Welcome to Zen Farm!!
I am American and was introduced to Buddhism as a child. I devoured a lot of books on spiritual paths before I actually started to study Zen Buddhism. A great part of my life was spent as a professional musician in Michigan and surrounding states. Whenever possible I made contact with like minded people whenever I traveled. I studied briefly overseas in the Zen tradition.
After leaving the music industry I returned to college and became a full time counselor working in the substance abuse field. During this time I studied Korean Zen Buddhism, American Zen Buddhism in California and read heavily in every spiritual path I could find. Several years ago I left the counseling industry and became a writer, speaker, and presenter doing workshops on spirituality and recovery. I currently sit with the Insight Meditation Society in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Although I consider myself a student of Zen and have spent much time and effort studying a lot of what are called organized religions and spiritual paths. Zen has always been of interest to me due to the difficulty in using words to describe the experience, it's questioning nature and the emphasis on self reliance. We of course do the best we can with language but words really fall short and only point to an individual experience.
Zen Buddhism and Taoism have been a cornerstone of my life and spiritual practice. I have experienced and seen something in both these processes that speaks heavily to me and adds much to the quality of my life.
During my studies in Zen and Buddhism I couldn't help but notice that there was a lot of overblown and over used language and ritual. It appeared to me that as soon as someone had a good concept it was immediately turned into some kind of social structure that artificially inflated the concepts and buried the reality of the message in useless concepts, dialogue and ritual. What started out as a direct and simple concept was soon distorted and "made special" by using language and ideas to create ownership of the concepts in the form of religion despite the fact that Zen Buddhism is referred to a non-religious way of thinking. I don't really see how that would apply to some of the organizations that exist in the Buddhist arena that outside of paying homage to a God have the same structure as a formal religion. My understanding of Buddhism has always been that it is a way of experiencing the world and is more of a psychology and philosophy than a religion.
Why does this concern me? Because I feel that Zen, Taoism, and Buddhism offer a rich, introspective, and positive way of life for all of us. I feel strongly that Zen, Taoism, and Zen Buddhism are, to use a phrase, "Peoples Paths." Zen wasn't meant to develop into a pyramidal model with the people on top acting as an elite group. I have never seen a Zen Buddhist teacher that was any different than the rest of us. So instead of making a "religion" out of them I prefer to simplify and make then as accessible way of life. I don't believe that Buddhism was meant or originally presented as what has become an "elitist" form of spiritual path. My understanding is that it is for everyone.
Example: I have studied a half dozen or more different ways to "meditate." This is what I have come to after a couple of decades of practice. No matter what school or form I use my sittings have the same general "flavor." I have checked with dozens of meditators and it all comes down to one thing, awareness is just that, awareness. How we come to awareness is not so important as being in awareness. Note J. Krishnamurti who made the point that meditation is not all about sitting on a cushion in silence but can be done anywhere and at any time. He made it clear that it is a mindset not a specific activity. I have trained hundreds of people in awareness who were seriously confused and at a loss as to what they were trying to do.Much confusion came from being taught by people who made the experience into something esoteric and hard to grasp.
Now I understand this is not going to be popular with those who have built an ego, career, and financial structure teaching either Buddhism and/or meditation. I don't care. I am concerned that people come to awareness in the most direct way possible. I see this as a time when people need to have the tools to cope with a very challenging world and world dynamics. We need a direct and honest approach to Zen without the mystical crap or on the other hand making it stupidly simple as a sales technique. Sales techniques in the vein of "instant enlightenment" that has become so popular. Why would someone charge money for enlightenment even if they could produce the result? There is something painful about the idea that if I pay the money I will be enlightened.
Enlightenment is a prime example of how a word can offer so much in the way of entangled understanding. To cut through the romantic movie versions let us understand that it simply means that if we are willing to do the work we can come to an awareness of how our minds operate. Once we come to this understanding we can start making decisions from a place outside of our sleeping conditioned states. That's it folks. We also need to keep doing the work because everything is in flux including the way our minds work. The best way I can put it is there are "serial enlightenment's" that continue as long as we do the work. There is no where to get to or any permanent states. If we understand and accept this we also know that no one has the status of being enlightened. So I guess that would stop all the useless conversations over whether or not "so and so" is enlightened. These are entertaining dialogues but lets understand they are useless. If you feel better believing that someone is enlightened please feel free to do so. Just be aware that it's a belief system and has no facts to support it.
Zen Farm will tackle a lot of Zen Buddhist and Taoist teaching and to the best of my ability make them clear and available to all of us. No mysticism, no bullshit, no secrets to happiness, just secular Zen presented in a way that is useful. I decided to call my blog Zen Farm because we are focused on "growing us" spiritually on purpose.
All comments and responses are encouraged and welcome.
Keep living in awareness.
Bryan
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