Treeleaf Zendo

I read in a Buddhist scholar’s commentary that many modern folks in the West are “disenchanted” about life, much more than people 5000, 500 or even 50 years ago, or folks in non-Western, more traditional societies. By “disenchanted,” I don’t mean that we are disappointed at the state of this world (although many of us are that too, and rightly.) Rather, I mean that life has lost its magic, quite literally. In the past, people tended to find the magical, the mystical, the otherworldly and wondrous much more easily and everywhere they looked with their eyes. Today, we often must find our magic at the movies, in the latest blockbuster with wizards and dragons, comic book heroes or starships. Some people will find it in New Age beliefs, crystals, fortune telling and white wikkary. Others will seek their mystery in the more mainstream religions, hungry for signs and miracles, messianic heroes, healings from heaven, personal prayers answered by saints or Buddhas, plus some hidden purpose that will explain both their personal ills and the mess that the planet is in. They are attracted by the ethereal chants, exotic images, funny robes, grand legends, gongs, incense swirls, claims of supernatural powers and special empowerments that Buddhism and the other major religions have on offer.

Such people are hungry to be “re-enchanted!”

Still other people are so jaded and “realistic” that they will have none of that, no need for anything that the eye cannot see. They find little to believe in except maybe the meanings they discover in their own heart that they make for themselves. They are practical, skeptical, down to earth, material and empirical. Sure, science does not have all the answers, and maybe never will. But if science can’t prove it, if the story seems a bit strange, it is probably not true, so not worth belief. Myth (if it is taken up at all) is taken up for its symbolism, not as history. Nothing happens when we die, and we are kaput. The universe, while amazing and beautiful, is ultimately rather meaningless, directionless and cold. In fact, many of us cannot even believe in things we used to believe in: Our institutions, the promise of tomorrow, not even what our own eyes see (because of all this ‘AI slop’ on the net). Science lacks key answers and is the tool of “Big Pharma,” and even time is relative.

In fact, many folks today come to Zazen or other meditation practices, not for “Enlightenment” or mystical insights or any of the other esoteric teachings that entranced our Buddhist ancestors and predecessors 500 or even 50 years ago, but just for a little “relaxation,” enhanced efficiency, weight loss and better health, to be more content workers and consumers, to not be so bothered by what’s in the news.

In my case, I am a bit of all that! I step right through and beyond such divide!

It is my job, as a Zen teacher, to remind folks that there is REAL MAGIC & WONDER in this universe, even as (I am an unabashed, card carrying “Buddhist Modernist) we need not put our faith in many of the (to my eyes anyway) supernatural superfluous superstitions, wild exaggerations and dreamlike extremes, questionable quack cures and pseudo-scientific claims, the fables-posing-as-fact that often surround Buddhist traditions (including my own Soto Zen tradition) like any religion.

For my efforts, usually all I succeed in doing is to alienate BOTH the skeptic “show me” scientists AND the crystal chanting “woo woo” warlocks!

However, friends, for whatever reason, you now find yourself sitting atop a tiny rock in the middle of vast time and space, flying through the cosmos at half a million miles per hour, breathing atmosphere that is a thumbnail thick between you and airless stellar void. For you to have been born (I exaggerate not at all) every single force and particle, required cause and effect, each event and eventuality of physics, chemistry, stellar and planetary development, biology and evolution, bodily systems and human brain structure, world history and your own family history … bar none in the billions of years … had to work out just so, just right, from the Big Bang all the way to your own conception if that particular happening was indispensable to your eventual birth. Not a wrong turn turned, not one stumble stumbled, not a single miss missed, if such turn, stumble or miss would have resulted in the world’s missing out on your presence.

If doubting this fact, just pinch yourself. (I just finished a new book manuscript on this very topic.) There is something very mysterious and miraculous about it. Buddhism traditionally teaches that there is something very rare and special about the opportunity of taking human form, and so do not waste it.

We now have physicists and engineers who can let us do for real what wizards once falsely claimed, from flying in the air, to flying to the moon, to bending time and making machines talk! Medical doctors cure diseases that witch doctors could not, and chemists now turn lead to gold where ancient alchemists were powerless. I can talk to people on the other side of the world at the push of a button, or put on goggles and step into realms of witches and dragons on my Playtendo. Thanks to all those scientists and doctors, we live in a reality that would seem fantasy to even kings and queens of old. Yes, our world still has terrible problems … our modern “dragons and ogres” on the news every night … but I have hope that our living “Gandolfs” will beat evil in the end.

I refuse to chant some ‘abracadbra’ spell to bring my desires, I do not think that Buddha statues have some mysterious power to send me health and wealth, I do not know or care much about future lives or heavenly worlds after this one … yet I chant the chants and bow to statues as reminders (re-MIND-ers) that one who desires life as it is, with all its hard edges, is truly the wealthiest being. Live gently in this life, filled with generosity, love and goodness … and any future lives and heavens will take care of themselves.

Yes, there are miracles. I do not know if praying to a statue will bring rain for the crops or cure a cold (it cannot hurt to try and ask!), but I see the mystery and wonder in every flower’s opening, each drop of rain, the sun’s warmth, a warm breeze and every breath we inhale. It is all just you and you are all just that. The ground, the trees, the seas are all marvels of nature’s intelligence and unchallenged engineering, while simply cutting the grass or walking to work is a sacred act for those with the wisdom eye to see. We can say that Buddha is cutting Buddha, the whole Earth walking the whole Earth with your two legs (which are also the whole Earth, by the way.) Even the most ordinary is extra-ordinary: Shoe laces, dripping faucets and dripping noses … AMAZING!

Yes, both the physicists and the Zen masters agree … and can demonstrate through both theories and meditations … that you are not merely a lonely creature born temporarily in the world, but you -are- the world, and all the universe, and all things and other beings in it, which are also each other, and the whole thing. You are all of it, poured into one body for a period of time. In that sense, you never die … never were you truly born either … because we are going & going as the whole keeps going, and everything keeps going, as every stone and star, blade of grass and new baby’s smile that’s ongoing. No, even modern medicine cannot extend our lives forever … but I know something truly timeless, unbound by starts and ends. Alas, this meat will meet its mortal end someday, but the Wholeness (our Other Face … as much our face as this face and every face) flows on and on.

This world is enchanted. It is all sacred, from the biggest galaxy to teeniest quark inside you. There are incredible powers, miracles every moment, real dragon’s fire.

It is everywhere. Never forget.