The Whole Blog Thing. Plus Dogen.

I've hit a bit of a wall with blogging.

If you are thinking of getting your own blog (you should!), be warned: SiteMeter is dangerous. You may not know it now, but I can see you reading this blog. I can't see your name, but I can see your IP address; your location (hello UK!); the duration of your visit; the google search terms that brought you here; the number of page views on this site; and (often) your out-click destination.

We sat a mini-sesshin (intense!) at my house this weekend; somewhere in there I realized I run the blog, not the other way around. Too much is moving and shifting to be described in any sort of conceptual way. Rather than processing onscreen, I'm staying in bed and watching the sunlight move across the wall. Writing, and being seen, and knowing the number of page views—it's just too much sometimes. So..I don't care what the average visit duration is!

I have gotten a kick out of the search terms that have brought people to my blog. I guesss if I'm repeatedly coming up in searches for "Gempo Merzel" or "Zen Rakusu Instructions" maybe I should address those topics.

So here goes:

"Meave Garigan" is my sister. For you from JHU doing the background on Meave, take it from me: Do not trifle with the Meave. She is probably smarter, stronger, and more beautiful than you are; certainly she exceeds me. She's a good person to have as your friend; a bad person to have eat you for breakfast.

"Hogen Bays" is the co-abbott of Great Vow Zen Monastery. From personal experience, including living and practicing with him for a year and a half, I can say that he is extremely committed, insightful, and dedicated to teaching and manifesting the dharma. There are different styles of practice, and Hogen and Great Vow have a style that differs from others, but you will not find a better place to go deeply into Zen.

"Zen Rakusu Instructions" can very likely be obtained from a large practice center in your particular zen lineage. Great Vow Zen Monastery sews rakusus in the style that Maezumi Roshi brought to ZCLA. This style is distinct from the rakusus sewn by San Francisco Zen Center, its offshoots, and the Minneapolis Zen communities that spring from Katagiri Roshi's lineage. If you are in a position to sew a rakusu, you likely have a contact at one of these places. They will probably be happy to share; just google them.

"Choosing a Spiritual Teacher" is something to be done with all your heart, your instincts, and your faith. It is extremely easy to up and run when the going gets tough; it is also extremely easy to sell yourself body and soul to someone. A discussion of the psychological pitfalls you might encounter in working with a teacher would fill several screens. However, I do believe that (and yes, this is shouting): WORKING WITH A TEACHER IS ESSENTIAL FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH.

Some would differ: everyone I've talked to who has felt this way has by coincidence seemed to have authority issues, and to be overly confident that they themselves are incapable of getting off course. If you've never made a mistake in your life, and you are a highly-realized person, you don't need a teacher, but you also aren't reading this. You're off being free and perfect and not wondering. However, if you are a regular human being, consider that regular human beings for thousands of years have found working with a teacher to be an integral part of the path—not a convenience, but an essential feature.

In choosing a teacher, it is imperative that you do your homework. Ask who they are, where they came from, how long they've been teaching, and what mistakes they've made. Chozen Roshi has said that it takes a year of watching and work to decide if a teacher is right for you. Even if they pass the basic ethical hurdles, the question of whether they serve you as an effective conduit for the dharma is one that requires some prolonged investigation.

It's true that there are self-appointed Zen teachers floating around; I would discourage working with someone who has spontaneously woken up and is now promulgating the True Dharma that all the other degenerate folk have lost sight of. You don't need separatist zeal; you need someone who will gently point out when you're getting full of yourself. Why go to a person who has that problem in spades? Any whiff of self-promotion should give you serious pause.

Inevitably, a teacher with a raging ego will run into ethical problems. Ask around (and google!)..find out if the person is a paraiah. Of course, every human being makes mistakes. If the person has done harm in the past, how have they acknowledged their errors and taken measures to ensure it doesn't happen again? (People's dirty laundry is a delicate topic and should be honored as such. But if it's absolutely taboo, or discussed with defensive vehemence, why not look elsewhere instead?)

Regarding "Genpo Merzel"—and the following opinions are entirely my own—I am personally uncomfortable with his self-promotion, and with his recurring appearance as a cast member in community upheavals. My knowledge is woefully incomplete, but the picture I'm getting does not inspire great confidence. (If you think otherwise, do tell me so.)

His personality—brash, confident, given to overuse of terms like "enlightenment"—is extremely attractive to some people, and repulsive to others. He certainly charges a lot of money and he certainly is friends with Ken Wilber. Gempo may in fact be a brilliant innovator, or else a self-serving perverter of the dharma: time will tell. Generally speaking, we have a very limited perspective; deriding dharma teachers (particularly large targets like Gempo Roshi) says more about the commentator than the subject. If Big Mind works for you, great. If you're skeptical, you're not alone, and fortunately there are other modes of practice available.

(Another large Love/Hate target is Tenshin Reb Anderson. My personal (incomplete) picture, having done a practice period with Tenshin Roshi, and having observed his and his students' conduct, is that he is a trustworthy teacher who has transmuted his experience with ethical missteps into powerful teaching. People tend to take him very seriously indeed, which probably isn't so helpful for them. Certain of his students may have have confused "effortless naturalness" with "gratification of instinctal desire", but that's a pretty universal practice issue for the passionate.)

One search term that still has me puzzled is "Dogen Irish Catholic"...I can see it now... Dogen Zenji, writing missives to his contemporaries—13th-century Irish monks—as Norman invaders slash their way across Ireland, raiding monasteries, building castles, levying taxes, and so forth:

Think deeply in your heart of the impermanence of the world. It is not a matter of meditating using some provisional method of contemplation. It is not a matter of fabricating in our heads that which does not really exist. Impermanence is truly the reality right in front of our eyes. We need not wait for some teaching from others, proof from some passage of scripture, or some principle. Born in the morning, dead in the evening, a person we saw yesterday is no longer here today—these are the facts we see with our eyes and hear with our ears.

When it's time to blog, just blog. When it's time to shut up, just shut up. And if you have any question or comment on what I've said, post a comment. Or email me at the following address: dgarigan[at-sign]gmail.com. Maybe I'll blog what we say.