Kill my landlord, kill the Buddha!

                                      Kill my landlord, kill the Buddha!

 

 

 

                                 

 

 

                "And when they played they really played. And when they worked they really worked.”

                                                                                                – Dr. Seuss

I recently had a client tell me she wanted me to teach her Buddhism. It’s an interesting thing when someone gets engaged, and drawn toward a particular path, person, or type of experience they feel will engender growth, learning, or greater fulfillment. It’s like a moth drawn toward a flame, it’s similar to what can bring people to psychotherapy, a desire to heal, grow, love better, and be a better human being. Buddhism will certainly provide that illumination and insight, however the seeking, wanting, and identification of “being a Buddhist” will most certainly get in the way, just like coming to therapy to “get therapy” can get in the way.

There’s a great book; “If You Meet The Buddha On The Road…Kill Him!” It’s the idea that the idea of Buddhism is not Buddhism at all. There’s a good joke about Episcopalians; if given the choice between going to heaven and going to a lecture about heaven, an Episcopalian will choose the lecture.

For my money, Buddhism is the most psychological of all religious/spiritual traditions, this is because it is interested in the nature of the mind and all the antics, shenanigans, and pranks the mind plays. Actually, the mind really has a mind of its own, it plays automatic tapes, scripts, musical jingles, news reports, commentaries etc. all on its own, without any involvement or volition of our own. This can be, and should be really disconcerting! The good news, according to the Buddha, is that awakening is possible, hence the 4 noble truths and the 8 fold path that leads to illumination.

But back to the study of Buddhism, people will ask me “What model of therapy do you use?” This is always problematic, sometimes I will make shit up and say: “Oh, I am a Rogerian.” or “I use a Family Centered Treatment approach.” But in my heart of hearts, what I really use is the “Zim model” of therapy, in other words, I Am the model. This can sound grandiose and ego centric, but I think it is the opposite.

It’s like asking Jimmy Hendrix or Picasso what model of music, or painting do you use? They obviously use the Jimmy Hendrix/Picasso model. Oh sure, they might talk about styles, teachers, and techniques they draw from or are influenced by, but above and beyond that is their own presence that is transmitted through their art form. It’s their BEING, expressed in a certain medium, for me, my medium is psychotherapy (I can also juggle).

 

This is what Buddhism can help us to do, become our own model of being human, make contact with our essential nature, and realize and manifest our self as an embodied Buddha. This is true liberation, and it is the kind of thing that draws people toward Buddhism as a path. But the Buddha did not start Buddhism, he didn’t tell his disciples; “Hey, when you guys get through meditating I want you to go out and start Buddhism.” But they did it anyway, the bastards! Christ didn’t tell his disciples to go out and start the Catholic Church.

Buddhism seeks to help people understand the human predicament, the fact that we have this idea of a self, a mind, a personality, and a body, all of which is constantly changing and will eventually cease to exist in the way we think we understand it. This existential awareness can certainly be unsettling, Woody Allen has made a career out of his neurosis. But there is a clearly defined path (many clearly defined paths) that lead one toward ever deeper experiences of compassion, equanimity, and liberation. There have been, and are many beings that have, and are, journeying this path, we need them now more than ever!

The Chinese government has recently made it illegal to reincarnate without government approval. This is one of their many ways of trying to control people. They’ve actually made it a crime if a relative talks about Uncle Joe that’s reincarnated as Aunt Mary and there was no paperwork filled out ahead of time to approve it. And we think we have a repressive government! But we do the same thing when we tell people they can't get into heaven without Jesus, it's all just elaborate, historical bureaucracies for power and control.

This is the kind of thing Buddhism can help with, because it says “it’s all impermanent”, the Chinese government, churches, isms, the mind, your reincarnation, all of it is just passing clouds, waves on the ocean that ripple and fade. The Buddhist mind is a mind of no mind, just pure awareness, awareness without fixating on any object.

If I tell you on the count of 3 stop being aware, you can’t do it, awareness just keeps happening. There’s always this figure/ground thing happening with our awareness, we tend to get fixated on the trees and lose sight of the forest. The waves are always wet water, sometimes they rise up as a tsunami, sometimes a glass still lake, but they’re always wet water! This is how our thoughts and the objects of our attention are, we get focused and fixated on the content, associations, and analysis, but above and beyond, or below and much deeper, is just the pure ground of our being which is awareness, consciousness, isness!

Buddhism teaches us to make our minds like a big lake with only a teaspoon of salt in it. We would never be able to taste the salt, our lake would taste like pure, clear, clean water. The salt is the thoughts that come into our mind, they shouldn’t make the whole lake taste salty. Jung said the ego in relation to the collective unconsciousness is like a cork bobbing on the ocean. Do you want to be the cork or the ocean? 

The ego constantly recreates itself, even without government approval! It’s so concerned with image, persona, status, power, money, and sex appeal. Facebook is ego on crack, everyone’s screaming out to see me, hear me, touch me, feel me! See my kids, see what I had for breakfast, see my poop! This is enslavement, the ego can never get enough of what it doesn’t really need, it’s the same as addiction.

Buddhism says let go, be empty, focus on your heart, your awareness, and ask yourself; "Who am I really, what is my original face?" And don’t look for an answer, just stay with the question, the longing, the mystery, the unknowing, this the presence of eternity, the present moment, a spacious quality of non-attachment.

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