Don't Be A Saint - Alan Watts
Summary
TLDRThe video script explores the philosophical underpinnings of Buddhism and its evolution into Zen, highlighting the concept of 'awakening' from the illusion of separateness. It discusses the stripping of cultural context to export essential elements, the method of 'letting go' as central to Buddhist practice, and the transformation of Zen in China and its subsequent influence on Japanese culture. The script delves into the teachings and practices of Zen, including meditation, the use of paradoxical questions (koans), and the master-student relationship, emphasizing the pursuit of genuine self-realization beyond intellectual understanding.
Takeaways
- 😀 Buddhism is often described as a form of Hinduism that has been adapted for export, focusing on essential elements that can transcend Indian culture.
- 🧘 The term 'Buddha' comes from the Sanskrit root 'Budd' meaning 'to be awake', signifying an individual who has awakened from the illusion of separateness.
- 🌌 Buddhism emphasizes the concept of 'non-attachment', which is about letting go of clinging to beliefs, ideas, and concepts, rather than suppressing desires.
- 🔮 The state of ignorance in Buddhism is referred to as 'avidya', which is a state of being entranced or spellbound, focusing only on what is immediately in front of us.
- 🤔 The method of Buddhism, or 'Dharma', aims to strip away everything to which one clings, promoting a complete letting go, rather than offering doctrines to believe in.
- 💭 Zen, a school of Buddhism, is particularly focused on direct experience and personal realization, often using paradoxical questions (koans) to provoke enlightenment.
- 🏮 Zen training involves a dialogue between a student and a teacher, where the teacher often uses tricks and challenges to guide the student toward self-realization.
- 📚 The introduction of Buddhism to China around 400 AD and its subsequent integration with Chinese philosophy, especially Daoism, led to the development of a unique form of Buddhism with a strong emphasis on humor and practical living.
- 🎭 The concept of 'total presence of mind' is central to Zen, where one is completely in the moment, not distracted by past or future thoughts.
- 🤝 The relationship between Zen masters and students is dynamic, starting with a strict and authoritative approach, evolving into a supportive friendship, and ultimately leading the student to realize their own wisdom.
- 🌏 Zen has migrated and transformed across cultures, from India to China and then to Japan, and is currently experiencing a resurgence in the West.
Q & A
What is the relationship between Hinduism and Buddhism as described in the script?
-The script describes Buddhism as a form of Hinduism that has been 'stripped for export'. Hinduism is a comprehensive way of life that encompasses various aspects of culture and daily activities, and cannot be exported as it is deeply rooted in Indian soil and culture. Buddhism, on the other hand, is one of the ways to transmit the essential elements of this philosophy outside of India.
What does the term 'Buddha' mean in the context of the script?
-In the script, the term 'Buddha' is derived from the Sanskrit root 'Budd', which means 'to be awake'. Therefore, Buddha refers to 'the awakened man', or someone who has woken up from a state of ignorance or illusion.
What is the concept of 'avidya' in the script's explanation of Buddhism?
-Avidya, in the script, is a Sanskrit term for ignorance, which is the opposite of 'vidya' or knowledge. It represents a state of being entranced, spellbound, or fascinated, akin to being hypnotized. It is the state from which Buddha awakens.
What is the concept of Sakaya drishti in Buddhism as mentioned in the script?
-Sakaya drishti is referred to in the script as the 'view of separateness' in Buddhism. It is the illusion of being separate individuals that a Buddha overcomes upon awakening.
How does the script describe the approach of Buddhism towards beliefs and doctrines?
-The script explains that Buddhism has no doctrines that one must believe in. It is about letting go of all beliefs, ideas, and concepts about life, leading to a complete release or letting go.
What is the significance of the story of Hui Neng (referred to as AA qu in the script) in Zen Buddhism?
-The story of Hui Neng, who cut off his arm to show dedication to learning from Bodhidharma, illustrates the extreme commitment and determination required in Zen practice to seek enlightenment.
What does the script suggest about the role of suffering in Buddhism?
-The script suggests that even suffering offers no security in Buddhism. It is an illusion to cling to suffering as a means of validation or righteousness, and true awakening involves letting go of all attachments, including the attachment to suffering.
How does the script describe the impact of modern science on Western culture in relation to traditional religious beliefs?
-The script suggests that the impact of modern science has been similar to the Buddhist concept of letting go. It has challenged traditional religious beliefs that provided a firm foundation, forcing people to navigate without something to hold onto, much like learning to swim in a vast ocean.
What is the concept of 'non-attachment' in the script's explanation of Buddhism?
-Non-attachment, as explained in the script, does not mean losing one's appetite for life. Instead, it means stopping the act of 'grabbing' or clinging to things, and learning to be in a state of 'total presence of mind'.
What is the significance of the 'old rogue' or 'joker' archetype in the script's discussion of Zen?
-The 'old rogue' or 'joker' archetype in the script represents the ideal Zen practitioner who is free, nonviolent, and not bound by societal norms or self-righteousness. This figure embodies the humor, humility, and the understanding of the irreducible rascality in human nature that is essential in Zen.
How does the script describe the method of Zen training?
-The script describes Zen training as a dialogue between a student and a teacher, involving intense meditation, the practice of zazen, and the grappling with paradoxical questions known as koans. The method aims to break through the student's illusions and attachments to reach a state of awakening.
Outlines
🧘♂️ Buddhism and Hinduism: The Concept of Awakening
The paragraph discusses the relationship between Buddhism and Hinduism, highlighting that Buddhism is essentially Hinduism stripped of cultural elements, making it exportable. It emphasizes Hinduism as a comprehensive way of life that cannot be separated from Indian culture. The term 'Buddha' is derived from 'Buddh', meaning 'awake', and the Buddha is described as an awakened individual who has overcome the illusion of separateness, or Sakaya drishti, in Buddhism. The concept of 'avidya', or ignorance, is introduced as a state of hypnosis that the Buddha has awakened from. The paragraph also touches on the transformative nature of Buddhism, where interactions with a Buddha can lead to the awakening of others.
🕊️ The Essence of Buddhism: Letting Go and Non-attachment
This paragraph delves into the core principles of Buddhism, focusing on the concept of letting go and non-attachment. It contrasts the idea of using religion as a crutch with the Buddhist approach of faith through letting go. The method of Buddhism, or Dharma, is described as a process of stripping away beliefs and concepts to achieve a state of complete release. The paragraph also discusses the transformative experience of engaging with a Buddha, like Krishnamtya, who challenges and destroys one's fixed beliefs. The ultimate goal is to induce a state of vertigo, where individuals realize the impermanence and fluidity of life, leading to a fearless acceptance of reality.
📚 Buddhism's Introduction to China and Cultural Synthesis
The paragraph discusses the introduction of Buddhism to China and its subsequent cultural integration. It mentions the arrival of Buddhism in China around 60 AD and its significant impact from the year 400 onwards with the help of Kumarajiva, a Sanskrit scholar who taught Chinese scholars Sanskrit and worked on translating Buddhist scriptures. The translation process led to a blending of Indian and Chinese philosophies, with Chinese interpretations influencing the understanding of Buddhism. The paragraph also highlights the cultural differences, such as the Chinese emphasis on humor and the family, which contrasted with the more serious and celibacy-focused aspects of Indian Buddhism.
🏔️ Chinese Zen: The Integration of Worldly Life and Spiritual Awakening
This paragraph explores the development of Zen in China, emphasizing its unique blend of Indian Buddhism and Chinese philosophy. It describes the Chinese desire to live a life of awakening while remaining active in the world, encapsulated by the phrase 'being a king on the outside and a sage on the inside'. The paragraph introduces key figures in Zen's development, such as Bodhi Dharma and Huineng, and the concept of Satori, or sudden enlightenment. The story of Huineng's quest for peace of mind and the teaching that true peace comes from realizing one's inherent nature is highlighted as a pivotal moment in Zen understanding.
🎭 The Nature of Zen: Total Presence and Non-attachment
The paragraph examines the nature of Zen, describing it as a state of total presence and non-attachment. It discusses the concept of 'moo' or emptiness and the practice of Zen as a way of life that involves being fully present and authentic. The paragraph also touches on the Zen approach to questions and challenges, which involves responding to philosophical inquiries with practical answers and vice versa. The story of the Zen monks in Kyoto and their interactions with the local nobility illustrates the Zen principle of resilience and the ability to remain unfazed by external circumstances.
🤡 The Paradoxical Role of the Zen Master
This paragraph delves into the paradoxical role of the Zen master, who uses a combination of authoritarian and compassionate methods to guide students. It discusses the Zen master's approach to teaching, which involves presenting themselves as having nothing to teach, and the use of 'koans', or seemingly nonsensical questions, to provoke genuine responses from students. The paragraph also highlights the Zen master's ability to adapt their teaching style to suit the needs of the student, ultimately aiming to help the student realize their true nature and the inherent happiness within.
🎯 The Zen Training Process: Striving for Authentic Realization
The paragraph outlines the Zen training process, emphasizing the struggle and dedication required to achieve realization. It describes the intense meditation practice known as 'ession' and the use of koans to challenge students. The story of an American Zen student who, through desperation and intense practice, experiences a moment of illumination, or 'satori', illustrates the transformative potential of Zen training. The paragraph also discusses the ongoing nature of Zen practice, where even after initial realization, students must continue to discipline and challenge themselves.
🤔 The Zen Master's Compassionate Deception
This paragraph explores the Zen master's method of teaching through deception, using tricks and challenges to guide students towards self-realization. It discusses the master's role in creating a sense of urgency and the use of various koans to provoke different perspectives and insights. The paragraph also highlights the master's ability to adapt their approach based on the student's progress, ultimately aiming to help the student see through the illusion of seeking something external and recognize their inherent completeness.
🕹️ The Dynamics of the Zen Master-Student Relationship
The paragraph examines the dynamics of the relationship between the Zen master and student, describing how the master initially appears tough and authoritarian but later becomes more like an older brother, offering friendship and compassion. It discusses the master's occasional return to authoritarian behavior as a teaching tool and the overall nature of the Zen game. The paragraph also reflects on the Zen master's motivations, which stem from compassion and the desire to help students discover their inherent happiness and wisdom.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Buddhism
💡Hinduism
💡Awakening
💡Avidya
💡Sakaya Drishti
💡Kundalini
💡Zen
💡Non-attachment
💡Satori
💡Koan
Highlights
Buddhism is described as a way of life that extends beyond religion, similar to Hinduism, and cannot be exported as it is deeply rooted in culture.
The concept of 'Buddha' implies an awakened or enlightened individual who has overcome the illusion of separateness.
The state of ignorance (avidya) is likened to a hypnotic state where one is oblivious to the broader reality.
Buddhism emphasizes non-attachment and letting go, rather than clinging to beliefs or concepts.
The method of Buddhism, or Dharma, aims to strip away all beliefs and ideas to achieve a state of complete letting go.
Buddhism does not offer doctrines to believe in but instead focuses on the method of personal awakening.
The concept of Sakaya drishti, the view of separateness, is a key illusion that a Buddha overcomes.
Krishna Mty, a modern Buddha figure, challenges people's fixed beliefs and religious ideas.
Religion should not be used as a crutch but as a means to let go and have faith in the impermanence of life.
The art of Buddhism involves learning to swim in the ever-changing universe, symbolized by the need to relax and not cling.
Buddhism teaches that suffering offers no security and that one must accept the impermanent and ever-changing nature of life.
Buddhism's introduction to China was initially unimpressive, but later it integrated with Chinese philosophy, particularly Daoism.
Chinese Buddhism differs from Indian Buddhism in its approach to humor, celibacy, and the role of the family.
Zen, a unique blend of Indian Buddhism and Chinese thought, emphasizes practical living while being spiritually awake.
The story of Bodhi Dharma and his disciple Huike illustrates the intense dedication and the quest for enlightenment in Zen.
Zen training involves a special relationship between the teacher and student, with the teacher guiding the student to see their inherent nature.
Zen uses methods like meditation (zazen) and koans to challenge the student's understanding and lead them to a state of realization.
The Zen master's role is to guide the student until they no longer need a teacher, signifying their self-realization and independence.
Zen's influence on Chinese and Japanese culture, including poetry, painting, and scholarship, is profound and enduring.
Transcripts
it has been well said that Buddhism is Hinduism stripped for export you see Hinduism is a way of
life that goes far far beyond what we in the west call religion it involves cookery everyday Family
Life house building uh just everything it's the whole Hindu way of life and so you can't
export it just as you can't export Shinto from Japan it belongs to the soil and the culture but
there are essential elements in it that can be transmitted outside the culture of India
and Buddhism was one of the ways of doing just that so one might say simply this to try and
sum up what Buddhism is about the word Buddha is derived from the root Budd in Sanskrit bu
U DH which means to be awake so the Buddha is the the awakened man the man who woke up what does he
wake up from obviously a dream and what kind of a dream is this well I would call it uh a state
of hypnosis and this state of hypnosis although I'm using hypnosis in a rather archaic sense of
the word is a state of being entranced Spellbound fascinated and this is called in Sanskrit avidya a
v i d y a Vidya is knowledge in Sanskrit and it is the root from which we get viere in Latin to
see and so Vision in English so putting the a in front of it means non aidia not seeing
ignorance ignorance where uh you see but you ignore everything that you're not looking at
when you put the beak of a chicken on a white chalk line and the chicken is fascinated with
that and can't get away from the chalk line that's Avidia so in the same way our beaks
were put on a chalk line when we were hypnotized into the notion of attending to Life by conscious
attention Alone by the spotlight to the exclusion of the floodlight and so we began to imagine that
we were separate individuals what is called in Buddhism Sakaya drishti the view of separateness
and a Buddha is one who has overcome that he is awakened from that illusion from that state
of hypnosis and he knows that uh well I can't put what he knows in any positive terms this is
the special thing about Buddhism everything in Buddhism sounds negative let's put it this way
let's suppose uh you engage yourself in a in a uh relationship with the Buddha or with one I mean
there are hundreds of Buddhas one we call Goa is just the historical Buddha that everybody knows
about but one Buddha leads to another because as a result of his relationships with people
he turns them into Buddhas too awakened people now you meet one of these people and he's going
to give you a rough time but one one of the the Buddhas running around these days is Krishna mty
and Krishna MTI uh absolutely destroys everybody's religion he okay why do you believe this why are
you hanging on to that why do you want to insist that this idea is so see and he shows you that all
your fixed formulations all the ideas to which you cling are spurious and then you suddenly get into
a kind of vertigo dizziness that you feel suddenly that you're no longer standing on the firm ground
but that the Universe has suddenly turned into water or Worse air or Worse still empty space
there's nothing to hold on to now you see often when one discusses religion with people they say
well I I need a religion because I need something to hold on to well that's the way not to use a
religion because if you use religion as something to hold on to your religion is an expression of
unfaith faith is where you let go not where you hold on when the cat falls off the tree the cat
relaxes you see and so the cat lands with a soft thud and doesn't get hurt because the cat has
Faith but if the cat in midair were suddenly to grab itself with all four feet and and tighten up
you see it would be hurt and that's what people do when they say Rock of Ages C for me let me
hide myself in thee they want something to hold on to you see and that is unfaith so the method
of Buddhism it's called the Dharma doesn't mean the law it means the method the method is to knock
the stuffing out of you to take away everything to which you cling to cleanse you completely of
all beliefs all ideas all concepts of what life is about so that you are completely let go so Budd
M has no doctrines at all that you have to believe in I don't care what background you
come from whether you're a Roman Catholic or at one extreme or a logical positivist at the
other both are clinging to something you see and so the method of Buddhism is to knock out the
underpinnings and say well we just not only do we not believe in anything we don't even believe in
not believing in anything you know you crawl into a hole and pull the hole in after you but in this
case you do the exact opposite of that that's a defensive move to crawl into a hole in this
way you crawl into great space and then pull the space out after [Laughter] you and uh to
go through this is pretty pretty rough because you can do it on what seems at first to be a
merely intellect ual level so you can engage a group of people in the discussion and you can
start whenever they propose an idea that is their sort of guiding principle of life you demolish it
show that it doesn't hold water and step by step you unearth by talking with them what
are the fundamental ideas they're operating on everybody is everybody is a philosopher
everybody has metaphysics although they may not know what it is cu they've never examined
but by this method you bring it out and you demolish it and this suddenly what seemed like
a very nice intellectual discussion turns into sheer murder uh people get really anxious they
develop all the trembles and the symptoms of extreme anxiety and so they finally say to the
guru the teacher well heaven's sakes what do you believe in he says I'm not proposing anything I
didn't set anything up well how do you navigate how do you how do you exist this is what's the
problem because you see uh what we're moving from as as I suggested a moment ago we're moving from
a state of affairs where we are accustomed to navigation on land to a state of affairs where
we're in the water and this is very critical for today because the impact of modern science
on Western culture has been very similar to this in you say in Christianity we sing hymns like How
firm a foundation and Rock of Ages in Festa B and Mighty Fortress Is Our God uh we' have something
to stand on the church's One Foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord you know and it's this firm
thing all right suddenly all that disappears or becomes implausible and we find ourselves swimming
or Sinking now when you find that you're living in the midst of the universe of Relativity well
there's nothing you could hold on to you got to learn how to swim and to swim youve got to
relax and stop stop grabbing so this is what Buddhism does when it says it's the art of
let go of non-attachment non-attachment doesn't mean that you uh lose your appetite for dinner
it means simply that you stop grabbing you get rid of stickiness stickiness in the sense of for
example when a wheel has a an axle that's too tight and it sticks you want to loosen it up a
bit you don't want it too loose you don't want it floppy like a lot of people when you tell them to
to relax they become like a limp rag it's not relaxing relaxing is having still tone but um
it's a certain it's a middle way so this is what this is entirely what Buddhism is about it's
about learning uh for example if I may put it in a vivid way when you were born you were kicked off a
precipice and you're you there's nothing that can stop you falling and although there are a
lot of rocks falling with you with trees growing on them and all sorts of things like that you can
cling to one of those rocks if you like as it goes down with you for safety but it's not safe nothing
is safe everything is for fall apart everything is in a state of change and uh there's no way of
stopping it and when you are really resigned to that and when you really accept that then
there's nothing left to be afraid of and when there's nothing left to be afraid of and you've
given everything up and uh you know that uh even you know a lot of people in religion cling to
suffering because they know they are right as long as they hurt oh I bless the good Lord for my boils
for my mental and bodily pains for without them my faith all congeals and I am doomed to Hell's
n ending Flames uh you know there are a lot of people who know that they're right so long as they
suffer but that's an illusion too even suffering offers no Security even suicide offers no security
in Buddhism you see there is no security at all you simply have to face this fact that everything
is in flux and go go go go with it and so the question then is simply how to convince people
of this if anybody wants to be convinced you know it's not the sort of thing you shove down people's
throats you don't convert them to this because if they don't want to be converted they won't let
go so Buddhism therefore involves a very special relationship between the questioner and the person
to whom the question is addressed the pupil and the teacher and now then Buddhism came to China
as early as 60 AD but didn't at that time make a very great impression it was not until about about
the year 400 that a very great Sanskrit scholar by the name of kumarajiva came and started teaching
Chinese Scholars Sanskrit and they worked with him to translate Sanskrit into Chinese and they
translated the Buddhist scriptures they didn't of course do them all at that time because the
Buddhist scriptures occupy about as many as much space as the encyclopedia britanica in
fact a little more the Indians are great talkers well anyway uh they found that when they translate
this into Chinese you had to find equivalent Chinese words for the Sanskrit ideas and they
found these from the from the Dost philosophy well slowly then Indian attitudes began to be modified
by Chinese attitudes because the Chinese read into these translations daoist meanings so things got
a little altered now here came the alteration that is crucial first of all in Indian Buddhism there's
very little humor but Chinese uh life is full of humor the greatest philosopher of China janga you
know is the only philosopher who is in I think in the whole world who is profoundly humorous
there's a book in the um modern Library published by Random House called the wisdom of laer and uh
this is translated by linu tang and he includes along with the translation of laa huge sections
of tra and this is absolutely fascinating because of the humor of it Indian Buddhism had very little
humor some yes but very little next it was all tied up with celibacy which to the Chinese was
absolutely incomprehensible because Chinese civilization is rigged around the family to
a far greater extent than ours is which is saying something and uh they could just couldn't see any
point or any wisdom ins celibacy when Buddhism came to China it still retained a certain element
of celibacy but for different reasons than than Hindu the Chinese way of celibacy is not that
sex is naughty but it's terribly convenient not to have a [Laughter] wife in other words the ideal of
of the uninvolved life uh has a certain appeal but they could never never get through into their
heads the notion that uh sexual desire was bad which plays has always played a fairly strong
role in Hindu thinking not in the same way as it has in the west they don't have a the Hindus
don't have a guilt take on it but they think that it it dissipates your spiritual energies and you
see the in in yoga they envisage the idea that at the base of the spine there is what is called
the Kundalini the the the serpent power or the the force of psychic energy and so long as it remains
at the base of the spine this force is dissipated in sexuality Now yoga is to suck this thing up
the spine and get it into the head and so then you withdraw from the manifestation of this energy or
the dissipation of it in sexuality and uh it's put on a higher level only uh which end is up
uh you can do it the other way too they have What's called the right hand way of
doing it and the left hand way of doing it I'm not going to go into that now but
the the Chinese didn't see it that way they couldn't see that it was a dissipation of
energy
uh so what they wanted to aim at was a way of living Buddhism and being awake but at the same
time remaining active in the ordinary life of the world it's what's called in their phraseology
being King on the outside and a sage on the inside
managing practical Affairs completely involved in whatever life is but at the
same time inwardly living on top of a mountain being Cloud hidden whereabouts
unknown so Chinese Zen is the preeminent expression of this
because it is the mixture of Indian Buddhism and Chinese ISM plus a certain confusion
practicality Zen developed out of the work of kumarajiva came into China as I said four
400 or a little before he had two disciples who began to work on Buddhism from a daoist
point of view and they were actually The Originators of Zen then apparently
about uh shortly before 500 as the dates now check out another Indian came to China whose
name was Bodhi Dharma and Bodhi Dharma was the person who touched off Zen as a specific
movement bod Dharma had a pupil by the name of um AA qu in Chinese
AA is Japanese pronunciation like Zen is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese Chan and
uh the story is that when AKA came to Bod Dharma bodh Dharma refused to accept him as a student all
Zen Masters do this they reject you and this stimulates you you see to come back stronger
if I mean if you're going to learn at all and AAR came back stronger and stronger and stronger and
Bodhi Dharma resisted him stronger and stronger and finally he cut off his left arm and presented
it to bodh Dharma and said look here's my left arm given to you as a token that nothing in the
world matters to me except to find out what you're all about all right he said what do
you want to know AAR said I have no peace of mind please please pacify my mind in Chinese
mind is um this word pronounced shin and shin is here Shin is the heart mind it's the psychic
Center and so bodh Dharma said bring out your shin here before me and I will pacify
it AA said when I look for it I can't find it bodh Dharma said then it's B
ified and eka immediately understood what all the thing was about that's the experience
called Satori in Japanese wo in Chinese Mandarin and in the Cantonese [Laughter]
dialect uh it's just what we call in our modern psychological jargon the AHA phenomenon
uh the AHA phenomenon aha now I
see well now um what was all this this Zen is uh a translation of the Sanskrit word
Jana and so this is being pronounced in Chinese and Zen
in Japanese is unfortunately untranslatable in English it designates a certain State of
Consciousness that is sometimes called
meditation but that won't do it all contemplation
isn't really the point Chinese have a different word for contemplation
and uh sometimes one pointedness of
mind I would prefer to translate this word with the notion of total presence of mind when we say
a person is crazy we often say they're not all there now go to the opposite of that and
visualize a person who is completely there or who is completely here person who lives totally and
absolutely now that doesn't mean he's incapable of thinking about the past or the future because
thoughts about the past and about the future are included in the present you have them now but
imagine the kind of person who is not distracted who when he talks to you it really gives you his
whole being who doesn't as it were look over your shoulder and wander after something else somebody
who first of all he's completely here and he's so much here that you can't phase him now this idea
of phasing is crucial in Zen you see I referred a moment ago to attachment that Buddhism is living
free from attachments and I made the point that this is not abandoned a sense of a good
appetite for dinner but it's stopping sticking in psychological jargon you don't block a mind of no
hesitation it's sometimes called in Chinese the phrase Mo Chu is used of going straight
ahead so supposing somebody walks up to you on the street and says are you saved now most of
us who are intelligent people feel embarrassed by such a question you know what this wretched
Salvation Army person or Jehovah's Witness doing asking me whether I'm saved or not
and we all a little bit you know what do you do with a nut like that so but as in
Zen this is a perfect moment to respond see to the most embarrassing question are you
saved but Zen comes back in a very funny way uh in Zen uh one doesn't give philosophical
answers to a question like that you give practical answers I had a boiled egg this
[Music] morning because whenever you are asked about matters sacred theoretical and
philosophical you answer in terms of things earthy and practical but then on the other
hand when you asked about things earthy and practical iCal you answer in terms of things
religious and philosophical is dinner ready you know who's asking this question who are
you
so this is then the flavor of Zen is you know bodh Dharma is supposed to have meditated so
long that his legs fell [Music] off and he's usually drawn this way something like this
[Music] anyway it looks like a Shmo but uh in Japan you buy these toys that are
darumas and they are so weighted in here that you can never knock them over you can
bat it on the floor bat it this way bat it that way but it always comes
up again and so the poem says seven times down eight times up such is
life so uh this is the the the principle of not being phased not being
attached so to play the game you can't phase me
this is uh very important in the art of lifemanship fundamental gamesmanship because
you see when the Zen monks moved into Kyoto uh they took over the best part of town simply
fantastic how this happened the beautiful Hills were occupied by The brigands Who later became
the Japanese nobility uh the great dios these were the toughest characters and the Zen monks
played a game with them which was that you know you possess all these lands and you are powerful
and so on but so what it's all falling apart then what will you do well they said that's
too bad we don't know and the Zen monk said no you haven't got the hang of the thing you see so
they found that they couldn't terrify Zen monks that uh they played all sorts of Tricks but the
Zen monks were better Masters at it see supposing you say to somebody uh look I'm not afraid of you
you can do anything you like you can kill me or anything at all well if I go and kill the fellow
who says this I'll never find out whether he was afraid or [Laughter] not so they outfaced these
people and said you you we have a secret you see that you don't have and we'll teach your your uh
servitors to be great warriors because they'll learn the secret too and they won't be afraid
of anything and this is what they did and so the dios the noblemen uh built great monasteries for
these Zen Masters and monks on their best land the finest artists of Japan made Gold Leaf screens uh
for almost every room in the place and although nobody owns anything individually the community
owns it collectively with the protection of the daos and they had a tremendous scene
going now to us that sounds extremely weird even immoral you don't expect religious people to do
things like that no I know you don't uh if if the religious people are self-righteous and
have no humor but these people didn't go around pretending that they were specially good they
didn't dupe themselves they were people who understood what human nature is that in every
one of us there is an element of irreducible rascality in Jewish theology this is called the
yahar ye z r h a r a the Yahara the element of irreducible rascality which was created by God
because God has one too and that's why when you are really affectionate with somebody else when
for example men I don't know what women do in their private lives between each other but men
uh as we all know say to someone they're very fond of why you old bastard you know
just like that you know there's a certain way of saying to a person uh there's a certain glint of
recognition and so there's a Z poem which says when two Zen Masters meet each other
on the road they need no introduction when a thief meets a thief they recognize each other
instantly and this goes back you see again Into the Heart of Chinese philosophy
that human nature is considered to be basically good and even the rascally elements of it are good
they are the sort of salt in the human stew there has to be this little thing that human passions
and that the the natural uh contentiousness and greed or whatever that we have is an essential
element in our makeup and that when people lose sight of that they go mad nothing for example
is more dangerous than a saint that is say an unconscious Saint who thinks that he is right
and who Endeavors to live an absolutely Pure Life and to eliminate all selfish thoughts somebody who
undertakes that task is going to be a menace to all around because he loses his humor he loses
his real humility which is knowing that after all since we're humans we have certain needs we are
need to eat we need uh sex we need this that and the other and this this sort of has a a quality of
humor to it and uh so this is why in Zen art the sages are always drawn to look a little bit like
bums you know that Pai or h as he's called what's called The Laughing Buddha the fat
Buddha with an immense belly uh and carrying around an enormous bag of rubbish into which he
indiscriminately puts anything he finds around and then gives it away to Children this is the
sort of uh type which the Chinese call the old Rogue and the old Rogue as a type of the poet
Sage Monk and Scholar you see is greatly admired he's the nonviolent brigand the Rolling Stone the
free man or in our words The Joker The Joker you see is the card that can be play any role in the
pack so then Zen developed in China after Bodhi dharma's time
and came to a a sort of golden age in the tong and Sun dynasties the Golden Age of Zen lies between
713 ad and approximately 1100 1200 11 to 1200 that's the great creative period in which all all
the marvelous Masters emerged and during which Zen exercised a profound influence on the development
of Chinese poetry and painting calligraphy and scholarship then between 11 and 1200 uh it shifted
to Japan and uh underwent a new development rather different in quality and in tone and after it had
done that for some Curious reason but it's very complicated historical question it slowly faded
away in China so that as we find it today it is principally a Japanese phenomenon and it is slowly
fading in Japan and slowly growing in the west it's a very funny thing now then let me indicate
what Zen training what its method is how does it work I said before what is involved is a dialogue
an interchange between two people one who's defined himself as a student and has therefore
defined the other as the teacher there is no teacher until a student arrives no problem until
a question is raised so students create teachers if you ask a question you get 30 blows with a
stick if you don't ask a question you get 30 blows with a stick because you simply you put yourself
in statu pilari you've defined yourself as having a problem now nobody really has a problem but the
Maya the game of life is to pretend that you do going back to fundamental Hinduism the godhead
or the self pretends it's all of us and so gets lost and so has a ball dreams all this going on
so uh when you are on your way out from the dream it suddenly occurs to you that you have a problem
life is suffering you would like to get out of this so one such student went to a zen master
and he said we have to dress and eat every day and how do we get out of all that in other words you
might ask the question in this way we have to work get up Monday morning go to the office do
all this routine beans sell something and so on how do we get out of the Rat Race so we have to
dress and eat every day and how do we get rid of all that and the master said we dress we eat the
student said I don't understand he replied if you don't understand put on your clothes and eat your
food this is the kind of dialogue so characteristic of Zan so the position is this
the master on being approached by a student about the problem of Life says I have nothing to teach
you I a zen master I have nothing to say Zen is not words and furthermore everything is perfectly
clear there was a Confucian scholar who went to a zen master and said what is your secret teaching
and he replied there is a saying in your own teacher confucious which Explains It
All don't you remember when confucious said to his disciples do you suppose that I'm concealing
something from you I've held nothing back and the scholar didn't get this so a few days later they
were walking together in the mountains and they passed the wild Laurel Bush and the Zen master
said to the Confucian scholar do you smell it he said yes he said you see I'm holding nothing
back so the position of the Zen master is there is nothing to tell you there is no we
we're not offering you any Panacea any solution any Doctrine any big big goody uh to the problem
of life because the problem is an illusion well then the student under these circumstances thinks
well this is some sort of a come on um he's testing my sincerity and of course the nothing
which he has to teach is the The Mystery of the great void see he doesn't he doesn't take it as
meaning just plain old ordinary nothing but the great void and so uh he persists and the
teacher makes him persist until he gets way out on a limb he has to persist so much that
he practically dedicates his life saying just as the way haa symbolically cut off his arm the
student is put in the position of dedicating his life to solving this thing and getting what that
teacher has and of course there wasn't anything all along but he's been put in that position so
uh then uh once he's in statu pilari uh once he becomes a student he's put through all kinds of
Hoops they make him learn to meditate to sit cross-legged practice zazen and then they also
add to the trouble by asking impossible questions which are called Coan and these questions are are
palpably obsurd what they are saying essentially uh at least the elementary Coan are all concerned
with this are requests for behavior on the part of the student that will be perfectly
genuine in other words show me who you are now wait a minute I don't want to see uh any
social definition of you I don't want to know your name your address who your parents were
I want to see the absolutely authentic you it's like EX essentialist talk about authentic being
or it might be in the same way a Confessor father Confessor and a Christian sense could
say now give me a really good confession what is the thing bad bad thing you've really done
and you confess to him adulteries and murders and thefts and sacrilege and blasphemies and
curing and so on and he says oh no no no no no come off it those are only trivial things
come on now what is the really awful thing you've done I don't know what
me this is the backwards way of doing exactly the same thing as zen master is doing saying who are
you really are you anybody is anybody home have you got anything and they what they they do things
like uh making you shout see this this word is very important word in Zen uh nothing moo it's
represented by the empty circle the word moo in Japanese so they say now say it say moo moo you
know with all your your guts going into it they say no no no no you you don't know how to say
that come on that's feeble that's nothing let's really say it they have every kind of trick like
that to show you that the more you make an effort to be genuine the more of a fool you
become and they tie you up in nuts until you're desperate there was an American Zen student who
was on a full bride and um that gave him a year to study Zen and he got started to panic because
he had only a month to go and he hadn't realized it and he knew he had to and he went to the sin
master and said damn it he said look uh I've got I only got a month left the master said
all right we'll have what we call ession ession is an intense uh meditation practice where you
only sleep 3 hours a night sort of thing and you meditate all the rest of the time let's go
let's really do it do it do it do it and every day three times you come to me and present the
answer to your Zen problem your Coan and it got worse and and it got worse and it got worse and
he got more and more desperate that here was this full bright going to end and he wouldn't
know what Zen was all about well practically on the last day he suddenly saw there was nothing to
see you know it's all right the way it is and this tremendous illumination this loaded off his head
was of course what the master was trying to make him do but now in the ordinary way if you're not
on a full bride and you uh you can stay around further in Japan the master will then play a
trick on you you'll say now that's wonderful you got your foot in at the gate you saw you realize
there's nothing to realize you realize the void there's nothing to cling to you see there no no
barriers no blocks in any direction it's all transparent but that is just the beginning
and many many it's all a necessity now for you to discipline yourself much harder to make great
efforts really to get through so what are you going to do about that uh the student may say
well I don't know I've had enough I think I've realized what it's all about and he goes away
sometime later he begins to worry because you see the Great emotional relief of this Insight begins
to wear off and life begins to look ordinary again and so you thought maybe I did miss something that
was a very good master I went to and I better go back so back he goes and the teacher comes
on very very tough and says you no you're no good you didn't stick with it why should I take
you back oh master I'm so sorry I didn't realize I was young and inexperienced and I now I've come
to my senses so the teacher finally says all right all right all right you're on probation
so again he starts another Coan and this one comes in from a completely different point of
view and he's got others that come from this way and from this way and from this way and
from this way and the point is always so long as I can begal you as teacher
into thinking that something you can get you need to study with
me when I can no longer fool you into thinking that there's something to get
out of life you'll know that you're alive you don't get something out of it you're
it but so long as you can be phased and you can be taken in by the teacher you need a teacher
so in the end when the student no longer needs a teacher and he sees
that it's old boy who's fooled him the whole way through he says at the same
time profound respect and you wonderful [Laughter] Rascal there's a very strange
thing in the uh I've poked around a good deal lately in Japan among American
Zen students to find out what's going on and they tell me that um the initial come on of a
zen master is very tough and very authoritarian and paternalistic but as you move in he turns
into your older brother and uh is a person you feel going right along with you beside you
uh helping you in this thing full of friendship and compassion and everything but occasionally
he will suddenly turn and uh bring on the authoritarian stuff but they do it in a
very strange way there was a zen master who on a Saturday morning when he should have been woken
up uh at 8:00 uh no he should have been woken up at 8 on Saturdays and 7 on weekdays so this was a
Saturday and his uh attendant Mount came and woke him up at 8 he was immediately looked at the clock
and was absolutely Furious that he'd been woken up an hour late because he didn't know it was
Saturday so he struck out at this monk in a rage and the monk said Master but it's Saturday he said
oh anger disappeared absolutely Serene no
apologies so you see the nature of this game is the Zen game
and I seem to have given away the show to you told you all the inside mechanics of it but you would
discover that if you tangle with a zen master and you think you know from what I told you what
are the mechanics of it and you stuck your neck out to put yourself in the position of being an
Inquirer everything I told you would be useless he would out with you completely that's what consists
in being a master he's not doing it because he wants to be superior and to put down other human
beings is doing it out of great compassion because he feels he knows something which
uh if you could find out you would uh just be so happy and would want to give it to everybody else
but you can't give it away because everybody's got it what you got to make them do is to see
that they have it and that you don't give it to them and that's the most difficult
task e
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