The Listening Project

July 30, 2009 Will Simpson

"The Listening Project", number 122 of 200 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

This will seem a bit odd. A disconnect from the title of this miniature.

Inter-cultural strife is usually the result of deeply held convictions about injustices done decades or centuries ago.

In this miniature, Robert Aitken presents this in the context of a project meant to heal war strife in the former Yugoslavia.

My life is a microcosm of this phenomena. Much of the interpersonal strife in my life can be directly attributed to ideas that float up in me. Ideas of superiority or of certainty well up in me and prevent me from seeing what is real and helpful.

I can see this in the context of moment by moment life as I live it, here and now with my partner, reading Sunset Magazine. I see her certainty about the situation, how the story is melded to match an idea of superiority.

In the old days, I may have joined in. In recent days, I may have chided her. Today I break through to see myself here and now. I see the ways that I do the same. Hugs and holding hands seems to be the clearest course of action. Love and companionship are the antidote to certainty and superiority.

My partner is my greatest teacher.

Any error or confusion created by my commentary on
Miniatures of a Zen Master
is solely a reflection of my own delusion and ignorance.
Any merit generated by this activity is solely the result of
Aitken Roshi's clear teaching and is dedicated to
all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time.

Remembered in Museums

July 29, 2009 Will Simpson

"Remembered in Museums", number 121 of 200 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

Evolution does not only work in the species realm. Societies and cultures evolve sometimes in ways we like and sometimes they violently morph and die. This death is sometimes self-inflicted, otherwise when so called advanced societies subvert so called primitive societies, much cultural knowledge has to be rediscovered.

Just as with species extinction, our involvement in societal degradation is unavoidable. Watch for romantic or dismissal portrayals of lost societies. Both are common traps.

Museums hold all the evidence of once thriving societies. Cultures now dominant will one day be reduced to a curator's dream.

Kenneth Rexroth

July 28, 2009 Will Simpson

"Kenneth Rexroth", number 120 of 200 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

In this miniature, Aitken Roshi cries out praise for one of his contemporary poets, Kenneth Rexroth. Till I did a little research, I didn't have a clue who this Kenneth Rexroth was. Turns out he was influential in the beat poetry scene and a prolific translator of Japanese and Chinese women's poetry.

He was friends with Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Ledgend has it that Jack Kerouac hit on Kenneth's daughter causing a rift between Kenneth and Jack. He spent time in the Marblemount region of the North Cascades, the same area so influential in the poetry of Synder, Whalen and Kerouac. An organizer of the infamous Six Gallery poetry reading of October 13, 1955.

In trying to educate myself about Kenneth Rexroth, I found the Wikipedia article on him to be quite helpful.

I found a small sampling of Kenneth Rexroth's poems on line at Bureau of Public Secrets.

From ON FLOWER WREATH HILL

This world of ours, before we
Can know its fleeting sorrows,
We enter it through tears.
Do the reverberations
Of the evening bell of
The mountain temple ever
Totally die away?
Memory echoes and reechoes
Always reinforcing itself.
No wave motion ever dies.
The white waves of the wake of
The boat that rows away into
The dawn, spread and lap on the
Sands of the shores of all the world.

As the full moon rises . . .

As the full moon rises
The swan sings
In sleep
On the lake of the mind.

K.R.

"... But surely he'll be rediscovered." Thank you, Roshi. Kenneth Rexroth has been rediscovered.

Obedient Objects

July 28, 2009 Will Simpson

"Obedient Objects", number 119 of 200 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

From WoodenZen

The idea of the "innate perversity of inanimate objects" is so common our culture that it has its own acronym. IPIO This is the idea that objects are unknowable and have "a mind of their own".

Objects are true to their nature. This is not a mystery. They can be nothing other than what they are and can not act in ways that they don't. People, scientists, theologian, 'we the people' may not understand objects nature but that is a reflection on our ignorance not proof that inanimate object have the innate perversity.

Perversity is defined as:

turning away from what is right or good : corrupt
improper, incorrect
contrary to the evidence
obstinate in opposing what is right, reasonable, or accepted
arising from or indicative of stubbornness or obstinacy

These are all our human value judgments that sadly get projected onto the natural world. Often with unfortunate consequences.

The earth will eventually heal itself of our polluting ways. A million years from now the earth will just be a planet coursing through space. It will have whatever makeup it has. It is pretty arrogant to think otherwise.

Our Elders

July 27, 2009 Will Simpson

"Our Elders", number 118 of 200 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

Popular culture is a poor substitute for communal culture. There are now not any elders in my life and I'm poorer for it. Seems to me that the generation before mine also had/has a dearth of mentoring elders. Who will break this chain of catastrophe?

What Works for You?

July 26, 2009 Will Simpson

"What Works for You?", number 117 of 200 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

"Career, Family, Zen Practice, each one affects the others. The proper proportions of the mix for one student will not be the same as they are for another. This is not a dilemma. Choose your mix and make it work."

Robert Aitken Roshi

My mix is different from yours. Let's not compare. As I look, I feel comfortable with the constellation that is my life. Yet it is undergoing some tweaking.

My career, Medical Digital Imaging Specialist, is challenging and rewarding. It does take up a huge portion of my life and does supply a corresponding amount of support to my external life. This is in contrast to the support Zen practice supplies to my internal life.

Are these two supposed aspects of life as separate as that previous sentence makes them out to be? Let's hope not.

One aspect of my life not accounted for by this miniature's mixture, is my flow side or what is otherwise known as wood working. This is in the mix and feels more important as time goes on.

When the great Chinese Zen master Ta-mei was dying, his students asked him for a final helpful word. "When it comes, don't try to avoid it; when it goes, don't run after it," he said. Just then, a squirrel chattered on the roof. "There is only this, there is nothing else," said Ta-mei, and then he died.

Francis Dojun Cook, How to Raise an Ox, Wisdom Publications

All Beings Are Sick

July 25, 2009 Will Simpson

"All Beings Are Sick", number 116 of 200 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

In the Vimalakirti Sutra, Vimalakirti said to Manjusri, "I am sick because all living beings are sick."

Vimalakirti understands that he is not separate. How do we understand it? This notion of a separate self is oh so persistent. The sense of a me flows and ebbs with the tides of daily life.

My craft-work is a mirror of my sense of a separate identity. I'm a woodworker by avocation. I'm learning to carve and as I practice I lose track of time, I feel the knife as an extension of my hand or eye, the sounds of the wood chips peeling off of the knife mesmerize. Where is this persistent separate self then?

Jaye Seiho Morris, over at the Digital Zendo, has posted a three part (so far) article called "Zen Without Jargon". Right of the bat, Jaye goes to the heart of it. What is Zen?

"Frequently I hear Zen translated as "meditation." In my gut whenever people used that expression, It didn't seem right, but I didn't know why. But one day while living at a Monastery, I heard Eido Roshi speaking and he said, "Zen better said or put means Unification. Unify your Heart. Unify Everything.""

Anzan Hoshin, over at White Wind Zen Community, in his newsletter, has gifted us with a piece of his commentary on Eihei Dogen Yuibutsu Yobutsu [Only Buddha and Buddha], which appears in his masterwork Shōbōgenzō [True Dharma Eye Treasury]. In it he addresses this unification in a very graphical way.

"Seeing with the eyes of a Buddha is the unsurpassed wisdom of intimacy and is itself the path of Zen. To practice the path without recognizing the face-and-eye of the Buddhas as our own face is like not knowing whether the nose itches or doesn't."

This is what Vimalakirti points to. "Unify your heart."

This is a myth story that has alway moved me. We have opportunity at every moment, with every action, with every thought, to feed and nurture life. We can choose either a positive, expansive, unifying meal or a negative, constrictive, separating meal. The choice is ours. The results are mirrored back to us in our daily lives.

One evening, an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.   

He said, “My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all. One is Evil - It is anger, envy, jealousy, greed, and arrogance. The other is Good - It is peace, love, hope, humility, compassion, and faith.”

  The grandson thought about this for a while and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?”  

To which the old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”