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Now and Zen
by Brad Jensen
Copyright 1996 Brad Jensen All Rights Reserved Permission
is hereby granted for any publication in electronic form.
PART 1
A Yen For Zen
Zen is popular as a form of Buddhism that emphasizes the act of meditiation,
and the untying of our preconceptions through the consideration of special
mental puzzles, called koans. Koans are often in the form of stories. Here
are some of my observations on and in Zen.
Zen was uncovered when the rising tide of Buddhism washed up the Indian
teacher Bodhidharma on the Chinese shore of Taoism. Students have been
applauding the result (mostly with one hand only) for several thousand
years.
Does Zen belong to Buddhism, or any religious faith? Zen belongs to
you! How can you use Zen? Watch and see!
Seeing the Wind
The awakening of spiritual awareness is to choose to see God in action
in your life as it is and has been, and not just as you would like it to
become.
Some think of spiritual awareness as a retreat from a load too great
to bear by oneself. But such awareness only comes as a result of greater
and greater discipline of thought. If it is true that there are no atheists
in foxholes, it is because the mind is capable of greater concentration
there than at any other location.
You are in the foxhole now. Do you know it?
How does thought take hold of thought? I do not know, but I see its
effects, like the wind blowing.
If I knew one thing, I would know everything. Since I know that I know
nothing, I know everything.
To explain is to destroy. Explaining is the opposite of understanding.
When you understand something, you encounter it. When you explain something,
you distance yourself from it. You cocoon what you are yet afraid of with
the thread of your historic consciousness. Is it a wasp or a butterfly?
You must unwrap it to find out.
How is it that we change and yet remain the same? This is the wonder
of the world.
If it's truth it works on every level.
Humility is necessary, not because we are unworthy of God, but because
we are the expression of God. We must release our attention from ourself
to be totally aware. When we are totally aware we are expressing God's
unconditional love into the world. We are each vehicles for God's grace,
and we bless this world into being.
Zen Bird
Imprison your winged thought
In a cage of many words
And yet it peeks out
Between the bars of self-doubt What conclusion have you
Reached for your self?
When the bird is singing
Silence cannot swallow his song.
Fast Learner
A Zen master was asked by a prospective disciple:
``Are you enlightened?'' He replied:
``I am if you are'' and the student's mind was opened. Has this truly
happened? You tell me.
``Listen! Footprints!''
Zen koans are stepping stones up the mountain path Carefully watching your
feet you climb arduously up the slope. Suddenly nothing is before you.
Ah! the view!
When you can look at everything and see nothing, this is Zen. When you
can look at nothing and see everything, this is Zen.
Here I Am
I am here, now, to be aware.
What Is The One?
Is the thought, ``I am thinking'', a special thought, or is it like any
other? The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon, but the finger
pointing at the moon is not scratching your rump, either.
A man was walking swiftly along the top of a ravine. It was shrouded
in darkness. Every once in a while, he would shout, to test the echo. At
one point the echo was swallowed in the darkness. He knew then that he
faced the cave whose shelter he was seeking. When the mob that was trailing
him could not find him, they said he must know magic to disappear in such
a fashion.
If I say God, they say, ah! theology. If I say awareness, they say,
ah! mysticism. If I say being, they say ah! philosophy. How do you deliver
the captive from prison, who does not see the bars?
I find to be the most absolute in their thinking those who express no
belief in the absolute.
Ask yourself for enlightenment and nothing can prevent it.
Thank yourself for enlightenment and everything will assist you.
The Bible is either alive or it is dead. If it is alive, it is about
this moment, because that is where life exists. The future pours into being
in the present moment, and evaporates into the past. Yet when we think
of the future, it lives in the presence of our present thought. When we
recall the past, it also comes to life in this moment. How can there be
anything but now? Therefore the seven days of creation exist in this moment,
and no other.
How do you wish to spend your now? If Zen is something besides spiritual
one-upsmanship, then it describes a form of striving for awareness that
is outside of any particular brand of religion.
Zen is the virus of Lao Tsu hidden in the body of Buddha.
A man wandered the countryside, seeking someone with the authority to
be his spiritual teacher. To each sage he met, he asked, ``What is the
One?'' No one gave him any answer that would bring him peace. Finally in
despair he went into the mountains, determined to throw himself from a
cliff, and thus end his search. In one last moment of wild abandon, he
first cried, ``What is the One?'' The echo brought him to enlightenment.
Zen is romantic nostalgia. It is the recorded meanderings of a bunch
of outcast spiritual hasbeens. Pay it no mind! Now!
Zen Chemistry
A man is carried thru the rapids of a river in a canoe. He doesn't have
a paddle. He leans forward to the front of the canoe, to paddle with his
hands. Water pours in, and the canoe spins, unstable. So he leans back
to the back, but the same thing happens. Finally, he sits with perfect
stillness in the center of the canoe, and the river carries him safely
forward to a quiet place.
Zen is from the Chinese, Ch'an, which is in English, pun. A koan is
the spiritual equivalent of a pun. A koan makes our use of being visible
in the same way that a pun makes our use of language visible.
A koan is like a large boulder hidden beneath the surface of a swift-moving
river. It makes the current visible by its resistance. In the same way,
the koan makes being visible by its resistance to the passage of the stream
of consciousness.
I do not think, therefore I am.
A chemist dissolves all of a given chemical that a heated solution will
hold, and then cools the solution. Still the crystal will not precipitate
from the solution, until an infinitesmally small seed-crystal is dropped
into the super-saturated solution. Then the entire solution is transformed,
and a large crystal forms.
In Zen, the solution is the mind prepared through the continued practice
of meditation, and the seed crystal is the student's attention on the koan.
With proper preparation, the crystallization of enlightenment follows.
Call The Thought Police
What good is all my cleverness, if I can't help myself? The world is not
just a puzzle to be solved, but a mirror for the innocent child in me,
to remind me to love my self through my life.
If I cannot move forward, it is because I have not completed the understanding
that I am seeking in this place. The last step in completing an understanding
is to teach what I already know to someone else. Therefore if there is
something I need, I find a person with a problem, and help them solve it.
When I withhold my love, I experience love withheld.
True Judgement
It seems such a terrible risk to honestly reveal myself to the world. But
the risk is really that I am afraid I will become aware of something I
do not like about myself, reflected from some person, or from my own chattering
mind. How do I think I have secrets from my self? I can have an agreement
with myself not to think of these things, but the cost is ignorance of
my inner beauty, and the daily price is pain. How much better to open my
eyes and be totally aware! To share my true thoughts and feelings is like
the first leap into the lake on the first day of summer. Soon I will be
swimming without goosebumps.
God can bless you only as you bless yourself.
To argue about what the words in the Bible mean is exactly the same
as arguing which is the correct color for the cover of the book.
When I judge, I judge only myself.
The more truth in what you say, the less quickly people will understand
it. Don't be surprised when your clear understanding leads to the bewilderment
of those around you. Gradually we will come to understand these things
together.
Give up trying to change people, and you will release incredible amounts
of energy for your own self-transformation.
The immovable object is another's will. The irresistable force is your
own will. To try to use one against the other is like trying to win a fight
by having your shadow box the other person's shadow.
Now give up trying to change yourself, and your freedom will be complete.
Giving up the impossible desire to change yourself leads to complete transformation.
When you rule with an iron will, and constantly fear loss of control,
you do not have control, but are letting each ripple in the situation control
your mind. How can a situation control you? It has no mind or directing
intelligence of its own. So you are just playing bogeyman with yourself.
When you fear something, you already have it in your mind. You have
created it and given it life through your fear. You cannot fight fear,
or reason with it. You can replace it with love. Fear and love cannot exist
at the same time, because fear is the love without awareness. Look with
undivided attention at what you fear, and you will find something to love
in it, and in yourself.
Reincarnation is the idea that God created us in his image, as an eternal,
deathless being, to be judged by no one but ourselves, with the responsibility
to direct our own education and development, and the courage and endurance
to face the consequences of our own decisions, to move forward through
the unfoldment of love.
We kill a thought by giving it a name.
Monkey Grunts
The third time you ask me to explain this thing, I will tell you that you
know the truth, but you do not like what you believe it implies. Stop blaming
yourself, and you will have wisdom beyond your dreams.
Kurt Godel proved a half a century ago that reasoning can never fully
describe the truth. He used the laws of reason to show that there is always
at least one true statement that cannot be proven in any logical system.
For the most part, we have ignored him and gone on. But some of us have
decided that the unprovable truths are worth investigating also.
In every generation, and in every mind, the same questions are asked
and forgotten and asked again. What continues on forever is your existence
and ability to choose. Being is always nameless. I and the universe are
nameless, unlimited, and in continual expansion. We are together in our
inability to be named for once and for all.
In Spanish, instead of saying ``my name is'', I say, ``I call myself''.
And this I truly do. I call myself into being in every moment.
Reasoning, when fully investigated, always leads in a circle. The center
of the circle is always a value I have chosen. The process of uncovering
all of the circle, leads to the necessity of choosing a new value to center
on.
I have never been anything but a poet, because I acknowledge the greatness
of the universe, and that the picture of my consciousness is larger than
any frame I can build. My hero is Lao Tsu, because he lied without blushing
in the service of unveiling the truth, like the Parthenon's columns that
are bowed to lend straightness to perspective. Chaung Tsu continued even
more outrageous lies, both men winking at us all the while.
Most of our words are just monkey grunts.
When I say I, I mean no special person.
Life After Death
The link between the outermost and innermost, between man and God, is meaning.
If you wish to discover your purpose, look for the possibilities of meaning
in every situation. But do not stop at analysis, or you will only find
the past. Add the expression of your love to create the opportunity to
experience the depths of your being.
What is the context of ``God''? If it is an excuse to stop thinking,
then his name has been taken in vain.
Quantum physics tells us that what is unlimited, when we look at it,
suddenly appears limited and real. In its transformation from unlimited
potential to limited phenonema, it follows laws or rules of action. This
is an accurate description of my understanding of God.
Who draws a breath, has faith. Who exhales, has love. Who pauses in
stillness between, knows God.
I despaired of ever reaching the stars, and so ignored them. Then this
evening, by chance, a green star fell. It fell because I was looking directly
in its path. I was looking, because it fell. I have no reason to escape
the present moment. I have no reason to ignore my chance. No criticism
can erase the star, it is already gone. Or is it? Perhaps now it is always
falling.
You died when you were born. Whether there is life after death, is solely
up to you.
These are only black marks on paper, that you are using to remind yourself
of the truth.
This moment is the altar of my consciousness, and my attention is the
only acceptable sacrifice to offer.
There is no receiving. There is only giving from one part of my consciousness
to another.
You seek to escape responsibility because you blame yourself. You blame
yourself because you cling to the silly notion that you can control another's
fate. You have your attention on another to distract yourself from your
own responsibility. Pray that you might hiccup, and reach enlightenment!
Karma is the perceived effect of limited understanding. When you understand
karma, it goes away.
Camels Standing On Their Heads
Give your life to yourself, and don't hold anything back. You only have
one opportunity to be yourself, and your life is it.
When you try to validate your thoughts by the things that you create,
you are building a pyramid upside down. You do not acquire value, you express
value.
If all my consciousness is illusion, there is no illusion. If all my
consciousness is real, there is no reality. If everything were the same
shade of blue, there would be no color.
Don't confuse words with the thoughts from which they arise. Don't confuse
thoughts with the life which animates them. Don't confuse life with the
identity which inhabits it.
If you would worship God truly, live your life fully aware. Cynicism
and pessimism are unrealistic defense mechanisms that arise out of a tendency
to mental and emotional laziness. They are a form of self-indulgence I
can seldom afford to maintain.
Niagara Falls Over A Barrel
Can you be ruthlessly honest, but gentle and kind with yourself at the
same time? Then you will see clearly. Where there is blame or worry, there
is little room for understanding.
The wrong question is, why do the spiritual teachers not speak clearly?
Why do they tell stories and create puzzles? The right question is, how
can I understand clearly, so that these stories become real and make perfect
sense?
I cannot bring Niagara Falls to Topeka, Kansas. I must go there where
it is, to feel its spray. Now my clothes are soaked.
The first step in maturity is to learn to tolerate uncertainty. The
next, and harder step, is to be able to act, even acknowledging it. What
makes this possible and exhilarating, is to give up blame.
I know God made me in his image, because I can forgive.
I agree to go on living.
I do not know who is in the greater prison, the one who tells another
what to believe, or the one who believes him. I think the former, for he
can always find many followers to continue to maintain his corruption.
The latter has a better chance to eventually break away, and come to his
senses.
If you do not believe in your heart that you can be greater than Christ,
then you do not love him as he asks to be loved. The history of Christianity
is a continuation of the courtyard scene, where Peter three times says,
``I do not know him!'' For some in every generation, the cock crows. Thank
goodness!
How do you accomplish the impossible? By giving yourself permission
to pretend. What is begun in pretense ends in honesty. What you played
as a child becomes your life work. Become a child with each challenge you
face.
We forget, because we have not yet developed the courage to forgive.
[Now and Zen Part 2] [Now
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