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The World Is On Fire: How One Zen Teacher Will Meet Our Current Political Situation

The World Is On Fire: How One Zen Teacher Will Meet Our Current Political Situation

Last updated on: November 17, 2016 at 8:44 am by James Ford

The World Is On Fire: How One Zen Teacher Will Meet Our Current Political Situation 2016-11-17T08:44:26-08:00 James Ford

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17 November 2016

At our Zen sitting the other night, one of our seniors gave the monthly scheduled dharma talk. He spoke quite movingly about his personal engagement with the results of our recent presidential election evoking his sense of dismay, his anxiety and fears, and how he has used it to delve into the contours of not knowing.

During the conversation part of the evening which normally follows a talk, a visitor to the group although an old friend of the speaker, spoke to her own concern that so many dharma teachers seemed to assume everyone was coming from the same place, or certainly in her experience of two other dharma teachers in the past week who at the very least did not acknowledge there were people in their audiences who were not supporters of Secretary Clinton. Or, she added, necessarily even of Mr Trump. Our American political scene is complicated. Our speaker acknowledged he didn’t clearly state everyone was in fact welcome whatever their political views, and that there is in fact a place for all of us.

This exchange set me to consider how I am meeting people. The fact is I am a politically active person. I speak frequently from several platforms of my views regarding our social and political situation. And while I address positive things, I also condemn as it seems appropriate. As this presidential campaign which just ended unfolded I had numerous moments where I felt condemnation of words and actions were important. And I do not regret anything I’ve said, or very little.

As such it would be reasonable for some people who might be thinking of studying Zen with me to question whether I would or even could work with someone whose political views are wildly at variance from mine. As I said, reasonable question.

For good or ill this is my response to that question.

First what is it we are about within the Blue Cliff Zen Sangha? What is our understanding of the dharma? What are we teaching?

I see the dharma as a way to open the heartmind, our largest possible perspective. I believe finding this heals the great wound in each of our hearts and it points us to how we can live on this small planet spinning through the great night. The Zen form of the dharma focuses on three aspects.

First, a forthright declaration that the phenomenal world is real, but that it consists of numerous interactions, all of which are situational, and none of which in their specifics or in their aggregates are permanent. Everything born passes away. This impermanence, this constant fading away, is also a wild openness, containing endless possibility. And, importantly the phenomenal world and this wild openness, while from one angle is different, from another it is one.

Second, is a basket of meditation disciplines. At the foundation is a practice that our teacher Eihei Dogen called shikantaza, just sitting. It is taking a place of complete receptivity, an alert presence, it is a manifestation of that wild openness while sitting on the pillow, and actually beyond the pillow. Closely related to this is koan introspection, a discipline of engaging pointers to the realities of that wild openness and our phenomenal reality in meditation and in conversation with a spiritual director skilled in the ways of the discipline. Beyond that there are extensions of the practice in various forms of community from home, to retreat, to temple, to monastery.

And, third is a practice of moderation, an ethical container expressed in the bodhisattva precepts. There are sixteen in the Soto Zen inheritance. At the heart of these are five: refraining from killing and instead fostering life, not lying but rather being truthful to ourselves and each other, not stealing but rather respecting the integrity of things and relationships, not misusing our sexuality but rather cherishing our own and each other’s bodies, and not indulging in intoxication but rather seeking ways to remain clear and open.

This is the path of wisdom as taught in the Zen schools. It is our way. It is what I am committed to teaching for anyone who comes to us.

And it is a path that to use the popular paraphrase of Dogen turns out to be “one continuous mistake.” Fall down nine times, get up ten. It is not a way with perfect masters. It is a way of constant correction. As a member of the Boundless Way Zen teachers council I state clearly and unambiguously I am a student of the way. I continue to accept guidance, most expressly from the teachers council of which I am a member. I am also someone who has spent many years practicing the disciplines and who has been acknowledged by several teachers as someone who has seen into the primary matter and who they felt could possibly teach others and since then as a peer among other recognized Zen teachers.

And the only proof of my pudding that ultimately matters is how I live.

Someone who chooses to study with me, that’s what they get. For good and for ill. Well that an an organization with a clear ethical policy to support all of us.

Now, it is my firm contention there is no escape. We are here, we are made of the world, and we must act within this world. This is the fruit of my years of practice, to live is to be present, and it is to act.

I believe I must act as best I can in this burning world. For the most part I stand in the general direction of what in our culture is considered politically progressive. There are people to the left of me and many more who are to the right of me. And of course there are those who do not see themselves fitting on the spectrum at all. I do not expect a student to be my clone or to see how to best engage the world the way I do. What I do expect is that someone who studies with me commits to looking into their own heart and to see how they can best manifest the great insight, the meditative disciplines, and the precepts in their own lives. Although within our sangha people are encouraged to take their hard won insight and to bring it to the world.

And so, while I would be sad if a person who studies with me says they don’t want to be involved in social and political life, while I consider it an important outcome of our inner lives, I would accept that. How we choose to engage or not is up to the individual given the particulars of their situation, and I try not to second guess that. Similarly I would accept someone who has done these things and finds themselves farther or much farther to the left of our American political scene than I. And, of course, I hope of course I would accept someone in the same situation who finds themselves to my right, even to a considerable distance to the right. And this includes those who find themselves in completely other directions. Life is complicated. Reasonable people given the same information do not necessarily come to the same conclusion. What is important for me is that people see the disciplines of our way open us to a path of intimacy. That is critical.

And, this is very important. I believe the election of Mr Trump as president was a catastrophe. His campaign was based on fear and hatred of the other. Some people want to forget that. I do not. To the degree his actual governance leads in those directions, or that he falls in with those who would dismantle the social safety net, or if his mercurial personality generates armed conflicts, I will be speaking out, objecting, being fully a part of the resistance.

Similarly, the evening before I wrote this Jan and I attended a meeting that included a number of undocumented people. I was profoundly moved by their stories. Hard working, generous, caring family oriented people. All of whom are terrified. The politics of this is complex, I know that. And, I am sympathetic to the hurt of many. But, in the last analysis I personally will stand with these people and do what I can from my positions of privilege to be of use to them. And I will be speaking to this issue, sometimes quite loudly. I will be part of the resistance.

And there will be other areas. I’m deeply concerned with the issues that have coalesced around “Black Lives Matter.” I am deeply concerned with women’s rights and the rights of the LGBTQ community. And against the forces that want to silence this yearning for the light and a place, I will be involved in the resistance.

And.

All of this in venues appropriate to the matter at hand. Usually the sangha gathering itself is not an appropriate political platform. It is dedicated to those specific things I listed above. Of course there will be some bleeding of the world into our gatherings, how could there not, but they should be appropriately reflecting the priorities of the time and place.

So, knowing who I am and that I do and will continue to be active expressing my sense of the political vigorously in appropriate venues, I promise to not let our differences effect my working with you as a spiritual director. And if I do to be open to challenge, and aspire to reconciliation.

What I would have problems with is a someone who espouses explicit racism, sexism, anti-LGBTQ views, expresses fear or hatred of immigrants, or disdain of people who are seen as “others.” And I have no interest in engaging in sophistries about how a racist could be seen as an “other” who should be protected. I would equally have problems with people who deny they hold such positions but whose words and actions suggest otherwise. Allowing these perspectives within our community or giving them equal weight would make it unsafe for those who would be the victims of these perspectives and damaging to the dharma itself.

Our Blue Cliff Zen Sangha is committed to being a safe place to practice – safe in the sense that everyone should feel their person is respected. Not safe in the sense the traps of ego will not be challenged in various ways on the path of wisdom that I’ve briefly described above. Zen as I’ve observed elsewhere plays rough with the ego. And this is the project.

Every container has boundaries. These are mine. And with that these are the boundaries of Blue Cliff.

Knowing this if your heart is breaking and you want a path that will take you to the depths of your being and show you your place within the family of things, I hope you will find the Blue Cliff truly is a place for you to delve to the depths of your heartmind and from there to find the ways to engage this burning world in which we live and breathe and find our being.

This project is our great commitment.

James Myoun Ford, Osho
Resident Priest & Teacher
Blue Cliff Zen Sangha
Long Beach, California

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