ZEN
For The Rest Of Us

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Article Links:
Some Rambles Inspired by Taoism and Zen
by Raymond Smullyan

Pain is Inevitable. Suffering is Optional.
(Zen Aphorism)
by Mike Young

Jesus as Zen Master
by Mike Young

The Yin-Yang and Outside Influences
by Don Freda

Resource Links
Books:
Zen and the Art of Anything, Third Edition
by Hal W. French

A Preacher's Poems
by Mike Young

A Spiritual Journey
by Raymond M. Smullyan

Rambles Through My Library
by Raymond M. Smullyan

The Tao is Silent
by Raymond Smullyan

Who Knows: A Study of Religious Consciousness
by Raymond Smullyan

This Book Needs No Title
by Raymond Smullyan

Outside Influences
by Don Freda

Zen and the Art of Happiness
by Chris Prentiss

The Way of Zen
by Alan W. Watts

The Wisdom of Insecurity
by Alan W. Watts

An Introduction to Zen Buddhism
by D. T. Suzuki

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
by Shunryu Suzuki

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
by Robert M. Pirsig

Zen in the Art of Archery
by Eugen Herrigel and
D. T. Suzuki

Video DVDs:
Rambles, Reflections, Music and Readings
by Raymond Smullyan (free courtesy of the pianosociety.com)

Zen Noir
a film by Marc Rosenbush

Audio CD:
Out of Your Mind
by Alan W. Watts

    We each...face a common, leveling challenge: How to survive your own death? Can you? This is the ultimate koan which each of us must penetrate. Once more, many persons are tutored by hope of personal survival in some realm where all wrongs shall be righted, all suffering healed. This self that I know here shall stay intact to inherit rewards such as “Eye hath not seen, neither ear heard.” It is wonderfully compelling, perhaps most of all to those who have suffered the most.
     There’s really no quarrel with this; compassion, loving-kindness, dictate a profound feeling for what meets the needs of people in need, an equally profound respect for our varied survival strategies. No dogma here. But the voicing, perhaps, of an alternate model which Buddhism in general and Zen specifically may suggest. Like the concept of sunyata or the formula, Nirvana=Samsara, it conveys a “goal-less goal,” not one of ego-fulfillment but of ego-transcendence.
     The Buddha’s silence on the subject of an afterlife is compelling: “These are questions which do not lead to edification. Work on reducing suffering.” There are immediate tasks that compel our attention, here and now. The other concerns indicate my attachment, still, to personal craving, even to the extent that I am obsessed with my need to live forever.
     But consider: why does my sausage-encased ego insist that it must live in perpetuity in this particular package if life itself is to hold any meaning? Does that seem egocentric, presumptuous, and even arrogant? When Jesus spoke of finding your life by losing it, is this part of what he meant? Or as Shunryu Suzuki observed: “To live in the realm of Buddha nature means to die as a small being, moment after moment.”
     Use the wave analogy again. By some incredible miracle, the vast ocean of time has borne me up to its crest for this miniscule moment. I look around, revel in all that I see, feel the spray in my face, elated by the majesty, the enormity of creation, grateful beyond belief to be alive. And then, all my days distilled into this one rising instant of supernal awareness, all my life breaths compressed into one full-swelling of my lungs, I exhale, in the most complete letting go that I have ever known, and sink, in certain confidence and trust, into the depths. The ocean of time and space, which has borne me up, will receive me now unto Itself. All the “special” qualities, the fictional uniqueness of my separate selfhood, are now dissolved. It is my truest homecoming. I survive, then, in the larger sense, precisely as I yield my need to survive, I thrive, ultimately, as I overcome my striving.
     The Zen master Ryoken conveyed in his death poem this image:

Sixty-six times have these eyes beheld
     the changing scene of autumn.
I have said enough about moonlight,
Ask no more.
Only listen to the voice of pines and       
     cedars when no wind stirs.

     It is enough.

About the author:

Hal W. French (Ph.D. McMaster University) is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of South Carolina. He has taught at the University of South Carolina since 1972, serving as Chair of the Religious Studies Department from 1989-1995, and is currently dividing his time (in semi-retirement) between teaching part-time and several other activities, including teaching the religion courses for the University of Pittsburgh’s Semester at Sea program. He has also taught workshops at the Esalen Institute in California, the Chautauqua Institution in New York, and the Ammerdown Retreat Center near Bath, England. His published works include Zen and the Art of Anything, Third Edition (Praxis International, Inc., August 2009) and several other books plus numerous articles, mostly on Asian religion. In addition, Dr. French has won a number of teaching awards.