I’ve almost finished reading Robert Saltzman’s book, The Ten Thousand Things. I highly recommend it to anybody who is open to embracing an approach to life that is both really simple, and also really radical — if like me, you’ve spent much of your life exploring second-hand spirituality.
By second-hand, I mean learning how other people have explored what life is all about. At various times I’ve had a great fondness for Rumi, medieval Christian mystics (especially Meister Eckhart, Alan Watts, modern Hindu sages, and many other people who have written about how they approached the Big Questions of what life ia all about.
While I still do this to a much lesser degree, what energizes me the most these days is reading writers like Saltzman and Joan Tollifson who advise simply paying attention to the here and now with as minimal a “spiritual” overlay as possible. In Zen Buddhism, it’s the Just This thing.
Writing a blog post. Walking the dog. Watching television. Washing the dishes. I’ve done, or am doing, each of these things today. At no point did I feel like I needed to add anything philosophical, mystical, or religious to the activity. Just doing this or that ordinary thing felt perfectly fine to me.
Which isn’t how I felt during the phase of my life when I was intensely into the teachings an Eastern religion that emphasized repeating a mantra as much as possible during waking hours and keeping thoughts of the guru in your mind.
So when I read Saltzman, it’s therapy of sorts for me. Though most of what he says I already know and agree with, I feel strengthened by his clear perspective on topics that I’ve grappled with in the course of my deconversion from blind faith.
Here’s some examples from his book, which consists of questions from people who visit his web site and Saltzman’s answers. I’m only sharing the answers.
Perhaps some supreme “Self” really does exist as the sentient fundament of all and everything. We may believe that, but do we know that? How? What if what exists is simply what exists, without any substrate at all, conscious or not?
What if “conscious substrate” is like “God” which may or may not exist, and certainly cannot be proven to exist? What if what I really am is a living brain and nervous system with no connection at all to anything “birthless” or “deathless,” except in spiritual fantasies that end when the brain does?
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What you are calling “faith” is just another word — a better-sounding one — for credulity, which means accepting an idea simply because one religion or another asserts it, or because an authority figure assures you that it is “Truth.” But how can a book or another person be an authority on your experience?
If you believe her teaching, then it is upon your own authority and discernment that you have found her words worthy of credence, which has nothing necessarily to do with her at all, nor the facticity of her assertions, but very likely is a projection of your own needs and pre-existing beliefs onto the image she presents.
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Spiritual seekers conjure up fantasies and visions of an extraordinary state, completely different from ordinary life with its fear, pain, uncertainty, and suffering. When finally I am enlightened, this fantasy goes, I will be as I am now, except I will understand everything, the ordinary problems of living will disappear, and I will be happy everlastingly.
That idealistic vision is quite like a child’s belief in the myth of Heaven, which may help to explain why otherwise intelligent people often seen childish in their assessments of famous gurus.
Like the image of mommy or daddy in the mind of a toddler, the “enlightened master” knows everything and can do no wrong. With that approach, what is being taught is not understanding at all, but just false security and an end to suffering, such as the religious indoctrination of their childhood promised would reward true believers (while the others roasted in hell, of course).
I do not like the way I feel now, so I imagine a state some time in the future when I have attained “enlightenment.” When that happens, this fairytale goes. I will be special. I will be different from ordinary people. I will not suffer as they do, and as I do now. I will know the answers to my questions. I will know “God: Perhaps I will have magical powers.
But that is only a fantasy — a daydream of future happiness, future power — and the future never arrives. When tomorrow comes, it comes as the present. It comes not as a fantasy of perfection and salvation from pain, but as the facts and feelings of that very moment — a moment that presently cannot be imagined at all, no matter what your guru promises.
So fantasies of future enlightenment and eventual liberation are a denial of the present — a rejection of what actually exists. Such denial is the refuge of a fearful mind that has become addicted to escapism.
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The computer has taught me how worthless intelligent people are that have a lot of book knowledge. You have obviously failed to digest and file information away but more importantly digest what you’ve been told instead of just regurgitating it. How much have you retained? A bunch of chickens with their heads cut off is what the internet looks like to me.
Both Robert Saltzman and Joan Tollifson, (along with Buddhism’s Zen and Chan), approach the question of who/what we are from the perspective of our almost self-imposed sufferings of confusion and insecurity in the never-ending search for ‘something more’ in life. The point they all make is that the only thing we can ever know is ‘this moment’ – the infamous ‘now’.
J. Tollifson’s latest posting speaks of this in a response to a recent query she received: – “Figuring out the nature of the universe or ultimate reality or what happens after death is definitely way above my paid grade. I find such questions meaningless and unanswerable. They simply lead to the confusion and angst you describe, or else to foolish beliefs, often (with enough intelligence) followed by doubts. I subscribe to what Robert Saltzman calls epistemological humility, or what Zen calls “only don’t know.”
It seems to me that the only thing, the main ‘spanner in the works’ that habitually sends us into a quagmire of confusion is the manner in which our insecure minds desperately search amongst the many concepts it absorbs and generates for some answer. As the question is unanswerable, the mind usually adopts one of the current belief systems or follows someone who professes to know.
The problem seems to be the way in which the mind has usurped the body’s survival instincts and incorporated this into preserving and maintaining an illusory and insecure self-structure or ego. In Hamlet there is the line: – “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” The same goes for how we habitually think through evoking abstract concepts that have no relationship to the real, actual world we are always experiencing.
We try to solve these thought-created conflicts and typically end up with some unreal solutions that may be gratifying – until we stop believing in them and then gravitate to some other thought-created system that keeps us safely tucked up in La-La Land for a little longer.
Joan also quotes Leonard Cohen: – “You’re not going to be able to work this thing out… There’s no solution to this mess. The only moment that you can live here comfortably in these absolutely irreconcilable conflicts is in this moment when you embrace it all and you say, ‘Look, I don’t understand a fucking thing at all —Hallelujah!’ That’s the only moment that we live here fully as human beings.”
Most songwriters only write two types of songs but Cohen only had one type and Suzanne was his best song and the rest were just variations of a theme. Too much mental jujitsu and not enough sex.
I find it very sad that the author of this book takes so much energy to bash what he does not understand. It’s clear he’s never had any real internal experiences to go off of.
Why preach about being in the here and now like those who are spiritual do not? When a person can truly go within, they are extremely present. Yes, some do get some kind of comfort with the idea that things will get better from a higher viewpoint, but how on earth is that idea exclusive to only those who believe? It can be the same for atheists and those who have experienced-based spirituality.
Also, those without internal experiences can never understand how beneficial it can be to cross paths with a true Guru. These Gurus have methods that can be experienced and built on. If one of these methods works for a student, the progress in the student’s lifetime will accelerate in a way it never could without being introduced to someone who knew a system that happened to align with the students makeup.
On top of that, the writings of the Guru aren’t just so faith based people can just believe that’s just how things work. The writings also serve as a confirmation for those whose who are starting to have those same experiences. And the beauty of it is that these writers, or disciplines can tell you what you can expect next.
And we live in a day and age where it is all at our fingertips. Beautiful.
Well take that sadness and turn it upside down and 69 with it
It’s a good thing to state honestly what you know and don’t know. It is another thing to state firmly what you believe other people are thinking and feeling, especially to denigrate their voices. If you are going to believe something you don’t actually know at least make it something nice.
Saltzman’s last paragraph Brian quoted here: – “When tomorrow comes, it comes as the present. It comes not as a fantasy of perfection and salvation from pain, but as the facts and feelings of that very moment — a moment that presently cannot be imagined at all, no matter what your guru promises. So fantasies of future enlightenment and eventual liberation are a denial of the present — a rejection of what actually exists. Such denial is the refuge of a fearful mind that has become addicted to escapism.”
Here, Saltzman accurately describes the only reality we live in – the present moment. All else being constructs of thought. Very handy for planning and the resulting day-to-day activities that aid survival, but totally useless when we use abstract thinking to imagine other realities that only exist in our minds.
The nature of abstract thinking encompasses our beliefs, hopes, imaginings, wishes, desires etc., all of which avoid the present moment reality we actually live in. We may not like what the present moment is presenting us with, and there may be good reasons to work toward making things better, though there is never the guarantee that they will. It is only in being fully aware of the present moment that insightful action follows.
When it comes to metaphysical issues (thought generated again), we tend to avoid what reality is presenting us with in the moment by overlaying the present truth with foolish beliefs, beliefs that we have sadly come to rely on to get us through life. Indeed, such beliefs have become a mainstay for millions of people – they would be lost without them – but if one has the courage and insight, then it is quite possible to live with the vibrancy and humility of ‘just this’.
“When it comes to metaphysical issues (thought generated again), we tend to avoid what reality is presenting us with in the moment by overlaying the present truth with foolish beliefs, beliefs that we have sadly come to rely on to get us through life. Indeed, such beliefs have become a mainstay for millions of people – they would be lost without them – but if one has the courage and insight, then it is quite possible to live with the vibrancy and humility of ‘just this’.”
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Yeah I don’t know where you think your jaded club can gatekeep the concept of being present. That belongs to everyone, and there are many spiritual people who actively practice being present. It sounds like you badly want to believe you have the superior opinion on this, but it’s based on nothing but your own limited experiences and understanding of the spiritual practices out there.
You talk about all these people who use belief as a crutch. I suppose it’s not your fault that you haven’t had any internal experiences, so you have to assume everyone else is belief-based as opposed to a portion of them being experience-based.
You have every right to go on with your “just this” frame of mind. But to act like you know how things work only shows that you’re the foolish one.
By definition your spirituality will always be firsthand. Your religion might be second hand or you might have thoughts on spirituality that are second hand but spirituality itself is always first hand, that’s what it is by definition. You people are splitting hairs and it’s no wonder the simple people of India and everywhere else get it so much quicker. You still want different ways to meditate and so it’s still all about you. What’s wrong with the first way? It’s been there since the beginning of time. But maybe you’re not worthy of sharing time if you’re not worthy of sharing anything else.
Seems like y’all have “daddy” issues!!
The distinction between present, past and future is arbitrary when we are always living in and through the human mind. Whatever you think you see or hear in the present has already been filtered through your brain, its genetics, its conditioning, and all your preferences and biases. The notion of the present is just a concept. Maybe it sprang up from efforts to see things as they are. Science can help. But mostly the mind is not the only or best instrument we have to grasp and understand. It’s highly limited. And nothing to brag about.
If anything it is a source of indulgence, addiction, even addiction to ideas. Even the idea that “I” have no ego anymore and am living in the present. These are all outer, secondary, derivative places for attention to get lost in.