My God Can Beat Up Your God!

Cynicism and truth, part 1

I look forward to my weekly podcasts with The ID project – Ethan Nicturne’s unique and modern interpretation of Buddhism is educational, honest, and entertaining. This week the topic was Cynicism and the 3 pillars of zen. As a religious refugee, his talk hit upon a lot of thoughts I’ve had lately and he put it so eloquently: (Keep in mind that he was speaking – not writing!)

“One of the things that I’ve always like about the Buddhist tradition is that you are required to be skeptical. Now that’s a strong statement. I did not just say it’s unlike some other spiritual traditions because they let you ask questions, or if you’re a somewhat disbelieving son of a bitch like myself they’ll allow you to stay in the room, right – but they really want you to come around to their perspective. The Buddhist tradition is a method of investigation and inquiry that requires disbelief to function. Do you see the difference? It’s different than saying if you have any questions, sure, and we’ll enlighten you, and then eventually you’ll get it, and become a Buddhist and we’ll humor you through that process. You need to not believe – to get anything out of this. So that really fascinated me, Because of that I think it’s the perfect method of life inquiry for our post-modern, democratic society. “

Ethan hits it on the head for me. This method of inquiry is so refreshing because it is ego-less in it’s approach. We get to approach the teachings with a skeptical mind, and through application we see if they actually work. The Buddhist teachers are the first to say, “hey, if it doesn’t work, don’t use it. No problem.” This way of approaching spiritual life is all about truth, not about belief. The tradition is about using what literally works, not about defending a set of beliefs. There is nobody trying to convert anybody. The basic premise of the tradition is to sit, be still and pay attention. If you pay attention, truth will be illuminated. Religion goes the opposite way and says, “Here’s a list of things that are true – live this way. Take this list and through belief that these things are true, they’ll be true. If you want to ask God yourself – good! Ask him. But if you get a different answer than we believe in, just keep asking until you get the right answer.” I know this is provocative to say, but it seems to me that religion asks us to believe in things with no burden of proof. This later approach is similar to using the scientific method in reverse – taking an assumption and finding the proof to justify the belief. In the Buddhist tradition, it’s the other way around. It’s about keeping a completely fearless, open mind and noticing what pieces of truth I can find along the path. The burden of proof is on the teaching itself – the awareness of reality, rather than on the practitioner or the rigid belief. It’s so beautifully said in my favorite quote by Thich Nhat Hanh: “Your own life is the instrument with which we experiment with the truth.”

Greenfrog sent me the following story while back, knowing it would make me smile.

August 31, 2008
Tricycle’s Daily Dharma
What Happens to Most Pieces of Truth
One day Mara, the Buddhist god of ignorance and evil, was traveling through the villages of India with his attendants. He saw a man doing walking meditation whose face was lit up in wonder. The man had just discovered something on the ground in front of him. Mara’s attendants asked what that was and Mara replied, “A piece of truth.” “Doesn’t this bother you when someone finds a piece of the truth, O evil one?” his attendants asked. “No,” Mara replied. “Right after this they usually make a belief out of it.”
-Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield, in Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart
from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

Interestingly enough, faith is a big part of Buddhism. I’ll continue this post and jump into the 3 pillars and how contemplative study actually illuminates the truths within religion. In the meantime, take a listen to Ethan’s dharma talk – it’s a good one. (It’s on I-tunes under ID Project)

Paradise Now

I came across a blog the other day and have found myself very much relating to the words of Dharma Brother Pete.  He has many posts that I find illustrate some of the emotions and mental situations I currently find myself in.

His post titled Paradise Now falls right in line with my previous one Treading Water.  In fact, I came across his right after I posted it.  With his permission, I would like to share with you what he wrote.  I don’t know that you will get anything out of it like I have, but although I still struggle his post gives me a sense of hope that it will all works itself out.

Paradise Now
By Pete Hoge

In my youth I was taught to think that the possibilities of peace and joy were only possible in the “afterlife”, as it is understood in the Christian faith.

This life was a rehearsal for an eternity of relief in the hands of the God of Abraham, and that I was being watched all the time and my actions noted so that I could be judged upon reaching the “pearly gates”.

Thankfully I had a questioning Mind and gradually worked my way out of this destructive hogwash, and at this point in time I have gained freedom from these stories.

I am not sure when the moment happened, probably not too many years ago, when I finally let go of the concept of God, as defined in the Bible, and absorbed and new paradigm into my being.

“I don’t know”

This is how the Buddha answered this question of “god”, or eternalism in public discourse , reserving his opinion for it was really his own business., as the point of Buddhist practice is constant questioning of phenomenological experience… he said..”Find out for yourself”.

I have encountered every argument for and against “God” and eventually I stopped asking, because I was interested in how to alleviate and reduce suffering as it presented itself right in front of my face. I stopped the obsessive churning of ideas and concepts about divinity quite suddenly and was mercifully OK with the option of ,” I don’t know”.

And perhaps even, “I don’t care”.

Which amounts to cursing said diety which earns you the sweet spot in the deepest Hell.

Hell and Heaven are stories, as is much of the Bible, and it’s theologies. A lot of unverifiable conjecture and theory which cannot be proven.

Of course I realize that I have accepted a new body of information, new stories, that speak of how the Buddha gained enlightenment, and how we as disciples can verify every step he took through our own practice.

Most importantly we can question and debate at every level, and understand that the cultures of Asia put their own filter over the Dharma as it passed through the centuries.

I am relieved of the burden of anticipating some kind of judgment in the afterlife from a God who I was never sure existed, and I can open my eyes wider and wider to the paradise in front of me.

I am experiencing what freedom is really like.

Please share you thoughts if you have any about this. I know we won’t all have the same view, but I’m curious to know what you think.

Treading Water

I feel like I’ve been swimming for a long time with no clear direction or destination.  The direction I was given from time I was born has turned out to be a different direction than I care to go.  I swam so long in that direction that now I’m out of breath and stopped swimming. I’m treading water, waiting for guidance on which way to go, or if I should just give up and let myself sink.

Photo by Zeb Andrews

My whole life I feel like I’ve been treading water, and I suppose I was never truly swimming to begin with.  The LDS church has a nice big boat that they say you can ride on, but only if you choose to believe that it’s the only boat that can really get you there safely.  Sure there are other smaller boats that will try.  Their intentions are good and the boats will float for awhile, but they didn’t have the full and complete plans for building the boat, so it’s only a matter or time before they too will sink.

I’ve decided that I don’t really care for their boat, and I think they made up the plans and have convinced everyone that they came directly from God.  I believed that for a long time as well, but now I know it’s not true, so I said f*ck it and jumped overboard.  Now I am in the water all on my own and I’m getting tired.

My wife says that the bible still has good instructions on how to build a boat, though Jesus already built one and it’s through him and only him that we can be taken safely to the other shore.  I don’t know that I buy that.  Why can’t I build my own boat?  Do I really have to use his?  What makes his boat so special?  Am I incapable of doing it on my own?

Well I don’t have answers to all those questions and I don’t know how I feel about some of them.  To be honest, thinking about some of them just gives me headaches and makes me feel like I’m ready to stop treading and let myself sink.  Am I just stubborn and arrogant to think that I have everything that I need within myself if only I wake up and realize it?  I believe my wife would say yes.  I love her dearly, but I would disagree. I don’t know however that I can truly disagree with her without it really upsetting her, and I don’t want to do that.  I appreciate that she prefers to use the boat Jesus made and that’s fine. I’m truly happy for her. The problem is that I want to build my own boat.  I want to immerse myself in the guidance of ancient teachers who have taught us how to find the plans we already have within ourselves, and not to rely on someone else to do the work.  It’s through this awakening and realization that we find our true nature, and I’m so excited to make that journey, but I don’t think that she is.  She doesn’t understand and I don’t know how to explain it.

I’m not saying that Jesus doesn’t have a great boat, whose plans came from God.  I’m just saying that I don’t know, and I’m okay with not knowing. I know there is more than one boat and I’m ready to make my own.  Others can use his, but I quite frankly don’t want to.

Is that selfish and wrong?  I’m just so sick of treading water.

morphing

This week brought me some new insight. My business partner at the Yoga Studio is both a marriage/family counselor and a Yoga Therapist. The philosophy of Yoga therapy falls right in line with my own experience; that the body speaks to us and that we have everything that we need inside of ourselves for our own healing and understanding. This method of Yoga Therapy as taught through Phoenix Rising consists of the therapist putting the practitioner in yoga postures and holding them physically at their edge while they talk about their experience. The experience consists of moving through the physical body, the prana/subtle body, the mind and the emotions. It is completely self-led, the most the therapist says is: “what’s happening now?” and occasionally repeats the last sentence you say, so you can hear yourself clearly.

I decided it would be a fun thing to try. In the session, I picked an issue I wanted to work on, we set an intention, started with a simple meditation to center ourselves, and then she physically put me into postures. The fascinating thing was that I was bringing up intensely detailed memories of my childhood – things I hadn’t thought about since the time they happened. I didn’t bring up any memories of significant or huge events in my life, more simplicity, like the crazy 1975 wallpaper in my mom’s kitchen and walking home from school with my hair swinging in the wind. Memory after memory came up and they were all nice, warm and fuzzy. There was one key thread that strung all of those fabulous memories together – the Mormon church. Every memory had to do with my Mormon family, my Mormon friends, my Mormon way of life. I was left at the end of the session with a lot of insight – realizing that I often long for my own experience currently in the church to feel as real as it did for me as a child. I also realized how profoundly I love what the church provided for me in my life, and how that translates into the disappointment I feel that the gospel is not what I thought it was while growing up. The session was really positive.

Two days later, I trekked to Santa Cruz with a group of moms from my current ward. I haven’t had much of an opportunity to get to know sisters in this ward because we’ve only been here a year, and I’ve been putting more space between myself and the church. Working full time also puts me in the minority, leaving no time for group park days, etc. There was a nice group there, nice kids, beautiful beach. One of the things I love about the church is that it puts me in contact with people I would normally never be friends with. Such was the case yesterday. The other moms brought doritos, I brought wheat thins. The other mom’s are reading Star Magazine, I’m reading A Path With Heart. One mom was complaining about the weather, I was in the water playing with my kids. They all believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet, I don’t. For the most part it doesn’t bother me. I guess I’m glad for feeling of family I have with them, regardless of our differences. Sometimes, it just feels frustrating.

Backtracking to May when Greenfrog (fellow Mormon/Buddhist/Yogi, only labeled for the sake of the story) came to the yoga studio for a photos shoot. It was a very interesting day for me, being able to instantly talk with Greenfrog without having to interpret vocabulary or explain beliefs. The similarities of our backgrounds within the church, our periods with depression, the experiences with yoga, bhakti, meditation, even the books we’ve read lined up so closely. It seemed that there was this shared understanding – just as I felt with members of the church before my disaffection. He would say something and I would nod my head in understanding and vice versa. During this year due to my unique viewpoints of spirituality, I had come to the conclusion that I was on my own. I felt OK about being alone and that realization brought me a lot of peace along with a lot of inner-strength I didn’t know I had. So it was a real surprise and joy to meet Greenfrog through our blogs, and then again in person. Somehow talking to him was very comforting, confirming my own thoughts that I really am indeed sane. We prefaced the photo shoot with meditation, chanting and a short yoga practice. While sitting in meditation it was still and peaceful and powerful. Toward the end when my mind started becoming active again, two things hit me: #1 – imagine what the church would be like if we all put down our to-do lists and simply sat together in being. I can’t imagine anything more profound, it cuts right through to the heart of spirituality. #2 – this is what the pioneers felt like! How wonderful it is to find somebody who shares your experience in spirituality, and practice together. The Mormon terms of Brother and Sister seemed so easily felt in the simple quiet of doing nothing. No wonder the pioneers wanted to create zion and be around like-minded, like-believing people. It feels good.

I’ve always hated the word maturity. It seems a bit arrogant. As I go through my own practice and path though, that word keeps popping up for me, as if it is morphing into something more palatable for me to digest. I look at these experiences and realize that along with change and acceptance comes a maturity within the spiritual realm. For me, part of that maturity is learning not to resist what is right in front of me. Not to label it away, or disown it because of a simple aversion. Not to think that people should be any different than what they are, or that I should recreate my childhood, or that everyone should understand me. Certainly not that the church should hold everything for me now the way that it did through my 9-year old eyes. Finding acceptance for the way things are is helping me continue to grow and learn. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out where to put little pieces of myself, where I will invest it and where I won’t. As I accept the idea of spiritual maturity, I’m having an easier time listening to my instincts and deciding where I want to be.

I am left wondering though, will the dust ever settle?

Mormon Mantras: A Journey of Spiritual Transformation

Sattva brought to my attention a wonderful article that was written for Sunstone magazine titled “Mormon Mantras: A Journey of Spiritual Transformation” by Philip G. McLemore. She wanted me to share it with you all here as she felt that in this article he eloquently explained the differences between spirituality and Mormonism. I would have to agree with her. It was a wonderful read and very well written indeed.

It’s not a short article by any means (12 pages in magazine form) but well worth the read. Although I won’t post the entire article contents here due to it’s length, I will provide a link for you to download it directly from Sunstone. So please take the time, when you can, to give it a read and post your thoughts! Enjoy!

Click the link below to download a PDF copy of the article:

Mormon Mantras: A Journey of Spiritual Transformation

The Story

Capital T, capital S. I was raised by an English teacher and taught how to love a good book. As the story goes, I finished Kindergarten, and came home crying because I hadn’t learned to read yet, and couldn’t ride a bike. My mom was due any day with child number 4, but she ran behind my bike anyway with her knees hitting her belly until I took off on my own. And every time she nursed my little sister I would climb up on the couch next to her, blankie in hand, to read. I became a voracious little reader and my baby sister fell in love with my special blankie.

Aren’t stories wonderful? I love listening to people, their history, their drama. I’ve come to realize though, that stories aren’t always necessarily real, or helpful. One of the keys of freedom is to put some space between you and your story! Staying in the present moment is a key to jumping out of the wheel rut of karma and into a new realm. You can’t do that if you’re attached to your story.

So, as I get ready to open this yoga studio, I’ve had so many chances to practice this. Friday I was tired, and stuck in my story. It was a pretty valid story. Can I share? I am the only experienced yogi on this yoga studio project. My intention is to set the studio apart from a spa experience or a gym, or even a pilates studio. I want the curriculum to be meaty and transformational. I also want to bring my own unique viewpoint of light-heartedness and joy into the space. So, in my mind, the literal space should reflect the funk that is Cosmic Dog Yoga. The studio Cosmic Dog Yoga should be a little, well - Cosmic.

Here comes the drama. I’ve worked hard on the design. I want it to have that hippie feel. Along comes my contractor (LDS guy, great friends with my non-LDS business partner), and he is one of these quintessential male-types. A nice enough guy, but doesn’t know how to listen and just does whatever he wants once you’re gone. (I know – labeling, but remember… it’s just a story…) He is a talented craftsman and a super reliable guy. Try as I might though, I just can’t convince him that the space should have an air of imperfection – a tacky bulletin board door, atrociously bright wall, or crazy wall mural of an elephant God. Now the story gets good. I wanted the door to my office to covered in cork so that it would be a community hub of personal notes, business cards and random bits of love. We had a fabulous discussion about doors. It went something like this.

Me: I want my office door to be plain and cheap because I’m going to cover it with cork.

Him: You don’t want that – it will feel like a cave.

Me: Perfect! Yogis love caves.

Him: A bulletin board will look horrible, it will be hoakie. Bad hoakie. Architecturally it doesn’t work.

Me: I love hoakie. I think you’re getting it.

Him: Ok, so I’m ordering the glass door in the morning.

Ahhhh! Isn’t that a good story? Then I add to it in my mind with a “he shouldn’t be this way” and a “he doesn’t get it” and a “he hasn’t even ever been in a yoga studio before!” and I have a complete drama going!

I’m aware enough of The Story to realize that I’m starting to get attached to it and replay it in my mind and I just can’t reconcile that I want the space to have a certain feel. To transport you to a new place just when you walk into the door. I have a vision after all, and it’s my job to manifest that vision! I called my mom (a recovered LDS member and life-coach/wise women) and admitted my frustration and attachment. I told her I knew it was time to leave the story within the situation, and asked her “what do I do with my desire?, my vision?” And then she helped me have a huge “a-ha” moment. I said, “I need to let go of my story now”, and she said “oh Sattva! I love stories. I love a good book, a good movie. I love listening to teenagers and friends tell their stories. I just don’t believe them.” And then she proceeded to teach me how to hold my space a little bit, to stay true to my higher consciousness while saying “No” in a loving way without engaging ego.

This little bit of knowledge has been so freeing for me. Friday it came in my mom’s words, but it has been coming at me indifferent forms for years. Don’t believe everything you think. Doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy the story, just don’t believe it. Of course the contractor should be that way, he is. Of course I should stay true to my vision – that’s why it’s my yoga studio. (relative term of course)

Anyway, I was struck with how accurate that statement was when applied to how I’ve made peace with the LDS church. I love the story that’s told in church. I love the idea of Joseph being perfect and the pioneers crossing the plains as literal Saints. I love the story that the world is neat and tidy and that if we just stay on the straight and narrow path and don’t veer off, we’ll be saved from all of our sins. That story has an answer to most of the fears of humanity.

Eventually though, it just didn’t match up to the reality of life in front of me and the observations I made in the world around me. The LDS doctrine and story offered little help navigating the wilds of my mind. Truth has shown me that there just isn’t a straight and narrow, nor should I try to stay on one path. It takes many paths, many meanderings, and an embrace of jungle life to really find bliss and the perfection of what is. It’s taken a while, but admitting that I love the story anyway has helped me to make peace with the church. Great story. I just don’t believe it.

For me, not believing the story has given me liberation. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Anyone else?

*Sattva

Where In God’s Name Did We Go Wrong?

By Jean-Claude Koven

When people ask me if I am religious, I tell them I love God far too much to be religious. “Oh, then you must believe in God?” they inevitably ask. “Of course not,” I reply with a smile, “does a fish believe in water?” For me, God is all there is. What’s to believe?

Although the world’s major religions all agree that God (however they define the term) is omnipresent, it seems that very few of their followers – including their clerical hierarchy – actually understand what omnipresence really means. And therein lies the source of the world’s ills.

For a start, we take our relationship to God far too seriously. We bring so much solemnity to the way we view God – awe, veneration, obedience, and the like – that we end up creating distance between us and the object of our worship. Expressions such as “God is my judge,” “God forbid,” and “God bless you” creep into our language, and consequently our thoughts. People are actually proud to call themselves God-fearing folk. For too many of us, God is somewhere out there, watching and judging us as we struggle through our imperfect lives.

And consider this: Some religions consider the name of God so holy that it is never pronounced. Instead they create a litany of substitute terms so they can talk about God without having to commit the blasphemy of actually using his name – much as many of the characters in the Harry Potter novels avoid pronouncing the name of Lord Voldemort lest they unleash some fearsome effect. When practitioners of these religions write about their deity, they are instructed to omit the vowel: G-d. Other religions take the opposite tack. They encourage their devotees to chant or meditate on the name of God for hours at a time. To their way of believing, focusing on God leads to a state of bliss that opens the door to transcendence and enlightenment. But if God is truly all that is, what can possibly make one of his names more powerful than any other?

For that matter, what is the purpose of naming him (or her or it) in the first place? Naming anything creates a subject/object relationship between you and the thing named, and that in and of itself means a separation. Every name of God, no matter how holy, drives a wedge between the creator and the created – which includes you and me. This separation is the primal breeding ground for fear, for we then see ourselves as tiny beings, abandoned (or evicted from Paradise) and living on the fringe of an incomprehensibly huge cosmos. It’s no wonder most of humanity takes this whole God business so seriously – it appears to be no less than a matter of life and death.

But what if the phrase “God is all that is” were literally true? This is what R. Buckminster Fuller must have understood when he said, “God, to me, it seems, is a verb not a noun.” His words, when I first read them, lodged in my mind. But I didn’t get their full import until many years later, during my first visit to Findhorn, the renowned spiritual community in northeast Scotland. It was there, sitting in a circle with my fellow newbies, that the penny dropped. One young man in our group, Peter, suddenly exclaimed, “Oh, wow, I finally see it. It’s not that God is in all things; it’s that God is all things.”

His exclamation triggered two remarkable realizations for me. First, the obvious is obvious only to those who are sufficiently present to see it. The delivery of Peter’s life-changing epiphany had virtually no effect on the rest of the group. Our facilitator was so consumed by his orientation agenda that he missed the moment completely. Thanking Peter for his contribution, he simply asked the group if anyone else had anything to share.

Second, what Peter said is literally true. In an instant, Bucky’s words became crystal clear. God is indeed a verb. He is not the creator. He is the ongoing unfoldment of creation itself. There is nothing that is not a part of this unfolding. Thus there can be nothing separate from God. God is infinite and infinity is One.

From that moment, everything in my life began to change. It wasn’t immediate; it was rather like a giant oil tanker slowly making a U-turn. As if I were facing in a new direction, I looked at the world in a new way “How,” I asked myself, “do we dupe ourselves so completely? How come so few people see what Bucky and Peter see? How could I myself have been so blind?”

When we perceive God as a noun, we envision him as the creator, the architect of, and therefore separate from, his creation. Identifying ourselves as part of that creation, we see ourselves not only separate from our source but separate from each other and all other manifest things as well. This is the fatally flawed axiom underlying virtually all of the world’s faiths. They may collectively call for love and peace, but the rampant divisiveness, greed, and competition that currently pervade human culture are the only inevitable outcomes of their separative philosophies.

Once I viewed God as a verb instead of a noun, my perception of life shifted. Everything around me, manifest or no, became God. There was only God. When someone spoke to me, it was with God’s voice; when I listened, it was with God’s heart. I invite you to try it. The small shift from noun to verb may well be the antidote to the forbidden fruit that banished us from Eden. As you begin to view God not as the creator but as the constantly changing dance of creation itself, you’ll discover him in everything you see – including yourself. The old you – that fish swimming blindly in search of water – fades away as you dissolve into the simple meaning of it all. Perhaps, when your vision finally clears, you will find yourself living in the Promised Land that so many others are still praying for.

©2005. Jean-Claude Koven / All Rights Reserved. This article is copyrighted, but you have permission to share it through any medium as long as the proper copyright and credit line is included.

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Jean-Claude Koven is a writer and speaker based in Rancho Mirage, CA. He is the author of Going Deeper: How to Make Sense of Your Life When Your Life Makes No Sense, the Allbooks Reviews editor’s choice for the best metaphysical book of 2004. Recipient of USABookNews.com best metaphysical book award. For more information, please visit www.goingdeeper.org

Less Mormon and More Scott.

(post imported from old blog at mormonzen.com) 

So I’ve been trying to write a blog post for some time now. Only my second one and I’m stumped. That can’t be good.

When I first came up with the idea and bought the domain I was really excited. It seemed like the perfect concept for me, though I realize now that I got ahead of myself. I was raised LDS, and am still a member, though technically inactive for the last 5 years…basically since I got married. It’s not so much that I mind being LDS as that’s pretty much all I’ve known since birth. My problem however comes down to this. I have no desire to be defined by the church that I am a member of. I don’t want to die and have people remember me as a good Mormon. That really means nothing to me. I want to be remembered for the kind of person that I was and the people that I helped throughout my life, not that I was a Mormon. That’s great if the LDS teachings helped to shape me into the person that I am today, but the LDS religion is not who I am on a personal level. I may share some beliefs, but it’s not who I am. I’m not Scott the Mormon, or Scott the Return Missionary, or Scott the Bishop, or Scott the General Authority. I’m simply Scott, and nothing more.So that’s where my problem with this site I created lies. I myself put to much emphasis on the wrong thing. My journey (slow one) to learn about Zen and how to live a Zen lifestyle is about Me, not my religion. Sure I’ll talk about things related to the LDS church, because that’s a PART of who I am, but as I said before, it’s not WHO I AM. So I have to figure out what to do now. I’m feeling restricted by the domain and the name because I feel this pressure (created by myself) to make sure that every post has something related to Mormonism and Zen, and that’s just not going to be easy all the time.

I’ll be thinking of a new name that better fits where I want to take this and I’ll have this domain forward to that once it’s up, so stay tuned my imaginary audience, except you two lovely ladies who were kind enough to comment, I’ll think of something soon.

Zen In Everyday Living

Written by Tu Hoang

I seem to keep a lot of things on my mind. Thinking about work and worrying about my job security, wondering about my relationship with family and friends, trying to figure out where to invest my money, having to buy a new set of tires for the car, engrossed in the war on terrorism, seeing that all my buddies are getting married and a thousand other things that gnaw at me throughout the day.

I am not the only one with a lot on my mind. I have friends who are dissatisfied with their careers but work it so they can afford the house and the baby. I know guys with beautiful girlfriends and nice cars that still seek approval. I know girls with great careers; lots of friends but can not find love.

So it is easy for us all to be stressed. We look forward to ‘going out’, meeting up with friends, shopping, weekends when we can retreat to our homes, spending time with the new baby and all the other little moments that give us pleasure before we re-immerse ourselves into the immense displeasure of the daily drone. Life seems like a cycle of seeking pleasure, in material things, in business success or in personal relationships in order to stem the displeasures of circumstance.

I recently delved into Zen in order to break this cycle and experience life in its entirety; not embracing just the good bits and avoiding the bad bits because there will be times when such things are out of our control. I still maintain my career ambitions, my commitment to family and friends. My rent still has to be paid and my car still needs four new tires. But my day is no longer a daily drone; no longer a struggle and I no longer seek to ‘get away from it all’. I am experiencing things for what they are and not what they should be or aren’t. For a Zen master, who I am not, there is no friction between himself and life and the world. Events and circumstances ebb and flow but he is always centered steering his life wherever he sees fit and acting in a way that is always appropriate to the situation.

So what is Zen and how can it be used. Well, Zen is not a religion. There is Zen Buddhism but there can also be Zen Catholicism as well. There is no morality or ethics in Zen; for morality or ethics you will have to look elsewhere like Buddhism or Catholicism. Zen is a way of looking and confronting events, circumstances and life.

Joseph Campbell said of Zen practice, “It is like an athlete when he’s in the zone, except all of the time.” I thought it would be great to live and handle challenges and interact with people like I was in that zone all of the time. Don’t you?

Here are some techniques for laypeople to obtain the benefits of Zen.

Focused Breathing:

One of the basic ways of clearing your head of distractions so that you can concentrate is focusing on your breathing. Harvard Medical Center researchers can this the relaxation principle. In Zen it is called zazen or sitting meditation but I do this while jogging, reading and working. When you are relaxed you are more focused and effective in the task at hand.

To do this you must relax your diaphragm and be fully conscious of your breathing. This is not easy to do when you are tense. It takes true self-awareness to realize that your body is tense. It takes effort to relax those muscles in your stomach and discipline to breath steadily.

But try to focus on your breathing; here is a long breath in, here is a long breath out, here is a short breath in, here is a short breath out. You will find that you will be more in tune to the present moment. As your mind is focused on your breathing, your senses take in the situation around you unencumbered and unfiltered. You begin to see things as they unfold, hear and listen to sounds as they come, feel and smell aromas as they arise without automatically shutting any of it out or reflexively reacting to them.

Continued practice of focused breathing will help you deal with situations in a more rational and objective manner. It lets you put things in perspective. And it gives you insight into the way your body responds under different situations.

Focused Breathing is the foundation for adopting many of the other techniques of Zen. Practiced on its own it will yield immense benefit to you.

Beginner’s Mind:

Zen is known for some very esoteric notions, ‘No mind’, ‘With-out Thinking’ and a refutation of all concepts in general. This is one reason Zen appears inaccessible and nonsensical to the casual observer.

These notions are meant to encourage us to adopt a basic tenant of Zen, the Beginner’s Mind. When we first learn something we may be anxious, nervous, excited and looking forward to it but we begin without concepts, knowledge or any ideas about the subject. Maintaining a beginner’s mind, even in things that we are already experts, means not to carry any preconceived ideas and beliefs when confronting situations.

His students asked a Zen teacher if he ever got tired of being asked the same question day in and day out. He replied that each student was different and their question, though worded the same, had a different meaning.

A beginner’s mind protects us from over-conceptualizing, over-thinking and over-analyzing a situation. We are better able to think outside of the box because we respond appropriately to the needs of each situation. When we think we already know what is going on or that we are already experts in our field we are trapped in one mode of thinking. Many physicists, scientists, philosophers, economists and corporate leaders practice Zen-like techniques because they are aware of such traps.

The next time you think ‘here comes an annoying co-worker’ or ‘someone has let me down again, they’re always like this’ or ‘how am I ever going to get this done’, go back to focusing on your breathing, take in the situation unencumbered and unfiltered by your knowledge and conditioning and learning. Trust that you have all of the prerequisite abilities that have taken you this far in life to respond to any situation. Once your initial, reflexive thoughts subside you will find that by not categorize situations as they arise you will be open to more alternatives, more opportunities and more ways of responding to the situation appropriately and effectively.

Mindfulness:

It is not easy to let go of our thoughts, feelings and tension as they arise. Commotion, distractions and other people requiring our attention surround us. We cannot always maintain a beginner’s mind and often we cannot afford to focus on our breathing because we are actively responding to something; this is especially true with first applying Zen techniques. But like everything else, continued practice allows us to live these techniques not just merely apply them.

One way to over come the initial hurdles of applying Zen in a busy day is to be Mindful; basically to be self-aware and self-monitoring with the aim of accepting all of the thoughts and feelings that arise in us without judging them or shutting them out.

When you are focused on your breathing, with a Beginner’s Mind you will sense feelings and thoughts arising. Focusing on your breathing will keep you centered, and with a Beginner’s Mind you will observe thoughts and feelings without judging them; rather let thoughts and feelings rise and subside while you pay attention but not cling to them.

In Zen, all that arises within us are natural; they are a result of what we are and how we are connected to the world. Our eyes, ears and nose sense the world; we perceive, conceptualize and feel because that is the expression of our body.

When we are mindful of anger, sadness, nervousness and joy we acknowledge them, welcome them when they appear but we do not cling to them. When we feel love or happiness we welcome these feelings. It should be the same with anger and nervousness. All these feelings are our mind, body and consciousness communicating to us. When we are mindful of them we can only become wiser and more insightful.

I may get nervous before a test. ‘I am nervous. Hello nervousness, how are you today? Glad to feel you again.’ Focused breathing keeps me centered. When the test begins my nervousness naturally subsides. ‘Farewell nervousness,’ and I am completely in tuned with the task at hand.

Do not try to resist or suppress your feelings. That only means you have turned your mind to them and are clinging to them even more. Let your feelings and thoughts. Be mindful of them. I find that as the situation dictates my distracting feelings and thoughts subside allowing me to respond unencumbered by the task at hand.

Focused breathing, Beginner’s Mind and Mindfulness are basic Zen practices. They are almost common sense but often we become mired in the complexities and details of every day living and lose sight of common sense wisdom. Zen is not a monastic way of life. The Zen ideal is to experience and embrace life experiences full on; not editing out the bad bits because there are no bad bits, just things are they are.

Tu Hoang is a business student at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. For comments email: fete@sprint.ca

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