Sitting in wicker chairs, Zen
master Jakusho Kwong and his son explained the teachings of Zen Buddhism to a room
full of local mediators and Zen beginners. All of these “little Buddhas,” as Jakusho Kwong referred to them, filled the Newman Auditorium to capacity Oct. 18 for the lecture “Social media and zen: the paradox
of connection.”

“As a college student with midterms coming, I do a lot of thinking and this creates a lot of suffering,” said one SRJC student. Many students ventured to the lecture in hopes of relieving their minds.

Stretched across 80 acres, a Zen center can be found nestled deep in the mountains of Sonoma County. Jakusho Kwong founded the Zen Center of Sonoma Mountain Genjo-Ji in 1973 in commemoration of his Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki-Roshi. The authorized Dharma successor has been teaching the practice of Zazen and meditation for more than 45 years in both the U.S and Europe, spending his days enlightening others at his center.

“I don’t know anything about social media, but I do know a little about Zen,” Jakusho Kwong said. As a young man he gravitated towards Zen to calm his mind, unaware that the human mind is naturally calm and that with the right discipline it can remain so.

Living in a world of constant stimulation and exposure to numerous media outlets, the average person is unable to clear their mind, Jakusho Kwong explained. “You are suffering unnecessarily when you cannot organize your thoughts and process all of the information around you.”

Life goes by quickly. “There is an umbrella of stars right now and we are missing it,” he said, explaining that in Buddhism, moving quickly is a form of aggression and that what we are absorbing, living in a high-tech world, is beyond us. The information and technology we take in assimilates us.

Jakusho Kwong stressed the need to discipline oneself so that all of the outside noise becomes like “water on a duck’s back.” He urged his audience to turn off their thinking minds when necessary.

“Cellphone doesn’t have wisdom, technology doesn’t have compassion,” Jakusho Kwong said, discussing how the public is under the impression they control technology. However, it may be controlling them.

“Zen reveals the universe; the universe is what you are born into –a world you have been estranged from by tradition. Zen is long term and not entertainment,” Jakusho Kwong said. It’s more than being quiet, it’s a presence you have, to be without thought and yet still alive. In meditation you are taught to do nothing.

Comparing the human mind to Miso soup, Jakusho Kwong said, “it’s not quite muddy but it’s not quite clear, and when you hold it still, it settles. This is the practice of meditation.”

Ignorance, aggression and greed are the three evils; constantly surrounded by them, the highly respected Zen master encouraged his listeners to know how to work with them, because they are endless.

“Desire is inexhaustible,” Kwong’s son, Demien, said.

Referencing iPads, cellphones and all the latest gadgets, Jakusho Kwong added, “Material things don’t satisfy you, these things have no ethics or morality, we have to stand up and say enough is enough.” Finding satisfaction in purchasing only one item when shopping at Costco, Kwong practices restraint from these temptations.

As the author of “No Beginning, No End: The Intimate Heart of Zen,” Kwong explores inner peace. He said he wants nothing more than for his readers, students and audience to be satisfied with their lives, to find out who they truly are and to focus on the things that matter most. “Do you hear the great silence? Do you see beauty where you are? Your daily life should bring tears to your eyes because it is so beautiful,” Kwong said.

“When we witness the sunset we see beauty within the sunset, within ourselves and within the universe. The beauty has to be inside ourselves to be able to appreciate it in the external world,” he said. “It’s extremely important, just sitting, just being with your friends, just being with your loved one-it makes life quite wonderful.”