Personal Performance, Personal Art

 Zen avoids making general prescriptions (although thousands of books make it seem that Zen is brain surgery). It's personal. Unique to each person.

So in discussing my personal performance, the "art" of living, I need to be myself: to "ring my own bell".

I consider the 8 fold path as great advice, though I update it considerably for the 21st century.  It's a set of "alarm bells" that go off when I have somehow wandered off the path of Zen.

The classical image of a Zen master is one who doesn't care at all about appearances. He makes no effort to bridge the gap of understanding between himself (always male) and his students. Yet he *must* be presenting himself to his students and *must* convey the art of Zen by example more than words. Zen masters turn out to have a striking presence after all, deliberately intended to convey what will "go over" with their followers.

OSHO - One of my early teachers

For some of these guys, the image is a bit "over the top", working to attract some and repel others. In any case, it's deliberate. It's performance art. In the case of the "master", one hopes that there is substance beneath the package. In Osho's case, he seemed to put out a book per week until he died.

Although I have a passion for teaching, I have little urge to be a "Zen Master". To me, Zen is simply a life well-lived. A life experienced in the full. It's perhaps just mindfulness with an appreciation for history.

A PERSONAL "IMAGE"

What sort of image should I project? How should I put myself "out there" in an authentic way? The first thing I need to do is admit that my current image says I don't give a shit what others think about me. In this corner of the world and this tick of history, such an attitude can be seen (by the don't-give-a-shit crowd at least) as kind of brave. A protest against the superficiality of the culture. Let's be honest. It's just lazy.

I should be expressing (and teaching by example) something different. Specifically, someone who does care.

Right Understanding

For example expressing a genuine interest in other people, not just an opportunity to introduce the wonderful me. Make a serious effort to remember people's names and stories. That's impressive and encourages others to do the same.

Right Thought

If I have something to say, it should be helpful and informative. A question is more likely to make an impression than a clever remark or boring kinda relevant personal story.

Right Speech

I learned years back how "salty language" can totally cancel out whatever I was trying to say. Simply thinking before talking is a habit worth learning. Always better to listen than talk.

Right Action

If I am noticed at all, my actions should be worth emulating.

Right Effort

Putting some time and effort into the skills behind the effective presentation. Such as names. Modest and energetic assistance (when asked for).

Right Mindfulness

Pay attention. Share mindful observations with others. For example, not "The liberals are ruining the country" but, "Do you smell the salt in the air?"

Right Concentration

Pay attention to the moment and the person present. Don't assume you are the star of the show. Allow others to have their moment. Be a good supporting cast.

From the "Taoist" side, I find encouragement to be a skillful and thoughtful craftsman. Whatever I create should express quality and attention to detail. Ideally, such attention will go unnoticed. It is emptiness that makes a vessel useful; openness that creates a door.

MORE LATER

The rest of it may be summed up by shedding the don't give a shit look.

Much Ado About Nothingness (Rev 2013 July 29)

"Zen is not a philosophy or mysticism. It is simply a practice of readjustment of nervous activity .. Here we encounter the purest form of existence. It is the hushed silence of the snow-clad Himalayas. Or it can be likened to the eternal silence of the fathomless depths of the sea"

KATSUKI SEKIDA

"Guide to Zen"

OSHO 

"Creativity"

You can also watch Osho for hours on you-tube. You can download all you have time to read in PDF form here.

SHUNRYU SUZUKI

"Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind"

JAMES H. AUSTIN

Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness

Sekida gives us a more traditional guide book, 50% concerned with how to sit and breath and 50% concerned with a pretty detailed analysis of "samadhi" -- the state of mind to be achieved in Zen meditation.

With great reluctance, I will steer clear of the easy jokes about the professors of nothingness like Osho and Sekida.  While it's easy to get bogged down in the vague and pedantic style of Sekida or the endless chatter of Osho, there is certainly something real behind all the sales talk. Austin's book combines massive detail on mind/brain function from the point of view of a neurologist who also happens to be a Zen practitioner. See the You-Tube video for a taste ...

As a total amateur, it seems to me that we need to distinguish between "zazen" (Zen mediation) and "mindfulness". Zen has a lot to say about clearing the junk out of your mind but you don't need to sit and stare at a wall for 20 minutes a day to find it. Or so it seems.

Osho caught my attention by making a distinction between "activity" and "action". An activity is a habit or pastime that basically keeps you from being alone with yourself. He provides the very useful and relevant examples of smoking, snacking and chatter. This is where his advice to "shut the fuck up" comes in. Typically, he chatters on for a few pages of "Creativity" -- telling a person how to shut his mouth.

According to Osho, an "action" is meaningful and purposeful. Examples might be cooking a meal or planting a tree. Osho seems to be saying that we need to devote ourselves in a single-minded way to actions and clear our minds of "activity". This advice alone has made me a better and safer driver. You could almost say the advice is to pay attention (duh), but the Zen literature gives you a lot of tips on the how and why of simply paying attention.

Beyond paying single-minded attention to tasks and pushing out the clutter of thoughts that prevent us from doing so, Zen speaks of an additional step. If there is no task at hand and no need to pay attention, push out all thought: Do and say nothing. "Zazen" or Zen meditation takes this to the extreme (more on this below) but the idea seems to be useful in many common situations, especially those where the usual behaviour would be to fire up some kind of activity such as lighting up a cigarette, finding a snack, pouring a drink, turning on the TV, picking up a magazine or engaging in mindless chatter. Activity seems to be the remedy to boredom -- the state of affairs where you are left with nothing but your own company and a jumble of thoughts about wasting time, meaningless what is going on around you etc. Zen provides an alternative to boredom. Just shut down. Open up to sensation without judgement. Experience the moment. In a nutshell, just sit still and shut the fuck up. Chase out your own thoughts that are boring you. Just "be". In my brief experience of trying this strategy, nothingness does seem to be an alternative to boredom -- just a way to take an opportunity to rest the mind and enjoy the simple pleasure of mere existence. Of course, I need to take care to be sitting up straight or I'll drift off to sleep.

The idea of chasing out mental garbage is extremely useful. When driving, I imagine a rabbit running across the road. I mentally pin a thought to it's tail (like worry about finances, what I should have said or what I planned to say ...). The rabbit and the thought scamper out of sight and I have a moment to pay attention to driving before the next piece of mental garbage commands my attention. Things like the radio and chatter with the passenger are seen as "activities" to be avoided. Special, specific effort to pay attention was devoted to situations like parking, passing, busy intersections etc.

Of course the Zen "master" would point out that I need to also stop thinking of the rabbits or how clever the rabbit idea is or even how well I'm doing at paying attention. Ok ok ok. I get it!!

It turns out that more advanced Zen theory can improve on my rabbit habit. Sedika's advice is to breathing to settle the mind. Even though it's mainly intended for the serious meditator (sitting zazen), just counting 10 breaths in a row seems to be a pretty good way to settle the mind. Of course the Zen goal is to improve alertness and focus, but the technique of actively taking a broom to mental garbage also works in the opposite situation where the goal is to chase out distracting thoughts and go to sleep. The difference seems to involve mainly posture.

While Sedika teaches the "right" way to pursue Zen, Osho and Suzuki emphasize the importance of remaining open, de-emphasizing theory in favour of practice and, above all, creating your own individual version of Zen.

Austin's approach seems more palatable  a "Western", Skeptical mind such as my own. All the chatter about "nothingness" is gone. The contempt for Science and things of the mind is replaced by massive quantities of information on everything from the history of Zen to the neurological study of "attention" . For me at least, it makes sense to know the facts before running off to create my own private version of "Zen".

It seems that we all need to know a lot more about nothing.