For Me, This is One of the Most Useful Koans

To be a Zen practitioner, or as some say, to be on a transformative journey of self-discovery and self-understanding, you need a compass because it's very easy to stray from the right path. There are lots of controversial ideas around; and sometimes you yourself will come up with some guesses as to how the psyche and the Universe work, which could turn out to be mistaken. But there's a koan, I call it a koan, that can immediately dispel the bulk of all delusions and ensure that, despite all possible doubts, you'll generally stay on the right path. Here it is: ALL AUTHORITY COMES FROM WITHIN.

Indeed, your main enemy is the superego, which is responsible for most suffering. If it isn't properly integrated into your psyche, it will produce a conflict between the individual and the collective, creating the impression, or illustration, that there is some sort of superpower above you.

It's often said that through Zen practice we tame the ego, but in more specific Freudian terms, it's the superego that we should focus on, since it's the main source of all delusions and causes us the greatest problems that we are destined to solve (these problems usually reveal themselves as some forms of mental disorder).

To be precise, during practice, we first of all try to tame the id in order to be able to put the superego in its place. Without the later, you'll never understand who you really are and achieve enlightenment; and this koan is, in fact, about the superego.

This makes the correct practice of Zen even more radical than atheism: atheism simply states the fact that there is no such thing as God, while Zen emphasises that the very idea of any authority outside of you is the main obstacle to truth, freedom, and enlightenment -- in other words, to realising WHO YOU REALLY ARE (I write this in capital letters because this is a koan too).

Some of you might have thought, when reading my posts, such as those on Zen intuition, that this was something akin to religious practice; but in fact, it's exactly the opposite. The correct Zen practice can be rather described as anti-religious: it comes from within and denies any authority from outside. I'm aware there were attempts to merge Zen with christianity, but this was the most foolish thing that a real Zen practitioner could imagine, since it's impossible to reconcile these two.

So, check yourself: ALL AUTHORITY COMES FROM WITHIN.

ZEN FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF QUANTUM MECHANICS - 8

In my last post, I mentioned hierarchies but didn't mention that in the quantum world, the formation of hierarchies as a result of entanglement is actually an increase in entropy.

Also, since I brought up a problem there and even called it 'the main problem,' some may say that I should've pointed out the solution. I'll return to this topic again, of course, but my readers already know that I see my walking zazen method as the solution. The thing is, while practising just sitting zazen, you can stray from the right path very easily, but if you learn how to do zazen correctly while moving, everything becomes obvious

ZEN FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF QUANTUM MECHANICS -- 7

THE NATURE OF THE POSSIBLE. WHAT QUANTUM MECHANICS CAN GAIN FROM ZEN?

So, we've found that the goal of correct Zen practice is to become unentangled, like a wave function, because in this state, you're free from your past (your karma), you have a choice (free will), and you have an anticipation of the future (intuition), which in particular gives you an insight into what you should do in the long run to maintain this state of mind. In other words, this is a way of realising your potential or, as some call it, your true self. Indeed, as it's known, to realise your true self, you don't need to invent anything: it already exists, and all you should do is just eliminate the roadblocks.

In other words, I'm sure Possibles are real in a sense they don't exist simply in our minds. And although I said that only unentangled individuals can fully enjoy the benefits of being truly independent, just as entangled particles can retain some of their wave functions' properties, we can still think in terms of Possibles even when considering partially entangled entities like organisations, companies, or groups of people bound by common goals and beliefs.

Consider Google and Apple in their early stages: surely they had a lot of very lucrative offers to merge with bigger companies. Were Google and Apple being irrational in turning them down? Everyone can see what they would've lost in the long run.

In this post, I'm going to explore the NATURE of the Possible, and I'll start doing this (since no-one's invented anything better) in a very subjective way: by exploiting how we can FEEL it. Since our individual potentials/true selves are part of it, this should be quite a valid approach. And then, I'll look into what our findings could actually imply.

So, how can one feel their true self? IF ONE'S DOING ZAZEN CORRECTLY, they feel it as denial, or negation. I don't know what this means in terms of physics, but I suspect this is where quantum mechanics can gain insight from Zen.

THE MAIN PROBLEM

Remember, I started this series of posts* -- Zen from the Perspective of Quantum Mechanics -- so you could better understand what correct Zen practice should be, because there are at least two different ways of performing zazen among Zen practitioners. Sometimes you can trace this division as the difference between Rinzai and Soto Zen. As a result, they achieve two different states of mind, but no one seems to care, but for me, this is the most crucial question Zen must answer today.

In a nutshell, if you, for example, compare how Katsuki Sekida describes zazen in his Zen Training with how most Zen practitioners do it, you'll find two different techniques.

Here's how Katsuki Sekida describes it:
'However, if you really attain this state you will find it to be a remarkable thing. At the extremity of having denied all and having nothing left to deny, we reach a state in which absolute silence and stillness reign, bathed in a pure, serene light' (Ch.1).

Moreover, according to him, this denial (or tension in the tanden as one perceives it) is the source of mental power which allows us to control wandering thoughts (Ch.3). As you can see, even the technique of stopping thoughts differs from what the majority of Zen and mindfulness practitioners use. For them, there's no trace of denial in their zazen practice; it's more about merging with everything. Here's how Shunryu Suzuki describes it in his Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: 'We say "inner world" or "outer world," but actually there is just one whole world. In this limitless world, our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door.' (PART I: RIGH T PRACTICE: Breathing 29)

I'll delve into this more in future posts; for now, let's summarise.

On the one hand, we have absolute denial, which means getting unentangled with the environment. With practice, this approach gives you the UNDERSTANDING of what's going on, the situation, which for some may look like a real mystery. So we can say that denial is the correct way of perceiving reality. In this case, everything falls into place: denial is just another term for detachment, or non-attachment, creating no gap between your sitting zazen practice and everyday life, which becomes just a natural extension of the former.

On the other hand, as the majority of Zen and mindfulness practitioners perform zazen, we actually have merging with everything. I suspect that at the core of this sort of practice is the wrong idea of non-duality; while the real experience of non-duality is the result of absolute denial pushed to its limit, not merging. Consequently, there's a loose connection between their zazen practice and what they experience in their everyday lives, especially if they usually do something that engages mainly the rational left hemisphere. They often come out with wisdom like 'we're all interconnected,' which isn't a great deal to spot and experience. For me, to realise that you're free -- and how this can be possible! -- is much more of an achievement.

In other words, we can identify two sorts of energies: denial (negation) and merging. Keep in mind, denial isn't aggression but something opposite to merging: it's the force that nudges us to break free and set boundaries.

HIERARCHY

Say you run your own business, then decide it's more lucrative to work for a company you previously competed against. How do your relationships with former rivals, now colleagues, change? A team inside a company generally works as one unit, not as competitors -- at least that's how it's presumed to be. Indeed, your relationships change in some real sense, and I'm sure it can even be described by Game Theory. You're not supposed to deny them anymore; it's a form of merging.

Since an individual is a more complex entity than a particle, entanglement for you may mean something more complex. For example, there may be different rules for different players -- some may be allowed to deny, while others aren't -- that's how hierarchies emerge. Hierarchies can be seen as merging on unequal terms, where some use the energy, i.e, potentials, of others. You should know what you lose when you start working on someone else: they use your potential for their own project. The good news is that you don't even need to invent your own one: simply trying to remain unentangled can be your personal project.

Then one might ask: is being unentangled a greater achievement than being at the top of a hierarchy? The answer is yes, because only when unentangled can you act as your true self requires and fully realise your potential. One might also wonder if such individuals are destined to remain alone forever. The answer is no. They can unite on an equal, non-hierarchical basis. Relationships based on denial -- have you ever heard of a civilisation like this?

I'm currently editing that series of posts I've called ZEN FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF QUANTUM MECHANICS. It dawned on me that I hadn't made it clear why I started writing it in the first place, so here's how it begins now:What can a Zen practioner gain from Quantum Mechanics? Quite a lot, I think, because it can help you get a grasp of how the mind works and therefore better understand what the correct Zen practice should be, which to me is perhaps the most important question Zen needs to answer nowadays since there're at least two different ways of doing zazen among Zen practioners; as a result, they achieve two different states of mind, but no one seems to care. Now you can see why I called this series of posts ZEN FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF QUANTUM MECHANICS, not vice versa, although my own interpretation of Quantum Mechanics -- QM from my perspective -- comes first of course. In a word, I've found a perspective from which, in my view, (almost) everything falls into place and from which it's easy for me to explain what I mean.

HE THINGS THAT THE FUTURE BELONGS TO ZEN AND EXPLAINS WHY

Mechanized minds: AI's hidden impact on human thought - Big Think
https://bigthink.com/thinking/the-mechanized-mind-ais-hidden-impact-on-human-thought/

Wow, a wonderful technique

I'd never been interested in Stoicism, but I recently came across this:

If you're fond of a jug, say, 'This is a jug that I'm fond of,' an then, if it gets broken, you won't be upset. If you kiss your child or your wife, say to yourself that it is a human being that you're kissing; and then, if one of them should die, you won't be upsetting.
                                   Epictetus

And it seems to work even when it comes to kissing yourself. 

ZEN FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF QUANTUM MECHANICS - 6

ONE THING I WANT TO WARN YOU ABOUT


I now dwell on our entanglement with environment and what it takes to be unentangled; and for that I start with the most banal kind of it: our entanglement with material things. In fact, very often it's the main obstacle to enlightenment since for many material things are not only the main source of their self-worth but even part of their identity. (In this regard, the walking meditation described in this blog* can really help: when you move the earth with your legs, everything on it comes and goes except you.)

Then the question you have to answer is this: how can you make sure that your possessions will always remain just a tool, not an emotional entity?

To answer this, we have a new perspective: the idea that freedom means being unentangled. It's not an abstraction; it's your practice and way of living; it's freedom from and freedom to at the same time. You may not even realise how unusual this perspective is for the majority (at least these days, people in either the East or the West simply can't afford the luxury of having such a lifestyle). Exploring it, you enter uncharted territory so don't be surprised if you find something that defies common sense and would never occur to a 'normal' person. For example, does wealth always make us free? (Note that once we start to analyse our relationship with wealth, it's not only about things but also people since wealth is a social phenomenon.)


One of the reasons why I bring up this topic is because I want to worn you that if you make decisions based on Zen intuition as I describe it,** you'll wind up in a wonderful but unstable state (the state is really wonderful: I'm almost 60, but I still feel free and happy like a teenager skipping school).


As far as I'm concerned, following this path, I did quite well in an unstable and even chaotic environment -- in Bulgaria in the 1990s -- at least much better than the majority that would stick to their permanent jobs; for them, it was a disaster. There was absolutely no security, but on the flipside, there were a lot of opportunities. I was pretty good at spotting and taking advantage of opportunities but bad at the next stage that many believe busyness is abot: creating a permanent state of codependency with clients -- a sort of symbiosis -- creating bonds, in a world. The former and the later are of absolutely different nature and require completely different skills. And then when I came to Europe (Bulgaria wasn't in the EU at the time), I found a completely different environment: that they'd traded opportunities for security and didn't realise that the former is always at the expense of the later.


And perhaps one of the most surprising things I've discovered is the fact that if you think of freedom as being unentangled, then wealth makes you free only to a certain point, but then the richer you get, the more you get entangled with others if only because you need to protect your possessions -- it's up to you to prove me wrong -- although investing money into realising your ideas can be a solution, of course.

In this view, it's okay to be a hunter and go hunting every day, but for some reason it always tends to end up in some stable state of codependency. Psychologists even say that codependency is a sign of maturity, but I doubt that 'maturity' is the right term here. (I once read a Zen master describing his teaching experience; he says that enlightenment is hardest to achieve for emotional women and psychologists -- perhaps because they can't imagine what it's like to be unentangled.) Stuart Kauffman, I already mentioned him,*** in his At Home In the Universe: the Search for the Laws of Self- Organisation and Completely claims that complex systems, including living organisms, naturally tend to evolve to thrive right on the edge of chaos -- the ordered state is too rigid, the chaotic, well, too chaotic -- one must add if they're independent players of course.

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And of course the question arises: can such unentangled individuals unite together to cary out projects, especially long-term ones, to defend themselves, to cooperate in a word? I bet they can, which for many may be quite revolutionary: Freud, for instance, believed that the only force that could unite us into society was Eros; I mean his division of human instincts into Eros and Thanatos is wrong. Because there're indeed two tendencies, but they're: a tendency to merge and a tendency to detach. Once you start thinking in these terms, everything falls into place.

To be continued

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* https://0zen1.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-main-trick-walking-zazen_22.html
** https://0zen1.blogspot.com/search/label/intuition
*** https://0zen1.blogspot.com/2024/06/zen-from-perspective-of-quantum.html