Author Archives: Jeffrey Rothman

Jesus as Koan: The Zen Perspective

-A rendering of Jesus in deep meditation. In my opinion, the future of Christianity must be informed by the more experiential religions of the East if it is to remain relevant.

Introduction

Jesus, Jesus Jesus…. Try as I might, I have never been able to escape this foreign name whose omnipresence in our society is, to me, an object of fascination. Imagine giving an alien a tour through present day America and walking around a Midwestern city. Inevitably the alien would ask, “What is this strange T-shape that adorns so many buildings and the necklaces of so many people?” You would then answer, “It is an ancient device used to torture people to death that is a symbol of hope and transformation for billions of people on Earth. It refers to a Jewish carpenter’s son who lived in Israel 2,000 years ago whom they claim was God Incarnate.” What would the alien think about this? Do we never stop to think about the strange uniqueness of the largest religion in the world? What a fascinating state of affairs!

This strange T-shape has dominated my spiritual life since childhood. I was born in a Jewish family and converted to Christianity as a child. I went to Catholic schools and non-denominational churches, and even have been the full time director of a Presbyterian ministry. I can frequently be seen reading the Bible, and even have pictures of Jesus in my bedroom. To the outside observer I might be labeled a Christian, but I do not consider myself one since I view all religions as equally valid paths to the Divine.

In high school I became disinterested in religion until I started practicing Zen meditation and ultimately went to live at a Zen monastery. Ironically, my practice and study of Zen re-opened me to appreciating the original teachings of Jesus, now viewed from a new angle. There is really no right or wrong angle, for there are many ways to understand the multifaceted life of Jesus and of religion in general. In a previous post I examined Jesus’ death and resurrection from the Jungian perspective of an archetypal symbol, for instance.

In this post I am going to explore how the sayings of Jesus can be viewed from the perspective of the the Zen koan tradition. I hope to show that many of the sayings of Jesus can be approached the same way Zen students approach the Zen koan. His sayings should be viewed as statements pointing to an awakened state of mind to be realized experientially, not as dogmatic edicts to be received with blind faith. Jesus was not, as many Christian theologians have absurdly misinterpreted, God’s sole representative in the world for all of time to come. Rather, to me, he was an awakened human being who taught about God and Enlightenment in the context of his Jewish environment in the 1^st century. He used various metaphors that people in his historical context were familiar with, but ultimately he was teaching about ineffable universal truths that other religions also symbolically express.

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Ordinary Mind is the Way – Thoughts on Chapter 19 of the Mumonkan

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-A 19th century woodcut of the great Zen Master Joshu

Joshu asked Nansen, “What is the Way?” “Ordinary mind is the Way,” Nansen replied. “Shall I try to seek after it?” Joshu asked. “If you try for it, you will become separated from it,” responded Nansen. How can I know the Way unless I try for it?” persisted Joshu. Nansen said, “The Way is not a matter of knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion; not knowing is confusion. When you have really reached the true Way beyond doubt, you will find it as vast and boundless as space. How can it be talked about on the level of right and wrong?” With those words, Joshu came to a sudden realization.

– Chapter 19 of the Mumonkan

Introduction: Where is the Place of Enlightenment?

I grew up surrounded by what is sometimes called “Churchianity” in Oklahoma. I certainly learned some important lessons from my experiences in church-most notably a deep appreciation for the original teachings of Jesus – but eventually I grew jaded with the traditional Christian worldview as time went by. There were many complicated reasons for my frustration, but perhaps the primary reason was the inaccessibility of God. God was always something separate from us; He was always in a faraway realm that was far superior to this world, and the only hope we had of experiencing Him fully was in the afterlife. And even then there was always a separation-we were mere humans, and God was God, end of story.

In Zen Buddhism I found a tradition that, among other things, taught the (for me) revolutionary teaching that the Buddha Nature, a term which for me is functionally synonymous with God, is not separate from this very world. In fact, we would see that we ourselves and all things are It if we could see clearly. As I practiced Zen meditation and studied more about the tradition my ordinary life, with all its usual maddening frustrations, became infused with a glow of supreme sacredness, a point of view that the story I am about to comment on expresses with powerful clarity. For in Zen our ordinary life is itself the life of the Buddha. And as it says in the Lotus Sutra, this very world is the “Place of enlightenment.”

A koan is a typically paradoxical Zen story or saying that is sometimes used as a meditation object and is also frequently used as sermon material. This koan from chapter 19 of the Mumonkan (or “Gateless Gate”), the most famous collection of Zen koans, centers around the life question of Joshu, a future Zen master who taught in 8^th century China and who in this koan appears as the student. As with all commentary, my thoughts are not the “correct” way to see the story but merely reflect my own personal thoughts and understanding at this moment. I also am admittedly interposing my own biases and feelings into the story, but this itself is the very nature of commentary. Please reflect for yourself and discover what it means to you!

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Purposes of Meditation

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I have been practicing Buddhist meditation nearly every day, usually in the Zen style, for the past five years. I have also attended 10 week long silent meditation retreats and undergone 9 months of residential training at a Zen monastery. Yet what surprises many people I talk to is that I do not identify myself a Buddhist, for I feel that all religions are merely paths to God and I do not wish to label myself with one exclusively. I also sometimes take a more personal approach to the Divine that is usually not present in Buddhist circles, although I ultimately understand that God/Buddha is fundamentally a direct experience and is actually my own True Nature.

I do, however, consider myself a serious practioner of Zen Buddhist meditation, and I have found that this practice has benefited me immensely. In this brief post I’ll explore a few reasons why I think Zen meditation can be beneficial for both the religious and the non-religious alike.

Natural stress reduction

The most common introductory Zen practice is simply concentrating on your natural breath, a practice that requires no faith and that anyone can easily experiment with. And it is now virtually a scientific consensus that this type of mindfulness meditation is linked with actual stress reduction. And stress in our modern world is something that unfortunately is nearly universal. In America we have so many options, the world is so freakishly fast paced and interconnected, and information speeds through our brains at a level that probably far exceeds all past generations.

This fast paced world seems to stress people out on a mass scale, and meditation can be a natural medicine for this stress. When I meditate I find that my brain literally relaxes in a physical way. Especially on a busy day, meditation tangibly reduces my stress in a way that I can actually feel. Most people realize they are stressed, yet don’t see the obvious truth that stress is the result of having little control over their own thoughts. We all understand that our bodies need to rest, and that if we exercise them constantly they will get worn down. Do we not see that the muscle of the mind will make us stressed and depleted if we don’t intentionally still our thoughts from time to time?

Meditation, in this sense, is a non-sectarian and completely natural medicine for stress and a tool to quiet the restless thinking mind. Its easy to make meditation into something “otherworldly” and forget that Zen meditation is, first and foremost, the physical practice of concentrating the mind on the present moment as it already is. Is your breath “Buddhist” or “Jewish” or “Muslim?” Its high time we begin viewing mindfulness meditation as a universal practice that all can benefit from and not the hoarded treasure of a niche spiritual community.

I don’t practice meditation because some ancient book told me to or because some guy with a backwards collar said I should. Rather, I practice meditation largely because I have found again and again through my own experience that it reduces my stress and makes me a more peaceful person. When I practice meditation in the morning for 20-30 minutes, I find that I can start the day from a place of calm and relaxation. And when I practice meditation after a long day of business I find it naturally rejuvenates my energy level. So even if I did not believe in the potential of enlightenment and understand the more spiritual reasons for meditation I would still meditate for its practical physical and psychological benefits.

Meditation as a tool to experience our own God-Nature

From a more spiritual perspective, I believe that we are fundamentally Spirit/God/Buddha, or whatever word you want to call the Divine . Yet while this is the case it is a mysterious truth that the majority of people have not actually experienced this. We may intellectually understand we are the deathless and changeless Buddha Mind, but if we are honest we will see that we have a deeply rooted habit of falsely identifying with our limited body, feelings, and thinking mind much of the time.

The other side of meditation is inquiry into the “Great matter of birth and death,” (A Zen saying referring to the quest for enlightenment) and concentration is not a goal in itself but merely a means to that end. By calming our thinking mind through meditation we set the stage to investigate our own nature. And just as we cannot see our reflection in a boiling pot of water, so we cannot see the truth of our own original enlightenment if our mind is distracted by thoughts and clouded by desire. In meditation we still our mind, and then from this place of calm begin to ask the question, “What is experiencing this?” “What is aware?” “Who am I really?” By persistently investigating these questions in the context of deep concentration and mindfulness, I believe we all have the capacity to awaken to the truth that our own awareness is God Itself. The goal of the spiritual path is this direct experience, one that many prophets and sages throughout time have testified to in a variety of both literal and symbolic ways.

So meditation is not merely a tool to calm the thinking mind, although this is an obvious and wonderful benefit of the practice. In my view, Zen meditation is fundamentally a technology that, if pursued singlemindedly and wholeheartedly, can lead to the direct realization of what is called “God” or “Buddha Nature.” In this experience we are set free, for we realize that everything – the good and the bad, the pleasant and the painful, the ups and the downs, our body, humanity, and even the whole universe – is merely the dream of a nameless Dreamer who is perfect, deathless, and changeless. And it is my deepest conviction that anyone, through the regular practice of meditation and the grace of God, can realize this deep truth in this very body and enjoy forevermore the bliss that all people are really seeking and that cannot be found in any impermanent thing.

Meditation as an expression of our God-Nature

The great paradox of Zen is that we are already the deathless Buddha in this moment, but that, mysteriously, great efforts in meditation are required to actually experience this truth. Yet we should never think that in meditation we are gaining anything. Enlightenment is merely realizing what has always been true, seeing that God is what is already seeing with your eyes and hearing with your ears in this moment. This very moment is God manifesting Itself to Itself, a blessed perfection based on Its own miraculous and rationally inexplicable existence. A great historical Zen teacher named Ehei Dogen wrote that our practice, or zazen (seated meditation), is itself enlightenment. When we sit down to practice meditation, we are not trying to get enlightenment. Rather, in meditation we are naturally expressing our own enlightened nature. Because Dogen perceived this inexpressible and wonderful truth he called zazen the “dharma gate of ease and joy.” From this perspective meditation is not merely stress reduction tool or even a tool to experience enlightenment-it is rather a joyous celebration and a serenely natural manifestation of the Enlightenment Mind we have never one been separate from!

For a deeper explanation of how I view meditation, God, and the spiritual path, check out my book in the book tab of this website. I have also suggest in the appendix of this book several great books on how to begin a meditation practice in the Zen style. If you are interested in meditation I recommend starting a daily meditation practice for a period of time you think you can stick to (20 minutes per day is a good starting number) and consider attending extended meditation retreats.

May you and all beings awaken and realize that your own awareness in this very moment is God/Buddha/Tao/Allah/Krishna/Christ Itself. With love,

Jeffrey

Power Rangers, Pizza, Portland Culture, The Illusion of Nationalism, and the Oneness of Reality

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Here is a scholarly reference to watch as a compliment to the article:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpcCoW5gA7w

Last night I got a piece of pizza in South East Portland and, in the midst of conversation, I lightheartedly said to the worker, “It seems like no one in Portland is from Portland…” It turns out he was from Portland and told me bluntly that he resented when people from other states say this. After around twenty seconds he was still frowning and I realized he was serious. Talk about awkward!

As I was eating my delicious piece of pizza on the restaurant porch, observing the mysterious flow of the evening, listening to lonely drone of passing cars, and watching the first few stars twinkle their faint intimations of other worlds, I thought about what he said. The conversation made me reflect on the illusion of inordinate pride derived from being born in a particular place or of belonging to any particular group of people as opposed to another. So many people derive a sense of identity from being American, for instance, forgetting that “America” is simply a social construction created by people who forcibly colonized a piece of land that already belonged to others. I am happy to be in America, yet it always seems silly to me when people take pride in the fact that they were randomly born on a plot of land and forget that all these names and places have been simply made up by people in the past.

If you look at the Earth from space you can’t see America, or Oregon, or Portland, or any nation, state, or city at all. All you see is a single planet that belongs to the Divine. And from a human perspective, all you see is a single species irrationally dividing into competing teams when, in reality, we are all on the same team. Team human. Team One Reality. Team Buddha Mind in many forms. Team Krishna manifesting as many beautiful ethnicities and races. Team One Love revealed in many faces. Team Christ in all and all in Christ. Team This with no that and One with no two.

Its funny how in the modern age cosmic musings often get mingled with shallow pop culture references that emerge from the subconscious like disturbingly old fast food french fries you find when cleaning out your car for the first time in a year. So, I thought, all the races and nations should become like the Power Rangers, combining their unique swag into a single swag machine that is a greater than the sum of its parts. The Power Rangers was a show from the 1990s (which, according to the consensus of historians, was perhaps the pinnacle of human cultural development [see Boy Meets World, Sugar Ray, and Micheal Jordan]) in which all the rangers each wore bright spandex of a different color and each had unique talents. But when they faced a big enemy they united their individual animal vehicles into a single vehicle that was immensely powerful (see above video at 0:51). Could all our diverse nations and ethnicities, with all their unique talents and nuanced perspectives, similarly unite into a single unstoppable humanity to fight our common enemies of poverty, ignorance, bigotry, and hate? Could this indeed be the answer? Was Power Rangers actually philosophically profound, or is my unhealthy nostalgia for the 1990s once again clouding my rational judgement?

When will we renounce our made up factions and become like the Power Rangers, merging into a single bad ass multicolored peace mongering unity machine? When will we wake up from the childish illusion that we are all competing with each other? When will we realize that the Divine is pretending to be everyone and loves everyone equally? When will the politicians change their mantra from God Bless America to God Bless the galaxy? When will we realize that the good of the one is found in the good of the all? And when will I simply enjoy my pizza without trying to save the world? Oy vey….

Thanks for reading,

Jeffrey

Hello Again!

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Dear friends,

I just moved to Portland last week and look forward to blogging more about the barrage of new and exiting experiences! I am living in a place called the Trillium House, which is a house dedicated for lay practitioners of Zen Buddhism in the Zen Community of Oregon. Although I do not identify as a Zen Buddhist, I practice Zen meditation on a daily basis and find it greatly benefits me on a spiritual, mental, and even physical level. One of the great things about Zen is that it is fundamentally a practice, and people of all religions or no religion can practice Zen meditation.

Now that I’ve recently graduated with my masters degree I’ll have more time to blog, so stay tuned in the near future for some more substantial posts! For now, a brief poem will have to suffice:

CLOSER

The waves of mind are always oscillating

Always rejoicing or complaining or musing,

Yet your most intimate Awareness remains

Ever changeless and blissful.

This Awareness is what many call God, or Buddha, or Krishna, or Christ;

Heck, you could even call It Frank!

Whatever you want to call It

Is merely a symbol pointing to the indescribable Reality

That is seeing with your eyes.

If you still your thoughts in meditation

The waves of mind will calm.

Look, then, into the lake

At the Face that reflects

And you will find that you were not

Who you thought you were.

You will find that the Beloved

Is closer than the blood

Flowing in your veins

And is in fact

Your very Self.

May you and all beings be happy and strive to treat everyone with unconditional love!

Thanks for reading,

Jeffrey

Mechizzawhaaaaaa? Melchizedek and the Source of Spiritual Authority

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Introduction: The Archetypal Nature of the Bible

As the great psychologist and innovative thinker Carl Jung pointed out in his works, many of the world’s scriptures are “archetypal” in nature. They are written in specific cultures during specific periods of history, but their content often symbolically reveals universal truths through the medium of what he called the Collective Unconscious (I have written more about this in a previous post). This archetypal dimension of scripture accounts for how millions of people relate to it thousands of years after its creation, and for the undeniable similarities between scriptures and myths across the world.

I mention this because in this post I am commentating on some of my favorite Bible passages. Many people hear the word Bible and immediately think of fundamentalist Christianity, which often asserts that the Bible is the only way to understand God. I passionately repudiate this view and believe that the Bible is merely one divinely inspired cultural expression of God, not the only one or the best one, and not an authority that should be exalted above our own direct experience.

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God’s Forgiveness

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I always remember that the Lord is all-forgiving. We must face the consequences of our harmful actions in accordance with the natural laws of cause and effect, but our errors in life should never stop us from turning back to God, the greatest source of happiness and the only everlasting love. Like the sun which shines on us regardless of anything we have ever done, so the love of God does not change based on our positive or negative behavior.

Peter once asked Jesus, “Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother?” Jesus then famously answered, “Seventy times. No! Seventy times seven!” He was not actually doing multiplication but pointing out that there is no end to our capacity for forgiveness. If this is the standard for humans, how much more is God a fountainhead of everlasting mercy and grace, a boundlessly Attractive Magnet of Pure Love that will ultimately cause even the greatest evil-doers to someday return to His irresistibly magnetic radiance?

God does not expect us to be perfect, so remember always that God unconditionally loves you and forgives you when you mess up. So when you do fall, never be afraid to turn back to God, who like an ideal Mother or Father will never stop loving us and gently calling us back to our true home with Him. His arms of love are always open, and in His kingdom no one is ever turned away.

Brief Thoughts on God’s Love

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Many people seem to associate God’s love with a particular cookie cutter template they find boring and/or unattainable. They think they must strive to be somebody else and always feel they are falling short. Yet God’s unconditional love is not the requirement to be a perfect somebody else, but rather the total freedom to be your self.

His love is like the all embracing light that inspires a plant to fully flower into itself – it is never inhitibive, but rather infinitely creative and unimaginably supportive! For God created you to be YOU, exactly as you are. And from an even deeper perspective, you express an aspect of God that no one else in this world can express, for “we are made in His image.”

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Surrender

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Hello Again!

Hello again, friends! I have not been blogging as much as I want to since I have been busy with school, creating my new album, and working at my internship. But, praise be to God Almighty, He is my SHALOM and “the author and finisher of my faith” (Paul the Apostle). Indeed, through all the diverse activities that color the lives of His servants God is working on their behalf to lead them to ultimate fulfillment in His glorious perfection. And through bad times and good, busy times and restful times, God is an inexhaustible Source of the love and incomparable bliss that emanate from Him “from everlasting to everlasting.” How shall we respond to such a glorious state of affairs but with this ecstatic exclamation: Come, let us worship Him forever!

Introduction

In this post I am going to discuss a few perspectives on what it means to surrender to God. To begin I want to say a few words about the above painting that I called “Surrender.” This painting is the cover of my new album, The Testimonium, and encapsulates the album’s message in a single image. In the painting a young man has encountered within himself God’s love and the Infinite Consciousness that exists forever (this is what the heart with the Eye within it symbolize). From this state of awe he then surrenders his human will to the Great One, and this is symbolized by the blood flowing out of his hands into the heart and also by the cross. For the cross, among others things, is a symbol to me of complete surrender to the will of God, even to the point of death.

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Effortless Effort: Some Thought’s on Ehei Dogen’s Fukanzazengi

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“The Way is originally perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent on practice and realization? The true vehicle is self-sufficient. What need is there special effort? Indeed, the whole body is free from dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from this very place; what is the use of traveling around to practice? And yet, if there is a hairsbreadth deviation, it is like the gap between heaven and earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion. Suppose you are confident in your understanding and rich in enlightenment, gaining the wisdom that knows at a glance, attaining the Way and clarifying the mind, arousing an aspiration to reach for the heavens. You are playing in the entranceway, but you are still are short of the vital path of emancipation.

Consider the Buddha: although he was wise at birth, the traces of his six years of upright sitting can yet be seen. As for Bodhidharma, although he had received the mind-seal, his nine years of facing a wall is celebrated still. If even the ancient sages were like this, how can we today dispense with wholehearted practice?

Therefore, put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases, and learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will manifest. If you want to realize such, get to work on such right now.

For practicing Zen a quiet room is suitable…” – Ehei Dogen’s Fukanzazengi

Introduction

Om. During the first year that I became serious about Zen I was deeply inspired by the writings of Ehei Dogen. Dogen was a Japanese Zen master who lived from 1200 – 1253 A.D. He was orphaned early on and as a young man became a monk and dedicated his life to the study of Zen. His path led him to many contemporary Japanese Zen teachers, but they ultimately left him dissatisfied. So, risking his life on a perilous sea excursion, he journeyed to Song China to study with the era’s greatest Zen teachers.

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