Cycles

There is a wise and well-known story often told in Zen circles informally titled, “Bad Luck? Good Luck?” It sort of goes like this:

A farmer had a horse that ran away. His neighbors said, “Such bad luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe.” The next day, the horse returned with three wild horses. The neighbors exclaimed, “How wonderful!” The farmer replied, “Maybe.” Later, the farmer’s son broke his leg while trying to tame one of the wild horses. The neighbors lamented, “Such bad luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe.” Soon after, soldiers came to conscript young men for war, but the farmer’s son was spared due to his broken leg. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good fortune. The farmer replied, “Maybe.”

The superficial moral of the story is that events themselves are neither good nor bad; it’s our perception and judgment that assigns value to them. But we can find a deeper meaning than that.

A Modern Version

First, though, here is a more contemporary version based on the current experience of a friend of mine:

An author worked tirelessly for a year, inspired by the AI hype of 2023-2024, to publish a book on AI integration in business intelligence. Just as the book was released, the AI hype cycle showed signs of entering Gartner’s trough of disillusionment. Bad luck? The author replied, “Maybe.”

Despite this downturn, the author’s book, which focused on practical AI applications in BI rather than relying on the latest trends, eventually found a receptive audience. It provided a robust framework for integrating AI into BI processes, offering a valuable path forward even if AGI wasn’t achieved soon. Good luck? The author replied, “Maybe.”

As the book gained traction, the author received numerous invitations to appear on podcasts, sharing insights and expanding their reach. But this took significant chunks of precious time away from further research he mostly enjoyed. Good luck? Bad luck? Maybe.

Is that So?

A story that shares the sentiment of the Good/Bad Luck story from another angle is Hakuin’s Is that so? It’s one of the three foundational stories of the Teachings of the Eternal Fishnu. The story is about 100% acceptance of what is before you–which in turn is detachment from clinging–in a Universe of relentless change.

What does “Good/Bad Luck” and “Is that So” share? Fundamentally, there is a natural duality to All. It is the duality from which phenomena arise.

One Side Implies the Other

Why is it that what most people label as good or bad should be equally acceptable to a Zen master such as Hakuin?

In martial arts, the uke and tori are two sides of the same coin. In a nutshell, most people enjoy being the tori (the own doing the throwing) than the uke (the one being thrown). The punchline is one makes no sense without the other. The master will also see that there is actually more to learn as the uke. There is more opportunity for profound improvement on the “down side” of a cycle.

The two sides are the two ends of cycles, processes. Everything is a process, cycles like the crests and troughs of ocean waves – a trough implies a crest and a crest implies a trough. Every process is a stream of heartbeats between both ends. Without cycles, those processes that reset (almost as if it’s reincarnated), everything degrades into chaos and eventually settles into complete stillness.

The Universe is a fabric of nested, loosely-linked processes. Some bigger, some faster, some more complex than others, all evolving each other. In the Universe, they are intertwined such that it can be hard to see where one begins and ends. Where processes meet, they change, giving birth to a new process. It’s a new process that at first is a side-effect of other processes, but eventually takes on a life of its own.

Everything is a process. Things seem solid and real because it changes slower than the process of our minds. A rock is always in a process, but it’s a process that is much slower than our synapses, at least what is readily evident to our human senses and knowledge.

Hot and cold, high and low, black and white – one cannot exist without the other. Life implies Death … self implies other … fear implies courage. Sun-Faced Buddha, Moon-Faced Buddha – enduring and ephemeral, robust and frail.

Faith and Patience,

Reverend Dukkha Hanamoku