Monthly Archives: February 2014

February 4, 2014 · 11:17 pm

Awakening Our Subconscious Monitor

By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei

As we continue to learn how to live within the borders of our vows taken during the precept ceremony we also focus on getting to know what is going on inside our psychophysical personality that sees clearly what is happening outside of it. For you see, being in the moment is both an inner and outer experience. It is both a physical and mental process. Meditation and contemplative thought begins with the development of a strong subconscious monitor, or witness to how we are in moments of awareness without us being aware of it. It is a critical element that promotes change when we are ready. Change is what our Buddhist practice is all about. It is the principle that underlies the Four Nobel Truths. I once heard it said that “You can’t move a plank you’re standing on”. How many of us are struggling with our practice and getting no where? As long as ordinary awareness is the only awareness you know, there is really no possibility of shifting the weight of your person from its ego-centered perch to its true center. In this ordinary awareness the best you can hope for is to wind up with a healthy ego, one that is in reasonable touch with its own boundaries and respectful of the boundaries of others. For many of us that is as good as it gets. At least, hopefully, it is an ego that has adopted the Three Pure Precepts: Do no harm, Do only good, Do good for others. But there is much more to life when we learn to develop an encompassing and socially aware subconscious monitor moving it to the state of consciousness.

We were each born with the potential to realize certain powers of supreme importance, and our process of becoming how we are is a process of learning to nurture, develop, and utilize those skills and powers of observation, it is how humans survived and flourished. We were born with the potential to be able to celebrate the gift of life, to act with caring for others, to have a passion for social justice and reality, to affirm life despite our inevitable suffering, the potential not only to labor, but to live, enjoy, love, to embrace existence itself and everything in it, including everything that was here before we were born and that will be here after we are gone. Everyday we are diverted and absorbed in the busyness of living. We often miss an opportunity to look, to listen, and to wonder at the uniqueness that is about us and within us. Part of the gift of human consciousness is our potential for awareness of our separation from the world driven by the ego’s seeing itself as separate and eternal. Our Buddhist studies restores ourselves from this state of separation by facing directly what it means to be an expression of the Universe.

What makes the ego behave in such a restrictive manner is its incapacity to separate from itself. It has a tendency to get completely lost in its inner psychodramas. In many ways an uncontrolled ego is like sleep walking, or going through life on automatic – watching life go by like driving a car while looking out the rear window. And we can all imagine how well that would work out. That might account for why some people’s lives are like a car wreck. If we want to know what kind of ego it is to which we are personally attached, we only need to ask ourselves what it is that makes us feel defensive. What comment cuts us to the quick? What criticism of us rouses our anger? Each of us has our own list, and that is the list of our ego attachments.

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Reality As Realized In One’s Own Experience

By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei

The medieval Chinese Zen Master, Huang Po, made this statement, “If one does not actually realize the truth of Zen in one’s own experience, but simply learns it verbally and collects words, and claims to understand Zen, how can one solve the riddle of life and death?”

“Reality as realized in one’s own experience” is a powerful statement reflecting the importance of the difference between knowing something, and understanding it (prajna). They are not the same, and are 10,000 miles apart when your Buddhist practice has no floor. So, if this old Ch’an monk has mind-vision, and the study of Zen by verbal clues and language alone does not constitute an understanding of it, then what is he talking about? To study Buddhism we will need to consider what understanding is.

Consider that understanding is different from knowledge as something that we are always doing as we engage everyday experiences. So, as we eat, perform various tasks at work, even our thoughts are all ways of understanding as they presuppose the need for us to use various components and dimensions of our experience in order to perform them. Understanding is our awareness of the world around us; the way each of us is embedded in this world and oriented to it, and engaged with it. Understanding also implies degrees of comprehension, intelligence, ability to reach an agreement, and is fundamental to our ability to show compassion and sympathetic action.

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Multi-Dimensional Aspects Of The Four Noble Truths

By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei

There is an interesting dimension to Buddhist teaching which is both inspiring and fascinating, but which is not always apparent to either the beginning student or even the more experienced ones. That is, how often do we hear specific Buddhist lessons presented that often mysteriously reflect other aspects of Buddhist thought other than the one presented. Specifically I am thinking about the Four Noble Truths. I have awakened to how the whole Buddhist path is a macrocosm that can be expressed and understood through each element of teaching within it, starting with the Noble Truths. Consider for a moment the lessons inherent in the Jewel Net Of Indra. Where each jewel reflects all the other jewels in the net of co-dependence, and that this net is a metaphor for the nature of our Universe. This is somewhat a revelation for some when they come to realize how Buddhist lessons can be studied and are often capable of showing how our practice reflects the essence of the entire Buddhist dharma. This is also an example of the transformation of ideas that reflect how we must encounter and understand the lessons from different traditions in order to give us a chance for a clearer meaning to our understanding of the dharma in our contemporary lives. Even if we do not adapt them to our own platform and practice. The Dalai Lama expressed it this way, “Buddhism is more than an Asian religion. As the teachings of the Buddha (dharma) become better know and practiced in Western countries, it is vital to understand their place in Western history and culture.”

The challenge of this realization comes when we consider that each Buddhist tradition has developed over time their own interpretations, selected and adopted suttas, and external concepts and practices outside the Buddhist Cannon. But at the same time these external concepts become a part of the Cannon within their tradition, and are reflected along with the standard teachings that are common to all the other traditions. For example, some traditions are more comfortable relying on mystical and metaphysical interpretations and beliefs and finding ways to integrate them into their common teaching, than are other traditions. Yet, the underlying message is basically the same. The Buddhist practitioner must decide which tradition best reflects their own worldview and practices, and then commit to follow the path according. But we must always work to find the lesson that reflects Universal reality, or Dharma. We must also remember that this is a mutual-causal Universe and we must leave room open for change as our own experiences, and expert research by others, points to a clearer understanding of the Dharma as time evolves.

I would like to explore the Four Noble Truths in terms of how they can be understood through other aspects of Buddhist teaching. Although it is said there are eighty-four thousand discourses that the Buddha used to teach his disciples over forty years, all of them are an expansion of details on this core teaching. I choose this as they are fundamental to all Buddhist traditions. Let me call your attention to the Sammaditthi Sutta from the Majjhima Nikaya. This Sutra #9 is by Venerable Sariputta on Right View and speaks at length on the teachings of the Four Noble Truths.

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