Song Of The Day: Bourban & Division / Firewater
Word Of The Day: Inficete / Not amusing or witty

This new blog is killer. My Bodhisattva-Saint-Sage webmaster (Matt, who's company is called Lullabot, and they are bad bad ass in a big big love kinda way, HIRE THEM and you'll be following the keen business strategy of other upstarts like ...oh, . Yeah. MTV!!.
This new site arrangement is going to afford me a great deal of creative enterprise. I feel... authorized.

So, I'm going to receive Jukai this month, which I sort of received ten years ago, but I've never received it from my teacher, in my official (now) tradition. This will firmly / karmically plant me in the White Plum lineage for... EVER!! [Aside. Zen Koan: Who receives Jukai?] I'm off to Salt Lake City to hang with my Zen teacher Genpo Roshi and the whole White Plum gang. White Plum is the lineage, in case you're wondering how the whole Buddhist thing works. In fact, let's familiarize ourselves with the Buddhist family tree in America. I'm going to leave a lot out, because honestly I've only interacted with a few branches.

First, depending on who's stats you use, less than 1% of Americans self-identify as "Buddhist". That 1%? The TOP 1%. But you knew that.

Why so few Buddhists in America? First, if you're Buddhist, you go to hell. In fact, if you're reading this you're in hell, you're incarnated in gross form in the lower realm of terra-firm, where all sorts of bi-peds, quadripeds, and a melange of other sentient (but not necessarily self-reflexive) entities vie for a stabilized awakening and liberation from the infinite illusory domains of becoming and unbecoming, of matter and immaterial. If you're a good Bodhisattva, you want to be here, you choose to be here. You're grateful to be in hell, because it's where the action is, it's where the work and play of Being is transacted in its most dynamic manner. What is a Bodhisattva?

A Bodhisattva is someone who vows to awaken (or has already awakened) for the sake of all beings. Having awakened, instead of vaporizing POOF! into the ~!~?~!~ that is their inherent condition, they instead choose to remain, incarnated in some form (either physical/corporeal, or in more subtle forms) working toward the liberation of all beings, and facilitating awakening in all beings, at all places, at all times. Be clear here, the Bodhisattva's vow is NOT to put off awakening (which is sometimes a Western mis-read of the vow) but rather to awaken as quickly as possible, because until we awaken fully we are operating at less than optimum efficacy toward the liberation of all beings. So fucking pick up the pace, ya'll, and get thee to hell in order to participate in the work-play of Love. But fuck thee not around (you like my old English syntax, fux?) with the Bodhisattva's vow. It is for real. And you will, literally -TRULY- enter into an infinite cycle of incarnation, an exercise in communion/agency that will test even a deity's endurance. But of course, if you don't take the vow, you will also incarnate endlessly, but you will be naught but flotsom-jetsom in the Kosmic River. I took the Bodhisattva's vow ten years ago, almost to the day, back when I first starting practicing with these Zen fuckers, back in California.

Anyway. Before moving on, let's touch these basics: Buddhism is a practice, a technology for awakening. It has no real beliefs or dogma, except that which is employed in a stage-rocket fashion. Buddhists don't believe in beliefs, they don't have a God, they don't worship Buddha and in fact they
don't even call themselves Buddhists except as a convenience in order to conduct intersubjective mojo. Signifiers are a piece of gum you spit out once you get the knack of blowing bubbles. Tens of millions of Buddhists would probably vehemently disagree with that definition of Buddhism and that's because they're not real Buddhists. They're dream-worshippers. As it reads on the wall of the Shambhala Center where I was married: "All Dharmas should be regarded as dreams."

That said, it should also be noted that in the exoteric sense, in the popular arena of religious studies (which, by the way, who fucking gives a shit about?), saying "Buddhism" is like saying "Christianity". There are Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, Evangelicals, yadda yadda yadda. There are a shit load of kinds of Buddhism. Here's some examples. Buddhism is often parsed as having three major unfoldings, or "turnings of the wheel". They are Hinayana (Buddhism Basics), Mahayana (Buddhism Essential), and Vajrayana (Complete Buddhism). I would add a fourth to that, which is occuring RIGHT NOW in America, which is the fourth turning of the wheel, which is Integral Buddhism (Trans-Path Buddhism, Trans-lineage Mind Mind, etc) and we have Ken Wilber, Genpo Roshi, Diane Hamilton, Patrick Sweeney, Lama Suyra Das, and many others to thank for that. But I'm going to leave the subject of Integral Buddhism for another day and for now, focus on what came before. A breif sampling of some American Buddhism (the opinions below are solely MINE, and do not reflect on my teacher, lineage, or anyone else):

Shambhala (a variant of Vajrayana / Tantric Buddhism)
Shambhala is Trungpa's lineage, basically. He came over to the states, founded Naropa University (the only Buddhist University in the States), and created a lineage. It's pretty fucking bad ass too. My wife was a Shambhala Buddhist when we met. Trungpa was close buds with Maezumi Roshi, who was my teacher's teacher. Shambhala Buddhism is like Tibetan Buddhism with a disco ball, hotter babes, and more booze. Shambhala rocks. In the States, you have cats like the Sakyong (Trungpa's kid), Patrick Sweeney (a Tulku, I think), and Reggie Ray. They've all sort of gone in different directions, I think.

Tibetan Buddhism (another strain of Vajrayana Buddhism):
Dalai Lama. Lama Surya Das . Richard Gere. Beastie Boys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Dalai Lama. He's nice. For my taste, he's a little too pluralistic and flaccid. I mean, a friend told me he recently went to see the Dalai Lama speak to a group of Islamic and Buddhist figures, and His Holiness the D.L. characterized the Islamic fundamentalist terrorist who murder and strive to dismantle civilization as "mischevious". Whatever. "Mischevious?" That's new age, relativistic, pluralistic fucking pablum. Are you kidding me? IF (underline: IF) that is what His Holiness thinks, then I feel the Dalai Lama is a liability to civilization. For the record, the whole "spiritual movement" which responds with loving compassion to brutality, violence, genocide, and murderous aggression as the mere epiphenomenon of "mischevious" or "wayward" souls is literally, actually going to fucking UNDERMINE civilization. The appropriate reaction to murderous terrorist is not compassion, of course, it's active compassion that finds the terrorists and kills them. If you have the chance, as a Buddhist, as especially as a human being, to prevent untold and unspeakable suffering by killing a despotic figure like an Osama Bin Laden, or a Hitler, you fucking DO IT. With love. If you can't make such distinctions, you are adrift in a relativistic oceanic blur of idiocy that is literally an enormous danger to humanity, and will result in incredible suffering for MILLIONS. Spirituality is not some fucking Opium den to bliss out in while the shocking, punishing affair of (illusory) aggressors goes unchecked by men like His Holiness The Dalai Lama. With all due respect (and I DO respect His Holiness, but I disagree strongly on such matters), If His Holiness were in charge of the World, rape, genocide, and murder would increase exponentially, because these issues are fucking DEVELOPMENTAL. The terrorists are functioning from World Views that are pre-conventional, they are a pathological mythical experiment gone awry, and do all the Tonglen in Tibet will not penetrate or ameliorate what is, in essence, a developmental deficiency. The Dalai Lama wants to use Green, pluralistic, relativistic spiritual approaches to deal with psycho-social pathologies that are three or four developmental stages BELOW his level. That's the same thing as using TONGLEN on an eight year old child who's delusional, has space age weaponry, unlimited funding, and a severe rage disorder. It does not work, and actually makes things A LOT worse. Fucking shit. Sometimes you have to kill people, and that sucks, but you CAN go to battle with a loving, awakened, open, radiant mind, realizing that unfortunately, some sentient beings have to have their lives "rebooted". They'll be back, don't worry. But we don't allow carnage and murder, and we don't tacitly permit terrorism by quaintly referring to murderers as "mischevious". That is sick and insulting. I also read recently His Holiness thinks anal sex is a SIN and is forbidden to his closest adherents. That makes me want to get fucked in the ass by a Bodhisattva. How can someone
possibly have any relation to tantra and simultaneously proscribe anal fucking? You can't (completely) awaken without it.

Soto Zen (a strain of Mahayana Buddhism)
Ottmar Liebert. Leonard Cohen Let's cut to the chase. Soto is the best, most awesome, and most effective form of Buddhism that's ever existed. Dogen is its daddy, and while it goes back to China, it really got its legs in Japan (circa 1226 or so). Katagiri Roshi, Suzuki Roshi, Richard Baker Roshi, Maezumi Roshi were great cats in Soto in the States. There are also lovelies like Genpo Roshi, Joko Beck, John Daido Loori, and I think Bernie Glassman Roshi who were transmitted in both Soto and Rinzai. Plus now Diane Hamilton. That's like being a minister in both Lutheran and Baptist communities at the same time. In soto, practitioners usually sit facing the wall.

Rinzai (a strain of Mahayana Buddhism)
In Rinzai, they use Koans. There are 1700 Koans, last I heard, that you have to pass. In Rinzai, they often sit facing the center of the room, or each other, or a high definition tv.

Sokka Gakkai (a strain of Nichiren Buddhism, which was formed in Japan in the 13th century, which was roughly concurrent with Dogen's time, and Soto, so what the hell, let's say it's an offshoot of Soto...;-) Duncan Sheik and Tina Turner. I don't really know much about Sokka Gakkai, except that it seems to be the most controversial of the sects.

Theravadin (also known as Hinayana Buddhism, or the "lesser vehicle")
Buddhism that's obsessed with rules and precepts. Rules, rules, rules.

don't kill
don't steal
don't be such a fucking pervert
don't swear or be dishonest
don't get fucked up wicked wasted or even a little buzzed

Rock and Roll is essentially a Tantric tradition (Vajrayana) that inolves murder (seeker assassination through Shamanistic ritual transfiguration), stealing (see promoter fees, ticketmaster), hedonism (kundalini conductivity via genital congress), lying (development of character, drama, archetypal theatrics), and intoxicants (drugs, booze, tears, oxygen). It's easy to see why Hinayana / Theravadin Buddhism is for pansy ass sissies who are obsessed with convention, and not for the likes of David Lee Roth or Bono. I think Bono is an esoteric Christian, which would qualify him for Vajrayana Buddhist status.