Zen In The Dark

If you were wondering why there was no email or web posting on Monday, you can blame hurricane Ike. Here in Dayton, Ohio, we had a once-in-a-lifetime windstorm that some were calling a ‚Äúdry hurricane.‚Äù I’m one of 2 million Ohioans without electricity. Yes, in Ohio, 2000 miles from the nearest ocean, we’re cleaning up and recovering from wind damage. I haven’t seen any TV news in a few days, but it must have been some storm! My home suffered from no serious damage though, although many of my neighbors lost shingles, siding, and whole trees falling on the house and car. I was lucky; losing the food in my fridge was the worst it got.

Let me tell you something though. As I worked in the cool, early autumn air, cleaning up the mess Monday morning, sticks and branches and yard debris of all kinds, it was immensely calming. I couldn’t get on the Internet, watch TV, do any kind of ‚Äúbusiness work,‚Äù or anything of the sort. It was just me and the mess in the yard. Gathering small sticks, larger branches, and whole tree limbs. Putting it all, one piece at a time into the wood chipper, and then taking out the newly ground mulch over an old tree stump. Even making coffee on the gad grill was calming. Unlike the normal noisy, gurgling drip coffee maker, a pan of hot water on the outdoor grill was completely silent. There is no background noise of TV, music, and not even much traffic; the crickets are unusually loud today.

I just wanted to clean up the yard debris today, but it turned out I stumbled by accident upon one of the oldest and greatest forms of Zen wisdom. We all know that Zen monks sit a lot in meditation. They occasioanlly do walking meditation. But they also do a lot of manual labor. They plant gardens, they build things, and so on. Not because they need the possessions or hope to profit by them, but just for the sake of doing them. By doing some kind of work mindfully, they are gaining merit and building their inner awareness. This is “working meditation.” By doing work without distractions, they can focus on the job at hand completely, and the focus brings a peace and clarity that is especially rewarding.

I’m writing this on my laptop late Monday night, using the last of the charge in my battery. I don’t know when I’ll get access to the Internet and electricity to post this. The radio has been saying that some people in the area may not have power until next weekend. But don’t worry, everything is fine here, I’ll be back as soon as I can, and I suspect that I’ll be more focused because of the break.

It gets dark when it gets dark, and it gets light when the sun comes up. There’s just so much radio-chatter I can take, so its quiet here most of the time. No air conditioning means I can hear the crickets outside. There’s an owl out there too, and this is the suburbs.

I’ve learned something. Actually, I highly recommend this.

Maybe we should all “turn off” some of the things that distract us from a mindful, simple life, and get focused!

—————————————————–
A Reader recently called in and asked:
—————————————————–

Mike called in on the voicemail line and asked essentially, ‚ÄúChristians have a heavy obligation to help others; it’s a big part of the Christian faith. I was in Thailand, and I got the impression that the monks there were‚Ķ selfish. I wouldn’t mind sitting around all day in a temple trying to reach personal enlightenment, enjoying myself with no responsibilities towards anyone else.

What are the Buddhist obligations towards service to others?”

There was more to his message than that, you can hear it in this week’s upcoming podcast, but that was the basic question. Phone in your questions at 937-660-4949.

—————————————————–
And my Response:
—————————————————–

Remember, monks in a monastery have no possessions of their own beyond a few very basic items. They have no wealth to give away, they have no ‚Äústuff‚Äù to sell. They live entirely on the donations of others and yes, the hard work they put into surviving. Sometimes they do sell things that they construct or craft, but the making of those items is still a form of work like anything else. With so little actual cash laying around, monks cannot afford to send money to starving children overseas or that sort of thing. However, they wouldn’t hesitate to share the food from their fields to help starving children in the region if they can.

In a traditional monastery, the majority of young monks spend the majority of their day…working. Either in the fields or building or other sorts of manual labor to support the monastery. Young monks often learn some kind of “Trade” that will help them support the monastery during their time there, such as cooking, cleaning, woodworking, farming, laundry, or something else. Some of the monks may “hang around town” with begging bowls, but not usually the majority. The oldest monks fulfill their obligations by teaching others.

Monks are also the elite of Buddhism. They have sacrificed family, possessions, comfort, and the things we love in the west in order to meditate and achieve enlightenment. Meditating for 10 hours a day isn’t fun and games; they have a specific goal they want to reach. The Buddhist laypeople in the East realize this and do what they can to support the monks, not necessarily the other way around. Anyone can become a monk, and in some places, everyone spends a number of months in a monastery, but few choose to stay. It’s a hard life. New recruits to the monastery must often work 18 hour days for three to six months before they can even begin the process of ordination.

The laypeople support the monk’s physical needs; the monks support the laypeople’s spiritual needs. It’s a system that has worked well in the East for thousands of years. With modern economic systems, however, things are starting to change. The whole idea of living on the region’s donations, whether it be money, food, or supplies, does not work well here in America, and the same problems are starting to crop up overseas as well.

I’d welcome other’s thougts on this as well.

Can you (or should you) Control your own Karma?

————————————————————————————————————

A Reader recently Wrote

————————————————————————————————————

I am thinking about your discussions about Karma. I would like to contribute my thoughts.

The idea of karma, in my life, serves a profound function. My interpretation of it is simple, I see it as simply cause and effect. I do not ask whether or not my actions will “bring me back” as a cow or a goat etc but instead look into myself for guidance in the immediate moment (loving kindness). Animals serve me as a contemplation, metaphors for themes that emerge in my life (vengeance, hate, indifference, joy) during my meditation practice.

Whether a person is Buddhist or not everyone knows that harming another person is bad (one of the precepts). When I harm someone else, I feel bad and I see that the other person (sentient being) feels bad. The consequence of my action (harming someone) is instant, this bad feeling may manifest in a more protracted harmful way or a more subtle way, who cares I know that there will be a consequence. Conversely, when I am good towards someone else there is a more positive outcome within me. Karma happens, like gravity.

Buddhism’s idea of Karma never even enters my mind, if I have harmful thoughts (intention) it is the first step to doing bad things; as simple as stepping on a beetle. Thought leads to action. True enlightenment is the absence of intention.

Buddha was not looking for disciples; they came to him. Things were not written down (warm hand to warm hand). I don’t think that he cared if I became enlightened or not. But he did care about my well-being through his expression of compassion, kindness, and wisdom. I care about the well-being of others. Buddha guides me.

————————————————————————————————————

My Response:

————————————————————————————————————

Excellent letter!

Karma is there; there isn’t anything you can do about it. You cannot know if you are coming back as a human in a better position, or as a cow. You can’t revolve your life around ideas of karma. As you said, follow the precepts, show loving kindness and compassion for others, do no harm, help when possible, and karma essentially takes care of itself. As you said, it’s a lot like gravity, a force of nature that you just have to accept, not try to control.

We’ve spent a lot of time here talking about the precepts. For the most part, the precepts deal with the ‚ÄúRight Action‚Äù portion of the Eightfold path. Much of what you said involves ‚ÄúRight Intention‚Äù and ‚ÄúRight Mindfulness.‚Äù ALL of these are important to not only understand, but to practice in our everyday lives.