Category Archives: Western Teachers

Teachers primarily of American and European cultures

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ever onwards

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As you read this, I will be winging my way back to Upaya Zen Center for the last Core Training Retreat of the Chaplaincy Program.  Has it been all this time already?  It’s been a blur of books read, papers written, field trips, internships, and now the birthing throes of the “Final Project” leading to (hopefully) ordination in March.  

Oh but that’s too far in the future.  There is yet the harvest to get through – squash and tomatoes, chili peppers and pumpkins.  There are brilliant coloured leaves to wade through yet and knee-deep snow drifts that lie in wait for the inquisitive cat to burrow into.  There is a world that needs to turn on its axis for a sliver of a moment while we waddle towards enlightenment.

There are Jizo and Manjushri Bodhisattvas to be manifested and Buddhas to grow.

There is Rilke to read!

As if he listened.  Silence, far and far …
we draw back till we hear its depths no more.
And he is star.  And other giant stars
which we cannot see stand about him here.

Oh, he is all.  And really, do we wait
till he shall see us?  Has he need of that?
Even should we throw ourselves before him,
he would be deep, and indolent as a cat.

He has been in labor for a million years
with this which pulls us to his very feet.
He who forgets that which we must endure,
who knows what is withdrawn beyond our fate.

The Buddha

Rainer Maria Rilke (transl. C.F. MacIntyre)

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and a map

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And finally, Glenn Wallis offers sixteen propositions as a map to find our way through the texts.  These cluster into six groups that are fascinating in their intent.

The teachings begin by asking you to recognize and explore where you are (Habitat).

You are introduced to ideas and perspectives that have a disorienting effect (Dis-orientation).

You are introduced to ideas and perspectives that point you in a different direction (Re-orientation).

You are shown a plan for a new habitat (Map).

You are given the details of that end (Destination).

You set out on the open journey (Going).

Looking them over, I can see that I don’t tend to get further than the second group.  Of course, every journey begins with hours of obsessively cleaning house (habitat? – likely not), and organizing the unorganizable.  Some call it procrastination; I call it letting the Muse emerge.  Then I’m likely stuck in a dis-orientated pose for years and years.  The primary question of the last three days has been “Am I willing to change?”  Or more poignantly, “Am I willing to give up my treasured stances to dukkha on the chance – a Chance! – that it might lead me in a different direction?”

Wallis calls de-orientation a “bewitchment” against knowing reality, “knowing for yourself.”  I like this.  I like Magic in general; it takes the responsibility off my shoulders.  But I’m guessing that a true application of the teachings isn’t going to let me wave any more wands.