Tag Archives: spiritual

October 14, 2012 · 2:30 pm

Changing Weeds Into Nourishment

Changing Weeds Into Nourishment
Ven. David Xi-Ken Astor 曦肯

According to a recent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report a growing number of people while not considering themselves as affiliated with any particular religion do not, however, consider themselves as atheists or agnostic either. The report indicates that one in five American adults now have no religious affiliation. While some do consider their spiritual interests as agnostic, a larger number have no interest in identifying themselves in any way when it comes to how they identify with their spiritual thoughts. Pew has been doing this survey for some years now, and they have found that those considering themselves as “non-affiliated” has risen to 19 percent from 15 percent just five years ago.

The number breaks down like this: there are 46 million religiously non-practicing American adults including 13 million self-described atheists or agnostics, and 33 million who don’t identify with any organized religious or spiritual practice. What is interesting is that two-thirds of those non-practicing individuals do not deny that there is a God, and feel some feeling of a deep spiritual connection with nature. These people think of themselves as “spiritual but not religious”. A major factor for this growing trend is the aging of America, where there is a growing number of younger adults that have been raised in non-religious households. The younger generation is less religious, but yet not totally disconnected from a sense of spiritual thoughts either. What is interesting to me is that this younger generation are not seekers. When the researchers ask this generation if they had thoughts that humans have been pondering for centuries about some of the really hard question, they seemed to have little interest beyond immediate needs.
Another interesting trend being reported is that less then half of Americans now identify with any Protestant religion. So while America is becoming less religious, it is, however, one of the most religious among the developed countries. While may Americans seem to be dropping out of more organized religious interest, they seem to be changing also how they talk about religion. Today, we are more comfortable talking about our religious and spiritual beliefs, or disbeliefs, and how we interpret the world around us without any sense of shame or fear of cultural backlash. It is becoming the new norm. The one religious group that has remained consistent is the Catholic faithful. But this group only makes up 21 percent of the religious community.

The growing non-religious community is developing across all income, education, gender, and social class groups. But the younger generation is not the only segment of our society that is becoming less faith-based associated, many older Americans have increased their numbers too. Now 21 percent of “generation-X” and 15 percent of baby boomers call themselves unaffiliated. This growing trend will have unknown impact on future political and social justice issues. We are seeing cultural transformation taking shape in our lifetime.

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Filed under by David (Xi Ken), Community Engagement

Tagged as agnostic, American religious experience, atheists, buddhism, interfaith, Pew Forum On Religion And Public Life, religion, Shunryu Suzuki, spiritual

August 13, 2012 · 7:07 pm

An Inter-spiritual Lesson

We speak often, Ven. Wayne and I, about the importance of a pluralistic worldview because we can find important lessons how the world around us is from many of the various spiritual traditions, not just Buddhism. How we are is more important than what we are. Our whole practice is about coming to awaken to this reality. I would like to share with you one of these lessons from the contemplative master Thomas Merton. Father Merton was a Trappist monk who counted as his friends many of the leading Buddhist of his day, especially D. T. Suzuki. Much of Merton’s spiritual thoughts are very Zen in perspective.

“We are warmed by fire, not by the smoke of the fire.
We are carried over the sea by a ship, not by the wake of a ship.
So too, what we are is to be sought in the invisible depths of our own being,
Not in our outward reflection in our own acts.”

A Deep Bow,
Ven. David

Solitude And The Social-Self

Solitude And The Social-Self
Ven. David Xi-Ken Shi

I speak often about the importance of awakening to how the Four Noble Truths articulate the importance for us to develop the individual as well as social elements of this noble practice we call Buddhism. We learn how we are, both as persons and as partners, in this web of connections we call life. As a Buddhist monk that has taken vows to engage others beyond the walls of a temple, it is important for me to confront the realities of the social-self component of my practice. Without it I do not have much of a Buddhist ministry. The Buddha emphasized, however, the importance for us to balance our social responsibility with the individual need for our own spiritual renewal. Siddhartha often removed himself from the everyday activities of the Sangha, and retreated into solitude in order to “recharge” his spiritual energy. The Ch’an and Zen tradition has a long history of supporting an extended period of retreating into solitude away from all distractions. This is true in both the East as it is now in the West.

I want to share with you today some thoughts on the nature of this transformative body-mind practice know as “session”, or intentional practice into solitude. Time or space is not imposed. It is up to the individual to establish the parameters surrounding the need. It is always an effect of the causal chain of events that drives the situational aspects of making the choice for withdrawing from social interaction.

Solitude or withdrawal is the state of being secluded or separate from others. An individual can choose to inter a state of practice of being solitary based on circumstances. It is an example of situational-practice. When used at the right time and in the right manner it can have an important role in our spiritual development.

Before his enlightenment Siddhartha Gotama, the Buddha, also spent over six years in extended periods alone in the forests of his ancestral home in what we know today as Nepal. He was seeking first to understand himself before he could have the wisdom to administer the affairs of others. That was when he thought his destiny was to govern the region after the death of his father, the King. That we know now did not happen. The causal nature of the Universe revealed a different path for him, and we are all the richer for that reality. Reminiscing on this time many years later he said in the Majjhima Nikaya, “Such was my seclusion that I would plunge into some forest and live there. If I saw a cowherd, shepherd, grass-cutter, wood-gatherer or forester, I would flee so that they would not see me or me them.” We know from the many references made in the various Pali Cannon that after he attained enlightenment he would occasionally go into solitude. In the Samyutta Nikaya he is reported as saying, “I wish to go into solitude for half a month. No one is to come to see me except the one who brings my food.” Even though Siddhartha came to consider that the fabric of all phenomena-form, including our human one, are interconnected and dependent, it was still vital to withdraw from intentional contact in order to reconnect with renewed vigor. The notion is that I might be in a room by myself, but I am never totally alone, because all the connections I have with others before I stepped into solitude are never severed, unless that too is an intentional act. Even then, we are only in a body-mind state of being “alone with others” as Stephen Batchelor puts it.

The Buddha made a distinction between physical and psychological solitude. He considered physical solitude to be the more important. For him, psychological solitude meant isolating the body-mind from negative thoughts and emotions, something that is a natural human experience that can result in positive change, and should not be avoided. The Buddha recognized that we can choose to be solitary for a variety of reasons, some positive, and others not as useful or productive to our well being. Some of us want to isolate ourselves from others out of personal anguish, mental illness, or misplaced preference. More intelligent reasons why one might seek solitude, he said, included a feeling of healthy contentment, individual modest needs, to achieve self-examination, some appreciation for the value of aloneness, and because it can be helpful for spiritual growth. It is certainly true that regular periods of solitude and even occasional extended periods, can be psychologically refreshing. But it is important to examine our intentions to make sure that the psychological component of the desire for creating a period of withdrawal is based on healthy objectives. Some of the objectives can be to learn the value of independence, to rest the body-mind, enhance an appreciation for silence especially in zazen, and to impose a space for rigorous self-honest that brings a wiser and more confident mental state of HOW we are.

It is most important that when we seek a prolonged period of solitude for all the encompassing and corrective reasons, that we still need to monitor how this special practice is enhancing our everyday-practice in useful and productive ways. The blissful state of aloneness, however, can subtly result in the shirking of our responsibilities, to ourselves, to our teacher, to the Sangha, to our monastic vows, and to our family and community. We must be alert to the possibility of over doing it by over reaching ourselves and end up straining the body-mind state that we are trying to strengthen. This is why the Buddha cautioned, “One who goes into solitude will either sink to the bottom or rise to the top.”