March 9, 2015 · 3:04 pm

A Pragmatic View Of Dualism

By: David Xi-Ken Shi

When we apply a rigorous study of contemporary pragmatic philosophy to Buddhist thought we find a new way of reconstructing notions the ancient mind had of their worldview. Chief among some of these ideas was the tendency to interpret the world and personal experiences in terms of dualism. These included not only the idea of mind and body functions but also to objects, nature, actions, and human essence, to mention just a few. Their belief was that all these concepts of what was happening around them involved two fixed entities that, when clearly understood, totally excluded each other. The Buddha applied a pragmatic frame of reference and saw the error in their approach when he came to realize that the elements of these so-called pairs all coexist with each other both in the world and in our validated experiences, so that thinking of them as mutually exclusive makes this actual coexistence into a kind of mystery. When we apply the Buddhist doctrine of Dependent Origination (or Dependent Co-arising), as well as the modern lessons science provides, it helps clear up some of this ambiguity.

What is needed, from a pragmatic point of view, is a reexamination of dualism for the purpose of overcoming this mystery. A useful approach is to consider first that thought and conscientiousness are not individual elements of brain function and that the concrete reality is that human beings think in a single stream of functionality as a living organism. Ideas of a dualistic nature of the thought process are no more than abstractions taken out of their physiological context and turned into fixed and independent parts. A second step in undermining dualism is to shift attention away from understanding objects, nature, actions, human essence, and so on in terms of their having a fixed essences that defines them in terms of the characteristic ways in which they function, and the roles they play in the concrete processes of the intent of their actions. We learn not to make distinctions. Take the act of thinking for example. There is no idea devoid of a thought and no thought without some conscious content. Concept of thought and its subject become a dualism when they are abstracted from the thinking process and each is viewed only as a separate entity excluding the other.

The Buddha came to the pragmatic reality that even the nature of our human expression is devoid of a dual nature. The doctrine of not-self recognizes that there is no permanent and everlasting nature that is know as ‘self’. Although, as expressions of the Universe, the elements that define our form return to express themselves in new ways. This is the interconnected and interdependent nature of the Universe which is void of any dualistic aspects. Name and form have no self-nature and are void of a duel-nature. This is what is meant in the Heart Sutra as emptiness. (I now prefer to use the term “unity”) We can say that this world comes out of Universal unity and eventually returns to that same reality. Viewing the foot as separate and distinct from the body is not logical. So why do be try to find the duel nature of what we see as individual things. Our Buddhist practice ultimately comes to awaking to the reality that everything is the all encompassing.

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March 4, 2015 · 1:36 pm

A Homeless Practice

By: Xi-Ken Shi

The Buddhist say “homeless” to mean a monk (or in Japan a priest) using the word SHUKKE which literally means “out of the house”. It refers to a person who has supposedly left the householder’s life and the temptations and obligations of the secular world behind. Another phrase, “leaving the world,” means getting away from the imperfections of human behavior, particularly as reinforced by urban life. It does not mean distancing yourself from the natural world. For some it has meant living as mountain hermits or members of religious communities or living as a monk within one’s own community acting upon the responsibility of a social self. Enlarging the scale of the homeless world, the fifth-century poet Zhiang-yan said the proper hermit should “take the purple heavens to be his hut, the encircling sea to be his pond, roaring with laughter in his nakedness, walking along singing with his hair hanging down”. The early Tang poet Han-shan is taken as the very model of a recluse — his spacious home reaches to the end of the universe:

“I settled at Cold Mountain long ago, already it seems like years and years. Freely drifting, I prowl the woods and streams and linger watching things themselves. Men don’t get this far into the mountains, white clouds gather and billow. Thin grass does for a mattress, the blue sky makes a good quilt. Happy with a stone underhead let heaven and earth go about their changes.”

“Homeless” here means “being at home in the whole universe” another expression of unity.  In a similar way, self-determined people who have not lost the wholeness of their place can see their households and their regional mountains or woods as within the same sphere.

When I was in China I attended a ceremony at a shrine in the mountains not far from my monastery. The path through the jungle needed brushing, so rarely did people go there. I and my interpreter-monk went as helpers for three very old senior monks. We spent the morning cutting overgrowth back, sweeping the ground, opening and wiping the unpainted wood altar-structure and then placing some offerings of sweet potatoes and fruit (if my mind servers me correctly) on the shelf before the blank space that framed the mountain in front of the alter. No candles, no Buddha, just the mountain view. One of the old monks then faced the peak and made a direct perfunctory personal speech or prayer in a dialect that my interpreter could not translate. We than sat on the ground sweating and cut open a watermelon and drank some of the strong tea, while the old guys told stories of other days in the monastery and on this mountain when they were young. Tall, thick and glossy green trees arched over us, roaring with cicada. It was not trivial at the time and in my memory now. The domestic parallel is accomplished in each household with its photos of family, familiar objects in the home we live with all our lives, maybe a family pet to keep us company, as we sit around the table talking about old times. But for these three old men, it was this spot, this mountain and these trees. It was where they felt at home and together.

Then the literal “house” when seen as just another piece of the world, is itself impermanent and composite, a poor “homeless” thing in its own right. Houses are made up and heaped together, of wood, brick, cement, steel and other materials to make doors, windows, walls, floors, a roof, knobs from K-mart if you are poor, made up of the same world as you and me and mice.

Mountains are neither sentient nor insentient. You are neither sentient nor insentient. At this moment, you cannot doubt the blue mountains walking.

Not only flower blossoms and clouds or monks or priests — but chisels, bent nails, wheelbarrows, and squeaky doors are all teaching the truth of the way things are. The conditions of true “homelessness” is the maturity of relying on nothing and responding to whatever turns up on the doorstep. Dogen encourages us with the words: “A mountain always practices in every place.”

Where is your house? Are you ready to have a “homeless practice” in order to find your mountain?

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February 21, 2015 · 1:47 pm

A Pragmatic Approach To The Search For Reality

By: David Xi-Ken Astor

Philosophy and truth is not that tightly linked. Its important to remember that seeking and identifying truths without correspondence to reality is not understanding that any philosophical view is only a tool which can result in varying conclusions depending on ones worldview, ability for conceptual thinking, and personal presuppositions, among other dispositions. It is interesting that many individuals come to expect a more significant connection between their philosophical thought and knowledgeable references to “how their world seems to be” than a more rigorous self validation of personal experiences that can expose the actual nature of universal realities as they are. There is a big difference between reality and appearance.

In the 21st century we are greatly influenced more then ever by scientific explanations of how universal realities are being understood and explained that gives an opportunity for us to pause and examine our own beliefs that drive how we see the world around us. This is especially relevant to our spiritual convictions, but not limited to just the interior life either, as all elements of human flourishing can/should be examined through the lens of modernity. If we are honest with ourselves we will acknowledge that a large part of the “realities” we take for certainty are still those based on concepts considered truths and given language developed centuries ago before a clearer understanding of the human condition relative to the dependent nature of universal expressions as is now being reflected in ongoing research and discoveries. We should also keep in mind that the sciences are very good at explaining how and what something is, but has limited language to explain why something is the way it is.

This, in my view, calls for a pragmatic approach to the study of the self. If Buddhism is anything, it is pragmatic and has as one of its key principles the need for self-study in order to understand the self, and with that refinement of practice, we have the chance for deeper insight into the world around us. Our higher state of consciousness is awakened. If there is anything distinctive about the pragmatic nature of Buddhist thought and practice, it is the ability to substitute the notion that humans will evolve toward a better future for the notion of reason, goodness, unity and reality. This calls for a new metaphysic of man’s relation to the universe. Yet we must resist trying to define all aspects of transcendent realities at the same time. Siddhartha himself stopped at the wall of unknowing, and focused on the realities that promoted human flourishing as is reflected in establishing a life of harmony, health and happiness.

There is no one way to understand the world around us, and thus no one way it is to be accurately defined. But there are many ways to intentionally act to realize human expectations for happiness. Therein is the human challenge. From a pragmatic perspective, we can realize that thinking about how we come to understand something and gain knowledge makes truths as certainty unlikely. To avoid this paradox we must resist the need to define what we/others consider universal certainties as absolute Truths. We must be extremely careful when we make distinctions between scientific fact on the one hand and metaphysics, ideology and religion on the others. Having faith in something without validating them with our own experiences can be a quick path to delusion. In science the distinction is made between the theoretical and the experimental.

Validated realities is what is supposed to distinguish knowledge from well grounded opinion. Else those truths are only justified beliefs. But a “true” reality differs from one that is merely justified. Justified truths are only relevant to a specific audience and generally targeted toward a specific social or cultural agenda. While making these distinctions between justified beliefs and “validated” truths can be an interesting philosophical debate, it does not get us to a better place either. Science and religion are both respectable paths for acquiring a deeper spiritual wisdom, yet beliefs which are good for quite different purposes. There is no human thought or activity that can be called “knowing” which has a unique nature for us to discover. Although critical reasoning skills we posses is apart of what makes us human. When we speak about justified truths we are really speaking about a set of beliefs that are rules for action rather than an attempt to represent a set of realities. Although those that hold such beliefs most likely see them as absolute truths, thus universal realities too. One that believes will always be able to produce justification for their beliefs that also adheres to the world view of the community of followers. Justification for a specific set of beliefs has many mutual aims, but may not have an overarching aim called reality.

As a dedicated practicing Buddhist, where does all this leave us? It focuses us on how we come to understand how we know something, and how we care to define that knowledge. Siddhartha pointed the way when he spoke often on the need for us to “trust but verify” what he was teaching. He admonished his formal students to not just take his word for something, but to first work to understand the concept of what he was speaking about, then contemplate in quite mental thought its usefulness and then work hard in practice to validate what he was teaching through our own experiences. In that way we come to realize its true meaning. Just don’t take the Buddha’s word for something, or a specific sutra, or a venerable teacher. In other words, we are challenged to think for ourselves and not rely on trust or faith alone. We either make it our own or not. Of course, in the beginning of study we must trust our sources. As we begin to validate the lessons as constructive and real we step on the path to Wisdom. And that path gets us ready fore awakened moments. We stand on the shoulders of our teachers that acts as support to see beyond the horizon we could not experience until we become ready.

The pragmatic philosopher, Richard Rorty, put it this way, “The only point in contrasting the true with the merely justified is to contrast a possible future with the actual present.”

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February 13, 2015 · 1:01 pm

Intimacy With The Spirit

By: David Xi-Ken Shi

In a wonderful Tibetan Buddhist story, a man tells his friend about an extraordinary spiritual teacher he has met. Although this friend is curious about this teacher, he is also somewhat skeptical, so he decides to seek out this holy man and put him to the test. After asking around, he discovers the master is living and teaching nearby, so the young man goes to see him and manages to obtain an audience with him. He defiantly walks before the teacher, and before he can catch himself, blurts out a challenge: “Show me God! Prove to me that he exists!”

The saintly master calmly extends his hand and, in a soothing, inviting tone, says, “Come with me.” The young person takes the teacher’s hand, in the Asian sign of friendship, and off they go to the neighborhood lake. As they reach the place, the teacher leads the man into the water and tells him to dive in. Then the master does something even stranger. He holds the mans head under the water. As the minutes pass, the man tries three times to come up, but the Lama holds his head firmly submerged. Finally, on his fourth attempt, the teacher lets him out of the water. The poor soul bursts out of the water, gasping for air. “What are you trying to do, kill me?” he yells at the saint. The holy man looks at him with infinite compassion and lovingly, patiently responds: “Forgive me if I caused you undue anxiety, but when your desire for God is as desperate as your desire for air, for your very breath, then you will find the source for Creation!”

This powerful story dramatically illustrates the importance of commitment in the spiritual life. No genuine progress is possible without it. Such a commitment expresses itself in the discipline of regular, daily spiritual practice that paves the way for breakthroughs, for the miracles of grace to happen.

Spiritual practice is the core of our transformation, and it requires what can be called the contemplative attitude, a disposition to life of mystical depth. Spiritual practice often means meditation and other forms of inner exploration. It can also mean prayer. Silence and solitude – the seeking of illumination and wisdom – are further parts of the contemplative experience, a process of our ultimate evolution, our unfolding to higher states of awareness. To understand how this process can unfold in our lives, we need to explore its elements.

This is what I hope we are doing here at OEB. Our personal experiences provides us an opportunity to gain knowledge. Application of knowledge, when done in the spirit of right intent, is wisdom. We live in a mutual causal world. Everything happens as an effect of another action. Either human or not. It started at the moment our Universe was created. We are here as a result of that original event. Everything we think or do is a continuation of that action. Even our deaths contribute to this Universal expression. It is up to us to discover the contemplative dimension of life and experience what it means to be human on a mission to understand the unity of all things.

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January 29, 2015 · 11:29 am

Voluntary Simplicity: A Path To Freedom From Consumerism

By: David Astor, Sensei 曦 肯

     Many of my Dharma Talks have been about ways to consider and understand the practical aspects of Buddhist thought, and how to bring our practice alive in order to promote human flourishing. For you see, living the lessons of the Eightfold Path are real, it is not a theory to discuss and debate. The Four Noble Truths points directly, in practical and useful ways, to achieving a life full of meaning and wonder when we take the time to contemplate the joys available to us in this vast world we have a chance to become aware of. It is a way of letting go in order to be reconnected with what is important that will bring harmony and happiness into our lives. We let go in order to reconnect to what is real. It is easy for Buddhist teachers to stick to presenting dogmatic Buddhist principals in our dharma talks. To use legacy language that colors our speech from the cushion to attract attention. But you will rarely hear me use such approaches unless I talk directly about a historical topic or present a specific philosophical principle, or when I choose to speak with a “Zen voice.” But don’t misunderstand me, these are important methods of Buddhist teaching as well, and we should all have a grounded perspective of the specific Buddhist platform we have chosen to stand on and practice, but in the end, we must step on the stage of life and engage others. And it is this social engagement that I respectfully ask to be your guide and present to you my thoughts and personal experiences gained from my own developed worldviews that can act as pointers in order for you to find useful elements and tools for your own life-journey. This is a primary role of a Buddhist teacher. So, today I wish to speak to you about the importance I have learned in my own journey of keeping life simple. It calls for us to act with voluntary intent to live with deliberate thought, and to consume less. By taking this step, you will not only enhance your own life, but also the sustainability of our planet.
At the heart of the simple life is an emphasis on harmonious and purposeful living. There is no special virtue to the idea of voluntary simplicity; it is merely a somewhat awkward label. Still, it does acknowledge explicitly that simpler living integrates both inner and outer aspects of life into an organic and purposeful whole. To live more voluntarily is to live more deliberately, intentionally, and purposefully. In short, it is to live more consciously. We cannot be deliberate when we are distracted from life. We cannot be intentional when we are not paying attention. We cannot be purposeful when we are not being present. Therefore, to act in a voluntary manner is to be aware of ourselves as we move through life. This is why a meditation practice is so important to the inner life: to develop awareness and mindfulness. Words you often hear in relationship to Buddhist practice. This requires that we not only pay attention to the actions we take in the outer world, but also that we pay attention to the intent of these actions. To the extent that we do not notice both inner and outer aspects of our passage through life; then our voluntary, deliberate, and purposeful actions are diminished.
To live more simply is to live more purposefully and with a minimum of needless distractions. The particular expression of simplicity is a personal matter of course. We each know where our lives are unnecessarily complicated. We are all painfully aware of the clutter and pretense that weigh upon our lives and makes our passage through the world more awkward. To live more simply is to unburden our lives and live more lightly. It is to establish a more direct relationship with all aspects of our lives with the things that we consume, the work that we do, our relationships with others, our connections with nature and the global community. We, they, and everything else are interconnected and interdependent. We must begin to see this in real ways and experience this reality in both our inner and outer lives. Simplicity of living means meeting life face-to-face. Continue reading →

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January 27, 2015 · 11:27 am

Reflecting The Buddha Within Us

By: David Astor, Sensei

When our practice has cultivated a deep sense of connectiveness with how we think and behave, we are positioned to understand the importance of experiencing each situation we encounter as being interpreted by our dispositions (how we are). It is therefore vital that we develop trains of thought that define our worldview in order to be ready when situations arise demanding our involvement and insight. This is why we study and train our body-mind in meditation. While we go through our daily routines we practice in order to be open for accepting whatever situation arises conditioned by universal realities. The reality of the human condition is such that we react from established conditional expectations, and not from nowhere.

When we observe Zen masters it is easy to consider that their responsive actions are spontaneous, but what we are really observing is a highly cultivated and mature set of dispositions that have been honed over decades of practice and keen observance of the world around them. Their training has been internalized and embodies the “Buddha within.” When it appears that someone’s actions seem to be spontaneous, we know from contemporary scientific research and controlled observation that genuine spontaneity is a result of dedicated training and internalized skillful means that is being reflected in their actions.

Each situation is unique and arises from its own historical causal-chain. There is no cookie cutter aspect to how we should engage with the world around us. This is the foundation to Buddhist ethics. Each situation should be considered and responded to situationally. My root teacher reflected on this reality and said, “As contingently arisen human beings, we have a specific biopsychosocial blueprint from which we must work, and effective engagement with our world arises from an acute recognition of how we are.” We can not escape this reality of what it means to be human. This is why it is vital for us to understand why we react the way we do, and refine our behavior to align with productive actions that promotes positive change. If we don’t learn this important lesson we will continually fall short of our intentional expectation. .

An authentic real-life Buddha is someone who values the reality of their causal Universe and applies these lessons in every day life situations that reflects a strong recognition of what the social-self is all about. This recognition values the connection of the self with other and fuels a life of altruistic positive engagement. When we become aware of how causality is interwoven throughout each situation we encounter, we begin to know what drives our daily success. This daily success arises from a routine of thoughtful preparedness. In order to achieve this state of being it is important to cultivate a practice of readiness, and this can be best achieved by using the elements in the “Buddhist toolbox.” We learn to develop dispositions for daily success. Like those Zen masters, we too can become relaxed as we engage the world around us as we trod our daily routines. When our normal disposition is calm and mindful we get things done without creating anxiety and unsatisfactoriness. Buddhism is all about subtraction, not addition. We work to subtract all those characteristics that work against liberation from suffering that we have adopted over a lifetime of adding on to what we think we want and need, to a life driven by a more simple way of engaging those around us. It is easy when we get our self out of the way. And when we achieve this state of practice, we reflect the Buddha within.

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January 15, 2015 · 1:15 pm

Eihei Dogen’s Dharma Hall Discourse #439

Dharma Hall Discourse on the Buddha Nature Beyond Conditions and a commentary by Rev. David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei

BUDDHA NATURE BEYOND CONDITIONS

“All tathagatas are without Buddha nature, but at the same time, previously they have fully accomplished true awakening. Bodhisattvas studying the way should know how Buddha nature produces the conditions for Buddha nature.”

Commentary:

There is much said and written about “Buddha nature”. Maybe to much. In my experience it is one of the most misunderstood terms that has arisen from Buddhism moving to the West. I get the question often, especially when I ask for general questions from the Sangha. My answers very in approach depending on who is asking the question. The answer to this question needs to be influenced by the state of the questioners practice. Today I take another opportunity to speak about it. Dogen, in his effort to teach about Buddha nature, is pointing to the very essence of how the Universe expresses itself.

He begins by stating that all tathagatas are without Buddha nature although they have arrived in the state of reality. A tathagata is one that has achieved awakening as to the nature of the Universe, as did Siddhartha Gotama. Being in such a state of condition is coming to know one’s own nature as is expressed in our human form. In the second sentence Dogen is saying it is important for those that have vowed to work hard to become enlightened to how the Universe is, to also understand how could Buddha nature produce the conditions for Buddha nature.

We can go about interpreting this discourse by looking at how Dogen spoke about the topic in his other writings. In Shobogenzo’s essay “Buddha Nature,” he makes the reference as, “being Buddha nature and non-being Buddha nature.” I like the use of “being” in this reference. In the first sentence when referencing all tathagatas, he is putting forth the meaning of “non-being Buddha nature”. In the second sentence, he is making the other reference as “Buddha nature produces the conditions for Buddha nature”. Interesting enough he may be also making the case that there is no such thing as Buddha nature, since a thing cannot be its own cause. In other words, an object being the subject of its own self.

If we accept Dogen’s use of the term “being Buddha nature,” we might understand this lesson as indicating that Buddha nature is unconditioned. Consider that in this state of being an object can not exist beyond its own causal circumstances.

Consider that we go down to the ocean with a glass jar. We dip the jar into the water and fill it up. We then sit down and contemplate our glass jar’s contents. Is it the ocean? Well, not really. Why? Although it has some of the key natural elements of “ocean”, it lacks the ability to function as ocean. In many ways it has lost its original causal nature. We can say it is “empty” of ocean. It has no wave action, no sea life, no variance of salient content, no tidal interaction with the moon, so on. Yet, it has expressions of dharma nonetheless. While it doesn’t have the nature (Buddha nature) of ocean, it does have elements that still are expressing the interconnectiveness of Universe, (thus Buddha nature). Now let us walk back to the ocean and pour the contents from the jar back into the sea. Is it now “ocean?” Has it been restored to its original nature?

Our practice is like this, our awakening body-mind is like this. Our enlightened state can be like this. Buddha nature is not something to get, or lose. This Buddha nature Master Dogen is expressing is also the reality in zazen which is the same as the state of an awakened body-mind.   It is a state where the Universe looks into its own eyes.

Note: This dharma hall discourse comes from the Eihei Koroku, and was given in the Fall of the year 1249. Like many of Dogen’s discourses, this one also is very short put packed with meaning. It is # 439.

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December 25, 2014 · 11:57 am

A Letter To Christian Friends From A Buddhist Monk At Christmas

Venerable Rev. David Xi-Ken Astor 曦 肯
Dear friends,

Seasons Greetings! Another year almost over, and as we prepare to enter a new year we turn our attention to the time of celebrating another Christmas day. In the West, and especially in America, Christmas as become an “every-man’s holiday” it seems. And although I am a Buddhist, I can be just as caught-up in the festive spirit as others are. It comes perhaps from some degree of my past Christian background. It is a rare thing to find a Buddhist from birth in America, we generally come from other traditions. But my thoughts turn to finding lessons that can teach universal realities from other traditions at times like this.

Christmas day is here and is being kept throughout all Christians lands as one of the great festivals of Christendom. It is meant to be essentially a religious festival, but has become very commercialized over the past century it seems. It is now an essential component of a successful world economy. So supreme a festival, all secular duties are laid aside, and there is a spirit of joyfulness almost everywhere. It is on this day that men dream of “peace on earth and good will to men”. On this coming day in the year, we try to put aside our rivalries and jealousies, enmities and strife, so as to come a little nearer to each other. An attempt is made more strongly than usual for us to greet each other with the “spirit of Christmas”; in fact so great is this spirit that it is possible to see friends in larger number today than on other days. It is the characteristic of those who throw themselves into the spirit of Christmas, that he who perhaps the day before seemed as someone that bothered us is seen more as a friend.

Perhaps the keynote underlying Christmas is the discovery of friends everywhere. The holiday is, of course, the celebration of the birth of Jesus, and because of the power of his message of hope and the importance of recognizing that we are all connected, gives us time to value friendship and family. This one time a year we make this distinction while we erect barriers between ourselves on ordinary days because of our attitude of suspicion and distrust. But on Christmas day there is an attempt to put aside that attitude, and because of that effort, teachers like Jesus and the Buddha are nearer. And so this coming week we are thinking of doing the same thing. There is a mass effort which makes it easier for each of us to swing along with the current towards doing good. Showing some compassion toward those around us. I believe the message of Jesus is that he came to declare a greater change is at hand if we could only learn to awake and become enlightened to the fact that we are living a myth.

On December 8th all Buddhist’s around the world celebrate the day that Siddhartha Gotama obtained enlightenment (Bodhi Day). This awakening is very often misunderstood even among many Buddhists’, and especially in the West. In short it is experiencing the true nature of our universe and the role we have in it, and the interconnectiveness of all things. Not from an intellectual perspective, but in actual experience. It is not to be understood as mystical, however. I find the lessons of Jesus and Siddhartha are similar in many ways. They offer a “re-birth”, and a chance for us to step on a path to salvation. While this notion of salvation is interpreted differently between our two traditions, it is still a process that leads to being saved from suffering and the unsatisfactoriness we bring on ourselves if we only change our mind-state. For Buddhists, it is the result of the forth Nobel Truth.

When we celebrate Christmas and Bodhi Day it is an opportunity for us to help others understand what important lessons Jesus and the Buddha have to give us. Christmas day is special because Jesus’ life offers hope and understanding that can influence our lives in useful and productive ways, and on this day the message is given special attention. But what a wonder it would be if every day could be like a Christmas day. And why not? Jesus lived not that his spirit might pervade the earth on one day, but that it might pervade it every day in the year, and not in one particular place, a church, but that it might pervade everywhere, in the home, in the office, in the school, in the judgment hall.

So if we understand the lessons of your tradition and acknowledge how the lessons of Christmas can transform our lives and the world around us each day, one can train themselves to greet others everywhere with the same intent and be mindful of every moment in order to be ready to show our understanding and compassion – an understanding and maturity that realizes the state of our true nature, like a Buddha. So I call for us all to attempt each day to evoke in others more of the spirit of Christmas. In a way, Christmas day is a day of special giving in order that the day might be a pattern for all days in the year.

As we gather around the tree at home, and receive and give gifts out of love for our family and friends, let us not forget the biggest gift of all. One that will never ware out no matter how often we use it.

I extend warm blessings to all,

Xi-Ken /\

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December 25, 2014 · 9:09 am

Happy Christmas Greetings

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December 10, 2014 · 11:56 am

Samsara As Seen By The Four Schools Of Zen

By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei

The term samsara simply means the nature of the life that we are born into in this human form, experience the world around us based on HOW we are influenced to see it, and then die. It refers to all aspects of the various functions of our lives plus the body-mind psychodynamic events encountered along the way. Considering the causal nature of this world of ours, our body-minds are in constant change as we are influenced by the cultural, physical, and karmic realities from moment to moment. Each of us is conditioned by our unique experiences, our education, and our place in the social network of the community we find our birth has put us in. Thus, we must make choices based on limited information and the perspective we have adopted of the world around us.

The Buddha awakened to this reality and it is reflected in the first of the Four Noble Truths. He taught that to move from this state of suffering and unsatisfactoriness (samsara) to one of liberation (nirvana) we must walk the Eightfold path; not just walk it but to become it. As we gain knowledge and wisdom we awaken to the reality that samsara and nirvana are really two aspects of this “one-mind” state we are working to cultivate from our cushions. Both are inescapable no matter the degree of an awakened body-mind. No matter how hard we work to elevate all delusion, we still have some deluded and egocentric states of being. Humans can never become perfect. That would suggest a state of being beyond the causal way the Universe expresses itself. There will always be encounters with unexpected situations that have the potential to bring suffering into our lives. So, how can one live in nirvana? The answer is that we can’t, either some or most of the time. We work to do our best, the rest is out of our hands. But the various answers to this question differ based on how the four Zen school’s teachings have manifested basic practices that work to achieve perfecting states of nirvana that can only be recognized by one’s reduced states of suffering. You see, nirvana is hard to recognize, suffering is not. That is why all Zen schools focus on suffering, and let states of nirvana naturally appear. It is a matter of achieving balance and equanimity.

I will use as a way of explaining how the four “base-line” schools of Ch’an/Zen reflect on the teaching of refining our lives away from causes of suffering by using the analogy of a multifaceted jewel. This image of a jewel is often used to symbolize Buddha-nature. In the Southern school (Rinzai), when this transparent jewel is illuminated by light of a particular color, it takes on the color of the object (physical or mental) being reflected. So, when placed on a black piece of paper, it will become black. On yellow, it will become yellow. Same is true with our human body-mind. Various situations we encounter in our lives will reflect the experiences and preferences our jewel-mind has become. If our life becomes really dark and foreboding and full of delusion and harmful desire, our body-mind will reflect back this attitude in each situation. We work to discover the true nature of this jewel which will be revealed in a sudden moment of practice-experience. Yet the jewel itself is transparent and does not change from its natural state of reality. It is transparent from the very beginning of our existence, and only becomes “colored” by how we respond to life experiences and develop filters from which to view it.

In the Northern school (Soto), it is taught that the black color is really false. For us to become awakened and to reveal the bright jewel, we have to remove the black from our minds. This process will be gradual and take possible decades to reveal. We practice to erase the darkness from our deluded states of being. We sit to polish our minds, and thus polish this jewel that has become discolored. In order to do this, we must constantly practice and live in consistent awareness of every moment in order to keep the jewel clear and bright, or it will become dirty once again.

Hongzhou’s school of Ch’an Buddhism maintained that everything we do, whether we are awakened or deluded, is the function of this transparent jewel. The school taught that without color we could not really experience the presence of the jewel. So we do not need to eliminate a particular color to reveal the jewel. Buddha nature does not exist independently of particular situations. Even when we our deluded in our actions, it is nothing other than the functions of Buddha nature. So this idea of samara or nirvana is equality present in our Buddha natures. So we do not need to polish anything or engage in any particular practice. We just work to accept each moment as it comes, and practice the Three Pure Precepts. In this way, our Buddha natures will shire through in our actions. It is not about the jewel, but about how we experience it that matters.

Finally in the Heze school (An historical Japanese tradition), a more pragmatic approach to the question was considered and believed that each of the others schools was partially correct. This school taught that each color caused by various conditions is really false, and was an imperfect reflection of reality. The fact that we can be aware of various colors of states of being is just empty delusions without distinctions. It just means that our minds are not empty after all, but we can not grasp the nature of this jewel like reality in any clear way, but we can nevertheless sense it’s influence. We must realize this interconnectiveness and see the bright jewel as covered with delusions and then practice to free ourselves form delusions that brings an enlightened state of being. When that happens after a long period of practice we experience sudden awakening. In this way, this school combined the elements of gradual practice with the possibility for sudden awakening. It takes time but is revealed to us in an instant.

Pragmatic Buddhism’s perspective: Frequently the study of Buddhism involves trying to subtract something from who we are. We practice to become “one with the Universe” as though we are not that already. In this way some students of Buddhism believe they are going to find real Buddha nature. This does not seem to me a practical or useful approach to a strong Buddhist life. It is interesting that when we stop looking, that which we are seeking has been right under our noses all along. In the example above, let us not get all caught up in trying to solve the riddle of “the jewel”, as though we need to get rid of something in our internal make-up so we can see the “magic stone” these Zen teachers are trying to point to, but never use words we can understand clearly. Zen practice does not have to be mystical, but it does need to encompass a solid understanding of how this world of ours is reflected back to us when we come to clear away the mind-cobwebs from years of misuse and distorted ways of seeing. That process is what brings into clearer focus the realities of this wonderful creation we call “world”. Zen practice is a series of steps. Through study and practice we begin to crawl out of the weeds of misunderstanding and distortion. It is like coming from a dark place into the bright sunshine. It takes our sight away for a period of time and we do not know what we are seeing. With guidance and a great deal of rigorous self-honesty, we begin to adjust our practice-sight that begins to teach us that what we have been looking at all along were shadows and not the real thing. To be free from our ego-clinging existence we have to see that “emptiness” of all things. This is the objective of seeing this emptiness through describing it like a jewel. When we make things full of self-interpretation, we are giving them color. And that distorted interpretation can hide the jewel of what they really are. We have to return to see things through the eyes of our human form before our sight became clouded. But even that way of considering our practice is distorted. For me, Dogen said it best when we taught that there are no steps in practice. That practice and awakening are actually the same thing. While there is no place to go, there is a space free of delusion. Zazen is the tool that works to polish this Buddha-nature-jewel in order that it reflects back things as they really are. Zazen is the most natural thing for us humans to do, but achieving this natural state of being is the most difficult thing for us humans to accomplish.

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