Dokusan
- W. Grey Champion
- Dec 22, 2022
- 11 min read
Updated: 27 minutes ago
In Japan, dokusan is a private meeting of a Zen student with his master, providing the student an opportunity to demonstrate the state of his meditation practice. For background, readers must see my
book, Conjuring Archangel: Chronicle of a Journey on the Path, because the conjuring continues. Dokusan will present contributions selected from Anna's ongoing journal, with her kind permission and at her discretion, in the hope that the gathering of insight may prove helpful to others entangled in the nettlesome web of karma.
Our conversations lately, Archangel, are tending to the morbid I fear.
Well, my darling, these subjects are the essence of the human condition, dwelt upon throughout history by the most profound philosophers and writers.
Then I might raise another such matter?
Of course, child, by all means. What is it?
Separation anxiety. Thoughtful people, especially among the secular citizenry, may not only dread death, but also fear being left behind by those they love.
Indeed so, often more than they fear their own death. The thought can be extremely poignant, my precious.
It is the loneliness, isn’t it?
Exactly. Sentient beings in the sangsara are configured by evolution into the myriad forms, each one unique, timeless, reflecting the boundless potentiality of ultimate reality. But these configurations convey the sense of loneliness in individuals. People are of a social species, inclined to attach themselves to others, which relationships provide security in the sense that certain other people - family members, spouses, friends - belong to one another. Let these bonds by severed in death and you may hear an anguished cry…
“I no longer have anyone of my own.” I have heard it, my Guardian. The degree of intimacy is part of it, yes?
Oh yes, that same individuality brings familiarity with certain close relations, while everyone else is felt to be a stranger.
And therefore suspect.
Of course. In the dual realm one must be circumspect, even those enlightened ones who have realized ultimate oneness. The latter, however, be assured, my precious, are better prepared to face the loss of loved ones, knowing that No Thing, No One is lost.
And what of our beloved pets, my Guardian?
Hardest of all, dear child, because of their ready affection and their role as constant companions. Steel yourself then and be brave!
This week, Archangel, the great harvest feast of Thanksgiving takes place, ushering in the crazy holiday season.
Indeed, my darling, the alleged birthday celebration of my beloved colleague, bodhisattva of the unfortunate venue. The memory of his compassionate message, so often distorted in the history since, is all but lost in the excessive commercialism of Christmas.
And Thanksgiving is likewise over shadowed, Guardian, though thankfulness surely is the secret to happiness.
Quite so, child, the ability to acknowledge one’s blessings is a reliable source of happiness, and to recognize blessings in any karmic circumstance is itself a blessed gift.
But it is a common belief, my Guardian, that wealth brings happiness because the wealthy have so much more to be thankful for.
No, no, my precious, clearly that turns out to be false, bringing severe disappointment when its burdens are felt. Rich people endure their own trials and tribulations, whereas often those in the most straightened circumstances, feeling thankful for small things, may find happiness.
Ah, yes, the poor monk robbed in his hut as he meditated.
A most instructive story. The monk had only the clothes on his back, which he surrendered to the robber. Alone again, he marveled at the night sky above, thinking, “If only I could have given him the moon!”
Of course, the fundamental things are the most blessed gifts: the natural world, sentience, life. But, Guardian, what about the terror and suffering in war zones?
Those, dear child, are the most deplorable karma, and those caught in such experience endure the nadir of the human condition.
At best they have one another, Guardian.
Thankfully.
Last week, my darling, I advised you against needlessly comparing your aging self to a younger self, which you might be tempted to do upon observing younger women enjoying what you no longer can.
Excellent advice as always, Guardian.
I should ask you, child, if I may do so without offense, if you become jealous of younger people.
You know me better, Guardian, which I suspect is why you did not ask, though of course it would be natural to feel that way, natural but futile.
Spot on, my precious, as always. You cannot turn the clock back, and there it is in a nutshell. The human condition in the dual realm is to be trapped in the delusion of time, convinced of a self enduring an inexorable process of entropy, rather than manifestation coming forth from the void of transcendent singularity. We may speak of the different phases of a life, yet these are distinctly different manifestations, independent in many aspects.
That is easy to see, my Guardian, in old age, though I daresay that phase of aging seems uncomfortably alike to adolescence.
I see your point, and it an be a useful observation. In each of these phases, one’s body and one’s life are undergoing noticeable and serious changes, with the one important difference that a youth experiences the increase of stature and capacity, while an old person witnesses their decline.
Leaving the old in anxiety and fear.
The old often live in fear of death, dear child, but the young fear failure.
Touché, Guardian.
Remember your “beginner’s mind,” my love. When you wake up each morning with a new ache or pain, it is a new challenge. Be resilient, and trust that it will pass - or you will pass - and whatever you do, avoid comparisons, which only magnify your melancholy.
At an age, Archangel, when most people around me are younger and fewer and fewer older, I often see young women walking briskly, enjoying the exercise and fresh air, and I become wistful.
Indeed, why is that, my darling?
I used to be just like that. I would go out early as the sun was rising and birds singing, spot a daytime moon in the blue sky - no more. Arthritis, fatigue, and the accelerating decline of aging.
Really, are you sure that was you, child?
I remember it clearly, Guardian, and there are pictures.
Ha, ha, ha…! Well yes, your brain holds impressions as long as it is working. But please, my precious, refrain from such comparisons. Naturally your configuration is rotting away in accordance with entropy, the law of the sangsara - that is the trap of time. Yet there is no continuous persona, only constantly changing forms that come forth from void. I think you now know very well you are not the same person you remember as a former self.
I do of course, my Guardian.
In reality you are new every instant, but as you observe it is in the distinctly different phases of life that change is finally made clear. So no, you are not now a young, vigorous person, no more than you will be the person dying in time.
It is hard to keep hold of that reality, Guardian.
And that is because you do not escape karma. Thus it is salutary to be prepared to adjust to changes and resilient enough to accept them. Do you understand, dear child?
Yes, Guardian, but I’m still wistful.
That will pass, my love.
When we speak of void, Archangel, the emptiness of form being a void from which all is configured with infinite potential, the average person conceives of oblivion.
The average person, my darling, is trapped in the tangled duality of this life in the sangsara, ignorant that ultimate must embrace all and is therefore paradox. Embrace paradox and even quantum mechanics becomes understandable, albeit not logical. Pray continue, child.
My point is that this unfortunate, benighted person finds no solace in oblivion.
An excellent point indeed, my precious. The human condition is a terrible weight, nearly constant struggle from birth to death to survive, fulfill overpowering primal drives, then watch loved ones die, knowing the same sad fate awaits them. The average person may not have the ability to question established religious doctrines, and some who do may stop at the drawbridge of agnosticism.
And we offer paradox, my Guardian?
Allow me to finish, my precious. Cold comfort indeed, I know, my precious, unless this unfortunate, benighted person has two rare traits: imagination and humility. He clings to his own persona and that of his loved ones and believes they re obliterated in death, unless he is able to strain credulity to conceive of heaven. He may be conceited enough to think himself greater than anyone else, and his death a loss to humanity. With often a total lack of imagination, he likely will never get his mind around an inconceivable reality, which in truth is the ultimate one: transcendent unity, i.e. the Singularity, timeless, boundless, all encompassing. All potentiality abides in it. Best person who ever lived? Recall what the butcher replied when asked for the best piece of meat.”
“Every piece is the best piece.”
And the dying words of Hoshin?
“I came from brilliancy and I return to brilliancy. What is this!”
And then he saw it - the Ground Luminosity! The light more beautiful than all life’s unwarranted attachments.
When people face the end of their life, Archangel, what is it, aside from the survival instinct, that causes them to cling so desperately?
That instinct, my darling, can hardly be minimized. Still it is an interesting question. If memory serves, I believe we discussed this before and observed that some have the illogical idea that they will somehow have a postmortem experience of missing things they loved or enjoyed in life.
Indeed, I think many people believe in non-corporeal souls walking the earth, the Tibetans for example. Yet for religious Western people, the belief in heaven surely implies an even better experience awaiting them, Guardian.
Well, if they qualify, child. Recall your confirmation class?
If there is a God, there must be a Devil.
And if there is heaven for believers, there must be hell for apostates - only logical. But apart from these religious questions, the typical secular denizens of the Western world, desperately clinging to the life as you say, are holding to one or both of these: their individual identity - one of a kind after all; or the experience of sentience. In the first instance, they have remained benighted about the true nature of reality, of which all is void, configured in the Womb of Tathagata. Thus all individuals are unique, as are every leaf of every tree that ever came forth so configured. And because time is also delusion, there is no actual coming and going. All these infinite forms configured out of the infinite potential of voidness abide in the boundless universal mind.
This reality is inconceivable, my Guardian.
Exactly, my precious. It is beyond conception by mind, yet it is intuited by all and comes by revelation to some.
And what of the second instance, clinging to the experience of sentience?
The matter is an easy one, dear child. This person is not being honest if they do not admit the duality of such experience. In youth, death was far distant, and youthful vigor allowed a carefree life. In its last phase, they are an entirely different person, far from carefree.
So why prolong life?
Clinging will not answer, of course, unless one uses whatever life is left to experience fully each timeless moment, neither in excessive joy nor sorrow, but with imperturbable composure. Therein lies the God, the soul with whom you are always intimate.
Grey’s post for the week, Archangel, is pertinent to our last Dokusan, an interesting slant in fact on how to account for the terrifying conditions we see in the world today.
Indeed, my darling, it is something of a summation of our perspectives. His conclusions regarding the all too common perversions of reality that bedevil human history are insightful.
And the reason he gives why so many people are duped.
Yes, their inescapable intuition, dismissed as irrational, that reality is not what they perceive - then their grasping at straws, reverting to primitive religious beliefs and worse, idolatry. Of such is the witch’s cauldron of the sangsara, my precious.
Of course, my Guardian, ultimate reality is paradoxical as science found at the quantum level. What could be more confusing!
Certainly, how can two opposite propositions both be true at the same time? That defies logic. But there are levels of reality. Paradox became clear only at the nuclear level, while sentient beings exist at a level of very logical laws.
Grey is struggling with the topic, Guardian, you know.
I don’t wonder, dear child. These baleful perversions of reality that erupt throughout human history like volcanoes are inevitable. Most people are given enough wisdom as a rule to maintain a degree of skepticism, but insufficient humility to embrace the paradox that is the ultimate essence of reality. In fear and uncertainty, they will cling to a leaky lifeboat of lies.
But will they not learn, Guardian?
Eventually, after great suffering.
I observe, my darling, that you are increasingly fraught over circumstances in the world and the seemingly inevitable and accelerating deterioration.
I am indeed, Archangel. All over, even in my homeland where such things were so long unthinkable, tyrants ride to power on waves of angry, ignorant and cruel multitudes. Gone are reason and justice, let alone compassion. Perspective eludes me.
I understand, child. Foremost in this problem is the shock. For all your foresight, when conditions start unravelling in real time they are stunning, especially at your age.
Exactly, Guardian, but how to bear up?
Turn to the teachings, and the practice. Simplest is that kernel of wisdom Bodhidharma offered to the Chinese Emperor, summing up Buddha’s message in a question.
“Who are you?”
Correct. The quest for the true answer, the deepest answer, eclipses all the troubles in the sangsara, however great they loom. That answer reveals the timelessness of Self, the revelation that you as perceived are coming forth, in constant flux. And if you are ephemeral, what are these Wrathful Deities who threaten but chimera? Do you see, my precious?
Through your eyes alone, my Guardian.
There are of course other lenses through which to correct your perspective as you know, history being a major one. Our friend Grey has written about the rise and fall of civilizations and of the inherent tribalism in human nature. Even recent history tells of that strain of megalomania that flares up like a pestilence. But here again, the essence is void.
The big picture, the planet, the universe itself - finite or infinite? Either is illogical. Thank you, Guardian.
At your service, dear child, and please avoid all media deliberately created to produce outrage.
I’ll do my best.
(10)Your closing statement, Archangel, in last week’s Dokusan surely was an understatement.
You mean my explanation of what prevents people from realizing the true nature of time and self?
Yes, Guardian, you named ego as the cause.
Allow me to elaborate then, my darling. You are indeed correct. There is no power in the dual realm that measures up to human ego, and it is not alone the survival instinct. People cling to the temporal self, a self that is not their own, as Buddha said, with the vain idea that their unique configuration must be immortal, or if not then immortalized. In company with their greed and arrogance, they suffer in deep darkness, when light is all around them.
They have self nature, my Guardian. It is just not their own.
Correct. Their human consciousness uniquely connects them to the universal mind, so that with enough insight many will feel an indwelling transcendence but mistake it for God or soul.
In other words, a being separable from self. But “this mind is not Buddha.”
Indeed, while it is that everyday being they have long known and loved that must be self.
Because “this mind is Buddha.”
Bravo, my precious! They cannot leap the abyss, child, until they realize they are already on the other side. Ultimately reality is boundless, timeless, and all perceived things, including oneself, are of this nature. Open your eyes to that and the abyss of nihilism evaporates.
What about the pleasures of the flesh, Guardian?
As you now, dear child, and as every person who lives long enough learns, pleasure is linked to pain in the dual realm. Consider the words of Tibetan master Milarepa upon his enlightenment.
“Nirvana and sangsara are dependent and relative states.”
Paradox. You are the leaf and the tree!
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