Tannishblog

What strikes me about Buddhism in general, and specifically Zen, is - to the Western mind - it seems to contradict itself. This is because we in the West tend to view the words as we view most things, as immutable. That is not the case. What the Zen beginner often struggles with, among other things, is a paradigm-shift in thinking hitherto stifled by Western mores; that words are insufficient to convey the ideas, but those are the best tools we have. As example, I give you two quotes below, seemingly contradictory, but in fact both statements are correct in the Zen view:

The willow is green; the flowers are red. 

and…

The flower is not red; nor is the willow green.

Have I lost you? These statements illustrate the fluidity of thought necessary to take the first steps in Buddhist thinking: While the first statement, verifying color of the objects, is obviously true - on a conventional level - the second statement reminds us that without the mind to interpret, compartmentalize, and aggregate concepts, neither the objects (the willow and the flower) nor their properties (their respective colors) can exist.

Why bother to differentiate this? Because the knowledge of mind as a necessary and inseparable factor in viewing our world leads to the understanding of how important it is for us to try to temper our minds. Adding the mind into our empirical equations reminds us that a calm mind produces better results than a turbulent mind; that our very perceptions can shift dramatically as our mental state changes. It is therefore our first priority to understand the workings of our minds.

How is this done? Sitting in meditation, without distractions, allows one to gain focus on how the mind's discourse can lead us, instead of us leading our mind. The results can be fascinating, but it takes perseverence - and a touch of courage. 

I begin to understand that after a grueling work week, the last thing we want to do is think in service to our blogging habit. Some counter this by quick posts or catblogging on Fridays, some have open threads wherein their readhership can entertain itself. I usually fail to post on Friday nights.

With the (hopeful) rejuvination of this blog, I propose a tradition I haven't yet encountered in the blogocube: Friday Night Zen. While my family celebrates Shabbot, I can also try to cleanse my spirit by reaquainting myself with the truly important - as I see it. (A week of reading the news can make one forget…) So without further delay, I offer a Zen quote for your enlightenement (pun intended.)

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few." 

– Shunryu Suzuki  

 Namaste

I’m not supposed to write about politics today. I promised my friend, the Allergic Gardener Leucanthemum, to diversify this blog in an attempt at diminishing the shrillness of repeated Bush-bashing. Notwithstanding the joy of doing so, or the ease – as there is so much to ridicule, the monotony is showing up in my writings.

But – and you knew there was a “but” involved here – I come across an article in Washington Post about the re-emergence of the Religious Left (is that an oxymoron?) As I have mentioned a few times over the past year, the political pendulum is reversing its path, and nothing I’ve found lately illustrates this as clearly as the reorganization of progressive and moderate believers in the New American Battlefield of Political Dominance.

I empathize with a passage on the third page of the article, which sums up my thoughts overall:

Some groups on the religious left are clearly seeking to help the Democratic Party. But the relationship is delicate on both sides.
“If I were the Democrats, the last thing I would do is really try to mobilize these folks as a political force . . . because I think some of this is a real unhappiness with the whole business of politicizing religion,” said Mark Silk, director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

Perhaps the concept of separation of church and state, so intrinsic to the American dream, is referring to just this sort of political proselytizing. The NeoCons have already set the IRS poking about rival religious groups as to whether their actions in 2004 compromised their right to tax-exempt status. What will happen now? Never mind the fact that the Religious Left have only adopted the tactics the Religious Right have succeeded with for eight years. That is beside the point.

I ask, can there be any good to the marriage of political activism and religion. No matter whose yard you stand in, should those on the other side of the fence wield a holy sword in this political joust?

I've never spoke to this man, but I call him a friend. My wife and I saw him speak in a crowded university gymnasium in Chicago. On a sweaty late-summer night we witnessed his monks chant and sing to a crowd of impetuous, murmuring westerners and calmed them en masse into a state of peaceful receptiveness I'm sure few had ever experienced. People were overflowing, sitting in the aisles as other weaved through, shifting another inch tighter together to fit another person nearby, all in an atmoshpere of calm anticipation. Soon, he came to the stage. Draped in a brown robe, he sat cross-legged on a cushion surrounded by younger, brown-robed figures. A small, elderly man who spoke in a quiet tenor that, even amplified, required close attention to hear. That was part of his purpose, I think now; to force three thousand bustling Americans to attend to his words he delivered them quietly. And we listened. For almost three hours, Thich Nhat Hahn delivered his speech to the American people - about politics, about war, about living in an age of globalism. Mostly, he spoke of peace. And we listened. "Thich Nhat Hahn (pronounced Tick-Naught-Han) is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk. During the war in Vietnam, he worked tirelessly for reconciliation between North and South Vietnam. His lifelong efforts to generate peace moved Martin Luther King, Jr. to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. He lives in exile in a small community in France where he teaches, writes, gardens, and works to help refugees worldwide. He has conducted many mindfulness retreats in Europe and North America helping veterans, children, environmentalists, psychotherapists, artists and many thousands of individuals seeking peace in their hearts, and in their world." Today, I'm reminded of him as a quote of his passes my virtual desktop:

Understanding and compassion are very powerful sources of energy. They are the opposite of stupidity and passivity. If you think that compassion is passive, weak or cowardly, then you don't know what real compassion is. If you think that compassionate people do not resist and challenge injustice you are wrong. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

I call this man friend because this man "gets it". He knows how to live. Thich Nhat Hahn knows life because, through his experiences during the Viet Nam war, he became intimate with death. through his experiences in that war, he came to know peace. He knows life because as a Buddhist, he has trained in compassion, universal love, and has tamed his own mind. This man, whom I've never spoken to, is my friend because he is the embodiment of Peace. And we all need peace.