Monday, August 29, 2005

Zen and the Power of NOW

Ekhart tolle message is simple: live now! Many in the Zen community may resonate with this message for it seems Zen. But is it?Zen Buddhism has a radical philosophy (radical with in the broad spectrum of Buddhism that is) that enlightenment can indeed be reached in this lifetime. For most schools and sects stated that this world is far to corrupted for anyone to really achieve enlightenment but if they lived a good and moral life they will have better rebirth to a realm that is more suited for dharma practice and study.Zen is known for its rhetoric of immediacy. Rinzai style of Zen especially uses the idea that the Zen student can immediately awaken to `true nature' AKA enlightenment. Rinzai instructors would say it is like a baby pushing its way though the womb to be born. Rinzai counterpart is Soto style zen that takes the position that awakening to ones true nature is a gradual process. Soto would argue that the womb itself needs to push out the baby!For most westerners Zen implies living a simple live with a pragmatic view of things. Indeed this is a departure from the Asian Zen view witch is very entangled in superstition, culture and its own history that is far from simple and pragmatic. When Shunryu Suziki came to the USA he was, as he said in his own words, "I was reborn to zen" with his new pragmatic thinking that he learned from the San Francisco Beatniks and hippies of the times. This new pragmatism set him apart from traditional Soto Zen as well as what he taught. His teachings and later the book (Zen mind, Beginner's mind) encompassed his `reborn zen' philosophy as well as the pragmatism of the times.No doubt Shunryu and his philosophy has had its impact on American Zen and inspired the likes of Charlotte Joko Beck, Natalie Goldberg and magazines such as Tricycle. Most Americans could resonate with this new Zen, this pragmatic Zen, this "no bullshit" Zen. As with most things, once a philosophy become popular in current culture, anyone who want to be someone jumps aboard the ship of popularity and rides it as far as it will go. Ekhart Tolle in 1998 in his "The power of now" teachings and philosophy became immensely popular with the Zen minded westerners with extreme pragmatic view that says you can have a pain-free life by simply being reborn each moment, AKA "living in the now". Though as intriguing as this may be it is really a far cry from Zen and the philosophy of Buddhism.The neo-Zen that some are calling `Nowism' is indeed what most Americans and Europeans come to know as Zen. You see it reflected in popular books such as "Zen Driving", "Zen for cats" and the list goes on. The door to Zen has been opened wide for anyone to teach in (and get rich). No longer is it required for the author to have any formal Zen training for we find many of the popular neo-zen books written by psychologist, house wifes, auto-mechanics, and professional science fiction authors.Lets now look as some of the major differences between what we now know as Pragmatic Zen and Zen Buddhism.Zen Buddhism teaches that conflicts is needed to bring up our own human attachments that we form with a lifetime of clinging to past events or ideas of how the world should be. Through conflict, be it with oneself or with others, we sit in the place where our desires collide with the world. It is at that hot point where we can `choose' to let of them or not. Asians view that conflict builds character and it is a good character that has the best chance for enlightenment. In contrast, pragmatic Zen tends to promote to ignore conflict and use detachment from your own self in conflict. In promoting a "pain-free life" the use of super-detachment is demanded though questions of what sort of person you will become arises. Zen Buddhism striving for the end of rebirth with in this lifetime. This singular philosophy is the sole trademark of Zen that no other Buddhist philosophy shares. Pragmatic Zen teachings are towards the ends of living a peaceful life free from discontent and discomfort. No doubt anyone who reads Buddhist material will tell you that no comfort or contentment will be found in this world until you free yourself from the cycle of rebirth. This may encompass many ways and methods that this article will not go into.Zen Buddhism uses Renunciation as a means to salvation. Of course this does not mean to give away all of your things and live in a cave! The point that Buddhist renunciation is getting at is to let go the notions of self. Often this is seen in conflict and especially with how you in your mind think the world should be. A good example, and simple one, is when someone cuts in front of you in traffic. You think "How rude!" and you look around hoping that a police officer is there to see this and punish the person. Then you think for a second to get the license number of the car and report the offender and hope that they get a stiff fine. All of this is your desires colliding with the world and if you take the opportunity at that moment you can recognize it as desire and renounce it, let it go and give it no more energy. Zen Buddhism is indeed a religion despite what others may say about it. It shares the universal characters of a religion in the fact that it searches for Truth, emphasizes compassion to all things and teaches endurance to withstand the pain of your own self! If you cannot bear your own suffering then there is really no hope for your own enlightenment. Pragmatic Zen is built on agnosticism. Most neo-zennist will recognize that there may be a higher power but since the focus is the "here and now" where they are trying to achieve comfort and a pain-free existence the idea of ending rebirth is foreign to them.To myself and many others there is a clear and visible difference between neo-Zen and Zen Buddhism. Today neo-Zen is very popular and tends to dominate the Zen landscape in western countries. Indeed neo-Zen does have its appeal that it teaches a stress-free philosophy with its "nowism" viewpoint and uses super-detachment as a solution to achieve a pain-free life. Yet the question that is brought up is what sort of human being emerges from this philosophy. The most striking difference between neo-Zen and Zen Buddhism is the end goals. Zen Buddhism has its singular goal to end suffering in this lifetime by achieving enlightenment and ending the cycle of rebirth. This is a daunting challenge for most Zen practitioners that requires a life long commitment to this principle. It is no surprise that many new practitioners to Zen Buddhism convert to neo-Zen and its much more secular goals Zen Buddhism profane ends. Comments to this article are welcome that lead to a discusssion. I reconize that some neo-Zen books indeed encompase and embrase some aspects of Zen Buddhism. I also reconize that some authors and Zen teachers move between the two teachings of Zen as well.

Mark Vetanen

~~~~Where ever you go, there you are!

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