It Starts With You

Studying modern Buddhism is hard work. There are so many books on the topic, it’s actually very difficult to get to the core message of Buddhism. Even Reddit’s r/zen is a reportedly controversial and negative subreddit.

Yet the principles and messages in Buddhism are, in their nature very minimal and intuitive. In fact, it can be communicated far more purely through art than words.

Alan Watts’ curiosity of Buddhism started with a simple piece of Zen art, which he said changed the way he saw the world, and made him extremely curious about the person who’d created it. How can someone from a thousand years ago paint mountains in such a profound way?

And as he learnt more about the piece, he discovered it was painted by a monk, who had actually intended to invoke this reaction of wonder in the viewer.

In this way, this one piece of art sparked a life-changing curiosity; “just what was it that the painter saw which made the world so beautiful? I must find out what it is that he knows, for whatever he sees can only be more beautiful than what he has created here”.

Of all the books I’ve read on Buddhism - written even by monks - I can say one piece of art like this can be worth volumes of books on Buddhism.

Alan Watts regularly uses art, music and poetry to help us understand the concepts of Buddhism and reality. This is because it’s a more true way of communicating; words are always one step removed from the real thing.

Yet his way of communicating was through writing and lectures, and as he once pointed out, Lao Tzu said “The world that can be spoken of is not the true world”, yet Lao Tzu said that.

So it’s very important that we remember that the real insight comes from personal experience, not words.

This is a key purpose of Zen; which is known for is subtractive and minimalist style. Rather than studying meditation in elaborate detail, the Zen style is supposed to be much closer to the way the Buddha taught. Remove the unnecessary detail and focus on the fundamentals.

One Zen meditation guide is simply this: “just sit”. At first, this might come across as pretentious, but when considered carefully it can take on a profound meaning.

What does it mean to “just sit” in this context? When you sit, are you doing something else? What happens when you try to sit without doing something else? Is that even possible?

It is through precisely this type of questioning that we start to learn about our own experience in the world, and this is where insight begins. This is that moment where Alan Watts saw the world through the lens of a Buddhist monk’s old painting.

So what is it, this process? This is what Alan Watts would describe as the true purpose of Buddhism: a conversation. More specifically, a conversation with yourself or an enlightened teacher (aka Buddha).

This is also the true purpose of meditation, or as Alan Watts would call it; “contemplation”. Because we only learn about our existence when we observe and challenge it; and this fits quite well with the Buddha’s philosophy of teaching.

He encouraged students to challenge his teaching, because he knew his students wouldn’t learn the concepts if they didn’t explore them for themselves. You can explain to someone in immense detail what a rose smells like, but until they actually smell a rose for the first time, they won’t be able to truly know what you mean.

“True understanding comes with experience”
Lao Tzu

This is what the Buddha meant when he said people should learn Buddhism through “direct knowledge”. Because he knew he can’t explain your reality to you any more than he could look with your eyes.

In the modern world, we have become so absorbed with the technicalities of Buddhism, we mistake the method for the result.

If you meditate, do you know why you meditate? What do you want to get out of it exactly? Is it something you do because you think it will one day make sense? But if you’re not certain why you’re doing it, how can you know it will get you what you want?

We approach meditation in the same way that we approach a weight loss program. We feel it’s something we should do because it’s “healthy” and hope that if we stay consistent we’ll get better.

But it’s well known that there is a science to weight loss, and you have to find a lifestyle that is sustainable. Meditation is exactly like this; if you follow any meditation program, it will explain how meditation alone is not enough to give you insight into the true nature of your reality; you have to take the meditation away with you and practice it throughout every day, always being “mindful” of your friends and the sensation of the chair you’re sitting on, and so on.

However, this again is not the core principle of meditation. The Buddha never said anything like “in daily life, make sure you remember to think about meditation and being mindful”, if he did it would not work, because then you’d become preoccupied with the method, rather than the result. This is like watering a rock and expecting it to grow roots and leaves. However, once you understand the result, the method is intuitive and makes sense. And it becomes a part of your lifestyle automatically.

So what is the result and why is it so elusive? This is the ultimate conundrum of Buddhism and meditation. It’s so hard to explain, people have written entire books on the subject and understood it less at the end. Yet it’s so simple, it can be found in a painting.

The reason it’s so hard to explain is because it’s not words, and it’s very individual. It’s something you just have to find out for yourself, in your own way. Nobody is going to explain it for you, and no amount of mind_less_ meditation will make it any clearer.

The only thing anyone else can do for you, is to do exactly what the Buddha did: point it out. You just have to start that conversation. Once it starts, you can start to explore your own experience and understand yourself - and therefore the world - in a new way.

Alan Watts called this “cultivating a great doubt”, it’s a rational curiosity to want to understand the fundamental truth about existence and consciousness.

There are many ways to explore this, and it starts with simple questions and curiosity which we will cover in the following chapters.

The most important thing you need to know is this: external factors can nudge you in the right direction, but no matter how much you read, or how many gurus you speak to, nobody can walk the path for you, and nobody else can answer the questions for you. If somebody else found enlightenment, they cannot give it to you; you have to drink from the same cup that they did, as did Alan Watts and the Buddha. You already have all the answers, you just need to find a way to see them clearly. “When water is still it becomes clear”.