Category Archives: David Xi-Ken Astor

June 12, 2014 · 10:40 am

Understanding The Dharma: Multi-Dimensional Aspects To Buddhist Study

By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei 曦 肯

As informed and educated beings when we respond to a new interest we first work to achieve some understanding in order to know how to engage it’s potential usefulness in our lives. While there are many ways that we can facilitate this understanding, from my experience it is generally done in the beginning through reading or listening to an awakened teacher. Today I would like to speak to you about how we may consider approaching the study of Buddhist thought from our reading and self-directed research. After all, many of us started our Buddhist life as “book-Buddhists”.

English language books on Buddhism have increased in number since they began to be published in the nineteenth century. Until very recently, virtually all of them have taken one of two distinct contemporary forms, either they put themselves within the modern scientific tradition in order to analyze the history and sociology of Buddhism, or from a more romantic sense as they attempt to transmit the truth and transformative nature of traditional Buddhist principles. As Buddhism engages our Western culture we often encounter current re-prints of older Asian publications that also gives us a chance to study Buddhism from an Eastern perspective. It is my reading-experience that each of these forms have tended to criticize the other severely. From a scientific point of view, romantic transmissions of Buddhism are simply inaccurate. They project forms of Buddhism more in line with contemporary non-secular ideals than with anything that has ever existed in Asia, and often miss the spiritual aspects of Buddhism. And from a romantic point of view, scientific studies miss the point of Buddhism altogether. They inadvertently transmit the mentality of a modern science worldview, and do nothing to awaken the mind, or alleviate unsatisfactoriness, for that matter. The scientific motive for the study of Buddhism is to obtain accurate knowledge of our world – awakening defined as a thorough understanding of world culture and history. The romantic motive for the study of Buddhism is to give us a breakthrough to a new kind of experience – awakening defined as a fundamental transformation of the human body-mind. These approaches seemed to be irreconcilable until recently.

If scientific rationalism and modern romanticism can now be seen to share a similar worldview, the perspective from which this can be seen is no longer completely within either one of them and therefore in some sense has created a stronger platform from which to study Buddhism from our contemporary experience. And it is this new development that has acted to create platforms like Pragmatic Buddhism, the American Ch’an tradition that I was trained under by the Ven. Dr. Shi Yong Xiang, my root teacher. The quest to understand what Buddhism is without understanding cultural influences is analogous to the academic demand to set aside all personal preferences and just examine the information, or read the text, in and of itself. Our minds are context-dependent; they come to a particular form of understanding that they do within particular cultural and historical settings. As we read and study available Buddhist books we have the obligation to take care to also understand the cultural and social references, as well as the perspective, of the author. We do not just read for pleasure. We read for understanding and assimilation into our own worldview. In the language of Zen, it calls forth “the one who is right now reading,” and refuses to allow the reader to cling to his or her own invisibility. The dharma is transmitted to each generation through the process of the human connection. Transmission is the process through which all forms of culture, including Zen awakening to the dharma, makes their way from one generation to the next, one form leading to a transformed other and to another, without end. It is another example of our causal Universe at work. Here I am using the word “transmission” to mean universal understanding of the dharma (or what is real), not the formal transmission you may be more familiar with where a teacher passes on to their Dharma-hire the “teaching” style and methods of a particular school. The dharma is transmitted in many ways, and those of us that have stepped onto the path have opened ourselves up to receiving Siddhartha’s legacy when we became receptive to its relevance in our lives. Continue reading →

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June 2, 2014 · 10:55 am

The Value Of Our Dispositions

By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei

We speak much about how our dispositions interpret how we see the world around us. It is the reality underscored in the Second Noble Truth. When we talk about our dispositions we often do so by focusing on the negative aspects on how these dispositions shape our unsatisfactoriness. But we must not forget the overwhelming positive values of our dispositions too. Dispositions are like bridges that help us connect with realities of our world that our senses often miss. Dispositions fill in the blanks in order for us to get a larger picture of how the world is. We do this because we can not know everything, but we have the potential for having to deal with unknowns in so many of the situations we encounter. So our dispositions function in the form of useful mental tools in order to help formulate our understanding of what is going on around us. Our consciousness depends upon them as markers, or guide posts, as we maneuver along our daily path. This is why it is so critical for us to refine our dispositions and subtract those that have little or negative value, as we build on the positive value of those that add to our awakening of how the Universe is.

This is another example of impermanence, and how our dispositions can and must change for us to experience our progress toward maximum human flourishing. The value of our dispositions points directly to how we are in the Universe. Each time we sit in meditation we are working to discover the treasure we call “Buddha nature.” The value of our dispositions depends on how successful this act of discovery will be.

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May 31, 2014 · 11:17 am

Merging of Differences: A Single But Shared Existence

By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei

One of the most fundamental and central Buddhist teachings is that of interdependence and interconnectiveness. They are the major threads that help weave the fabric for understanding the principle of Dependent Origination (mutual-causality). In the Mahayana Buddhist traditions we might also say Inter-dependent Origination. The other two additional treads for consideration would be the principle teachings of impermanence and anatman (nonself). The Vietnamese Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh, uses the words “inter-being” to represent this connectiveness we share with all other Universal expressions. All methods aiming at our realization of an awakened bodymind has its origin in our understanding these Buddhist constructs. This takes all our effort at skillful means to achieve the wisdom necessary to see both our independent-self, and our inter-shared-being that is what we call our Buddha nature. As we begin to merge how we see the world around us with what we see as difference, we also awaken to the reality that this Buddha nature is also Dharma. No distinction.

We must, therefore, learn to see reality as merging these differences and unite them in a seamless fashion that makes their independent form vanish. It is then that we begin to see the “big picture”. Think of it like solving a picture puzzle. All the individual pieces are arrayed in front of us, and each has a different shape, no two are alike. That is the nature of a picture puzzle after all. But the true “nature” of the puzzle is when all the pieces are put together in order to give it meaning. When we fit the pieces together, all those next to the piece being merged fit the way they were meant to be. And when that happens, we no longer see the form of each piece. The form, while having its usefulness, comes into its own when it works with all the other pieces to create a functioning whole. This is what I mean when I say it is empty of form. Or better stated: empty of its individual forms. The individual pieces do not go away, but just become one with the puzzle. But for it to be a picture puzzle, the individual pieces have great value too. In other words, we need to see one reality in two ways, which is the origin of how Siddhartha came to realize difference and unity. Continue reading →

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May 27, 2014 · 1:31 pm

Refining The Practice Of Generosity

By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei

Compassion and generosity are two of the primary practice refinements in Mahayana Buddhist thought. It might be easy to see them as interchangeable when connecting with others. While there is a relationship between them, it is also helpful to examine them in the context of how each is approached when cultivating an aware practice. They are each a characteristic of our behavior when we begin to awaken from a self-centered world to one interconnected in a net of dependent relationships with all living things. While generosity is an element of the Six Perfections, compassion is not, and stands at the threshold of an awakened bodymind. In the Ch’an tradition, in all Mahayana Buddhist traditions in fact, an enlightened path is one that acknowledges that wisdom and compassion is essential if we are to experience full awakening to what Buddha nature is. Generosity is a necessary intentional action that is preparatory for wisdom and compassion to emerge into the light of our awakened bodymind.

We must come to understand that when acts of generosity are fully present in our everyday interactions with others, it is only then that the compassionate human emotion arises making further concerns for displaying generosity unnecessary. Our efforts of generosity are necessary only when we lack compassion for others that is the foundation of the ethical and moral precepts of the bodhisattva’s path. While genuine compassion might seem a natural element of a Buddhist practice, or what it means to be human really, it only emerges with great sincerity when we walk the cultivated path of awareness. Until that is achieved, the teachings and practices of generosity are available to help inaugurate a practice of wisdom and readiness. So the role of generosity is the first important element of refining a practice that moves us toward compassion that plants the seed capable of stripping away the filters that sees the self as separate and independent of all other universal expression. Generous and compassionate treatment of others may be the only path toward an awakened bodymind, and is why the dedicated practice of the Three Pure Precepts is the golden thread the must run thought every action we take in a world full of possible awakened moments when we are ready.

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May 18, 2014 · 12:43 pm

Experiencing Our Natural World As Spiritual Practice

By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei

When we reference the Buddhist cannon, especially the Nikaya’s, we learn that Siddhartha Gotama placed a great deal of emphasis on action and the natural energy associated in both a meditation and a contemplative spiritual practice. The poems of the Korean Zen Master T’aego also expresses this reality. They challenge us to discover something about meeting the phenomenal world in a particular way as spiritual practice. It happens when we make the unknown knowable to our aware state of body-mind. As teachers, the only thing that we can impart to you when teaching about spirituality is the “how to begin” element. In other words, we can teach you how to walk, but it is up to you “where you walk”. Because, you see, how spirituality is manifest is unique to the individual. So spirituality is a journey too. Today is my continued attempt to awaken your inner self to this reality.

There are four poems, all only four lines each. Zen had an important formative influence on the way many Chinese and Japanese poet-monks thought about writing poetry. One thing these poets had in common was there use of nature, or worldly themes, to awaken the mind to the richness of an inner spiritual life.
The first is called: How Can I Speak?
All phenomena are beyond names and forms
The sounds of the streams and the colors of the mountains are closest
What is “closest”?
You can only please yourself: how can I speak?

The first line, “All phenomena are beyond names and forms,” offers an interesting statement. It reminds us of the Heart Sutra, a fundamental sutra for both Ch’an and Soto Zen traditions. Usually, when we think about spirituality and meditative practice, a certain erroneous notion arises that we should get to a place of complete silence and stillness, a place apart from and beyond all names and forms. But here T’aego says that all phenomena themselves are already beyond names and permanent forms. Think about it, the sun never says ‘I am the sun’ or the moon says ‘I am the moon’. So all phenomena are beyond names and permanent forms. I ask you now, are we different from the sun and the moon? Are not we, the sun, and the moon expressions of the same Universe? We learn in science class that we humans are also made from stardust. Why then do humans want to make a distinction?

The poems’ second line says, “The sounds of the streams and the colors of the mountains are closest.” Sometimes we see the word closest used in this kind of poetry. Closest has the connotation of intimate connection, of becoming ‘one with’ sort-of-thing. To become completely ‘intimate with’ is to become close. So we might read that line as, “The sounds of the streams and the colors of the mountains are most intimate.” Closer than the word stream or mountain, or the pictures we hold in our minds of them. Just hearing the sounds of the stream and seeing the color of the mountain, brings the image into thought and makes it more real, much more intimate. We don’t literally take a stream or a mountain into our being like we would an apple. However, we experience them though sounds and color. This is when the inner observer steps aside and lets the spiritual process take over.

This is all nice talk, intimacy, and closeness. But then T’aego throws in one more line: “What is ‘closest’?” Now this is when the poem becomes a koan. What is closest is, in fact, the very not-knowing, the question itself. Great doubt is given space to arise in our reasoning efforts. If you use the word closest, what is that? If you talk about intimacy, what does that mean? I bring up frequently the teaching associated in Indra’s Net to explain relationships. In this poem, and in T’aego’s use of the word closest he is talking about relationships. In fact, when we have spiritual moments, we are experiencing some kind of relationship.

The last line of the poem reads: “You can only please yourself: how can I speak?” You have to find it yourself, I have no words to give you about this. Look deeply into it. My spiritual moments can only come from my ripe body-mind. Mine are different from yours, and yours are different from mine. There is no words I can use to express that microsecond of realization I experienced when the bird landed on the fence before my mind recognized the implication of the event. And in that split-second, I was closest to my true nature expressing itself. Looking at it’s self. You will have to find these moments on your own. Continue reading →

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May 13, 2014 · 11:44 am

Staying Focused In The Modern Age: Culture & Modern Communications

By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei

Consider this from the DaoDeJing Chapter 14:
Hold tightly onto way-making in the present
To manage what is happening right now
And to understand where it began in the distant past.
This is what is called the drawstring of way-making.

You have heard me mention, perhaps often, the Hua-yen Buddhist school’s discourse of ‘The Jewel Net of Indra’, or Indra’s net in short. It is a wonderful way of depicting the Buddhist principle of the universal reality know as inter-connectedness, and inter-dependence. It also points to the more complex principles of inter-causality and inter-penetration of dharma. A significant characteristic of our human specie is our unique ability to communicate in complex ways beyond just the verbal form. Our ability to express ourselves to convey needs, desires, ideas, and emotions has become the driving force for making and managing this net of connections that binds our civilized world together in evermore complex relationships. In this 21st Century’s technological advancements, our ability to make and keep connected has emerged as one of the most important drivers for worldwide cultural change. Communication technology, and especially social-networking, has become the most important element in this computer age that is now being recognized as a new anthological stage for human development. In some scientific circles, this stage is considered necessary in preparation for the next human adventure of space exploration. We can only imagine how Siddhartha would react to these contemporary possibilities.

This is not the first time that human ingenuity has addressed the need to advance the tools for communication. And in doing so, has driven worldwide cultural change. In the beginning of the 1500’s a young Venetian printer (Aldus Manutius) published a translation of Virgil’s works. There was nothing particularly unusual about this as several publishers offered versions of classic texts to an intellectually hungry audience. What was new about this particular volume of work was its physical dimensions, the so called octavo size, which was designed to be small enough to fit in a person’s saddlebags, so as to make important parts of his library transportable. This was a small revolution, literally and figuratively, small in the sense that the nature of the book had shrunk in size and costs, and small in that it was less significant than Gutenberg’s original innovation. Yet the octavo size mattered, because it helped spread the written word and the ideas behind them. By making books cheaper and more portable, the printer made them more desirable, which in turn meant more copies were produced and more experiments in printing where undertaken. In addition, this created a market for new work, especially fiction and travel logs. Also, because a book now was less expensive, and therefore less precious, they were traded among the reading class that enhanced social connections. A very important aspect to this particular printer, was that he was young, and had the notion that the future belongs to those who take the present for granted. I like this story because as someone born before 1980 I remember a time before any tools that supported group communication was available. For me, no matter how deeply I immerse myself in new kinds of technology, it will always have a certain fantastic quality. I “love” my Kindle Fire and iPhone by the way. Our considerable real-world experience usually confers an advantage relative to young people who are comparative novices in the way the world works. Novices make mistakes from a lack of experience. Continue reading →

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May 12, 2014 · 2:52 pm

The Enlightenment Trap

By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei

I always thought when I began my teaching practice that certain Buddhist principles were going to be harder than others to convey. Rebirth/reincarnation, impermanence and no-self, Dependent Origination, or even situational ethics were going to be tough especially from a Western contemporary perspective. But of all of these, and they are a close second, by far the hardest Buddhist concept to engage with the Sangha members has been that of enlightenment. I am not alone in this experience. My dharma brother, Wayne Ren-Cheng Shi, after years of teaching, makes a habit of not using the word enlightenment at all. Many Buddhist teachers I speak with, or read, also have reflected on this reality. So the obvious question is “Why?” The answer for me is simple because the English word enlightenment comes with a lot of baggage. While much of Buddhist thought can be classified as either philosophical or psychological, enlightenment falls in the human realm of the spiritual, even the mystical for some.

For those new to Buddhist study, meditation and enlightenment are linked often enough. The thinking is “Why meditate?”, “to become enlightened” they might say. So there it is, up front and center. Even when the teacher never talks about enlightenment when facilitating a meditation session. It is in the back of a practitioners mind if they are honest.

Our spiritual life is apart of the sweetness of a practice that can be transformative and deeply personal. When our meditation sessions move closer to serenity we experience moments of insight that might develop into feelings of bless at times, and that can create a need to grasp for more. It might also energize the notion that this insightful bless is close to what one might define as an awakened moment. The danger here is that we might be driven to want more. We become hooked on the experience and want to define it in terms that can be mystical. This misdirected feeling is a trap because it can be another act of grasping. When we cling or grasp after something, even for a spiritual experience, we fall back into samsara which is another form of unsatisfactoriness.

So what are these experiences we might encounter during meditation, and do they have anything to do with enlightenment? From my experience with working with others in various stages of refining a meditation practice, they need to be viewed from the mediator’s worldview. They can be examples of simple feelings of tranquility to a heightened state of ecstasy. In a positive sense they are earthquakes that can shake your practice awake. They can also manifest in an experience of total absence of thought which can feel like an out-of-body moment. In these moments you might experience a real connection with the universe where the notion of self disappears. You come out of this thinking “This is it, I have had an enlightened experience!” This is what we call a meditation-high that can be addicting if we get carried away by running away from reality. What I say to students is to be careful. Celebrate your meditation session’s progress, but also be concerned. You might just be moving closer to glimpses of the nature of the mind, and thus reality, but you might also be experiencing a trick-of-the-ego-mind too. Interestingly, the spiritual path is not about personal sensational feelings, but about experiencing what is real and not filtered through our personal preferences and dispositions. When that happens, what is real might seem different and new to us, but it has been “just like that” all along.

The main concern we should recognize in these unique experiences is that they can misdirect our focus during meditation away from the study of ourselves and how we are, which is the real purpose of mindful meditation. Any extraordinary or passionate feelings are just temporary experiences that mediators need to be aware of, and not fall for the trap of distracting us away from the real purpose of our zazen. We can adjust our expectations during meditation periods by first judging our mood, and set our techniques accordingly. Awareness off the cushion is brought to the cushion. If you grasp after repeating a moving experience it becomes a distraction around the current sitting experience that prevents it from arising again. Another one of those Buddhist paradoxes.

Another caution that wise mediators practice is not speaking with others about their meditation experiences to feely. While it is very tempting, consider your motives. Ask your self, “Why do I want to share this?” Live your experience don’t give words to it. Words will always fail you when it comes to expressing what a spiritual experience was like. It is important to share these experiences with your teacher, or an experienced intimate spiritual friend. Your teacher will/should know exactly what you are trying to express and know how to direct your continued meditation practice, both on and off the cushion. But others, not so much. Be silent and go back to the cushion. My experience is that when we talk about our experiences inappropriately we might just be transforming opportunity into an obstacle. My own teacher discouraged all of us monks not to speak after meditation, don’t share because it moves us away from the experience.

Here is the big reason for not speaking about our spiritual experiences: it is dangerous to our own personal development. Yep. When we speak about extraordinary events during meditation we just might identify them as awakened moments, or enlightenment, and start to believe it. Our ego-mind wants to convince us that it knows what is best, and sense we want to be enlightenment, it will make it happen. We might even convince our teacher (which is another dharma talk). And before we know it, we have groupies wanting to hear our enlightened mind. That is when things really start to get weird. Once this happens it is hard to pull back to any form of normality in our practice and we begin to try to catch lighting in a jar.

There is definitely a place for spiritual highs which is the same place for spiritual lows. When left alone our spiritual experiences will drive our practice forward in useful and productive ways towards our own human flourishing. They inspire us and left us up by teachings us we are on the right path. But, and this is a big but, they can also trap us in the swamp of unknowing. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche said, “Enlightenment is ego’s ultimate disappointment.” When we learn the importance of giving up any idea of becoming enlightened, we might just discover it was there all along, just hiding in the wings of a mind in the clouds. A clear mind has no clouds. Then what happens you might ask? Just keep sitting is always the best answer.

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May 5, 2014 · 11:27 am

Shattering The Glass Ceiling Of Our Minds

By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei

When we speak about zazen, mindful meditation, or meditation in general we must learn to be aware that throughout the history of Buddhism expositions of meditation typically group varies practices under two different styles. The first one has the goal of deep concentration, the second with the goal of insight into the nature of reality. When we engage the literature on meditation we often find that certain practices, especially in Ch’an/Zen, teach that the two goals can be practiced in a single process. But many contemporary teachers consider concentration and insight separately, especially with students first learning to meditate. In my own teaching experience when working with non-Buddhist groups, like seniors or in my prison ministry, I myself make a distinction because it avoids complications.

The practice of concentrating on an object, like your breath or a thought or a sound, is used as the focus for sustained attention. As meditation on concentrating the mind gains in strength, the body-mind state achieved moves away from the object and distractions decrease until a state called serenity (samatha) is attained. Most traditions that subscribe to various concentration techniques regard this as the minimal level of a meditative mind-state for experiencing an awakened awareness. I am careful not to use the word enlightenment for this level of meditation. But it is only the first of many states of ever-deepening mental focus that has the benefit for experiencing awakened moments off the cushion (or on). The Buddhist literature abounds with examples of this style of progressive mental training. We should not consider this style of meditation as originating from what Siddhartha (Buddha) used in his practice. Techniques in concentration were most certainly used by Siddhartha when he practiced yogic training from his teachers Alara Kalama and Udraka Ramaputra. The Buddha did seem to indicate that he came to understand that these mental states are still apart of samsara and should not be mistaken for liberation from suffering, as those Hindu masters he encountered early in his forest experience taught. The Buddha was always teaching caution when talking to others about interpreting their own self-created mental states. He said that one must not only have mental training that comes from a meditation practice, but also wisdom to know the difference between reality and ego driven mental distortions.

When I speak about wisdom relative to our meditation practice I am not referring to accumulated knowledge, but to a specific insight into the nature of reality itself. Master Dogen described zazen as the study of the self, when we gain insight into ourselves as a result, we gain insight into the world around us. Our ignorance of considering a permanent state of self-existence is overcome and we awaken to our universal nature. The wisdom that arises from hearing and understanding what we study of the dharma (pragmatic wisdom) is heightened from a body-mind honed through concentrated meditation. This wisdom that arises from meditation refers specifically to insight into the nature of reality by a mind concentrated at the level of serenity. It is this wisdom that is able to cut through our delusions thus reducing the unsatisfatoriness that keeps us back from experiencing an awakened mind. This state of body-mind is called insight or discernment (vipasyana). I relate this state of mental practice as contemplative practice. With a body-mind trained in silencing the everyday mind-chatter which achieves a state of serenity, we can move our meditation practice forward through a practice of insight meditation that over time achieves greater states of insight into ourselves as well as how the Universe is expressing itself around us. The Heart Sutra points to this practice as moving away from form to emptiness. Not from something to nothing, but away from seeing only the shadows thrown by reality itself.

The first step in developing a dedicated meditation practice is to train the mind to be still, and to sit in silence. Clear mind it is called. With this achieved we can move to using this silence to gain insight and discernment. The initial experience of focusing on mental external “objects” reveals that, like things seen in a dream, they are not disconnected and independent from the reality of a notion of self. If there are no real separate “objects,” there can’t be a real separate observer. Therefore, the duality of perceived and perceiver is shown to be a fiction. It is only our minds that make this separation by thinking it is separate and permanent. Our challenge in gaining this insight is to understand that EVERYTHING is connected and interdependent, or empty of a permanent existence. Yet, and this is the Buddhist paradox, we must still walk the path of self and other too; the only way we can get through our everyday lives on this planet we call earth. When we come to understand this, we have achieved the wisdom that drives our awakened moments, and break the glass ceiling holding our mind captive.

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May 3, 2014 · 10:14 am

Impermanence And The Psychophysical Personality

By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei

One of the core principles of Buddhism that is accepted by all traditions is that of no-self (anatman). It is an essential teaching of Buddhism that states that there is no permanent enduring substance within any entity. The Buddha taught that the notion of a self is just an idea. In our contemporary language when we consider “who we are” we encounter the term psychophysical personality that introduces us to all kinds of interpretations. No matter the complexity surrounding coming to terms with no permanent self, we also must reconcile that this impermanent universal nature is also of a non-dual nature too. When we say we have no permanent self we are rejecting the notion of a metaphysical-self which presents a problem that man has two distinct entities in the form of mind and matter. The Buddha was skillful in not speaking of man’s having a dual nature. This is not always clear when we read many of the legacy teachings, especially when they seek to explain how conscientiousness interacts with the psycho-physicality or what it means to be human.

What is clear though, is that the Buddha was not willing to consider that a mind can have independent existence. When he spoke of human nature, he did so by always associating the body and mental capabilities as making up a single physical personality; there could be no consciousness unless it was associated with a living physical entity. He said that consciousness is nothing more than the act of being conscious. Both at the time of the Buddha, as it is now in our time, there was/is a universal tendency to look upon the mind and the body as two distinct entities both existing independently. Based on the Buddha’s personal experience he came to consider this notion to be unsubstantiated. To take the opposite view would be to surrender to an unknown faith that “something” is of a permanent nature in each of us that is hidden to scientific investigation. Continue reading →

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April 30, 2014 · 10:34 am

Buddhist Traditions Are Not Inflexible Sources For Knowledge

By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei

My Dharma brother, Wayne Shi, has spent a considerable amount of time in the study of ancient Buddhist history and the Sutras in order to understand the differences between myths, magical practices, mysticism, and metaphysical principles as they are presented in the various practices within Buddhist schools and traditions. All this in order to sift through how the ancient mind and our contemporary mind comes to understand the realities of the universe as we come to experience them. Ancient Buddhist traditions were nourished in the metaphysical world while the modern world has science to guide our exploration using developed Buddhist thought as our practice. How we teach Buddhism has changed a great deal from the time of the Buddha, as it should have considering the causal nature of our world. The Buddha himself would bow to this reality.

There is an additional consideration I would like to present to you that gives meaning to how we come to study and practice the dharma. History is the key to understand how we got to where we are in this moment. Without history we are condemned to walk in ignorance of many things that just might require us to spend a great deal of time repeating acquisition of knowledge. The study of history, our Buddhist history, adds to our gaining wisdom, and by this act we become ready to walk with confidence the middle path to human flourishing. But there is a problem to avoid when we engage the history lessons from the past.

The Mahayana Buddhist tradition is full of legends that explain how some of its history was shaped. These legends our full of images and explanations surrounding the Buddha that defy how our contemporary understanding of the natural world functions. Take for example how Buddhist history tells us that the Buddha determined that his students were not yet ready to hear the dharma, and as a result he hid his teachings in serpent-like creatures who lived under the sea until the time came for a great master named Nagarjuna to retrieve them. Other examples in the Buddhist historical achieves tell of the magical events surrounding the conception and birth of the Buddha. These accounts, and many others, have been passed down as though they are factual history, but we know they are not of course. Yet today, we have some contemporary students, and some teachers, that repeat this history as though they are reality. What historical research informs us is that these Mahayana texts gradually emerged way after the death of the Buddha. In fact, over centuries. Continue reading →

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