"Four Alarm Turban"

Another reprint from myspace.  I shared this one with the ever-wise Rev. Meiko from the Portland Buddhist Priory, who slyly sorta-kinda validated my overnight county jail kensho.

Four Alarm Turban

"Brief time have sons of men on earth to live.
Let the good man herein much trouble take.
Acting as were his turban all a-blaze.
There is no man to whom death cometh not."

This sutra is the one that is inspiring me most these days.  I received it in my daily email, and it has been haunting me koan-like for some time now.  You may notice that I have not included the citation.  Don't worry, I'll give it to you.  I would not want others to feel the frustration I've had trying to find the damned thing.  As part of my renaissance, so to speak, I've been trying to get back to my roots.  I've focused so much on the hardcore mystical philosophy of Zen, that I felt balance was missing.  One thing that cropped up for me was a... burning sensation.  All of these crazy insights had been coming to me, and I felt sure that the Buddha and his teaching were much more powerful and relevant than I had allowed them him to be.  This burning desire is called samvega and I'll come back to that.  What frustrated me was finding good... scripture, I suppose.  That good ol' rugged Dharma.  Typically, quotes are attributed to 'Buddha' or 'Buddhist', as opposed to the Bible where you almost always get chapter and verse, and most probably edition as well.  This particular quote was even worse, as its translation has not seen general release.  In searching I found a sutra with a similar turban fire, and that is what I will discuss today.

Samyutta Nikaya 56.34- quoted above, finds parallel in the Sancitta sutra, from the Anguttura Nikaya 10.51.  The latter, which references the extinguishment of the burning turban in context of the effort required, seems like a good message whose simile doesn't quite pack the punch of the former.  SN 56.34 seems to come at this from a different angle.  The fire in your turban (or on your head, or in your beard) is not a problem that must be dealt with, but a fact of life.  The only extinguishment of the flames is in death (I hear Sting singing "Though an ocean soothe my head, I burn for you..."). SO, since everyone is going to die and we don't know when, what are you going to do about it?  Are you going to lie down on the floor and let it burn?  Or are you going to say "Fuck this burning turban! I'm gonna live my life anyway, maybe get a job as a candle lighter.  And there may not be much time left..."

The desire here, the sense that something important is happening and that it must be grappled with immediately, is what I earlier identified as samvega.  It is the spiritual super-power that you didn't know you have, and check this out- it's the same thing that made Mr. Siddharta motherfuckin' Gautama kick this whole thing off after his famous chariot ride.  Didn't know that those -ahem- burning questions that keep you up at night actually made you an heir to the most incredible legacy in the world, did ya?

Now, what do you do with this?  Well, anything actually.  The Buddha would (and certainly does) encourage the whole-hearted study of the Dharma, but the Zen tradition would say that it isn't just scriptures and meditation, but whole-hearted practice of living. Whatever you do, just do it.  So for starters, don't lay in bed burning the shit out of your pillow.  Don't sit and watch TV, burning the shit out of your couch.  Most importantly- don't kneel down in church and burn the shit out of the pew in front of you. 

Get moving- you never know when your turban will go out.

PS- for anyone wanting to read what the big B actually had to say, Access To Insight has been invaluable.  Go there and just start reading, you won't regret it.