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Alan Watts and Empty Psychosis, part 2 of 2: Stanford Zen +^

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Nov 16, 2022, 6:04:50 AM11/16/22
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Toxic Zen Story #25, part 2 of 2: Stanford Zen: Alan Watts and Empty Values in the Psychotic Experience.

part 2 of 2, continued from part 1 of 2:

____ Background for Toxic Zen Stories _____________________

https://groups.google.com/group/alt.zen/msg/b4ad0ce368728934?hl=en

___________________________________________________________

So, we'll skip the rest of the first half of his talk, which is more on the same line, and move right to part two:

| 'ALAN WATTS: THE VALUE OF PSYCHOTIC
| EXPERIENCE, PART 2 '
|.
| 'Zen has attracted attention over the years,
| since 1927, when Dr. Daisetz Suzuki first
| published his essays in Zen Buddhism, and he had a
| very odd fascination with Westerners.'

Actually Suzuki was published in Zen Buddhism by Paul Carus (German) of the Open Court Publishing of Illinois, from 1900 to 1911. Trivial mistake.

Watts continues ...

| 'To begin with, very many intelligent Western
| people were becoming--had already become,
| dissatisfied with the standard brands of their own
| religions, and this dissatisfaction had of course
| begun to take place quite seriously towards the
| close of the 19th century, and at that time, we
| began to be exposed to Oriental philosophy or
| religion, whatever you want to call it, because
| the great scholars like Maxmilla, Riese DavidsÙ
| and so on were translating the texts of Buddhism
| and Hinduism. And already in 1848, the Jesuit had
| translated the Tao Te Ching, the Taoist texts from
| China into French, and translations into English
| then became available. '
|.
| 'What happened was rather curious, because we
| were receiving Oriental tradition on a far higher
| level of sophistication than we were receiving the
| Christian or the Jewish traditions. The average
| person was exposed to an extremely low level of
| Christianity, and therefore immediately compared
| this to the highest level of Hinduism and
| Buddhism, much to the detriment of the former,
| because you could no go into your parish church,
| even if you lived in a very good neighborhood,
| even in a university neighborhood and find Meister
| Eckhart for sale on the entrance table. Nor even
| would you find some Thomas Aquinas. You found
| wretched little tracts. And so the comparison was
| overwhelming. It wasn't really fair for the
| Christian tradition, but that's what happened.
| Then something else happened, which was that in
| the year 1875, a strange Russian woman by the name
| of H.P. Blavatsky founded the Theosophical
| Society, whose doctrines and literature were a
| fantastic hodgepodge of the Western occult
| tradition, a great deal of Hindu and Buddhist
| lore, a smattering of Tibetan Buddhism and Chinese
| Buddhism, but it all was very romantic, and
| presuppose that the adepts of Hinduism, Buddhism,
| Taoism and so forth were very high order
| initiates. Supermen. The masters. And they had
| their secret lodges in the vastness of the
| Himalayas, and even such places as the Andes, and
| they were rather inaccessible, because they were
| in possession of the most dangerous secrets of
| occult power. But they every now and then felt
| safe to send an emissary out into the world to
| teach the ancient doctrine of liberation to
| mankind. '

What he fails to mention here, is the connection between what he's discussing and Nazism. Here's an insert:
___________________________________________________

From "Nazi Cult Beliefs - (3) The German Vril":
(http://www.mystae.com/restricted/streams/masons/nazi.html)

. 'A frequent visitor to Landsberg prison where
. Hitler was writing Mein Kampf with the help of
. Rudolf Hess, was General Karl Haushofer, a
. university professor and director of the Munich
. Institute of Geopolitics. Haushofer, Hitler, and
. Hess had long conversations together. Hess also
. kept records of these conversations. Hitler's
. demands for German "living space" in the east at
. the expense of the Slavic nations were based on
. the geopolitical theories of the learned
. professor. Haushofer was also inclined toward the
. esoteric. As military attache in Japan, he had
. studied Zen-Buddhism. He had also gone through
. initiations at the hands of Tibetan lamas. He
. became Hitler's second "esoteric mentor",
. replacing Dietrich Eckart.'
From Wulf Schwartzwaller, The Unknown Hitler

Eckart was an occultist and magician leader of the Thule Society who was certainly the earliest corrupting influence on Hitler's psyche. But after Eckart's death and meeting Haushofer, Adolph took a hard right turn to become the first Nazi.

In "The Morning of the Magicians" (1960; 279) by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier they write:

. 'Occultism teaches that, after concluding a
. pact with hidden forces, the members of the group
. cannot evoke these forces save through the
. intermediary of a magician who, in turn, can do
. nothing without a medium. It would seem therefore
. that Hitler must have been the medium, and
. Haushofer the magician. Rudolf Hess had been
. Haushofer's assistant when the latter was a
. professor at the University of Munich.'
.
. 'It was he who had brought Haushofer and
. Hitler together. His flight to England during the
. war was the result of Haushofer having told him
. that he had seen him in a dream flying to England
. in an airplane. In one of the rare moments of
. lucidity which his inexplicable malady allowed him
. the prisoner Hess, the last survivor of the Thule
. Group, is said to have stated formally that
. Haushofer was the magician, the secret Master.
(see Jack Fishman: The Seven Men of Spandau.)'

Hitler also adopted the Buddhist suwastika (the symbol of positive rotation) and reversed it into the direction of evil, to drive home the point. He also liked Tibetan Buddhism, which is the source of Aryanism (http://www.crystalinks.com/hitler.html).

. 'Another important mystical organization
. behind the formation of Nazism was the "Vril"
. Society, which had been named after a book by Lord
. Bulward Litton - an English Rosicrucian. Litton's
. book told the story of an Aryan "super race"
. coming the Earth.'
From William Bramley, The Gods of Eden

. 'In Berlin, Haushofer had founded the Luminous
. Lodge or the Vril Society. The Lodge's objective
. was to explore the origins of the Aryan race and
. to perform exercises in concentration to awaken
. the forces of "Vril". Haushofer was a student of
. the Russian magician and metaphysician Gregor
. Ivanovich Gurdyev (George Gurdjieff). Both
. Gurdjieff and Haushofer maintained that they had
. contacts with secret Tibetan lodges that possessed
. the secret of the "Superman". The Lodge included
. Hitler, Aalfred Rosenberg, Himmler, Göring, and
. Hitler's subsequent personal physician Dr. Morell.
. It is also known that Aleister Crowley and
. Gurdjieff sought contact with Hitler. Hitler's
. unusual powers of suggestion become more
. understandable if one keeps in mind that he had
. access to the 'secret' psychological techniques of
. the esoteric lodges. Haushofer taught him the
. techniques of Gurdjieff which, in turn, were based
. on the teachings of the Sufis and the Tibetan
. lamas- and familiarized him with the Zen teaching
. of the Japanese Green Dragon Society ...'
From Wulf Schwartzwaller, The Unknown Hitler

. 'One member of the German Vril was Professor
. Karl Haushofer - a former employee of German
. military intelligence. Haushofer had been a mentor
. to Hitler as well as to...Rudolph Hess. (Hess had
. been an assistant to Haushofer at the University
. of Munich.) Another Vril member was the second
. most powerful man in Nazi Germany: Heinrich
. Himmler, who became head of the dreaded SS and
. Gestapo. Himmler incorporated the Vril Society
. into the Nazi Occult Bureau. Yet another mystical
. group was the Edelweiss Society, which preached
. the coming of a "Nordic messiah".... Herman Göring
. had become an active member of the Edelweiss
. Society in 1921 while living and working in
. Sweden. Göring believed Hitler to be the Nordic
. messiah.'
From William Bramley, The Gods of Eden

. 'The idea for the use of the swastika by the
. Nazis came from a dentist named Dr. Friedrich
. Krohn who was a member of the secret Germanen
. Order. Krohn produced the design for the actual
. form in which the Nazis came to use the symbol,
. that is reversed, spinning in an anti-clockwise
. direction. as a solar symbol, the swastika is
. properly thought of as spinning, and the Buddhists
. have always believed the symbol attracted luck.
. The Sanskrit word 'svastika' means good fortune
. and well being. According to Cabbalistic lore and
. occult theory, chaotic force can be evoked by
. reversing the symbol. And so the symbol appeared
. as the flag of Nazi Germany and the insignia of
. the Nazi party, an indication for those who had
. eyes to see, as to the occult nature of the Third
. Reich.'
From Bernard Schreiber. The Men Behind Hitler

==============================================

You know, he did not have to manifest that Dietrich Eckhart/Haushofer/Hitler Green Dragon Soto Zen connection so explicitly, to do this talk. I think it's no accident, that he's exposing something deep in his nature and history, and the influences that pulled him into the evils of Zen, initially.

Watts continues ...

| 'And so the West, through this, got an
| extremely glamorous impression of what Oriental
| wisdom might be. And I remember the media in which
| I found myself involved in England when Dr. Suzuki
| first came around was essentially theosophical in
| its orientation. They expected Dr Suzuki to be a
| master in that sense, in that theosophical sense,
| or if not quite that, then at least in touch with
| those who were. And the whole idea of the Zen
| master, the way the whole word "master" got
| attached to a teacher of Zen carried with it this
| theosophical flavor, and also a certain flavor
| which the Theosophical Society picked up from
| India where the great guru is somebody enormously
| revered. People would travel for hundreds of miles
| just to look at him, to have what is called Tao-
| Shan, or "view" of someone like Shri Aurobindo or
| Shri Ramana Maharshi or the current Maharshi, or
| it would be Shri Rama Krishna or Amandani, who's a
| lady guru, and there's always the feeling that
| these people have tremendous powers. And so this
| is what was expected by many people from Zen
| masters. But the interesting thing about Zen
| masters is they're not like that. They're very
| human. And they wouldn't deign to perform a
| miracle. I got to know about Zen masters through
| my first wife, because when he was an adolescent
| about 14 years old, she went to Japan, and they
| lived close to the great monastery of Nonzengi
| where the master in charge was a very brilliant
| master by the name of Nonshinkan. He was an old
| man, and he was-- The man who is appointed to be
| the roshi or the teacher of Nonzengi of Kyoto was
| always considered to be just about tops of the
| whole bunch.'

It's amazing how one's mission in life, draws good or evil from great distances into his sphere. The connection through his first wife is so critical to the molding of his evil character.

Watts continues ...

| ' We've had the present master, Shibayama
| Roshi visiting the United States recently. And he
| used to sit around with her and he'd get a catalog
| of all the famous sumo wrestlers, who were
| enormously fat. They have to eat, eat, eat, eat,
| eat, eat rice, because the whole art depends on
| their weight. But they're very handsome. And he
| used to thumb them through sitting next to this
| little girl and pick out husbands for her. And
| then he would have nose-picking contests with her.
| Y'know, they weren't exactly real, but they'd make
| sort of like picking their noses and flicking the
| snots at each other. '

Once again, he attempts to disabuse the listener/reader from using their common sense in observing the behavior of others. Don't lower your standards because of this guy.

People who share their intimate and gross moments with others have a disjunctive quality that should not be ignored. It implies a confusion between the specific (small self) and the general (noble self). The Buddha is the World-Honored-One, and you do need to pay attention to appearances, without trying to become an example of perfection or some sort of obsessive thing (we are real people, after all). There is a non-extreme middle ground that needs to be adopted, here.

Confusion between the small self and the noble self is one of the attributes of the arrogance of the world of anger. You can wield a powerful influence, merely by mentally including others in the sphere of your small self, like Alan Watts does in his speaking style. He takes ownership of your intellectual limits and judgement, without asking permission. And resistance is futile !!! How could you be so plebian as to question his positions, which are so obviously true.

Watts continues ...

| 'So you mustn't expect the Zen master to be
| like the Pope. They can come on very dignified
| when necessary, but there's always something about
| them which is fundamentally lacking in
| seriousness. Even though they may be well-endowed
| with sincerity. They're two quite different
| qualities. They are extraordinarily interesting
| people, as are their students, in the context of
| Japanese culture. Japanese culture is terribly
| uptight, because the Japanese are very emotional
| people, underneath. Tremendously passionate. But
| they have to hold that in, because they live in a
| crowded country, and space is the most valuable
| thing in Japan, especially living space, because
| 80% of the territory is uninhabitable. It's
| forested mountains, and you can't grow anything
| there, you can't make much of a city. So they're
| all crowded into 20% of the country. And so this
| feeling of being pressed in by other people is--
| They try to handle it by exquisite politeness, and
| by orderly behavior by vary strong convention. But
| this makes the average Japanese man and woman kind
| of nervous. When a Japanese giggles, it's a sign
| not of being amused, but of being embarrassed. And
| you'll find all sorts of funny attitudes, such as
| people putting their hands over their mouths when
| they're eating, or to conceal a giggle. '

One needs to remember the context of Japanese culture, which has been immersed in what Nichiren Daishonin calls the Buddhisms of the 4 Dictums for well over a thousand years. This has made their culture impossibly complex, even for the Japanese to deal with the stresses, is difficult. But Watts' simplistic view of that problem and the solution to it are erroneous. Lets's look at the 4 Dictums of Nichiren in depth for preparation, since Watts is about to take a broad brush over the same issues with a wholly inadequate result:

[1.] "Nembutsu[Jodo/Amida] leads to the hell of incessant suffering." - Nichiren Daishonin.

From the Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism:

. 'Nembutsu (Jpn): (1) To meditate on a Buddha.
. Later interpreted as invoking or reciting a
. Buddha's name, especially that of the Buddha
. Amida. Contemplation on Shakyamuni Buddha was an
. important practice in early Buddhism. Later
. Mahayana sutras came to describe various Buddhas,
. and people's desire to see them led to the
. development of meditation aimed at envisioning
. these Buddhas. The idea also developed that
. meditation on a specific Buddha would enable one
. to be reborn in that Buddha's land. Eventually the
. Buddha Amida came to be the most popular object of
. such meditation. The Meditation on the Buddha
. Infinite Life Sutra states that even an evil
. person can attain rebirth in Amida Buddha's Pure
. Land by reciting the Buddha's name on his or her
. deathbed. Thus, Nembutsu primarily concerns Amida
. Buddha. The practice of the Nembutsu is believed
. by its practitioners to lead to rebirth in Amida
. Buddha's land, or the Pure Land of Perfect Bliss.
. While it initially meant meditation on Amida, it
. later came to mean the recitation of Amida's name.
. In China, from the time of Shan-tao in the seventh
. century, the latter usage became more prevalent,
. for he equated meditation on Amida with the
. recitation of his name. In Japan, Honen (1133-
. 1212) followed the example of Shan-tao and went
. further to establish the practice of reciting the
. name of Amida Buddha as the Only means for
. attaining rebirth in the Pure Land of Perfect
. Bliss. (2) The Nembutsu school, another name of
. the Pure Land school in general. A Pure Land
. believer is also called a Nembutsu believer.'
.
. 'Nembutsu school (Jpn Nembutsu-shu): A generic
. term for those Buddhist schools in Japan that
. teach that one should seek to attain rebirth in
. the Pure Land by practicing Nembutsu, or invoking
. the name of Amida Buddha, i.e., chanting the
. phrase Namu Amida Butsu ("Homage to Amida Buddha'
. or "I take refuge in Amida Buddha'). Here the Pure
. Land refers to Amida's Pure Land of Perfect Bliss.
. The major branches in Japan are the Pure Land
. (Jodo) school, True Pure Land (Jodo Shin) school,
. Time (Ji) school, and Interfusing Nembutsu (Yuzu
. Nembutsu) school. The term "Nembutsu school" often
. refers particularly to the Pure Land school
. founded in the twelfth century by Honen.'

Nembutsu believers hold that after death, if they are virtuous and devote themselves to Amida Buddha who dwells in the pure heaven in the West, that they will depart the impure world and be happy ... over there ... with someone else who will take care of them.

Insofar as the Dharma (teachings) are concerned, Nembutsu according to Honen and Shan-tao casts aside the Lotus Sutra (the Buddha's highest teaching according to the Nirvana Sutra) in favor of the Buddha Infinite Life Sutra, the Meditation on the Buddha of Infinite Life Sutra and the Amida Sutra.

The hidden and evil subtext is: The Buddha is somewhere else, not here, and it's someone else, not me. So, I cannot attain Buddhahood in these circumstances/this lifetime, and I will defer my enlightenment to other circumstances/another lifetime, losing the one and perfectly unique and irreplaceable momentary existence/lifetime that is this one.

That makes a cause for deferring enlightenment in the next moment/circumstances/lifetime as well, and an endless loop which is the "hell of incessant suffering".

[2.] "Zen[Ch'an/Dhyana] is the teaching of devils." - Nichiren Daishonin.

From the Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism:

. 'Zen school (Jpn Zen-shu): A Buddhist school that
. teaches that enlightenment is to be gained not
. through doctrinal studies, but rather through
. direct perception of one's mind through the
. practice of meditation. Known in China as the
. Ch'an school, its founder is regarded as
. Bodhidharma (sixth century). The Zen teaching was
. summarized in these phrases attributed to
. Bodhidharma: "A separate transmission outside the
. sutras," "independent of words or writing,"
. "directly pointing to the human mind," and
. "Perceiving one's true nature and attaining
. Buddhahood." According to this school, the
. Buddha's supreme enlightenment has been
. transmitted wordlessly through the ages from mind
. to mind through the lineage of its patriarchs.
. This process began when Shakyamuni Buddha
. transferred his enlightenment to his disciple
. Mahakashyapa, who is regarded as the first
. patriarch of Zen. According to Zen tradition, one
. day when Shakyamuni was with his disciples on
. Eagle Peak, he silently picked a flower and held
. it up in his hand. At that time only Mahakashyapa
. grasped the Buddha's meaning, and smiled. Thus. it
. is said, the Zen teaching was transferred to
. Mahakashyapa with a smile. The lineage is said to
. have passed to the second patriarch, Ananda. the
. third, Shanavasa, and finally to the twenty-eighth
. patriarch, Bodhidharma, who brought the "wordless
. tradition" to China. Thereafter the teaching of
. Zen was transmitted to the second Chinese
. patriarch, Hui-k'o, the third, Seng-ts'an, the
. fourth, Tao-hsin, the fifth, Hung-jen, and the
. sixth, Hui-neng.'
.
. 'In the time of Hui-neng (638-713), the school
. split into the Southem school of Zen, which Hui-
. neng led, and the Northern school, led by Shen-
. hsiu. The Northern school rapidly declined, and
. the Southern school became the mainstream of
. Chinese Zen. Hui-neng's major disciples were
. Hsing-ssu, Huai-jang, and Shen-hui. Liang-chieh,
. in the lineage of Hsing-ssu, founded the Ts'ao-
. tung (Jpn Soto) school, and Pen-chi became its
. second patriarch. Two other schools, the Yun-men
. (Ummon) and Fa-yen (Hogen), were founded in the
. same lineage by Wen-yen and Wen-i, respectively.
. In the lineage of Huai-jang, Ling-yu founded the
. Kuei-yang (Igyo) school and his disciple Hui-chi
. further solidified it. while Lin-chi I-hsuan
. founded the Lin-chi (Rinzai) school. Among these
. five schools, the Lin-chi school enjoyed the
. greatest prosperity, and two branches emerged from
. it-the Yang-ch'i (Ybgi) school, established by
. Fanghui, and the Huang-lung (Oryu) school, founded
. by Hui-nan Together, these schools constitute the
. so-called "five schools and seven schools" of
. Southern Zen.'
.
. 'Noted among the first Zen masters in Japan is
. Dainichi Nonin, who introduced the Zen teaching to
. that country in the twelfth century: he called his
. school the Nihon Daruma, or the Japanese
. Bodhidharma. school. After his death, his
. disciples became followers of Dogen (1200-1253),
. the founder of the Soto school of Japanese Zen,
. and Nonin's school perished. In 1187 Eisai brought
. the teachings of the Lin-chi school of Zen from
. China after his second visit there, and founded
. the Japanese Rinzai school. In 1223 Dogen also
. went to China and brought back the teachings of
. the Ts'ao-tung school, based upon which he
. established the Soto school. During the Kamakura
. (1185-1333) and Muromachi (1336-1573) periods, the
. Zen teachings became popular among the samurai
. class and prospered greatly. In 1654 the Chinese
. priest Yin-yuan. known in Japan as Ingen, came to
. Japan and later founded the Obaku school of Zen.'

Zen believers object that Buddhists who follow the sutras, or dharma, are hampering themselves with doctrinal writings and tying ourselves down with verbal explanations, and they recommend a type of religious practice that is apart from the teachings of the sutras.

Nichiren Daishonin writes:

. ' ... then by what means are we to carry on
. the Buddha's work and make good causes in this
. saha world of ours? Even the followers of Zen, who
. advocate these views, themselves make use of words
. when instructing others. In addition, when one is
. trying to convey an understanding of the Buddha
. way, one cannot communicate the meaning if one
. sets aside words and phrases. Bodhidharma came to
. China from the west, pointed directly to people's
. minds, and declared that those minds were Buddha.
. But this principle is enunciated in various places
. even in the provisional Mahayana sutras that
. preceded the Lotus Sutra, such as the Flower
. Garland, Great Collection, and Great Wisdom
. sutras. ' ...

So, whether you think that you follow sutras or not, the way of Zen is truly that of the earlier and provisional sutras listed above, and therefore is only IN ADDITION to the teachings, and not really APART from them. Undeniably, those sutras which espouse the way of Zen are provisional sutras which the Buddha himself admonished most strictly, must be discarded to understand the Lotus Sutra, his highest teaching. Staying attached to provisional teachings prevents faith in the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha's stated purpose of his advent, and thusly prevents acquiring the jewel of the Buddha's wisdom. Nichiren Daishonin writes:

. ... 'When it comes to making use of sutras, the
. Zen school relies on such works as the Lankavatara
. Sutra, the Shuramgama Sutra, and the Diamond
. Wisdom Sutra. These are all provisional teachings
. that were preached before the Lotus Sutra, [and
. are] doctrines that conceal the truth.', from
From "Conversation between a Sage and an Unenlightened Man" - Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, pp. 117-119.

The message of Zen is to directly put aside the Lotus Sutra (and the other sutras) in favor of the mind itself, with the goal of attaining enlightenment from meditating on emptiness (soto) or upon meaninglessness propositions (rinzai) in the form of koans. One obtains the "benefits" of Zen through an evil rapture and corrupting influence over others that is the occult power and gift from the fundamental darkness, for performing the action of greatest evil: throwing away the Lotus Sutra. (When a Zen believer cosies on up to someone and begins to propagate Zen, the effects on that person's life are almost always powerful and immediate.)

What the Zen believer is not aware of directly, is that the gift is also the punishment. He perceives that the power and corrupting influence he wields over others is wonderful, when actually it is the power and influence being exerted over his own life by the fundamental darkness inherent in all life. Zen believers are the actually puppets on strings of the force of great evil.

Their communications oftentimes seem meaningless (alt.zen), but are actually a covert channel for the communication of information, protocols and control by the network of evil which possesses their minds, even though their conscious minds are unaware of the true meaning.

[3.] "Shingon[True Word/Tantric/Esoteric Buddhism] will ruin the nation." - Nichiren Daishonin.

From the Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism:

. 'Tantric Buddhism (Jpn Tantora-bukkyo): Also.
. Vajrayana, Mantrayana, or Esoteric Buddhism. A
. stream of Buddhist thought and practice that
. became formalized In India and flourished from the
. seventh to the eleventh century. Tantric
. Esotericism became a part of the broader Mahayana
. movement and represents an infusion of popular
. magic, mysticism, and ritual into the Indian
. schools of Buddhism. The Sanskrit word tantra
. means loom or warp of cloth, essential part, or
. doctrine.'
.
. 'Tantra also refers to a class of Hindu or
. Buddhist scriptures on esoteric practices that
. developed rather late in the history of the
. literatures of those religions. They emphasize
. benefits that accrue from the recitation of
. mantras (magical formulas), the formation of
. mudras (hand gestures), the performance of
. rituals, the use of mandalas (ritual diagrams),
. and other practices. Tantric thought became a
. formalized stream within Mahayana Buddhism around
. the seventh century and spread to Central Asia,
. China, and Tibet. Tantric tradition is an
. important element of Tibetan Buddhism. Bu-ston, a
. Tibetan scholar of the fourteenth century,
. classified Indian Buddhist tantras into four
. general categories: Kriya-tantra, dealing with
. ritual acts; Charya-tantra, which combines ritual
. acts with meditation; Yoga-tantra, dealing chiefly
. with meditation; and Anuttarayoga-tantra, or
. supreme yoga tantras. The fourth form,
. Anuttarayoga-tantra, which was not introduced to
. China and Japan, is the strongest in sexual
. symbolism, identifying prajna, or wisdom, as a
. female principle; upaya, or expedient means, as a
. male principle; and enlightenment as a union of
. these two. Some of its practitioners interpreted
. this symbolism literally and sought enlightenment
. in the sexual union of man and woman.'
.
. 'The earliest esoteric Buddhist tantras, such as
. the Sanskrit texts of the Mahavairochana Sutra and
. the Diamond Crown Sutra, were produced in India in
. the seventh century. In China, Esoteric Buddhism
. was introduced and established by the Indian monks
. Shan-wu-wei (Skt Shubhakarasimha, 637-735), Chin-
. kang-chih (Vajrabodhi, 671-741), Pu'kung
. (Amoghavajra, 705-774), and others. Its teachings
. were systematized to enable the attainment of
. Buddhahood in one's present body. The Sanskrit
. Buddhist tantras were translated into Chinese and
. spread as esoteric sutras and teachings featuring
. mudras, mantras, and mandalas. In Japan, Kobo
. (774-835; also known as Kukai) formulated his own
. systematization of these teachings, founding the
. True Word (Shingon) school based upon them.
. Esoteric Buddhism was also accepted and developed
. by the Tendai school in Japan.'
.
. 'True Word school (Jpn Shingon-shu): A Buddhist
. school in Japan established by Kobo (774-835),
. also known as Kukai, that follows the esoteric
. doctrines and practices found in the
. Mahavairochana and Diamond Crown sutras. The name
. true word is the rendering in Chinese of the
. Sanskrit mantra (meaning secret word or mystic
. formula). In the True Word school, this indicates
. the words that Mahavairochana Buddha is said to
. have uttered. The chanting of these secret words
. is one of the school's basic esoteric rituals for
. the attainment of enlightenment.'
.
. 'The True Word school maintains that Esoteric
. Buddhism was transmitted from Mahavairochana
. Buddha to Vajrasattva, and then down through
. Nagarjuna, Nagabodhi, Chin-kang-chih (Skt
. Vajrabodhi), Pu-k'ung (Amoghavajra), Hui-kuo, and
. finally to Kobo. The school also lists eight
. patriarchs who upheld Esoteric Buddhism: Nagarjuna
. and Nagabodhi who spread it in India; Chin-kang-
. chih, Pu-k'ung, and Shan-wu-wei (Shubhakarasimha)
. who introduced and established it in China; I-
. hsing and Hui-kuo who propagated it in China; and
. Kobo who brought it to Japan and founded the True
. Word school there.'
.
. 'In 716 the monk Shubhakarasimha brought Esoteric
. Buddhism from India to Ch'ang-an in China, where
. he became known as Shan-wu-wei. Hsuan-tsung, the
. sixth emperor of the T'ang dynasty, honored and
. supported Shan-wu-wei, and his teachings spread
. widely in China. In 720 Vajrabodhl (Chin-kang-
. chih) and Amoghavajra (Pu-k'ung) also came from
. India to Lo-yang in China and introduced more of
. Esoteric Buddhism.'
.
. 'In 804 Kobo traveled from Japan to Ch'ang-an,
. where he studied Esoteric Buddhism under Hui-kuo.
. During his stay there he received the teachings of
. the Diamond Realm and Womb Realm mandalas. In 806
. he returned to Japan with numerous Buddhist
. scriptures, esoteric mandalas, and ritual
. implements, and in 809 entered the capital, Kyoto,
. where he advocated the supremacy of Esoteric
. Buddhism. In 816 he was granted a tract of land on
. Mount Koya on which to found a monastery. In 823
. Kobo was also given another temple, To-ji, in
. Kyoto, which became the center of esoteric
. practice in Japan. In the late thirteenth century,
. differences in doctrinal interpretation resulted
. in the formation of the New Doctrine (Shingi)
. school, a branch of the True Word school based at
. Mount Negoro, and the teachings and traditions of
. Mount Koya and To-ji came to be called the Old
. Doctrine (Kogi) school.'

Shingon believers hold that by seeking out the hidden teaching or technique, in the form of tantras, mudras, or the appropriate mandala, that they can attain enlightenment or at least have their desires satisfied. Different tantras, mudras and mandalas would have different effects.

Insofar as the Dharma (teachings) are concerned, Shingon, according to Shan-wu-wei, I-hsing, Hui-kuo and Kobo casts aside the Lotus Sutra (the Buddha's highest teaching according to the Nirvana Sutra) in favor of the Mahavairochana Sutra and the Diamond Crown Sutra.

The hidden and evil subtext is: The Buddha's highest teaching is hidden and mystical or magical. If I can just perform the correct ritual, do things in the appropriate way, say things a certain way to influence the outcome, I can be the victor in life. I just need to hook up with that person who knows the keys to success, the person with the power, because I have no power without them. Then I, too, will be successful, because of him.

The essential thing is that the worship of influence leads to the downfall of society (lobbyists in government, for instance). In religion it leads to the power of priesthoods. It leads to the power of masters over disciples.

The Buddha's hand is open, not closed. Any teachings that are hidden and not accessible to everyone are not universal, and then, are not the highest teaching whose purpose is the salvation of all mankind. The Lotus Sutra is accessible to all, and not a secret since Nichiren Daishonin first taught the correct practice of the Daimoku of the Lotus Sutra on April 28, 1253.

[4.] "Ritsu[Precepts] is traitorous." - Nichiren Daishonin.

From the Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism:

. 'Precepts school (Chin Lu-tsung; Jpn Risshu): Also
. known as the Vinaya school. A school based on the
. vinaya, the Buddhist rules of monastic discipline,
. or precepts. Vinaya was translated in Chinese
. scriptures as lu, pronounced ritsu In Japanese,
. meaning rule, statute, or principle. The Precepts
. school emphasizes strict adherence to the rules of
. monastic discipline. In Japan, the Precepts school
. was one of the six schools of Nara. In China, the
. most prosperous branch of the Precepts school was
. the Nan-shan school founded by Tao-hsuan in the
. seventh century and based on the work The Fourfold
. Rules of Discipline, the vinaya text of the Indian
. Dharmagupta school. The Chinese priest Chien-chen
. (known as Ganjin in Japan), who had studied the
. teaching of the Nan-shan school, went to Japan in
. 753, entered the capital, Nara, in 754, and
. founded the Precepts school there. He built an
. ordination platform at Tadaiji temple and founded
. Toshodai-ji temple as a center for the study of
. the monastic rules of discipline. Thereafter
. ordination platforms were built at Yakushi-ji
. temple in Shimotsuke Province and at Kanzeon-ji
. temple in Chikuzen Province as branches of the
. ordination center at Todai-ji. Priests and nuns in
. Japan were ordained at one of these three
. platforms. and the Precepts school flourished as a
. major school of Japanese Buddhism. During the
. Heian period (794-1185) the school gradually
. declined, but it reemerged during the Kamakura
. period (1185-1333), when the priest Shunjo in
. Kyoto strove to revive the practice of the
. precepts. He founded the Precepts school of the
. Northern Capital (Kyoto). Kakujo and Eizon also
. worked to revive precepts practice, and their
. lineage was known as the Precepts school of the
. Southern Capital (Nara). Eizon advocated the
. practice of both the precepts and the esoteric
. teachings, a conviction that later led to the
. founding of the True Word Precepts (Shingon-Ritsu)
. school based at Saidai-ji temple in Nara. There
. are two major precepts-based schools in Japan
. today: the Precepts school, whose head temple is
. Toshodal-ji, and the True Word Precepts school,
. whose head temple is Saidai-ji.'

Ritsu (Precepts) believers hold that following a set of ascetic rules to some level of perfection, leaves one's life in a purer state, and taken to the ultimate limit, enlightened.

Insofar as the Dharma (teachings) are concerned, Ritsu, according to Tao-hsuan, Chien-chen, Shunjo, Kakujo and Eizon casts aside the Lotus Sutra (the Buddha's highest teaching according to the Nirvana Sutra) in favor of the vinaya text: The Fourfold Rules of Discipline.

The abiding and most destructive issue for the Precepts school of Buddhism is treason. Why?

Historically, Devadatta attempted to subvert the Buddhist Order (Sangha) and murder Shakyamuni himself, because he thought the Buddha was not adhering to Precepts. Which of course, the Buddha doesn't.

There are no set of rules which can be followed without slandering the Law? Why?

Because of the power of evil to create circumstances which will undermine those rules. In the end, having faith in the Lotus Sutra, which is known as the Strategy of the Lotus Sutra, is the only rule that cannot be undermined by evil, which along with good has the Law as its source.

Watts continues ...

| 'And they're tremendously hung up on social
| indebtedness, whether it's a debt to the emperor,
| or whether it's a debt to your fathers and
| mothers, or whether it's a debt to someone in the
| family, or whether it's a debt to friends whom you
| visited and they entertained you. Well, you always
| take gifts with you when you go, but then that
| still embarrasses your friends to whom you take
| the gifts, because they have to consider the next
| time they go to visit you, they've got to take
| gifts of the same value. And you wouldn't believe
| what goes on. '

Ah... but sharing gifts is how karma is shared. A gift received from or given to a corrupted person, is corrupting in the measure of its perceived value and the comfort which is created by it.

This is why Nichiren Daishonin admonishes his followers to neither give alms to, nor receive alms from, persons bent on great evil, because great punishment is the inevitable result. So a culture based on more than a 1000 years of slandering the Law, would of course have self-corrupting practices like this.

Watts continues ...

| 'So actually, what Zen is in Japan is a
| release from Japanese culture. It is getting rid
| of the hang-ups, but doing it in such a way as not
| to embarrass the rest of society. So the Zen monks
| come on as if they're pretty stiff; when they walk
| out in the street, they almost look like soldiers.
| When they walk, they stride, they don't shuffle,
| like other Japanese do. They don't giggle, ever.
| They have no need to. Because the process of their
| discipline has liberated them from the social
| conventions. Only they are very tactful and don't
| rush out like, you know, a bunch of hippies or
| something and say "Look, we're liberated!" They
| pretend they're the very pillars of society. '

Good heavens what a naive view of evil. They sound like weekend hippies, straight during the week to hold down a job, cool on weekends. (My vernacular is late 60's, but so is his thinking.)

We'll skip down a bit, Watts continues ...

| 'Now Zen is a little bit unlike the rest of
| Hinduism and Buddhism in that it's summed up in
| these four principles: It's a special transmission
| of the Buddhist enlightenment outside the
| scriptures. It does not depend on words or
| letters. It points directly to your own mind-heart
| and attains therefore Buddhahood directly.
| Buddhahood means the state of being awakened to
| the real nature of things. But you see, what IS
| the real nature of things? It obviously cannot be
| described. Just as if I were to ask what is the
| true position of the stars in the big dipper.
| Well, it depends from where you're looking. From
| one point in space, they would be completely
| different in position from another. So there is no
| true position of those stars. So in the same way,
| you cannot therefore describe their true position
| or their true nature. And yet on the other hand,
| when you look at them, and really don't try to
| figure it out, you see them as they are, and they
| are as they are from every point of view, wherever
| you look at them. '
|.
| 'So there is no way of describing or putting
| you finger on what the Buddhists call reality or
| in Sanskrit, tathata, which means "suchness" or
| "thatness," or sunyata, which means "voidness," in
| the sense that all conceptions of the world when
| absolutised are void. It doesn't mean that the
| world is, in our Western sense, nothing. It means
| that it's no thing. And a thing--as I think I
| explained last night--is a unit of thought. A
| think. So reality isn't a think. We cannot say
| what it is, but we can experience it. And that is
| of course the project of Zen. '

This is a major confusion of Zen that goes all the way back to the lazy intellect of Bodhidharma. The thing that is void, is the description of the True Entity of All Phenomena.

The "thirty-four negations" describing the entity of the Buddha appear in the "Virtuous Practices" (Tokugyo, first) chapter of the Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings. The entire passage reads as follows:

. 'His body neither existing nor not existing,
. neither caused nor conditioned, neither self nor other,
. neither square nor round, neither short nor long,
. neither appearing nor disappearing, neither born nor extinguished,
. neither created nor arising, neither acted nor made,
. neither sitting nor lying down, neither walking nor standing,
. neither moving nor turning, neither idle nor still,
. neither advancing nor retreating, neither in safety nor danger,
. neither right nor wrong, neither gaining nor losing,
. neither that nor this, neither departing nor coming,
. neither blue nor yellow, neither red nor white,
. neither crimson nor purple nor any other sort of color. '

The description of the True Entity is void, an emptiness, because the description is supported by entities of mind and communication, which are all of the True Entity themselves. The description is a void, but the True Entity is NOT A VOID !!! Remember that the Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings, which is immediately previous to the Lotus Sutra, is not the Lotus Sutra and therefore a provisional and potentially quite misleading teaching (in the case of Zen, for example).

This is a paradox, and simply not a solvable one in human Logic (which is a system of thought, a composite entity composed of the fundamentals it attempts to describe).

That's why the essential Lotus Sutra is a sound, Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo, and really the only description that is complete. So decent logical self-description is not supportable, except in a limited way by describing a set of negatives, which leaves an unsatisfactory mystery.

One can read the statement: "neither existing nor not existing" as: "nonsubstantial, but not a void".

The True Entity is not empty, it contains the Buddha's compassion ... unlike Zen and Alan Watts' distorted view of life.

Watts continues ...

| 'Now, it does it by direct pointing. And this
| is what exciting people about Dr Suzuki's work
| when he first let people know about Zen in the
| Western world. It seemed to consist of an enormous
| assemblage of weird anecdotes. That these people
| instead of explaining had kind of a joke system,
| or kind of a riddle system. the basic secret of
| the Buddha system is simply this, and it's
| explained by a great Chinese Zen master, whose
| name was Hui-neng, who died in the year 713 AD.
| And he explained it in his sutra. He said, "If
| anybody asks you about secular matters, answer
| them in terms of metaphysical matters. But if they
| ask you about things physical, answer them in
| terms of things worldly." So if you ask a Zen
| master what is the fundamental teaching of the
| Buddha, he answers immediately, "Have you had
| breakfast?" "Yes." "If so, go and wash your bowl."
| Or such a thing as "Since I came to you master,
| you have never given me any instruction." "How can
| you say that I've never given you any instruction?
| When you brought me tea, didn't I drink it? When
| you brought me rice, didn't I eat it? When you
| saluted me, didn't I return the salutation? How
| can you say that I haven't instructed you?" And
| the student said, "Master, I don't understand."
| And he said, "If you want to understand, see into
| it directly, but when you begin to think about it,
| it is altogether missed." '

You know, the riddles of Rinzai are easily characterized. In Bertrand Russell's Modern Logic and the Set Theory that is the fundamental supporting Relational Algebra (database theory) ...

There are three kinds of propositions, based on any set of attributes that can be combined through syllogisms:

1. True Propositions (numerically the smallest set of propositions)
2. False Propositions (a vastly larger set)
3. Meaningless Propositions (the set of all the different ways that the available attributes can be combined to pose a question, minus the first two sets, which makes for an infinity of crapola).

Only Zen would find a use for number 3. The use is to toss your mind away, which you might as well do, since by discarding the Lotus Sutra, you don't want to think what kind of result this Buddhism will have on your life.

Watts continues ...

| 'They have also in Zen monasteries a funny
| thing. It's a chin rest. If you spend a long time
| meditating, it's sometimes convenient to have
| something to rest your chin on, and it's called a
| Zen- bon. And so once a student asked the teacher,
| "Why did Bodidharma--" who is supposed to have
| brought Zen, you know from India to China "--why
| did Bodidharma come to China?" And the master said
| "Give me that Zen-bon." And the student passed it
| to him and the master hit him with it. '

Abuse of the student is all part of the subjugation of Zen. and of course we wouldn't want to ask why Bodhidharma went to China, since he followed Kumarajiva and the Lotus Sutra by one hundred years on virtually the same track along the Silk Road. That's why. Zen is the evil echo of the Lotus Sutra, and nothing more.

Watts continues ...

| 'A contrary kind of story. The master and one
| of his students were working, I think pruning
| trees. And suddenly the student said to the
| master, "Will you let me have the knife?" And he
| handed it to him blade-first. He said "Please let
| me have the other end." And the master said "What
| would you do with the other end?" '

Perhaps some meaningless violence. Zen believers should always unload a gun before handing it to other Zen believers (e.g., Brandon Lee).

Watts continues ...

| 'There was a group walking through the forest,
| and suddenly the master picked up a branch and
| handed it to one of his disciples and said "Tell
| me, what is it?" Y'know, the master was still
| holding it. He said "Tell me, what is it?" The
| disciple hesitated, and the master hit him with
| it. He passed it to another desciple. "What is
| it?" The disciple said "Let me have it so I can
| tell you." So the master threw the branch at this
| other disciple, and he caught it and hit the
| master. '

Zen believers should never hand other Zen believers potential weapons.

Watts continues ...

| 'I was once talking with a Zen master, and in
| an idle sort of way we were discussing these
| stories, and he said, "You know, I've often
| wondered, when water goes down a drain, does it go
| clockwise or anticlockwise?" "Well, I said, it
| might do either." He said "NO! It goes this way!"
| -apparently something visual here,. So then he
| said "Which came first, egg or hen?" So I said, -
| clucks like hen,. He said "Yes, that's right." '

Actually water swirls down in either direction, independent of hemisphere, due to chaos theory: small differences at the beginning of the flow cascading into larger ones. But you can view the swirl lines as clockwise or counterclockwise, not matter which way it swirls. (Try and see).

The chicken answer is nonsense. The chicken evolved from a non-chicken and the activity of egg-laying evolved from something quite different as well. Get real.

Early life would propagate by simple cell replication and budding off. Cell replication came first.

Watts continues ...

| 'Now all these Zen jokes are much simpler in
| their meaning than you would ever imagine. They
| are so devestatingly simple that you don't see
| them. Everybody looks for something complicated.
| When I was once visited by a Chinese Zen man, I
| had my little daughter with me, and he said to
| her, "You know, once upon a time, there was a man
| who kept a very small goose in a bottle. A
| gosling. And it began to grow larger and larger
| until he couldn't get it out of the bottle. Now,
| he didn't want to break the bottle, and he didn't
| want to hurt the goose, so what should he do?" And
| she said immediately, "Just break the bottle." He
| turned to me and he said "You see, they always get
| it when they're under seven." '

No, the under seven tender minds are more vulnerable to evil, sad to say. They get INFECTED easier, when they're under seven. Zen is corrupting because the basic premise is: NOT Lotus Sutra, which undermines anything which is a more complex than that. All the most powerful infectants are simple.

Watts continues ...

| 'So there's that side of Zen, and that side of
| Zen we would call, essentially, in technical
| language, sanzen. That means, really, to study Zen
| in the form of an interchange with the teacher.
| Sanzen in the monasteries these days is very
| formal. But these are all stories from Tan and
| Sung dynasty China, where the relationship of
| student and teacher was more informal than it has
| now become.'

The phrase for this kind of mind-to-mind transfer is "ishin denshin". This is a fine way to get corrupted, since anything not written down has added subjectivity through and through, that comes from the added expression, interpretation, nuances, etc.

Watts continues ...

| 'The other side of Zen is za-zen, or the
| practice of meditation. And that involves-- You
| can actually practice za-zen in four ways,
| corresponding to what the Buddhists call the four
| dignitaries of man: walking, standing, sitting,
| and lying. Only sitting is the one most used. But
| you should not imagine that Zen mediation requires
| absolutely that it be done sitting. People get
| rather hung up on that, and I get annoyed with
| people who come back from Japan having studied Zen
| and brag about how long they sat and how much
| their legs hurt. '
|.
| 'But za-zen is very fundamental to Zen, in one
| form or another. And it is the art of letting your
| mind become still. That doesn't mean that it
| becomes blank. That doesn't mean that you have no
| what we would call sensory input. It mean simply
| that you learn how to breath properly. That's very
| important. And that you stop talking to yourself.
| The interminable chatter inside your skull comes
| to rest.'

The problem is that calmness does not remove the impurity your life.

Watts continues ...

| 'So what happens is this-- I should add that
| there are various schools of Zen, with different
| methods and different approaches, and my approach
| to it is again somewhat different from other
| peoples, but buddhas have always have this kind of
| elasticity. But what normally happens is this: '
|.
| 'You have some difficulty in being accepted
| by a teacher, because Buddhism is not on a
| missionary basis. They don't send out ads and
| invitations saying "Come to our jolly church," you
| know. They wouldn't dream of doing that. Because
| it's up to you to seek it out. They're never going
| to shove it down your throat. So it is difficult
| to get into a Zen school. It isn't really a
| monastery as we have monasteries, where the monks
| take life vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
| It's more like a theological seminary, and the
| monk, or seminarist, as he might more accurately
| be called, stays there for a number of years,
| until he feels he's got the thing that he went
| for.'

The problem is that sequestering yourself in a monastery does not remove the impurity in your life.

Watts continues ...

| ' The teacher, the master, is usually
| unmarried, but that doesn't prevent him from
| having girlfriends. They are not uptight about sex
| in Zen, as they are in other forms of Buddhism.'

The problem is that exercising sexual freedom does not remove the impurity in your life.

Watts continues ...

| 'They're very-- The whole atmosphere of the
| monastery is very fascinating. Everybody is sort
| of alive. They don't dither around. They're all
| working. But they're very open. In some kinds of
| Buddhism, they have conniptions if you try to
| photograph something. "This is too sacred to be
| photographed," sort of attitude. In Zen, they say
| "Help yourself! Photograph! Anything! Go on, take
| picture!" So, completely open. '

The problem is that being completely open does not remove the monstrous impurity and devilish process that is initiated in your life by the practice of Zen itself.

Watts continues ...

| 'So then, they have these sesshins. You must
| distinguish between "session," English, and
| "sesshin," Japanese. "Sesshin" means a long, long
| period of meditation practice, over say, a whole
| week. But especially early in the morning, and at
| certain times of day, they all meet and they sit
| cross-legged on their mats in meditation. In one
| set, they meditate on what is called a koan, and
| that means a "case," in the sense of a case in law
| establishing a precedent. And it's one of these
| stories. When the great master Joshu, who lived in
| the Tung dynasty, was asked, "Does a dog have
| buddha nature?" he replied "mu," which means no.
| Everybody knows that dogs have buddha nature. So
| why did the great master say "mu"? That's a koan.
| Or Hakuin invented a koan as a proverb in Chinese:
| One hand cannot make a clap. So the koan is "What
| is the sound of one hand?" Of course, it's
| differently said in Japanese than it is in
| English. But, you see, it sounds like a very, very
| complicated problem, and so these students take
| this problem back for meditation, and they-- First
| of all, the average person would start trying to
| arrive at an intellectual answer. And if he takes
| that back to the teacher, the teacher simply
| rejects it out of hand, time after time after
| time. '

The problem is that removing your intellect at the direction of a teacher does not remove the monstrous impurity and devilish process that is initiated in your life by the practice of Zen itself.

Watts continues ...

| 'I had a friend who had this koan, and he was
| an American. And one day he was going to the
| teacher for sanzen, and he saw a bullfrog. They
| have many bullfrogs in Japan, about so big,
| sitting in the garden, and they're very tame. So
| he swooped up this bullfrog and dropped it in the
| sleeve of his kimono. And when he got to the
| master, he produced the bullfrog as the answer to
| the koan. The master shook his head and said "Uh-
| uh, too intellectual." So people get desperate
| about these things, and they go to all sorts of
| lengths to try and answer them, because they don't
| realize how simple the answer is. That's what's
| always overlooked. If you were to answer that koan
| in English, it gives it to you as it's stated. It
| says "WHAT is the sound of one hand?" .Watts finds
| this very funny, but nobody else does, It's very
| difficult for people to become that simple. And
| you can become that simple only through meditation
| where you stop all the words and you see all the
| things perfectly directly. And so accomplished Zen
| people are very, very direct. Their life is
| completely simplified, because they know perfectly
| well--and if you look, and see yourself--that there
| is only this present moment. No past. No future. '

The problem is that being precisely in the moment without regarding the past or the future does not remove the monstrous impurity and devilish process that is initiated in your life by the practice of Zen itself.

Watts continues ...

| 'So what's your problem? You know, you could
| ask this of anyone. Well, you could say "I've got
| all sorts of problems and responsibilities" and so
| on. All right. Don't other people have some share
| in this? You see, we are always being spiritually
| conceited in thinking we have to take care of
| everybody else, and that can sometimes do people a
| peculiar disservice, because they get into the
| idea that everybody should take care of them.'

The problem is that shedding responsibility for the people around us, and ignoring their plight, which comes from contact with us in large part (since we are the common element in all the people we have contact with), does not remove the monstrous impurity and devilish process that is initiated in your life by the practice of Zen itself.

Watts continues ...

| 'And so we go around ingratiating ourselves by
| making all sorts of promises about which we feel
| enthusiastic at the time, but the enthusiasm wears
| off and then we don't keep them and then people
| get annoyed. And we go about telling people how
| much we like them when we don't. And all sorts of
| things of that kind by not being direct, you see.
| This is the whole idea of Zen, is directness. By
| not being direct, we create a great deal of
| trouble.'

The problem is that being direct with others, and not carrying around baggage or letting others carry it, does not remove the monstrous impurity and devilish process that is initiated in your life by the practice of Zen itself.

Watts continues ...

| 'However, the primary concern of Zen is not so
| much with interpersonal relations, as it is with
| man's relation with nature. In view of life and
| death, where are you? They have an inscription
| that hangs up in Zen monasteries, which says
| "Birth and death is a serious event. Time waits
| for no one." Which is sort of equivalent to the
| Christian "Work out your salvation with
| diligence." Or with fear and trembling.'

The problem is that being in the moment, or following the ascetic practices and the six paramitas, or being any kind of a good person, or good citizen does not remove the monstrous impurity and devilish process that is initiated in your life by the practice of Zen itself. It is merely a diversion from the evil you have corrupted your life with.

Watts continues ...

| 'So it begins in a clarification of our
| relationship with existence. With being. And
| therefore it lies in a more, I would say, primary
| or kindergarten level than the encounter group,
| which is concerned with personal relationships.
| But I don't think you can set up harmonious
| personal relationships until you've got with
| yourself. Until you've got with the sky, the
| trees, and the rocks, and the water, and the fire.
| Then you're fundamental. You're really alive.'

The problem is that being "really alive" does not remove the monstrous impurity and devilish process that is initiated in your "relationship with existence" by the practice of Zen itself. It is merely a diversion from the evil you have corrupted your life with.

Watts continues ...

| 'From that position, you can relate much
| better to other people, because you don't come on
| as a kind of "poor little me, who's in this
| universe on probation and doesn't really belong"
| attitude. And most of us do that, terribly
| apologetic for our existence. Just because we're
| apologetic, some people are insufferably proud,
| because they feel they have to compensate for this
| inferior status in the universe by overdoing it
| with boastfulness and with aggression towards
| others. But if you know that-- Well, when Dogen
| came back from China--he lived around 1200 AD, and
| studied Zen there and founded a great monastery--
| they asked him "What did you learn in China?" He
| said, "I learned that the eyes are horizontal, and
| the nose is perpendicular." '

The problem is that confusing your mind with meaningless propositions does not remove the monstrous impurity and devilish process that is initiated in your life by the practice of Zen itself. It is merely a diversion from the evil you have corrupted your life with.

Watts continues ...

| 'Now in all these things, don't search for a
| deep symbolism. Some decrepit modern Chinese Zen
| will look for--will give you a symbolic
| understanding of all these sayings. But they're
| NOT symbolic; they're absolutely direct. So when
| somebody says, you see, that the fundamental
| principle of Buddhism is a cyprus tree in the
| garden, you are not to understand this is
| some pantheistic doctrine in which the cyprus tree
| is a manifestation of the godhead.'

The problem is that moving from symbolism to directness and manifesting godhead does not remove the monstrous impurity and devilish process that is initiated in your life by the practice of Zen itself. It is merely a diversion from the evil you have corrupted your life with.

Watts continues ...

| 'Let me illustrate the point further, because
| I can't illustrate it intellectually. It's a
| little bit of a complicated story, but I think you
| can follow it. '
|.
| 'There is a sect of Buddhism in Japan called
| Jodo-shinshu .Sukhavati?,, which means the true
| teaching about the pure land. And they have a
| method of meditation in which they call upon the
| name of a transcendental buddha called Amida. So
| they say this formula, "Namu Amida Butsu." Namu
| means like "hail," only it means, in other
| cultures and other languages than ours, instead of
| saying "hail," they say "name," "nama." So "Namu
| Amida Bustu" means "Hail Amitabha buddha," or
| "Amida" is the Japanese. That formula is called
| "Nembutsu," or "Having the buddha in mind." '

There is a far more cogent discussion of the Nembutsu above, in the section on the first of the Four Dictums.

Watts continues ...

| 'There was a priest of this sect that went to
| study with a Zen master, and had made good
| progress, and the master told him to write a poem
| expressing his understanding. So he wrote the
| following poem: '
|.
| 'When nembutsu is said, There is neither
| oneself nor Buddha; Na-mu- a-mi-da-bu-tsu-- Only
| the sound is heard. '
|.
| 'And the Zen master scratched his head awhile,
| because he wasn't quite satisfied with it, so the
| student submitted another poem which did satisfy
| the master, and it went like this: '
|.
| 'When the nembutsu is said, There is neither
| oneself nor Buddha; Na-ma-a-mi-da-bu-tsu, Na-ma-a-
| mi-da-bu-tsu. '
|.
| 'The master was satisfied, but in my opinion
| it had one line too many.'

The problem is that being efficient and compact, in speech and thought, does not remove the monstrous impurity and devilish process that is initiated in your life by the practice of Zen itself. It is merely a diversion from the evil you have corrupted your life with.

Watts continues ...

| 'So you see that the Zen practice involves
| using words to get beyond words, where we might
| use words simply for their sound. Let's suppose
| you say the word "yes." Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
| Yes. Yes. You come to think after a while "Isn't
| that a funny kind of noise to make?" And we are
| delivered from the hypnotic effect of words by
| this particular use of words. We learn they're
| only words after all, but we hypnotize people by
| using words. And children, for instance, have no
| antibodies against words, so they get absolutely
| frantic, you know. "Jeannie called me a sissy!" So
| what? But children get absolutely desperate about
| it because we put this power of words upon them,
| these incantations. These are spells, you see.'

Here he is confusing Nembutsu (Dictum #1, above) with Shingon/Tantric Buddhism (Dictum #3, above). Far less confused is the description made above, which describes the fundamental problems with them (Buddhism that does not follow what the Buddha intended.)

Watts continues ...

| 'All magicians embroil people in spells and
| incantations, because they use words to beguile.
| And so then, we are from infancy told who we are,
| what is our identity, what our expectations should
| be, what we ought to get out of life, what class
| we belong to. And we believe the whole thing. And
| having believed it, we come to sense it, as we
| sense the hard wood of the corner of the table,
| and we think it's real, and it's a bunch of
| hogwash. It's an amusing game, if you know that
| that's all it is, and can be played with
| eloquence. But the more you know it's ONLY an
| illusion, the better you can play it. '

All this from a guy who uses words to hypnotize.

Watts continues ...

| 'So then. In this practice, it is very
| important, as I said last night, to bear it in
| mind that Zen study or Zen meditation--and this
| includes yoga and other forms of meditation--is
| not like any other form of exercise, in that it is
| NOT done for a purpose. You may ask me "How can I
| possibly do something that is not being done for a
| purpose?" because you have a fixed idea, which is
| part of the hypnosis, that everything you do is
| done for a purpose. For what purpose do you have
| belly rumbles? '
|.
| 'I remember Soki Antsuzaki, who was a great
| Zen master, sitting in his gorgeous golden robes,
| with incense burning in front of him, and his
| scriptures open on the stand, and holding a sort
| of scepter that Zen masters occasionally hold, and
| reading a passage from the sutra, then by comment
| saying, "Fundamental principle of Buddhism is
| purposelessness. Most important to attain state of
| no purpose. When you drop fart, you don't say 'At
| 9:00, I drop fart.' It just happen." And all this
| kind crypto-Christian audience, very embarrassed,
| stuffing handkerchiefs into their mouths.'

The problem is that name-dropping and priests who play dress-up and act in a nonchalant or spontaneous manner, does not remove the monstrous impurity and devilish process that is initiated in your life by the practice of Zen itself. It is merely a diversion from the evil you have corrupted your life with. This is all a fantastic diversion from what you are doing to your life.

Watts continues ...

| 'In Chinese, their word for nature is "tzu-
| jan," in Japanese, "shi-jen," at that means, "what
| is so of itself". We would say "spontaneity." A
| tree has no intention to grow. Water has no
| intention to flow. The clouds have no intention to
| blow. And as the poem says, '
|.
| 'When the wild geese fly over the lake, The
| water does not intend to reflect them, And the
| geese have no mind to cast their image. '
|.
| 'Now, that worries us. First of all, we think
| that spontaneity is mere capricious action.
| There's nothing very capricious about the way a
| tree grows. It's a highly intelligent design. So
| is the bird. So are you. But a lot of people who
| don't quite understand Zen think that spontaneity
| is just doing anything, and the more it looks like
| anything, the more spontaneous it is. In other
| words, they have a preconception of spontaneity,
| that a person behaving spontaneously. Or would
| probably be vulgar, impolite, rude. It doesn't
| follow; that's merely a preconception of the
| nature of spontaneity. Spontaneity is the way you
| grow your hair, it's not the way you think you
| ought to grow your hair. It's the way it happens.
| So that's a really high order of intelligence.'

The problem is that being behaving spontaneously without preconceiving does not remove the monstrous impurity and devilish process that is initiated in your life by the practice of Zen itself. It is merely a diversion from the evil you have corrupted your life with. This is all a fantastic diversion from what you are doing to your life.

Watts continues ...

| 'What is happening, then, in the discipline of
| Zen is that we are trying to move into the place
| where we use that intelligence in everyday life--
| but you see, you can't get it on purpose. The
| purpose, the motivation always spoils it. So you
| would ask then, "How do I get rid of purpose?" On
| purpose? That you ask that question simply shows
| how tied up you are in the thinking process. You
| cannot force that process to stop. You have to see
| it as nonsense. Babble. Interminable babble in
| your head. So one learns to listen to one's
| thoughts and let the mind think anything it wants
| to think, but don't take it seriously. And the
| idea of you doing this is also a babble in the
| head. And eventually--but without bothering about
| any eventually, because in this state, there is no
| future; you're not concerned about the future.
| Purpose is always concerned with the future.'

The problem is that becoming purposeless does not remove the monstrous impurity and devilish process that is initiated in your life by the practice of Zen itself. It is merely a diversion from the evil you have corrupted your life with. This is all a fantastic diversion from what you are doing to your life.

Watts continues ...

| 'Now what bugs Western people about this is
| they would say "Are you trying to tell us that
| life has no meaning, no purpose?" Yes. What's so
| bad about that? What sort of meaning would you
| like it to have? Propose me a meaning for life.
| Anything you want. Well, when people try to think
| of what the meaning of life is, they say "Well, I
| think that we're all part of a plan, and that
| working as if we were characters in a novel or a
| play, and we are all working towards a great
| fulfillment.'

This is the problem, and is where you go with Watts and Zen. For these folks, life is meaningless, and so infinite possibilities for sheer destructiveness abound !!! Let's kill everyone, rape anyone, destroy anyone that gets in the way of our momentary pleasure, or just for the purpose of exploring a new state of being.

Watts continues ...

| 'One day, perhaps after we're dead, perhaps in
| the future life, there'll be a great gazoozie.
| There'll be a galuptious, glorious goodie at the
| end of the line, see? And that's what we're all
| for, see? To get in with that. And it will all be
| very, very important, because it won't be
| something trivial. It will be something extremely
| holy." Well I say "What's your idea of something
| very holy?" Well, nobody really knows. You know,
| they think about church, and medieval artists who
| used to represent heaven in the form of everybody
| sitting in choir stalls. And I must say hell
| looked much more fun. It was a kind of sado-
| masochistic orgy. But heaven looked insufferably
| dull. And when those little children sang hymns
| about those eternal sabbaths, it was a very,
| depressing future, I can assure you. '

In the end, Watts is a disappointed Christian. Disappointed that there is no heaven outside, no God to please. He cannot bear the thought that this world is not revolving SOLELY around him as a Solipsistic Watts Universe. That it actually revolves around each of us, and that other people matter. They matter to Alan Watts, independent of his feelings about the subject.

That his joy and happiness is dependent on the happiness of others, and cannot be found meditating in a closet, is the real truth that Alan Watts cannot accept.

Watts finishes ...

| 'But you see, when you follow through these
| ideas, what do you want? What is the goodie? What
| is progress all about? You realize that you just
| don't know. So the question is immediately posed
| for the meditator, but aren't you there already? I
| mean, isn't THIS what it's about? '

What a sorry and empty pointlessness this person has created in the lives of so many.

____ Epilog _______________________________________

The Buddha's highest teachings were the purpose of the Buddha's advent on this earth.

The Buddha did not appear on this earth to drain people's compassion with discussions of the emptiness and meaninglessness of life which is just a void.

The Buddha did not appear on this earth to teach people to live in such a narrow and momentary way, that there would be no context for self-examination and conscience.

The Buddha did not appear on this earth to possess people's minds with such illogic as to befuddle their ability to choose correctly between what is good and what is evil.

The Buddha did not appear on this earth to teach people how to commit atrocities and genocide, in the exploration of their "infinite possibilities", or "new states of being".

The Buddha did not appear on this earth to teach people how to maim and kill with their hands efficiently, quietly, loudly, with increased terror inflicted, or to maximize their subjugation to control the public sentiments for political ends.

These are all profoundly evil distortions of the Buddha's true teachings, which introduce infinities in the variables holding good and evil, removing all shades of gray in the propositional calculus of value.

Simply stated, the Buddha made his advent on this earth with the purpose of teaching the compassionate way of the bodhisattva, which is at the heart of the true entity of all phenomena, which is the eternal Buddha at one with the eternal Law. Which is how to navigate the sea of sufferings of birth, aging, sickness and death. He originally set out on his path, because of his observation of the sufferings of common people and wanting to understand the source of those sufferings (enlightened wisdom) and how to transform those sufferings into unshakable happiness (enlightened action).

When you embrace the void and acausality, your initial intention to experiment with and learn about Eastern philosophy doesn't matter ... the result is always the same: chaos and misery, and utter ruination and emptiness to you, your family, and your country.

But things don't have to be that way ...
___________________________________________________

Nichiren Daishonin writes (Encouragement to a Sick Person, WND p. 78):

. "During the Former and Middle Days of the Law, the
. five impurities began to appear, and in the Latter
. Day, they are rampant. They give rise to the great
. waves of a gale, which not only beat against the
. shore, but strike each other. The impurity of
. thought has been such that, as the Former and
. Middle Days of the Law gradually passed, people
. transmitted insignificant erroneous teachings
. while destroying the unfathomable correct
. teaching. It therefore appears that more people
. have fallen into the evil paths because of errors
. with respect to Buddhism than because of secular
. misdeeds."

Because Bodhidharma discarded the Buddha's highest teaching (the Lotus Sutra), and due to his lazy nature turned to shortcuts to enlightenment, he came to the distorted view that life is acausal and empty, that the true entity is the void.

This erroneous view really comes from a misunderstanding of the Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings, where the True Entity is described by negation (the only way it can be): "... neither square, nor round, neither short, nor long, ..."

The description of the True Entity is logically voidal, but the True Entity itself is not. Bodhidharma was simply confused, due to the slander of negligence (laziness), and false confidence. The truth of life is that at the heart of the True Entity is the compassion of a bodhisattva for others.

Non-substantiality does not mean empty. Life has value. Humans are respectworthy. There is a purpose to everything. And every cause has an effect, so we are responsible for our thoughts, words and deeds. Zen is acausal. Zen is the greatest poison, which compares to the even greater medicine of the Lotus Sutra.

Suffice it to say: the purpose of Zen in the world is to corrupt and undermine everything that is not based upon the truth and the true teaching. All religions, disciplines, institutions and organizations which are undermined by Zen will eventually fall after glaring revelation of their worst defects, sooner rather than later.

If there is some good in your family, locality, society and culture, or country that you would like to retain, then cease the Zen, and begin to apply the medicine of the Lotus Sutra to heal the Zen wound in your life.

"Zen is the work of devilish minds." - Nichiren

-Chas.

. a prescription for the poisoned ones:
.
. The only antidote for the toxic effects of Zen in your life ...
.
. be that from Zen meditation, or the variant forms: physical
. Zen in the martial arts, Qigong, Acupuncture, Falun Gong,
. Copenhagen Convention of Quantum Mechanics, EST,
. Landmark Education, Nazism, Bushido, the Jesuits,
. Al Qaeda, or merely from having the distorted view that life
. is acausal, and that the true entity of all phenomena
. is the void ...
.
. with the effects of the loss of loved ones, detachment,
. isolation or various forms of emptiness in your life ...
.
. is the Lotus Sutra: chant Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo
. at least 3 times, twice a day, for the rest of your life,
. in at least a whisper ...
.
. and if you can, chant abundantly in a resonant voice !!!
.
. The full 28 Chapters of the Lotus Sutra,
. Nichiren Daishonin's Gosho volumes I and II,
. the Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings
. (Gosho Zenshu, including the Ongi Kuden) and the
. SGI Dictionary of Buddhism are located at:
.
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/
.
. To find an SGI Community Center:
.
http://www.sgi-usa.org/sgilocations/
__________________________________

LS Chap. 16 .....

All harbor thoughts of yearning
and in their minds thirst to gaze at me.
When living beings have become truly faithful,
honest and upright, gentle in intent,
single-mindedly desiring to see the Buddha
not hesitating even if it costs them their lives,
then I and the assembly of monks
appear together on Holy Eagle Peak.
At that time I tell the living beings
that I am always here, never entering extinction,
but that because of the power of an expedient means
at times I appear to be extinct, at other times not,
and that if there are living beings in other lands
who are reverent and sincere in their wish to believe,
then among them too
I will preach the unsurpassed Law.
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