As An Ornament To Ego, Zen Sucks II: An Invitation

Thanks to all who commented on the previous post.

I like Steve’s idea for a video conference and just got off Skype talking with him about it. Seems like there’s a lot of energy and different perspectives surfacing so let’s see what would happen to continue the conversation with some video conferencing, Saturday, 10/17, at 11:15am CDT (UMT -5) – 12:15pm.

The idea is for a “fish bowl conversation” where everybody swims and everybody shits – and through our listening, we clear the water.

Topic: An inquiry into the unmentionables in the conversation about ego and Zen.

I’ve asked Steve, an extraordinarily skilled and experienced facilitator, to do just that. I’ll show up and listen. If you’re interested, send me an email ([email protected]) and I’ll send you a Webex invitation. We’ve got 23 more chairs (Webex has a max of 25). Video camera and headphones are essential.

The main thing that I’m interested in exploring on this blog is the possibility for authentic dharma work on the internet. I don’t mind a good row but I’d like it to result in greater understanding and application and think that we could use some improvement in that regard. Here are some questions that seem important to me:

– Am I listening/speaking in a way that deepens the conversation?
– Am I speaking from experience … or speculating … or fortifying a previously held view … or jabbing for the sake of jabbing … or rehearsing old issues that could be dropped?
– Am I putting others in my shoes?
– Am I reporting on my own dharma investigation in the midst of actual practice?
– Am I listening/speaking in a way that expresses letting go of self-clinging?

And here’s an example of much of this coming together (Genjokoan and Heart Sutra too) from Abbot Obora’s commentary on the Heart Sutra found in The Tiger’s Cave, translated by Trevor Leggett:

However distinguished a countenance I had put on, however many professorships I might have held, that was nothing to the teacher. I might feel myself a man of elevated views, but the teacher’s comment was: “If you still don’t know how to answer properly, your spiritual training doesn’t amount to much. Do some self-examination!”

Sometimes I used to feel: Why doesn’t the old man let up a bit, yes, let up a bit, just a bit, damn it! But when he died, I had that unutterable loneliness. Now there are many to praise, but the teacher who was really kind to me, who used to hide his tears of love under his scoldings, is dead. And I am alone.

We have to face the fact of our illusions. We must realize our clinging attachment to the five-aggregates for what it is. In this he negates and negates. But when we come to realize we are nothing at all, then we have an experience of the sublime world of Kannon which embraces all in an infinite forgiveness.

For the Bodhisattva the world of Emptiness and the world of form are not two; form is Emptiness, Emptiness is form….

In the Genjokoan book of Shobogenzo it is written: “In the feeling of inadequacy of body and mind the dharma is fulfilled; know also that in the feeling that the dharma has been fulfilled by body and mind, there is yet something lacking.”

When we come to know Buddhism, to feel that it is well, that all is at peace, to set ourselves down in a state of so-called satori, means there is as yet no real understanding of Buddhism. If we are really receptive to Buddhism, there is always the feeling of not enough, not enough; limitless endeavour and striving continued age after age, that must be the spirit of Mahayana. There is no feeling of completion. Not enough and still not enough – gradually self is negated and the world of liberation reveals itself.

As an Ornament to Ego, Zen Sucks II: An Invitation