Our True Belongings

Case # 2 of the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate) presents the case of Hakujo and the Fox. According to this koan, an old monk told Master Hakujo that he had once been an abbot of a Zen Monastery and was asked by a student if one who has experienced enlightenment is still subject to the law of cause and effect otherwise known as karma. It is said that the old man denied this truth and as a consequence was reborn for the next 500 lifetimes in the body of a fox.

In ancient China, being reborn as a fox was no small matter as the fox was thought of as a disreputable animal and evidence of a very low birth. To live the life of a fox was thought to be a very miserable experience - clearly one to be avoided if possible.

In effect, this koan raises the question of whether or not we can ever be free of the consequences of our actions. Is it always true that what goes around comes around? Do we always either directly or indirectly reap what we sow? In other words, are we really subject to the law of karma - the law of cause and effect?

Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects thousands of uniformed services professionals; i.e., firefighters, cops, emergency medical personnel, veterans, etc., each year. It is a very difficult disorder to live with and not an easy way to go.

PTSD is characterized by a number of pernicious symptoms experienced by those who carry it. They include recurring, distressing recollections of traumatic events including images, thoughts, or perceptions of the horrific events they have perpetrated our encountered. Their dreams are haunted by post traumatic memories and their bodies triggered by internal and external symbolic cues associated with remembrances of death, destruction, fear and pain. The unintended effect of all of this is intense psychological suffering.

In time, they have difficulty sleeping, concentrating and are prone to irritability and angry outbursts. They are easily startled and increasingly organize their daily lives around efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, activities, places, people or conversations that might arouse the dreaded symptoms of this disorder. They become increasingly hypervigilant seeing threats to their well being at every turn. The loss of interest and participation in significant life activities is a common occurrence. They often sense a foreshortened future in regard to having a career, marriage, family, children or a normal life span. In severe cases, they drift into a sense of detachment from life and a restricted range of affect including an inability to experience loving feelings towards anything or anyone, least of all themselves. In other words, they become like the fox alluded to above.

When the old monk asked Hakujo whether or not someone who has experienced enlightenment is subject to the law of cause and effect, Hakujo answered by saying, "Such a person does not evade the law of cause and effect." Upon hearing this, the old monk was liberated from his fox body and was reborn as a monk once again.

But what is meant by the statement, "Such a person does not evade the law of cause and effect."? Ernst Mach, a 19th century physicist and philosopher, whose work helped Einstein develop his theory of relativity wrote the following regarding the notion of cause and effect, "There is no cause and effect in nature; nature has but an individual existence; nature simply is."

What happens to the notion of cause and effect when we are simply willing to be with the consequences of our actions just as they are without the desire to evade or avoid them? What happens when we are willing to "not wear a tearful face" and live out the truth of our lives no matter how difficult or heart rendering it is to do so?

I read that the Buddha said that the consequences of his actions were his truest belongings, the ground upon which he stood. The life of a fox is a full and complete life nonetheless.

Summing up his commentary on the koan of Hakujo and the Fox, Master Mumon writes a poem:

Not falling, not ignoring:
Odd and even are on one die.
Not ignoring, not falling:
Hundreds of thousands of regrets!

When we are willing to face our own music, even a hard life can produce the sweetest song.

THE RULE OF THE MIND

I recently had the privilege of being trained in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, otherwise known as ACT, at the Togus VA Hospital in Augusta, Maine by Dr. Kevin Polk and his colleagues. Dr. Polk and his staff provide a five day, 13 session group treatment program for veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

ACT is a mindfulness and acceptance-based form of psychotherapy based on a contextual understanding of language and cognition. The basic idea behind ACT is that human psychological suffering is largely due to our tendency to fuse our identities with verbal descriptions and evaluations of our behavior. We come to believe that we are what our verbal descriptions and evaluations say we are. For example, when we experience the feelings, thoughts and related images of a depressed mood we fuse our identity with verbal descriptions of those feelings taking them to be the literal truth of our identity. So rather than saying that we are having a depressive thought, feeling, etc., we conclude, "I am depressed."

Once we have fused with our thoughts in this way we take them to be literal statements of our self identity when in fact they are nothing more than verbal descriptions of thoughts. In addition, the culture is constantly giving us the message that psychological health and well being requires that we get rid of our negative psychological experiences like the feelings, thoughts, etc., associated with depression.

The argument goes like this ... I am depressed. ... I won't be able to function well and be happy unless I get rid of my depression. ... I must find a way to get rid of my depression. ... until my depression is gone, I won't be able to have a meaningful life.

Part of the problem with this view of difficult internal experiences and our sense of self is based on what has been called the RULE OF THE MIND. In the world outside of our skin we can get rid of things we no longer want. For example, if we don't want a jelly donut, we can simply throw it away. However, try to not think of a jelly donut after someone tells you not to. It's impossible. As soon as you say to yourself, "don't think of a jelly donut," guess what? You immediately think of one.

In the same way, as soon as you try to use your mind to get rid of your depressive thoughts, feelings, etc., guess what? You evoke and elicit them. So the RULE OF THE MIND says, if you don't want a difficult feeling, thought, image, etc., you've got it!

So now what do we do? Well here is the good news. Your thoughts, feelings and associated images really can't hurt you. The only thing that can hurt you is your behavior. For example, in an attempt to get rid of depressed feelings you can engage in the behavior of drinking. The effects of alcohol will temporarily suppress those feelings. Unfortunately, they haven't gone anywhere. As soon as you sober up, they are still there waiting for you. You really haven't gotten rid of them at all. The alternative is to simply accept those feelings as "things" that come and go, like clouds in the sky, and move (take action; i.e., behave) in a valued life direction like having a fulfilling career. So rather than waiting for "your depression" to finally and completely be resolved, you start engaging in those behaviors that will move you towards your life value of having a fulfilling career. For instance, you start looking at the classified ads, polishing up your resume, contacting a career counselor, etc., even as you experience feelings of depression.

Yes ... you can experience feelings of depression AND have a valued life. Why, because you can control your behavior and take the steps necessary to move in a valued direction even if you can not control the appearance of your depressive thoughts. You just learn to take those thoughts with you as you move in a valued life direction.

There is an old Zen story that points to the truth of the RULE OF THE MIND. It can be found in the Gateless Gate, a collection of Zen koans compiled by Mumonkan:

Bodhidharma sat in zazen facing the wall. The Second Patriarch, who had been standing in the snow, cut off his arm and said, "Your disciple's mind is not yet at peace. I beg you Master, please put it to rest." Bodhidharma said, "Bring me your mind and I will put it to rest." The Second Patriarch said, "I have searched for my mind but can not find it." Bodhidharma said, "I have completely put it to rest for you."

SOLDIER'S HEART

It has been over 60 years since the end of WWII and many of the veterans who fought that war are now in their 80's. It won't be too much longer until this entire generation of Americans has passed away.

To date, WWII still stands as the most destructive event of human history in terms of the incredible amount of bloodshed and human suffering that we as a species have ever visited upon ourselves. And the suffering this war generated will continue to live on for generations even after all of the veterans who fought that war have passed away.

One aftermath of this war is the gradual recognition that the effects of war on an individual have long term life consequences both for the veteran and their families that, until recently, were not well known or understood.

Today, the term PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) has entered the cultural lexicon and denotes the pernicious effects trauma has on those individuals that were exposed to repeated life threatening events over which they had little control; e.g., combat. PTSD is a descriptive term that denotes ongoing unpleasant and debilitating experiences during which a person frequently relives a horrific, life-threatening event via nightmares, repetitive thoughts and images, or even acting as if the event was happening all over again.

In their book, Combat Stress Injury Theory, Research, and Management, Charles Figley and William Nash detail the history of combat-related PTSD,

"Combat-related PTSD may be a condition that existed from the start of humankind. The written history of PTSD dates back to the account of Achilles in The Iliad by Homer (800 BCE). More recently in the US, symptoms of PTSD have been described as “soldier’s heart” during the Civil War, “shell shock” during WWI, “combat fatigue” or “war neurosis” during WWII, and PTSD after the Vietnam War. The third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published in 1980 was the first to publish diagnostic criteria for PTSD."

They go on to further delineate the common symptoms experienced by those who suffer from combat-related PTSD,

"After experiencing a traumatic event, the three core PTSD symptom clusters include: re-experiencing, avoidance/numbing, and hyper arousal. The re-experiencing symptoms include: recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event; recurrent distressing dreams of the event; flashbacks; intense psychological distress when reminded of the event; and physiological reactivity when reminded of the event. The avoidance/numbing symptoms include: efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations associated with the event; efforts to avoid activities, places, or people that are reminders of the event; inability to recall important aspects of the event; decreased interest in significant activities; feeling detached from others; decreased range of affect; and sense of foreshortened future. The hyper arousal symptoms include: problems sleeping, increased irritability; difficulty concentrating; hyper vigilance; and exaggerated startle response."

Figley and Nash also outline how memories of combat related experiences continue to haunt combat veterans long after the battle is over:

"When a combat veteran returns from the most intense experience of his life, those intense experiences continue to “play” over and over in his mind. However, the more he attends to those thought intrusions, the more intrusive they become. Learning to shift attention away from those intrusive thoughts and into the moment at hand allows those intrusions to lessen, and daily functioning to increase."

Individuals who suffer these symptoms will often attempt to cope with them by learning ways of behaving that have the short term effect of avoiding and escaping from situations and events which invoke them. As a result, high incidences of drug/alcohol abuse and addiction, interpersonal conflict, domestic violence, divorce, depression and suicide are characteristic outcomes for those who suffer from PTSD.

One promising treatment for combat-related PTSD outlined by these authors is Zen meditation (zazen). These authors assert that, ... "when engaged in Zen meditation, patients significantly reduce their sympathetic arousal, even without controlling their breathing or otherwise consciously manipulating their physiology." This ability to reduce sympathetic arousal helps veterans to tolerate intrusive memories and thoughts and respond more favorably to treatment for PTSD.

In addition to the psychological distress outlined above, veterans who suffer from PTSD may also suffer a "spiritual crisis," as a result of their combat experiences according to Figley and Nash:

"The direct spiritual consequence of participation in war has only recently begun to be studied, as has the potential role spirituality may play as a healing resource for those recovering from the war zone trauma. Researchers and theorists about the effects of trauma have suggested that traumatic events frequently call into question existential and spiritual issues related to the meaning of life, self-worth, the safety of life (Janoff-Bulman, 1992)."

The authors go on to state that spiritual practices and activities that are "inward and outward focused," can be incorporated to heal the spiritual consequences associated with combat-related PTSD. Specific recommendations for healing the spiritual wounds of combat involve the following:

"A variety of inward experiential exercises involving meditation, breathing, guided imagery, and silent prayer are appropriate. ... From an outward perspective spiritual practice should include service and work on behalf of others. ... Service for others ... is a way of creating personal meaning and living a life that matters."

Mindfulness-based experiential psychotherapies such as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Acceptance and Committment Therapsy (ACT) are a new class of treatment approaches that rely heavily on Buddhist concepts and practices. It turns out that these therapies are deeply rooted in practices that promote prajna wisdom and compassion and have shown promise as evidence-based treatments for PTSD.

As more and more young men and women return from combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, socially engaged Buddhist practices and modern day therapies based on ancient wisdom traditions have much to offer those who have suffered severe trauma in war.