My law partner walked into my office a few years ago and announced that he had just had an amazing conversation. You won’t believe this, he began, but I just spoke to a guy who said he has no cell phone, no computer, and no idea what the Internet is, and this guy was bragging.
Well, my clientele is older than my partner’s, and therefore I meet people like that all the time. My young partner was stunned to meet a Luddite, but I am no longer amazed when a person brags that he or she is incapable of adapting to the modern world.
I also meet a lot of people who brag that they don’t meditate, never have and never will. They see it as a badge of honor, like the Amish guy who amazed my partner. They tell me that people who meditate are working out some mental problem, and people who don’t meditate have no such problems.
It is true that several famous Zen teachers are psychotherapists and that they often teach their patients zazen (sitting meditation) as part of their therapy.
But most Zen practitioners, like me, have no idea what psychotherapists do and have no incentive to find out. My mother told me I was born with a smile on my face (in a hospital elevator on its way up to the labor/delivery room) and I kept that smile throughout my growing up years. I still have it.
When people tell me they are struggling with depression, or trying to manage their anger, or trying to overcome hatred of their parents, and so on, I really can’t relate to their problems and I know I could never be a psychotherapist. Of course I’ve had moments of anger, depression, and so on, but it has never been more than a passing flash; my default mode is one of happiness. I just feel good almost all of the time and I have never meditated to rid myself of depression, to overcome anger, hatred, and all that stuff.
People who don’t meditate never give the muddy water in their glass of consciousness the opportunity to settle. They stir their muddy water every day and it never has a chance to stop swirling around. The mud particles in suspension never have a chance to settle out, to precipitate from the suspension. And they brag that they have no meditation practice.
When we stop that daily stirring with minutes or hours of daily stillness, the mud settles to the bottom of the glass and we have clear water above the mud. We begin to see clearly that most people are driven by such things as sense desire, ill will, lust, restlessness, and other undesirable qualities. They have no control over their own mind.
And these are the people who insist they have no problems to work out and have no need for meditation! The clear water created by meditation is our inherent Buddha nature, our enlightened non-self.
So I fly into a murderous rage when someone says that meditators are meditators because they are screwed up and that normal people don’t need to engage in that activity. (Pretty weak joke, I guess).
I think meditation is a natural part of life and those who avoid it are avoiding life. Some who try it say they felt like a prisoner released from jail. Others say they felt like a rope around their neck had been removed, or that a heavy load they had been carrying had been put down.
But my favorite metaphor came from Philip Kapleau, who said he felt like a fish that had been stuck in glue, but was now swimming freely in cool, clear water.
We can swim in muddy water or in clear water; it’s our choice. But perhaps the ultimate arrogance is to brag about swimming in muddy water/ignorance and to be proud of it.
The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice and Enlightenment
