Ideas & Personal & Music Posted by James Killus, 16 Oct 2007 06:15 am
Enlightenment is not a Competitive Sport
One of the post-Firesign Theater “rock and roll comedy” groups was The Conception Corporation. They put out two albums, A Pause in the Disaster, and Conceptionland. Both were good for Progessive Radio play in the 60s, which is to say the early 70s. (As I understand it, there is a third, live album now available as well).
One of the cuts on Conceptionland was “Rock and Roll Classroom,” another “What if Freaks Ran Things?” idea (see also “Returned for Re-Grooving,” by Firesign Theater). In this case, what if high school were really hip, or at least trying to be?
In one bit, gym class is taught by “Fizz Ed” who announces to the class in a drill instructor voice, “Today, we’re going to learn to meditate! On three, one, two, meditate! One, two, meditate! You! Over in the corner, you’re not meditiating!”
In short, it was a lot like a Pilates class.
A fair number of Aikido practitioners also practice zazen, meditating in seiza, the standard Japanese sitting posture, knees and feet on the floor, buttocks resting on the feet (feet tops flat on the floor). Seiza is a natural and comfortable posture—provided you have been sitting that way since you were a child. For us Westerners, it can rapidly become torture; our bones, ligaments, and blood vessels did not grow into seiza as we matured, so at the very least, our legs tend to fall asleep, not to mention the cramps, aches, etc. that also accompany extended periods in seiza.
In zazen, a zafu, a small circular cushion, is often used to alleviate the seiza problem, but many students don’t use them, or they don’t use enough of a cushion to straighten the legs enough to really make the thing less of an ordeal. So then we get all sorts of rationalizations about “letting go of the pain,” etc.
It’s quite true that meditation is often used as a way of alleviating chronic pain, but pain isn’t actually the point of meditation. Meditation itself isn’t supposed to hurt, nor is the posture you’re in supposed to hurt. Actually, being in a painful posture during meditation is dangerous, since you are then basically ignoring an important message from your body, and you can cause or exacerbate an injury by doing so.
But, of course, “letting go of the pain” feels like such an accomplishment.
At a college reunion many years ago, one of my freshman buddies was there with his wife, and they were explaining their study of kundalini yoga. The posture in which you begin meditation is supposed to cause some group of muscles to stretch, though not to anything approaching pain. Then, as meditation progresses, the stretched muscles relax, releasing kundalini energy. The reason why advanced students wind up tying themselves into knots, so to speak, is that it becomes more and more difficult to give your muscles that necessary stretch, because the practitioner becomes more and more limber. But the limberness is not the point of it, the kundalini is.
“Kundalini energy” sounds like woo-woo Asian mystical mumbo jumbo, but actually, all of the related concepts, prana, ki, gi, chi, and all the related “energies” are fairly easy to perceive if you put a bit of work into the matter. As for the “woo-woo” part of it, one can just as easily talk about dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, and any of the other myriad neurotransmitters that have been discovered and studied. If freeing up kundalini energy went with an increase in dopamine levels, what then? Does that “explain” the matter, or just make it more palatable to a mechanistic world view?
In any case, the question becomes, what is all that energy for? In the martial arts, of course, we have one explanation: it makes you stronger, more able to practice the art, and, if necessary, win the fight. But there are other answers, some more prosaic, some downright cosmic. Meditation becomes yet another tool, whatever your goal, be it better health or a doorway into infinity. Whatever floats your boat.
It is noteworthy, however, that so much energy is expended in oneupsmanship. “I’m more enlightened than you” seems to be, on examination, a self-canceling statement. To have it issued (albeit usually indirectly) by someone who has achieved that state by spending hours staring at a wall and literally doing nothing, well, that just makes the leap into paradox, doesn’t it? But then, zen thrives on paradox, and art thrives on irony, even the unintentional sort.
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Responses to “Enlightenment is not a Competitive Sport”
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on 16 Oct 2007 at 1:24 pm 1. Oaktown Girl said …
You’ve touched on so many sub-topics I could go on about or rant about, I don’t know really where to begin. So I’ll just say you’ve made some excellent points.
Sweet Lord Astaroth, Enlightenment most certainly is a competitive sport. Get in the game, fool!
Don’t. Get. Me. Started. There’s a Simpsons episode where Lisa has a huge crush on a teenage boy activist, and in an attempt to impress him, informs him that’s she’s a vegetarian. His smug, condescending reply is, “That’s all? I’m a Level-4 Vegan”. Same dynamic is found in many “spiritual” circles, and of course there’s a lot of crossover anyway.
This post does bring one thing to mind: You know how when a fundamentalist Christian evangelical says, “Well, bless your heart!”, what they really mean is, “Enjoy your stay in hell, you Godless heathen!”, because they are so superior (being “saved”, and all) to you? I think “Let go of the pain” and many statements like that are near equivalents, at least in the “I’m so superior” aspect.
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on 16 Oct 2007 at 2:18 pm 2. spyder said …
Wow, not only do i read this post after i have dropped one in the queue regarding the Dalai Lama, but my own morning meditation today included some Breath of Fire work with respect to the big change in the weather. And no, i can no longer comfortably focus in seiza (and no amount of zofu is going to help), but as you point out, the posture is less important than the efforts of the mind to focus as clearly as possible on the daily essence. Thanks for this.
Somehow i don’t see meditation and 25 years of dedication to kundalini yoga (my first introduction came at the age of six), as increasing the levels of my Thetan status. You know like Tom Cruise and John Travolta (still curious about Catherine Bell though):
The path to salvation, or enlightenment, includes achieving states of increasingly greater mental awareness–Pre-Clear, Clear, and ultimately Operating Thetan. An Operating Thetan is a spirit who can control matter, energy, space, time, thought, and life. Practitioners (”Auditors”) are regarded as ministers and counselors who assist others to achieve self-enlightenment.
Now this is woowoo shit.
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on 16 Oct 2007 at 5:06 pm 3. Oaktown Girl said …
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on 16 Oct 2007 at 6:29 pm 4. Bill Benzon said …
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on 16 Oct 2007 at 6:37 pm 5. James Killus said …
Science fiction is a little embarrassed at having unleashed L. Ron Hubbard upon the world. I’ve written a little bit about it here. The bottom line is that religion is religion and people are people, and well, whaddaya gonna do?
“My ancestors conquered the world, because they ate meat… I acknowledge that this is maybe an oversimplification.” — U. Utah Phillips
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on 16 Oct 2007 at 9:27 pm 6. JP Stormcrow said …
Just stopping in quickly to say that personally I am far less interested in displays of oneupmanship than anyone I know.
… go tribe …
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on 17 Oct 2007 at 10:19 am 7. spyder said …
One of my most favorite of all books, one i read fairly continuously over time, is Jack Kornfield’s After the Ecstasy the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path. Among its many daily reminders of good practice and heartfelt discipline is the notion of paying attention to each of the moments, to the details of the world around us. Paying attention seems so innocuous and altogether obvious, but it is the first among those that are ignored. For example, do we actively pay attention to the brushing of our teeth, witnessing each stroke and/or (if we use the new-fangled tooth-saving electric creatures) each tooth’s cleansing, or do we simply think about all the other “things” we think we need to do or think about???? Do we actively engage our whole body when we put on our clothes, observing the nuances of the process, feeling the body and its structure as it moves and holds?
Paying attention does not take time away from other things. Paying attention enriches the wonder of each moment: seeing the subtlety of the fall leaf, out our window, as it morphs from green to dark dry brown over two or three days.
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on 17 Oct 2007 at 10:38 am 8. Oaktown Girl said …
JP (#6) - You are so lucky I didn’t have a drink of coffee in my mouth when I read that comment. You would have gone immediately into The Trunk (after you’d come to Oakland to clean off my computer screen and keyboard).
Yes - Go Cleveland! Oh, how I love watching Boston sweat! I’m going to have to find time to go to the Boston sports pages on the web just so I can bask in the angst.
Rest in Peace, Phil Hartman (#3)
Science fiction is a little embarrassed at having unleashed L. Ron Hubbard upon the world.
Yes, I think “unleashed” is indeed le mot juste.
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on 17 Oct 2007 at 11:42 am 9. James Killus said …
Oh, did you say something, JP? I was lost in thought.
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on 17 Oct 2007 at 2:41 pm 10. spyder said …
My own morbid synchronicity leadeth me unto temptation; thus as a potentially reincarnating “squaw” fish i succumb.
For the anecdotal record, at the age of six i was forced by my loving, doting parents to yet another drive around the US. After making to, and throughout, the East Coast, we got back to the tour of the Plains relations. I was a pissy little brat by that point and was trying my best to undermine any joy others might be having. This was 1953 and there were no interstates nor much else except a network of strange two lane highways that came abruptly to 90º turns along the boundaries of various farms and ranches. The heat and humidity were intolerable. We stopped at my great uncle’s house in Nebraska. He lived on a corn and wheat farm, which he had purchased after returning from India in the late 1940’s where he had previously lived all his life as part of the raj. It was nice there, with lots of strange and wonderful artifacts from that part of the world. Among them were several swords, and i took a fancy to one in particular. A deal was struck. If i spent the next seven days with him (he was an ascetic freak in the tradition of folks like Gary Snyder and Alan Watts), and would spend much of that time learning some yoga from him, he would give me the sword.
I considered the offer about a second, thinking that i wouldn’t have to get back in the car, nor travel around Kansas and Iowa, and i would get the sword. I did learn a great deal of yoga in that week. I still have a picture my mother took when they arrived back at the farm, of my great uncle and i doing posing in front of a corn field. I still have the sword even, though in the last ten years i have given away all of my other martial arts weapons to my sons ( i do still own a powerful handgun). I suppose there isn’t much in the way of motivated enlightenment when one learns meditation and yoga to avoid driving around in the summer in a 1951 Chevy and get a “cool” sword. More like a commodity trade i suspect.
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on 17 Oct 2007 at 3:10 pm 11. Bill Benzon said …
This:
Or this:
Your choice. I am assured that the Cosmos is indifferent between these two, and many others.
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on 17 Oct 2007 at 5:52 pm 12. JP Stormcrow said …
Oh, did you say something, JP? I was lost in thought.
If I were a lesser man, I would take notice of this prosaic provocation.
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on 17 Oct 2007 at 6:04 pm 13. JP Stormcrow said …
spyder,
Are you sure you weren’t the inspiration for Secondhand Lions. -
on 17 Oct 2007 at 9:31 pm 14. spyder said …
NO.. that wouldn’t be at all possible. Uncle George (Swope) was a sychophantic bureaucratic type in Northeastern India , and collector of Indian stuff. He did take a large prominent farm house, gut the interior, and build a central, enclosed courtyard in which he put his large collection of Asian artifacts. Among that stuff were large elephant tusks, lots of animal skin rugs and wall hangings, endless wicker furniture, and racks of weapons; a child’s dream playpen. He had brought with him into the US a British wife, who was relatively meek and quiet, making tea and all sorts of great grain products (my first taste of scones, that are still to this day a favorite).
The only intrigue at all died with my mother, father, uncle, and great uncle. It wasn’t discovered until just a few years ago, when the final crates of family albums and photographs were gone through frame by frame. There among them were pictures of my mother and Uncle George in a bombed out Morocco and again in Monaco and Rome. The dates put that at the time my father was in Japan (my parents had been married four years by that point (yesterday would have been their 65th anniversary). No one in our family at any time ever talked about my mother being in Europe or Africa after the war. The picture was the first my own brother, sister and me had any idea whatsoever. The only passing acknowledgment that there was some purpose to this meeting in Europe, was a couple of sentences in my Dad’s memoir about his brother Paul (one of Patton’s Colonels) asking my mother to take charge of some packet of papers that had something to do with Luxembourg. There was no other mention, even as to what she did with the papers; my uncle Paul died from a major stroke in the mid-1950’s. As far as i know, no one else has any idea of what that was all about.
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on 21 Oct 2007 at 1:30 pm 15. Bill Benzon said …
