SUMMING UP

SUMMING UP

During the course of several talks over the past few months we have discussed some of the principles of Zen. A few more need to be addressed, and today I would like to reflect on some Zen principles.

          Fair warning: As ever, there will be some duplication, even some contradiction. Life is full of inconsistencies and repetition. That is the way of life, and that is the way of Zen.

All things change.

Security is an invention of the human mind. Freedom from change does not exist in nature.

A year and a half ago I spent many pleasant hours in the spring watching a pair of cardinals build a nest in a dogwood tree close to my house. The two birds carried twigs, bits of fuzz, and cedar shavings to make the nest a comfortable and cozy home. It was sited in a place that was safe from my cat and out of sight of crows and hawks. It seemed a perfect nest for raising a family.

The female laid a clutch of eggs while the male gathered food to bring home. Eventually the eggs hatched. Both parents took turns collecting bugs and worms to feed the babies, and they took turns keeping the chicks warm and protected.

The hatchlings sprouted feathers, and one day they were almost ready to take their first flight.

Then a fierce storm—one of the typical spring gales—tore the branch that held the nest off the dogwood. The nest was destroyed, and the infant birds were crushed.

          A sad story? Yes.

Did the cardinal parents grieve? We don’t know.

We can be sure that Mama and Papa cardinal did not blame anyone or anything for what happened.

What happened was the way of nature, and the way of nature is change.

          The cardinals did not build another nest that spring. It was too late in the season. This year the same cardinals put up another nest and started a family all over again. This household seems to be doing very well.

          We humans feel comfortable fastening ourselves to one thing or another. To another person, to a home, to a computer, to a truck. This is called attachment.

One word does a fair job of describing Buddhism: non-attachment.

          All of the Buddha’s teachings and all of the teachings of the Buddha’s disciples can be summed up in that word, non-attachment.

          We have earlier mentioned the difference between detachment and attachment. To be detached is to get away from a problem, to escape from it. It means that one sees a potential problem and makes an effort to cut oneself off from it. It implies a fight against a prospective problem.

          Life is like a flowing stream. However, instead of allowing life to flow, we too often align ourselves with favorable conditions, or else we fight against unfavorable conditions.

          Non-attachment is altogether different. Non-attachment means to neither fight against nor join with a problem but to be one with a problem.

When humans experience a disaster they continue to torment themselves about it. Humans try to explain happenings—whether happy or unhappy—as the will of god, or as the fault of someone, or as the result of a vindictive Mother Nature.

You know what we do. We rant and rave that someone or something has it in for us. We think we’ve been made a scapegoat, so we try to find a reason.

Reason does not exist in nature. Ornithologists claim that bird’s bones are hollow and lightweight in order to allow birds to fly. Nonsense. Birds fly. Period. Birds have hollow bones. Period. If birds had solid bones they would probably fly anyway. There is no reason, no purpose, at work.

In nature there is no such thing as rationalism—that is, reliance on reason as the best guide for belief and action. There is only empiricism—experience of the senses.

In life, things happen, and only human beings feel the need to assign a reason.  When individuals assign a reason they feel better because that shifts responsibility away from them. Humans create the concepts of good and bad. If they can’t find an external reason for a “bad” happening, they are bothered. Of course, if they experience a “good” happening they take credit for it.

Thus they create, and revel in, a world of good and bad. To humans, life and its happening must be either one or the other.

However, what is, is. And change is foremost among what is. As much as humans like to believe they are immune from change, it just is not so.

You know the saying. Two things are certain in life: taxes and death. I’ll add a third certainty: change.

Change is a transformation or transition from one state, condition, or phase to another. Change is inevitable, unavoidable, and inescapable.

Get used to change. It is here to stay.

Change does not change.

Death is the absolute end.

Human life has a beginning and an end. The beginning is birth, the end is death.

Life has a beginning and an end. Zen does not have a beginning or an end. Zen is a circle. There is no start, no finish to Zen. It is a flowing stream. It goes on and on.

We get one and only one shot at this life, and as far as we know there is no other, so we should make the very best of now.      

Zen Koans, page 253

Iron Flute, #36.

In Zen there is no sorrow about death. No fear of death.

A Zen master was nearly a hundred years old and was dying. All of a sudden he sat up in his bed and started laughing.

“Why are you laughing?” The solemn mourners asked.

“Why are you not laughing?” The master answered.

When one is empty of the judgments and assumptions that have been acquired over the years, one comes close to original nature (sometimes called original face) and is capable of conceiving original ideas.

One Zen koan asks, “What was your face before you were born?” Like all koans this is perplexing, even inexplicable. How can one possibly have a face before being born?

          Well, I’m going to cheat and partially interpret this koan. Face-before-being-born refers to one’s true nature before it has been altered by opinions, prejudices, judgments.

          I want to read something about original face.

          Zen Koans, page 34

Zen is a way of life.

Zen is not something that is turned on and turned off, like a water faucet, on a certain day of the week or at a certain time of the day.

          Zen deals with life by living it. Zen points to the essence of life we all live. Zen is understood through one’s experience. Zen is everyday life. To learn Zen is to learn oneself.

Finally, the last principle of Zen.

When we perceive the inconsistencies of life, all we can do is laugh.