Kaohsiung, Taiwan



My cousin used to practice in the Tibetan school. She still has a room in her house set up for – I don’t know what to call it. Practice? Prayer? If she was in the Zen school, it would be a meditation room. It has an altar and other little knick-knacks. It’s a very nice room, worthy of any practitioner’s admiration. I don’t think she practices so much anymore, whatever they do in the Tibetan school. I really need to learn more about the Tibetan practice, as it intrigues me and I'm sure there's plenty I can glean from it. I don’t know if they do Zen style “just sitting”.

She used to practice with a teacher here until she realized it was more of a cult and she became disillusioned with it. That’s the importance of remaining skeptical and wary about one’s practice, whatever it is. Her husband, boyfriend at the time, saw it as a cult, but instead of challenging her on it, he let it run its course until she realized it herself. That was very reasonable of him. That teacher was into guru-worship and expected followers only to listen to her and only read what she’s written. Things like that prima facie set my cultometer peaking.

The Chinese are easily impressed by supernatural shit - fortune telling, magic, prophesying, etc. I think if Jesus was in China and walked on water, every Chinese would be Christian by now, they are so impressed by the supernormal. It makes no difference what the teachings are, dude can walk on water. Well, what would I do if I met someone who could walk on water due to extreme spiritual aptitude and advancement? If he or she had something to say that made sense, I'd be interested, curious, I'd listen. But then I listen to anyone who makes sense, they don't have to walk on water. And I'm just not into worshiping anyone short of Peter Gabriel or whoever's in my bed in the morning (and the last time that's happened was so many years ago it'd make you cry!). I don’t understand why I would be more impressed by someone walking on water than by, say, Stevie Ray Vaughn blowing out some fiery blues licks. Both are remarkable, one person defying hard-written laws of nature, another a dead former heroin addict moving me by playing guitar when I’m not even a fan of the blues. Yo'm sayin'?

I’m planning to visit some temples in the coming weeks. I don’t expect to be too impressed, I’m just making the rounds because the opportunity came up and to keep my mind on my purpose. I don’t need to visit temples to keep my mind on my purpose, but it makes sense for my relatives if I’m entering a monastery that I want to visit temples. Whatever. My impression is that Chinese culture is also too impressed by shows of wealth, and I don’t like how spirituality in Chinese culture is so linked to morality and material benefit. If a wealthy benefactor gives a temple a ton of money to build something, the temple is doing a disservice letting the benefactor think that there is some great spiritual benefit to that act (spiritual benefit in this sense is material because it is being treated like a commodity), or that moral indiscretions are then absolved – morality being defined by the culture.

I’m expecting the temples themselves to be pretty bloody-awful gaudy. Not what I would consider a good use of money. I imagine the justification is for practitioners to feel in the presence of the divine or to wow and impress them. Whatever. Whatever works. I don’t want to criticize Chinese spirituality too much, and I don’t criticize it substantively, because first of all, some of the greatest spiritual works and teachings, in the Zen school in particular, have come from Chinese culture. Second of all, I’m not in the culture, I’m not them, I don’t know how they are affected spiritually on the deepest levels that I’m not even aware of. If I’m criticizing the Chinese spiritual culture on a substantive level, I might as well criticize Tibetan Buddhism with its vivid imagery and deities, and I better be open to fair criticism of my conception of American Zen or American Buddhism as being pointless (unpractical) and unimaginative (or whatever someone else would criticize, I'm not so great at criticizing myself).

I think my cousin fell into the trap of pursuing teachings for the wrong reasons. But after being disillusioned by the teacher she was following, she separated what she felt was real in her belief from that teacher, and has maintained some core belief. And that core belief lets her listen to me to re-attach her to some sort of practice to help deal with child-raising. She isn’t in the Zen school and I’m not trying to push it on her, but I can mention some concept, idea, or practice, and she can relate to it and use it in a way that makes sense to her.