>
...
> Karl wrote:
> "While I agree that Mahayana Buddhism is generally
> associated with the Bodhisattva ideal and that
> emptiness is a
> significant doctrinal focus I'm not sure I go along
> with the strong
> distinction made in the west between Hinayana and
> Mahayana,.e.g. that
> Hinayana is more concerned with personal development
> than
> compassionate action."
>
> Perhaps it depends less on the texts than on the
> actual living tradition. All Mahayana practises in
> Tibet, for example, are preceded by arousing
> Bodhichitta - the wish that all beings be free from
> suffering and have happiness. That is done before
> every practice session. And at the end of every
> session also, any merit generated from the action done
> is dedicated to the benefit of all beings. Any
> practice done, you see, is done for the sake of all
> beings. That is the reason for practice. On the other
> hand, the motivation for practice in Theravada seems
> to be for onself to escape suffering. That is, for
> personal freedom. This seems to therefore display a
> large difference in emphasis. And this in turn seems
> to manifest different results.
>
I agree that it's the actual practice that determines the impression
people have but a lot of scholars make a lot of the difference as well
(that seems to be how the perceived differences get embedded) and I was
surprised to see that the sutras don't really seem to support that. But
I've also seen a lot of variation in practice as well, e.g. some of the
"hard ass" Chinese Chan (Zen, i.e. Mahayana) teacher's like Master Hsun
Hua seem to emphasize rigorous self discipline over and above anything
else and some of the U.S. Vipassana schools (e.g. Spirit Rock in
California) seem to place a great emphasis on compassionate action and
have pretty extensive community outreach programs.
> "saying forget all that and just play, i.e. playing
> music is
> as much a spiritual practice as anything else, seems
> TOO broad. "
>
> I tend to agree. I wonder what "spiritual practice"
> could mean? Just now as O think about it, the word
> "union" comes to mind. For the Christians that may go
> to say union with God. Same for the esoteric Muslims
> and Jews as it seems to me. And then for the Daoists
> and Buddhists too, a union. A going beyond duality. I
> think this is all the same in the end.
> Music perhaps can be practised perhaps in many ways,
> and perhaps not all of them will tend towards union.
> To me union implies some sort of dissolution of the
> ego. Here I mean ego as the sense of self which gives
> the apparentness of oneself being a "seperate" entity.
> That makes "me" and "not me". In that may be the
> seperation of "me" and "God", and so on. This entire
> duality. Union to me may me dissolving this barrier.
> Compassion is perhaps a contact with this level, where
> one is not actually totally seperate from the other
> beings. In that way, their suffering is not seperate
> from ones own. Perhaps we could see that as compassion
> as "fruit", and then training of actively generating
> the compassionate wishes and feelings as compassion as
> "path".
> Anyway getting back to music, firstly perhaps good
> practice such as sitting will effect our playing and
> help it be a "spiritual" practice, from what we
> already have from the sitting. But music as itself, to
> be a practice in this way? Perhaps the focus on this
> union, this nondualness. Perhaps that can be done as
> playing in such a way as you "become" the notes. I
> think memorization of the pieces is very useful in
> this context. When reading the notation it perhaos is
> more difficult to be nonseperated, as you are reading
> the notes, and this may increase their seeming as
> something seperate. Having memorized the piece
> however, if the sequence of notes is no longer a
> concern, it may be possible to to more go into each
> note more deeply, and be "there", be really "with"
> each note. You know? Then also we come to the
> distinctin of shamata and vipassana:
>
Great points; my basic question is something like, is there (or could
there be) something about shakuhachi practice that could make
cultivation of that union more efficacious ?
"Just" playing is full of battles with the ego and other distractions,
admittedly all great grist for spiritual practice but for us mortals
that's like trying to learn Ikebana in a hurricane; we usually need
more controlled circumstances to learn in.
An example of what I'm driving at (and I may have mentioned this on the
list before, sorry) is something one of my Zen teachers, Jim Wilson,
developed called Alea (he's a composer and named this practice after
Cage's aleatoric music). The idea is to perform a sonic meditation to
facilitate the understanding of emptiness (that all things arise due to
causes, they evolve and change, and eventually cease to exist). Jim
partly took his cue from a passage in the Surangama Sutra where the
Buddha recites a long list of paths towards understanding and says that
the path through sound is the most effective. The idea is that it's
easier to perceive the above qualities in sound than in solid objects
and hopefully one can transfer the understanding gained through the
sonic meditation to all objects. So this is a sonic meditation
(generally practiced on wind instruments; I use my shakuhachi) that is
specifically NOT about producing aesthetically appealing sounds.
Others have brought up the good point that concentration of the mind
through breathing is an important aspect of shakuhachi playing but to
me that's not very specific to the shakuhachi. Given that, it seems
like following the breath in sitting meditation might be more effective
as direct spiritual practice (or if playing an instrument is important,
playing the tuba might be more effective re. focusing the breath).
> If one wants also to explicitely include compassion in
> the practice, then also it may be that one could wish
> that ones practice will benefit all beings. This may
> not have to be in a conceptualized way, such as "it
> will benefit in such and such a way", but perhaps
> simply the wish. We may not know HOW it may benefit.
> But, the wish may take care of itself.
Maybe for some that takes care of itself but I find I need mnemonics to
keep me refocusing and I think providing those is the essence of many
spiritual traditions; it's sort of like when psychoanalysts say to
pretend your happy (oversimplifying !); it feels a little strained and
awkward but for some it eventually helps break through sludge that
seemed overwhelming.
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