What Happens When We Die ...
... and Does Zen Make Us Happy in the Meantime?
I was asked yesterday by a friend if Zen Practice provides us with a solid and reliable answer about what happens after we die, and whether this Path makes us "happy" in the meantime, during life.
My response to both is a resounding YES!
I believe that Zen practice provides a very clear and definitive answer as to what happens when we die: There is no "birth" and there is no "death" from the start, for quite simply, "we" are intimately all of reality manifesting as you and as me and as all things and events in certain places and times. Our "self" is empty, and we empty our self, pouring forth as each and all of this. In one way, of course, little you and little me rise for a time then fade, like waves on the sea or crumbling sand castles, someday kaput, dust to dust. Maybe our end is a virus, or maybe we get hit by a bus. Yet, when we come to know our "self" as more than just a "me," and realize identity in this manifesting wholeness and all other "selves," knowing ourself as just the "sea" that is flowing and every grain of sand, then there is no coming and going even as a "me" comes and goes, is born and dies, our personal waves and castles fading away. So long as the wholeness flows on and on, that is our original face flowing on and on, as all and as each and every drop and grain and happening and instant. This inter-identity and intra-flowing in and out is what is known first hand on the Zafu cushion as the hard borders of inside/outside drop away. Such is the Great Matter, what the ancient masters preach.
As well, all phenomena of this world are simultaneously all other phenomena of this world, so "we" are the grasses and stars, all moments before/during/after our little lives, the viruses, buses and rusty tin cans, all sights and feelings of this world, whether billions of years ago or trillions of years to come, and are each other, just as we are ourselves (and I say that as someone who is otherwise rather skeptical of more specific claims about rebirth.) We are constantly "reborn" as each and all of that. We are also the results of causes that came before, and the effects of our actions ripple onward endlessly after our time, helping birth and make the sea into the sea it will be. Where the world goes after our small time is where we go, for all is just us and we are just that. More than just some intellectual idea of connection, when embodied as Zazen one realizes through and through this Whole Face that shines as our little individual faces. Slap one's face, whether yours or any other, and the sting is all faces.
Now, do we come back as wild dogs or powerful gods, in heavens or hells? I leave that be. Let us just worry about this life in the meantime, because I see folks who act like wild animals, and make hells for themselves here in this one.
And during our finite lives, I believe that Buddhism makes us Happy (Big H) if that means total equanimity, acceptance, flowing and embracing of all the sadness and happiness (small h) of life, a kind of Joy to sometimes be smiling and Joy to sometimes be crying, a Joy to laugh and a Joy to sometimes grieve. (If one reads closely all those "happiness" books by the Dalai Lama, that is really what he means by "happiness" too). While we are alive we have preferences, dreams and plans, hopes and fears ... but part of us can learn to flow and be "Happy" when our hopes and preferences are realized and also "Happy" when they are not and we are left crushed in despair, likewise for our fears. Sometimes our human hearts are glad, and sometimes they are broken, yet there is an unbreakable Heart (this mirror Face) which holds all the round or broken, smooth or shattered pieces. In this Path, we know the Flowing Whole that flows right through all seeming "win and lose, ups and downs" ... and there is ultimately nothing to fear.
It is very simple really.
Gassho, J
SatTodayLentAHAND
... and Does Zen Make Us Happy in the Meantime?
YES!
I was asked yesterday by a friend if Zen Practice provides us with a solid and reliable answer about what happens after we die, and whether this Path makes us "happy" in the meantime, during life.
My response to both is a resounding YES!
I believe that Zen practice provides a very clear and definitive answer as to what happens when we die: There is no "birth" and there is no "death" from the start, for quite simply, "we" are intimately all of reality manifesting as you and as me and as all things and events in certain places and times. Our "self" is empty, and we empty our self, pouring forth as each and all of this. In one way, of course, little you and little me rise for a time then fade, like waves on the sea or crumbling sand castles, someday kaput, dust to dust. Maybe our end is a virus, or maybe we get hit by a bus. Yet, when we come to know our "self" as more than just a "me," and realize identity in this manifesting wholeness and all other "selves," knowing ourself as just the "sea" that is flowing and every grain of sand, then there is no coming and going even as a "me" comes and goes, is born and dies, our personal waves and castles fading away. So long as the wholeness flows on and on, that is our original face flowing on and on, as all and as each and every drop and grain and happening and instant. This inter-identity and intra-flowing in and out is what is known first hand on the Zafu cushion as the hard borders of inside/outside drop away. Such is the Great Matter, what the ancient masters preach.
As well, all phenomena of this world are simultaneously all other phenomena of this world, so "we" are the grasses and stars, all moments before/during/after our little lives, the viruses, buses and rusty tin cans, all sights and feelings of this world, whether billions of years ago or trillions of years to come, and are each other, just as we are ourselves (and I say that as someone who is otherwise rather skeptical of more specific claims about rebirth.) We are constantly "reborn" as each and all of that. We are also the results of causes that came before, and the effects of our actions ripple onward endlessly after our time, helping birth and make the sea into the sea it will be. Where the world goes after our small time is where we go, for all is just us and we are just that. More than just some intellectual idea of connection, when embodied as Zazen one realizes through and through this Whole Face that shines as our little individual faces. Slap one's face, whether yours or any other, and the sting is all faces.
Now, do we come back as wild dogs or powerful gods, in heavens or hells? I leave that be. Let us just worry about this life in the meantime, because I see folks who act like wild animals, and make hells for themselves here in this one.
And during our finite lives, I believe that Buddhism makes us Happy (Big H) if that means total equanimity, acceptance, flowing and embracing of all the sadness and happiness (small h) of life, a kind of Joy to sometimes be smiling and Joy to sometimes be crying, a Joy to laugh and a Joy to sometimes grieve. (If one reads closely all those "happiness" books by the Dalai Lama, that is really what he means by "happiness" too). While we are alive we have preferences, dreams and plans, hopes and fears ... but part of us can learn to flow and be "Happy" when our hopes and preferences are realized and also "Happy" when they are not and we are left crushed in despair, likewise for our fears. Sometimes our human hearts are glad, and sometimes they are broken, yet there is an unbreakable Heart (this mirror Face) which holds all the round or broken, smooth or shattered pieces. In this Path, we know the Flowing Whole that flows right through all seeming "win and lose, ups and downs" ... and there is ultimately nothing to fear.
It is very simple really.
Gassho, J
SatTodayLentAHAND
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