The Zennist on Big MindTM and Pyschology

I'd missed this post by the Zennist, who does his part in soberly calling Dennis Genpo Merzel to account for his "Big Mind^TM" process.

To reiterate, Genpo is saying that the Big Mind process unlocks the door to the transcendent. Here we arrive at a most critical juncture. Now the important question is this, is the transcendent that Big Mind reveals the same as transcendent Mind found in the Lankavatara Sutra and other Buddhist works? The answer has to be in the negative. Or putting the question this way, is Genpo’s transcendent mainly about having certain important maturing experiences? If this is Genpo’s idea of the transcendent, then this is not transcendence—not in the true sense of the word. As a matterof fact, the transcendent of which Genpo seems to speak for, doesn’t get us beyond the pale of our psychophysical being, namely, the Five Aggregates which constitute the psychological self or satkaya. Thus, as ever, we are still attached to the suffering machine, stuck in samsara.

At least in Buddhism, the Five Aggregates have to be transcended because they are suffering. Moreover, they are regarded as attributes (skandha) while the substance is Mind which the suffering of the aggregates cannot reach so that liberation for mind will consist in its becoming fully itself as self-realized Mind.

Turning to Zen Buddhism, our initial awakening to Mind (bodhicitta) is what Zen teaches us to accomplish. Having such an initial awakening, we can actually begin to shed our attachment to this illusory body and its attendant psychological phenomena. Short to this, without a glimpse into what transcends the psychophysical, our efforts will be pretty much in vain. Making this even worse is clinging to the belief that psychology can transcend the psychophysical. It can’t. As Siddhartha discovered before he became a Buddha it is by putting aside the psychological in meditation (dhyana), so as to transcend it, that final awakening was accomplished for him.

A post script. A number of years ago I read The Psychological Society by Martin Louis Gross. The book covered just how much psychology had penetrated into every facet of American society. It was a warning to me that eventually Zen would become psychologized. Unfortunately, I was right.

I'd point out to the Zennist that the atmosphere of temple training was appropriated by cults like est and Lifespring long ago, but I share his basic viewpoint, which is that Merzel is selling Krab as Alaskan King Crab, or perhaps better put, teaching people to take scratching their feet through their shoes as equivalent to scratching their feet.

However, I must differ with The Zennist in a couple of places or two. Psychology has its place, to be sure; those who suffer psychologically suffer, and the relief from suffering needed by those so troubled demands a response more targeted than simply sitting on a cushion will provide, just as you can't tell someone who was just hit by a car with myriad broken bones that even though we can take them to the ER, it'd be better for them to practice various forms of mindfulness and breath-awareness instead of getting the help needed.

Perhaps many of Merzel Roshi's audience are so troubled, and an "over the counter" psychological remedy might provide some relief to them; so be it, if it is so.
But let's not call it anything like a true enlightenment experience, a satori (悟り), a kenshou (見性) or anything like a Buddhist awakening.

But such troubled folk exist; at one time we built huge concentration camps for the most severely mentally ill, although we thought we had the best intentions. If Genpo's schtick helps keep people from getting to the point where they need to be separated from others, it's helping. If it's speeding up the process, it's hurting. I think it's probably helping a bit, even if it's not leading to profound changes of one's views of one's self.

It's really important to question yourself every now and then as to whether or not you might be building concentration camps with good intentions.

What moral standing do they have?

That's the question that's not asked; it's never asked when one sees an article entitled "Christian Leaders Unite on Political Issues."

Now although this is a blog of a Buddhist, this Buddhist has significant experience in the religion in the dominant culture, and especially its moral pretensions. And no, that's not slanderous; it's reality: the largest group within this dominant religious tradition is the Catholic Church. This Church claims for itself a primacy and supremacy of moral standing flowing from its asserted relationship with a deity and to those of us with a more democratic understanding, and especially those for whom Buddha-nature pervades the whole universe, that primacy and supremacy is a pretension. It is not reality. Keep that in mind in what follows.

Back to the story.

Citing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call to civil disobedience, 145 evangelical, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders have signed a declaration saying they will not cooperate with laws that they say could be used to compel their institutions to participate in abortions, or to bless or in any way recognize same-sex couples.

The manifesto, to be released on Friday at the National Press Club in Washington, is an effort to rejuvenate the political alliance of conservative Catholics and evangelicals that dominated the religious debate during the administration of President George W. Bush. The signers include nine Roman Catholic archbishops and the primate of the Orthodox Church in America.

They want to signal to the Obama administration and to Congress that they are still a formidable force that will not compromise on abortion, stem-cell research or gay marriage. They hope to influence current debates over health care reform, the same-sex marriage bill in Washington, D.C., and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation...

The document was written by [convicted Watergate felon] Colson; Robert P. George, a professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University, who is Catholic; and the Rev. Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School, an evangelical interdenominational school on the campus of Samford University, in Birmingham, Ala.

The Times article goes on to rightly quote some other guy noting that it's "fear mongering" to suggest that religious institutions would be forced to participate in abortions, perform same-sex marriages etc. (but they want to make sure laws remain in place prohibiting the law from recognizing other religious bodies performance of same sex marriages.)

To which I return to my original question:

What moral standing do they have?

Robert P. George is a member of an organization that gave the green light to Spain and Portugal to enslave and colonize the Americas. This organization to this day continues to shield Bernard Law from prosecution for his part in the child molestation scandal. And to this day, this organization's members conflates human life with crackers, with no apparent censuring of their zealots.

Chuck Colson? I don't want to go into detail here; but suffice it to say that the man has contempt for those who do not share his religious beliefs, and to this day is less than accurate - to the point that he appears to display willfulness in misrepresentation of views of those who do not share his religious beliefs.

And the Rev. Timothy George? He's an apologist for John Calvin, murderer of Michael Servetus.

I would no more rely on these men for moral guidance than I would Charles Manson.

Your mileage may vary, and I could write several books as to why the religious right's position on many of their hot button issues are intrinsically morally disordered. (I made up that last characterization from a bit some Catholics like to call gays; it underscores their projection in these matters.)

Most seriously, by asserting the moral supremacy they do, they have the effect of one who declares: "Look at the shiny toy over there!!!! Look!!!" to those who, left to their own devices, might discover the sick, the hurting, the hungry, the impoverished, the exploited, right in their own midst. Colson and his ilk know precisely what they're doing here, and that's why their cries of "Abortion! Gay marriage! Stem cells!!" rings hollow, especially when these hot button topics are deeply considered, there are moral cases to be made which are deeply at variance to the intrinsically morally disordered positions of the conservative religious.

As a Buddhist it is absurd to remain silent about that. While I understand the brouhaha about the recent Thai forest sexism, the issue of the disparity in voices between those who advocate for an ersatz morality and those why try harder is more astounding and important and immediate to me, as an American.

Don't give Deepak Chopra a platform, or, If you can get a flu vaccine, GET ONE

Recently Forbes magazaine (and Danny Fisher) gave Deepak Chopra a platform that's not needed (and in the process did no favors for the Dalai Lama).

Deepak Chopra is...how to put this delicately ... he's...a... quack...

• "When we say, "a physical basis for consciousness" we are forgetting that everything physical is at the most fundamental quantum mechanical level really non-physical."



• He believes the folks who murdered and committed mayhem in Mumbai were really attacking the United States. I think I'm being fair in characterizing it that way.



• Chopra is completely ignorant of quantum physics and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and hawks his schtick based on his audience's ignorance of physics:
  "Light can act like a wave or a particle, but not both at the same time. It defies ordinary logic, but Einstein and his colleagues discovered that light 'decides' whether to act like a wave or particle depending on the observer."



• Finally, Chopra winks and nods at the anti-vaccination movement, inter alia: "[A Salon.com article re: Oprah Winfrey's quackery, which Chopra did not have the integrity to provide a link] sneers at the popular movement linking autism with childhood vaccination, yet current understanding looks at autism as a complex, multi-factorial condition in which some cases could be influenced by an outside factor like a vaccine."

As a Buddhist, I'm appalled at the way in which folks like Chopra who say some Buddhist-lite kind of things get a free pass.

And in case you get any more woo-woo advice about the H1N1 flu vaccine, (not that Chopra's done that explicitly, but just in case) here's a bit of inoculation:

To know what's at stake here, go out and read The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry.

Forget about all the Dharma books if you haven't read this book (imperfect as it is). You truly, really need to understand the scope of what a serious influenza pandemic is before you listen to troglodyte New Age hucksters trying to give you advice that might kill you if you heeded it.

The first precept is: don't kill.

That means: get the H1N1 vaccine if you can. If you're allergic to eggs, don't get it. Or, if you're healthy and in one of those lower priority groups (like me) don't get it until the kids & sick have gotten it. If you're not allergic to eggs, and there's no other barriers to getting it, the risks of not getting it far, far outweigh the risks of getting it. That's because everyone who gets the vaccine is denying the flu millions and millions of chances to evolve into something deadlier. So you're not just getting this for yourself, you're getting it for all humanity (not to mention pigs and chickens). To get the details read the book.

And in news about other practices...

• Did you know there's a blog devoted to the things going on in the Syung Mung Moon Church?



• That "heir to the Church" Hyung Jin Moon is on Facebook? And evidently he practiced Zen Buddhism for a while...



• Some guy in Australia thinks Scientology is close to Buddhism. I beg to differ, especially about the Xenu part, the part about John Travolta & Tom Cruise, the e-meter, the fact that they don't have non-duality...

Good morning...

I woke up way too late this morning, to be able to do anything useful in a good amount of time.

Meditation must wait for later. Assuming, of course, that my back isn't killing me, I can do it seated, but lately my lower back and thigh have been in unexplained excruciating pain. It seemed to be abating yesterday afternoon, but this morning it was different again.

Will have to try for later. Right now, too much to do.

Scandals, internet fights and more

Brad Warner evidently doesn't know about the political "blogger ethics panel" meme, or presumably he'd have used it in his piece critiquing this article in Tricycle, which tut-tuts the state of internet language these days in terms that neocons of yore decrying the "shrill" anti-war bloggers would cherish.

I've commented in various places about that (including here), but I've more to say, especially about this entry on the "Enlightenment Ward" blog.

First, Warner's mostly right: the whole "come on in we have puppies and ice cream inside" attitude of some American Buddhist temples while culturally making sense is not the MO of Asian temples, and it isn't because it conveys right up front, literally, the expectation that effort needs to be expended. Americans haven't be known for being eager to expend effort lately; they'd rather get rich in real estate or moving large piles of money around. (Then again Chinese haven't done badly at real estate investments lately, but I digress...)

Secondly, in regard to this piece by Nella Lou at Enlightenment Ward, let me say up front that a) I've known someone that trained at the Salt Lake City Kanzeon center (now "Big Mind^TM" center) and he wasn't brain damaged (though I still largely agree with Ven. Warner on "Genpo Roshi"), and b) I've been to the Zen Studies Society in New York, and even saw Eido Roshi give Dharma talks...and they were about the Dharma! I even once had tea with him! And his wife!

True, I'm male, and never had dokusan with him, and wasn't molested by him. But still!

Seriously, I got something very good at what Eido Roshi said and did, and I'm sure others have too.

On the other hand, if the guy did what he's been accused of here or here the guy belongs in either some kind of program or jail- his only difference from certain Catholic priests I've known is a predilection for adult women, but it would be sexual harassment and abuse nonetheless if true.

With no other Rinzai Dharma in the Hakuin lineage in the New York City area the only place to which one can be exposed to it is DBZ and the Zen Studies Society and that was true in the 1980s when I first went there, and it's almost completely true today with the exception here, and maybe elsewhere.

(You can get Rinzai Dharma through the Kwan Um school, but its forms are different; it evolved in a different way than Japanese Rinzai Zen).

Of course you can't weigh the good against the bad (and like Glenn Beck's parody rape and murder, we won't know the truth until it comes out), but the reality is something good happened to me as a result of this guy who may have done some really nasty things to some people. Conflated with that - and it shouldn't be, but it is - is that attitudes towards sexual harassment have evolved since Eido Shimano came over to the US in the early 60s; even in Japan Eido Shimano would have to deal with serious legal issues today. Times were different then, even in 1995 they were different. This doesn't excuse or justify anything, although in our approach to things such as this we should take that into some account some times. I guess in the times that it requires us to view such people as flawed and to view them compassionately as well as maintaining the appropriate caveat emptor attitude.

Does that sound like a more nuanced "He said, she said?" It's not meant to be that.
And it's certainly not meant to be the tut-tut attitude of the Tricycle piece. It is meant to put a little complexity on an issue that can be easily simplified.

But I, like many others no doubt, got a lot of good things from Eido Shimano's institution and still do, and that's why I went to the ZSS on my recent trips to NY. I got less out of the Catholic church, and still don't, if one's still wanting to make equivalencies. From both I don't expect apologies, but I insist on ethical behavior. The ZSS hasn't been unethical to me, nor in public, but the Catholic Church is another thing entirely. Still, I can understand what others say and why; but I can also understand that the reason we have legal protocols regarding slander and libel and sexual harassment are that precisely we, as a society, should not judge someone without adequate evidence. I appreciate what these folks say, and have to square it with my own experiences. Genkaku Fisher has it right, though I would still add: you, going through the door of that zendo, that guy they call roshi is going the same place you're going. He might have good training and good awareness, and might practice the Dharma, but he really, really, really is no more a Buddha than you are.

How they managed to get Carl Sagan to sing

And I coulda sworn it was just some clever vocoding... probably really is...

A bit about practice...

I am going to post today or tomorrow more on the Lankavatara sutra, but for today, I'll write a bit about practice.

Keeping practice throughout the day was regarded by Hakuin as more important than what's done on the cushion, although I think one informs the other.

But it's true: if nasty stuff can be stilled prior to meditation, the meditation goes better. Furthermore, sometimes the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune have taken a toll on the body, and one can only sit in a position for so long before excruciating pain kicks in. At that time, it's vitally important to keep going off the cushion.

Lankavatara Sutra Chapter 2, Section XX VII

Wow, it's been over 2 months since I had been engaging in this activity.

There's been a lot in between, of course. However, especially at this time of year, when it's traditional and beneficial to deepen practice, this text becomes more important.

I can see in a way why I'd been putting this off; on first, as well as second glances, this text is pretty to the point despite its length. This is an important text to be considered and taken in slowly and deliberately, and most importantly shows the Buddhist conception of "emptiness," as its rendered in English does not connote nilhilsm, or a complete void, as these concepts still allow description.

Let's go to the text...

Mahāmati the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva asks the Buddha, "Tell me, Blessed One, how all things are empty, unborn, non-dual, and have no self-nature, so that I and other Bodhisattva-Mahāsattvas might be awakened in the teaching of emptiness, no-birth, non-duality, and the absence of self-nature, and, quitting the discrimination of being and non-being, quickly realize the highest enlightenment."


And the Buddha replies:

Emptiness, emptiness, indeed! Mahāmati, it is a term whose self-nature is false imagination. Because of one's attachment to false imagination, Mahāmati, we have to talk of emptiness, no-birth, non-duality, and absence of self-nature. In short, then, Mahāmati, there are seven kinds of emptiness: (1) The emptiness of individual marks (lakshaṇa), (2) the emptiness of self-nature (bhāvasvabhāva), (3) the emptiness of no-work (apracarita), (4) the emptiness of work (pracarita), (5) the emptiness of all things in the sense that they are unpredicable (nirabhilāpya) [i.e., cannot be stated or described via predicates], (6) the emptiness in its highest sense of ultimate reality realisable only by noble wisdom, and (7) the emptiness of mutuality (itaretara) which is the seventh.

Mahāmati, what then is the emptiness of individual marks? It is that all things have no [such distinguishing] marks of individuality and generality. In consideration of mutuality and accumulation, [things are thought to be realities], but when they are further investigated and analysed, Mahāmati, they are non-existent, and not predicable with individuality and generality; and because thus no such ideas as self, other, or both, hold good, Mahāmati, the individual marks no longer obtain. So it is said that all things are empty as to their self-marks.

Again, Mahāmati, what is meant by the emptiness of self-nature? Mahāmati, it is that all things in their self-nature are unborn, hence the emptiness of self-nature, and it is therefore said that things are empty in their self-nature.

Again, Mahāmati, what is meant by the emptiness of no-work? It is that the Skandhas are Nirvana itself and there is no work doing in them from the beginning. Therefore, one speaks of the emptiness of no-work.

Again, Mahāmati, what is meant by the emptiness of work? It is that the Skandhas are devoid of an ego and its belongings, and go on functioning when there is a mutual conjunction of cause and action. Thus one speaks of the emptiness of work.

Again, Mahāmati, what is meant by the emptiness of all things in the sense that they are unpredicable? It is that the nature of the false imagination is not expressible, hence the emptiness of all things in the sense of their unpredicability. Thus one speaks of the emptiness of unpredicability.

Again, Mahāmati, what is meant by the emptiness in its highest sense of ultimate reality realisable by noble wisdom? It is that in the attainment of an inner realization by means of noble wisdom there is no trace of habit-energy generated by all the erroneous conceptions [of beginningless past]. Thus one speaks of the highest emptiness of ultimate reality realisable by noble wisdom.

Again, Mahāmati, what is meant by the emptiness of mutual [non-existence]? It is this: when a thing is missing here, one speaks of its being empty there. For instance, Mahāmati, in the lecture-hall of the Mṛigārama there are no elephants, no bulls, no sheep, but as to the Bhikshus I can say that the hall is not devoid of them; it is empty only as far as they [i. e. the animals] are concerned. Further, Mahāmati, it is not that the lecture-hall is devoid of its own characteristics, nor that the Bhikshu is devoid of this Bhikshuhood, nor that in some other places, too, elephants, bulls, and sheep are not to be found. Mahāmati, here one sees all things in their aspect of individuality and generality, but from the point of view of mutuality (itaretara) some things do not exist somewhere. Thus one speaks of the emptiness of mutual [non-existence].

These, Mahāmati, are the seven kinds of emptiness of which mutuality ranks the lowest of all and is to be put away by you.

Again, Mahāmati, not that things are not born, but that they are not born of themselves, except when seen in the state of Samādhi—this is what is meant by "all things are unborn." To have no self-nature is, according to the deeper sense, to be unborn, Mahāmati. That all things are devoid of self-nature means that there is a constant and uninterrupted becoming, a momentary change from one state of existence to another; seeing this, Mahāmati, all things are destitute of self-nature. So one speaks of all things having no self-nature.

Again, Mahāmati, what is meant by non-duality? It means that light and shade, long and short, black and white, are relative terms, Mahāmati, and not independent of each other; as Nirvana and Samsara are, all things are not-two. There is no Nirvana except where is Samsara; there is no Samsara except where is Nirvana; for the condition of existence is not of mutually-exclusive character. Therefore, it is said that all things are non-dual as are Nirvana and Samsara. For this reason, Mahāmati, you should discipline yourself in [the realization of] emptiness, no-birth, non-duality, and no-self-nature.

Getting back to Lankavatara Sutra soon...

This time, really. Soon.

Evidently it's Carl Sagan Day

According to P. Z. Meyers.

Life goes on

Returned from NY, to visit cemeteries.

Not many people use cemeteries, mostly dead people do. But they are quite powerful reminders of what life is all about. As can be seen from the sheer vastness of a "modern" cemetery, the universality of death is inescapable.

Life should be lived well and mindfully; the aftermath doesn't seem to afford much opportunity.

Off to NY, dealing with aftermath

I hadn't realized that my mother died right before John Daido Loori did.

The man had some good influence on my life.

With these deaths, and also with the death of my current teacher's brother it becomes clearer to me: this stuff about "we are the one's we've been waiting for?" Well, uh, now's the time.


I've had a middling impact in my life and my career, but life is rather serious now.

And also, somewhere along the way, I realized that preservation and transmittal of the tiny bit that I know and practice vitally depends now on me.

It's not a soft and gooey new age spirituality, it's that a lot more adamantine.

It's time.

And furthermore...

Please understand, I never had a secret chart
to get me to the heart of this
or any other matter
When he talks like this
you don't know what he's after
When he speaks like this,
you don't know what he's after.

To those very close to me, and also to my neice, this should be self-explanatory

Sometimes life compels you to do things that might not be socially correct, and grieve you to the marrow. And a loved one's death bequeaths to you a sedulous sense of duty, and the only way to honor their memory, is to be where you where born to be.

What is Glenn Beck trying to hide?

A lot of people understand that no one has found any proof that Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990.

So why is Glenn Beck trying to shut down a web site just for asking the question?

All kidding aside (and nobody's found any proof yet that Glenn Beck raped and murdered a girl in 1990) this bit from lawyers protesting Beck's attempt to remove the domain name asking this question is one of the great laugh-riots of legal annals.

Just read it; it is the first legal document I've ever read that makes specific reference to Richard Gere and gerbils.

And if you're wondering what's this all about...

now know a wonk I know a wonk won

I've been away...

Due to family matters getting significant, the planning/reporting time of year, and just fall in general, I've been busy.

Hopefully I'll get back to the Lankavatara Sutra this weekend or so.

'Cause anybody knows Muslims ain't...

I never got Peter, Paul, and Mary....

Too safe.

Especially after they destroyed their images with PBS fund-raising specials (but now at least vicariously, Leonard Cohen's done the same.)

Any, RIP Ms. Travers...some people said you shouldn't have been in favor of civil-rights or peace.

Their sound may have been commercial and safe, but early on their politics were somewhat risky for a group courting a mass audience. Like Mr. Yarrow and Mr. Stookey, Ms. Travers was outspoken in her support for the civil-rights and antiwar movements, in sharp contrast to clean-cut folk groups like the Kingston Trio, which avoided making political statements.

I mean...I mean...the author of the what later became "Seasons in the Sun."

made this:






Does that sound like the work of the author of the Terry Jacks' song?

I realize this is not very Buddhist and relevant to almost no one but...

Rod McKuen is guilty of poetry's - or at least pop music's- equivalent of war crimes...

He made this:



into this:



And if you compare the Nirvana version of this to Jacques Brel's, it says several political psychology theses about the state of the American mind.




And, to top it off, consider a commentary on this song in Slate, blissfully unaware of the complete difference in meaning and mood between Brel's version and Jack's version completes the picture.

There's so much I can't tell you about what I do...

It's a pity, because sometimes, like today, I just so see the future, but thanks to certain agreements I have, I can't say a peep about it here.

It's not quite a Cassandra complex...but...

How can you not love that mandolin-like instrument?

And an older version...



I think "armes" (arms) is better enunciated as "âme" or "soul."

Of course I'm Buddhist and all that, I just think it'd be more uh, authentic in an existentialist kind of way.

It'd change the meaning of the relevant sentence from "I again took up arms" to "I have retaken my soul."

More poetic. Especially given the circumstances.

Lankavatara Sutra Chapter 2, Section XX VI

Still using this source...

Those skilled assume assume various personalities for the sake of benefiting others.

And...

When those who are born of the Buddha see that the world is no more than Mind itself, they will obtain a body of transformation, which has nothing to do with effect-producing works, but which is endowed with the powers, psychic faculties, and self-control.

I Get Ideas, Part II: Stanley Ho Appears Uninterested....

I still have yet to hear back from the biggest indigenous casino owner in Macau. I figured if Steve Wynn was elbowing his way into Macau, Mr. Ho might want to return the favor...

To: pr@sjmholdings.com
Subject:

To Whom It May Concern:

Recently, as a result of a visit to Shenzhen's Minsk World [let it fully load; you won't be disappointed!], my colleagues and I became interested in pursuing a project in the United States. It seems to us that the only way we in the US could have a project along the lines of the Minsk theme park, that truly reflected American ingenuity, was to build a casino based on an aircraft carrier on The Strip in Las Vegas. It turns out that the recently decomissioned aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy may be available for this purpose . To make a casino and luxury hotel from the John F. Kennedy would certainly ensure the city's place as a premier tourist destination.

We believe that this carrier, sited on or near The Strip, would:
a) provide educational value as a testimony to American ingenuity
b) encourage patriotism in Americans
c) provide a venue for unique military entertainment
d) allow people to visit the world's only non-floating nautical casino
structure

It would be the only casino in the world to be based on a ship that saw action in the Gulf War, as well as the only casino to have been christened by Jacqueline Kennedy.

We would like to know whether someone at SJM holdings could tell me if Mr. Stanley Ho was interested in such a venture; we would be very happy to collaborate with him on making this military themed casino a reality.

My colleagues inform me that it would also be the only casino on the strip capable of antisubmarine warfare.

To be continued...

I get ideas...

As I noted below, last Sunday I had the chance to visit Minsk World, a "military theme park."

While I get an aircraft carrier being open to visitors to build pride in the folks who put their lives on the line for the country, I still can't get over the schmaltziness of Minsk World.

I indeed respect the folks in the military who, despite the imperfection of American foreign policy vow to actually defend us with their lives.

But then again, I am a sucker for scheming a good practical joke, so please military folks, don't be offended by the following.

The tawdry schmaltz of Minsk World could only be exceeded in the United States in one place.

Las Vegas.

They've got a fake pyramid casino there.

They've got a fake Venice casino there.

They've even got a fake Eiffel Tower.

It occurred to some of my engineer friends (one of whom is a veteran) and myself that the one way we could beat Minsk world would be to locatre an aircraft carrier on The Strip and turn it into a casino.

But not just any aircraft carrier would do.

We would need the USS John F. Kennedy.

The USS John F. Kennedy weighs somewhere between 60,000 and 82000 tons, and is about as long as the Empire State building is tall, roughly, and about 19 stories tall.

It would be very difficult to get the USS. John F. Kennedy located on The Strip.

Here are the known alternatives:

1. Build a new aircraft carrier looking like the John F. Kennedy on The Strip.
   
   Pros:
   
   
   • You avoid doing the other alternatives.
   
   
   • It fits right in with the rest of everything else in Vegas being fake
   
   
   • It probably won't be bulit to Milspec.
   
   
   
   Cons:
   
   
   • It's cheating.
   
   
   • It gets expensive if you want realism.
   
   
   • The builder of the original probably can't do it (since they're Northrup Grumman Newport News shipbuilders, based in Virginia.
   
   
   
   
2. You can disassemble the JFK, and reconstruct it on The Strip.
   Pros:
   
   
   
   • You use the real thing.
   
   
   • You avoid transporting the JFK in once piece to Vegas.
   
   
   
   
   Cons:
   
   
   
   
   • Since the JFK is welded and riveted, you have to unweld and unrivet it to get it there.
     
     That almost certainly will compromise the structural integrity of the ship.
   
   
   
3. You can dredge the Colorado River from its mouth in or near Baja, Mexico, to Lake Mead, and then find some fantastic way to get it from Lake Mead to The Strip.


Pros:




• It's the sort of thing we can complain about when speaking about Yankee imperialism.


• It is a great public works project, rivaling the Panama Canal.




Cons:




• Well, isn't there a dam in the way? I thought there might be one there.



• It costs lots of money to dredge several hundred miles of a river to make it deep enough and navigable enough for an aircraft carrier.



• OK, suppose I can get it to Lake Mead, now how do I get it to The Strip?

More to come...

Travel Reading: "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power" by Jeff Sharlet

Being in China, with its own news and its own spin, and then going back to the US and seeing the same spin, but in a different direction, one can get rather cynical.

But at least in the US you can readily find a book such as Jeff Sharlet's work on "The Family," which is readable, long (great for long flights from HK to SFO), and studded with footnotes, references, and so forth. The style of this book is restrained and sober; the only real quibble with the book is there is a bit of disjointedness between sections, that as a guy who writes mostly for business and technical applications I find, well, disjoint. Perhaps he's attempting a novelistic style of narrative, and perhaps getting to "business" about it might detract from the overall message.

The message written in this restrained and sober style is, however, quite shocking. It is nothing less than the fact that there has been a multifaceted attempt on the part of one particular cult to influence American domestic and foreign policy away from democratic rule and towards what can only be called despotism (and this cult is related to quite a few others, including but not limited to 12 Step Groups).

And a cult it is. Even some conservative Christians choke on their theology, which is basically an unslaked thirst for power hiding behind an amorphous Jesus.

This group is behind the National Prayer Breakfast, and recent (and historical) scandals "on C Street," . Mark Sanford the AWOL-for-an-Argentine-love-affair-but-it's-OK-because-God-loved-David South Carolina Governor hung with them.

But they are indisputably sinister aspects to them. The founder of the family was, for a time, a collaborator with the notorious Frank Buchman, who was the real spiritual father of 12 Step Groups, as well as an admirer of Hitler (no I am not making this up.) The founder of the Family, Abram Vereide, also infused his cult with a slavish subservience reminiscent of fascism, and, based on Sharlet's experience, those fascist tendencies persist to this day.

That such a group is so closely related to to so many at the levers of American power raises serious questions, including whether or not this group has been illegally lobbying at various times.

It is easy to criticize China for not having any Chinese versions of Jeff Sharlets.

But then again they don't have any quasi-secret cults trying to take over things. You kind of know who's running things in China.

What to do in Shenzhen: "Minsk World"

Shenzhen is a former fishing village that has grown so fast that 8 million people are living here, making stuff, and there isn't much here that's a natural attraction.

So the folks here invented some.

Among them is Minsk World, a "military theme park," as Wikipedia denotes it. Its centerpiece is an old rusting Russian aircraft carrier, The Minsk, as you would guess.

Crowds of people flock to it on nice days to take pictures of rusting military hardware...including those famous MiG jets. This stuff seems to date from the 1960s, and it's clearly not in great condition.



It's a real aircraft carrier, for sure, though there are numerous shops with military and Russian tchotchkes located within. For some reason they seem to think - perhaps rightfully so - that kids'll like toy planes made from what appear to be bullets.



Then there's the musical performances - kind of a military "It's a small world" kind of theme. Very strange. I'm sure Andrew Zimmern will visit soon enough. Here's their version of the musical British navy:



And yes, they have their version of the US marines:



I would like to meet the talent agent who staffed this.

Anyway, if you're ever here it's worth it just for the weirdness factor - it's a lot like Las Vegas, but in a Cantonese Russian military flavor.

As far as temples here go, there's only Hong Fa Si, but that's even more far out than Minsk World, and there are meetings to attend.

In Shenzhen

I've got to figure out how I can get some pictures uploaded here; my cell phone service is non-existent here (always seemed to be a problem with GSM in China, in my experience), but thankfully Wi-Fi sort of works.

Off to China for about a week...

Until I get back here, you can watch the townhall meeting I attended.

It doesn't embed, but I get to ask a question about 45 minutes into it.

Been there, done that...

Not in the Vipassana tradition, but Robert Wright pretty much sums up what happens when you're focusing on awareness and non-attachment for a few days with others doing the same.

Everyone knows the boat is leaking, everyone knows the captain lied...

Glenn Greenwald's take on the health care debate is sobering, to say the least:

... In fact, it's so obviously true that no matter how dumb one might think Democrats are, they're certainly not so dumb that they failed to realize that the GOP was highly unlikely to help Obama pass health care reform no matter what the bill contained. From the start, it's been obvious to everyone -- the Obama White House and Senate Democrats included -- that the GOP would not help Obama pass health care reform. Why would the GOP want to help Obama achieve one of his most important and politically profitable goals? Of course they were going to try to sabotage the entire project and would oppose health care reform no matter what form it took. Everyone knew that from the start for exactly the reason that it was so obvious to Benen.

The attempt to attract GOP support was the pretext which Democrats used to compromise continuously and water down the bill. But -- given the impossibility of achieving that goal -- isn't it fairly obvious that a desire for GOP support wasn't really the reason the Democrats were constantly watering down their own bill? Given the White House's central role in negotiating a secret deal with the pharmaceutical industry, its betrayal of Obama's clear promise to conduct negotiations out in the open (on C-SPAN no less), Rahm's protection of Blue Dogs and accompanying attacks on progressives, and the complete lack of any pressure exerted on allegedly obstructionists "centrists," it seems rather clear that the bill has been watered down, and the "public option" jettisoned, because that's the bill they want -- this was the plan all along.

The Obama White House isn't sitting impotently by while Democratic Senators shove a bad bill down its throat. This is the bill because this is the bill which Democratic leaders are happy to have. It's the bill they believe in. As important, by giving the insurance and pharmaceutical industries most everything they want, it ensures that the GOP doesn't become the repository for the largesse of those industries (and, converesly, that the Democratic Party retains that status).

This is how things always work. The industry interests which own and control our government always get their way. When is the last time they didn't? The "public option" was something that was designed to excite and placate progressives (who gave up from the start on a single-payer approach) -- and the vast, vast majority of progressives (all but the most loyal Obama supporters) who are invested in this issue have been emphatic about how central a public option is to their support for health care reform. But it seems clear that the White House and key Democrats were always planning on negotiating it away in exchange for industry support. Isn't that how it always works in Washington? No matter how many Democrats are elected, no matter which party controls the levers of government, the same set of narrow monied interests and right-wing values dictate outcomes, even if it means running roughshod over the interests of ordinary citizens (securing lower costs and expanding coverage) and/or what large majorities want.

NAFTA was supposed to work that way. How'd that work out for everyone?

Finding: The brain helps maintain a stress-cycle

It's not for nothing that people get stuck:

Reporting earlier this summer in the journal Science, Nuno Sousa of the Life and Health Sciences Research Institute at the University of Minho in Portugal and his colleagues described experiments in which chronically stressed rats lost their elastic rat cunning and instead fell back on familiar routines and rote responses, like compulsively pressing a bar for food pellets they had no intention of eating.

Moreover, the rats’ behavioral perturbations were reflected by a pair of complementary changes in their underlying neural circuitry. On the one hand, regions of the brain associated with executive decision-making and goal-directed behaviors had shriveled, while, conversely, brain sectors linked to habit formation had bloomed.

In other words, the rodents were now cognitively predisposed to keep doing the same things over and over, to run laps in the same dead-ended rat race rather than seek a pipeline to greener sewers. “Behaviors become habitual faster in stressed animals than in the controls, and worse, the stressed animals can’t shift back to goal-directed behaviors when that would be the better approach,” Dr. Sousa said. “I call this a vicious circle.”

At the very least, when one practices forms of mindfulness meditation, one gets the ability to "step out of the loop," and with practice, one remembers to be able to do this more and more.

At the town hall: the decline of America?

It is a shame that there weren't more younger people there, but of those people that were there, they skewed older, and about 60% of them seemed skeptical of the plan.

Many were completely uninformed, repeating the worst nonsense they'd heard on talk radio.

People jeered when the moderator brought up the easily verified fact that people in industrialized countries have lower infant mortality and longer life spans than we do (in Canada, it's almost 1.5 years longer - and with our life span that is statistically significant, and no murder and violence do not account for such a disparity!)

And yes, the people peddling the offensive Nazi nonsense were there.

Update: I agree with Barney Frank. At least one somewhat distant relative of mine was killed by Nazis, and this comparison is indeed contemptible.

Health Care Reform is Necessary

And the Democrats weren't elected to maintain the status quo - which is making us all poorer.

On my upcoming China trip, a side trip to Guangzhou?

I'll be traveling to China at the end of the week (Shenzhen), a city with a not-too-distinct history. Shenzhen's main claim to fame is that it's across the border from Hong Kong, and it's a mecca of knock-off objects. But not really much to see. Maybe Hong Fa Si, but that's about it. And sometimes the local monks are said to behave in rather un-monk-like ways...

Since I'll be effectively incommunicado for the better part of a week - I'll be at a conference working insane hours, it won't be much of a problem.

Luckily, though, my schedule was inadvertently set up to have an extra day in China, and I realize that it's only about an hour to Guangzhou, where there's Guangxiao Temple (光孝寺). It's said to be a temple that Bodhidharma visited.

Then again there's other temples in the city, evidently.


Hopefully I'll be able to visit that temple unless there's typhoons, crises, or ridiculous amounts of work involved after my meeting.

Aren't there ethical considerations involved in anti-aging drugs?

It's one thing to restrict one's calories to live 30% longer, with the side effect of reduced fertility. But almost certainly the use of technology to increase age will be limited to certain demographics, to put it politely.

And not amazingly the Times can make it through the whole article without raising this point.

Lankavatara Sutra Chapter 2, Section XX V

Still using this source, Suzuki's translation.

One thing I'll note here: there is within all the repetition, quite a bit of philosophical structure inherent in sutras such as the Lankavatara:

• Assertions and refutations are not to be found in the Mind-only; the ignorant who understand not that the Mind is [seen in] the form of body, property, and abode, wander about with assertions and refutations.
  
  
• This is evidently the case because since all phenomena lack an intrinsic essence (and "are/aren't that way" in a self-referential way)it's pointless to act as though they do. And thus acts of assertion and refutation concerning matters of "philosophy" (in its broadest sense - the love of wisdom) are reduced to acts of discrimination of a reality that is beyond discrimination.

A quick note about the sutra posts for folks new to this blog...

I realize that some folks who are coming here for the first time might not understand why I'm posting about the Lankavatara Sutra.

Well,

• It's good to have read these things, and blogging about it helps instill a discipline to do so, especially if you're a Buddhist.



• If you're a Zen Buddhist, you are practicing a "way outside the scriptures," but that "way" is "outside" mainly because the experience and activity is not covered in the scriptures, in at least somewhat the same way as a recipe does not substitute for the actual action of preparing (and eating) the dish prepared. Knowledge of the canon of Buddhist literature is useful to actually know what other practitioners have been saying and doing; but this is more in the order of the stare decisis of case law rather than some Platonic Ideal.



• The sutras were written with certain literary techniques in mind, e.g., learning by repetition, and repetition with slight variations and giving of details, for some of the longer ones, and making nifty chants for the smaller ones. However, to a modern reader, this makes the text of the longer sutras seem overly dense and somewhat unwieldy. In most business communication one would never write this way and have a long happy career.



• So a while back I realized that writing blog-post summaries of portions of the Buddhist canon might be useful to do, and started a series of blog-posts in this regard. It's helped me actually remember to carve out time to read this stuff.



• It's also having the ancillary effect of helping to make my written prose more concise.



• These are just my summaries and interpretations; they don't represent anyone's thinking, teaching, or authorization from anyone to anything like this. Your mileage will likely vary in quite a few places.



• Evidently there are a continuing two-to-three dozen readers a day throughout the world who actually read my "PowerPoint ready summaries," based on Google Analytics. (Sometimes it's more than two or three dozen, especially when I comment on something on a much more trafficked site.) It's positively amazing how many folks from all over the world - with obvious exceptions like North Korea or Myanmar/Burma - actually get to this blog in the course of a month. And some of them stay & actually read posts too.

Hope that helps.

Well, I finally succumbed to tech attachment.... now if I can only get someone else to pay for it

It occurred to me that with mobile data growing at over 38% per year (yes, in the worst recession since the Great Depression!), and given my current work, it behooved me to actually, you know, know what end users do with this stuff, so that I can, uh, invent better stuff.

Heh.

So I bought the iPhone 3Gs; after T-Mobile gave me a runaround trying to get them to honor a $50 coupon.

I churned 'em, and it felt good. Number portability... another progressive idea.

The new iPhone does cut and paste; and other things.

Sorry Google; I'd have gone for your product, but I already have iTunes, and your choice of carrier was kind of jerky about letting long time customers stay.

And (so far) it's slightly cheaper, although the fact that we can't do Skype or the "Chinese Skype" (which isn't Skype & I forgot its name) is sort of secondary.

I can blog anywhere. I think.

Unless there's flash animations everywhere.

Update: It's kind of dumb that iTunes doesn't have netshare (an app for accessing the internet from your PC through your iPhone). All 3G phones in Japan have had this feature for years.

There's evidently a way to do this with the WLAN connection but you have to unlock your phone.

I have a concern...

about the dead guy mentioned here being associated with people who are from recognized Buddhist lineages.


Couldn't they find a way to give this money to Robert Aitken, who'd be more deserving of this largesse?

Lankavatara Sutra Chapter 2, Section XX IV

Using the same source as usual...

• Ignorance, deed, and desire keep consciousness and mental activities going.



• Clinging to the external objects as real (having within themselves an unchanging essence) makes manifest the world of externalities.



• "Habit energy" keeps the cycle of impermanence going.



• The aggregates, desires, and modes of perception have a nature of false discrimination.



• A Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva who "gets this" will be well on the way, and it's good to exercise one's self in this regard.

If you're in the Portland - Vancouver Area next Tuesday

I'm speaking to you, folks, Buddhists in the Portland Area, about this:

The first of five in-person town hall meetings will be held near Vancouver, at 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Skyview High School Auditorium. Locations for the other four town halls are to be determined.

I won't be able to make the other town halls - I'll be on travel, but this is pretty much a duty for all well-meaning people.

This country needs health care better than it has now, it can get health care better than it has now, and we need to compassionately yet purposely address people disrupting attempts to actually have people helped.

Lankavatara Sutra Chapter 2, Section XX II & XXIII

Using the same source as usual...

• Don't dis the Bodhisattva - related canonical texts and followers therein.
  (Yes, Zen is outside the canonical texts, but that doesn't mean one throws out the canonical texts.)
  



• But even those who exhaust their merit finally enter Nirvana.



• False discrimination consisst in attachment to names and attachment to objects. as realities in and of themselves as inner and external things.



• Perfect knowledge is realized when one casts aside the discriminating notions of form, name, reality, and character. We should discipline ourselves in this

Why do people avoid even obvious truths?

Ben Stein on why he was fired by the New York Times, cannot bring himself to talk about the real issue: Ben Stein was shilling for a bait-and-switch operation.

Stein says:

I had done a commercial for an Internet aggregating company called FreeScore. This commercial offered people a week of free access to their credit scores and then required them to pay for further such access.

This commercial was red meat for the Ben Stein haters left over from the Expelled days. They bombarded the Times with letters. They confused (or some of them seemingly confused ) FreeScore with other companies that did not have FreeScore's unblemished record with consumer protection agencies. (FreeScore has a perfect record.) They demanded of the high pooh-bahs at the Times that they fire me because of what they called a conflict of interest.

Here's a good overview of the bait-and-switch operation:

How far has Ben Stein sunk? Far enough that I feel compelled to resuscitate the Ben Stein Watch, just to share this unfunny and positively harmful TV ad which is now being aired:

“I went to freescore.com and found out my score for free”, says Ben, while an annoying squirrel holds up a sign with the word “FREE” in some horrible brush-script font.

A few points are worth noting here. First, the score itself is not very useful to consumers. What’s useful is the report — if there’s an error on the report, then the consumer can try to rectify it. Secondly, and much more importantly, if you want a free credit report, there’s only one place to go: annualcreditreport.com. That’s the place where the big three credit-rating agencies will give you a genuinely free copy of your credit report once a year, as required by federal law.

You won’t be surprised to hear that freescore.com is not free: in order to get any information out of them at all, you have to authorize them to charge you a $29.95 monthly fee. They even extract a dollar out of you up front, just to make sure that money is there.

Me, I'd just keep quiet, or apologize publicly, but Stein evidently thinks that never backing down is somehow good for him.

Anyway, if you need to do this sort of thing do use annualcreditreport.com:

Lankavatara Sutra Chapter 2, Section XX & XX1

As usual, I'm slowing going through the translation originally provided by Suzuki.

There are 5 groups of people:

• 1. People with insight from the initial stages of "Hinyana" - that of being hearers of the Dharma ("Śrāvaka-vehicle").
  2. People with insight from being independently awakened ("Pratyekabuddha-vehicle")
  3. People with insight from the Tathagata-vehicle
  4. People of indefinite character
  5. People for whom no insight is possible



• The first group - the "hearers" - "do away with the rising of the passions, but not with the habit-energy," or seek Nirvana "within themselves." While they may have knowledge of Nirvana, as long as they "have no insight into the egolessness of things" and thus can't achieve emancipation themselves.



• Hhowever, hearers who see into the egolessness of all things can settle into samadhi and attain the enlightenment of the Tathagata.



• The independently awakened seem to seek to be not engaged with others the way people experience engagement in day-to-day life: "When the teaching to keep themselves away from social relations and entanglements, not to become attached to the external world and its manifold form, to perform miraculous powers by which they can divide their own body and appear double or perform the transformations, is disclosed to them, they are thereby entreated"



• Those of the "Tathagata vehicle" have 1) an insight whereby one sees into the self-nature of things, which is no self-nature; (2) an insight which is the attainment of self-realisation; and (3) an insight into the immensity of the external Buddha-lands. When these three aspects are made known one after another and also when the inconceivable realm where body, property, and abode are seen to be the manifestation of Mind itself, a man will not be frightened, nor terrified, nor show any sign of fear; then such a one is to be known as of the group of people whose insight belongs to the Tathagata-vehicle.

This last bullet point, though repeated elsewhere in the text, is in effect a "test" of "enlightenment." It's not a woo-woo experience per se, and it's not something that can be be faked or that one can "flash upon as needed" as somebody said. While someone might have an experience, the point is actually to live there.

In Section XXI the Buddha summarizes XX himself:

130. The fruit of the Stream-entered [hearer], and that of the Once-to-come [independently awakened]; the fruit of the Not-to-come and Arhatship— all these are due to mental perturbation.

131. The triple vehicle, the one vehicle, and the no-vehicle, of these I talk, for the sake of the dull-witted, and [also] for the wise, solitude-loving ones.

132. The gate of highest reality has nothing to do with the two forms of thought-construction [subject and object]; Where the imageless stands, why should we establish the triple vehicles?

133. The Dhyānas, the immeasurables, and the no-form Samādhis, and the thought-cessation—all these are not at all found in Mind-only.

These are not at all found in Mind-only. All of the mental states associated with the practices of mediation are but a construction of the mind "not at all found in Mind-only."

That's one reason why one should not get too very much hung up over stray thoughts in mediation, I'd opine.

"Karaniya Metta Sutta: Good Will" (Snp 1.8), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight

Here.

This is to be done by one skilled in aims who wants to break through to the state of peace: Be capable, upright, & straightforward, easy to instruct, gentle, & not conceited, content & easy to support, with few duties, living lightly, with peaceful faculties, masterful, modest, & no greed for supporters. Do not do the slightest thing that the wise would later censure. Think: Happy, at rest, may all beings be happy at heart. Whatever beings there may be, weak or strong, without exception, long, large, middling, short, subtle, blatant, seen & unseen, near & far, born & seeking birth: May all beings be happy at heart. Let no one deceive another or despise anyone anywhere, or through anger or irritation wish for another to suffer. As a mother would risk her life to protect her child, her only child, even so should one cultivate a limitless heart with regard to all beings. With good will for the entire cosmos, cultivate a limitless heart: Above, below, & all around, unobstructed, without enmity or hate. Whether standing, walking, sitting, or lying down, as long as one is alert, one should be resolved on this mindfulness. This is called a sublime abiding here & now. Not taken with views, but virtuous & consummate in vision, having subdued desire for sensual pleasures, one never again will lie in the womb.

For all beings, especially those in Myanmar/Burma.

Lankavatara Sutra Chapter 2, Section XIX

As usual from here...

Further, Mahāmati, according to the teaching of the Tathagatas of the past, present, and future, all things are unborn. Why? Because they have no [intrinsic] reality, being manifestations of Mind itself, and, Mahāmati, as they are not born of being and non-being, they are unborn. Mahāmati, all things are like the horns of the hare, horse, donkey, or camel, but the ignorant and simple-minded who are given up to their false and erroneous imaginations, discriminate things where they are not; therefore, all things are unborn. That all things are in their self-nature unborn, Mahāmati, belongs to the realm of self-realisation attained by noble wisdom, and does not belong essentially to the realm of dualistic discrimination cherished by the ignorant and simple-minded. The self-nature and the characteristic marks of body, property, and abode evolve when the Ālayavijñāna [store of conciousness/ideation] is conceived by the ignorant as grasping and grasped; and then they fall into a dualistic view of existence where they recognize its rise, abiding, and disappearance, cherishing the idea that all things are born and subject to discrimination as to being and non-being.

I added the word "intrinsic" here; as I think it clarifies things a bit.

Otherwise, I quoted this almost verbatim as it's somewhat self-explanatory.

The main thing is all the stuff you experience when you'd rather be doing something else is all Mind manifestations.

Sometimes, this is enough....

I can't believe that Seth MacFarlane would tie together such obscure things- well, obviously I can, but still...

Lankavatara Sutra Chapter 2, Section XVII & Section XVIII

From here as usual.

Section XVII: Cause and effect, being intertwined, and existence and non-existence, being intertwined and densely related, and the non-independence of discrimination are characteristic of the eternal-unthinkable is the exalted condition of self-realisation and also of highest reality.

Section XVIII:

Further, Mahāmati, those who, afraid of sufferings arising from the discrimination of birth-and-death, seek for Nirvana, do not know that birth-and-death and Nirvana are not to be separated the one from the other; and, seeing that all things subject to discrimination have no reality, imagine that Nirvana consists in the future annihilation of the senses and their fields...

Therefore, Mahāmati, those who do not understand the teachings of the Tathagatas of the past, present, and future, concerning the external world, which is of Mind itself, cling to the notion that there is a world outside what is seen of the Mind and, Mahāmati, go on rolling themselves along the wheel of birth-and-death.

Go Read Norman Fischer in the NY Times Today

Here:

If you live long enough you will discover the great secret we all hate to admit: life is inherently tough. Difficult things happen. You lose your job or your money or your spouse. You get old, you get sick, you die You slog through your days beleaguered and reactive even when there are no noticeable disasters — a normal day has its many large and small annoyances, and the world, if you care to notice, and it is difficult not to, is burning...

Dogen writes, “For the time being the highest peak, for the time being the deepest ocean; for the time being a crazy mind, for the time being a Buddha body; for the time being a Zen Master, for the time being an ordinary person; for the time being earth and sky… Since there is nothing but this moment, ‘for the time being’ is all the time there is.”...

We want enjoyment, we want to avoid pain and discomfort. But it is impossible that things will always work out, impossible to avoid pain and discomfort. So to be happy, with a happiness that doesn’t blow away with every wind, we need to be able to make use of what happens to us — all of it — whether we find ourselves at the top of a mountain or at the bottom of the sea.

A bit of Zen absurdity...

There doesn't seem to be much "zen" in this.

Lankavatara Sutra, Chapter 2, Section XVI

Again, using this translation.

Is this a "Cool State^TM" or what?

Further again, Mahāmati, in the life of the Śrāvaka-vehicle ["Hearers-vehicle"], there are two aspects to be distinguished, namely, the excellent and exalted state of self-realisation, and the attachment to the notion of self-nature arising from discrimination. What is the excellent, exalted state of self-realisation belonging to the Śrāvakas? This is a state of mental concentration which is attained when one realises states of emptiness, egolessness, suffering, and impermanence, and the truth that is free from passions and is ever serene; when one annihilates notions belonging to the externality of things, such as the Skandhas, Dhātus [Elements], Āyatanas [Six senses or modes of perception and the six kinds of object they correspond to], individuality and generality; and when one has an insight into reality as it is. Entering upon this state of mental concentration the Śrāvakas will attain the blissful abode of exalted self-realisation in which there is the emancipation belonging to a Dhyāna, the path and fruit of a Samādhi, and the deliverance of a Samāpatti [where the body and mind abide in a state of tranquil composure], but in which there is as yet no discarding of habit-energy and no escape from the imperceivable transformation of death. This, Mahāmati, is the Śrāvaka's exalted state of self-realisation. Having attained this exalted and blissful condition of self-realisation as realised by the Śrāvakas, Mahāmati, the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva may not enjoy by himself the bliss of cessation, the bliss of Samāpatti, but should think compassionately of other beings and keep ever fresh his original vows. Mahāmati, in whatever exalted and blissful state of self-realisation the Bodhisattva may find himself, he should never exert himself in the exalted and blissful state of self-realisation as attained by the Śrāvakas.

(59) Mahāmati, what is meant by the attachment to the notion of self-nature arising from discrimination? This attachment takes place when a man, seeing that the elements and the qualities such as blue, yellow, warmth, humidity, motility, and rigidity, have never been created by a creator, yet clings to the notions of individuality and generality in accordance with the measures laid down in books of logic. Mahāmati, the Bodhisattva, knowing what this is, must abandon it. Conforming himself to the egolessness of things and holding back the wrong views regarding the egolessness of a person, the Bodhisattva should keep himself on the continuously-ascending journey along the stages. This is the Śrāvaka's attachment to the notion of self-nature arising from the discrimination of existence.

Well there may be a "Cool State^TM," but if one cultivates that state one is not helping other beings.

More on Ken Wilber and Genp Merzel and "Western" Buddhism and Philosophy

I was refraining from posting more on this latest breathless ad on "Integral Life Practice" because it was being exhausted well at Warner's blog, but having seen The Zennist's evident evisceration of Wilber, Merzel et al. (without ever naming them), I figured it might be useful to expand on my comments from Warner's blog. You can read both of those blog entries and the comments therein to find the criticisms of Wilber, Merzel et al. I'll first summarize my position as:

Is it the Dharma that Wilber and Merzel are selling when they try to piggyback on Eckhart Tolle? One could attempt to be a fundamentalist and attempt to correlate what they market with what is written in the Sutras and the Dhammapada (that is, historically what Buddhists have said was Buddhism and I can't but recommend literacy in the Buddhist canon if you're a Buddhist). The Zennist argues well from that standpoint, there's a much simpler way to tell.

Do they teach the 4 Noble Truths for transcending suffering and dukkha? Does what they market increase wisdom, generosity and compassion? Are they committed to following The Noble Eightfold Path? Is what they write and say Right Speech?

I'm concerned as a "Western Buddhist" that Merzel, like Frederick Lenz (from whose estate he and others have been feeding) calls what they do a "Westernization" of Buddhism.

I wrote a book review on Amazon a ways back to the effect that the West (or the US - forgive me Europeans!) has not yet had its Dogen, its Lin Ji, its Yun Men, its Hakuin, or any other great "old teacher" yet. And we may not know if we had one until she died.

There have been some notable Buddhists in the West, to be sure, and I've known a few. But there hasn't been any - and won't be any I'd suspect for at least 100 years - that completely rewrite Zen Buddhism in their country the aforementioned have.

These great teachers don't merely throw out cultural forms from the countries from which they were inherited, but rather build on and extend the previous cultural forms.

So when a someone comes around and peddles something as "Western Buddhism" which is less about transcendence of dukkha than it is about "achieving the now" I shudder, because they're making it more difficult for whoever that great teacher is to propagate the real deal. This I think is kind of what The Zennist was getting at, though somewhat vague.

On a side note, to discard Asian cultural forms merely because you don't like the cultural forms reeks of provincialism, cultural ignorance, or something worse. There are no great reasons to throw out cultural forms merely to "Westernize" them, especially given the dissemination of global community and culture, and the fact that these forms, though alien to folks at first, do indeed have purposes at transcendence of dukkha and in the Mahayana tradition, were developed because they could be skillfully applied at helping others.

Take the Heart Sutra. Please. In "Chinese and Japanese" (they're not really Chinese and Japanese, but let's not go there right now) they really are "mellifluously useful" for the point of concentrating the mind. The translations of the this into English are good enough, but frankly (at least in "Japanese") the phonemic constraints of the Japanese language make it somewhat easier to focus the mind. The fact that grammar of the East Asian languages is "broken" in these sutras helps a great deal, in my opinion to achieve the goal of focusing the mind. The translation into English, naturally, can be used the same way, but, esthetically, to me, it seems a bit awkward.

This "desire for Westernization" relates also to my impression of Ken Wilber: it appears that he wants to "make something better than Buddhism," by claiming he's invented a philosophy which is a superset of it. Moreover, I'd recommend that anybody impressed by Wilber ought to read real philosophy as a comparison, or at least Russell's take on Hegel. Or read Dogen. Or the Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way. And one should read Dawkins on evolutionary biology to inoculate yourself against the bilge Wilber spouts about it. And while you're reading Russell, note Russell's literacy vis a vis Wilber. But I digress.

Dogen and Nagarjuna anticipated modern Western philosophy, and in my opinion, you're philosophically illiterate if you haven't read them. Wilber hasn't really added much that I see to them, or for that matter to Hegel except for jargon.

Professionally I'm an engineer, and much of the math that I've studied (probability, real analysis, stochastic theory) has at its core bumped up against Kurt Godel, and yes, I've read that book by Douglas R. Hofstadter. And Wang too. So I've been interested professionally as well as for personal reasons to read philosophy, both East and West. It was the intersection of problems in my life and thinking about the various types of infinities, I guess.

This is not to do an intellectual "Mine's bigger than yours," but to say that the difference between Wilber and real philosophers is like the difference between a Big Mac and Kobe beef. Please taste Kobe beef.

Your mileage may vary of course, but at least broaden your horizons!

Completely unrelated tangent except that it's related to knowledge of real professional philosphers: Daniel Pi, him of the "Oops I Did it Again Fugue," has read real philosophy. Damn some folks are so smart. Mr. Pi knows how to write a fugue, and no doubt would slaughter me in a chess game; moreover I have trouble writing two sentences on "My Day at the Zoo." OK, the last part I stole from Woody Allen, and I have read a whole bunch of real philosophers in various schools myself, But you get my drift. Anyhow, I disagree (vehemently) with Mr. Pi regarding deconstructionists (not to mention I'd be reluctant to cyber-label myself with such extreme words these days). However I just wanted to put him out there as somebody who's not famous but would be able to show what's wrong with Wiliberism (see his take on Continental Philosophy). And Daniel Pi, I'd bet would be dead wrong in discussing Zen, I'm sure, because he'd probably confuse Zen literature as a use of language that is expositive when it is performative. (I'm not talking about Zen of course.)

As Mother Jones said: "Educate yourselves!"

Lankavatara Sutra, Chapter 2, Section XV

I'm still using Suzuki's translation...

There are various Buddhas (themselves a bit of an ad hoc construction) which are concerned with the fact that cause and condition bind everything arise from habit-energy which is accumulated by not recognizing an external world as of Mind itself, and so appealing to the relative over the absolute or vice versa is one-sided (or even the construction itself - the idea of it - is one sided).

And this has moral implications, including but not limited to your relation to your self and your relations with others, and how you perceive and act in all of that.

Some Bodhidharma for today...

I think it was Bodhidharma about whom Paul Gorman, a WBAI radio host way back in the 80s once said, "He put the Boo! back in Buddhism."

Or maybe it was Lin-Ji.

Anyhow, for some reason, the Shaolin website's up again, and here's something I found...

To truly understand what it means to become awakened (chin.: jueyu 覺悟) there are many paths, but essentially only two can help someone to achieve it. By gaining a direct understanding of the Ultimate Truth - by Principle (chin.: shi li ru 是理入) and by using various practices that lead up to the final understanding of the Ultimate Truth Practice (chin.: shi xing ru 是行入).

To become awakened by Principle, means to awaken to the Ultimate Truth through the doctrine, with a deep faith that all sentient beings have the same true nature. Obscured by the mind delusions, this nature cannot manifest itself. If one can relinquish the false and turn to the true, let the mind to understand that there are neither self nor others, that mortals and saints are equal and one—abiding this way without wavering, clinging not even to the scriptures, then one is implicitly in accord with the Principle. Being non-discriminative (chin.: wuyou fenbie 無有分別), silent (chin.: jiran 寂然), and non-interference with nature (chin.: wuwei 無為) is to become awakened by Principle. This is the Chen practice known as the “gateless gate”.

To become awakened by Practice means following four practices (chin.: Si Xing 四行). They are: accepting adversity (chin.: baoyuanxing 報冤行), adapting to conditions (chin.: suiyuanxing 隨緣行), seeking nothing (chin.: wu suoqiu xing 無所求行), and acting in accordance with the Dharma (chin.:sichen faxing 四稱法行).

Your loneliness is my loneliness.

Peter Singer : Ration Health Care

Peter Singer, Princeton philospher, is infamous for being a rather outspoken animal rights activist. But his piece in today's NY Times Magazine's right on point. It is hard to read if you're completely, absolutely, 1000% pro-human life, but his logic is iron-clad.

If you can afford [Sutent, an expensive drug for advanced kidney cancer], you probably would pay that much, or more, to live longer, even if your quality of life wasn’t going to be good. But suppose it’s not you with the cancer but a stranger covered by your health-insurance fund. If the insurer provides this man — and everyone else like him — with Sutent, your premiums will increase. Do you still think the drug is a good value? Suppose the treatment cost a million dollars. Would it be worth it then? Ten million? Is there any limit to how much you would want your insurer to pay for a drug that adds six months to someone’s life? If there is any point at which you say, “No, an extra six months isn’t worth that much,” then you think that health care should be rationed...

Health care is a scarce resource, and all scarce resources are rationed in one way or another. In the United States, most health care is privately financed, and so most rationing is by price: you get what you, or your employer, can afford to insure you for. But our current system of employer-financed health insurance exists only because the federal government encouraged it by making the premiums tax deductible. That is, in effect, a more than $200 billion government subsidy for health care...

There’s no doubt that it’s tough — politically, emotionally and ethically — to make a decision that means that someone will die sooner than they would have if the decision had gone the other way. But if the stories of Bruce Hardy and Jack Rosser [(patients given decisions to deny treatments)] lead us to think badly of the British system of rationing health care, we should remind ourselves that the U.S. system also results in people going without life-saving treatment — it just does so less visibly. Pharmaceutical manufacturers often charge much more for drugs in the United States than they charge for the same drugs in Britain, where they know that a higher price would put the drug outside the cost-effectiveness limits set by NICE [(the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence). American patients, even if they are covered by Medicare or Medicaid, often cannot afford the copayments for drugs. That’s rationing too, by ability to pay.

Singer's 100% right here: An allocation based on economic power is still an allocation, and it can't possibly be an allocation based on maximizing the number of people's well-being.

So when the righties start bleating about "rationing" - which is an allocation after all, mention to them these points.

It's better to allocate based on maximizing people's well-being than on maximizing the money held by a few, which is the system we have now.

Lankavatara Sutra, Chapter 2, Section XIV

Again, using Suzuki's translation:

How, O Blessed One, is the outflow purified that takes place from recognising an external world which is of Mind itself? Is the purification instantaneous or gradual?

• The purification of beings when they recognise an external world as real which is of Mind itself is gradual and not instantaneous.



• On the other hand: The purification of beings is like a mirror indiscriminately and instantaneously reflecting in it forms and images; (56) in the same way, Mahāmati, the purification by the Tathagata of all beings is instantaneous, who makes them free from discrimination and leads them to the state of imagelessness.



• The Tathagata, by making all beings discard the habit-energy which issues from the erroneous views they entertain in regard to an external world which is of the Mind, instantaneously reveals to all beings the realm of unthinkable knowledge which belongs to Buddhahood.

In other words, it takes time to get there, but "gradual" and "instantaneous" are yet again a dualism.