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Suckers
The more gullible spiritual tourist may find themselves gulled into
believing that Zen is some exotic practice:
- they may be told to shave off their hair
- they may be given an exotic-sounding name like 'Shambala'
- they may wear special robes
- they may learn new jargon words
- a seeker may even be encouraged to travel
thousands of miles and commit months to a meditation retreat
However, none of these things have anything
whatsoever to do with Zen.
Retreat
Going to a monastery or on retreat may well help you to
clear your mind.
It is easy to find peace and quiet when there is nothing to do except sit,
eat and sleep.
What happens when you return to everyday
life?
Huanchu Daoren wrote that it is easy to find clarity in seclusion, but
not so easy in the city centre.
Retreats cater for both the earnest student and the dilettante.
The only Zen you find on the
top of a mountain is the Zen you bring there.
(Robert M. Pirsig)
The dilettante
The dilettante is basically a meditation/alternative
therapy/spiritual tourist.
They are listless, bored, gratification seekers.
They drift around various classes undertaking whatever
interests them.
Unfortunately, these people never stick any class long enough to gain skill,
understanding or integrity.
In lieu of meaningful knowledge they possess
titbits from various teachers and enjoy
sharing their experiences with other
dilettantes.
This has nothing whatsoever to do with Zen.
Kitsch
Zen has become kitsch in modern times.
People who lack any real understanding have adopted symbols believed to
represent Zen (a pile of stones/enso etc).
This contradicts the very nature of Zen - which is the unsymbolisation of
the world.
Nothing special
There is a Zen story about a master and his student crossing a
river.
The student shows-off to the master by walking across the surface of the
water.
The master wades through the water instead.
When he has crossed, the master says to the student:
"If I'd known
you were going to perform a miracle, I'd have broken both of your legs."
What does this story mean?
Zen is not something special.
The study is not cultivating anything
remarkable or worthy of a performance.
It is not an image, label, badge or adjunct
to your personality.
Ordinary
Zen is not a mysterious
endeavour that can only be pursued in the quiet
confines of a monastery somewhere.
It is deeply ordinary.
There is nothing exotic or exciting about Zen.
Everyday mind
Zen is concerned with your everyday
mind.
How you use your mind; your
thoughts, memories,
perceptions, values,
opinions... and how these affect your ability to
see the world around you.
The more muddled your mind is, the less clearly
you see reality.
Notice what is taking place
Zen can be whittled down to the simplicity of Buddha holding a flower and
saying absolutely nothing.
Yet, some 'meditators' regularly go on retreat and possess absolutely no
understanding of the roles played by attention and awareness.
Many people cannot distinguish between
contemplation and meditation; a simplistic insight.
Zen is in danger of being lost to pretentiousness and falsehood.
Loss of 'self'
A vulgar mind
seeks exoticism.
It fails to notice the subtle,
the small, the
anonymous.
Sensitivity, awareness,
attention and tranquillity are the outcome of
continual work.
There are no shortcuts.
Reality is here and now
Zen is about seeing things as they really
are.
Seeing what is right in front of you.
To accomplish this you need to clear your mind.
Shed the clutter
Adding clutter such as a special new name, a costume, a special place to
meditate etc will not help you to accomplish mental clarity and awareness.
In fact, the more you add, the further away you get from the truth (which is
here and now).
Zen is about paring away the things that occlude reality, not substituting
one thing for another.
Kitsch: sentimentality
or vulgar, often pretentious bad taste, especially in the arts.
(American Heritage Dictionary)
The idea of tai chi
Tai chi employs
Taoist influences in the same way that
Zen does.
The study of Zen can enhance your
tai chi.
But do not go astray.
Seek the essence of the art, not the idea of
tai chi.
Tai chi gone awry
In the 20th Century people began to see tai chi as some kind of
performance art, akin to dance.
This is a folly.
Tai chi is a martial art; its purpose is combat,
not entertainment.
Performers
People who become interested in performance tend to collect pretty forms.
This is a clue concerning their motivation.
Other people practice unlikely offshoots such as 'shibashi' - a qigong
method that calls itself tai chi qigong - a perplexing and meaningless
description?
What makes
tai chi 'tai chi'?
Tai chi
is not simply
slow motion exercise.
There are very specific qualities that need to be present
for the training to be called 'tai chi'.
You cannot simply ad lib and think that you are performing tai chi.
Classics
The wisdom of famous tai chi masters came to be known as The
Tai Chi Classics.
These three are the most widely read:
These documents
provide a detailed outline of
what
tai chi is and how it should be employed.
Correct practice of tai chi must follow the
guidelines precisely.
Exoticism is commonplace
When enough people seek exoticism rather than
integrity and substance, the facile becomes
the norm.
This has happened in both Zen and tai chi.
Questioning the commonplace seems contentious and
argumentative. Do not be deterred. Seek the essence; the
wellspring, the
origin, the authentic.
Do not seek to follow in the
footsteps of the men of old.
Seek what they sought.
(Basho)
Page created
18 March 1997
Last updated
16 June 2023
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