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Going to the very heart of Zen. Home Archives Profile Subscribe February 24, 2020 Identity politics and Zen Buddhism are incompatible Sorry folks, but we don’t live in a time when people are free from being crazy and even batshit crazy. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which was created in 1952, has certainly grown in size over the years. A fifth edition was released in 2014. (Maybe there is another one on the way, even larger.) I think it is safe to say that the human race has a lot of crazies mixed in with the not-so-crazy people. Worth mentioning also, entire nations have gone batshit crazy. I have been glancing through Charles Mackay’s classic work, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841). He writes, “We see one nation suddenly seized, from its highest to its lowest members, with a fierce desire of military glory; another as suddenly becoming crazed upon a religious scruple, and neither of them recovering its senses until it has shed rivers of blood and showed a harvest of groans and tears, to be reaped by its posterity.” As for “rivers of blood” let us not forget the words of batshit crazy Trotsky: “The only difference is that this tyranny will not come from the right, but from the left, and will not be white, but red, in the literal sense of that word, for we shall shed such streams of blood that all the losses of human lives in Capitalist wars will shrink and pale before them.” To avoid going, personally, batshit crazy we study the words of the Buddha — that is the normal approach. But that is not what is going on today. It’s called identity politics which in a nutshell is about marginalized groups trying to gain a political voice in society which is really a desire or need to overpower. They have pretty much taken over the universities and have their eye on corporations. Take away the abstract arguments, this is about crazy groups vs the not-so-crazy and who is going to win, politically, and dominate. The crazies seem to be saying, “Respect me for the reason that I am crazy and a victim. I have special needs that you (probably my oppressor) must meet or suffer the consequences of my wrath.” If we go back to 2018 when Edward Brown, a Soto Zen priest, was kicked out of the San Francisco Zen Center for allegedly saying something he did not say (even the tape recording said he did not say what was alleged), and despite Edward’s daughter trying to save the reputation of her father, he was nevertheless given the boot by the Zen social justice warriors for offending “a queer woman and survivor of sexual violence” whose memory did not match with the tape recording ( False Memory Syndrome is a major problem these days which became more public in 1994, following the submission of an amicus brief by a committee of concerned scientists to the Supreme Court of New Jersey ). By the time the Edward Brown incident happened Buddhist and Zen centers were already dealing more and more with the consequences of identity politics. Here was the confluence of identity politics and Zen. This California Zen center, over the many years, had grown into something with the culture of a 60s California commune, the influences of a Japanese Zen monastery, and an out patient clinic for the mentally afflicted. Will Zen survive in liberal California? Not very well. It will still have the name Zen but that is as far as it goes. Zen is about to be thrown into the dustbin of history — especially D ō gen’s oddball version of it that managed to establish itself in California, an incompetently run state with 144 billionaires and the highest poverty rate in the United States. Despite the bad news, there is another Zen with kensh ō (intuiting one’s true nature) as its end — not just sitting. But it is not for the batshit crazy or the moderately crazy. It requires intuition, faith in the teachings and courage to go through with the whole process. Those whose problems are listed in the DSM 5 need not apply. Posted at 10:57 AM in Buddhism , Current Affairs , hinduism , martial arts , Meditation , philosophy , psychology , Religion , spirituality , Weblogs , yoga , Zen | Permalink | Comments (0) February 20, 2020 Can there be reincarnation without a self? I have seen this many times, westerners new to Buddhism come to an Internet chat room like Reddit ( which totally sucks ) with the same fixed mindset. For example, if the Buddha teaches there is no self, how can there be reincarnation? Obviously, this person may have studied Buddhism for a few weeks or even a month. Maybe more surprising are some of answers from scholars and monk translators. Here is one from Bhikkhus Bodhi: “The Buddhist term for rebirth in Pali is ‘punabbhava’ which means ‘again existence’. Buddhism sees rebirth not as the transmigration of a conscious entity but as the repeated occurrence of the process of existence . There is a continuity, a transmission of influence, a causal connection between one life and another. But there is no soul, no permanent entity which transmigrates from one life to another.” (Emphasis is mine.) First of all there is no evidence in Buddhism that there is an absolute cutoff from the end of one life to the start of another life anymore than a wave ceasing and another arising are completely unconnected (it is through the medium of water that they are always, inherently, connected). The careful research of Wijesekera published in the Journal of the American Oriental Society 84/3 (1964): 256, titled, The Concept of Viññ āṇ a in Theravada Buddhism , says: “In view of such evidence the conclusion is difficult to avoid that the term viññ āṇ a in Early Buddhism indicated the surviving factor of an individual which by re-entering womb after womb ( gabbh ā gabbha ṃ : Sn. 278, cp. D.iii.147) produced repeated births resulting in what is generally known as Sa ṃ s ā ra.” In fact, the notion of a transmigrant like samsaric consciousness (not the self or ātman ) connecting with a fertilized embryo ( n ā mar ū pa ) and after death reconnecting with still another embryo, is not outside of Buddhism. It is an important part of it. According to K. N. Jayatilleke in his book, The Message of the Buddha : “Man, according to the Buddha, is a psychophysical unit (n ā mar ū pa). This is made up of three components - the sperm and the ovum which go to make up the fertilised ovum or zygote along with the impact of the stream of consciousness of a discarnate spirit (gandhabba) or what is called the re-linking consciousness (pa ṭ isandhi-viññ āṇ a).” We may even consider that thought ( citta ), mentation ( mano ) and consciousness ( viññ āṇ a ) are just particular modes or forms of spirit ( tathat ā ) which only help to bind the worldling to samsaric consciousness and thus the cycle of rebirths. There is, subsequently, no escape except to become a Buddha—Buddhahood being self-knowing spirit that alone is capable of saving sentient beings from the burden of too much suffering. Posted at 01:37 PM in Buddhism , Christianity , Current Affairs , hinduism , martial arts , Meditation , philosophy , Religion , spirituality , Weblogs , yoga , Zen | Permalink | Comments (1) February 19, 2020 The counterfeit teaching I became a Buddhist in 1965. But I know for a fact that most who study Buddhism will never become enlightened — not in this life. Maybe in a thousand more lifetimes! Essentially, most people edit out Buddhism’s true teaching which creates a problem that only grows worse over time. Over these many years I have met people who think that enlightenment is realizing Voidness or a No-self. Some believe that enlightenment is just doing zazen. Some who have read Alan Watts believe that enlightenment is more like a joke, trying to teach us there is nothing beyond this present condition. Just accept it. Others believe that enlightenment is just learning how to cope with life and its difficulties. Add to the aforementioned, a teacher of Buddhism, to make ends meet, needs...