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.

Meet Gino Bell from the Westside by Len Barrow

Gino Bell is a top longboarder and former US Championship finalist from the Nanakuli on the Westside of Oahu.  He is basically a full blooded Hawaiian whose ancestors have lived in the area for hundreds of years or more.  Gino is known for his uncanny ability to observe the waves and make the best of of any conditions from two to twenty feet.  He is a true waterman.

Gino Bell is also a great Hawaiian ambassador to the sport of surfing and I feel it an honor to write about him because it gives me a chance to diffuse the stereo-type of the Hawaiian surfer.  If you are not from Hawaii you may have a distorted picture of Hawaiians involved in Watersports.  This may come from various media sources including some surfing periodicals and movies.  The movie Blue Crush depicted Hawaiians as greedy, sexist and violent  surfers (If you don’t believe me watch the movie again).  The movie North shore did more of the same.  Various surfing magazines have always focused on the Hawaiians who were aggressive and violent as drama and colorful characters sell more magazines.  They don’t bother to tell you that these people are a tiny minority of the population.

Hawaiians who are great watermen- ambassadors like Duane Desoto (World Champ from the Westside) and Bonga Perkins (3x World Champ) get minimal press-time.  I was surprised to find that when Duane won his world title he got a little corner article in the sports section of our Honolulu newspaper.  The surfing magazines also barely mentioned it.  This is really unfortunate and this type of coverage does not convey the truth of the matter.

Zen has always had at its foundation the “effort” to uncover the truth behind perceptions. That’s why this interview with Gino is most relevant to this blog.  Gino is a real old school Hawaiian.  I first met him it at Nanakuli Tracks (a surf point) about 15 years ago.  I saw this Hawaiian guy just ripping it on his longboard and I must admit I was a little intimidated.  He was “talking story” with everyone and I noticed that he was making sure that everyone was getting waves (when was the last time that you have seen that, if ever?).  When a set came he generously yelled “Go bradda Go!” to me!   Gino then introduced himself to myself and we have been good friends ever since.

Gino Bell is humble, helpful and full of Aloha.  Most importantly, he is like most of the Hawaiians I know.  He is not the falsified “media version” Hawaiian.  If you are not from Hawaii and have never met a Hawaiian, I hope this interview will shed some light on who the Hawaiians are today.  Secondly pay close notice to what he says about paying attention to waves, sharing waves and Aloha.  I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Until Next time!

Len Barrow  

We hope you enjoy the Zen Waterman video interview with Gino Bell:

When Less is More by Len Barrow

When Less is More

In Daoist  and Zen thinking sometimes less is more.  A classic example is the act of cooking fish.  If you cook the fish to much it will become tough and flavorless.  If you cook the fish with just the right amount of energy, it comes out moist and sweet.  I have noticed that Surfing and SUP surfing has the same qualities as the Daoist and Zen thinking. Here are a few examples.

Over thinking/Over- Cognating  your surfing. 

The best surfing is done “in the zone”.  While you are surfing everything becomes automatic and fluid.  Without thinking, the wave reacts in one way and you automatically react to the wave.  Everything is smooth and perfect.  Take a look at Kelly Slater.  His surfing  looks as if it were driven by pure unconscious instinct.  He and the board seem like one organism.

On the other hand when one begins to think about surfing, problems arise.  I know this all too well.  Whenever  I  try to do a big off the lip and think about it, my flow and form gets disrupted and I fall on my face.  Then I make the mistake of thinking too much about why I fell and due to this, I subsequently fall again.  This can ruin your whole session hence don’t give a fault to much energy.  It will only grow and screw up your surfing.

Overpowering  A Turn.

All too often I see surfers trying too hard.  This has happened to me.  At times I wanted to destroy the wave and be a “mega-slasher”.  I would kick in turns and think I was ripping.  Ben Aipa once told me, how can you go 100 mph in a 25mph zone.  He said “you can’t see yourself but you look like a jerky, scurrying  a’ama crab (a type of crab in Hawaii)”.  I was pretty bummed at this and chose not to believe him.  This all came to an end when my friend videotaped me.  I was shocked at what I saw.  I was swinging my arms wildly, jerking here, and hopping there.  It was the most “unfluid” event one could imagine and I indeed  looked like a crab because I was putting way to much energy in to my turns. 

Ben corrected me by setting a volume from one to ten.  If I was surfing 10 foot Hawaiian Jocko’s, Ben told me to set my volume at 8, 9 or even 10.  If I were to surf  1 foot town, I was told to power down and “ride” at an easy volume of 2 or 3.  The end result is that my surfing became fluid and free.

Noseriding

The hardest thing that I ever encountered in surfing is the noseride.  It is here where the Zen and Daoist approach of less being more and not over-cognating  becomes very apparent.  The beautiful thing about noseriding is that everything is dictated by the wave.  You are truly at the mercy of the ocean.  If you try to force a noseride by running up the board the nose dips under the water and throws you off.  To noseride properly your mind must be totally clear and you must be “in the zone”.  Some times one waits for the noseride in a type of “necessary stillness”.  It is almost like a meditative state.  All the angles of the wave must be perfect to walk up to the nose of the board.  The wave cannot be too curved nor can it be too strait.

 When the time is right one cross-steps  to the nose.  This walk is not a bold “male” attack but a feminine dance.  The Yin and Yang is most alive in the nose-ride.  The less force that you put in your walk up to the nose the more the board lifts and the longer your nose-ride.  This may sound counter intuitive but try it.

The next time you go to the ocean whether surfing or SUP surfing maybe it is a good idea to take it easy.  Clear your mind and lower your volume and watch your surfing take off.  Remember less can be more!

Written By Len Barrow

Beginners Mind and SUP by Len Barrow

My Ego and Sup Surfing

According to the great Zen Master Dogen Zenji, the beginners mind is the Zen mind.   The neophyte mind is playful, open and fluid.  Zen “consciousness” is a mind-set that is ”pre-self like”. The closest likeness is to that of a young child’s or babies mind.  If you put a baby up to a mirror, the child cannot recognize his or herself in the mirror.  This means the child is not aware of the self.  Everything in a child’s world is a moment of discovery and interest.  All is new in this mind-set.  A young child (pre-ego) has no views of rich and poor, good and bad, high and low.  The baby just moves along like a river.  That is why Dogen Zenji states that the beginners mind is the Zen mind.

As we grow older we manifest into egotistical children, teenagers and adults.  We like and dislike, hate and love. We grasp for things that we usually cannot reach.  This often leads to anxiety and depression.  For this reason the Buddha described life as suffering.

For all of my talk of Zen and Buddhism, I can ironically and hypocritically fall into egotistical thinking.  A week or so back I decided to try SUP surfing.  My arrogant concern was that I was to be a kook again.  I desired to cheat my way out of this situation.  More so, I wanted to ”rip the wave” on my first go out.  

I went to the Blue Planet surf shop where I met Robert (the co-writer of this blog) who is an avid SUPer.  He advised me to start on an 11 foot board.  When I looked at the board I was horrified.  It said “beginner” all over it.  My ego kicked in and I remember myself commenting in my head that I could ride a shorter board easily.  I asked him for the shortest board.  Robert said something to the effect of “you will be back for a larger board” but I was on an ego driven mission to shred.    From the shop I preceded strait to the surf zone.

At the beach edge, I stood on the board and fell face first into the water.  I got back on the board and then took a few strokes and fell backwards.  Then I managed to fall sideways.  My friends on the beach were laughing their heads off.  Here was a former US Longboard Champ who could not even stand up. 

After this failed ego driven mission I broke down and got an 11 foot board that Robert had advised me to ride.  More importantly I made a decision to pay attention to becoming a beginner again in the spirit of Zen.  I did a great deal of reflecting on the philosophy of Dogen Zenji where the beginners mind was playful, open, and fluid.  In this way I was able to enjoy being a complete novice again.  I told my ego to go somewhere else as I was to now have a child’s open mind to the SUP sport.

By altering my perception and attention I became a beginner again.  It was so fun. I launched at Ala Moana beach-park Channel.  The first thing that I noticed was that just paddling in flat water was the most difficult thing to do.  The board would tip one way then the other.  The difficulty of getting going was actually thrilling. 

I would paddle once, twice then tree times and whoopee!  I was moving and I started laughing my head off.  Memories began pouring into my head about when I was a child who was catching his first wave.  Everything I did was new and wonderful.  I realized that I just rediscovered the feeling of why I had started surfing in the first place. Fun, Fun, Fun!

I am still a total SUP kook and I love it.  I am a beginner again!  Thanks Dogen Zenji.

Shit on a Stick by Len Barrow

It’s What You Make of It: The Pre-Conceptual and Surfing

In the 12th century, a Zen master was asked by a monk “ what was the nature of the Buddha’s enlightenment?” He replied “SHIT ON A STICK”. This is an actual formal Zen Koan (a type of riddle). It came to my mind one day when I was surfing with a friend. We were traveling around looking for good waves, yet the waves on offer were “shitty” lumpy one foot crap.


My friend was grumbling about the state of the surf. He elaborated that his board was not designed for crappy waves. He also stated that only kooks surf lame waves. I convinced him to paddle out anyway and his moaning and groaning only worsened. I remember the look of frustration on his face and truly felt sorry for him.


Despite this I managed to have a great time. I was doing mini off the lips and tiny round house cutbacks. The day was sunny and I looked back at the green mountains with little fluffy clouds wafting by. I would then catch another wave bounce around and fall off. The whole experience was most enjoyable and I found myself giggling like a little boy who was getting away with something that he was not supposed to do.


I turned around to see my friend paddling into the beach. He sat on the shore with his arms crossed. On his face was a stern expression of anger. I caught a few waves more and paddled in and drove my disgruntled friend home.


This is when the “Shit On A Stick” Koan came into my mind. In a literal sense the Koan refers to how the people of old Asia would wipe their buttocks after defecating. They would actually use a stick. So the Zen master was stating that Zen is no more than the shit on a shit-stick.


This would appear to be a paradox. How could something like Zen be likened to the most filthy, polluted ”shitty” thing on the planet? Could it be that it is only our point of view?


When I recollected this Koan after dropping my friend off, I began to have a wonderful reflective experience. I wondered why I had such a great time while my friend had the lamest experience possible? Why was I thrilled in such shitty waves? It struck me like a lightning bolt. I WAS PAYING ATTENTION and he was not.


I then sat and wondered who had taught me to do this. My first thought came to my coach and mentor, Ben Aipa. He had coached me to a US Championship in Longboarding and was a true Zen master in his own right. He payed a great deal of attention to everything. His encyclopedia was the ocean and surfboard design.


More specifically Ben Aipa taught me how to focus my attention on different aspects of a wave. He informed me that all waves were magnificent creations of nature that “spoke” with different voices. Some were loud and some were soft, yet they were all asking you to work with their energies . He was an acute observer of nature’s ways.






Ben altered my perception of waves in the deepest way possible. Mr. Aipa taught me that any wave is good as long as you focus and pay attention to its energies. While I was training for the US Championships, Ben had me surf crappy waves on a daily basis. He would take me to Sandy Beach “Full Point”. This is literally the shitiest wave in the world. It usually has cross winds in excess of 25 mph and the wave is heavily backwashed. Yet Ben taught me how to “Sing” with Sandy Beach. He told me to focus my attention on only the breaking part of the wave and the” Bowl” that extends about 1 foot next to it the curl. When you focus your mind on this tiny section of the wave, even a tiny wave has power and juice. If you look at the whole wave you will miss this little gem of the bowl. By altering PERCEPTION USING ATTENTION you can turn any wave into a point break! Every wave becomes an enjoyable miracle.


In a way it all comes down to perception or conception of the wave in front of you. Ben Aipa and this Zen Koan were just asking me to return to the “pre-conceptual”. They were asking me to rely on an unborn instinct that we all have to make the best of all conditions from 10’ to 1’.


Similarly, Zen as depicted as shit on a shit stick in the Koan should not surprise us. It is only our perception that makes us revolted by crap being on a stick. Let us look at the phenomena of crap on a shit stick.


It takes a whole digestive system, not to mention a nervous system to create feces. This is truly a miracle of nature (their even exist groups of scientists who study fossilized turds!). The tree that became the stick needed the sun for photosynthesis (another amazing phenomena) and the earths weather system to allow it to grow. Therefore the shit stick is actually a beautiful miracle just as the lamest wave in the world is a miracle. It all depends on our perception of the object. This is what the Shit on a Stick Koan is asking us to think about.


With this change of perception applied to all things in life, we can move beyond conceptions of good and bad, life and death, polluted and unpolluted, rich and poor, good waves and bad waves. In Zen Buddhism, the goal is to return to your original mind which does not divide the world up according to prejudices. This mind was and is unborn and pre-conceptual in nature. Everything arises interdependently. There is not one phenomena in the world that is not interdependent therefore we should move away from the conception of the individual and egoism to achieve happiness. If you find this statement abstract, test the logic.


All is perfect. As long as natures is here, this interdependent mind is here.


The ego and self with its prejudices and likes and dislikes distorts this perfect mind that we all already have. Instead of seeing the beauty of a one foot wave we perceive a shitty wave due to our distorted conceptions. Instead of seeing an interdependent miracle of nature, we see a polluted, dirty shit stick.


Find this shit stick. If you are a SUP surfer, paddle upwind in 25mph winds. Surf un-surfable conditions. Go out when it is six inches big. Mix it up on an ultra-crowded day. The world is your oyster to enjoy if you ALTER YOUR PERCEPTION BY PAYING ATTENTION.


If you think this is random tree hugger babble you are mistaken. I took these ideas and won the US Longboard Championships at 1’ onshore Huntington beach California in 2004. My fellow competitors could not figure out why I was so excited over shitty waves. Oh well.


I hope to see all of you out on the next onshore rainy 1’ day!


See Ya………..goin surfing






Dr. Len Barrow

Surfing and the Zen Buddhist Art of Happiness- by Len Barrow

If you are a typical surfer today, you may be faced with a number of frustrating problems in the surf. As time goes on the ocean is getting more crowded with many different types of surf craft. Depending where you are, people can become very aggressive and greedy when it comes to procuring waves. Some surfers go out of their way to “bad vibe” other surfers as they are on different equipment or they are perceived as “outsiders” or “insiders“. This can all add up to a bad surfing experience. Alas, what could possibly be the solution.

As I study Buddhism as an academic, especially Vietnamese Zen, I came to a solution which I use to great effect on a daily basis. In fact this method is so effective that I have ceased to have bad sessions because of this methodology. I wish to share these ideas with you, the reader, and wish that you benefit from them.

Before I dive in to this technique, it is important to get a background of where the ideas and methods come from. The Buddhists have many sutras, or “bundles” of writings. I will briefly describe to you the Abidharma (quite literally translated into “super teaching“ or “super knowledge“) and its general concepts.

The Abidharma was probably written in India around 1,500 years ago. It is striking as it deals directly with psychology and the mind over a millennia before the Westerners came to similar understandings with modern psychology of the 19^th and 20^th century. The Abidharma has been called the Sutra of Buddhist psychology by some.

What it teaches is very simple but profound. For our purposes as surfers and watermen it is most appropriate. The sutra views the mind as an infinite field. In this infinite field there are an infinite number of possible seeds (for a lack of a better translation of Sanskrit into English we shall use the term “seed“). The seeds can manifest in ones mind and most importantly in ones actions given certain causes and conditions. These infinite seeds include jealousy, anger, hatred, frustration, paranoia, greed, agitation, arrogance on one “end” and compassion, altruism, love, patience, joy, peace and equanimity on the other “end”.

This is why Zen Buddhists and Buddhists meditate! They are utilizing the power of concentration to water the proper seeds with attention! It is that simple. Zen Buddhists are just selecting the seeds in their mind that they water. If you water a thorny weed seed it will grow into an ugly thorny weed. If you water a beautiful Lotus seed it will become a beautiful Blooming Lotus.

If you don’t meditate or pay attention you will not be able to recognize the bad seeds and will be lead around life by them like a man who is on an out-of-control horse heading toward the nearest cliff or wall. This is sadly the case for the majority of the people on our planet. They are not in control of themselves, their negative emotions are dragging them around like powerless slaves. I should know, I often slip into angry and jealous ways when I don‘t pay attention to the seeds that I am watering in my mind.

The question arises. How can this be practiced in the surf? I will use an example that happened to me a couple of years back to help illustrate the Abidharma’s effectiveness. I was surfing a break on the Northwest side of Oahu that is relatively un-crowded and localized. This was during the time period when Stand Up Paddling was taking off. There was this guy who would paddle out and consistently get the set waves as on a SUP board you can get into a wave before anyone else can even stand up. My mind began dragging “me” around. I allowed my seeds of anger, frustration and jealousy to be watered by my own mind without even knowing it. It was like I was on auto pilot with no free will; a type of slave if you will. Why? Quite simply I was not paying attention to the seeds that I was watering in my consciousness‘.

In relation to the aforementioned paragraph, it is interesting to note that in Zen Buddhism, beings of Hell do not live somewhere on a different plane of the Universe. In fact in Zen, there are no Gods, nor heaven or hells that are elsewhere. “Demons and devils” live right here and we meet these hell beings or Hungry Ghosts (as the Zen Folk say) right here. There is no “other-where“. There is only now and this place. By not controlling the seeds I was watering in my mind; I HAD JUST BECOME A TYPE OF DEMON FROM A ZEN BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVE. READ ON!

I became a little devil. I hated this guy with a passion. I remember my mind becoming agitated as this man slid into every wave. I became extremely jealous as he seemed to be having the time of his life. He was not a very skilled surfer and I believed that I had more rights than him. I remember having the arrogant thought that as the reigning US Long board Champion that he should be giving waves to me. I was allowing all the destructive seeds of my consciousness to be watered.

Then it all came to a head.

The SUP guy came speeding down on a set wave (in fact a 12 foot face!). He lost control and ran me over at a terrific velocity. All I remember was a loud bang. Then we both cart wheeled underwater often colliding with each other as the bomb wave dragged us underwater.

I came up out of the water wanting to literally kill the guy. He popped up out of the water gasping for air for I believe that he had never gotten drilled that hard in his life, not to mention doing this in tandem with running someone over in such a terrible manner. He was coughing up water and terrified. I was angry and getting drilled by a six foot Hawaiian Size wave was normal for me thus I was not out of breath . In my fury and ready physical condition I was about to launch into a verbal barrage at him or worse.

But I had a flash of insight. For some strange reason the Zen philosophy of the Abidharma floated into my head. I began to concentrate and pay attention to the seeds that I was watering and simply DECIDED TO WATER DIFFERENT, MORE POSITIVE SEEDS. IT WAS THAT SIMPLE. [I JUST CHANGED MY MIND]….. BY WATERING DIFFERENT SEEDS IN MY CONCIOUSNESS THROUGH THE USE OF FOCUSSED ATTENTIONED ATTAINED IN MEDITATION. As I saw terror in the mans face I watered the seeds of compassion in my mind. I automatically put on a little smile and asked if he was Ok. He said he was not. I suddenly felt impatient (as I wanted to get back to the business of surfing good waves) yet I focused my attention on the seed of patience that we all have in our consciousnesses and I offered to help him paddle in. He was understandably perplexed at my attitude but he held on to my nose as I paddled him towards the channel and to then beach.

The day became magical after that. It was as if the weight of the world was off my shoulders. I did not have the seeds of hatred, arrogance, and jealously being watered in my head anymore. Because of this I was able to pay attention to the seeds of happiness contentedness, cheerfulness and especially mindfulness. The turquoise blue waters of the shoreline became extremely impressive. I noticed a bird calmly riding the updraft of a wave. Even the seaweed was an emerald green and amazing. It was as if I was hallucinating but in a good way. I appreciated everything so much more. I came home in a wonderful mood and was just buzzing over life.

The above may sound like tree hugging hippie talk as well as overt pacifism. But before you write the philosophy of Zen and the Abidharma off:

I DARE YOU TO ASK YOUR SELF IF YOU ARE REALLY IN CONTROL OF YOURSELF?

MORE IMPORTANTLY, I DARE YOU TO HAVE THE ABILITY TO CHANGE YOUR MIND. YOU WERE BORN WITH TOOLS TO MAKE EVERY SURF SESSION AND LIFE MAGICAL.

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.