“When I Was Young, I Respected Old Buddhist Teachers. I Also Felt Sor- Ry for Them Because They Were Not Far from Death
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“When I was young, I respected old Buddhist teachers. I also felt sor- ry for them because they were not far from death. Now my turn to be pitied has come! Impermanence is painful when we cannot get what we seek or seek to hold on to what we have.” From Attaining the Way: A Guide to the Practice of Chan Buddhism by Chan Master Sheng Yen Shambhala, 2006 Summer 2009 Chan Magazine Chan Magazine Volume 23,29, Number 43 Autumn,Summer, 20092003 Chan Magazine is published quarterly by the Institute of Chung-Hwa BuddhistBuddhist Culture, Culture, Chan Chan Meditation Meditation Center, Center, 90- 90-5656 Corona Corona Avenue, Avenue, Elmhurst, Elmhurst, NY NY 11373. 11373. The The magazine magazine is isa non-profita non-profit venture; venture; it accepts it accepts no advertisingno advertising and isand sup is- supportedported solely solely by contributionsby contributions from frommembers members of the of Chan the ChanCenter Center and the and readership. the readership. 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Dr. Sheng Yen Editor-in-chief Editor-in-chiefDavid Berman David Berman Coordinator AssociateVirginia Tan Editor Buffe Laffey News editor CoordinatorBelia Pena Virginia Tan Photography PhotographyDavid Kabacinski (Chang Wen) John Feng, Jerry Roach, Kaifen Hu Contributing editors ContributingErnie Heau, Chris editors Marano, Virginia Tan, Wei Tan Ernie Heau, Kevin Mathewson, Virginia Tan, Wei Tan, ContributorsGuogu Rikki Asher, Berle Driscoll, Jeffrey Kung, Rebecca Li, Char- Contributorslotte Mansfield, Mike Morical, Bruce Rickenbacker, Wei Tan,Rikki Tan Asher, Yee TinaWong Kacandes, (Chang Ji) Jeffrey Kung, Rebecca Li, Mike Morical, Bruce Rickenbacker, Ayn Steele, Tan Yee AdministratorWong (Chang Ji Fa Shi), Chang Wen Fa Shi Guo Chen Shi Administrator Chang Hwa Fa Shi Chan Magazine Summer 2009 2 From the Editor 4 The Noble Eightfold Path 6 The fourth of four articles by Chan Master Sheng Yen “another day bites the dust” 19 Poem by Frank Crazy Cloud Presenting the Dharma 20 by Dr. Simon Child The Past 32 News from the Chan Meditation Center and DDMBA The Future 36 Retreats, classes and other upcoming events Chan Center Affiliates 38 Summer 2009 Chan Magazine 3 From the Editor “Did you read the article in the Times Maga- “what you need to do is put aside all human zine about the Zen master and the psycho- feelings,” he was “frantic with anxiety,” con- therapist? What did you think?” vinced that “no one could see him.” Nearly a year into his therapy he had a breakthrough, Evidently the article caused quite a stir, be- a “tearful reunion” with the self he had evi- cause I have been asked this question quite dently buried with his Zen practice, and he a lot in the three weeks since it appeared, now says: “Without the therapy experience I both by those who know me to be the editor might have died without being reunited with of a Buddhist journal and by complete strang- my life! And in that sense, without having ers. I was asked this question by a student of truly lived.” mine who just finished his doctorate in psy- chotherapy, and who had given me my copy I am not disappointed, nor surprised, that a of Psychotherapy and Buddhism: Toward an meditator might experience psychopathol- Integration, by the psychotherapist of the ogy; nor am I offended that in such a case article. I was also asked this question by a psychotherapy might be a good idea. I am a stockbroker at a tasting of biodynamic wines little concerned though about the impression from Slovenia, who seemed greatly disap- the story gives of Zen in America, and I am pointed that a Zen master should have any reminded to be grateful for the clarity and need of a psychotherapist, and even though simplicity that my late teacher brought to his she was not herself a Zen practitioner, greatly presentation of the “ineffable.” offended that in the battle for the man’s hap- piness psychotherapy had evidently won. Master Sheng Yen taught that there are three experiences of self: small self, great self, and For those of you who did not read about the no-self. Small self is the type that most of us Zen master and the psychotherapist (you can experience most of the time. The universe is find the article by searching for “zen psycho- divided neatly into one subject and many ob- therapy” at nytimes.com), here’s a summary: jects, that which is me and all those things He’d become a monk 35 years before, having that are not me. The important thing about experienced kensho on his first sesshin, de- this teaching is that Shifu never treated the scribed as “floods of light, samadhi or one- small self as an evil to be eradicated or an ness, ineffable joy,” and had received trans- enemy to be opposed; on the contrary, he mission in the Soto school. Now, after four taught that a strong and healthy sense of the failed marriages during decades of learning small self is essential to the self-challenging lessons like “the self is a malignant growth self-observation that is central to the path of which is to be surgically removed,” and practice. Chan Magazine Summer 2009 4 Great self is a way of naming the unifica- earthquake or implosion occurred. There was tion of subject and object, self and other; it is an incredible explosion of light coming from called “great” because it is as if the small self inside and outside simultaneously, and every- had expanded to encompass the rest. It of- thing disappeared into that light...there was ten involves the arising of great compassion, no longer a here versus there, a this versus because the sense of propriety and care that that...And despite the fact that I had no un- we usually apply only to the small self—or derstanding whatever of what had happened to those to whom the small self is attached (nor do I now), this experience changed my through love—is applied to all others, per- life completely.” haps to all things. Great self is a well-known experience in most religions—it underpins And this is my enlisting the words of Mas- Saint Francis’ relationship with the animals ter Sheng Yen to answer him: “But the expe- and Gandhi’s compassion for his enemies. riences of meditation, even at their most il- What is important about this teaching is that luminating, mystical and profound, are not Shifu was always clear that the experience of enlightenment. ‘Seeing the nature,’ or en- great self is NOT enlightenment, that though lightenment, is a completely different thing. the sense of self might encompass all beings, Seeing one’s nature is letting go of the mind, it is still a sense of self. He didn’t denigrate be it unified or not. There is no attachment the experience—he described it as useful, as whatsoever. Many people think that mystical profound, as potentially a sign of progress experiences are the same as enlightenment. on the path. But he was clear, even strict, in These experiences can come from meditation teaching that all mental experiences in medi- or religious experiences, but they are not en- tation—even the floods of light, the sense of lightenment.” oneness, the ineffable joy—are to be treated as illusions. And Master Sheng Yen also explicitly discour- aged those of us he was training to teach the Shifu didn’t talk much about no-self; he didn’t Dharma from engaging in the seductive prac- fascinate his students with the paradoxes tice of comparing and contrasting Buddhism generated when one attempts to describe the with all those other disciplines—Daoism, indescribable. What he talked about was re- physics, cognitive science—with which it has ducing self-centeredness, and how this could superficial similarities. All of us who pay at- potentially, eventually result in the arising of tention to the human mind will inevitably no- wisdom, the purity of awareness without self- tice some of the same things; all of us inter- reference. ested in ameliorating suffering will inevitably do some of the same things. But Buddhism The Zen master in our story does, however, de- and psychotherapy are not the same—they scribe his experience of self-nature: “I felt as are very different methods, that rest on very if something like an earthquake or implosion different assumptions, for pursuing very dif- was about to happen...Everything around me ferent goals, and it is not at all clear that looked exceedingly odd, as if the glue separat- either the science of Buddhism or the art of ing things had started to melt...By the time I psychotherapy is improved by conflating one got to my room I was weightless...Then the with the other.