Numinous Nonsense

It’s often recognized by meditation teachers that the notion of enlightenment carries with it a whole host of misconceptions and unhelpful interpretations. In Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, Theravada teacher Daniel Ingram writes about this at length in his section on the models of enlightenment. He describes and distinguishes between the many different models we have for what enlightenment bestows on the individual, including things having to do with emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual perfection. He also points out how dangerous some of these models can be, as they do at least two things: First, they make enlightenment appear to be completely impossible as most of the models people have, and especially when you combine several of them, are largely unattainable. Secondly, they take the focus off of what enlightenment is really about, the realization of non-duality, or “those models having to do with eliminating or seeing through the sense that there is a fundamentally separate or continuous center-point, agent, watcher, doer, perceiver, subject, observer or similar entity.” These Non-Duality models, Daniel claims, are the only models that one can trust from the beginning of the path, until the very end. Judith Lief, a Shambhala acharaya, puts it this way:

The idea of enlightenment is tied up with our images of wise men and wise women. We have all sorts of preconceptions about how such wise beings are supposed to look, supposed to talk, and supposed to act [Action Models]. Maybe they have be a certain gender or from a certain class. Maybe they need to wear robes or appear to be very pure [Purity Models]. Perhaps they need to have a halo and radiate light [Radiance Models]. Maybe they are extraordinarily virtuous [Saintly Models] and kind, and smile beneficently at us [Love Models]. Based on our particular preconceived notions, we may try to sort out who among us is enlightened to greater or lesser degrees. We would like to match what we see with whatever standard we have created. But in doing so, not only may we apply inadequate standards but we may also be fooled by trappings and popular acclaim.

What I’d like to explore in this article, aren’t the models themselves, but rather the different ways that individual practitioners, teachers, and communities tend to work with the models. Do they let them run rampant, do they de-emphasize enlightenment altogether as a way of avoiding the whole issue, do the talk about enlightenment as something that is always present, do they have a developmental & technical approach to the path, or do they attack the least helpful of the models head-on?

1. Allow the Models to Run Rampant – The first and most obvious response to the models of enlightenment is to just let them run rampant, or to pick and choose (perhaps unconsciously) which one’s we prefer. This, I would suggest, is the most common relationship most teachers & communities have with the ideals surrounding enlightenment. In fact, it’s nearly impossible not to walk into a dharma center anywhere in the world and not see at least several different, and sometimes wacky, frameworks operating about what the enlightened state is. Why it happens isn’t entirely clear, but it’s not hard to see that people get all sorts of benefits from projecting perfection onto other people and themselves. Having unrealistic models of enlightenment, which makes it largely unattainable also can have a certain relieving effect on practitioner, where they will feel a little less pressured to try and wake up. The irony is that the pressure comes from having unrealistic notions about what one is trying to attain, not from the task itself.

An interesting thing that happens in these sorts of communities is that you find almost no one who is willing to claim full enlightenment, or if they are claiming it then you find all sorts of personality worship, and strange interpersonal issues. You also tend to get beliefs that enlightenment can or will be achieved in some future time, perhaps in the next lifetime.

This can all become extremely confusing, as the techniques and teachings being given oftentimes contain extremely valuable pieces, which if followed will lead to varying degress of awakening. What you then end up with are a bunch of people displaying real, and sometimes eloquent, descriptions of awakening but hopelessly mixing them with other unattainable models concerning human perfection.

Where seen: Theravada 10 fetters model, Tibetan Bhumis, Richard Baker Roshi’s introduction to Zen Mind, Beginners Mind, and almost all the models of Buddhahood.

2. De-emphasize Enlightenment – One obvious way of dealing with all of people’s misconceptions about enlightenment is to simply de-emphasize it, or in some cases completely ignore the concept altogether. This is the hallmark of the Soto Zen tradition, and can also be seen in many other teachings. Certainly it’s one way of dealing with the problem, and is probably helpful for some people, but one can’t help comparing this approach to someone who wants to get rid of a mess but ends up simply sweeping the dirt under the rug. Judith Lief, from the same article quoted earlier, describes the shadow-side of this approach:

Although we could pretend to be above it all, beyond striving and without ambition, we cannot hide the fact that in the Buddhist tradition the attainment of enlightenment is the central goal. At the same time, it is considered unseemly to talk overly much about one’s own practice experiences, or to advertise one’s own enlightenment. It is felt that if you have to point it out, it isn’t happening. So it is better to be modest about one’s attainments, neither latching on to such experiences nor trying to explain or discuss them with others. The problem with that approach is that, since nobody talks about it, students may begin to wonder if awakening is simply out of reach, if enlightenment is a myth and a hoax.

Where seen: Soto Zen, Suzuki Roshi, Brad Warner, Advaita Vedanta, U.G. Krishnamurti

3. Emphasize Awakening as a Temporary State or As Something that’s Always Present - Another way that enlightenment is dealt with is by pointing out that awakening is a condition which has always been present, and which can be experienced or glimpsed at any moment. This approach is extremely helpful as it brings things back to a direct exploration of the nature of reality, and points out the highest teachings. The problem with this approach is that giving a practice instruction is different from achieving the full fruits of the practice, and while those that have awakened themselves can speak about the “always already” nature of awakening, they can do so only because they have gone through a radical transformative process that left them with a deep and abiding understanding of what they speak about (assuming they are indeed awake). For those that don’t understand, no matter how obvious it is to the teacher, it will take a real transformation in their own experience. If they confuse the practice instruction of exploring freedom here and now, with their own current deluded understanding, then they can easily be fooled into thinking they are done, when in fact they are not.

Where seen: Parts of Dzogchen and Mahamudra teachings, Soto Zen, Eckhart Tolle

4. Adopt a Developmental Perspective w/ More Technical Language - Many teachers will try to be more clear about what enlightenment is about, by adopting technical language that can describe particular experiences and progressions as one practices. The emphasis becomes on the practices and the very specific, mappable, and repeatable results of these practices. This kind of precision doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for many of the perfection models, though it can lend itself to “specific knowledge models” and “thought models” in which one can becomes caught up with certain esoteric knowledge that they have regarding the path. This can lead to the trap of confusing the map with the territory, and thinking that one’s conceptual understanding of the path is directly related to one’s degree of enlightenment, or if someone can’t describe their experience adequately that they aren’t enlightened.

That being said, having an accurate and useful map can be way better than having a map based on some of the other unattainable ideals of perfection.

Where seen: The Buddha’s 3 trainings model, Daniel Ingram, B. Alan Wallace, Mahasi Sayadaw’s progress of insight, & parts of the Tibetan 5-Path Model

5. Attack the Models Head-On

Perfection enlightenment appears in many texts, but amid all the Western masters and teachers I know, such utter perfection is not apparent. Times of great wisdom, deep compassion, and a real knowing of freedom alternate with periods of fear, confusion, neurosis, and struggle. Most teachers will readily admit this truth. – Jack Kornfield

Another approach, which can meld well with some of the other approaches, is to identify, and debunk the “perfection enlightenment” models. This approach does it’s best to demystify enlightenment, make it more accessible, and eminently more attainable. The focus here is on sorting out what’s what in spiritual practice. When we compare the obvious achievements (and shortcomings) of dedicated practitioners with the models that we have, than the unrealistic expectations we have surrounding enlightenment become fairly clear. From here we often see that it is not we the practitioners who are unenlightened and haven’t achieved the fruit of the spiritual path, but rather the ideals, which have shortcomings.

Where seen: Judith Lief’s article, Daniel Ingram, Adyashanti, Jack Kornfield’s After the Ecstasy, The Laundry, Stuart Lachs

Models within Models within Models

I hope what becomes obvious in reading about these different approaches is that in the realm of “right view” we are always trying to make sense of our aims, intentions, and goals. In the Buddhist tradition where “enlightenment” is one of the central goals we will always have ideas about what it is, about what it looks like from the outside, how important it is, etc. We can’t escape adopting some (or even several) of these different approaches. The key is to take the one’s that allow for a more full flourishing of wisdom at the appropriate times and in the appropriate contexts. Put another way, use the approaches consciously and see them as such, as strategies for supporting the development of awakening.

I’m reading through, for the first time, Don Beck and Christopher Cowan’s book Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change. Having worked for Ken Wilber, who helped to popularize their work, and knowing many people who are into their theory (about theories) I’ve been exposed to the ideas before, but am finding it much more nuanced than it first appeared. I’ve been on a kick lately to understand more about developmental theories, and having just finished reading Robert Kegan’s In Over Our Heads I’m finding this a delightful (and closely related) read.

Toward the beginning of the book Beck and Cowan use a metaphorical narrative, where they are traveling around the world asking different people the question, “What is life all about?”. They use the people, their surroundings (i.e. their context), and their answers as ways of highlighting the different vMEMEs, or levels of individual and social development, that exist. I found the last person’s response, who was supposed to represent the “yellow” or Flex-Flow stage particularly interesting. He is a park ranger, in an African game reserve, and when asked the question he responds:

Well, I’ve given that some thought and don’t have anything spectacular to offer—but as I see it, I get a great deal of personal satisfaction out of working here to reclaim and preserve our natural habitat. So I guess my answer should be that I believe we should celebrate and respect life as it is. Even more than that, I think we should seek to understand how everything relates to everything else, and how nature has its own tempo and flow of which we are only a small part.¹

Three things stood out to me when reading his description. One is that the ranger is fairly humble and grounded about what he is doing and why he’s doing it. The why includes both his personal satisfaction and the good generated by the work he does. Secondly, he emphasizes the need to understand the relationships and patterns of all things. The need to understand and see these relationships, from a meta-viewpoint (of everything), is quite interesting and corresponds strongly to Robert Kegan’s descriptions of the 5th order of consciousness. Lastly, and most interestingly at the moment, is his emphasis on respecting “life as it is” and seeing that “we are only a small part” of nature which “has its own tempo and flow”. This seems largely to express what I described as an integrated sense of responsibility or what I’ve been terming cosmic responsibility. Notice the similarities between the fictional character’s description of his place in nature and how I described integrated responsibility at the end of my post on the subject:

When we open fully to the larger context in which life is happening, that isn’t solely reducible to my experience or my desires, then a greater level of surrender & happiness can result. The happiness isn’t one borne from getting what we want, but rather from seeing how things really are.

I feel more convinced now that “integrated responsibility” is how one expresses their individual role in the life—which is one part of the answer to what life is about—from what these authors call the yellow (”integrative”) stage of development.

Also, check out the recent interviews we did on the Conscious Business show with Don Beck on his work and it’s application to business. Listening to him speak is what finally encouraged me to buy his book and go into his work more deeply. I’m glad I did.

1. Spiral Dynamics, pg. 37 [↩]

The Transformation Try-Out is inspired by the notion of the 30-day trial, which Steve Pavlina made so popular. The basic idea is to take a new action, or habit that you want to establish and commit to doing it daily for 30 days (much like a software trial). At the end of the 30 days you can choose to quit, continue, or modify your commitment. Knowing that you can change things after 30 days, the time you spend engaging in the new pattern becomes much easier. Also, you have a chance to get a feel for the results of changing the habit, to see if it’s something worth pursuing.

The transformation try-out however is a slightly different concept, that Duff McDuffee, Ryan Oelke, and myself came up with. It’s different in that we want to constantly evolve the try-out process itself, and because we’ve added these key distinctions and suggestions when performing the 30 day try-out:

1. Keep in mind that changing a habit is often very hard work, and while the benefits are often enormous, doing so can often be massively destabilizing. Often times if you push the edge too far in transformational work, you can end up with a break down of multiple systems, instead of the breakthrough you are looking for. Because human beings are a system of many different tendencies, belief systems, habits, and so on, one major shift to an element of the system can have unforeseen impact on the system-at-large.
2. Know which habit to try and change, at what time, and in what order. Perhaps in order to make other bigger changes you need to start with the simplest one’s of all. For example, say you want to start your own business, but you are in extremely poor health and barely have the energy to maintain your current lifestyle. The 1st thing you may want to change is your energy levels, and to do something related to your health, so that you can have the energy to commit to other larger changes and goals.
3. Clear parameters and the appropriate tracking are invaluable. In order to follow through with a transformation try-out you first have to be very clear about the parameters of the change, and then need to have a reliable way to track your progress. It could be as easy as creating a small calendar on an index card and checking off each day that you perform the new action you are trying to do (or avoid a harmful action). Or it might be more elaborate, require more detailed metrics, happen over a digital medium, or have a collaborative component.
4. While you are participating in a transformation try-out it is also a good idea to keep some sort of record of the process. Keeping a journal with observations about the process, or blogging if you’d like, can help with sticking to it and also learning from the process.
5. Tell people what you are doing, and find others who can understand and support your decision. The more you talk about it, thinking about it, and reference it the easier the try-out will be.

Keep your eyes peeled for transformation try-outs from me and my friends, as we share our successes and failures, and hopefully the larger lessons that we learn along the way. We’ll be posting many of these in a blog format, and hopefully will continue to evolve the “transformation try-out” process itself.

I saw that John Daido Loori, Roshi was going to be teaching a weekend retreat at Naropa, a few months back. I’m always on the lookout for interesting Buddhist teachers who are coming through town, so that we can invite them to be on Buddhist Geeks. Fortunately Daido Roshi & his organization were amendable to that, and we recently had him come by our studio for a conversation on meditation and the arts.

Joining us was Robert Spellman, a meditation instructor (and art teacher) I met at Naropa while I was in school there. Robert suggested that he actually conduct the interview, and I was really glad that he did. He asked some fantastic questions, that only someone with a deep background in both meditation and artistic practice could, and the resultant dialogue with Daido Roshi was extremely engaging and interesting.

For your listening enjoyment, here is the 1st part of their conversation, which just aired on Buddhist Geeks today. It is entitled, Zen Mountain Monastery: Zen and the Arts.

I had an interesting dream a few nights ago, where I was attending a meditation retreat in the Shambhala tradition. The retreat was in some sort of large house with a lot of other folks (mostly younger). There were several rooms, including a large meditation hall, which ironically no one was using. Everyone was talking, socializing, and doing anything other than what one would expect on a meditation retreat: meditating. Eventually I went and sat in the meditation hall (by myself) and noticed that there were two men standing guard of a door connecting to the hall. I somehow knew that they were guarding the teacher interview room, and that I would eventually have an interview. So I sat meditating, waiting.

Suddenly I was in the room, sitting in front of a large jukebox looking radio set, which was connected to three teachers who were out to sea (don’t ask me…). So the teachers asked me if I had any questions for them, and I sat struggling trying to figure out what to ask. Everything that came to mind seemed irrelevant, and like all thoughts, was spontaneously released. As I sat there struggling to figure out a question to ask, and seeing that any possible question was irrelevant, several other students crowded behind me and started asking, what seemed at the time like, trivial questions. Their voices were whiny and their demeanors somewhat complacent. Still trying to see if there was any useful questions I could ask, and as the dream began to fade, I realized that I had no questions.

On Going Nowhere

Upon waking (no pun intended) I realized that indeed I don’t have any questions about the spiritual path. It all seems so radically obvious—though not in some way that makes me feel special for seeing it—that every moment of seeking, of wanting to know, of trying to find some final answer, is all the same. And it leads nowhere. Of course, it’s taken quite some time to come to this, and so I wouldn’t say it’s been here all the time, though the position of “non-seeking” of having no more questions, of having surrendered to reality, seems to be a very simple position to come to and inevitable when looking at how things have unfolded. I’m not claiming it is done though, just that at this point, there aren’t any questions.

That being said, if I were trying to learn certain meditative states (like the levels of shamatha that Alan Wallace teaches) I would definitely need to ask questions. So, I’m not saying that with all kinds of meditation practices I would have no questions, just that in the realm of “insight practice” it seems crystal clear what the practice is, and that the practice is doing itself.

Pomp & Circumstance

Another thing that I was left reflecting on, after the dream, was how much pomp and circumstance there seemed to be in the retreat center I was hanging out in. The gaurds who watched the door, the whiny students, and the far-removed teachers all seemed to contribute to an overall ethos of the spiritual path being something that is distant, only realized by a few, and something to be coveted rather than realized. Certainly I’ve seen some of this attitude and I think a big part of that comes from having poor models of awakening. The various models of enlightenment, that my friend and teacher Daniel Ingram talks about apply big time, and the more accurate, down-to-earth models people have the more empowered they are about practice, and the more humble and pragmatic they seem to be.

And actually, a synonym for “down-to-earth” is “matter-of-fact” and one of the things I appreciate most about having a model of enlightenment that only tries to understand enlightenment as the dissolution of the center-point and the end of falsely imputing duality in this conflux of causes and conditions, is that I can speak with a growing sense of confidence and matter-of-factness about what I’ve come to find out in this regard. I don’t have to pretend that I’m perfect in any way, that I’m a more loving person, have quit experiencing difficult emotions like fear and anger, or that the growing understanding of non-duality does anything particularly special to Vince and his human experience. Of course, I will have to deal with other people’s perceptions, but that’s ok, because their perceptions and misperceptions are all that is keeping them from realizing what I’ve come to know. And I’m willing to take the hits, and help spread a little more realism in a world where we all want to do away with one-half of our human experience. Me included.

I wrote about Bit Literacy a while back, which a phenomenal productivity system developed by Mark Hurst. His system is especially aimed at how we work with information (or ‘bits’) and how having a clear understanding of how to work with information (what he calls ‘bit literacy’) impacts your effectiveness as a knowledge worker. And since there are so many knowledge workers out there, his suggestions are extremely high leverage. Check out this interview that we did with him (I came on as a guest and chimed in once I think) where he describes some of the powerful tools from bit literacy. Master Information Overload Now and Forever with Bit Literacy:

And check out the sweet new embed player that we just developed for Falling Fruit! You can now embed any of our episodes on your site/blog.