Please, tomorrow, bring the Tao Te Ching

Confucianism

Confucius molded Chinese civilization in general and judging by the Analects, one can see that he exerted great influence on Chinese philosophical development. There is a humanistic tendency in Confucius’ thought; he did not care to talk about spiritual beings or even about life after death. Instead, he believed that we can make the Way (Tao) great. Confucius concentrated on man. 

His primary concern is a good society based on good government and harmonious human relations. Confucius believed in the perfectibility of all men and in this connection he radically modified a traditional concept, that of the “superior man” or chün-tzu. One can broadly sum up Confucius system in a handful of principles: 

1- T’ien (or heaven) is purposive, the master of all things. Tian is immanent: “Heaven sees through the eyes of the people, Heavens listens through the ears of the people.” Not necessarily anthropomorphic but anthropogenic, T'ien is embodied in the people and exemplified by the people. Heaven is a principle and that relates to human as that of part/whole relationship. 2- The Mandate of Heaven or T’ien-Ming consists of a Supreme Being who institutes a moral principle which then operates all by itself. That’s the principle of Heaven, T’ien Tao (later on called T’ien-li).

2- Jen (also pronounced as “ren” means indistinctly, altruism, humanity and fairness and appears more than 100 times in the Analects. Jen requires compassion. 

3- “Do not impose to others what you don’t want.” This is a negative form of the Golden Rule, which is essential in Confucianism. “If you want to establish yourself, establish others. If you want to promote yourself, promote others.” To be able to apply the golden rule one has to follow a method, 

4- “Shu,” which means to be empathetic, i.e., to be able to understand the circumstances. Shu necessitates 

5- “Xue” or learning. Not an achievement verb, but rather a stronger sense of affecting oneself whether by improving one’s sensitivity, understanding or ability. With “xue’ one appropriates what’s learned, a process of becoming transforming. Xue is accompanied by 

6- “Si,” that is, reflecting. “Learning without thinking, one will be perplexed, thinking without learning, one will be in peril.” (A, 2:15). 

7- The Doctrine of the Mean or “Zhong-Yong.” It means centrality, not to be “one-sided.” It doesn’t mean staying in the middle regardless or no matter what. The idea is to stay between two vices, not between excellence and vice. “Excess is as bad as deficiency.” (A, 20:1). One very important element in Confucianism is the idea of 

8- Li which is the idea of ritual propriety. Li can be seen as the embodiment of refinement that rules one’s life. If jen is the internal quality that makes a person an authentic person, then li is the body of external behavior that allows jen to be manifested and applied publicly. When li is properly performed, it becomes "yi,” a word that can be translated as righteousness. Li provides the fabric of social order. It’s the proper social behavior of a person embedded in a community of equals. Li is also a vital constituent of education: Humans are like raw materials, they need to be carved, chiseled, grounded and polished to become authentic individuals. By doing li one learns and instills oneself in the practice of li. 

Finally, there’s an aesthetic dimension to the cultivation of li. Elegance and aptness has a beauty to it, i.e., the cultivation of oneself that is expressed through the individual’s actions.

Reaping a destiny (apropos of Dhammapada's Twin Verses)

Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Update: Your turn #3 (this post closes Thursday@10pm)

Last class we talked about the Buddhist revolution: 1- Its pluralism (there are different ways), 2- its universalism (anyone can be saved), 3- The etioloy of Buddhism is pretty simple: There is universal causation: pratityasamutpadda. How to dispel avidya (ignorance), which causes tanha (craving) to cause dukkha (suffering)? The 8-fold path. I stressed the first three: right view/right intention/right speech: from the inside to the outside. Good mental formation leads to good actions. I brought up Husserl's epoché, as a way to dispel the gooey everydayness,* the baggage that each one of us brings into the life-equation: all kinds of protectiveness, assumptions including our personal brainwash. How much of what I take to be ME is really me? We touched briefly upon Sartre's nausée, to Kirkegaard's angst to illustrate the point. For some reason that escapes me now, I mentioned Kafka's idea of inexplicable (Unerklärliche) in this short story. Buddhism suggests that one can become authentic (a helping hand again, from Existentialism: Heidegger's idea of Eigentlichkeit or "one who owns oneself"). Buddhism is not an abstract discourse achievable only by a chosen few. At the end of the class I introduced the Buddhist idea of "self" as a flame, which is very akin to the Existentialist idea of self as process. I stop for now. Go ahead.
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*The term in Heidegger's philosophy is Alltäglichkeit, which means the daily routine of life.
A link for Georges Bataille's Theory of Religion here.

Dalai Lama's buddhist program for world peace

"When we rise in the morning and listen to the radio or read the newspaper, we are confronted with the same sad news: violence, crime, wars, and disasters. I cannot recall a single day without a report of something terrible happening somewhere. Even in these modern times it is clear that one's precious life is not safe. No former generation has had to experience so much bad news as we face today; this constant awareness of fear and tension should make any sensitive and compassionate person question seriously the progress of our modern world.

It is ironic that the more serious problems emanate from the more industrially advanced societies. Science and technology have worked wonders in many fields, but the basic human problems remain. There is unprecedented literacy, yet this universal education does not seem to have fostered goodness, but only mental restlessness and discontent instead. There is no doubt about the increase in our material progress and technology, but somehow this is not sufficient as we have not yet succeeded in bringing about peace and happiness or in overcoming suffering. We can only conclude that there must be something seriously wrong with our progress and development, and if we do not check it in time there could be disastrous consequences for the future of humanity. I am not at all against science and technology -they have contributed immensely to the overall experience of humankind; to our material comfort and well-being and to our greater understanding of the world we live in. But if we give too much emphasis to science and technology we are in danger of losing touch with those aspects of human knowledge and understanding that aspire towards honesty and altruism.

(Read more below)

Update: Your turn #2 (this post closes tomorrow Wed. at 10pm)

Interesting discussion. I like the lecture/discussion format better. It gives us the opportunity to share and argue some of the issues treated in the first half of the class. Let’s summarize some of the points: 1- In addition to a methodology for proper thinking, philosophy can provide wisdom (Σoφíα). I maintain this was the original goal of Greek philosophy, something we lost along the way. What wisdom? Not knowledge: one can be knowledgeable and un-wise. Jainism seems to indicate that if a person is endowed with good mental states, she can produce good verbal-and-bodily conduct: An inner potential that gets realized through concrete actions in the world. This is pretty close to Aristotle’s notion of virtue. 2- Goodness cannot be achieved without intending and repeating -good- thoughts and actions in order to generate good habits. That’s the wisdom-technique, (from techne, craft). Thus, I brought up the idea of auto-poesis (“repeat an action and you create a habit, repeat a habit and you will form a destiny”). 3- Regarding a-himsa, the main point is violence. How can one define it? Obviously, inflicting unnecessary suffering can be seen as a form of violence. But jaina goes deeper: Violence is a “mental form.” See it as an “inner fear” that elicits a conduct characterized by its lack of justice (or fairness). This is the form of himsa we must fight. A just act cannot be violent because it does not stem from a visceral fear (see it at a form of irrationality). Killing doesn’t have to be violent. Killing in self-defense can be just (think of the European Resistance against the Nazis in WWII). How about emotions? Gandhi is subtle here: The right emotion can help. Anger is legitimate when directed against injustice. 4- Let’s not forget jaina as a tool for civil emancipation. Ahimsa was Gandhi’s method of struggle against the British oppression in India throughout the earlier part of the Twentieth-Century. Martin Luther King employed it as a centerpiece for the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. In both instances, ahimsa proved to be a viable political tool. 5- Later, the discussion shifted to actions: Helping the homeless with the right intention vs. helping just to impress a friend. Which is better? For Jainism the former. But doesn’t the homeless get his money-help regardless? Indeed, that’s part of the homeless’ karma (metaphorically speaking: he deserves it). For the giver, there is more to achieve, though. The right intention, something he doesn’t have yet. Perhaps Aristotle would agree. This giver is not virtuous.

Emergence

I talked to you about emergence as a way of understanding the universe as a possible form of higher organization. Can one see the universe as emergent? I'll come back to this soon. Here is another interesting site.
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I our last discussion the word “experience” was tossed around. Should I abstain from a possible experience out of fear? Aristotle would say “certainly”. Fear has a good side: it can become a filter for potentially harmful experiences. It’s true that too much fear leads to paralysis, no fear to fearlessness. But developing the right amount of fear can inform my decisions. One may add, how do I know if I don’t experience it to begin with? Well, I have the capacity to “understand” a given experience without actually experiencing it (just as much as I can empathize with the suffering of a woman that has been raped, or my wife’s breastfeeding or with my daughter’s sadness though I’m not a woman). I don’t have to get drunk to understand the harm it inflicts to the body.

Gandhi's logic of a-himsa

* ... a steady progress with discipline.

* The power of the satyagrahi is greater than if he were violent.

* There is no defeat in a-himsa.

* In a-himsa the bravery consists in dying, not in killing.

* The satyagrahi should never have any hatred toward his opponent... must be prepared to suffer until the end.

* ...truth never jimsa a cause that is just.

* A satyagrahi is never vindictive. He believes not in destruction but in conversion.

* A-himsa presupposes the ability to strike.

* ...injustice must be resisted. A-himsa is better, but where is does not come naturally jimsa is both necessary and honorable.

* So long as one retains one's sword, one has not attain complete fearlessness.

* A-himsa is impossible without self-purification.

* A weak man is just by accident. A strong satyagrahi is unjust by accident.

* A satyagrahi is dead to his body even before his enemy attempts to kill him, i.e. he is free from attachment to his body and only lives in the victory of his soul.
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Taken from Ghandi on Non-violence (New Directions, 1965).

Important terms in Jaina philosophy

Karman: Bits of material, generated by the person’s actions, that bind themselves to the life-monad or soul through many births. This has the effect of thwarting the full realization and freedom of the soul.

Kalpa: A world cycle. A period of time comprising 4,320,000 yrs. Pali-kappa is an endlessly long period of time. The metaphor is that of a piece of silk rubbed one on a solid piece of rock one cubic mile in size every 1000 yrs. When this wears the rock away, a kalpa has passed.

Jiva: “One who lives in the body,” a mortal being. The embodied self, which identifies with the mind as ego. It creates the notions of duality and causality and thereby becomes bound to the cycle of birth and death. It has been defined as a life-monad.

Ajiva: non-soul, inanimate substance. Ajiva is divided in two categories: non-sentient (i.e. a feeling being) material and non-sentient and non-material.

Moksha: liberation.

Kevala: state of omniscience. Kevala is necessarily accompanied by freedom from karmic obstruction by direct experience of the soul’s pure form, unblemished by its attachment of matter.

Ratnatraya: The basis of Jaina ethics. It comprises the right knowledge, right faith and right conduct. They must be cultivated at once. Right faith leads to calmness and tranquility, but right faith leads to perfection only when followed by right conduct. Knowledge without faith and conduct is futile. Right conduct is spontaneous, not a forced mechanical quality. Attainment of right conduct is a gradual process. The process to achieve this is ahimsa.

Ahimsa: Skt (non-harming) Jaina doctrine of non-violence. Since thought gives rise to action, non-violence of thought is more important than non-violence of action. It is also one of the five virtues in Raja-Yoga.

Pugdala: equivalent to matter.

The comment post closes Monday 18 at 11pm.

Just a reminder: I'll close the comment-post below this Tuesday May 19, at 10pm.

Notes on Hinduism 2

So we have extreme asceticism: Hindu wanderers were known as Munis (the silent ones). From the Munis developed the Sanyasis and the entire complex of wandering mendicants. 

A different homelessness: The Munis choose a homeless life, without wife, children or possessions of any sort, except robe, staff, begging bowl and drinking cup. These wondering saints are destitute yet, honored by most. What is the purpose of asceticism?  It brings human nature closer to a spiritual disengagement from life, but also it becomes a way to understand the limits of the body-experience before the physical phase of the death experience is upon oneself.

The Aryan Component: The Aryans invaded the subcontinent shortly after 2000 B.C. They came from the north and settled in the Hindu Valley (where five tributary rivers flow from the lower Himalayan regions). Later, around 1200 B.C. the Aryans moved to the central Ganges region (between the Himalaya Mountains and the Ganges River). They bring with them some interesting ideas:

Yajna (sacrifice): This worship through sacrifice is characteristic of the Aryan people in the early period. The most common sacrifice is the drinking of soma (a fermented drink). There was also the horse sacrifice, an elaborate ritual which took years to perform and required a large number of priests. The transition from sacrificial act to ontological absolute happens because the sacrifice was considered the dynamic whereby the entire cosmic-human order was sustained in existence. 

Atman/Brahman: Inner self of all things, supreme reality. Both designate the final reality, the inner support of beings, the One behind multiplicity. "Thou art that" means that the deepest subjective reality is identical with the absolute manifested objectively in the world without.

The Union of Traditions: Maya: The term refers to the creative power of Brahman, came later to mean the insubstantial nature of the visible world, a phenomenal world which is "unreal"; (the appearance of things).

Samsara: The world conceived as a constant endless, cyclic, process of change, of birth and death and rebirth. At the time of death,one form gives way to another form according to a process designated as reincarnation.Another body of the human, subhuman, or suprahuman succeeds the dissolution of the body.

Ineffability: The sublime character of Brahman the ultimate truth, which cannot be understood in any adequate manner. In the Kena Upanishad it's represented as "unthinkable form... not understood by those who understand it and understood by those who do not understand it."

Karma: The law of moral causality. Every deed, good or evil, has an inevitable consequence leading either toward final release from the birth death cycle, or toward further immersion in the painful cycle of unending change. The law of Karma is known as sowing and reaping. Some point to the fatalism involved in the notion of Karma. Others rejoin that a person is always free to perform deeds that will lead to salvation or a least to an improved state of existence.

Moksha: Salvation by union with Brahman. Salvation meant a liberation from the confining, limiting world of time and an emergence into the more expansive world of the eternal and infinite. It means the extinction of phenomenal existence and absorption into Brahman.

Bhakti: Intimate devotion to a personal deity. In centuries before Christianism, Hinduisn developed an amazing awareness that the supreme way of salvation is through the love of God.

Update: Some thoughts + your turn #1

I got my HTML right this time. The Read more here option is now selective (as it should). I changed the order of the post and some content (the Hinduism post is now more conceptual. Please, read it to inform your post discussions).

Let's summarize some of the points in today's lecture. (I may have seem all over the place but keep in mind, there's always a conceptual constellation). 1- Change and "the odd couple" (Heraclitus' pantha rei vs. Parmenides' eon) 2- Hegel's master/slave dialectic to explain religious syncretism (and Joseph Losey's The Servant as a fine example of a film), 2- The symbolic richness of Neti, neti as negative theology, 3- Children's power for empathy -and fish-empathy in Julio Cortazar. 4- About Brian Pennington's book: Is Hinduism a colonial invention? 5- The proto-symbolic power of poetry employed as poetic philosophy. Your comments in class? Right ON! Now, let's argue here.
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In my lecture (Tuesday) introducing Eastern Philosophy, I brought up this idea of metaphor¹as worldmaking: a conceptual frame through which we could comprehend stuff. What I’m trying to say is that to facilitate our discussion, one doesn’t have to take some of these ideas literally: I don’t have to literally and a priori accept the idea of “karma” to illuminate other aspects of such metaphor. If God and the universe is the same thing, how can one meaningfully address the issue of teleology? Then, one can say does it make sense that I even bring up the question? Is there any sense in conceiving such proposition without losing sight of the difficulty of the endeavor?

Nelson Goodman: Willingness to accept countless alternative true or right world-versions does not mean that everything goes, that tall stories are as good as short ones, that truths are no longer distinguished from falsehoods, but only that truth must be otherwise conceived than as correspondence with a ready-made world. Then, there is redemption and Benjamin.

Finally, I want to bring some of the paradoxes implicit in our discussion: Karma (what’s the limit between what I’m supposed to be and what I am) self-realization; is it even possible? i.e. just a second before my death (imagine a somewhat morally lived life), have I realized myself, how do I know it?) or moksha (liberation of what?)²
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¹According to philosopher Paul Ricoeur, a metaphor is a rhetorical process to liberate the capacity of a fiction to re-describe the reality. ² According to Buddhism atma-jnana is a precondition to moksha.

Sacred Hindu texts

(1) Vedas means wisdom or knowledge, and contains hymns, prayers and ritual texts composed during a period of a thousand years. (2) The Upanishads are a collection of secret teachings including mystical ideas about man and the universe, it contains the core teaching of Vedanta ¹. The word, Brahman, comes into focus within this group, which is the basis of reality, and atman, which is the self or soul. (3) The Ramayana, which is one of two major tales of India. The work consists of 24,000 couplets based on the life of Rama, a righteous king who was an incarnation of the God Vishnu. (4) The Mahabharata is the second epic and is the story of the deeds of the Aryan clans. It is composed of 100,000 verses written over a 800 year period. The text has immense importance to culture in the Indian subcontinent. Its discussion of human goals (artha or purpose, kāma, pleasure or desire, dharma or duty, and moksha or liberation) takes place in a long-standing tradition, attempting to explain the relationship of the individual to society and the world (the nature of the 'Self') and the workings of karma.Contained within this work is a classic called the Bhagavad Gita, or the "Song of the Blessed Lord." It is one of the most sacred books of the Hindus and the most read of all Indian works in the entire world. The story is centered on man's duty, which, if carried out, will bring nothing but sorrow. The significance of this story is based on Hindu belief of bhatki, (devotion to a particular god as a means of salvation). These two stories have become ideals for the people of India in terms of moral and social behavior. (5) The Puranas are an important source for the understanding of Hinduism, and include legends of gods, goddesses, demons, and ancestors describing pilgrimage and rituals to demonstrate the importance of bhatki, caste and dharma.

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¹A spiritual tradition explained in the Upanishads that is concerned with the self-realisation by which one understands the ultimate nature of reality (Brahman). Vedanta teaches that the believer's goal is to transcend the limitations of self-identity and realize one's unity with Brahman. Vedanta is not restricted or confined to one book and there is no sole source for Vedantic philosophy.Vedanta is based on two simple propositions: 1. Human nature is divine. 2. The aim of human life is to realize that human nature is divine.

Aurobindo's idea of planes of existence

Spiritual
The consciousness beyond mind that connects to the underlying spiritual reality of the universe and the transcendent Divine.

Mental
The facts, thoughts, sentiments, opinions, beliefs, values, ideals, ideas, and concepts that guide our conscious thinking, conceptualizing and decision-making processes.

Vital/Emotional
The semi-conscious sensations, urges, desires, feelings, emotions, and attitudes. The vital provides the energy for human action and expresses itself through attraction, liking, desire and enthusiasm.

(1) We experience the vital sensation of the central nervous system, our primal urges, desires, and fears; (2) where we experience our feelings, emotions, and passions of life; and (3) is where the emotions are processed into emotional thought, i.e. into the emotions' perception of knowledge, and it is where our attitudes, our life intelligence, and higher emotions reside.

Physical
Definition: The subconscious awareness and impulses of the body expressed in animal instincts, basic drives of human nature, and inherited character traits. The primary drives of the physical are for self-preservation and reproduction.

(1) It comprises all material form, our raw physical existence, consisting of matter; (2) it is where our movements originate; (3) it is the seat of our physical urges and sensations, and (4) it is where the body learns how to act, i.e. where it learns the primary skills needed for existence.

Yoga terms

Buddhi/cittam: Thought faculty, still within the mind.

Kaivalya: The ultimate state of perfection in Yoga.

Pakriti: The matter-principle, uncaused cause.

Purusha: The supreme self.

Dukkha: Sorrow or basic condition of existence because of the essential nature of the
unrealized man.

Gunas: The qualities of pakriti.

Sattvas: The goodness in matter, that which can be realized only through the knowledge of the
enlightened subject.

Tamas: The opacity, the dark quality of matter, its propensity to destruction.

Raja: The tension, dynamic force behind matter.

Kevala: Life-monad for Jaina and Yoga.

Mahat: The Great One, or what emerges from pakriti.

Mana: The lower mind, the third in the cycle from Mahat.

Yama: Restraint, the fixing of the path, to curb, to bridle.

Niyama: Spiritual discipline.

Asana: Posture.

Pranayama: Controlled breathing.

Pratyahara: Abstraction of the senses.

Dharana: (One-point concentration) or total stillness.

Dhyana: Sustained attention, chan, jhana, or zen; the eightfold path of self- absorption.

Samadhi: Simple and total overtaking of the mind by the cosmic mind.

Hinduism (general overview)

Yoga ("royal yoga", "royal union", also known as Classical Yoga or simply Yoga) is one of the six orthodox (astika) schools of Hindu philosophy, outlined by the sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras. Raja yoga is concerned principally with the cultivation of the mind using meditation (dhyana) to further one's acquaintance with reality and finally achieve liberation. Sage Kapila is traditionally considered to be the founder of the Sankhya school, although no historical verification is possible. It is regarded as one of the oldest philosophical systems in India. Samkhya: one of the six orthodox systems (astika, those systems that recognize vedicHindu philosophy. The major text of this Vedic school is the extant Samkhya Karika, written by Ishvara Krishna, circa 200 AD. This text (in karika 70) identifies Sankhya as a Tantra and its philosophy was one of the main influences both on the rise of the Tantras as a body of literature, as well as Tantra sadhana.

(Read more here)

D.T. Suzuki's Zen

From Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki's Essays on Zen Buddhism


Zen is the art of seeing into the nature of one's own being. It points the way from bondage to freedom. By making us drink right from the fountain of life, it liberates us from all the yokes under which we finite beings are usually suffering in this world. We can say that Zen liberates all the energies properly and naturally stored in each of us, which are in ordinary circumstances cramped and distorted so that they find no adequate channel for activity. 2- This body of ours is something like an electric battery in which a mysterious power latently lies. When this power is not properly brought into operation, it either grows moldy and withers away or is warped and expresses itself abnormally. It is the object of Zen, therefore, to save us from going crazy or being crippled. This is what I mean by “freedom,” giving free play to all the creative and benevolent impulses inherently lying in our hearts. 3- We are blind to this fact that we are in possession of all the necessary faculties that will make us happy and loving towards one another. All the struggles that we see around us come from this ignorance. Zen, therefore, wants us to open a “third eye,” as Buddhists call it, to the hitherto undreamed-of region shut away from us through our own ignorance. When the cloud of ignorance disappears, the infinity of the heavens is manifested, where we see for the first time into the nature of our own being. 4- Life, as most of us live it, is suffering. There is no denying the fact. As long as life is a form of struggle, it cannot be anything but pain. Does not a struggle mean the impact of two conflicting forces, each trying to get the upper hand of the other? If the battle is lost, the outcome is death, and death is the fearsomest thing in the world; even when death is conquered, one is left alone, and the loneliness is sometimes more unbearable than the struggle itself. 5- When the ego-shell is broken and the 'other' is taken into its own body, we can say that the ego has denied itself or that the ego has taken its first steps towards the infinite. How does Zen solve the problem of problems? 6- In the first place, Zen proposes its solution by directly appealing to facts of personal experience and not necessarily to knowledge from books. The nature of one's own being where apparently rages the struggle between the finite and the infinite is to be grasped by a higher faculty than the intellect. For Zen says it is the latter that first made us raise the question which it could not answer by itself, and that therefore it is to be put aside to make room for something higher and more enlightening. 7- The intellect has a peculiarly disquieting quality in it. Though it raises questions enough to disturb the serenity of the mind, it is too frequently unable to give satisfactory answers to them. It upsets the blissful peace of ignorance and yet it does not restore the former state of things by offering something else. Because it points out ignorance, it is often considered illuminating, whereas the fact is that it disturbs, not necessarily always bringing light on its path. It is not final; it waits for something higher than itself for the solution of all the questions it will raise regardless of consequences. This constant pulling down and building up is all right as far as philosophy itself is concerned; for the inherent nature of the intellect, as I take it, demands it and we cannot put a stop to the progress of philosophical inquiries any more than to our breathing. But when it comes to the question of life itself, we cannot wait for the ultimate solution to be offered by the intellect, even if it could do so. We cannot suspend even for a moment our life-activity for philosophy to unravel its mysteries. 8- The hungry cannot wait until a complete analysis of food is obtained and the nourishing value of each element is determined. For the dead the scientific knowledge of food will be of no use whatever. Zen therefore does not rely on the intellect for the solution of its deepest problems. 9- By personal experience it is meant to get at the fact at first hand and not through any intermediary, whatever this may be. Its favorite analogy is: “To point at the moon a finger is needed, but woe to those who take the finger for the moon.” A basket is welcome to carry our fish home, but when the fish are safely on the table why should we eternally bother ourselves with the basket? Here stands the fact, and let us grasp it with the naked hands lest it should slip away--this is what Zen proposes to do. 10- As nature abhors a vacuum, Zen abhors anything coming between the fact and ourselves. According to Zen there is no struggle in the fact itself such as between the finite and the infinite, between the flesh and the spirit. These are idle distinctions fictitiously designed by the intellect for its own interest. Those who take them too seriously or those who try to read them into the very fact of life are those who take the finger for the moon. When we are hungry we eat; when we are sleepy we lay ourselves down; and where does the infinite or the finite come in here? Are not we complete in ourselves and each in himself? Life as it is lived suffices. It is only when the disquieting intellect steps in and tries to murder it that we stop to live and imagine ourselves to be short of or in something. Let the intellect alone, it has its usefulness in its proper sphere, but let it not interfere with the flowing of the life-stream. If you are at all tempted to look into it, do so while letting it flow. The fact of flowing must under no circumstances be arrested or meddled with; for the moment your hands are dipped into it, its transparency is disturbed, it ceases to reflect your image which you have had from the very beginning and will continue to have to the end of time. This sums up all that is claimed by Zen as religion: No dependence upon words and letters;Direct pointing to the soul of man; Seeing into one's nature and the attainment ofBuddhahood.' 11- Zen never explains but indicates, it does not appeal to circumlocution, nor does it generalize. It always deals with facts, concrete and tangible. Logically considered, Zen may be full of contradictions and repetitions. But as it stands above all things, it goes serenely on its own way. As a Zen master aptly puts it, 'carrying his home-made cane on the shoulder, he goes right on among the mountains one rising above another.' It does not challenge logic; it simply walks its path of facts, leaving all the rest to their own fates. It is only when logic neglecting its proper functions tries to step into the track of Zen. 12- Zen always deals in concrete facts and does not indulge in generalizations. And I do not wish to add unnecessary legs to the painted snake, but if I try to waste my philosophical comments on Bokuju, I may say this: We are all finite, we cannot live out of time and space; inasmuch as we are earth-created, there is no way to grasp the infinite, how can we deliver ourselves from the limitations of existence? This is perhaps the idea put in the first question of the monk, to which the master replies: Salvation must be sought in the finite itself, there is nothing infinite apart from finite things; if you seek something transcendental, that will cut you off from this world of relativity, which is the same thing as the annihilation of yourself. You do not want salvation at the cost of your own existence. If so, drink and eat, and find your way of freedom in this drinking and eating. This was too much for the questioner, who, therefore, confessed himself as not understanding the meaning of the master. Therefore, the latter continued: Whether you understand or not, just the same go on living in the finite, with the finite; for you die if you stop eating and keeping yourself warm on account of your aspiration for the infinite. No matter how you struggle, Nirvāṇa is to be sought in the midst of Saṁsāra (birth-and-death). Whether an enlightened Zen master or an ignoramus of the first degree, neither can escape the so-called laws of nature. When the stomach is empty, both are hungry; when it snows, both have to put on an extra flannel. I do not, however, mean that they are both material existences, but they are what they are, regardless of their conditions of spiritual development. As the Buddhist scriptures have it, the darkness of the cave itself turns into enlightenment when a torch of spiritual insight burns. It is not that a thing called darkness is first taken out and another thing known by the name of enlightenment is carried in later, but that enlightenment and darkness are substantially one and the same thing from the very beginning; the change from the one to the other has taken place only inwardly or subjectively. Therefore the finite is the infinite, and vice versa. These are not two separate things, though we are compelled to conceive them so, intellectually. This is the idea, logically interpreted, perhaps contained in Bokuju's answer given to the monk. The mistake consists in our splitting into two what is really and absolutely one. 13- The truth of Zen is such that when we want to comprehend it penetratingly we have to go through with a great struggle, sometimes very long and exacting constant vigilance. To be disciplined in Zen is no easy task. A Zen master once remarked that the life of a monk can be attained only by a man of great moral strength, and that even a minister of the State cannot expect to become a successful monk. (Let us remark here that in China to be a minister of the State was considered to be the greatest achievement a man could ever hope for in this world.) Not that a monkish life requires the austere practice of asceticism but that it implies the elevation of one's spiritual powers to their highest notch. All the utterances or activities of the great Zen masters have come from this elevation. They are not intended to be enigmatic or driving us to confusion. They are the overflowing of a soul filled with deep experiences. Therefore, unless we are ourselves elevated to the same height as the masters, we cannot gain the same commanding views of life. Says Ruskin: 'And be sure also, if the author is worth anything, that you will not get at his meaning all at once--nay, that at his whole meaning you will not for a long time arrive in any wise. Not that he does not say what he means, and in strong words, too; but he cannot say it all and what is more strange, will not, but in a hidden way and in parable, in order that he may be sure you want it. I cannot see quite the reason of this, nor analyse that cruel reticence in the breasts of wise men which makes them always hide their deeper thought. They do not give it you by way of help, but of reward, and will make themselves sure that you deserve it before they allow you to reach it.' And this key to the royal treasury of wisdom is given us only after patient and painful moral struggle.

Dogen

To appreciate the significance of poetry in the life and thought of Dogen (1200—1253), one must first consider the role of this Zen master and founder of the Sōtō sect in Japan as a philosopher and as a writer. Dōgen's philosophical writings have received high praise for their literary qualities, especially their eloquent poetic flavor. Dōgen employs a variety of verbal devices such as philosophical wordplay, paradox, and irony in order to stress that there is a fundamental identity of language and enlightenment. Rather than emphasizing silence or the transcendence of speech, Dōgen proves himself in his main work, the Shōbōgenzō, to be a master of language. He exhibits remarkable skill in revealing how ordinary words harbor a deeper though generally hidden metaphysical meaning. According to Tanabe Hajime, one of the leading modern philosophers in Japan associated with the Kyoto School, "viewed from the philosophical standpoint, Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō is matchless in its command of Japanese language and logic with the power to realize the ineffable in and through speech and discussion."-- Steven Heine (Tuttle Publishing, 1997).

Just a thought

Sun-Tzu says: “Some things in nature remain constant, others only apparently so. One must always know what changes and what stays fixed.” While in our class I wished to keep certain things flexible, some must stay fixed (I thought I had stressed that point recently). What to do when time lags and presence fails? Would intimidation keep things in place? Does my voice command more authority only because it threatens?

How to achieve "jen"

According to Confucius, “shu” is the right method to achieve jen. It contains important virtues that can help in the process. They are respectfulness (gong), reverence (jing), leniency (kuan), beneficence (hui), being quick in action (ming), reliability in words (xin) and cultivating slowness to speak (yan ren). “Gong” can be best explained as self-respect, self-worth. The Confucian self needs to be cultivated holistically (the mind is as important as the body). Next there is jing, or reverence, which is a public virtue. Perhaps a better term is estimation. How can one esteem something or someone? When one avoid the short-sightedness of the moment and ponders the far reaching implication of our actions seen within the context of the bigger society. One becomes socially productive when one leaves pettiness and jealousies behind. Quan is also known as Principle of Charity (it means magnanimity) i.e, being able to be thorough with oneself and others, but suspending judgment until one has all the possible evidence (Quan doesn’t rule out criticism, but presupposes self-awareness). Hui is also a public virtue which brings forth the notion of utility. It means that we can be beneficial instruments. Why? Because it’s good for society. According to Confucius, by doing good service to society, one brings good to oneself. Xin relates to the idea of using the proper words. It brings forth a coherence between intentions and words, which amounts to transparency (honesty). One is reliable if one is trustworthy. Finally, Yan ren amounts to taking one are time before talking, something very close to our idea of prudence. Prudence is akin to the idea of foresight and sagacity. Some scholars link yan ren to modesty.