Zen: Part 1 - Purpose | Feelingawareness

Zen: Part 1 - Purpose

Zen History

Zen is an amalgamation of Buddhism from India and Taoism from China. Both Buddhism and Taoism formed around 500 BCE, the former through Gautama, the Buddha, the latter through Lao Tzu, a Chinese sage. As Buddhism spread into China in the 7th Century CE, Taoist influence resulted in a unique hybrid called Ch'an. Later, when it spread to Japan, the pronunciation of Ch'an changed to Zen.

Zen Buddhism has become a traditional religion with monks, temples, and rituals, but its origin lies in one simple, meditative tool—zazen—attention to life in the moment. When I speak of Zen, it is about the use of zazen and the feelingaware state that returns through its practice.

Since my teens, I have practiced zazen and continue to this day. During the 70s I practiced formally at the Toronto Zen Centre, an affiliate under the guidance of Roshi Philip Kapleau, one of the first American Zen Masters.

The Tao Teh Ching—81 short verses composed by Lao Tzu—has been an essential guide in my experience of feelingawareness and many aspects of life. For me, Zen is the tool and Tao is the view.

Problems

When problems repeat, build, and tangle, it indicates that our natural state of feelingawareness has become disconnected. This results in a “bad dream” of painful feelings, negative thoughts, and destructive habits.

Zen is a practice refined over thousands of years to wake us up.

Much of modern psychotherapy asserts that “negative thinking” causes a downward spiral of painful feelings, worse behaviours, and more negative thoughts. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a modality intended to correct that destructive spiral.

Negative thinking—unrealistic, exaggerated, and overly critical—is definitely a problem, but it is not the origin of painful feelings. Children, before they can talk or think clearly, suffer painful feelings from their dysfunctional situations and traumatic experiences. Painful feelings are the origin, and negative thoughts arise from them. In many cases, negative core beliefs such as, “I'm bad,” “It's all my fault,” and “I deserve to be punished,” arise from an abused child trying to make sense of the pain, suffering, and mistreatment.

By adulthood, negative thinking and feeling do operate in a vicious cycle: feeling affecting thinking and thinking affecting feeling. Regardless of how the cycle started—Zen can help it to stop.

Causes

Every problem has a solution—and a cause.

Find the cause and you can find the solution.

With chronic, painful emotions, feeling and understanding the cause/origin can lead to expression and resolution.

With chronic negative thinking patterns, the approach is similar. Notice the thoughts, check them against reality, understand their cause/origin—then adjust or stop them.

CBT attempts to do this, but I believe Zen—and compassionate curiosity—are better tools.

Compassionate Curiosity

Zen is the tool and compassionate curiosity is the attitude.

Zen is attention—a magnifying glass that helps us see reality—what is.

Compassionate curiosity is an attitude—loving interest toward ourselves and our problems.

Self-hate is a defense against seeing what is painful to see. Compassion—loving understanding—dissolves self-hate, and non-judgmental curiosity allows us to investigate and see how things really work. Once we can do that, the knots are much easier to untangle.

To apply compassionate curiosity we need to really believe that all children— including ourselves—are originally innocent and blameless. You may have religious beliefs of original sin and imperfection, but these are far-reaching metaphysical concepts. Babies are just babies, and they simply need protection, nourishment and love. When these needs are not met, they suffer, and that suffering is the cause of all our problems.

To apply compassionate curiosity we also need to look at our self and our circumstances impartially, like we would a weather system. To understand a storm and how to deal with it, we need to see and understand the forces at work, the atmospheric pressures, the temperatures, and the movement of the winds. Judging or blaming—even hating the weather—will not help us deal with it and get to the other side of the storm. If we can look at ourselves with this compassionate curiosity, we can see the forces and where they came from, how they work—and find ways to solve them.

Thoughts

Thoughts are mental activity (neuronal patterns) that are interpreted (with meaning/summary) by the brain. Thought forms include:

• voluntary language
• belief content
• involuntary counter-commentary

• involuntary language

• voluntary imagery/content
• involuntary imagery/content

• reference imagery
• re-presentation

Voluntary Language
When we consider thinking, voluntary language or inner monologue/dialogue is what most of us are referring to. Whether “talking to ourselves,” imagining talking to someone else, or rearranging language for understanding or writing, voluntary language appears as a voice we seem to hear inside our heads.

Belief Content
Our understanding of ourselves and the universe exist as a massive library of beliefs (ideas/thoughts) that can be voluntarily referred to (when solving problems), and also can involuntarily impose itself upon us if we appear to stray from that framework.

Involuntary Counter-commentary
There are times when a part of ourselves—often supporter or critic—provides commentary about what we have done, are doing, or are planning to do.

Involuntary Language
Involuntary language is a flow of mental activity that acts as a parallel commentary or chatter about what we are doing. It can also appear at times like disconnected nonsense. Involuntary language seems to flow on its own, like a radio or TV playing in the background.

Voluntary Imagery/content
Voluntary imagery appears as daydreams that we create for our own enjoyment, torment, or creative problem-solving—in art, music, writing, cooking, invention, exploring, building and mechanical repairs.

Involuntary Imagery/content
Involuntary imagery appears as daydream-like visions—with full sensory representation—that run independently of our choice.

Reference Imagery
During daily activities and choices, the mind will often present reference images/scenes to help us make, or avoid, decisions and actions.

Re-presentation of Imagery
The mind will sometimes immediately present something we've just experienced (a sunset, an animal, a person) as if for re-consideration or commentary.

Thoughts have infinite variation, but all thoughts have one feature—they take attention away from present reality.

Present reality refers to sensory information that is freshly occurring from outside and inside us. Thoughts do occur in the present, but they are mental constructs that separate us from moment to moment existence. Tripping over a rock is a present sensory occurrence, whereas thinking about tripping over the rock is a mental representation arising from that event.

Life is a steady stream of challenges that we can navigate best if we are fully 100% attentive to what is happening. Any thought takes away from the 100%. Balancing on a log over a stream will be more successful if we give it full attention. Any thought will take away from the log, the wind, our feet, and our balance. Top athletes know this and speak of a flow state, a thought-free, in-the-moment experience.

Thoughts are the tool of our developed brains and can be very, very useful by referring to past experience and projecting creative solutions. Unfortunately, many thoughts are useless distraction, destructive projection, corrosive hatred, and a delusional distortion of reality. The proper management of thought is essential to our wellbeing and balanced feelingawareness.

Attention

The root of the word attention is attend—to be present, to be here. Its Latin roots are at (to) and tendere (to stretch)—to stretch or attach to, like a tendon connecting a bone to a muscle. When someone “takes attendance,” you answer "Here."

Attention is the state of being here, now—connected with whatever you are here with—the room, the forest, the food, your clothes, body, hair, etc.. If you're thinking, talking to yourself, or daydreaming, you're not paying attention, not all here. When the mind is busy with thought, you are more likely to drive past the destination, eat dinner without tasting it, hit your thumb with a hammer, or lose an important relationship by neglecting it.

Benefits of developed attention include:

Appreciation of Life
Food tastes better and richer. Sunsets are more colourful, comedy is funnier, sex is more sensual. Feeling is full and deep.

Development of Skills
Attention allows us to notice mistakes more clearly, absorb advice more easily, and learn skills more quickly.

Recognition of Opportunities
Attention allows for recognition of opportunities when they arise, and more effective response and development.

Accident Prevention
Most accidents are the result of poor attention. By paying attention, staying alert and undistracted, a great deal of injury and mishap can be prevented.

Illness Prevention and Health Promotion
Many illnesses, from colds to heart failure, can be prevented by attending to what the body needs. By paying attention to early symptoms, we can avoid complications and make lifestyle choices that will improve our health.

Emotional Healing

Attention is also blocked by the emotional and physical pain we carry. When we pay attention to our feelings, the original pains at the root of our problems can be recognized, expressed, and resolved.

(continued in "Zen: Part 2 - Practice")