The Discalced Dharma

By Michael Segers Say it aint so, Shoeless Joe! One of my major issues as I practice/study Buddhism is sorting out the essentials from the baggage (on both sides) as I open my culture and myself to the Dharma. Of course, Christianity in the West has a lot of cultural baggage, but since the culture and the religion have pretty much developed synchronically, it is hard to unravel the two. Standing on the frontiers of Buddhism in the West, we have a rare opportunity and responsibility to decide what is what. Books propose Buddhism Without Beliefs (which well deal with next term), and weve already considered such non-traditional concerns of contemporary Buddhism as feminism, gay rights, and ecology. We have laypeople undertaking heroic meditation unknown to cradle Buddhists, as well as whole sanghas with no interest in the devotional life that defines lay practice in many cultures. Of the Buddhist centers within a couple of hours of my home are four that I have visited, representing Thai Theravada, Chinese Mahayana, and Vajrayana, a practice from Tibet, although all the practitioners are from this country. Locale is about all they have in common, except What are the basics of Buddhist faith and practice? Twelve Links of Dependent Origination, eleven other Tathagatas who succeeded Amitabha in the same kalpa, ten directions, nine dragons sprinkling the infant Siddhartha, eight hells, seven-limb prayer, six tusks on Samantabhadras mount, Five Precepts, Four Noble Truths, Three Jewels, two turtledoves, and a Buddha beneath a Bodhi Tree! Wrong tradition there: I meant Two Shoes Removed Chinese, Thai, Tibetan, and US-American they all remove shoes. Given that religious communities of strangers in a strange land are not only spiritual but also cultural refuges, when I visit such communities, I treat their culture with respect and shed my shoes. (According to an Internet listing, there is a skyclad sangha nearby, but I shall respect it from afar and keep my clothes on.) To return to that Tibetan sangha sans Tibetans, it seemed that taking off shoes was not part of the Vajra way (in chilly Tibet, do they remove their shoes?) but part of the whole repertoire of vegetarian diet, black tee shirts, and kombucha tea. Look, Ma! Im a Buddhist! Deep bows for any vegetarian who may read this: I have respect for you, because you have dealt with an issue that many of us carnivores-by-default evade, but rejecting Moms pot roast or sushi can be as devastating as rejecting her religion, as some committed, conscientious herbivores have attested to me. The Buddha and the Christ walked a great deal on roads that, I guess, were not always paved. So, they and their followers had dirty shoes, and it would have been appropriate to remove them as a sign of respect. Yet, I find no record of either of them pronouncing one way or the other about shoes, neither Thou shalt not nor Thus have I heard I get up in the morning, however, and encase each foot in its own little portable greenhouse, just right for growing Trichophyton (the athletes foot fungus). I step from the house to the driveway and into the car, drive to my office, where I cross the paved parking lot into the building. It is a sad awareness for me that I go some days without setting foot on unpaved earth.

So, although my soul (which, as a Buddhist, I do not have) may be a filthy mess indeed, my soles are in somewhat better condition. By the time I remove my shoes at the end of the day, I would rather eat caviar off the shoe than drink champagne from it, and not just because of the precepts. I can remember informal situations in which several friends removed shoes, and at least one was requested to put his shoes back on. Just this week, an advice columnist for the Chicago Tribune weighed in on the pros and cons of taking off ones shoes in someone elses home: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/columnists/advice/chi1129askamynov29,1,2463105.column?ctrack=2&cset=true. A student of mine once had an opportunity to spend some time in a household in another culture and country. The first morning, she bounced downstairs barefoot, to be told by the madrecita to bounce back upstairs and put on shoes, that it was disgusting and disrespectful for her not to have them on. Three pages of reflections about removing shoes in various cultures (mainly Japanese) begin at http://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+29378, without coming to any conclusion or certainty. Our teacher appears shoeless in a video, http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5271198178330577426&q=pureland+buddhis m&total=1979&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0, sitting cross-legged on what appears to be an exercise mat covered with a bed sheet. Perhaps there is a reason for sitting cross-legged in meditation, but for talking in the United States? I would find the situation off-putting. At the age that joints creak when I sit on the floor, and that a hand would be needed to help me rise again, Id have to ask for a folding chair. About that exercise mat covered with a sheet, I might say, Gee, Ill skip the lecture, but when does the fun start, and can I bring anything? Massage oil? Watermelon? Sheep? (See how much baggage I carry from my southern Protestant background, that I would visualize a covered dish orgy.) And yet, is something else going on? Is that all there is? Muslims remove their shoes before entering the mosque, and Hindus remove theirs before entering their temples. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, God speaks from a burning bush to command that Moses remove his shoes. (Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, an act repeated by the Pope and some country Baptists, which has never gained much acceptance in the churches.) The shoe issue, involving the British order not to remove shoes is considered an important point in the struggle for independence in Burma: http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=8,482,0,0,1,0 Then, on a CD titled Paramita: American Buddhist Folk Songs, there is a song called Samadhi Shoes (http://www.dharmaradio.org/paramita/songs_notes14.htm) with an ironic choice of imagery: He [the Buddha] put on samadhi shoes, put on samadhi shoes; Walkin all the way to Buddhahood, Put on samadhi shoes. Calm your mind and body, say goodbye to the blues; Walkin all the way to Buddhahood, Put on samadhi shoes.

Would it be an example of skillful means for me to loosen my attachments and my shoelaces? On the other hand, would it be an example of skillful means for others to loosen their attachments and welcome us all, with or without shoes, as members of an allencompassing sangha, whether we are wearing flip-flops or Manolo Blahniks? The Heart Sutra teaches that it all is empty anyway. When I take off my shoes, they indeed manifest emptiness, but this opportunity and this responsibility that Ive claimed are full and heavy. My beginners mind brings this paper almost to an end, not the end that I originally aimed for. Ill turn to the Avatamsaka Sutra to conclude it: When washing their feet, They should wish that all beings Fulfill the bases of spiritual powers, Unhindered wherever they go. My question for our guest teacher is, what standards can we find for determining where culture ends and Dharma begins?