Tesshin welcomed everyone back from the Thanksgiving holiday and continued the discussion we started last week on Gutei’s finger.  To recall, in that story, a student was attempting to look accomplished by mimicking Gutei’s tendency to raise his finger when asked about the nature of enlightenment.  The teacher was having none of this and cut the student’s finger off.    Tesshin explained last time that this story reminds us that we must have our own authentic practice and not copy authority figures.  The understanding must be ours.

This week, Tesshin continued this theme of us having our own authentic identity.  He started by noting that today many people look to “social media influencers” to figure out what to stand for.  We “glom” onto celebrity opinion in order to build our own persona.  This can never be sustainable and it leads to a hollow life devoid of any real meaning.

Tesshin next considered the identity of an entire nation.  He used the American holiday of Thanksgiving which we just celebrated as an example.  This year there has been some controversy about the original story – namely Native Americans joining with and helping Pilgrims survive in the harsh northeastern climate.  There have emerged new narratives which paint a less rosy picture of what actually happened those many years ago.  However, Tesshin was less interested in the Pilgrim’s story, and more interested in how the actual holiday of Thanksgiving was started.  It actually started by President Lincoln after the Civil War as a way to bring people with differing opinions together over food to talk out differences.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States))

So what does this mean?  Is there any value to the pilgrim story?  Tesshin asked the group to consider how that story and other holiday stories affect how the country builds its “persona.”

What does it mean to be an American?  What are the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and how does this affect how people live?  Tesshin is in a unique position having spent much time both in the United States and Japan.  In Japan, the ideal man is considered “serious” and the country’s “ethos” is hard work.  This narrative allowed the country to build an economic miracle out of the desolation of World War II.  In the United States, our ethos is freedom and rugged individualism.  This allows the United States to be one of the most innovative countries on the planet.  However, these stories which we tell ourselves only go so far and have their challenges as well.  For instance, Tesshin mentioned that in Japan it is now recognized that all of this seriousness and hard work has made the country extremely inflexible.  This is a serious impediment in the 21st century where economic success is measured by innovation.  In the United States our freedom narrative can morph into a cold disregard for people who are less fortunate.

At this point, Tesshin reminded the group that personas are useful up to a point, but we must always be willing to redefine ourselves as the need arises and circumstances change.  To get stuck in an old story is to become stuck in the past, and is a form of clinging.  This is what our practice attempts to do – namely break us out of set ways of thinking.  Our practice allows us to renew ourselves and our perceptions each day.  It reminds us never to become “attached” to an identity, but rather to exist in THIS very moment and react authentically to what is in front of us right now.

So what is your new identity – What is your new story?