Ox Herding

Judgment Day

Several readers have offered generous comments over the past few days. These have helped me realize how little I know about the teachings of Jesus, which is more than a little humbling. Thank you.

I continue to find great richness in some of his words, a richness that surely arises from deep insight into human life. For example, in Luke 6:37, Jesus reminds us:

Don't judge other people, and you will not be judged.
Don't condemn other people, and you will not be condemned.
Forgive other people, and you will be forgiven.
Give to other people, and you will receive.
You will be given much.
It will be poured into your hands--more than you can hold.
You will be given so much that it will spill into your lap.
The way you give to other people is the way God will give to you.

We live in a prison of our own creation, the cells constructed from four functions of mind:  wanting, holding, making and checking.

The passage from Luke provides a blunt description of how checking mind (the mind that judges, criticizes and condemns) creates suffering. Checking arises from attachment to like and dislike - specifically attachment to feelings.

Zen Master Seung Sahn spoke about this point:

Don't check anything - just do it - then your feelings can't control you.

What happens when our feelings can't control us? We become generous and forgiving.

And what happens when we become generous and forgiving?

Abundance will pour into our hands, spill into our lap, overflow our life. When we give and forgive, we will receive in turn more than we can use. Then we can give even more generously.

So pay attention!

Every day is judgment day.

Photograph of Mary Levine, the Bodhisattva of Parking. She holds quarters in her many hands, ready to assist anyone in need of a good parking place. Her overflowing abundance never fails those with a sincere heart/mind.

In and Out of the Mouth

This week, Ox Herding will focus on a few teachings attributed to Jesus in which he illuminates the practice life. Consider this passage from Matthew 15, in which Jesus says:

What goes into a man's mouth does not make him unclean.
But what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him unclean.

Jesus made this observation when speaking with the Pharisees, leaders of a branch of Judaism that focused on correct living (I'm pretty fuzzy on this - perhaps some of you can say more).

I don't take Jesus to be unconcerned about what goes into the mouth. Certainly, we should pay attention to what goes into our mouths. It's one way to relieve some of the world's great suffering and I've written about just this point in the recent series of posts on the One-Percent Solution.

But Jesus is focused on "output." When we eat food, we get some energy. How do we use that energy?

If we fail to give close attention to output, we risk creating problems for ourselves and others.

But a word of caution: Rules won't help us in this matter. Precepts only go so far. And our ideas about "loving" speech can make matters worse.

No wonder Zen Master Seung Sahn sometimes referred to the mouth as the "number one problem gate!"

Perhaps we can start by paying attention to what goes into and comes out of mind. With that kind of practice, we might know when to open the mouth and when to close it.

Because the gate isn't the problem.

One-Percent Solution disclosure:  Here's what usually goes into my mouth at lunchtime (pictured above): hominy bread (from a bakery 2 miles way), homemade raspberry preserves (made by a friend, 3 miles away), and almond butter (made in a factory in Salem, Oregon, 185 miles away); the cutting board and toaster were made in China (about 6,500 miles away) and the knife was made in Germany (about 4,800 miles away).

Jesus

Recently I've spent time with the teachings of Jesus and I'd like to focus this week on a few things I've found interesting.

He strikes me as a pretty ordinary fellow. Curt and tough, when needed; loving and kind, when needed. Of course, we know nearly nothing about Jesus as a person - just as we know almost nothing about Buddha.

Our beliefs about both teachers come filtered by time, language and bias.

The Gospels - thought by some to contain the actual teachings of Jesus - were written no earlier than 50 years after his death, in Greek (a language that neither Jesus nor his apostles spoke or wrote), and were formed to emphasize certain aspects of his teaching.

Similarly, the Pali and Mahayana Canons were written long after the Buddha's death, in languages not spoken by the Buddha, and reflect sectarian biases.

Although filtered, the parallels between the teachings of Jesus and the Buddha can seem uncanny and even extraordinary. Thich Nhat Hanh and others have written extensively about this, and I certainly don't have their knowledge or expertise.

I'm simply interested in how the enlightened mind reaches out to others. Certain teachings of Jesus, especially those that seem not to be shaded by Christian doctrine, offer valuable insight into this point.

This week's posts won't be exhaustive, but perhaps they'll reveal something about practice and direction. We'll see what kind of issues they bring out.

Anniversary Week: Gospel Noble Truths

I remain uncertain about the Friday video, mostly 'cause I don't find many videos where I like both the presentation and the content. That said, I just love this video of Allen Ginsberg, which was posted on October 16, 2009.

Gospel Noble Truths

Now for something really strange and wonderful:  Allen Ginsberg singing a country-western version of Buddha-dharma, entitled Gospel Noble Truths. Among the wonderful lines in this song are:

Act like you talk.

Talk when you talk. 

Breathe when you breathe.

Die when you die.

May we all act like we talk, walk like we walk, and talk when we talk.

Best wishes for the weekend! Thank you for reading Ox Herding.

Barry

Anniversary Week: The Past

Regular readers know that I write frequently about the need to look more deeply into our actual behaviors, and the impulses and intentions that drive behaviors. This post from January 28, 2010 provides a good example of this. It also exemplifies the brevity to which I aspire (but, of course, sometimes don't achieve).

The Past

The past is never dead.

It's not even past.

It seems unlikely that William Faulkner knew much about the Buddha-dharma. But, as the above passage demonstrates, he knew something about human life.

Faulkner's observation might prompt us to ask, "Who keeps the past alive?" And the answer seems pretty obvious:  We do it ourselves.

We might also ask, "Why do we keep the past alive?"

I'm pretty interested in this second question. It suggests that we get something from the feeding the corpse of the past. What might that be?

I often struggle to understand what I'm up to with my stories and memories. Maybe you do, as well.

Perhaps it's enough simply to recognize that we're up to something. If we can recognize this, then maybe we can put down the corpse. That would probably reduce the odor.

Quote from Requiem for A Nun, by William Faulkner

Anniversary Week: On Compassion

During the last year, I wrote frequently about the mind that "picks and chooses" and how that mind differs from the mind of a bodhisattva. Here's a typical post, from March 23, 2010.

On Compassion

Recently someone new to Buddhism asked how it was that the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Quanyin, could serve as the "patron" of both vegetarians and fishermen.

There was an aggrieved tone in the person's voice:  How could she?

I replied that true compassion does not depend on conditions.

Without hesitation, Quanyin offers unstinting compassion to vegetarians and carnivores, fishermen and farmers, and saints and murderers.

That's because Quanyin has laid down the mind that picks and chooses based on like and dislike. She only responds to what is.

Indeed, love can only arise in response to what is. Everything else is fantasy.

These are easy words to write, but to live without dependence on conditions . . . well, that's something else. That's why clear-eyed direction is so important.

Anniversary Week: The Five Desires (Sex)

Over the past twelve months, I twice wrote about how we might practice with sexuality. Both posts have merit (especially given the challenges presented by sexuality), but I'll only reprint one (from September 7, 2009) this week. You can read the other post here.

The Five Desires: Sex

I can't believe I'm going to write about this. I'm as baffled as you by sexual passion and lust.

Who among us doesn't struggle with sexual desire - either wanting sex or wanting to avoid it?

Sexual desire (like desires for food and sleep) might appear at first glance to arise from the body and its needs. But if we look more deeply, we can discover something about how we use sex.

The Buddha said that:

The uninstructed worldling does not know of any escape from painful feeling other than sensual pleasure. When he seeks delight in sensual pleasure, the underlying tendency to lust for pleasant feeling lies behind this. (SN 36:6)

Sexual desire and its capacity for havoc is so problematical that Buddha created the Third Precept to help us navigate it:

A  noble disciple gives up sexual misconduct and abstains from it. By abstaining from sexual misconduct, the noble disciple gives to immeasurable beings freedom from fear. (AN 8:39)

(Notice that the Buddha didn't feel the need for a precept around food or sleep.)

Over the past few years, I've studied how sexual impulses often mask a variety of feelings, from boredom to genuinely painful emotions. I see how the desire to masturbate arises from the urge to escape how I actually feel at some moment. I can also see how I use intercourse to create a pleasurable feeling.

What would it be like to have sexual relations without the pursuit of pleasurable feeling? What kind of intimate relationship would result? How could we bring true freedom to our partners?

How would a bodhisattva have intercourse?

Photo by Roy Niswanger

Anniversary Week: What's Next?

The end of June marks the second anniversary of Ox Herding. On the first anniversary I published a week of my favorite posts from the preceding year. This week Ox Herding will again feature posts written in the past year that (I hope) reveal what I seek to accomplish with this blog. In these posts, at least, I feel like something true got said.

One of the "funnest" things about Ox Herding is the Monday cartoon. However, the humor of these cartoons often points to something remarkably serious about human life.

Last year, the Zen world lost Daido Loori, Roshi and, prior to his death, Ox Herding dedicated a series of posts to his teaching. Here's one, from October 8, 2009:

What's Next?

Do we need a fortune cookie to remind us? With Daido Roshi nearing the end of his life journey, do we need a reminder?

Well, most of us probably need occasional reminders of what comes next. Maybe the reminder comes in a cookie; maybe it comes with a disease; perhaps it comes from the approaching death of a beloved teacher or friend.

The reminder helps us understand the precious nature of this human body. How shall we use this limited time?

Daido Roshi said this about the importance of diligent and embodied practice:

If we’re practicing diligently and embodying what we’re practicing, it will show up in the way we walk, the way we listen, the way we hear and speak, the way we love, the way we raise a child, the way we drive a car, the way we grow a garden.

We spend so much time fighting with others, nurturing our delusions, and pursuing our small pleasures. But when death comes, then what?

Wu-men wrote this verse commentary on "Kan-feng's One Road:"

Before you take a step, you are already there;
before your tongue has moved, your teisho is finished.
Though your every move is ahead of the last,
remember the vast all-encompassing crater.

Wu-men's verse from The Gateless Barrier, by Robert Aikten Roshi

"Loving-Anger" and the Deepwater Horizon Disaster

After reading some of my earlier posts on the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, Chong Go Sunim (of Wake Up and Laugh!) sent me a link to the clip below. It's a wonderful expression of "loving-anger."

The two "commentators," John Clarke and Bryan Dawe, capture the painful absurdity of BP's response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. 

I appreciate the humor in the above clip. But the situation remains serious and the American government's response to the catastrophe remains wholly inadequate. If you'd like to see what a genuine response to the oil spill might look like, "Fake President" Rachel Maddow offers her "oval office" viewpoint. I found this an impressive example of loving-anger and encourage you to watch it to the end.

Thank you for reading Ox Herding. May you find relief over the weekend!

Barry

P.S. If you just can't get enough on this topic, here's Jon Stewart on the history of "oil independence:"

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
An Energy-Independent Future
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Simplification

Yesterday I saw a bumper stick that read:

Simplify, Simplify

I'm sure all of us would like to simplify, simplify the complicated situations and relationships that comprise our lives.

I know that whenever I feel confusion or defensiveness, I want to sweep away the complexity in an effort to find relief.

But (when I'm clear) I can see that this movement toward simplicity assumes that the cause of my feelings resides out there. So I assume that if I can just clean up out there, then I'll be okay.

The bodhisattva doesn't suffer from this particular delusion.

The bodhisattva doesn't distinguish between simplicity and complexity. She only sees reality . . . and responds to its requirements. That's pretty simple.