Paperback version of my new book is out today – ebook will be ready soon! A big thank you to the Druid, Buddhist and Pagan community, who continually inspire me – may we be the awen! http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pagan-Portals-Druidry-Natural-Awareness/dp/1780993900/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1365503883&sr=1-1&keywords=zen+druidry
“This is a fascinating book that lays out the core concepts of both Zen and Druidry, exploring the points of overlap and the ways in which these two traditions compliment each other. The writing is precise, lucid and beautifully accessible whilst managing to put across a vast amount of information in a very small space. I would say that even if you aren’t attracted to the idea of Zen, this book is still well worth your time, because of what it shows through the contrast between the two traditions. Joanna draws attention to the importance of being as present in the moment as we can be, and as open to life as possible. That’s an issue for Druids of all flavours to consider. Druidry is very much about here and now, and what we do from moment to moment, after all.
If you’ve been attracted to both traditions all along, this is, quite simply, the book you have been waiting for.” – Nimue Brown, author of Druidry and the Ancestors and also Druidry and Meditation
“Back in the distant past when I was taking early steps along the Druid path, I was also studying Eastern ways – Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Brahmanism, and the like. I stayed on the Druid path and became Druid because I better understood the imagery and symbolism which allowed me to better shape my own metaphysical stance. But I have never ceased to be a student of those other ways.
It was a pleasant surprise, therefore, to pick up this little book which outlines both Zen (a school of Mahayana Buddhism that developed in China during the 6th century) and Druidry (the modern name given to a spiritual path developed from that overseen by ancestral Druids) and shows how they can work together. It is a little book, so you might not expect too much of it. You will, however, be pleasantly surprised. It manages to pack a lot into its 74 pages, largely because it is written without fuss or pretensions – indeed, very much in keeping with the subject matter. That alone speaks to me about how valuable this little book is. The author not only knows her subject inside out, she clearly practises what she preaches.
I found the application of the Buddhist Eightfold Path to the eight annual festivals of the Druid way to be of particular interest. Meditation is important to Zen and I have long felt that following the ritual year is a form of extended meditation. And here we have an extra layer to contemplate, integrate, and practice as the seasons revolve.
The greatest connection between Zen and Druidry (for me, at least) lies in mindfulness. It is, perhaps, an attribute common to all spiritual paths, but it is of especial interest to those who recognise their rootedness in this world, who recognise that the worlds of spirit and matter are as integrated as everything else. From the extempore prayers said by Celtic peoples over everyday tasks and events, words that spring from an awareness of working in the now, to the formal ritual built up around significant events in the life of the planet, the individual, the family, and the community, a Druid needs to be mindful. But it goes well beyond word into every aspect of our being – our thoughts, our dreams, and our every action. All this is simply and powerfully highlighted by this book.
So what we have is an engaging and thoughtful introduction to a pertinent fusion of ideas. A book which beautifully illustrates that when you strip away the fluff, the images, and the symbols there is very little that is different between the paths. And whilst it is something you could read at a single sitting (as I did), it is worth revisiting on a regular basis so as to be able to return to that clear and simple vision on which it is based. A book I would willingly recommend to anyone.” – Graeme K Talboys, author of The Druid Way Made Easy, The Path Through the Forest: A Druid Guidebook and Arianrhod’s Dance: A Druid Ritual Handbook
“This little book gives an outline of druidry, what it is and how it works, followed by an introductory tour of Zen teachings and then shows you how to bring both ‘traditions’ together to form Zen Druidry. Very intriguing concept, well written and interesting for anyone on a spiritual path.” Rachel Patterson, author of Kitchen Witchcraft, Grimoire of a Kitchen Witch and Hoodoo Folk Magic
We are not “away with the faeries” in meditation – we are truly and more aware of what is going on around us than most people at that moment. We are also aware of our own bodies – any tightness, any pains, where we are relaxed and where we are tense. We can adjust our bodies, again without attachment, releasing tension and the moving on to full awareness of everything.
This first phase of meditation is exceedingly important. Once we have attained a modicum of discipline, we can then open ourselves up to what is going on around us without instantly jumping into thoughts about everything we see, hear or smell. We have already modified our behavioural patterns into something much simpler, much more integrated with the world around us.
The next phase is to allow the thoughts that arise, releasing the focus on our breath and our environment. We do not become absorbed in these thoughts, however. We let them bubble up, notice them, and then without paying any more attention to them let them go. This is the key – like an angry child with a temper tantrum, the more attention we give to our thoughts, the louder they will become, until they have completely absorbed us into their own little world. We must realise that their little world doesn’t even exist – we must learn to stop living inside our heads.
Some of the thoughts that arise might be full of emotion, leading us to joyous recollections or into the pits of despair. Again, we must simply see the thoughts that arise in these first stages of meditation, and later find the space to deal with them should they need to be dealt with. The idea of mindfulness is not to push aside the feelings, not to suppress them in any way. You truly have to feel them – and with such feelings like rage, it can be difficult. But it is possible to feel these emotions without acting upon them. It’s why I haven’t murdered anyone – and I hope I never will! Because we live in honorable relationship to the world, we know that to act on certain feelings is morally unethical. We can still feel them, acknowledge them – hell, we’re only monkeys with car keys after all. We honor the feelings of our own human nature, dance with them, surrender into their flow for a time, but never ever submit, for to do could quite possibly mean our death, or the death and harm of others.
A traditional Zen story:
A beautiful girl in the village was pregnant. Her angry parents demanded to know who was the father. At first resistant to confess, the anxious and embarrassed girl finally pointed to Hakuin, the Zen master whom everyone previously revered for living such a pure life. When the outraged parents confronted Hakuin with their daughter’s accusation, he simply replied “Is that so?”
When the child was born, the parents brought it to Hakuin, who now was viewed as a pariah by the whole village. They demanded that he take care of the child since it was his responsibility. “Is that so?” Hakuin said calmly as he accepted the child.
For many months he took very good care of the child until the daughter could no longer withstand the lie she had told. She confessed that the real father was a young man in the village whom she had tried to protect. The parents immediately went to Hakuin to see if he would return the baby. With profuse apologies they explained what had happened. “Is that so?” Hakuin said as he handed them the child.
How would you respond if you were Hakuin? Outraged at the lie? Unconcerned about your “image”? Persistently telling the world “the truth” about the whole situation? Refusing to take the child in?
I love this story. For me, it’s about getting on with things what need to be done, and not minding what others think, for opinions change, and we have absolutely no control over other people’s opinions. We can try and influence, but we have ultimately no control whatsoever. The best response in that situation is not to decry it, not to shout aloud your own opinion from the rooftops, but simply to get on with getting on with your own life. It’s all matter of perception, and perception is so subjective that to get upset about it is a waste of time. There is a Zen saying – do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish opinions.
It’s also a story about compassion. The baby in the story requires care, and is the unfortunate pawn in the game. Hakuin refuses to use the pawn, and instead raises the child as need dictates. When the child is demanded to be returned by the parents, the child is given freely, for Hakuin does not play the game. How many times in our lives have we been drawn in to playing a game that we do not enjoy? What if we simply said no to the game, lived with compassion and did what needed to be done?
“Is that so?” Such a simple statement, but breaking it down, can mean so much. “Is” questions a defined reality, “that” refers to something that is external to ourselves, “so” is our individual perception of the world. Not simply a knock-off devil-may-care attitude or answer, it is truly meaningful, constantly asking at each point in the story that everyone involved, including Hakuin himself, assess the situation and act with the right level of response, compassion, integrity and kindness.
Let’s give a shot.
Every day we are caught in mind-traps – little prisons of our own making. We are constantly hijaked by our thoughts and feelings, our attachments to them and our egos, that we spin endlessly in circles until we fall down upon our butts. The key to breaking free of these mind traps is through observation.
When we meditate in the Zen style, or do zazen as it is called, we become aware of our bodies and our thoughts. We do not “zone out”, we are not “away with the faeries” or pondering the mysteries of life – in zazen we focus on pure experience. This focus helps us in our lives when we are not in zazen. We are aware of how our bodies are feeling – whether our breath is shallow or deep, that twinge in our back, whether our facial muscles are tense or relaxed. We also turn that awareness to our surroundings, listening to the birdsong outside, or the traffic, feeling the breeze or the sunlight upon our shoulders. We are aware as much as is humanly possible of everything that is around us and within us. It is no easy task.
Our thoughts are constantly seeking to distract us from the comfortable reality that we have created. Even though this reality may be a false reality, still it is more comfortable than sitting, thinking about our headache or the plain “boredom” of doing zazen. We daydream, we think through all our life’s problems, we spin off in attempts to do anything but simply be in the moment, because we feel that we deserve otherwise. Remember that old saying, “there is no time like the present”? Similarly, there is no experience other than this present moment – mayhap the best thing you could be doing is simply experiencing it right now.
We like to think. There is nothing wrong with thinking – we can solve problems, work out situations with a little forethought. We plan – and again, there is nothing wrong with having life plans. It is our attachment to these plans that sets us off in another mindtrap – where if we don’t achieve them our life can feel in ruins.
In zazen, we learn to observe. We sit, and we observe our bodies’ attempts to defy our intention of just sitting still and being in the moment. Why do our bodies do this? Because they reflect our thoughts – our thoughts don’t want to sit still – they want to run riot. In zazen, it is not so much controlling our thoughts, pushing them away or yelling at them to be quiet like unruly children – we observe the thoughts and gradually, through observing them, they become quieter. A new thought is a wonderful, shiny thing that we want to explore – whether it is a “good” thought or a “bad” thought. When we have observed that thought 100 times, it becomes a lot less interesting. This is what zazen is about.
If we think about what happened to us that upset us during the day, we can easily become lost in our emotional attachment to it. If we simply observe the thought – “Oh, I’m having a thought about this again” and then return our attention to simply sitting and being in the moment, then we are on the path to freedom from these mindtraps. Again, it is not easy – we may have to do this 10, 100 or 1,000 times before the thoughts settle down and we tire of them. With persistence, they will.
We must be careful, however, to simply observe, without “being” the observer. If we become the observer, then we have created a separate entity that does not exist. If we are simply observing, then we are the pure moment. The past does not exist, neither does the future. It is only this moment, that is constantly changing, that exists. If thoughts about the past occur, you can observe them, but then ask yourself – “where is the past right now?” It does not exist. When we worry about the future, we can ask ourself “where is the future right now?”. It does not exist. Only this present, everchanging moment exists.
I love to daydream – but not when I am in meditation. I set aside a time in the day to daydream, to come up with wonderful stories that may see the light of day in future novels or short stories. There is nothing wrong with imagination – it is a gift that should be used every day. We must learn, however, not to become lost in it, this imaginary world, as it is so much better than our reality can seem. Living in a pure moment does not leave us unthinking, mindless zombies. We are totally and completely present, truly living life to the fullest. That is the greatest gift.
It is time to break free of your mindtraps – look at what thoughts keep occurring, what keeps rising to the surface when you are being silent and still. By observing them you will notice them, notice the patterns that are created, the emotions and physical pain that may be attached to these thoughts and how they so easily control your life. Once we see the pattern, we can weave our way out into a new pattern, into a new cycle. Through zazen, we can take this into our everyday lives, and so, when someone upsets us, or hurts us, or brings us joy – we can see the pattern that is created and either choose to remain within it, or weave a new pattern upon the web of life. We can either live in this very moment, or stay within our mindtraps. The choice is ours.
So, what is Zen?
Zen is living your meditation, being fully awake and aware. Bodhidharma (528 A.D.) said: “Not dependent on the written word, transmission apart from the scriptures; directly pointing at one’s heart, seeing one’s nature, becoming Buddha”. It is not about sitting on a cushion all day meditating – it is about awareness of everything, and bringing that awareness into every aspect of our lives, seeing our own nature.
Zen is often likened to a philosophy or an attitude rather than a belief. It doesn’t require a belief in anything, not even Buddha. It is about relationship, and understanding our relationship with everything around us – we are not entities alone in this world. We are individuals, but we are also a collective of individuals. Zen is about experiencing, fully. It refuses to be distracted by the illusions of the constructed world around us, from the prisons we create in our own minds to the material consumerism we see running rampant around us. Zen means not only going with the flow of the world around us, but being the flow itself. It is about the true joy of life itself.
So, what is Druidry?
Druidry was the spiritual tradition of the natives of Britain and Ireland and parts of Europe. An ancient pagan tradition, it was a relationship between people and the land which is maintained in modern Druidry, with a focus towards more individualised relationships with the natural world. Druidry today includes relationships with the ancestors and a cultural heritage, as well as encompassing many other worldviews.
Druidry, like Zen, is often likened to a philosophy – it is indeed a way of life, that does not require a belief in any external deity or concept. Druidry seeks to strengthen our bonds of relationship with the natural world, gaining inspiration and wisdom from studying the patterns that nature constantly unfolds before us. At its very core, Druidry holds a reverence for nature. It is about attuning to the cycles of nature around us that we often find ourselves distanced from in this modern world, and finding the wisdom of the oak.
So, what is Zen Druidry?
Zen Druidry encompasses both teachings from Zen and Druidry to combine into a spirituality that is infused with an awareness of the natural world around us. Both Zen and Druidry are all about relationship, and how we fit into the world around us. Through meditation and concepts such as non-attachment to thoughts and experiences coupled with high levels of concentration, Zen Druidry allows us to see the world for what it really is, and in doing so, to honour it and hold a deep reverence for nature in her all glory.
In Druidry, meditation is also very important, for by stilling the mind we can learn to reweave the threads that have become loose, that disconnect us from the rest of the world around us. We can examine our nemeton, that space of our edges, both mentally and physically – that area around ourselves that still holds our soul intention. Some people have called it the aura – here is it our own personal sacred space, often the intimate space that we do not usually let strangers in. We can open and close our nemeton, blending them with others or closing them off, feeling edges merging or withdrawing through intimate interactions, whether it is with our lover, the beech tree in the garden, our co-worker. We use our nemeton to create a space where we can simply be ourselves, allowing our true soul expression. By stopping for a while, we can look at how and where we are, where our edges are, and re-establish that connection with life through simple sitting meditation, or walking meditation. The key is in the stopping.
Many Zen teachers are very strict about what position to sit in. Some believe that the lotus pose (sitting cross-legged, each foot on the opposite thigh) is the only pose for meditation, believing that this is how Buddha sat when he attained enlightenment. Well, I’m not Buddha, and my knees and hips haven’t got that flexibility. Not many people in our Western culture have that flexibility – too many years of sitting in chairs and other activities have changed our bodies from the flexibility we once had as children. Some of that flexibility can be regained, through yoga, pilates, and other techniques, but for now I will only state one thing – be comfortable.
I tried for years to sit “correctly” in a half-lotus pose (one foot on the opposite thigh). All I got from that was my circulation being cut off, pins and needles starting from my foot and then running up my leg, then full loss of feeling in one leg, switching over to the other as I switched my legs halfway through the meditation. I do not believe that cutting off circulation is in any way good for you, and so I have given this up completely. Even sitting in just a regular cross-legged pose, raised on a cushion so my knees are pushed down towards the ground (creating a very stable platform) my circulation is impaired, and so I have taken to sitting in a position that allows me to lean back a little – which requires a back support. I found that with that simple change of position, I could still sit cross-legged, the best position and most stable position if a chair is not possible, and maintain the blood flow through my body as it was intended to be. Whether I’m leaning slightly back on my sofa-bed or on a tree out on the heaths or in the forest, this seems to take the pressure off my legs. You must find a position that works for you, that doesn’t cut off the circulation. You may have to sit in a chair, or even lie down – beware that lying down can easily make you fall asleep. You can even make or purchase meditation benches – I have not tried these, but they do look interesting.
So, now that we are sitting comfortably (ensure that you are warm enough, that you have gone to the loo beforehand, that you aren’t wearing any restrictive clothing) – now what do we do?
We just sit.
Yes, that’s it. Just sitting – it can and is remarkably interesting. Really. When we have stilled our bodies, our minds hopefully will still also. Remember that saying, free your mind and your ass will follow? What I am suggesting is to keep still on your butt, therefore stilling your mind. Starting with ten minutes a day, then in a couple of weeks twenty, then thirty, building up to an hour – we learn to make the time and space that we need to be still.
So how on earth do we keep still? Discipline, discipline, discipline. It’s become a rather “bad” word in our society today, instilling images of rigid conservative behaviour. What we must realise is that though we cannot control others, we can learn to control ourselves, and thereby acting more honorably to the world around us, simply by being aware of ourselves. So we must learn to keep still, in order to attain that stillness within that will then allow us to hear the songs of everything around us fully. Our minds are chattering to us all the time – how on earth are we supposed to hear anything other than ourselves? Here, meditation is the key.
It helps to begin with a focus. When beginning on the path of mediation, whether with eyes open or closed, breathing is usually the first thing we relearn how to do. We learn to become aware of our breath once again, really feeling our lungs expanding and contracting, the coolness of the air, or the damp, the moisture, the dryness of it. We feel it going through our noses (I prefer to breathe through my nose in meditation – for me it is quieter and I think it is better to use our natural filters in our noses), we feel it tingling past our nostril hairs, down into our throat and lungs, feeling the expansion of our chest, the contraction of our upper backs, our diaphragm pushed down. Equally, we acknowledge the exhalation – the warm air again travelling from our lungs and throat out our noses, our diaphragms moving upwards again, the expansion of the upper back. We may even count our breaths, in sets of three, or nine, or ten – yet again I simply prefer to focus on the breath, for I believe that counting is still engaging our brains into repetitive patterns that we are trying to avoid – we are still hearing that voice in our head counting, which makes it more difficult to hear anything else.
The first few breaths we take in meditation are glorious – we are fully aware of the process, feeling it through our bodies, really engaging with what was once an automatic response to our need for air. But the novelty wears off so very soon, with our minds so accustomed to distraction. Living with televisions and the internet, radio and other media, we are constantly absorbing information, doing multiple things at once, dropping one thing and heading over to the next stimulus. In meditation, we learn to be without the man-made stimulus that we have grown so accustomed to. It’s bloody hard.
And so, our minds instantly wander, reliving what happened in the office today, what our lover said to us this morning, what we are going to have for dinner. Appointments, engagements, things to do – all these suddenly surface and before you know it, we’ve lost our focus on our breath. So we return our focus as soon as we realise we have lost it. This happens, again and again. Trust me. It may happen ten times in one session, it may happen one hundred times, but is usually will happen.
This is where discipline kicks in. We are not, as stated before, trying to empty our minds. For now, we are simply trying to find a focus which will lead towards a path of stillness. We are wanting to open the door to awareness, but first we must focus our intent, grab hold of the doorknob, and turn it before we can enter into the next phase.
From there, we become aware of what is going on around us – shifting the focus slightly from our breath to our external world. We listen to the blackbird singing outside our window – but we listen without judgement, without thought – we simply hear it, without thinking about how beautiful it is, whether it will nest in our hedges, what time it is as he usually sings at dusk, is it nearly dusk, damn, we’re supposed to be going out tonight – you see where I’m going with this! We hear the traffic passing by, the cooing of the doves, the sounds of children playing, the hum of our refrigerator, the central heating coming on. We listen without thought, without judgement. If we are outside, we can also feel the sunlight on our face and shoulders, or the wind in our hair, the raindrop on our skin, without attaching to it.
Like I said before, just sitting can be remarkably interesting.
Meditation – stopping to get started
Ironically, the best way to start on the path of Zen Druidry is to simply stop! We use meditation as a point that we can return to, again and again, to remind us of how to live in the present moment, fully and with awareness. We try to live as fully as we can all the time, but when we are just beginning on this path, taking time out to stop and simply be can result in a lifelong, lifestyle change. It really can affect how we live the rest of our lives – something so simple, yet so difficult.
Zen teaches us all about non-attachment. Druidry teaches us about relationship. It may sound contradictory, but both hold each other so deeply it is hard to extricate them. Non-attachment lets us get on with our lives, to live fully present in the moment, allowing us to see thoughts and actions and then let them go or act on them as we need to. Druidry, when applied with the mechanics of non-attachment, allow for a total immersion in the present moment, where true relationship can be obtained, where the awen flows as freely as it ever could. Like the blackbird singing at dusk, we are purely in the moment and by being in the moment, connected to everything and being true to our own nature.
Meditation helps us along the path to both non-attachment and connection. It stills the mind so that it can find the space to simple “be”. Once we have achieved that state, we can come to know ourselves, our thought processes, the patterns we create in our head. Aware of these patterns, we can step outside them and see them for what they truly are. These patterns no longer impede us on our journey to true connection. We live with full awareness.
We stop living inside our heads, and venture out into the world to walk our talk.
Hi peeps! Just to give you an idea of what I’m working on, here’s a short excerpt from one of my chapters from my new book, Zen Druidry. It’s all about combining the philosophy and spirituality of the two, where east meets west and flows into one path that leads to a life of awakening to the natural world, with full awareness. Enjoy!
Zen easily blends in with any form of religion, for it uses the gifts that you already possess, and emphasises the fact that you are perfect and perfectly who you are at this given moment in time – you can be no other. As we saw, Zen is about living in the here and now, this very present moment, which does not exclude any higher or other powers should this be your belief system. You could be a Zen Celtic Druid, a Zen Christian Druid, a Zen Animist Druid – the path is open to you and you only. Each path is different. You can make full use of the here and now and appreciate the natural world around you, its rhythms and sounds, smells and sights. The main point is that Zen does not contradict any religions – in fact, it adds new dimensions.
While most Zen practitioners may be Buddhists, this need not restrict you to the teachings of Buddha. If, like me, you find them beautiful and informative, feel free to incorporate them into your Druidry. There is no monopoly on wisdom. That wonderful saying about killing Buddha on the road when you meet him, for you are already perfect and Buddha cannot exist outside yourself, relates to Druidry on so many levels. Each living thing is simply living, doing the best they can at that particular moment. Realisation, perfection – it’s already there within each living thing. Like a seed, you already carry that potential within your very self, and with the right nourishment and conditions, will blossom.
Zen, like Druidry, is in the living; in the doing. It’s not an intellectual exercise. We all have jobs, families, obligations. Many of us have felt a call to enrich these with devotion to causes, gods or goddesses, art. There is nothing wrong with that – equally, there is nothing wrong with simply devoting oneself to living in the present moment with no external obligations. It is in the doing that we create the most change in our lives, not in the thinking, or praying, or anything similar.
Let’s look at Buddha’s five noble precepts once more, and see how they relate to Druidry:-
Many who follow the path of Druidry are vegetarian, seeing in our present day and culture no need to eat meat. The meat industry is so wasteful and so far from compassion that is abhorrent to many – any visit to a slaughterhouse will testify to this. While there are Druids who eat meat, many of them have raised the animals themselves and can vouch for their living conditions, ensuring that there is the least amount of suffering possible. More and more Druids have allotments, if there is not enough space in their own gardens, to grow and tend their own vegetables, and so to live with minimal impact upon our agriculture and our community.
There are also many Druids who do not condone any acts of war or violence. Druidry acknowledges the spirit in each and every thing – though many find it harder to see that in humanity than in the natural world around us. We close ourselves off to other humans in particular, for they appear to have much more power to hurt us than the tree at the bottom of the garden, or the grasshopper in the fields where we picnic. By seeing that there is no “other”, that we are all related and connected, any act of violence is also done to ourselves. Druidry is about opening to all forms of life and seeing the sacred in them all – yes, even in David Cameron or Margaret Thatcher. We never said Druidry was easy!
We can’t escape it – the world is unfair. It is unjust. Many people seek out justice to right this supposed wrong. However, this justice can often be at the expense of others. We involve other people in our “fight” for justice. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t upset the applecart every now and then, as long as it’s our own cart and no one else’s. What we can do instead is to cultivate the attitude of loving kindness, which in Buddhism is termed as compassion. In Druidry, I find that the word that most fits is empathy. Much as we find ways to relate to the bee, the ant, our grandfather, so too should we find ways to relate to everyone else in this world, whether they are being unjust towards us or not.
This is not pacifism. This is taking an active role in bridging that gap between “us” and “them”. We do not even have to like them, per se – we merely have to empathise with them. It brings a whole new world view into focus, where we are all walking towards a path that sees the relativity in all living things. In that relativity, we will only want to do good, to help others and the community. We realise that stealing is only stealing from ourselves. And so, while we may try to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, therefore ending up being a mile away and with their shoes – this doesn’t quite work, though it is a funny thought! We can’t escape injustice, we cannot escape each other. We can only learn how to live fully with empathy for all living things. We’ll have to give them back their shoes. They’re our own shoes after all.
Many within Druidry see a sexual relationship as a very sacred thing. It is not to be misused or abused in any way. It is also a very natural thing and a very natural human tendency to want to express our feelings for others in a sexual manner. For us humans nowadays, sex is not about procreation so much as an expression of our feelings for one another. As such, we must be fully aware of each other’s feelings, and not hurt each other in any form, sexual or otherwise. It a paradigm – both sacred and mundane.
If we have cultivated an attitude of empathy, of loving kindness, then we fully allow others to choose their own sexual path that causes no suffering to each other within the relationship. We must also protect others who are being abused by a sexual relationship – we cannot condone acts such as paedophilia. To each their own, as long as it harms none, whether that be a same sex relationship, a polyamorous relationship, or even a life of celibacy. We cannot discriminate towards others in this very personal sphere, so long as there is no suffering involved.
We live in a verbal society. Words, whether spoken or written, have power – hence the phrase “the power of the written word”. We attach truth to the written word in many cases. In Druidry, we recognise the gift of speech and the power that it has. In Zen, we have learned how we often simply react to a situation, rather than engaging fully with it. We must think before we speak, and be mindful of what we say. The Druids, as we have seen, were often the resolvers of conflict, and what better way than through the power of speech. Words cause conflict as often as they resolve it, and we must work towards the latter, for there is certainly enough of the former already!
In Druidry, we learn to listen – to the blackbirds singing at dusk, to the airplane overhead, to the bee buzzing amongst the daisies. So too should we learn to really listen to each other, and not merely hear them. As stated before, too often we are “listening” to someone while already forming a reply in our own heads before they have even finished speaking. Engaging fully with the moment means fully listening when someone is speaking.
This is a big one in Druidry – being mindful consumers. We see too many people, especially at Christmas time, engaging in a frenzied consumer state that doesn’t really benefit anyone at all except the corporations that prey upon a newly created meaning of that particular time of year. We become aware of who we are buying from, if we cannot make or grow it ourselves. We become aware of the practices involved in getting the product to our doorstep, every step of the way. We learn where our water comes from, how many food miles are in our bananas, whether they are organic or not. It is a cultivated awareness of every aspect of our life, in the same way that Zen is.
Druidry is pretty much the antithesis of being wasteful – for that is sacrilegious towards Druidry. Every disposable, non-organic diaper being thrown into a landfill is an affront to our world and to Druidry. It is not only the external world around us that affects our Druidry – it begins with our own physical body. Drinking, smoking, eating, taking drugs – these all are not “forbidden” in Druidry. It is in the excess of these things that causes suffering – alcoholism, cancer and emphysema, obesity and addiction. Seeking out a middle ground – avoiding asceticism, for that is simply the other end of the spectrum of excess – gives us the best platform to ground ourselves and live a fully integrated life.
These five precepts are an excellent starting point for merging Zen and Druidry. Yet we should remember that in Zen and in Druidry, our lives have already started, and we must live them fully! Right now!
Down the Forest Path 