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Integration
As to the rest of integration, well, if we have insights to integrate, it just seems to happen. That’s about the best I can do. Life happens as before, and so it goes. We grow, we learn, we get sick and we die. To quote a song from a Bogart movie, “The fundamental things apply as time goes by.” Go and read some extensive book on the subject and tell me whether or not it basically said the same thing while using a whole lot more words to do so. Still, such books can be helpful.
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33.IT IS POSSIBLE!
So why am I mentioning all of these states and stages that are thought by many to be largely mythical and unattainable? Because they are absolutely otherwise, that’s why. People do attain these states today, though they tend to only talk about them to their teachers and to close friends who have enough experience in this stuff to understand and not have odd reactions to these disclosures. I assure you that I wouldn’t have bothered writing all of this if I didn’t think that it was possible for those reading this book to master this stuff.
A friend of mine was on a retreat in Burma and had attained to second path as confirmed by U Pandita. He was finally done with his retreat and was taken to the airport by one of the people who helped to run the monastery, who incidentally was a stream enterer. As my friend was leaving, he yelled to him across the terminal, “Come back for number three!” meaning, “Come back and attain third path!” Note the many ways in which what underlies this statement differs from the paradigm you would likely find in your basic Western Buddhist.
First, most Western Buddhists don’t really believe that after a few months of good practice you could get enlightened or more
enlightened. They do not believe it is simply a matter of following simple instructions, moving through the clearly defined insights and tagging a path. In fact, I often tell this story to Western Buddhists, many of whom have been on numerous insight retreats lead by teachers trained by the best Burmese masters, and they say things like, “What do you mean, ‘third path’?” It makes me want to scream when they don’t even know the basic dogma of enlightenment, much less anything practical about it. Most Western teachers wouldn’t have the guts to stand up and say, “Yeah, he did it, he got second path” (assuming they would even been in a position to evaluate such a person’s practice).
Even if they did, it would likely be a huge, taboo secret. Here’s my point: it can be done, it is done, it can be done, and there are people who can help you do it!
Practice, practice, practice! This is the big difference between those who are merely into giving lip service to Buddhism and those who really get what the old boy was talking about. Go on retreats and actually
It is Possible!
follow the instructions to the letter all day long. Find people who know how it is done and hang out with them. Keep it simple. Avoid magical thinking and abandoning common sense.
The simple fact that you have read this book means that the ball is now in your court. There is more than enough information presented here on straightforward techniques that have a great track record of performing as advertised. As a large and wise chef in a gourmet seafood restaurant once said to me, “I have two words for you: perseverance furthers.”
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34.MORE ON THE “MUSHROOM FACTOR”*
One of the reasons that more people who make progress do not talk about progress could be the fact that, as practice deepens, the exaggerated importance to the meditator of thoughts of “my
attainment,” “I am enlightened,” etc. gradually falls away and assumes its proper proportion, its proper place in things. However, this does not mean that such language cannot be used. While there may routinely be no good reasons to talk about attainments, or even good reasons not to, there is a long and glorious tradition of compassionate meditation masters and enlightened beings who braved the consequences and told the world that it could be done, that they had done it, and they were going to tell all of those who hadn’t how they could do it too. The results of this varied from founding major religions to being executed or both, but such are the caprices of reality.
It is interesting that Buddhism started out very much as a tradition in which those who were highly attained were often loudly proclaimed to be so by themselves and others with the specific details of their skills and understandings made clear. The motivation for this was that such individuals were valuable resources for others and this should be known for the benefit of all. This widespread cultural phenomenon of meditation masters being “out” is abundantly clear in the ancient texts, and occurs to varying degrees in Asian countries today.
In the West, the situation is often remarkably different from this early practice. There seem to be two basic styles of code used when advertising dharma teachers. The first is to simply use a grand title such as, “Wazoo Tulku, Supreme and Luminous Dharma King.” The
second type of code is in the style of a resume for a job, “Jane Rainbow is the author of three books. She has been teaching meditation for 17
years internationally and is a member of the Buddhist Flower Society.”
Notice that neither of these bios tells you anything about:
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what they may actually know
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which traditions they draw from
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their attitude towards scholarship and the standard dogmas
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which techniques they are masters of or teach
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what they have attained or claim to have attained
More on the “Mushroom Factor”
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what their personality is like
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what their strengths and weaknesses as a teacher and person are
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who trained them
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the lineage or lineages by which they are claimed
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their level of availability to their students (though “teaches internationally” is often an ominous clue)
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why it is that they teach
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what they expect from their students, particularly as regards money, vows and exclusive loyalty
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how many students they already have
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whether or not they will talk about real practice directly
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if you run into trouble with them, is there a governing
organization that can address this
What is astounding is how few students will ever ask their teachers about any of these specific practical issues. These are the questions that should be initially considered when seeking a teacher, and yet you almost never see them addressed on a retreat center brochure. Imagine a university where none of the professors would tell you about their research, who funds their work, where they got their degree, what courses they teach, who taught them, what their specialty is, or even why they like being professors. That would be just a bit strange, wouldn’t it?
This sort of information is typically available for public consumption on the university web page.
There is something very balanced and reasonable about this. When I see a presentation at the school I currently attend, someone generally tells you exactly who the person is, what they are working on, highlights of what they have published in the past, and what positions and degrees they currently hold, and why they are qualified to speak on the topic of the day. Perhaps I am particularly naïve and idealistic, but I imagine a spiritual world where this would be standard practice as well. I dream that this would simultaneously cut down on otherworldly spiritual ideals, provide faith that it can be done, demystify the process of awakening, and bring the whole thing back down to earth. There is obviously a long way to go before such a dream is likely to be a reality, but hopefully this little book will be one small step towards that. There are cool things our 340