Take Heart

Throughout your trials and tribulations, as endless and unyielding as they may seem, one undeniable truth emerges: life is a series of being cast into the fire, from which you come out either tempered or burned. So embrace the struggle and suffering that comes your way and recognize, that if you are up to the challenge, it may well be the only way to forge the character that will allow you to withstand the forces of greed, hatred, and ignorance, which together remain the barrier to a just and environmental world.

--RM with thanks to Duane "Bear" Hines

Introduction

20 ^th Century American Zen represents a new development in Zen Buddhist philosophy and practice. Its foundation rests on the original blending of Buddhism and Taoism that became Ch’an as presented in the teachings of The Platform Sutra, which is also known as The Sutra of Hui-Neng. American Zen's Buddhist foundation also draws from later Zen traditions and other schools of Buddhism. Additional sutras of major influence include The Diamond Sutra, The Heart Sutra, and The Vimalakīrti-Nirdeśa Sutra.  

From its foundation in Zen Buddhism, American Zen approaches spiritual realization by examining ancient philosophy and practice from many traditions through the lens of modern science, testing the philosophical through the experiential, and exploring connections many religious traditions have with each other. It also incorporates American cultural norms of pragmatism, individualism, the democratic process, and counterculture norms from the 1960s and 70s in offering a holistic approach to spiritual growth. Long time students of Buddhism will recognize acceptance of others regardless of appearance, evaluating the philosophical by way of experience, intellectual discovery through democratic inquiry, and pragmatism as traditional features of Zen practice.

Science, for example, has affirmed the Buddha's message: "With our thoughts we make the world," in that one’s perspective constrains one’s perception. Few see the world as it is, but rather see what they expect to see. Abstract thought, that aspect of cognition that relies on words, is the foundation of the mundane world. Without it, we would have no books, medicine, schools, or be able to construct anything that resembles the complex world we find ourselves in. Throughout life, but especially from birth to about age seven, we each, independently, come to understand or make sense of the world (i.e., reality) by creating a representation of it, an abstract representation that is couched in words. This representation of reality has been referred to as a map, which is a useful analogy because our representation is how we navigate or make sense of the world.

Much of this process occurs out of awareness of the conscious mind. Much of it is mediated by one's culture. Less obvious influences are the conclusions about the world we arrive at from how we come to understand the events of our life. Thus, one's psychology is a unique representation of how one understands the world. No two minds, no two representations of the world are identical.

Thus the need for an authentic American Zen tradition becomes clear. Although Zen teachings from other countries have carried the teachings to this point, the process of realization is fundamentally a psychological one. If Americans have difficulty realizing the ultimate goal by following practices successful in Asian cultures, it is because American culture is different from any of the cultures of Asia. The importance of this distinction was recognized by the Vietnamese Zen Master, Thich Nat Hahn, at least as far back, as 1974 when he said:

"Zen does not yet exist in the west as a living tradition....The fact is that Zen has not yet been able to find roots in this soil. Cultural, economic, and psychological conditions are different."

Even if cultural differences between American and Asian countries did not exist, Zen is ready to be studied as a scientific discipline. The Dalai Lama has been instrumental in the West’s study of the neurophysiology of meditation. But while meditation is a necessary “cause” of enlightenment, it is not sufficient to bring it about. Authentic introspection is required to understand one’s mind and behavior, and to free one’s self from attachments. While MRI scans of long term meditators portray a different neural architecture than novice meditators, brain scientists have not begun to study whether liberation changes the neural architecture. One place to start looking for these changes, should they exist, is to explore physiological changes produced by the “A-ha” or satori experience. As cultures all over the world report the pleasurable experience of insight, we can conclude the process is adaptive. It is part of our evolutionary heritage.

A further role for science is in exploring practices from other Buddhist schools as well as non-Buddhist traditions. What measurable changes happen in the body and mind when we chant?

The scientific method and its products stand as one of the great accomplishments of the human experiment. Its ability to discover and describe the nature of reality is unmatched in history. Buddhism, however, has a reputation for determining the nature of reality as well. But where science relies on a public method for studying largely the external world, Buddhism relies on a personal or private method for studying largely the internal world.

Buddhism can learn much as it constructs a modern understanding and systematizing of the enlightenment process, the specific nature of suffering, matching upaya to personality type, the role of literature or stories to cognition, and so on.

For example, science has recently demonstrated that the mind-body duality is a fiction. We are not a mind trapped in a body, but rather an embodied consciousness. We see the world or make sense of the world in the way we do because consciousness exists and has existed in a body that has certain attributes and constraints. If, for example, we walked on our hands and knees, we would have a very different experience of the world.

This notion of embodied consciousness leads to and supports the notion of somatic intelligence which leads to Zen practice that emphasizes multiple forms of daily mind-body work. From yoga to Pilates to ch'i kung, or from Western boxing to Aikido the student will make more progress along the path with daily physical training, all of which should be done in a mindful way. This physical training needs to include a form of full body manipulation like yoga or Pilates or, at the least, very regular massages to break apart the blockages that lodge in the body.

These blockages serve as the repository of dysfunctional memories or beliefs. Thus, through the unification of Buddhist practice with modern scientific knowledge of the body, we return Buddhism to its earliest roots in yoga.

On the other side of the equation, however, Buddhism has much to show the West about alternate approaches to affirming truth as well as about how the mind works. While the formalized scientific method is a very useful tool, it is often not practiced as indicated because of operator error. The reason for this error is universally because a practitioner believes in a separated individuality, a self, or an enduring personality. It is disabusing oneself of such a notion in which Buddhism excels.