Today was my favorite day so far in Living Religions of the East. Dr. Smith (Fred) and I have been lecturing for the last week on Chinese religions and today he had us sit with our eyes closed for two minutes. I'm not sure what the other students thought of this but I fully appreciated it.
All day I had been feeling grouchy and I think I have finally caught the flu. I've had a serious headache since this morning and I just wanted to go home and lie down until tomorrow. Those two minutes of informal sitting were just what I needed. I was reminded that even though my head is throbbing, the pain is only being felt in a fraction of my body, the rest of which feels fine and normal. Why should I let a pain in five percent of my body cause me to ignore the ninety-five percent that is feeling no pain? And why should I let my attitude about the pain devolve into outright suffering? The equation seems to go something like this: pain + bad attitude = suffering. And like my mom always told me while I was growing up: "change your attitude!"
Two other interesting things happened in class today. The first was a seemingly off the cuff statement by Dr. Smith that I thought was absolutely brilliant. He was explaining how meditation can help you see beyond the seemingly ordered and permanent Self that you identify with into all the chaotic non-self elements underneath. Fred said, "Order is just a quarter of an inch thick, but chaos goes all the way to the bone."
Take that Lao Tzu!
A few minutes later, Fred mentioned koans. He explained to the students that Koans are something like Zen riddles or phrases to meditate on such as: "what is the sound of one hand?" or "why did Bodhidharma come to the east?" Dr. Smith said the most paradigmatic Koan was "Does a dog have Buddha nature?" He looked at me and asked, "Well? Does a dog have Buddha nature?" And without thinking I yelled the traditional answer to the Koan: "Mu!"
Dr. Smith responded, "I don't think they got that," so I said in a louder voice: "MU!"
This display left me feeling very pleased with myself. (Oh Ego, you idiot!)
Dr. Smith turned towards me again and asked, "Now what does Mu really mean?" I replied: "In Japanese it means not or without."
"No," said Dr. Smith in a complete dead-pan, "Mu just means Mu!"
Comments (4)
I have never posted a comment on a blog before so please bear with me. Thank you Dustin for all your observations and good luck on your personal journey.
I have found that meditation works on many levels in several different systems that I have studied in my role as an energy worker. While I am not a Buddhist, I practice meditation and prayer. I find both helpful and essential to my life as both gently move me to become still and allow the space for the numinous to occur in my life. It is at such a time that psyche speaks to me, shows me images, or merely allow the vibratory frequencies of my subtle bodies to separate in order for me to clear and rearrange the energies which I am holding onto and need to be released. I realize that this is not the Buddhist way of sitting in nothingness, yet is the Buddhist way really nothingness when you take into account the chakras and breath and their place within the belief system?
I can share one of my meditational experiences with you which occured in a graduate class that I had in Buddhism. At the end of the class, the instructor put on a tape of the gyuto monks chanting. As I relaxed, I felt the undertones of each note working their magic on a specific area of my body, my liver, building up within the organ an intense heaviness that was almost unbearable. Rather than open my eyes and leave the room I concentrated on the pain and allowed the cascade of images that the crescendo of sound was bringing to me. I saw many things which revealed what I had been carrying and why I felt so depressed, so lethargic at school that session. It was a shamanic journey into my liver which aty time felt like as if it was being wound tight like a rubber band.
Suddenly, I had the oddest sensation, as if my liver had spasmed in my body. The pain, the pressure was gone. I felt good. I had released. I left class and went back to my room at the dorm and worked with the images. I couldn't believe the energy I had, and continued to have for at least six months.
Meditation for me is a gateway, a liminal state, which gives me the opportunity to move into a new aspect of my being. Thank you Dustin for allowing me to share this with you and your readers.
Posted February 23, 2008 8:10 PM
Posted on February 23, 2008 20:10
My karma just ran over my dogma.
Posted February 23, 2008 12:44 PM
Posted on February 23, 2008 12:44
Graffiti in a Berkley coffee house restroom on Telegraph Avenue c1968:
If meditation is so good for you, why does my head hurt?
Responding graffiti: Bad Karma?
Posted February 23, 2008 12:42 PM
Posted on February 23, 2008 12:42
I think Dr. Smith was right.
No questions and no answers - what is is all there is.
Posted February 23, 2008 10:08 AM
Posted on February 23, 2008 10:08