#4 Zazen is Participation in Life (part 1)

Zazen is a fancy word for seated meditation. Za means seated and zen means meditation. In the Zen Buddhist tradition, zazen is our primary practice. We are encouraged to make time every day to sit in an upright and motionless posture and practice zazen. We can do this alone or in the company of others, in person or virtually**. As students of the Zen way, we also gather for intensive periods of practice that include chanting, walking meditation, work practice, listening to talks, going to individual meetings with the teacher—but are primarily centered on ongoing periods of sitting in stillness and silence. The traditional image of a Zen practitioner – a monk in meditation robes with a shave head sitting serenely motionless in front of a carefully tended garden of raked stones – embodies this ancient practice of zazen.

But point #4 from 31 Fundamental Teachings of Zen says: ‘Zazen is participation in life.’ What could this mean?

I understand this in two ways. First, when we are doing our zazen practice of sitting still, we are not practicing for some other time. We are not practicing music to be able to perform it at the recital. Our stillness and silence IS our life. We are not trying to achieve special states of concentration or transcendence. What we are doing as we sit is intentionally, in that moment, participating in living our true lives.

Many of us associate living with doing things. We are eager to make good use of our time. We often want to make sure we are doing what we should be doing, that we are using our lives well. Sitting still in meditation can look like it is simply a break from the busyness to pause and catch our breath before we jump back into our routine busyness. In one way, this is true. It genuinely can be a real relief to interrupt the incessant activity of our lives and DO nothing for a while. Just a short break can clear our heads and allow us to be more present in whatever we were doing.

But anyone who has sat still for more than a few moments knows that though the body may come into relative stillness, the mind is much more unruly. After a few breaths in stillness, the mind is often off to the races. Like a little puppy, it dashes here and there—thinking about what just happened, what is happening and what will happen. It doesn’t like to stay still. Though we may be in a meditation pose and even in a meditation hall, we quickly discover that the whole world has come with us.

Our zazen quickly becomes learning how to meet ourselves and work with ourselves in all our many different mind-states. Rather than trying to cut everything off (which is impossible except for brief moments) we practice the skill of appreciating what is arising without getting carried away with it. We don’t resist and we don’t follow. We learn how to participate in the life that comes to us. Rather than trying to escape or control, we pay attention and practice allowing what is already here to be here.

We really don’t have a choice, but as we slowly release our certainty that things should be different, we can participate in the fullness of our life as it actually is.

It’s not that we have to like everything, but we can slowly learn to give up our ancient struggle and allow ourselves to join in the life that is already here.

Personal Practice: Find a quiet room (in a pinch, a bathroom will do just fine) and set the timer on your phone for two minutes. Settle into an upright and dignified seated posture. Start your timer. Notice your breath. Notice the sensations in your body. Notice the feelings and thoughts that are present. Let everything be as it is—even your wondering if you are doing this right. When your timer sounds, take a deep breath, smile in appreciation and go about the rest of your day.

(Tomorrow: A second take on Zazen is participation in life.)

A False Equivalency

Being heroic for the cause of overthrowing the Constitution of the United States is not equivalent to risking personal danger for the cause of defending human dignity and justice.  We don’t celebrate the bravery of the perpetrators of 9/11 or of suicide bombers or of other terrorists. Though these individuals construe their actions as the highest patriotism to what they love, their actions are a form of violent extremism that must be sanctioned and stopped.

The generals and soldiers of the Confederate Army may have been brave individuals, but they were fighting to retain their inhumane privilege to treat other human beings as property, for the right to be able to inflict bodily harm on men, women and children whose skin was a different color. Their choice to give their lives to the cause of brutality does not make them heroes. The Confederate flag that flew over the Capital along with Trump’s personal flag is a symbol of one of the sources of Trump’s power—the desperate fear of some whites of a society in which the whiteness of their skin does not guarantee power over others whose skin is a different hue.

A friend spoke last night of their anger at the mob that overran the Capital building on Wednesday. Then they remembered their participation in demonstrations to end the Vietnam War in the early 70’s and said they would have welcomed the opportunity to storm the Capital building at that point. They talked about the humanity of those breaching the capital and the need for understanding.

This is true—each person in the mass of people that stormed the Capital is a human being and was most likely acting in a manner that they viewed as brave. They were following Donald Trump’s explicit directive to prevent the ‘stealing of the election.’ In their minds, they saw their actions as trying to ‘preserve our democracy.’

But the voter fraud that Trump and other Republicans have been talking about has no basis in fact. Despite unprecedented scrutiny and countless recounts, no significant fraud has been found anywhere in the country—not one county or precinct has been found to have unfairly voted, counted or reported. Not one.

The purpose of those who stormed the Capital on Wednesday was to overthrow the legitimate result of the Presidential election and thereby overthrow the rightfully elected government of the United States. This was an act of domestic terrorism aided and abetted by Donald Trump and the Congressional Representatives and Senators that have promulgated these unfounded allegations in the face of all evidence.

Sadly, there is increasing evidence of intentional efforts on the part of the Capital Police leadership and the Department of Defense to ‘stand down’ in the face of the expected violent demonstrations. The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon, led by Trump sycophant Christopher Miller as Secretary of Defense, set strong limits on the District guardsmen that contributed to the catastrophic failure of security at the Capital on Wednesday.

Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer have jointly called for Pence to evoke the 25^th Amendment and remover Trump from power. Failing that, they are threatening to begin impeachment proceedings. Trump has been banned from Facebook until after the transition of power and a number of members of his administration are resigning in protest. This is all good news.

Whatever happens over the next ten days, Trump’s power will continue. But the growing number of Republicans who have finally stood up and repudiated the logical conclusion to the Trumpism that they have supported for four years is encouraging.

Meanwhile, Biden has been a steady presence. He directly and immediately denounced the violence and has continued gathering his team and preparing to assume the reins of a country in crisis. Trump’s seditious actions have directly contributed to a emerging realization of the true danger he poses to this country and, perhaps, to a willingness of Republicans to work with Biden for the good of the country in the days and months ahead.

And, lost in all this drama, buried far down the front page of the NY Times, is the article ‘US Sets New Death and Daily Case Records’ that reports pandemic deaths in the United States have exceeded 4,000 per day for the first time since the virus began. As these current historic events get to be written down in history books, I suspect the lead story and Trump’s greatest culpability will be for the hundreds and thousands of deaths that have come from his refusal inability to lead the country in a united response to this pandemic.

No happy ending this morning, except to continue to appreciate the determined actions of the majority of Senate and House to validate the election, to condemn the violence Trump has incessantly incited and to move us closer to the end of his disastrous tenure.

Democracy Prevails

One hour ago, the Senate and the House of Representatives voted to confirm the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the next President and Vice-President of the United States! They fulfilled their constitutional duty in spite of a coup attempt by an angry mob inspired by Trump’s lies of voter fraud. For several unbelievable hours, the mob of Trump loyalists waving Trump flags and Confederate flags roamed aimlessly in the Capital building, vandalizing the building and forcing elected officials to evacuate under threat of bodily harm.

How the mob breached the building so easily is a mystery, but nowhere did we see the militarized police response that seemed to be the norm when the protestors in the streets included black and brown bodies. Though the Capital police kept the elected officials safe, they seemed to treat the insurrectionists with respect and deference, even as they breached the sacred halls of democracy.

Make no mistake, this was a coup attempt, inspired and led by our sitting President. His months of lies, his calls to come to Washington and even his remarks to the same crowd that morning urging them to march to the Capital were the source of this rage and violence against the institutions of democracy. Republican Senator, Mitt Romney put it this way: “What happened here today was an insurrection incited by the president of the United States.”

The good news is that they failed.

It turns out that even Mike Pence and Mitch McConnell, who have been enablers in chief for Trump’s lies and ongoing seditious behavior, stood firmly against Trump’s mob. Republicans and Democrats, minus a small minority, stood together to defend the election and the will of the American people. Both chambers immediately reconvened after the Capital building had been cleared and proceeded to duly ratify the results of the Electoral College.

This morning, though we have less than two weeks until Trump will be duly removed from office, there are calls for the invocation of the 25^th amendment that provides for the removal of the President in case of his incapacity to govern or for his immediate impeachment. He has demonstrated, now even to most of his formerly loyal cronies, that he is unfit for the office of President of the United States—a fact that some of us have believed for the past four years.

The drama of yesterday afternoon almost obscures the wondrous news that was emerging earlier in the day that BOTH senate races in Georgia were won by the Democratic challengers. Four years ago the Presidency, the Senate and the House were all controlled by Republicans, as the inauguration on January 20, they will be controlled by the Democrats. Along with the incalculable damage Trump has wrought on our democracy and the dangerously insular right-wing conspiracy-driven media bubble he has promoted, this shift of governmental control is part of Trump’s legacy as well.

But we are not home free.

No matter what happens between now and the Biden-Harris inauguration, it will take us years to recover. And we must go beyond ‘recovery.’ The racist roots of our political divide were on full display yesterday in both the seemingly lax actions of the police in response to the ‘white’ mob who seemed to stroll into the Capital and in the flying of the Confederate flag – a symbol of a system of brutal oppression and torture of millions human beings of black and brown skin – fondly remembered and mythologized by Q-Anon and Trump’s most ardent right-wing followers.

All decent Republicans should put as much distance as they can between themselves and Trump’s racist and authoritarian view of our country. We should unite to condemn the insurrectionists that stormed the Capital yesterday as well as Trump and the other political leaders who have fanned the flames of false conspiracy for their own personal gain.

The Politics of Treason

As I write this, on Wednesday morning January 6, 2021, one Democratic incumbent, Rev. Raphael Warnock has defeated Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler and though the second Democratic challenger, Jon Ossoff, is slightly ahead in his race, the results are too close to call. This is an extraordinary result already, and to think that the Democrats might regain control of the Senate is something that seemed almost unthinkable a year ago. But whatever the outcome, the challenges facing our country over the next four years are huge.

For the past several weeks, I have been limiting myself to skimming headlines and reading about sports and have enjoyed writing about Zen, being in a bad mood and my grandson (my favorite topics). But this morning I feel compelled, once again, to consider the wild and treasonous actions of our sitting President. Today is the day a joint session of the House and Senate convenes to accept the results of the Electoral College.

Over the weekend Trump called Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and spent an hour on the phone trying to convince him to ‘find’ the votes necessary to change the results of the election. This was a brazen (and recorded) attempt to tamper with official election results, a clear breach of our constitutionally protected right of free and fair elections. After Trump made spurious allegations about the call the next day, someone released the recording of the call for all to hear Trump’s baseless claims and perhaps not so baseless threats.

Trump has also been publically pressuring Mike Pence to use powers he doesn’t have to refuse to accept the results of the Electoral College in the Senate. Pence, who has been Trump’s fawning and willing accomplice over the last four years, is said to be trying to lower the President’s expectations while staying in his good favor.

And on top of all of this, there are the Republican Representatives and Senators who have publically said they will be officially objecting to the Electoral College results presented today. This logically indefensible stance appears to be their way of showing their allegiance to Trump who still appears to control the base of Republicans he has radicalized over his four years in office.

The good news is that a number of Republican Senators have strongly condemned the brazenly self-serving and extremist position of their colleagues (though no one appears to be willing to take on Trump directly, even after all this.)

In discussing this in his post this morning, my still favorite political news source, Robert Hubbell, refers to a Facebook post by Republican Senator Ben Sasse:

See Senator Ben Sasse, “What Happens on January 6th?” Although the entire post is remarkable, the most remarkable passage is this Q&A:

         ‘Do any of your colleagues disagree with you about this [not objecting to Electoral votes]?  When we talk in private, I haven’t heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent – not one. Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will “look” to President Trump’s most ardent supporters.’

         Please go back and read the quoted passage again, carefully. Ben Sasses admits the ugly truth of the radical extremists’ motivations. In private conversations, “not one” of the congressional Republicans “alleges that the election results were fraudulent.” Instead, they worry “about how they will “look” to President Trump’s most ardent supporters.” In other words, the radical extremists are cowards who are willing to abandon the Constitution to curry favor with Trump’s base. Shameful.

Trump’s actions since the election on November 3^rd have been increasingly blatant in their treasonous intention. Since early October, many of us have had real concerns about the possibility of a political coup—an illegitimate grab for power or attempt to stay in power in contradiction to the laws and practices of our constitution. Speaking with a colleague in Belgium yesterday, I expressed my continuing concern with Trump’s ongoing and illegal power grab.

I am hopeful, but not certain, that the so-called ‘guardrails of democracy’ will hold. Both the House and Senate would have to agree to dismiss the results of the Electoral College and this will not happen. (See NY Times article What to Expect When Congress Meets to Certify Biden’s Victory for a clear explanation of today’s process.)

We are in this for the long haul. Whatever happens today, the work of staying engaged and moving our country back toward a civil society based conversation, respectful disagreement and democratic principles is an ongoing process. Free and fair elections must be protected and authoritarian impulses of Trump and many of his followers must be actively countered with principles, information and dialogue.

Today’s encouragement:

• Stay informed (but don’t read/watch/listen too much),
• express your opinions (with respect and conviction) and
• talk-and-listen to people who do not share your views (even family members).

#10 There is no roadmap

# 10  There is no roadmap. There is no system – only the trackless love of the universe. Burn your rule book. Beyond form and emptiness, beyond koan practice, beyond Zen. The point of our practice is not Zen – it is aliveness.*

It is easy when hearing about or even studying Zen, to imagine that you are being presented with a clear path (Zen practice) toward a clear goal (enlightenment). From this perspective, we listen to Dharma talks and read books to try to understand the Way so we can dutifully follow the path and then someday arrive at the destination. This is a misguided understanding of Zen that, rather than liberate us, simply holds us in a new kind of bondage.

There is no roadmap.

The true teaching of the Zen way is that the world is not an object that can be considered and mapped out. Life is not a ‘thing’ that can be comprehended by the pre-frontal cortex. Our human minds of reason are a wonderful resource in certain situations, but they are quite limited when we begin to turn to the essential nature of life itself.

The words and images that arise in the mind, including the words and images that arise when we talk about Buddhism and Zen and enlightenment are all delusions. They may be temporarily useful, but they are not the thing itself. There is no way to capture the Dharma or God or reality in any descriptions we use.

While the guidance of a teacher and a tradition can be a wonderful and perhaps even necessary part of an authentic spiritual journey, there is no road-map. There is no set of practices or procedures that will get us from here to there.

In Zen we sometimes say ‘Practice teaches us how to practice.’ By ‘practice’ we mean this intentional turning toward life itself. In our tradition, this practice is centered around our devotion to sitting upright and still as a way of expressing our willingness to allow the world and ourselves to be just as we are. Seated meditation is a way to relax our ancient habit of trying to control and to cultivate a basic friendliness toward whatever arises.

It is impossible to ‘know’ what we are doing. We can never measure our progress in any meaningful way. We can find ease and clarity, but if we try to put it into words or to ‘know’ it in the traditional sense, we have moved one step away the very thing we are after. Our path, our practice itself then becomes simply another idol to worship and we are lost once again. This is what the great Chinese teacher Linji meant when he said ‘If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.’

Anything you can concretize, imagine and hold onto is not what you are after. ‘There is no system – only the trackless love of the universe. Burn your rule book.’ The path of Zen is not an intricate and subtle wisdom system that, if you learn it, will save you. We are all perpetual wanderers in ‘the trackless love of the universe.’

The mind is certain of its position. The mind/self says: ‘I am in here and the rest of the world is out there.’ ‘There are certain things and qualities of being that I don’t have, that if I did have, my life would be better.’ While we might appreciate these internal perspectives as signs of realism and good mental health, they are, at the same time, limited and even false perspectives.

We abide and are held in a vast mystery that is both totally incomprehensible and intimately available. When we ask the question ‘Where is the Dharma?’ or ‘Where is God?’ or ‘Where is this trackless love you speak of?’—the answer is always: ‘Right here.’ There is nothing but this one moment that fills the entire universe. There is no path to what you long for, because what you long for is already here. You have never, from the very beginning, been separated from this.

As we practice (and I do believe practice is required), we are not progressing along some path. We are not accumulating tokens and advancing toward some destination. We are wandering in the boundless and incomprehensible fields of aliveness. No measurement is possible or necessary.

Settle in and appreciate your life.

* from the unpublished and apocryphal text 31 Fundemantal Teachings of Zen