Open Enlightenment

Building a New Tradition: Part 4

This conversation brought to my attention the vast number of questions that need to be addressed and considered when it comes to developing a community or tradition (or whatever it is), and in the video you can see the very beginnings of my articulation of how I envision this tradition taking shape (a big thank you to Vinay for facilitating this). I hope to flesh out the details (and the language) over the coming months before presenting this ‘new model’ for feedback.

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Building a New Tradition: Part 3

Relevant links:

Governance

Cohousing (also see the UK Cohousing Network)

Holacracy

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Building a New Tradition: Part 2

Relevant links:

Commune movement

The Farm

Stephen Gaskin

Guru

G.I. Gurdjieff

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Building a New Tradition: A Conversation with Vinay Gupta

A week ago I was fortunate enough to be joined in my flat by Vinay Gupta, inventor of the Hexayurt, founder of the Bucky Ghandi Design Institution, editor of The Future We Deserve, and state-failure guru, where we explored the various aspects of organisation and infrastructure necessary to develop my ideas for a new enlightenment tradition.

I video’d the conversation using my Flip HD, which has a narrow focus so you’ll have to excuse my head being partially in shot, and after ruthlessly editing down the talk I can now present the best bits in a 20 minute video.

I know what you’re thinking: without some violence, tits or CGI to hold your attention, you’re going to find it difficult to concentrate for that long. And that’s why I’ve also cut the film up into small bite size chunks, the first of which you will find below the full length film. I intend to post a new segment (of which there are 3 more) over the coming days (it might also make for a more structured conversation around the points made in each segment).

So if you’re feeling brave (or you’re particularly interested in this topic) here’s the full thing:

Building a New Tradition: A Conversation with Vinay Gupta from Alan Chapman on Vimeo.

Alternatively, here’s Part 1:

Relevant links (for part 1):

Lahiri Mahasaya

Earth ships (one example of off grid sustainable living)

Right livelihood

Note: In the video, we touch upon stepping away from a ‘corrupt economic system’. It should be emphasised that this is not a knee jerk and all too common reaction within the ‘spiritual scene’ to money in and of itself; rather, the current economic model or system is what is being called in to question and rejected wholesale. I’m all in favour of investigating initiatives such as the Totnes Pound or even a Resource Based Economy, but exploring alternatives such as these are a natural conclusion if we take a mindful approach to money, our behaviour and the consequences of our spending seriously. Check out Hokai Sobol talking about this topic over at Buddhist Geeks.

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The free Open Enlightenment ebook

After two days of furious writing (and a lot longer to format), here’s the Open Enlightenment ebook.

Taken from the introduction:

The purpose of this ebook is to start an honest and informed conversation about what it means to be human in the most profound sense.

For the first time in history we have access to all of the world’s religions, and more importantly, a rational and evidence based account of their origins and history.

Combined with personal, direct exploration of spiritual experience, and an open, accessible and cross-traditional body of ‘spiritual peers’, we have arrived at the point in our development as a species where a new perspective on ourselves and our place in the world is steadily coming into view; a perspective that both recognizes the reality and authenticity of spiritual experience and honors the spirit of science, without entertaining either religion or secularism.

The book is divided into short chapters, where a number of statements outlining this new view are explored. However, it is hardly comprehensive, and is only intended as a starting point.

I hope you enjoy it, pass it on to your friends and join in the conversation!

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Buddhist Geeks

Buddhist Geeks is a cutting-edge Dharma podcast hosted by my good friend Vince Horn. Since 2007 the Buddhist Geeks have interviewed many leading authors, teachers and entrepreneurs in the field of Buddhism, covering diverse topics from the future of Buddhism in the West to the possible Buddha nature of the internet. Here are some of my favourites:

Episode 138: Reflections on 21st Century Dharma

Episode 133: Erik Curren: The Buddhist Politician

Episode 122: The Evolution of the Mind and Life Dialogues

Episode 112: Vajrayana in Plain English

Episode 62: Reverberations from The Shamatha Project

Remarkably, Buddhist Geeks is produced on a part-time basis, and is offered for free.

If you are serious about 21^st Century Dharma, then you need to get serious about Buddhist Geeks. Please consider supporting this amazing project: become a micro-patron.

In the future, Vince hopes to offer a digital magazine, and a TED style BuddhaDharma 2.0 conference. I can’t believe how lucky we are!

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Shinzen Young

Shinzen Young is one of those rare Buddhist teachers who actually teach enlightenment. You can find his website here, and here’s a whole bunch of great videos .

Thanks to OE reader C4Chaos for the link to this wonderfully frank and in-depth discussion of Shinzen’s approach to teaching enlightenment. Shinzen is the real deal: a bone fide spiritual authority (in the sense that he has experienced everything he talks about) who accurately describes the territory and gives a great overview of what to expect, even after enlightenment, which is very rare indeed.

I’m not sure that I would agree with Shinzen that the first experience of enlightenment permanently does away with the notion of the self, because in my experience the final stage of enlightenment – what Shinzen calls the 4^th stage in the interview – involves the dropping of something fundamental that is not touched by the peak and partial awakening stages beforehand, which is why it remains permanent. (It’s the difference between Adyashanti’s ‘awakening’ and ‘liberation’.) But this is splitting hairs really; his model of four stages is useful and accurate, as I’m sure a lot of Ingram fans would agree.

However, Shinzen doesn’t make the mistake of putting all of his eggs in one basket by only recognising a gradual process of stages, and marginalizing anyone else’s experience that doesn’t fit this model (something I’ve only just recently learned this year); progress with enlightenment can be unnoticeable for a long time, and for some people there may not have been a before or after at all. I think a lot of ‘practical Buddhists’ could learn a lot from this man.

Shinzen has certainly helped in disabusing me of the idea that after enlightenment there is nothing left to learn on the subject, and if I could have him as my teacher, I certainly would.

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Challenging False Beliefs

I’ve felt for some time that forum debates are rarely productive, and more often than not the focus of a discussion is lost in pedantic, tit-for-tat rebuttals. I think a forum is a great tool for a community whose primary function is to offer support; but when it comes to challenging ideas or rigorously investigating a given belief, the conversational nature more often than not leaves ideas poorly expressed and researched, with a number of people hot under the collar.

I recently came across a short commentary by an American teacher on my article 10 ideas I’ve changed my mind about since becoming enlightened. The verdict: I’m only partially awakened.

Should I have ignored the commentary?

Should I have dissected the commentary and provided a rebuke for each point (God knows there are so many)?

Instead, I decided to propose a dialogue based on a shared interest in understanding the mystery of enlightenment, instead of a silly and pointless ‘argument on the internet’ between two enemies who have never met. I suggested an experimental format:

Person A writes a well thought out, researched piece on a given idea (such as ‘A person cannot personally become enlightened’ – the core belief stated by the American teacher and the reason he considers my awakening ‘partial’). This means Person A is forced to examine the reason for his or her belief, and sets out his or her thinking for all to see.

Person B then reviews the piece (not the person!). Any apparent flaws in reasoning are highlighted, any contradictory arguments or evidence not included are presented, any references checked, and so on. Does the belief stand? It should be remembered that this is a review: it could be overwhelmingly positive.

Person A then reviews Person B’s response. Again, the focus can only be on the argument and how it has developed. The discussion is kept on topic, the arguments are well presented, and at the end there should be some degree of clarification as to how valid the belief in question actually is. Who knows? With personal feelings kept to a minimum, maybe someone might actually change their mind about something!

All three parts – the argument, the review, and the review of the review – are then open to public discussion, forum style.

I think the above format could work really well in a community format too, with anyone open to submit a piece for consideration, anyone open to review it, and then anyone open to review the reviews (we could even have a star rating system). This would raise everyone’s game a notch.

The American teacher preferred to have a discussion via skype, but I don’t believe this would be anywhere near as beneficial. So I’m putting forward my argument that ‘A person can only become personally enlightened’ anyway, and if anyone would like to review it, and then be reviewed, please do. Of course, comments are just fine too!

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