OneSangha

Within this context I’d like to begin a discussion of what Spiritual materialism means to you and what might you see as the pitfalls of understanding Zen from a Western perspective.

Hi Rev. Jigen,

Sorry for the delay on this response. Your comments are insightful and to the point; however what I am saying is about the tendency of Western Buddhist Teachers to transmit forms. I would agree that if we, as spiritual practitioners, approach this from the smörgåsbord perspective we may never commit to any significant movement in our own spiritual development.

It is up to the teachers of Buddhism to understand the spiritual context of Buddhist Practices and through a slow and methodical approach begin to discern the differences between Buddhism and Confucian Culture, as is the case with mu examination of Korean Zen.

So, your concerns are valid, and are at the forefront of what I am trying to discern within our Western Practice of Buddhism. The more we see into the depth of a culture, the more we don’t need to adopt those mores as our own. This is the dialog I wish to propose, not one of choice, but one of cultural relevance.

Friday, it is well known, for example, that the average American watches more than two hours (more like four, as I recall) of television a day.

As someone who is married, has a full-time job, has started a non-profit hackerspace during the last six months, and engages in various other activities (such as roughly 45 minutes of focused exercise a day), I still find time to practice. Sure, people have to make time but I really do not think that people, even people with families, are so busy that they cannot practice for around an hour a day and study texts, etc. for another hour. Most people just have to choose to do that over tv or certain social activities.

That sounds unsympathetic and I do not mean it to sound so. I know it is difficult. There are plenty of times that I don’t want to sit down and study or even practice when I’m tired or I’ve had a long day but we all choose to follow the Dharma. We have to make the decision of what is important in this precious human life.

I see this as a far different issue than attachment to foreign ritual or form. Buddhism has survived for over 2,500 years. We need to continue to pass it down and I am not convinced that we should just throw it all out. It has to be a nuanced process.

Thanks for the post Al, I would agree that we must make spiritual practice an important aspect of our lives and need to find the time fit in our formal practice. There is, however, a natural progression where one becomes more aware of actions and phenomena in their everyday waking lives. I believe that Friday was responding to this post by Barbara on About.com and her friend the Christian who is an expert on Buddhism (she thinks that Yoga and Zen are the same thing.) We must find that very thin thread that weaves its way in the middle ground where there is perfect balance in our lives and our practice. This is not easy, and many have been distracted by blindly following ritual and form and believing this to be practice.

This is a difficult subject, because, as with everything, there is no ‘right’ way to do anything. So, lets keep the discussion alive and keep sharing our insights.

Thanks Laura, your post is very timely as I just read this article:
Yoga wars’ spoil spirit of ancient practice, Indian agency says
By Emily Wax
Monday, August 23, 2010

NEW DELHI — Heard of Naked Yoga? Kosher Yoga? Yoga for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?

More than 30 million Americans practice some sort of yoga in an ever-expanding industry generating an estimated $6 billion in the United States alone.

But in the birthplace of yoga, an Indian government agency is fighting what it calls “yoga theft” after several U.S. companies said they wanted to copyright or patent their versions. Yoga is a part of humanity’s shared knowledge, the agency says, and any business claiming the postures as its own is violating the very spirit of the ancient practice.

India’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library has gathered a team of yogis from nine schools and 200 scientists to scan ancient texts, including the writings of Patanjali, thought to be the original compiler of yoga sutras. The group is documenting more than 900 yoga postures and making a video catalogue of 250 of the most popular ones, from sun salutation to downward-facing dog.

The catalogue will be released next month and given to the international patent system, which yoga gurus in India say is essential in an age when cultural traditions can cross borders instantaneously.

(Maryland football team uses Yoga to help strike a balance)

“Yoga is collective knowledge and is available for use by everybody no matter what the interpretation,” said V.K. Gupta, head of the digital library, which was set up by the ministries of health and science. “It would be very inappropriate if some companies try to prevent others from any yoga practice, even if they call it some other name. So we wanted to ensure that, in the future, nobody will be able to claim that he has created a yoga posture which was actually already created in 2500 B.C. in India.”

The library has documented other traditional Indian knowledge, including ayurvedic treatments and homeopathy. Tens of thousands of yoga postures have been compiled, but many are not widely practiced.

“This collection is very successful in preventing wrong patent information, but it is available in 34 million pages,” Gupta said with a chuckle. “We are trying to shorten the yoga catalogue to make it very easy for the world to understand.”

The poses, now listed in Sanskrit, will be translated into English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese. Gupta’s library has agreements with U.S. and European patent offices, and Gupta said he hopes that U.S. patent officers will refer yoga studios directly to his information.

Popularized in the United States by Beatles guitarist George Harrison, yoga has moved into the mainstream and now includes yoga vacations, children’s camps, retreats, books, magazines, CDs, trendy clothing, pricey jewelry, cookbooks and even dating services.

Yoga wars, as they are known, started in 2004 in Beverly Hills when Calcutta-born yoga master Bikram Choudhury claimed as his intellectual property a sequence of 26 postures that his students performed in a room heated to 105 degrees. He attempted to collect money from smaller studios offering “Hot Yoga” classes.

Open Source Yoga Unity, a San Francisco-based nonprofit group of yoga enthusiasts, filed a federal lawsuit against Choudhury’s patent. The lawsuit resulted in a confidential settlement agreement.

Today, Choudhury’s form of yoga is taught at more than 400 centers from Washington to Paris. His net worth is unofficially estimated at $7 million.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted at least 131 patents on the subject of yoga, most for books and yoga mats. The database of registered and pending trademarks lists 3,700 trademarks but no specific patents on postures or variations of postures, the government agency said.

In India, yoga used to be free, practiced in public parks and ashrams. It was typically part of a Hindu religious commitment to an austere life and seen as a practice for ash-smeared holy men in loincloths who were vegetarians, abstained from alcohol, and prayed, meditated and chanted for more than four hours a day.

But yoga has entered the mainstream in India, and millions of people practice in studios. The government has encouraged the army to teach supple poses to stressed-out officers in the disputed region of Kashmir. Hundreds of Mumbai residents practiced outside in a show of unity after the 2008 terrorist attack. Prisoners in the state of Madhya Pradesh can receive an early release if they complete a meditative breathing and stretching yoga course, which is said to be excellent for anger management.

At her popular Iyengar yoga class at her home in New Delhi, instructor Nischint Singh, 42, said that yoga was originally meant to soothe shattered souls and teach breathing known as pranayama, and that she always thought it should be open to everyone.

“Yoga is for developing a connection with yourself. It’s meant to be meditative,” she said before a recent class. “But today it’s being sold as a way of weight loss and a way to look younger. The actual originators of yoga are not even alive. Everything people are doing today is just following them.”

Special correspondent Ayesha Manocha contributed to this report.

My Comment: Is this a possible future also for Zen, with the Advent of course work like “Big Mind” and also with the new age approach by people like Tolle and Katie, who have to re-package the ancient teachings, otherwise everyone would know that they are just selling watter down at the river,.I believe that organizations should be as thin as possible and all the effort should be in helping and not in marketing some brand or special way. As the article says that all of these used to be offered for free. I am not advocating that, as Westerners like to practice in nice, well lit and neatly arranged spaces and that costs someone money. I just feel that the co-opting of ancient teachings into some kind of brand it utterly ridiculous.

Paul wrote:

“My Comment: Is this a possible future also for Zen, with the Advent of course work like “Big Mind” and also with the new age approach by people like Tolle and Katie, who have to re-package the ancient teachings, otherwise everyone would know that they are just selling watter down at the river,.I believe that organizations should be as thin as possible and all the effort should be in helping and not in marketing some brand or special way. As the article says that all of these used to be offered for free. I am not advocating that, as Westerners like to practice in nice, well lit and neatly arranged spaces and that costs someone money. I just feel that the co-opting of ancient teachings into some kind of brand it utterly ridiculous. ”

This is same orientation that is behind part of my whole “Open Source Buddhism” idea. The idea that the Dharma, be it scriptures or techniques, is not owned by anyone. It’s a birthright of every being. Realization is not something that can be owned and the techniques or methods that act as skillful means to bring about realization should not be under patent or copyright.

I wish that translation was easier. Right now, I see a general problem in that texts and such are often not studied by people and the ability to get them in front of people is often limited by the fact that every decent translation of a text, with a few exceptions, such as the Numata Center’s digital texts project at http://www.numatacenter.com/default.aspx?MPID=81, is under copyright.

Perhaps this should be a separate thread as well since this has diverged from aspects of “Spiritual Materialism.”