===== Zen And The Arts - 01 - Zen And The Art Of Controlled Accidents =====

The point of view of Zen and of Daoism has many curiously practical applications.
And I wanted to start off this afternoon by saying a little bit about one very close to home, which is clothes.
Now, when you notice how Western clothes are made, you will find, if you are experienced in packing,
that shirts are difficult to fold, that suits are absolutely abominable, put as was his case,
that women's blouses are the most curiously odd conformations,
because none of our clothes conform to the nature of cloth.
We try to make the cloth conform to the nature of our bodies, and the results are not always too edifying.
When the Japanese adopt Western clothing, they look perfectly absurd, and they have no idea how ridiculous they look.
Especially at a formal wedding, when they wear striped trousers, cutaways, top hats,
with the girl in the traditional kimono and white headdress.
It's the funniest looking thing on earth to see this match.
Now, we, it is true, do not wear Japanese clothes really elegantly.
They usually push it a little down here, have a little bit of belly, sorry.
They're rather proud of that.
It's called hara, H-A-R-A.
So you get the phrase harakiri, belly-cutting.
There's a thing that really, if you practice then, you get a belly like rock,
so that if somebody kicks you in the tummy, they break their toes.
Now, notice then, my sleeves are conveniently full of all sorts of things.
I've got pipe and spectacles and things in there.
And I stretch it out.
But do you see what's happened here?
The rectangular pattern of weaving cloth is followed.
The whole of this thing is constructed on rectangles.
And so it folds perfectly.
And it's extraordinarily comfortable.
And the cloth follows its own nature.
And in following its own nature, it creates a garment of considerable dignity.
When I see old ladies going around in frocks,
and they get those hats on that are all little flowers all the way around,
and then they get, they're about this big around,
and then they get a frock on.
And they lean over, and you can see the tail of the slip underneath.
And maybe you see where their stockings are rolled up just above their knees.
And that sort of scene is just terrible.
When you get to be a portly old lady,
you should have something that really covers you.
And likewise, when you become a populous old gentleman,
you should get something that is a graceful, flowing affair.
And I once asked a young Japanese who arrived in San Francisco,
he'd never been in the West before,
and we discussed Japanese dress,
and why it was being abandoned.
There are two reasons why it's being abandoned in Japan,
although it's superbly comfortable.
One is you can't run for a bus in one.
The other is that in order to clean these things in the traditional way,
they rip the part completely,
and they iron all the cloth elements separately,
and then sew them back together.
Now, there's no necessity to do that.
These things can be reconstructed as this one has been.
This one is an adaptation to modern ways.
It's made of heavy cotton,
and it can be sent to the cleaner,
just like any ordinary suit.
And it's much simpler to deal with than an ordinary suit.
But this business about not being able to run for a bus
is the whole point.
Running for buses is an insult to human dignity.
When you get about the age of 20,
you should never hurry.
Never.
You can't hurry in this outfit.
You have to walk at an easy pace
and take rather shorter strides
than you would normally.
The Zen monk can take, in his outfit,
quite a stride longer than that.
He has a different gear.
And they strive quite a bit.
But in this,
this is a sort of address
for a scholarly gentleman
who will shuffle
any of the alarm
looking at things
as they go around.
And you see,
it cuts you down
without making you uncomfortable.
It is capacious.
It is supremely comfortable
in the sense that
I would advise any man
going to Japan,
the first thing he does on arrival
is to go to a tailor
and have one of these made for him.
Especially if you're going to go outside
the beaten track
and if you're going to be
staying in temples.
Women, I don't advise that
wear kimonos,
not Western women,
because they get treated
like Japanese women.
And if you're not used to that,
you won't like it.
The woman in Japan,
the Western woman in Japan,
should wear very full skirts
and be very comfortable.
If possible,
don't wear corsetry
and all those pulleys
and blocks and tackle arrangements
that women have on the garment.
Be very comfortable
in full skirts.
Slacks are not too well appreciated,
but the Japanese girls
are beginning to wear them.
But I think for the Western woman
to wear a full cotton
or heavy cotton
or wool skirt
is the ideal thing
which can just
flow around
and be comfortable.
But men,
especially travelling out
in the road
as you'll find
that one of the
most uncomfortable things
is to sit Japanese-style
wearing pants.
Pants, in any case,
are in the front of the manhood.
They're instruments
of castration.
And they should never
have been worn by men
and suitable for ladies
but not for men.
Now,
we,
this is just an ordinary
cold stone floor
but we found ourselves
one morning
in the great Zen temple
of Ahedi
and we were in this
great open temple
floored,
not with hard stone
but with Japanese
tatami mats.
And they're resilient
and rather comfortable.
There were about
500 Japanese pilgrims
came there
four in the morning
to sit and attend
the Zen celebration.
and the doors
kept opening
and drafts
kept coming in.
And there was
a Japanese girl
next to me
wearing a sweater
and slacks
and she was
shivering and cold
and sneezing.
And then all
of our tour members
who were
dressed
Western-style
were horribly
uncomfortable.
I have this thing.
You can huddle down
onto the floor
like that.
And if you
you train,
you have to train
a little bit in this.
It's a little hard
on the ankles.
But you open your heels
and you sit
between your heels
and the matting
is soft
and you're
completely covered up
and you are
warm
and cozy.
If you want to change
and you get tired
of doing that
you sit over
that way
like this
or to the other side
but you will
remain
all the time
covered
and warm
and
at ease
in a
a well
that is geared
to the floor.
You see our well
is so
I mean
when I look at people
in an auditorium
like this
sitting on these
particular kinds
of chairs
I
interiorly giggle
and I don't
want to be rude
but they look
like birds
on searches
human searches
something has to
hold you up
you see
and so on
because
we
in our culture
you see
we're not
properly grounded
of course
the Chinese
have invented
the most
uncomfortable
furniture on earth
the formal
Chinese
teakwood chairs
are very
comfortable
but very
dignified
the way
they can sit
on those
things
and the
everybody
is
in a firm
but being
mated
to the floor
is
a very
fascinating
way of life
there are certain
things that we
could suggest
to the Japanese
by way of
improvement
and they
will willingly
learn
there are ways
of stopping
drafts that they
haven't caught
on to
there are ways
of heating
and there are
ways of lighting
that they don't
understand
that we do
but they
understand beds
much better
than we do
they understand
baths much better
than we do
and this
life
geared to the
floor
has this
fascinating
quality
that you
don't need
to invest
in an
enormous amount
of furniture
you know the
things that
the bills
we incur
when we
move
because we
have to
move
these
lustful
overstuffed
couches
most of it
look like
gun
emplacements
and uh
uh
the stressful
things with
springs in
that are
made for
the feeble
body
but these
with a floor
covered with
comfortable mats
and once you
learn the
art of
floor living
most
teenagers
know how
to live
on the
floor
because they
like for
example to
read a book
lying on
their backs
on the
floor with
their feet
on the
seat of
a chair
or pushed
against the
wall or some
funny position
like that
and I find
when I give
lectures
and with a
crowd
that the
young people
come to the
front and
sit all over
the floor
now the
sign
there's a
Turkish
proverb
that he
who sleeps
on the
floor
will not
fall out
of bed
and there's
a sense
of getting
grounded
you see
being
with the
earth
and that
one of
the
one of
the
uh
principal
factors
of zen
meditation
is
that after
a certain
time
rooted
like a
tree
now
I'm not
trying to
say that
we are
trees
are not
to be
rooted
but
Mr. Fuller
would thoroughly
disagree with
me
to say that
the whole
marvel of a
human being
is that he
learns to be
unrooted
that he learns
to be
completely
modal like
a fish
or a bird
and so
that's true
but at the
same time
to be able
to relate
to the
ground
and live
on the
ground
and do
without
furniture
is a
great
advantage
and
especially
an advantage
of this
kind of
clothing
now you
see when
a Japanese
businessman
goes home
in the
evening
he's been
wearing
western
clothes
he's wearing
a regular
business suit
and a
black
necktie
and he's
miserably
uncomfortable
all day
but he
looks right
the minute
he gets
home
he puts
on what's
called a
yukata
a yukata
is a
cotton
kimono
usually made
of striped
material
rather light
in summer
it is very
thin cotton
and in
winter
it is padded
but this
is a
bathrobe
essentially
and they
relax in
this
and
they'll
dance
in it
they'll
do anything
you know
in the hotel
all the
Japanese
families
come
and they
put on
your
cup
and suddenly
revert to
this more
comfortable
way of
life
and they
all take
off to
the bathroom
where they
have a
marvellous
system of
washing
which is
a very
very hot
tub
which can
accommodate
about
in a big
household
it can
accommodate
six or seven
people at a
time
and you
wash outside
the tub
standing on
the tile
floor
you take
buckets full
of water
from the
hot tub
and throw
them over
yourself
the whole
room is
steam
also
you can't
see a
thing
if you're
afraid of
being
immodest
because the
sex is
mixed
you just
can't
see anything
so
you wash
off with
soap
outside
rinse
off
then you
get in
the bath
tub
and you
sit
and you
talk
conversation
you sit
until you
can't
stand it
you had
enough
then you
can go
back to
your room
and if
you live
in a
private
home
make a
telephone
call
in advance
so if
you live
in a
hotel
the manager
does it
for you
and you
get a
masseuse
male or
female
very often
blind
and before
you go
to sleep
they'll
come
and they
will
use
their
fingers
like
little
nibblers
they don't
they're not
these kind
of tough
finish
masseuse
you've
got
but it's
very
subtle
vibration
of the
nerve
ends
and
you've
got to
sleep
it's
great
and
this is
you see
a highly
civilized way
of living
this is
an aspect
I'm just
saying these
things to talk
about clothes
and bath
clouds and
rooms
it's a very
important point
that
zen buddhism
is
not like
that we
think of
religion
as being
spiritual
I remember
years and
years ago
when
it was in
at the world
conference of
faiths in
London
we had a
meeting of
all the
faiths
and there
was a
final meeting
which was a
great auditorium
in queens hall
in London
and the
chief
representatives
of the
different
religions
were asked
to speak
on the
supreme
spiritual
ideal
well you
can imagine
what an
opportunity
for hot air
that was
and people
got up
and they
talked about
this abstractment
and that
abstractment
brotherly
love
and oh
it became
sickening
finally little
old Suzuki
got up
with his
eyebrows
going like
this
and he
said
I am
asked
this evening
to talk
about
supreme
spiritual
ideals
no
but
oh
sure
what a word
spiritual
means
so I
look it
up in
fiction
I
cannot
understand
this
I
see
spiritual
people
in
this
country
here
in England
but
the
spiritual
people
make
very
other
material
surroundings
I
think
spiritual
we
Buddhists
see
spiritual
material
same
thing
and then
he went
on to
give a
description
of his
garden
and house
at home
and to
make the
point
that
the West
is confused
we think
we are
materialists
and we
aren't
a materialist
is a person
who loves
material
wouldn't that
be a fair
definition
do any
of our
cities
look as
if they
were made
by people
who
love
material
they
let's
take
Los Angeles
it is
a
chunky
it is
made
by people
devoted
to the
conversion
of
material
into
rubbish
as fast as
possible
I mean
lots of
the things
we make
are rubbish
even before
they're thrown
away
we can't
cook properly
I mean
some of us
can't
in our
homes
and a few
elegant
restaurants
so by and
large the
food that
you buy
in the
journey
across the
country
is fried
and rancid
as
cook
with
to quote
Lucius
Bege
it is just
not love
it's made
by people
who know
that it's
good food
you know
and you
ought to
eat it
and it's
all scrubbed
and soaked
before being
served
and it's
you know
but it's
terrible food
because the
people who
made it
didn't love
material
we are
devoted you
see in this
war against
nature
to abolish
the limitations
of time
and space
so we've
got these
jet planes
now jet
planes aren't
made by
true materials
they are
beautiful
pieces of
engineering
and those
people
they love
steel
they love
wiring and
electricity
they know
they can
make it
but the
use to
which this
thing is
put
instead of
being for
a marvelous
entertainment
you know
that zoom
as you go
off
they are
so maneuverable
these poor
pilots have
to keep
them still
like that
but actually
on one
of these
jet planes
you can
have a
real ride
they are
tremendously
tough
beautifully
airworthy
and so
you could
go to Hawaii
instead of
just going
straight
like that
while you're
sitting and
pretending
they're in
their living
rooms
you could
make circles
and you
have a
wonderful time
traveling
if you don't
do that
so what
happens is
this
in abolishing
the limitations
of time and
space
and conquering
nature
Hawaii
becomes the
same place
as Los Angeles
it is
being Los
Angelized
and
it is
a cross
between
Atlantic
City
and
Sunset
Boulevard
and
a little
bit of
Tokyo
thrown in
because
all places
connected
by jet
are becoming
the same
place
wake up
in Tokyo
and you
don't know
where you
are
you have
a vague
feeling
it's Japan
but you're
not sure
that it
isn't
San Francisco
in some
sense
it might
be Los
Angeles
it might
be Paris
it might
be Shanghai
it's all
thrown
together
and more
you see
every great
metropolitan
center of
the world
is becoming
the same
place
and this
place is
a junk
heap
you know
that book
published
God's Own
Junkyard
photograph
our world
our civilization
what we're
doing
and it's
because we
do not
love
material
the great
symbol of
the unloved
material
is plastic
stuff called
Tiki Taki
actually
which is a
mixture
of plaster
of Paris
paper mache
and plastic
glue
and it comes
in any
flavor
and it's
formless
and has
no texture
and you
know that
song
they're all
made out
Tiki Taki
and they
all are
just the
same
well that
is the
symbol of
the philosophy
against
material
make material
infinitely
malleable
make it as
completely
spiritual
in other
words as
possible
drink pure
alcohol
instead of
wine
you see
that's
becoming
increasingly
spiritual
because what
the spiritual
person is
looking for
is kicks
in the
sense of
magic
the
Aladdin's
lamp
rub this
thing
and
instantly
anything
you want
will be
fulfilled
and that
is the
one situation
that nobody
really wants
if you think
about it
let's take
it in
regard
to
sex
sex is a
highly
desirable
thing
but it is
had on the
basis that
I get it
exactly when
I want it
and wherever
I want it
it ceases
to be
interesting
I'm
very liberal
on these
matters
but there
is nothing
more
sexually
discouraging
than a
nudist
account
where
everything
is shown
and it
becomes
boring
because
you see
the nature
of the
universe
as I said
in the
beginning
is
the
dynamics
of being
are
now you
see it
now you
don't
it
and that's
also the
basis of
coquetry
women in
particular
who are
artists in
coquetry
should be
a little
difficult
they should
cover up
they should
conceal
themselves
they're going
to reveal
later on
but not
now
and if
you don't
have that
kind of
element in
life
you've
lost the
point
so in
the same
way
if there
is no
distance
to travel
between one
place and
another
it's not
worth
going there
in Japanese
architecture
for example
they don't
believe in
picture windows
except
occasions
they on
the whole
feel that
if there
is a
view
you ought
to make
a little
effort
to go
and look
at it
so that
when you
look at
the view
you don't
do anything
else
so you
don't take
the view
for granted
so you
climb up
a little
stairway
at a
certain
point
where there
is a
moon
viewing
platform
which
looks out
over a
garden
views
but before
you know
where you
are
the view
is somebody
else's
picture
window
looking
at
yours
and there's
no privacy
privacy is another
important thing
especially when
population is
increasing
and from which
we have many
lessons to learn
from Japanese
and Chinese
architecture
the art
you see
when you live
in a household
where everything
is made of
paper
you can hear
everything that
goes on
all belly
rumbles
and such
intimate
noises
are
perfect
public
property
that you
get to learn
not to know
this
they learn
to see
without looking
and to hear
without listening
and they
manage to
create
marvellous
privacy
by the
use of
space
by the
use of
screens
and by
using
small
interior
areas
to build
gardens
that in
their
architecture
suggest
huge
interior
spaces
somebody
in a
small
garden
copies
a
Chinese
painting
a
great
landscape
of
mountains
and rivers
doesn't do it though
you must avoid
when you make a
Japanese garden
please don't use
toy stone lanterns
bridges
bronze stalks
and anything like that
that's just
terrible
it's corn
I must
sometimes give a
whole lecture on
bad taste in
oriental art
but don't use
those things
avoid them like the
plague
you should use
nothing
but sand
and rock
and plants
oh yes
no but even if
that's sometimes
expensive
that's the point
if you can afford
water
for example
in Kyoto
the gardens
that can afford
water
very often
have it piped in
from the hill springs
in bamboo tubes
and you know how
those bamboo tubes
come out
over a stone
where the top
of the stone
has been hollowed out
into a pool
and that water
is flowing down
all the time
into that
and the sound
goes on
and on
and there's a
dipper there
you can pick up
and drink
if you want to
but that's a luxury
and it's a luxury
in Southern California
really
but so the artist
makes his streams
out of sand
and he rakes the sand
in such a way
that it becomes water
so with nothing
but sand and rock
the most famous garden
in the world
is Rio Anji
which is made of
nothing but sand
and rock
and
it suggests
either
a beach
or an ocean
with islands
it doesn't supposed
to mean anything
they unfortunately
when you go there
they travel
the tourist
sort of trade
issues
little
pamphlets
in English
on what each
one of the rocks
means
the person
who did this
had no such
thing in mind
there's also
a very very funny
Zen priest
at another temple
called Dyson Inn
who
doesn't speak
very good English
but has memorized
a beautiful lecture
in English
which he gives
on the spiritual
meaning of the
rock and sand garden
how you progress
from the hard
crunchy rocks
of human passions
to the pure void
of nirvana
where there's
a large expanse
but nothing in it
but two mounds
of sand
on sand
you can hardly
see them
and he gives
this great style
and verb
and one day
I tweeted
and said
you seem to think
that this garden
means something
he said to me
the trouble with you
is you're too
skillful with words
but he's a very
nice fellow
but he's got a
little racket
going there
you know
they have to have
an explanation
they want to know
what it means
people always
take hold of a piece
of Chinese art
and say
what does that
symbolize
well really often
it doesn't
symbolize anything
now here we come
you see
to a most important
point about all this
what we call
the meaning of life
and you can't
really appreciate
this without being
a materialist
words have meanings
because every word
refers to something
other than itself
the word water
refers to a certain
drinkable experience
and you know
what water means
if you had that
experience
but water
as a noise
and as a set
of letters
is not the same
is not itself
drinkable
and so we could
have a kind of
a then saying
water cannot be
drunk
and you would now
get the meaning
of that
it is terribly
important therefore
not to get hooked
on words
because hooked on
words is the same
thing as to get
hooked say on money
money symbolizes
wealth
in the same way
that words
symbolize the physical
world of nature
now money is a
very poor diet
you can't eat it
but the only thing
that you can do
practically with money
is use it for wallpaper
but yet people
value money
more than they value
wealth
you know this experience
when you go to a
supermarket
and you come up
with your cart
full of all these
things you bought
and the clerk
brings up the thing
and finally hands you
a strip of paper
about so long
and says
thirty dollars
please
people feel a little
bit gloomy
thirty dollars
gone
but you've got the
stuff in the basket
because the
thirty dollars
are the symbol
and they're the
abstraction
they're the
spiritual thing
the stuff in the
basket is the
reality
that's the
material thing
so then
to be
a materialist
and to reverence
material
is to begin to
understand you see
the secret of life
it teaches you
for example
to live here
and now
because the material
world is an entirely
present world
there is no past
material world
there is no future
material world
past and future
are purely abstract
worlds
they're worlds
one can think
about
that have
happened
and have gone
but can be
preserved in
memory symbols
and the future
world is a world
that may happen
but the real world
is entirely now
the great problem
for mankind
you see
is to relate
to the real world
which I will call
the material world
to live in it
to be here
and to enjoy
the fact that
the material world
doesn't mean anything
I see
this is very difficult
for us to dig
because
when we say
something is meaningless
we mean it's a
washout
it is no good
words are meaningful
now supposing
things were like words
supposing this bamboo
meant something
like a word
means something
what does this bamboo
mean
is it supposed to have
some significance
to be a sign
pointing to something
beyond itself
of course not
this is it
this
fantastic
creature
which goes
like this
that's the point
that's what life
is about
and if you can't
see that
you can't see anything
so when they ask
in Zen
what is the Buddha
which means
what is the
principle of enlightenment
the ultimate reality
the answer is
the bamboo tree
and the garden
but that's not saying
you see
this is not being
Philistine philosophy
which says to people
stop asking silly questions
and get on with your dinner
you know
like you might say
to some sort of
inquisitive child
it's not that
it's that if you
understand
that this
now reality
symbols refer to
past and future
remember
to the elsewhere
to the non here and now
if you understand
this here and now
you are there
you've arrived
and there are
no further problems
so when they say
in the Hindu tradition
Tattva Masi
that art thou
or
this
world is Brahman
which means
the witch
in which there is
no witcher
they mean just that
just exactly that
arrive
here
but here
you can't understand it
if you look for meaning
in it
when Rinzai
who was a great
Chinese Zen master
was asked
what is the meaning
of Buddhism
he said
if there is any meaning
in it
I myself
am not delivered
now
that is the sense
then
that
the whole universe
is nonsense
that just as you
could hear Hindu
musicians
when they sometimes
play rhythms
they go
and they make
all kinds of funny
noises like that
what's it all about
when we like to dance
clap hands
most people do
most people like to
spend most of their
free time
engaged in some
kind of a rhythmic
activity
singing
dancing
hitting balls
around greens
various things
of that kind
they're absolutely
pointless
but hooray
I mean what are
birds singing about
the mockingbird
gets up there
and makes
those extraordinary
noises
which are very
artful
the morning
mockingbirds
have learned to
imitate nightingales
there are no
nightingales in the
United States
but people play
records of
nightingales
when they play
the Speegies
the birds of
Rome
the mockingbirds
of Southern
California
have picked up
the nightingale
song
but these are
ridiculous birds
they go on
and they make
all these noises
but there's no
point to it
except doing
that
so the whole
universe is doing
that
it's playing
and we take it
seriously
we say
oops
what do you mean
so a Zen master
once wrote this
poem
when he was
about to die
he said
from the bathtub
to the bathtub
I have uttered
stuff of nonsense
the bathtub in which
the baby is washed
at first
and the bathtub in which
the corpse is
for burial
all the time
I've been talking
nonsense
so
I remember
a letter
which the
great
Sokayan Sasaki
who was
the New York
Zen teacher
for many years
wrote to one of his
former students
who aspired
to be a novelist
and who wanted
to write novels
which would
help people
understand Zen
he said
you mustn't do that
he said
you my friend
are raising waves
when no wind
is blowing
don't write any
story to the
human being
write it to the
great sky
that here I am
studying Buddhism
50 years
and all I have
learned in this
time is great
nonsense
it is spring
today
and I go out
to get my
shoeshine
and there is
the shoeshine boy
shining a lady's
shoe and holding
her ankle
and two nuns
go by in their
ghostly black
robes
and he looks
at them and
winks at me
and this wink
doesn't mean
anything
you think of
the great
storytellers
Fanny Hurst
O. Henry
so on
they don't have
any message
they are just
talking about
life in a
beautiful way
as it rolls
on
as the water
flows
that is the
great art
you do
that
so in
the same
way
we had
some time
ago
a discussion
in Kyoto
with
Morimoto
Roshi
a marvelous
dinner party
and we
were talking
about
the work
that is
being done
in Japan
to translate
Zen literature
into English
and Morimoto
Roshi
shook his head
and said
I don't think
that's necessary
he said
you can use
any book
you like
to teach
Zen
you can use
the dictionary
he said
I make a
koan
to my
students
what is
the first
word
in the
dictionary
think
that one
over
or
even
he said
you could
use
the bible
you could
use
Alice in
Wonderland
he said
after all
the sound
of the rain
needs no
translation
that's the
most interesting
thing I heard
in Japan
except the
sound of the
rain
when we
were having
an early
morning lecture
from the
Roshi
Odagoshi
of
Daitopuji
one of the
great Zen
temples in
Kiyoil
it was a
very interesting
affair
because they
came in
and they
beat all
sorts of
drums
and rang
bells
oh they
got marvellous
rhythms
going on
these things
and they
made
obeisances
to the
Buddha
and the
Roshi
laid out
carpet
and prostrates
himself
several times
to the
Buddha
in preparation
for giving
the Buddha
a lecture
and the
Buddha sits
on one
throne
his image
and immediately
opposite of
another throne
is the
Roshi
and he
engages
in the
dialogue
and one
of the
students
takes a
book stand
and holds
it up
in front
of him
and from
this
he reads
you know
he has
he gives
on this
lecture
the
commentary
on one
of the
great
Zen
classics
and everybody
is handed
copies of
it in
Chinese
who's
you know
there's a whole
bunch of
weird swinging
westerners
who go in
and sit
on those
two
and they
all
read this
and the
monks
sit opposite
on one
side
but in
the middle
of it
it started
ringing
and the
rain came
down on
that roof
like thunder
he didn't
raise his
voice
slightest
difference
went straight
on
what you
hear
makes no
difference
just listen
to the
sound
of the
voice
now
I can
explain this
to you
in a
poem
but this
regards
letting you
in on
a little
bit of
scholarly
information
I
there's
another
section
other
than
that
which
is
called
shinshu
which
means
the
true
school
or
jodo
shinshu
means
the
pure
land
true
school
and this
is the
easy
way
of
it
because
they say
this world
and its
practical
problems
and all
its
commitments
and
involvement
make it
too
difficult
for ordinary
people
to become
enlightened
but this
has all
been taken
care of
in the
higher
world
because
there
is
a
great
Buddha
called
Amitabha
in Japanese
Amida
and he
has made
a vow
that anybody
who repeats
his name
with sincerity
will at
their death
be born
into his
special
domain
where it's
a cinch
to become
a Buddha
everything
is made
easy
and when
you get
there
you know
there will
be a
great
pool
vast
pool
think
of that
pool
in front
of this
Buddha
and every
new
person
the lotus
pops up
in the
pool
and the
body
pop
and there's
a new
person
from this
world
sitting in
that
lotus
and eventually
that lotus
is going
to be as big
as the universe
and there's
going to be you
as the Buddha
sitting on it
you know
and then your
lotus pool
in front of you
and all
those
new
lotuses
coming
so all
you have
to say
to get
this
scene
is
namo
amida
butz
that means
namo
name
like the
french say
namo
you'll be
quite sure
you know
you only need
to say it
once
you'll be
quite sure
by saying
the rosary
well
anyway
there's
something in
this
it's not
as superstitious
as it sounds
and so
zen people
and
shinshu people
sometimes get
together
well
there was a
zen master
who had a
student
whose background
was shinshu
and the zen master
felt that this
student was getting
warm
getting near the
point
and so he said
why don't you
write a poem
that expresses
your understanding
so he said
he would
and our
saying
namo
amita
buddha
is called
nenbutsu
is
remembering
buddha
that means
now
it means
to think
about
hold the
mind
it means
also
an individual
thought
buddha
nenbutsu
that he wrote
was
when the nenbutsu
is said
there is
neither buddha
nor oneself
namo
amita
buddha
only
the sound
is heard
the sound
is a rain
which means
no translation
but the zen master
said
it's alright
as far as it goes
but it's not perfect
write it again
the man
thought it over
and came back
with another form
of the poem
that said
when the nenbutsu
is said
there is
neither buddha
nor oneself
namo
amita
buddha
namo
amita
my criticism
is that he added
one line
too many
let's have a brief
intermission


===== Zen And The Arts - 02 - Why Not Now =====

Hello, I'm Bill Hartley, publisher of Audio Renaissance, and I'm very pleased to introduce
you to Alan Watts' Teaches Meditation, the most recent addition to our library of Alan
Watts' tapes. The material for this program has been made available to Audio Renaissance
through our association with Alan Watts' son, Mark Watts, and the vast archival collection
of recordings of Alan Watts, maintained by the Electronic University. Portions of the
material used in this recording were previously available under the title, Why Not Now?, produced
by Gary Usher for Ascension Records. The Electronic University wishes to acknowledge Mr. Usher's
contribution and to thank him wherever he may be. And now, may I introduce Alan Watts' Teaching
Meditation. The art of meditation is a way of getting
into touch with reality, and the reason for it is that most civilized people are out of
touch with reality because they confuse the world as it is with the world as they think
about it and talk about it and describe it. For on the one hand, there is the real world,
and on the other, a whole system of symbols about that world which we have in our minds.
These are very, very useful symbols. All civilization depends on them. But like all good things, they
have their disadvantages. And the principal disadvantage of symbols is that we confuse them with reality,
just as we confuse money with actual wealth. And our names about ourselves, our ideas of ourselves,
our images of ourselves, with ourselves. Now, of course, reality, from a philosopher's point
of view is a dangerous word. A philosopher will ask me, what do I mean by reality? Am I talking
about the physical world of nature? Or am I talking about a spiritual world? Or what? And to that,
I have a very simple answer. When we talk about the material world, that is actually a philosophical
concept. So, in the same way, if I say that reality is spiritual, that's also a philosophical concept.
And reality itself is not a concept. Reality is, and we won't give it a name. Now, it's amazing what
doesn't exist in the real world. For example, in the real world, there aren't any things,
things. Nor are there any events. That doesn't mean to say that the real world is a perfectly featureless
blank. It means that it is a marvelous system of wiggles in which we describe things and events in the
same way as we would project images on a Rorschach plot, or pick out particular groups of stars in the
sky and call them constellations, as if they were separate groups of stars. Well, there are groups
of stars in the mind's eye in our system of concepts. They are not out there as constellations already
grouped in the sky. So, in the same way, the difference between myself and all the rest of the
universe is nothing more than an idea. It is not a real difference. And meditation is the way in which we
come to feel our basic inseparability from the whole universe. And what that requires is that we
shut up. That is to say, that we become interiorly silent and cease from the interminable chatter that
goes on inside our skulls. Because, you see, most of us think compulsively all the time. That is to say,
we talk to ourselves. And I remember when I was a boy, we had a common saying, talking to yourself is the
first sign of madness. Now, obviously, if I talk all the time, I don't hear what anyone else has to
say. And so, in exactly the same way, if I think all the time, that is to say, if I talk to myself all
the time, I don't have anything to think about except thoughts. And therefore, I'm living entirely in the world
of symbols. And I'm never in relationship with reality. All right. Now, that's the first basic reason
for meditation. But there is another sense, and this is going to be a little bit more difficult to
understand, why we could say that meditation doesn't have a reason, or doesn't have a purpose. And in this
respect, it's unlike almost all other things that we do, except perhaps making music and dancing.
Because when we make music, we don't do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the
composition. If that were the purpose of music, to get to the end of the piece, then obviously the
fastest players would be the best. And so, likewise, when we are dancing, we are not aiming to arrive
at a particular place on the floor, as we would be if we were taking a journey. When we dance,
the journey itself is the point. When we play music, the playing itself is the point.
And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of
life is always arrived at in the immediate moment. And therefore, if you meditate for an ulterior motive,
that is to say, to improve your mind, to improve your character, to be more efficient in life,
you've got your eye on the future, and you are not meditating. Because the future is a concept.
It doesn't exist. As the proverb says, tomorrow never comes. There is no such thing as tomorrow.
There never will be. Because time is always now. And that's one of the things we discover when we stop
talking to ourselves, and stop thinking, we find there is only a present, only an eternal now.
So, it's funny then, isn't it, that one meditates for no reason at all, except we could say for the
enjoyment of it. And here I would interpose the essential principle that meditation is supposed to be
fun. It's not something you do as a grim duty. The trouble with religion, as we know it, is that it is
so mixed up with grim duties. We do it because it's good for you. It's a kind of self-punishment.
Well, meditation, when correctly done, has nothing to do with all that. It's a kind of digging the
present. It's a kind of grooving with the eternal now. And brings us into a state of peace,
where we can understand that the point of life, the place where it's at, is simply here and now.
Well now, in the art of meditation, there are various props, supports.
One thing that we are going to use as a means of stilling chatter in the mind is pure sound. And for
that reason, it's useful to have a gong. This is a Japanese Buddhist gong made of bronze and shaped
like a bowl. If you don't have one of these, you can get the rounded end of an oxygen tank. Have a
machinist saw it off roughly into the shape of a bowl and use that. Or you can use your own voice,
chanting. Another prop in meditation is the use of incense. And that is because the sense of smell
is our repressed sense. And because it's our repressed sense, it has a very powerful influence on us.
And therefore we associate certain smells with certain states of mind. And so the smell of incense
is associated with peace and contemplation. And so it's advantageous to burn incense in meditation.
The other prop is a string of beads. And these beads are used in meditation for an unconscious
method of timing yourself. Instead of looking at a watch, you move a bead each time you breathe in
and out. So that at a certain rate, you see there are always 108 beads on a rosary. And when you get to
slow breathing, halfway around the rosary is about 40 minutes. And that is the usual length of time for
which one sits in meditation, because otherwise you get uncomfortable and you get stiff legs and
problems of that kind. Now then, the other thing, first of all, that we have to go into is how does
one sit in meditation? You can sit any way you want. You can sit in a chair or you can sit like I'm
sitting, which is the Japanese way of sitting. Or you can sit in the lotus posture, which is more
difficult, which is cross-legged with the feet on the thighs, soles upwards. And the younger you start
that in life, the easier you'll find it to do. Or you can just sit cross-legged on a raised cushion
above the floor. Now the point of this is that if you keep your back erect, I don't mean stiff like this,
nor slumped like this, but just easily erect, you are centered and easily balanced, and you have a
feeling of being thoroughly rooted to the ground. And that sort of physical stability is very important
for the avoidance of distraction and generally feeling settled.
Here and now, je suis, je reste, as the French say. I'm here and I'm going to stay.
Well now, the easiest way to get into the meditative state is to begin by listening. If you simply close your
eyes and allow yourself to hear all the sounds that are going on around you. Just listen to the general hum
and buzz of the world as if you were listening to music. Don't try to identify the sounds you're hearing.
Don't put names on them. Simply allow them to play with your eardrums and let them go. In other words,
you could put it, let your ears hear whatever they want to hear. Don't judge the sounds.
There are no, as it were, proper sounds or improper sounds. And it doesn't matter if somebody coughs or
sneezes or drops something. It's all just sound. And if I am talking to you right now and you're doing this,
I want you to listen to the sound of my voice just as if it were noise. Don't try to make any sense out of
what I'm saying because your brain will take care of that automatically. You don't have to try to
understand anything. Just listen to the sound. As you pursue that experiment, you will very naturally find
that you can't help naming sounds, identifying them, that you will go on thinking, that is to say,
talking to yourself inside your head automatically. But it's important that you don't try to
repress those thoughts by forcing them out of your mind. Because that will have precisely the same
effect as if you were trying to smooth rough water with a flat iron. You're just going to disturb it
all the more. What you do is this. As you hear sounds coming up in your head, thoughts, you simply listen to
them as part of the general noise going on, just as you would be listening to the sound of my voice or just as you
would be listening to cars going by or to birds chattering outside the window. So look at your own thoughts
as just noises. And soon you will find that the so-called outside world and the so-called inside world
come together. They are a happening. Your thoughts are a happening, just like the sounds going on outside.
And everything is simply a happening. And all you're doing is watching it. Now in this process,
another thing that is happening that is very important is that you're breathing. And as you
start meditation, you allow your breath to run just as it wills. In other words, don't do at first any
breathing exercise, but just watch your breath breathing the way it wants to breathe. And notice
a curious thing about this. You say in the ordinary way, I breathe, because you feel that breathing is
something that you are doing voluntarily, just in the same way as you might be walking or talking.
But you will also notice that when you are not thinking about breathing, your breathing goes on
just the same. So the curious thing about breath is that it can be looked at both as a voluntary and an
involuntary action. You can feel on the one hand, I am doing it, and on the other hand, it is happening to me.
And that is why breathing is a most important part of meditation, because it is going to show you,
as you become aware of your breath, that the hard and fast division that we make
between what we do on the one hand and what happens to us on the other is arbitrary. So that as you watch
your breathing, you will become aware that both the voluntary and the involuntary aspects of your
experience are all one happening. Now that may at first seem a little scary, because you may think,
well, am I just the puppet of a happening, the mere passive witness of something that's going on
completely beyond my control? Or on the other hand, am I really doing everything that's going along?
Well, if I were, I should be God. And that would be very embarrassing, because I would be in charge of
everything. That would be a terribly responsible position. The truth of the matter, as you will see it,
is that both things are true. You can see it that everything is happening to you. And on the other
hand, you're doing everything. For example, it's your eyes that are turning the sun into light. It's the
nerve ends in your skin that are turning electric vibrations in the air into heat and temperature.
It's your eardrums that are turning vibrations in the air into sound. And in that way, you are creating
the world. But when we're not talking about it, when we're not philosophizing about it, then there is
just this happening, this, and we won't give it a name. Now then, when you breathe for a while,
just letting it happen, and not forcing it in any way, you will discover a curious thing,
that without making any effort, you can breathe more and more deeply. In other words, supposing you
simply are breathing out, and breathing out is important because it's the breath of relaxation,
as when we say, whew, and heave a sigh of relief. So when you are breathing out,
you get the sensation that your breath is falling out, dropping, dropping, dropping out,
with the same sort of feeling you have, as if you were settling down into an extremely comfortable bed.
And you just get as heavy as possible and let yourself go. And you let your breath go out in just
that way. And when it's thoroughly, comfortably out, and it feels like coming back again,
you don't pull it back in, you let it fall back in, letting your lungs expand, expand, expand,
until they feel very comfortably full. And you wait a moment and let it stay there,
and then once again, you let it fall out. And so in this way, you will discover that your breath gets
quite naturally, easier and easier, and slower and slower, and more and more powerful. So that with
these various aids, listening to sound, listening to your own interior feelings and thoughts,
just as if they were something going on, not something you are doing, but just happenings,
and watching your breath as a happening that is neither voluntary nor involuntary, you are simply
aware of these basic sensations, then you begin to be in the state of meditation. But don't hurry anything,
don't worry about the future, don't worry about what progress you're making, just be entirely content
to be aware of what is. Don't be terribly selective, particularly say, I should think of this and
not of that. Just watch whatever is happening. Now then, to make this somewhat easier, to
have the mind free from discursive verbal thinking. Sound, or chanted sound, is extremely useful.
If you, for example, simply listen to the gong, and let that sound be the whole of your experience,
it's quite simple, it requires no effort. And then along with that, especially if you don't have a gong,
a gong, we can use what are called in the Sanskrit language, mantra. Mantra are chanted sounds,
which are used not so much for their meaning, as for the simple tone.
And they go along with that easy kind of slow breath. One of the basic mantras is, of course,
the sound OM. That sound is used because, if you spell it out, A-U-M,
it runs from the back of your throat to your lips. And therefore, it contains the whole range of the
voice. And for that reason, it represents the total energy of the universe. This word is called the
pranava, the name for the ultimate reality, for the witch, than which there is no witcher. And so,
in this way then, if you chant it, and it's varied like this, you can keep that up for quite a long time.
And eventually, you will find, as you go on chanting, that the words of the chant will simply have
become pure sound. And you won't be thinking about it. You won't have any images about the
sound going on in your mind. You will simply become completely absorbed in sound. And therefore,
you will find yourself living in an eternal now, in which there is no past, and there is no future,
and there is no, something called, difference between what you are as knower, and what you are as
the known, between yourself and the world of nature outside you. It all becomes one doing, one happening.
Now, in addition to those slow-moving chants, you may find it, according to your temperament,
easier to do a fast-moving one. These have a sort of rhythm to them that is absorbing. Say,
a chant that many of you have heard, that goes,
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Krishna,
Hare Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama Ramama
Hare Hare Hare Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna Krishna
Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama
Rama Ramama, Hare Hare Hare
and it doesn't matter what it means
actually Krishna and Rama are the names of Hindu divinities
but that's not the point
the point is just to get with that thing that is running, running, running
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna
Hare Hare and so on
and if you're a Christian or a Jew and you feel more inclined to use a meditation word
that is more congenial to you
you can use, say, Alleluia, Alleluia
or if you're a Mohammedan
you can use the Allah, the name of God
they have a way of doing it, you know, which gets very exciting
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah Allah, Allah Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah Allah, Allah and it gets faster and faster you can keep that up for 40 minutes
and you'll be out of your mind but you see to go out of your mind at least once
a day is tremendously important because by going out of your mind you come to
your senses and if you stay in your mind all the time you are over rational in
other words you're like a very rigid bridge which because it has got no give
no craziness in it is going to be blown down in the first hurricane see when we
try to control the mind a lot of yoga teachers try to get you to control your
own mind mainly to prove to you that you can't do it there's nothing you know
a fool who persists in his folly will become wise so they what they do is they
speed up the folly and so you get concentrating and you can have a
certain amount of superficial and initial success by a process commonly
called self-hypnosis and you can think you're making progress and a good
teacher will let you go along that way for a while until he really throws you
with one why are you concentrating see Buddhism works this way Buddha said if
you suffer you suffer because you desire and your desires are either unattainable
or always being disappointed or something so cut out desire so those
disciples went away and they stamped on desire jumped on desire cut the throat
of desire and threw out desire but then they came back and Buddha said but you are
still desiring not to desire they wanted how to get rid of that but you see it
works like this all spiritual discipline works this way I show you it's done in
the form of a child's game you know there's the church and there's the
steeple open the door and there are the people and here's the parson going
upstairs and there he is saying his prayers catch him catch him catch him catch
him catch him you never can because the would-be catchee is the catcher so then
that's like desiring not to desire loving out of a sense of duty trying to be
spontaneous because you ought to be see all that is nonsense lifting yourself up
by your own bootstraps so when you see that that's nonsense there naturally comes
over you a quietness in seeing that you cannot control your mind you realize there
is no controller what you took to be the thinker of thoughts is just one of the thoughts what
you took to be the feeler of the feelings which was that chronic muscular strain is just one of
the feelings what you took to be the experiencer of experience is just part of the experience so
there isn't any thinker of thoughts feeler of feelings we we get into that bind because we have
a grammatical rule that verbs have to have subjects and the funny thing about that is that verbs are
processes and subjects and nouns which are supposed to be things how does a noun start a verb how does
the thing put a process into action obviously it can't but we always insist that there is this
subject called the Noah and without a Noah there can't be knowing well that's just a grammatical rule
it isn't a rule of nature in nature there's just knowing like you're feeling it and i have to say
you are feeling it as if you were somehow different from the feeling when i say i am feeling what i mean
is there is feeling here when i say you are feeling i mean there is feeling there i have to say even there
is feeling what a cumbersome language we have chinese is easier you don't have to put all that in
in by you can say things twice as fast in chinese as you can in any other language well anyway when you
come to see that you can do nothing that the play of thought of feeling etc just goes on by itself as a
happening then you are in a state which we will call meditation and slowly without being pushed your
thoughts will come to silence that is to say all the verbal symbolic chatter going on in the skull don't
try and get rid of it because that will again produce the illusion that there's a controller just
it goes on it goes on it goes on and finally it gets tired of itself and bored and stops and so then
there's a silence and this is a deeper level of meditation and in that silence you suddenly begin
to see the world as it is and you don't see any past and you don't see any future you don't see any
difference between yourself and the rest of it that's just an idea you can't put your hand on the
difference between myself and you you know you can't blow it you can't bounce it you can't pull it it's just an
idea you can't find any material body because material body is an idea so is spiritual body this is somebody's
philosophical notions see reality isn't material that's an idea reality isn't spiritual that's an idea
reality is so we find if i've got to put it back into words that we live in an eternal now you've got
all the time in the world because you've got all the time there is which is now and uh you are this
universe and you feel the strange feeling when when when ideas don't define the differences you feel
that other people's doings are your doings and that makes it very difficult to blame other people
if you're not sophisticated theologically you may of course run screaming in the streets and say that
you're god in a way that's what happened to jesus because he wasn't sophisticated theologically he only
had old testament biblical theology behind him if he'd had hindu theology he could have put it more subtly
but uh it was only that rather primitive theology of the old testament
and that was the conception of god as a monarchical boss and you can't go around and say i'm the boss's
son if you're going to say i'm god you must allow it for everyone else too but this was a heretical
idea from the point of view of hebrew theology and so what they did with jesus was they pedestalized him
that means kicked him upstairs so that he wouldn't be able to influence anyone else
and uh only you may be god and um that stopped the gospel cold right at the beginning
he couldn't spread well anyway this is therefore to say that the transformation of human consciousness
through meditation is frustrated so long as we think of it in terms of something
that i myself can bring about by some kind of wangle by some sort of gimmick
because you see that leads to endless games of spiritual one-upmanship
and of guru competitions of my guru is more effective than your guru my yoga's a faster than your yoga i'm
more aware of myself than you are i'm humbler than you are i'm sorrier for my sins than you are i love
you more than you love me it is interminable goings-on about which people fight and wonder whether they
are a little bit more evolved than somebody else and so on all that can just fall away and then
we get this strange feeling that we have never had you see in our lives except occasionally by accident
some people get a glimpse that we are no longer this poor little stranger and afraid in a world it never
made but that you are this universe and you are creating it at every moment because you see it starts
now it didn't begin in the past there was no past see if the universe began in the past when that happened
it was now see well it's still now and the universe is still beginning now and it's trailing off like
the wake of a ship from now in the wake of the ship fades out so does the past you can look back there to
explain things but the explanation disappears you'll never find it there things are not explained by the
past they're explained by what happens now that creates the past and it begins here the birth of
responsibility because otherwise you can always look over your shoulder and say well i'm the way i am
because my mother dropped me and she dropped me because she was neurotic because her mother dropped her
and away we go back to adam and eve or to a disappearing monkey or something we never get at it but in this
way you're you're faced with you doing all this and that's an extraordinary shock so cheer up you can't
blame anyone else for the kind of world you're in and that helps a great deal because most of the good
things we are trying to do are based on blaming somebody else and to improve them kindly let me help
you or you'll drown said the monkey putting the fish safely up a tree if therefore we would stop
blaming others it'd be very difficult to go about a war with a straight face and if you know you see
that i in the sense of the person the front the ego it really doesn't exist then it won't go to your
head too badly if you wake up and discover that you're god i'm not really a musician but it just so
happens that i have in front of me a fabulous instrument which the japanese call koto i suppose it
would be best described as a table harp long instrument stringed with bridges horizontal harp it was
customary among chinese poets in the old days to read poetry and strum on the lute or table harp
at the same time and i've got here a curious old text called psych on time which means the vegetable root
discourses written by koji say somewhere around 1624 and i thought i'd like to read some of this to you
and to get into the right mood i suggest that you try to become a little stupid that is to say
childlike as if you hardly knew how to talk and didn't really know very much about anything that's
going on just listen as you would listen to the wind if the mind is clear a dark room has its blue sky
mind if the mind is somber broad daylight gives birth to demons and evil spirits the just man
has no mind to seek happiness heaven therefore because of this mindlessness opens its inmost heart
the bad man busies himself with avoiding misfortunes heaven therefore confounds him for this desire
how unsearchable are the ways of heaven how useless the wisdom of man the tao is common property
it should be pointed out to all we meet learning is as ordinary as eating rice at home according to the
circumstances it should be applied circumspectly the ancients left rice for mice and did not light lamps out
of pity for moths these thoughts of theirs are the operation point of humanity in life
lacking this a man is a mere earthman a wooden body the zen sect says when you are hungry eat
when you are weary sleep poetry aims at the description in common language of beautiful scenery
the sublime is contained in the ordinary the hardest in the easiest what is self-conscious and ulterior is
far from the truth what is mindless is near will you try and experiment with me simply close your eyes
and allow your ears to hear all sounds around you
don't try to name or identify these songs just hear them as you would listen to music as when you hear a
flute or a guitar without asking what it means and as and when i talk just hear the sound of my voice
don't bother about what it means your brain will take care of that by itself just let your eardrums
respond as they will to all vibrations now in the air don't let yourself or your ears be offended by
improper or unscheduled sounds if for example the record is scratchy okay you wouldn't object if you
were listening to it sitting by a fire of crackling logs let them ring it's just a noise and keep your tongue
relaxed floating easily in the lower jaw also stop frowning allow the space between your eyes to feel
easy and open and just let the vibrations in the air play with your ears you must understand that in
meditation we are concerned only with what is with reality nothing else the past is a memory
the future and expectation neither past nor future actually exist there is simply eternal now
so don't seek or expect a result from what you're doing that wouldn't be true meditation
there's no hurry just now you're not going anywhere simply be here
live in the world of sound let it play that's all in the world of pure sound can you actually hear anyone
who is listening can you hear any difference between all these sounds on the one hand and yourself on the
other naturally we use techniques and gimmicks to help the thinking mind to become silent
and one of them is the gong it is a sound at once pleasing and compelling it absorbs attention but
watch what happens when it fades out the one sound becomes the many the single tone is transformed
easily and gently into all other noises and that's how the universe comes into being out of the one energy
underlying all events so if you don't have a gong you can use your own voice by chanting what Hindus and
Buddhists call a mantra that is a syllable or phrase sung for its sound rather than its meaning chief of these
as the syllable ohm called the pranava or the sound of god because it involves the whole range of the
voice from the back of the throat to the lips take the tone from the gong and hum it with me oh you can
hear all sounds as ohm they're all at some point in the total range of sound from the back of the throat to
the lips making a spectrum of sound as all colors are originally one white light but don't ask what the
sound is or what it means just hear it and dig it come with me again let me explain again what we are
doing we are going behind words names numbers beliefs and ideas to get back to the naked experience of
reality itself and at this level of awareness we find no difference between the listener and the sound
the knower and the known the subject and the object
or between the past the present and the future all that's just talk what is really happening is you may
wonder how i can keep the sound going for so long a time it depends on regulation of the breath which is
basic to the art of meditation and i'm going to show you how to do this and why to begin with just as you've
been letting vibrations in the air play with your ears let your lungs breathe as they will don't as yet
attempt any breathing exercise don't force anything simply allow breathing now is this breathing a voluntary
or involuntary action or both or neither just feel it without taking sides without words and again hear my
voice as if it were wind in the trees or the sound of waves
Most of us are short of breath. We never really empty our lungs. But to make a long, complete out-breath, you mustn't force it. Imagine there's a large ball of lead inside your neck, and allow it to fall slowly through your body to the floor, pushing and easing the breath out as it drops.
Ease the breath out just as you settle and sink down comfortably into a bed, and when the ball reaches the floor, let it drop away as if to the center of the air. Then let the breath come back, back in, as a reflex, without pulling it, and then imagine another ball of lead in the neck, and again let it fall out, long and easy, and once.
Once again. Now, do you see what's happening? You are generating a great deal of energy without trying or forcing. Two things seem to be happening at once. First, the outflow of breath is simply falling, happening all by itself. Second, it's under perfect control.
So, from this practice, you learn to experience, to realize that what happens to you, and what you do, are one and the same process.
There is no real separation between one thing called you, and another quite different thing called the universe. When you stop talking and naming, they're quite obviously one.
So, again, let your breath fall easily out, all the way. Let it come back on its own, and then out again.
And now, let's put the sound, ah, on the next outflow. And again, so that you have nothing in mind, but Hindus use this melodious and now familiar chant.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna
The point is not what it means, but how it feels.
What happens to you when there is complete absorption in the chant?
Thought and idea called your ego simply disappeared, didn't it?
Then, there is a very effective mantra used by an important sect of Islamic mystics known
as Sufis.
Like all these different mantrams, they will be kept up for quite long periods, say 15 to
20 minutes or more.
So what I'm giving you are only samples.
You can easily do this one with me, it goes like this.
Reformation has no purpose, no objective, except to be entirely here and now.
It isn't something you do to improve yourself, to get ahead in the world, or to prepare yourself
for life.
For the division of time into past, present, and future is a trick of words and numbers.
All memories and expectations exist now.
And now only.
Because now is what there is and all that there is.
We could say that the past flows back from now, like the wake from the prow of a ship,
and then just like the wake vanishes.
As the wake doesn't drive the ship, the past does not propel or move the present.
Unless you, here and now, want to insist that it does, and so give yourself a perpetual alibi
for every kind of irresponsibility.
But I'm not preaching.
That would be a diversion from our feeling centered in this eternal here and now, from feeling
it directly as the reality.
Again then, just let all sounds going on play upon your eardrums, without trying to name,
identify, or locate them.
Relax your tongue.
Let it just float in your lower jaw.
Close your eyes.
If you're still thinking in words or calculating about this, that, and the other, which you're
supposed to be doing, don't try to stop it.
Just let your mind do whatever it likes.
And hear its chatter as if you were listening to rippling water.
So then, we're going to try and find out and feel what we mean by the word now.
Not the idea, but the actual sensation.
Get it?
Like that?
Or this?
Are these two different kinds of now?
One a short, sharp pop, and the other a long, continuous boom.
Is now a split, split second?
Or is it a drawn out expanse of sensation?
Try this.
Just stand up for a moment.
And take three steps forward.
One, two, three, and stop.
Where at this moment is the first step you took?
And where is the next movement you're going to make?
Hold it.
Be still.
Next movement hasn't happened.
Past movements aren't here.
Where are you?
When are you?
What is the position of the universe?
When is it?
Where is it?
Take another step.
Is this a new now?
Or the same old now where you always were?
The next step is not with your feet, but with your imagination.
Recall the first step that you just made.
Now when are you?
Back then or still here?
Think a word.
Just feel.
Please sit down again and relax.
For meditation, it's best to sit on the floor.
In lotus posture or just cross-legged or kneeling on a cushion and sitting back on your heels.
Spine straight, hands with palms upward resting upon each other.
The reason for this position is that it's firm and grounded and just uncomfortable enough to
keep you from going to sleep.
But don't fight the discomfort.
Relax into the position just as you have learned how to relax and to ease out a long, long breath
and so create energy without strain.
In the same way, if you have understood that there is no time but now, you will be able
without the least difficulty to sit in this way for a long time, as measured by the clock.
Once again, the essence of the whole art is to feel, to experience, to sense what is,
what happens, without defining it, without saying anything to yourself about it.
So let your breath flow easily, heavily, down and out again.
No strain.
And after it has come back in, once more, keep it up.
We are going to play it along with the sound mu, a Chinese-Japanese word which means that
which isn't a thing, a think, a thought, an idea, but reality itself.
The very sound, mu, dig that.
What is mu, is you.
What is I?
Some people say it's this body, others the mind, the ego or the soul.
But all those, body included, are names and notions.
Can we experience the self directly, like a sound, a flame or any other object?
Put your hands on that mysteriously invisible thing known as your head.
Keep your eyes open, easily, blinking occasionally without staring.
Let's assume that all ordinary ideas of what my self is are either so wrong or so doubtful
that we must investigate the matter directly.
How to do that?
You must first get the sensation, the feeling of yourself without forming any idea.
Regard words in the head as mere noise.
Relax your tongue and let it float easily in your lower jaw.
Just stop, look, and listen.
Let the various colors and shapes before you play with your eyes, just as you have been letting
sounds play with your ears.
Where are they?
Out in front of your face or inside your brain, in the optical nervous system?
Is your head in the world or is the world in your head?
Or both?
Either you were everything you felt or you just didn't feel yourself, the feeler, at all.
Just as you didn't see your eyes, all or nothing.
As is said in an ancient Chinese text called The Secret of the Golden Flower, between the
all and the void is only a difference of name.
Now put your hands back on your lap, palms upward, one upon the other, and just let go of it
all.
Let your ears hear whatever they like.
Let the nerve ends in your skin feel whatever they like.
Let your eyes see whatever they like.
Let your nose smell whatever it likes.
Let your mind think whatever it likes.
Let your lungs breathe as they will.
And let things happen as they are happening.
Are these all different senses or just one sense, consciously?
Listen to my voice as you listen to the sound of the rain.
The sound of the rain needs no translation, no explanation.
Now I want to show you another form of meditation, which I heard about from a Zen Buddhist master,
who said it was one of the very best ways.
Will you please stand up and put your hands on your hips with wrists upwards?
Now let's all just laugh
laughing
money
laughing
And now sit down again
This zen master told me that
maybe you should do that first thing in the morning when you get up
It's even better than sitting
for a long time and getting your legs stiff.
Now, how do you feel?
Where was you when you were laughing?
What is you now?
Listen.