Heroes on Pedastals

Why is it that we put elite athletes on pedestals and worship them as heroes? This can create perceptions that they are perfect people without flaws when, in reality, they have flaws like the rest of us.

I’ve done this with some of the background of the Free Mind program we teach. Case in point: 

The earliest sources for the concept of having a free mind, which means a mind that lets us use our attention effectively, came from the seventeenth century. The samurai tradition and Zen Buddhism in Japan was nearing its height. 

Zen is Cool, Right?

Here are two examples. The first is the Zen master Takuan Sōhō and his book The Unfettered Mind. The second is the sword master and teacher Yagyū Munenori and his book The Life-Giving Sword. Don’t get me wrong; these are great books. I learned a lot about having a mind that was free from grasping for comfort or rejecting stress, one that could stay present for the current challenge. But, the subtle (or maybe not so subtle) connection I made between Takuan and Munenori was Zen. Everybody thinks Zen is cool, right? I assumed it was Zen teachings that helped Munenori be a better sword master. In reality, Takuan was simply Munenori’s Zen master who taught him how to use his mind more effectively. 

Enter Barbara O’Brien and her book The Circle of the Way. Her book is a concise history of Zen. Seeking historical facts clears the air. In it, she tells the story of Zen and how messy its evolution has been. This includes, you guessed it, the association between Takuan and Munenori. What Takuan was doing was helping Munenori get better at killing people. Now I know that’s a broad stroke. Munenori, to his credit, did teach about the “life-giving” sword. Meaning, he wanted to use violence as a last resort. 

Still, how I thought of their association misrepresented Zen teachings. Sure, zazen meditation can make us focus and concentrate on tasks better, even tasks like killing people in war. Barbara asks “…what does Buddhism teach about war? The first precept tells us to avoid taking life, period; it doesn’t list conditions.” And that’s a bit of a broad stroke too. Zen Buddhism is much more nuanced than that. But the point is made and I’m guilty of it. 

The mind can take us on a journey that makes false associations, creating a fictitious reality to live in… one that can also influence others adversely. Barbara points out that Zen was militarized by some Japanese Zen masters in World War II. “Zen teachers used the teaching of emptiness to justify slaughter, saying that no one would be killed…this perversion of the teachings goes back at least to the seventeenth century, where we saw it in Takuan’s treatise for the shogun’s sword master (Munenori).” Ouch, got me. So, I was doing a bit of hero worship with Takuan and Munenori. Barbara helped me get them off the pedestals I put them on. 

So what’s the lesson?

It’s great to respect others and their expertise. But don’t worship them or put them on a pedestal. Bring them down to earth and find out the facts of who they are or were. What you’ll find, as I did, is that they are human like the rest of us, rife with flaws just like us. And why wouldn’t it be that way? We all have flaws because we’re on our own learning journey. The flaws give us the opportunity to learn and grow. Hero worship can cloud taking ownership of our own flaws. Seeing heroes as humans with flaws helps us get into our own muddy trenches and do the hard work of self-learning. 

When we can do this kind of work, our attention isn’t dwelling on false realities or heroes on pedestals. We see the facts more clearly. And from that, we can act more decisively with our attention. Then we’re on the road toward a mind that is more free.