Authenticity and Purity

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

We returned from the Refuge yesterday afternoon after a wonderful two days of retreat. During this time I studied Master Dogen's Eihei Shingi, a collection of standards for the monastery (which includes Tenzo Kyokun, his Instructions for the Cook), as well as a rather large book on the history of the Jews. I noticed both groups sought methods for creating purity, by which it seems they meant somewhat different things in different points in time and context.

In both cases, however, practitioners were asked to separate themselves from others, either through monastic life in one case, or in creating "special" markers for the tribe in the other case. In Zen, people shave their heads and retreat in sesshin, Jews circumcise and enjoy shabbot, interesting.

In both cases, the drive to separate is a drive to come closer to the Infinite at the same time via that separation. In both cases people lack the words to sufficiently convey the experience of intimacy with the Absolute, yet still manage. A bush that burns without consumption, a mouth with a molten iron that cannot be spit out.

In Dogen's monastery, we are taught not to do anything that will call attention to ourselves, separate us from the group of monks. Community is key and is a paramount virtue. In the Jewish tribes, the question of how to govern, have group cohesion, and remain loyal to the Absolute was in constant tension.

Today we practice, in both cases, as independent, liberal, and nearly secular, practitioners. Authority for our practices actually rests with ourselves. We get in touch with our own authenticity through our practice with only the guidance of larger bodies, not their rules.

It remains to be seen whether this will be a way that will survive. Human beings are funny that way. Like breathing, we have in-breath and out-breath cycles, some free and easy, some not.

Proximate rule following in the form of following tradition seems to yield a sense of being "more Jewish" or "more Zen-like" than not following closely the liturgies and standards of practice. Yet, is this really so? No. Feelings of authenticity are not authenticity, they are just what we call the feelings we have.

If I eat meat as a Zen Buddhist or eat bacon as a Jew I am not less Zen or less Jewish. Just so, if I don't eat meat or bacon, I am not more Zen or more Jewish. It only means what it means to me. We human beings are meaning makers, it is we who invest our lives with meaning. Zen or Jewish tradition only offers us the tools. It is our integration and practice that creates the authenticity and the meaning of our lives as Zen practitioners or Jewish practitioners or Christian practitioners for that matter.

Be well.