IndieZen Monthly

January, 2014

No. 1

IZ MONTHLY 2

Table of Contents

Intolerance, Zen & Culture….……………………………………………………………3

Bones of the Buddha.…………………………………………………………..…...…….6

Tolerating Our Own Experiences..………………………………………..….………8

Enso Table Talk………………………………………………………………....…………10

Pragmatic Rebirth..……………………………………………………………....………..17

Does Intolerance have a Cure?.……………………………………………….………21

No Fault, No Others……………………………………………………………….……..25

Names & Terminology…………………………………………………………….……..29

References…………………………………………………………………………………….31

Copyright…………………………………………………………………………...…………32

IZ MONTHLY 3

Intolerance, Zen & Culture Topic editorial

John Pendall

“I read the news today, oh boy!” sang John Lennon in 1967.

Whether we turn on the TV or radio, pick up a newspaper or research

how to make poached eggs on the internet; reminders of

intolerance stand before us as nude as an exhibitionist.

We could point the finger at the media for being

profoundly pessimistic, but the media only is what

culture made it. We and culture exist in a state of

co-dependence. Culture influences us, be we also

influence culture. After all, what is culture besides

the exchange of ideas, customs and norms from one

generation to another (Matsumoto & Juang, 2013)? The

message depends on the messenger.

Intolerance permeates our culture, but not just our culture. We

could almost say that culture itself breeds intolerance. The moment we

place a label on ourselves, we’re placing a label on others. Culture acts on

how we perceive others. It influences whether we accept or reject

someone. It influences whether we live in peace with someone or rage

against them.

Culture will never dissolve, nor should it. As long as one person

lives on this planet, there will be culture; there will be categorization and

differentiation. Yet we can decide whether we see our culture as an

absolute or as another piece of the whole. We can decide whether we see

cultures as superior and inferior or as equals.

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Intolerance isn’t just rooted in culture; it’s rooted in psychology.

The intolerance we have for Miley Cyrus songs is the same intolerance we

have for our neighbor who mows his lawn every day. It’s the same

intolerance we have for our partner as they grind their teeth in bed. It’s

the same intolerance we have for people from a different political party,

social class or culture. Intolerance is intolerance.

In the western industrialized world, we have the habit of attributing

actions to people rather than circumstances. We attribute Miley Cyrus’s

awful music to her being an awful person, rather than the fans who are

buying it. We attribute our neighbor mowing his lawn to him being an ass,

when really he’s depressed, and that’s his sole source of enjoyment in life.

We attribute terrorism and gang violence to Islamist fanatics and blacks,

rather than the social and economic pressures that they’re living under.

Many Asian cultures use a circumstantial attribution style (Myers,

2010). This style fits well with Zen practice. Thanks to interdependence

and constant change, we cannot take anything out of its context.

We can’t say that one thing is inherently righteous and another

inherently awful. We can’t say that anything is inherently anything, and we

can’t take one piece out of the whole.

This doesn’t mean that we should tolerate violence or injustice, but

we should see them for what they are… our own features. Like computers,

we may all run different operating systems, but we all have the same basic

parts that function in relatively the same way.

Who’s to say that we wouldn’t be in a gang if we were brought up

the same way and in the same environment as gang members? Who’s to

say we wouldn’t be waging Jihad right now if we were brought up the same

way and in the same environment as Jihadists?

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Who we are is largely incidental, we could very easily be anyone

else. We’re born with a set of inherited temperaments (Berger, 2011), but

most of our personality is due to experience. Experiences that are largely

influenced by our culture. Tolerance can rise as we practice and realize

that we all share the same basic Buddha nature. This nature isn’t

dependent upon culture.

This doesn’t mean we should allow a cop to brutalize someone, or

allow someone to rob a store. This means we can act toward holding

police accountable and helping the poor. There’s no need to get angry

about injustice or violence. Anger is what conditions injustice and

violence. We can stand up for justice and peace, rather than standing

against injustice and hatred.

We can turn off the Miley Cyrus song rather than railing against its

existence. We can remember that our neighbor isn’t going to be mowing

his lawn for an eternity. We can disagree with someone’s political stance

while accepting who they are and respecting that they have a stance… even

if it isn’t ours. We can be thankful that we have a significant other at all,

even if they do grind their teeth.

We can turn off our TVs and look around and see that things aren’t

quite as terrible as they’re portrayed. There are more non-murders than

murders each day, more people who aren’t in gangs than in them, more

honest cops than brutal ones and more faithful Muslims than fanatics. We

can also be thankful that all of our neighbors don’t mow their lawns each

day. If we want to rid the world of intolerance, we must first rid ourselves

of intolerance. When we do that, the good news becomes quite clear.

About the Author

John Pendall is a practicing Zen Buddhist, musician, writer,

minister and psychology student. He’s interested in many -

osophies, -onomies and –ologies and lives in rural Illinois

between two cornfields.

IZ MONTHLY 6

Bones of the Buddha

Daniel Sharpenburg

Once Ikkyu1 was staying in a temple. The

night was very cold and there were three

wooden Buddhas in the temple, so he burned

one Buddha to warm himself. The priest in

charge of the temple woke up and noticed that

something was going on, so he looked to see

what Ikkyu was up to.

The Buddha statue was burning and

Ikkyu was sitting there warming his hands over the fire. The priest got

angry. He said, “What are you doing?! Are you a madman? I thought you

to be a Buddhist monk, that’s why I allowed you stay in the temple. You

have done the most sacrilegious act!”

Ikkyu said, “But the Buddha within me was feeling very cold. So it

was a question whether to sacrifice the living Buddha to the wooden one,

or to sacrifice the wooden one to the living one. I chose the living one.”

The priest was so angry that he couldn’t listen. He shouted, “You

are a madman! You simply get out of here! You have burned the

Buddha.” So Ikkyu started to poke the burned Buddha with a stick.

There were ashes, the Buddha was almost consumed by the fire. The

priest asked, “What are you doing?”

Ikkyu said, “I am trying to find the bones of the Buddha.”

So the priest laughed and said, “You are either a fool or a madman,

and you are absolutely mad! You cannot find the bones there, because it

is just a wooden Buddha.

Ikkyu laughed and said, “Then bring the other two. The night is still

very cold and the morning is still far away. I haven’t burned the Buddha.

I’ve burned a wooden statue… and you call ME the crazy one!”

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What can we take from this? Is it just a funny

story? Maybe… I think it represents

iconoclasm. The priest is, in a sense,

worshiping this Buddha statue. We shouldn’t

worship anything really, but we especially

shouldn’t be attached to an icon. When we

give a statue of the Buddha that much

respect, we are doing what the Buddha said not to do. He said that the

Dharma2 is what really matters, not him. The teaching matters more than

the teacher, and we need to keep that in mind while we’re walking the

Path.

About the Author

Daniel Sharpenberg is an authorized Zen teacher in

the Ch’an Guild of Huineng, in the lineage of Ch’an

Master Xu Yun. He has studied and continues to

study in various Buddhist traditions. He developed a

meditation program for children at the Rime Buddhist

Center in Kansas City.

IZ MONTHLY 8

Tolerating Our Own Experiences

Topic column Robert Epstein

In Buddhism, we talk a lot

about acceptance, patience and

compassion; making space for what

exists in others and trying to reach

out past negativity to make a positive

connection.

Part of that is taking a more

positive attitude towards oneself and

accepting our own experience. Yet as hard as it can be to accept and

maintain positive energy toward others, it can be even harder not to judge,

dislike and punish ourselves.

We all have bad habits and tendencies that we know much more

intimately than others. Maybe we lose our temper and then regret it;

maybe we're disorganized or don't make enough money. Maybe we think

we're too childish and ought to grow up. Being able to tolerate who we

really are on the personality level and "be with" what actually exists is a

great and important skill.

Positive change never takes place while we're at war with ourselves.

When negative emotions and thoughts arise, we need to be able to

tolerate them in order to give them the space to be processed or released.

When we judge our own tendencies or actions in a negative way, we need

to be able to step back and accept and forgive our own flaws.

It's not an easy thing to do, but when we're able to look at ourselves

sympathetically and take in both the admirable and the difficult aspects of

our personalities as a unified yet ever-changing whole… things start to

open up and find balance. The great "immeasurables" from Theravadan3

Buddhism are a great list of attributes that we can offer to ourselves, as

well as to others, in the face of the imperfections we encounter in both:

IZ MONTHLY 9

Dana – Generosity of spirit, as well as

material generosity.

Metta – Loving-kindness that takes a loving

and sympathetic approach to all living

beings despite their shortcomings.

Karuna – Compassion, which looks

sympathetically on the suffering of others

and is moved to alleviate as much suffering

as possible for all beings.

Mudita – Sympathetic joy, my personal

favorite. To be able to feel happiness at another’s success is a sure

sign of true openness and a relaxed, secure sense of oneself. We can

also have “sympathetic joy” for our own successes. One who is able

to congratulate others often cannot themselves take compliments or

feel good about their own accomplishments. It’s important to have

healthy self-efficacy, which isn’t the same thing as pride.

Upekkha – Equanimity. To maintain equanimity in the face of

other’s shifting moods and behavior is very important. Otherwise,

we are thrown off center all the time by people and events outside of

our control. It’s also important to maintain balance in the face of

our own upsets, mistakes and thwarted expectations of ourselves. To

expect life to take unexpected turns, and to be ready to tolerate

those unexpected changes at each moment, is the great skill of

equanimity and a great gift to self and others (not two).

About the Author

Some think that Robert Epstein has TOO eclectic a background.

He’s studied and/or taught T’ai Chi, Taoist standing meditation,

the Sedona Method, Iyengar yoga, deep tissue massage, inner

light meditation, hypnotherapy, briefly met Chogyam Trungpa and more

things than this page can hold. He’s currently once again into Ch’an and

Zen Buddhism and exploring Hua Tou meditation. If hearing that list

made you dizzy, think of how Robert must feel!

IZ MONTHLY 10

Enso Table Talk

John, Ana, Vic, Daniel, Lee

Robert, Rain, Melissa, Michael & Steve

JOHN: Welcome everyone to our first

enso table talk. The enso is a Japanese

symbol for unity, wholeness and

emptiness4 that’s often seen in relation

to Zen. These discussions involve any of

the writers here at IZ Weekly who are

interested in participating. Guess I’ll get

the ball rolling… What is tolerance to

you?

ANA: To me, tolerance is having three

nationalities and three religions and atheism in the family, and no one

arguing which is right or better. Intolerance comes down to fear, and fear

is the strongest emotion in my opinion.

VIC: Yes, and fear is also John showing up in a Zendo in a miniskirt.

Dogma also breeds intolerance, and dualistic thought makes hypocrites.

That is why we practice zazen.

JOHN: Hey Vic! That was a social psychology experiment! At least, that’s

the story I’m sticking with.

DANEIL: In the context of the Dharma, tolerance is recognizing that

there are many ways to practice Buddhism. Zen Master Ikkyu said,

“Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain, but at the peak we all

gaze at the single moon.”

JOHN: Do you think that this applies to people who don’t practice the

Dharma as well? Nishijima5 once said that there are many ways to

“enlightenment,” but that Zen is the easiest path. That says something

about how difficult it is to uncover our fundamental nature!

IZ MONTHLY 11

DANIEL: I think so. I have a friend who practices Advaita Vedanta6, and

when we have discussions it’s sometimes a little difficult to even determine

the differences between our beliefs. There are probably several paths like

this outside of Buddhism.

VIC: Isn’t intolerance conformity in this context when applied to society?

At the individual level, isn’t it an unwillingness to grow?

LEE: Tolerance is what you do with frustration… when you remember to

do it.

Equanimity

ROBERT: If you are absolutely certain that you are right about

something, and can still open the door to hear someone else’s opposing

perspective… that’s a good example of tolerance. Tolerance opens up

what you think you already know, and allows you to entertain something

that is, “other,” and accept it into your world. Tolerance is also a close

cousin of equanimity, because the ability to allow new twists and turns in

life allows you to stay centered, even while things keep changing.

JOHN: It does seem that equanimity and tolerance are closely related.

Do you think that patience can cultivate tolerance? Does the anger we feel

while stuck in traffic have the same root as the hatred people have for

those who are different than them?

RAIN: I love sitting in traffic… more Led Zeppelin time. Traffic is great,

especially when I’m getting paid by the hour.

ROBERT: That’s cheating!

Anger and Ego

VIC: Intolerance is a sense of being threatened on some level. That’s

aversion.

ROBERT: I think that the anger at being stuck in traffic and the anger at

people who are different than us, are at least somewhat related… maybe

IZ MONTHLY 12

not totally. It’s an interesting question. I do think that patience is probably

helpful in both. In the latter, there might have to be a willingness to go

beyond what you think is acceptable too.

VIC: The traffic thing is ego. “You’re preventing me from getting where I

want to go, or menacing me with your vehicle.” Also related to control,

which is also my ego… my concept.

MELISSA: The Middle Way7 Vic, the Middle Way…

MICHAEL: The ego is a normal function… Well it should be.

JOHN: Then we have to ponder the difference between tolerating

something and being exploited or coerced. Can we tolerate someone

being cantankerous because they’re having a bad day, but not tolerate

them verbally abusing you? At what point do we stand up and say, “No!”

Basically, should we tolerate intolerance?

Story Time

ROBERT: Buddha said that when Rajah of Kalinga, in a

jealous rage cut up his body into pieces while he was still alive,

that no anger arose in him; even in that lifetime he had,

“Already given up any notion of a self, a being or an entity,” so

there was no reason for the anger to arise. That is tolerance! Maybe the

conclusion is that to really be tolerant, there has to be a transparent or

empty self. This doesn’t mean you can’t take appropriate or

compassionate action. Just because you are tolerant on your own behalf

doesn’t mean you can’t still help to end suffering around you, or even

within you. You just do what is required without judgment.

MELISSA: May it be so.

VIC: No self, no problem.

JOHN: I doubt I’d be as calm if someone was dismembering me. I

wonder if his response would be different if he saw someone else being

dismembered? Sure, there’s no inherent self nor others, but that’s no

IZ MONTHLY 13

antidote for physical pains. Living to serve, it’d be obligatory to step in and

say, “Hey, could you, ya know, maybe stop dismembering that dude?”

Yeah, there’s tolerance because there’s intolerance, just like there’s

poverty because there’s wealth and vice versa. Could we say then that,

from an “enlightened” perspective that really there’s neither tolerance nor

intolerance?

MELISSA: Maybe. Not being enlightened, I’m choosing tolerance over

intolerance.

ROBERT: If we try to stop a murderer from murdering again, that can’t

be a bad thing, right? So tolerance has a limit? I think the answer (I think)

is that one can stop the intolerable while remaining tolerant within (like

the Buddha when we getting turned into cold cuts). On a certain level, we

have to be unmoved personally by that which is abhorrent, even though

we may act against it, and in that way we maintain equanimity while doing

what is needed. Otherwise, we’re just eternally swinging again between

attachment and aversion, and there’s no way out.

VIC: I can’t tolerate it… here it comes… “We should have tolerance in

our intolerance, and intolerance in our tolerance.” Or just go with the

flow. Water can be tolerant. “No view,” is probably the most tolerant

view. As fast as you can conceptualize tolerance, there is intolerance also.

ROBERT: Is that so? I think it’s time for another Hakuin8 story.

JOHN: Tell me a story! Tell me a story!

VIC: A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived

near Hakuin. One day, without any warning, her parents

discovered she was pregnant. This made her parents angry. She

would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment,

at last named Hakuin. In great anger, the parents went to the master. “Is

that so?” was all he could say. After the child was born, it was brought to

Hakuin. By this time, he had lost his reputation, which did not trouble

him. He took very good care of the child. He obtained mil from his

IZ MONTHLY 14

neighbors and everything else the child needed. A year later, the girl could

stand it no longer. She told her parents the truth that the real father of the

child was a young man who worked in the fish market. The mother and

father at once went to Hakuin to ask forgiveness, to apologize at length,

and to get the child back. Hakuin willingly yielded the child, saying only,

“Is that so?”

STEVE: Damn, I’m away for an hour or three and look how the

conversation shapes up! A question on tolerance seems to illicit the

traumatic experiences of intolerance that we have experienced.

JOHN: That’s how duality goes. Ya get one, you get one and are

reminded of the other I suppose.

Morality

STEVE: I would say that it is only our individual interests that make

ethics and morality problematic. They, in turn, are only problematic when

we buy into the delusional cultural conditioning that we’ve all been

subjected to; which tells us that we live in a dog-eat-dog world and that our

survival and success, therefore, requires that we dominate and exploit

everyone and everything else.

JOHN: Morality is a foundation of practice. Either as a result, or as a

guide along the way. Really, practicing Zen equates to following the Noble

Eightfold Path, which is all about morality, ethics and values. Appropriate

speech, compassionate action etc. Then there are the six paramitas9 we

develop along the way which also culminate into a holistic, moral

perspective. Patience, wisdom and kindness are all characteristics of

tolerance.

Tolerance, Conformity, Hippies & Nonsense

RAIN: Tolerance is the acceptance of and abiding with nonsense. It also

includes the same toward that which one does not agree with, condone, or

plain old “like” which is not necessarily “nonsense.” Tolerance and non-

nonsense is endless, without ego drawing the cards from the deck.

IZ MONTHLY 15

Tolerance of nonsense ends where ass kicking begins (figuratively of

course).

VIC: Well, the counter-culture became intolerant of intolerance and lost

equanimity also. As did the Japanese in SF, leading to demands for a

married priest. Shunryu Suzuki10 fit the bill.

JOHN: Well, the misuse of psychedelic probably

didn’t help either. Pic of High School Hippie John

VIC: Conformity is security. I remember as my views

began to change how insecure I felt. Most people wouldn’t be able to

relate to me. Luckily I found some Zen geeks on Facebook. Free love

scared some people. “Lock up your daughters, get your gun.”

JOHN: Even Shunryu spoke a bit against the attachment to, “Love! Love

Love!” In that context, we could say that, attachment to any idea, even a

beneficial idea, results in intolerance. Hippies hated squares. They were

suspicious of anyone who didn’t tune in, turn on and drop out.

VIC: Hippies feared narcs. He said we didn’t know what love is. So did

Krishnamurti11. Pointed out, as I did, that the concept of possessing

another person, such as in marriage, leads to jealousy and envy and see

how intolerant some Zen students become. Threating a holy institution.

The Three Poisons

JOHN: What of the Three Poisons12? Is it by tolerating their presence in

us that we stumble upon the three wholesome qualities?

RAIN: Tolerating their presence? You’d be best to embrace their

presence fully and be gracious for the poisons! No Buddha has ever

become a Buddha except by living with the Three Poisons and nourishing

his or her self on pure Dharma. Beyond the Three Poisons, there is no

other Buddha-nature13.

IZ MONTHLY 16

STEVE: Greed is confused compassion. Anger is confused love.

Delusion is confused wisdom. Just a matter of bringing them back into

sync.

Conclusion

ROBERT: I would look at tolerance as a way of going through things, not

keeping them the same. So we “tolerate” the arising of anger in order to

process it instead of suppressing it. It doesn’t mean we keep it, but we

don’t proliferate and blame the anger or blame ourselves. We don’t

suppress the anger and do all kinds of other things to make it worse. We

“tolerate” it so we can look at it and get to the root of it. We can’t work

with something that we can’t tolerate experiencing.

Same with others. We don’t “tolerate” bad behavior in the sense of

accepting it the way it is, but we have to tolerate it long enough to engage

with it and see what the real cause is. What is the real solution? Where

tolerance is pure tolerance and we don’t change something, is when

people just have different ways of doing things; or they do things that we

react to badly.

So, can I tolerate my wife putting my wet towel under another towel so it

doesn’t get dry? Grrr…. But it’s something I can let go of, I don’t have to

get upset over it. I can “tolerate” it. Can I tolerate being late for work

because of the traffic jam? That’s something I can’t change. Do I have a

tantrum or do I tolerate it? If someone is a meat-eater and I’m a

vegetarian, can I tolerate the fact that they are different than me? Maybe

to some extent I will not tolerate it, but to the extent I can’t change it I

either breathe with it or fall into the three poisons.

VIC: Yes. Don’t hold on or push it away. Just be with it.

IZ MONTHLY 17

Pragmatic Rebirth

John Pendall

Rebirth isn’t what you think it is. Well, it might be, but who would

know? We’d forget after we were reborn! In

vintage Buddhism, rebirth involves six

different realms: hell (which is self-

explanatory really), hungry ghosts (little

dudes with mouths too small to satisfy their

hunger), animal, human, asura (jealous

gods) and devas (blissful gods).

Unlike reincarnation, the self or soul isn’t what’s reborn into these

realms. It’s the mindstream17 that carries on, pushed forward by a current

of Karma. The mindstream takes on a whole new set of form, sense

judgments, categorization, mental representations and consciousness with

each incarnation. So, it’s us but not us, just as right now we’re us and not

us.

The six worlds are usually taken as a metaphor in Zen… if they’re

even taken at all. Odds are, we dwell in all of the realms at different times

in life. Sometimes we’re joyous and blissful like devas. Other times we’re

in hell, living in misery. Sometimes we’re hungry ghosts who are never

quite satisfied with anything.

Rebirth and Karma also take on new meanings in Zen. Instead of

thinking about a distant and unknowable future life, we focus on rebirth

and Karma in this life. We are constantly changing on all possible levels.

Since I wrote that sentence, the particles that compose my body are in

different places. Some even left entirely when I exhaled, and others joined

the fun when I inhaled. Cells have died and been born. Blood pressure

and oxygen levels are different, so my body is always changing.

IZ MONTHLY 18

How I feel and judge things is always changing. A moment ago I was

fine, but now an unpleasant draft is making me feel chilly. I label this

feeling, “chilliness,” so how I categorize things is also always changing.

Occasionally the cold makes me think of Christmas and happy

memories of family gatherings. Other times it makes me think of

shoveling snow and being stranded in a ditch. So how experiences are

represented are always changing.

Since all these factors are constantly changing, the consciousness

that they compose is always changing. This consciousness is what we tend

to call the self.

This means that with each movement, breath, sensation, perception

and thought I am a new person. We are constantly born, aging, dying and

reborn. This is rebirth in Zen.

What I just described are called the Five Skandhas or aggregates:

Form, sensation, perception, volition and consciousness. These are the

elements that compose what we call the self. They are each dependent on

one another. If they aren’t all present, there can be no sense of a separate

self at all.

So each moment, it is these aggregates

that are reborn. Their new state is determined

by the actions of the aggregates that came

before them. If I’m hammering a nail while

crafting what would be a very structurally

unsound shelf, and my aim is off then I’m

going to hit my finger. That’s Karma in

action.

The aggregates that were present while lifting the hammer are

different than the aggregates that arise after I pummel my poor finger.

While raising the hammer my finger was unblemished; I felt neither pain

nor pleasure; I perceived the wood, the nail and my intact finger; I was

IZ MONTHLY 19

thinking about how the skin is the largest organ of the body and all these

elements were folded neatly into consciousness. Yet this set of aggregates

isn’t paying attention. They’ve drifted off from the task at hand. So, I

whack the hell out of my finger.

Who’s the one that suffers? Not the me that miscalculated. It’s the

me who lowered the hammer. All of a sudden there’s a new John. One

with a black and blue finger; throbbing pain; perceiving the damage; I

shout and swear and think about how stupid I am and about how

hammers should have proximity sensors; all of these elements are strewn

about in consciousness.

This clearly isn’t the same person that was standing there a moment

ago. This person is filled with anger, frustration and has a tarnished self-

concept. This is my rebirth into hell, and my Karmic negligence bearing

fruit.

But, what’s the point of all this? What use is this realization of

rebirth and Karma? From what I’ve seen, many people are willing to

move the earth for people they care about, yet they don’t give themselves

the same courtesy. Either that or we say screw everybody else and just

focus on ourselves.

This realization makes it possible for us to take care of ourselves in

the same way we do others. When we do something healthy (or at least

not unhealthy), are mindful and learn something new… we aren’t doing

this for ourselves. We’re doing it for other people… our future selves.

Likewise, if we treat people like garbage… well we’re harming not

only other people, but our future selves. Eventually, we’ll be alone and

friendless. Or, at the very least, our final thought before dying will be,

“Man, I was an ass!” which is accompanied by our final feeling… regret.

Who wants to end life like that? Who wants to spend their days

being hated and alone? Karma could be seen as simple cause and effect,

but really it’s more about our mental states. Hitting my finger wasn’t really

IZ MONTHLY 20

the Karma… it was my unpleasant anger and distorted self-image that was

the Karma. Anger brought about by habitual reactions to things.

Everything we do has consequences. Every action has a reaction.

We aren’t immune to the laws of physics… they’re what formed us after

all. The effect can sometimes come immediately after the cause, or

sometimes years after.

Finally, this realization can help us see ourselves differently. We

aren’t islands. We aren’t isolated and permanent beings. Our lives are

dynamic and interdependent with everything else. We affect everything

and are affected by everything. What we call the self is the mindstream,

the ever changing aggregates being pushed on by Karma. This allows us to

not be so serious. It makes us wonder, “Why be afraid? Why be

offended? Why get angry when I bang my thumb?”

Even that’s all just surface, friends. We aren’t just waxing

philosophical here. Rebirth, Karma, the Skandhas, constant change and

interdependence are to be experienced firsthand. These actualizations are

the path to Buddhahood, meaning the path to Wholeness and

Awareness. The path to seeing our true nature and uncovering our Real

Self, which is none other than the Buddha, and the Buddha is none other

than our own minds free of BS. Yet we have to be at least a little grateful

for the BS. Without it, there’d be no Buddhahood.

IZ MONTHLY 21

Does Intolerance have a Cure? Topic Colum

Michael Aldridge

Jacqui had bought a lovely bottle of red, one that she knew John

loved. When Jacque arrived home, she expected that John would have a

meal ready. She was hoping for the

lasagna that he was especially good at.

John was on a sabbatical and had

taken over the cooking. Jacque had

been working hard to earn the money

for the household while he pursued

his studies. John had been studying

the genetics of language, and he had made some new discoveries in his

research and tonight, in his excitement, he had forgotten about dinner.

Jacque was not happy; she was angry that there was no dinner, and

the romantic time she was looking forward to was gone. “If you said you

were going to do something, then you should do it.” In her mind, there

were no excuses. Suddenly she felt tired. The dinner she was looking

forward to faded, and she had a glass of the wine she’d bought and went

to bed.

The roots of intolerance lie in the idea that there is a separate self

that needs to be reassured, aggrandized in its own separation. Unwilling to

accept views, beliefs, or behaviour that differ from its own, it is like a wave

upon the sea that needs to be reassured that it is a better wave than the

other waves. More precisely, it is founded in the view that we are nothing

other than our conscious attention, i.e., whatever it is that we are focusing

on, a mind that sees problems that need to be fixed.

When you see yourself as your attention, your mind becomes rigid

and error seeking, a mind that refuses to accept things as they are. A

IZ MONTHLY 22

failure to accept oneself, and hence the universe the way it is, is a

miserable life. It is a life where one is continually striving to make oneself

better, without even knowing who you are.

As Dharma students, we know that there is neither a wave nor no

wave. No wave separate from the ocean. Yet we perceive a wave. In the

same way, we tend to perceive each other as separate individuals, failing to

see that each person is a manifestation of the ocean of humanity, and the

ocean of consciousness.

Inadequately, we use words like

dependent co-arising to try and describe this.

The point is the same. We arise together,

depending on each other. What then is

tolerance, when each individual is as you are,

a coming forth of all consciousness?

Does intolerance need to be cured? It doesn’t. Nothing needs to

change because everything is changing. Anything that is rigid and inflexible

will not last, but then neither will anything that is flexible either. The only

issue at hand is that intolerance makes you unhappy. It drains your

energy. It sucks the joy out of you. It is a dis-ease precisely because an

intolerant person is not at ease.

The cure for intolerance is the Middle Way7 itself. Yet it seems that

there is more direct approach to dealing with intolerance, and it’s rooted

in the four sublime states (loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy

and equanimity). These four states bring you into connection, into

relation with other beings. What is even more important about these four

sublime states is that they make you very happy. An intolerant person is

an unhappy one.

Metta Bhavana (cultivation of loving-kindness), is both a Mahayana20

and a Theravadan3 practice founded in positive intention towards all

IZ MONTHLY 23

beings… starting with oneself. You may recall the story of a couple who

sought the Buddha’s advice on self-love.

“You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is

more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that

person is not to be found anywhere. You, yourself, as much as anybody in

the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

Intolerance is a failure to appreciate another being

as they are and a failure to accept yourself as you

are. In the view of dependent co-arising, we are all

here together. There is no wave apart from the sea.

Intolerance is one wave holding the view that

another wave should not be expressing itself the

way it is. It is a failure to appreciate the qualities inherent in the other

person and a failure to see that intolerance is your own experience. The

truth is that that person is the whole universe acting as your teacher.

Sympathetic joy is its cure.

The cultivation of equanimity (upekkha) also happens to be the final

of the six paramitas9. Bodhidharma

26 remarks that, “By purifying your seix

senses of the dust of sensation, the paramitas ferry you across the River of

Affliction to the Shore of Enlightenment.” Intolerance is a reaction to the

world of form. Equanimity is its cure. Intolerance lies within the mind; it

is attachment to an idea. In this sense Zen practice is itself the cure for

intolerance.

So, what use are the sublime states in dealing with intolerance? As

Buddha himself is reported to have said, “What a person considers and

reflects upon for a long time, to that his mind will bend and incline.” Joy

and flexibility are the cure for intolerance. Buddha included Right Action

as one of the aspects of the Path. More recently we have discovered that

just as the mind impacts the body, the body impacts the mind. If you want

to be happy, smile. If you want to be depressed, frown. If you want to be

flexible maybe yoga is a good practice.

IZ MONTHLY 24

“Practicing the Immeasurable Mind of Love extinguishes anger in

the hearts of living beings. Practicing the Immeasurable Mind of

Compassion extinguishes all sorrows and anxieties in the hearts of living

beings. Practicing the Immeasurable Mind of Joy extinguishes sadness

and joylessness in the hearts of living beings. Practicing the Immeasurable

Mind of Equanimity extinguishes hatred, aversion and attachment in the

hearts of all living beings.” – Nagarjuna

IZ MONTHLY 25

No Fault, No Others

Topic Column

Ron Stevenson

Dogen14 wrote: “Do not be concerned with the faults of other

person… Buddha prohibited unwholesome actions, but did not

tell us to hate those who practice unwholesome actions.”

Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje15 wrote similarly in one of his

most influential works – A Vajra16 Potem. While the second

line is the subject of this article, its logic is best appreciated as

part of a whole of the path of Buddhism, and so, it’s in the IndieZen blog

at http://izweekly.blogspot.com/2014/12/vajra.html.

The Great Effortess Certainty

“Grant your blessing that I have no wish to see the faults of others,”

is an aspirational prayer or chant, which seeks self-awareness. As shown in

the blog, it is part of the path of self-awareness, that which winds down to

the final verse: “Grant your blessing that I gain the great effortless

certainty.”

The great effortless certainty can be contrasted with a certainty that

is built upon an edifice of logic. Logic itself is a tool, but one whose

abuses are worth observing. One of the most egregious of these is circular

logic, which is logic that is constructed upon a root assumption that is

accepted as truth rather than proven through rigorous analysis.

What we tend to seek is small certainty; the certainty that our biases

are, in fact, real so that we may then eliminate the cognitive dissonance

that comes from questioning inconvenient inconsistencies. Circular logic

is often used to scapegoat other cultures, such as how Sam Harris18 ignores

much of the Quran and Middle Eastern culture to turn them into a straw

man for Americans to beat relentlessly.

IZ MONTHLY 26

The Embedded Premise of Self vs. Other

Circular logic is required to make one-sided rationalizations.

Intolerance requires elaborate justification and complex logic; logic

complex enough to defend against its circular nature. A scapegoat is

created as a caricature, a simplified stereotype.

Circular logic is what proceeds from an embedded premise. When

we focus on others’ faults, what we’re doing is reacting to an image of that

person that is effectively distorted to begin with. This means that all of our

subsequent judgments will then be colored by antipathy.

Contrarily, our embedded premise when it comes to ourselves is

one of complete sympathy. Most people have a self-serving bias (Myers,

2010) to some degree. To the extent that we do accomplish some small

step toward being better than others, we are prideful paragons of virtue.

Rather than look upon others who succeed with, “sympathetic joy,” we

rationalize that they are merely, “overcompensating,” for their flaws.

At the bottom of this is the inability to assess our faults exactly as we

would with others. We are essentially good, while others are essentially

vile. In Buddhism, this is called “avidya” (ignorance). In psychology, it’s

called the fundamental attribution error (Myers, 2010). It indicates that

our perceptions of things are colored by the embedded premise that we

bring to bear, and the big daddy of them all is the sense of separation

between self and other.

Grant Your Blessing to See My Own Faults

The beginning verses of the Dhammapada19 deal

with this tendency to fault others. Pointing to the flaws

in others and using these as a means for contention

against the world is an ancient habit of ours. Ahimsa24

turns this around on its head. It is the intention not to

harm others – something very much advanced. To

IZ MONTHLY 27

focus on the intention to be of value to others and not to cause them

suffering is basic respect.

But where can such respect be found in the mind? From whence

does this rise? How is it that the Bodhisattva25 knows the underlying unity

of all life?

Mahayana20 Buddhists take the Bodhisattva vows

21 to Awaken for the

sake of all sentient beings. In particular, Bodhisattvas promise to practice

the six perfections9 in order to fulfill their Bodhicitta

22 aim of attaining

enlightenment for the sake of all beings.

In short, Bodhicitta arises from the practice of

looking within, and dealing with our delusions and

projections, and perfecting ourselves for the sake of others.

In practice, this means finding a way to turn the glare of

enmity back on ourselves, and to see the origin of the

contention as arising within ourselves.

There are various practices for this, but Zen being relatively simple,

goes for the path of self-examination of the mindstream17. It seems

simplistic, but it is powerful.

Grant Your Blessing that Wholesome Thoughts Arise Deep From

Within

In immersed meditation and mindfulness*, the true nature of mind

emerges. It is here that the illusion of self vs. other is experienced

firsthand. In other words, it is through a change in focus and modality of

thought that we can become more objective and equanimous.

A new study suggests that mindfulness reduces our split second

assumptions based on superficial differences in people (Suttie, 2014). The

study uses the Implicit Assumption Test (IAT). The IAT measures how

quickly people associate negative or positive words like “bad” or “good”

with photos. The photos are of people representing different social

groups such as African Americans or the disabled. Results showed that

IZ MONTHLY 28

mindfulness decreased the automatic bias against African Americans and

the elderly.

Mindfulness interrupts the link between past experiences and

impulsive responses, but the value of meditation is much greater;

wholesome thoughts arise from deep within. In meditation, we see past

the illusion of an inherent self. We hang our criticisms and projections on

this illusions.

Flipping the Switch

When we seek to assign blame out there, it is an indication that we

are working from a state of mind that is deluded, and the medicine for

that is just to change our state of mind. We are familiar with the

contentious mind, ensconced in dukkha23. Indeed there is no end to our

troubles when we are working from this state of mind.

What the IAT experiments shows is that these patterns can be

interrupted. The subtle methods of disciplining the mind to work from

spontaneity and equanimity are the most efficient means of flipping that

switch. They are the basic components of our practice: reading, chanting,

always being mindful, and entering into deeper states.

Through these practices, in our daily interaction with the world and

others, we realize that the four immeasurables transform our

understanding. We may respond to our world in truly objective,

equanimous, compassionate and wise ways.

In this way, we can turn from ideologies of hate toward more

functional modes of Awareness that cultivate empathy in human

relationships.

About the Author

Ron Stevenson is a Dharma renegade, Tibetan Buddhism, Zen

and with Korean Won Buddhists (having lived in Korea). He

believes them to all be aspects of the same practice.

IZ MONTHLY 29

Names & Terminology

1Ikkyu Sojun – 15

th century eccentric Japanese Zen monk, abbot and poet.

2Dharma

– Scripture, Truth, natural laws, Buddha’s teachings.

3Theravada – Branch of Buddhism which focuses on early teachings.

4Emptiness – Interdependent and impermanent nature of things.

5Gudo Wafu Nishijima – Japanese Zen priest and teacher. Died in 2014.

6Advaita Vedanta – School of Vedic philosophy.

7Middle Way – Noble Eightfold Path, non-extremes. “Neither this nor

that,” and, “this and that,” reasoning.

8Hakuin Ekaku – 18

th century Rinzai Zen teacher and writer.

9Six Paramitas – Giving, virtue, patience, dedication, concentration,

wisdom.

10Shunryu Suzuki – 20

th century Zen monk, writer and teacher. Founded

first Zen center outside of Asia (San Francisco Zen Center).

11Jiddu Krishnamurti – 20

th century Indian philosopher, writer and poet.

12Three Poisons – Attachment/greed, aversion/hatred, ignorance/delusion.

13Buddha-nature – Potential all beings have for Buddhahood, universal

essence of all things.

14Dogen Zenji – 13

th century Japanese Zen teacher and writer.

15Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje – 20

th century Tibetan Buddhist, head of

the Nyingma lineage.

16Vajra – Sanskrit for diamond. In Buddhism, often symbolizes

indestructible and firmness. Representative of Vajrayana school of

Buddhism

17Mindstream – Moment-to-moment continuum of awareness. What many

mistake as a personal and permanent essence.

IZ MONTHLY 30

18Sam Harris – Author, philosopher, neuroscientist.

19Dhammapada – Buddhist scripture; collection of sayings from Buddha.

20Mahayana – Branch of Buddhism; Zen is a sect of Mahayana.

21Bodhisattva Vow – “I vow to save all sentient beings, though beings

numberless. I vow to transform all delusion, though delusions

inexhaustible. I vow to perceive reality, though reality is boundless.

I vow to attain the Enlightened Way, a Way non-attainable.

22Bodhicitta – Awakening Mind that strives for enlightenment and to end

the suffering all beings.

23Dukkha – Mental suffering, dissatisfaction.

24Ahimsa – To cause no injury in words, thoughts or deeds

25Bodhisattva – Enlightened being. Cultivates Bodhicitta for the benefit of

all.

26Bodhidharma – 5

th century Buddhist teacher and monk. Often

considered the founder of Zen Buddhism.

IZ MONTHLY 31

References

Action Institute Power Blog (n.d.). Got Tolerance? Retrieved from

http://blog.action.org/archives/67401-homeschooled-students-

politically-tolerant.html/got-tolerance

Berger, K. S. (2011). The developing person through the life span

(8th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers

Birth Picture (n.d.). Retrieved from http://scienceclarified.com

Cmaritis, H. (n.d.). Buddha (Snow). Retrieved from

http://www.artflakes.com/en/products/buddha-snow

Matsumoto, D., & Juang, L. (2013). Culture and psychology (5th ed.).

Cengage Learning

Myers, D. G. (2010). Social psychology (10th ed.). New York, NY:

McGraw-Hill

Suttie, J. (2014). Can mindfulness help reduce racism? Berkeley Greater

Good Science Center. Retrieved from http://greatergood.berkeley.

edu/article/item/can_mindfulness_help_reduce_racism

Shadow, K. (2013). Muditia – The practice of sympathetic joy.

Lightworkers. Retrieved from http://lightworkers.org/wisdom/

knight-shadow/181416/mudita-practice-sympathetic-joy

Tumblr (n.d.). Take a cue, spread a meme, be a Buddha. Retrieved from

http://www.schmemes.tumblr.com

Vajra Picture (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com

IZ MONTHLY 32

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