Happy Freedom Day, South Africa!

There's a great article in Nature today documenting how all of the glaciers in Antarctica are now in full retreat just like in Alaska and the Arctic. Also, this week's New Yorker has the second article in Elizabeth Kolbert's series on climate change, with a fascinating discussion correlating global climate changes with the rise and fall of past civilizations (okay, just falls - I was trying not to sound too downbeat).

Imagine my surprise last Monday when, after at least a week of thinking that I had recovered from my bout with the flu, the lesson on the First Noble Truth of the Existence of Suffering suddenly reasserted itself and I quickly, almost instantly, found myself back in bed with shivers, excruciating muscle and limb pain, and sheer exhaustion. Damn! Just when I thought I was out, I'm dragged right back into the dukkha again . . .


I was functionally useless Monday, and exhausted all day Tuesday. I finally ventured back into work today (Wednesday) for half a day, but now my fear is that I no longer know if and when these symptoms will show up again. So, now that I'm healthy, at least for this moment, how do I spend my time knowing I could become sick again at any moment? Or, as Steven Batchelor once asked, "Since death alone is certain and the time of death is uncertain, what should I do?"

This is a deeper lesson than I learned after my first round with this flu. At first, I just recognized the existence of suffering (the First Noble Truth) and reflected on impermanence ("this too shall pass"), but now I'm facing the more immediate issue of living in this world of samsara, in this brittle bag of bones, this stinking sack of flesh . . . How do I spend the 23 years and eight days left to my life?

I don't mean to sound morbid, but realizing the temporality of one's own existence is essential to Zen, and I will argue, to any spiritual path. That is why the very first picture I posted when I first set up this blog nearly a year ago was the same one I still use as my banner - a man meditating alone in the desert among the skulls and bones of the dead. That is why I still carry that little death-watch icon over on the sidebar. I'm going to die at 79, if I should be so lucky to avoid other calamities in the meantime. Okay. Now what?

I received an email today from Greensmile on the "Ordinary Mind" dialog of Joshu and Nansen that I posted back on February 28. He noted similarities between that dialog and the following words of Krishnamurti:

"I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organised... The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth"

Greensmile went on to say that "words are so limiting...I mean after all, mere Google will find all these teachings when I feed it the right strings and it understands nothing. I won't understand much more by only noting similarities. Are the two teachers saying much the same thing?"

I don't think Nansen or any subsequent Zen teacher who would say anything like "That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally," when Buddhism constantly reminds one that the truth is neither absolute nor conditional. I've once heard it said that if you need to condense all of the Buddha's teachings into three words, "Not always so" would be a good start. However, that being said, I agree that there are echoes between the two teachings. Both Nansen and Krishnamurti are saying that the truth (or the Way) cannot be "approached" and cannot be "attained" - any effort to grasp it merely turns one away from it.

But anyway, the truth will never be found in a teacher, in a Google search or in a blog. Zen Master Dogen said that to study the way is to study the self, and to study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things of the universe, and to be enlightened by all things is to transcend the distinction of self and other and to go on in ceaseless enlightenment forever.

No teacher, no Zen Master, no Buddha can enlighten you. Only you can do this. That is why it is said "If you meet the Buddha on the street, kill him." The "Buddha you meet on the street" is nothing but your own delusion, a figment of your imagination, and you "kill him" by forgetting the self that created this phantasm.

Find a comfortable cushion or a chair and sit upright with your back straight. Ignore all of the distractions around you. Ignore all of the distractions coming from your own mind. As thoughts arise, just set them aside. Turn your focus inward and be fully aware of yourself, but don't assign words or labels to your observations. Don't try to change anything. Just breathe naturally and let yourself be. Do this for at least five minutes every day for a week. Enlightenment will not be far off.