Actions always have results and we live only in the present: two truths Buddhism teaches, realised through zazen

What Buddhism can offer

What I want to talk about is that the world we live in is not inside books. I think the title of my talk today is about the present. Buddhism is a very ancient teaching, with many rituals: robes, incense, bells. These rituals do have value. But I’ve always been interested in what the Buddhist teaching is really about.

Every society creates its own structure, and we think that the structure we live in has some truth. But when we meet another society, we sometimes find that its truths are different, and often this leads to arguments and misunderstandings. So who is right? Which society’s truths are right: Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, materialistic? These are the questions we have to find answers to in the modern world. We are finding answers by living, but it’s a huge trial and error process.

So what can Buddhism offer this modern world, which seems to be based on science and money? Of course, it can offer a kind of group, and we can learn how to dress up as a Buddhist, or even pretend to be a Japanese Zen Buddhist. But Buddhism has two very essential things which can contribute to the modern world.

Our actions always have a result

The first is something that we already know about: cause and effect. Cause and effect is the basis of science. Whatever we do, there is some result, and science is constantly finding out what the result is. Some old beliefs are true, but many were later found not true. One belief which is very strong in Christian Europe: if you sin, you will go to hell. I don’t know whether it’s true. But it doesn’t seem to be, in the sense that I’ve committed many sins, but I can’t believe I’m going to go to hell. So science is gradually changing our beliefs.

Buddhism also, since ancient times, without realising the findings of science, stated that whatever we do, there is a result without exception. We can never escape the result of our action. But even in the modern world, where we know cause and effect very clearly, people like to forget sometimes that what they do has a result. That’s the first principle, which is not so unusual.

We live only in the present

But the second principle is very difficult for us to realise. Buddhist teachings say that life, reality, is just now, at this moment. The past is gone; we can never go back. The future is not here yet; we can imagine it in our heads, but we can never go into it. Sounds simple.

But in fact, we live a lot of our lives in our heads: in the past, thinking about what happened to us, or in the future, anticipating it or worrying about it. Past, present and future exist as a kind of process line inside our mind, and we believe it absolutely. Tomorrow so-and-so is happening, I have to go so-and-so. Yesterday I was in Bratislava. It’s impossible to live in any different way, because our civilisation created this shared belief: we are travelling through past, present, future, and we need to, in order to exist in society. Buddhism says, actually, it’s a belief. And the truth is, we’re only here.

To think about the future, of course, is fine. But it’s only thinking. The wonderful things we are going to do, the aims we want to reach, are only activity inside our brain. The only thing that’s real is what we are doing now. What we did is gone, and we can never change it.

We can understand that explanation in our mind. Okay, I got it: past is finished, future hasn’t come, just we’re here. But to realise it, and to live like that: very, very difficult. But if we can live in the present, it can help modern people very much. We can stop worrying about the future. We can stop regretting, or being trapped by our past.

Truths that belong to everybody

But of course, this doesn’t belong to Buddhism. We can find this teaching in many different areas. If you are an athlete, it’s very important to be in the present: I think, to forget the past, not to think about the future, but just to perform now. Sports people call it being in the zone, or in the flow, and through their real experience they know that this helps them a lot. Psychotherapists try to help people be free from the past, and from the future. It’s just the second principle of Buddhist teaching.

So there are Buddhists everywhere. Actually, I don’t like to use the word Buddhist. The truth that our action always has a result, and the truth that we only live in the present, don’t belong to any religion. They belong to everybody, and different people sometimes realise these things through their own lives. So what’s different about Buddhism? To me, the difference is that people who called themselves Buddhists have taught these two truths for many years.

And now in the 21st century we find they’re true. Science is showing us that the cause always has an effect, and more and more we can understand the results of our behaviour, our diet, our way of life. And through our own experience with, for instance, sport, we can start to realise that to concentrate on the present is the most effective way to live.

Zazen

But there’s one more thing. Since ancient times Buddhists have had a very simple practice which people call meditation. In Japan they call it zazen, sitting meditation. It’s not an intellectual study. It’s a simple physical practice. By practising zazen regularly for some time, we can notice that we just live now. It’s a very, very stupid activity, because it’s not thinking. It’s just sitting. But by this very simple practice, after a few years, we can start to realise the truths of Buddhism. They’re true of every human being.

If we live now, we don’t need to worry about the future or think about the past, and this attitude can make us happier in the present. However, what I’ve just told you is a kind of dream. Because we can imagine being in the present and being very happy, but it’s very, very difficult to do.

But if we have some activity that makes us come into the present, meditation, and not only meditation, sport, somehow we feel free. If you have a busy week at work and you go for a swim, you get rid of your frustration. You let go of the past. We are always in touch with somebody who is not here, thinking about tomorrow, thinking about the past. So if we put our phone away and sit in meditation, or leave it at home and go to the sports club, we can be free. Don’t take your phone.

How to sit

I’d like to demonstrate the simple posture. The traditional posture is crossing the legs, in lotus if you are flexible. But we have to work with our own body; it’s no good imagining that we can do something. We put our hands together with the thumbs touching; then you can notice when you are thinking a lot. Our spine should be naturally straight.

We relax our weight down, as if our spine bones are a pile of stones, and we’re balancing. People say that meditation is a position of balance. To balance the body is to balance the mind. If we sit for 20 or 30 minutes, deep tensions which we are not conscious of slowly drop away. If we close our eyes, sometimes we go to sleep, so we keep the eyes open. If we notice that we’re thinking something, we adjust our posture, which stops our train of thought; slowly we stop having it. Of course, we can’t stop all things coming into our head, because our brain is working. But we’re not thinking a train of thought or a story. To sit like this is the whole of zazen. Very simple. But not so easy to do.

But it’s no different from learning a sport. If you want to start running, you can get very excited and buy new running shoes. But if we continue, day after day, just a little, we learn how to run. In our heads we become very excited, and our body is not so quick to learn. Many people come to Buddhist meetings and get very excited: yes, this is for me. And then they try to sit. Oh no, no, I need something easier. There is nothing easier in life. Life is not easy.

Life is not fair

Participant: Some people believe action and reaction is something like justice. It has nothing to do with morals.

Ah, yes, we think there’s justice in the world. We can say there are right things to do and wrong things to do, but we don’t understand how the person in the next street becomes very rich because he doesn’t pay any taxes, while the person in our street is poor and miserable, but never does anything wrong. Unfortunately, life is not fair. But we can make society fair.

Tomorrow is an idea

Interpreter: Mike didn’t explain why tomorrow will never come.

You can put a notice here, free beers tomorrow, and leave it there every day. Tomorrow is an idea which we cannot live without. There is only now. But without ideas, human society can’t live. Of course, we cannot guess what the life of dogs or cats is really like, but they seem not to worry about tomorrow; they seem to live in the present. We can’t live as dogs or cats. But we can remember that actually, we don’t need to worry.

Looking for somewhere to park, you get some kind of tension. Yesterday in Bratislava my friend Rory said, don’t worry, the parking god will look after us. Of course, it’s kind of a joke, only a story; he says it to make himself feel relaxed. But there’s a difference between “can I get…” and just relaxing about it.

Buddhism, the West and other religions

Question: The big religions are changing. How is Buddhism changing?

Buddhism is new to the West. It comes from Tibet, Japan, India, with many traditions from those societies. Slowly Buddhism is changing, when people realise that dressing as a Buddhist is not what it’s about. I lived in Japan for 25 years, and I don’t like to wear Japanese clothes. People who didn’t go to Japan like to dress up as Japanese monks. I think it’s very amusing. So I like to say that the teachings of Buddhism are the same, but the extra things are slowly disappearing. Many people in Europe still want Buddhism as a special religion with special ceremonies, but it has to integrate with Western society in a different way. In Christianity there were many very special rituals, but now there are more modern forms of Christianity, where they realise that understanding the teaching and living the teaching… It doesn’t matter what you wear, or whether you sit on a black cushion or a red blanket.

Question: I spent decades in karate with Japanese masters. Their conduct was in line with Buddhism, but they never spoke about it. Why?

They were teaching karate. They weren’t teaching Buddhism. In Japan there are deep Buddhist customs, for hundreds of years, but people don’t notice. If you say to a Japanese person something about sitting in zazen, they think, oh no, painful. But actually their behaviour is based on Buddhism. So I agree with what you said: the ability to focus on action, without explanation, just do it, is some custom from Buddhism.

Question: A Slovak author writes that peace in the world would come from the major religions merging. Is there a chance of that, with Buddhism as part of it?

Ah, yes, I agree with him. Two partners are arguing, fighting. But if they continue, they can integrate and merge and have peaceful situations. No. When they realise that to stop arguing is to be peaceful. If one country stops fighting, it might help. I think Buddhism has a teaching of balance between opposites. This person thinks they are right, this person thinks they are right. Buddhism says they’re both wrong, so they should find a middle way. But we believe there is right and wrong very clearly, so we fight for our belief. Buddhism says, don’t fight for your belief, but compromise. But we hate to compromise. We feel if we compromise, we lose our self.

But I think the world slowly will realise. One factor: now television cameras watch the soldiers fighting, and people in their armchairs make some kind of judgment, so slowly it becomes more difficult to engage in fighting. But I think it takes a long time, for instance for the Islamic world and the humanistic or the Christian world, to find a common ground. I hope they find it. I think they will. Islamic people who’ve come to live in Western society interpret Islam in a more humanistic way, and that is more helpful in resolving the differences between the religions.

Here and now

Participant: What’s the point of meditation? I try to be in balance, but it’s not easy. Is there some trick?

It’s not easy. But living is not easy. The point of zazen is just sitting in the present. But to keep our mind in the present is very difficult.

Question: One second is past, one second is future. So where is the present?

Now. Here and now. Not to be trapped by our thinking. A simple state where we are here. That’s all. But this simple state is very, very difficult for us. Our mind is jumping, jumping to different places all the time. So the answer is… we’ll continue.

Participant: What’s the reward of this meditation?

You can be here, not trapped by the thinking. To be here, that’s the result. Because here is the only place to be. But human beings like to be somewhere else, here with their body. They love it. We can invent wonderful places to live.

Question: Is it not astral travelling?

We can stop astral travelling, if we want to be here. It’s very, very simple. That’s why we find it so difficult.