Before we begin today, I gotta show you something cool. This is the cover of the German edition of Hardcore Zen that will come out in March, 2010 fro Aurum Books. Neat, huh? I’m looking forward to doing some live gigs in Deutschland this year to promote this thing. Been listening to the German versions of the old Kraftwek albums (kindly provided by Christine – thanks!) to try and get a little of the language under my belt before I go.OK. Now on to today’s rant.
So the other day we’re about to start sitting Zazen. And I say something like, “OK, let’s hit the bell and begin.” And somebody else mentions that in another Zen group they sat with you don’t say “hit” or “strike” the bell because those words are too violent. Rather, you “invite the bell to sound.”
And I said, “What if the bell likes to be hit?” I mean maybe the bell is really into being struck hard and begs you for it. It seems unkind in such a case to deny the bell what it most deeply wants.
Not everyone wants the same things out of life that you do. Those who want something different from what you want, or from what the majority of people want, are not necessarily sick and wrong and in need of changing by you into something that more resembles what you call "normal."
This, I think, should be obvious, especially to Western people interested in co-called “Eastern spiritual practices.” We are already minority members. So we should understand the difficulties involved in being interested in something that most people we encounter cannot understand.
And yet at Buddhist centers you often encounter these kinds of deeply held prejudices and deeply held compulsions to try to transform the people we meet into something more like ourselves rather than allowing them to be exactly who they are. In fact this tendency is often even stronger in people who are into very niche type things, such as Zen for example, than it is in the mainstream population.
In folks who are into Zen and stuff like that, this compulsion is often buried under layers and layers of unacknowledged self-righteousness. Of course if you’re into Zen you can’t possibly be interested in anything the rest of us who are into Zen would consider weird or (gasp!) kinky.
Much of what I see going on in the world of American Zen comes from a place of deep self-righteousness. It’s that same stifling group-mind that says, “Join us, be one with us, do what we say to do, be the kind of person we want you to be, if you conform to our ideals you will be rewarded with a sense of belonging. But don’t stray from what we consider correct or this will be taken away from you.”
But here’s the deal. If you join, say, a sesshin, in which a group of people decide to practice zazen together for several days living in close quarters, there have to be fairly rigid rules of conduct. This is something that’s atarimae (当たり前）to use a Japanese phrase. It’s something so obvious it feels stupid to even say it.
However, it does not follow that the people who attend such events must try and mold themselves into the kind of ideal person that the lowest common denominator of the group has envisioned.
To me, a bell is something that enjoys being hit. When a bell is struck it is able to manifest itself as a bell. If you fail to strike it, the bell cannot do what it needs to do.
If you try and mask the fact that you are hitting the bell by burying that action under some pretentious euphemism you’re not being honest with yourself or with the bell.
You have a responsibility to play your part. Sometimes you encounter a bell that needs to be struck in order to manifest itself as a bell. If you are too wrapped up in a carefully cultivated image of yourself as a person who would never strike anything, even a bell, then you may ultimately cause greater harm by not taking the action that is necessary.
Current popular culture has created an image of the ideal Buddhist as a timid person who fears causing harm so much that he cannot act when it’s necessary to do so. See this fine example:
It’s funny, I’ll grant you. And I am not at all offended by this ad. The problem is that you meet lots and lots and lots of people who consider themselves to be actual Buddhists who view Buddhism pretty much the same way as the people who put together this ad. People who try and pattern their lives after the caricatures of Buddhists they’ve seen on TV commercials and bad Hollywood movies.
Then the same thing happens as happens with any religion. In order to strengthen your resolve to be whatever thing it is you’re trying to be, you need other people to try and be that thing too. And so the group puts pressure on all of its members to conform. Those who do not conform are ostracized. And everyone left behind feels good cuz they’re surrounded only by like-minded people.
But the real world is not made up of people who think just like you do, or who, to be more honest, pretend to think like they imagine you think so as to win the approval of you and the rest of the group. If that’s what we’re cultivating in our sanghas, we’re not doing anyone any good at all.
Even more slippery than the compulsion to transform others into what we think they ought to be is the compulsion to transform ourselves into our own ideals. But those ideals are always based on the same greed, anger, and delusion we’re trying to uproot in our practice. This is why Zen is aimed at nothing at all except allowing what’s actually present to manifest clearly. Paradoxically, when we do this we can start to see what actually needs changing in our own lives and see clearly what must be done right here and right now to make that happen.
Kodo Sawaki tells a story in which he likens becoming a Buddha to becoming a thief. In order to become a thief you don’t have to practice for years and years to make yourself into the ideal thief. You simply walk into Amoeba Records, shove that new Metallica CD into your pocket and walk out. You’ll probably get caught by the big burly guys at the door. Or maybe you’ll make it. In either case, instantly you are a thief.
Same with Buddhist practice. You become a Buddha by doing zazen. The moment you take the position, you are a Buddha. No need to compel yourself or those around you into transforming into whatever confused ideals you have about what Buddhists ought to be.
This compulsion to change others and ourselves into our ideals is a significant problem, and one that I don’t believe gets very much attention. It’s the outward manifestation of a very deep misunderstanding of Buddhism that actually drives a lot of what passes for Buddhism these days.
If you’re going to say you accept everything, then, dammit, accept every-fucking-thing. Not just those things you find acceptable.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of things that truly need to be changed. But the things that really, seriously need changing are usually pretty obvious.
Buddhism isn’t about a retreat from reality into a kinder gentler world created in your own mind. It’s about making this world a better place by seeing it for what it is and doing what you truly need to do.
