The common goal shared by the more rigorous Western/Thelemic/Chaotic Occult traditions and traditions like Zen Buddhism seems to be a systematic approach to shielding the mindbodyenvironment from damage done by structures that hold tension crystallized or static.

There is recognition between the two (very general and cross-pollinating) traditions that stopped-up libido energy is damaging and that something must be done about this.

Buddhism teaches that suffering comes from desire, and this is in a way correct, but we must be careful in what we decide about suffering.

In the Zen tradition it is generally taught that the elimination of thought and tension (which are the same thing, according to Wilhelm Reich) is the best way to reduce suffering. In this framework, suffering seems to mean any experience that puts neurosomatic strain on the organism, impeding function and flow in a way that can potentially cause damage. Suffering here is universally bad.

Linear thought is a function of the buildup and linking-together of sensations and ideas over time. The more buildup and entanglement from the past and future, the more tension, while the more we live precisely now, in the realm of immediate sensation, the more we’re free of these architectures. Ram Dass said: “Be here now.” This detachment and inhabitance in the present moment is characteristic of the Eastern way.

The Western Occult takes a different attitude, specifically, towards suffering and desire.

There are certain human activities that are enhanced by attachment. The building of something on this earth: material possessions or wealth, or the landscape of a legacy, whether that be a legacy in art, in business, in romance or progeny, in physical accomplishment or interpersonal impact; the construction of anything with temporal and physical heft, the storing up of treasures or the making of monuments here, place strain on the organism, and cause suffering, because these things require attachment. They require desire; they require you to desire things and ideas and people.

The Western tradition teaches, not the elimination of desire, but the use of it as a tool. This engenders a naturally different attitude towards tension and towards suffering. The body and mind are paced through a series of exercises (widely varying) and given tools (also widely varying) that prepare one to channel large amounts of desire and tension with more control and less damage. The result of all this is not simply to allow large amounts of attachment and accomplishment (although this is the goal of many) but to gift the person in question with the experiences that accompany channeling so much tension and energy. It is wasting exercise but savory with wisdom and sensation. One of these sensations is pain, suffering, and a masochistic streak is helpful.

Eastern practice teaches the devaluing of suffering. But suffering can be savored like wine.

One of the most important systems of flow and tension in this way is our flow through time. Within the structure of linear time that we live, attachment to anything is sure to eventually end in us being pulled away from that something, resulting in exactly the kind of tearing, damage, and disruption of flow that Eastern practice attempts to prevent. Hold on to the big rock in the fast-flowing river and we will be battered and bruised icily in the unforgiving snow runoff.

Zen teaches us forgetting.

But for the moments we grip the rock we are still, with the roaring water pouring around us. Knees dashed bloody on the bottom stone, we are having a singular experience of resistance against inexorable flow. We must know to let go before the river kills us, but the longer we hold on, the more we learn about our own grip on the rock, the purple on our bodies, our creatureliness and weakness. Nothing is more essential to our being than pain, sweet pain, so sweet that in this moment it stops being pain. This is the pain of the mountain-climber and river-swimmer, pain relished for the vital animal history it expresses. Sensations and memories as complex artifacts sculpted of bone and placed on the shelves of our museum of experience.

The Occult teaches us nostalgia.