Rage, Rage Against the Rising of the SHAM

I don't know anything about punk rock and I don't particularly like monster movies... but for some reason I kept looking at this book in the Still Point Bookstore called Hardcore Zen. The subtitle, Punk Rock, Monster Movies and the Truth about Reality, was the source of my hesitance. I wondered if I was going to be able to relate to anything Brad Warner had to say.

I'm about halfway through the book and I have to say... this is one of the best books on Zen I've read thus far. Early in the text, here's what Brad says about questioning authority:

No matter what authority you submit to—your teacher, your government, even Jesus H. Christ or Gautama Buddha himself—that authority is wrong. It's wrong because the very concept of authority is already a mistake. Deferring to authority is nothing more than a cowardly shirking of personal responsibility. The more power you grant an authority figure the worse you can behave in his name. That's why people who take God as their ultimate authority are always capable of the worst humanity has to offer. Zen does not accept anything even resembling that kind of God.

If you aim to tear down authority, doing so honestly means doing so completely. Really tearing down authority means more than just opposing the big government and big business. You need to tear down the very roots of authority. This can never be done through violence of any kind—not ever—because the ultimate authority is your own belief in the very concept of authority. Revolt against that first. You need the courage to take responsibility for your own life and your own actions.

I've been thinking a lot about Warner's comments on anarchy, authority, and and society. I've also been thinking about a book review in the current issue of Shambhala Sun about a book called SHAM:  How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless.

A few years ago, self-help books dominated my shelves... owning at least 33% of my shelf real estate. I've also written in past entries about how drawn I can be to infomercials... especially the ones about improving your skin and obliterating your fat cells. Today, the self-help books are still in the boxes I packed them in last time I moved, and I can safely say I've spent my last dollar on the latest, greatest workout craze. I've started to incorporate exercise into my routine again, and I do use some workout DVDs. I've just learned that my desire to move, to exercise, is not what draws me to the infomercials... it's that small sadistic voice inside that says, "There's something wrong with you and this will fix it."

Patton Dodd, author of the SHAM book review , begins his review by introducing us to (or reminding us of) Walker Percy's book. Steve says:

The book's title, Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book, registered both Percy's dismay at the cultural condition and his hope that the movement would soon self-destruct.

Millions of diet books, thousands of relationship seminars, and one Dr. Phil later, it's clear that Percy's hope was in vain. The self help and actualization movement (the acronym for which, uncannily, is SHAM) is still with us, and with us in force.

I've been asking myself a question in the midst of all of this reading and reflection. Is it really wrong to want to be a better person? On the surface, there seems to be some nobility in it. As I think about it today, though, I think it is egocentric and I think SHAM feeds the ego's need to respond, respond, respond to dukkha—the sense that things are just unsatisfactory, that things would be better if we could just _____ or if we only had _____ or if someone else would just _____ or if we weren't so _____. (I could go on for days with this but I won't. You get the point.)

SHAM tells us that the insidious voice of dukkha is right about it, then tries to give us the tools to address everything that voice is right about... relationships, parenting, life at work, emotion management, our bodies, even our minds... SHAM tells us if we only had the right affirmation, if only we understood this particular rule or shared this certain outlook or followed the right seven point plan, our lives would be better.

I came to Buddhism like I came to most other things in my life... I thought that it would fix me. I thought Buddhism was about learning to be calm in the midst of chaos. I thought being Buddhist was about being good. The more I practice, the more I start to see that good and bad are irrelevant. Buddhism is about being real... about getting right with reality instead of running away from it. Getting right with reality begins with seeing and accepting it. We will never get right with reality if we are constantly trying to change it.

 

Comments

[Tom]

I like the idea that Buddhism is about "authenticity."

Some Buddhists might ask 'Authentic to what?' with the thought in mind that emptiness or selflessness leaves nothing to represent authenticity.

But you do have to stop 'gaming your life,' I think -- which involves setting oneself up as representative of something. And I think this happens as much inside the Buddhist community as outside of it.

It is so easy to want to appear to be virtuous more than to be virtuous -- to take up a romanticized notion of oneself. To my mind, even a straightforward effort to be virtuous is wrongheaded unless you are truly fully comfortable in every step of the effort. It is perhaps better to be the jerk that we truly are -- and thus work through our problems -- than be a faker, smiley broadly on the outside while suffering on the inside.

On the other hand, I do want to buy that latest teeth whitener that I saw on an infomercial. You know the one? The chemicals work while you grip a light in your mouth?

[haiku]

this was a great post. i can relate so strongly to the desire to fix that one last thing about yourself. it is indeed a delusion. it is nice to be almost free of it. at least i see it for what it is.
i've seen the book "hardcore zen" highly recommended before, but i think this time i'll order it.
the new format looks great, by the way!

[chalip]

Tom, when you said:

It is so easy to want to appear virtuous more than to be virtuous -- to take up a romanticized notion of oneself.

...that really states very well one of the things I was thinking as I was writing this post. It's common for all of us to do this to some extent.

I think the danger is that when we are walking around trying to be "good little Buddhists" we may just be spreading icing on a moldy cake.

Instead of trying to be a certain way, I think we just need to practice.

You can have your teeth whitener if you want. I'm not saying that all products in infomercials are evil and to be avoided. I'm not even saying that all self-help books are evil and to be avoided (though it probably sounded that way). I'm suggesting that we look at what drives us to consume these things... If we think we can somehow resolve our dukkha with all of this "stuff," maybe we just need to think again.

[chalip]

Thanks, haiku...

Hardcore Zen is really great. I'm on the chapter where Brad explains the Heart Sutra, which I must say is awesome.

I think you'll enjoy the book.

[Press Guy]

the idea that Buddhism is about authenticity was really grate!