Linksys Routers & WildBlue

After years of decent service, my Linksys WRT54G wireless router started acting up after getting WildBlue satellite Internet service.  Before that, I’d had Comcast cable and Qwest DSL at various times all without trouble.   After many years, was it just my router’s time to go?  That’s what I figured, and after investing hours and hours working on the hobbling WRT54G over the last several months it was time to move on.  Being an ex-computer programmer, it’s very hard to put down a tech problem without solving it, but this time I exercised my discipline to enjoy the freedom of not needing to understand or fix this router problem.  So I took it outside and ended its misery (really mine).

After surfing around for a good replacement router, I picked up a Linksys WRT54GS2 just to show “no hard feelings” for my old nagging Linksys router.  Got it home and began to set it up.  The LAN worked fine, but couldn’t get outside to the Internet.  So I disconnected the cable and hooked a laptop directly to the WildBlue satellite modem…boom, Internet was fine.  Connected the computer back up to the router and…no Internet!  After doing this nonsense for a couple hours, decided to surf around and see if anyone else was having similar troubles with my combination of equipment.  Not surprisingly, yes, others were.  On the forum WildBlue Uncensored, I found this article about the WRT54GS2:

http://www.wildblue.cc/wbforums/showthread.php?p=74980

The guy had the same problem with the WRT54GS2, bought a bunch of new routers and decided to try them one at a time.  The first one was up and running in under 15 minutes!  It happened to be the Netgear WGR 614v9.  Although it was getting late, the IT guy in me couldn’t wait so I drove to Wal-Mart to fix this irritating, multi-month-long problem.  Story short, the Netgear WGR 614v9 was up in no time.  No sweat, no tears.

Is this a WildBlue problem?  Apparently, some tech geeks are seeing a lot of problems with the new Cisco Linksys wireless routers.  So maybe WildBlue is innocent.  Whatever the case, for what it’s worth I hope at least a couple people stumble upon this blog and are saved some hours of life to do something more fun and interesting.

Losing Books

Zen may fairly be called the most uninteresting “religion.”  At it’s core, Zen is hardly a religion.  Yes, the Eastern counterparts are adorned with their culture.  What does that have to do with Zen?  After some extended time sitting, I asked myself, “What does Buddha have to do with Zen?”

At the end of this morning’s practice, I whacked the singing bowl for a nice “Gong….”  But did not bow.  I sat, I walked, sat then “gonged.”  I didn’t feel like bowing to myself today.  The incense was nice enough, Buddha’s statue as still and serene as ever…  It is plastic!

At the last 30 minute session, the overwhelming urge to get rid of excess books came over me.  I’d heard it said that’s a sign of one’s Zen practice progressing.  So from there to here…  I’ll never have time to read them all, unless rendered bedridden.  Plus, many are of topics that interested me long ago.  Deep books on studying the meaning of Biblical words, or texts about texts in the Bible.  Others are weird odds and ends of spiritual books with probably nothing more than some author’s own anxious searching for truth.  They seem useless.  Not one of them has answered any questions.  Some questions cannot be answered with words.  This was the feeling this morning…

A poem came to me after sitting this morning:

practice zen.
drop speculation,
lose striving.
be.
philosophy is vain.
what is this?!
this moment.
burn down notions
with fire.
i enter the stream.
no other side.
no return.
water is me,
or not.
just zen.
live right.
drop judgment.
dance, cry, walk
with this.
nothing to say.
nothing…

Lonely Mountains

If only people
would not come to visit me
in lonely mountains
where I have built my retreat
from the world’s many trials.
- Musō Soseki

This is a common refrain in the Zen poetry and attitude.  Certainly, we all can use solitude at times, but my gut instinct is that being in total isolation goes against the grain of being human.  So was Buddha not human?  I think it’s helpful to remember that Buddhism is called, “The Middle Way.”  These words of the Teacher in Ecclesiastes come to mind:

To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:

…A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing…

- Ecclesiastes 3 NKJV

A more modern, and extreme, example of “retreat” can found in the experience of Christopher McCandless in the book/movie Into the Wild. Christopher wants to go to Alaska to get away from society and its sickness.  Eventually, he dies of starvation, but also of loneliness I think.  In his writing he finally sees that life means nothing unless shared with another person.

It seems his error was in extreme view.  Certainly, modern (and even ancient) overgrown society is a breeding ground of misery.  Retreating from all people, however, is the error.  Making life simple, living in smaller communities, selling unneeded possessions and so on can be a sufficient remedy for the excesses of our imposing civilizations.  However, to shun human contact is a mental, and heart, disease.  Balance is the answer, and it is different for each person, but I doubt that any human was so made (or evolved) to exists happily and successfully completely alone.  So I offer an updated poem to reflect this moderation in retreat…

People, birds, animals and insects
Coming and going
To share this mountain retreat
And the world’s many trials
That are common to us all.

Firewood Zen

There’s a popular Zen quote that goes,

“Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.”

Preparing for winter at my mountain cabin means chopping a lot of wood as it’s the only source of heat.  Fortunately, I have a well so carrying water isn’t necessary.

Being my first year here, I’m not sure how much wood will be needed.  My initial guess is about 5 cords.  For those needing a reminder, a cord is 4ft x 4ft x 8ft.  So 5 cords is about equal to a cube of wood 9 feet high, wide and deep!

Fortunately, Zen is not about sitting around all day!  Work has always been a part of it.  Yet, work and rest are fundamentally the same.  If the practice can’t follow one off the cushion, what good is it?  Chopping wood is particularly helpful, though, because not much thinking is required–just a lot of concentration.  When I find my mind absorbed in something other than the wood, that is how I know to return to the wood.  Also, I must be watchful of being concerned about how far my work has progressed.  Only one piece at a time.  Never mind the result.  That will come out of being mindful of the moment.  The wood is the practice.

The wood and I inter-are.  At some future date, I will absorb its heat–heat that came from the sun.  So the sun and I inter-are as well.  This inter-being is also called dependent origination.

Finally, when the work is done for the day, it’s time to rest a bit.  This too is Zen.  Just rest…  Zen, being so deceptively simple, will probably always be ignored–ignored like a tiny wildflower along a busy road.

The birds have vanished from the sky.
Now the last cloud drains away.

We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.

- Li Po (Zazen on Ching-t’ing Mountain)

True Nirvana

Last post, I spoke about the notion of God in relation to Buddhism and Freemasonry.  Now, I’d like to change gears a bit and consider the concept of nirvana.

In Buddhism, nirvana is the ultimate goal.  One of its meanings is extinction.  In short, no more rounds of birth and death in this world of suffering.  From the Zen view, true nirvana is the extinction of notions and views.  This even includes the notion of nirvana!

You may have heard the Zen saying, “If you see the Buddha, kill him!”  Why, since murder is clearly forbidden?  It is because we must even lose our reliance on the notion of the Buddha, not actually kill.  Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle has said, “The only true enlightenment is freedom from the mind.”  Thank you Mr. Tolle!  However, as true as that may be, that too is a notion!

So let us get on to the point.  All the profound sayings and teachings in the world do little good.  They are only the “finger pointing at the moon,” not the moon.  In it’s purity, Zen is total absorption in the present moment–total awareness.  And really, this is what a buddha is–awake.  Awake in the highest sense.  Being continuously mindful, rather than forgetful, of every moment and thought, feeling and action.  Forgetful really does not capture it in English.  We are not forgetting something like where our car keys are.  It is more like un-noticing of this moment.

Beliefs or disbeliefs of God, immortality, angels, bodhisattvas, hell, pure land, politics, self, others, etc. do not exist in nirvana.  The road to true nirvana is perfect mindfulness.

This blog, like most, is full of notions, views and opinions.  They sort of temporarily exist on the surface of my mind, or may even boil up from within.  In reality, after practicing deep mindfulness meditation for some time views are coming harder for me to believe in.  They all seem like mind aberrations, not the True Self.  I do not know if there is a heaven or a supreme God.  The difference now, from the past, is that now I realize that I do not know such things.

In the realm of deep mindfulness, or the Ultimate Dimension as Thich Nhat Hanh calls it, these speculations melt away and feel quite remote.  The immediacy of this moment is in the forefront.  But it needs to be said that this “Ultimate Dimension” is not some unpractical way of living, for it imposes nothing on you like so many religions do.  It is supremely simple and ultimately nothing more than perfect awareness and action in each moment.

Mindfulness brings peace, understanding, wisdom, skillfulness and more.  Ultimately, it unites the individual with all of existence, or makes him aware of that truth, and a boundless state of unity is experienced.  But, we are using concepts and words…  That is why “Zen” or “satori” is an experience, NOT words or mental formations!

Quick!  What are you thinking right now? Answer right away!

GAOTU

I’ve been reflecting on the concept of GAOTU lately.  For those into conspiracy theories and anti-Masonry, the term may evoke fear, anger, suspicion, etc.

GAOTU is an acronym for the Grand Architect of the Universe (AKA: God) used in Freemasonry.  A quick search on Google will show a lot of suspicion regarding this Masonic term.  So, I’d like to add my two cents.

To understand GAOTU, one needs to understand something fundamental about Freemasonry–everything is symbolic!  For ultra-literal-fundamentalists this can be hard to understand.  One way to think of it is this: Remember how Jesus is said to have only spoken in parables to the public?  Yet he spoke plainly to his close disciples?  Freemasonry is similar, except our main teaching tools are symbols, not sermons.  GAOTU is one of them.

So what is GAOTU?  In Masonry, each man is encouraged to look into each symbol for the meaning it has for him. This means that GAOTU is the Supreme Being according to each man’s belief.  If you are Christian, that would be the Father (Yahweh), Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit.  If you are Hindu, probably Brahma.  So GAOTU is a “placeholder” that represents each man’s understanding of the Ultimate Being.  One other thing, in Masonry, God and Geometry (i.e. science) have a special relationship.

In some lodges, GAOTU is also referred to as the Supreme Architect of the Universe (SAOTU).  This does not mean that Masonry has two gods by each of those names!  This literal, simplistic way of thinking is the primary reason some detractors fail to understand Freemasonry.

The goal of using a symbolic term such as SAOTU is very simple.  Masonry strives to create peace and harmony between it’s members, so it emphasizes what each man has in common and does not wrangle or war over personal differences.  This goals of harmony and accord is unique to Freemasonry when compared with other groups or religions that believe in a single Deity.

Some may wonder what GAOTU is to me since ordinary Buddhists do not believe in such a thing as a “first cause” creator god.  Buddhism considers all things to be caused by something prior to it.  So the gods mentioned in Buddhism are the result of something.  They are not eternally unchanging and existing.  Neither are they absolutely perfect.  Also, the “god realm” is not the ultimate goal, nirvana is.

Personally, I try not to get caught up in terms.  My personal concept of an “ultimate power” is essentially panentheistic.  I recognize that I do not know about the reality of actual gods or other celestial beings, so my view is basically naturalistic.  Being culturally Christian, though, it just feels natural to believe in a Supreme Power of some kind.  That Power, to me, is Light and Truth or Ultimate Reality.  (Don’t ask me to define those!)

Though these are just personal speculations, they may, however, explain how a Zen-ful Freemason can conceive of the Supreme Architect.  Some have wondered and that’s my current answer.  Each Mason has his own way of understanding the “big questions” and interpreting Masonic symbolism, and that is one thing that makes Freemasonry a great fraternal organization!

—

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Asleep within the grave

Asleep within the grave
The soldiers dream, and overhead
The summer grasses wave.

Nearing my journey’s end,
In dreams I trudge the wild waste moor,
And seek a kindly friend.

A hundred years and more,
Each year has cast its withered leaves
My little garden o’er.

- Matsuo Basho
Tr. William Porter

Further Light

To the Freemason, seeking light means many things and is particularly close to the heart.  It can mean many things to many people.  To the scientist, light may simply be a wave and particle.  Waxing a little poetically, he may consider it knowledge, wisdom or reality.  To the mystic, light is God or the ending of delusion and the opening of the awakened state–enlightenment.

Light holds a special place in the hearts of all living beings and we humans too are drawn to the light.  A verse from the New Testament of the Christian Bible expresses something deeply mystical in these words:

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. - 1 John 1:5 (NIV)

When we make such cosmic statements, do we not also create darkness?  Hasn’t duality been born?  To me, not so.  The Infinite Light is such a light that has no opposite and therefore transcends duality.  In it is complete oneness and unity.  All exists in and though this Light.  The one thing contains all the Light, and this Light contains all things.  Yet, it is empty of even one thing.  Chapter 14 in the Tao Te Ching points toward the ineffability of Reality, Light or Tao as the case is here:

Look for it, and it can’t be seen.
Listen for it, and it can’t be heard.
Grasp for it, and it can’t be caught.
These three cannot be further described,
so we treat them as The One.

Its highest is not bright.
Its depths are not dark.
Unending, unnameable, it returns to nothingness.
Formless forms, and imageless images,
subtle, beyond all understanding.

Approach it and you will not see a beginning;
follow it and there will be no end.
When we grasp the Tao of the ancient ones,
we can use it to direct our life today.
To know the ancient origin of Tao:
this is the beginning of wisdom.
- A translation for the public domain by J. H. McDonald, 1996

The highest aim of man is to find this Light, but it will look different for each person.  It may not be in a Church or a Bible.  Most likely, it will be found within and then seen everywhere.

This Present Moment

After many days of having my mind spin and race over various problems, I realized what was happening and decided to stop the “noise machine in my head,” as Eckhart Tolle describes it.  What a welcome change!

Almost nine years ago, I first read The Power of Now by E.T. and realized it was more than an ordinary self-help book.  I could tell it was a profound spiritual teaching for the modern reader.  E.T. did not really share such new concepts as much as he conveyed them through the words in a way that a modern Westerner could find transformative through the reading or listening process.

I have heard of several instances where people have practiced yoga, Zen or whatever for 10 to 20 years but did not have a serious breakthrough until encountering Tolle’s work.  Why is this?  I believe that it is because E.T. is writing first hand from his own personal enlightenment experience.  There have been many “gurus” and “masters” though…  So what’s different?  Listening to his speak is probably the best way to find out.  If you don’t “get it,” he may seem meaningless.  Some, however, are ready to hear what he has to say.  More importantly, they are ready for a new state of consciousness.

Our troubles tend to activate our minds and amplify our suffering.  I think Zen speaks directly to this, but even with Zen people often get carried away with the process or religion.  There is no need for a Buddha, special posture, incense, roshi or any of that.  We don’t need to learn special Buddhist terms.  Even as Zen says, terms are just “the finger pointing at the moon” but not the moon.

One of the biggest challenges of staying “in the now” is our interaction with “unconscious” people.  These are not those who’ve lost ordinary consciousness, but who are among the vast majority of people living unaware though life disconnected with the now and their inner being.  Their minds run constantly or their “pain body” is perpetually activated.  It is as if these individuals suck you in to their world of non-presence like a whirlwind.  I won’t deal with how to handle these situations here, maybe in a future post.

To sum up E.T. for me, he is really like Western zen, not formal Zen, but just zen.  Check out an audio or DVD of him, it’s the best way to find out…

“THE KEY IS TO BE IN A

STATE OF PERMANENT

CONNECTEDNESS

with you inner body –

to feel it at all times.

This will rapidly deepen and

transform your life.

The more consciousness you

direct into the inner body,

the higher its vibrational

frequency becomes.”

- Eckhart Tolle

Buddhism is not Atheistic

I’ve heard a lot recently regarding Buddhism as atheistic.  It seems that since Buddhism has entered into America, a lot of the Beat, Hippie, Liberal, etc. views have been tacked on.  It seems Buddhism has been more of an alternative religion for those discontent with Christianity, institutions, moral conservatism and the like.

A short perusal of the Dhammapada, Buddhism’s most popular scripture, will show theistic views.  For example, 4.2 it reads:

Sekha, a trainee on the first stage of perfection,
Is able to grasp this earth, the human world,
The dwellings of the unhappy ones,
As well as the realm of the gods.

Clearly, this verse shows a realm where gods are said to exist.  Atheism portends no deities.  Agnosticism stands on the idea of ignorance of any deities.  So why does Buddhism get sited as an atheistic religion so often?  The main reason is that Buddhism does not appeal to any god or gods for assistance or favors.  It does not teach that any relationship to a god is necessary or beneficial to the aim of Buddhist practice.  This is why Buddhism is best called a non-theistic religion.  In other words, gods aren’t relevant to Buddhism just as Jesus is not relevant to Judaism even if they acknowledge that he existed.

Additionally, Buddhists do not believe in a creator god.  Why?  Because Buddhists believe that all things are conditional or causal, including gods.  That means that gods come from somewhere and exist under certain conditions.  So there is no “first cause.”  Just as this blog post is the result of the author, computers, electricity and countless other things necessary for it to exist.

It appears that the Buddha did believe gods existed, but they were not needed for the goal of relieving suffering.  They also were not seen as the ultimate goal.  Going to heaven is seen as an intermediary step to the ultimate state of nirvana, because in Buddhism even gods are subject to the pull and push of desire and aversion.  They are, therefore, not completely free or “liberated.”  They are slaves of desire at some level.

Admittedly, this notion of gods is so different from the Biblical one that to Western Buddhism it might as well seem “godless.”  Believing in a god certainly isn’t a prerequisite for practicing Buddhism, but neither is atheism.  It is my belief that what most theists see as god is ultimately a projection of their mind whether gods really exist or not.