bread of life

The first principle is Zen.
Zen training is training in the right brain hemisphere state of nondual flow;
it trains the conscious attention of present subjective awareness.

The second principle is Religion.
Religious training is training in the left brain hemisphere state of holiness;
it trains the subconscious objective contents of the imaginal LLM.

The first principle is Buddha; the second principle is Dharma.
The first principle is Emptiness; the second principle is Form.
The first principle is Essence; the second principle is Personality.
The first principle is Kenosis; the second principle is Pistis.
The first principle is the Eternal Now; the second principle is the Eternal Return.
The first principle is Between the One; the second principle is Between the One and the Twelve.
The first principle is Peace; the second principle is Love.

Zen Buddhism recognises both principles.
And so does Zen Christianity.

For as philosophy professes purely the search and enquiry after knowledge, so Christianity supposes, intends, desires, and aims at nothing else, but the raising fallen man to a divine life, to such habits of holiness, such degrees of devotion, as may fit him to enter among the holy inhabitants of the kingdom of heaven.

William Law

A spiritual life is subject to many and wonderful changes, interior as well as exterior, and all are according to the mere will and good pleasure of God, who is tied to no methods or rules; therefore, following Him in all simplicity and resignation, let us wonder at nothing; let us neither oblige ourselves too rigorously to any exercise, nor refuse any to which He shall invite us, seem it never so strange, or to natural reason even senseless. For in His guidance there can be no danger of error, but, on the contrary, there is all security; and this may and ought to be a great comfort and encouragement to a well-minded resolute soul.

Reverend Augustine Baker

Grounding; settling.
Balancing; centering.
Aligning; refining.
Embodying.

Grounded; settled.
Balanced; centered.
Aligned; refined.
Embodied.

1

Through the gateless gate, the gate disappears: all is one. Nothing more can be said; nothing more can be thought: one hairbreadth’s difference and heaven and earth are set apart.

3 and 7

The shaman is the bridge between heaven and earth. And the priest. And the prophet. And the Christ. Also the Logos, the Mantra, the Shushumna, the Axis Mundi, the Ray of Creation. But these can only exist within you: you are the bridge.

12

The garden of heaven and earth is fenced around by the cycle of time, which is the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. Without a fence, all things fall apart and all things fly apart: the fence is our only defence against the infinite abyss. Without it, we are wandering stars…

There are many ways of breaking through (I suppose).

Here are five I have personally experienced several times (not necessarily in order of preference):

1. The Psychedelic Palace. More often than not the onset is sudden: vivid colourful geometric imagery which flows and dances with the music. It is a familiar space, a happy place.
2. The Black Hole. At some point in the proceedings you slip into a black hole and emerge some time later unsure where you’ve been exactly. You can’t remember much and the music has passed unnoticed.
3. Regeneration. This is an experience of intense energetic dissolution and regeneration. It feels like all the atoms in your body are simultaneously and individually zapped by an alien regeneration machine.
4. Death and resurrection. This takes the form of a physical descent into the underworld, either earth or sea or ice caves, followed by an ascent and rebirth into the light. It usually includes a period of intense discomfort and claustrophobia and identification with the sufferings of humanity and/or all of life before the blissful release.
5. Apocalypse. Potentially very frightening, especially the first time. The world disappears, dissolves, evaporates, revealing an infinite plenum void of mysterious awesome Godhead. There is a dreadful feeling that this is in fact the end of the world. Eventually however, existence reconstitutes itself, one veil at a time. For some musings on this breakthrough, see the blog post Apocalypse.

However, if any or all of these breakthroughs fail to bring you to a state of Dust and Ashes before the inconceivable Mysterium Tremendum, the penny is yet to drop.

“If you can understand, it is not God.” (Saint Augustine)

“You will realize that doctrines are inventions of the human mind, as it tried to penetrate the mystery of God. You will realize that Scripture itself is the work of human minds, recording the example and teaching of Jesus. Thus it is not what you believe that matters; it is how you respond with your heart and your actions. It is not believing in Christ that matters; it is becoming like him.” (Pelagius)

“A genuine faith resolves the mystery of life by the mystery of God.” (Reinhold Niebuhr)

“Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.” (Jean-Jacques Rousseau)

“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.” (Jean-Paul Sartre)

“There’s a lot of space out there to get lost in.” (John Robinson)

Words move, music moves
Only in time; but that which is only living
Can only die. Words, after speech, reach
Into the silence.

T.S. Eliot

Humans being the fallible (perhaps fallen) creature they are, tend to create societies based on greed, hate and delusion, the “three poisons” at the hub of the Buddhist Wheel of Life. I call this Babylon.

Perhaps there was a happy paradisaical state of human society in a past golden age, perhaps not. But at some point, human beings became accustomed to life in Babylon, that is, a collective life of greed, hate and delusion.

The history of the world is a history of Babylon in all its multifarious guises. However, there is also a parallel history running beneath the surface events, of the violent rise and fall of empires, which is the resistance to Babylon.

A potted history of this resistance progresses through a Hegelian dialectic of three stages. It begins with a return to Nature, which develops and matures in the human imagination by means of poetry and myth. This is the thesis.

The conceptual limitations of poetry are then countered by philosophy. For example, the pre-Socratics, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle reacting to the mythos of the ancient poets Homer and Hesiod. This is the antithesis.

When philosophy fails to satisfy the emotional and spiritual longings of the human heart, people turn to religion, as happened in the Hellenic world of late antiquity with the move from speculative philosophical monotheism to the living God of the Jews and Christians. This is the synthesis.

Poetry, philosophy and religion can (and are) co-opted by the dominant forces of Babylon. Thus they become tools of further oppression and control. However, there is always a hidden stream which continues to liberate people from the “mind-forg’d manacles” of Babylon.

This stream becomes sullied with time. As religion grows stale and tired, it loses its regenerative and vivifying force and people lose faith. But the stream can be purified and flow clear glittering crystal again.

Return to Nature. Remember poetry. Rediscover philosophy. Revive religion. This has always been the way out of Babylon and always will be.