Zen practice is research: seeing what is. It can free us from thousands of years of incrustation caused by conditioning. Some of the ideas we have been conditioned by are very primitive. Perhaps they were useful at another time; now they plague us globally and personally. In our daily lives they stand in the way of our freedom and expansion. I don’t think we know what our limits are. I don’t know if that can be known or if there are any.
Research in the Zen tradition is direct looking into the mind, and it is a simple and pragmatic approach. When we want to see what is “in” our universe, we use a telescope, or a spacecraft. Here on earth historically we used forms of transportation like boats. Preconceptions, particularly fearful ones, like falling of the edge of the earth, only block us from knowledge, from seeing what’s really there. This is as true in our minds as anywhere else.
I believe it is very important to engage in traditions and practices that make us more conscious at this time. It’s what Lost Coin is about. As our technology gains power, as our machines become intelligent, we need to become more intelligent and conscious. I think we need to enhance the same potentials we hope to create in our technology. Small, negative views that are actually just primitive, combined with advanced technology, would likely lead to disaster. But on the other hand, it can be a call for our awakening. I think of Raymond Kurzweil’s inspiring book, The Age of Spiritual Machines. When our machines acquire intelligence will their first book be The Age of Spiritual Humans?
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