A Mystery!
On this planet
there are so many beautiful
Buddhist statues, and Buddhist temples,
and so many beautiful men and women
who are utterly committed
to, the Buddha’s teachings and techniques,
or at least what they were taught they were.
And yet,
by their own admission,
there are so very few,
if any,
who have become buddhas,
in turn.
How did this
come to be?
To understand this
it could be helpful
to use the tales
of the Star Wars galaxy
as a series of similes.
The Jedi did not set out
to be led astray
they were deceived
and confused
and manipulated
by a very cunning and secretive
Sith lord;
a deceptive fellow
who was keenly skilled
at the deceptions
of innocent appearances.
Just as George Lucas
wrote in terms of
the dark side of the force
and its light side as well
likewise,
more than twenty-five centuries before
Lao Tzu wrote of the yang and the yin,
which although have been translated
as male and female,
I prefer to think of them
in terms of toxic masculinity
and healing femininity.
A great example of healing femininity
from the prequel trilogy
is Jedi Master:
Qui Gon Jinn,
who strove neither
for rank, nor prestige,
but yearned simply
to flow with the force.
Consider his opposite,
the tragic tale
of Anakin Skywalker
who in his greed
for rank, and prestige, and safety
lost everything.
In any organization
there will be those
who fight, and claw, and plot
to attain positions of leadership
and others
who are far more interested
in simply mastering the teachings.
That is how
in every religion
the majority of the positions of power
have come to be occupied
by those who hunger and thirst
for power and for cleverness
infinitely more than they yearn
for love and wisdom.
This perspective of
craving, and controlling,
has skewed their perception
and comprehension
of the Buddha’s teachings.
This becomes evident
upon closer examination
of the most basic
meditation instructions.
We are told to focus
upon an object
such as our breath,
and when we have noticed
that our attention has wavered
they instruct us to drag it back
to our arbitrary object of focus.
Such is the path
of active concentration
and it is in perfect harmony
with Toxic Masculinity’s tendencies
to use force
to modify a situation.
But active concentration
is actually the opposite
of the Buddha’s
seven enlightenment factors
where we are taught
to passively notice
our present moment experience
without analyzing it,
or controlling it,
or modifying it.
We are taught to notice it,
with the utmost vulnerability,
and then to relax into it.
We are taught to marry those two practices
of noticing and relaxing
with our respective inhalations and exhalations
and as we do
just as the interstellar dust
of the cosmic medium
accretes into the massive object
at the center of its nebulous
likewise passively noticing and relaxing
cause our perceptions, and emotions,
and intentions, and calculations,
and recollections, and imaginings
to collect inward
like planets falling into elliptical orbits
around their star.
This is the difference between
active concentration
and passive mindfulness
between the philosophical web-spinning
of contrived cleverness
and the visceral insight
that flows from centered spontaneity.
Long ago the Buddha taught
that the test of the teachings
was not
their age, nor popularity,
nor wealth, nor intellectual appeal,
nor emotional draw.
He taught
that the only valid test of the teachings
were the results they generated
when we applied them
energetically and joyfully
for as little as a week.
Yes, this method is effective,
but for those who value
safety, and convenience
it could seem a dreadful thing.
And thus we have so-called teachers
quoting texts and commentaries
rather than walking in the footsteps
of the great men and women of science
and putting things to the test
and noticing the results
in the laboratory
of their bodies and minds.
And this why
when a great luminary does appear
they do so, typically,
outside institutional settings
in the tradition
of the lone yogi
like Gautama who gave us Anapanasati,
like Prahe Vajra who gave us Mahasandhi,
and like Saraha who gave us Mahamudra.
Although each of these simple
yet powerful techniques
were given by lone yogis
they were rapidly co-opted by institutions:
rigid, and fearful, and aggressive, and controlling.
In the prequel trilogy
it has become evident
that the Jedi order
slipped into the rigidity
of toxic masculinity.
So much so
that it could be argued
that at that time
collectively they were no longer
light side force users
but rather
gray path acolytes.
But we do NOT have to make that mistake
we could choose to follow the example
of Qui Gon Jinn
who in his habitual acquiescence
to the force
chose the centeredness of patience
allowing solutions
to spontaneously appear
and then relaxed effortlessly
into their application.
a simple
call to action
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