Known Unknowns

I can thank Donald Rumsfeld for the term "known unknowns." Indeed, there are known unknowns.

That much I know, though I can never show it to you.

But think about this. Thoughts come as perceptions. They are perceived.

The perceiver cannot be found. Whatever is located when searching is only another object of thought. Perception remains, out of reach as that which is aware of the search and the thought object.

To establish a model for discussion, consider this. We cannot see black holes but we can see the gravitational lensing they cause around astronomical objects. Black holes are inferred phenomena.

Philip Kapleau Left the Rat Race Behind

In 1953, at age 46, Philip Kapleau was a New York businessman making good money but tired of the rat race. There had to be an answer to it all and peace, he thought, so he decided to go to Japan to study Zen but, about to embark, his friends warned him he was making a huge mistake. He began to think so himself. His journal entries recorded his thoughts.

Is There Such A Thing As A Core, Common Mystical Experience?

John Hayes: Is There Such A Thing As A Core, Common Mystical Experience?

To this day still a believing Christian, back in the 1960s, John Hayes, a psychologist and self-described Zen-Catholic, was a Franciscan friar watching with curiosity while the counter-culture used psychedelics with impunity. Through his own meditation and religious practice, Hayes believes he has had sensations that he would label mystical. But these mystical states—which he described to me as “moments of unitive experience” —were significant enough that when he heard about a surprising research project at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine he was more than intrigued. Doctors at JHU were investigating the effects of psilocybin—the active ingredient in the more common variety of hallucinogenic mushroom—and looking for volunteers.

After some considerable thought, he and other theology students signed up. Would it have substantial and sustained personal meaning as spiritual experience? More at Search Magazine (science, Religion, Culture

You will find a list of people so inclined at the Mystical Experience Registry.

Here is a Wikipedia account of mysticism.

What I think. That mystical experiences help us understand our senses are bounded, which of course limits our understanding of the universe. Without his epilepsy, Dostoevsky could not have written so brilliantly and profoundly about existence. However caused, the experience is an anomaly of brain function that opens vistas of the natural we otherwise could not have beheld. That statement does not make me an atheist. People emerge from the experiences changed to the core. Have they pierced the veil? I leave the debates to theologians.

Zen teacher Charlotte "Joko" Beck: Dogs and The Meaning of Life

Zen teacher Charlotte "Joko" Beck: Dogs and The Meaning of Life

In some quarters the term realization has come into vogue to replace enlightenment. Enlightenment, as the narrative goes, cannot occur because nobody exists to become enlightened. Realization, enlightenment, whatever: without language the event would not happen. Language depends on culture and culture has begotten those who seek the event. The event itself is regarded as the ultimate reality, but that reality occurs only within a context and is a creature of words.

As that which transforms understanding, the event is not a figment of imagination. It is not self-delusion. It does occur. It can be explained negatively. Quite simply, a dog could not experience it because the canine brain lacks language capacity—Wernicke's and Broca's areas and a sufficient frontal cortex.

The event itself is described as ineffable—beyond words—yet without them some key features could not be experienced. The experience involves the dissolution of concepts and conceptual boundaries, which is to say linguistics. As one example, personal narrative, one's life story, is seen as a fiction, something created by memory. This, because the self is understood as verbal fiction.

Language,then, provides the foundation for that which in certain quarters is regarded as the highest conscious experience. This experience can be seen as another dimension of the human experience of language. A form of Buddhist gratitude is that one re-enters the stream of life as a human so that he or she can transcend humanity by release from delusion. The release, though, cannot occur except within a world formed by words.

I remember fondly my conversations with Zen teacher Charlotte "Joko" Beck and recall what she wrote in her book and once said to me: "My dog doesn't worry about the meaning of life."

On Ducks, Adi Da, Bubbah Free John aka Franklin Jones

People seek in enlightenment an experience to transform their lives into new meaning and understanding. It has become spiritual candy and they sometimes abandon reason in looking for it.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck. There are many ducks in today's spiritual market place. I failed to see one of them as a duck back in his hey day when he was called Franklin Jones or Bubbah Free John. I read his book, The Knee of Listening, and was impressed by his spiritual depth, but that was before I realized that enlightenment doesn't necessarily change scoundrels into saints. (See Some Notes on Enlightenment, 17 December.) I was in illustrious company as he had been endorsed by Alan Watts and Ken Wilber. I had much to learn about ducks.

Since then he still quacks but has undergone several name changes, the spiritual equivalent of plastic surgery. Here are a few, starting with the most recent: Adi Da/Adidam, aka Franklin Jones, Da Free John, Bubba Free John. At his web site this is found:

" Adi Da Samraj, the Promised God Man is here. Discover his divine life and work."

No less than an avatar himself. God Man, indeed. Let us all bow down before the New Messiah.

The desire for enlightenment creates people like him. Without it, he would have no followers. Some things there are, however, that are more important for a fulfilled life. They are reason, compassion, morality, and integrity. He has a resumé of enlightenment experiences and look at him.

He has been sued by many former members, one of whom, Mark Miller, said they had been forced to chant daily "prayers." The prayers include "Da is the Living Truth. Da is the Way of Salvation. Da is the eternal Master of Man." Women have been made his sex slaves.

About ducks such as Franklin Jones, aka Adi Da, an open letter to the Buddhist Community resulted from a meeting between the Dali Lama and concerned individuals. In part, the letter says this:

"An individual's position as a teacher arises in dependence on the request of his or her students, not simply being appointed as such by higher authority. Great care must therefor e exercised by the student in selecting an appropriate teacher. Sufficient time must be given to making this choice, which should be based on personal investigation, reason and experience. Students should be warned against the dangers of falling prey to charisma, charlatanism or exoticism."

"Particular concern was expressed about unethical conduct among teachers. In recent years both Asian and Western teachers have been involved in scandals concerning sexual misconduct with their students, abuse of alcohol and drugs, misappropriation of funds, and misuse of power. This has resulted in widespread damage both to the Buddhist community and to individual involved. Each student must be encouraged to take responsible measures to confront teachers with unethical aspects of their conduct.