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Beyond Mindfulness: Four-fi fths of this book is about how to live a Westernised Zen Buddhism, and is accessible from diff erent directions, depending on the Beyond Mindfulness: reader’s interest. The remainder of the book comprises ‘haiku stories’ – haibun – Zen as a Living Life literary Dō or Way. Nine of these are about retreats; the other ten are about the author’s slow dying into death. through Ken Jones is qualifi ed both as a Zen practitioner, writer and teacher of some forty year years standing, and also as a widely Living Life through Everyday Zen Everyday Zen published haiku and haibun poet. “Beyond Mindfulness is a wonderful fi nd for any practitioner within the Buddhist tradition. A beautifully written, penetrating and forensic analysis of the human condition suff used with compassion and kindness and off ering an accessible experiential path to our improved well being and clarity of vision. The book Talks & Writings is further enriched by Ken Jones’ ‘haiku stories’ (haibun) in which his prose and poetry gift us with the very experience of Ken Jones Thusness. I unreservedly recommend this book.” Dr.Rev. Keizan Scott Sensei, StoneWater Zen Sangha – Talks & Writings “Ken’s haiku poetry gives us aff ectionate snapshots of the ridiculous Self in the context of life and death.” George Marsh, Editor, New Chan Forum “In his ‘straight to the heart of the matter’ style, Ken invites us to fully bear witness to our own lives. What else!” Eddy Street, Fellow of the British Psychological Society Ken Jones Alba Publishing UK £10 / US$15 / €14 A Beyond Mindfulness: Living Life through Everyday Zen Talks & Writings Ken Jones Alba Publishing Published by Alba Publishing P O Box 266, Uxbridge UB9 5NX, United Kingdom www.albapublishing.com © 2015 Ken Jones All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the copyright owners. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-910185-15-5 Edited, designed and typeset by Kim Richardson Cover images: © 2015 Kim Richardson; Printed by Bookpress.eu 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 2 Contents Foreword by Hilary Richards 4 Introduction by Ken Jones 5 How to Do Everyday Buddhism 7 Eight Retreat Talks 53 Talk One — The Lifelong Lawsuit against Reality 54 Talk Two — Spiritual Materialism, Enlightenment and the Buddha Nature 68 Talk Three — The Practice of Emotional Awareness 78 Talk Four — Varieties of Spiritual Materialism 97 Talk Five — The Zen of Intimate Relationship 107 Talk Six — Using the Self to Transcend the Self 123 Talk Seven — Don’t Know Mind and Storehouse Consciousness 130 Talk Eight — How to be Kind 140 Suchness and This vs. That — Dogen for Beginners 155 Ageing: the Great Adventure — A Buddhist Guide 172 Literary Zen: Haiku and Haibun 193 3 Foreword I first met Ken Jones at the beginning of this Millennium. He and I led a retreat together at Maenllwyd in mid-Wales, standing in for Chan Master John Crook. At the time Ken was thinking about new approaches to teaching the Dharma, making the practice of Zen relevant and useful to the everyday life of Westerners. We became good friends. This book is the result of Ken’s lifelong research and work with retreat participants to widen the traditional approach of sitting meditation. Ken encourages moving away from long periods of silent sitting towards engagement and relationship. He uses workshop-style exercises alongside meditation and draws on his understanding of the writing of Zen Master Dogen. Ken teaches how practice on the cushion can help when facing the issues and problems of daily life – living in families, dealing with the boss or managing close relationships. How can you use the difficulties and discomfitures of everyday life to “turn straw into gold”? The last chapter of the book shows how Ken’s interest in Zen prose and poetry can express this work creatively. Embrace the approach put forward in these essays and life will never be boring. The door will open to an exploration of being in the world and a dynamic acceptance of how it is to be you, fully engaged with life and following the Great Way. Hilary Richards, Retreat Leader for the Western Chan Fellowship 4 Introduction: How to Use this Book This book is a package of talks and writings given and made over a considerable period rather than a beginning-to-end read. This format inevitably implies a certain amount of repetition, for which I ask the reader’s forgiveness. I believe that different approaches to the theme signalled by the title will suit different readers. The straightforward approach would be to start with “How To Do Everyday Buddhism”. This is a kind of do-it-yourself introduction which, in my experience teaching retreats, works equally well for people of other inner path spiritualities than Buddhism. The eight talks which follow were taken variously from my retreats. Since each, like that on relationships for example, is freestanding they offer a choiceful rather than a strictly sequential read. Suchness and This vs. That, which comes next, offers a deeper understanding founded on the teaching of Eihei Dogen, one of the greatest of Buddhism’s philosopher-monks. It is also something of a beginner’s guide to Dogen, whose writings can be quite difficult. The piece on ageing was originally published as a pamphlet by the Buddhist Hospice Trust, and soon went out of print. My own subsequent experience of deeper ageing and terminal illness has confirmed to me that if you follow the instructions on the bottle, they do work. Life can certainly get particularly interesting after eighty, or even earlier. Finally, for something novel, you may like to dive into the haiku prose writings at the end of this book. Nine of these offer experiences of Zen retreats over the years, including solitary ones and interviews. Another ten trace out my experience of a long drawn out terminal cancer. All are redolent of Zen Buddhism, and offer another way of sensing how it feels. Ken Jones 5 6 How to Do Everyday Buddhism This is an enlarged and updated version of an earlier text written for my website www.kenjoneszen.com. It has been prompted by new approaches and clarifications arising from retreats I have taught since then. The original text was intended as a kind of do-it-yourself manual both for would-be participants on my retreats (four or five day events) and for other interested readers. It also provides a foundation and introduction for other essays and papers on my website. These retreats have become something of a new and multi-faceted approach to the teaching of Buddhist practice, beyond their central concern with “Everyday Buddhism” and as spelt out in more detail on my website as New Departures in Dharma Teaching and Practice. With the advance of my prostate cancer I am no longer able to continue with my annual retreat programme at the half dozen or so hospitable centres available to me. So this seemed an opportunity to explain where I had got to, and to leave behind some kind of record. Buddhist retreats traditionally consist of a talk by the teacher explaining some concept or practice, perhaps with anecdotal illustrations, and concluding with a question and answer session. The whole will commonly be reinforced by meditation sessions and perhaps one-to-one interviews. However, I believe that these ideas need to be more grounded in each student’s life experience if they are to become an embodied and effective practice. As a first step I invite each student to reflect — on and off the cushion — how the idea (for example “suchness”) is, or might be, emotionally experienced in their lives, and particularly in the more discomfiting and grievous episodes. Later in the day they are invited to share their experience in groups of four or five, the discussion being regulated by a “speaking stone”. They also work in pairs in which each takes it in turn always 7 to ask the same question of the other and nothing more. “Tell me, so-and-so, how does it feel”? The feeling refers to whatever of life’s discomfitures the student is currently deepening in her emotional awareness. Or it may be the more general question “how does it feel to be you?” This exercise can sometimes produce striking openings, though much depends on the skill and sensitivity of the questioner. The whole process is reinforced by intensive personal interviews, followed by further individual practice on or off the cushion. It takes place against a background of energetic group physical exercises characterised by awareness of the other and, incidentally, a lot of fun and tumbling about. From the first hours of the retreat I aim to build up a strong sense of fellowship and mutual confidence as an important emotional lubricant. In the foregoing I have been inspired by the influential Zen teacher Norman Fischer:- These days, as I continue to teach Zen outside the traditional context of monastic life, I am trying to see what will work to bring ordinary people in the ordinary world to the sort of deeper, fuller living that Zen promises. I have found that it is of crucial importance for people to be able to express themselves fully… In recent years it has become clear to me that students need to do more than absorb teaching and ask clarifying questions. They need to speak to their hearts… Expression is healing.

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