"Faith is the blunt instrument used to crush doubt."

So says P.Z. Myers, in his lambasting of the "On Faith"  folks at the Washington Post commenting on this report on "non-believing clergy."  As a Rinzai guy, let me add in my 2 cents...

One pastor in the report recounted:

“My first few years of doing this were wracked with, ‘God, should I be doing this? Is this ---? Am I being ---? Am I posing? Am I being less than authentic; less than honest?’ … And, I really wrestled with it and to some degree still. But not nearly as much.”
“I will be the first to admit that I see Christianity as a means to an end, not as an end unto itself. And the end is very basically, a kind of liberal, democratic values. So I will use Christianity sometimes against itself to try to lead people to that point. But there’s so much within the Christian tradition that itself influenced the development of those liberal values, you know. They didn’t arise through secular means. They came out of some religious stuff. …I could couch all that in very secular language. If we were in a college setting, I would. But we’re in a religious setting, so I use the religious language.”

Myers says about this report by Daniel C. Dennett:

Unfortunately, the WaPo couldn't just put up Dennett's bombshell on its own: they've surrounded it with a confusing cloud of commissioned articles to answer the question, "What should pastors do if they no longer hold the defining beliefs of their denomination?". Most of them are believers, except for Rebecca Goldstein and Tom Flynn and Herb Silverman, and most of them are making excuses. You just knew that someone would make the inane argument that "doubt is part of faith." No, it's not. Faith is the blunt instrument used to crush doubt.

 Of course the WaPo panelists present a "conventional" view of the faith/doubt issue

à la Larry King, and for "inclusive" purposes there's that guy Deepak Chopra...

Q:What should pastors do if they no longer hold the defining beliefs of their denomination? Do clergy have a moral obligation not to challenge the sincere faith of their parishioners? If this requires them to dissemble from the pulpit, doesn't this create systematic hypocrisy at the center of religion? What would you want your pastor to do with his or her personal doubts or loss of faith?

Religion poses many tests of conscience. This isn't a drawback. If anything, it's one of the reasons organized faith exists. But of course there are extremes of opinion about how acceptable it is to disagree with church doctrine. My insistence that religion must teach people how to think about God for themselves would be seen as extreme -- or even heretical -- by those at the opposite end of the spectrum. We've witnessed the tide of tolerance ebb and flow in the Catholic Church. We've seen gay Episcopal bishops advance in a liberal climate only to cause a schism among conservatives.

 Needless to say neither the WaPo panelists, especially Chopra, nor P.Z. Myers  reflect the views of Zen Buddhists, which is the point of this post. Great doubt and great faith must coexist for great enlightenment.  You have to doubt the faith, you have to have faith that the doubt will lead somewhere.  The question is key.

With this viewpoint, you simply cannot lose your faith, nor can you blindly believe. Dammit, that guy long ago said "Rely on yourself.  Do not rely on others.  Rely on the Dharma.  Do not rely on others."  Which of course leads to the questions: What is the Dharma? What am I? Am I different than the Dharma? Am I the same? Is this gibberish?

But, like all phenomena, Buddha nature is "stuck" to it - permeated through it like a dye on a fabric, as some teacher said.  Even if I accept Jesus as my personal Lord and what not, or even if I picket all religious institutions or lack thereof, or even if I just watch TV for weeks on end munching on potato chips, it's all there.  Now there's consequences, of course, to all behaviors, including behaviors of pretending to believe, which is recommended by certain folks ("Fake it 'til you make it" is a slogan in certain religious quarters).

But there is no escape.  The authentic "position" or "stance" in which one carriers out one's life, and the emptiness of all of it (including emptiness of emptiness) remains the same.  You cannot not be who you are, even if you are pretending to be something.  The "essence" of Sartre's waiter performing as a waiter did not annihilate the emptiness of the phenomena of the waiter-in-life.

So, basically, we practicing Zen Buddhists don't have the problem alluded to in the report or panel responses or Myer's response.  And when Chopra says

My insistence that religion must teach people how to think about God for themselves would be seen as extreme -- or even heretical -- by those at the opposite end of the spectrum.

 and when Myers says

Faith is the blunt instrument used to crush doubt.

I have to call them both out.  Great doubt and great faith must coexist, and nobody can tell you how to do that or not to do that, and all the rumination, pretense, or lack thereof simply cannot change the nature of our existence in this life.  Great doubt and great faith are natural functions and conditions of our existence, and to privilege one against the other is to "oppose our reality."

And that's my 2 cents.

Altar in My Home Zendo

Because it's some sort of meme.

Lankavatara Sutra Chapter 3, Section LVII

To say it again,  I'm using the translation here, and as usual, and I'm just doing this as an ordinary guy.

The core of this section is this:

The Blessed One then said this: There are three kinds of will-body, Mahāmati. What are the three? They are: (1) the will-body obtained in the enjoyment of the Samādhi; (2) the will-body obtained by recognising the self-nature of the Dharma; and (3) the will-body which is assumed [by a Bodhisattva according to] the class of beings [to be saved] and which perfects and achieves [without a thought of its own achievement]. By realising the higher stages successively after the first is attained, the Yogin will experience them [all].

 In going through this I am struck by how closely Zen practice is framed from this, despite how it might appear in the West.  It might also be considered a "guide" to the practitioner insofar as it would highlight to the practitioner that "this" is how you might be experiencing your practice. In particular...

What is the will-body obtained by recognising the self-nature of the Dharma? When [the Yogin] of the the eighth stage has a thoroughgoing penetration into the nature of things which is like Māyā and not image-producing, he experiences a revulsion at the seat of consciousness and obtains the Samādhi known as Māyā-like and other Samādhis..

When [the Yogin] is thoroughly conversant with all the characteristics of self-realisation and its bliss which pervades the teachings of the Buddha, he is said to have the body which is will-made, born with [the class], perfecting and achieving..

 This is the direction in which to be going.

More about zazen and "brainwashing"

I will expand a tiny bit on what I alluded to here.

Gniz says:

It's important to understand that meditation is a constantly changing process, and as such, our brain is going to be in varying states throughout. At times, the act of meditation could lead us to being in a more receptive, less intellectually critical mindstate.

In fact, a lot of teachers will tell us that this is EXACTLY where meditation leads. They won't say that it's a less intellectually critical mindstate, they'll call it "being free of opinions" or "emptying your cup" or "thinking non-thinking."

Let's be clear. I'm not implying that being free of the continuous machinations of the intellect is a bad thing, because it's actually quite nice at times. But there are some dangers involved. The first is that people who are overly ambitious will strive to cultivate being in this "balanced state" at all times, and may actually create a scenario where they are less mentally aware and less in touch with reality as opposed to more in touch with it...

There are some dangers with spirituality and meditation. People should be aware that you are playing games with your own perceptions, with reality, with your mind. To varying degrees you may become more likely to take on new beliefs in a state where you are either less aware and discerning, or perhaps just confused by a new experience that you can't process on your own...

For myself, I'd almost rather just sit and meditate and put absolutely NO descriptions, religious connotations or other mental constructs onto what it is that happens in these times. 

And Brad Warner says:

The general public doesn’t really have a clue as to what a Zen teacher is. So the model they usually chose to base their assumptions about what a Zen teacher ought to be is that of a religious instructor...

And so the idea has come down to us a hundred and some years later that Zen is a religion. I’m aware that there has been considerable debate about this. But mostly the debate has been framed in terms of the question: “Is Zen a religion or a philosophy?” I used to side with the faction that said it was a philosophy. But I’m not so sure this is even the right question anymore.

It has occurred to me lately that Zen is not a religion or a philosophy, but might better be seen as a form of art. 

 I side with the "Zen Buddhism is a religion" folks; if a religion is not first and foremost a set of behaviors to which one applies skill, regardless of institutions, deities, and funny clothes, then what good is it?

For medical benefits? That seems somewhat unnatural in the same sense that people in armies don't fight and die for their country, they fight and die for their brothers and sisters so they may live.

Furthermore, if your practice is only on your cushion,  it's not even like an artificial flavor versus the real flavor.   You have a verisimilitude of practice, sometimes.  But it's like having the keys to a Ferrari but only driving it out of the garage and into the driveway and claiming you "drive" a Ferrari.  No, this needs to be done as much as one can, in every situation.  And only you can be there to do that, and when you're there doing that, there is no brainwashing.

Now on to the bigger question, as raised by Gniz: having great faith and great doubt does not mean great faith is invested in your teacher and great doubt is invested in everything else that might run counter to what your teacher says. In American Rinzai temples in the tradition established by Soen Shaku we chant from the Mahaparinirvana sutra:

Atta Dipa

Viharatha

Atta Sarana

Anana Sarana

Dhamma Dipa

Dhamma Sarana

Anana Sarana

Which means:

You are the light
Dwell
Rely on yourself
Do not rely on others
The Dharma is light
Rely on the Dharma
Do not rely on others

Any teacher which ain't teaching this, to get slightly fundie about it, is not teaching a Buddhism as taught by Shakyamuni.

Suspension of opinions includes opinions about the teacher.  If he's on a pedestal you're light years away.  And if you can't see your closeness to Pat Robertson, Mother Teresa, Pol Pot, Ben Stein, Sean Hannity and Michael Moore, you're not there yet either.

Regardless of what an unscrupulous teacher might say, and they are there, in this practice you cannot check your brains at the door.

This is embedded in the structure of the most fundamental of Zen koans; e.g., Case 39 (see here for another translation and commentary) of the Mumonkan says:

CASE 39. UN-MON AND TRAP INTO WORDS

As soon as a monk stated Un-mon, "The radiance of the Buddha quietly and restlessly illuminates the whole universe", Un-mon asked him, "Are these you are reciting not the words of Chosetzu Shusai?" The monk replied, "Yes, they are." Un-mon said, "You are trapped in words!" Afterwards Shishin brought up the matter once more and said, "Tell me, how was the monk trapped in words?"

Mumon's Comments:
If you are able to grasp Un-mon's unapproachable accomplishments and follow through the monk's corruption (of being trapped into words), you will be the leader of humans and Devas. If not, you cannot even save yourself.

A fish meets the fishhook in a rapid stream,
Being too greedy for the bait, the fish wants to bite.
Once his mouth widely opens,
His life is already lost.

 Yunmen (Ummon) is saying the student is "trapped in words" or  has "misspoken" in response to his student quoting another's poem.  The context as to why the student quoted the poem is not given but clearly what was expected here was the student's expression of his understanding.  That's why you can read all the koan commentaries you want til the cows come home (just when do they come home?) but a reputable teacher won't confirm anything unless it's truly, authentically your expression of your understanding, and if he doesn't, you're going to understand anyway.

So no, Gniz, nothing to worry about.  Just keep going.

Even though I'm busy I HAD to note this...

You may never have noticed, but the NY Times style guide dictates that for people otherwise without titles like "President," they should list the name by which they're known first, and in subsequent mentions they refer to the person as "Mr." or "Ms." depending on the gender...

Slouched against the lectern at the 25th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, a shirtless Iggy Pop snarled, “I am the world’s forgotten boy.”

No more. After years of being named finalists to enter the hall of fame, then getting outvoted, the Stooges were finally inducted this year, in an event held at the Waldorf-Astoria on Monday night and telecast on the Fuse cable channel. “After the seventh time” the Stooges were nominated, said the band’s guitarist, James Williamson, in his acceptance speech, “we were beginning to think we would have to take pride in not getting in.”
Behind him, Mr. Pop, 62, was already unbuttoning his white dress shirt, getting ready to jump, drop to his knees, strut and twist across the stage and down into the black-tie audience. Introducing him, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day had described him as “the most confrontational singer we will ever see.” In his acceptance speech, Mr. Pop declared: “Roll over, Woodstock. We won.” 

And yes, that would mean somewhere on their website you can find a reference to Meat Loaf referred to as "Mr. Loaf."  That is, if he did not spell his name "Meatloaf."

A pity, isn't it?

I have more to say about zazen, and "brainwashing"

I think a somewhat deeper than comment-wise response to gniz's recent posts here and here is warranted, but don't have the time at the moment.

Lankavatara Sutra Chapter 2, Sections LV and LVI

As I keep saying I'm using the translation here, and as usual, and I'm just doing this as an ordinary guy...and, to begin with, again appealing to Suzuki's introduction to the text.  We are at the last two sections of Chapter 2, and I think, just from the unfamiliarity of the first word in LV that I quote from Suzuki:

Citta comes from the root cit, "to think", but in the Lanka the derivation is made from the root ci, "to pile up", "to arrange in order". The Citta is thus a storehouse where the seeds of all thoughts and deeds are accumulated and stored up. The Citta, however, has a double sense, general and specific. When it is used in the general sense it means "mind", "mentation", "ideas", including the activities of Manas and Manovijnana, and also of the Vijnanas; while specifically it is a synonym of Alayavijnana in its relative aspects, and distinguishable from all the rest of the mental faculties. When, however, it is used in the form of Citta-matra, Mind-only, it acquires still another connotation. We can say that Citta appears here in its highest possible sense, for it is then neither simply mentation nor intellection, nor perception as a function of consciousness. It is identifiable with the Alaya in its absolute aspect. This will become clearer later on.
Alayavijnana is alaya+vijnana, and alaya is a store where things are hoarded for future use. The Citta as a cumulative faculty is thus identified with the Alayavijnana. 

 And so the text says...

182. The Citta is bound up with the objective world; the intellect's function is to speculate; and in the excellent state of imagelessness there is the evolving of transcendental wisdom (prajñā).
183. According to the false imagination, [self-substance] is, but from the point of view of relativity (paratantra) it is not; owing to perversion, what is discriminated is grasped [as real]; in the relativity there is no discrimination.
184. Multitudinousness of differentiations is imagined [as real by the ignorant], but being like Māyā they obtain not; varieties of individual forms are discriminated as such, but they [really] do not obtain.
185. [To imagine] individual forms is wrong, it puts one in bondage; they are born of Mind due to the false imagination of the ignorant; based on the relativity they are discriminated.
186. The existence thus subjected to discrimination is no other than its relativity aspect; (131) the false imagination is of various forms; based on the relativity, discrimination is carried on.

It is repetitive, to be sure, no doubt giving its heritage as a teaching text, but the point does indeed bear repeating...living in nonduality or nondiscrmination in all our activities is the point here.

Finally, in LVI...

Further, Mahāmati said: Pray tell me, Blessed One, about the one vehicle that characterises the inner realisation of noble wisdom, whereby, Blessed One, I and other Bodhisattva-Mahāsattvas, becoming conversant with the one vehicle which marks the inner attainment of noble wisdom, may be established without depending on anybody else in the teaching of the Buddha.
Said the Blessed One: Then, Mahāmati, listen well and reflect within yourself as I tell you.
Mahāmati the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva said, Yes, I will, Blessed One; and gave ear to the Blessed One.
Thereupon the Blessed One said: In accordance with the authoritative teachings in which there are no discriminations, Mahāmati, let the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva retire by himself to a quiet secluded place, where he may reflect within himself, not relying on anybody else, but by means of his own inner intelligence, in order to discard erroneous views and discriminations, make successive advances and exert himself to finally enter upon the stage of Tathagatahood. This, Mahāmati, is the characteristic feature of the inner realisation to be gained by means of noble wisdom.
What characterises the way of the one vehicle? I call it the one vehicle because thereby one recognises and realises the path leading to the one vehicle. How is this path of the one vehicle to be recognised and realised? The recognition of the one vehicle is obtained when there is no rising of discrimination by doing away with the notion of grasped and grasping and by abiding in the reality of suchness (yathābhūta). Mahāmati, this recognition of the one vehicle,  except by the Tathagata himself, has never been obtained before by anybody else—the philosophers, Śrāvakas, Pratyekabuddhas, Brahmans, etc. For this reason, Mahāmati, this is known as the one vehicle...

There is really no establishment of various vehicles, and so I speak of the one vehicle; but in order to carry the ignorant I talk of a variety of vehicles.

So the Lankavatara sutra text too, is skillful means, so that all can move through life, I'd say.

The Buddha on PBS: Another Tiger Woods?

Barbara O'Brien brings to my attention the fact that (which I'd already heard, but not yet this morning) that PBS will have a program on about the Buddha. The phrase "narrated by Richard Gere" stands out...

Hear insights into the ancient narrative by contemporary Buddhists, including Pulitzer Prize winning poet W.S. Merwin and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Join into the conversation and learn more about meditation, the history of Buddhism, and how incorporate the Buddha’s teachings on compassion and mindfulness into daily life.

I think on the whole this is a good thing; don't get me wrong. But it's just a small subset of the flavors of Buddhism they're talking about, just as it seems they will only be talking about one Buddha, a very important one to be sure, but to me this just seems a bit like a Larry King version of Buddhism; not the real thing.

The real thing involves your dishes, your boss and co-workers, your commute, how much food you eat and what kind of food, and countless other engagements in the course of your life, with your presence.


And despite all of that  you can bet this will still be lambasted by the religious right.

Lankavatara Sutra Chapter 2, Section LIV

As usual, I'm using the translation here, and as usual, I'm not one who has been given a decoder ring.

Getting rid of discriminations - or, removing attachments to various phenomena is a key goal for Buddhists.

The key point of this chapter could be summed up to be this:

What are the various features of the false imagination, Mahāmati? They are the discriminations as regards (1) words (abhilāpa), (2) meaning, (3) individual marks, (4) property, (5) self-nature, (6) cause, (7) philosophical views, (8) reasoning, (9) birth, (10) no-birth, (11) dependence, and (12) bondage and emancipation. These, Mahāmati, are the various features of the false imagination. 

 A bit of expansion on a couple of them though would be in order: regarding self-nature, it is clear here the discrimination with regard to self-nature is: "This is just it, and there is no other."  It can't be put in a box (and it can't not be put in a box!)

When we chant  Buddha-nature pervades the whole universe...we're not kidding.

One more bit here:

What is the discrimination of birth? It means getting attached to the notion that things come into existence and go out of it according to causation.

What is the discrimination of no-birth? It is to discriminate that all things are from the beginning unborn, that the causeless substances which were not, come into existence by reason of causation.

 This relentless viewpoint of non-duality is naturally self-referential, in that this text is not "outside" the system - even though it is!

But the really really really key point here (I know, I keep saying that), is that when one acts according to these concepts, when one truly is acting from a stance of non-duality, then one can be said to be transcending the nasty stuff.

The Dalai Lama crosses a line...

The office of the Dalai Lama still has not responded to my e-mail, and that silence, to me at least, is thunderous.  But this week, the Dalai Lama still kept up his verbal attacks on Chinese:

The Dalai Lama blasted Chinese authorities Wednesday, accusing them of trying to "annihilate Buddhism" in Tibet as he commemorated a failed uprising against China's rule over the region.

The Tibetan spiritual leader's angry comments appeared to signal his frustration with fruitless efforts to negotiate a compromise with China. However, he said he would not abandon talks...

In his annual address from exile in India to mark the 51st anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against China, the Dalai Lama said Chinese authorities were conducting a campaign of "patriotic re-education" in monasteries in Tibet.

"They are putting the monks and nuns in prison-like conditions, depriving them the opportunity to study and practice in peace," he said, accusing Chinese of working to "deliberately annihilate Buddhism." 

This is clearly false, as I've said before on this blog. I've seen it myself.  I've talked to Chinese Buddhists and Christians.  I've heard the Panchen Lama problem discussed openly in Beijing.  The Dalai Lama may not like the fact that as he ages, his relevance as a political leader is fading, despite what he says, which does seem to be what the government thinks too.  More to the point, he may be angry that his control over religion is being attenuated.

Meanwhile, here's an example  of how badly religion is being "suppressed" in China. Clearly those Tibetans want to be there to view the Panchen Lama.

Now I'm not saying there's quite a bit of bad feelings around Tibet today. But I am saying that there's a bit too much misinformation in the US about this subject, and American Buddhists should be more critical in their ingestion of other people's narratives about this subject. It's far more complicated than you're getting from the Dalai Lama.

Meanwhile, with MY day...

I'm trying to get a lot in this week; there's lots of housekeeping work to do at work, lots of interesting work to do at work, (both inform each other!) and I'm still trying, for health reasons, to get to a weight that actually improves my health a bit. Although, technically, I'm of normal weight (actually, more than 3/4 of all men my age & height weigh more) , certain leading indicators aren't where the doctor or I would like them to be.

So, in addition to hitting the gym twice a week, I've been swimming, something I haven't done since I was a kid.

And I forgot the sheer joy of splashing water around.

You can read in all kinds of places about how swimming's good for you, how it's strange compared to out-of-water aerobic activities, etc.

I just wanted to mention here that it's an interesting way to practice mindfulness in a sort of quasi-Tai Chi like way as you go propelling yourself through the water; it's a medium where you can actually synchronize deep breathing with fluidic motion.

That's all for today; as I said, I'm busy & running late...

Lankavatara Sutra Chapter 2, Section LIII

As usual, I'm using the translation here, and as usual, I'm not one who has been given a decoder ring.

This section - as is the others before it, I might add, is best explained by appeal to Suzuki's introductory exposition of Buddhist psychology in the Lankavatara...

What may be termed Buddhist psychology in the Lanka consists in the analysis of mind, that is, in the classification of the Vijnanas. To understand thus the psychology of Buddhism properly the knowledge of these terms is necessary: citta, manas, vijnana, manovijnana, and alayavijnana.
To begin with Vijnana. Vijnana is composed of the prefix vi, meaning "to divide", and the root jna which means "to perceive", "to know". Thus, Vijnana is the faculty of distinguishing or discerning or judging. When an object is presented before the eye, it is perceived and judged as a red apple or a piece of white linen; the faculty of doing this is called eye-vijnana. In the same way, there are ear-vijnana for sound, nose-vijnana for odour, tongue-vijnana for taste, body-vijnana for touch, and thought-vijnana (manovijnana) for ideas—altogether six forms of Vijnana for distinguishing the various aspects of world external or internal.
Of these six Vijnanas, the Manojivnana is the most important as it is directly related to an inner faculty known as Manas. Manas roughly corresponds to mind as an organ of thought, but in fact it is more than that, for it is also a strong power of attaching itself to the result of thinking. The latter may even be considered subordinate to this power of attachment. The Manas first wills, then it discriminates to judge; to judge is to divide, and this dividing ends in viewing existence dualistically. Hence the Manas' tenacious attachment to the dualistic interpretation of existence. Willing and thinking are inextricably woven into the texture of Manas.
Citta comes from the root cit, "to think", but in the Lanka the derivation is made from the root ci, "to pile up", "to arrange in order". The Citta is thus a storehouse where the seeds of all thoughts and deeds are accumulated and stored up. The Citta, however, has a double sense, general and specific. When it is used in the general sense it means "mind", "mentation", "ideas", including the activities of Manas and Manovijnana, and also of the Vijnanas; while specifically it is a synonym of Alayavijnana in its relative aspects, and distinguishable from all the rest of the mental faculties. When, however, it is used in the form of Citta-matra, Mind-only, it acquires still another connotation. We can say that Citta appears here in its highest possible sense, for it is then neither simply mentation nor intellection, nor perception as a function of consciousness. It is identifiable with the Alaya in its absolute aspect. This will become clearer later on.
Alayavijnana is alaya+vijnana, and alaya is a store where things are hoarded for future use. The Citta as a cumulative faculty is thus identified with the Alayavijnana. Strictly speaking, the Alaya is not a Vijnana, has no discerning power in it; it indiscriminately harbours all that is poured into it through the channel of the Vijnanas. The Alaya is perfectly neutral, indifferent, and does not offer to give judgments.

 So therefore the Buddha says in this bit:

With the Manovijñāna as cause and supporter, Mahāmati, there rise the seven Vijñanas. Again, Mahāmati, the Manovijñāna is kept functioning, as it discerns a world of objects and becomes attached to it, and by means of manifold habit-energy [or memory]  it nourishes the Ālayavijñāna. The Manas is evolved along with the notion of an ego and its belongings, to which it clings and on which it reflects. It has no body of its own, nor its own marks; the Ālayavijñāna is its cause and support. Because the world which is the Mind itself is imagined real and attached to as such, the whole psychic system evolves mutually conditioning. Like the waves of the ocean, Mahāmati, the world which is the mind-manifested, is stirred up by the wind of objectivity, it evolves and dissolves. Thus, Mahāmati, when the Manovijñāna is got rid of, the seven Vijñānas are also got rid of.

 Attachments are that which takes place within our awareness, including the desire to be rid of attachments - this desire too is a phenomenon of Mind itself which is imagined as real.

The trick is to care, or not care, as is appropriate...or, as someone said, to care, but not that much...

Not much to really go into today...

Rather than get all philosophical, I'll just post my random observations of minor random stuff from the myriad things:

• The Pope's brother was involved in the culture of physical abuse rampant in the Catholic school system a few decades ago. I was there too.
• Google has an SMS app. This would come in handy in China if, well, you know, Google worked in China.
• The Dalai Lama denies any desire for political aspirations That is, he denies any political aspirations once his, uh political aspirations are met.
• The minute I'd heard this stuff about Eric Massa a miniature Jerry Seinfeld went off in my consciousness saying, "Yep. He's a groper."
• Canadian 15 year old students have the equivalent of a year more education at the same age than their American counterparts from the United States.
• Carbon nanotubes can burn. What's not to like?
• There's only one Corey now. Hopefully that's a warning to that Garrett guy.
• I bet you completely missed the story of the nude First Nations Conservative politician's nude romp. The man, Brendan William Cross, seems to be this guy on Facebook. Amazing what the current generation of the internet can do; it used to be that the first generation internet only allowed such people outlets like this.

On Sex and Religion

On P.Z. Meyers' post on the Smut for Smut exchange, I have some observations and qualifiers...

• I have no problem with his basic point; which is, the Christian Bible can easily be read as fostering greed, hatred, and ignorance. It is not the only way to read this book though; there are ways of reading that book, as Isaac Azimov did in his guide to the bible, that are more historically accurate. King Josiah, in such a reading, was a religious bigot whose behavior eventually brought down his kingdom.
• But a very vocal group of people today argue for a less wise reading of this book, which to me would on its own justify its exchange for non-exploitative pornography, if there can be such a thing.
• I'm not certain there is such a thing as non-exploitative pornography. On a one perspective, what is valuable in participants in this activity remains what it is, but on another view, precious time has been taken in their lives, at the very least. I suppose if two people loved each other, and it was their choice to make public what most folks want to do in private...
• But I would say the overwhelming, overwhelming rule in the porn world is that it is exploitative, and we ourselves continue this by creating and sustaining a world in which people are driven to this out of economic desperation and exploitation and coercion.
• Meyers asks, "How does [exchange of bibles for porn] denigrate religion, unless you're assuming that sexuality is a sin, a corruption, a filthy offense to the gods?" I agree; if your religion is big enough, even the thought of porn should be drive you back into your practice. But of course there are people who assume that their religion is "over there" away from themselves!
  

P.S. The above right picture is in one of Philip Kapleau's books, and in that book he talks about the nonduality of Bodhidharma (a.k.a. "daruma" in Japanese) and prostitute (also commonly called a "daruma.") What Kapleau doesn't say is that prostitutes care more likely called "darumas" because they "fall down and get up," rather than the Japanese have some deep profound insight in the deeply holy ladies of the evening.

Think about it.

P.P.S. Also consider the Zennist's post re: Mara. Even that being is to be liberated.

Actually, you can get really profound from P.Z. Meyer's "Sunday Sacrilege"

And I think I will do so with his latest post.

Just not now; I'm running way late today.

To go a bit deeper on Leonard Cohen & the Flower Adornment Sutra & not being homicidal to each other

Expanding a bit on what I said here, in the video referred to in the recent post on Ox Herding (the video is here), what Leonard Cohen seems to be talking about is Sasaki Roshi's ability to be nondiscriminating in person-to-person dealings, "accepting each other the way a river accepts each drop of rain that falls into it."

I especially think that because of Cohen's describing Sasaki Roshi's behavior as either deeply caring or not caring - and Cohen could not figure out which it was.


Similarly the Zennist refers to A.K. Warden's description of Suddhana in Suddhana's travels on the Way...

Mañjursri is the first of Suddhana's good friends, and having instructed him he directs him to another friend [mitra], a monk. By attending on one friend after another Suddhana will gradually increase his knowledge and understanding and learn to practice various kinds of meditation in which they are proficient. The friends are bodhisattvas whether they are monks (few are) or laymen and whatever their professions. Altogether Suddhana attends 52 good friends, traveling all over India in order to find them but with a preference for the South. All classes of society are represented among them and a few are gods. One is a slave and most of the others follow a variety of ordinary worldly occupations, the pursuit of some of which is in fact praised in this sutra as a form of well doing. It is noteworthy that 20 our of the 52 friends are women (or goddesses)

The Zennist remarks:

Underlying this marvelous chapter, and for that matter the Avatamsaka Sutra, itself, is the realization that our phenomenal universe is a manifestation of the One Mind (ekacittântaragatadharmaloka). But more importantly, from the perspective of a Buddha, things are foremost simply configurations of the absolute, like golden objects are only configurations of gold, to use an apt analogy. This is not so with the mind of non-Buddhas. The universe appears to them to be made up of coarse and fine things—from galaxies to ordinary thoughts. Unlike a Buddha or a Bodhisattva, the ordinary person does not comprehend the One Mind. More to the point, the ordinary person is incapable of seeing the absolute substance or matrix (garbha) from which all things arise and disappear again and again. But a Buddha does.

These "ordinary people" Suddhana met were bodhisattvas.

So are the ones you meet, if you can, as the Zennist says, successfully remove the delusion of non-enlightenment.

And if the ones you meet are bodhisattvas, that means, well, you treat them as such.

And yourself too.

And yes, you can even learn something from Genpo Roshi, or 12 Step Buddhists, or George W. Bush, or anyone else, provided you approach them with a non-discriminating mind, so that you can "see it all," so to speak.

And with that in mind, maybe, just maybe, you can avoid saying stupid things that start spats, arguments, and nuclear wars. And, by the way, that's why I have a problem with Gniz's post on "moralizing in Zen culture," because if used we Buddhists have tools that, while not exclusive to our tradition, do enable the promotion of the better over the worse.

At least that's how I put these bits together, and of course, that's just my humble view, not certified by anyone.

Your mileage might vary.

The NY Times Writes Some Truth about Scientology

I can imagine the blowback the folks in Clearwater, FLA are going to do to the Times for this story...

Raised as Scientologists, Christie King Collbran and her husband, Chris, were recruited as teenagers to work for the elite corps of staff members who keep the Church of Scientology running, known as the Sea Organization, or Sea Org.

Raised as Scientologists, Christie King Collbran and her husband, Chris, were recruited as teenagers to work for the elite corps of staff members who keep the Church of Scientology running, known as the Sea Organization, or Sea Org.

But after 13 years and growing disillusionment, the Collbrans decided to leave the Sea Org, setting off on a Kafkaesque journey that they said required them to sign false confessions about their personal lives and their work, pay the church thousands of dollars it said they owed for courses and counseling, and accept the consequences as their parents, siblings and friends who are church members cut off all communication with them...

The defectors say that the average Scientology member, known in the church as a public, is largely unaware of the abusive environment experienced by staff members. The church works hard to cultivate public members — especially celebrities like Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Nancy Cartwright (the voice of the cartoon scoundrel Bart Simpson) — whose money keeps it running...

Marty Rathbun, who was once Mr. Miscavige’s top lieutenant, is now one of the church’s top detractors. The churches used to be busy places where members socialized and invited curious visitors to give Scientology a try, he said, but now the church is installing touch-screen displays so it can introduce visitors to Scientology with little need for Scientologists on site.

“That’s the difference between the old Scientology and the new: the brave new Scientology is all these beautiful buildings and real estate and no people,” said Mr. Rathbun, who is among several former top executives quoted by The St. Petersburg Times in a series of articles last year about the church’s reported mistreatment of staff members.

This is a group that is clearly problematic, and if this group shuts down it would not be much of a loss to humanity.

A "New" Temple in Town

Well, new to me. Hui Lin Temple (慧霖寺) is a Chinese-rooted Tibetan Buddhist temple.   It's the best, most important Chinese-rooted Tibetan Buddhist temple I've ever seen located across the street from a drag-queen entertainment-based restaurant and  nightclub.  That means there's some incredible focus  of the sacred and...uh...not quite mundane located right near Chinatown in Portland.  They've actually been in Portland for 3 or 4 years, but this is the first time I've actually noticed, seen and been inside this temple despite having been on this street a few weeks ago (it's right down the street from the Portland Chinese Garden).

I'm very happy they are here, and am glad they are adding yet another flavor to the rich mixture of Buddhism in Portland, OR.  I am eager to discuss with them their apprehension of the Buddhadharma, and how it compares to my tradition.

I also  plan to ask them about the question I'd posed the other day on this blog, re: the Panchen Lama.  By the way I've gotten no response from Dharmsala on my question about how the Dalai Lama feels about the current Chinese-chosen Panchen Lama. Just crickets chirping.  To me, answering that question should have been a no-brainer.

But let the record show that the official voice of the Dalai Lama, when queried, has so far remained silent on this subject.

The Religious Right Gets Repugnant in Amaraillo Texas

Think Progress has news of what can only be called a Christian hate group.

An evangelical Christian hate group called “Repent Amarillo” is reportedly terrorizing the town of Amarillo, Texas. Repent fashions itself as a sort of militia and targets a wide range of community members they deem offensive to their theology: gays, liberal Christians, Muslims, environmentalists, breast cancer events that do not highlight abortion, Halloween, “spring break events,” and pornography shops. On its website, Repent has posted a “Warfare Map” of its enemies in town.

And they don't like Buddhists one bit. If you look at the map in the link, for example, at the green push-pin in the upper right hand corner they've "targeted" Wat Lao Buddharam as a place where they have identified as having "idol worship" and a "false god."

And if you read their "Mission" page clearly they think it's within their "mission" to harass non-Christians, and that includes Buddhists.

I hope people of all religions and non-religions can join together to help expose this group for what it is.

The justaposition of other people's blog entries is illuminating...

The Zennist's post about overcoming the delusion of non-enlightenment is interesting to read in consideration of Leonard Cohen's discussion about Sasaki Roshi: Cohen was deeply appreciative of the fact that Sasaki Roshi deeply cared or "didn't care" about him.

I think that what was the situation was the externals were not that important to Sasaki Roshi.

Regarding the Panchen Lama

CNN reports on the rise in prominence of the Chinese-chosen 11th Panchen Lama, Gyancain Norbu:

Born Gyancain Norbu, he was handpicked by the Chinese government as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama and has largely lived in seclusion in Beijing, tutored by Tibetan and Chinese mentors.

He now is being positioned as the representative of Tibetan Buddhism.

Last month, he was elected vice president of the Buddhist Association of China and at its recent conference, he said he "would uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China, adhere to socialism, safeguard national reunification, strengthen ethnic unity and expand Buddhist exchanges on the basis of adherence to law and love for the nation and Buddhism," the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Comments like those further fueled questions of his legitimacy among Tibetans. The Dalai Lama's Web site says the Chinese-named Panchen Lama is "spurned" by most Tibetans.

The Dalai Lama, sent into exile in India after an aborted rebellion against Chinese rule, says he would like to see greater autonomy for the Tibetan people. But Beijing considers him a separatist.

In 1995, the Dalai Lama anointed another boy of the same age as Norbu, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, as the latest reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. But he disappeared shortly afterwards.

Suspicions that the boy had been kidnapped were heightened in May 1996 when the Chinese leadership admitted to holding him and his family in "protective custody." Pro-Tibet groups labeled him as the world's youngest political prisoner.

China Tibet Online says:

Living Buddhas of Tibetan Buddhism attending the 3rd Session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political and Consultative Conference said the 11th Panchen Lama's new membership in the National Committee of CPPCC was a great honor not only for himself but also for the whole Tibetan Buddhism circle.

The 11th Panchen Lama Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu was among 13 people who on Feb. 28, 2010 became new members of the National Committee of CPPCC, the country's top advisory body.

Dupkang Tupden Kedup, head of the Tibet Branch of the Buddhist Association of China as well as a member of CPPCC, said the 11th Panchen Lama was well educated in religious knowledge and "had demeanour of a senior living Buddha".

"He asked me many questions. Through his words, I can see a very knowledgable living Buddha both in religious and social aspects," Shinza Tenzin Choeta, who once contacted with the 11th Panchen in 2005, believed that he would become an outstanding religious leader in the future.

"He can speak Chinese and Tibetan languages and is also very good at English." The 11th Panchen Lama impressed people with his fluent English at the Second World Buddhist Forum held on Mar. 28, 2008, in Wuxi, east China's Jiangsu Province.

It would not surprise me if the Chinese-chosen 11th Panchen Lama is indeed very knowledgeable of the Dharma as well as an able practitioner. There are many serious Buddhist clergy in China; and this fact tends to be overlooked in the West where issues of the past regarding China and Tibet often veer into racism.

I have written to the office of the Dalai Lama asking him if, as a Buddhist, he would say he still thinks most Tibetans "spurn" the Chinese-chosen 11th Panchen Lama. Of course how he knew most Tibetans think, or how he thinks he could speak for them reminds me of Republican politicians claiming they know what "Americans" think. I'll publish any reply.

I'll also try to contact the Chinese-chosen 11th Panchen Lama.

A Marine You Never Heard of Gives Swimming Lessons

For what purpose are you using the internet?

Remember Michael Moore's "Roger and Me?"

Everything old is new again: Rabbits are the new chickens.

Barbara O'Brien is correct re: Brian Daizen Victoria and Zen at War

Though I wish Brit Hume wasn't anywhere to be read...

In Zen at War, Daizen, an ordained Soto Zen priest, documented that in the Japanese Buddhist establishment of the 1930s and 1940s there was strong support, especially in Zen, for Japanese warmaking. He traced the old connections between Zen and Samurai warrior culture in feudal Japan. Daizen also provided quotes from 19th and 20th century Zen monks and teachers that seem to say Zen approves of the slaughter of war.

For example, a prominent and revered master, Sawaki Kodo (1880-1965), is portrayed as an enthusiastic war proponent. Master Sakaki, who served as a soldier in the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1995, is quoted as saying he and his fellow soldiers "gorged ourselves on killing people." Please note, however, that some scholars are stepping forward to say Sawaki Kodo was misquoted, and I'll come back to this in a minute.

When Zen at War was first published in 1997, American Zen teachers openly acknowledged it, talked about it, and encouraged students to read it. This was true even of teachers who were lineage holders of some of the Japanese masters portrayed as pro-war. I didn't see anyone try to excuse or sugar-coat Daizen's portrayal of Japanese Zen.

Nobody ever tried to deny this stuff in my experience. Now I've read the criticisms by Warner and Cohen, and I think they've got a point, too especially given my reading of the Japanese text in question, but the reality is, this stuff is bound up in the militarist cultural history of Japan, rightly or wrongly.

Eventually though, what we do is influenced by those who came before, and intimately permeated by it, but it is we who still sign on the dotted line.

Lankavatara Sutra Chapter 2, Section LII

As usual, I'm using the translation here, and as usual, I'm not one who has been given a decoder ring.

The five skandhas are form, sensation, thought, conformation, and consciousness. Form has a material form; the other skandhas do not. Form is made from the "four" elements; the other skandhas are not ultimately logically able to be characterized. Furthermore,

by the wise the five Skandhas are regarded as thought-constructions, devoid of [dualisties such as] otherness and not-otherness; for they are like varieties of forms and objects in a vision, like images and persons in a dream. As they have no better substance for their support, and as they obstruct the passage of noble wisdom, there is what is known as the Skandha-discrimination.

I'll have two more posts from this chapter; one on sections LIII & LIV and one on LVI.

And, regarding Bill Maher's take on Buddhism...

From here,

Craving for things outside ourselves is what makes life life - I don't want to learn to not want, that's what people in prison have to do. Buddhism teaches suffering is inevitable. The only thing that's inevitable is that if you have fake boobs and hair extensions, Tiger Woods will try to $%^*& you.

I can only say, with politeness, no dummy, finding out that the pony you didn't get meant you had a millisecond to realize that dammit, you're alive and you don't need anything other than what is right here, right now, and that's damned infinite in and of itself is what life is about.

Maher's mileage, and yours, may vary, but that needed saying, I think.

HT: Worst Horse

Depression: The First Noble Truth Gives Rise to the Other Three

And yes, it's noble because it's empty. And because practice is involved. And that's good context for this article on depression in the NY Times Magazine.

This radical idea — the scientists were suggesting that depressive disorder came with a net mental benefit — has a long intellectual history. Aristotle was there first, stating in the fourth century B.C. “that all men who have attained excellence in philosophy, in poetry, in art and in politics, even Socrates and Plato, had a melancholic habitus; indeed some suffered even from melancholic disease.” This belief was revived during the Renaissance, leading Milton to exclaim, in his poem “Il Penseroso”: “Hail divinest Melancholy/Whose saintly visage is too bright/To hit the sense of human sight.” The Romantic poets took the veneration of sadness to its logical extreme and described suffering as a prerequisite for the literary life. As Keats wrote, “Do you not see how necessary a World of Pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?”

But Andrews and Thomson weren’t interested in ancient aphorisms or poetic apologias. Their daunting challenge was to show how rumination might lead to improved outcomes, especially when it comes to solving life’s most difficult dilemmas. Their first speculations focused on the core features of depression, like the inability of depressed subjects to experience pleasure or their lack of interest in food, sex and social interactions. According to Andrews and Thomson, these awful symptoms came with a productive side effect, because they reduced the possibility of becoming distracted from the pressing problem.

The capacity for intense focus, they note, relies in large part on a brain area called the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), which is located a few inches behind the forehead. While this area has been associated with a wide variety of mental talents, like conceptual knowledge and verb conjugation, it seems to be especially important for maintaining attention. Experiments show that neurons in the VLPFC must fire continuously to keep us on task so that we don’t become sidetracked by irrelevant information. Furthermore, deficits in the VLPFC have been associated with attention-deficit disorder.

Several studies found an increase in brain activity (as measured indirectly by blood flow) in the VLPFC of depressed patients. Most recently, a paper to be published next month by neuroscientists in China found a spike in “functional connectivity” between the lateral prefrontal cortex and other parts of the brain in depressed patients, with more severe depressions leading to more prefrontal activity. One explanation for this finding is that the hyperactive VLPFC underlies rumination, allowing people to stay focused on their problem. (Andrews and Thomson argue that this relentless fixation also explains the cognitive deficits of depressed subjects, as they are too busy thinking about their real-life problems to bother with an artificial lab exercise; their VLPFC can’t be bothered to care.) Human attention is a scarce resource — the neural effects of depression make sure the resource is efficiently allocated.

But the reliance on the VLPFC doesn’t just lead us to fixate on our depressing situation; it also leads to an extremely analytical style of thinking. That’s because rumination is largely rooted in working memory, a kind of mental scratchpad that allows us to “work” with all the information stuck in consciousness. When people rely on working memory — and it doesn’t matter if they’re doing long division or contemplating a relationship gone wrong — they tend to think in a more deliberate fashion, breaking down their complex problems into their simpler parts.

The bad news is that this deliberate thought process is slow, tiresome and prone to distraction; the prefrontal cortex soon grows exhausted and gives out. Andrews and Thomson see depression as a way of bolstering our feeble analytical skills, making it easier to pay continuous attention to a difficult dilemma. The downcast mood and activation of the VLPFC are part of a “coordinated system” that, Andrews and Thomson say, exists “for the specific purpose of effectively analyzing the complex life problem that triggered the depression.” If depression didn’t exist — if we didn’t react to stress and trauma with endless ruminations — then we would be less likely to solve our predicaments. Wisdom isn’t cheap, and we pay for it with pain.

There is a caveat to this, though:

Andrews and Thomson respond to such criticisms by acknowledging that depression is a vast continuum, a catch-all term for a spectrum of symptoms. While the analytic-rumination hypothesis might explain those patients reacting to an “acute stressor,” it can’t account for those whose suffering has no discernible cause or whose sadness refuses to lift for years at a time. “To say that depression can be useful doesn’t mean it’s always going to be useful,” Thomson says. “Sometimes, the symptoms can spiral out of control. The problem, though, is that as a society, we’ve come to see depression as something that must always be avoided or medicated away. We’ve been so eager to remove the stigma from depression that we’ve ended up stigmatizing sadness.”

For Thomson, this new theory of depression has directly affected his medical practice. “That’s the litmus test for me,” he says. “Do these ideas help me treat my patients better?” In recent years, Thomson has cut back on antidepressant prescriptions, because, he says, he now believes that the drugs can sometimes interfere with genuine recovery, making it harder for people to resolve their social dilemmas. “I remember one patient who came in and said she needed to reduce her dosage,” he says. “I asked her if the antidepressants were working, and she said something I’ll never forget. ‘Yes, they’re working great,’ she told me. ‘I feel so much better. But I’m still married to the same alcoholic son of a bitch. It’s just now he’s tolerable.’ ”

The point is the woman was depressed for a reason; her pain was about something. While the drugs made her feel better, no real progress was ever made. Thomson’s skepticism about antidepressants is bolstered by recent studies questioning their benefits, at least for patients with moderate depression. Consider a 2005 paper led by Steven Hollon, a psychologist at Vanderbilt University: he found that people on antidepressants had a 76 percent chance of relapse within a year when the drugs were discontinued. In contrast, patients given a form of cognitive talk therapy had a relapse rate of 31 percent. And Hollon’s data aren’t unusual: several studies found that patients treated with medication were approximately twice as likely to relapse as patients treated with cognitive behavior therapy...

Sorry Brad Warner, you can't hold a candle, as they say, to Robert Burns

Amazing - That song's over 200 years old, according to Eddi Reader (get her version on iTunes), and attrubed by her to Robert Burns.

ENOUGH with Tiger Woods Already!

What do Buddhists think of Tiger Woods' apology?

Why oh why is that important?

The only thing that's less important to me, except for the schadenfreude factor, is the drama at the Washington Post over a recent Sally Quinn column (check out the comments - twenty years ago somebody like Quinn would have gotten away with such Marie Antoinnette-like detachment from society but now...)

Yet another Japanese Zen guy in the Japanese news...

With a bit of wisdom...

When you see the real thing, grab it, because there'll never be a second chance. Jewels or people, it's the same. I met the violinist Shinichi Suzuki (founder of the Suzuki method) one day. He was already in his late 90s then. I never played any instrument but this man had such charisma that I had to be near him. That night I went home, packed up my family and we moved to Nagano where Suzuki was teaching. My wife and daughters took lessons but I just hung out with him as much as I could. It's not the technique or music that we got from him, but the feeling for beauty in everything.

Back home (actually as of Saturday)

Still sort of decompressing. Watch this space, as they say.

Traveling next 3 days...

Off to Japan.

In the meantime, enjoy this picture of the local Chinese temple.

I've a new respect for Chinese Pop music

I never realized you could turn this:



into this:



P.S., Kangding has nothing really in particular to do with semi-naked people.

Lankavatara Sutra Chapter 2, Section XLIII

As usual I'm using this translation.

Mahāmati asks the Buddha about where does he pronounce sound to be eternal, and the response begins with the notion that our taking this world as "what it is" is fraught with distortion.

As much of the text in subsequent sections is a variety of ways of re-telling and positing the "not one, not two or more" nature of non-duality, I'm going to skip the text until about section LII, and pick it up later there.

"Power" and the Business World and Zen

Most people in the workaday world have no idea how much "power" "they" actually have in the workplace. Because of conditioning, and the encrusting of cultural mores and beliefs, it may be possible to forget that our original nature allows us to move wherever we need to in the world "as though it were our own playground."

Of course, pursuing this "power" for its own sake is a fool's game, and this "power" can only be effective when it is exercised consciously in harmony with Mind itself, in the midst of and with the cooperation of the myriad things. In the business world that means being mindful of all stakeholders's stakes, and mindfully approaching all conditions and situations with compassion, wisdom, and generosity whenever possible.

I've been rather busy at work, as posts from the past few days demonstrate, but because of a fortuitous confluence of my actions and thoughts and deeds, those around me, as well as I have had some benefits coming from all the hustle and bustle.

But part of those actions involved a redoubled effort and mindfulness in the workplace. And I can tell you that this pays dividends far beyond what you might possibly imagine.

I came across this interview in the NY Times the other day with management guru George Cloutier. His schtick is obvious to those who have had to deal with such insufferable folk.

Q. You tell business owners to forget about being likable. Is there something wrong with employees liking you?

A. You have to treat your people with respect. If they have a personal problem, you have to help them through it. You have to follow the law. But we also need to get things done as asked. The abandonment of that principle is a large factor in the failure of small businesses to achieve real profitability.

Q. Do business owners coddle their people too much?

A. The concept that if you love your employees they’ll perform is on the edge of insanity. It’s not that you want to hurt your employees, but you have a mission. You’re paid to produce results.

Q. Can your employees talk back to you or say, “Sorry, boss, but that’s a stupid idea?”

A. We actually did a survey around Christmas of their attitudes toward the company. Two-thirds of them thought the company was changing for the better. We let them write any comments they had. One guy that worked for me for 10 years wrote, “If I fell dead at my desk, George wouldn’t notice for two days.” Sure, we let them talk back. We like to listen, but you can only listen so much and then you have to make a choice.

Q. What’s your view of fear as a management tool?

A. Fear is the best motivator.

Q. Are you a tyrant?

A. I’m sure many people would view me as difficult. If I ask you to do something and you say, “Geez, I don’t have enough time to do that.” Well, maybe I don’t have enough time to sign your check this week.

I fully agree with the first point: Trying to curry likability is a disastrous way to run an organization. But the other points are absurd.

People will not do what they cannot do. Fear is well known to be the worst motivator, and the unconscious mind of the workplace will sabotage the tyrant every friggin' time. Fear is a motivator? Yeah, follow in the footsteps of Chainsaw Al, and see how far it gets you.

And if you don't take the time to really listen when you listen, instead of paying lip service to it, without judgment, or opinion forming or interruption, you're not really there.

Want super-duper free American management advice from a simple Buddhist layman?

Practice active listening in your next meeting.

Cloutier of course gets his money from people who want to pay him money to reassure themselves that their atavistic management methods are good for them, and no doubt will drive many people and companies to anguish over his advice.

Meanwhile, whatever the circumstances, you can create an island of quenched fires and still meet deadlines, get deliverables delivered, and help all advance further in life and career.

Busy busy busy...

And meanwhile, some developer disabled fundamental functions of Firefox.

Scary...

Every now and then it's good to look around and see the social aspects of how we live. And in regard to that, the recession hasn't been good to us or the younger generation...

Over the past two generations, particularly among many college grads, the 20s have become a sort of netherworld between adolescence and adulthood. Job-switching is common, and with it, periods of voluntary, transitional unemployment. And as marriage and parenthood have receded farther into the future, the first years after college have become, arguably, more carefree. In this recession, the term funemployment has gained some currency among single 20-somethings, prompting a small raft of youth-culture stories in the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Weekly, on Gawker, and in other venues.

Most of the people interviewed in these stories seem merely to be trying to stay positive and make the best of a bad situation. They note that it’s a good time to reevaluate career choices; that since joblessness is now so common among their peers, it has lost much of its stigma; and that since they don’t have mortgages or kids, they have flexibility, and in this respect, they are lucky. All of this sounds sensible enough—it is intuitive to think that youth will be spared the worst of the recession’s scars.

But in fact a whole generation of young adults is likely to see its life chances permanently diminished by this recession. Lisa Kahn, an economist at Yale, has studied the impact of recessions on the lifetime earnings of young workers. In one recent study, she followed the career paths of white men who graduated from college between 1979 and 1989. She found that, all else equal, for every one-percentage-point increase in the national unemployment rate, the starting income of new graduates fell by as much as 7 percent; the unluckiest graduates of the decade, who emerged into the teeth of the 1981–82 recession, made roughly 25 percent less in their first year than graduates who stepped into boom times.

But what’s truly remarkable is the persistence of the earnings gap. Five, 10, 15 years after graduation, after untold promotions and career changes spanning booms and busts, the unlucky graduates never closed the gap. Seventeen years after graduation, those who had entered the workforce during inhospitable times were still earning 10 percent less on average than those who had emerged into a more bountiful climate. When you add up all the earnings losses over the years, Kahn says, it’s as if the lucky graduates had been given a gift of about $100,000, adjusted for inflation, immediately upon graduation—or, alternatively, as if the unlucky ones had been saddled with a debt of the same size.

When Kahn looked more closely at the unlucky graduates at mid-career, she found some surprising characteristics. They were significantly less likely to work in professional occupations or other prestigious spheres. And they clung more tightly to their jobs: average job tenure was unusually long. People who entered the workforce during the recession “didn’t switch jobs as much, and particularly for young workers, that’s how you increase wages,” Kahn told me. This behavior may have resulted from a lingering risk aversion, born of a tough start. But a lack of opportunities may have played a larger role, she said: when you’re forced to start work in a particularly low-level job or unsexy career, it’s easy for other employers to dismiss you as having low potential. Moving up, or moving on to something different and better, becomes more difficult...

Strong evidence suggests that people who don’t find solid roots in the job market within a year or two have a particularly hard time righting themselves. In part, that’s because many of them become different—and damaged—people. Krysia Mossakowski, a sociologist at the University of Miami, has found that in young adults, long bouts of unemployment provoke long-lasting changes in behavior and mental health. “Some people say, ‘Oh, well, they’re young, they’re in and out of the workforce, so unemployment shouldn’t matter much psychologically,’” Mossakowski told me. “But that isn’t true.”

Examining national longitudinal data, Mossakowski has found that people who were unemployed for long periods in their teens or early 20s are far more likely to develop a habit of heavy drinking (five or more drinks in one sitting) by the time they approach middle age. They are also more likely to develop depressive symptoms. Prior drinking behavior and psychological history do not explain these problems—they result from unemployment itself. And the problems are not limited to those who never find steady work; they show up quite strongly as well in people who are later working regularly.

"IGMFU" is a horrendous social policy, and clearly creates more suffering than a bit of all around social compassion.

And, reading further into the article, the culture of "everybody gets a prize" seems to have made many in American culture particularly resistant to being able to go it on their own.

That's frustrating to those who have to manage them, especially those of us who were "thrown into the pool to see if we could swim."

There's cruelty out of deep kindness and there's cruelty out of ignorant greed and hatred.

If ever I need something to remind me of why I'm glad I'm not a Catholic...

The intertubes are only too happy to give me new reasons...

Following the recent revelations that Pope John Paul II engaged in penitential practices including self-flagellation and sleeping on the floor with his arms outstretched...

We may meditate for all hours of the day and night once in a while, but it's not because we have some sado-masochistic undertones to what we do.

MBCT better than antidepressants?

In the midst of some last-minute channel surfing yesterday, I came across some college lecture which was discussing this study.

In a study, published December 1, 2008 in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, MBCT proved as effective as maintenance anti-depressants in preventing a relapse and more effective in enhancing peoples' quality of life. The study also showed MBCT to be as cost-effective as prescription drugs in helping people with a history of depression stay well in the longer-term.
The randomised control trial involved 123 people from urban and rural locations who had suffered repeat depressions and were referred to the trial by their GPs. The participants were split randomly into two groups. Half continued their on-going anti-depressant drug treatment and the rest participated in an MBCT course and were given the option of coming off anti-depressants.
Over the 15 months after the trial, 47% of the group following the MBCT course experienced a relapse compared with 60% of those continuing their normal treatment, including anti-depressant drugs. In addition, the group on the MBCT programme reported a higher quality of life, in terms of their overall enjoyment of daily living and physical well-being.

As should be well known, I'm not a fan of "science proves religion" posts, but this is certainly worth noting.

The 3 Poisons Can Get Have Odd Side Effects

Don't mess up renditions of "My Way" at karaoke bars in the Philippines.

Lankavatara Sutra Chapter 2, Sections XLI and XLII

As usual, this non-teacher is using this translation.

To the Buddha, Mahāmati asks,

The chain of origination as told by the Blessed One depends on a cause producing an effect, and that it is not a theory established on the principle of a self-originating substance. The philosophers also proclaim a causal origination when they say that all things rise conditioned by a supreme spirit, Iśvara, a personal soul, time, or atom. How is it that the rise of all things is explained by the Blessed One in another terminology bearing on causation but in its meaning not different? Blessed One, the philosophers explain birth from being and non-being, while, according to the Blessed One, all things coming into existence from nothingness pass away by causation, that is to say, the Blessed One has Ignorance from which there rises Mental Conformation until we reach Old Age and Death.

And the Buddha replies that his viewpoint...

is not a causeless theory of causation which results in an [endless] interconnection of causes and conditions. I speak of "That being so, this is" because of my seeing into the nature of the external world which is nothing but Self-Mind and because of its unreality of grasped (object) and grasping (subject). However, Mahāmati, when people clinging to the notion of grasped and grasping fail to understand the world as something seen of Mind itself; and, Mahāmati, by them the fault is committed as they recognise the external world as real with its beings and non-beings, but not by my theory of causation.

What then follows in the next chapter is quite, um, sensible, given the sensibilities at the time, however, it is illustrative of the caution one should take in using religious texts as predictors of science...

Mahāmati asks,

[I]s it not because of the reality of words that all things are? If not for words, Blessed One, there would be no rising of things. Hence, Blessed One, the existence of all things is by reason of the reality of words.

And the Buddha replies:

Even when there are no [corresponding] objects there are words, Mahāmati; for instance, the hare's horns, the tortoise's hair, a barren woman's child, etc. —they are not at all visible in the world but the words are; Mahāmati, they are neither entities nor nonentities but expressed in words. If, Mahāmati, you say that because of the reality of words the objects are, this talk lacks in sense. Words are not known in all the Buddha-lands; words, Mahāmati, are an artificial creation. In some Buddha-lands ideas are indicated by looking steadily, in others by gestures, in still others by a frown, by the movement of the eyes, by laughing, by yawning, or by the clearing of the throat, or by recollection, or by trembling.

Interesting, at least to me, is that (obviously) the concept of irrationals was unknown to the writers of this Sutra, which would mean that the converse is true as well, that there are ideas for which there are no words.

But the "big point" of the text is - at least as seen by a guy who has the benefit of having read a bit of 20th century Western philosphy of linguistics- that the correspondence between words and reality is rough at best, and while the phenomenal symbolic representation of existence arises from beings,the phenomenal symbolic representation of existence is not really isomporphic to existence.

That's my take-away. But if you're thinking that you can get "literally true" predictive science here, well, I don't buy that...

Mahāmati, even in this world that in the kingdom of such special beings as ants, bees, etc., they carry on their work without words.

We know that bee dances have "meaning" to bees (and I think ants have a similar mechanism, but I plead ignorance), but given that these folks were not in posession of the scientific method, it's understandable that they would express their observations this way.

Almost end of cold...

Hopefully be back to regular entries soon...

And yet more common cold/busyness practice

Yesterday I had to do something somewhat unpleasant - I had to call somebody working for me on his absent behavior.

It might not be easy for many people to believe, but this can be quite stressful for the manager.

This would not be an issue if the person in question was producing well; we are, after all professionals and are inclined to give a degree of slack. However, this person's basically not very productive, and even though these absences are glaringly apparent to everyone around, and even though everyone else is being short-changed by this person's absence, it is still somewhat stressful to have to confront someone this way, even when you're basically "following the algorithm" that is used specifically for such issues.

In such moments, practicing "just this" as far as the disciplinary procedure is essential- especially when at the same time your more primitive areas of the brain might be suggesting a less civilized response.

Still in Having a Cold and Busyness Practice

With a few other unsavory things I have to do at work.

Unsavory but purely ethical tasks they be.

Having a Cold Practice

Of course, on top of the ridiculous deadlines, here comes the common cold.

Well, it could be worse; it could have visited next week on Thursday.

And, on the subject of recent posts...

If you don't think it's only about alcohol or drugs, and Rimbaud's Matinée d'ivresse can be taken as a...uh...motivational speech...

Matinée d'ivresse

     Ô mon Bien ! Ô mon Beau ! Fanfare atroce où je ne trébuche point ! chevalet féerique ! Hourra pour l'œuvre inouïe et pour le corps merveilleux, pour la première fois ! Cela commença sous les rires des enfants, cela finira par eux. Ce poison va rester dans toutes nos veines même quand, la fanfare tournant, nous serons rendu à l'ancienne inharmonie. Ô maintenant, nous si digne de ces tortures ! rassemblons fervemment cette promesse surhumaine faite à notre corps et à notre âme créés : cette promesse, cette démence ! L'élégance, la science, la violence ! On nous a promis d'enterrer dans l'ombre l'arbre du bien et du mal, de déporter les honnêtetés tyranniques, afin que nous amenions notre très pur amour. Cela commença par quelques dégoûts et cela finit, — ne pouvant nous saisir sur-le-champ de cette éternité, — cela finit par une débandade de parfums.
     Rires des enfants, discrétion des esclaves, austérité des vierges, horreur des figures et des objets d'ici, sacrés soyez-vous par le souvenir de cette veille. Cela commençait par toute la rustrerie, voici que cela finit par des anges de flamme et de glace.
     Petite veille d'ivresse, sainte ! quand ce ne serait que pour le masque dont tu nous as gratifié. Nous t'affirmons, méthode ! Nous n'oublions pas que tu as glorifié hier chacun de nos âges. Nous avons foi au poison. Nous savons donner notre vie tout entière tous les jours.
     Voici le temps des Assassins.

I know Patti Smith would...

For those who prefer translations...

Morning of Drunkenness
O my Good! O my Beautiful! Appalling fanfare where I do not falter! rack of enchantmants! Hurrah for the wonderful work and for the marvelous body, for the first time! It began in the midst of children's laughter, with their laughter will it end. This poison will remain in all our veins even when, the fanfare turning, we shall be given back to the old disharmony. O now may we, so worthy of these tortures! fervently take up the superhuman promise made to our created body and soul: that promise, that madness! Elegance, science, violence! They promised to bury in darkness the tree of good and evil, to deport tyrannic respectability so that we might bring hither our very pure love. It began with a certain disgust and it ends, - unable to grasp this eternity, - it ends in a riot of perfumes.

Laughter of children, discretion of slaves, austerity of virgins, loathing of faces and objects here, holy be all of you in memory of this vigil. It began with every sort of boorishness, behold it ends with angels of flame and ice.

Little drunken vigil, holy! if only because of the mask you have bestowed on us. We pronounce you, method! We shall not forget that yesterday you glorified each one of our ages. We have faith in the poison. We know how to give our whole life every day.

Now is the time of the Assassins.

At its core, it's "about" the mental state of extreme dedication, the way I read it. Yeah, ostensibly (and likely intentionally by Rimbaud) it's referring to the effect of disinhibition caused by intoxicants, but that disinhibition is recalled in the mind here, and the reference to "the Assassins" refers to the use of a substance to induce disinhibition to craziness to carry out a sacred task.

I have found mindfulness and practice work well to induce and sustain this disinhibition too. Were I a poet of Rimbaud's or Basho's caliber perhaps I could write such a description of that state, but I'm not at the moment.

If you can read it aloud in French it sounds better.

Practice in the Everyday Busyness of Everyday Business

As I said, I have a ridiculous number of deadlines that must be met in the next few days, including but not limited to a bit of re-inventing what I do everyday, but that's pretty much as much as I can go into detail about what I'm doing that results in my being very busy for a few days. And I've got a few minutes to talk about it before sitting, so...

It took many years, and it's still not "there" yet as much as I would like, but the idea of bringing the mind on the cushion into the rest of the world and life is the only way to do these Zen practices. It's not quite as dramatic as a Tolstoy short story, perhaps, but by carrying this practice into one's work and home life one can:

• Avoid pissing off people who are better in relation to you as team mates, allies, and loved ones.
• Put the important things and tasks in important places and times and the less important things and tasks in their suitable places.
• Actually appreciate the actual life you're living in the same way as you might appreciate a great meal or work of art.
• Actually take part in the actual life you're living instead of just showing up (or not even that).

I used to regret being this busy, because "practice would suffer" or other things would suffer, and perhaps this was fed by the feedback, instantiated by those who perhaps should have known better, that the "either/or" choice of "work" or "extended sitting practice" should have favored the latter more. (I'm not referring to my current teacher by the way.)

I realize now that "advanced busyness" is actually an opportunity to advance my practice.

Now if only I don't catch my son's cold...