The Art of Being

Enlightenment, is to live one’s life at the level of full self-expression.  The work of “being spiritual” is to discover who I am and realize my true self.  The first step toward Enlightenment begins with the realization that, “Who I think I am is not” that the self I call “myself” is conditional or what Buddhist call “the conditioned self” and is not my “true self”.  This self is who I have come to identify with after years of cultural, social, religious and political conditioning, including the most unyielding of all false identifications, identification with my parents.  My happiness as well as my emotional and psychological maturity and well-being is dependent on distinguishing between this self I call myself which is conditional, and who I truly am.  Our hearts will remain restless until we do.

What most of us continue to accept as “being spiritual” is actually nothing more than another method we use to appease this conditioned self whose singular designed purpose is the survival of our false identities.  In the same way we pursue experiences, people, places, and things to make us happy.  Chogyam Trungpa wrote that, “Ego [conditioned self] can convert anything to its own use, including spirituality.”  When life feels too stressful we meditate, when our bodies feel out-of-balance perhaps yoga, or when the world around us gets too overwhelming we might take a walk in the woods or go on a retreat.  There is nothing wrong with this except it’s not “spirituality” and its like inhaling only half way.

Another popular approach is being spiritual to become like someone else, perhaps like the Buddha, or Jesus, or like the teacher, or some ideal.  We wear out our minds and body in a hopeless endeavor to have somebody else’s experience.  This is another way ego magnifies itself by imitating the latest and most popular guru or practice.  Then there are those who want enlightenment now, or at least their idea of enlightenment.  I call this Mac-Enlightenment.  They are in such haste they fail to recognize that this approach is also a component of our cultural, social, and personal conditioning.

Integrity is the means by which we awaken our authenticity.  Webster defines “integrity” as, “a strict adherence to a particular way of being.”  The “spiritual warrior” learns to take whatever there is in the world that helps him or her to live authentically and leaves the rest aside.  There is no integrity in being someone that you are not, or living your life trying to live up to someone else’s expectations about who you should be.  Neither is it a matter of mere appearances, opinions, beliefs, or mutual associations.  Integrity is something deeper and more profound.

Enlightenment is not something you acquire or achieve.  It cannot be realized by devouring books on self-help, wearing mala beads, surrounding yourself with quartz stones, incense, or merely chanting mantras.  This is just another way ego magnifies itself by appearing spiritual without ever identifying with or becoming the teachings.  Their can be an intense egoism in being spiritual.

You and I and all men and women are designed to find our true identity and to live authentically.  There is no other meaning to life than to “live one’s life authentically and as a benefit for others”.  What we bring to all beings that no one else can bring is our unique identity.  In 1949 the late mystic and Trappist Monk Thomas Merton wrote, “A tree gives glory to God by being a tree.”  Likewise our maturity and well-being, our very happiness and fulfillment, is in being who we truly are, and our work is to discover and expose our many false identities in order to uncover our true identity.  Once uncovered then we then learn and train in The Art of Being in the world as a unique Force of Nature for change, which is why we were born.  This is a lifetime endeavor and no matter long it takes all of us including the teacher will never be anything more than beginners.  This is why “authentic spirituality,” Zen spirituality, is a “way-of-life” or lifestyle rather than a means toward an ends.  It is an expression of our “true nature” and the true nature of all Dharma.  It is manifested in the same way light follows darkness.

When we are ready to unload ourselves of the heavy burden of sustaining a fictitious past and the false identities we picked up in childhood including all of the unfulfilled expectations laid upon our psyches, the teacher or teachers will appear.  Taking refuge in a Sangha or Community of Bodhisattvas or Spiritual Warriors helps to reawaken our memories of freedom and a sense of capability that so often seems impossible alone.

Are you ready?  If not now — when?

I love you…just the way you truly are!

– Seijaku Roshi