So you want to learn Zen!

With palms together,

Good evening Sangha,

When we first consider Zen, what are we considering? What do we see in this Zen? Why are looking in the first place? What does it all mean?

Typically, westerners are curious. Maybe they heard meditation is good for them. Maybe they want to become better people. Maybe they feel stressed and have been told meditation is a stress management tool. Perhaps they have not had so good experiences in their Church or Synagogue. Maybe they read a book or two, possibly by Alan Watts, D. T. Suzuki, Phillip Kapleau-roshi or Shunryu Suzuki-roshi. Whatever. They come to Zen to meet a need.

Then they find themselves in a Zen Center. In the Center they are greeted by bald headed guys in black robes wearing brown or black bibs. What's up with that? They are asked not to talk much. Not to read much. Not to do anything loud. Then they are asked to stand, bow, put their hands together as if they were praying. There are statues, incense, bells. They are asked to chant in a foreign language. They are asked to sit on a cushion facing a wall for an awfully long time, stand and walk in an odd sort of way, in a circle, going no where, just to get back to their cushion and sit down with pained knees facing the wall again. Moving is frowned upon. they are asked not to scratch themselves unless necessary. Oh yeah, this is the path to stress reduction.

Zen is all and none of the above.

Zen is about discipline. It is about self-discovery. It is about moral behavior. It is about developing the ability and willingness tro be compassionate, kind, forgiving, inclusive, non-judgemental. And somewhere in that mix, Zen is boring.

We sit with our legs folded facing a wall doing nothing. We are asked to place our attention on our breath, or our "hara," or no where at all. So, we just sit there. We want to move. We want someone to teach us something and by this I mean. tell us something, you know, TALK to us! Mention a book, an idea, something! But instead, we just sit there. We think. We feel. We wonder just what in the hell ever got into us.

Sometime or other a bell is "invited" to ring and we are finally allowed to get up. Only to sit down again and listern to some "Teacher" as he or she talks to us. Now this is more like it! Language, words, ideas! Great! Then he says, forget everything I have said. Say what?

Of course none of this makes any sense.

It doesn't. It isn't supposed to. The whole affair is intended to get you out of your mind. Zen is about experience, not thought. We often confuse the two. As if thinking about riding a bike is the same as actually riding the bike. There is no substitute for the sheer act of sitting down and quietly doing nothing. This doing nothing is, it turns out, quite a dynamic process. It involves our bodies, minds, and feelings. It involves history. It involves our desires, our intentions, our worst fears. And there is no where to go to get away from any of them. No where.

Be well.