Case Review #1: Dusty blankets, deer paths and Pale beyond

I started this blog to put together some of my reflections about Zen, meditation and practice in the world. I am writing from a queer, neurodivergent and somewhat dorky perspective. This is also my way of broadening and structuring my research so we can explore further together. Along the way, I hope to give readers something to smile about! All fellow travelers are welcome!

O ancient blog

a dork leaps in

click

Looking back

Eight posts so far, an auspicious number in Buddhism.

In Where can the dust alight?, I shared some of my nervous beginning practicing Zen and joining a retreat for the first time. My anxiety about Zen meditation (zazen) became a kind of puzzle when a teacher helped me relax about it. This seems pretty unimportant from the outside, but for someone who wanted dearly to practice perfectly but failing to do so utterly, this presented a riddle. How can practice that is not perfect be good enough when we are told about practitioners who attain the heights of Zen enlightenment taking years of painstaking practice. I thought to share this first, because this is my most important lesson. Any practice, done with the right intention, is perfected for you. Just practice. You are already enlightened. Indeed, if you think to yourself, why practice when you are already enlightened, then you have a problem. But, enlightenment is universal, and you should hold onto that when times are difficult and hope fades.

The case log really began with An existential detective story, where we talked about the Blanket Truth (from which, of course, the blog gets its name), from the movie I Heart Huckabees. The central theme here is that everything is actually one, and the one is the blanket. To some extent, our goal is to see this Blanket Truth of oneness all of the time. But Zen would say this is a bit of a one-sided view, things are still what they are after all. Although redness and the sound of water are one, they are still redness and the sound of water. Nevertheless, the Blanket Truth is useful when someone is feeling isolated, it may be good for them to sit with that for a while to recover from being atomized in an uncaring world. Careful though of causing a metaphysical wrecking ball to swing back and forth, we need to find the middle way which can traverse all situations without effort.

Within The Emperor’s new clothes: the anti-Zen of us and them, we started by considering one of our great sources of suffering, separation from others and the need to protect ourselves from them. We observed that a material world means an atomized world (in the sense of separation), and that a world of mind, a world of the blanket, is a world of oneness. The other unifies with us, and yet it is still itself. The other is other people, but your potted plant too. Just then, the Dharma Police showed up with a search warrant for the Dharma, swabbing for and finding it all over the scene. Critically, it was observed that we can have redness and cold certainly, but red and low temperature? That is something no one can give us. The world of Matter and objectivity seems so aloof, it disappears. And yet, redness and cold continue to exist, coming from who knows where. We ended on one key idea: In Zen, we gain exactly what we already have. If we could gain something, we could lose it again. Rather see the world of the Buddha, that can never be taken away. The world of the Buddha is: sweeping the floor, loading the dishwasher.

In Compassion in action: from ethics to Zen returning changed, we looked at how normative ethics compares to Zen ethics. We pointed to the heart of Zen, compassion, as a potential connection. Compassion could be a meta-rule or principle in deontological, virtue and consequentialist ethics. But really, Zen is just the complete awareness of the present moment, compassion, and what flows from that is ethical behaviour (unique to the practitioner). In this entirely intuitive action, rules may be called upon as skillful tools, but are just tools. The cathedrals of normative ethics, which can drown out the cries for help of those outside, become deer paths that carry calls for assistance to the practitioner skillfully following them.

Grace and the mirror took the Christian idea of grace and compared it to Zen compassion. It was seen that both are always present, and have always been present. In this way, both Christianity and Zen Buddhism are universalist, grace and compassion are available to all. Because of this, we were never unclean, all apparent defilement (sin or “dust”) is forgiven. We work against sin and dust certainly, but we must keep in mind we are all clean, no matter what. This is forgiveness. This is hope.

In Zen Beyond Disco Elysium’s Pale, using the ill-chosen metaphor of the Pale from Disco Elysium, I discussed how Zen meditation is a kind of subtraction of thoughts. But while the Pale does so forcibly, the approach in Zen is to let these thoughts leave of their own accord. Trying to do this forcibly tends to create more thought, which doesn’t help at all. We traced a journey of enlightenment, was it zazen? Was it through the Pale? Regardless, we come back knowing that the world simply as it is, that is enlightenment. And yet, as fragile humans, we continue practice, deepening this experience further.

Very briefly, Only just sitting: The very basics of Zen meditation outlined some core principles of Zen meditation (zazen) for those who would like to give it a try and want a short guide to get started.

Finally, Do little commented on one of my favorite pieces, that of Achaan Chah on Mindfulness. Its slight cheesiness hides some very fundamental aspects of how meditation “works”, and provide me with endless delight when I can stop and think of the things of this world (including myself) as strange and wonderful creatures, drinking and then receding. But this is not the direct experience, the direct experience is simply what the creatures are, unvarnished by our conventional thinking.

Reflections

When I started writing for the blog, I sadly had no real plan, but I was quite pleased with how quickly ideas started coming, even though it was all a bit chaotic. I hope that you will stick with me in posts to come.

There have been some consistent themes though:

• The universality of Zen: Any conscious being is always enlightened, even though they might not express it fully. This is a fundamental puzzle, how can someone say such a thing so casually? Do we all carry mountains on our backs? It is really not saying something grand, but when you realize it, it is the most precious of things that can never be taken away from you.
• Right practice: That all Zen practice, when done with the intention to do it well, is correct practice. This connects to universality, but emphasizes action.
• The Blanket Truth: There is a oneness to reality, and this can be represented by the Blanket. Everything, every thought, every feeling, the thinking you, is part of the blanket. This means we are never alone. But the oneness perspective needs the counterpart of suchness, experience of specific things uniquely their.
• Connections with Christianity, primarily between grace and compassion.
• Zen practice and the process of, without effort, letting thoughts and perceptions drift out of conscious awareness, leaving … what exactly?
• Connecting to the previous point, the image of consciousness as a kind of pool where perceptions, thoughts and the parts of the self go to drink and recede back into the forest (especially during meditation).

Next steps

Here are some ideas I am playing with for next posts, but I may decide to do other things.

Scheduled for posting is a post on how conventional mind causes us to think compulsively. It is like a tool that has gone haywire, constantly demanding it be used again. Zen treats conventional thinking as a powerful tool, but a tool nonetheless.

One might be a post on how psychological sciences mindfulness overlaps and differs from Zen mindfulness. I have some material for this, but having read more I realize I will have to revise what I have written. There is actually quite a lot of overlap, which intrigues me.

I am writing a small piece on Zen as being a kind of mysticism, because of its deep self-examination and union with reality. Yet, at the same time, Zen’s “goal” is experiencing the present moment in its ordinariness (what else could union with reality be?). I hint that other religious traditions may actually have similar goals.

There’s also a work in progress on simplicity. Because the Dharma is written on all things, Zen must be as lightweight as the lightest of things. Watch a flower drop and you carry the weight of the world with delight.

Finally I am piecing together a “metaphysical romp” which hopefully will delight more than it will en-cringe. Expect enthusiastic hand-waving in bucket-loads. This is probably the most risky thing for a blog of Zen and the Zen-adjacent subject matter, because none of these things can possibly be Zen in isolation. Zen runs deeper than that. But, given how our reality seems to be structured, why not explore a little?

Conclusion

The Detective: <recording> Diane, the investigation proceeds in fits and starts. The Dharma is written on all of reality, all are enlightened, but make just one mistake and it slips out of reach. I plan to retrieve the suspicious blanket from the evidence locker and set off to interview some suspects: an old lady watering her garden, a young man jumping into a pile of leaves, a psychologist with a jar full of mind. I will spend some time reflecting on all of this by the pool, its mirroring is originally undefiled by dust.