Anatta Day

Buddha In The House Of Confusion

Anatta Day

Buddha In The House Of Confusion

Many of us have played the ‘telephone game.’

It has nothing to do with smart phones. Although the same consequences are realized at lightening speed given the propulsive power of our pocket computers. 

The game is played by a group of people, preferably sitting in a circle. The first gives the second (whispered) a short piece of information a story fragment, some form of thought. The second passes it on to the third and so forth. By the time we get to the end of play, the initial ‘thought’ is altered in the course of consecutive tellings. Often transformed so that it has little to do with the original form. All in a matter of minutes.

When ‘telephone’ is played over centuries, and compounded by travel through varied cultures, places and languages - confusion reigns supreme.

And so it is with the Buddhist precept of Anatta, a Pali/Sanskrit term which has been through many language grinders, now most often translated as   ‘no-self’ or ‘non-self.’ 

If I have ‘no self’ and you are a ‘non-self,’ then who the hell is writing and reading this sentence?

What has happened with the concept of ‘anatta’ is reflected in our understanding of ourselves, all our relationships, and in the way we see our lives.

“There are different ways to explain ‘anatta,’or no- self, yet fundamentally it denies our separation from other people and from the rest of the natural world.” ~David Loy

We have separated our lived experience into language bound categories, black and white phenomena. We’ve lost sense of our deep and inextricable connection to the whole.

ACTING HUMAN does not deny the existence of self. Rather, we reveal ‘self’ as a creative process that neatly maps over acting craft to help us effectively practice essential skills for living fully human lives alive. To do life truthfully with intention and imagination.

We’ve learned to keep a safe distance from truth. Propelled by fear. We fear taking creative risk. Allowing ourselves the vulnerability necessary to connect is a risk too great to take. And, we cover the absence of genuine connection with easy substitutes bought off the shelf. 

The substitutions come at a price. We lose the desire to question and quest, the capacity to sit in the discomfort of ‘don’t know,’ which serves to reveal truth, create trust, and seed love. A great tragedy.

“The mystics, saints, and others make great efforts to wake people up. If they don’t wake up, they’re always going to have these other minor ills like hunger, wars, and violence. The greatest evil is sleeping people, ignorant people. The only tragedy there is in the world is ignorance; all evil comes from that. The only tragedy there is in the world is un-wakefulness and unawareness. From them comes fear, and from fear comes everything else.”  ~Anthony de Mello

Count me among the ‘others.’ Well, maybe a tiny bit mystic, definitely not a saint.

ACTING HUMAN is a clarion call to WAKE THE FUCK UP!

It is not woo-woo and not for cave dwelling. This practice intends to serve us in all aspects of our lived lives. It recognizes we are actual people with challenges and no shortage of practical problems.

WORLDLY MATTERS

The world is in turmoil. It seems to me we’re at a crucial stage in our relationship to sanity and humanity. 

As I talk with students/friends regarding work, business, and personal relationships there is no doubt that strains are persistent and threatening.

We’re all living in a topsy-turvy world where our personal, social,  and environmental ecology is fraught.

Show Business, where many of my students and friends work, is in free fall. It is in the middle of convulsive shifts, and in the immortal words of Al Jolson, ‘you ain’t seen nothing yet.’

I’ve seen a thriving music business, where skilled musicians could ply their trade to make an excellent and dependable living, disappear almost entirely. Gone.

As went the music business so goes most other businesses in this turbulence.

Many factors play into the radical change we are experiencing. Not the least of which is technology. 

“In order to make peace with technology, we have to make peace with ourselves.”  ~Tristan Harris

ACTING HUMAN invites us to a world of wonder. To engage imagination and to grow intuition informed by keen awareness.

“While wandering down the path of wonder, I briefly escape the world of separation and enter the world of unity.”  ~Hermann Hesse

Unity is synonymous with peace. That space where our nature aligns with NATURE writ large. A natural state of connected understanding. Palpable truth that gives rise to trust and love. 

Love enlarges our hearts. Our infinite and connected source of contagious courage. 

A Spike Lee Joint worth a look-see. Expect some discomfort.

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”  ~Carl Sagan

Never is a long time. Long enough to recover an appetite for truth and trust. We create self and our view of the world. We can escape the bamboozle vortex with courage and a sincere desire to use our creative energy in service of sanity and humanity.

MEDITATION

ACTING HUMAN functions as a mindfulness practice. It is akin to meditation in action. We meditate when we intentionally observe what we do.

There are endless misconceptions about meditation. Sufficed to say, for now, that meditation is not about withdrawal from life. Quite the contrary.

“The real meditation is how you live your life.”   ~Jon Kabat-Zinn

Meditation shines light on mind. Delves into consciousness to see what and how we see with increased clarity. Slowing down to pay attention.

While some traditions believe ‘enlightenment’ is the goal of meditative practice, an acheivement to seek, many teachers see meditation as of value in and of itself.

Ego, our concept of an absolute and exclusive identity, a singular and separate ’self,’ dissolves as meditative practice matures. 

”Enlightenment is ego’s ultimate disappointment." ~Chögyam Trungpa

SIMPLIFY AND PLAY

“In the 1980s, simplicity was seen primarily as ‘downshifting,’ or pulling back from the rat race of consumer society. Several decades later, there is a growing recognition of simplicity as ‘upshifting’ — or moving beyond the rat race to the human race.” ~Duane Elgin

ACTING HUMAN explores how to live a vital human life rooted in connection, understanding, and creativity. 

"Although it is embarrassing and painful, it is very healing to stop hiding from yourself. It is healing to know all the ways that you shut down, deny, and close off. You can know all of that with some sense of humor and kindness. By knowing yourself, you’re coming to know humanness altogether."
~Pema Chodron 

Remembering to play is central. We learn to live life alive as we play. Humor helps us remain resilient and bouyant. 

“In one his movies, the comedian W.C. Fields walks into a bank and up to the teller's window. The teller asks, "Can you identify yourself?" Fields says, "Of course. Do you have a mirror?" When presented with one, Fields immediately states, "Yup, that's me!"

It's meant as a joke, but it carries a ring of truth. Who among us can say they really know themselves, without illusions, beyond the face in the mirror, their name-rank-and-serial-number role in the world, their personas, defense mechanisms, and self-deceptions? Do we distinguish between when we are being authentic and inauthentic? Do we know what we really feel about things, what our true values and priorities are, what lies below the surface of consciousness, and what makes us tick?    ~Lama Surya Das

Let’s make this a dialogue. Use the comments section. Take a risk, dammit. We’ll have fun, perhaps a few laughs, and we’ll learn much from and with each other. Whaddaya say?

Until next time. . .

Lights Up!