Ethical Alchemy

I say that religion isn't about believing things. It's ethical alchemy. It's about behaving in a way that changes you, that gives you intimations of holiness and sacredness.
Karen Armstrong

Act like Jeffrey Dahmer and become Jeffrey Dahmer. Act like a Buddha and become a Buddha - your choice. Insert other names as you like...

I do think there is a lot of truth to this. There is a subtle alchemy in behaving in a certain way. By being aware of our actions and by following certain guidelines or ideals, we become those ideals - over time.

Very interesting person, Karen Armstrong. Read about her in the latest issue of Shambhala Sun magazine, not a mag I subscribe to but pick up every once in a while. Here are some interviews with her: One, two, three.

Universe

The Universe is a system that creeps up on itself and says 'Boo!' and then laughs at itself for jumping.

Alan Watts

Test-driving...

I think there are two important sides to the Big Mind process. First, it is a great "test-drive" of the Zen Mind, and second, it is a great ongoing part of the work. It can open the Hoberman sphere, but it cannot keep it open by itself. That's where Zazen, the practice, comes in.

Oryoki

For me Oryoki, meaning just enough, is not just the formal Zen way of eating. I think it is a principle to be adapted to everything I do. It is a way of regarding all of life. To take what I need, not as much as I can get.

State Sponsored Religion

(Supreme Court Judge) THOMAS FAVORS STATE-SPONSORED RELIGION: Thomas has "advanced the position" that constitutionally mandated church/state separation applies "to the federal government, but not to individual states – a position that would allow Virginia, for example, to declare a state religion." He would allow individual states to "adopt particular religions and use tax money to proselytize for them." [Elk Grove v. Newdow, 2004]

Is the backwards train speeding up? Would the State Religion going to be like the State Flower? Would it be shown on license plates?

Big Mind Website

I was poking around on the Big Mind Web site and found this quote:

I sell real estate. I sell interior space," Genpo Roshi explains, noting that the Japanese word for hell translates to NO SPACE.

This quote takes me back to the Hoberman Sphere I wrote about earlier:

No space • contracted sphere • tight ball • strong sense of self/ego • fear

Space • expanded sphere with space/air between components • sense of connectedness • trust (isn't that a good opposite of fear?)

Right now there are many people in the Zen world who are skeptical of Genpo Roshi's Big Mind process. Stuart and I talked about that yesterday and both of us feel that this pasta will stick to the wall of time, and people will eventually realize what an amazing gift Roshi has brought down from the mountain he climbed.

For more info click here for audio files - interview with Roshi and a demonstration. Or here for video files of the process.

I believe the Big Mind process has to go hand-in-hand with sitting/Zazen to be most useful. See this KW quote:

Needless to say, any opening needs to be followed by practice, but as for this initial opening, this process is as effective as they come.

Slideshow of Zen Center

Here are some photos I took at the Zen Center last week.

Westernizing Zen

We can be brave about westernizing Zen.
Because, it's like throwing pasta against the wall.
The wall is time, and that which sticks is good.
Zen is very old and a few pieces of pasta falling down on the floor won't ruin it...

In fact, the Big Mind process has to be the most daring and wonderful addition to Zen in centuries. It truly makes Zen more accessible to the Western mind.

What I experienced during Zazen one evening was this. Rather than obliterating the self for a few hours or days, the Big Mind process seems to allow the individual voices of your mind, which combine to appear contracted like a tight ball - or SELF, to move out of the way. The self is a complex construct, but when the sphere opens and lets air and light in/through we can see the construct for what it is.

Big Mind is a great process, but it is clear that it goes hand in hand with sitting/Zazen. The magic is in the combination and one without the other would be less effective.

I ordered a bunch of the Hoberman spheres. Will spray-paint them flat-black, black being the Zen color, and send one to Roshi.

I shall keep one handy for myself.

Here is what I wrote down after the mid-day sitting on Friday:

the self-construct
becomes transparent
by increasing the
air/distance between
the voices
- and let's the light through

Notes from the Sesshin 2

Would it not be great if Genpo Roshi and a few other people - Ken Wilber, Stephen Mitchell and Gary Snyder come to mind - wrote new American sutras. Not just translations, but something that fits the rhythm of the language?

Notes from the Sesshin

After the first two hour Zazen sitting on Sunday, December 5th, I thought: this is so right, this is what I was always meant to do. Later I wrote:

a gesture
a movement
like playing guitar without a sound
i want nothing

My note after the first Big Mind ession was this:

we need 2 muscles to move an arm
one in either direction
one opens • the other one closes
biceps • triceps
zazen is the biceps • quiet the chatter • non-dual
Big Mind is the triceps • allow the voices to speak • dual

These two muscels work very well together. If you strengthen both your arm gets much stronger.

God in five letters

I found this note, written months ago, on my laptop. It seems unfinished, but I am going to post it anyway.

Did you say Jesus or Allah?
Fundamentalists everywhere.
Do they not seem similar to each other?

Why now? Because, I think they want to return to the seemingly simple life of half a century ago. As if we could ever return to the past. Life evolves towards complexity. Why? Because the more complex a system is - the more efficient it becomes. Here is a very simple example:
One person would have to spend all day to hunt or gather so s/he could eat and survive. If you have a small group of people, you can send some people to hunt, others to gather, and leave some to watch the kids and tend the fire. And if the group gets larger, the sick might be able to afford to stay in the cave to heal. And if you add even more people you might have one person dedicate his/her life to an artform to entertain the others.

We evolve towards complexity. To deny that is to stick your head in the sand. To wish to return to another decade or century is to refuse to face the reality of development.

What to do with red or blue stage fundamentalists? Well, one could try to educate and uplift to the next stage. But, you might get stoned or car-bombed.

I am afraid development moves in weird jumps. I know this from playing guitar. I might practice a certain rasquado for two years and notice no improvement at all and then suddenly one day, as I am practicing the same movement I have practiced every day for two years - BINGO, EUREKA! I got it. Hey, it is not a learning curve - it's a learning jump. Sudden and unforeseen. Surprising. I prepared and trained for that moment when something clicks and my wrist and fingers get it right. Or - when I was 18 I listened to a Tibetan monk explain that love has to start within us. He said that we are a vessel, a bucket, and if we fill it with love, suddenly it overflows and love can flow in every direction.

I survived and wanted more...

I am back from Salt Lake City and my first Sesshin.

I am still opinionated and arrogant, but now I am OK with that.... : )

On Sunday, December 5th, I sat with the Kanzeon Sangha in Salt Lake City for two hours in the evening as the Rohatsu Sesshin started. The thought that kept entering my mind was this is right, this is what I do, this is what I was born to do, accompanied by joy. The daily schedule from Monday to Saturday was like this:

0600-0800AM Zazen
0800-0830AM Service
0830-0900AM Oryoki formal Breakfast
0900-1200PM Work/Excercise/Rest
1200-0100PM Zazen
0100-0130PM Service
0130-0200PM Oryoki formal Lunch
0300-0530PM Big Mind
0600-0700PM informal dinner
0730-0930PM Zazen

The sesshin ended officially Sunday after the oryoki breafast.

The word oryoki means just enough.

The formal meal with oryoki bowls is a Zen practice that emphasizes lack of greed (taking just enough), awareness (meticulous care in opening and using the bowls), and respect (those served and the server bow in mutual respect). More info on oryoki here and here. If you want to have a look, here is a video of oryoki for sale. I also suggested to the Zen Center Utah to make Quicktime files of Oryoki available and they seemed receptive to the idea.

Random Brokenness

Random Brokenness:

A wiser man than me once said we come together not in our strengths but in our brokenness. The universe can hobble us all. When we see some one like Claude we should remember our own brokenness. Deliver him some soup – not judgment.
(Via Waiter Rant.)

www - wise waiter words - you should read his entire post!

And how is this story for random violence and craziness! Anger, sadness, disgust...

Well, I better start packing.

Sweet

The Washington Post

Some Abstinence Programs Mislead Teens, Report Says

Ceci Connolly | December 2

Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person's genitals 'can result in pregnancy,' a congressional staff analysis has found.

Those and other assertions are examples of the 'false, misleading, or distorted information' in the programs' teaching materials, said the analysis, released yesterday, which reviewed the curricula of more than a dozen projects aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease.

In providing nearly $170 million next year to fund groups that teach abstinence only, the Bush administration, with backing from the Republican Congress, is investing heavily in a just-say-no strategy for teenagers and sex. But youngsters taking the courses frequently receive medically inaccurate or misleading information, often in direct contradiction to the findings of government scientists, said the report, by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), a critic of the administration who has long argued for comprehensive sex education.

Several million children age 9 to 18 have participated in the more than 100 federal abstinence programs since the efforts began in 1999. Waxman's staff reviewed the 13 most commonly used curricula -- those used by at least five programs apiece.

The report concluded that two of the curricula were accurate but the 11 others, used by 69 organizations in 25 states, contain unproved claims, subjective conclusions or outright falsehoods regarding reproductive health, gender traits and when life begins. In some cases, Waxman said in an interview, the factual issues were limited to occasional misinterpretations of publicly available data; in others, the materials pervasively presented subjective opinions as scientific fact.

Among the misconceptions cited by Waxman's investigators:

* A 43-day-old fetus is a 'thinking person.'

* HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be spread via sweat and tears.

* Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse.

One curriculum, called 'Me, My World, My Future,' teaches that women who have an abortion 'are more prone to suicide' and that as many as 10 percent of them become sterile. This contradicts the 2001 edition of a standard obstetrics textbook that says fertility is not affected by elective abortion, the Waxman report said.

'I have no objection talking about abstinence as a surefire way to prevent unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases,' Waxman said. 'I don't think we ought to lie to our children about science. Something is seriously wrong when federal tax dollars are being used to mislead kids about basic health facts.
(Via Gibson Blog.)

I wrote some clever remarks, but in the end I am just speechless.....

Big Mind

Big Mind, Big News (for me, anyway...)

last night i asked Genpo Roshi to be my teacher. it's been about nine years i've been practicing, with different Zen communities and teachers, but never felt any kind of connection with any teacher that would warrant anything further. i first encountered Genpo about 8 or 9 months ago during a big mind mini workshop up at Ken Wilber's house, and thought then that he would be my teacher, but i decided to wait and be sure. and wait, and wait.

I wonder how many people fell in love with Roshi that day in February. On my drive home to Santa Fe from Boulder I thought about asking him to be my teacher for the first time.

when i experienced his Big Mind process, and saw him interacting with students, and then hung out with him one on one at my friend Ottmar Liebert's house, it was sealed. so this is another step into relationship, into long-term relationship. wife, daughter, family. teacher, student, dharma. but it's all within the same circle, the same family, and it's all the practice, and it's all for the sake of love, dying into Love that has no opposite. i have a LOT of dying to do. i had to hire assassins (wife, daughter, Roshi).

Assassins - the word derives from Hashishin, meaning a bunch of guys in Persia who smoked a lot of hash, got stoned out of their minds and then killed people for money and the buzz... but i know what you mean, Stuart. Nothing like a little one to set you straight and shake you to your core. Doesn't it seem like it's easy to be a monk... compared to being a dad?

Well, that time Stuart mentioned, when we got together at my house in Santa Fe, I did ask Roshi to teach me. I thought he might make me go through the traditional routine of asking and getting refused, and asking and getting refused... but he just looked at me and said OK, when can you start... and so I am off to his temple to get straightened out. Later - ottmar
(Via stuart davis's blog.)