Objectives of the Zen-Jou Community – return to the source of life [8-10-2010].

 

An explanation of the content of ZJC-rsl aims at conscious retrieval of the cosmic dimensions of our existence. Without risking this step we have no firm foundation for our existential participation in Life-Itself in this changing contemporary world. We are able to receive Life on this basis, freed from its alienation: access to the objectives of ZJC can be successively gained by means of this key. The ZJC must be rooted in Life-Itself in order to avoid degeneration into a petrified human pursuit of power or domination. Our Difference awaits us on this Way through the desert, sustained and renewed as pilgrims by means of sincere insight into ourselves. It is a Way full of temptation that is designed to lead us back to the fleshpots of Egypt aided by another Light and in a legitimate manner.

 

The above objectives need to be distinguished from certain misunderstandings:

(a)   Each expectation instigated by egotistical impulses goes against the objectives of ZJC-rsl. The basic disposition required for a correct reception of Life, one that does not and cannot render it as a possession can only mature through a resolve to leave oneself behind. If we remain with ourselves we can never encounter our true being.

(b)   Moreover, it is clearly erroneous to employ ZJC as a means of fulfilling our desire to compensate for our deficiencies. This disposition would prevent the Functional Consciousness from crossing the line beyond the material and finite possessions.

(c)   In particular the motive of self-discovery cannot be reconciled (made compatible) with our objectives, even when it does not become evident during the days when we undertake the Exercises. When this motive is held outside of the door of the Exercises it subsequently usually re-appears in a stronger and disguised form.

(d)   To view the ZJC as an interest-group would direct our gaze in a way that is contrary to the target. It would constitute nothing less than being disposed (motivated) by intellectual blindness, which means in fact, not being disposed at all. Happy are they who do not become imprisoned by complacency and self-satisfaction.

(e)   Sesshins held with the laity – in the form they have hitherto taken – have not as yet touched the Kernel of the ZJC-rsl. Our Sesshins are required to open us first of all to the foundational direction.  On all levels of religious search the problem of comparisons can be found: it manifests the desire to be special. This latent susceptibility acts like a hidden virus, binding us to a deep level of blindness and distancing us by miles from the foundational intention. There scarcely exists a religious-path, whose practice would be free from making what is unavailable available. Unfortunately we are concerned here with the complex facts of a case which has so far not been articulated.

(f)    Nor is it a matter of a circle of friends, which distorts the true objectives by permitting a confusing mixture of intentions and twilight expectations. ZJC will lead us into a transparency of consciousness by means of Shugyō, the Exercises and Renunciation. This leads to pervasive inner purification, permitting the negative movement of the Difference and Kernel-F to come slowly to stillness. In consequence the sharing of availability may not leave damage behind.

 

(g)   Finally, the ZJC may not be understood as an alternative to the Church. A striving to bring the changing consciousness into the field of our vision, lies at the basis of all our efforts, yes, to confront ourselves honestly so as to finally give an answer that is measured.

 

A permanent struggle to cross the line of the material or concrete [against reducing all of reality to an object of my possession] becomes evident in the Sesshins, the line of possessing something, knowing something – and to want to be special. The participants seek to be open to the directives and to accept these. They are incapable of this – however – because life has largely been lived under the dictatorship of the concrete up to this point. But the Sesshins are equally burdened with the mistaken level [of their existence] where appeal (call) can fuse with its opposite as a consequence of a deficiency in identity, and this further strengthens the instrument of the inauthentic level of existence. This is a compulsive impulse, one that is difficult to escape. On the basis of this consideration the Sesshins offered to further the foundational purpose of ZJC–rsl can only achieve a lower attainment, because that which we strive for scarcely comes into view on the level of praxis. The participants receive different forms of help in the process of being opened through the directives, nonetheless a deficiency in identifying what opposes life is often present in participants and a clear and decisive decision is lacking.

 

Should the Exercises lead the participant to uncover the knot tying the present disposition to the past and a solution to this, the passion of imprisonment in oneself will come to light. This hitherto concealed striving will become accessible. This mobilised, defensive passion of imprisonment-within-oneself that undermines and erodes our lives must come into clear view. Only extraordinary care can preserve us ever anew from falling into the decay of its cunning and guile, alienated presently, but subsequently gaining in increased, effective strength. Should we fall victim again to imprisonment within the self’s strong energy-field and to the degree that we identify ourselves with it we are bound in a cage: a pure illusion that impoverishes authentic participation in the Life-Giving-Source. Even though deficient traces are left behind by a self-centred intention the self-congratulating Ego, bound to this habitat, can permit itself to cover over these by means of a screen of self-congratulations. Blessed are those who can see through this deficiency yoked to self-imprisonment and not succumb.

 

A radical change in the functional consciousness requires multi-layered preparation, and is actually possible to attain through the praxis of every day life. Are there signs exhibited or aspects in the process of becoming conscious that are no longer adequate today? The increasing complexity in our world requires a view of things, a framework of understanding that lies beyond the bounds of functional consciousness. A decision not to take in hand the traces of damage, due to lack of insight, presupposes a complex grasp of life’s realities. We can consequently, no longer justify our intention of categorically separating what belongs together, but rather what is being required in the future is that we must see a greater complexity in our reality: a challenge that the ZJC-rsl takes seriously.

 

The authentic distinguishing mark of the future represented by ZJC-rsl is still open or not yet realised. Although the endurance required by a participant for its implementation still requires acceptance, that which the ZJC ought to become is irrefutable; it is already anticipated on the level of the ideal. Two interpenetrating working principles require clarification here: the deductive and the inductive must be brought in. The deductive as a directive, may be understood as that law of life inscribed in us that cuts into the world of daily life through the life-praxis of the Exercises and Renunciation. This law is pulled into our beings as we make the journey through temptation and mistakes. The Way includes a search, a ‘discovery’, a ‘find’ and we can only finally mature and become responsible through the purifying execution of this Law of Life. The deductive principle may not and cannot be denied, but is required to be discovered lying within us through the inductive purifying process.

 

The contemporary generation does not yet recognise the necessity of going beyond the functional consciousness, it is insufficiently prepared to do this; presumably the ego-cult – still on the peak of its achievement – must first unmask itself. Only then can the insight come to birth that a change in consciousness is required come to birth. To evade this step means to evade the responsibility given us as human beings. This step is executed by the infinite part of the soul known as Identity. This requires overcoming the self-centred part of the soul, that narrowness in which I am centred in the Difference. Recognition that our functional consciousness – mental perceptions, imaginative faculties and emotional sensibilities – are delivered from an analogical sphere of knowledge understood as property – known as the Difference – is indispensable for liberation. Therefore it is imperative that the Difference is brought into submission to the upper part of the soul – the Identity – because only an unconditional acceptance of the Identity opens our consciousness to cosmic dimensions. Once they are no longer controlled by the imprisoned self, our perceptions, intentions and sensibilities can be integrated into Life-Itself, as their source.

 

By this means only can the original Life-Impulse that had been buried become effective once again. Here wilfulness has no further place, because left to ourselves we are absolutely needy. It is a matter of gaining a deeper insight into that which constitutes our existential state. Without risking to take this deeply humbling Way our lives will not bear fruit; herein we can locate what causes our intellectual-spiritual strivings to take a wrong direction. Life-denying dispositions within us must be withdrawn from their fertile soil, the corresponding Life-denying impulse which originated in us. The entrance must be sealed through which the destructive, binding powers gain access. For this vigilance is imperative.

 

We lay out the structure of ZJC–rsl, by using a walnut as an image. Viewed from the exterior and moving to the core three characteristics are determined:

x) the skin may be understood as a bitter wrapping;

y) the hard shell which protects the inner Kernel;

z) the Kernel, is that which carries the Life.

The Zen-Jou Community understands itself in terms of a three-dimensional structure constituted by ‘skin’, ‘hard shell’ and ‘Kernel’.

 

x) That which enwraps ZJC-rsl

To continue the comparison with the walnut, the Sesshins offered by ZJC-rsl are concentrated on the enwrapped nastiness that touches the fleshy part of the soul, to continue the comparison with a walnut.  This lower part of the soul – referred to as Difference of  Kernel-F – constitutes the real practice ground of the Sesshins. Here, the required search can be compared to immersion as in a pond, which is filled with an accumulation not immediately accessible to the gaze. Immersion here is particularly necessary since consciousness lacks true insight into the destructive nature of this pond, with which it is inextricably linked. For those engaged in the required process of coming to clarity two foundational dispositions that are inseparable are a prerequisite: readiness to recognise the traces of damage, but also to decide on a solution. This can be explained by use of the wheel as an image: in order to move away from being a means of adversity, the fleshy part of the soul must leave its former habit of turning by coming to stillness, in order to be re-orientated in the opposite direction. The problems associated with this dynamic are such that it normally requires years, yes, decades for those who deal with them through the Exercises and Renunciation, since the act of plumbing the depths of this pond far exceeds our capacity to conceive the demands.

 

y) The hard shell protecting of the Kernel of ZJC-rsl.

The cosmic dimension that ZJC strives for cannot be contained within finite life and cannot be exclusively bound to functional knowledge, since it is integrated in a comprehensive understanding that smashes our dualistic world. In this way an awareness is opened out to us, one that matures in discovery in which we again encounter what is lost or forgotten and thereby we penetrate the complex reality of our existence. What has been lost to our view is the created objects in their entirety; it is the intention of the imprisoned self to separate the visible world or its forms from the impulse of Being and its manifestations. What is specific to nature becomes devalued and consequently its initiating moment gets lost. This fact of our damaged consciousness which mutually affects us and nature separates us from all that is interconnected.

 

Instrumental consciousness cannot grasp the present life-situation validly or correctly. The capacity to cross the line to include the cosmic dimension must be given to those who will do so. Each manner of striving to acquire awareness of the complex dimension of the cosmic, that we have at our disposal, will finally fail, because this particular work is served by the upper part of the soul, which is not at our disposal.

 

Breaking through the hard nut-shell is executed in a process which includes my whole being in a severe and extreme conscious effort that brings me to a limit that I cannot pass and through which I am opened up to the realisation that I cannot achieve this break-though on my own, but I am required to allow the ripening to be done. Without endurance of what appears to be contradictory Shugyō, the Gordian knot in us is not to be untied, the imprisoned self is not to be released. In the process of their unfolding those granted the Way are dependent on a long-term strict accompaniment, since the adversity due to imprisonment – which does not easily come to stillness – requires a means of coping at a more sublime level; the same holds true for the teaching and appropriating of the instructions. To evade this implies that intentional underhand, dishonest means are used. The solution to the paradox that is being experienced is dependent on profound insight gained into our being, one which reconciles each reluctance within us, yes, one causes it to dissolves. This freedom, so necessary for us, would be betrayed were it to come through the back-door. Crossing the line means separating ourselves from limitations in our lives, limitations incurred through our identification with the fleshy part of our soul. Only by means of an identification with the higher part of our soul – the Identity of  Kernel-F – can  the freedom from the named contradictions be granted.

 

The action of being freed from all the passions that are rooted in the poisoned Difference is required as a constant condition for our surrender to the Life- giving- Impulse of the Identity.  It is necessary therefore that we stride through the door which is the hard shell. Is what we find here however, not the emptiness we search for, in which our original being of the Difference has existential participation,  to the extent that it finds the Way back! Then the Difference will be filled with that which supports life. The key to this lies in the crossing over – in existential suffering – to overcome the hardness in order to receive Life-Itself ; the hardship that we must endure in order to break out of the nutshell reminds us of the call to carry the cross.

 

z). The ZJC-rsl, Life’s constituent moment

To aid us with the task of crossing the line from the conditioned consciousness a representation of our brain – in which information is stored – is to be found at the core of the walnut so to speak. Should these negative traces be erased from the brain then the corresponding empirical pattern in the body is disposed of and brought to rest: a demonstrative sign of the development required. Apart from this factor, at the core of the nut symbolic nourishment is to be found for an even deeper penetration by the Identity, by these means our capacity for decision gains in transparency. The sought after true consciousness-dimension is also found in the awakened Identity. Should the manifold network of Being become accessible to our grasp in its still profounder dimensions, then we find the key to our arrival and to our becoming existentially part of and conscious participants in the Identity, in Life-Itself. As a consequence of this, we will be sensitised to greater insight; we will not try to penetrate what we cannot and should not know, because in this surrender lies the moment of our discovery by purification.

 

Criteria for Crossing the Line of the Functional Consciousness:

 

-          The separation of the violent and desecrated element of the Difference from the Identity stands in contradiction to Life. The surmounting of this dualistic schema, that which alienated the subject from the object, is required;

-          The abolition of that which stands in contradiction to Life, such as: to share one’s life, instead of holding onto it; to trust Life-Itself instead of mistrusting it; to forgive instead of holding onto hatred. All of these negative inclinations are in the grip of and mirror dread of anxiety;

-          To identify and recognise the ideological niche – the idols – that have been created, cultivated and must be defended, in order to protect the established claim and not put it into question by devious means, for one’s own sake and that of others: in truth, a misleading suggestion that finally denies Life-Itself;

-          Each claim to possess the truth is to be scrutinised, in order to avoid a sham form of existence. A state of blindness, fear, refusal of reconciliation and untruth opens the door to the opposite or sham form of existence.

This form of stepping over the functional consciousness – required here - lies in that foundational manner of our experiential knowing, so that our insoluble paradoxes are dispelled and a truth held in the paradox discloses itself. On the level of conditioned consciousness this realm was previously closed to us and denied. The reality we tried hitherto to seize upon could not be deeply penetrated by us, nor be foundationally judged.

 

The still open form of and yet symbolically encountered Zen-Jou Community is  communicating non-verbally in silence in our Sesshins and is the first concrete means, which points as a sign to Life-Itself . The future-orientated ZJC-rsl must be detached from every kind of self-reliance. When the Zen-Jou Community is orientated to Life-Itself only, then in this instance, non-verbal communication can support our Way of Faith in the Lord. May the fullness of the Community’s refreshing moment have far-reaching consequences for the reality of each one of us.

 

The three dimensions of the ZJC-rsl, whose differentiated characteristics were mediated to us in the parable of the walnut, can be clearly distinguished. They are not to be confused on the one hand, because then their specificity would be altered. On the other hand, the Way of Shugyō is based on a continuum, one which embraces both inclusion and exclusion. The different stages can be named as Seeking, Finding and Arrival.

 

To Seek: To Track Down that which was not in Consciousness

 

The flesh – being compared with the bitter element of the walnut – is the fist essential practice-ground of our Sesshins. The way in which we live our lives needs to be massively adjusted and departed from, in order to bear the risk of confrontation with the extensive unsusceptible affliction rising to consciousness. It is an illusion to believe that we can escape suffering on this exclusively narrow ascent and a misapprehension to think that it will not soon lead into a confined and cramped Way.

Far from it! In the process of gaining freedom from manipulating darkness we experience the presence of resistance. The negative forces register in a stronger manner than before in their being brought to consciousness. They seek to bind us even more deeply through their defensive attacks. Should we fail to comprehend the danger of remaining under their influence, we are delivered over to a foundational error, consisting of the latent demand to be someone, to possess or to know something. In that kind of way an intended egotistical-control strengthens the blind illusion. In so far as our understanding of life was controlled by the fleshy part of the soul – the Difference of Kernel-F – the consequence of the experienced deficiency now offers a welcome but deceptive help of strengthening the ego. This has its source in an inability to cope with strong impulses and a lack of inner reconciliation.

 

To Find: A Risk that transcends Space and Time

 

To smash through the shell – the latter is compared to hardness in the nut – means to dis-identify with one’s conditioned consciousness, in order to grasp one’s own life comprehensively and from that level of one’s own existential being there is an opening from within oneself to the whole of creation and finally to Life-Itself. In general, such  stepping over should give access to a complex field of life – openness to its micro-/macrocosmic field of relations and yield a clear insight into the unremitting dependence of the Difference on the Identity. In the original meaning of the word [to find], this discovery constitutes the passing over. In reality though, it involves a descent to the roots of our self-imprisoning cravings in order to dry out this patch of soil. Should that unknown entity yield itself up in light, then the condition for this descent is the purification of our motivation, which allows us to touch the sediment of our inwardly stored genealogical sediment – a process field – which had hitherto been withdrawn from our gaze. On this field of events our consciousness experiences break-through to the cosmic dimension that comes to expression – that is in destruction of the nut-shell – in suffering through one’s death. The more accessible the microcosm the more we discover naturally the hitherto closed-off crossing from our ego-centricity to the whole of reality.

 

Arrival: A penetration by Life-Itself

 

The   Kernel – which is compared to Life – will point to the origin of Kernel-F. Arrival constitutes a return to the source, from where the Identity and the Difference had taken their origins. While the prelude to ‘Finding’ is first based on authentic emptiness, the purified Difference is to be filled by the Identity; here it is a matter of the awakened Identity, which is to become penetrated by Life-Itself.  We then know what it means to be human in the authentic sense. Only by being born again –penetrated by Life-Itself – can we discover in which way our suffering can be transformed. We learn about this in John 3,1ff; ‘Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God […] unless one is born of water [the purified Difference] and Spirit [the awakened Identity], he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. […] You must be born anew. The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know from whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit.’

 

This process of arrival has redeemed three levels; this has its natural precursor in the required new birth and a means by which humanity shall be freed from the blinding virus, a process which we have tried to present by means of the image of the walnut. Analogously that means the recognition of the Difference no longer dominates, but it is rather released by the Identity. That which is freed from the flesh gains the upper hand. What is required here is that one remains attentive. But freedom gained for ones own benefit cannot be a goal of this process. Why not I, rather than others? This intentional condition – jealousy – directed at the community either openly or in a concealed manner does fundamental damage. In duty we are bound to exercise our fundamental natural capacity to share selflessly, in the consciousness that each gift is at its best when it is shared. In this truism the exact meaning of Community is to be found.  This principle enables us to turn our communal lives into reality on the nonverbal level, without the hindrance of the clouded consciousness. Without negating our personal differences our Community life will be freed from prejudice and thereby carried out without fear of one another. Under the aforementioned conditions the Community emerges, is guided, submits to and is carried forward on this level of connection with one another. In honesty our eyes are opened for different life-experiences and their points of correspondence with Life-Itself. The variety of the perspectives testify to the validity of the position that our perceptive faculties are being expanded towards an infinite cosmic consciousness.

 

Comment: The image of the walnut was a helpful means for gaining a first overview of the structure of ZJC-rsl. The lesser known structure of the nutmeg – also a fruit growing on a tree – presents us with a still more differentiated image in order to explain further the ZJC-rsl. Four elements are to be clearly distinguished: the external green skin, the fire-red covering, the black shell and the hard core.

The outer skin in which the nut is wrapped is similar to the walnut and its dissimilarity is found only in that an alcoholic drink can be distilled from it. When correctly used, it can also be viewed medicinally. Metaphorically this may be understood as a sign that we are strengthened in trust, in order to risk a new departure. Then the wrapping around the shell of the nut opens outwardly in the manner of burning tongues of fire. Fire is a deep sign for the necessity and enforced purification process. Whether we reject the experience of pain because of fear or whether we accept suffering is a decisive point for the capacity to give of oneself. We will not only be purified on this Way, but we will also be tested, in order to be found truly honest for the penetration of the Kernel.

The hard shell enclosing the nut is black in colour when the ripened fruit falls from the tree. Its lightweight structure constitutes a sign that points to steadiness that is, its own and ours. Consequently the one who wants to gain entry here must be armed and ready to surmount another protective wall. He can no longer exclusively trust in his own power, since he enters a no-man’s-land. For those of us on the Way, the black colour of the shell symbolises a striding through darkness.

 

The delicate many-layered nut-kernel is a symbol for our deep communicating union with all of creation and a symbol of Arrival in its essentials.

May the one who can decode the symbol described here be encouraged to allow his path to intersect with and risk participation in the Way of in the ZJC-rsl.

 

First Sunday of Advent, 29 November 2009.

 

P. Gebhard Kohler.