There's this new Reebok campaignI've been noticing. "Run easy," it says. "Run at the speed of chat." Here's a video of one of the commercials:
Reebok "Run Easy" TV spot. 2007.
That's smart. Finally, after years and years of ads stressing full-bore athleticism and Just Doing It, a sneaker giant suggests instead that maybe we can be a little gentler with ourselves. Maybe we can enjoy our activities for just what they are.
As an ex-runner who was never much of a competitor, I think Reebok has done something powerful with this campaign, manipulative though it may be: just by using a different "tone of voice," they've positioned themselves as the Sport Brand for The Rest of Us. (Or at least for those of The Rest of Us who might care about such things.) We can relate to them a heck of a lot more, at least.
When you look at the way the Dharma is getting out there today, you might notice a similar phenomenon. There's a whole new kind of Dharma teacher. Think about Ethan Nichtern. Brad Warner. Noah Levine. And they're just some of the "hotter" younger names. There are teachers of all ages connecting with people in largely non-academic, non-conventional, direct-speaking, and even funny ways: from those who are creatively contributing to the mainstreaming of mindfulness, to "wise fools" like one Zen teacher who famously managed to apply even clowning and the Dharma to one another. (Yes: clowning.) A few are keeping blogs and, fittingly, getting more personal as they do. And their readers are relating.
That's not -- at all -- to say that there isn't room for more traditional teachers, or those who otherwise help to bring us our more complex texts and disciplines. Buddhism surely needs its scholars and scholar-teachers, those who have (often quite selflessly) dedicated their talents to the preservation of the great and legendary masters and their schools.
Without the work of these Dharmic heavyweights, there could be no progress in Buddhism. They've faithfully transmitted the hard-won wisdom of the Buddha, his kinsmen, and countless vitally important others to the world. You've got to make room for these people. There can be no question about that.
But me, I'm a lightweight. It's okay. I've realized that, with certain things, I'm just a "run easy" kind of guy. I just don't have a mind that gravitates to the academic or the esoteric. And when it comes to training (meaning, Dharma teaching and guidance), I do best when I get it from someone who, I feel, can really speak my language.
Reebok "Run Easy" train-station ad, Boston, 2007.
Now, I hardly want to suggest that any of the teachers I named as examples above are "lightweights." From what I know, they're just as heavy (in the good way) as anyone else might be. I do know for sure that they do a lot of work. They teach like crazy, they run websites and MySpace pages, they write books, they do interviews. They stay involved. And it seems that they only get more involved as time goes by.
It's how they do their Dharma-work that's so different -- the "tone of their voices," so to speak. A couple of years ago, Noah Levine's first book, Dharma Punx, came out, with Brad Warner's Hardcore Zen being published at practically the same moment. With their then-totally-unusual punk/Buddhism connections, each quickly found surprisingly large followings. The two books generated payloads of hype and press, and put their respective authors on the map.
But: would they prove to be stylistic flashes in the pan?
Well, it's four years later, and Warner and Levine both have new Dharma books. And while Nichtern doesn't have a punk background, he's still not-the-ordinary: he's nearly as well versed in hip-hop and environmentalism as he is in meditation teachings. His debut book will be released this year, and like the others', it's already being talked about. Meanwhile, the teachers behind these books just keep going: giving talks, appearing in documentaries, contributing to and building actual, thriving communities -- local and virtual. They're making a tangible difference, as all true Dharma teachers do. They're just doing it in their own ways.
The cliched (but arguably spot-on) saying goes, "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear." Well, it would seem that the so-called Rest of Us are becomingready, more and more; our teachers are starting to show themselves. Never has there been such a diverse range of teacher's voices. Looking for the one who's speaking your language? Odds are that she or he is out there, or will be soon enough.
There is, in fact, plenty of room for every last one of them.
It was said of the historical Buddha that he shunned using fixed language or methods in speaking to the many kinds of people who came to him for teaching. He met individuals face to face and presented the Dharma in as direct a style as he could. There was no script: it was you and him, and he'd try his best to give guidance in the Dharma in a way that would make sense to you no matter who you were.
I think it's fair to say that the Dharma's new and up-and-coming teachers are carrying on this tradition. They see the people around them -- the community of which they are a part -- and they speak as directly to us as they know how. They keep a natural, familiar tone of voice, and that helps us to find or get back to our practice.
Others can say what they will about it all, but I say: it works.
I'm even thinking about taking up running again.
-Rod Meade Sperry, editor of the Horse.
What do you think? Write us:
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