tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63623573539315985482023-06-20T06:26:32.280-07:00Sugoi SekaiThe name of this blog is a Japanese phrase for the "Wonderful World" I feel blessed to live in. Its inhabitants include my wife, our family and friends, and "all sentient beings" (to use a charming English phrase for the Buddhist notion of existence.) Welcome!Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-59781061134610486332017-12-13T14:43:00.001-08:002017-12-13T14:43:56.946-08:00Alabama Election Day<div class="MsoNormal">
Yesterday, Dec. 12, 2017, was election day in Alabama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last night, with their votes, the good people
of Alabama chose dignity and reason over bigotry and ignorance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may feel, as I do, that almost every word
coming out of Roy Moore's mouth is nothing but a loud and stinky fart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But you also may feel that many Christians
who support him are hypocrites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do
not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In their minds they are God-fearing
Christians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they are dangerous. Moore's
reported lust for young women is not the issue here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other things he stands for are the real issue,
things these Christians support, things that the Bible specifically condemns as
sinful. I think a little historical clarity about the Bible could help put a
lid on much of this. But make no mistake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The views many Americans hold are based on scripture that in today's
world must be called homophobic, misogynistic, racist, chauvinistic, and just
plain paranoid.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Homosexuality and bestiality are held up by God in Judaism,
Christianity and Islam as actions that can put you in everlasting hell after
your die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why is that?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I cannot examine God's mind, but I can
imagine why a small group of people living in the Palestinian desert between
about 1000 B.C. and 800 A.D. would not want men to "waste their seed"
on other men or in the butts of animals instead of helping women bring more
people into the group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Making as many
babies as possible would be the aim. If you happened to be a gay man back then,
you would be required to have sex with a woman, even if you had to do so with
closed eyes and clenched teeth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But you
could father a child. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As for the sex life of a woman In Biblical times we don't
hear much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know that girls could be
wed to older men, who often already had other wives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was fine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perfectly in line with the aim of making a
small group stronger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what about
lesbians?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Women who naturally were
sexually attracted to women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Bible
doesn't say anything about them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
suppose men could have sex with them against their will (we call that rape),
but in those days women had even less power over men, much less their own
bodies, than they do today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As one of
them found out, they could even be turned into a pillar of salt just for
turning around to look back fondly on a place the group was leaving. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Another hot-button issue today is abortion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Until the 1970's women had no choice, abortion
was not an option, at least a safe one. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Abortion is as old as the Garden of Eden, or
at least the Stone Age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there was no
knowledge of how to do it safely. My mother was one of eighteen children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition, her mother, my grandmother, had
two miscarriages, or so my mother told me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My parents spent the first 17 years of their marriage going to college
and taking care of her siblings, before deciding to have me, their only child. (I
never asked what sort of birth-control they practiced, in case you were
wondering.) <o:p></o:p></div>
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My mother says she felt sorry for women
("Catholics" she thought) who kept having babies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But she felt sorrier for women who had
horrible abortions, due to dangerous home remedies or physical methods, such as
throwing themselves down stairs (think "Leave Her to Heaven" with Gene
Tierney) or back-alley butcher-shop surgeries. The Bible doesn't mention
abortions, but the Pro-life movement today condemns women who have abortions (and
their abortionists) to hell, making this issue as Christian as it gets, with
Evangelical Christians stepping in to do God's work.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Times have changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
remember how "bad" girls in my junior and senior high school classes,
who found themselves in the "family" way, suddenly disappeared for a
year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they returned, they were
whispered about, especially by boys. Most Catholic kids attended the one
Catholic church school in the little Oklahoma town I'm from. I assume Catholic
girls graduated, got married, and had lots of children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So looking back, I realize it was only Protestant
girls in my schools who were sent away to abort their "illegitimate" babies.
Anyway, we Protestants hated Catholics.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In addition to homosexuality and abortion, there is
something else on the right-wing Christian agenda today, albeit under the
radar, so to speak. I'm talking about bigotry. People today, including
Christians, hate bigotry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nobody wants
to be a bigot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At least I don't know of
anybody who is not against bigotry. This is tricky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People I grew up with were all white, except
for the black women who cleaned our house and the Indians at Ft. Sill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(My parents were in charge of the Ft. Sill
Indian School.) At the same time, blacks and Indians were poor, and as a child
I saw how whites spoke to them differently. But by the age of five or six my
best friends were Native Americans (playmates and old men who taught me secrets
about the natural world) and African American women (maids who taught a spoiled
white kid how to behave.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I secretly
began to despise the bigotry around me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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My own family was almost an exception.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The prejudices I saw were subtle, but
undeniable. I worked one Christmas in a menswear store owned by one of two
Jewish families in town, and talked for hours to my employer. He seemed to know
about everything. This prepared me for my experiences in New York, from ages
14-17, as a part-time student at the old Julliard School, where I was taught by
brilliant musicians, many of whom had escaped the holocaust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their stories about inhuman behavior took on
fuller meaning for me over the years. In college in Texas I learned not to talk
about it too much, but married life there and in Chicago (for graduate studies)
taught me how to spot bigotry wherever it raised its ugly head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I became a lifelong protester of inequality.
The one thing I cannot abide is a belief that human beings are different and
therefore should be discriminated against -- on the basis of religion, race,
ethnicity, culture, intelligence, sexuality, and all other things we have no
control over. <o:p></o:p></div>
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To bring things closer to home, I must mention the 50+ years
I have spent developing a reputation as a specialist in Japanese art, history
and religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My doctoral research was
centered on Japan's Momoyama period, involving the written and pictorial
material in Buddhist temples built in Kyoto during the Keicho period, between about
1590-1620. I was particularly interested in Emperor Gomizuno-o, whose patronage
of Zen priests and artists (many of whom were given the title of Zen priests) is
well known.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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In the course of that research I was told by my Kyoto
University professors that to do a good job I would have to train in Zen
temples myself and know Buddhist iconography backwards and forwards. During
some four decades of study and training, I finished a PhD (1970), was ordained
as a Zen priest (1980), and retired in 2004 after holding teaching positions at
three American universities and one in Japan. This has made me quite aware of
cultural differences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Japan was a great
teacher not only for me but for my wife and our two sons. I can barely remember
the time during WWII when Japan was my enemy. But I do remember, and that memory
clearly inspired me to become what I am now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To think of the Japanese as scary brutes in WWII, defeated victims of
the war, or as colleagues and teachers makes it impossible for me to categorize
them. They are my fellow human beings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Last but not least, the Moore and Trump defenders are
suspicious of science and the media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are of one mind on climate change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It's a hoax.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even with all the
fires and blizzards going on in our own country right now, and the melting ice
in the cold regions of our world, they defend religion and deny scientific proof
that we are the culprits in raising the world's oceans and precipitating
earthquakes with our extractions of fuels and minerals. White isolationists
(aka nationalists) are crawling out of their hiding places at this particular
time in history to thrust us all back into the dark ages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most all of these things on their agenda in
fact have to do with religion, mostly within the monotheistic faiths of
Judaism, Christianity and Islam, where even regarding each other, still, after
all these centuries, bigotry reigns supreme. <o:p></o:p></div>
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People with such beliefs are like magnets to me:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I cannot wait to sit down with them and try
to bring them to their senses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not
see them as hypocrites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are Christians
who claim to live by Biblical texts they haven't really studied, are against homosexuality,
abortion, and most scientific explanations of phenomena. In short, they are
bigots wrapping themselves in a myth about goodness over evil a la "Star
Wars". To hell with that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all
have good and evil in us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They do not
exist outside us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The more we explore
our own demons and angels the sooner a peaceful outcome can emerge. Most
importantly, we need to spend all the time we have on earth realizing how
fortunate we are to be here, together, using all the technology and wisdom that
is available to us now. History need not repeat itself, but we damn sure need
to heed its lessons as we move forward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-55452151434008028342017-12-13T14:28:00.001-08:002017-12-13T14:44:45.488-08:00Armless, Legless Man<div class="MsoNormal">
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Out of the forty-eight stories about ancient Chinese Zen masters
in the classic known in Japanese as the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mumonkan</i>,
or "Gateless Gate" -- which is used as a textbook for "<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koan</i> training" in many Zen temples
in Japan -- my favorite is the fifth one, known as the 11th Zen Patriarch's "Story
of the Man-Up-A-Tree." <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That quaint
English translation always makes me laugh, even though it is accurate, because
in this story "up a tree" really does mean much more than just a man
sitting in a tree! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the story
that in some ways is the one I live by, or try to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather than repeat it here in one of its many
translations, I feel like giving the account that's in my heart, the one that
keeps me in line (and cannot be found anywhere else.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Once there was a baby born without arms and legs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His parents loved him dearly, and taught him
everything they knew about the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They were his arms and legs, but when they died there was nobody to care
for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He learned to scoot around on
the ground just by twisting and rolling his body around from one place to
another. Outside his house he had to watch out for animals that could harm him
and children who teased him and used him for their own amusement. But he drank
water from a nearby spring and ate enough wild plants to keep himself alive.
Every night he had vivid dreams about all sorts of things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His situation may have made him have to learn everything
about everything for himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In any
case, people began to come around to ask him questions about life in
general.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They began to help him do
everyday things and in return he helped them understand every mystery. Everyone
in the village loved him very much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Everything was going well, but as time went by, and he grew old, he
became even more helpless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One night
some drunks came to his house and decided it would be fun to torture him a
little bit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They took turns rolling him
down a nearby hill, and laughed when he made grunting sounds and loud cries as
he bounced against rocks on his way down. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally, one of them had the idea of seeing what he would do
if they took him up a very steep hill and hung him with a rope around his body from
a tree that was growing out of the side of a cliff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When they grew tired of that, one of them had
the bright idea of seeing how long the armless legless man could hang from the
tree limb just by his teeth. After awhile they decided he might be able to hang
on forever, so they ran into the village and told everyone to come and
watch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A crowd of people gathered at the
foot of the cliff looking up at the spectacle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All his life the armless legless man had had vivid dreams
every night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While he was hanging there
from the tree branch, he could hear the crowd below, and dreams began to fill
his head even while he was awake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People
were shouting, "We know you can't hold on forever, and that you will die
when you fall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But please tell us,
before you fall to your death, what is the most important thing about
life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why are we born? What happens
after we die?" In his dream he saw his parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had never appeared in his dreams
before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But here they were.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they began to speak to him, saying, "You
must answer them, son!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And of course
when you open your mouth you will fall and die. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just make sure that whatever you say to them will
be soothing, like healing ointment on their wounds, and not like ground glass
in their eyes." <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At that the armless
legless one opened his mouth and spoke and died, and the people went away happy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what the hell did he say?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I guess we all have to ask ourselves the same question. <u>What did the
armless legless man say on the way down?</u> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Now we're really up a tree!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you try to answer in his voice (as any Zen
teacher will expect you to do), you will quickly conclude that there is not
much you can say that will not offend or please someone. Offending and pleasing
are not the same things, however, when you are talking about real life and
death matters. This koan, therefore, is one of the best.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good luck!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Note:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Zen koans
recorded in texts were systematically illustrated by priest-painters in East
Asia for at least 900 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of
them are in museums and private collections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But apparently none of the ones illustrating Case Five have survived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Based on my own efforts at calligraphy and
painting, I have tried for at least two decades to render this koan in an ink
painting myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing I've done so
far satisfies me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But you better believe
I'm still trying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I've just about run
out of time realizing the man-up-a-tree koan in my own life. That's an on-going
failure.<o:p></o:p></div>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-26055921563994656862017-07-03T12:33:00.003-07:002017-07-03T12:36:25.560-07:00RIGHT OR RESPONSIBILITY<br />
<br />
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RIGHT OR RESPONSIBILITY</div>
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<br /></div>
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Many<span style="background: #D9D9D9; mso-pattern: gray-15 auto; mso-shading: white;"> </span>friends tell me to my face or in print that
healthcare is not a right for Americans. I say it is a right for every human
being. My friends don't agree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of
them are against any kind of government healthcare program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They defend their position by claiming that
people in this country of the brave and free have the responsibility to work
hard and take care of the cost of their own healthcare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That side of the argument says that many poor
sick people in America are just lazy and take advantage of social programs already
in place. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That seems to go against
everything I know about human nature, history, economic conditions, medical
science, and plain old luck. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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I'm not ready to let people die on the street, as they used
to in many parts of the world, if they were weak and penniless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to believe that the first humans
living in caves instinctively believed that animals should be killed, usually
with a rock, and eaten.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pretty soon they
treated strangers as enemies and decided they should also be hit in the head
with a rock. The biggest rock killed the most people, winning the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Later they discovered how to make weapons out
of rock, chiseling sharp blades and arrow heads. The best man wins must have
been the lesson of thousands of years of human history. Many Americans still
think so. Donald Trump is surely a case in point. </div>
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<br /></div>
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But he is by no means alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>American parents, especially fathers, urge their sons to stand up for
themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get in there and fight, they
say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don't be a sissy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My own case is so unlike that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was no secret that I was a fat little
sissy, a spoiled (I say much-loved) only child who played the piano and hated
violence of any kind, even in sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
parents protected me from any bullying I encountered by confronting the bullies
(and sometimes their parents) with truly frightening consequences if they
didn't leave me alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So in a way the
urge to strike out at strangers was alive and well in my parents. Looking back
on it, such primitive instincts were in me, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think I never doubted my superiority to my
tormentors, and secretly dreamed of killing all of them in the most gruesome
ways the human mind has ever concocted. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Dreaming of how to kill others is nevertheless not the same
thing as doing it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tripping lightly over
history from caves to castles, I can see how advanced weapons and a monetary
system soon took the place of rocks, in the hands of people who feared
outsiders and used tribal loyalties and religions to maintain their own superiority
over others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The dance of the wealthy
over the poor became the only dance in town, all over the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Music for the dance was heard in small groups
and large groups alike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each
municipality placed masters over servants, in a pattern that was repeated everywhere
in counties, provinces, and nation states. Masters became masters through
wealth and power that rendered servants helpless to resist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wars often rearranged the master/servant configurations,
with kings suddenly reduced to slaves, and vice versa. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not until modern times did people question the old law, that
the strong should win.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ancient
Greeks had a great notion about justice and how it might be achieved in
society, but even they had slaves. The idea was reborn in what we call the
Renaissance and Enlightenment, but it took the toppling of lots of emperors and
kings before the 18th-19th- century revolutions in the name of liberty were
successful. Our own Thomas Jefferson put it best in his 1776 declaration that
begins, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal ..." The hope in that statement was clouded, even at that time, and
we've been trying to remove those clouds ever since.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We've pretty much done away with the rule of dictators, but
not entirely. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The most outstanding are
in Africa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some that remain are
presidents of republics. The Russian Federation is listed as a "federal
semi-presidential republic," according to Wikipedia, which I think means
Putin is largely in charge of everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Russians we met in Moscow and St. Petersburg seem to adore him and
blame all the problems they encountered after the fall of communism on
democracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, such modern imperial
governments as England, Sweden and Japan have beloved royal families that have
very limited power and, in any case, generally follow the dictates of the
voting public. Representative government is the enlightened approach to keeping
people free in today's world. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Communism, the Great Notion of the 20th century, failed
because it took away peoples' freedoms in order to make them equal. Marx and
Lenin would frown at the few communist governments still operating today,
because they are shot through with liberal features of democracy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The flag of democracy is flying high today,
with each nation putting customs, religious laws, natural resources, and old
grievances together in its national identity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Some people want free markets to govern us all, but that is too close to
the dog-eat-dog paradigm of human history to satisfy me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The level playing field is a feature of democracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone in any society starts with a chance
to develop interests and talents that can contribute to the fullest development
of society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good health and healthcare
is part of that chance in modern society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>From natal care to death, each person deserves -- has the right -- to be
in the best physical and mental health to participate in nation-building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I am born with a medical problem, or
develop a chronic ailment like cancer, I deserve to have that problem treated
by the best physicians in the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If I am in an accident, my recovery should be tracked by medical
experts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My psychological welfare, likewise,
is to be looked at by professionals in the field. But if my country has no
healthcare system in place, I may die if my medical costs are more than I can
afford.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No other advanced industrial country in the world allows its
citizens to be as endangered as Americans are right now. Most of them have some
form of single-payer insurance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My wife and
I are lucky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are retired, and receive
Social Security that we paid into for sixty years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also can afford to have additional health
insurance (AARP-United Health Care) for drugs and treatment that Social
Security doesn't cover. But our son and many of our friends are not so
lucky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My mother taught school all her
life, but was senile for the last seven years of her life, and died in a rest
home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her Medicare ran out and Medicaid
finally ran out, as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Luck is fickle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That's its nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have some
exceedingly wealthy acquaintances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As it
happens, some of them inherited the wealth that they live on today, or that
they used to build the wealth they have today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A few of them hitched their wagons to a star that took them into the outer
space of our 1%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surprisingly, most
admit they don't pay enough taxes to support the health needs of our
country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also know some moderate-to-very-poor
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hard-working people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Proud people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To think that these two groups -- the very rich and very poor -- have an
equal chance in America's future is ridiculous. Making all Americans
responsible for their health care is blind to all the things that keep them
from beginning life on a level playing field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It puts the poor and unlucky in a hole they can't dig out of for several
lifetimes. Republicans and Democrats have the responsibility to heal this
problem now, by creating universal healthcare for all Americans. I'm no
economist, but I know some form of universal, government controlled healthcare,
comparable to plans in other highly developed countries, is <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
not only possible, but morally imperative.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a teacher, I also hope all Americans will someday have
access to a good education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tests after
tests show that our public and private schools do not provide it. There are
many reasons for that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But poverty, above
all, breeds ignorance. Prejudice does, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I almost vomit when people say, about a group of people they have
categorized by race, sex or culture, "Well, you know, that's just the way
they are." <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I realize that up until
retirement, except for a few intervals, I was stimulated (and insulated) by
very well-educated people all around me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As the author of the play "Pugwash" said recently about Cyrus
Eaton, the financier who brought Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell together in
Nova Scotia to discuss nuclear energy, "He believed that thinking was
equally as important as making money."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So do I.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>University life is not
normal. It offers infinite opportunities to examine everything on earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nobody punches anybody out over anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conversations can be animated, but rarely
threatening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have also been taught to empathize with others as a moral
duty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My Christian childhood, lifelong
study of religions, and years of practice in Japanese Zen temples have all
worked together to convince me that I am my brother's (and sister's) keeper,
and to love everyone, knowing that I am, in some profound way, everyone. We are
all related, even identical. And yet I confess now that when I am out in public
rather than behind the speaker's podium, I don't easily relate to most of the people
around me. We often don't speak the same language, share the same views of the
world, or even listen to the same music. (And, my deepest confession, I've
never been able to share the world's infatuation with balls:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>football, basketball, baseball, golf, etc.)
Regardless of how hard I attempt today to put myself in other people's shoes, I
often come away with a sense of failure, even when love remains. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- At home in Palm Desert, CA, July 2, 2017.</div>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-28485219985917840972017-06-28T11:04:00.000-07:002017-06-28T11:05:44.965-07:00THE HEART SUTRA<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
THE HEART SUTRA</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For many years I recited the Hanya Shin Gyo, the so-called
Heart Sutra, in Japanese, as I was expected to do in the Zen temples in Japan,
where I was training, while doing doctoral research at Kyoto University. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I frequently complained to my Zen teachers
that I wanted to be able to put this sacred text into my own language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They always told me to go ahead and do
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I tried.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the UChicago and the UWashington I sought
the help of Sanskrit scholars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We agreed
that <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>every one of our explanations of the
text's meaning seemed insufficient. It would remain the enigma it is today
(even after I later came to my own feeble interpretation.) </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Subsequently, I toyed unsuccessfully with the rhythm of the Sanskrit
text, trying to put it into the same cadence that the scripture is chanted in
throughout Asia. I assumed then as now that the Heart was chanted in Sanskrit
and Pali in all Mahayana Buddhist temples at one time. But I never came up with
an exact rhythmic match between the Sanskrit and other Asian languages.
However, I found the exact same number of syllables in the Heart Sutra chant in
Japan, Korea, China, and Tibet. I wondered how that came about. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Koreans and Japanese took their written languages from China,
so naturally their version of the Heart Sutra is the same in cadence. Their
transcription of the Heart Sutra is written character-for-character in Chinese.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only their pronunciation of each character is
different, while the number of syllables in their recitations of the Heart is
the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Tibet surprised me. Its
language is totally different, but the monks seem to have used the 7th-century Chinese
version of the Heart Sutra and adjusted each character's sound to Tibetan
pronunciation, just as the Chinese and Japanese did. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This was proved to me by personal experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On my first trip to Lhasa I followed the
voice of a child monk who was chanting by himself in one of the rooms of the
Johkang.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At first I just watched him
secretly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had his eyes closed. Softly
I joined my voice to his chant, using the Japanese sounds of "Hanya Shin
Gyo" that I knew so well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
sounds were Tibetan, mine were Japanese, but the number of syllables and the
rhythm were the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Towards the end,
at the "Gyate, gyate..." section, he opened his eyes and looked directly
at me. We finished the chant together, at the same time, and smiled at each
other. He was about twelve, I reckon, and I could communicate with him only by
writing notes in Chinese, the language the government required all Tibetan
children to learn, rather than their own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On page 11 of a 1985 edition of a sutra book I first compiled
in 1970 for Zen students in the Seattle Zen Center (which later became the
Temple of the Virtuous Rock, Tokugan-ji), the Heart Sutra appears in Romanized
Japanese pronunciation. Students recited that version of the Heart every time
they participated in any of the Center's activities. On the next page of the sutra
book they could read my short explanation of the Heart Sutra's background and a
tentative English translation of the text itself. This is what I wrote: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Heart Sutra is a verbal description of the enlightened
state of consciousness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was given by
the Great Bodhisattva of Mercy, Avalokiteshvara [C. Guanyin, J. Kannon, etc.], who
literally is the Regarder of the Cries of the Universe, whose mercy and compassion
is inexhaustible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His (or if you prefer,
her) description of enlightenment comes at the end of the scripture on Perfect
Transcendental Wisdom, the Prajna Paramita-sutra, while the historical Buddha Shakymuni,
surrounded by his disciples, sat in deep meditation on Vulture Peak near
Rajgir, in northern India. While watching the seated Buddha, the Bodhisattva
Avalokiteshvara experienced his most profound understanding of transcendental
wisdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shariputra, the most intelligent
disciple, witnessing his two teachers reach such depths of wordless
understanding, begins the Heart Sutra by asking the unanswerable question that
the disciples asked constantly about the nature of full perception: "What
is it like to achieve such transcendent wisdom?"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The verbal exchange between Avalokiteshvara
and Shariputra, beginning with the latter's urgent question and followed by the
Bodhisattva's answer, has been regarded, even by the Lord Shakyamuni himself,
as the best possible example of a student and teacher exchange. It goes like
this, in the body of the scripture itself: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shariputra:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Lord
Avalokiteshvara, how can students achieve such enlightenment?" </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Avalokiteshvara:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>"Shariputra, all students must see the natural thusness or
emptiness of all phenomena.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Form is
emptiness, emptiness is form; emptiness is not apart from form, form is not
apart from emptiness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Feeling,
perceiving, even consciousness itself, is empty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All conditions of being [dharmas] are empty
of self and have no characteristics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Buddha-Mind is unborn and undying; it is not impure or pure, it neither grows nor
shrinks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus there is no form, no
feeling, no sight, no thought; no eye, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no
appearance, no sound, no smell, no taste, no sensation, no ideas; nor is there
any such thing as hearing well or poorly, or of being wise or stupid; there is
no suffering, no cause of suffering, no ending of suffering, or way to end
suffering; there is no wisdom, attainment, or nonattainment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buddhas and Boddhisattvas awaken through
transcendental wisdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gone! Gone! Here,
Fully Awake!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This, Oh Sariputra, is how
we should live." </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What I did not say at the time, when dealing with students'
complaints that they didn't find the words "empty" and
"emptiness" or even "selflessness" very satisfying, is what
I really believe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that is, that part
of me really misses form and self when I think they are gone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To feel better, I find myself reassuring
myself that any self or form by itself, even mine, will feel better if it
agrees to accept all selves and forms as my own. I'll try to continue this
Blessed Assurance as long as I live. I like to think of it as the thusness of
things, or as the modern Japanese phrase "sono-mama" puts it so
sweetly, Just As I Am.</div>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-66185052723119869122017-06-05T14:57:00.000-07:002017-06-05T15:10:55.825-07:00Pentecost, Nembutsu & Zen<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
There's an old hymn, "The Holy Spirit," that some
Christian Protestants sing on Pentecost Sunday. That day this year, in 2017, was
just a little earlier this month, on June 3rd. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My wife and I were in the audience that
morning at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Palm Desert, CA. The hymn is not
great music, but it has some powerful lyrics. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example: "[The Holy Spirit will
remain with us] ... till earthly passions turn to dust and ashes ... and far
surpasses the power of human telling." Old-fashioned English.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it's message is about true transcendence
of death, and way beyond that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The word "Pentecost" is derived from the Greek
word for "fifty".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a kid growing
up in a Christian family, I understood that the first Pentecost Sunday marked
the very moment, some two thousand years ago in Jerusalem, <u>fifty days after Easter
</u>(i.e., after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus), that <u>Christianity
as a religion was born.</u> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pentecost is
all about the Holy Spirit showing itself as "flames of fire" and "roaring
wind" to Jesus' mother and brothers, his twelve apostles, and to a motley
crew of about a hundred Jews and non-Jews. The New Testament says this
frightening form of the Holy Spirit actually sat on the heads of this group of first
Christians around 9 o'clock that morning, and made them seem like they were crazy
drunk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(It apparently created more chaos
than Trump's first fifty days.) </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In any case, the old "Holy Spirit" hymn is about
the Holy Spirit that is still alive today. Christians who sing it believe that despite
how illogical any description of the Holy Spirit may be, its power will benefit
them even after death. They feel sure they will be transformed after they die
into something better than they were when they were alive. Now, I don't know
about you, but this sounds similar to the recitation of Amida's name in Pure Land
Buddhism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jodo Shu Nembutsu seems to
work in ways similar to the Christian Holy Spirit. I believe they both promise
a true transcendence of death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At St. Margaret's on Pentecost, earlier this month, the hymn
was sung at the close of the service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Before that, scriptures were read and other hymns were sung, the
celebration of Christ's body and blood was shared, and the Rector offered a
short sermon about how the Holy Spirit works.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He said something to the effect that "the Holy Spirit can only blow
into us if we open the window of our hearts."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That sounded good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone agreed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then he said, "However, another
window has to be open in order for the roaring wind to blow <u>out </u>of
us."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You could almost hear the
audience muttering, "What the hell is he talking about?" He went on
to explain that people at Pentecost became caretakers of the miraculous power that
Jesus gave to human beings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have been
in charge of how we live our lives ever since. We have the power to do good
things with that power. The spirit of Christ will enter us if we let it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we have to let it go to others if we expect
it to be of any use at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Letting it
out helps us truly respect our families and others as the precious beings they
are. We then see clearly that <u>we are them</u>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was born in 1935, one year before Rev. Reikai Nozaki
started the Jodo Shu <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>ministry in America. My life took a direction that most Americans did
not take.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn't planned, but I
turned out to be a specialist in East Asian cultural history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Japan, especially, has been a great teacher
for the Webb family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Christian
narrative of our childhoods, with its long history of great music and art, is
still very much part of who we are. But my study in college of the art and
religions of the world, and especially my study of Japanese history and art,
brought Buddhism very close and made it personal. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My three major professors at Kyoto University insisted that
I train in Zen temples while continuing my studies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Ironically, those great teachers all came
from Pure Land backgrounds.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
practice of zazen for fifty years has opened my window to a slightly different
window.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it, too, has an adjoining
window to the world. Rev. Atone and Rev. Tanaka have helped me keep that window
open. There's still plenty of wind blowing through my windows before that final
transcendent death. Let's make sure all of us have our windows open, and show
our children the value of keeping theirs open, too. </div>
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<br /></div>
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(Transcript of lecture prepared for the 80th Anniversary Celebration
of the Jodo Shu Ministry in North America, Los Angeles, CA, in June 2017.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></div>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-38279287599772556032017-03-25T16:41:00.002-07:002017-03-25T16:41:47.911-07:00The Will of God and the Peace of Christ
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Will of God and the Peace of Christ</i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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From my vantage point at age 80 it seems I have spent every
waking moment of my life trying to (in the words of the Oxford Dictionary)
“analyze [the Laws of God] into workable parts and describe their syntactic
roles.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Parse” is the word usually linked
to that definition (rather than “God”) and it usually is limited to looking
carefully at a sentence or a text (often but not always a religious text.) I
know I am not the only person in history who has been so obsessed, and I also
know that most people find such an obsession strange.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Very early in my life I became so confused by the
contradictions and anomalies of Biblical texts that I was ready to kill
myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is then that I started
parsing, or if you will, finessing the Will of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew very well the warning that Paul gave
the Colossians, namely, “See to it that no one takes you captive through
philosophy … according to the elemental spirits of the universe … [rather than
the teachings of] Christ” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Col. II,
2:10-12.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, human reason,
including the latest findings of scientific exploration, does not help anyone
(or at least any Christian) know God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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To the point, I wanted to know what happens after we
die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I learned that every monotheistic
form of religion (i.e., Judaism, Christianity and Islam) said we would spend
eternity in heaven or hell after death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But to this day I do not know if that is true, or even if heaven and
hell exist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nor do I know anyone who
does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet all wars and acts of
terrorism, in the past and now, are fought over that unanswered question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who is right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Who is to say if it matters? I adore religions for their narratives,
which teach us about the human condition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I also love the gigantic body of music and art that has come out of the
Christian Church for over 2000 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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If I ever see him I will be the first person to tell the
Apostle Paul that I have not heeded his warning. For sixty-three years I have
been thoroughly captivated by Buddhist teachings regarding intensive
meditation, leading to a perception of myself as not separated by anything on
earth (or in heaven, for that matter.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, I cannot say that the Hindu/Buddhist notion of reincarnation is
true, either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can say, as a Zen priest
(and on a good day, when I’m not ranting at people for not going my way), that
with my last breath I will extol the Peace of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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For this reason, I am sympathetic to the Democratic nominee
for Vice President, Tim Kaine, who has also parsed his childhood Catholic faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He clearly is a man of very good will. He is
a Roman Catholic educated by Jesuits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sen.
Kaine can waffle on the Church’s teachings on adultery, abortion and
homosexuality because he also favors following laws that promote human rights. At
the same time he uses his faith to fight against killing and racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He seems to have been born with a heart that
wants justice and liberty for all. He has fought and won cases against
corruption wherever he sees it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He will
not fight Dear Bernie’s revolution, but that, I believe is a good thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the word “revolution” would put Mr.
Trump in the Whitehouse for sure.</div>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-56891094098767944842016-12-22T14:13:00.001-08:002016-12-22T14:46:46.948-08:00UNDER THE CHRISTMAS TREE<style>
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UNDER THE CHRISTMAS TREE</div>
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<br /></div>
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Saturday, December 16, 2016.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Today Carol and I decorated the tree that Reg and I assembled while he
was here for Thanksgiving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s in three
parts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each section needs to be
“released” from its tightly bundled form that it took last year when the tree
was put away in a box in the garage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is artificial, a Chinese masterpiece of imitation, and perfect for the desert.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Today it was time, time to decorate the Christmas tree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such an old custom from my childhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it really so many years since I decorated
my first?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m 81 now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The tree back then was a spindly thing that
came from far away, only to end up in a grocery store in Oklahoma.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I loved how it smelled. I wanted that smell
again this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So Carol insisted on getting
a real Douglas fir wreath from Costco.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s on our coffee table. The drier it gets the stronger its smell, a
fragrant death poem. </div>
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<br /></div>
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I dread Christmas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
brings back memories of secretly setting up a tree in our living room during
the war in the 1940s. After making sure the electric wreath candles with
American flags were properly displayed in our windows, I was put in charge of
the tree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Church of Christ we
belonged to warned that Christmas itself was a pagan custom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So some members refused to put up Christmas
trees in their homes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I wanted
instinctively to worship the baby Jesus under my tree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And my parents were fine with that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I made a crèche with my mother’s old perfume bottles and some of her
handkerchiefs (ruined as soon as the lids were screwed on.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rest of the year these dolls depicted various
characters in my plays, produced on a small stage made with a chair and blanket,
for an audience of neighborhood kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Part of the feeling of sadness that overwhelms me every
Christmas season comes from remembering my parents and my special relation to
them as an only child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They raised me
like a new adult friend who came to live with them. If anything, I think they
loved me more than I loved them, a shameful thing to admit. It was the three of
us in a strange world. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t really
know anybody else as well as I knew them, and they’ve been gone for a very long
time (father in 1970, mother in 1980.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
miss them, and just thinking of them, which I always do at Christmas, makes me
sad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But my sadness also comes from the Christian story. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who could think up such a tale?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Start with sex, a young couple, Mary and
Joseph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s pregnant, but claims to be
a virgin, and he knows he didn’t do it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He’s even ready to “put her aside publicly” as the law required a man to
do if he discovered his betrothed was not a virgin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that might sign her death warrant in a
court of law. So he kept quiet, out of love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To make matters worse, Mary claimed that an angel had told her she would
become pregnant and bear a son, who was anointed by God, the Christ, to be the
savior of the world. </div>
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<br /></div>
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In spite of everything, Joseph took care of Mary and this
helpless baby, and they raised him to be a good Jew. Maybe too good. Even
before puberty he began to spout off about life and death, to teachers and
anyone who would listen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he
performed miracles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before long he had a
motley crew of followers, young men and some women (even a few wealthy ones.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Jewish community was split trying to
decide if Jesus was the Christ or a heretic. Believers thought his kingdom would
come with a show of power and majesty greater than any ever known. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The story in scriptures lets us know early on that his
rebellion was mostly gentle, but he became threatening enough for Jewish
leaders to label him a heretic and for Roman authorities to charge him with
treason. Both counts required his death on the cross.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Depictions of his “Passion” in our family
Bible mesmerized me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The death of
goodness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Human cruelty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Injustice writ large.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was at the foot of that cross in mostly 19<sup>th</sup>-century
European paintings that I became an art historian. Images that human beings
made of the flesh-and-blood mystery of life and death cut more deeply into my heart
than sunsets, mountains or stretches of beach and waves ever could. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Of course there is the conclusion to this story that makes
Christianity what it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The empty
tomb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The resurrection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His female followers being the first to
recognize him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His incredulous “this
can’t be true!” male disciples (especially poor Thomas, my doppelganger.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And finally, His lift-off into Heaven, where
He sits once again with God and the Holy Spirit, Three in One. It is at this
point, after Christianity became a world religion under dictators who waged war
against all unbelievers, that I began to lose interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I kept feeling sorry for all the people who
lived before Jesus was born who might be in Hell because they never knew him,
and thus could never follow him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
teachers shamed me for my doubt, assuring me that God would take care of such
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cop out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was about five.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By that time music had already shown me the way to God. The piano allowed me to explore a world of utter beauty, which I was willing to share on stage, even if I was sick before every performance, worried that I would not be able to disappear into the magical world that my fingers could expose in works created to the glory of God by my favorite classical composers of Western music -- Palestrina, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky. Ethnomusicologists certainly show us plenty of examples of music other than the one that grew up in Christian Europe. But for me all great music lies firmly in the history of the church. Even the secular works by the great composers are tinted with some of the glory that causes you to kiss earth and sky at the sound of their masses and oratorios for soloists, orchestras and great choirs. They can turn human brutality and suffering heavenward and transform them briefly into hymns of ravishing devotion and praise. <br />
<br />
How ironic that the church could produce such moments of transcendence, while committing a continuous sin against humanity throughout history. I’ve seen and heard in real time, as well as in stories and
pictures, of the brutality that we human beings have committed, often in the
name of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m sad at Christmas
because I miss my parents, and I feel sad that I love the Christmas story but
distrust the churches that claim custodianship of it. Many of their teachings
set my teeth on edge because I see so much injustice in them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t stand injustice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Especially my own judgmental nature, based as
it is on a sense of right and wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
don’t deny there is a right and wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
just don’t see a way of living without dealing personally (following
Dostoyevsky’s lead) with crime and punishment. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such dealing,
however, makes me an accessory to the crime with every punishment I can
devise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am, now and forever, a
bleeding heart. There is a way out of a bleeding heart, so to speak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The practice of meditation learned in Japanese
Zen temples allows me to reach deeply into that heart for a glimpse of the “Not
Two,” a state of perfect identification with all being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I am practical. I see the results of
actions and cannot shut up if I find them unjust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the 1950s I was almost arrested in a little Alabama town
for inciting a rebellion among black citizens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At Kyoto University in the ‘60s and the University of Washington in the
‘70s I actively protested the war in Vietnam. In 1970 I saw for myself that
communism in China had created a police state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ten years later I watched Chinese police carry off and abuse Buddhist
nuns in Tibet for demonstrating against the Chinese government’s treatment of
Tibetans. When I visited the Buddhist temples in Tibet destroyed by China’s Red
Guards, and learned of their torture and abuse of priests, I was enraged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one point, for “assaulting” a Chinese
guide I was expelled from Lhasa and sent back to Cheng-du. I found it ironic
and ultimately unforgivable, that Chinese officials ordered the ethnic
cleansing of Tibet in the name of egalitarianism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">I became aware of Japan in grade-school because growing up I
was told the Japanese were doing terrible things to Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hated them for their attack on Pearl Harbor,
which I saw pictures of in magazines and newspapers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was petrified with fear of such evil
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my child’s mind I was afraid
they were coming for me. But later, when I saw the destruction of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki in newsreels, I cried for the Japanese. I went to the local library in
December of 1945 and asked for all the books on Japan they had. Those books
turned me into a student of that country for the rest of my life. I learned a
lot about Japan. In 2011 the Japanese government, on behalf of Emperor Heisei,
awarded me a medal for my fifty years of teaching about Japanese history. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: small; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In retirement I can look back on my life as though
it belongs to someone else. It has deposited me here in the desert, with Carol
by my side, leaving both of us safe and sound in a kind of paradise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clearly, the people and events in my life
have been very kind to me and to my loved ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It seems that only Christmas brings back the sadness in my heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Under the Christmas tree I have to cry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s where my heart breaks, every year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any place else and at any other time I am
happy and grateful, even when some injustice fills me with outrage. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moments of potential danger loom, such as the
recent election, against which I will continue to rage, simply because it is
unjust, unwise, and wrong. But whatever the DJT presidency may bring, I cannot
imagine that it will make me as sad as the loss of my parents, along with the
loss of any answer to the mystery of life and death. Nothing can ever be done
about that loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I leave it under the
Christmas tree</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: small; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-90397201233601039982016-09-01T18:43:00.001-07:002016-09-01T18:43:23.924-07:00
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Living As If …</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Friends here in the California desert who know something
about my life and Carol’s life today often ask the two of us, “When you go into
LA to the Pure Land Buddhist temple and school to teach Japanese students visiting
from Bukkyo University in Kyoto, what do you teach?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you teach them English?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They usually are surprised to learn that no,
we do not teach English because the students have classes in English during the
short time they are here, taught by two well-trained ESL teachers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The answer is that we teach them about God
and Buddhism. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We have done this ever since we retired (in 2004) from
Pepperdine University, the Church of Christ school in Malibu.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also have spent a semester each year
teaching undergraduates and graduates in the Pure Land (Jodo-shu) university in
Kyoto, Japan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Note: “Bukkyo” means
“Buddhist” or “Buddhism” in Japanese.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Explaining
to Japanese students and American neighbors how East and West are miles apart
in almost every way conceivable -- <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is not
easy!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We needed help.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The priests/administrators of Bukkyo University Los Angeles
(BULA), Rev. Dr. Joji Atone and Rev. Kodo Tanaka have been very kind to us for
over twenty years, inviting us to teach these classes in Los Angeles and act as
advisors each year to three students from the Kyoto campus who spend a full
year at the College of the Desert, near our home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They also have encouraged me to write articles
they have published in both English and Japanese for “Light of Wisdom,” the
denomination journal.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our format for sometime now has been to discuss our
fundamentally different views of existence first, and secondly to compare
everyday cultural traits, such as bathing, eating, rules governing behavior
inside and outside of the home, and how schools are run. Our language
differences are discussed all the time, in both English and Japanese.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For some time Rev. Tanaka and I have worked
as a team, trying to get the students to express their own opinions and making
sure everything is clear to them. The class is fairly intensive, going two
mornings or all in one day, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We always start with God and what we call the “God Story”
that all Jews, Christians and Muslims base their understanding of human
existence upon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We start by showing them
how “In God We Trust” is on every U.S. dollar bill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we discuss trust in a Creator Being as an
all-encompassing belief that leads to worship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As children whose personal and national identity is found in Shinto and
reverence for ancestors, and whose state religion is the one taught by the
historical Buddha (whom they will assure you had nothing to do with their birth
much less the creation of the world), these kids have no concept of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At this point some person in the group
usually says something like, “Japanese don’t have a religion like that.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that is true enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yesterday we returned from our latest session with Bukkyo
students in LA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This time Rev. Tanaka
had the brilliant idea of having the God Story acted out by the students themselves.
He chose one male student to be God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Someone switched off the lights in the room, then at Rev. Tanaka’s
prompting the student said in a loud voice, “Let there be light!” and the light
was switched back on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Very
dramatic!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the boy was told to say
he would create a person “in His own image” and Adam popped up to stand by
God’s side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then Adam said he was
lonely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the boy who was God took a
rib from his colleague Adam’s side (rather roughly) and Rev. Tanaka led a young
woman over to stand with God and Adam. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This went on for some time, through a little more Genesis, at
which point we asked the students to consider this part of the God Story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Could they believe it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nobody could.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They questioned how anyone could.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We pointed out that even Americans who claim not to be religious use the
word “God” in times of crisis, as in, “Oh, my God!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And every disaster shown on TV includes
survivors who say things like, “This was God’s will” or “God took care of
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are so blessed.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The idea that some powerful being “in heaven”
was looking down on them and protecting some people while others died seemed
preposterous and every silly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
students argued that their parents had made them and that any thought of them
being made by the God of the Jews, Christians or Muslims was ridiculous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Asked what they thought happened to us after we die the
first response was, “we turn into smoke and ashes that ultimately are scattered
on the ground.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Others pointed out that
most families have some of their dead relatives’ ashes kept in a jar in Buddhist
temples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At that I asked if they
believed their ancestors had spirits or souls. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone said yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“In fact,” as one kid pointed out, “everyone
in Japan visits the temples where all their relatives’ remains are kept in
order to light candles so that their ancestors spirits can find the way back to
the human realm for a yearly visit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is the festival of Obon (<span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝","serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">お盆</span>),
literally, a tray offering for the dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In Sanskrit the word is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ullambana</i>,
and refers to prayers and offerings of food prepared for spirits caught in the
cycle of rebirth that Hinduism and Buddhism say all beings are subject to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This brought us to the topic of
reincarnation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we asked them about
what they thought about reincarnation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That topic is explained differently by different denominations of
Buddhism, but it is accepted as a fact.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I enjoy reading what scientists have found out about how the
universe came out of the Big Bang and developed, life along with it, after
zillions of years. Evidence of that development is completely convincing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then I wonder what led to the Big Bang in
the first place. Religions have been the only real source of information about
that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have been pretty clear with
everyone about my own understanding of both the God Story and the
Hindu/Buddhist notion of reincarnation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Since we have no proof of either theory, I am a skeptic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I simply do not know if God and reincarnation
are true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The terms agnostic or atheist
are both too strong to apply to me, I think. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am willing simply to live <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">as if</b> the two perceptions of life and
death are true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have a
thousand-year-old history of glorious music and art thanks to the Christian
version of the God Story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have been a
student of both all my life. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the Zen
side of Buddhism has provided me with a means of entering into profound
perceptions of selfhood that I would never have reached otherwise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have learned that I may be an only child
but my selfhood is indisputably linked to every being on earth. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carol has always encouraged Japanese students
not just to appreciate but to go back to Japan and actually take lessons in the
spiritual arts, the “Ways” of tea and flowers, that Zen provides. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is for these reasons that I enjoy living as
if Western religions and Eastern philosophies were true. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I realize that such confessions on my part have worked at
cross-purposes for my relatives and some friends in Christianity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More and more I am coming to realize that
confessing some doubt about the reality of reincarnation may be irritating to my
friends in Pure Land Buddhism, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is true that I have been quite critical of some religious doctrines and
practices in the West, particularly in the Church of Christ that I grew up
in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That has resulted in ending many
friendships I had as a child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the
Buddhist side, even though I took vows in Japan as a Zen priest in 1968 and
have led Zen students through their paces ever since, I have criticized the
structure of Japanese Zen and the behavior of many Zen priests at the same
time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But to my great delight, I have
found priests of Pure Land Buddhism in Japan to be exceptionally willing to
explore Buddhist teachings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The great
Japanese spokesman for Zen history and culture, the beloved Daisetsu Suzuki
(1870-1966), was himself from a family of Pure Land believers in the
JodoShin-shu denomination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To my
surprise, many of my other Zen teachers in Kyoto were also born into that
denomination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have come to believe
that Buddhist scholarship in Japan has come largely from Pure Land
backgrounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I’m now sure I am running the risk of alienating Pure
Land believers by not treating reincarnation as a fact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I may only be confessing doubt, but for most
of the people on earth that is like expressing doubt about the existence of
God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For that reason I plan to keep my mouth
shut on the subject for the rest of my life, which I hope is not too much
longer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m dying to find out what
happens, really.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last Saturday I tried
to get the Japanese students in our class to put into words what they would say
about Buddhism to their host-families in Temecula, CA (where they are scheduled
to be at this very moment.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was prepared to hear things like, “Buddhism is about enlightenment,”
or “It’s a philosophy of life,” or even “We Japanese are Buddhists in name
only.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had prepared them to be
careful about answering whether or not Buddhists believe in God, because we had
one boy last year whose host-parents had him baptized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(The kid thought it was cool.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My favorite moment came when one young woman,
who had been more quiet and hesitant to speak than anyone, instead of answering
our question, got up and slowly walked over to the blackboard and wrote two
Sino-Japanese characters (Kanji) to express what she wanted her host-parents to
know about Buddhism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She wrote <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝","serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">利他</span></b><span lang="JA" style="mso-fareast-language: JA;"> </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">(altruism,
benefitting others)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- I was speechless. </span></div>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-10490111758463671622016-07-26T21:39:00.000-07:002016-07-26T21:39:07.099-07:00Thoughts on Fascism
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now with the DNC in its second day and the RNC behind us, I
realize I have been struggling not to use the word “fascism” to describe the
structure of the Trump Train.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mainly, I
think, because I thought Donald Trump was too shallow to deserve the title of Republican
nominee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then I saw true Republicans
bowing to him, largely, I think, because of his huge audience of worshippers,
fire-brand nationalists who to me seem hell-bent on dropping out of the world
after building defenses against it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This morning (July 26, 2016) I ran across the word “fascism”
in an unlikely place:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a review in the LA
Times by its formidable music critic, Mark Swed, who was clearly impressed by
last Sunday’s performance at the Hollywood Bowl of Puccini’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tosca</i> directed by our man, Gustavo
Dudamel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Master Chorale, Children’s
Chorus, full-throated soloists, and of course the LA Phil received glowing
praise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the sound system was just
right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It must have been spectacular and
I wish I had been there. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But then, Swed’s phrase “the attraction of fascism” jumped
out at me like a bullet shot out of the middle of the article.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just on the face of it the phrase makes
sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mob rule is attractive!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People who feel fear and hatred of anything
they can’t understand, the easy thing to do is circle the wagons. They kill the
Indians but cannot see the nuclear holocaust up ahead. Their battle cries
become ecstatic in a swell of human emotion that gives them comfort and a sense
of purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ironically, Swed’s use of
the phrase elevates to the highest level both Puccini’s opera and Dudamel’s
masterful musicians, becoming in Swed’s mind somehow “a telling indictment of
the attraction of fascism.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Does that mean we use the crowd’s clamor against them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know. Maybe our situation calls to
mind Napoleon and his troops, Scarpia and the other villains, Mussolini,
Hitler, ad infinitum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Please add your
favorite.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are the ones who cause
all the trouble until true love finally has the last word, even if it means
stabbing evil and jumping off a wall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sorry for the melodrama, folks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But life is an opera.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
Shakespeare had it right:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Man is a
giddy thing & much ado about nothing.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-84904157506123947862016-07-24T17:32:00.000-07:002016-07-24T17:32:25.807-07:00The Will of God and the Peace of Christ
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From my vantage point at age 80 it seems I have spent every
waking moment of my life trying to (in the words of the Oxford Dictionary)
“analyze [the Laws of God] into workable parts and describe their syntactic
roles.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Parse” is the word usually linked
to that definition (rather than “God”) and it usually is limited to looking
carefully at a sentence or a text (often but not always a religious text.) I
know I am not the only person in history who has been so obsessed, and I also
know that most people find such an obsession strange.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Very early in my life I became so confused by the
contradictions and anomalies of Biblical texts that I was ready to kill
myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is then that I started
parsing, or if you will, finessing the Will of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew very well the warning that Paul gave
the Colossians, namely, “See to it that no one takes you captive through
philosophy … according to the elemental spirits of the universe … [rather than
the teachings of] Christ” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Col. II,
2:10-12.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, human reason,
including the latest findings of scientific exploration, does not help anyone
(or at least any Christian) know God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To the point, I wanted to know what happens after we
die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I learned that every monotheistic
form of religion (i.e., Judaism, Christianity and Islam) said we would spend
eternity in heaven or hell after death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But to this day I do not know if that is true, or even if heaven and
hell exist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nor do I know anyone who does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet all wars and acts of terrorism, in
the past and now, are fought over that unanswered question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who is right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Who is to say if it matters? I adore religions for their narratives,
which teach us about the human condition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I also love the gigantic body of music and art that has come out of the
Christian Church for over 2000 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If I ever see him I will be the first person to tell the
Apostle Paul that I have not heeded his warning. For sixty-three years I have
been thoroughly captivated by Buddhist teachings regarding intensive
meditation, leading to a perception of myself as not separated by anything on
earth (or in heaven, for that matter.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, I cannot say that the Hindu/Buddhist notion of reincarnation is
true, either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can say, as a Zen priest
(and on a good day, when I’m not ranting at people for not going my way), that
with my last breath I will extol the Peace of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For this reason, I am sympathetic to the Democratic nominee
for Vice President, Tim Kaine, who has also parsed his childhood Catholic faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He clearly is a man of very good will. He is
a Roman Catholic educated by Jesuits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sen.
Kaine can waffle on the Church’s teachings on adultery, abortion and
homosexuality because he also favors following laws that promote human rights. At
the same time he uses his faith to fight against killing and racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He seems to have been born with a heart that
wants justice and liberty for all. He has fought and won cases against
corruption wherever he sees it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He will
not fight Dear Bernie’s revolution, but that, I believe is a good thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the word “revolution” would put Mr.
Trump in the Whitehouse for sure.</div>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-63727671351919222162016-07-06T20:21:00.001-07:002016-07-06T20:21:29.999-07:00Reflection on Rauch
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
CONSERVATIVE OR LIBERAL</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to admit
something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you consider yourself to
be liberal, progressive, enlightened, etc., please listen to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are conservative, right-winged,
anti-everything-Obamaesque, conspiracy-obsessed, this is for you, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, you conservatives. You believe that the world is
filled with corruption.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the person
next to you cannot be trusted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
believe that God created the world, with you in it, and that there is evil here
but that goodness will prevail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Star
Wars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your beliefs and actions you try to keep
under control, find out what is true and what is not, seek the good and avoid
the bad. You believe that God is protecting you. Bad is really bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can be found everywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your enemies are bad. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Especially those Muslims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They do not believe in God the way you
do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are part of the evil that lurks
around every corner. Hilary wants to abort all babies regardless of their age
in the womb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And same-sex couples make
you want to puke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You believe people
should be free, but only if they want to do what you think is right, like buy
AK47s without a full criminal check. You want to rise to the top of the human
heap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Work hard and reap the
harvest.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is your motto. You are
willing to give to the poor, but they must keep their distance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All these street people could be as wealthy
as you if they just worked hard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they
don’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So no public fund of money should
be wasted on them. Certainly taxing good people to support bad people is not
good. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Christian teachings seem to accept
the status quo, but only if you are wiling to treat others the way you want to
be treated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are willing to say one
thing (wage war) but do another (go to church).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That’s confusing to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not
like conservatives. I am not one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, you liberals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You are living in a fairly comfortable, exalted world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have met people, probably, who believe
(and will tell you) that you are going to hell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Not “to hell with you!” but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you
are going to hell</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But you do not
believe in hell and you doubt that Jesus (or one of the prophets of Judaism or
Islam) is the true voice of God. In fact you reject monotheism, but you love
the narratives in its religions. You consider people who believe in traditional
explanations of life and death to be misguided.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You yourself have gone beyond religion and seek the answers to life’s
mysteries in history, literature, art, music and studies of the mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Science is your religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Prove everything and keep looking,” that is
your motto. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">have</i> met others who are brighter than you, who know infinitely more
than you do, and who will take humanity into realms that you cannot dream of. But
you know you are intelligent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are
well-educated, and look down on people who betray their lack of education by
the way they speak and behave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You trust
people but are pretty sure only bright people should make the rules. You may
support religion but seek the answers to life’s mysteries in history, literature
and studies of the mind. If this fits your perception of the world you are a
liberal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am a liberal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
have perceived a self that I call me who is more than himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am the world. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am all that I can see, hear, feel, know or
imagine. I have discovered that through my study and practice of Buddhism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Specifically, that is the existential proof I
have discovered in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zazen</i>, the
particular form of meditation that Japanese Zen priests engage in, as I have
for 60 years. I now know that everything I love and everything I hate is
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anger and jealousy are as much a
part of me as the most forgiving and altruistic feelings I may have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At 81 my sense of myself as a tiny, lonely,
frightened, defensive, potentially vicious little boy has been swallowed up by
the me of all being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That makes me kind,
loving, helpful, thoughtful, forgiving, and socially responsible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My job is to be still enough to see myself in
the body and heart of every person, animal or plant that I encounter. That is
very hard to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does not come
easily, especially for an only child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Which brings me to Donald Trump.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God help me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">am</i> Donald Trump! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every childish thing he does, his desire for
winning, making lots of money, seeing himself as the greatest person on earth,
lashing out at his critics, drawing distinctions between himself and others,
demonizing them, dismissing things he doesn’t understand, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of these characteristics belong to both
of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only thing that worries me
about this is the harm we can do to the world if we have our way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As someone I admire very much has said,
governments are necessary to prevent people like us “from pursuing naked
self-interest all the time.” In his brilliant piece this month in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Atlantic</i> (“What’s Ailing American
Politics” July/August 2016), Jonathan Rauch warns that all of us –
“politicians, activists, and voters” -- have<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“become more individualistic and unaccountable … [because] Americans
have been busy demonizing and disempowering political professionals and
parties, which is like spending decades abusing and attacking your own immune
system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eventually, you will get sick.”
Our naked self-interest has brought us where we are today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Chaos becomes the new normal – both in
campaigns and in the government itself.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Neurotic hatred of the political class is the country’s last
universally acceptable form of bigotry… [whereas the] core idea of the
Constitution was to restrain ambition and excess by forcing competing powers
and factions to bargain and compromise.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Rampant individualism may actually bring down our republic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am still savoring Rauch’s article. It will require several
readings for me to fully digest it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
think every teacher in every school in the country should make it required
reading for bright students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly
it should be a must-read for all our representatives in Washington.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is succinct and clear, but it flies in the
face of much that I had believed was going on, with me and my country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- GTW at home in Palm Desert, July 6, 2016</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-63601205050385544482016-07-04T20:55:00.001-07:002016-07-04T20:55:35.459-07:00Fear and Religion
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Fear and Religion </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">July 4, 2016</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today, once again, Islamic Jihadists killed people in the
name of their religion … out of fear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – the three “Religions of the Book” ---
teach us to fear death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of them
teaches the same basic truth:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that after
we die we will either feel untold joy or we will endure untold pain -- forever.
The simplest, most extreme motivation for deciding which of these outcomes we
ourselves will experience is fear, our fear of others who will threaten us with
their unbelief, or our fear of ourselves because we may not be able to live up
to the demands of goodness.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are, however, two ways to look at our future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Give in to the joy that is promised by each
of these religions, or fight the war against evil that all of them abhors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most Jews, Christians and Muslims live in
between these two extremes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re in
between joy and fear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Few of us actually
follow the letter of the law. Only when our fear of each other makes us take up
arms do we fight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Social concerns rather
than ideological ones determine what we will do every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is true for young ISIS fighters, too, I
think, just as it was for cavemen. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you were raised in a household that is only nominally
Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, or if you were raised (or have become)
not religious at all, then your social concerns of freedom, tolerance, justice
and non-discrimination far outweigh any abstract notions of goodness and evil,
right and wrong. If that is you, then you may be susceptible to religion. Your
appetite for an answer to the unknown may be too strong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you already have the answer you want in
religion, then you already are on the warpath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Most Americans seem to be that way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Something in the human brain seems to demand simple answers
to the mystery of life and death, and if you find them in the radical side of religious
doctrine, you become (in my opinion) a danger to society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The question becomes, “What does society do about
protecting itself from you?” The same question pops up for
dharma-caste-conscious Hindus, as well. They have been at war off and on with
Muslims for centuries, but at least they produced a rebel some 2600 years ago,
the historical Buddha, the world’s first pacifist, who slammed the door shut on
retaliation against anyone for any reason. In theory, at least, Jesus of
Nazareth was a pacifist, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Sometimes
I disagree with both of them on this issue, but that’s another story.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At issue this very moment is, “What do we do about people on
the most radical side of Islam?” ISIS and other terrorist groups are angry that
the Christian-dominated Western world defeated the vast military might of the
Islamic world in 1922, after 1400 years of fighting, and helped Jews establish
Israel after WWII. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More recently, we
invaded Iraq and other parts of the Islamic world. The Kor’an says that if your
enemy attacks, you can retaliate, even by killing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, according to radical Islam, we in the West (and any
people who do not follow the letter of Sharia law the radicals follow) are the
enemy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are the infidels, the
unbelievers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s the simple answer to
the “Why?” that so many Americans are asking. The question remains, “What do we
do?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do we bomb them, more than we have,
and kill civilians in the process?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shall
we assassinate their leaders?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can we
convert the young men and women who believe in the radical Islamist cause to
some other form of religion or more humane system of living?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If so, where do we begin?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Should we pull back our military entirely? Build
a wall around our country? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Right now we seem to be doing almost all of those things,
but with little success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition,
our leaders are telling us to pray for our dead and their loved ones. We are
also blaming all Muslims for not speaking out and doing more to stop the
carnage going on in the name of their religion. In November our nation will
elect a new president.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Right now we have
two candidates, a woman with perhaps more experience in democracy than almost
anyone on earth, and another with no experience in anything except making money
for himself and lashing out at his critics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At the moment most Americans seem to hate her and prefer turning over
the country to him, hoping he will make them wealthy, too. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I dread what comes next.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not sure God is even looking at us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-5791238782428557502016-06-29T16:03:00.000-07:002016-06-29T16:03:53.085-07:00The War On Stupid People
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The War on Stupid
People</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“We must stop glorifying intelligence and treating our
society as a playground for the smart minority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>… Smart people should feel entitled to make the most of their gift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they should not be permitted to reshape
society so as to instate giftedness as a universal yardstick of human worth.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the conclusion drawn by David H. Freedman in his
article in the latest <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Atlantic</i>
(July/August 2016, p. 13-14.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I happened
to see Mr. Freedman on a TV news show yesterday, where the discussion was about
“experts” and “elites” who may have unwittingly brought on the recent onslaught
by “stupid” people against progressive politics and politicians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have said openly that I am terrified of
Trump and his followers, as though they were barbarians at the gates of my
world, or playground, as Freedman has it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suddenly I see that I am one of the elites who
consider Brexit and Trump supporters to be unbearably stupid. But wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m a Zen priest and Bible scholar (see the
rest of this essay on sugoisekai.blogspot.com.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am convinced that we all are inextricably connected to
each other (Buddhist wisdom) and must treat others the way we ourselves want to
be treated (Christian wisdom). The pivotal word here is “we”:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>who exactly are we?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Zazen and prayer are supposed to turn us into
creatures of loving kindness (in very different ways, of course.) Whether
someone (including myself) has reached a deep level of perception, or is sinful
or sinless, is not my concern.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I have considered stupidity to be somehow separate from
any of the other things that distinguish us. The last thing I (or any
progressive) would do -- as Freedman points out -- is to discriminate against
others on the basis of their race, ethnicity, gender, love-life, religion or
physical disability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But their IQ?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How often have I called people stupid?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many times!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Now as never before, religion and politics have seemed to me to be
overrun with stupid people. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anti-abortion,
anti-gay Christians and tea-party Republicans drive me crazy with their
stupidity! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You don’t have a university degree?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or you have one from a Podunk college?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Forget it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I know what you think and will say (and VOTE on) before you do. As a
Japanophile I enjoy telling Americans that in Japan married couples do not have
babies unless they can afford them, raise them and send them to college.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pregnancies that don’t meet that test are
aborted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My listeners (especially
Catholics) never quite get over the shock of “are aborted,” so my general point
(“look how smart the Japanese are”) is completely missed. That is sad to
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m even left speechless by people
who use double-negatives and don’t know the difference between “your” and
“you’re” (something that linguistics departments are accepting nowadays, more’s
the pity.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As my own son, Reg, has said to me (and that I repeat, but
only in jest), “Dad, you are a snob!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The fact of the matter is, I am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
secretly maintain a deep prejudice against pop music and sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Artists” on rock and country western stages
and big-time stars on the basketball court, baseball, football and soccer
fields are idolized beyond reason and paid outrageous amounts of money; whereas
real (i.e., classical) musicians, singers and dancers (real artists) struggle
to make enough money to live on, even before retirement. I am insulted beyond
anything I can express in words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what do I do now? I can stop insisting on proper English
usage and ignore pop music and sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But there are weightier matters here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A Zen student asked his teacher, “How should a Buddhist regard
ISIS?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Hello, James Kenney.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the question of our age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My knee-jerk response (the same one that
stupid people have) is, “Kill the bastards!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is not the response I as a Zen teacher would let slip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(As a Christian soldier I might.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I do believe that when I feel deep anger
I need to be angry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I need to face anger
head-on, just like I need to go into my feelings of hatred, fear, resentment, disappointment
or even love when they appear in my heart. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Is the answer then, “Ignore ISIS” or “Let the Muslims sort
it out”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all must do <u>something</u>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I happened to be in Llasa’s Jokhang square in
1980 when a demonstration by Tibetan nuns was put down by Chinese
authorities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(A documentary of it was
made sometime later by Western filmmakers who were there and who interviewed
some of the nuns who escaped to Dharamsala, India.) I was proud of the nuns
then and still am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They sacrificed their
lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many were tortured and many died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tibetan Buddhist priests have generally taken
the position that each person can react to such brutality in whatever way they
choose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many have decided to follow His
Holiness the Dalai Llama to India, others have immigrated to the U.S. and
Europe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There may have been no
alternative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m sure the Chinese were
ready to annihilate the entire clergy if they had actually staged a revolution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have done a good job of wiping out
Buddhism in Tibet as things stand today anyway. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For me there is, in fact, no answer to what should be done today
about the Chinese Communists -- who now feel religion can be practiced but only
under tight surveillance -- or about ISIS, which considers its interpretation
of Islam to be the only correct one and that other Muslims (and any unbelievers
in any part of the world) deserve to be killed. I saw public executions in
Beijing in 1970.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all have seen
beheadings and stonings by ISIS zealots on TV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I draw the line at killing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any
killing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But for any reason?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The latest ISIS bombing in Istanbul may be a frantic act of
a group of people under attack by other people, including us. Should we have
gotten involved in Kuwait and Iraq in the first place?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But what is happening now, as a result of that incursion or not, is
happening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Careful, skillful, shrewd
political maneuvering is necessary to prevent a mass killing on a scale to
which not even Hiroshima and Nagasaki can compare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a global issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ARE the world, even if xenophobes in this
country think we are not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or that global
warming is not real. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My understanding of reality, my perception of it, can be
liberating enough to me that nothing actually matters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And nothing, no one thing, not even everything,
does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all die eventually.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there is something called “skillful
means” that all of us can use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Real
skill comes out of deep meditation (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">samadhi</i>).
Let’s work together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is an
existential crisis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t have to
exist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we can, at least temporarily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shall we?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-62323823367639966482016-06-20T13:38:00.000-07:002016-12-22T14:29:44.742-08:00Elizabeth Warren Flap: Indian Identity
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Spoiler alert!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was born in Oklahoma to parents who worked
for the government as teachers and caseworkers in the Ft. Sill Indian School in
the 1930s. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indian children from all over
the U.S. were separated from their parents and sent to Ft. Sill to learn how to
be “American”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But my father was
subversive, in that he wrote down their various languages and tribal stories so
they would never forget them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a
toddler my closest playmates and teachers were Comanches. Descendants of
Quanah Parker were my neighbors in Medicine Park. Until my 5th birthday I had
two horses that I took care of and rode -- bareback.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For all intents and purposes my heart was
Indian. But I am of European stock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I
sympathize with Sen. Warren.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Many years ago Sen. Elizabeth
Warren made references to her American Indian heritage. That has recently come
back to haunt her. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The public wants to
know if (1) she can prove her identity as part Cherokee, and (2) if she used
that identity to help her academically and professionally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Atlantic</i>
ran an article (May 20, 2012) that has contributed to all the fuss, but makes
it clear that the answer to the first question above is “No” and the answer to
the second is also “No”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Photo-shopped
pictures of her in cigar-store Indian headdress and war paint have flooded the
media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Donald Trump ridiculed her as
“Pocahontas” in one of his childish rants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In June 2016 the Republican Party of Massachusetts ran an anti-Warren TV
ad in response to Donald Trump.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few
Cherokee Nation people expressed outrage in the ad, saying that Warren was not
a Cherokee and that she had lied and insulted Indians by claiming to be part
Cherokee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like many white Oklahomans who
claim to be part Indian, she admitted that she had no proof, but had heard this
from her parents all her life. Below are the facts, with quotes from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Atlantic</i>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Elizabeth Warren was born June
22, 1949, in Oklahoma City, OK, and graduated from the University of Houston in
1970.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">She took her Law Degree in
1976 from Rutgers University (where she declined the school’s offer to take
advantage of affirmative action policies.) Her distinguished teaching career
began at the Universities of Texas and Pennsylvania, where she taught law.
(Both schools listed her on their websites as a minority professor, probably to
make the universities look good for accreditation purposes.</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">In 1995 Senator Warren joined
the Law Faculty at Harvard.</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> From the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Atlantic</i>: “Harvard Law professor Charles Fried, a former U.S.
Solicitor General who served under Ronald Reagan, sat on the appointing
committee that recommended Warren for hire … said [Warren’s] Native American
heritage … [never came] up during the hiring process. It simply played no role
in [her appointment].”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2008 Elizabeth
Warren was named Chair of Congressional Oversight Panel, and in 2010 she served
as Special Advisor to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was elected Democratic U. S. Senator from
Massachusetts in 2013 </span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">To quote from the writer of the
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Atlantic</i> article: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The Democratic Senate candidate [now
Senator from Massachusetts] can’t back up family lore that she is part Indian –
but neither is there any evidence that she benefited professionally from these
stories.</i> … Based on the public evidence so far, she doesn’t appear to have
used her claim of Native American ancestry to gain access to anything much more
significant than a cookbook; in 1984 she contributed five recipes to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pow Wow Chow</i> cookbook published by the
Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee, OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>[She was listed as,] ‘Elizabeth Warren – Cherokee’.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I’m not sure where the photos
of Sen. Warren in cigar-store Indian headdress and war paint came from, or who
might have made them, but the slightest scrutiny of them shows they are
photo-shopped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They first appeared on
billboards set up by the owner of a motorcycle shop in Hanson, MA, who supports
Republican Senator Scott Brown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
same shop owner also is known for putting up revoltingly crude billboards
attacking Pres. Obama. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me, this sort
of twisting of free speech is unconscionable. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, some people will believe
anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-80593029909038753562015-02-15T16:47:00.002-08:002016-12-22T14:30:29.001-08:00My Father<div class="MsoNormal">
In late October 1970 my father died, age 83, in the Comanche
County Hospital near Lawton, Oklahoma.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Carol and I were in Kyoto, Japan, where I was codirecting a six-month
program for students from the University of Washington.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our sons Burke (age 9) and Reg (age 3) were
with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had said goodbye to my father
earlier in the year, before leaving the States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When the news arrived of his death, Carol stayed in in Kyoto with Reg,
and Burke and I flew to Lawton for the funeral.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Today I received the typed eulogy I gave standing next to the casket,
from a friend of my parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had lost
track of what I said, so reading what I wrote brought tears to my eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I loved him very much.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MY FATHER<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(In Memory of Robert Oscar Webb, by
Glenn Taylor Webb)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">He talked a lot – too much, I
thought, until I understood a basic fact that he had driven home for me:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>words are magic costumes of seemingly endless
colors and designs, for <u>ideas.</u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like
real costumes they reflect the reality behind the disguise; but more so, since
the reality of an idea is indiscernible apart from its disguise of words. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He loved them and collected them even after
the age when most people close the mind-door and say, “No more ideas for me,
these are enough!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knew that one
human being could <u>never</u> get enough of the ideas human beings have
had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(“Son, I figured out that it would
have taken me 969 years just to take all the courses offered in my field at the
University of Oklahoma back in 1928!”) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Of course, he didn’t approve
of every idea, in terms of its truth and usefulness, but I don’t think he ever
discarded any idea as insignificant, either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even the most repulsive idea was important to him <u>as an idea</u>, the
most immediate indicator of the human condition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a man who believed earnestly in the truth
of the ideas attributed to Jesus of Nazareth and who belonged to a group of
dear people (the Church of Christ) who also believe in that truth but tend to
fear other ideas (or even the same ideas in unfamiliar word disguises), my
father’s respect for ideas seems especially remarkable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It made him appear strangely tolerant and
understanding among his friends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">That’s not to say he looked
around with a patronizing smile and didn’t criticize.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had a sharp tongue, and it stung.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But anyone who felt that sting and still
thinks of him as a tyrant has missed the point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He <u>was</u> smiling, and his love for you was <u>not</u> in danger of
being withheld just because he didn’t like what you did or said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(To the words “tolerant” and “understanding”
the word “compassionate” can be added to the disguise of this idea.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I am pretty sure that nothing
irritated him more than a display of ego.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He himself was virtually without one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was not particularly introspective and there is plenty of evidence to
suggest that he thought of himself as little as possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, it was ideas that interested him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think he found it awkward to put bodies on
ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(“Thou shalt not kill,” as part
of a beautiful idea, was one thing; it was quite another to apply it to the
circumstances of living in a military town where the most devout Christians –
and the few Jews, in whose heritage the idea originated – were finding
justifications for killing.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
solution was simple:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>keep the ideas and
circumstances separate – even the ideas of patriotism, anti-fascism,
anti-communism, etc., that lay behind the circumstances that justified
killing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a word, my father was
polite. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">It amazes me that he could
hold such strong beliefs (i.e., be deeply attracted to certain ideas over
others) and not force those beliefs on others (which most people do by denying
their love to a dissenter, saying, in effect, “You do not exist because you
have strange ideas.”)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His path was
argument-without-the-slightest-loss-of-honor-to-my-opponent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since for him ideas were longer-lived and
thus above the men who happened to play with them, I doubt if he ever thought
of himself as having honor, much less of losing any. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Equally amazing was my father’s
ability to maintain a relationship with a friend who professed the same beliefs
he did but behaved, as it were, contrarily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The idea, for example, of “Seek ye not the things of this world …,” of
being actively un-attracted to material wealth, was a real favorite of his and
of most of his friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He honestly
didn’t put “undue” store in things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
friends who did can never say he criticized them for it; if anything, when they
expressed feelings of guilt for their love of money he tried to give them encouragement,
to find a way for them to be comfortable in both their belief and their
desire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His beloved repertory of ideas
made him a magician of reconciliatory powers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Such powers no doubt enabled
him to have confidence in people in spite of everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>R. O. Webb seemed to be as sure of any person
as he was of himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Love thy neighbor
as thyself.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Rock he built his life
on was the Christ, to be sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
therefore no wonder that the human condition – seen through ideas as words –
was his passion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as an epitaph my
father probably would prefer an un-dramatic “you can’t get along in this world
without friends,” or better yet, “I meant no harm.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
_________________________________________<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
P.S.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t believe
in horoscopes, but in the LA Times today, Feb. 15, 2015, my sign (Sagittarius)
reads as follows:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Your father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s where the day focuses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The things your dad did to influence you will
be apparent, for better and for worse.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What are the odds of this prediction coming on the very day when I
decided to share and post this remembrance on Facebook and my blog? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- GTW<o:p></o:p></div>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-12305056870028470712015-02-15T16:45:00.001-08:002015-02-15T16:45:06.783-08:00<div class="MsoNormal">
In late October 1970 my father died, age 83, in the Comanche
County Hospital near Lawton, Oklahoma.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Carol and I were in Kyoto, Japan, where I was codirecting a six-month
program for students from the University of Washington.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our sons Burke (age 9) and Reg (age 3) were
with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had said goodbye to my father
earlier in the year, before leaving the States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When the news arrived of his death, Carol stayed in in Kyoto with Reg,
and Burke and I flew to Lawton for the funeral.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Today I received the typed eulogy I gave standing next to the casket,
from a friend of my parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had lost
track of what I said, so reading what I wrote brought tears to my eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I loved him very much.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MY FATHER<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(In Memory of Robert Oscar Webb, by
Glenn Taylor Webb)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">He talked a lot – too much, I
thought, until I understood a basic fact that he had driven home for me:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>words are magic costumes of seemingly endless
colors and designs, for <u>ideas.</u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like
real costumes they reflect the reality behind the disguise; but more so, since
the reality of an idea is indiscernible apart from its disguise of words. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He loved them and collected them even after
the age when most people close the mind-door and say, “No more ideas for me,
these are enough!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knew that one
human being could <u>never</u> get enough of the ideas human beings have
had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(“Son, I figured out that it would
have taken me 969 years just to take all the courses offered in my field at the
University of Oklahoma back in 1928!”) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Of course, he didn’t approve
of every idea, in terms of its truth and usefulness, but I don’t think he ever
discarded any idea as insignificant, either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even the most repulsive idea was important to him <u>as an idea</u>, the
most immediate indicator of the human condition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a man who believed earnestly in the truth
of the ideas attributed to Jesus of Nazareth and who belonged to a group of
dear people (the Church of Christ) who also believe in that truth but tend to
fear other ideas (or even the same ideas in unfamiliar word disguises), my
father’s respect for ideas seems especially remarkable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It made him appear strangely tolerant and
understanding among his friends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">That’s not to say he looked
around with a patronizing smile and didn’t criticize.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had a sharp tongue, and it stung.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But anyone who felt that sting and still
thinks of him as a tyrant has missed the point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He <u>was</u> smiling, and his love for you was <u>not</u> in danger of
being withheld just because he didn’t like what you did or said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(To the words “tolerant” and “understanding”
the word “compassionate” can be added to the disguise of this idea.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I am pretty sure that nothing
irritated him more than a display of ego.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He himself was virtually without one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was not particularly introspective and there is plenty of evidence to
suggest that he thought of himself as little as possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, it was ideas that interested him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think he found it awkward to put bodies on
ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(“Thou shalt not kill,” as part
of a beautiful idea, was one thing; it was quite another to apply it to the
circumstances of living in a military town where the most devout Christians –
and the few Jews, in whose heritage the idea originated – were finding
justifications for killing.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
solution was simple:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>keep the ideas and
circumstances separate – even the ideas of patriotism, anti-fascism,
anti-communism, etc., that lay behind the circumstances that justified
killing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a word, my father was
polite. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">It amazes me that he could
hold such strong beliefs (i.e., be deeply attracted to certain ideas over
others) and not force those beliefs on others (which most people do by denying
their love to a dissenter, saying, in effect, “You do not exist because you
have strange ideas.”)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His path was
argument-without-the-slightest-loss-of-honor-to-my-opponent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since for him ideas were longer-lived and
thus above the men who happened to play with them, I doubt if he ever thought
of himself as having honor, much less of losing any. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Equally amazing was my father’s
ability to maintain a relationship with a friend who professed the same beliefs
he did but behaved, as it were, contrarily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The idea, for example, of “Seek ye not the things of this world …,” of
being actively un-attracted to material wealth, was a real favorite of his and
of most of his friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He honestly
didn’t put “undue” store in things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
friends who did can never say he criticized them for it; if anything, when they
expressed feelings of guilt for their love of money he tried to give them encouragement,
to find a way for them to be comfortable in both their belief and their
desire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His beloved repertory of ideas
made him a magician of reconciliatory powers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Such powers no doubt enabled
him to have confidence in people in spite of everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>R. O. Webb seemed to be as sure of any person
as he was of himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Love thy neighbor
as thyself.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Rock he built his life
on was the Christ, to be sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
therefore no wonder that the human condition – seen through ideas as words –
was his passion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as an epitaph my
father probably would prefer an un-dramatic “you can’t get along in this world
without friends,” or better yet, “I meant no harm.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
_________________________________________<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
P.S.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t believe
in horoscopes, but in the LA Times today, Feb. 15, 2015, my sign (Sagittarius)
reads as follows:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Your father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s where the day focuses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The things your dad did to influence you will
be apparent, for better and for worse.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What are the odds of this prediction coming on the very day when I
decided to share and post this remembrance on Facebook and my blog? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- GTW<o:p></o:p></div>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-45219577576417119892014-12-12T20:24:00.001-08:002014-12-12T20:24:30.685-08:00Transformation<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Am I thinking I may be the
wooden puppet hanging here? Or is the wooden puppet hanging here thinking he
may be me?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thoughts on transformation inspired by the Italian satirist,
Carlo Collodi, <span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">who lived about 165 years
ago,</span> and the Chinese philosopher, <span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">荘子</span><span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">, who lived about 4,650 years ago:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ever since my little Pinocchio puppet began to speak to me I
have been drawn deeper and deeper into these thoughts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He only began to speak last week, although I
bought him from a lady in San Gimignano two years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her store had not opened, but she let me
in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For some reason she did not want to
part with the puppet I saw in her window, even though he was an old model,
covered with dust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But she finally let
me have him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Palm Desert I gave him a
place next to my computer, suspended by his seven strings from a bookrest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His first words were, “I want to be just like you, BUT …”
followed by all of the things I had done recently that he would have done
differently. His main point seemed to be that I was too human.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was willful, self-centered, vain, always
buffering myself even when I was doing things that everyone around me thought
of as kind and generous, even heroic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
noted that we both were only children:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>we had no brothers or sisters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So
he thought that made us both equally prone to have a fear of (and sense of
superiority towards) others. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I agreed only that I did indeed find people
inscrutable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I denied fearing or
hating them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He went on to argue that a
one-of-a-kind puppet could handle fear and loathing better than most people,
including only children, me especially.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“As a puppet,” he challenged, “I do not have the freedom to do whatever
I want.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, I am literally in the
hands of a human puppeteer,” he boasted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“If I do anything unkind or unlawful, he is responsible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that gives me an advantage when it comes
to moral behavior.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Nevertheless,” he continued, “I would like to call the
shots sometimes, try out, so to speak, my own sense of right and wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m sure I could control my urges to act
willfully better than my master does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Did you know he makes me hit other puppets sometimes?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Well, I told him, I never in my life have
hit anyone, even when I wanted to!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Yes, but you <i>have</i> wanted to, right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With a head and heart of wood I have nothing
selfish programed inside me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I had
full control of my actions like you, I could do all sorts of good things.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was then that I lost it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“But how do you know what IS good or bad?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you mean a puppet can figure that
out?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Yes!” he cried.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know that fire, heat, dampness, mold,
hammers, nails, knives and axes are bad. You, on the other hand, use those
things (and much worse) on human beings just because they believe stuff you
don’t believe in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t care what
people think, I just have to be careful to stay out of their way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You think you have the right to stop what
people think with laws that punish them for what they believe; or worse still,
with guns, torture, bombs, and any way you can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But I have no desire to do anything but live my life as a human puppet
who sets a good example by my good behavior.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A thoughtless person was never my hero.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nor were people so unable to feel pain or joy
that they simply ignored whatever was going on around them, which is the kind
of person Pinocchio seemed to want to be after his strings were cut.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even so, there are times when I sit at my
desk, looking at him, and wishing I could be like him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a child I understood God to be a puppeteer
of sorts, controlling my life but giving me options that he would praise or
condemn depending on my choices. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But that kind of God (who appears in all three Western
religions) seemed just as full of himself as I am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I outgrew that notion of Him by about
eight, when my sexual juices began to flow (pardon the pun.) By then music was
clearly my god, shaping and testing me through hundreds if not thousands of
piano preludes, fugues, etudes, sonatas, ballades, and concertos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pressure of performing landed me in the
hospital at seventeen, having no reason to live. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Going to a Christian college in Texas saved my
life by making me interact with boys and girls who basically knew only farm and
ranch life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I majored in art, and within
a year was married to my beautiful, kind Carol. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were twenty years old. (Today, December 10,
2014, is our 59<sup>th</sup> anniversary.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After graduation we moved to Chicago, where I studied first
at the Art Institute for the MFA, and then for the MA and PhD in art history at
the University of Chicago. My field was East Asia, which I had learned about (at
ten) from <i>Zen and Japanese Culture</i>, by D. T. Suzuki.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>National Defense Foreign Language fellowships
supported us for seven years, and my doctoral research at Kyoto University was
covered by a Fulbright for another two, with Dr. Suzuki being one of my advisors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve had a long career (54 years now) as a
professor of East Asian art history and religion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More than instructing me in history, teachers
in Japan birthed me:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they led me to Zen
meditation and into that profound silence where the universe can be seen and
heard inside and out.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All of this I shared with Pinocchio, who listened to me with
unabashed envy, even though my purpose in telling him these things was to
dissuade him from pursing his dream of being human.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he immediately jumped on the part of my
life where Buddhism came in, and said he especially liked the idea of karma and
reincarnation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He liked the notion that
he might have been a human in a previous life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I told him, “That is not how the system works, Pinocchio!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have to be alive to be part of that,” I
said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I explained that the system was part of the society the historical
Buddha grew up with, namely, HInduism, with its caste system, which says we are
born over and over again until we all reach spiritual fulfillment together.
“But,” I said,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“the Buddha believed
(contrary to Hindu teachings) that people could reach enlightenment regardless
of their caste.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had even decided that
since karma and reincarnation were theories he had not actually explored, he
did not require followers to believe them.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I told Pinocchio that I, too, did not have enough knowledge to believe
in them, so I did not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He asked me if I
had not ever remembered anything from a past life, and I said I had not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When pressed, I told him the only thing that might make me
believe that karma or something like it was real had to do with my dreams. All
my life there have been moments in waking life when I realize I am experiencing
the same moment I had in a dream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nothing special, really, just a few minutes in which I recognize the
scene and can predict exactly what will happen, be done, or said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s like watching a clip from a film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is happening in real time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pinocchio seemed intrigued.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“But that’s it,” he shouted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You
are remembering a former life!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I set
him straight:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“No I’m not!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My experience with dreams suggests that we
all have lives that are preordained somehow, and we are just playing them
out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But you shouldn’t confuse that with
the Hindu system of karma and reincarnation.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(Actually, I find the idea of predestination even more disturbing than
living a life that has already been filmed!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Who is the projectionist, for God’s sake?)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Let’s face it,” I said, “We don’t know what happens after
death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Science can only tell us as much
as we know right now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in light of
what we know, Pinocchio, I do not think much of a God who sounds very human
(and a lot like me) and is threatening to punish people after they die if they
have not loved Him and done His will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
assumes our greatest reward is to spend eternity with Him after we die!”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Nor do I believe anyone has come back to life to report that
they were reincarnated as a fetus in someone with a similar karmic past (and
specific Hindu caste dharma), etc., so that the wheels of ultimate
enlightenment can be achieved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hindu Brahmins,
and Buddhists who hang onto the old Hindu teachings, speak authoritatively
about all of that, of course, but that doesn’t impress me.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pinocchio then admitted that he, never having lived, knew
nothing about death and had not really thought about it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suggested that he should relax and enjoy his
not knowing, because the two of us, with our very different realities, actually
are in the very same boat when it comes to knowing about life after death. We
know nothing, and the imaginings of human beings help neither of us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“But that’s it, too,” the puppet shouted, “people don’t
think puppets have imagination, but we do!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>All man-made objects do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I’m not
sure about rocks, but that’s irrelevant here.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I may not wonder about the meaning of life and death, but I can imagine
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you think about it, I could
last forever, which you humans think would be wonderful after death (or even
now), but I don’t waste time thinking about that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For all intents and purposes I am
immortal:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>under the right circumstances
I could last for hundreds, even thousands of years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I might outlive countless masters who pull my
strings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someday I could end up in some
museum’s archeological exhibits.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“So what’s the problem?” I asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Why then would you want to be human?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you can imagine all the things that we’ve
imagined about life after death, which you say is not worth thinking about,
then what do you consider worthwhile?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His reply surprised me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Ah,
that’s easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can interact with
things like me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the time people
ignore things around them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They even
ignore each other some of the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I
were human I would greet everyone with a smile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>More than that I would dance with them and feed them (I can’t eat, you
know.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of all I would love
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh how I would love them!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not the way I love you, hanging here
immobile, but with all my heart and soul (two things I do not have but can
imagine having.)”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I wondered how many people Pinocchio had talked to this
way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I asked him he smiled and
said, “Only really happy people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
can hear me, even though my lips don’t move.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I can feel their admiration of my colors and the skill with which
someone carved me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are filled with
wonder at the beauty of things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They can
even see the tiny line between opposite ways of behaving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Behavior itself, regardless of its goodness
or badness, is such a miracle to people like you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so I speak to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And you speak back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s wonderful!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But most people are not like you.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This was such a compliment that I began to tell him how much
I admired the color of his skin, and the black, green and red colors the person
who made him had chosen for his shirt, pants, cap and shoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The white of his eyes made his black pupils
pop, and the little u-shaped mouth made me laugh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Thanks,” he said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I knew you loved me.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He went on to say that his primary reason for
wanting to be human was to be able to express his love to the world. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I also would like to
set the lesson straight about Signor Collodi’s story about me,” he said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He made it all about how children are easily
manipulated to do bad things and have to be scolded to be good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I were alive I would be free to feel love
and express it all the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m sure I
would not kill crickets who sing the truth, or stop learning, or squander
money, or be tricked into anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
would actually enjoy seeing what foxes, crows, owls, crooks and assassins face
in life and helping them any way I could. I want to know them, too, and love
them.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I was very little I remember taking my mother’s old
perfume bottles, placing a handkerchief over them, screwing the lids back on,
and pretending they were people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
were perfect for my productions, seen only by me, of stories staged under a
chair or table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Speaking to Pinocchio
reminded me of those days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the climax
of my little perfume bottle productions I had feelings similar to the ones I
experienced later as a child piano prodigy, at times when the composition was
brought to life through my fingers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, as an old man, with one foot in the grave, I have those
feelings most of the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m so glad
Pinocchio decided to speak to me, and I’m sure we will have many more
conversations before the curtain comes down. I only wish everyone, especially
people who are dealing with deep depression, could have a conversation with a
puppet like him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It just makes
everything feel so good.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
12/10/2014<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Palm Desert, CA<o:p></o:p></div>
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Glenn Taylor Webb <span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-71622590058150898602014-07-26T19:41:00.000-07:002014-07-26T19:41:13.862-07:00CONTINUING BLOODSHED
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THOUGHTS JULY 22, 2014<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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At the moment I sit down in despair at my computer,
agonizing over the crisis situations I see on CNN, MSNBC, Aljazeera America and
regular channels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, there’s the
crash site in Ukraine still open to looting and tampering by pro-Russian thugs
(look, I heard them, and that’s what they are!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>By all accounts (except Putin’s) they (or Russian troops) shot down a
passenger plane with almost 300 innocent people aboard, 200 of them from the Netherlands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And for over a week brutish soldiers have looted
the personal effects and identities of the crash victims and refused to let
experts examine the wreckage, scattered over an enormous area that includes
farms and villages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Finally these self-proclaimed Russian freedom-fighters allowed
bodies to be crudely stacked in poorly-refrigerated cattle cars and shipped to
the Netherlands, where for the last two days we have watched crowds of an
outraged but dignified people honor their dead as casket after casket in motorcades
entered a military base for proper identification and return to loved
ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same time, fragments of
bodies and important airplane wreckage still have not been collected because
pro-Russian troops have not allowed outside experts into the site for long
enough to do their jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They intend to
defend the land they have occupied by force in eastern Ukraine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fighting is intensifying as I write this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carol and I are scheduled to spend most of
August in Russia (mostly at the Hermitage Museum), so all of this is making us
nervous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We leave in a little over a
week. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second major crisis going on right now is between
Palestinians and Israelis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing new,
but the increasing number of casualties in Gaza as a result of Israel’s “target
bombs” is sickening. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The 6-year Israeli land-sea-and-air
embargo on Gaza is in effect imprisoning and nearly starving the
population.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In response, the Hamas
government built a network of tunnels that allows radical Muslim Gazans to
enter Egypt and Israel to kill Jews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is easy to see why citizens would welcome Hamas military help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Israel is not going to budge on
this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Hamas-led Palestine seems
ready to fight even if every man, woman and child in Gaza is killed in the
effort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And despite the fact that few of
the hundreds of rockets Hamas fires daily into Israel can penetrate the anti-missile
“dome” over the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the unequal
casualty list to date – nearly a thousand Gazans to 35 Israelis – seems
outrageous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two brief cease-fires have
come and gone, and the shelling on both sides has resumed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pictures of the dead and wounded spill out of
the TV screen. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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From my posh ivory tower in the California desert (Del Webb
Sun City Palm Desert), with almost nobody around me to talk to about anything
(or not) -- other than Obama-care (devil-sent), golf, sports, houses owned and
sold, hedge funds, the stock market, cruises, restaurants and ballroom dances
in the area, and Obama (the Devil himself) -- I try my best to engage people in
issues I am passionate about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those
include meditation, Japanese language and customs, and then (working back in
time from today) the deadly disputes in Gaza, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, Libya,
Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and the Americas south of Texas and
America itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of those issues
relate to the age-old questions about God and land:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>what does “He” teach and who owns what?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No wonder I was attracted to the pacific (and
godless) teachings of Buddhism from an early age! <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For my Facebook friends, here are two news flashes from my
tower regarding (1) a movie and (2) a magazine article.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The movie is BOYHOOD by Richard Linklater,
whose WAKING LIFE first knocked the breath out of me when it came out in 2001.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of his other films have at least made me
utter a prayer of thanks for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
after looking at BOYHOOD for about 3 hours, Carol and I looked at each other
and said nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s to say?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is one fine film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want to translate it immediately into
Japanese and add it to my arsenal of teaching materials for Japanese students
learning about America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The movie was made over a 12-year period in the life of an
actual boy, Ellar Coltrane (Mason in the film) from grade school to
college.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His mother is played by a
brilliant Patricia Arquette, and his older sister is played by Linklater’s
actual daughter, Lorelei (Samantha in the film.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My only problem with the film is why nobody
in it speaks “Texan”, but I think I know why.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>First, there is a scene in which the laid-back liberal father, played flawlessly
by Ethan Hawke, mercilessly (and hilariously) bad-mouths outgoing President
George W. Bush. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(He even steals a McCain
sign from a Texas neighbor’s yard while putting up Obama signs with his son and
daughter.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think that scene would be
very confusing if the father sounded exactly like Bush.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, I think most Americans (and maybe all
English speakers) would tire of hearing Texan spoken for the length of a
film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Besides, Texans in the flesh can
be heard in another Linklater film, “Bernie” (2011), which should satisfy
anybody wanting to subject themselves to native speech. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The magazine article is by Jonathan Rauch, a contributing
editor to <i>The Atlantic</i>, and author of a fine introductory book on Japan
that I used for years in some of my classes at Pepperdine in Malibu and
International Christian University in Omika, Japan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is called <i>“The Outnation”</i> (1992).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The magazine article appeared in the
July/August 2014 issue of <i>The Atlantic</i>, p. 20-21, and it deals with the
recent troubling matter of certain Christians trying to cut themselves off from
mainstream American society and laws in the name of religious freedom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like the article so much that I am quoting
large portions of it here without comment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Its point is very much the point of BOYHOOD, as well, in the sense that
both the film and article are telling us that the youth of today may be on the
right track to everything.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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“I am someone who believes that religious liberty is the
country’s founding freedom, the idea that made America possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am also a homosexual atheist, so religious
conservatives may not want my advice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’ll give it to them anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Culturally conservative Christians are taking a pronounced turn toward
social secession:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>asserting both the
right and the intent to sequester themselves from secular culture and norms,
including the norm of nondiscrimination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is not a good idea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
religion isolates itself from secular society, both sides lose, but religion
loses more.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
… Why the hunkering down?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When I asked around recently, a few answers came back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One is the fear that traditional religious
views, especially about marriage, will soon be condemned as no better than
racism, and that religious dissenters will be driven from respectable society,
denied government contracts, and passed over for jobs … <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
… I wonder whether religious advocates of these opt-outs
have thought through the implications.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Associating Christianity with a desire – no, a determination to
discriminate puts the faithful in open conflict with the value that young
Americans hold most sacred.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They might
as well write off the next two or three or 10 generations, among whom
nondiscrimination is the 11<sup>th</sup> commandment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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… This much I can guarantee:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>the First Church of Discrimination will find few adherents in 21<sup>st</sup>-century
America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Polls find that, year by year,
Americans are growing more secular.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
trend is particularly pronounced among the young, many of whom have come to
equate religion with intolerance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Social
secession will only exacerbate that trend.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-43629281407602085202014-06-09T16:18:00.001-07:002014-06-09T16:18:54.800-07:00In The Light Of What We Know
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IN THE LIGHT OF WHAT WE KNOW, by Zia Haider Rahman<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Reader alert:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
a book rave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am in awe especially of
pages 96-101: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Princeton, Oxford, Statue of Liberty,
identity, patriotism, science, philosophy, Muslims, Jews, Christians, religion
in general -- informative (and for me transformative) five pages in a novel
that is chock full of very human feelings exquisitely expressed on every page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be prepared to find yourself in the minds of
people you might never know otherwise.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Two Muslim men, one from Pakistan but born in Princeton,
N.J. to a Pakistani diplomat, the other from Bangladesh (East Pakistan) but
raised in Oxford, England, son of shop-keepers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The two of them met in college and kept in touch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When together their conversations were
soul-searching, and fill the pages of Rahman’s book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of those conversation took place in New
York in the 1990s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The first one says he has an American passport and is
thrilled when, after returning to America from a trip abroad, he hears “Welcome
home!” from a U.S. immigration officer at JFK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The other (who has a British passport) says he would give his life if UK
immigration officers at Heathrow would greet him that way after a trip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On impulse, they take the ferry to Liberty
Island, where they stand together in front of the famous plaque with the poem
by Emma Lazarus, a New York Jew whose forebears immigrated to the U.S. from
Portugal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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To the two friends the words seem to come from God/Allah (or
perhaps the Virgin Mary), welcoming other immigrants from Europe, the “huddled
masses yearning to breathe free …” In the 1920s and ‘30s that would include
some of the great Jewish minds of the day, many of whom ended up at Princeton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the men imagines that one of those minds
must have belonged to his hero, the logician, Kurt Godel (1906-1978).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Not so, says his friend, who points out that the champion of
the “true but unprovable” theorem was not Jewish but a Lutheran-born theist who
believed in a personal God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As such he
was out of step with Albert Einstein, Godel’s colleague, a secular Jewish Deist
who believed in God, but in the abstract, following the famous 17<sup>th</sup>-century
Dutch Jewish philosopher, Spinoza (and hero of my youth, after D.T. Suzuki and
Joseph Campbell.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And now? Pope Francis
says even atheists, along with believers, will go to Heaven as long as all of
us do good on earth!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I wonder if he
read this book.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-42994269349048647162014-03-15T20:14:00.000-07:002014-03-15T20:14:18.368-07:00True Self - 主人公
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<br />
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<span style="font-size: 20.0pt;">True Self – </span><span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">主人公</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Some
days just fall into place like a trot into a gallop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Point of reference:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I grew up in Oklahoma riding horses
bareback.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today -- Tuesday, March 11,
2014 -- was like that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This morning I
was looking at a calligraphic scroll with this enigmatic three-character Sino/Japanese
phrase, written by one of my Japanese Zen teachers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its meaning is always a shock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">The
three characters, taken individually, literally mean “Master, Person,
Lord”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In any Japanese-English dictionary the phrase
is defined as “the leading person in a literary or dramatic work.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The phrase in Buddhist texts conveys a
different meaning, one that I have known by heart for at least fifty years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consistently, the old scribes knew it as a
euphemism for the fully awakened being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>On a scroll like the one I was looking at this morning it says to me,
“You, you idiot, are IT!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It reminds me
that nobody was born for me and nobody dies for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am the protagonist in my own life, in a
true life in which I am everything and everyone. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">When
I see or hear the phrase I immediately stop, look and listen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The phrase strikes me dumb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t really hold my breath, but it’s as
though a thief has crept into my house and I am trying to keep quiet so I can
take the proper action – attack or escape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In my Zen lineage all priests have the word “cold” for the first
character of their temple names.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s
because cold in this case is a euphemism for enlightenment, which perhaps feels
much as I have described it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And for a
horse it is as natural as moving from a trot into a gallop.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">For
me, being struck dumb is invariably sexy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I am an impotent old man, have been for many years, but the magic of sex
and the miracle of love that goes along with it just wipe me out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe because I was an only child, but the
coming together of two people in love makes me dance and sing and cry and laugh
out loud.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t have to do it to feel
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The very idea of being fully awake
to the joy and pain of every other creature is my True Self at work. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a guy!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">So
that’s the episode that started my day today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>After hanging the scroll on the wall and watching as Carol placed an
orchid arrangement in front of it, I sat down to read a bit before joining
Carol later at dance class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First I
played a little Kachaturian and Bach on the piano at home to guard against memory
loss in my fingers, and then rehearsed West Coast Swing and Nightclub Two-Step
for three hours with a hardy bunch of retirees in the dance studio nearby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was quite a workout, but after returning
home I couldn’t get an article I had read earlier in the current New York
Review of Books out of my mind:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“India: You’re Criminal If Gay.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">The
article was written by Leila Seth, mother of the brilliant novelist Vikram Seth,
who just happens to be gay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mrs. Seth is
83, her son Vikram was born in 1952.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
is a lawyer and distinguished High Court judge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She is outraged at the anti-homosexual stance the Indian government has
taken lately.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My wife and I are 78, and our gay son Burke
was born in 1962.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carol and I are
retired professors, who lost our son in 2005 to a brain aneurism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vikram Seth and his mother have bravely
allowed her article and his poem to be published with the invitation to publish
them free of charge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Please take a look
at p. 22 of the Mar. 20 issue of NYRB.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
please read Vikram’s poem now, and add your Amen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- GTW<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">THROUGH
LOVE’S GREAT POWER<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Through
love’s great power to be made whole<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">In
mind and body, heart and soul –<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Through
freedom to find joy, or be<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">By
dint of joy itself set free<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">In
love and in companionhood:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">This
is the true and natural good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">To
undo justice, and to seek<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">To
quash the rights that guard the weak –<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">To
sneer at love, and wrench apart<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">The
bonds of body, mind and heart<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">With
specious reason and no rhyme:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">This
is the true unnatural crime.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-51976815452285773952014-03-15T20:09:00.000-07:002014-03-15T20:10:02.721-07:00St. Margaret's Forum<br />
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>St. Margaret’s Forum<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Friday, Jan. 17, 2014<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- Dr. Glenn T. Webb<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Art of Living in the World with Awareness,
Respect and Trust – <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b>Responding to Buddhism</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two months ago I
gave a lecture at the International Buddhist Study Center in Little Tokyo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My audience was made up of Japanese business
and religious leaders, consulate officers, and Buddhist clergy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My topic was American customs and religious
beliefs that puzzle the Asian community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Of particular concern to my listeners was how they should respond when someone
asks them if they believe in God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Just
for the record, I always tell them to say yes, just to avoid trouble.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course,
Buddhism doesn’t speak of God, so that is the problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today I am talking to you as an expert in
Asian cultural values and Buddhism, telling you what I think the historical
Buddha Shakyamuni might say about the so-called religion that bears his
name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I assume most of you are
Christians and are here because you are curious about Buddhism and would like
to know more about it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But why should I
be the one to speak to you on the subject?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That in itself is a long story that I will share bits of as I go
along.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I feel that my focus here must be
on two points:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(1) the Hindu/Buddhist
view of reality, and (2) the very different view that Jews, Christians and
Muslims have of reality. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After I have
finished we can discuss the differences.<o:p></o:p></div>
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4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let me start by
asking you a question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many of you know
what <i>miso</i> is? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Answer:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>miso</i> is a fermented paste made of soy
beans, barley, rice, salt, and a yeast culture called <i>kojikin</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Small portions of <i>miso</i> paste mixed
with hot water makes a delicious broth that is served at mealtime throughout
East Asia. <o:p></o:p></div>
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5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What, you ask,
does <i>miso</i> have to do with Buddhism or me or anything?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, I use it here merely to lead into my
thoughts on how to live in the world with awareness, respect and trust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When my family and I first arrived in Japan, in
1964, we contacted some missionaries from the Church of Christ, the Christian
denomination associated with Pepperdine University and indeed with my family
and my wife’s family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You will hear more
about the history of this denomination shortly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But right now I want to tell you a funny story about a hymn that is
popular in Churches of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was published
in 1907 by J. G. Dailey, an obscure composer of spirituals and gospel songs. The
first line of the song asks the question: “Why Did My Savior Come To Earth …?”
The song ends in a chorus with the answer:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“…Because He Loved Me So.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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In Japan the little bi-lingual children of the few
missionaries living there were quite sure the answer in the song referred to
God’s love of miso.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In their minds it
made perfect sense that God would send his Only Begotten Son so that He, too,
could enjoy the wonderful taste of <i>miso</i>!<o:p></o:p></div>
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7.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Quite a
misunderstanding, right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But misunderstandings
can be more interesting than understandings sometimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Could it be that both of these – involving
God’s love for me and the taste of miso -- touch the truth of things in their
own way?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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8.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In any case, what
we UNDERSTAND (<span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">識</span>) is exactly what I want to talk
about today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can understand simple
things without probing the mystery of life at all. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But to understand the mystery of life and
death, particularly the one about what happens to us after we die, we have to
take a leap of faith. That leap is built on sacred stories rather than on
reason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The stories in the Judeo-Christian-Muslim traditions,
despite their differences, require us to believe that the ultimate
understanding of reality belongs to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Hindu-Buddhist stories, on the other hand, require us to discover
ultimate truth within ourselves, sometimes with assistance from spiritual
guides.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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(Re the Chinese character on the screen:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to study Buddhism seriously you almost have
to know the rudiments of Sanskrit and Chinese.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are many words in scriptures from both languages for “understand”,
but I’ve chosen the Chinese character for my purposes here.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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9.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I grew up in the
Churches of Christ. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The founders of that
Protestant denomination were part of the 18<sup>th</sup>-century Scottish
Enlightenment (going back to Locke, Hume and Kant.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were determined to “restore” the New
Testament church on earth using logic and common sense. They insisted on a
rigorous study of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, to get at Biblical teachings
linguistically. They insisted as well on a knowledge of the latest archaeological
and historical findings of the time, in order to put the teachings in their
context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once that was done, the devout Christian
was free to do what the Bible taught or take the consequences. <o:p></o:p></div>
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11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My father, R. O.
Webb, was a devout Christian of this type.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He took a PhD in history in 1918 from the University of Oklahoma.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before that, he did work at the University of
Chicago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Henderson, Tennessee, he was
a student of Arvy Glenn Freed (1863-1931), a Church of Christ minister and
professor at Freed-Hardeman University.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My father and mother named me after Dr. Freed. They also made sure I
knew the Bible well enough to recite many passages of scripture in three
languages. (Both my parents were federal employees, as directors of the Indian
School in Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, and were welfare agents covering Comanche County,
as well.) <o:p></o:p></div>
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12.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Family friends
tell me that my father took great pride in telling them how at the age of three
or four I came to him one day and asked if it was true what Jesus said in John
14:6, viz., that “… nobody comes to the Father except by me.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
guess I was upset because I said (or so the story goes), “Well, I think that is
very unfair!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What about all those people
who lived on earth thousands of years before Jesus was born?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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13.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is exactly
the kind of common sense answer that the Church of Christ approved, so I think
my father was proud of me, in spite of my blasphemy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But at that young age I also learned what it means
to take a leap of faith, by trusting God to let those poor people into heaven,
even though they lived long before Jesus was born!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moreover, I had to remind myself that man’s
ways are not God’s ways (Isaiah 55:8 ) and that we cannot find God by searching
for Him (Job 11:7). <o:p></o:p></div>
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14.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, that’s all
true according to the way the monotheistic religions of the ancient Near East
see things. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jews, Christians and Muslims
view things vertically, with each of us bound to our Creator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Indeed, the Latin word for “religion” denotes
the link between God and man.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We cannot
understand the mind of God, but we trust and obey Him in order to live
eternally with Him in heaven after we die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This, most assuredly, is the faith of our fathers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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15.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that version
of the way things are is not the only one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is not compatible with the notion of reality that came out of ancient
India, where we are not vertically connected to God but horizontally, so to
speak, to our past selves and each other. In the Hindu/Buddhist view we are in
a constant struggle to return to a perfect realization of the
interconnectedness of all being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
goal is Enlightenment, which we alone can reach. Hindus say we will reach that
together after eons of rebirths, and with a lot of help from Hindu gods. (We
will look at what Buddhists say about that later.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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16.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both concepts of
reality, the vertical and horizontal, seem to have emerged in two parts of Asia
– in Palestine and India -- at about the same time, around 2000 B.C., with
scribes putting the basic beliefs into writing at least by 1000 B.C. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian
and Islamic scribes continued their elaborations well into the first 1000 years
of the Christian era, bringing revolutionary changes to the original
formulations. But in historical terms, they wrote the classic story of East and
West.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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17.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s take a
closer look at the Indian case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Brahmanical hymns and scriptures are the basis for the Hindu world-view.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They imply that the universe began as a
perfect entity, unsullied by differences of any kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This non-differentiated Perfection they call
Brahman (<span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">梵</span>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Chinese character refers to both the Sanskrit language itself and to the
all-inclusive Self (with a capital “S”) that later became divided up into our
normal distinctions of I, you, he, she, it, we, you and they.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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18.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brahmanical texts
do not seem to ask <b>how</b> Perfection came into being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They simply begin with its dissolution, at
some point in time, into all of the selves we are today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they call those many selves Atman (<span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">我</span>), the “collective memory” of Perfection, or better yet, its spark,
that is in all sentient beings. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(In
Buddhism that memory is known as the Buddha Nature.) This little spark of
perfection gives us the ability to return to Perfection and thus reach
Enlightenment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But only (according to
Hinduism) after we collectively evolve, so to speak, into the memory and
reality of Brahman.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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19.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the meantime,
each Atman-carrying self must endure countless rebirths, reincarnations, going
through many levels of realization in the four human castes (<span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">四性</span>):<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">Brahmin priests, Kshatriya protectors, Vaishya citizens, and Shudra servants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Castes below the lowest are Outcastes:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>humans who are as unaware of perfection as
animals and demons. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(We who are not
Hindu, I found out, are to be pitied for not knowing their caste, because we
will have to make it to Enlightenment blindfolded, as it were!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">20.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each Hindu caste has its own <i>Dharma</i> (</span><span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">法</span><span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">), or set of rules to live by.</span>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">Each
human being is born to parents of the same caste and <i>dharma</i>, and thus
each family knows precisely its members’ places not only in society, but in their
progress on the return trip to perfection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They must go by the rules of their <i>dharma</i>, but they also can call
upon the avatars, the gods, the spiritual guides, who appear in art and in
human history to help them climb the ladder to spiritual realization. Shakyamuni
Buddha and Jesus Christ are both reincarnations of Vishnu, for example, in
Hinduism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">21.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now let’s turn to Buddhism specifically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Around 600 B.C. the historical Buddha began
to challenge one very important aspect of Hindu teachings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was of the Kshatriya protector class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a prince, who left his father’s palace
to deepen his understanding of life and death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was a rebel. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And after
undergoing every spiritual practice available, he ultimately concluded that
what Hinduism taught about the subject might very well be true, but that he was
not sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">22.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With that blasphemous doubt in his mind, the
Buddha insisted the only path to Enlightenment was a personal one, a “middle
path” of deep meditation in a life full of compassion towards all
creatures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Turning down the volume of
self-concern and being aware of the needs of others was a key element in his
teachings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was the sure method of
reaching Enlightenment, the only Dharma. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">23.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like Jesus, the Buddha never wrote down a
single word himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Disciples
formulated doctrines, writing in their master’s voice. By the 3<sup>rd</sup>
century B.C. the great king of India, Ashoka, had declared Buddhism to be the
state religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But by 600 A.D. Hinduism
had reemerged, swallowing up Buddhism in its wake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, with the coming of the Moguls in the 16<sup>th</sup>
century, India began its long struggle between Hindus and Muslims, which unfortunately
has not ended, despite the creation of Islamic Pakistan and Hindu India in 1945.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">24.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After Buddhism was made obsolete in India,
the religion spread to others parts of Asia where today it claims more
followers than any other religion on earth. Buddhist teachings are followed in tens
of millions of Buddhist temples throughout Asia and the rest of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Buddhists differ from one another as much
as Baptists and Catholics do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In some
ways Buddhist denominations seem as unlike each other as Judaism is to
Christianity and as the two of them are to Islam. So I must be selective about
what kind of Buddhism I discuss today. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">25.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of my actual training in Buddhism has
been in Japan. I have also spent time learning from teachers in India, Tibet,
China and Korea. But I will end my talk today by describing some of the
features of Japanese Buddhism as I experienced them. Let’s start with a little
history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Buddhist priesthood in
India, like the Christian priesthood in Palestine, did not exist at first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once established, however, it required
priests to take care of the spiritual needs of lay people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, to be celibate!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is still true in every Buddhist country
except Japan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">26. In the 6<sup>th</sup>
century, when Buddhism was adopted in Japan, the priesthood became
hereditary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has remained so almost
without exception to the present day. For over fourteen hundred years Buddhist
priests in Japan have married and their eldest sons have inherited the temples
and congregations that their families have served.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over five million such temples are in
operation in Japan today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">27.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would never occur to ordinary Japanese,
from other classes in society, to ask a temple to allow them to enter the
priesthood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So when American hippies
began knocking on Zen temple doors in the 1950’s, abbots did not know what to
think.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From 1964 through 1966, my
professors at Kyoto University encouraged me to deepen my understanding of
Japanese history and culture by practicing meditation at Zen temples. That was
not part of my plan, but it changed my life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">28.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buddhism at its core puts the responsibility
on each of us to search the scriptures, all scriptures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also insists that we go deeply into our
own consciousness for understanding. (Note that I did not say
“conscience”!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because my conscience, I
believe is something that is tied to my cultural and religious prejudices.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The historical Buddha plumbed the depths of
his own consciousness, his own mind, and I think that is what he proposed for
all of us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">29.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sakyamuni Buddha did claim that Enlightenment
<i>can be reached by each one of us individually, </i>in direct contradiction
of Hindu belief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he did say it was
not easy to get there!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not surprisingly,
the hard work of training for self-realization seemed to call for specialists,
i.e., priests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The priesthood did
eventually emerge, some 400 years after the Buddha’s death, permitting ordinary
followers to tend to everyday matters and trust the priests to lead them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">30.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same time, progressive priests looked
for a way that allowed ordinary people to be more involved, one that would be
easier. This easier way is known as the “Great Vehicle” (or <i>Mahayana</i>)
form of Buddhism that encompasses almost all denominations of Buddhist practice
today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some priests began to rely on scriptures,
dating to the first two centuries of the Christian era, that tell wonderful
stories that chart the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
particularly fond of the story of Queen Vaidehi, who lived at the time of the
historical Buddha, 600 years before Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">31.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to scriptures of a major form of Pure
Land Buddhism (S. <i>Sukhavati</i>, J. <i>Jodo</i>), the queen and her husband
the king enraged their sons by renouncing Hinduism and adopting Buddhism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For that the sons had their father killed and
left their mother to starve to death in prison.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In response to her pleas the Buddha is said to have taught her how to visualize
a beautiful place, a Pure Land in the afterlife, where personal ignorance
(controlled by <i>karma</i>) could be short-circuited, so to speak, and the
cycle of reincarnation stopped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">32.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The queen learned that this beautiful place was
created by Amitabha (J. Amida), the Buddha of Infinite Light and Life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that all people caught in pain and
ignorance can be reborn there simply by developing their faith in Amitabha’s
promise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once there they have no
impediment to their own powers of insight, and they can improve, then return to
earth and bring themselves and others to Enlightenment. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other forms of Mahayana Buddhism, including
Zen, offer similar stories of compassion towards ordinary folks (although I
would not call the Zen path easy, for reasons I will explain momentarily.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">33.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tantric (or “secret”) Buddhist practices began
to spread in the 7<sup>th</sup> century (especially in Tibet.) They make it
easier to rely on countless Buddhas, mostly ethereal, through mantras,
mandalas, and secret teachings and initiations that summon the powers of such
fully-realized beings in order to give priests and lay persons the strength to
face and overcome self-ignorance. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ironically,
I am regarded by many scholars in my field as a Buddhist iconographer, i.e., a
leading expert on the vast array of Buddhist images – my family would call them
idols – that are used in Tantric Buddhism. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Ah yes, life is full of ironies!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">34. To my mind, the
followers of Tantric Buddhist sects come close to <i>praying</i> to the
“deities” behind these images, if not the images themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me, some of the images are astounding
works of art, and I fully appreciate the human need to have them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their stories are fascinating beyond
belief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I do not consider them
sacred, any more than I consider the masterpieces of Christian art that command
similar devotion from some believers, to be sacred.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">35.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I grew up in a family in love with another
story, the story of the Creator God of the Universe who came to earth in the
person of Jesus of Nazareth, as the Annointed One, the Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The question I asked myself more than fifty
years ago is, “Can I be aware of Buddhism, respect it and its followers, and trust
its methods to enhance my heritage?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
short, can a Christian be a Buddhist?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
answer is an unqualified, “Yes!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">36.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Original Buddhism places no restrictions that
I can see on the Gospel narrative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
fact, one of the abbots of a Japanese temple begged me to conduct a weekly Bible
class for the young men in training with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He hoped I would focus on the Trinity and said he thought a Christian
should use meditation as a time to pray.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">The Buddha’s core
message does seem to be,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Do whatever
you have to do to be inwardly quiet, listen to the world you think of as
outside of you, and open yourself to it.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could be wrong, but I think God must be
pleased that I don’t get in His way anymore when offering up prayers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The late abbot of the Cold Mountain Temple in
Suzhou, the site of my lineage in Zen, wrote a calligraphic scroll for me when
I visited him in 1993. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What he wrote
thrills my heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In English it assures
me that “Only in Silence Can the Truly Wonderful Be Known.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">37.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As for the outer trappings of Japanese Zen
practice – reading and reciting daily teachings in Japanese, wearing priest’s
clothing, following the rules about eating and doing daily chores in certain
ways, and in general being Japanese for all intents and purposes – my students
know I do not recommend keeping those trappings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">38.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me, however, it was necessary to break
through many barriers of physical and mental pain brought on by the particular way
Zen meditation (<i>zazen</i>) is done in Japan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And those barriers must be broken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sitting Zen-style is not easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
Japan it still requires a full lotus position:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>cushion under the buttocks, feet pulled up onto the inner thighs, and
knees resting on the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">39.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought I could not do that at first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But teachers pulled my legs into position,
pushed my back fully upright, and made sure my head was high, my chin down, and
my eyes slightly open.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hands are always
held in the lap, clasped in positions that vary with the denomination of Zen
being followed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Yes, there are denominations!)
Each period of sitting is between 30 to 45 minutes, with only a 2-minute break
between each period. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During a normal day
in Japanese Zen temples there are three hours of sitting in the morning, three
in the afternoon, and three more at night.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">40.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pain, even for young Japanese, is
excruciating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At first I would always
hyperventilate and vomit after about 15 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once I began to get used to the pain (after
the first year) I was able to sit “on top of” my pain and experience the first
stages of consciousness exploration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
heart rate and breathing slowed down measurably, and “unhinged gratitude” often
brought tears to my eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My prayers became
quite wordless. The trick (as one of my students later put it wisely) is to
live in that state regardless of what you are doing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: JA;">41.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By now you must wish I would stop
talking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m sure I have gone over the
40 minutes I was allotted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let me
conclude by saying that I don’t know what the Buddha would say about Buddhism
today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he would be very happy, I’m
sure, with the opening of the third form of the “people’s prayers” in the
Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
say it every Sunday this time of year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It begins with the admonition, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“May we all become one.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think Prince Shakyamuni, the historical
Buddha, would say “Amen!” to that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
he probably would point out that we already ARE one!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The challenge, he would say, is to decide
what to do about that. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do we live
together as one? In short, <i>how do we practice</i> <i>the art of living</i>?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-44574618918204311812014-03-15T19:53:00.000-07:002014-03-15T20:00:18.477-07:00The Art of Living in the World: Awareness, Respect, and Trust<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">THE
ART OF LIVING IN THE WORLD:</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-language: JA;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">AWARENESS,
RESPECT, AND TRUST</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-language: JA;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Glenn
T. Webb<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Professor
Emeritus, Pepperdine University<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Academic
Advisor, Bukkyo University –Los Angeles Extension<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Japanese cultural
historian Okakura Kakuzo was fond of saying that the Tao, the
ancient Chinese teaching about truth, the Way, was in fact the “the art of
living in the world.” I’ve borrowed that idea for my talk today about
Japan-American relations. I think we can say that the Tao – this “art of
living” -- consists of being aware of others, respecting them, and then
trusting them in a spirit of peace. This applies to other people, cultures,
things and ideas alike.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">We all live in a world today that exposes
everyone to everyone else. Our awareness of things around us leads to
respect for them; and respecting them leads to trusting them. Or so I
believe. Without trust we’re not going to get anything done. I am
particularly interested in promoting trust between Americans and Japanese.
I was born in Oklahoma. My parents were school-teachers. A
complicated series of events turned me into a student of Japan – for over 65
years of my life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I first learned about Japan on my own through
books. I was ten when the Pacific War ended. Later, at the University of
Chicago, I took classes in Japanese language, history, religion, and art for
eight years. From 1964 to 1966 I was a student at Kyoto University on a
Fulbright grant. Since then, until my retirement in 2004, I
have been a professor of Asian studies at three American universities,
during which I spent a good part of each year in Kyoto.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In addition to strictly academic studies, I
have been practicing some of Japan’s most revered spiritual disciplines.
My wife Carol and I both practice the Way of Tea (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">chado</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">chanoyu</i>)
and have taught that discipline in American universities. Carol has
earned credentials in the Way of Flowers (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kado</i> or
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ikebana</i>), and I have practiced and
taught calligraphy (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">shodo</i> or the
Way of the Brush.) Closest to my heart is the Zen meditation (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zazen</i>) that I learned in Kyoto Zen
temples. That discipline has enriched my life over the years and the
lives of many of my students, some of whom direct Zen centers here and in
Europe. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In 2011, to my great honor and surprise, I
received the Order of the Rising Sun from the government of Japan, a
prestigious decoration that very few non-Japanese receive. In some small
measure this talk today is a way of expressing gratitude for my
decoration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I am sure many of you have visited other
countries and have been perplexed by some of the customs there. I’ve
heard Americans say, “I don’t understand the Japanese way of thinking!”
And I’ve heard Japanese friends say, “I just don’t understand American
behavior.” In both cases I have recommended examining the beliefs behind
the strange ways of thinking or troubling behavior. If we dismiss the
unfamiliar as strange, and consider our own customs to be superior, we may try
to force our way on others. At that point, any hope of reaching an
understanding based on awareness, respect and mutual trust is lost. Our
differences can be explained by looking at religious teachings as well at
simple human values that we all have. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Happiness</span></u><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Freedom and independence are the goals of
modern people, who want to live in a society that allows them to make as much
money as they want, do what they want (within the law), and let no one get in
their way of realizing their dreams. In today’s world, communism clearly is no
longer a workable political solution, and democratic societies are flourishing,
so reaching these goals appear to be possible only when free-market capitalism
is the order of the day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">People in the United States (and maybe in most
parts of the world) believe happiness is found in their independence and freedom,
and many of them credit God for the material wealth they believe they deserve.
But is that what makes everybody happy? Maybe not. For
people in Japan happiness seems to rest firmly in their relationships with
others. This difference was pointed out recently by Prof.
Mayumi Karazawa, who is a cultural psychologist at Tokyo Women’s
University. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">A few years ago a serious survey was taken to
find out how happiness is defined in different parts of the world. Each
definition was then graded on a scale of happy to sad, and the degree of
happiness in each country was reported as a means of somehow changing behaviors
in order to bring a greater measure of happiness to countries that seemed sad.
On that survey Japan turned out to be a nation of very sad people!
This was especially puzzling to the scholars who created the survey.
After all, the Japanese hold the record for living longer than most
people in the world. So why are so many Japanese unhappy?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Prof. Karazawa answered the question
by noting that the survey was culturally biased because it presumed that people
were most happy when they were free to do what they wanted. It did not
take into account that some people might regard such behavior to be selfish and
socially unacceptable. The survey placed “personal freedom” to be
happiness-producing whereas “caring for others” was not. Japanese
respondents always marked themselves happiest on the survey when
asked if looking after the welfare of others in their families or groups made
them happy. Prof. Karazawa pointed out that there are good
reasons why the Japanese define happiness differently. To conclude
that they are sad and in need of psychological help is to be unaware of some
core values in Japanese society. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Think about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If your happiness is defined by your dependence on your relatives and
friends, and their mutual dependence on you, then being independent and
responsibility-FREE is not going to be a high priority for you. You
may feel obliged to do well for <u style="text-underline: words;">them</u>, so
your success is <u style="text-underline: words;">their</u> success. Your
feeling of gratitude for what they have done for you may spur you on to efforts
that you might never make for yourself alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Feeling deeply your obligation to others -- known as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">on</i> (</span><span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">恩</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">) in Japanese -- is what gives
meaning to Japanese life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">If happiness in Japan can be mistaken by
Westerners as sadness, who knows what else can go wrong?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The makers and interpreters of the survey I
referred to have clearly underestimated the Japanese reverence for
ancestors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is because the experts
were not even aware of the true nature of that reverence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">There are many other aspects of Japanese life
that non-Japanese (myself included) have misunderstood about Japan and its
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will talk about some of those
things a little later, with personal examples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But first, I want to talk about something that Japanese often get wrong
about arrogant and irresponsible Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They mistakenly blame our behavior simply on our love for
independence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But why are we that
way?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we just greedy by nature?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think that’s too simple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just as we underestimate the history of
ancestor worship in Japan, my friends in Japan frequently underestimate the
legacy of religions in the lives of Jews, Christians and Muslims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People in Japan seem have a hard time wrapping
their minds around the Western notion of God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Do You Believe in God</span></u><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">?
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">This question puzzles my Japanese friends as
much as anything regarding life outside Japan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There is nothing in Japanese reality that corresponds to the Creator of
the Universe, the Garden of Eden, and Adam and Eve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A monotheistic God of the universe doesn’t
exist, not in Shintoism, and not in Buddhism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">Japanese
almost without exception observe Shinto birth ceremonies and Buddhist funeral
religiously, just as their ancestors have for hundreds of years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet a random sampling of people on the
street in Japan (and a poll taken recently of 26 Japanese college students)
shows that none of them consider themselves to be religious at all!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">Despite
that, their adherence to customs emanating from shrines and temples requires a
quick look at Shinto and Buddhist history in Japan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By taking that look it becomes easier to
understand how Japanese might struggle when Westerners ask them if they believe
in God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">As far
as I am concerned Shinto is not a religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Non-Japanese (me included) cannot convert to it because we have no
native ancestral records. Indeed, Shinto priests are and always have been
primarily record keepers for descendants of the immigrant groups that made up
the first prefectures of the Japanese islands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
are no doctrines that Shinto teaches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are prehistoric myths and ceremonial purifications and dances for
ancestral spirits, but nothing that you must “believe” in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each child is taken to an ancestral shrine,
preferably by the paternal grandmother, some two months after its birth, to be
“introduced” to ancestors. And at age three, five and seven that child will
return to receive ancestral blessings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Shinto priests who perform wedding ceremonies announce to ancestral
spirits the coming together of the two families in a marriage. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">Buddhism
was chosen as the state religion in Japan by the nation’s first prefectural
“court” at Nara in the 6<sup>th</sup> century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Buddhist priests were responsible for the education of children and the
cremation of the dead. The teachings of Japan’s various Buddhist denominations
were brought from China and faithfully replicated in Japan. Those teachings are
not taught so much as they are preserved in memorials to the dead, prayers for
the protection of the living, and a variety of practices for lay persons and
priests. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">People
who ask if Japanese believe in God probably know little about Hinduism and
Buddhism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hinduism originated in South
Asia well before 10,000 B.C., and Buddhism emerged from Hinduism in a
revolutionary form in the 6<sup>th</sup> century B.C., taught by a Hindu of the
military caste, Prince Sakyamuni, the historical Buddha.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">Both
religions accept the notion that all sentient beings are blinded by an
ignorance centered in a perception of themselves as separate from each
other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That ignorance presumably is
carried through countless lives (reincarnation) until reaching a full perception
of self – called enlightenment or Buddhahood – a perception that is
undifferentiated from (or “empty of”) the separate self.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hindus
believe Buddhaood will eventually take place collectively, as it were, at the
end of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buddhists, in contrast,
believe that individuals can achieve it, and then assist others still caught in
illusion, just as their founder the historical Buddha did in his lifetime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">Buddhism
teaches that we may bring a karmic residue from a past life into our present
one, but that we all are intimately connected to each other and to all other
things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That, for believers, is where
attention truly belongs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">For
that reason, happiness in Buddhism means waking up to the fact that you have no
substantial independence and that we ARE in fact each other!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this sense, the result of the
international survey on happiness, mentioned earlier, proves that Japanese
people are ideal Buddhists. It is natural that they regard people – especially
parents and ancestors – as their source of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">Needless
to say, God is the source of life in Western religions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today’s world is less than 1% Jewish, 32%
Christian, and23% Muslim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of these
people base their faiths in scriptures that came out of the Middle Eastern
deserts between about 10,000 B.C. and 700 A.D.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">Those
scriptures require the worship of a single Creator of the Universe, the God of
the Bible, but they do not agree on how to do that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus was a Jew who taught a revolutionary
type of Judaism in the 1<sup>st</sup> century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mohammed was God’s “last prophet” who lived in the 7<sup>th</sup>
century. For the last 2,000 years, Jews, Christians and Muslims have fought and
killed each other over whose method of worship of God is correct and whose is
not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">They
believe that God made all of us, beginning with Adam and Eve, so we all are
God’s children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they believe we will
be rewarded or punished after we die, depending on how closely we followed
God’s teachings, as defined in their particular faith, while we were on earth.
Each religion demands obedience to God and “death to the infidels!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">So do
Buddhists believe in God?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How should
they answer?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My Japanese friends want to
know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they say “No” they will be in
trouble with half the people in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But if they say “Yes” they will be asked to explain which religion (and
which denomination of that religion) they follow. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">Western
societies regard their relationship to God as more important than
anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They will emphasize each
individual’s independence “under God”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is the American dream, after all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Just to make sure everyone gets the point, we even put “in God we trust”
on our money and into our pledge of national allegiance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And everyone says “Oh my God!” (OMG in
computer-speak) all the time.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Now that our religious heritages have been
given their proper due, it is time now for a little show and tell from personal
experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, you will find the
following topics covered in more detail in the printed transcript of my
talk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They all have to do with
correcting misunderstandings between Japanese and Americans. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My topics are (1) taking off shoes, (2) saying
goodbye, (3) changing jobs, (4) speaking age-appropriately, (5) saying please
and thank you, (6) putting others first with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">omoiyari</i>, (7) being authentic with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kokoro</i>, and finally, (8) how I learned these things. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Taking Off Shoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Many non-Japanese assume that the custom of
taking off shoes in Japan came about because floors symbolize sacred ground,
like the floors of Hindu temples and Muslim mosques.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing could be further from the truth!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s about keeping floors clean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Japanese are very practical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">One of the first things my family noticed about
life in Japan was how people did not wear shoes inside homes, temples, and
traditional restaurants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The shoes
stayed on, however, in Western hotels, theaters, banks, universities and
businesses. But in our son’s kindergarten and elementary schools shoes were
taken off and carefully placed in lockers at the entrance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">We finally learned <u style="text-underline: words;">how</u> to take off our shoes in Japan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I learned how that is done in a Buddhist temple where I was
training.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of my colleagues at Kyoto
University had apartments with a tiny space for shoes just inside the door. During
parties that space would be filled with a jumble of shoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in temples there is a slightly raised
wooden platform in front of a wall of shelves for shoes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">At first I thought the platform was there for
me to stand on before taking off my shoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I was corrected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I thought I
was supposed to take my shoes off and stand on the stone floor with my bare
feet, and then step up onto the platform to put my shoes away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Boy was that wrong!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The abbot himself demonstrated the correct way
by making me walk around barefoot on the stone floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he gave me a clean white cloth to wipe
the bottom of my feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The dirt from my
feet turned the cloth black.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the
abbot brought a tray of food and placed the food on the floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got the message:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the floors of the temple rooms are where
meals are served, so they must be kept spotlessly clean. This also goes for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tatami</i> floors in all traditional
buildings. From then on my family learned to step out of our shoes and step
directly up onto the platform, turn around and pick up our shoes, and arrange
them neatly on the floor or in spaces provided.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Buddhist message involved here is provided
by a design on a 15<sup>th</sup>-century stone water basin behind the main hall
of Ryoan-ji in Kyoto.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The message says,
in four Chinese characters reading clockwise from the top (but with my English
in proper order):<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I Alone Know Feet” (</span><span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">吾唯足知</span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">: Be content with what you have</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m sure the original Chinese phrase had
nothing to do with the Japanese custom of taking off shoes inside, because that
custom never existed in China.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the
word “feet” had deep meaning for Chinese Buddhist priests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a euphemism for the myriad sentient beings
whose importance each priest was to realize in himself. </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-language: JA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Saying Goodbye<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">All goodbyes are probably connected to
death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess I learned that in Japan,
because Americans don’t like goodbyes and they try to avoid death
altogether.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Japanese face them
head-on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every goodbye is handled with
the mental attitude of “this could be the last time.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They must consider each goodbye a preparation
for the big one, because meeting friends at the airport or seeing them off at
the airport or train station is very important indeed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Funerals in Japan basically last fifty years,
from the time the body is prepared, in front of relatives, to the service in
which the dead receives a posthumous Buddhist name, followed by a formal family
tea ritual meal, to the crematorium where relatives place white flowers over
the body, witness the cremation itself, and then take turn placing bone
fragments and ashes in an urn, which is kept at the temple where memorial
services are p</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-language: JA;">er</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">formed
for forty-nine years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After that the
family can relax.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Americans, on the other hand, can hardly wait
for the funeral to be over, for the body to be put in the ground (or the ashes
in a vault), and there are no special days or ceremonies to help relatives
remember the dead, who (according to Western religion) is in Heaven with
God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Nobody talks publicly about
relatives going to Hell!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">All of this comes down to the number-one
complaint about American goodbyes that my wife and I hear all the time from
Japanese friends visiting the United States:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Why do Americans close their door in our faces as we leave their home
after a party?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">First of all, in Japan it is not the custom to
visit friends in their homes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People
host each other in posh hotels and restaurants rather than expose them to a
home life that is quite private and “unworthy” of guests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But after leaving a fancy restaurant the
hosts will walk their guests to a taxi or bus or train, where the actual goodbyes
take place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hosts should wave and bow
until their guests are out of sight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Japanese expression “one occasion one meeting” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ichigo-ichie</i></span><span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">一期一会</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">)
expresses the proper feeling here:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“This
could be our last time together.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In this situation on American soil, which
commonly takes place in the hosts’ home, the guests are shown to the door, and
the door is shut after a “see you later.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Japanese custom would only allow this if the hosts were trying to sever
future ties with their guests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
much worse than rude.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No wonder Japanese
are curious if their American hosts are trying to say they don’t want to see
them anymore!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Changing Jobs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Another American behavior that causes Japanese
concern is the habit of American college grads taking jobs with Japanese
companies, in Japan or abroad, and then leaving those jobs (usually for more
pay) for jobs somewhere else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That in
fact is a feature of the American business world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You find it also in the American academic
community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sent out my resume to other
universities almost every year to see if they would offer me a salary that was
better than the one I had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The case is
quite different in Japan, both in business and in academia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Young Japanese college students are commonly
recruited by Japanese companies for jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Interviews take place before graduation, and afterwards students choose
and/or are selected by Japanese companies, rather like pledges joining
fraternities and sororities in the U.S.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, the similarity stops there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Because the majority of company hires made in Japan this way
traditionally last forever, with student employees becoming like adopted family
members and companies like adoptive families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Japanese corporation IS a family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are responsibilities on both sides.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Employees trust their bosses to protect them,
guide them, and almost guarantee their success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In turn, corporate bosses expect loyalty and an all-out effort to succeed
from their employees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any doubt that
employer or employee is not “in it for the long haul” is unthinkable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The relationship is long lasting, maybe
through the marriage of the employee, the birth of his or her child, and even
after the death of the employer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Japanese way in business and education will
not change, I suspect, any more than the American way will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But both sides should understand the
expectations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only if expectations can
be adjusted to fit the realities will there be smooth sailing ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Speaking Age-Appropriately <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I often hear Americans say something like this
about showing respect to others:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Before
I show someone respect they have to show me they deserve it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have to <u style="text-underline: words;">earn</u>
my respect.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With that attitude, a
language that automatically requires a form of polite and respectful speech
when speaking to elders or authority figures will be considered “un-American” –
or worst of all, “hypocritical”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">It used to be that American children were
expected to speak when spoken to by their elders with “sir” and “m’am”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But even that custom exists today only in the
American south, where it also seems to be dying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Japanese case of age-based language may be
unique in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of polite
phrases added to show respect, spoken Japanese is a complicated system of
significant language changes that show your own position vis-a-vis the person
you are speaking to -- in terms of dependence and responsibility. We all grow
older, of course, and in Japan responsibility comes with age, and your language
should reflect your own awareness of that. The younger speaker also must speak
in a way that shows dependence and trust.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I came to Japan with a textbook-form of
Japanese that I used with everyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Little kids thought I was crazy because I sounded like I was dependent
on them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I’m sure my elders thought
I was not dependent enough on them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of
course everyone excused my ignorance of the language because I was a
foreigner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But with time I caught on and
my speech pattern became a bit more appropriate to my age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The Japanese term for this system of speech is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u style="text-underline: words;">joge</u></i>,
meaning “high/low”, which unfortunately sounds like some sort of master/servant
system of classic feudalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Japan’s
society requires a language of mutual dependence and responsibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope it never dies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>English cannot change structurally the way Japanese
does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if it could, the fabric of
American society would become stronger because Americans would be more
respectful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">5. Saying “Please” and “Thank You”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Americans could become more respectful towards
each other if they would say “please” and “thank you” more often.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nowadays, when Americans ask someone to do
something for them, they often say things like, “I need this done by
tomorrow.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s a demand not a request.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The “please” in English (and in other Western
languages) actually means “if you please,” i.e., “if it is convenient for you,”
or “if possible …”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Japanese, too, it
literally is a request:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I beg of you…”
– “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">onegai shimasu</i>…” (</span><span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">お願いします</span><span style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">...</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">)
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Americans say “thank you” rather often, but
probably without understanding its original meaning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Thank you” implies that someone has done
something for you that you will remember (or “think of”) forever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It shows your indebtedness when you say it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Japanese the sense of obligation is even
stronger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Arigato gozaimasu</i>” </span><span style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">(<span lang="JA">有り難う御座います</span>)</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">refers to the difficulty that you have created for the
person you are speaking to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other
words, when you thank someone in Japanese you are in effect apologizing!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a matter of fact, I wonder if that
expression and the other words that amount to saying you are sorry in Japanese
(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sumimasen</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">gomen</i>, etc.) are not practically synonyms in conversation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">6. Putting Others First
With Japanese <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Omoiyari</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Putting others first in everything you say or
do is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">omoiyari </i>(</span><span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">思いやり</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is a matter of truly respecting others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From a very early age, Japanese children are
taught to be aware of what other people seem to need and to satisfy that need
for them very quietly and without being asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>People in Japan have done this for my family for years and years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Let me give you a couple of examples of what I
am talking about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We first stepped on
Japanese soil back in the days when visitors made the trip by cargo ship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My wife and I, with our 3-year-old son, took
an 11-day voyage from San Francisco to Kobe in 1964, year of the Tokyo
Olympics. We had five huge suitcases and a trunk, which were still with us on
the train ride to Kyoto.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As soon as the
train stopped at Kyoto Station, on a hot and muggy July day, our son Burke
began to cry. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Very
soon, out of nowhere appeared a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">maiko-san</i>,
a beautiful young apprentice geisha, and asked in English if she could be of
assistance. As soon as I explained in halting Japanese how we couldn’t find our
luggage, she disappeared for a few minutes, only to reappear with a couple of
little goldfish in a vinyl bag of water!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Almost immediately our son stopped crying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">maiko-san</i>
then took us to the taxi stand outside, showed us a taxi that was already
packed with our luggage, put us in another taxi, and then bowed and waved as
our taxis rolled away towards our hotel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Some eight years ago our first-born son Burke
died, when he was only 45 years old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When he died many of our Christian friends tried to console us by saying
thing such as “God had better plans for him,” or “he is in a better place
now.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These friends meant well, but
their words didn’t console us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To
suggest that God is always in control, that He has plans for us including the
death of our son, and that Burke is better off away from us – these ideas left
us heart-broken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was equally hurtful
to be told, “You just have to get over this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Move on with your life.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">What really helped us was what our Japanese
friends did:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they placed a small picture
of our son on their home altars where he receives their respectful offerings of
incense, candle-light, and food every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Now he is a member of their families, too, and that is very comforting
to us. Our Christian clergy-friends never mention Burke’s name anymore when
they visit us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Japanese Buddhist
priests go directly to the little altar we have set up for him and offer words
of prayerful greeting. Nothing cheers us up more than that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">7.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being
Authentic with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kokoro</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Kokoro</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">
(</span><span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">心</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">) is the source of wisdom
and compassion in Japan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the fuel
of putting others first -- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">omoiyari</i>. If
you always try to be rational and not allow your emotions get in the way of
doing what is right, you are living in the modern world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The mind and reason have been valued over
heart and feelings ever since ancient Greek philosophers told us to do so. Once
reason became the foundation of Greek philosophy, religion, too, was viewed
through the lens of the intellect. Since God was Truth and Truth was Reason,
the view quickly grew that emotion was the actual source of ungodliness and sin.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Ancient sages in India and China have given
different advice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They told us to find a
balance between reason and feeling, or as they put it, wisdom and compassion.
That is the advice that Japanese and other Asians took to heart. The Japanese
term <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kokoro</i> was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hridaya</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">citta</i> in
ancient India, terms that refer to feeling, sensation and mental
operation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the beginning of the
Christian era they were translated in Chinese Buddhist texts with the character
that the Japanese call <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kokoro</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Once again, our religions are responsible for
these mixed messages. Americans sometimes say, ‘In my heart of hearts I know
this is true.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A modern version, when we
think something is unreasonable but true, is, “We need to think outside the
box.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps that box is reason, and
thinking outside it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kokoro</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Several years ago I gave some lectures in
Japan I entitled “Heart of Oneness” – using the Japanese phrase “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kokoro wa hitotsu</i>” (</span><span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">心は一つ</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Those lectures proved to be popular with my audience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do think we have common needs and
aspirations that cannot be defined by our differences in religion or anything
else. We have the same <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kokoro</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">8.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How I
Learned All This<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The things I’ve talked about today I’ve learned
through experience, mostly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I would
never have experienced them at all if my professors at Kyoto University had not
shown me the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean that
literally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The Way” may be “the art of
living in the world,” as Okakura Tenshin put it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But my professors insisted that I needed to
live that art myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was not enough
that I should gather documents and do research about Japanese history and
culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They expected me to put myself
in it whole-heartedly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How could I see
the picture if I didn’t get in it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In closing I would like to tell you one final
story that more than anything else may suggest how you, too, might be more
aware, respectful and trusting in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Before I left the University of Chicago to study at Kyoto University in
1964 I had pretty much written my doctoral dissertation and thought I could
finish the research in one year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
research was focused on the art and architecture (and artists and patrons) of
late-16<sup>th</sup>-early-17<sup>th</sup>-century Japan – the Momoyama and
Early Edo periods.) I knew I had to know quite a lot about Japanese Buddhism
and how it worked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had read a lot and
thought I knew enough to simply contact all of the temple abbots and set up
times for my visits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My professors,
however, strongly suggested that since most of the temples of my research
belong to the Rinzai Zen denomination of Buddhism I should actually train in a
Zen temple as a practical matter, and to consult with priests of other
denominations as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My first temple visit was arranged, the
Director of the Kyoto National Museum accompanied me, I brought all my
photographic equipment, and the abbot received us in his room overlooking the
garden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We enjoyed tea, and spoke (in
Japanese) for well over an hour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At some
point I asked politely when I might actually begin my work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was as though I had not asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conversation contin</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-language: JA;">u</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">ed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Several times I brought up the subject, but each time my request was
ignored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The last time I asked, the abbot looked me in
the eye and said rather gruffly in Japanese, “I have no intention of showing
you these materials Mr. Webb.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thinking
I had misunderstood him, I suggested that I could come some other time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The abbot (who it turns out spent two years
at Yale) then said the same thing to me in English.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was totally perplexed. We were ushered out
to the entrance gate of the temple, put in a taxi, and the abbot waved goodbye
until we were out of sight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I went back to the temple many times, hoping
the abbot would change his mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he
did not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, he invited me to start
sitting <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zazen</i> at the temple with the
novice priests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To make a long story
short, I trained there and in other temples for the rest of the time I was
studying in Kyoto, and every year when I came back as a professor with my
University of Washington students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since
then I have practiced and taught what I learned for fifty years. My life has
changed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I often came back to that first temple where
the abbot seemed so rude, to participate in and sometime lead intensive
meditations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One winter, after the
grueling weeklong meditation at the first of each year, I entered the little
toilet room, squatted down over the hole in the floor, admired the garden
outside, enjoyed the freshly-cut camellia branch in the bamboo vase hanging on
the wall, and proceeded to do my business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">When I finished I reached behind me to the
tissue box, and felt not tissues but one of the paintings I had asked to see so
long ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The abbot must have silently
opened the sliding door behind me, unrolled the scroll (a National Treasure) on
the tissue box, and left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I smiled at the simplicity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here was the masterpiece in its natural
state, and I didn’t have the slightest desire to take its picture. I think the
abbot and I had reached a level of awareness, respect and trust for each other
that I could not have reached otherwise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Now I knew with my own heart-mind how precious <u style="text-underline: words;">everything</u> is, all the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And I was supremely grateful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Before leaving the temple that day I rolled the scroll up properly, handed
the scroll back to the abbot, and bowed deeply.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I saw him frequently over the years, until he died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">9.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
Advice<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In light of what recent surveys (such as the
one examined by Prof. Karazawa) might reveal about happy and unhappy people in
the world, I have advice for Japanese and non-Japanese alike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, I would advise Westerners to revive
their Jewish, Christian, and Muslim beliefs about putting others first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Christians may have the strongest mandate, especially
when it comes to loving everyone unconditionally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But all Western religions describe paths of
righteousness where taking care of the needs of others is a high priority. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I feel the Western world in modern times has
put freedom and individuality (along with rampant ambition and greed) ahead of
service to other for too long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
instinctively know our happiness does not really depend on those things in
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we haven’t replaced them with
the kind of consideration for others that the Japanese call “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">omoiyari</i>”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My advice to Japanese, who scored so badly on
the aforementioned happiness survey that they appear to be “the world’s most
unhappy people,” is to take pride in your score!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is because you have something still alive
in your culture that the rest of the world has lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My challenge to you is to show the world how
all of us can put others first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thank
you. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-56580983980508765422012-12-15T22:26:00.000-08:002012-12-15T22:26:20.478-08:00Meditations on Meditation - A Personal Story
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MEDITATIONS
ON MEDITATION – A PERSONAL STORY<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Anyone
who writes a paper, such as the ones presented at this conference on Buddhist
meditation, must answer an important question, which is, “Why did you write
it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is the point of your
paper?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When writing my paper for
this journal, I confess that I did not ask the question until after the paper
was almost finished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think I
should share with you my answer, up front, so to speak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wrote the paper to clear up something
in my own mind:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am conflicted
about a dispute that has arisen recently in Buddhist ranks, largely in America
and Europe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People in Asia, for
thousands of years, have accepted Buddhism in whatever form they learned it,
without much dispute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Japan the
various denominations go their own ways, for example, without arguing with each
other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Westerners, it seems,
cannot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We
Westerners only began to pay attention to Buddhist teachings about a hundred
years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are babies in the
faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The number of non-Asian
Buddhist scholars and priests presently active today cannot be large.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of us have even been taken
seriously in Asia for what we have written about Buddhism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am honored to be among them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost all of us began practicing the
religion and took Buddhist priest vows after studying Buddhism in books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But a rift has arisen in my own
Buddhist community that is gathering momentum and threatens to destroy the
advances that have been made outside of Asia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">At
issue is the question of whether it is permissible to call yourself a Buddhist
without accepting on faith all the tenets of the religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One side says yes; the other says
no.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Put directly, the question is
this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“If you do not believe in
reincarnation and other Buddhist teachings about what happens after death, can
you still practice meditation as recommended in most forms of Buddhism and call
yourself a Buddhist?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the
liberal side, you can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the
conservative side, you cannot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Every
Anglo-European Buddhist priest I know was raised in a Christian or Jewish
family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even those who were
non-religious before accepting Buddhism share the tendency we all have of
choosing sides.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are Westerners,
after all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We tend to fight wars
over religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our egos are very
big.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is our legacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The dispute that inspired this paper is
between an ordained American student of Tibetan Buddhism and a fellow
scholar-priest with credentials in both Tibetan and Zen traditions, and who was
born in Scotland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The former has
charged the latter with misrepresenting Buddhist teachings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I use quite a bit of space in this
paper defending the accused simply because of my own background in Japanese Zen
Buddhism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My criticism of the
accuser should be seen in that light.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I am as guilty as he is of taking sides. I am defending myself,
basically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Meditation
in the religions of Asia puts emphasis on reflection and transformation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The goal is insight, not obedience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It offers everyone, especially me,
liberation from my own small mind right now rather than my salvation from hell
after I die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reflection and
transformation are expressed in various ways within Hinduism, and the Buddhism
that emerged from it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My time
spent studying both religions is about equal, but my experiential knowledge is
anchored in Buddhism, mostly in Kyoto’s Zen Buddhist temples where I have
trained for nearly fifty years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
reflection on Asian meditation here, then, is focused on Zen meditation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In doing so I will give special homage
to Daisetsu Teitaro (D. T.) Suzuki, and consider the criticism of Zen by a
popular proponent of another Buddhist denomination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Nowadays
lots of people practice Asian meditation of some sort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the hippie days of the 1960’s, of
course, it was commonplace, and now meditation is at least known if not
practiced in all areas of society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Meditation and yoga classes are taught everywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when I was a little boy growing up
in Oklahoma only Indians engaged in meditation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My parents, both with advanced university degrees, were paid
by the U.S. government to teach in the Ft. Sill Indian School and keep records
detailing the welfare of Indian families living in Comanche County.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The seasonal gatherings of local
Indians involved meditation and prayer -- usually accompanied by communal
dancing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our family Bible has an
inscription dated one week after my birth in 1935, documenting my presentation
to tribal elders and “The Great Father.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Ironically,
my parents’ job was to discourage such traditional ways and bring the Indians
into civilized American society by teaching classes in English, history, math,
mechanics and the Bible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My father
R. O. Webb also was a Church of Christ minister and U. S. Army chaplain. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he secretly tried to keep Indian
customs and languages alive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
made sure the children sent to the school shared with him all the folk tales and
family ways they knew about before being brought to Ft. Sill from reservations
elsewhere in the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For his
efforts, local Indian leaders honored my father shortly before he died, in
1970, with a big powwow celebration, attended by Kiowa, Comanche, Pawnee, Cheyenne,
Black Foot, Caddo and other Plains Indian tribes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It
was in this setting, oddly enough, that I first heard of Zen meditation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve told the story many times of how I
grew up fearing and hating the Japanese during WWII. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were the bad guys that my playmates and I pretended to
capture and torture to death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
did that for years in the schoolyard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And then the war was over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I was ten in 1945.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>America had
won the war with Japan!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I listened
to the radio reports and saw movie newsreels of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I needed answers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every week I borrowed books from the
public library. That week I asked for a book on Japan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
librarian gave me a book called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zen
Buddhism and Its Influence on Japanese Culture</i>, by D. T. Suzuki.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to the preface, the author
was working on the book about the time I was born, and it was published in
1938, well before the U.S. joined the war against Japan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somehow that book was on the shelf in a
library near my home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ironically, some
twenty years after the war, in 1964, Dr. Suzuki was one of my doctoral
dissertation advisors when a Fulbright scholarship took me to Kyoto University
for graduate studies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking
back, I can see that what he wrote about Zen in his book so long ago, and that
I read when I was so young, has stayed with me and is the foundation for
everything I subsequently have learned about meditation. (fn 1)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So
what did Daisetsu Sensei say about Zen meditation?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I now know that what he wrote was highly personal, and much
of it must have sounded heretical to Buddhist scholars and priests of various
traditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I appreciate that
he cut to the chase, sailing across two thousand years of Hindu, Buddhist,
Taoist, and Judeo-Christian history, in order to tell his readers in a
convincing voice exactly how Zen came to be and how it works in the modern
world. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even as a child I was
enthralled. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In
the preface to a volume in a set of seminal books on Zen by R. H. Blyth, Suzuki
would write:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The aim of Zen is to
open the eye to the ‘supreme wisdom’ (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">aryajnyana</i>),
that is, to awaken the inmost sense which has remained altogether dormant since
the beginning of the human consciousness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When this is accomplished one sees directly into the truth of Reality
and confronts a world which is new and yet not at all new.” [fn 2]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In
1945 I knew by heart every answer offered to life-and-death questions by the
particular Protestant Christianity that shaped my childish view of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was my Reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I had no clue about the things
Daisetsu Sensei wrote about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
hung on every word in the ideas he presented, captivated by their breadth,
logic and compassion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I vowed
I would go to Japan some day. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">At
the beginning of the book that inspired me so, Suzuki asks,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“What is Zen?” And he answers with a
nod to Buddhist history (and the Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese languages
that informed it) and with the doctrine that lists meditation as the last of six
spiritual exercises -- known as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">paramita</i>
-- which the historical Buddha taught his followers to practice in order for them
to reach the goal of self-fulfillment, i.e., enlightenment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buddhist texts dealing with the sixth <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">paramita</i> describe it and give names to the
various levels of its achievement, which some Buddhist denominations (including
all of those in the Tibetan lineage) claim to be able to validate in each
practitioner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But
Suzuki’s approach is to explain Zen not as a difficult, multi-level form of
meditation, but more broadly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">as a way of
life in which meditation plays a part. </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In so doing he removes almost all orthodox narratives of all
the religions on earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He boldly
argues that you could be Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, Muslim or anything
else and still practice Zen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(That
alone probably gave me the courage some 67 years ago to keep reading his book.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When
recounting how Buddhism came into China as a foreign religion, which was contrary
in many ways to the teachings of centuries-old Taoism and Confucianism, Suzuki suggests
that the “Taoist mind” of China’s antiquity was probably attracted to the
practical side of Zen Buddhism, or what he calls “its complete democracy.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its “penetrating analyses and
speculations” may also have seemed compatible with Taoist ones, and better than
Confucianism’s society of the educated and land-owning class over peasants.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Instead
of striving for oneness with nature and immortality after death, as Taoists
did, or being reborn countless times in hopes of bringing enlightenment closer
and closer, as both Hindus and Buddhists believed they would, Suzuki suggests
that a Zen master often is skeptical about either possibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He cites a case in which a believer in
reincarnation asked a Chinese Zen master what he expected to be reborn as in
his next life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The master said he
hoped to “work for the villagers” as an animal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He in effect believed in doing what needed to be done instead
of speculating over the unknown.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When
I read this story for the first time I found nothing enigmatic about it,
perhaps because this seemed to corroborate Christian teachings about the first
being last and the meek inheriting the earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, the abbot of a Zen temple in Kyoto where I first did
some training criticized Christians (and indirectly, me) for having a
martyr-complex, because they seemed to make self-sacrifice the main goal in
life. He warned me that that was not the goal of Zen, even if Suzuki claimed it
was. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In
his book on Zen and Japan (and in many other books and articles) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suzuki cited many of these conversations
between Chinese Zen masters and their disciples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These cases are called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koans</i>,
which Suzuki refers to as “barriers” to full realization (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">satori</i>, the Japanese word for enlightenment.) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Koan</i> “practice” began in China as formal exercises in which a
teacher and student “looked at the words” in temple records of conversations
between the first Chinese Zen teachers and their students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koan</i> literally means “princely plan” – implying that in ancient
China the plans of a land-owning scholar contained wisdom that was beyond the
grasp of an ordinary peasant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
word might be translated less literally as “spiritually advanced views.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The point of the training is for the
student to grasp the true meaning of the master’s words for themselves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Only
the Rinzai and Obaku branches of Zen in Japan use <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koans</i> in formal training of novice priests. Now, after experiencing
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koan</i> training myself (and providing
it in the Zen centers I established), I am convinced that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koans</i> all have practical moral lessons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the majority view of them seems to be that they are
puzzles without answers, to be used as nonsense mantras that help us break
through linear thought. They do that, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they are loaded with practical advice about how to live
a useful life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Let
me give one example of what I mean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Zen masters in Japan assign <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koans</i>
to their students one at a time, taking them from well-known <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koan</i> anthologies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They often begin with “Joshu’s Mu” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koan</i> from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mumonkan</i> anthology [fn3], which involves a famous master, his
disciple and a dog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A 9<sup>th</sup>-century
Chinese master, the “Admonisher from the State of Zhao” (Joshu in Japanese),
was asked by one of his disciples if a dog had the Buddha Nature or not, to
which the master Joshu answered, “No!’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This account does not tell us what the disciple thought, but he probably
was puzzled, as any student of Buddhism would be, knowing that a basic premise
of Buddhism is that all beings are born with Buddha Nature (S. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">buddhatva</i>, J. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">busshou</i>), the potential for Buddhahood. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In
another account of the conversation, given in the same anthology, the disciple did
question Joshu’s “No” on scriptural grounds, which got him in trouble with
Joshu for being too attached to ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So when the disciple asked the question again, Joshu replied “Yes!” The
disciple then asked “But how can Buddha Nature get into a lowly creature like a
dog?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joshu’s response seemed a
non-answer:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The dog was ignorant.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such admonitions from the famous Admonisher
from Zhao seem to relate somehow to Zen teachings about false opposites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suzuki Sensei explained it this way, in
a later article, where he wrote:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“… to speak logically of things that cannot be put into logic …” or “to
bring into the ‘arena of logic’ things that go beyond logic is a necessary
teaching ploy, a method of instructing students of Zen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is one way of understanding ‘holy
truth’ and is usually described as ‘the non-duality of the highest truth and
everyday truth.’” [fn 4] <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After
all, the 6<sup>th</sup>-century Indian patriarch of Zen himself, Bodhidharma, also
responded to such discussions of yes-no duality by equating emptiness with
fullness and the holy with the profane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But for those of us raised to believe in dualities, the idea of the
non-dual is a hard teaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
seem to get caught up in logic. God’s ways and man’s ways are different and can
never be the same, we think. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">One
of my Japanese Zen teachers came to my rescue by dramatizing the Joshu story in
a way I’ll never forget.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said
maybe a real dog was right outside Joshu’s room that day, a starving dog that
gave birth to several puppies and then died right in front of Joshu and his
disciple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, what if only one
puppy survived, blind and on the verge of death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if that dog was the one the disciple was asking
about?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And instead of worrying
about what Buddhism taught about Buddha Nature, maybe Joshu was trying to
admonish his disciple to wake up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Just feed the dog! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">At
that moment I think everything fell into place for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joshu’s words became like the
“Argh-h-h!” in a Peanuts cartoon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was telling his student in the best way he could that all of his
concerns were worthy enough, but that time was wasting!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those concerns were not enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somebody had to do something!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was then that I saw why none of my
Zen teachers, the abbots of the Japanese temples I trained in, wanted to
discuss anything about the Buddhist teachings behind this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koan</i> with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
were tired of answering my questions and knew I had given everything enough
thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">At
this point I quit being critical of how this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koan</i> is always used in Japanese Zen temples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The training is very formal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At certain times during the day,
usually during a group meditation, the novice priests get up and line up in
front of the teacher’s room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Upon
entering they prostrate themselves in front of his seated form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He asks them what their <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koan</i> is and what it means to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this case specifically, “What is the
meaning of Joshu’s MU?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have
been told to “place his answer on your breath” and they do so – with moans like
cows mooing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I always found it
funny and felt even funnier the first time I tried to do it. [fn 5]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But
here’s the thing:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>each of us has
breath that animates our bodies while we are alive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We breathe in and we breathe out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In seated Zen meditation we gradually get used to turning
down the volume in our heads of the noises our brains make.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We listen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We feel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we
become more aware of everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Koans</i> provide answers that only each of
us can discover for ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However,
with this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koan</i> of Joshu’s MU, there
is a special teaser that may leave us trapped in our thoughts. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Japanese word “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mu</i>” (</span><span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">無</span><span style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">)-- </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">pronounced “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wu</i>” in Mandarin Chinese -- means
“No”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same time it is used
in Buddhist texts to refer to the totality of reality, the Not-One-Thing, the
“I Am That” of the so-called Void, a gateway to enlightenment<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(S. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nirvana</i>,
J. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">satori</i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have it at the end of every out-breath, which may be
your last!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mu can indeed stand for
enlightenment itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it also
means No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Words can get in the
way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here, you think maybe No is a
trick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that can lead you
nowhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Oh, no! Nowhere?
Everywhere?)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’d better just
shut up and listen to the universe, your home, and allow it to show you its
rewards and its needs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So you think you got it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Duality is a trap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the question is, even after
understanding a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koan</i> intellectually,
how the hell does a trainee express TO THE UNIVERSE exactly how he (or she)
plans to FEED THE DOG?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you do
it with words?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By your
actions?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This approach to meditation is very
much a part of the history of Buddhism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is found in the lineage that encourages you to trust your own Buddha
Nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the very opposite of
the dominant Tibetan approach of reaching the same levels of Buddhist
meditation with a systematic method that is carefully described, level by
level, and buttressed at every turn by scriptural explanations (in Tibetan, of
course) of exactly how each level should feel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Before
I touch on Tibetan Buddhism, and its very different views on meditation, I feel
obliged to say a word about the Japanese tradition of the priesthood and the
physical pain involved in training.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>First, unlike Buddhism in other countries, Japanese Buddhism does not
require priests to be celibate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most
novice priests are eldest sons of priests, so they have to be there to train
and carry on the tradition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
have no choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is quite
unusual for an ordinary Japanese person (or foreigner like me), whose family is
not from a long line of priest families, to choose to be a priest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Secondly,
there is the physical side of sitting in meditation in a Japanese Zen
temple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is strict and very painful
at first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even young Japanese
novice priests in their teens have trouble today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are bigger than their fathers and grandfathers, and
less accustomed to sitting in the proper positions:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>full lotus (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kekka fuza</i>)
for meditation, and legs folded under the body (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">seiza</i>) for everyday sitting positions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They may spend months just dealing with the pain signals
their bodies send their brains because of sitting in one position up to eight
hours each day, in intervals of 30-60 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Only
after novices learn to sit almost indefinitely “on top” of their pain will they
have to deal with the other thoughts and “barriers” (including <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koans</i>) that will fill their heads. In my
experience, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zazen</i> is a tried-and-true
method of entering a world that all of us can visit, a world of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dhyana</i>, the deepest levels of reality,
which make us a bit kinder and understanding in a world filled with pain and
suffering, but leaves us otherwise unchanged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of us will be inclined to probe texts for meaning and
write down our thoughts about them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But that doesn’t necessarily make us wiser.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Speaking
of words, brains, and pain, Tibetan Buddhism adores words, takes brains as
seriously as neurosurgeons, and abhors pain, especially in training. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is this vast difference between the
Tibetan and the Sino/Japanese approach to Buddhist meditation that is at the
heart of the rift between two groups of Western Buddhist converts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a dispute over both methodology
and philosophy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It brings into
question which method is faithful to the historical Buddha’s teachings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which of the traditions is more
authentic?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Western converts to
Buddhism want to know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Dyed-in-the-wool Asian Buddhists don’t seem to care so much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I know
few other teachers of Buddhist doctrine and practice in the Tibetan tradition as
impressive as B. Alan Wallace, whose writings are prolific and to be treasured
not just by people interested in Buddhism, but by anyone interested in the
history of religion and science.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His five volumes in the Columbia Series in Science and Religion will be
the lighthouse for those of us paddling our little boats of understanding to
the other shore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have read his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mind in the Balance: Meditations in Science,
Buddhism, and Christianity</i> (2009), and am well into his latest book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Meditations of a Buddhist Skeptic: A
Manifesto for the Mind Sciences and Contemplative Practice </i>(2012).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">His
arguments with Buddhists in other traditions remind me of the public debates
that my father and other Biblical scholars used to have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What are the essential New Testament texts
and what did they mean in the early church?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does it matter what they may mean today?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can you trust any scholar who does not
have a working knowledge of New Testament Greek as well as Latin and Aramaic
Hebrew? Wallace’s most recent public spat with Stephen Batchelor over
“distorted views” of Buddhism is my case in point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(fn. 6)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
met Alan in 1980, when he accompanied H. H. the Dalai Lama to Seattle, and I
was on the committee arranging his appearances at the University of Washington,
Seattle University, and the Seattle Zen Center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alan was still a robed monk, after studying in Dharmsala,
India and serving as one of the Dalai Lama’s interpreters for fourteen
years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After that Alan
distinguished himself as a scholar at Amherst and Stanford in physics, science
and religion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is the founder/president
of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. (fn. 7)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It
is no surprise, considering what he has said and written about at length, that Wallace
disapproves of half-baked Buddhists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In his words, he is “skeptical” of Buddhist groups that put practice
over study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the Tibetan point
of view, that could be an apt description of Japanese Buddhist priests
(excluding those who are scholars, of course!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, at the same time, Wallace criticizes any tradition that
reverses that process, putting study over practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alan demands of himself more intense study than any Tibetan
teacher I have encountered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His own
approach is rigorous study and practice, and his books convey the results in
compelling ways. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">No
one should get the wrong idea when Wallace calls himself a Buddhist Skeptic,
meaning a doubter, because he is in fact a devoted Buddhist scholar and
practitioner who carries the flag for a rich Buddhist tradition. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I take comfort in the opening sentence
of his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Meditations</i>, where he defines
his Buddhist skepticism in the Greek sense of “seeker” – in which case perhaps
we all (including him) are seekers following the historical Buddha’s admonition
to “learn through our own experience which theories and practices are wholesome
and which are unwholesome.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">That
English version of Shakyamuni Buddha’s exhortation some 2500 years ago contains
two essential characteristics of Tibetan Buddhism as it is known in the West.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reading, analyzing, and testing Buddhist
scriptures -- against one’s own experience and comparing that against the theories,
interpretations, and experiences of others, very much as scientists do – that strikes
me as the quintessence of Tibetan Buddhism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, the use of the English terms wholesome and unwholesome
(instead of true and false, right and wrong, wise and ignorant, etc.) comes
right out of the translation lexicon of B. Alan Wallace, whose elegant English fairly
flows over the page, amazing readers with its confidence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It
often seems that Wallace wants to prove Buddhist teachings to be true by
explaining them with physics and neuroscience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he demurs on that point by quoting philosopher William
James, to underscore the fact that faith trumps science where ultimate truth is
sought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>James says our
“faith-ladder” can offer visions that deserve to be true, and that can make us
behave as if they were true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wallace concurs:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Without
such vision, Buddhism dies,” he says.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(fn 8)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">That
being said, the Tibetan vision is complex, and the achievement of its goals is
demanding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unlike a Japanese Zendo
-- where newly arrived novices are plopped down on cushions, their bodies and legs
pulled into position, long lists of temple rules and regulations given out
verbally (and expected to be memorized and followed immediately), with the meditation
leader’s horrifically loud “Die on your pillows!” ringing in their ears -- something
more humane and gentle is offered to the new students of Tibetan Buddhist
teachings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">General
accounts of Buddhism blandly point out that three types of Buddhism exist in the
world today:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Theravada, Mahayana,
and Vajrayana.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Theravada (Teachings
of the Elders) is practiced in south Asia, most notably in Sri Lanka and
Thailand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a monkish version of
Buddhism in which monks aspire to achieve (as closely as they can) what the historical
Buddha achieved, whereas the majority of the population lives separated from
monks but reveres them as though they were already Buddhas. There are
substantial national differences in Theravada as it is practiced in Sri Lanka,
Thailand, Cambodia, and Burma (Myanmar). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But
the various forms of Theravada practice are few in number compared to all the
forms of the so-called Great Vehicle Leading to Enlightenment, Mahayana
Buddhism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For Mahayana is the
dominant form of Buddhism in the world, covering all the rest of Asia, including
Japan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is common to place
Vajrayana Buddhism, too, under the wide umbrella of Mahayana.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Tibetan Buddhists and others in the
Himalayas prefer to be placed in a separate category, as I do here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(A
Japanese version of Vajrayana is at the core of Tendai and Shingon
denominations, but I find its focus to be more on iconography and ritual than
on doctrine.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Within
all forms of Mahayana Buddhism there is the promise that the essences of
enlightened beings, whether historical or supernatural, are standing ready to assist
human beings escape from the cycle of rebirth and attain full realization of
what really is going on. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Zen
basically says we can get there on our own (self-power, known in Japanese as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jiriki</i>.) Pure Land says we should admit
how difficult that is to accomplish by ourselves and humbly depend on a higher
power (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tariki</i>), namely, the Buddha
(Amitabha), or in specific texts such as the Lotus Scripture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vajrayana offers us spiritually evolved
teachers, many of whom are reincarnations of past Buddhas, who show us how to personally
experience an awareness of the truth of all things leading to spiritual
liberation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Before
going to Japan in 1964 I had read everything I could about Buddhism in English and
Japanese books (and a few things in Sanskrit and Chinese) at the University of
Chicago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After taking the post at
the University of Washington I met some Tibetan monks in Seattle, which had
become one of the largest Tibetan immigrant communities in the world after the
Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They were quick to further my interest in Buddhism with instruction that
would lead me step by step to my goal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I expected something like that from my Japanese mentors, but what I
received was very different.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">My doctoral
research centered on how the paintings of Chinese and Japanese Zen priests
became identified with the ruling military class (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">buke</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">samurai</i>) in
Japan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted to understand how
that connection came about, and in terms of religion, I needed to know how Zen
and other forms of Buddhism functioned at that time. I needed to examine
Chinese and Japanese documents and paintings kept in Japanese temples, dating
to the 16<sup>th</sup> and 17<sup>th</sup> centuries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My focus was on ink paintings executed by Toyo Sesshu (1420-1506),
his Chinese predecessors, and his followers, including the painters of the Kano
school, who were the official artists of the ruling military class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Once
in Japan, my research advisors were professors at Kyoto University and abbots
of over three hundred Zen temples in the area that were built during my period
of interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My questions to priests
were answered with polite suggestions that I sit in meditation before asking
any more questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How long?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, two or three years!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Academic advisers were willing to help
me find resources to explore the answers to my questions, but they agreed with
the priests that sitting (J. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zazen</i>)
was a good idea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My true motivation,
therefore, for what turned into a lifetime of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zazen</i> and Buddhist studies was not religion, but to make
connections between the art and the religion that inspired artists and their
donors during a relatively short period of Japanese history. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If
I had met a Tibetan teacher before I met Suzuki Sensei I might have taken the
path that Alan Wallace did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(The
timing was off:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in 1945 few
Americans knew about Tibet and Alan had not been born.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I find Wallace’s descriptions of
how our minds work and the correlations he makes to mental states described in
Indian and Tibetan Buddhist literature immensely useful. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A metaphor that often appears when
Wallace describes what Buddhist practice is like, is that of setting out to
climb a tall mountain like Everest, which takes days of preparation, skill, and
determination just to make it to the base camp, and then more of the same for
the higher levels leading to the summit, representing full self-liberation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A
basic starting point of Buddhist training for Wallace is approximately what
Japanese Zen priests regard as the time when you finally settle down on your
sitting pillow and get to work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is the state of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">shamata</i>,
which Wallace calls “meditative quiescence,” consisting of three features:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ethical discipline, meditation, and
wisdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He compares it to building
a night-sky observatory in a place without obstructions (ethics), then setting
up a high-power telescope (meditation), and then using it to see the sky
(wisdom). (fn. 9) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">He
puts emphasis on the telescope, which corresponds to the meditative state known
as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">samadhi</i>, or meditative
concentration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the practice of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">samadhi</i> the mind is “calmly, continuously
focused inward and both body and mind are imbued with exceptional degrees of
pliancy and well-being.” For Wallace, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">samadhi</i>
is superior to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">vipashyana</i> (insight) meditation
because it is partnered with the two other features, viz., ethical
understanding and wisdom. (fn. 10) And he reminds us if we reach the first <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dhyana</i> (meditative stabilization) level
we can sustain <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">samadhi</i> for a night
and day!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">To
quote Wallace at length, “A great advantage of resting in this state of
meditative equipoise is that the five hindrances, or obscurations, temporarily
become dormant:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>sensual craving,
malice, laxity and dullness, excitation and guilt, and uncertainty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These hindrances obscure the essential
nature of the mind – the subtle, luminous continuum of mental consciousness
from which all ordinary states of waking and dream consciousness emerge… “ Only
correct practice, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">shamata</i> practice,
establishes the mind “in meditative equipoise” leading to “renunciation and
compassion …” allowing us “to see reality as it is.” (fn. 11)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Going
further, simply “engaging in insight meditation alone, such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zazen</i> and vipashyana” … even Vajrayana
insight practices “such as Mahamudra and Dzogchen” are misguided, says Wallace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meditators who stop there are not as
far along towards the summit as they could be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They may think, “I’m already as ethical as I need to be for
advanced meditation practice,” but that is “like a surgeon who thinks, I took a
shower this morning, so there’s no need for me to scrub before entering the
operating room.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Wallace
takes his criticism of inadequate Buddhist denominations right to their doors. “In
Zen practice, it is clear that even without having fully achieved <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">shamatha</i>, one may experience a
transitory realization (Jap. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kensho</i>)
of one’s Buddha nature” but such “breakthroughs … rapidly fade away.” “…
Mindfulness of breathing is commonly practiced in the Zen tradition to
stabilize the mind.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, insight
acquired that way will “vanish as suddenly as it arose… The Japanese term “Zen”
translates from the Chinese Ch’an, which in turn derives from the Sanskrit <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dhyana</i>, so it would be odd for such
meditative attainment to be overlooked in these schools.” (fn. 12)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Odd,
indeed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s wrong with those
guys anyway? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can they be so
stupid as to miss the boat?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it
because Chinese priests misread the texts – for two thousand years?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And deceived countless Japanese
converts to boot!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did only Tibetan
Buddhists get it right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is
where I lose patience with Wallace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He is a genius, no question about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he can sound like some fundamentalist preacher on a
rampage. (Or quite frankly, like a reincarnation of old Joshu’s disciple!) His
confidence in his own reading of Buddhist texts seems unlimited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember asking in Sunday school if
all the people who were born before Jesus of Nazareth was born were going to
hell, as Christian texts suggest. My logic at the time was a small-fry’s
version of Alan’s:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tight as a
drum. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Buddhism,
like most religions, admits we live in a dualistic universe and shows us how we
should live and die in it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
desert religions that dominate the Western world tell us the duality is real,
that we must take the path of goodness, which is God’s path, and that there
will be a judgment at the end as to how close we came.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hinduism and Buddhism tell us to look
instead into our own minds, find the true nature of the duality there, and go
through its tunnel leading to a non-dual perfection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The tunnel is reincarnation, which is much longer for Hindus
than for Buddhists, and it stops in the realm of the Not Two, commonly called
enlightenment or liberation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
dispute between Zen and Tibetan Buddhism that conflicts me now has echoes in
the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It always has been about
how we should navigate the tunnel to liberation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can we do it once we intuitively reach the core of
consciousness, in a dream fashioned in China?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or must we distrust the core’s own reality and trust the
navigation manual (the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">vinaya</i>) that
Indo-Tibetan travelers have preferred?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The dispute has its earliest origin in the second century, then bubbles
to the surface in the late eighth, and comes to a head in the 17<sup>th</sup>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Ashvaghosa,
the famous Brahmin-born Sanskrit orator and musician is said to have beguiled
and converted huge crowds of Indians of all castes to Buddhism, including kings
and princes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His name implies that
even horses who brought riders to hear him wept for joy as he described the
core of consciousness, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">alayavijnyana</i>
(</span><span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">阿梨耶識</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">), which gives birth to each
rebirth containing all seven of our sense consciousnesses (somewhat like the
Higgs boson “God Gene” of modern physics, which gives mass to particles that inhabit
our universe, including the ones that make up the structure of humans.) By
claiming that this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">alaya</i> was
something to be trusted as inherently real (instead of unreal like our
dualistic and thus unreal senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, ideas,
and instincts), Ashvaghosa did come close to heresy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This
hero at the beginning of Buddhist history in the Christian era even converted
the Westerners, the Kushans, who controlled much of India at the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We used to think of Ashvaghosa as
having originated the Great Vehicle of Mahayana Buddhism, largely due to the
text known as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Awakening of Faith</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we now suspect that he was not the
author of that work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, it
shows the hand of an anonymous Chinese writer, whose view of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">alaya</i> is shared by early Chinese Zen
(Ch’an) teachers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Some
700 years after Ashvaghosa, a northern Chinese Zen monk by the name of Moheyan
(</span><span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">摩訶衍</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">) was invited by the Tibetan
King to come face the wrath of Tibetan monks for his
“gazing-at-mind-with-no-examination” message.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the monks, who later developed Dzogchen meditation
in Tibet, were influenced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
Moheyan was run out of town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then,
in the 17<sup>th</sup> century the Fifth Dalai Lama outlawed this teaching
(called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zhentong</i> in Tibetan) and
punished its proponents. [fn13]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
have to say, Ashvaghosa is my man, as he is for most Zen students (and was for
Dr. Suzuki.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My own self-satisfaction
with my understanding of Buddhism recognizes Wallace’s at a glance, but mine is
in religion and the arts; his is in religion and science.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Music and science often produce
different kinds of brains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I cannot
prove that, of course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I only know my artistic temperament grows uncomfortable around certain
brains. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even so, satisfaction is
where you find it, so I am not surprised that Wallace’s descriptions of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">samadhi </i>(and beyond) match my experience
as closely as words allow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
fascinates me, because the Zen tradition discourages me from writing about it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Any
attempt I might make to describe deep meditation, and try to match my
experience with ancient Buddhist texts in any language is seen in Zen as self-serving
and at cross purposes with a quest for insight with some usefulness to the
world. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a child I found
myself in music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not as a composer
but as a performer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My career as a
child piano prodigy (another story) did not allow me to write about the music I
performed or how I felt when I performed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Performance held no attraction, but I lived to bring to life great music
through my mind, heart and fingers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The little Bach C-major Prelude that every beginner learns
triggers my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">alayavijnyana</i> every time
I play it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As does the Scriabin Prelude
in G-flat, which I expect will accompany my final liberation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I played well (which I no longer
do) I assure you I had no sense of me at all. Eight hours a day at the piano
seemed normal. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Countless composers,
compositions, and recitals:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>were
they played in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dhyana? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>samadhi?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>kensho?</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>What and who was realized?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With thanks to Shakespeare’s Juliet, or
Gertrude Stein, a rose by any name is a rose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What
many mystics, Buddhist or otherwise, call the True Self, lying<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“dormant since the beginning of the
human consciousness,” as Suzuki Sensei so beautifully put it, was awakened even
in my last public piano performance, in 1953, of Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember sitting at the piano
for a very long time after it was finished, then thanking the orchestra, and
walking backstage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I played no
encores.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The next thing I knew, I
woke up in a hospital bed, and was told I had suffered a nervous breakdown. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And art, religion, love and Asian
studies – not necessarily in that order – appeared on my horizon that day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">My
own mellowing (another word for meditational bliss) came first through music
and art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bringing great piano
compositions to life with my fingers was like conjuring up the souls of great
musicians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They lived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I disappeared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My fingers were having a field
day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I was infinitely dead,
and deeply alive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where I went
nobody knew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not even I.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The same thing happened when I saw
great paintings, or lost myself in the art of painting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I never talked about that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when the ten-year-old me read
Daisetsu Sensei’s words on Zen meditation, I knew instantly what he was talking
about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Samadhi?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Authentic?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Inauthentic?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Whatever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I only knew that
words were almost useless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I had
found someone who knew that better than anyone. [fn14] <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If
almost all words are useless, some are not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve come to believe that to describe Buddhist enlightenment
in so many words is dangerous. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe our attempts to describe meditation and enlightenment,
like salvation, heaven, hell, and even God, should be prefaced with the warning
that they are in the category of things that are simply indescribable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Religious sages have tried to put such things into words
anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mystics in Western
religions have offered God-centered definitions for centuries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let me try one for Buddhism:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We
are connected to each other and to every thing that is alive or ever has lived
in ways we cannot know until we examine ourselves the way the Buddha examined
himself; but we perceive ourselves as separate from others, and that blinds us
to the truth of things and makes us do and say things that miss the mark.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Better
yet, let me share with you something that the Rector of All Saints’ Episcopal
Church in Chicago, the Rev. Bonnie Perry, said in a sermon recently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When telling her listeners about the
intricacies of Christian doctrine, she said, “But you know, actually, the
Gospel isn’t worth a rat’s ass if it doesn’t change people’s lives.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a Buddhist I feel sorry that rats
rank so low on her value scale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But I think she may be onto something where the Buddha-dharma is
concerned:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>its teachings, too,
don’t mean much if our lives are not changed by it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We
have to be very careful not to confuse our own intellectual understanding of
Buddhism with the gifts it offers us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Regardless of the denomination that follows the Buddha-dharma and its
prescriptions for practice, and whether the practice is based on surrender to a
higher power or the personal responsibility to do it basically by ourselves, we
should keep our eyes on the goal: letting go of our misperceptions and actions
that benefit no one but ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Meditation as taught by Zen Buddhists and Tibetan Buddhists provide us
with two ways to change our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But there are many more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For example, the great Japanese teacher of Pure Land Buddhist teachings,
Honen Shonin 1133-1212), provided us with another, equally authentic way. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
have always loved studying other languages, and I believe I learn things about
other people through that study that I cannot learn any other way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I find the time spent arguing that
one Buddhist tradition is authentic and the others are false – or insisting on specific
English translations of Pali and Sanskrit terms over their Chinese, Tibetan,
Korean, and Japanese translations -- to be a great waste of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Deciding that someone has reached a
certain level of meditation, even when that decision comes from a highly
evolved teacher, also makes me cringe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Such decisions are by nature misleading if they are based on
conceptualizations expressed in words, in any language.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
[fn 1]</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dr. Suzuki was born in 1870 to a samurai family in
Kanazawa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The name given to him at
birth, as the fourth son, was Teitaro (<span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">貞太郎</span>), or “Obedient
Good Boy”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The democratization of
Japan in 1868 took away the status that samurai families had enjoyed for
centuries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When his physician
father died, leaving his family destitute, the Pure Land Shin Buddhist
denomination of his mother’s family supported her and educated the children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>D. T. Suzuki is regarded as the premier
spokesman for Zen Buddhism in the world today because of his many books on Zen in
English and other languages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
he is disregarded by most Japanese Zen priests, who regard him to an outsider
because of his affiliation with Shin Buddhism. However, Soen Shaku, a Japanese
Zen priest who encouraged his disciples to study English and to share Zen
teachings with Westerners, took Suzuki on as a student in 1894 and gave him the
enigmatic priest name Daisetsu (<span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">大拙</span>), which in
effect means “such a klutz.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As an
author writing in English, Dr. Suzuki adopted the name D. T. Suzuki, taking the
first letters of his birth and priest names to distinguish himself from all
other Suzukis.</div>
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In his twenties Suzuki became acquainted with many Westerners,
discussing religion and philosophy with them and living for extended periods in
their homes in Illinois and New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He and his American wife, Beatrice Erskine Lane, maintained homes in
both Japan and America, and their journal <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Eastern Buddhist</i> was read world-wide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As a professor in Kyoto at Otani University, the school affiliated with
Shin Buddhism, Dr. Suzuki linked up with other Zen Buddhist priests and
scholars (such as Hisamatsu Shinichi) who shared similar views on the value of
Zen in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The study of
world religions and their relationships to each other were explored through such
organizations as the Theosophical Society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suzuki’s lectures in New York and London were wildly popular
during the 1950’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same
time, his efforts in maintaining orthodox training in Zen meditation, even for
Westerners, and in the careful study of the writings of Shinran, the 12<sup>th</sup>-century
founder of Shin Buddhism, occupied Daisetsu Sensei right up until the end of
his long life in 1966.</div>
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fn. 2</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zen and Zen Classics</i>,
Vol. IV (“Mumonkan”) by R. H. Blyth (Hokuseido Press: 1966).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Chinese Zen priest Wu-men (J.
Mumon) wrote this book in 1228, based on several centuries of student-master
encounters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Japanese priest
Shinchi Kakushin (1205-1298) trained under Wu-men in 1253-54 and brought a copy
of the book back to Japan. It is one of a few well-known classics of the genre
available in Japanese and other languages. The bulk of those written in China
and Korea since the 13<sup>th</sup> century (including the four mentioned by
Suzuki in this preface) have still not been translated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Japan the classic <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koan</i> cases are normally given to
trainees orally, and in an abbreviated form. Reading the texts is in fact
discouraged. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
fn. 3</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ibid</i>., p.18-38.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reginald Horace Blyth (1893-1964) dedicated
this volume to “Suzuki Daisetz, the Greatest Japanese of This Century.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The two men were lifelong friends. Blyth
was an Englishman who went to India in 1924, and then took a university post in
Korea in 1925.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While there he
studied Zen under a Japanese Rinzai master for ten years before moving to
Japan, teaching at the peer’s school (ShiGakko) in Kanazawa, where he first met
D. T. Suzuki.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the war he
was imprisoned, but after the war he served on Gen. MacArthur’s staff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a professor at Gakushu-in he tutored
the Crown Prince (Emperor Akihito).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Blyth is buried next to Suzuki in Kamakura.</div>
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fn. 4</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Eastern Buddhist</i>,
October 1977, p. 81-82.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In order
to further emphasize the relationship of the holy and non-holy, Hisamatsu Shin’ichi
(1889-1980), one of Suzuki’s closest friends, put it this way:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>there is something in Zen that “strives
for the highest reach of the religious in the ‘non-holy’” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Eastern Buddhist</i>, May 1977, p. 4.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
fn. 5</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In my experience, Japanese novices know going into the
abbot’s room that Joshu’s response should be their response, literally, even if
they know their meditation has not reached maturity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Putting some sound to a lengthy out-breath is thus a kind of
holding pattern.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In temples
outside of Japan students sometimes try to give a conceptual, scholarly or
nonsensical response, which usually gets them dismissed at once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Manifesting for your self the awareness
of things is not easy.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
fn. 6</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stephen Batchelor may be our generation’s D. T. Suzuki.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The number of his books does not match
the master’s, but could someday come in second. He was born in 1953 in
Scotland, raised near London, and at 18 went to Dharamsala, India, where he
studied Tibetan Buddhism with Geshe Dhargyeye for ten years, then with Geshe
Rabten in Switzerland for five years, and after a couple more years as translator
for Geshe Thubten in Germany. During that time (in 1979) Batchelor was ordained
as a monk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1981 he went to
South Korea to train in Zen Buddhism under Kusan Sunim. There he met Martine
Fages, who had been ordained as a nun in Korea in 1975, and in 1985 the couple disrobed
and married, settling in Sharpham in Devon, England, where they lived
throughout the 1990’s, establishing a college for Buddhist studies and a
meditation center. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2000 the
couple moved to Bordeaux, France, and they hold teachings all over the world
(see their busy schedule on his website: stephenbatchelor.org).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wallace’s review of Batchelor’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Confession of a Buddhist Atheist</i> is in the
October 2010 issue of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mandala Magazine</i>.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Batchelor’s response, “An Open
Letter to B. Alan Wallace,” is in the January 2011 issue.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
fn. 7</div>
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<a href="http://www.sbinstitute.com/"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">www.sbinstitute.com</span></a><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
fn. 8</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Page 148 of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Meditations
of a Buddhist Skeptic</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
fn. 9</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Sino/Japanese Buddhist dictionaries, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">shyamata</i> is <span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">正受</span> (in Japanese, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">shouju</span></i>)
and literally means “proper reception.” But other Chinese characters are listed
as synonyms:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">定</span> (S. J. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jou</i>) meaning “stable or fixed”; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">禅定</span> (J. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zenjou</i>) meaning “confident
meditation,”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and even <span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">三昧</span> (S. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">samadhi</i>, J. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sanmai</i>) meaning “three foolish concerns,”
i.e., of birth, life, and death. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their
differences are noted, but not described in detail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They all refer to reaching a point of quiet awareness and
being able to see into the nature of things and avoid what Wallace calls unwholesome
obstructions. The Sino-Japanese word for “mind” is always used in the
definitions of what is being quieted and made aware.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That word is what in Japan is called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kokoro</i>, which all Japanese take to mean the heart of humanity we
all share. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
fn. 10</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
J. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">shikan</i> (<span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">止観</span>) – lit., stop and see; and other “seeing” meditations such as
sangan <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(<span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">三観</span>) and kensho (<span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">見性</span>) are supposedly more shallow,
according to Wallace. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He follows Indo-Tibetan
tradition in the rankings of these levels as well as the terms in the previous
footnote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suzuki Sensei always favored
the Chinese character <span lang="JA" style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">妙</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA;"> (J. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">myou</i>,
C. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">miao</i>) above all others because it is
not a translation of an Indian term, and has the sense of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“mystery” or “wonder” in English.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he insisted it was a mystery that
could be experienced in the here and now and at any time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think it was his private word for the
most profound <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dhyana</i> (i.e., Zen) of
all.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
fn. 11</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Meditations</i>, p.
151</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
fn. 12</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ibid</i>., p. 153</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
fn. 13</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Jonang School of Tibetan Buddhism, founded by Sakya
teachers in the 12<sup>th</sup> century, espouses the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zhentong</i> philosophy of emptiness, the religion’s core belief.
Jonang says that only the non-dual nature of the mind (the God gene) is
inherently real; everything else is marked by duality, and thus is not real.
Zhentong views have been criticized as unorthodox by all the main schools of
Tibetan Buddhism, but particularly by the Gelug School, the predominant school
for over 500 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The orthodox
teaching on the subject is called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">rantong</i>,
which says ALL phenomena are empty of inherent existence, and that nothing
(including <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">alaya</i>, the mind’s core
that is the source of all consciousness) is inherently real … OR (wait for it)
unreal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In short, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">rantong</i> trumps, because both assertions
are seen to be groundless in the face of Buddhist teachings about reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zhentong</i> does not cause very many Tibetan Buddhists (except Alan
Wallace) much of a problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
fn. 14</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My admiration for Daisetsu Sensei is limitless, obviously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fairness to B. Allan Wallace, his
criticism of Zen and Suzuki in particular is gentle compared to attacks by
other young Western scholars of Buddhism who have made it fashionable to
ridicule Suzuki because he “lacked formal transmission in a Zen lineage” and
created an “intellectualized, free-floating Zen.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Robert H. Sharf has made that charge with a straight face in
several books and articles, pointing also to the late Abe Masao and other Kyoto
intellectuals as creators of a “Zen of Japanese nationalism.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In as much as Suzuki was a life-long
teacher for me, and Dr. Abe was my landlord when I was a doctoral student at
Kyoto University, I can perhaps be excused from that discussion. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Glenn T. Webb</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
December 2012 </div>
<!--EndFragment-->Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-78300885123666759202012-09-09T15:55:00.001-07:002012-09-09T15:55:42.554-07:00FREEDOM
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;">FREEDOM</span><span style="font-family: "MS 明朝"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-language: JA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Last
week I found myself explaining American freedom (among other things) to thirty
Japanese college students who were on a 3-week study tour of the Los Angeles
area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This morning, while getting
a haircut, I tried to explain to my barber what I said to them and why. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Last
week’s challenge was part of a day-long cross-cultural seminar the students had
with me (and Carol my wife) on the LA campus of Bukkyo University. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We decided to focus on the different
reactions of Japanese and Americans to two types of violence:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that brought on by nature (specifically
the Tohoku earthquake/tsunami on March 10, 2011) and the kind that is man-made
(case in point, our “Dark Knight” massacre in July of this year.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We
pretty much knew how the discussions on these topics were going to go. Once
they realized they could speak freely to us in Japanese, the students answered
our questions about where they each were on the afternoon of this natural
disaster. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They knew all the shocking
statistics about the event:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>16,000
dead – mostly old people and children – whose bodies were recovered or swept
out to sea, and about the international relief effort that is still going on. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they had heard of the estimated multi-billion
dollar cost to the Japanese public in terms of what was lost and must be
rebuilt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
students heard us say how profoundly moved we were by the orderly and
compassionate manner the Japanese went about helping each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The students took our compliments in
stride.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such thoughtful behavior
is merely the way things should be (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">atari-mae</i>),
they said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carol and I continue to
be amazed because it appears the Japanese are a people who stoically accept the
inevitable or unavoidable and seem to be born with a put-others-first (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">omoi-yari</i>) gene.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For
our students, last year’s earthquake and tsunami were unavoidable natural
disasters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They noted that
earthquakes were almost a daily event in their island nation, and agreed that
the tsunami did the most damage, giving personal testimonials about how this
one affected their lives. They laughed at the idea that the destruction and
violence was due to nuclear warming or an angry God in heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For them the choice to grieve silently
and rebuild carefully was a no-brainer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
question of man-made violence caused more excitement and concern, even
outrage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They know about America’s
love affair with weapons of all kinds, and quickly concluded that the American
student who murdered innocent theatergoers in July was insane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they blame the American legal
system more than they blame him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We really couldn’t push the conversation much further than “what do
Americans expect?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The students
nevertheless attempted to translate my paper on the subject (“Movie Theater
Massacre”) as part of their language assignment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">One
of the students timidly pointed out that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the only
cities in history to be destroyed by atomic bombs, and that Japan’s population
had decreased by about half after all Japanese cities except Nara and Kyoto had
been flattened by American bombs by 1945.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While noting that that was surely a case of man-made violence, he and
the other students quickly admitted that Japan had provoked the war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They kept looking our way to assure us
that the cause and effect nature of that ugly part of our shared history was
almost like a natural disaster.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">By
that time the question of cultural differences between Japan and the U.S. far
outweighed the need to continue to look at my rather academic focus on natural
and man-made violence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
students wanted to move on to weightier problems, like why do Americans not
take off their shoes indoors, or take such short baths, or not care for homeless
people, or argue about abortion and healthcare, etc., etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the ones that hit home were the
questions about racism and religious intolerance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Why do Americans hate black people, even their own
president?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Why do Americans hate
Muslims?” “Why do Americans hate so much?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m
not sure my answers were adequate. These young Japanese college students’
curiosity was genuine, and I felt deeply challenged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I began by trying to bolster their shaky but well-informed
knowledge of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They couldn’t take any of these doctrines seriously, but
Carol and I tried to assure them that many Americans do, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and that we argue over which one is
right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same time we
tried to imagine how our expressions of faith would sound to 19-year-old
Japanese students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Like
all Japanese, these students are nominal Buddhists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which is to say their families observe all special days and
rituals in the Buddhist calendar of their particular denomination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they are vague on the particulars
of the Buddhist denomination their individual families have been affiliated
with for centuries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They cannot
even give a clear account of basic Buddhist history and teachings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(As it turns out, all but two of the
students are from Jodo-shu Pure Land Buddhist families.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Which
brings me to my experience in the barbershop this morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I climbed into the chair, I noticed
a sad little sticky-note on the mirror with the following pencil-written
message (but without the correct spelling and grammatical markings):<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Defend Freedom, Defeat Obama, Vote on
Nov. 6.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suddenly the whole
experience last week with the Japanese students in Los Angeles came back in a
rush.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My barber Dave is a good
man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was in the Korean War, and
remembers vividly how cold it was in winter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He took breaks in Japan, loved “Geeshas” and said he was
puzzled and embarrassed when Japanese passing him on the sidewalk would
bow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But
my barber and lots of his customers hate President Obama, mostly because he is
black and therefore shouldn’t be in the office of the President of the United
States. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is not an
American.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is a Muslim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His Obama-care is socialized medicine
(“just like my VA medical care, says Dave, but communist.”)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I asked Dave how defeating Obama would
help him defend freedom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What was
the connection?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What kind of
freedom are we talking about?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Freedom from Obama? (Yes)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Freedom from a black man?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(Yes)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is that all?
(No)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’ll have the freedom to
make all the money I want and be myself!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Really?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And
so went the conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Freedom
was the key, American freedom, that is, to make money and do what I want with
as few restrictions from the government as possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Greed is good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Never mind that Obama and the Democratic platform is bound to put more
money in my barber’s pockets than Romney and Ryan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It makes no sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(Did I mention that my barber is a Catholic boy who thinks Mormonism is
a cult?)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyway, I decided that to
talk about American freedom is one way to explain to Japanese friends many
things they may find mysterious about my country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our Bukkyo University students are back in Japan now, but
another group will be visiting next year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So
here’s the way I would shape a discussion around freedom for them, and for all
Japanese acquaintances who want to understand American culture a bit better. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Americans may be shocked that Japanese
people have always considered words like “independence”, “ individuality” and
“freedom” to have a negative ring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They were the words used for centuries to criticize selfish
behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Self concerns had to be
kept in check in a society composed of interdependent groups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Putting your own needs ahead of others
was for citizens of Japan a kind of mortal sin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Japanese must have been shocked, first when Americans forced Japan with war
ships to open her ports to trade in 1853, and then when the American invaders declared
freedom to be the goal of human life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The two Chinese characters for the word “freedom” (pronounced <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jiyu</i> in Japanese) mean something like
“self-assertion” or “self-insistence”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That would seem to be the opposite of what the word means in Western
languages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Instead
of describing how it feels to be liberated from oppression, which is what
“freedom” means in the history of Europe and the Americas, the word in old
Japan described someone who was intent on being a threat to the welfare of
others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even now the Japanese word
for “selfish” is almost a synonym for “free”, so to be free is almost by
definition to be inconsiderate. That is why, when the Japanese understood what
the Westerners were saying, that freedom seemed to them a strange goal for
humans to aspire to. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But
if you want to be free not to pay taxes to an oppressive government, and be
free of a man in the presidency who is not even an American, and a black Muslim
to boot, then you will want to “defend freedom” by voting against President
Barak Obama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I suppose knowing
this will help Japanese people understand American freedom better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I will tell them that such a sad
little sticky-note on my beloved country’s historical record needs to be torn
off and burned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Glenn
Webb, 9/7/2012<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6362357353931598548.post-58134794402362258362012-07-23T12:42:00.001-07:002012-07-23T12:42:15.738-07:00July 19 Movie Massacre<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Movie Theatre Massacre, July
19, 2012 <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This
morning I woke up to another television breaking news story of human
brutality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the reports came in about
the bloody attack at last night’s midnight showing in Aurora, Colorado, of the
third Batman film from Hollywood, “The Dark Knight Returns,” I learned more and
more about the event itself, and the young man who was the agent of the
bloodshed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried to explore the
dark scenario in my mind and speak to myself about how it might have happened. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We’ve
lived in Japan so long that the notion that a person can go to a store and buy
a whole arsenal of high-power weapons seems insane to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of our Japanese friends have asked
us incredulously where we keep our guns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They know how we Americans love our guns, along with the Second Amendment
to our Bill of Rights. The fact that I was born in Oklahoma, famous for real
and pretend gunslingers, makes our friends’ question to us about our guns quite
reasonable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Ironically,
I come from a long line of pacifists, who were opposed to violence of any kind,
even to the spanking of children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
father and some of my uncles were conscientious objectors during World Wars I
and II.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I never went hunting or
had a gun of any kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I
always knew how violent I could be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My passions always were right on the surface of my life. I knew I could
kill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my dreams I did it with
pleasure. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">My
Church of Christ upbringing kept me from acting out my fear and anger, although
I was pretty sure God sympathized with me and protected me from my enemies,
just as He had with the Jews in the Old Testament. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stories of His punishment certainly kept me in line. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was transfixed at the gory scenes of
torture (including the crucifixion) in the illustrated family Bible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">By
third grade I had just about figured out that the stories in the Bible were
just that, stories, and I was determined to enlighten all my playmates about
what was actually real. (They were especially disappointed to hear there was no
Santa Claus; and some parents were ready to burn me at the stake as a heretic!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nevertheless, I loved the Abrahamic
stories and Grimm’s fairy tales dearly, or at least the morals they taught
about living. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
learned about death at eleven, when my grandmother Taylor died of a heart
attack and my best friend Robert died of polio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Death became a constant puzzle in my life from then on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was a child piano prodigy, and was
locked in a competitive and stressful career as a concert pianist until I
collapsed backstage after a performance, when I was seventeen, and I thought I
had died with my career.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It
was at that low point in my life that I began to consider whether I should “be
good” or do whatever I felt like, which often was not good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunately the impulse for goodness
was stronger than the one for evil and depravity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know why.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Perhaps out of fear, even though I had pretty much erased the vengeful
God of my youth from my consciousness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Until
I was introduced to sitting quietly in Zen Buddhist temples in Japan (which was
a requirement for getting my hands on documents necessary for my doctoral
research) I think I thought I could think things through.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I had done was to get clear on how
I could do whatever was legal and get ahead in life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My lying, manipulative and violent self whispered in one ear
and my peaceful, reasonable and legalistic self spoke loudly into the other
ear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the two selves were one
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">That
two-sided me was gradually and gently quieted by a sound and perception that
emerged after I first glimpsed my “death” on my sitting pillow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t know what to call it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew it wouldn’t be accurate to call
it God, because a lot of my Christian and Muslim friends have “God’s will” on
their side (after the death of a loved one or in a contest to find a parking
space, etc.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is not what I
heard and perceived. It was not even a voice, in the usual sense of that word.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What
I experienced (and continue to experience) is a genuine sound (of both sorrow
and joy) that seems to come from all sentient beings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The perceptions are likewise composed of all form, distinct
and yet perfectly combined in time and space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Notions of right and wrong, self and other, heavenly and
devilish, up and down, light and dark, past and future dissolve into
nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
sometimes describe this indescribable sound+perception as the voice of the
universe, when I’m gone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not
very practical, so I have to do the best I can to “translate” it in my everyday
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In any case, my translation
could never be a set of rules to force on anybody.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I think I am most useful when it is in control of me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If
I were not controlled I would do whatever it took to buy stuff I want.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nobody would matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would be the master of my domain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Occasionally I might give something to
charity, but that something would never amount to the something I gave to
myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Never!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And my stuff would be the envy of
everyone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
would also chew up people I disagreed with and spit them out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They wouldn’t have a chance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My sense of outrage at evil would equip
me with the ability to rip it up every time I saw it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My killing skills (learned in Asian martial arts) would be
working overtime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would be Superman,
Spiderman and Batman (even Wonder Woman) unleashed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ayn Rand herself would have to get out of my way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
would bask in the acclaim from those who approved, but I would squelch any
criticism before it had a chance to grow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Anyone who disagreed with me would be nailed to the wall by my tack
gun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rendered harmless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tongues and hands (and a few other
parts of the human anatomy) would be hung on my walls like trophies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
would outlaw music that makes me sick (most everything except Mozart and
Brahms), and the esthetics I espouse (too complicated to characterize here)
would rule supreme.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People would
not be executed for their religious beliefs, but I would kill them myself if
they killed anyone in the name of their particular idiotic faith.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When
the universe speaks, the “myself” that I know so well turns out to be
everything, everyone, every idea, every act, and every sound, smell, image, and
dream that anyone has ever imagined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What a revelation!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the
people and things I hate are me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Along with all the people and things I love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I have to consider who it is that hates or loves
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Could it be me?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But who am I?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">First
I must begin with the me that religion or reason shaped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is right and wrong, good and
evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I must be on the side of the right-and-good;
so I must fight the wrong-and-evil axis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I and they, me and them … it’s all so clear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But to do all this I most surely will have to kill, punish,
imprison, maybe even torture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
are just wars, after all!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
resentment (over whatever has wronged me) may indeed cause me to walk into a
crowded theater and kill people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The blowback from my actions (a concept developed by the CIA and truly
explained by the late Chalmers Johnson in his books <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blowback</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nemesis</i>)
will most certainly result in more and more conflict and bloodshed in the
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And
that is why I am a Democrat:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>because
Democrats have less faith in human nature than Republicans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“What do you mean Democrats have less
faith than Republicans in human nature?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This
is the response some of my friends and students have had to my “A Fair Balance”
essay (posted on Facebook and my blog.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They ask me, “How do you know?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And my response is simply, “Because I know myself.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">GTW<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Glenn Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13984672304344912251noreply@blogger.com1