“It is a strange paradox indeed that modern man should know so much and still know practically nothing. The paradox is most strange because men in other times, who have known less than we know, have in fact known more.”
Thomas Merton from The Ascent To Truth
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By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei
In all of the Buddhist books I read prior to stepping on the practice-path I learned that to become a Buddhist monk it was necessary to leave the householder life and in a sense become homeless. The English word for this is renunciation. We renounce one way of life and take up another. This concept was not new to we as I already took that path many years ago as a Christian monk. In fact, it is not as hard as it seems if you have the attitude and personal inner vision that is necessary to walk the monastic lifestyle. In the beginning at least, it is the same no matter your spiritual affiliation. I say this from personal experience. The interesting thing is that all of the Buddhist literature that sets renunciation as a requirement for following a monastic path comes from the legacy and historical teachings from an Asian culture that supported the monastic realities. These realities interconnected both the laity and monks together in a mutual-causal relationship. Western Christian monasticism took a different structure in that the religious were supported by the Church (institution) and separated from the lay community by intent. As Buddhism moved to the West, and Westerners took up Buddhist monastic training, many emulated the past by creating monasteries for that purpose modeled on how the “Asians did it.” As a result, these monastic training centers have produced spiritual leaders that have engaged a style of Western Buddhism that have advanced cultural authority that will cultivate the ability for Buddhism to move into a more mainstream acceptance along side the other spiritual traditions, in time. As would be expected in our American culture, innovation is being explored in order to find different methods for achieving the same expectations by creatively redefining how the Buddhist monastic experience can be practiced that challenges the necessity for renunciation.
Let’s explore the role of renunciation as it is reflected in a contemporary context by first looking at the subject historically. In order to do this we first must look to the East. In the Mahayana tradition, we must understand how an individual is motivated to step on the monastic path. While it is not necessary to be a monk in order to follow the Bodhisattva path, monks and nuns do so by taking Bodhisattva vows. Monastic’s (I will use this term to mean both monks and nuns) take up a formal practice driven by a need to serve others by living a life that has a better chance of subduing one’s self centered ego by using our relationship with others to achieve this goal. We not only work hard to experience how to be free of our own suffering and unsatisfactoniness, but also help others to realize the same in themselves. A balance is sought between surrendering worldly material objects and yet using the cultural tools that can bring about a productive and useful life for self and other. In the Theravada tradition, the basic model of living is to become a renunciant and live without personal possessions, not becoming involved with the world of finance, being celibate, avoiding unnecessary distractions of the world outside so one can work to achieve self enlightenment. Theravada live a simple life, though with different degrees of refinement. They rely heavily on the lay members in their society to provide their basic needs in order to sustain a communal practice within strict guidelines. It is believed that the merit earned in supporting a monastic’s practice will have direct influence on one’s own karma. In the Vajrayana tradition, renunciation supports the inner-mind-state by creating a life free from external concerns so one can remove themselves into the quiet space necessary for their own awakened development. Continue reading
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By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei
Anyone can learn to sit and place the mind in a quite place for a few moments or longer depending on “cushion time”. The desire to meditate can occur anytime, and can be adapted to any religious or spiritual practice. As Ch’an or Soto Zen Buddhist’s we learn to sit zazen and we do so with very little structure. I am speaking about the “sitting” part of our meditation practice. We often incorporate intentional ritual around our zazen, but it is not necessary, it only enriches the experience and perhaps sets the mood.
As we move along in developing a sustained practice, be begin to polish our zazen which is different for each of us. While engaged Buddhism celebrates the value of working for other’s well being, our zazen practice is reserved for our personal spiritual development, the fruits of which are taken with us as we work to promote human flourishing off the cushion. This state of zazen is very formal, and is also powerful when we awaken to it’s transformative nature. From a personal point of view, a strong zazen experience feels like we have reached an end point. Of course this is not possible considering the causal nature of any human endeavor, but you begin to feel like there is a completeness to each session. At this point we don’t look around for any other support we just feel very confident about what we are doing. When Siddhartha sat on his cushion, conquering negative dispositions, a similar thing must have happened internally in the reality of his mental achievement. When we experience conflict and destructive thoughts as we sit, we come face to face with how we can choose to confront these thoughts and behaviors that, when allows to dominate the way we live, will result in a cycle of suffering. These are not attacks that come at us from the outside, but come from within, so we need a strong sense of determination. We work to seek changes that promotes a life of flourishing for us. This is why zazen is intensely a personal experience. We are challenged to apply rigorous self-honest that can melt away delusions so we can awaken to how we really are as expressions of this Universe. When these personal changes are allowed to take control of our actions, we step on the path to wisdom that symbolizes what can happen in finding the way. No one can do it for us. When we sit, it is the most important personal action we can do, although the benefits our extended to all beings. Without a solid personal practice, there can be no social-self or acts of compassion.
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By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei
We should never underestimate the role any culture plays in the transformation of ideas, because the society we live in places heavy influences on how we interpret the world around us. This is true today as it was for the Buddha in his day. As you are aware, Siddhartha (the Buddha) was a practicing Hindu from a noble family clan. He was well educated. But he began to question the basic perceptions and realities universally held by the society he engaged during his life time. As a result he came to an awakened understanding of the causal nature of the Universe. He spent the remaindered of his life finding skillful language to describe this new worldview. Upon his death, and after many decades, these teachings became the foundation of Buddhism. But after his death, and without his guiding hand, other cultural influences began to creep into how Buddhist theory began to be interpreted. As expected, many conflicting views began to find their way into how the dharma was taught and as expected found their way into some of the Buddhist cannon we have today. This is why using caution is so important as we study ancient Buddhist writings and the suttas, as well as our legacy masters that themselves lived with the world views held during the middle ages.
Over the next few centuries Buddhism began to move East through Afghanistan, Tibet, China, Indochina, Korea, and Japan. As this migration happened, Buddhism encountered different social norms and adopted some of these indigenous cultural and religious beliefs into how they began to practice Buddhism. In Tibet it was B’on, in China it was Tao & Confucianism among others, and in Japan it was Shinto. But as Buddhism moved East it found similar ethical, moral and legal standards, and similar notions of freedom that was still specifically Asian. It was not until the early 40’s that Buddhism made it’s way to the West in earnest after World War II, although it found some roots in America before that in the 19th century, mostly from Chinese immigrants. As Buddhism encountered Western philosophy and science it crashed headlong into the most challenging transformation of its history. It encountered a different worldview philosophy that engendered a new way of considering individual freedom, as well as different foundations of law and social justice. Not to mention the challenge of transforming these Eastern ideas into Western languages.
As Buddhism encounters our contemporary world, especially as it moves West, it discovers situations where imagination and creativity are central to our notion of personal and social freedom. While Buddhist traditions have consistently affirmed freedom FROM craving, anguish, and unsatisfactoriness, being the path to awakening, they have been less consistent in affirming the freedom TO respond creatively to the suffering in the world as we see it today. Thus the emerging focus on engaged Buddhism over the past two decades has heated up. This is a reflection of the gradual influence that engaged Buddhism has received since Thich Nhat Hanh introduced the movement in the late 1960’s.
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By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei
In teaching Buddhism, and especially zazen, I am constantly reminded of Dogen’s statement that “To study the Buddha Way is to study the self.” This is not only the essential ingredient in his Genjokoan, but also the driving force that moves us along our encounter with the Buddha’s primary teaching of the Four Noble Truths.
The Zen master, Shohaku Okumura Roshi, tells us that the word study that Dogen uses in Japanese is narua. Okumura tells us, “Narau comes from nareru, which means: to get accustomed to, to become familiar with, to get used to, or to become intimate with. This is not simply intellectual study.” He continues to tell us that the Chinese character for narau is written in two parts. The first character means “bird’s wings” and the second one means “self”.
This explanation took me back to an experience I had many, many, years ago when I had a large house that was divided into two apartments. I lived upstairs, and I rented the downstairs. One of my renters was a young single mother with two sons. The older kid was about six and his name was Jimmy. Like most boys his age he was always hanging around watching what I was doing; mowing, fixing a stuck door, planting a tree, that sort of thing. He was just very curious, and generally was not annoying. I could not drive my car into the garage that he did not come running to see what I brought home. One day as I drove up I noticed under the large tree in the back yard a commotion on the ground. It was a bird that seemed hurt. But after a moment I realized that what I was observing was a young bird and his mother higher up in the tree teaching him how to fly. She would hop down, then fly back up and call down to him. He would hope around and try to fly a few feet at a time. This was repeated over and over. As I was transfixed on this event Jimmy came running up. I pointed out the bird on the ground and ask him what he thought was happening. He said he thought it was hurt or sick. When I pointed out that the bird on the ground was young and was being taught, through encouragement, how to fly by his mother up in the tree, he was truly dumfounded. I remember this so well even now. He looked up at me with those blue eyes and a look that was overwhelming and said “I thought birds could fly by themselves.” He was transfixed as I too was on what was happening. But what he said next was very memorable. With a true look of wonder Jimmy said “I didn’t know that.” Even for a six year old, this was a moment toward understanding and wisdom. As a young person himself, there might have been a connection some how with the bird and his own growing experiences. Kind of like narau. In many ways, we too have to learn how to fly. This is an essential meaning to how Dogen engaged zazen.
When we engage zazen practice, we engage this study-of-the-self admonition. We study the self in order to awaken to how we are. That awakening awareness is what drives the change necessary for our self-flourishing. In other words, we must learn to fly too. We awaken to this notion of the self being the only foundation that is none other then our Universal expression. Like the baby bird that has the ability to fly and yet does not know how until it observes the skillful teaching of the mother, our zazen practice is driven by the skillful teachings of others that have gone before us and the observation of this self we call ’I”.
As flying is an essential attribute for a bird to be a bird, so is the study of ourselves essential for discovering our human natures. We awaken to what truly makes us human when we gain a quiet abiding body-mind that is the self of our Buddha natures. Then we too will fly with the birds.
The Study Of Self:
“To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be verified by all things. To be verified by all things is to let the body and mind of self, and the body and mind of others, drop off. There is a trace of realization that cannot be grasped. We endlessly keep expressing the ungraspable trace of realization.”
— Dogen Zenji from Genjokoan
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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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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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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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By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei
For some time now I have wanted to talk about the subject of whether or not God exist. You can imagine that as a Buddhist teacher I get asked if I believe in a God frequently by those unfamiliar with Buddhist thought. You see, our culture is confused about what Buddhists believe, and the role Siddhartha, the Buddha, expresses in the Buddhist faith. The word “faith” goes along with the word “God” when the question is ask most of the time, that is why I am using it here. Considering this question, Buddhism generally takes a more pragmatic and agnostic approach, rather then get involved in theological dogma, preferring neither to say yes or no, and thus taking the Middle Way. The Buddha himself did not deny or confirm the existence of a Creator God, but taught that there is no need to have an answer to this question because it did not achieve awareness of how we are that can lead to an enlightened state of body-mind. Theism is not a central component of Siddhartha’s path to enlightenment, and the notion of a God was one of those questions he refused to speculate about because he was more intent on individuals seeking a way from their unsatisfactoriness through their own experiences, and thus to human flourishing.
But many of our Buddhist legacy teachers did speak about this question in either direct or indirect ways. I will stick my neck out here and say that many of our enlightened Buddhist masters may have spoken about the “Does God Exist” question because they considered the answer to be in the question. For myself, I believe the question is more complex than a simple yes or no answer, or even taking an agnostic worldview. That is why I refer to myself as a reluctant agnostic. I think the answer to this hard question requires a more nuanced consideration, as my spiritual practice works to seek an answer that expresses something more then a simple dismissal of what reality may be. Much of my adult life has been seeking the quest for an answer to this question, and unsatisfactory answers was the major reason I left my Christian monastic practice. Now that I am walking the Buddhist path, the quest is still a driving force in my recognition of how I am. But my view of how the word “God” has transformed into a wider concept then just creation being a noun has dramatically changed how I approach the subject now, taking into consideration my understanding of the principles of mutual-causality, impermanence and the reality of a non-dual state of being. When I am ask the question now, I generally ask, “What do you mean by God?” This delays the obvious perhaps, but it gets the questioner a chance to think about their own way of expressing a question that has no absolute response. I think an answer is incomprehensible if it is a good one anyway.
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Sensei during Daily Service
Sensei during Qigong practice
Sensei with his root teacher
Outdoor meditation strenghtens insight
Rev. Shi Yao-Xin, Sub-Prior & European Liaison Director.
Xi-Ken Shi & Li-Su during daily service
Ven. Brian Shen-Jin, Prior General
During a St. Louis retreat
Ven. Eubanks Sensei, my Dharma Brother Ven. Ren-Cheng Shi, and myself at Place of Peace Temple
Fr. Thomas Merton & Dalai Lama friends and contemplative monks
Xi-Ken Shi is member of InterFaith Conference of Washington D.C.
Ven. Brian Shen-Jin teaching at our NY affiliate
Where our outer space is, is where are inner space is. Insight will find us there.
Robes do not have to make a difference
"Skype Monk" attending a Service
Conference of Monastic Leaders winter retreat (OPB). Outside sitting. Cold. Wet Grass. Birds. Sun warmth. Bubbling Brook. Quiet. Awake. Remembering...
Li-Su & Xi-Ken Shi 2009 winter retreat
Ch'an monk teasing Shen-Xi Sensei with field spider
Mn. Li-Su during winter retreat
An awakened being is as clear as glass
Sensei’s altar Buddha
Is your practice inside looking out, or outside looking in?
Contemplation is about looking out the window of our mind to discover the universe looking back at us
Zen Master Seung Sahn and Trappist monks engaging practice
Mid America Buddhist Association
Even a Buddhist priest has a past. Changing the nature of your robes has its own path. (Our Founder at 26yo)
One view of Indra's Net. Its not all about the sentient.
Ritual practice is also a meditation form
Rev. Brian Kenna Prior General & Director of Lay Ministry
Rev. Shi Shen-Yao, Sub-Prior
Order of Engaged Buddhists 
Pope Francis and the Dao De Jing
By: David Xi-Ken Astor, Sensei
Over the past few months we have been experiencing the social reaction to the election of the 266th Christian Catholic Pope. Like many former Catholics, I have been drawn by curiosity to see what this change may be all about. If what the early days of his pontificate may teach us, it will be quite a change. Pope Francis is bringing an old message back into the light of day, one that seems to have been muddled over the recent decades in our technological and capitalistic driven age. This old message was also one that was echoed 2,500 years ago by Siddhartha, the Buddha. Pope Francis is wasting no time in issuing an appeal that in the limited time he has in Rome we must return to the basics of social justice as it is reflected in responsible economic policies, having compassion for the less fortunate in our communities, in the focus of doing good, and in protecting the world environment. He said, “We must not be afraid of goodness or even tenderness.” A statement that is universal to a spiritual path. He went on to say that, “Let us never forget the authentic power is service. Only those who serve with love are able to protect.”
As I think about his message I am reminded of the expansive thoughtfulness found in Chapter 60 of the Dao De Jing that speaks to this encompassing ideal. When I say encompassing, I mean universal. So lets look at this Chapter, and my commentary on it, to experience the lessons that point directly to the responsibility of social governance.
“Bringing proper order to a great state is like cooking a small fish.
When way-making (dao) is used in overseeing the world,
The ghosts of the departed will not have spiritual potency.
In fact, it is not that the ghosts will not have spiritual potency,
But rather that they will not use this potency to harm people.
Not only will the ghosts not use their potency to harm people
But the sages will not harm people either.
It is because the ghosts and sages do not harm
That their power (de) combine to promote order in the world.”
COMMENTARY:
First remember the historical context and language of this text. It is Chinese and developed over the period 403-221 BCE, which was also during the time of Alexander the Great. This period of Buddhist expansion in China paid homage to how ancestors influenced world order in many ways. Like in the time when Siddhartha lived it was believed that the realm of ghosts existed. In our 21st century reality some creative re-description is called for in bringing this chapter into contemporary understanding, but in doing so takes nothing away from it’s core message. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Buddhist thought, commentary on the Dao, Dao De Jing chapter 60, David Xi-Ken Astor, Pope Francis