(no subject)
One of my friends says, in listening to my commentaries on the Taoist/Buddhist teachings, that he wavers between seeing the sense of it and assigning it all to “mystical nonsensical word-wanking.”
All I can do is call it like I see it.
By "seeing," I mean experiencing.
Not acceptance on faith. (Although the slivers of experience allow me to understand that the teachers were -- are -- on to something.)
Posts such as No Mind are not meant as braggadocio, but as a verification of my subscription to what the sages taught. When you involve the whole self in the exploration, it shows true.
Often, one only engages the teaching intellectually - and skeptically at that.
It needs the breathing and the blood and the muscle.
Even “just sitting” involves this, although I assure you it ain’t just sitting.
Lotus, or vajrasana for those with a good stiff hara, back straight, letting go of Mara, who appears as angel or demon:
It is a bold endeavor.
I digress.
Allow me to speak of kensho:
Satori (悟 Korean oh; Japanese satori (from the verb satoru); Chinese: wù) is a Japanese Buddhist term for enlightenment. The word literally means "understanding". It is sometimes loosely used interchangeably with Kensho, but Kensho refers to the first perception of the Buddha-Nature or True-Nature, sometimes referred to as "awakening". Kensho is not a permanent state of enlightenment, but rather a clear glimpse of the true nature of creation. Satori on the other hand refers to "deep" or lasting enlightenment. According to D. T. Suzuki, "Satori is the raison d'être of Zen, without which Zen is no Zen. Therefore every contrivance, disciplinary and doctrinal, is directed towards satori."[1] Satori can be found in every moment of life, it is wrapped in all daily activities, its goal to unwrap them to see satori.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satori
I experienced kensho in the Army.
I was not a good fit, and I realized it in the first week of a two-year enlistment.
After OSUT, I was assigned to the 3rd ID in Germany. Rock of the Marne!
I did not fit in.
Captain Barton called me in for a reenlistment briefing. He looked at my paperwork and says, “Andersen, with scores like these, what are you doing in the infantry?” Regardless, I wasn’t buying what was being sold.
So the grinding.
I was put on the “fat boy”program for being four pounds under the weight for my height, yet one pound overweight according to a caliper test. That meant Suspension of Favorable Personnel Actions: no leave, no promotions.
Fair enough, I thought, I’ll take care of that: after 1700 formation, I was back in sweats for another two-mile run down the strasse and up the hill, then a forty-five minute circuit in the weight room. (This on top of the regular 0600 PT.)
I went from falling out of runs to working my way to heading the formations, as troops fell out from the snow-blasted front ranks as we ran through German winters.
I had heard a Drill Sergeant back at Fort Benning say, “You’ll never be in better shape than you are here [in Infantry School].” Not true. At that point I was stronger - and not yet at my peak.
But mentally, I was still being worked. I was told by a sergeant “You don’t get paid to think.”
I was a nail sticking out, and they were hammering.
Inspections.
“Initiate’s tasks.”
The like.
There was also an internal battle raging:
I became aware that, after killing an opponent, there is left his mother, or brother, or lover, suffering. And that suffering may well be a motivation to negative action. In short, that killing is adding links in the chain of suffering - killing is dukkha leading to samsara, the cycle of rebirth and repayment.
(This thinking, at the time, was formed only by a rudimentary consideration of karma - I had yet to seriously study Buddhism.)
And there I was in the infantry.
Mission: Close with, capture and destroy the enemy.
My lack of commitment was evident - though not in the mastery of the tools.
My father, who had courted SF in ‘Nam - and turned away after witnessing field interrogation techniques - counseled his desire that I step away from that path and become “a man of peace,” using the gift of intellect to that end.
My reading at the time were Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces and Modern Man In Search of a Soul, Jung’s Bollingen-series lectures, and, via the I Ching, the writings of The Old Man. Though the Bhagavad-Gita’s stories of karmayoga were bracing, Lao Tse had the key:
29
Do you want to improve the world?
I don't think it can be done.
The world is sacred.
It can't be improved.
If you tamper with it, you'll ruin it.
If you treat it like an object, you'll lose it.
There is a time for being ahead,
a time for being behind;
a time for being in motion,
a time for being at rest;
a time for being vigorous,
a time for being exhausted;
a time for being safe,
a time for being in danger.
The Master sees things as they are,
without trying to control them.
She lets them go their own way,
and resides at the center of the circle.
30
Whoever relies on the Tao in governing men
doesn't try to force issues
or defeat enemies by force of arms.
For every force there is a counterforce.
Violence, even well intentioned,
always rebounds upon oneself.
The Master does his job
and then stops.
He understands that the universe
is forever out of control,
and that trying to dominate events
goes against the current of the Tao.
Because he believes in himself,
he doesn't try to convince others.
Because he is content with himself,
he doesn't need others' approval.
Because he accepts himself,
the whole world accepts him.
I remember thinking through to this conclusion:
The world is what it is.
The world will be the way it is regardless of my desire for it to be different.
There is a subtle Way at work: trust it.
Follow orders.
Total acceptance of my situation.
And the immediate physiological experience upon this acceptance I can call nothing other than what the sages have described: enlightenment.
It was as if a weight were lifted from me.
It was freeing from oppression to expression of a joy.
A profound state -- and within the Machine.
My words fail it utterly.
By and by, they offered Airborne School.
Delta was coming around.
As I had wanted initially when I enlisted.
But I was already done. The Dharma Wheel had turned.
Had it not, I’d have likely turned out a vastly different person today.
(Perhaps one you'd prefer?)
All I can do is call it like I see it.
By "seeing," I mean experiencing.
Not acceptance on faith. (Although the slivers of experience allow me to understand that the teachers were -- are -- on to something.)
Posts such as No Mind are not meant as braggadocio, but as a verification of my subscription to what the sages taught. When you involve the whole self in the exploration, it shows true.
Often, one only engages the teaching intellectually - and skeptically at that.
It needs the breathing and the blood and the muscle.
Even “just sitting” involves this, although I assure you it ain’t just sitting.
Lotus, or vajrasana for those with a good stiff hara, back straight, letting go of Mara, who appears as angel or demon:
It is a bold endeavor.
I digress.
Allow me to speak of kensho:
Satori (悟 Korean oh; Japanese satori (from the verb satoru); Chinese: wù) is a Japanese Buddhist term for enlightenment. The word literally means "understanding". It is sometimes loosely used interchangeably with Kensho, but Kensho refers to the first perception of the Buddha-Nature or True-Nature, sometimes referred to as "awakening". Kensho is not a permanent state of enlightenment, but rather a clear glimpse of the true nature of creation. Satori on the other hand refers to "deep" or lasting enlightenment. According to D. T. Suzuki, "Satori is the raison d'être of Zen, without which Zen is no Zen. Therefore every contrivance, disciplinary and doctrinal, is directed towards satori."[1] Satori can be found in every moment of life, it is wrapped in all daily activities, its goal to unwrap them to see satori.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satori
I experienced kensho in the Army.
I was not a good fit, and I realized it in the first week of a two-year enlistment.
After OSUT, I was assigned to the 3rd ID in Germany. Rock of the Marne!
I did not fit in.
Captain Barton called me in for a reenlistment briefing. He looked at my paperwork and says, “Andersen, with scores like these, what are you doing in the infantry?” Regardless, I wasn’t buying what was being sold.
So the grinding.
I was put on the “fat boy”program for being four pounds under the weight for my height, yet one pound overweight according to a caliper test. That meant Suspension of Favorable Personnel Actions: no leave, no promotions.
Fair enough, I thought, I’ll take care of that: after 1700 formation, I was back in sweats for another two-mile run down the strasse and up the hill, then a forty-five minute circuit in the weight room. (This on top of the regular 0600 PT.)
I went from falling out of runs to working my way to heading the formations, as troops fell out from the snow-blasted front ranks as we ran through German winters.
I had heard a Drill Sergeant back at Fort Benning say, “You’ll never be in better shape than you are here [in Infantry School].” Not true. At that point I was stronger - and not yet at my peak.
But mentally, I was still being worked. I was told by a sergeant “You don’t get paid to think.”
I was a nail sticking out, and they were hammering.
Inspections.
“Initiate’s tasks.”
The like.
There was also an internal battle raging:
I became aware that, after killing an opponent, there is left his mother, or brother, or lover, suffering. And that suffering may well be a motivation to negative action. In short, that killing is adding links in the chain of suffering - killing is dukkha leading to samsara, the cycle of rebirth and repayment.
(This thinking, at the time, was formed only by a rudimentary consideration of karma - I had yet to seriously study Buddhism.)
And there I was in the infantry.
Mission: Close with, capture and destroy the enemy.
My lack of commitment was evident - though not in the mastery of the tools.
My father, who had courted SF in ‘Nam - and turned away after witnessing field interrogation techniques - counseled his desire that I step away from that path and become “a man of peace,” using the gift of intellect to that end.
My reading at the time were Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces and Modern Man In Search of a Soul, Jung’s Bollingen-series lectures, and, via the I Ching, the writings of The Old Man. Though the Bhagavad-Gita’s stories of karmayoga were bracing, Lao Tse had the key:
29
Do you want to improve the world?
I don't think it can be done.
The world is sacred.
It can't be improved.
If you tamper with it, you'll ruin it.
If you treat it like an object, you'll lose it.
There is a time for being ahead,
a time for being behind;
a time for being in motion,
a time for being at rest;
a time for being vigorous,
a time for being exhausted;
a time for being safe,
a time for being in danger.
The Master sees things as they are,
without trying to control them.
She lets them go their own way,
and resides at the center of the circle.
30
Whoever relies on the Tao in governing men
doesn't try to force issues
or defeat enemies by force of arms.
For every force there is a counterforce.
Violence, even well intentioned,
always rebounds upon oneself.
The Master does his job
and then stops.
He understands that the universe
is forever out of control,
and that trying to dominate events
goes against the current of the Tao.
Because he believes in himself,
he doesn't try to convince others.
Because he is content with himself,
he doesn't need others' approval.
Because he accepts himself,
the whole world accepts him.
I remember thinking through to this conclusion:
The world is what it is.
The world will be the way it is regardless of my desire for it to be different.
There is a subtle Way at work: trust it.
Follow orders.
Total acceptance of my situation.
And the immediate physiological experience upon this acceptance I can call nothing other than what the sages have described: enlightenment.
It was as if a weight were lifted from me.
It was freeing from oppression to expression of a joy.
A profound state -- and within the Machine.
My words fail it utterly.
By and by, they offered Airborne School.
Delta was coming around.
As I had wanted initially when I enlisted.
But I was already done. The Dharma Wheel had turned.
Had it not, I’d have likely turned out a vastly different person today.
(Perhaps one you'd prefer?)