The Zen of Jen

 

(Jen is an online pen pal I met at Brian Hine's fine site, Church of the Churchless.

https://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/

Jen commented here a few days ago elegantly about Existentialism and Buddhism, and so I asked her if I could repost those citations and if she wouldn't mind adding some thoughts.

Jen's straightforward  and sensible approach to her own mindfulness practice, and the philosophy behind it is very attractive. Anyone can adopt this personal philosophy, even if they choose to hold other religious or anti-religious views as well.  I hope this is the first of many posts our local Zenmaster Jen will create for all of us here at Atheist and Believer.)

 

 I often wonder if I am an atheist, or simply have existential views. I try to practice mindfulness, living with awareness and in the moment, the Zen buddhist way...

“The aim of mindfulness is to know suffering fully. It entails paying calm, unflinching attention to whatever impacts the organism, be it the song of a lark or the scream of a child, the bubbling of a playful idea or a twinge in the lower back. You attend not just to the outward stimuli themselves, but equally to%+20your inward reactions to them. You do not condemn what you see as your failings or applaud what you regard as success. You notice things come, you notice them go. Over time, the practice becomes less a self-conscious exercise in meditation done at fixed periods each day and more a sensibility that infuses one’s awareness at all times.” 
― Stephen Batchelor, Confession of a Buddhist Atheist

“The origin of the conflict, frustration, and anxiety we experience does not lie in the nature of the world itself but in our distorted conceptions of the world.” 
― Stephen Batchelor, Alone with Others: An Existential Approach to Buddhism

“Evasion of the unadorned immediacy of life is a+s deep-seated as it is relentless. Even with the ardent desire to be aware and alert in the present moment, the mind flings us into tawdry and tiresome elaborations of past and future. This craving to be otherwise, to be elsewhere, permeates the body, feeling, perceptions, will - consciousness itself. It is like the background radiation from the big bang of birth, the aftershock of having erupted into existence.” 
― Stephen Batchelor, Buddhism without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening

“To embrace suffering culminates in greater empathy, the capacity to feel what it is like for the other to suffer, which is the ground for unsentimental compassion and love.” 
― Stephen Batchelor,%+20Confession of a Buddhist Atheist

 

I live a very quiet life and have my own space it is quite easy to watch my thoughts and emotions and its a continuing practice of mine.

 

Living in the moment is about letting go of the past and catching oneself and bringing back one's thoughts to peace and love and presence, a constant struggle with the mind but a very worthy practice imo.

 

As you've probably noticed I do like to look up quotes to find something that resonates with me, its like talking to myself, a little lesson which lifts my spirit for the day...

 

"When we discover that the truth is already in us, we are all at once our original selves." 

Dogen

 

I became interested in Existentialism when I came across this video about existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre - his book "Being and Nothingness"- a philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.

Sartre in Ten Minutes (9:59)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ba3kvofvyg

 

Existentialism meets Buddhism

 

A good portion of my writing focuses on Eastern practices such as mindfulness, and how they can improve one’s life. Another topic I focus on is existential philosophy and how beliefs derived from that school can also make life more fulfilling. In this post, I’d like to discuss similarities between the two.

 

I was struck recently by how the two philosophies, born of different worlds, came to many of the same conclusions. Existential philosophy is a Western idea, originating in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. Buddhism is much older, said to have originated in the fifth century B.C.E. Despite their disparate origins and development, there are several striking similarities.

 

Being in the moment: Heidegger, a famous existential writer, wrote a book translated as “mindfulness”. He talks about Being, living in the moment, throughout his writing. Buddhism, as well as other Eastern philosophies (Taoism, for instance) also focus on the importance of immersion in the moment. As I’ve written a dozen times, empirical studies indicate the benefits of mindfulness for everything from physical ailments to mental health disorders. Mindfulness is essential to both philosophies, as it leads to the power to change, which is discussed next.

 

Individuals can change: To put it existentially, existence precedes essence. Essence is the idea of a finished product, where existence suggests becoming, being, and the ability to take control over one’s life. In Buddhism and other Eastern thought, the idea is that nothing exists except in the moment. Though some sects of Buddhism believe one possess a “Buddha Nature”, it is almost impossible to realize it for extended periods. In both philosophies, the idea is to “become”.

 

The inevitability of death: Though this is a more integral part of existential thought, (the fear of death and the need to face it permeates existentialism), Buddhism also focuses on meditating on one’s death. Being aware of death is central to Tibetan Buddhism, which spurred the famous, “Tibetan Book of the Dead”, and the more recent, “Tibetan Book of Living and Dying”. Yoga has a pose called, “Savasana”, which is translated as “corpse pose”. Though yoga is not Buddhist, it further demonstrates the fact that Eastern thought (in this case Hindu) has come to similar conclusions as western existentialism.

 

Suffering is part of life: What’s more, they both focus on how the view of suffering can be transformative. In Buddhism, suffering is addressed in the Four Noble Truths. Suffering is part of existence, and can be overcome by following the Eightfold Path. Some of this philosophy focuses on acceptance of what cannot be changed (see Acceptance: It Isn’t What You Think).

 

In existential thought, suffering can provide life meaning. Camus’ most famous essay focuses on “The Myth of Sysyphus”, and how even knowing his work is pointless and considered torture by the gods, he embraces his life. Camus ends his essay with the idea that, “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart” (Camus, p.123).

 

Viktor Frankl, another existential writer, focuses on the meaning of suffering. When confronted with a patient who suffers because of the death of his wife, Frankl challenges the client’s meaning, pointing out that by bearing this suffering, he spares his wife the suffering of his death. In both of these existential writers’ views, the view of suffering alters its experience.

 

There are similarities between many philosophies and religions. Many focus on making your life happier and becoming a better person. The same is true for these two philosophies. In fact, I once read a book about how different philosophies can help one with mental health (Plato, Not Prozac). I am of the belief that for many mental health issues, a change of philosophy is the cure.

 

Copyright William Berry, 2017

 

"I think we have to trust ourselves in the darkness of not knowing. The God out of which we came and into which we go is an unknown God. It's the luminosity of that darkness and that unknowing that is, I think, the most human - and the most sacred - place of all." 

Sam Keen

 

Jen

Comments

[Jen]

By letting it go,

it all gets done.

The world is won by those who let it go.

But when you try and try,

The world is beyond the winning.

- Lao Tzu

[Jen]

As always I follow my intuition and this morning I was thinking about our conscious self and our subconscious 'shadow self' - Jungian psychology. I often think about projection and how we recognise in others certain traits we dislike, the shadow self, the part of us that is recognising and projecting onto another without us even realising how or why.

From: Shadow (psychology)

"Everyone carries a shadow," Jung wrote, "and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is." It may be (in part) one's link to more primitive animal instincts, which are superseded during early childhood by the conscious mind.
...
According to Jung, the shadow, in being instinctive and irrational is prone to psychological projection, in which a perceived personal inferiority is recognized as a perceived moral deficiency in someone else.
...

"Jung also made the suggestion of there being more than one layer making up the shadow. The top layers contain the meaningful flow and manifestations of direct personal experiences. These are made unconscious in the individual by such things as the change of attention from one thing to another, simple forgetfulness, or a repression. Underneath these idiosyncratic layers, however, are the archetypes which form the psychic contents of all human experiences. Jung described this deeper layer as "a psychic activity which goes on independently of the conscious mind and is not dependent even on the upper layers of the unconscious—untouched, and perhaps untouchable—by personal experience" (Campbell, 1971).

"The shadow personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself" and represents "a tight passage, a narrow door, whose painful constriction no one is spared who goes down to the deep well". If and when 'an individual makes an attempt to see his shadow, he becomes aware of (and often ashamed of) those qualities and impulses he denies in himself but can plainly see in others—such things as egotism, mental laziness, and sloppiness; unreal fantasies, schemes, and plots; carelessness and cowardice; inordinate love of money and possessions - a painful and lengthy work of self-education".

Individuation

"Individuation inevitably raises that very possibility. As the process continues, and "the libido leaves the bright upper world ... sinks back into its own depths...below, in the shadows of the unconscious", so too what comes to the forefront is "what was hidden under the mask of conventional adaptation: the shadow", with the result that "ego and shadow are no longer divided but are brought together in an—admittedly precarious—unity."

"The impact of such "confrontation with the shadow produces at first a dead balance, a stand-still that hampers moral decisions and makes convictions ineffective... chaos, melancholia. Consequently, (as Jung knew from personal experience) "in this time of descent—one, three, seven years, more or less—genuine courage and strength are required", with no certainty of emergence. Nevertheless, Jung remained of the opinion that while "no one should deny the danger of the descent ... every descent is followed by an ascent, and assimilation of—rather than possession by—the shadow becomes at last a real possibility."

Assimilation of

"We begin to travel [up] through the healing spirals...straight up."

Here the struggle is to retain awareness of the shadow, but not identification with it. "Non-identification demands considerable moral effort...prevents a descent into that darkness"; but though "the conscious mind is liable to be submerged at any moment in the unconscious... understanding acts like a life-saver. It integrates the unconscious - reincorporates the shadow into the personality, producing a stronger, wider consciousness than before.

"Assimilation of the shadow gives a man body, so to speak", and provides thereby a launching-pad for further individuation. "The integration of the shadow, or the realisation of the personal unconscious, marks the first stage of the analytic process...without it a recognition of anima and animus is impossible."

Conversely "to the degree to which the shadow is recognised and integrated, the problem of the anima, i.e., of relationship, is constellated", and becomes the centre of the individuation quest.

Nevertheless, Jungians warn that "acknowledgement of the shadow must be a continuous process throughout one's life"; and even after the focus of individuation has moved on to the animus/anima, "the later stages of shadow integration" will continue to take place—the grim "process of washing one's dirty linen in private"... accepting one's shadow."

[Jen]

In Zen Buddhism, the greater your doubt,
the greater will be your enlightenment.
That is why doubt can be a good thing.
If you are too sure,
if you always have conviction,
then you may be caught in your wrong perception for a long time.

Nhat Hanh

[777]

When gollem senses a tiny Truth

The more it let you scroll & skip ( 8 times now to come here )

7

[Jen]

One day it just clicks...
You realize what's important and what isn't.
You learn to care less about what other people think of you and more about what you think of yourself.
You realize how far you've come and you remember when you thought things were such a mess that you would never recover.
And you smile.
You smile because you are truly proud of yourself and the person you've fought to become.

(tinybuddha quote)
..........

Who needs people now that we have the Internet... :)

We are all now connected by the Internet,
like neurons in a giant brain.
Stephen Hawking
..........

I heard internet addiction is now an official mental disorder
and you can go to rehab for it.
I'm only going if there's Wi-Fi.
..........

Before marrying someone,
you should first make them use a computer with slow Internet,
just to see who they really are.
..........

I'm having people over to stare at their phones later
If you want to come by ...
..........

[@Spence]

Hi Spence,

Just wanted to say hello and how are you?

For some strange reason I have a feeling of good will towards everyone and everything around me. Strange because most of my life I have avoided people, find them quite difficult in so many ways, but thats my realisation now, everyone is different. How amazing is that. No two people are exactly the same, not even twins. So many people in the world and so many varying personality types.

Also thinking about giving thanks for just being alive, probably because of getting quite old now. Dreadful things happening in the world but still just being grateful, at peace until the next disaster happens, and then again, just doing the best in all the surrounding chaos.

I know you are a kind and helpful type of person. Hope everything is going well for you.

I'm always reading about 'oneness' and now am actually feeling it. Thats it. Thats all it is, everything is oneness, every living thing on this planet. Hope this feeling lasts.

Cheers for now,
Jen

[Dungeness]

Thanks for the tinybuddha quotes, Jen.

The highest sense continues to be the sense of humor, the ability to laugh.
One who cannot laugh will make no spiritual progress. To see the drama
of this life one must have a sense of humor.

If God created this universe I can't believe He could've done it without a
sense of humor.
--Ishwar Puri

[Jen]

Hi Dungeness,

Yes, to have a sense of humour is important, helps to survive in the drama of life, as Ishwar says...

[Jen]

I once followed a Master and believed in reincarnation and karma, now I don't believe in anything, it makes life easier to just accept that we are born, we learn, we unlearn, then we die.

Some questions remain like why is there suffering, is there life after death, do we even have a soul, why are we here, who or what created this world. The Buddhists nailed it, just be unknowing, at least that does bring some peace of mind.

I do sometimes feel like we are living in some kind of computer game created by advanced aliens even though thats more like science fiction. I still wonder though did we make a choice to take on this form of a human being to experience a life of chaos and confusion or are we simply living in a simulation and if there are other life forms in the universe, why haven't we met them. I think they are around and keeping an eye on us.

Elon Musk quote:
“The absence of any noticeable life may be an argument in favour of us being in a simulation. Like when you’re playing an adventure game, and you can see the stars in the background, but you can’t ever get there. If it’s not a simulation, then maybe we’re in a lab and there’s some advanced alien civilisation that’s just watching how we develop, out of curiosity, like mould in a petri dish.” (Sep, 2014 | Source)

[Jen]

Not an easy practice, but I'm going to spend this day being devoted to nothingness, emptiness ... should be interesting... ?!

Know your own nothingness.
Be devoted to it. Be devoted to nothing.
Be the emptiness you already are;
be empty of an imagined false self-image.
No longer believe you are something you are not.

Zen Thinking

[Spence Tepper]

Wow. Powerful Jen...
"Know your own nothingness.
Be devoted to it. Be devoted to nothing.
Be the emptiness you already are;
be empty of an imagined false self-image.
No longer believe you are something you are not."

[Jen]

“Some say that my teaching is nonsense.
Others call it lofty but impractical.
But to those who have looked inside themselves,
this nonsense makes perfect sense.
And to those who put it into practice,
this loftiness has roots that go deep.

I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.”

― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

[Jen]

Woke up early this morning and went out onto the balcony. It was still dark and there was this beautiful golden full moon, just over the horizon. Just did a search and read about Full Supermoon, March 2019 Equinox.
Moon looked so beautiful when close to the horizon and within a few minutes... its gone
...........................
The moon is magic for the soul
and light for the senses
...........................
And if you're ever feeling lonely
just look at the moon.
Someone, somewhere is looking right at it too.

[Spence Tepper]

Jen, you wrote
"simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures."

To build the atmosphere to grow these within ourselves is a mighty achievement, and well worth a quieter, gentle lifestyle.

Just thinking about these qualities, to me, is like gazing upon rare jewels. And that brings me closer to them!

[Jen]

Hi Spence,

I enjoy so much looking for quotes, usually begin with a thought or a word which leads me to something uplifting. Thanks for allowing me to post quotes here on this blog. Today I was thinking about sincerity...

Quotes: ― Shunryu Suzuki (Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind)

“More important than any stage which you will attain is your sincerity, your right effort.” 

...............

“We can say either that we make progress little by little, or that we do not even expect to make progress. Just to be sincere and make our full effort in each moment is enough.” 

...............

“But the purpose of studying Buddhism is to study ourselves and to forget ourselves. When we forget ourselves, we actually are the true activity of the big existence, or reality itself.” 

...............

[Jen]

Yes Spence, those qualities, simplicity, patience and compassion are rare jewels.

Happiness is not something I have strived for. Bit of a wake up call, now remembering many years ago, my son and I went to a talk by Matthieu Ricard when he visited Australia, and he is called "the world's happiest man".

“The scans showed that when meditating on compassion, Ricard’s brain produces a level of gamma waves — those linked to consciousness, attention, learning and memory — ‘never reported before in the neuroscience literature’, Davidson said. The scans also showed excessive activity in his brain’s left prefrontal cortex compared to its right counterpart, allowing him an abnormally large capacity for happiness and a reduced propensity towards negativity.”

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/how-to-be-happier-according-to-matthieu-ricard-the-worlds-happiest-man-2016-1?r=US&IR=T

[Jen]

I love people who have an unusual sense of humour and make me laugh - my British ancestry perhaps ...
Douglas Adams: author 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'
..............................
Quotes:

In the beginning the universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry,
and has been widely regarded as a bad move.
......
A common mistake that people make when trying
to design something completely foolproof
is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
......
The knack of flying
is learning how to
throw yourself at the ground
and miss.
......
Human beings,
who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others,
are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
......
The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.
......
I'm spending a year dead
for tax reasons.
......

[Jen]

Friedrich Nietzsche quotes:

"No one can construct for you
the bridge upon which precisely
you must cross the stream of life,
no one but you yourself alone."

"There are no beautiful surfaces
without a terrible depth."

"To live is to suffer,
to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering."
...................................

The only way to deal with an unfree world
is to become so absolutely free
that your very existence
is an act of rebellion.

Albert Camus

[Jen]

The Tao Theme of Sheng Jen - the Sage

I Am Alone

What's the difference between yes and no?
What's the difference between beautiful and ugly?
Must one dread what others dread?
Oh barbarity! Will it never end?

Other people are joyous, like on the feast of the ox,
Like on the way up to the terrace in the spring.
I alone am inert, giving no sign,
Like a newborn baby who has not learned to smile.
I am wearied, as if I lacked a home to go to.

Other people have more than they need,
I alone seem wanting.
I have the mind of a fool,
Understanding nothing.

The common people see clearly,
I alone am held in the dark.
The common people are sharp,
Only I am clumsy,
Like drifting on the waves of the sea,
Without direction.

Other people are occupied,
I alone am unwilling, like the outcast.
I alone am different from the others,
Because I am nourished by the great mother.

https://www.taoistic.com/taothemes/shengjen-sage.htm

[Jen]

Everything we hear is an opinion,
not a fact.
Everything we see is a perspective,
not the truth.

Marcus Aurelius

..................................

What we call reality is in fact nothing more than a culturally sanctioned and linguistically reinforced hallucination.

Terence McKenna

..................................

Reality is not what your eyes show your mind,
but what your mind creates for your eyes to see.

[Jen]

Our minds are so tricky. Every day I notice this when I'm triggered by something or someone and want to react so then I look up some enlightening quotes and come back to practicing awareness which leads to a feeling of peace and connectedness...

You are not your thoughts.
You are the presence of awareness
that perceives them.
All else is a dream of mind.

Zen Thinking

You are the source of all Being.
Through you,
the entire universe becomes known.

Zen Thinking

[Jen]

Be the presence, not the person.
Presence is infinite - unbound by anything.
It is open, spacious, silent, empty,
and forever aware;
focussed on nothing and yet intrinsically in tune
with the totality of its environment.

Zen Thinking

Notice that every sensation and perception
is nothing but a reminder that you are here,
that you are now, and that you are
the invisible selfless presence
which enables all of this to be.

Awaken to the alive and aware spontaneity
that is your natural Self.

Zen Thinking

[Jen]

“Zen is a liberation from time. For if we open our eyes and see clearly, it becomes obvious that there is no other time than this instant, and that the past and the future are abstractions without any concrete reality.” – Alan Watts

..................................

Dogen Zenji quotes:

“One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world.”

"Do not follow the idea of others,
but learn to listen to the voice within yourself."

[Jen]

Just read C of C, now here is the opposite approach to life and all the stuff and nonsense we find ourselves in. I'm sincerely going to try to follow this, not easy, will have to read this often to remind myself, see if I can rewire and change the patterns in my brain :)
...........................

Finding Beauty in Every Freakin’ Moment, No Matter What
By Leo Babauta (Zen Habits)

How often are we anxious, frustrated, looking forward to something coming up, unhappy with ourselves, unhappy with others?

How often are we not happy with what’s going on in this present moment?

What if we could, instead, be completely in love with this moment?

What if, no matter what happened, we could find the beauty, joy, and gratitude in the moment as it happens?

Let’s make it so.

The Commitment to Live Fully

When we reject pain, sorrow, anger and loss … we are saying we don’t want all of our lives. We only want the good parts.

What I’m suggesting is that we fully engage with each and every moment. We don’t run, reject or avoid.

We embrace life fully.

We live fully in the groundlessness of our uncertainty and loss, the groundlessness of our anger and sorrow, the groundlessness of our pain. Instead of wishing for a stable, perfect moment … we learn to love the groundlessness and uncertainty of the moment we actually have.

We allow ourselves to fully feel whatever we’re feeling, without rejecting it, seeing this groundless tenderness as the enlightened energy of our lives.

We see this tenderness in our heart, in the midst of groundlessness, as goodness that is in us and everything around us.

We become fully present with an open heart, in full surrender to everything we experience. We reject nothing, and embrace everything.

We see everything as the path to joy and beauty. Everything is filled with goodness, if only we learn to see it as such. If we don’t see it, we only need to look closer.

We see every difficulty as our teacher. Every struggle has a lesson, every loss is a master class in becoming open and letting go of attachment, every pain is a way to touch our tender hearts. Any struggle and any difficult person is a teacher, if we embrace them as such.

Whenever we find ourselves wishing something were different … we use this as a touchstone to coming back to the moment and being fully with it, not rejecting it. Coming back and finding the beauty and goodness. Coming back and seeing this as our teacher.

When we begin to live each moment fully, we start to open up to a vast spacious awareness and beauty. It’s as if we wake up out of a dream to see the incredible mountains that have been in front of us the entire time.

It’s love, this thing in front of us. We just need to step fully into it, and feel the heart-breaking beauty of this love that we call life.

[Jen]

The key to growth is the
introduction of higher dimensions
of consciousness into our awareness.

Lao Tzu

No problem can be solved from
the same level of consciousness
that created it.

Albert Einstein

If you observe awareness steadily,
this awareness itself
becomes the guru
that will reveal the truth.

Ramana Maharshi