You’ve Got To Serve Somebody

(Above a Tibetan monk debates, highlightinig his point and sending it to his debate companion with a big clap)

James Ford, a friend and inspiration to me, in his Monkey Mind blog has recently taken on my suggestion that there are a number of stances that characterize us as Zen teachers: authenticity vs. popularity, serving dharma vs. sangha, explaining Zen vs. providing the antecedents for discovery.

I’m delighted to see that James doesn’t see it the way I do! I put these ideas out in the blog world hoping that they might get kicked around and now they have. Yippee!

Here are a few more thoughts:

“These issues should all present,” he writes. Let’s start with that general point – I agree.

And there are times when life presents more like a forced-choice test (see my examples below in “Authentic Zen, or … You Got a Lot of Nerve”) than as a continuum to be negotiated. Compromising authenticity for popularity can erode one’s ethical compass and open the way for steering our little boat more and more off-course. This was one of the major learnings from a period of my life when I repeatedly compromised authenticity for popularity in order to create a financially sound Zen-stitution (albeit for a number of good reasons).

In my present life I work in the public schools. This move has fostered much more open space for me to practice and teach, free of the niggling voices about income/expense projections and a whole boat full of other considerations.

As for dharma vs sangha, of course, they come together in the Triple Treasures and not in a “vs” relationship. However, if as teachers we put serving the sangha before serving the truth (which is often the case in the present dharma world, in my limited view), we simply create a nice place for people to hang out – not a Dharma Center, a place where a sangha comes together by serving the truth, exploring and unfolding through it all.

Dogen-zenji challenges the notion that we should practice in order to free living beings, at least as the most honest practice. “Just practice for the sake of the buddha-dharma,” he says in Points to Watch in Zen Training. From this perspective, practicing in order to free others is just another ego manipulation, and a co-dependent one at that.

I first heard the above passage in 1982 after a beautiful talk by Thich Nhat Hanh about enjoying the breath. He turned to Katagiri-roshi and asked him if he had anything to add. Roshi said, “Dogen say to practice buddha-dharma just for buddha-dharma.” I was startled and clueless about what he meant. I’ve been chewing on it for these 25 years.

And (James, I’m talking to you here, buddy) do you really believe that freeing beings is about numbers? Is a sangha of 100 or 1000 somehow more Bodhisattvic than a group of 10 or 1? Compared to the infinity of beings, after all, 1, 10, 100, and 1000 are equally incomparable.

Finally, a word about explaining Zen vs. providing the antecedents for discovery. When I returned from a year in Japan way back in 1991, I was nauseated (not a figure of speech) by the amount of talking we do in American Zen! Of course, it is a different culture and we have different needs not having grown up, most of us, in a Buddhist culture….

Fortunately and unfortunately, I got over the nausea and went on to talk, talk, talk (and here I am spending an hour blogging!).

However, when we talk, talk, talk and students do the passive listening buzz, buzz, buzz thing (as Brad Warner put it recently in a post titled “Zentertainment”), we encourage students to use the dharma to lull themselves into a sweet Zen moment … but so what? The research on passive listening is compelling – it isn’t generally an effective teaching method. Why then do many dharma centers function mostly as places for people to come and passively listen to the dharma?

Talks can be more about stroking the teacher’s narcissism than about being the most effective way to help people practice just for the sake of the truth (and thereby freeing themselves and others). Good talks are also a really good way to get lots of donations.

Setting up the antecedents (zazen, work, liturgy, dokusan … and dharma talks too) in the spirit of supporting discovery rather than attempting to direct or control the truth (or the take) is what I’m encouraging … and that’s what I hope I’m doing now.

Comments welcome.