Baishui Zen

At the outset of the last post, I didn’t intend to do a part 2 for this topic, but with some further reflection, it occurred to me that I left things in a state somewhat unfinished. I titled the post, and we discussed Buddhist perspective on several socially pervasive negative feelings, but I didn’t ever really notice that the title didn’t match the content. We did not give any concrete advice for how to deal with those bad thoughts and feelings. I figure this can be an opportunity for an exploratory series which goes over some of the things I like to do to put a leash on negativity, when I feel it creep up, as well as some meditations that one can use to train one’s self to not be as negative in the first place. We’ve talked a lot so far on this blog about what Buddhists believe and how they think, but I don’t think I’ve actually offered any concrete advice or practices yet, so maybe a reader who has stayed with us this long is ready for a morning meditation before work or school, and these are some of my favorites.

Attachment

In the previous post, we discussed the idea that attachment as a negative emotion specifically refers to exaggerations, fixations and aspirations, and the other feelings (anger, disappointment, etc.) that these can bring with them. The key to combatting attachment is counter to what a lot of depictions in the anglosphere seem to show. While many Buddhists over the millennia have lived in monastic environments and divested themselves of everything, this is not the whole picture, in fact, not even half the picture. Most people don’t live in these environments, and do not give up all their worldly possessions. Rather, the key to pushing back on attachment consists of two mental trainings. The first is to separate the idea of love or compassion from that which we feel for the special people in our lives, parent, child, spouse, cat (okay she’s not a person but I think she should count as a sentient being). Such feelings are strong and very special to us, but this is not what is meant by love or compassion, most of the time. Trying to apply these feelings to everyone sets us up for exaggerations, and all the negativity which will follow when our expectations don’t work out. There’s nothing wrong with cherishing these special relationships in your life, but it is simply unreasonable to think you will form bonds like this with every single person who crosses your path.

Instead, the compassion that we should aim for is probably best understood as a kind of loving equanimity. It comes from the recognition that everyone, cats included, wants to be happy, secure, and avoid pains, fears and other forms of suffering. A universal empathy. Therefore, the first mental training is to reflect on the kindnesses others have done for us, either the individual at hand, or, if they are a total stranger, the kindnesses that other strangers have had for each other. Putting ourselves in the right headspace for interactions primes us for positivity, and maybe it’s just me, but it seems others can always tell my mood and react accordingly. Perhaps I’m exceedingly transparent. Moreover, building this feeling of equanimity for everyone allows us to cling less to specific individuals, and respect them for the person they are. In other words, we can build up our feelings for others, rather than forcing ourselves to be robotically neutral with everything.

In this same vein, there is a slightly deeper meditation that I am quite fond of. The idea goes, when someone harms you (it is especially helpful to start with small things, I began doing this practice on long drives), you should be grateful. Actively channeling gratitude for being cut off or beeped at is very counterintuitive and perhaps challenging at first, but there are at least two reasons for this that I have spent time meditating on, one more mystical than the other. The more mundane reason is that I know that I am trying to develop positive feelings in my life. This is only possible if life includes some difficulties. It is easy to be positive when life is positive. When I am beeped at, this is the tiniest inconvenient in the whole world, and yet, it annoys us greatly. Treating this as an opportunity for compassion for the other person is a small way to practice having compassion for others, and I’ll never get better at that if I do not practice.

The second reason is similar, but interpreted slightly more spiritually. This person has provided me with an opportunity for good karma. I have written throughout this blog, the metaphor for mind as water, and the confluence of causes and conditions or emotions as like different types of currents and waves. When a hostile emotion passes by you, especially from source outside you, it is very easy to allow yourself to swing with the wave, travelling with it, and being caught up in its negativity as well. Being an island of calm in the tumultuous sea of negativity allows others to rest with you, so you can help them. By being calm, you are also preventing the negativity from spreading further, and these things provide you with good karma. Without developing arrogance, I think it is good to actively review this meditation, and then, congratulate yourself just a little bit. “Good job, Baishui,” is a small way to remind yourself that the path is not always easy, but worthwhile.

Because this central emotion is so important in Buddhism, I want to include another meditation that his Holiness recommends for developing the kind of loving equanimity we discussed before. He writes:

“This love is the simple wish for others to have happiness. Visualizing a variety of people, extend this wish to them, and imagine them having it. Cultivate compassion, wishing them to be free from suffering. Do this with a few individuals to begin with. Then, generalize it to groups of people. Finally, all living beings.”

There are two difficulties with this meditation to overcome. The first is that the feelings of compassion are fleeting at first, and difficult to keep in mind across many different contexts. They are also somewhat contrived, requiring effort to bring up. The second issue is that the scale of this wish for others to develop compassion for is very difficult to conceptualize. Certain sutras are written specifically to either help us conceptualize these thoughts and feelings better, or in some cases, to almost shatter our conception all together. To use an extremely crude metaphor, it’s kind of like an underflow in a computer. If we don’t actively conceptualize the feeling at all, but simply always carry our compassion with us, it will flow forward endlessly and towards all beings. If you want to get away from this kind of crude metaphor, stick around for the Zen record series more. We will talk about cutting off thoughts more as we build up a repertoire of literature there.

Regardless of how or even whether or not you do choose to conceptualize these wishes, everyone agrees that the way you overcome both issues is through habit. Finding a meditation which works for you, and putting it into practice during a session is how we train our minds into thinking in certain ways. Then, when the situation arises, we draw on the meditation we have done, actively redirecting our attention away from the initial feeling of attachment, and redirecting it to the object of our meditation. This functions as a kind of one-two punch of “theory and practice.” Our meditation session helps us understand in ourselves how we should behave in theory. When the time comes, we put it into practice. Habituation in this way is how we build up the “mental stamina” to carry our compassion with us all the time, and over time, this “theory and practice” view merges into one unified whole.

I’d like to finish this post today with one more meditation that deals with attachments to things, as the first two deal with attachments to people and our expectations for them. This is a small collection of verses from the Dhammapada. This book is best known in Theravada Buddhism, which is perhaps a bit further away from our usual focus on Chan and Mahayana, but I think it’s a worthwhile read anyway. I’ve seen it pop up throughout Chan commentaries, I think knowing the text is worthwhile. Here’s a few favorites on attachments:

He who has no attachment to mind and body, who has no attachment to what he has not, he is truly called a monk. He who is free from impediments and clinging, him do I call a holy man. He who, having cut off all fetters, trembles no more, who has overcome all attachments and is emancipated. He do I call a holy man. He who has no attachments, who through perfect knowledge is free from doubts and has plunged into the Deathless, he is a holy man. He who clings to nothing of the past, present and future, who has no attachments and holds onto nothing is a holy man.

Dhammapada is a nice and short book of little sayings and verses of the Buddha, organized into a very simple form by subject matter, although there’s overlap between the topics as well. It contains a significant amount of repetition. Lots of verses within can be subjects for meditation. I’m sure I’ll pick some of them up from time to time as well throughout these posts. What’s important to understand, from our view as aspiring Chan practitioners, is that we don’t treat these things as religious commandments or any sort of dogma. By cultivating the equanimity we’ve been discussing in this post, we should reach a place of neutrality in the mind by itself, and the attachments fall away on their own. The attitudes of the holy man here are not something to cling to in themselves. Trying to divest one’s self of certain feelings by mentally forcing it will not work for most people, and usually just involves burying the feelings.

As a final remark, notice the parallel between attachments for people, and attachments to things. Dhammapada says that a person of the Way does not have attachments to things they have or have not, or things lost or things that may be gained in the future. In other words, there is no jealousy or envy. How does one confront jealousy and envy? It is as his Holiness says, by cultivating positive emotions which reduce suffering. Which emotion is that? Gratitude for what we do have. It may be a bit odd to say that one is grateful for the people in our lives, especially people who we have less proximity to than our immediate friends and family. Just like we can learn to be grateful for the simple things in life, we can foster his Holiness “loving equanimity” for everyone we encounter. As we said, even negative experiences can be an opportunity for practice and growth, so really these teachings are the same, regardless of whether the object of our attachments are other people, objects, dreams, or a simple fear of missing out. We can show the same loving equanimity to ourselves and to our lives as we do to one another, and find simple contentment everywhere.