“Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.” ― Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. — Viktor E. Frankl
“Morality binds and blinds. It binds us into teams... but thereby makes us go blind to objective reality.” - Jonathan Haidt
We have recently discovered that Parkinson’s disease and PTSD emit distinct smells which can be picked up by humans, dogs and increasingly through scientific measurement. (Whoa.)
Hi friends,
Today seems an especially chaotic day in the public sphere, what with an assassination attempt, a President on the brink of rejection, and what feels like an ever-increasing distrust in institutions and authorities, that, for many of us, once felt more trustworthy and supportive.
In these times I am reminded that what we know as the Golden Age of Zen (Tang dynasty China in the 7th and 8th centuries CE) was a period of extreme political and social instability marked by constant battle amongst regional warlords and major rebellions against more entrenched powers (specifically, the An Lushan Rebellion.) There was plenty of warfare, violence, and poverty.
I don’t think our social discord has reached those levels yet, although things may be headed there.
Is this relevant?
I believe it is, for a simple but profound reason.
Zen is a practice of waking up to and living from our deepest natures, neutralizing the reactive patterns that come from our physiology and society, and seeing through the false beliefs we have inherited from our upbringing (which are in turn reinforced by those reactive patterns.)
Our conditioned reactivity is hardly an individual problem. It is amplified by and in turn amplifies the thinking, feeling and actions of the collective.
The recent work of Jonathan Haidt on anxiety, happiness and righteousness is enlightening on this, as is the work of William Davies in “Nervous States: Democracy and the Decline of Reason.”
Instead of succumbing to our evolutionarily maladaptive patterns, Zen encourages us to re-discover our inherent sanity, benevolence, and wisdom. We find these things not in any creed, behavior or loyalty. But by literally returning to our senses.
Meditation after all is nothing but paying close attention to our experience, the movements (for it is all always moving) of our sensations and thoughts. When we do this at the deepest level, we see through our fixed beliefs and enter a mind of Not Knowing, which is subtly attuned to the subtler aspects of reality, how we and our brothers and sisters are actually experiencing life, with all its pleasure, pain, surprise, and sadness.
We even take in key information that our filters have kept from us. (The two recent studies on smelling Parkinson’s and PTSD — linked above — just blew me away!)
Coming to our senses, means opening that space between stimulus and response. As Victor Frankl states, that is where we find our agency and our growth.
To bear witness to what we see, hear, smell, and feel — to not push anything away or try to change it — is the first essential step toward wise and moral action. This applies to everything in your life.
The more you practice this way of being, the better able you are to recognize your own reactive patterns, when you have gone into your own personal doom loop, or gotten seduced by the temptations of vengeance and acquisitiveness. None of us are immune.
But we can all come to our senses by coming to our senses.
Paul
Image: https://speakingofautismcom.wordpress.com/2020/04/30/the-twenty-six-senses/