do jhana: Disenchanted yes, but...

28.11.11

Disenchanted yes, but...

It's true, I don't want to be associated to any Buddhist groups. "Religion" is a word I stopped using long ago (in my Facebook profile I've written "not religious" as my religious views and "kayak & meditation" as my favorite sports). Whenever I find a Zen Buddhist, I lower my eyes and walk in the opposite direction.

It is the religion, the organization, the church, the authority, the orthodoxy that are at the root of my rejection. But also the "teacher", the misuse of dana (generosity), the adds in magazine like Tricycle...

And yet, it's not like I'm going around feeling nausea every time I meet these conditions. It's a posture that forces me to set the question mark at the very root of anything, that leaves nothing to hold on, that makes an island of myself...

It allows me to test, prove, make mistakes, start again, not rely in others, not imitate, not to force myself to understand things in a certain way, as when we hammer emptiness or not-self doctrines in our heads until we see them as the orthodoxy wants us to see them.

The practice gets for real when we are ready to face ourselves in solitude. It is a raft we build with pieces of wood we find here and there, not a 5-stars ferry boat that makes us forget where we came from and where we're going.

2 comments:

Roberto Poveda said...: Es una alegría ver renacer de nuevo este blog en medio del desierto en el que el zen se va trasformando más y más cada día que pasa.; 14/12/11 18:38
David Daishin Garcia said...: Gassho _/\_; 14/12/11 19:01

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Zen Buddhist Order of Hsu Yun

Mission statement
The Zen Buddhist Order of Hsu Yun is an international clerical order consisting of individual practitioners, sanghas and practice centers throughout the western world. The Mission of ZBOHY is:

To make the study and practice of Zen Buddhism accessible to the West through approaches that remain in keeping with the classical lineage tradition as translated into terms and concepts that are readily understood within the context of our native societies;
To be available to all people interested in the teachings and practice of Zen, and to provide an international online resource center for the study and promotion of Zen Buddhist teachings;

The charter of our order directs the following mandates:

To sustain an international clerical order dedicated to the dissemination of the practices and teachings of Zen Buddhism;
To offer the benefit of an international Zen sangha to isolated groups and solitary practitioners;
To hold no bias toward any particular cultural expression of Buddhism;
To embrace varied and multiple approaches to practice and teachings according to the needs of the individual or group;
To assure equal access and provide clerical services to all people regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, previous religious background, or personal history;
To abstain from political and other discussions and debates that do not serve the Dharma;
To abstain from conflict with and among other individuals and groups

Clerical Members of ZBOHY are encouraged to:

Continually review and renew their commitment to Zen practice and their understanding of the Dharma;
Abstain from promoting Zen as a specific ethnic tradition;
Establish sustainable sanghas that directly serve people in their local communities;
Provide Dharma teaching sessions, meditation instruction and/or retreats for all wishing to learn and experience Zen;
Promote the Zen teachings of the founders of our tradition and lineage.

In Summary:
Members of our order understand that the practice and study of Zen is a personal pursuit of both the individual and individual sanghas. While our lineage began in China, it is not the intention of ZBOHY to demand strict conformity of practice, or to import Chinese or Asian cultural Zen practices to the west. It is our goal to present both classical and contemporary Zen teachings, methods, and principles in the Western idiom as a guide to those wending their own way along the Path.