Pure and Simple: The Extraordinary Teachings of a Thai Buddhist Laywoman

Pure and Simple: The Extraordinary Teachings of a Thai Buddhist Laywoman

Upasika Kee was a uniquely powerful spiritual teacher. Evocative of the great Ajahn Chah, her teachings are earthy, refreshingly direct, and hard-hitting. In the twentieth century, she grew to become one of the most famous teachers in Thailand--male or female--all the more remarkable because, rarer still, she was not a monastic but a layperson. Her relentless honesty, along with her encouraging voice, is one reason so many contemporary Buddhist teachers recall Upasika Kee so fondly, and so often. With this book, readers seeking something reminiscent of the classic Mindfulness in Plain English can receive instruction on meditation practice as they become acquainted with the legacy of a renowned Buddhist figure. Pure and Simple, the first widely-available collection of her writings, will be gratefully received not only by those who knew Upasika Kee, but by anyone who encounters her for the first time in its pages.

====





Follow Author

Upasika Kee Nanayon

edit data
Upasika Kee Nanayon, also known by her penname, K. Khao-suan-luang, was arguably the foremost woman Dhamma teacher in twentieth-century Thailand.

Born in 1901 to a Chinese merchant family in Rajburi, a town to the west of Bangkok, she was the eldest of five children — or, counting her father's children by a second wife, the eldest of eight. Her mother was a very religious woman and taught her the rudiments of Buddhist practice, such as nightly chants and the observance of the precepts, from an early age. 

In later life she described how, at the age of six, she became so filled with fear and loathing at the miseries her mother went through in being pregnant and giving birth to a younger sibling that, on seeing the newborn child for the first time — "sleeping quietly, a little red thing with black, black hair" — she ran away from home for three days.

 This experience, plus the anguish she must have felt when her parents separated, probably lay behind her decision, made when she was still quite young, never to submit to what she saw as the slavery of marriage.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/th...

(less)

Kee Nanayon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search

Upasika Kee Nanayon

Upasika Kee Nanayon (Thai: กี นานายน) or Kor Khao-suan-luang (ก. เขาสวนหลวง) was a Thai Buddhist upāsikā (devout laywoman) from Ratchaburi (1901 - 1978).^[1] After her retirement in 1945, she turned her home into a meditation center with her aunt and uncle.^[2] She was mostly self-taught, reading the Pali canon and other Buddhist literature.^[3] Her dhamma talks and poetry were widely circulated. As word of her spread, she became one of the most popular female meditation teachers in Thailand. Many of her talks have been translated into English by Thanissaro Bhikkhu, who sees her as "arguably the foremost woman Dhamma teacher in twentieth-century Thailand".^[3]

Publications[edit]

• Upasika K. Nanayon, An unentangled knowing: lessons in training the mind, Buddhist Publication Society, 1996.
• Upasika Kee Nanayon, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Pure and simple: teachings of a Thai Buddhist laywoman, Somerville, 2005
• "Breath Meditation Condensed".

References[edit]

1. ^ Donald K. Swearer, The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia, SUNY Press, 2010, s. 13.
2. ^ Kassam, Zayn R. (2017). Women and Asian Religions. ABC-CLIO. p. 320. ISBN 978-0-313-08275-7.
3. ^ Jump up to:^a b Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Upasika Kee Nanayon and the Social Dynamic of Theravadin 

===
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Upasika Kee (1901-78) was an extremely popular Buddhist teacher in Thailand, starting a retreat center in the hills outside Rajburi that still thrives today. In this rare collection of her writings, Upasika Kee displays relentless honesty in conveying her experience of, and devotion to, Dhamma practice. She says one must be uncompromising in one's dedication to upholding Buddhist precepts. To detach from ego-based thought, to persistently practice meditation and breath work, to tame the "monkey mind," these are the basics, and, in her opinion, the only road to awareness. According to Upasika Kee, without serious practice, one will never stop the suffering caused by the mental "defilements" that drive us. Readers just learning about Buddhism will find the book thought-provoking, but the real audience will be those already dedicated to Buddhist practice. Interestingly, Upasika Kee was self-taught, learning most of her practice from reading. It seems apropos for this book to be the means for other Buddhist devotees to follow suit. Janet St. John
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

=================

Review
"She is described as one of the foremost lay Buddhist teachers of the twentieth century, but many Western readers will be introduced to Upasika Kee Nanayon for the first time in Pure and Simple. Born in Thailand at the turn of the century, Upasika Kee gave up the family business in mid-life to found a forest retreat center, where she devoted herself to meditation and study until her death in 1993. Thanissaro Bhikkhu, an American who studied in the Forest Tradition for twenty years in Thailand, is a translator of Pali and Thai and here he turns his adept hand to Upasika Kee. She was a Buddhist from the old school who talked the talk and walked the walk. The book's title neatly summarizes the themes that run through many of these talks: keep it pure by staying away from defilements, and keep it simple by avoiding distractions. That's keeping it real, Upasika Kee-style." ― Shambhala Sun


"Upasika Kee teaches from her own experience in a voice that is clear and unwavering. Her devotion to liberation is apparent everywhere on these pages." -- Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Faith


"Wonderful news! These extraordinary teachings are now available for a wide readership. Upasika Kee presents Buddhadharma in a simple, direct and unadorned way. Profound insights and approaches to practice are delivered with a freshness that seems to be coming right out of her own meditations--right then and there." -- Larry Rosenberg, Senior teacher, Cambridge Insight Meditation Center and Insight Meditation Society, and author of Breath by Breath and Living in the Light of Death

"Delve deeper into your own spiritual practice with Pure and Simple, a translation of the teachings of Upasika Kee Nanayon, a Thai Buddhist laywoman and the foremost woman Dharma teacher of 20th-century Thailand." ― Body and Soul

"Upasika Kee broke through to complete inner peace. Here is one woman's universal achievement." -- Kate Wheeler, editor of Nixon Under the Bodhi Tree and Other Works of Buddhist Fiction

"Upasika Kee is a true 'dharma warrior.' Her teaching is always uncompromising and tough-as-nails. She always speaks the truth no matter what." -- Mu Soeng, author of Trust in Mind and The Diamond Sutra

Read more

Product details

Publisher : Wisdom Publications; 1st edition (May 15, 2005)

Language : English

Paperback : 252 pages

Pure and Simple: The Extraordinary Teachings of a Thai Buddhist Laywoman

byUpasika Kee Nanayon

Write a review

---------------

Valuehunter

5.0 out of 5 starsincredible life-changing book

Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2018

Definitely one of the best books I've ever read.

 Not for the faint of heart. the tone is very strict and harsh. 

But I would highly recommend it to anyone who desires a very deep understanding of the meditative process

6 people found this helpful

---

Nomi Redding

3.0 out of 5 starsUseful Teachings, Slow Read

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2017

I am making my way through this book because there are some valuable teachings here, but it could have used tighter editing. The repetitive nature of talks given within a community does not lend itself well to the written word.

3 people found this helpful

----

----

TinyForest

5.0 out of 5 stars Straight to the Heart and Mind

Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2009

Verified Purchase

Upasika Kee Nanayon was an excellent teacher. Without higher ordination available to her, she no less dedicated her life to the Dhamma Vinaya and through her persevering effort can point others along the same path.

This book is a Dhamma gem of lucid accessible brilliance. Clear and easy to understand, it is for those who are ready to work on disciplining the mind and purifying the heart. It offers practical insight on the workings of the mind in a personable relevant way. There is no theory, no abstract principles, only the distillation of the practice in "pure and simple" language. Very similar to Ajahn Chah's style of teaching.

Though it is easy to understand even for beginners, the teaching provides for advanced practice in training the mind for on the cushion and off.

17 people found this helpful

----

MaddieMay

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful for making leaps in meditation practice

Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2014

Verified Purchase

I am consuming this book in bits and bites, meditating on the teachings, so I can comment on the whole book yet, but this is the first book I've read in an age that I'm not tearing through or tossing aside, because I can't. These talks are deep, rigorous, lovely, difficult, and life changing.

6 people found this helpful

----

Ken Wasserman

5.0 out of 5 stars the best I have read in her tradition

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2014

Verified Purchase

Just superb in its teaching of meditation and mindfulness, the best I have read in her tradition. The extreme effectiveness of her approach is incredible. She is fun to read and pithy as hell. Just a great teacher. Life changing.

8 people found this helpful

----

Ernel

5.0 out of 5 stars Favorite Dharma book!

Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2010

Verified Purchase

The other reviews say it so well; this is the best book, my favorite book regarding the Dharma, right in your face.

We all know that concentration and mindfulness are fundamental. This wonderful book continually shows how they must be used together, immediately, in order to be of any value. It somehow shows that the time is now....

3 people found this helpful

-----

M. Kruger

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful teaching in simple

Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2015

Verified Purchase

wonderful teaching in simple, direct language. it's particularly nice to see yet another buddhist woman rise to literary/spiritual prominence.

-----

Jerry

5.0 out of 5 stars Upasika Kee Nanayon reminds me of Ajahn Chah. Consider ...

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2016

Verified Purchase

Upasika Kee Nanayon reminds me of Ajahn Chah. Consider that a complement. Nanayon was not a Nun, but her teachings suggest suggest she was "aware".

One person found this helpful

----

Thomas M. Charles

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2017

Verified Purchase

If you like "old-school" and no nonsense, she is your teacher!

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report abuse

Donna

4.0 out of 5 stars Pure and Simple is Clear and Deep

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2014

Verified Purchase

Clear and simply written. Very good! It is a book that one can return to over and over again - like a good text.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report abuse

john carmody

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2016

Verified Purchase

pure and simple is excellent dharma!

One person found this helpful

================

Liz

Aug 23, 2009Liz rated it really liked it

I just started reading this one, and it's kicking butt! Straight forward, no bs kinda Buddhist book, and it's by a woman! :)

"There's nothing of any substance to the physical properties of the body, which are all rotten and decomposing. The body is like a rest room over a cesspool. We can decorate it on the outside to make it pretty and attractive, but on the inside it's full of the most horrible, filthy things. Whenever we excrete anything, we ourselves are repelled by it; yet even though we're repelled by it, it's there inside us, in our intestines-decomposing, full of worms, awful smelling. There's just the flimsiest membrane covering it up, yet we fall for it and hold tight to it. We don't see the constant decomposition of this body, in spite of the filth and smells it sends out."

(hahaha. this is gonna be a great book!)

(less)

flagLike  · see review

Juergen

Apr 05, 2015Juergen rated it really liked it

This is a wonderful book. Thanissaro Bhikkhu, the translator, did a great job in capturing the urgency and ardency of Upasika Kee's teachings on the Dhamma. I would recommend this book for anyone who's got an established practice who might be looking for a more in-depth exposition of the Dhamma in fluid form. Know, of course, that Upasika Kee was a Thai lay practitioner who lived in a unique circumstance. This informs her teachings, and also the language used. I think Thanisarro does a good job in capturing this all, though he does favor his own set of translations (e.g. "inconstancy" vs "impermanence"; "disbanding" vs "passing away"; "stress" vs "suffering"). I find it helpful in broadening one's perspectives regarding the Buddha's Dhamma. (less)

Thich Nhat Hanh Thanissaro Bhikkhu - Google Search

Thich Nhat Hanh Thanissaro Bhikkhu - Google Search

Search Results

Web results

War or Peace? Thinking Outside the Box - Tricycle: The ...

tricycle.org › magazine › war-or-peace-thinking-outsid...

Tricycle: Would you agree with Thich Nhat Hanh that it's never justifiable to kill? Thanissaro Bhikkhu: Killing is never skillfull. In the Vinaya—the monastic ...

Wise words from Pema Chodron, Thich Nhat... - Tricycle: The ...

www.facebook.com › tricyclemag › posts › wise-words...

Wise words from Pema Chodron, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Thanissaro Bhikkhu, who offer refuge amid great anxiety and change.

The Breath as an Anchor for the Here and Now | Buddhistdoor

www.buddhistdoor.net › ... › Coastline Meditations

15 Apr 2020 — ... who practices in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh: ... by Thanissaro Bhikkhu in his piece Basic Breath Meditation Instructions:.

The Buddhist Teachings on Rebirth - Lion's Roar

www.lionsroar.com › just-more-of-the-same

12 May 2018 — Thanissaro Bhikkhu · Zoketsu Norman Fischer · Narayan Helen Liebensen · Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche · Thich Nhat Hanh · Shohaku Okumura.

"Designer Dharma" or "Dharma-Lite"—What the teachers say ...

buddhaweekly.com › designer-dharma-or-dharma-lite-...

The illustrious teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, whose books are inevitable ... “The Truth of Rebirth: And Why it Matters for Buddhist Practice”, by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

The Practice of Integrity - Common Ground Meditation Center

commongroundmeditation.org › the-practice-of-integrity

... Saleyyaka Sutta: (Brahmans) of Sala translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu ... (Text in quotes adapted from Thich Nhat Hanh, For a Future to be Possible.) 1.

Understanding ... - Common Ground Meditation Center

commongroundmeditation.org › understanding-imper...

... Thanissaro Bhikkhu; The Three Basic Facts of Existence, Impermanence (Anicca), with a preface by Nyanaponika Thera; Impermanence, by Thich Nhat Hanh, ...

Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Ṭhānissaro_Bhikkhu

Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu is an American Buddhist monk. Belonging to the Thai Forest Tradition, ... Korean Seon. Seung Sahn. Vietnamese Thiền. Thích Nhất Hạnh.

You've visited this page 3 times. Last visit: 2/01/21

Engaged Buddhism as a Unifying Philosophy

www.undv.org › vesak2012 › iabudoc

PDF

Robinson, Willard L. Johnson, and Thanissaro Bhikkhu, The Buddhist Religions: A Historical ... Thich Nhat Hanh, B. R. Ambedkar, and Sulak Sivaraksa. Finally ...

Basic Buddhism The Congee Offerings. Thich Nguyen Tang ...

www.tuvienquangduc.com.au › English › basic

Thich Nhat Hanh The Not-Self Strategy Thanissaro Bhikkhu The Economy of Gifts. Thanissaro Bhikkhu The Healing Power of the Precepts. Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Rethinking Karma - Tricycle: The Buddhist Review [criticised by Thanissaro]

Rethinking Karma - Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

MAGAZINE

MY VIEWTEACHINGS

Rethinking Karma

How are we meant to understand this key Buddhist teaching?

By David LoySPRING 2008

Rethinking Karma

Photo by Aalok Atreya | https://tricy.cl/38TLylG

In writing of Sigmund Freud, one master diagnostician of human suffering, the psychoanalyst and philosopher Erich Fromm observes:

The attempt to understand Freud’s theoretical system, or that of any creative systematic thinker, cannot be successful unless we recognize that, and why, every system as it is developed and presented by its author is necessarily erroneous…. The creative thinker must think in the terms of the logic, the thought patterns, the expressible concepts of his culture. That means he has not yet the proper words to express the creative, the new, the liberating idea. He is forced to solve an insoluble problem: to express the new thought in concepts and words that do not yet exist in his language…. The consequence is that the new thought as he formulated it is a blend of what is truly new and the conventional thought which it transcends. The thinker, however, is not conscious of this contradiction.

The Buddha, of course, was himself a master diagnostician, and while there are obviously great differences between him and Freud, I think that we can apply Fromm’s point to the Buddha’s own “liberating idea.” Even the most creative, world-transforming individuals cannot stand on their own shoulders. They too remain dependent upon their cultural context, whether intellectual or spiritual—which is precisely what Buddhism’s emphasis on impermanence and causal interdependence implies. The Buddha also expressed his new, liberating insight in the only way he could, using the religious categories that his culture could understand. Inevitably, then, his way of expressing the dharma was a blend of the truly new (for example, the teachings about anatta, or “not-self,” and paticca-samuppada, or “dependent origination”) and the conventional religious thought of his time. Although the new transcends the conventional, as Fromm puts it, the new cannot immediately and completely escape the conventional wisdom it surpasses.

By emphasizing the inevitable limitations of any cultural innovator, Fromm implies the impermanence—the dynamic, developing nature—of all spiritual teachings. As Buddhists, we tend to assume that the Buddha understood everything, that his awakening and his way of expressing that awakening are unsurpassable. But is that a fair expectation? Given how little we actually know about the historical Buddha, perhaps our collective image of him reveals less about who he actually was and more about our own need to discover or project a completely perfect being to inspire our own spiritual practice.

Understanding this becomes especially helpful when we try to understand Buddhist teachings about karma, which has become a problem for many contemporary Buddhists. If we are honest with ourselves, most of us aren’t sure how literally it should be interpreted. Karma is perhaps most often taken as an impersonal and deterministic “moral law” of the universe, with a precise calculus of cause and effect comparable to Newton’s laws of physics. This understanding, however, can lead to a severe case of cognitive dissonance for modern Buddhists, since the physical causality that science has discovered about the world seems to allow for no such mechanism.

In contrast, some key Buddhist teachings may well make more sense to us today than they did to people living at the time of the Buddha. What Buddhism has to say about anatta, for example, is not only profound but consistent with what modern psychologists such as George Herbert Mead and Kurt Lewin have discovered about the constructed nature of the ego-self. Likewise, what Buddhist thinkers such as Nagarjuna have said about language—how it tends to mislead us into assuming that the categories through which we describe the world are final and absolute—is consistent with the work of linguists and philosophers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein and Jacques Derrida. In such ways, Buddhism dovetails nicely with some of the best currents of contemporary thought. But such is not the case with traditional views of karma. Of course, this by itself does not refute karma or make it impossible to be included in a contemporary Buddhist perspective. It does, however, encourage us to think more deeply about it.

There are at least two other major problems with the ways that karma has traditionally been understood. One of them is its unfortunate implications for many Asian Buddhist societies, where a self-defeating split has developed between the sangha and the laity. Although the Pali canon makes it quite clear that laypeople too can attain liberation, the main spiritual responsibility of lay Buddhists, as commonly understood, is not to follow the path themselves but to support the monastics. In this way, lay men and women gain punna, or “merit,” a concept that commodifies karma. By accumulating merit, they hope to attain a favorable rebirth or to gain material reward, which in turn redounds to the material benefit of the monastic community. This approach reduces Buddhism, quite literally, to a form of spiritual materialism.

The other problem is that karma has long been used to rationalize racism, caste, economic oppression, birth handicaps, and so forth. Taken literally, karma justifies both the authority of political elites, who therefore must deserve their wealth and power, and the subordination of those who have neither. It provides the perfect theodicy: if there is an infallible cause-and-effect relationship between one’s actions and one’s fate, there is no need to work toward social justice, because it’s already built into the moral fabric of the universe. In fact, if there is no undeserved suffering, there is really no evil that we need to struggle against. You were born crippled, or to a poor family? Well, who but you is responsible for that?

I remember reading about a Tibetan Buddhist teacher’s reflections on the Holocaust in Nazi Germany during World War II: “What terrible karma all those Jews must have had. …” And what awful things did the Tibetan people do to deserve the Chinese invasion of 1950 and its horrible aftermath? This kind of superstition, which blames the victims and rationalizes their horrific fate, is something we should no longer tolerate quietly. It is, I think it is safe to say, time for modern Buddhists to outgrow it and to accept one’s social responsibility and find ways to address such injustices.

In the Kalama Sutta, sometimes called “the Buddhist charter of free inquiry,” the Buddha emphasized the importance of intelligent, probing doubt. He said that we should not believe in something until we have established its truth for ourselves. This suggests that accepting karma and rebirth literally, without questioning what they really mean, simply because they have been part of the Buddhist tradition, may actually be unfaithful to the best of the tradition. This does not mean disparaging or dismissing Buddhist teachings about karma and rebirth. Rather, it highlights the need for contemporary Buddhism to question those teachings. Given what is now known about human psychology, including the social construction of the self, how might we today approach these teachings in a way that is consistent with our own sense of how the world works? Unless we can do so, their emancipatory power will for us remain unrealized.

Buddhist emphasis on impermanence reminds us that Hindu and Buddhist doctrines about karma and rebirth have a history, that they have evolved over time. Earlier Brahmanical teachings tended to understand karma mechanically and ritualistically. To perform a sacrifice in the proper fashion would invariably lead to the desired consequences. If those consequences were not forthcoming, then either there had been an error in procedure or the causal effects were delayed, perhaps until your next lifetime (hence implying reincarnation). The Buddha’s spiritual revolution transformed this ritualistic approach to getting what you want out of life into a moral principle by focusing on cetana, “motivations, intentions.” The Dhammapada, for example, begins by emphasizing the preeminent importance of our mental attitude:

Experiences are preceded by mind, led by mind, and produced by mind. If one speaks or acts with an impure mind, suffering follows even as the cart’s wheel follows the hoof of the ox.

Experiences are preceded by mind, led by mind, and produced by mind. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow that never departs.

To understand the Buddha’s innovation, it is helpful to distinguish a moral act into three aspects: the results that I seek; the moral rule or regulation I am following (for example, a Buddhist precept or Christian commandment, and this also includes ritualistic procedures); and my mental attitude or motivation when I do something. Although these aspects cannot be separated from each other, we can emphasize one more than the others—in fact, that is what we usually do. Not coincidentally, contemporary moral philosophy also has three main types of theories. Utilitarian theories focus on consequences, deontological theories focus on general principles such as the Ten Commandments, and virtue theories focus on one’s character and motivations.

The Sanskrit term karma (kamma in Pali) literally means “action,” which suggests the basic point that our actions have consequences—more precisely, that our morally relevant actions have morally relevant consequences that extend beyond their immediate effects. In most popular understanding, the law of karma and rebirth is a way to get a handle on how the world will treat us in the future, which also—more immediately—implies that we must accept our own causal responsibility for whatever is happening to us now, as a consequence of what we must have done earlier. This overlooks the revolutionary significance of the Buddha’s reinterpretation.

Karma is better understood as the key to spiritual development: how our life situation can be transformed by transforming the motivations of our actions right now. When we add the Buddhist teaching about not-self—in contemporary terms, that one’s sense of self is a mental construct—we can see that karma is not something the self has; rather, karma is what the sense of self is, and what the sense of self is changes according to one’s conscious choices. I (re)construct myself by what I intentionally do, because my sense of self is a precipitate of habitual ways of thinking, feeling, and acting. Just as my body is composed of the food I have eaten, so my character is composed of conscious choices: “I” am constructed by my consistent, repeated mental attitudes. People are “punished” or “rewarded” not for what they have done but for what they have become, and what we intentionally do is what makes us what we are. An anonymous verse expresses this well:

Sow a thought and reap a deed

Sow a deed and reap a habit

Sow a habit and reap a character

Sow a character and reap a destiny

What kind of thoughts do we need to sow? Buddhism traces back our dukkha, “dissatisfaction,” to the three unwholesome roots of evil: greed, ill will, and delusion. These problematic motivations need to be transformed into their positive counterparts: generosity, lovingkindness, and the wisdom that realizes our interdependence with others.

Such an understanding of karma does not necessarily involve another life after physical death. As Spinoza expressed it, happiness is not the reward for virtue; happiness is virtue itself. We are punished not for our “sins” but by them. To become a different kind of person is to experience the world in a different way. When your mind changes, the world changes. And when we respond differently to the world, the world responds differently to us. Insofar as we are actually not separate from the world, our ways of acting in it tend to involve feedback systems that incorporate other people. People not only notice what we do; they notice why we do it. I may fool people sometimes, yet over time, as the intentions behind my deeds become obvious, my character becomes revealed. The more I am motivated by greed, ill will, and delusion, the more I must manipulate the world to get what I want, and consequently the more alienated I feel and the more alienated others feel when they see they have been manipulated. This mutual distrust encourages both sides to manipulate more. On the other side, the more my actions are motivated by generosity, lovingkindness, and the wisdom of interdependence, the more I can relax and open up to the world. The more I feel part of the world and genuinely connected with others, the less I will be inclined to use others, and consequently the more inclined they will be to trust and open up to me. In such ways, transforming my own motivations not only transforms my own life; it also affects those around me, since what I am is not separate from what they are.

This more naturalistic understanding of karma does not mean we must necessarily exclude other, perhaps more mysterious possibilities regarding the consequences of our motivations for the world we live in. What is clear, however, is that karma as “how to transform my life situation by transforming my motivations right now” is not a fatalistic doctrine. Quite the contrary: it is difficult to imagine a more empowering spiritual teaching. We are not enjoined to accept and endure the problematic circumstances of our lives. Rather, we are encouraged to improve our spiritual lives and worldly situation by addressing those circumstances with generosity, lovingkindness, and nondual wisdom.

Temple

Get Daily Dharma in your email

Start your day with a fresh perspective

Your email here

David Loy is a professor, writer, and Zen teacher in the Sanbo Kyodan tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism. His most recent book is Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis.

----

[[ Ralph Waldo Emerson's Journey From Christianity to Transcendentalism and Beyond - Beliefnet

Ralph Waldo Emerson's Journey From Christianity to Transcendentalism and Beyond - Beliefnet

America's Founding Spiritual Seeker
Ralph Waldo Emerson's journey From Christianity to Transcendentalism


Adapted from 'The Spiritual Emerson' by David M. Robinson, Beacon Press.

=====

Emerson's path to his philosophy of creativity and spiritual development was not a straight one, but the outcome of a series of difficult struggles with severe illness and grief and with a philosophical skepticism he could never entirely dismiss.

As the son of a prominent Boston minister, Emerson was destined for the ministry, but approached his future with hesitation. He was dogged by feelings of inadequacy of the profession, and he had an aversion to the pastoral duties associated with it.

There was, however, a more serious obstacle: tuberculosis, a pervasive and misunderstood disease that had an epidemic impact on early 19th century New England. It began to manifest itself in Emerson, just as he began his ministerial studies at Harvard, in a period of severely impaired vision. By the time he began writing and delivering his first sermons in 1826, his condition was worsening so much that he traveled south to Florida.

While the sea air and warmer climate no doubt contributed to Emerson's gradual recovery, it seems probable that the release from the immediate stress of studying for the ministry was also therapeutic. Emerson returned in the early summer of 1827 a stronger and more confident man. Within a year and a half he had become engaged to Ellen Tucker, and had begun to preach at Boston's Second Church, which would ordain him on March 11, 1829.

Emerson's moment of settled happiness would be short. Ellen, also a victim of tuberculosis, died in February 1831. Her death seems to have weakened the foundations of the life he had constructed for himself, contributing to his resignation from the ministry in 1832. 

Emerson had already entertained serious questions about the claims of Christianity during his ministry, and about whether he could fulfill his intellectual ambitions there. But Ellen's death seems to have forced Emerson "to live his own life and think his own thoughts." He embarked for Europe on Christmas Day, 1832, full of curiosity, nurturing the beginnings of a new spiritual philosophy, and hatching plans for new forms of intellectual expression.
He returned in the fall of 1833 to begin the most intellectually productive period of his life, establishing himself within a decade as one of America's most innovative and influential thinkers.

Although it is tempting to see his resignation from the ministry and sojourn in Europe as a break in his career, it is more instructive to recognize the continuities that bound his earlier ministry with his new pursuits as an independent lecturer and author. Emerson continued to preach and maintain his clerical identity for several years as he developed a following for his lectures.

More important, he began to develop the philosophical vision that had informed his preaching. His message was to cultivate an inwardness that would keep his listeners in touch with their inherent divinity. He linked this inwardness with faith. By experiencing and reflecting on the natural world, they could discover a unified and constantly developing cosmos that shared a common origin with the human soul.

Emerson used the new form of the public lecture to work out his system in detail, beginning with lectures on natural history in 1834 and then developing an interconnected series of lectures on such topics as "Philosophy of History" and "Human Culture." His new interest in science contributed to his first book, "Nature," now regarded as the initiating text of the Transcendentalist movement.

In the book, Emerson proposed an idealistic conception of the universe in which all its interrelated parts, including the natural world and the human mind, mirrored and signified each other. "A leaf, a drop, a crystal, a moment of time, is related to the whole, and partakes of the perfection of the whole. Each particle is a microcosm, and faithfully renders the likeness of the world."

The mind's apprehension of this cosmic unity was an exacting intellectual discipline. But in rare moments of highly charged perception, we might undergo an experience that bounded on the mystical:

Standing on the bare ground,my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space,all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God.

Emerson found a receptive hearing among young, spiritually oriented men and women who were intellectually restless. Not satisfied with the standard answers of their churches, or with the moral tone of their culture, they were seeking an alternative to an increasingly conformist and materialistic society. Emerson's message appealed to the hunger for fulfillment that was not available in most walks of life.

He was an influential example to such writers as Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Walt Whitman. It was on Emerson's property by Walden Pond that Thoreau built his famous cabin and began his experiment in living a purified life in nature. Fuller, the most important early feminist thinker in America, explained that it was from Emerson that she "first learned what is meant by an inward life."

Emerson and Fuller worked closely together to publish translations of Asian religious texts, one of the earliest appearances of Buddhist and Hindu scriptures in America. Emerson and Thoreau shared this interest in Asian religious thought, which provided them with important confirmation of their deeply held beliefs about the unity of the cosmos.

In 1835, Emerson married Lydia Jackson and settled in Concord, establishing himself permanently in a town with deep ancestral connections and an appealing surrounding countryside. Emerson's devotion to Concord was deep, and he found there a stimulating and supportive community of friends and family who were essential to his remarkably steady productivity as a writer and lecturer.


The publication of "Nature" and his annual lecture series led to two important speaking invitations at Harvard: the annual address to the Phi Beta Kappa Society on August 31, 1837, and a graduation address at the Harvard Divinity School on July 15, 1838.

Both addresses had an immediate impact. In the first, Emerson stressed the importance of an openness to new thought, and a constant process of beginning anew. His was not a philosophy for the settled or for those who lacked curiosity. "The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul."

The next year, in the Divinity School Address, he put forward his ideas as a new religious doctrine, or more accurately, as the recovery of the ancient foundation of all religious sentiment. The address unleashed a furious controversy. "In all my lectures, I have taught one doctrine, namely, the infinitude of the private man," he commented. "This the people accept readily enough, & even with loud commendation, as long as I call the lecture, Art; or Politics; or Literature; or the Household; but the moment I call it Religion, they are shocked, though it be only the application of the same truth which they receive everywhere else, to a new class of facts."

It may be difficult for modern readers to discern what was shocking about Emerson's appealing hymn to a sentiment of religion alive in every man and woman. But decades of theological controversy had produced raw nerve endings in New England. The Divinity School Address marked a break in the course of religious thinking in America, pointing to a universal, anti-supernatural, and largely secular religion.


Emerson portrayed Jesus as a teacher whose significance and authority arose from his grasp of transcendent moral and spiritual laws rather than from a supernatural nature. "Alone in all history he estimated the greatness of man," Emerson declared. But the attribution of miracles or other supernatural powers to Jesus falsified and obscured his real claims. "He spoke of miracles; for he felt that man's life was a miracle, and all that man doth, and he knew that this daily miracle shines as the character ascends."

Emerson avoided the controversy, believing he could best advance his views through a more complete exposition of his ideas. In 1841 he published "Essays," a collection of 12 loosely interrelated pieces that made up the heart of his new perspective on religion, ethics, and aesthetics and established him as an important literary stylist and innovator.

Emerson is perhaps most widely known for one of the essays in that volume, "Self-Reliance," an emotionally charged, aphoristically dense hymn to individualism with a defiant, almost insolent, edge. Insisting that "nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind," Emerson urges us to beware of the two chief obstacles to living a self-reliant life, conformity and consistency. We achieve fulfillment not through pleasing others or adopting their opinions or standards of behavior, Emerson maintains, but instead through recognizing and developing those things that are uniquely ours.

Resisting the pressures of others is, however, far less difficult than resisting the patterns established by our own past actions, and by the identities we have formed as a result of them. The hardest task is to "live ever in a new day," always finding the capacity for spontaneity and originality. That this spontaneity might lead others who thought they could anticipate our actions to misunderstand us should not impede us:

Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.


"Self-Reliance" can be misread as a dangerously self-indulgent rationale for egotism. But Emerson's faith in the self was an expression of his larger faith in the unified constitution of things. Though the essay is at points combative and antagonistic, its underlying premises are unitary and holistic.

I behold with awe & delight many illustrations of the One Universal Mind. I see my being imbedded in it. As a plant in the earth so I grow in God. I am only a form of him. He is the soul of Me. I can even with a mountainous aspiring say, I am God, by transferring my Me out of the flimsy & unclean precincts of my body, my fortunes, my private will, & meekly retiring upon the holy austerities of the Just & the Loving upon the secret fountains of Nature.



Emerson termed this encompassing unity "The OverSoul." He envisions God in terms that transcend personality or human characteristics by referring to "that Unity, that OverSoul, within which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all other."

This concept of the surrender of the limited self operates in Emerson's ethical philosophy too. There is no discrete or disconnected act in the universe, he wrote. Each act brings its own reaction, the thing that we perceive as its reward or punishment. Useful or compassionate acts are unifying. They connect us to the whole. Those acts that are selfish, limited in goals, or cruel, diminish us by separating us from the essential energy of life. The human being, Emerson explains, "aims to be somebody; to set up for himself; to truck and higgle for a private good; and, in particulars, to ride that he may ride; to dress that he may be dressed; to eat that he may eat; and to govern, that he may be seen."

But all these schemes of personal comfort define fulfillment only in terms of consumption and material success, and diminish the significance and value of life itself. "Life invests itself with inevitable conditions," Emerson continues, "which the unwise seek to dodge, which one and another brags that he does not know, that they do not touch him; but the brag is on his lips, the conditions are in his soul." To Emerson, the spiritual life is a continuing awareness of these conditions, a living out of oneself that is also an intensely inward experience.