|
'A Stream Being A Stream'
river de chute... easton, maine
The teaching or the rules should be changed according to the place, or according to the people who observe them, but the secret of this practice cannot be changed. It is always true.
*Shunryu Suzuki. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind.
January 20, 2021 -
When beginning writing this morning, snowflakes were falling. I could see them outside the window. I recalled when being surprised, many years prior, to discover no two snowflakes are the same shape. Actually, at least thirty-five shapes of snowflakes are identified, while each snowflake has a molecular structure unique. The different classes of snowflakes are unlike all the others, while snowflakes in a genre are unlike each other, too. No snowflake is the same form as another, but each snowflake is like all others. An example of the likeness is all snowflakes have six points. Every snowflake shares with all snowflakes the quality of snowflakeness. This snowflakeness is like all life - a diversity of difference and likeness. Yet, can you imagine a style of snowflakes saying to all others, "You and I have nothing in common"? Nonetheless, we humans do that - this exclusion is seen much in politics and religion. It creates an us-against-them mindset. We fail, thereby, to see the spirit and Spirit we share. We get lost in the temporal details and miss the timeless wisdom. Yet, we are more alike than different. And in appreciating how another way is different from our way, we cherish more the other way and our way, each in its singular fashion. That is, the more you discern and honor the truth in another spiritual path, the more you do likewise regarding the path you walk - the inverse is, also, the case.
* * *
The likeness and difference of a path are part of Nature's interbeing. One path is, for another path is. Buddhists refer to this as "no-self." Christianity is what it is, for Buddhism is what it is, for example. Another example - atheism is what it is, for theism is what it is. Atheism and theism rely on each other. They must share, or they cease to exist. All paths inter-are. No path exists to itself. Hence, the deeper I go into one path, the more I go into other paths.
* * *
After guiding the membership to more of an appreciation of the wisdom of other faiths, I was assigned to serve another United Methodist church in Florida. During my leadership, the church I was departing had prepared a room for our contemplative prayer weekly meetings. The room included books for checking out. Among the books were ones written by persons of other faiths.
Julie, a young female of about age thirty, came to serve as pastor after I left. I received a call from a member of the prior congregation. She said Julie had an exorcism performed on the prayer room - odd, as United Methodists avoid even the term "exorcism." This so-called exorcism included Julie, without the church or meditation group's consent, removing any book not by a Christian author and on Christian faith. In one act, I thought how the new pastor had displayed an intent to shut out from the people anything not of the Christian faith. I spent six years guiding persons to respect other religions, integrating their wisdom to enrich the congregation, while Julie began to undo that immediately after her arrival.
* * *
In 1959, a Japanese Rinzai Zen priest, Soen Nakagawa, appeared unexpectedly at Sokoji, in San Francisco. Sokoji was where Shunryu Suzuki, a Japanese Soto Zen priest, served. Nakagawa had heard Suzuki Roshi was sitting in zazen (sitting meditation) with Westerners. So, he visited to show respects to the Soto Zen priest.
After being led upstairs into the zendo (meditation room), Nakagawa offered incense at the altar. He, Suzuki Roshi, and Kato, an associate of the latter, chanted the Heart Sutra. Kato observed how the two priests shared comfortably with each other even though the Japenese Zen custom was for leaders of different sects not to fraternize.
After the service, Kato blew out the candle and tended to the altar. He feared the harmony between the priests was over, however. Nakagawa asked to see a sutra book that sat on the altar. He looked at it, then exploded in anger, stamping his foot and shouting, "This is not Zen!" He tore the book in two and threw it to the floor.
Kato froze with alarm. Suzuki Roshi calmly squatted down and picked up the pieces. "Oh, that's a sutra book that was donated to the temple on the occasion of a memorial service for an old woman from a different sect not represented in this area," Suzuki said. "We accept everything here. We chant everything. We eat everything."
Nakagawa still appeared angry. Suzuki put him at ease, saying, "Let's go have some tea."
* * *
Nakagawa and Suzuki Roshi represent two approaches to a wisdom path, as do Julia and I. One, the puritanical way, says our way will be tainted by including different teachings and practices. One can say, "This is not Zen," or "This is not Christianity," or "This is not Islam," or "This is not Buddhism,"... A second way, an integrative way, sees the Way includes every way; hence, a wisdom path can be receptive to truths and customs of other traditions. Those who integrate may or may not adopt from others, but they will not fail to appreciate the wisdom in different paths.
* * *
My days begin with readings from varied spiritual traditions - at this time, the Quran, the Jewish Scripture, the Christian Bible, a Sufi teacher, a Muslim author, a Zen Buddhist roshi, a secular writer, ... One would never know, based on where I find inspiration and witness to Truth, I was raised in a fundamentalist religion. Yet, over time, Grace opens the self more and more to integrate. If one is not becoming inclusive, she needs to reexamine her claim to be walking a wisdom path. Why? Wisdom is universal. The wise see the universal in the particulars, the timeless in the forms of time.
* * *
Suzuki Roshi was being true to the spirit and form of Zen. Nakagawa was being true to the form of Zen.
We aspire to respect form and spirit. Form provides a visible center - teachings, scriptures, rituals, architecture, objects, music - around which we gather as companions. Form signifies formless. By loyalty to the spirit of a path, form remains flexible, seen as relative.
Some could say, "We do not have form" or "We do not have ritual." Even without any formal, sanctioned ritual, a spiritual community entails form. Indeed, to sit in silence is a form. If done regularly, such sitting, even if alone in a room by yourself, is a ritual.
So, we are not afraid to appreciate the insights and practices of various other wisdom paths. We are receptive to welcome what offers enrichment. Only what would violate or compromise truth is excluded from our appreciation. Such openness means we serve truth in whatever form it appears, while respecting Life's diversity. Anyway, a spiritual way is not present to point to itself but instead to truth - the Way. A way is relative, truth is timeless.
* * *
*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2021
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse. The book is a collection of poems based on mystical traditions, especially Christian and Sufi, with extensive notes on the teachings and imagery in the poetry.
*Story of the meeting of Nakagawa and Suzuki Roshi, in David Chadwick. Crooked Cucumber.
|
