Taoism and Surfing: Go with the flow. By Len Kelemoana Barrow

Zen, The Tao and, The Ocean


Zen Buddhism has bean historically a fusion of early Indian Buddhism and Chinese cultures. As Buddhism migrated to China it naturally took on Chinese characteristics. This being the indigenous tradition of Taoism. Hence the character of Zen is both Indian and Chinese in manifestation. It later migrates to Japan and takes on a Japanese natural sensibility.

Well what has this got to do with us? The ideas of Zen and Taoism are a treasure trove of understanding and happiness in and out of the surf. How can we adapt these ideas in the surf we may ask? How may we adapt these on land?

Taoism is partially based on flowing peacefully with the energies of the universe. This is called Wu-Wei. What this simply states that if you force things arrogantly, and depend on your ego you will ultimately fail miserably.

It quite simply can be observed in reality. Go with the way of Wu Wei. In this light please let me give you an example: I used to have a 78 year old Aikido teacher who could throw 10 competent attacking male students with the minimum of movement. It blew my mind! I mean he launched them! As I learned Aikido we were taught to meditate (my first experiences with meditation). We were also taught that sometimes four fingers carefully positioned with the proper utilization of your opponents movement and energy can make him fly upside down for six feet. This seems impossible yet I have seen it and honestly done it (not as well as the 78 year old). You see, If I fought a large man arrogantly as I am a small man...but 5'9, I would be beaten to a pulp. If I utilize his attacking energy to good effect I weave around his blows and catch him. Amazingly to throw him using not my weakling force but his tremendous strength. This is an example of using energy with the best defensive effect on land and in the martial arts. This has its parallel in the water!

Arrogance and ignorance in the water, in other words, not going with the energy of the ocean can be conducted by surfers and suppers on a daily basis. I have made these mistakes before. Firstly the worst mistake you can do is to show up at the beach and paddle out. This is the normal approach in a hurried modern world. Go, go, go. Time is money supposedly money in Western Culture.


When you do this you may often run afoul in to all types of energy that nature represents. I have seen surfers paddle out directly into coral heads and reef shelves that the water had “hidden”. This could have been avoided if if the individual just took some time to pay attention before surfing to the tide and how the ocean was flowing.

I sometimes surprise other surfers and suppers at the speed to which I get up in the line up. This is not because I am a strong paddler. It is because I utilize energy of the ocean in an observant way in the same way my Akido teacher used the minimum amount of energy to throw his opponents. We use a type of Wu Wei. All of the energy of a breaking wave moves toward the beach and has the tendency to find it way back to the ocean and its deeper water. If you are fighting this concept you are fighting the energy of the universe. Again watch the water. Which way is the water moving. Time and time again, I see surfers that try to paddle through the middle of the break. This is like fighting a 300 pound boxer. You will usually loose. Side step this energy like an Akido teacher. Find the channel. As the energy of the wave is moving back out to see, jump in it, side step the energy coming in and catch the current the energy current coming out. The channel. Sometimes the channel looks like the long-way out, but again, go with energy of the universe in a Taoistic manner.


When you get drilled the worst thing to do is fight it. After all you cannot defeat the ocean. I was once taught by Mel Kinney how to flow with a pounding. I thought that he was kidding when he told me what to do as it was completely opposite to how I would try to escape a drilling. As 20 foot wave would break in front of me I used to dive for the bottom. My thinking was that this was the safest thing to do. I used to fight the wave. Unfortunately the opposite happened. Instead of flowing with nature in a Taoist manner the inevitable would happened. I would be beaten violently underwater as I did multiple cartwheels.

This was unfortunate in that I would often break my board in half. Mel Kinney taught me something that was very Taoistic in manner. These were his instructions. He told me to just lay the board to my side and go 1 foot underwater with my hand pointed above my head. Imagine superman going strait up! Well that was what he told me to do. I call this a reverse superman. How this works is that when the wave grabs your board you get pulled back towards the shore at high velocity in
that you are shaped like a streamlined pencil. This has two functions. Firstly you are pulled rapidly out of the impact Zone using the waves force. I mean this is very Taoistic in practice. When you pop out of the water you literally can end up 30 yards in. The second function is a little less subtle. If you become an anchor by diving for the bottomYour board will often break as it has nowhere to move one the leash is taught. By doing the reverse superman you and the board become a single flowing unit thus preventing board breakage.


I hope this little article can help you flow with the ocean. After all the ocean is a manifestation of the Tao itself. Why fight it. Move with it. Until next time! Aloha from Hawaii

Dr. Len Kelemoana Barrow

A Short Water Poem: Tears in the Rain

Here is a fairly random freestyle poem that I thought about while I was surfing. I thought that it would be nice to share on our blog. Enjoy!


Tears in the Rain


There was a tear.
The tear was angry, sad, frustrated and full of misunderstanding and fear
One day the tear realized that it was a drop of water in its original nature
Yet the tear was still angry, sad, frustrated and full of misunderstanding and fear


One day the tear saw the ocean
The tear angrily asked the ocean
Why are you so large?
Why are you so vast?
I hate you!
Why do you only have the nature of infinity while I must disappear?


The Ocean smiled in loving compassion and told the tear. “Those are only signs and symbols that you apply to me. Dear tear, do you not know that language makes all obscure. I am but you and you but me”.


The tear was startled yet with deep courage and tremendous
compassion; the tear dove in to the sea and found the truth.
No longer to suffer in anger, sadness, frustration and misunderstanding
Serenely and playfully abiding in inter-being and bliss.

Zen For Surfers and Water-People. How Do We Utilize Zen Ideas Honestly in Life and the Ocean: PART 1

Part 1

By Dr. Len Barrow (Asian/Polynesian Religion Specialist)

As a Doctor in Anthropology I have academically studied Zen Buddhism extensively. Zen Buddhism is hard to explain namely because it is very stereo typed and clichéd in western culture. Zen monks staring at walls or “navel staring” are common misconceptions of what Zen folks do in general . As surfers and water people I think we have a slight advantage in understanding Zen ideas due to the fact that we are constantly running around in the water and engaging other humans in natures ocean arena as opposed to being completely submerged in urban oriented centers (where “the bottom line” is gospel) and all of the aggression that goes with it. As surfers and water-people we chose to escape this in some way. Zen can be vastly helpful in making sense of this fast paced materialistic western world that we were born into.


The worst thing you could do in Zen is to try to describe it as I am doing now. If this is true , the question arises, where do we begin in an honest manner? Well I believe an honest place to begin in our understanding of Zen is through Zens view of the self. Zen folks assert that the self cannot be found in a natural system. More specifically Zen people refute the existence of a soul or “self -substance” (the idea is called “Anatta” or “No Self” to Zen folk). In Zen the idea of a self as a nominal referent is the basis of much suffering and ignorance. To be free of misconceptions of the self is a component in ultimate freedom termed Nirvana.


Well lets for the time being accept “No Self or anatta” is a logical fact, whether it is true or not. What if there were No Self as the Zen Buddhists posit in their analysis. What are the logical consequences if there existed “No Self?”


1. There would be no other (!) ; as the idea of “others” logically requires the existence of other selves. As there are no others we would exist in a type of harmony alluded by Zen. This harmony is called “Playful Smhadi”. To Zen folk this is a type of “freedom from ignorance inspiring freedom and playfulness in life”. I like this idea as a lifelong surfer. Would that not be nice?


2. If there were no self we would live with a great sense of inter-connection with the sea, nature and other humans. This great interconnection is called Inter-being (By the great Vietnamese Zen Monk Thin Nhat Han who is still alive today) or emptiness by others. Western scientists have discovered it also, amusingly 3,000 years after the Buddhists. They are called ecosystems! They are called cultural systems to Anthropologists and social scientists like me!


This great sense of interconnection with all beings and humans would generate a great compassion and love for all things if you really “got it”. You would think twice about snaking a wave from someone or driving overly aggressively or having harsh words with someone in the water. You would think twice about being a DICK. You would think twice about ignoring the homeless person as you are he and he is you. I am truly not a saint nor claim to be one, in fact my behavior can be quite unruly at times. Yet I actually take interbeing to heart as the Zen concept of interbeing shapes my behavior. I am not bragging but I have Senatorial Civil awards for helping the homeless (I am a homeless advocate) and coach high school surf teams without pay (As I love the Keiki as they are me and I am them in Inter-being). I drive around in a dilapidated VW van. Friends and collogues are perplexed by my lifestyle but I suppose it is somewhat logical within the Zen framework . Zen is completely useless if it is not integrated into ones daily life consistently. In many ways Zen is fashionable today but is being utilized in a completely degraded manner as a buzz word, or worse as a personal “front or façade”. This is a perversion of the Zen tradition that I truly wish to avoid.



3. This great compassion that is developed through knowledge of inter-being is called Bhodhichitta to Buddhist folks. If one realizes that we are heavily connected and interpenetrate each other and other things, we will see other people as ourselves, despite their outward differences. If we recognize this interpenetration we begin to realize that the trees of the worlds our lungs, and the oceans, our blood. In fact all of nature would be our body. We would only defend it, not rape it as modern western society is guilty off in some manners. This develops a wonderful sense of intimacy with all. In fact the Chinese character for Zen is “intimacy!” Stay tuned for Part 2 in a few days. I have split this article in two peices as some people may find the ideas a bit confusing and suprising. Stay Tuned All!!

Gerry Lopez interview the night before M2O SUP race

Gerry Lopez needs no introduction.  If anyone can be called "Zen Waterman", it's him.  We are just humble students of the master.  I was lucky enough to spend some time with Gerry on the evening before the Molokai to Oahu race.
In this interview , Gerry talks about Standup paddling, shaping, the molokai race, yoga, focus, a bad wipeout at Pipeline with out of body experience and the benefits of getting into the ocean.  This is great stuff, enjoy. 


Here is a link to pictures of Gerry's mixed team: Gerry Lopez, Edmund Pestana and Heather Jeppsen crossing the channel the day after this interview


I was lucky enough to have a great conversation with Gerry Lopez the night before the Molokai race. Gerry is a true Zen Waterman and shares some words of wisdom. I know it's long but it really is great stuff, so take the time to listen and let it all sink in.


Click here for a Molokai race recap video and more interviews

If you are interested in reading more about Gerry's interest in Yoga, read: Yoga or something like it by Gerry Lopez

and: How to Save your Surfing With Yoga

The Zen Master.  Photo: Burkard/ Surfer Magazine

Aloha, Robert Stehlik

www.blueplanetsurf.com

On Paying Attention As The Way of the Waterman: Part 1 - by Len Barrow

I have two heroes that have helped bring great happiness to my life. They come from two seemingly divergent backgrounds. What stuck me was their ideas about their arts came to the exact same endpoint: You must pay attention.


The first role model is and was the great surfer/shaper Ben Aipa. The other individual is my Roshi or Zen teacher Robert Aitken. He is currently 94 and still as sharp in wit and way, true to his Zen study. It would help a little to talk of his background. Aitken Roshi was imprisoned in a Japanese camp for Westerners during World War Two. He could have had the option of hating the Japanese (as most of us would), yet instead he embarked on the study of Zen in the prison camp itself. After the war he continued his study and was ordained a Zen master in an eponymous line of Japanese Rinzai Zen sect, the first Westerner to do so. He came to Hawaii and taught and established the Daimond Sangha Zen Buddhist center. He is considered as one of the primary founders of Zen in the west along with Daisetsu Suzuki and even my father, T. Barrow.

 The hardcore Surfers path which crosses roads with the Zen path, as I shall explain, stands in a dichotomy to our modern “worlds” of hyperactivity, cell phones, texts, Facebook, the internet and 60 hour weeks. Sadly, in everyday life, many of us move around like automatons. I know people whose lives are devoid of passion and interest. They drive to work from a suburb every day in grueling traffic. This is then followed by a job that they dread and another hour drive home in a moving parking lot. They then go home to their three bedroom home (that looks exactly like the next) in a planned suburb subdivision which sits on rezoned public land. It is as if we are taught to be Lemming competitors in a suicidal race to the nearest cliff or black whole. If this is the American Dream then I am terrified of it. This is not a dream, This is a hallucination.

 This may be an overly grim depiction of our culture yet I am not alone in my sentiments. Many surfers and water people are what psychologists call “non-normative” (not normal) and rapidly figure out what is happening is “lame” and decide on another course of living that they see as more sane. Many surfers are also attracted to different patterns of thinking (as opposed to Occidental or Western models) which include Asian philosophy and even Zen Buddhism in its scope. In these models surfers are more “normal” and actually quite sensible in their views.

 In my early twenties I was bombarded by society with criticisms of my lifestyle as an avid surfer. You see, surfing is seen to be cute when you are in high school and the girls love you, yet surfing loses its mystique to others as a person gets older. One may ask why? In Anglo-American culture one is taught to shed his childhood “habits” of play (such as avid surfing and other fun things) and get on to the Protestant work ethic. As a Religious Scholar , I have studied this phenomena anthropologically. This work ethic (as Described by Jon Calvin and Martin Luther) is directly related to ones goodness. Jon Calvin believed in predestination. In other words you are predestined to go to Heaven or Hell. It has been decided by god before you were born. Yet, there is a twist to this. A sign that you are going to heaven is seen to the degree too which you are hard working and well off. A sign that you may be going to hell is if you are poor and supposedly not working hard. When I studied these ideas as an Anthropologist I understood why I was maligned by so many. The people that criticized me were not doing so consciously. They were doing this because it was part of the Protestant, Anglo-American narrative or Mythology which was drilled into everyone from a young age hence when they saw a person who was “not with the program” they reflexively criticized or marginalized the person. Some how, I missed out on the message of this narrative.

In the past my mother had routinely called me “Lose money” or “Beach Dum” (not a typo). I watched in horror as many of my childhood hardcore surfer friends were sucked up by society. They quit surfing, sometimes at the urging of their wives, got full time jobs that they hated and rapidly became mechanical, uncreative and depressed. One of my good friends told me that his wife should allow him to surf as it was better than a psychiatrist’s bill. I still have the common experience of being given the “stink eye” by strangers as I drive to the North Shore in my dilapidated 71 VW van with board in tow, God forbid, on a workday. I was even told semi-jokingly by an economist friend that I was part of a “superfluous population” that included the very poor that were not factored into his economic models that he learned in school due to the fact that we barely spend any money on products hence cannot be profited off of in the “Free Market”.

In my twenties, I was both perplexed and angry at Anglo-American society. I was being accused of being lazy hence going to Hell for pursuing surfing. My friends followed the protestant work ethic to the “T”; hence were on a strait shot to Heaven. If this were the case, why were they miserable, depressed beings in life!? Surely there existed something amiss in this situation.

Please don’t get me wrong. Hard work is good, in fact I spent a full fourteen years to attain a Ph.D., but to go overboard by working maniacally to myself sounds strange.

My frustration about being a frenzied surfer in Anglo-American society was relived by forays in to Asian philosophy which my father urged that I take. In fact he arranged for myself a meeting with the esteemed Roshi who was described earlier in this paper.

My first meeting with Zen Master Aitken Roshi was wonderful. For the first time in my whole life, I felt justified in my decision to be a surfer. I was interviewed by the Roshi in the normal ritualistic manner. He sat in a tiny room and out of protocol, one had to crawl in, bow over the threshold and then make a 45 degree turn and bow toward him. I totally screwed up the process and was rather embarrassed. Surprisingly, the Roshi gestured to me and told me not to worry about it. There the Roshi sat, in his full Zen regalia and staff. It totally blew me away, as it was the first time that I was participating in a culture other than my own.

The conversation that ensued altered my life forever. I had come to him as I had been struck by an idea while surfing and staring at the ocean. I will let the ideas unfold in a question and answer format as this was the format that was required when one is engaged with a Zen master of Aitken’s standing. The conversation went something like this:

Len: How are You?

Roshi: How are You?

Len (perplexed): Pretty Good, I guess.

Roshi: What do you do?

Len (blandly): I surf, go to school, and I take care of a family in Kahala for rent.

Roshi: Then you are a caregiver.

Len (surprised): Yes, that's true

Roshi (attentively): How is your father?

Len: He is well and he collects books on Zen. In fact he has a huge collection that drives my mother nuts. She says the house will sink one day due to the weight of the books.

Roshi: Good. I must see it one day

Len (impatient): You know, I was struck by an idea. I had learned in my physics class that the equation E=MC² was that matter was an interplay of energy and energy was and interplay of matter. In fact they were different aspects of the same thing. I also learned that energy is conserved and that you could not destroy our create it. Well Roshi, I did a little bit of thinking and was blown way. If E=MC² applies to me, as it must due to the fact that I am an interplay of matter and energy (what the hell else could I be I thought) I am neither created nor destroyed, neither alive nor dead, in fact there cannot be coming or going. I was also surprised to find that Einstein called the notion of self as an “optical illusion of the mind”.

Roshi: You surf right?

Len (irritated: what kind stupid answer was that?): uhhhhh, Yea

Roshi: It is partially due to surfing that you have some insight of no coming, no going, no life, no death, no creation nor destruction. Roshi rang a little bell which means “now get out”. I did my bows and left excitedly.

I was utterly amazed. For my whole life, I was taught that my world view was not only incorrect but I was going to burn in hell for all eternity for it. Here was a little old man, who had nothing, sat in a little room and meditated extensively. He did not even surf yet he bizarrely came across as the most experienced surfer on the planet. How did he know my experience came in the surf or because of it? That he said I had a little insight, was a tiny nod to my E=MC² babble. I was so happy that I was not the only one to think like this and was even more thrilled to get a type of approval (albeit tiny)from a master of the Roshi’s caliber. It was a great affirmation for my self and for my choice of a surfing path. It was a turning point in my life and I have been on a happy path ever since in my study.

The Roshi suddenly “peered” out the door and stated with an amusing smile: “When you get thoughts like that just move on and by the way.........How can you practice if you don’t pay attention?

” I am not a Buddhist but this little Koan (Zen riddle) has taken me a long way. It is OK to be an avid surfer and pursue a path of peace and concentration rather than that of hyperactivity, inattention and conformity so engraved in parts of Anglo American culture.

Thanks Aitken Roshi

Altken Roshi recently passed away and this article is dedicated to him in the most humble and thankful form possible.

Aloha Nui Aitken Roshi

An Occasional letter from a Surfer on Philosophy- by Len Barrow

An Occasional letter from a Surfer on Philosophy
By Len Barrow

Surfing has been a gift to me. Since I was a child I have been engaged in one type of ocean activity or another and I could not possibly conceive of a life away from the ocean. I sometimes ask myself why I am so enthralled by the ocean. The answer came to me quite suddenly one day. I found that I loved the Ocean and its surf because it has been my teacher since a very young age.

The ocean will sometimes give the surfer a sudden lesson. Sometimes you get cocky in the surf (and in life) and the Ocean laughs at you and destroys your ego with a fifteen foot wave. Sometimes the Ocean gives you a lesson in more subtle ways.

This little story is an incident of the “subtle” variety. This happened a number of years back, and has since had a huge impact on my world view. The lesson is as follows.

I was sitting and watching the waves at Daimond Head and was thinking about where the waves had been “born.” These waves had their birth thousands of miles away in the Tasman sea, west of New Zealand. As the wave came across the ocean and grew, it linked up with other waves in what Oceanographers call wave chains. As the wave approached the shallow shores of Hawaii, it reached the peak of its life. I watched as this wave A-framed and peeled off in both directions. The wave then moved on in its life to white water and then disappeared as in death or had it?

Where did the wave “die” and go “to” I thought to myself. I was struck by the obvious conclusion that the wave that seemed like such a distinctive form, seemingly on its own power, did not actually disappear. What then did it become I asked myself? The answer came to me in a flash as in a little Zen Satori (moment of understanding) of sorts. The wave became the ocean, as it always was, waiting to be reformed into another “form” or wave when causes and conditions were just right; a literal and logical form of reincarnation .

A thought rushed into my mind. Was “I “ in any way like this? When did “I “ begin and for that matter when do I end? Maybe I am like the wave and the universe is like the ocean. Like the wave, do I have an inception when the causes and conditions are right and the egg and sperm meet? Maybe we could even go further back than this. Do I begin at the point my mother or father eat (maybe cow meat) to form the proteins that form the egg and sperm? Or do we go back to the suns energy that allowed the grass to grow to feed the cow? This is not strange reasoning. The aforementioned are all literal causes and conditions that are needed for me to be here. Actually, we can go on in this manner infinitely. It is like the question, where does a whirlpool begin (or end); one cannot tell.

In continuing this argument, as a baby I grow to being a boy , to a teenager then to a strapping young man peaking just as the A frame wave that I discussed before at Daimond Head. I will invariably grow old just as a wave crumbles into white water and “die.”

Or do I……Is this really the logical case?

Let us shift our thinking a bit and look at an equation that Einstein created that relates to our discussion. The equation is his famous E=MC². In laymen terms this equation simply informs us that matter is neither created nor destroyed. As waves go through a wonderful play of life and death they constantly take knew forms. The wave cannot become nothing at its “death” because the wave is simultaneously the ocean. A human is logically of the same situation. It is impossible for you to become nothing (at death) because you have been and will be nature as the wave is, has been and will be the ocean. You are simultaneously “You” and “Nature” at the same time. As the ocean inevitably will bring back the wave, you inevitably will reform in one way or another in nature. It is a logically inescapable conclusion. “You” (or whatever we are) will keep reforming in the same way as the wave, as the wave will be brought forth by the ocean repeatedly you will be brought forward by nature repeatedly.

We are necessarily infinite beings with the qualities of our mother; mother nature. We are all of this noble nature.

Let us leave this article with a Zen Koan (riddle). Please contemplate this.

WHAT WAS YOUR ORIGINAL FACE BEFORE YOU WERE BORN?

Good luck. This is a real mind bender, but keep working on it, especially when you are surfing.

Aloha,

Len Barrow - Hawaii, September 18, 2009.

"In the Zone"- by Robert Stehlik

Western sports psychology defines the ideal performance state as "relaxed focus", a state where the athlete is completely focused on executing the activity perfectly. The athlete is so completely in tune with the activity that everything else fades away. This peak performance state is called being "in the zone" or "flow". In this state the mind is completely focused yet void at the same time, there are no thoughts or doubts in the mind, no distractions, only presence. In western sports psychology, the goal is to be able to put yourself into this peak performance state consistently to reach your maximum performance potential. The more skilled you become at a sport and the less you have to "think" about what you are doing, the easier the body can flow and fall into this state of relaxed focus.
Our thinking is that every Waterman has had a taste of this state and wants more. This is why we get hooked and spend so much time in the water. The fluid nature of water and the balance it requires almost forces us into this state as it gives us instant feedback if we are distracted or try to overthink our moves. Going with the flow is the only way to becoming a better waterman. We are plugged directly into nature and are harnessing the natural energy, using it, becoming part of it, flowing with it and wanting more of it.
In Zen philosophy this state is seen as a way to reach enlightenment or nirvana, where one becomes one with the natural flow of energy. Zen arts include Kendo, Judo and Kyodo (archery). The ending -do does not translate well into english but can be called "way". In the "Way of the Waterman" we will explore the ways that the masters have found to reach states of peak performance finding a deeper meaning to what they do. We have a list of amazing watermen that we are interviewing with and hope to develop deeper insight as we go along; we hope you join us for the ride.

Aloha,
Robert Stehlik and Len Barrow

www.blueplanetsurf.com