Datsusara Life

I'd like to share with you two quotes from the Tao Te Ching have been most relevant to my thoughts of late.

1. "All can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness.
     All can know good as good only because there is evil."

2. "Words of truth are not beautiful, beautiful words are not truthful."

The former is the primary subject of this post. The latter is a reminder to myself not to write this blog like I'm scribing some sort of new age self help book. I tend to tone my feelings down a bit in order not to offend the masses and possibly hurt the growth of this company. In fact many in the business world think that I should be more like your typical faceless company head that doesn't expose his views to the judgement of the consumers. I think many people have a similar problem in general life. I'd like to take a minute to tell you not only more about myself, but also to talk about how you can actually be grateful for people and things that piss you off.

This line of thinking all started with me last week when I posted this video below to the Datsusara Facebook page along with a note about how I would be attending the UFC fights over the weekend.

UFC Q&A with Joe Rogan responding to a question from a Pastor (I was there, far back left).

Undoubtedly many of you see this video and think Joe was being an asshole. The way I see it what this guy is asking for is extremely rude, as having a UFC sanctioned pastor is pushing his BS* on the rest of us (*BS will stand for belief system during the remainder of this article). Joe's advice while not pretty, was honest and clear. Posting this video to my page stirred up some feelings in a few hardcore religious folks. Although many of the responses were rational and well thought out, it eventually got ugly. I'm quite sure I lost a few customers that day. One of them even told me I'd burn in a pit of weeping and gnashing of teeth, how lovely. At first I was upset by this but it forced me to think about where I stand and what I want for Datsusara as a company. For those that care I'll get back to my views on freedom of, and freedom from religion later in this post.

That weekend (while attending the UFC event) I had another moment of clarity. This was brought on by being surrounded by loud drunk fight fans with big egos, which makes up about 85% of any given UFC audience in the US. I was in a sea of obnoxious tough guy shirts (think pit bulls, snakes, blood, chains, shiny tattoo style lettering etc.) worn by people that probably haven't trained a day in their life. Numerous times I saw people being extremely disrespectful to the staff and their fellow patrons, and it really pissed me off. It was then realized I definitely do not want everyone to be a Datsusara fan, I don't even want most people to be fans. I decided would much rather give all my time and love to a small minority of people that resonate with me then to have every douche bag in the arena wearing a Datsusara shirt.

What I'm getting at here is that even though you may be struggling with many things in life you can be thankful they exist because they help you find your way. Just as mold on food helps you to know what not to eat (excluding some very tasty aged properly foods of course) or the way certain markings on animals let you know they are poisonous. All of these things help me know what I stand for, without them life would be unbalanced and boring. I'm not saying don't resist or actively take the fight if that is in you. I'm saying to be glad you know where to direct your energies and to have help getting to know yourself. In looking at things this way I think you'll find a new measure of clarity and a tendency towards calm rational thinking rather than emotional outbursts (which may still be warranted on occasion, sometimes people deserve a slap upside the head ;).

We have covered the main points of this article but while I'm at it here is a little info that you can use as an exercise for learning where you stand. I'm going to tell you my position on many subjects that tend to evoke a strong reaction in people. Love me, hate me or dismiss me, here we go....

I'm against religion in all forms but note that I do not consider Buddhism or Taoism to be religions in the true sense of the word ("a system of faith and worship owing allegiance to a supernatural being."). That doesn't mean that I don't think you should be allowed to believe in anything you want, you absolutely should. However I do not condone any public support of religious institutions such as tax breaks. I also won't respect your religious beliefs any more than I respect your Kung Fu. I do however have a deep love of philosophy and myth, but when those are interpreted into BS, absolutes, and factual accounts, then I call foul. I also believe that every good teaching in religion could be taught without all of the nonsense that goes with it. I don't need to condone rest of the madness in the bible to know that I shouldn't kill people. If I gave you a sandwich composed of 80% shit and 20% nutritious food would you eat it? Or would you prefer a sandwich without any shit in it? As Bruce Lee suggested for martial arts I think we should keep what works and cut out the BS.

George Carlin on religion. A more eloquent and funny man than I.

I'm also for legalizing all drugs and offering treatment for those with problems vs. criminal punishment. I'm for equal rights for every gender, race, or sexual orientation. I hate nationalism as I see no need to think I'm better than anyone else just because I'm on one side of an invisible line. I'm for universal health care, with private options for those that wish to pay more. I'm pro abortion and pro sex ed , I think abstinence teaching is idiotic and dangerous. I think gun permits should be at least as hard to get as a drivers license. I'm pro environment even at the expense of so called progress. I think some government is actually good. I do not blindly support war, the troops or any other notion on a whole, as anyone can be a jerk and any cause can be corrupt. I hate loud motorcycles. I love pork (but hate factory farming).

That got a little watered down at the end so I'll stop now, you get the point and I got to get some things off my chest. Again my point is that I'm ok if I just lost approval from the masses. In fact I thank them for being who they are and helping me to know who I am. Don't be afraid to go your own way, be Datsusara.

Bruce Lee's lesson on self expression.

P.S. If you have issue with my statements here you are welcome to change the channel. I will not be approving rude comments as this isn't a debate forum. This blog is my space for expressing my views and talking about Datsusara. If you think this is hypocritical heathen nonsense please feel free to start your own thing and curse my name to all that will listen.

As always I can't say enough to those of you that do support Datsusara, you help me more than I could ever express, my everlasting gratitude to you.

Today we have a guest blog post from our friend Daniele Bolelli. He presents us with the story of Ikkyu Sojun, the first of our featured Datsusara heroes. But first a little about Daniele. Daniele is a professor, writer and martial artist. He has written some great books that I suggest you read such as On The Warriors Path and 50 Things You're Not Supposed To Know: Religion. He also has a podcast called The Drunken Taoist and he's just an awesome human being that you should know. Plus no one is more qualified to tell you about Ikkyu than Daniele so I will leave it to him now, enjoy.

-Chris Odell
Datsusara, President

Regardless of which country you live in and in which historical period, the list of people volunteering to squash your individuality for "your own good" tends to be long. Family, friends, churches, social institutions... many are those inviting us to set aside what makes us "us" for the sake of embracing a safe, comfortable way of making a living. They invite us to assume a clearly defined role, a job title, a recognizable identity. The price to pay is a big chunk of your individuality.

When it comes to choosing one's path in spite of the pressure of social norms, few role models are better than the one and only Ikkyu Sojun. Here's something about his life and the world he lived through.

Portrait of Ikkyu

Most Westerners who become fascinated with Zen Buddhism are intrigued with its reputation as an anti-authoritarian, freedom-loving, individualistic tradition. Books by excellent writers like Alan Watts popularized an image of Zen as a very relaxed, go-with-the-flow type of religion. But even a brief visit to a typical Zen temple is enough to make us painfully aware of the difference between hype and reality. Life in real Zen temples, in fact, is often so structured, regimented and heavily regulated as to quickly dispel the romanticism created by much of the literature about it. Far from being a hippie rendition of Buddhism, Zen discipleship can be demanding and severe.

But sometimes even misguided stereotypes are born from seeds of truth. Enter 15th century Japanese monk Ikkyu Sojun, who was truly as free, wild and allergic to authorities as advertised.

For Ikkyu, Zen was not a spontaneous calling. Rather, he stumbled upon it as an alternative to being murdered in infancy. Given that choice, Zen training didn’t seem so bad after all. Ikkyu, in fact, was the illegitimate son of the emperor of Japan, and the object of several conspiracies aimed at thinning out the ranks of potential candidates to the throne. In an effort to have his life spared, his mother entrusted him to a Zen monastery when he was only 5 years old: not the most fun-filled scenario for a little boy, but clearly more appealing than having angry assassins slicing you to pieces.

His early life was extremely tough since the training he received from the Zen monks was brutally stern. Despite some serious bouts of depression in this joyless environment, it became quickly clear to his teachers that Ikkyu possessed an amazing intellect, and that his grasp of Zen was unparalleled. But the fact that he excelled in this setting didn’t mean he felt at home in it. Despite genuinely loving Zen (or perhaps because of it), he was less than thrilled with the spiritual bureaucracy of the temples. Also, many of the priests bugged him: too many political games and too much time spent courting the favor of rich patrons. And so when the day came when his master presented him with a certificate of enlightenment—which was both a great honor and the necessary document to begin climbing the Zen hierarchy—Ikkyu promptly decided to wave goodbye to a monastic career and burned it.

This doesn’t mean he had given up on Zen. Far from it. In his thinking, it was the entire Zen establishment that had abandoned real Zen by turning it into a dogmatic parody of what it was supposed to be. Life in the temples was stifled by too many rules and not enough fresh air. The so-called professionals of Zen were in Ikkyu’s eyes a bunch of posers—too busy acting “spiritual” to be able to really taste spirituality in its rawest forms. Some people believed Zen enlightenment could only be found among clouds of incense in silent meditation. Ikkyu, on the other hand, found sake-drinking and wild sex more to his liking. As he put it in his poems, “The autumn breeze of a single night of love is better than a hundred thousand years of sterile sitting meditation.” Or, even more bluntly, “Don’t hesitate: get laid—that’s wisdom. Sitting around chanting sutras: that’s crap.” Driven by an uncompromising thirst for life, Ikkyu became a wandering monk, testing his Zen insights far away from the seclusion of the monasteries, and earning the nickname of “Crazy Cloud.”

The point of his erotic escapades and wild adventures was to suggest that the “sacred” is nothing other than regular life experienced with 100 percent awareness. Or perhaps, sake-drinking and inordinate amounts of sex didn’t need any justification at all other than the fact that they were a hell of a lot of fun. Ikkyu didn’t give a rat’s ass about what the religious authorities of his day thought of him anyway. But in the course of his travels, Ikkyu managed to influence great numbers of artists, poets, calligraphers, musicians, and actors in such a way that his ideas left a deep mark on the development of several Japanese art forms for centuries to come. Even his love life came to be celebrated through the ages, since his relationship with Lady Mori ended up being among the most famous romances in Japanese history.

But since good old Ikkyu was a man who loved paradoxes, when a civil war had destroyed most Zen temples in the country, he came to the rescue of the very institutions he had ferociously criticized. Just when the future of Zen seemed in peril, he was able to enlist the help of the many acquaintances he had met during a lifetime of travels and mobilized them into rebuilding some of the key temples throughout the country. So, oddly enough, much of modern Zen owes a huge debt for its existence to a man who preferred the company of hookers to that of monks.

So, coming straight to you from ancient Japan, here's your Datsusara inspiration for the day, courtesy of Mr. Ikkyu Sojun
-Daniele Bolelli
www.danielebolelli.com