Maarssen, May 2001
Tao-zen session 11-13 May 2001, saturday morning
Maarten Houtman, The first and only true revolution
Session talk May 12, 2001
Published by Stichting ‘Zen als leefwijze’
Voor de Nederlandse versie, zie: De eerste en enige werkelijke revolutie.
You have to realize that for us it is so normal to taste, see, hear, smell, and feel, that the link between what the senses bring in, and what our consciousness does, is just unknown to us.
However, that is the reality, what I ‘m talking about is factual. Thousands of impulses may enter, but only when they have arrived in our consciousness, only then it is possible to perceive them, in one way or another. Precisely because we miss that link, at least to our consciousness – we are not aware of it – so there we lose track.
So actually, our senses – our entire body – transmit an incredible amount of messages. But the one who needs to hear, it is not home. That is how it is. Giving attention means that you’re at home, so that all the messages coming to you get through to you.
If you only take home from this weekend what I just told you, I’d be very happy. It is a rather simple factor. But the whole Zen culture and the whole Taoist culture is based on this very simple fact: that you have to be home to be aware of what comes in, to realize that.
That has a lot of consequences. From this follows you should lead a simple life. Otherwise, it is just too much, what comes in, you cannot handle it.
If you have a problem, whatever problem it may be, you’re not at home. Then you’re only that problem. You’re unable to solve that problem with the details you know. They are not enough.
So it is, in the heart of the matter, a very complex thing we’re talking about. We’re satisfied with a few words about it. That’s not enough. We must penetrate the core.
We live in a society, here in the Netherlands, and actually in the whole Western world, that technically has gone far beyond what our consciousness can realize. Firstly, by the quantity. The amount of impressions is gigantic, compared to the state of our consciousness.
In a sense, to come to awareness here, is infinitely more difficult than in a simple society. The first thing you notice when you happen to visit a simple society, is that the pace is much lower there. In fact, that pace is adapted to the state of consciousness.
But we obviously cannot go back. That is for sure, we live in this society. And we cannot wait for scholars to clarify this phenomenon. Because that goes – in proportion to what is now going on in the world: the climate change, environmental pollution – so slowly…
So we’ll have to do it ourselves. We should ask ourselves (it seems a strange question): “How should we live?”
We have concerned ourselves with only aspects: what kind of food we need, how much sleep we need – if we even have thought of the latter before.
Those things have kept us occupied. But these are only small aspects of the total. Who is engaged in the way he gets up, the way he walks, the way he looks around. And that all at the same time.
Who is engaged with that? No one, right? We think that if we sit on a bench or a pillow, we’re meditating. It’s really not true, people, it’s really not true!
The fact is that that bench, that pillow, the monastery – that is, the space in which you are left to yourself – are tools. But they work only if you know what it is about: that these are only ways to become conscious.
But becoming conscious is something very different, that is the whole of life, really the whole of life. That is your breathing as you sleep, that is your breathing as you work, that is your breathing when you are resting, that is your breathing when you’re on vacation. And the energy is attached to the breath – but it is actually the opposite: the breath is attached to the energy, that is the actual reality.
You have to understand first what it is about, before you can meditate. That is not about making a rule here, a rule there, a matter thus, a matter so, it is your own dedication that matters. And your understanding of what you have started.
That means it cannot be fixed, because it is something you do, it is a path you are following. And on the path you follow, you’ll notice all kinds of things; you’re going to see connections.
And the connections you will observe yourself – so not from the outside but from the inside, observed by yourself – will indicate how it will go on.
So as we gather here, and as I talk to you, there is only one purpose, and that is that you start to realize what it is about. And when you realize that, you can go, you can meditate. Before, you have done all kinds of things due to authority. And if one thing is clear, it is that authority frustrates.
That has got to get through to you: authority frustrates, it makes you stupid, it makes you dead.
We have seen it in the large, and it is still true: fascism, communism, and now fundamentalism, it kills. It kills the intelligence, it kills the ability to discover – that is the essence.
If you have understood where I began, that technical exposition, it is crystal clear. All that really matters, no one can do for you.
This is why real meditation, if you look at it around the world, goes so very slowly…
Because also in Buddhism – and thus in Zen – and also in Taoism, rules have crept in. And the rules are matters which have been established. And those who have established them, have power over us. It is that simple!
Whether it is a Zen master, or a Taoist master, or a Father of the Church, it is all the same. Once you have rules, those who have established them have power over you. And then you get the hierarchy, you get someone at the top, and in descending order the ministers who have power.
So true meditation is incredibly revolutionary. It is the first and only true revolution. All other revolutions are in the margins, they only change a habit. This changes you completely, makes you from a prisoner a free man.
Therefore, throughout history, people who understood have been persecuted. The Sufi masters were even stoned to death.
It is very clear, because those are the only people who really are a danger to the system of power. It’s so obvious, it is not accepted.
If you’re trying to find the being you are, then you are a threat, then you go outside all rules.
What does that mean in practice, now here today? It means you must, in a society that is based entirely on the exercise of power, become free. And, I must add, in such a way that others will not notice. Because if they find out, you’re condemned. So it is!
So it is two-sided: you have to go your way, you have to come to awareness – what means that you pay attention to your whole life, everything: awareness of your thoughts; awareness of how thoughts arise, and disappear; awareness of how judgments arise; awareness of how reactions occur; awareness how automatisms arise. And in such a way that others do not notice. Because then you’re condemned.
It is as old as the history, first oral history, then recorded history. That is the real challenge we face, each for himself.
We can, by coming together, get it clearer for ourselves. The power of consciousness can be bundled when we are together. But not more than that, we remain individuals. We remain the one who is on his way. It’s not a group meditation. There is already authority in that. There the unique individual is mangled – it sounds a bit grim what I say, but it is true.
What we can do within the group is continue our own way. And then we can be helped, because someone else tells us he has discovered something we were perhaps not quite ready for. And conversely, those who tell us so, may be enriched by what you have discovered. But it remains an individual practice, it is still only your way.
And that is the great difficulty: to realize this and live accordingly. So that nothing in your life is insignificant or secondary, everything is equally important. Such a classification: important/unimportant, comes from us as human beings, who have not sufficiently penetrated to their essence, to their origins.
All problems in the world are a problem of consciousness, nothing else. Economy, climate, religious attitude, are the consequences, they are consequences of an awareness problem.
Actually, we could live in all circumstances. But we cannot, because we stuck to tradition, to evolution – all of humanity has been shaped by evolution, differently in different countries.
But that is still the result. Evolution is a result, it is not the current state of our consciousness. That we must discover. Always, also today.
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