Monk Mind

Monk Mind and Eternity

Entertainment is a form of enlightenment which takes
place in eternity.  Eternity is so far away, so unreal, and so
subtle that few of us can reach it.  We find it so appealing
to spend our time in eternity.  We find eternity so appealing
that we go to lengths to engage it.  We engage eternity by
focussing on our navel or watching our breath or counting socks.
Some lazes and Buddha-heds have named this delightful activity
'monk mind', because the mind, in its efforts to engage eternity,
sits quietly and obediently as a monk in a zendo.  Probably a
healthier way to engage it, if you must engage eternity, is by
jumping about wildly like a monkey in a cage, dancing, walking,
etc.  But advice from Far Western sages would tell us that
doing whatever we want to do is the healthiest way to handle
entertainment or encounter 'eternity'.

Doing what we want to do is the cooperative technique 
of engaging eternity.  Instead of restricting ourselves or twisting
our bodies into pretzels, as is usually the practice, we actually
don't try to do anything at all, just relax and let the Great
Mother Nature show us what enlightenment is all about.  What can
be more relaxing than lying in the back yard with a beer and a
good book, swinging to and fro in the hammock?  There are no
beginnings and endings in eternity.

Doing what we want involves giving up silly
searching and rigid focussing or orientation of particular
practices.  Suddenly we find our attention focussed.   Just
as suddenly we move into the entertainment of eternity and
enjoy the zen breeze.  Brief intervals become as nothing,
and the various details which once occupied our minds in
our furious desire to 'become enlightened' now recedes into
the background, perhaps to be lost forever in the firing of
our neurons.  In fact, our thoughts themselves are enlighten-
ment!  When you think, you are enlightened, no matter how much
you may think otherwise.

Of course, lots of rigorous ascetics like to try to
squish you out of thinking or into thinking in different ways.
They can't be happy with the way you are, and so they want to
make sure that something changes.  They play with thoughts
instead of just enjoying them.  Like a racing driver, they
test out the mind without looking at its beauty, at the scenery
through which it travels and which travels through it.
Ultimately, a day may pass by in lounging, no thought of the
dilectable goal in sight - the total cessation of monk mind.
This day of cessation is filled with time, because with the
passing of monk mind, all concern about getting to the now
have ended.  With no obsession about the present there is a
great sense of having all day to do anything we like.  So we
enter a world filled with slow-moving time and fulfilment.
Yet in this fulfilment there is great and profound relaxation.


Not grasping the extraordinary relaxation of eternity
requires no energy at all.  It is foiled through having listened
too much to Buddha-heds regarding the value of peacefulness and
tranquility.  To simply let these dreams of success and of that
'timeless moment' pass us by without grasping them or attempting
to maintain our relaxed state requires we admit that there is no
energy which is wasted, no action which is fruitless.  It is all
a fabrication of belief.  Belief is a fabulous play of Yin and
Yang, dancing behind veils of laughter.  Sometimes the Yin will
come and we will begin to believe in compassion and succor.  At
others the Yang chimes in and we begin to believe in wisdom and
strength.  All the energy spent on monk mind must be left behind if
one wishes to truly get eternally entertained, focussing on that
in which we find pleasure.  For this reason lazes have at times
written that just laying around, being lazy, is the most difficult
or important activity possible for human beings.  Watch the other
animals in the world that are most like humans.  Dogs, cats, other
mammals.  What do they spend their time doing?  Lying around.
They are enlightened and it is our task to understand how that
enlightenment can be most pleasurable to us also.

In our day-to-day lives, the laziness I'm pointing to
sometimes occurs spontaneously and sometimes due to the doldrums
of daily existence which would bore those who have no imagination.
Suddenly all afternoon is unplanned!  Suddenly we realize that we
have 3 hours to do anything we like!  On the road one day we get
stuck behind the wheel listening to our favorite classical music
experiences.  Entertainment is another 'rad' experience.
Entertainment is 'doing whatever' and 'not-doing' simultaneously.
It is enjoying the realm of eternity.  It is from this realm that
the laze comes to speak to us if she gets out of bed early enough.

There is relaxation in the morning meal and in the daily
newspaper, but imagine the wonderful splendour of your computer
screen.  In observing the computer screen you are watching the
one thing which is more relaxing than the daily news!  This
ultimate realization can only come about at the precise moment
of initiation, when the observer stops bothering with all this
looking about and just has a good time.  At the moment you would
find yourself wafting through the beauteous tumult of concepts
and controversies, more relaxed by their interplay than any other
time, because you have stopped all this chest-pounding about
'reaching the self' and 'becoming naked and vulnerable' and started
doing the work of Maya directly.  You are watching the miracle of
thought, passing by your eyes and the miracle is you.   The miracle
has spent years being told that it is a 'culprit' and that thinking
is a 'bad thing'.  The miracle has played around with different
roles and been told that it is really only one of them so shut up
and sit in the corner.  But now the silly corner-sitting can end,
because you have realized that this thinking is a gift, a joyous
bounty which allows you to be entertained.  You are watching the
computer screen in front of you and learning to enjoy it.

With the profound realization that the observer is the
problem, there is an immense sense of fullness.  The 'nothingness',
'emptiness', or 'sunyata' has been forgotten.  Whatever images we
have of what and who we are is the fabulous light-studded mandala
of beauty, and that which we are has increased in its value to a
wonderous extent.  At this point we are tempted to say, "I have
become God", and why not do so?!  In entertainment we are allowed
to say anything we like, and to realize that all of what we say is
in some sense true, some sense false.  But the Buddha-heds would
tell us to avoid the entertainment and get back to the monk mind.
They will say that there is only one way and this is the mysterious
and difficult-to-obtain 'enlightenment'.  Listen to them if you
must, but beware of their promises!  Snake-oil is their stock in
trade.  They will come up with all kinds of fancy proofs and
show you that nonattainment=attainment, going on, of course, to
demonstrate why you must follow their rules.  Beware!

The ultimate state of entertainment is one where we are
not worried about freedom or security.  We are just human beings
sitting in front of computer screens and we like what we do there.
We no longer concern ourselves with dreams of 'unconditional
freedom' or being 'limitless and timeless'.  We are neither
nothing nor everything.  We have become the perfect laze.

Thank you, Robert James, for your wonderful article which inspired
this mirror-mind transfigure-script of laziness. May we discover
the truth of every pole.