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I wonder if there's a term for this kind of headline - it's all the rage now (or maybe has been for some time)..."Meditation kills!!" ... "People who visit doctors more likely to die!!" or "Alcohol consumption extends life!!" We just love a good "shock value" headline, lol.
The choice of title for the article is unfortunate --- it's called sensationalism.
Nonetheless, here is a charming article positing Zen as basically immoral rubbish, and Ch'an as the only way
Truth be told, I would be one of them with such an opinion, not that Zen started that way, but the state of things today.
And yet there is a Ch'an organization in Taiwan whose admittedly central purpose is bringing down Tibetan Buddhism, and whose members spend inordinate amounts of time and money trying to do just that.
Extrapolating isolated, sensational cases is always the Dark Side of the Force, however great a headline you get out of it. Most Zen cats are awesome, cool, nonviolent people, and so are Ch'an folks, and so are Tibetan Buddhists. Most Muslims are horrified by suicide bombing (not the least of which reasons being they are usually the victims of it).
Ch'an isn't without its own problems --- for example, we've got the Shaolin three-ring circus with it's abbot playing the dual role of clown and ring master LOL
From my zafu, the right or wrong of any of those 8 steps is most easily defined as does it lead towards the cessation of suffering or not. Watching if the process softens or solidifies my identity or ego simplifies the right/wrong question.
Also, I believe if I'm not mistaken, that Breivik was using this killing as a "shock value" act, rather than believing he was fighting an actual thread. In other words, even by his own twisted logic, he was not defending against a real enemy by this particular killing spree, but mostly using a terrorist approach (i.e. killing an innocent to somehow affect the actual enemy).
True, but did the actions of kamikaze pilots lack any less "shock value"?
I'd guess the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan was also quite shocking.
Actually this is where the article stepped off into the deep end for me:
Meditation makes you calmer and clearer and encourages empathy and kindness … right? Not if you are Anders Behring Breivik who has told psychiatrists that he used meditation to "numb the full spectrum of human emotion – happiness to sorrow, despair, hopelessness, and fear". He still practises it behind bars to deaden the impact of his actions.
An unbiased article not shooting for shock value would find a couple of Zen or Buddhist meditation teachers and ask them what they think of Breivik's statement. Even as far as the effects of meditation, this is wrong. Meditation teaches us to focus on what our mind is doing at the time it's doing it; it's training the mind to be mindful. That's all. From "Wash dishes, sweep the floor" to "Pull the trigger" is not a big leap. The calm and clear aspect is at best a side effect. The empathy and kindness aspect mentioned is confusing the results of following the Dharma with the basic tool of mindfulness.
While I practiced Zen all my Buddhist life, I never did accept the "meditation only" school of practice or philosophy that goes with it and neither do a lot of Zen Buddhists. See, mindfulness is a fantastic tool, but useless without the rest of the 8-fold path. I saw that immediately. Be totally and completely in the moment? Great! But, now what? Most killers are totally mindful of what they are doing, while they are doing it. Inflicting and receiving violence tends to focus the mind on that act. A man pointing a gun at me is just as focused on me and the gun as I am on the man and his gun.
Good Zen teachers only teach meditation and clear mind, because they know it's impossible to teach wisdom and a compassionate clear mind, which is the untimate goal of our practice. We have plenty of examples in our own body of literature of wisdom and compassion that point to this ingredient in the practice. The Master might only teach meditation, but also needs to display kindness and wisdom as an example for the students to follow.
As for this Breivik, he's obviously insane and deluded and living inside his own made-up world that justifies his actions, so why would anyone look at his statements as accurate or true? Whatever he believes he's doing when he meditates, or the illusions he confuses with the reality of his meditiation, it was his delusions and hate that caused him to act and allows him to live with the consequences, not meditation.
There is something about this I'm not sure about because it hinges on what one calls Zen meditation.
I have thought that wrong concentration, mindfulness or understanding could be used to deliberately cause suffering but if meditation was used to cause suffering it wouldn't fit my description of zen meditation. This has been in accord so far with my studies & experience but since I'm a bit OC about my meditation practise, I continue to question it..
I am resistant to the idea there could be something called a wrong meditation..
Meditation for me partakes of a complete lack of deliberateness so if one tries to manipulate it towards a deliberate result, it has already morphed beyond Zen meditation into something else.
Meditation teaches us to focus on what our mind is doing at the time it's doing it; it's training the mind to be mindful. That's all. From "Wash dishes, sweep the floor" to "Pull the trigger" is not a big leap. The calm and clear aspect is at best a side effect. The empathy and kindness aspect mentioned is confusing the results of following the Dharma with the basic tool of mindfulness.
I think right mindfulness is more than just paying attention. In some commentaries 2 aspects of mindfulness are described: bare attention and clear comprehension.
Bare attention is just paying attention ( what you might call basic mindfulness ), but there is the added dimension of clear comprehension which involves wisdom ( and by implication compassion ).
Meditation is clear seeing, clarity, truth and the opening/releasing of the heart. That is necessarily imbued with humanity and any other direction is not the meditation of our forefathers/bearers IMO in Buddhism.
Meditation is clear seeing, clarity, truth and the opening/releasing of the heart.
That's the way we approach meditation as Buddhists. But "meditation" can mean all sorts of different things to different people, we haven't got a monopoly on it.
That is why I consistently say in this post 'in Buddhism' or 'Buddhist meditation'.
Someone can be stoned and call that meditation. Or others like to conjure up images of white balls. That is why this article is premised incorrectly and poorly researched. I have not read it for lack of interest, but that is my impression from the discussions.
It is clear it not anything near our concept or approach and format of meditation. (in the genuine schools of Buddhism)
What he was doing was making a practice of focusing on one desire to the exclusion of others. I would call it directed obsession. It can lead to great or horrendous actions, and to a serene singlemindedness that is often mistaken for zen, or sometimes even taught as zen e.g. 2nd World War Japanese soldiers, sports training etc. However zen is not about subordinating life to the needs of one's will, it is about subordinating one's will to the needs of life. The magic isn't for you, you are for the magic.
Comments
Extrapolating isolated, sensational cases is always the Dark Side of the Force, however great a headline you get out of it. Most Zen cats are awesome, cool, nonviolent people, and so are Ch'an folks, and so are Tibetan Buddhists. Most Muslims are horrified by suicide bombing (not the least of which reasons being they are usually the victims of it).
Yes, that's a good way of looking at it.
Meditation makes you calmer and clearer and encourages empathy and kindness … right? Not if you are Anders Behring Breivik who has told psychiatrists that he used meditation to "numb the full spectrum of human emotion – happiness to sorrow, despair, hopelessness, and fear". He still practises it behind bars to deaden the impact of his actions.
An unbiased article not shooting for shock value would find a couple of Zen or Buddhist meditation teachers and ask them what they think of Breivik's statement. Even as far as the effects of meditation, this is wrong. Meditation teaches us to focus on what our mind is doing at the time it's doing it; it's training the mind to be mindful. That's all. From "Wash dishes, sweep the floor" to "Pull the trigger" is not a big leap. The calm and clear aspect is at best a side effect. The empathy and kindness aspect mentioned is confusing the results of following the Dharma with the basic tool of mindfulness.
While I practiced Zen all my Buddhist life, I never did accept the "meditation only" school of practice or philosophy that goes with it and neither do a lot of Zen Buddhists. See, mindfulness is a fantastic tool, but useless without the rest of the 8-fold path. I saw that immediately. Be totally and completely in the moment? Great! But, now what? Most killers are totally mindful of what they are doing, while they are doing it. Inflicting and receiving violence tends to focus the mind on that act. A man pointing a gun at me is just as focused on me and the gun as I am on the man and his gun.
Good Zen teachers only teach meditation and clear mind, because they know it's impossible to teach wisdom and a compassionate clear mind, which is the untimate goal of our practice. We have plenty of examples in our own body of literature of wisdom and compassion that point to this ingredient in the practice. The Master might only teach meditation, but also needs to display kindness and wisdom as an example for the students to follow.
As for this Breivik, he's obviously insane and deluded and living inside his own made-up world that justifies his actions, so why would anyone look at his statements as accurate or true? Whatever he believes he's doing when he meditates, or the illusions he confuses with the reality of his meditiation, it was his delusions and hate that caused him to act and allows him to live with the consequences, not meditation.
There is something about this I'm not sure about because it hinges on what one calls Zen meditation.
I have thought that wrong concentration, mindfulness or understanding could be used to deliberately cause suffering but if meditation was used to cause suffering it wouldn't fit my description of zen meditation. This has been in accord so far with my studies & experience but since I'm a bit OC about my meditation practise, I continue to question it..
I am resistant to the idea there could be something called a wrong meditation..
Meditation for me partakes of a complete lack of deliberateness so if one tries to manipulate it towards a deliberate result, it has already morphed beyond Zen meditation into something else.
Bare attention is just paying attention ( what you might call basic mindfulness ), but there is the added dimension of clear comprehension which involves wisdom ( and by implication compassion ).
That is necessarily imbued with humanity and any other direction is not the meditation of our forefathers/bearers IMO in Buddhism.
Someone can be stoned and call that meditation. Or others like to conjure up images of white balls. That is why this article is premised incorrectly and poorly researched. I have not read it for lack of interest, but that is my impression from the discussions.
It is clear it not anything near our concept or approach and format of meditation. (in the genuine schools of Buddhism)