Posting Soon
The Ego is the Persona of the Self: Spinoza and Zen
There is a difference between self and ego. Sometimes Buddhist speakers appear to confuse both terms or use them interchangeably. Once we pears through the per-sona, the cover that is the ego, we reach our true selves. The ego is built as a patchwork of outside influences, it is definitely not us. The self is pure and waiting, it waits...
A Spinoza Note: In the area of the control of the mind over the emotions, the Zen message resounds a Spinozistic note. Spinoza argued for seeking the absolute freedom of the mind unhindered by the control that the emotions are able to exert over it. Spinoza, as in Zen, divided the self into mind and emotions and it is either one or the other when it comes to true happiness in life. The joy of a life free from the oppression of the unruly and autonomous emotions is the bliss or enlightenment that Spinoza argues for in his Ethics. Spinoza, in contrast to Zen, did not see the need to offer a system for the attainment of freedom. In a sense, Spinoza believed that people are able to see and perceive the rationality of the divide mind-emotions and the reason why the mind must prevail. That rational comprehension was enough to make rational people understand and exert control and restrain over the emotions. It is the geometric evidence of reason that proofs the need to accept mind over emotions, not a Zen-like practice of practical applications of non-dual meditation. Spinoza spoke of a third kind of knowledge, one that resembles an intuitive perception of an enlightened state of being. Geometrical contemplation leads to that state of bliss. Spinoza, in this case, through the system he used to explain and justify his views, helps Zen to do the same.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
buberian comments on zen stories and koans
Posting Soon
Notes and Thoughts
Koans are genial tools. I call Koans "the absurd-managed". Can, however, a person be "zenly" impacted by koans when one knows in advance what they're supposed to be? to discover a Koan in your own personal life can be either frightening or liberating. Surprise is an element of how the Koan reveals a truth. The content of that truth can be learned elsewhere, but the true existential meaning of the Koan can only be learned through that flash moment of surprise, that eureka instant. Koans are forms of dialogue and in that sense we appreciate their Buberian content. However, the sense of instrumentality imbued in a Koan renders it not quite the full Buberian I-Thou relationship. The spontaneous non-expectation I-Thou works well in a Koan when the student is "hit" by it, sort of speak, and not when the student purposefully seeks the Koan out from his teacher.
It all depends on what's the purpose of your readings of the text. If we read a text as part of an academic or theological exercise, then it is important to determine with as much clarity as possible the extents and demarcations of a given content. However, if you read the text as a guide for practice, it is perfectly legitimate to find refuge and inspiration in a single seemingly disconnected thought or even in a small sign such as a Buddha sitting in front of a crowd and holding a flower in his hands, or the student who craved watching his Tzadik tie his shoe lasses. It is OK for you to see that small gesture, understand, smile and embark on a whole new or bolder path. I think that one of the teachings is for the followers to do that which the Buddha did, more so than that which the the Buddha said. Conversely, whatever the Buddha did not say much about, does not follow we should not do much about. Friendship is the whole entire spiritual path, and so are many other different paths.
Poem: turn away
Affiliations various
what to do with unsavory portions found in the bible(s)?
We often hear religious teachers espouse positions offensive to the spirit of humane rights and dignity. We feel outraged and criticize these statements, but we seem to not want to confront the fact that this ugly speech is in many senses consistent with canonical texts. The speakers themselves reminds us of this point as justification.
We need to edit the texts and create our own communal bibles. We need to worship the way we live. We have already edited our bibles in the way we implement its teachings, but we are yet to fully own up to the editing by making the text to reflect our real lives. We need a massive editing of parts of the text that are not enlightened teachings and may be even downright negative. We have already done the editing by selecting not to live our lives in accordance with unsavory words. We need now to do our very own new text to teach our children and to live by. The process of wresting with the concept of a new text will create communities where dialogical principles will abide within.
It is not God we are afraid of, but what some are capable of doing in the name of their Gods.
We need to edit the texts and create our own communal bibles. We need to worship the way we live. We have already edited our bibles in the way we implement its teachings, but we are yet to fully own up to the editing by making the text to reflect our real lives. We need a massive editing of parts of the text that are not enlightened teachings and may be even downright negative. We have already done the editing by selecting not to live our lives in accordance with unsavory words. We need now to do our very own new text to teach our children and to live by. The process of wresting with the concept of a new text will create communities where dialogical principles will abide within.
It is not God we are afraid of, but what some are capable of doing in the name of their Gods.
Monday, June 12, 2006
on the celebration of shabat in a non-religious/orthodox manner. how to read meanings in the texts, the texts themselves did not intend
Posting Soon:
The concept of the Shabbat occupies a lofty position within the context of Jewish theology. One well know teaching states that it wasn't the Jews who had saved the Shabbat, but rather the Shabbat who had saved the Jews.
To some extent it may be argued that it is the Shabbat that religious practice that distinguishes Judaism from other religions. It is this religious practice the one that most clearly manifests the core religious genius of Judaism. It is similar in this contextual sense to what meditation represents in Zen. It is this unique practice the one that manifests the core genius of Zen practice.
It is for that reason that I propose to discuss a program for the creation of a practice of the Shabbat based on Buberian and Zen concepts, and if the scholarship behind this works, I will argue that in so doing we will remain faithful to the Shabbat's original intent.
I will be posting a program for a family, personal and communal Shabbat practice along the lines of what I consider to be a dialogical practice. This practice has the potential of becoming a tool for social and personal liberation. Please share with me your thoughts and views. (I use the term "practice" when normally the word "celebration" would be used. Celeberation has been so strongly associated with the concept of "rituals" that I feel we need to coin a new term to describe what we do. Practice includes celebration but it does mostly indicates a way of life, not a formulae for a sacrament)
Saturday, June 03, 2006
travel logs.. dialogues with indigenous sages
Posting Soon
I have traveled extensively to the midst of Indigenous Latin America. During my travels I enjoyed the opportunity to meet many sages and spiritual leaders. It is true that Indigenous religions seem to be closer to nature, but as I explored their philosophies in more depth, I began to argue that these and other non-Indigenous religions are not different in their basic essence. Every religion posits the existence of the supra-natural and every religion needs to place it somewhere. The Western concept of the transcendent may not apply in Indigenous cultures, but I argue that this intellectual fact does not make a difference beyond the strictly intellectual. In practical terms all religions worship the power from beyond that is either beyond or within the natural world. Spinoza identified nature and god as one and sometimes it feels as though indigenous religions are closer to this point. From a Buberian perspective it seems that the most important point is not where god could be found or what the essence of god is. The key question is the ability open to all to dialogue with god. How do we dialogue with god or the divinity, that is the question. Petitional prayer and institutionalized religions are part of the realm of It. It is true that if god is to be found in nature, then nature assumes a more special role in the life of the individual and the culture. Nonetheless a god that is an It makes the all-ecompassing a tool for the It. A god in nature may inspire all sorts of magics and myths and they usually work for the benefit of the powerful.
I have traveled extensively to the midst of Indigenous Latin America. During my travels I enjoyed the opportunity to meet many sages and spiritual leaders. It is true that Indigenous religions seem to be closer to nature, but as I explored their philosophies in more depth, I began to argue that these and other non-Indigenous religions are not different in their basic essence. Every religion posits the existence of the supra-natural and every religion needs to place it somewhere. The Western concept of the transcendent may not apply in Indigenous cultures, but I argue that this intellectual fact does not make a difference beyond the strictly intellectual. In practical terms all religions worship the power from beyond that is either beyond or within the natural world. Spinoza identified nature and god as one and sometimes it feels as though indigenous religions are closer to this point. From a Buberian perspective it seems that the most important point is not where god could be found or what the essence of god is. The key question is the ability open to all to dialogue with god. How do we dialogue with god or the divinity, that is the question. Petitional prayer and institutionalized religions are part of the realm of It. It is true that if god is to be found in nature, then nature assumes a more special role in the life of the individual and the culture. Nonetheless a god that is an It makes the all-ecompassing a tool for the It. A god in nature may inspire all sorts of magics and myths and they usually work for the benefit of the powerful.
religiosity without religion: spirituality without spirits. a non-theology
From a Buberian perspective, a relationship with God engenders an experience that cannot be reproduced in the form of rituals and cannot be reenacted in the context of institutional temples. A conventional religion is, for Buber, a frozen reminder of an original experience. In Zen, the important concept is to reenact in one's own life the experience of the pointing directly to the essence of one's being. That pointing cannot be ritualized or reenacted with the help of or by recourse to symbolic sacraments. In a sense, these rituals and institutions take the place of the real experience.
Concerning so-called spirituality: Since the terms spiritual and spirituality are often used interchangeably with the term religion, and since in addition many define themselves as spiritual though not religious, we need to insist that our religious outlook is not spiritual, it is religious in the sense of the term religiosity or relationship. We have to clearly define what the usage of the terms spirits or spiritual mean? when making a claim concerning existence, we must first need to define what the term existence means and what conditions need to me met before we can argue that something exists. If by using the term spirit we mean to describe by means of a word the various functions localized in the mind, then we can still agree to use the term spirit instead of simply reverting back to the term mind, as long as we all agree as to what the referents to the term actually are. I tend to demand that I'd be shown that something can be identified under a microscope before its existence could be claimed. When it comes to God, proving his/her existence is an act of no-faith.
If we are to define the Buberian and Zen takes on religion, I would attempt to illuminate them through the following clumsy formulations:
1. Dialogue as the practice of non-attachment-engagedeness. I-Thou, in contrast to I-It is a relationship where the operational modus vivendi is aptly described in Zen as non-attachment. Attachment is the It relationship.
2. To the extent that the concept and/or the reality of a personal and communal relationship with a God is posited or needed or desired, the practice of dialogical ecology entails a god-engagement or religiosity without and instead of conventional and institutional religion, (religiosity and Spinozean knowledge of the third kind.).
3. The sense of reverence/owe, that accompanies religious practices are to be developed without ritualized worship or idolatry, (the poetry of the insentient).
4. To the extend that a conceptual construct of a God is posited, needed or desired, dialogical ecology means faith without recourse to beliefs. One cannot believe in the existence of anything that cannot be in some rational way provided without contradictions. However, I have perfect faith in that which we will not name. (see Watts)
5. We celebrate by community in action. Celebration without rituals/sacraments.
6. We seek the dialogue/encounter with the “divine” instead of the sacramental prayer. Petitional prayer as I-It. Encounter is with the whole of life and requires the whole of being: mind and body.
7. We seek blessedness without or instead of religious-bound concepts such as sacredness/holiness,
8. We seek community as a way of life with the whole of being and that is not the same as conventional priesthood/institutions/temples.
buber's religious anarchism and religious socialism
Posting Soon
In every religion we face the issue of the often times conflicting demands between foundational theology and time and space dependent-interpretations. Since it is notoriously difficult to determine which interpretation is or is not authoritative, what is hoped for is that the founder of the religion, (being by definition the source of authority), would have put in place a procedural system from which authority could be seamlessly derived from. What that procedure may entail is an agreed upon system for the ordination of those entrusted with the interpretation of the original teaching, such as a priesthood, and a procedure the priesthood itself must follow for deriving amendments that would be deemed "constitutional". From that perspective, sometimes authoritativeness is confirmed more by the procedure that was followed than by the derived content of the interpretation. This is the beginning of institutional religion, and, at least in my view, the compromising of any true religion. In Judaism for instance, the Halacha is a long process of interpretation by rabbis and it is often not clear how faithful it stands to the original source. For instance, when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and the site was taken over, the rabbis moved the physical center elsewhere, and when the temple rituals were no longer possible, the rabbis replaced them with the prayer book and other forms of worship. Those changes were not a deviation of the original, but a natural evolution in response to circumstances. The key here is that the changes were done in accordance with the foundational procedure and in that sense they still constitute original religion. Same applies to the Sunnas in Islam and to Church councils in Catholicism. The disparity in ethical behaviors (not in ethical theories) between strands of Buddhism can either be a sign of a dynamic, living religion, or, conversely, a reflection on the weakness of the institutionalized factors of the religion.
zen comments on buberian stories
Posting Soon
Notes and Thoughts
It all depends on what's the purpose of your readings of the text. If we read a text as part of an academic or theological exercise, then it is important to determine with as much clarity as possible the extents and demarcations of a given content. However, if you read the text as a guide for practice, it is perfectly legitimate to find refuge and inspiration in a single seemingly disconnected thought or even in a small sign such as a Buddha sitting in front of a crowd and holding a flower in his hands, or the student who craved watching his Tzadik tie his shoe lases. It is OK for you to see that small gesture, understand, smile and embark on a whole new or bolder path. I think that one of the teachings is for the followers to do that which the Buddha did, more so than that which the the Buddha said. Conversely, whatever the Buddha did not say much about, does not follow we should not do much about. Friendship is the whole entire spiritual path, and so are many other different paths.
Notes and Thoughts
It all depends on what's the purpose of your readings of the text. If we read a text as part of an academic or theological exercise, then it is important to determine with as much clarity as possible the extents and demarcations of a given content. However, if you read the text as a guide for practice, it is perfectly legitimate to find refuge and inspiration in a single seemingly disconnected thought or even in a small sign such as a Buddha sitting in front of a crowd and holding a flower in his hands, or the student who craved watching his Tzadik tie his shoe lases. It is OK for you to see that small gesture, understand, smile and embark on a whole new or bolder path. I think that one of the teachings is for the followers to do that which the Buddha did, more so than that which the the Buddha said. Conversely, whatever the Buddha did not say much about, does not follow we should not do much about. Friendship is the whole entire spiritual path, and so are many other different paths.
The Martin Buber Institute For Dialogical Ecology - Join the MBIDE
THE MARTIN BUBER INSTITUTE FOR DIALOGICAL ECOLOGY
The philosopher Martin Buber has been widely studied from the perspective of theology, philosophical existentialism, psychotherapy, Judaic thought and communitarian thinking, but less so from the perspective of the I-Thou relationship or dialogical relationship between the human community and their ecological environment. (I am presently writing a book on a comparative study between Buber’s dialogical principles and some aspects of Zen Buddhism and Indigenous spirituality. (Buber-Zen-The Between))
The MBIDE focuses its academic activities on the research and application of dialogical principles to issues in ecological ethics. At the same time we also envision policy implications to our ecological findings. The academic focus of the Buber Institute is on the meeting points between ecological thought, philosophical inquiry and religious studies.
The Director and Principal Investigator of the Institute is Dr. Hune Margulies, (see CV). At the core of the MBIDE mission is the research of Dialogical theory and principles as it applies primarily to issues in relational environmentalism and ecological scholarship. We employ the term “ecology” in a broad sense, as a concept that points at the confluence of three main academic disciplines: Environmental Studies, Philosophy and Religion.
The Buber Institute situates itself at the forefront of a very important international ecological discourse. The Martin Buber Institute for Dialogical Ecology will become an integral part of the very vibrant and active international discourse on ecology, peace and community.
The MBIDE engages in the following academic activities:
The Buber Institute focuses its scholarship on the application of Dialogical theory on Philosophical Ecology topics. The MBIDE will insert ourselves in the midst of a very important and significant international ecological discourse. At the same time dialogical ecology responds to some of the shortcomings found on some of the prevailing environmental theories.
The MBIDE engages in the following activities.
1. Internal and sponsored research.
2. Call for submissions and publications of a refereed journal (The Journal of Dialogical Ecology), conference proceedings and selected monographs.
3. An annual international conference at the University.
4. University-wide lectures, teaching, seminars and workshops, guest speakers. Cooperation and joint academic activities with other university and academic institutes.
5. An international Board of Scholars and Fellows to serve as academic advisors to the Institute. A prominent scholarly board is already in place. Martin Buber’s principal English language biographer, author of the multi-volume “Life of Martin Buber”, Dr. Maurice Friedman, will serve as Honorary Chair.
6. International linkages and cooperative agreements with academic institutes in the US and around the world.
7. Research into the confluence between some aspects of Buberian Dialogical Philosophy, Zen Buddhism, and Indigenous spirituality. (my book work in progress: Buber, Zen, The Between.)
8. Archival and documentation work. Repository of manuscripts, pictures, letters, works of art and other bibliographic material related to Martin Buber and the Dialogical tradition in Philosophy.
9. Selected field activities in two major areas: A. The application of Dialogical Ecology with indigenous communities in Latin America. B. Given Martin Buber’s prominent historic place in peace activities in Israel-Palestine, we will also work on facilitating a dialogical approach between Israelis and Arabs.
Applied Work:
One of the unique concepts behind the establishment of MBIDE is the applied aspects of its work. Building on Dr. Margulies pioneering work as founder of CDPA (see bellow), The MBIDE will establish externally funded direct links with Institutes, NGOs and smaller governments (many of whom we have already worked with in the past) both in the US and in indigenous and poor communities in Latin America. This linkages will be established in order to cooperate in implementation of progressive, cooperative, community sustainable projects. In this area of community work with indigenous and poor populations, we bring several years of in-the-field experience. The Buber Institute will also aim its efforts at conflict resolution programs in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
International Agreements:
The MBIDE has signed draft cooperation agreements with the Popular University of the Madres of Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, with the Universidad de Palermo in Buenos Aires and with the Faculty of Ecology at the Universidad de La Habana in Cuba. The MBIDE has recruited a prominent international Board of Scholars to serve as academic and research advisors to the work of the Institute. The MBIDE intends to sign similar agreements with academic institutions throughout Latin America, Israel and Palestine.