just want to die. There are two things I’ve found helpful in these kinds of situations.    The first is to expect that things will get worse before they get better.   I am not sure why this is but, when you expect that things can’t possibly get any worse, they usually do.   It’s a bit like when you’re in a heat wave and the forecast keeps promising thunderstorms to break the oppressive humidity but the rain never comes and the air just keeps getting heavier and heavier.   As the days go by...

 It’s not hard to find the truth.  What’s hard is not running away from it once you’ve found it. ~ anonymous     “This is not a social occasion!” barked the old man as he gripped his nyoi* .  I had just fumbled through the ritual of closing the door and bowing to him while nearly decapitating his cat.  The cat had wanted to come into the room and I was not sure if this was Zen protocol so I hesitated before I firmly shut the door, nearly taking his poor head off.  This was the first time I had ever entered dokusan and I was nervous to meet the teacher.  I wanted him to help me with my practice but was told that I must don the robes and bow to him before seeking his counsel.  I complied out of necessity.  When my new teacher mistook my embarrassed smile for an attempt to recover social decorum, I felt deeply humiliated.  I just wanted to get on with the interview and get enlightened.  If this Zen moment ha...

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field.  I will meet you there. ~ Rumi How do you know that you’re right? There is the “right” of righteousness, of being aligned with what is good.  This engenders feelings of superiority, of wanting to assert one’s moral authority. There is the “right” of knowing, of being aligned with what is true.  This engenders feelings of humility, of wanting to serve what is true. The first flatters the ego but is often blind to its own self-indulgence.  This is why righteousness can turn violent.  My race, religion, politics, beliefs, etc. being the “right” ones, justify my imposing them on you. The second empowers in a different sense.  There is no need to impose the truth on anyone or anything because it is between you and the world, a fit that requires no external validation.  There is peace, and a kind of grace. To be right in the moral sense belongs to the sphe...