The Way, Part Seven

The Buddha Precepts, Part Seven.
Do not talk about other's faults: Respect and value others uniqueness.

In the Absolute world, everything is one. In such a world, there are no “faults.” In the Relative world, with each breath, each of us is born and born, and born again. Each birth is a unique event. I am looking at a cup of coffee I just brewed. It is wonderful. Does this “wonderful” make the coffee at Starbucks less so? Likewise, when I admire a pear, and I do love pears, does this make an apple less admirable? Things are what they are: in the Relative world different and unique; in the Absolute world, one.

When I talk about someone’s faults, I am in a perverted Relative world. My mind is creating a view of perfection against which it is measuring that person. In doing so, I am not living in non-duality, but rotting in judgments, diminishing us both. To what end? Does such talk make the world a better place?

This precept is about idle chatter, the mindless prattle of everyday minds. Do not do it. This precept points to a golden truth: silence is thunder.
Moreover, each of us is unique in our oneness. Each of us has value as we are from the farmer to the scientist and from the householder to the beggar. When we are criticizing our differences, we are not recognizing our value.

Let the thunder in our silence be our teacher.

Be well.

The Way, Part Six

Buddha Precepts, Part Five

Do not ingest intoxicants: Respect and value clarity of mind and health of body.

That hackneyed phrase, “garbage in, garbage out,” has abundant application in this domain of life. While this precept often is used as a basis for denying ourselves alcohol and drugs, it also applies to food, information, and all the other things we take in to ourselves. A clear mind is a mind that sees directly and does not filter sensory data through clouds of crap.

When going to a movie or watching television, we should exercise great care in what sort of material we are “ingesting.” Media presents us with the three poisons poison wrapped up very nicely. Psychologists and marketers, politicians and media executives understand this and exploit the processes involved through sensory input over extended periods.

What do we need; what do we want; how do we feel about world events: All of these are grossly and finely massaged from content to production values. Media messages tease and tickle us all the while acting as filters for our understanding so that while we think we are seeing clearly or thinking critically, we are in fact becoming near parrots of those who are the media.

Content from newspapers, books and blogs, can also be quite toxic. We often have our emotions charged over a news story, unable or unwilling to place something in a context, we experience the story, its images, and impact as raw data. Truth? No. Everything we see and hear is crafted to make a point, arouse a certain response, and masquerade as truth.

So what? Should we bury our heads in the sand? Should we listen to even more noise in order to catch the context? No and no. What we need to do is approach what we receive through our senses with great skill and mindful practice. We need to be aware of what is going on in the world, but we need that awareness to be bounded. We need to learn how to put things in context, we need to learn how to identify and sort. Most of all we need to learn how not to keep things we see, hear, and feel and instead practice with them.

The Buddha said the antidote for hate is love. The next time you find yourself watching ostensible “news” and talking heads are screaming, turn them off and heal yourself with love. Better yet, sell or give away your television. Remember, for every act of hate there are millions of acts of love. For every act of greed, there are millions of acts of generosity. For every delusion, there is a wise alternative.

So, while we should not cloud our mind with drugs and alcohol, sex and food, money and power, we should also work very hard to notice our vulnerability and protect our loving hearts.
Do not ingest intoxicants: Respect and value clarity of mind and health of body.

Be well.

Good Afternoon All,

A remembrance of my evening of the 28th and early morning of the 29th, 44 years ago.

25th Infantry Division

The Way, Part Five

Buddha Precepts, Part Five

Do not lie: Respect and value the truth.

Authentic being is grounded in non-duality. We present ourselves as we are, directly, honestly, and without spin. I am, for example, a monk. No more or less. I struggle to present myself as I am as that “I AM” is often clouded by “I Was” or “I Want to Be” thoughts. To present myself as I was would not be true; likewise, presenting myself as I want to be, a fiction.
Lying has to do with protection of an image, a view, of something about ourselves. Yet, paradoxically, every time we lie, we damage ourselves and that image. By lying we demonstrate or lack of faith in both ourselves and others. By lying we demonstrate we do not trust the universe.

While it is true, the truth will set us free and demonstrates our faith, it is equally true that the truth can often be used to cause harm. When approaching the truth know its effect. We live by a higher standard than “simply” telling the truth. We must also live by the standard of ahimsa: do no harm. By this standard we must use wise, balanced judgment in dealing with each other.

All of his is the easy part, though, for those who face the wall. Our practice demands a view of interdependence and nurturance. Judgment arises from and is built upon this practice.
The hard part is coming to know ‘the truth’ at all. Take any class in history, philosophy, religion, art, music, etc., and you will discover the truth is intensely personal, situational, and obviously relative. Those of us who are loathe to take on the mantle of moral relativists are, by definition, living in a reality that cannot be true as it is a reality created from thoughts about what should be universal. In Zen we speak of truth then as both Absolute and Relative. The Absolute Truth is Non-duality itself, which subsumes the relative, the dualism of everyday life, and “Small Mind.”
Can we ever “know” the “Truth”? I doubt it. As a result we are all prone to live in a view of it which may not be shared by others. Our practice is to have our eyes wide open and be as authentic as possible in every life context.
Do not lie.

Be well.

The Way, Part Four

Buddha Precepts, Part Four



No sexual misconduct: I vow to use my sexuality to enhance and nurture the lives of others

Consider this vow as it is written. How often do we understand our sexual behavior in the context of its power to enhance and nurture? It seems to me we spend an awful lot of time fretting about the morality of sex and far too little time on considering its humanizing, spiritual, and healing potential.

When we look at sexual behavior in the context of the bodhisattva path what happens? In our Zen practice, our tools are ourselves: our bodies, hearts, and minds. We vow to use ourselves for the benefit of all beings. In recognizing our human sexual nature, the question is, then, how do we use this aspect of ourselves to enhance and nurture? Our sexuality is a powerful medicine against dehumanization, alienation, isolation, and de-personalization. In Zen, we vow to use it to heal.

A few upfront observations: Just as we are eating beings, sleeping beings, or breathing beings, we are also sexual beings. Just as killing and stealing can be disruptive to community life, sexual conduct has the power to destroy individual lives within community. Sex is at the center of much of our waking life. We spend an awful lot of time in denial about our sexual nature. We spend the rest of our time trying our best to act it out. Personally, I have little time and patience with our societal neurosis over sex. We do it or we don’t and we should not infuse sexual conduct with notions of moral purity or impurity.

Yet, in the Puritanized, sanitized, and neuroticized West, we have raised the domain of sexual conduct to inhuman heights. Sexual thoughts are often considered to be “impure” thoughts. Sex is understood as “dirty.” We fear our bodies, are loathe to look at our sexual selves, and as a result are often completely at the mercy of our impulses and feel incredibly guilty as a result. Get over it.

The litmus test is simple: am I nurturing through this behavior or am I harming through this behavior? If cases where it may be apparent that both are happening at the same time, we might ask ourselves, what produces the most good over bad for those involved? Using an absolute ethical/moral rule is not arising from prajna, but is inhuman and totally denies context.

Enjoy with due regard for the well-being of all concerned.

Be well.

The Way, Part Three

The Buddha Precepts, Part Three
No stealing. I vow to respect the possessions of others.
No stealing goes far deeper than not taking a candy bar out of a store without paying for it. It also refers to borrowing and not returning, borrowing without asking, and not caring for the boundaries of the world around us.
This precept speaks to relational life. Respect for the possessions of others enables harmony in a community. It enables order. Moreover, in Zen, this precept is often taught as “do not take what is not offered,” which points to still another view of the point.
Respect for gift and giving is essential. Our lives are not about gain, especially gain at the cost of others, but rather, our lives are about the generosity of flow. When offered a gift, receive it with deep respect, and then pass it along.
Possessions might be thought of as brief encounters with duality. There true nature is not in their substance, but in their teaching. What does having or not having mean? What does needing or wanting mean? Our response to the fact of possession is a critical teacher. We must pay attention.
Be well.

The Way, Part Two

The Buddha Precepts, Part Two
Not Killing, I vow to respect and be kind to all forms of life.
The foundation of all precepts is our realization of non-duality. To kill others is to kill ourselves. Yet in that same absolute sense, there can be no “killing,”” as there is no “birth” or “death.” This is a koan.

We avoid taking life if at all possible. Life is precious. Each life has a right to itself and is part of the whole. We avoid killing an ant, invite the ant to be our teacher, and ask the ant to leave our home. Sometimes this is not possible and to protect and nurture our lives or the lives of others, we must take the life of that which is the threat, but only as a last possible resort and only if there are no other options. Our trouble today is that we do not think of other options and killing is presented in ways that are sterile and palatable: we reason ourselves into duality.

Shooting ourselves in our foot, we would not have trouble explaining that it hurts as we each understand pain as we are harmed. Likewise, to kill is to shoot ourselves in the foot, as the thought of killing arises out of the poison of a deluded mind.

Our reality is interconnection and interdependence. Matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed: everything literally, is one. Therefore, we should not think of killing, putting ourselves in the shadows of delusion. Yet, we must eat, and our very breathing, in effect, kills. But only in effect. The issue is our intention and the thoughts arising from it.

To eat, then, is not to kill. To breathe is not to kill. These are processes that when done mindfully, act as dharma gates. When we eat, we sustain ourselves, when we clean, “killing” billions of bacteria, we are cleaning and through this, supporting life. When mindful, we are in the flow of the process, in non-duality.

Choice takes on the most significance when it is considered. Choosing the buddha way is choosing life as it actually is, directly, and without separation. No killing.

Be well.