Why Meditate?
Buzz started on meditation when Jeff Wilson wrote on Dec 26, in Tricycle Blog –Jeff Wilson, a tangential statement of fact in a rambling post comparing Japan and America, that “meditation is quite uncommon in Japanese Zen.”
The first comment to the post, written by Pat Montague, asked about the statement, “How does this square with the enormous emphasis placed on meditation in Shunryu Suzuki's “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”? [Suzuki, a patriarch of Zen in America, started the San Francisco Zen Center, which focused on meditation, in the early 60s and he and the center were quickly sensations during the beatnik era carrying over to the hippie era. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind was first published in 1970 – a year before Suzuki died. The book continues to be popular.]
Jeff devoted a new, long post on Dec 30 – a journal-quality article, really – to Pat’s comment, titling it “Meditation: A Rare Practice.” Jeff demonstrated the truth of his assertion that meditation is rare in Japan, and in Asia, too. He also explained why meditation became central to Western Buddhists: because it quickly became what lay Buddhists were interested in and because it was the easiest thing for English-challenged teachers to give instruction in. Jeff summed things up with these words, “Obviously, this isn't meant as an attack on meditation, which I too value. But we should be aware that meditation is not a common Buddhist practice, including within Zen. Helpful to some, valued by many, but by no means common.”
In the comment threat to “Meditation: A Rare Practice,” the discussion broadened along these lines: The great opportunity that the Internet affords and the Buddhist literature that Westerners have generally allows for a wonderful foundation to study and practice our religion and to know how Buddhism is practiced elsewhere in the world.
Jeff’s post caught the eye of CJ of CJ’s Words who wrote in a Jan 9 post, starkly titled "Real Buddhists Don't Meditate," “I was quite pleased to read [about the rarity of meditation in Jeff’s post], as [I am] a lazy meditator. It strikes me that it really is a central theme in Western Buddhism and often the aspect that one will come across first and practise before having any inkling of ethics. Why are we so into this sitting still and navel gazing practice? Does it help us feel like we're being spiritual or does the daily discipline make us feel like we're being good Buddhists?”
CJ then quoted Wade from a Jan 2 post in his The Middle Way blog: “Meditation is not just sitting down on a zafu, or chanting...the Eightfold Path... is applied in all aspects of life, from talking to others, to breathing, to understanding things correctly.”
Jeff G. in his Barefoot Path took things from there on Jan 9, citing CJ's post and then writing in support of meditation. “We are creatures of habit and normal habit energy has us jumping from distraction to distraction. By practicing meditation we set the conditions to help us change our habit energy and allow our minds a little more spaciousness before reacting to external stimuli. This translates into our lives in real and concrete ways.”
Whither now, Integral?
Hokai in hokai’s blogue wrote unctuously of a post he read, “I thought and expected better of Paul Salamone.”
Paul had written a post titled “Integral: What Now?” in Paul’s Blog in the community of zaadz. Paul mused on what was now to become of I-I, Integral Institute, now that the wind had left its sails with staff layoffs [including himself] and the longterm health problems of Ken Wilber.
Paul proposed that people “continue to cultivate the intellectual curiosity which brought us to integral in the first place”, seek “a renewed commitment to personal development and practice” and “[refocus] on artistic and media-based [expression] OF an integral vision – of a life lived with greater freedom and fullness.” He also envisions a support community outside I-I for Integral ex-pats and other outsiders [or folks appalled by the cult they believe Wilberism has become] to buttress zaadz and Integral World. [Integral World is Frank Vissar’s website, chockablock with essays that analyse Integral issues. Many if not most of the some 750 essays in IW take Ken Wilber to task for perceived errors or inconsistancies in his writings. Last June, Wilber notoriously lashed out at Integral World and his critics, telling them to ‘suck my dick’ in a blogpost that was either a rant disguised as a test or a test disguised as a rant.]
In his post, Hokai was spitting venom, sarcastically dismissing the ex-pats as lazy and unskilled and lacking the dedication to move Wilber’s vision forward. He wrote, “Ken Wilber is desperately in need of competent staff, … people who don't see themselves as the ones who will take the integral vision further before they can attain the basic discipline of a five-year old.”
In what may be closely connected to all this is a post in ebuddha’s Integral Practice that delves into the mishaps of Andrew Cohen, Ken Wilber’s dialogue buddy who is now an authoritanian guru who has repeated abusive behaviour problems – including, perhaps, theft of $2 million from a troubled disciple. Even Cohen’s mother can’t stand him.
There are other personality-disordered characters associated with or at or near the top of the extended Wilber Empire exhibiting many similar authoritarian, abusive, greedy, narcissistic and needy traits. There is rot within bringing the whole world down. And what would be laughable if it weren't so depressing is that so many continue to think that Wilber and Cohen and Gafni and others are themselves at the cutting edge of enlightened human development, when obviously they can't walk the walk and we should be more earnest at questioning whether they can talk the talk.
