The Emperor’s new clothes: the anti-Zen of us and them
Blanket Theory
Photo: A statue of the Emperor Caligula on horseback, naked except for a cloak.
Act I: Exposed
The Mystic: My eye is not my own, it is with the Grey Sisters now, they keep lending it out to everyone.
The Fellow Traveler: In the day to day, we casually talk about self and other. One key in Zen is disentangling the knot we make because of this … original sin? In this story, putting aside whether or not Adam and Eve “deserved” what they got, it is interesting that the fundamental reason for human suffering is given as a feeling of nakedness, a perception of a within and a without with a barrier that must be reinforced somehow, especially relative to others. Hell is othered people.
Grab the nearest fig leaf, quick! Cover yourself with self-consciousness, shame, and judgement. Spiritual decline cemented.
No, bare to the sky we will investigate on two levels. The one is the interpersonal level, the relationship between people. But there is a similar, more elegant, more universal level that operates at a “lower” level. Great compassion for redness, a friend’s hug, potted plants, a deep source of human connectedness/oneness. How do we break the barrier? Has the barrier been broken (for us?)
According to common sense, the other is right in front of me. My mystical friend also points out so is my rumbling stomach. That’s both playful and getting warmer. How many things is he going to point out as the other, will he ever stop? Will his tea be cold before then? Will we think, I’m losing patience with this, and then wonder, is thinking you’re losing patience the other?
We have on the one hand a very concrete world of things we interact with physically. Busses and teapots and small doggies. Seemingly on the other hand, we have a world of ideas and feelings, of love and hate and the remembered shopping list and eureka and 1+1=2 (or even 1+1=3 if you’re feeling adventurous). And on the other hand, we have the self, the one that seems to observe all of this. Indivisible and “with us” throughout our lives.
Act II: The Blanket
Our mystic friend has made a journey:
Did I launch into a world of atoms, accidentally stumbled into a Cartesian theater?
Are these things I see a world of Matter, of things I directly see and can touch? There seems to be little room in such a world for ideas and feelings, but people have seriously considered this possibility. We will look more into this in a subsequent post.
For the mystic, the idea of a material world isn’t really his beat and you’ve probably picked up he has ideas about Mind.
Perhaps a world of Matter with Mind as well? That kind of makes sense. What happens in the brain, stays in the brain while the outside just keeps chugging along.
Do they think, are all things thinking or no thinking at all? Brain-mind, matter-mind, or illusion-mind? The other-blanket greets me and we have breakfast together.
A world of Matter is a world of separation, of alienation. Atomization. A world of Mind is separateness, oneness and neither. Everyone is welcome at the table as they are, all of us feast together. Every thing too.
We are always in deep encounter with the blanket in everything we do, and in everything we think. Think about a deeply embarrassing moment, that was blanket time! Wait no, the thinking about the moment, that is blanket time! The other is also the blanket, and they deserve a bow from us. So does a potted plant. The potted plant bows in return. There is no barrier, but we are what we are.
In a house of blankets, it is best to be polite *offers tea, still hot thanks to a knitted tea-cozy*
Act III: Dharma Police
You are clothed as an emperor, or in Mystery.
And so, what we are left with is an existential detective story. In philosophical mysteries it is always the butler that did it, does the same hold for theology? We will have to work pro bono to uncover a solution.
Despite appearances, we are naked to final reality, unable to carry our wallets with us.
Our detective friend has baggies full of evidence and red herrings. Reality is elegant in its seething delightful messiness. In that elegance, we also directly encounter ourselves. Is it possible to see into that nature, and express it, what do you think? I mean, it is right there in front of us and in what we feel inside. We all already express it, because we are conscious beings. We can’t help but express it, otherwise we would not be here.
Think about Dharma, that could be translated as the Truth. Or maybe instead, translate Dharma as the Word if you have a fondness for Good News. The Dharma is written on all of the ten-thousand blanket-things. That sentence is just words, the words point to the underlying Truth, but you have to do to work following that pointing (to get back where you started).
To the extent I can point you towards the destination, I am deeply happy. To the extent I fail because of ignorance or a lack of skill, I apologize. Just know the pointing always goes to right here, right now. What is this wisdom, and why bother seeking something so trivial sounding?
The feeling of redness and the feeling of cold, those are examples of what philosophers called qualia, the raw stuff of Mind. Now, red and low temperature, mmm, that is tricky. Can you see or feel them? If redness is seen and cold felt, where is the room for red and low temperature?
Act IV: The Quilt
Some of our treasured possessions return to Mystery.
God is Mystery, Not God is Mystery.
We end up “losing” some things, but, we gain our lives. We gain exactly what we already have. If we gained any more, everyone would be trapped in a cycle of gain and loss, and loss becomes inevitable for us. Discovering everyone is already enlightened, means we are always and everywhere free *whispers loudly, pointing in the direction of the Mystic* Except him! *winks playfully*
Koi swimming sinuously in a pond, I lure them with bread. A single blossom falls towards the pool from a cherry tree. Now adrift, a raft to beyond, beyond, all the way beyond. The solitary moon gossips its own secrets.
*delights in the koi while sipping coffee* So, before the detective gets on the scene, keep this in mind. Anything anybody can tell you is just a raft, if it is no longer carrying you to the moon, you have to find another. (Also, we are not teachers, so take everything we say with some salt). Ah, the detective approaches…
If these posts inspire you, have a look at the practical tips page to get started.
Glossary
- Blanket – A metaphor as seen in the film I Heart Huckabees used throughout to suggest the underlying unity of experience, reality, or consciousness which all things are “part of / made of”.
- Cartesian Theater – A philosophical image (from Daniel Dennett’s critique of Descartes) describing the idea of a central “observer” inside the mind watching mental events.
- Dharma – A Buddhist term often translated as “Truth,” “Law,” or “Teaching”; here, it points to the underlying reality expressed through all things. This is said to be the whole of the teaching, which is why all sentient beings can realize enlightenment.
- Mystery – Pointing to what cannot be explained or captured in words, whether Mind, God, or Reality itself.
- Raft – A Zen/Buddhist metaphor for what aids you in your journey of enlightenment: useful for crossing over, but not to be clung to once the crossing is complete.
- Other – The counterpart to “self”; in Zen thought, the distinction between self and other is questioned and often dissolved.