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What could be simpler ... and yet more confoundingly difficult?
During an email exchange with a friend this morning, I brought up the metaphor of some land-based animal telling a fish that breathing air was a most nourishing and sensible sort of existence. The fish, naturally, was not convinced: His environment and sustenance and life were reliably based on water. And so the animal and the fish were at deeply-embedded loggerheads.
The metaphor crossed my mind when discussing with my friend the deep divide that separated those with an interest in the difficulties confronting Zen Studies Society -- an organization that has been wracked by the sociopathic depredations of its former top gun, Eido Shimano. There are those who feel that whatever remains of ZSS after Shimano's apparent departure from the scene deserves to be nourished and rebuilt in a more kindly and nourishing fashion. Others feel that to rebuild requires a demolition of the current structure -- freely and openly admitting mistakes of the past and then, without attempting to salvage or elevate particular power bases within the organization, refashion the whole shooting match ... and even that might not work. Pouring fresh water into a poisoned well does not provide fresh water.
Both sides can be pretty adamant and sometimes fiery. Fierce and convinced.
So I said to my friend that after a while -- given my level of energy -- my own feeling was that the best anyone could do was simply to say, "I disagree with you and here's why" and then leave it alone. The animal will not convince the fish. The fish will not convince the animal. It's like talking to someone convinced by their quite exclusive religious faith: That faith is unquestionable so the believer does not question it ... and expects others to concede their point of view: Air is best ... or ... water is best. Period. The end. A brick wall.
To'ing and fro'ing may be socially acceptable, but it is tiring in its endless wrangling. As Gandhi once suggested, "Be the peace that you imagine."
"I don't agree with you and here's why." Say it as often as you like ... but don't expect a different result... or any result at all for that matter.
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Nice post.
ReplyDeleteFrom a practical point of view I tend agree with you, "I'm tired. Why bother?" "Let the people involved deal with this, or not." But is personal pragmatism the "right" approach? Some part of me says "No!"
Aren't there moral and spiritual issues emanating from a true "Let it be" attitude? Aren't the "nurturers" actually further enabling those who enabled the five (!) decades of depredation? In good conscience should their warped dharma teaching be allowed to continue? Isn't it sort of like saying and meaning "Let False Dharma Continue"?
In the spirit of Aitken Roshi's "We have to get him [Shimano] to say 'I am a crook,'" We have to get Shimano's "successors" to state proudly "I am a dharma heir of a man who belongs in prison!" Can they proudly state that he and by implication they now have "the Penetrating Dharma Eye" given his actions over the past fifty years? Beyond the heirs how can anyone have confidence in the spiritual authenticity of anything related to this organization?
I don't know what others will say or do.
Leave!
Stay Away!
Do not ever study with his heirs unless they get further training and approval outside of Soen's lineage. (And do a little investigation about the teacher who you think might be worthwhile training with.)
That is what I came up with for myself years ago and that is what I have been and continue to recommend to others when the situation arises.
It is sort of like "Let it be," but not completely.
Does this make me a fish, an animal, or may be a amphibian?
It would make a fine resort hotel once the stench of of their Zen was removed.
ReplyDeleteAs a viable resort Dai Bosatsu would need extensive renovations, if I recall correct most rooms have less area than those of a Bed and Breakfast. As a, let's say, "generic" meditation / retreat center it could give Garrison Institute a run for the money. May be some rich Tibetan Buddhist group could buy it out.
ReplyDeleteProbably make a hell of a lot more money as a resort or a generic retreat center than it does as the pathetic inauthentic zen place it is.
What about a kids camp? Than might work, too. Hand it over the the YMCA.
"From a practical point of view I tend agree with you, "I'm tired. Why bother?" "Let the people involved deal with this, or not." But is personal pragmatism the "right" approach? Some part of me says "No!"" -- A Blind Tortoise
ReplyDeleteABT -- I wasn't trying to suggest that anyone or everyone curl up in some dispassionate cozy rocker and "let's you and him fight." I was trying to suggest that it might be better to ease off on expecting a fish to revise its water-breathing ways. It may be impossible, but the effort strikes me as worth it:
Just say what you want to say.
Just do what you want to do.
But put the brakes on expecting some benevolent or good result from the social convention of outraged jawboning. If it works, fine. If it doesn't work, fine.
Now let me see here ... I wonder if I can practice what I preach. It's iffy ... :)
GKK said...
ReplyDelete"I was trying to suggest that it might be better to ease off on expecting a fish to revise its water-breathing ways. It may be impossible, but the effort strikes me as worth it:"
Well it could be that the analogy of fish and animal is just too limited.
"We are more alike than different" seems more correct than they are porgies and we are piggies.
The tricky part is dealing with the enablers. We have concepts like the Messiah Complex, Socipath, etc, so we begin think we have some understanding of what is going on with the "leader," but what of the other part of the equation? The individuals that believe they need and believe in and who revere the alleged messiah who is in reality a sociopath, what of them? And what about those that come after?
I have no answers.
ABT -- I don't have any answers either, but I do think this snippet from "The Life of Brian" points a wry finger towards something useful:
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/LQqq3e03EBQ