Koans: Thoughtus Interruptis

What’s the sound of one hand clapping is the second koan noted in Enlightenment, a song by Van Morrison. The complete koan is “two hands clapping makes a sound. What is the sound of one hand clapping?” While the little meditation dude in my ‘toon apparently has spent a lot of time contemplating this koan, I have spent the last 17 years of my life appreciating the song.

Most of what I know about enlightenment can be summed up in the verse “Enlightenment, don’t know what it is”. A great koan all by itself, I have considered at various times whether it is saying I don’t know what it is or don’t try to know or enlightenment IS not knowing.

Koans, as puzzle statements create thought diversions and are the remedy for thought-us interupt-IS which is blocking what would otherwise come to us effortlessly by trying to control things with too much thought. To me the unconditional flow of life, or illumination, is the IS that thinking tries to rearrange and improve upon. To not know is to allow what IS to be known. Want to know more? (smiling now) Don’t think about it.

In the Blink of an Eye

I think the ‘toon perfection makes practice (last week) was hard on the eyes. So I'm making the type a little bigger...but that's not what I'm really talking about. I just couldn’t stand to leave those two characters suffering like that, so I’m settling their karma and revising their look with an additional insight into their suffering …which is trying too hard and thinking too much.

A couple weeks ago I started reading Blink! which will take quite a few months of the 5 minutes a day I give myself for reading. Considering the subject matter, it’s almost silly to keep reading. The whole book is a koan as there are almost 300 pages included in this book on “thinking without thinking”. (to be clear, by koan I mean a "story, dialogue, question, or statement in the history and lore of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet may be accessible to intuition." –Wikipedia)

In Blink!, Gladwell reports the findings of one scientific research study after another to prove that all the knowledge we can amass about “X” over time (even a lifetime) may not be as accurate and certainly not as easy to compile as spending just 15 minutes or less observing “X”. Of course, the concept of “thin-slicing” is not new. In the compilation of the Zen master Huang Po’s teachings on enlightenment there is the persistent message that enlightenment is not something we acquire through conceptual thinking over time, but in an instant by not thinking.

What may take time on the way to enlightenment, is what I seem to do most often (and not surprisingly my cartoon characters) and that is endure the outcomes of my bungled efforts to think better than (that is, fix and problem-solve) rather than accept and appreciate what IS natural and true in the moment. When we (I and my characters) stop amassing and carrying the full load of our thinking we can enlighten up in the blink of an eye. Whew!

The Perfection of Imperfection

Well, with Mercury in retrograde this is either a really good or a really bad time to run this 'toon. No matter how well we know the spiel we may sometimes find ourselves reciting our lines through clenched teeth as we attempt to move beyond feelings of disappointment, frustration and resentment. Retrograde or not, it seems there is a kind of backward way of perfecting things in our culture and that is by finding fault and problems that need fixing. Okay so everybody doesn’t do it. For every judge there is usually a victim. But it isn’t unusual for victims to judge so they too can demand perfection or possibly seem more perfect themselves.

If you’re wondering when this cartoon box addendum in going to lighten up, how, 'bout right now! If we were all to suddenly let go of any and all expectations for perfection the whole meaning of life would be lighter. Perfect makes practice. That’s a practice we can never master but which requires us to ever find that which needs perfecting. It's a part of the problem-solving paradigm of the planet, and really, what fun is that? Perfecting will never put us in touch with the Perfect. In fact it draws us away from the Source of all that is perfect. Perfection doesn’t need to be attained, it just IS, and it is only through allowing it to Be, that we will ever see it.

Seeing Perfection in our lifetime, in everything, at this very moment is completely and entirely possible. And, there's not much we need to do to experience it. Just find nothing unacceptable. I know, that can be difficult but when given a chance, it really works and can be quite fun. No matter how wretched a thing may at first appear, admire how perfectly wretched it is. Don’t try to change it. Don't wish it would go away. Don't identify and resist imperfections. And be sure to appreciate any difficulty you have with this process as absolutely perfect for what it is.

When we accept perceived unacceptables as perfect as they IS, we are allowing for, appreciating, and expressiencing everything in balance. Of course when we continue to find things unacceptable there is little opportunty for balance and harmony because the space is filled with worries and resistance -- which of course is not unacceptable (zen intended) but is also not the limits of our expressience either.

A good place to practice unconditional acceptance is whenever you think about a particular president. It doesn't matter which one you pick (though I have my "favorite"). Just imagine how quickly that individual becomes powerless to throw you off balance when you find him to be perfect considering who he is rather than who you think he should be. He may be perfectly wretched, maybe even better at it than anyone else in recent memory! Perfectly great at it! In the words of Paul McCartney attributed to Mother Mary: Let it Be.

Appreciate all that is, as it is, in the IS of the moment. When your mind wants to wander off on how unacceptable it will be in some way, bring it back to the perfection of imperfection in the here and now. Half of all our problems will disappear when we let go of the need to perfect everything else. The other half of ALL OUR problems will disappear when we let go of the need to perfect ourselves. Sure, we'll still have reasons to grow, and things we want to do, but rather than problems, they will be simply awesome.

When we're free of the promblem solving dynamic, all of our energy is available to Be all the perfection that IS naturally in each of us. Therein lies true mastery over habitual actions that leave us stuck sitting on the couch arms folded, minds frustrated. As many a guru say, Be Here Now. When we love (appreciate, accept) All As IS (yes, there could be some hidden code in that) we are no longer disappointed, our personal power is freed up, and the world can be a better place. Really.

Peacefully, Pic;)