Author: Warren Tang

I write about linguistics and philosophy. I also write poetry and take photographs.

Why meditate?

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To be honest I haven’t been meditating much if at all lately. And many of you (Buddhists and non-Buddhists) may ask what is so important about meditation. So here is my personal answer:

We train and get our bodies into shape, improve our senses through honing skills but rarely do think of the mind as something which needs exercise, training and perfecting.

Top athletes probably can tell you that mental training is necessary but rarely do they talk about it outside of the sport. Their mental training is on the court or field but beyond the boundaries.

Buddhism on the other hand says there is no separation between practice on the cushion and practice off it. There is nothing special about meditation expect it is a delibrate act to train the mind, to get it as fit and ready as possible for the coming enlightenment.

I do not know if this makes sense but that is what I have come to understand after long years as a Buddhist.

But just remember, I didn’t say I was a good Buddhist.

Saul Bellow on Death

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And Bankei said, “What is unborn cannot die”. Death is not to be feared or loathed but embraced. For it makes us appreciate life, this life, all the more.

We Are Not Kind Machines

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In short, the understandable wish to advance the dharma by linking it with the prestige of science might obscure its actual power. The unique force of the dharma lies in its diagnosis of suffering and its causes and its prescription of the path to the cessation of that suffering. In this regard, Buddhism can speak for itself—even in the modern marketplace of ideas. It follows from this that the best way we can help sustain the dharma is to stay true to it. Right about now that might be the most radical we can do.

From the article We are not kind machines

No Water, No Moon

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tumblr_lgsfvhPu3w1qg39ewo1_500When the nun Chiyono studied Zen under Bukko of Engaku she was unable to attain the fruits of meditation for a long time.

At last one moonlit night she was carrying water in an old pail bound with bamboo. The bamboo broke and the bottom fell out of the pail, and at that moment Chiyono was set free!

In commemoration, she wrote a poem:

In this way and that I tried to save the old pail
Since the bamboo strip was weakening and about to break
Until at last the bottom fell out.
No more water in the pail!
No more moon in the water!

(From Zen Flesh, Zen Bones)

Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

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Just bought this complete translation of the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. Last year the publishers released a beautiful two-volume boxed hardcover edition of which I really regret not purchasing.

Travelling the Narrow Roads with Basho

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Go where
The wind blows
Far into the interior
Of the mind
Of your haiku

Then beyond
Its borders
Through towns
Pass common folks
Over seas
And in love
With your
Companion
Only to return
To reality
That is the Edo.

the interpreter

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life
is the interpretation
of time
and space

the longer the life
the more accurate
the interpretation
is supposed to be

but some die
without fully
interpreting
the meaning

time
is lost upon them
and equally
space
disappears
like into some kind
of mental black hole
called “their” mind

of which
the mind actually
isn’t a self as
conventionally
believed

but a grand illusion
a fantastic
misinterpretation
of life
and therefore
of what
one should do
“now” and
with “whom”
or with “what”

Some thoughts on Right Speech

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Sometimes – more often than not – Right Speech means silence in a matter, not in ignorance or in ignoring something (not wanting to know or wishing its nonexistence) but refraining from speaking in the understanding that to talk about it will not help the situation, and that speaking out may even make the situation worse.