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July 10th, 2014  Poetic Liberation II

7/10/2014

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Poetic Liberation II

This is a continuation of the previous blog on an idea I am calling Poetic Realization.  If you have not read the previous blog maybe you should begin there. 

          Having tea after the Sunday morning sit the question came up, what were the       Three Turnings of the Dharma and is their a forth?  This idea of turnings is something the Tibetan Buddhists talk about.  It is rarely talked about in other schools of Buddhism.  The story of the three turnings goes something like this.
          When the the Buddha began teaching he recognized that he needed to mold  his teachings for the existing mentality of the people he was teaching.  This first formulation of the teachings can be found in the Palli Cannon and is today practiced by the Theravada Buddhists.  It is known as the "small vehicle" because it's focus is on the individual and the individual's desire to relieve themselves from suffering.  
          Then as his students became more advanced in the path he changed his teachings and started talking about the Bodhisattva who practices so that all people can be liberated from suffering.  And there was a new philosophic focus with concepts like "emptiness." and the non-dual perspective.  This produced a whole new body of teachings found in the Mahayana Sutras.  It was called the "large vehicle" - Mahayana in Sanskrit-  because no longer was the emphasis on the individual's personal practice to relieve personal suffering, but rather the very need to drop the personal perspective and see the Dharma as transcending the individual.  This is the second turning of the Dharma.  The Mahayana has many schools  and is found throughout Northern Asia.  Zen is a Mahayana School. 
         Keeping to the theme of this story, the Buddha never completely shared his full understanding in public discourse but saved his deepest teachings for one on one teaching to his best students.  This body of teachings was for many many years  privately passed from teacher to student until it emerged in a body of literature called the Tantra's.  I have to say that I am no expert on the Tantra's but my understanding is that these esoteric teachings are about the use of certain "powers" in initiations and meditation.  These teachings have become very important in the Vajrayana Schools of Buddhism in Tibet and other parts of Asia.  These schools are also a subset of the larger Mahayana community. 
          I think there is another way to view the Three Turnings of the Dharma which is probably historically more accurate.  Each of the three turnings was a formulation and then reformulation of the teachings in response to a particular time and place, and also the growing experience of the many practitioners..  This ability and willingness to reformulate itself is one of Buddhism's great assets.   As Buddhism moves into the Western World there is an other reformulation of Buddhism that is happening.  Why am I writing about this?  True deep Buddhism never fix's the meaning of words and doctrines.  Words and doctrines are temporary skillful means  attempts to express the inexpressible.  Only deep experience can reveal a true understanding of Buddhism.  Words can direct us on a path towards that experience and maybe they can point out that experience and understanding that comes from that experience but not literally only metaphorically, only poetically.  This is what I call poetic liberation.  
          When Zen entered China  it was entering a land with a deep love of poetry.  In adapting Zen to China and later Japan a new formulation of Buddhism emerged using words poetically as metaphors for enlightened understanding and experience.  And a new powerful tool combining metaphor and meditation emerged called the Koan.  I think we can justifiably call this a fourth turning.  
          Now I have caught up to the previous blog.  Typically the first Koan given a student is Mu.  Mu is a word meaning no.  The story goes that a student asked the Zen master Joshu, "Does a dog have Buddha nature?"  The response was Mu.  Right away we understand that this Mu is not a littoral no because Buddhist doctrine tells us that all beings have Buddha Nature.  Of course Buddha Nature is another big question.  All of this swirls in our head as we try to understand Joshu's response.  Again and again we bring our teacher an intellectual answer and it is always rejected.  Maybe we have heard that if we give a good shout MU we will pass but again the answer is rejected.  We have to bring something else to the teacher.  Eventually if we drop any fixed dualistic meaning for MU, and our dualistic understanding, all of a sudden Mu will make perfect sense.
          This whole process of Koan Zen pushes the student, never letting him or her sit on their lorals, never settling on a comfortable understanding of Zen and meditation.  This process works on the student to break down their dualistic thinking, and pushes their meditation to go deeper and deeper eventually setting up the conditions which allow the student to see through their dualistic thinking to the non-dual.  What are these conditions?
One condition is a temporary suspension of dualistic thinking, verbal and emotional.  There must also be a deep detachment from dualistic thought based on the fixed meanings of words.  Lastly there is still the inner search for deeper meaning and a sort of directed energy that has built up in this search These last two conditions are where the koan is important  It is not quite enough to just temporarily stop verbal thought in meditation because without a deeper detachment from dualistic thinking, when the meditation is over the dualistic thinking will start up again.
          
        "The Master took the high seat in the Hall. He said: 'on your lump of red flesh 
is a true man without rank who is always going in and out of the face of every one of you. 
Those who have not yet proved him, look, look!"


          This is a statement taken from the teachings of Rinzi and often given as a Koan.  Rinzi, noted for his unusual teaching methods used language very freely and here seems to have presented us with a perplexing statement.  In doing a little research on the internet I read a few commentaries on this koan and none of them seemed to go to the full depth of this koan. In Zen we often talk about the "true self", understanding our true self, finding our true self etc.  This seems in contradiction to the Buddhist teaching of no self but we shouldn't be surprised with this seeming contradiction.  Some how this delema resolves with a whole new way of viewing the self which is what this koan is all about.
         One may start with the phrase true man of no rank and think: "We are always ranking ourselves, sometimes superior, sometimes inferior to those we interact with.  Sometimes this ranking is conscious, often it is subconscious, but either way it effects our emotions and responses. On the other hand the enlightened don't think this way and see others as well as themselves as equals without rank.  Instead the enlightened clearly see each situation and respond accordingly."  
          These thoughts may be a good beginning but they don't see the full depth of the Koan.  What about this True Man going in and out of the face?  Sensations and food come in through the face and what goes out through the face, words, spittle, disgorged food?  What is Rinzi talking about?  And also why is he bringing in the lump of red flesh?         
        We read "on your lump of red flesh is a true man" and we may immediately think that there is a separation between the lump of red flesh, our body, and the true man, our true selves.  Beware of falling into the trap of mind body dualism. Buddhism is not a dualistic philosophy. We are not our body but we are also not not our body.  This reminds me of many years ago when I was at a retreat with Baba Muctinanda the Hindu Guru.  In his talk he tells us that we are all just bags of piss and shit.  Many years later Harada Roshi in a talk tells us that we are bags of bile and puke.  Why would they speak this way?  Maybe they as well as Rinzi wanted to break down the idea that we are just this body.  Be careful,  if we alternatively think that we are just our minds then we are truly in trouble.  If we think, "I am what I think," then we become attached to our greed anger and confusion, and then what hope do we have. We are  also not not our mind.    
         Now we return to the "true man without rank who is always going in and out of the face of every one of you."  Who is this true man, is it us, is it separate from us?  Every which way we turn we fall into dualism.  Rinzi says look look prove it to yourself.  The inscrutable  nature of the koan, the process of confronting the teacher again and again keeps pushing us.  Boundaries have to be dropped.  Fixed ideas have to be dropped.  There we sit in meditation experiencing things like we always experience things but some how it is different because now we experience without boundaries.  From the sounds that go in our ears, the sights that go in our eyes, the smells that go in our noses, and the breath that goes in and out of our body, we cannot separate ourselves. 
          Truly deep meditation is often described as a state of equanimity where all sensations. all things, are seen as equal.  In this state of mind we simply observe without adding thoughts to our observation.  We may also say this is a state of mind where everything is without rank.  This state of mind which we call samadhi is not quite enough, somehow a profound change in understanding needs to take place and the koan points directly at this new understanding.  Here is where the unique and poetic use of language in Zen has it's power.  The phrase true man without rank references this completely different understanding but it all hinges on our understanding of the word man.  This dualistic word must somehow be understood with a non-dualistic understanding.
In samadhi all our conceptual boundaries which divide perception into this and that are down. This is a state of Zero not a thing exists, because we are without even a single thought.  But then if we look we can perceive everything is a single thing, One.  This One includes not only what we sense out there but also our selves, this body and mind.  We become everything but also everything becomes us.  We have entered the non-dual.  Rinzi's use of the word man is a personification of the non-dual  It represents the identification of our true selves with everything. with the One.  The One is our true self, it is the True Self, it is the true man without rank.  Look look don't you see him?  You just need to practice more. 
           If you truly see the man of no rank you shouldn't have a problem with this koan.  You have undergone poetic liberation and the obscure language of the Zen Masters should start to be clear.   I hope this essay has demonstrated reasonably well what I mean by poetic realization.  Good luck in your practice.
1 Comment

Poetic Liberation

6/28/2014

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” Confused by thoughts,
we experience duality in life.
Unencumbered by ideas,
the enlightened see the one Reality.”

- Hui  Neng 6th Zen patriarch



          Hi folks.  I have been playing with a thought I call Poetic Liberation.  Let me explain. The enlightenment experience has a deeply poetic quality in several ways.  The intensity, joy and beauty of the experience cannot be captured by intellectual dissertation.  Only poetry can somewhat successfully express this type of experience.  We can see the huge volume of poetry that has come from many of the great mystics in all the great mystic traditions.  I only need point to Rumi in the Sufi tradition,  Milarepa in the Tibetan  tradition,  Tagore in the Hindu tradition and St Francis in the Christian tradition.  There are whole web sites devoted to mystic poets if you want to read some of this wonderful poetry.  Poetry has this wonderful quality of being able to evoke the deep feelings and understanding of the mystic experience.  
          The relationship between poetry and the enlightenment experience is even deeper then the ability of poetry to express  feelings and thoughts.  The enlightenment experience causes this amazing transformation in the way the individual thinks about things.  This transformation is deeply poetic because it creates a deeply metaphorical way of thinking.  With the experience of the non-dual we all of a sudden realize that the essential duality of language is a problem.  We divide up our perception of the world with words.  As long as we hold to the fixed meaning of words not only can we not express non-duality but our attachment to fixed meanings prevents our experience of the non-dual.  Enlightenment liberates us from the fixed meanings of words. but in some way though, we must first liberate ourselves from the fixed meanings of words before we open ourselves to the enlightenment experience.  How do we do this?  Well just sitting for many many hours is a good way.  We sit until in some sense we forget the meaning of words but actually we sit until our mind becomes quiet and we just stop using words.  There is also another way which is used in Zen.  It is called Koan practice.  This is to confront the student with an enigmatic question which will only cause endless frustration if he sticks to the fixed meaning of words.  Combine this with meditation and now we have a powerful tool which can cut through the impediment of fixed meanings and liberate our use of language. With this liberation words can now express the metaphoric quality of enlightened understanding.
          What is the metaphoric quality of the enlightenment experience?  It is to see unity when most people see just duality.  It is to understand non-duality in the world of duality.  In this understanding each individual thing is just a temporary manifestation of the non-dual and thereby becomes a metaphor for the non-dual.  In this understanding as each individual thing becomes a metaphor for the non-dual it also becomes a metaphor for every other individual thing.  Now seeing everything as a metaphor for everything just about makes verbal thought impossible.  How can we verbally teach the non-dual Dharma?  Now comes the innovation in teaching method that has made Zen Buddhism unique, the enigmatic use of language,  the selective use of seemingly absurd metaphors.
          The Zen master says, "Become one with the sound of the wind."  How can I become one with the sound of the wind when we are two?  The wind is one thing and I am something else.  Some where there is an experience where the I and the wind become one.  The experience is in front of us all the time but as long as we hold to a fixed meaning for "I" and "wind" never the two shall meet.
          This web sight is named from a poetic couplet:

          Sitting in the Moonwater Dojo
          Tracing flowers in the sky

The Moon reflecting on still water is a common Zen metaphor.  Still water represents a clear mind without the commotion of many thoughts like a polished mirror reflecting the reality around us.  The Moon represents that reality around us but not as we normally see it with our active mind, but as a single whole the, undifferentiated oneness, the Absolute, Buddha.  The Moomwater Dojo is a place of practice where we can sit and clearly experience the Oneness of reality.  This  might be thought of as a physical place but it also is a mental place that is free of any specific physical place.  The Moonwater Dojo is our clear mind.  The Moonwater Dojo is also the Absolute perspective where everything is Empty Then taking this metaphor even further the Moonwater Dojo is also the absolute, non-dual, Oneness  The Moonwater Dojo is all of this and nothing, just a word, just a sound.
          "Tracing flowers in the sky" another poetic image which has multiple metaphoric meanings.  Flowers are sort of amazing.  They are absolutely beautiful and very temporary.  They open up, attract insects with their colors, and then in a day or a week or maybe a bit longer they  wither and are gone.  This is like our lives   This is like the lives of all living things.  And if we expand our time scale, all things are just temporary manifestations, mountains, rivers, civilizations.  Everything is both a beneficiary and victim to the constant change we call reality.  Everything is ephemeral.  Everything is a flower in the Sky.
          Sitting in the Moonwater Dojo, sitting with a clear mind, not attaching any  dualistic thinking to any sensation, sensations reflect upon the clear consciousness like passing flowers. And a deeper understanding is present,, that of the non-dual and the flowers  which cannot be separated from the non-dual.  Sitting in the Moonwater Dojo, tracing flowers in the sky is the Absolute sitting in its own presence
          The non-dual Absolute which contains everything, encompasses everything, is everything, including time and space, this Universe and all Universes, transcends everything, is beyond fixed definition, is beyond grasping, and yet, it's presence can be grasped with every flower in the sky.
 
          This is enough for one blog so you will just have to wait as I continue this theme  and write about the enigmatic and poetic use of language in Koans in the next blog











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    Hi I am Ed Shozen Haber an authorized teacher of Zen in the lineage of Shodo Harada Roshi of the One Drop Sangha.  By the way I look a bit older now.

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