Hi,
I'm Chol Seng,
A monk with Five Mountain Zen Order,
And sometimes people ask me,
What is Buddhism?
Or what is Zen?
Or the tougher question is,
Buddhism sounds so depressing with all of its focus on suffering all the time.
Although there's certainly some truth to the fact that we look that directly in the eye and notice that yes,
Our experience sometimes does include that,
I'd say that that's not really its focus.
In fact,
I'd claim Buddhism isn't really a religion or maybe not even a philosophy.
Now,
Of course,
This is just my opinion.
But what I'd say Buddhism is about is it's about reality.
This awkward,
Vulnerable,
Open,
Connected and fecund moment.
That's real.
All of our thoughts and preferences and opinions about it aren't it.
So the practices of Buddhism are designed to help us to see that,
To see through our projections,
To come back to reality,
To see that this moment is enough.
So let's talk about that for a moment.
We spend so much time with our opinions that we begin to believe them even over our own experience.
Let me explain that.
Our real-world experience can be summed up this way.
Now,
This is an oversimplification of course,
But nonetheless generally accurate.
Every moment of your life,
The universe has given you enough.
Every moment of your life,
The universe has given you enough.
Think of all the billions of things that have to happen for you to stay alive into the next moment.
These happen at different levels of analysis,
Such as micro level of your body,
Generating all the proteins and lipids you need to keep living,
That the bacteria in your body that are symbiotic with you stay in the right balance.
These happen at broader levels like having enough oxygen,
Not having too many pollutants in the system,
Having the social support you need,
Having clean water.
These happen at macro levels like the sun continuing to shine,
Etc.
So the odds,
If you sit there and meditate on these,
And I recommend it,
It's actually a good experience to try to sit there and go,
What needs to happen for me to stay alive into the next moment?
And you will see just how deeply interconnected you are with all other things.
But the odds of all of these things continuing to be just right,
It actually seems astronomical.
What your real world experience in your life is that they always do,
They do keep happening.
It's like the universe is conspiring to make you happy.
Unfortunately,
We go around feeling anxious and upset lots of the time.
Why?
Every moment is giving you exactly enough.
So why are we so anxious?
Now when I say enough,
I don't mean you're liking every moment.
You might not be getting what you want.
You might not be enjoying what's happening in this moment,
But it's still enough.
And as a kind of an aside,
Even if it's not and you're dying,
It probably still is giving you what you need.
Think of it this way,
If the universe has supported you every day in your life,
What makes you think it's not going to give you what you need in death,
Too?
But to come back to this moment,
We spend a lot of our time being paranoid,
Worried about what was,
What is,
What will be.
So is there an antidote to that?
I would argue that we need to work on generating a frame of mind that is pro-noid,
Not paranoid.
So to go back to the Greek,
What is paranoid?
Para is around or against,
Contrary to irregular.
The noid is mind.
So paranoid is kind of an against mind or an issuing from your mind or contrary to or irregular mind.
Instead,
What would pro be?
Doesn't come from the Greek,
Comes from the Latin in this case,
But it's before.
So before mind or a forward looking mind,
A taking care of mind,
Just as mind.
So the universe and everything in it is conspiring to make you happy.
It's doing it very sneakily,
Too,
By the way.
You can't even see it.
What all that means is that the conspiracy is wide and deep.
So how can we learn to abide in this pro-noid mindset?
One of the techniques I like is to meditate on and try to regularly remember the koan,
What in this moment is lacking?
Really,
Ask yourself,
What in this moment is lacking?
And most of the time when you ask that question,
You'll realize nothing is lacking.
You have enough.
You are sufficient.
This moment is sufficient.
You might not be enjoying it.
That happens.
That doesn't mean it's not enough.
So see if you can practice either with this koan,
What in this moment is lacking,
Or just starting to notice how the universe really does seem to be conspiring to give you everything you need when you need it to keep you happy.
So let's not fight that,
Then.
Thank you.
