Global Warning and Eating a Meat Based Diet.

This is a short 3 minute video. PLEASE watch it. It won't take much time out of your day but the effects could be monumental.~Peace to all beings~

Another Plan

The good news is that Sarah is finally out of the hospital, after five days of attachment to state-of-the-art electronic telemetry and a great deal of pain. She was--I'm searching for the word. Dismissed? De-accessioned--no, that's library... Released? Sorry, can't find it. I know there's a right word--yesterday afternoon and is happy to be home. Now my wish for her is that she can allow herself to take it easy for a few days of convalescence. And there's a word I have not used for a while... Anyway, rejoice with me: she's out.

My own work for the next few days is to prepare for the publication and release of "Persist," and that will be the focus of my writing. First up is an essay I have promised for the January issue of ArtScene magazine--a monthly publication in which a number of the essays in "Persist" have appeared over the years, and which welcomes thoughts on a wide variety of topics relevant to its readership of visual artists. Obviously, it's not kosher to tout my own book--though I will place an ad in the same issue. But I can and will be writing on a related topic: the repercussions of the current recession on the art scene. My first sentence, already formulated, is this: "It's a great time to be an artist!" The temptation is to get whiny about the financial hardship of an artist's life, and I do hear a lot of whining. What I want to say instead is that the further constriction of financial opportunity offers a kind of liberation. Where there's less than little hope of "making it," I'm released to do whatever the hell I please.

But the key is the determination to "persist." And persistence, as I see it, is just a nicer way of thinking about discipline; and discipline is something that is not very much taught in schools, from kindergarten on. Our educational philosophy leans more to the notion of creativity, and while creativity has its place--and was perhaps stifled in earlier times, when rote learning was the norm--it's not much use to anyone without the discipline to back it up. It took me many years to come to a useful understanding of discipline. Having experienced it as applied from without--in the form of rules and expectations of parents and teachers--I was too advanced in years before I discovered that it comes, most effectively, from within. What I'm doing at this very moment is a part of my discipline as a writer: showing up, and getting the words down. It would be very easy not to. My path to this discipline was paved by another: the meditation practice.

So it's these ideas that I explore in the essays in "Persist," and will be exploring in a different context in my ArtScene essay. From there, and with these same ideas in mind, I'll be starting to prepare for the the more terrifying prospect of speaking engagements. I say terrifying advisedly: no matter how many years I spent in the classroom, teaching, it's a huge challenge for me to stand up in front of a bunch of people and pretend that I know something they don't know. I never liked to "lecture," and in fact never did, throughout my teaching career. I tried to turn even large classes into something more like Socratic dialogue--not always with success. Lecturing has its place, but it's not something I was cut out to do. Now that I have a number of speaking gigs lined up for the beginning of next year, I must discover a way to speak to an audience with ease and fluency, in a sense to "entertain" them with my ideas, and I'm thinking in terms of a Socratic dialogue with myself.

I notice, in the context of the previous entry in The Buddha Diaries, that I have already made another plan, for God's amusement. But these are things I need to work on, obviously. This morning has been useful to me in finding a focus for the work that needs to be done. Thanks for listening.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/30/2009

All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness... the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness ... the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.

~The Dalai Lama

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/29/2009

His Holiness Pope John Paul II was a man I held in high regard. His experience in Poland and my own difficulties with communists gave us an immediate ground. The Pope was very sympathetic to the Tibetan problem. Of course, as the head of an institution trying to establish good relations with China and seriously concerned about the status of millions of Christians in china he could not express this publicly or officially. But right from the start of our friendship he revealed to me privately that he had a clear understanding of the Tibetan problem because of his own experience of communism in Poland. This gave me great personal encouragement.
~The Dalai Lama

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

The Plan

The plan was to come down to Laguna for Thanksgiving and spend the following days down here, to get away from the stress of city life and get some writing (P) and painting (E) done. Ah, well, God (if He exists) must be having a good chuckle, if you believe in that old saying, if you want to see God laugh, make a plan. This morning we're on the road again, headed north to Los Angeles to check up on our still hospitalized Sarah. We're hoping to find her better that she sounded yesterday on the telephone, still in severe pain with her kidney infection.

I like an ordered life as much as anyone. I'm comfortable when I know what the schedule is for the day--for the week, for the month... But when things fall out the way they have these past few days, I'm forced to recognize that my sense of order is yet another delusion, and that to become attached to it is simply to cause more suffering. From moment to moment, truth be told, I have no idea about what might happen, still less am able to control it. Predictability is no more than an illusion with which I comfort myself about the uncertainty of the future.

So the plan today is to get in the car a little later in the morning and head for the 5 freeway. The hope is that along the way we do not encounter too many of the crazed post-Thanksgiving bargain-hunters thronging to the malls in their cars. If we do, I'll be confronted once again with the need to find some way to live with my impatience--a not-too-endearing quality that tends to show up with alarming regularity in traffic. Breathe...

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/28/2009

Media people should have long noses like an elephant to smell out politicians, mayors, prime ministers and businessmen. We need to know the reality, the good and the bad, not just the appearance.

~The Dalai Lama

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

TAO of Letting Go: Meditation For Modern Living

TAO of Letting Go: Meditation For Modern Living
Let Go to Reclaim Your Inner Life Listen to this 6-CD set to learn powerful methods to let go of your tension, fear, anger, and pain. Calmly turn inward to awaken the great human potential in yourself. Bruce Frantzis’ books, CDs, and DVDs are unique in their practicality and relevance to modern life. The Water Method of Taoism has been transmitted for thousands of years from teacher to disciple in an unbroken chain. The Taoist lineage to which Frantzis belongs is directly linked to that of Lao Tse, author of the Tao Te Ching, the second most translated book in the world. Now Frantzis shares these ancient teachings to help you move closer to feeling truly alive and joyful.

Depositfiles

Rapidshare

No Way...

... to spend Thanksgiving! We drove up to Los Angeles to see how Sarah was doing and found her pretty much comatose with pain medications. Still she was certainly aware that we were there, and was happy--not quite the word, perhaps!--to see us. She was still in the emergency observation ward when we arrived, but quite soon after was wheeled up on her gurney to a room in the general hospital. I must say that Kaiser has done a very nice job with their new building. Sarah's room is abundantly well equipped with technological marvels, and manages also to be a reasonably pleasant space in which to ail. The staff, too, were all friendly and efficient. We left after a couple of hours feeling assured that, if she had to be in the hospital, this was not the worst of possibilities. Then we drove back down to Laguna Beach and enjoyed some of the fruits of our previous day's kitchen labors in quiet solitude. And watched "Bridget Jones's Diary" on the TV. It was still funny.

I'm reading two books--both advance copies--which are providing some insight into our current situation. The first, The Compassionate Instinct, edited by Dacher Keltner, Jason Marsh and Jeremy Adam Smith, is subtitled "The Science of Human Goodness." The collection of essays by various scientists includes not only a great deal of research information but also a good deal of story-telling and personal anecdote challenging the old survivalist assumption that we humans are hard-wired for self-interest. The newest studies of primates are now telling us a different story--that such qualities as empathy, forgiveness, community, cooperation and trust are as much a part of the survival imperative as the ones that have commonly been accepted: competition, aggression, the urge to dominance and so forth.

The book is divided into three parts, the first examining "The Scientific Roots of Human Goodness"; the second, "How to Cultivate Goodness in Relationships with Friends, Family, Coworkers and Neighbors"; and the third, "How to Cultivate Goodness in Society and Politics." Heaven knows, these qualities and practices are needed if our species is to survive the near-disaster it has brought upon itself, and it is encouraging to know that the scientific community is beginning to promulgate a rational undergirding for them.

Perhaps--who knows--we can use some of this research to our mutual benefit. Who knew, for example, as research has revealed, that in combat situations--at least until recently--the majority of soldiers fired their weapons into the air rather than targeting the enemy? The revulsion for killing a follow human being was so powerful, so innate, that many went through the motions without actually following orders to kill. A hopeful discovery. But of course, once discovered, the finding resulted in the development of new training techniques to overcome the "natural" instinct." The kill rate, in our recent wars has significantly increased.

Still, "The Compassionate Instinct" is a worthwhile read, and one that suggests that what we are discovering about ourselves as a species may, just conceivably, help us to redirect our sense of who we are and where we're going with this fragile planet of ours. The question remains as to whether we have yet "hit bottom," to revert to the language of addiction--and addicts we all seem to be, don't we? We're addicted to our fossil fuels, to our comforts and conveniences, to the kinds of food we eat, to our "rights"... To paraphrase yet another great writer, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, we must change our lives. ("Du musst dein Leben aendern.")

I'm having a lot of trouble with the second book, the third in "The Art of Happiness" series by the Dalai Lama and the psychiatrist Howard C. Cutler. I had the same problem with the first in the series, when I reviewed it for the Los Angeles Times a number of years ago. But I need to read a bit further into the book before I talk about it in any further depth.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/27/2009

The time has come to educate people, to cease all quarrels in the name of religion, culture, countries, different political or economic systems. Fighting is useless. Suicide.

~The Dalai Lama

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Three Monks (1980)

Three Monks (1980)
The film is based on the ancient Chinese proverb "One monk will shoulder two buckets of water, two monks will share the load, but add a third and no one will want to fetch water."

The film does not contain any dialogues, allowing it to be watched by any culture, and a different music instrument was used to signify each monk.
The film also tell the story from the aspect of the buddhist bhikkhu.

A young monk lives a simple life in a temple on top of a hill. He has one daily task of hauling two buckets of water up the hill. He tries to share the job with another monk, but the carry pole is only long enough for one bucket. The arrival of a third monk prompts everyone to expect that someone else will take on the chore. Consequently, no one fetches water though everybody is thirsty. At night, a rat comes to scrounge and then knocks the candleholder, leading to a devastating fire in the temple. The three monks finally unite together and make a concerted effort to put out the fire. Since then they understand the old saying "unity is strength" and begin to live a harmonious life. The temple never lacks water again.

YouTube Part 1

YouTube Part 2

Thanksgiving: Only Connect

I woke this morning with the familiar quotation from E.M.Forster on my mind. Only connect. We had been talking about this yesterday at breakfast with our friend Les, who is visiting from Las Vegas--about that sense of isolation which we often feel and which, more broadly I believe, is at the root of many of our social ills.

We had been hoping to connect at least with family today, having invited our daughter Sarah and friends down to enjoy a Thanksgiving feast with us here in Laguna Beach. We were looking forward to the occasion, and spent the afternoon yesterday in the kitchen, preparing the good food that is in itself a metaphor for connection on such a day. Then the phone rang last night and Sarah's boyfriend told us she had been admitted to the emergency hospital in severe pain and would have to spend the night there. This morning, he called again to let us know that she is being transferred to the general hospital for further care. Instead of the Thanksgiving dinner we had been looking forward to, we'll be driving up to Los Angeles in a little while to see how she is doing.

The lesson, I guess, is not to count your turkeys. I don't want to seem frivolous, with my daughter suffering, but this is clearly one of those times when it's particularly important to let go of the expectations and deal with the reality as it unfolds. In the meantime, our connection will be different from the one we had anticipated; but it will still be connection, and will be valued for what it is. As for Thanksgiving, we extend our gratitude to all those who are selflessly giving of their time to take care of our daughter on a day when they might otherwise be with their own families; and to all those good people throughout the world who devote their lives to taking care of others.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/26/2009

It is regrettable that some Tibetan officials, who lack the wisdom and competence required for promoting basic human happiness and the short and long term welfare of their own people, indulge in flattering Chinese officials and, collaborate with these Chinese officials who know nothing about Tibetans and work simply for their temporary fame indulging in fabricating impressive reports. In reality, the Tibetan people have not only undergone immeasurable sufferings, but large numbers have also unnecessarily lost their lives.

~The Dalai Lama

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Secrets of Shangri-La: Quest for Sacred

Secrets of Shangri-La: Quest for Sacred
In a remote corner of the Himalaya, in the forbidden Kingdom of Mustang, mysterious caves, perched high on cliff faces and carved by humans thousands of years ago, have lain just beyond reach — until recently. In April of 2007, a team of climbers and scientists climbed inside the long-hidden chambers for the first time in modern history. This film follows the riveting story, told by filmmaker Liesl Clark, about her husband, seven-time Everest summiter Pete Athans, and big-wall climber Renan Ozturk, who take on the dangerous job of climbing into the crumbling caves, searching for nine legendary cave temples called “kabum.” What they find goes far beyond their expectations, as their cameras document every hair-raising move.

It’s an explorer’s dream … until the unexpected happens: A posse of local horsemen gallops up while Ozturk is perched high on a dangerously eroding cliff. The climbers intend to document and preserve what may be inside the cave, but the site is sacred to the locals. Dramatically heightening the stakes, the villagers start pulling on the ropes, placing weight on the fragile anchors; they then demand payment. Should the team set a precedent by paying the locals to climb into their cave? Should they risk violating the sacred in a dangerous effort to preserve it?

BTJunkie

Preview

http://rapidshare.com/files/312697113/NG.SoSL.Quest4Sacred.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/312697216/NG.SoSL.Quest4Sacred.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/312696470/NG.SoSL.Quest4Sacred.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/312696493/NG.SoSL.Quest4Sacred.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/312696737/NG.SoSL.Quest4Sacred.part5.rar

Addendum

As a footnote to this morning's entry, please read this note in today's "Arts Briefly" in the New York Times, and see if you don't want to throw up. Or throw something. "Someone had to write us a check." Indeed.

Mass Animal Killing Takes Place in Nepal.

PTI, November 24, 2009

Kathmandu, Nepal -- Despite appeals to halt the centuries-old custom of animal sacrifice, Gadhimai festival on Tuesday started in southern Nepal with millions of devotees flocking from various parts of the country and India. Thousands of buffaloes are waiting to be sacrificed at the Gadhimai Mela, the largest "animal slaughter" in the world.

It is estimated that some 35,000 to 40,000 buffaloes, which are brought mostly from India, for the world's largest ritual sacrifice at the temple. French actress and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot has sent a letter to President Dr Ram Baran Yadav, asking him to stop animal sacrifice at the festival. "I personally find it hard to imagine that your heart can withstand such cruelty, knowing that you, being the head of the country, are ultimately responsible," she wrote. Tibetan Buddhist master Lama Zopa Rinpoche had requested all Buddhist centres and students to read the Golden Sutra and pray for halting the killing.

James: Nepal!! You're breaking my heart!! This story makes my stomach churn with sickness to think of 35,000 to 40,000 innocent animals being slaughtered in the name of spirituality??? I try to be very open minded about religious customs but this is one that I can't be silent over. To be sure this is mass genocide. I see these animals as no different than human beings so this ritual killing horrifies me to the point of nausea. It surprises me that Hindus would engage in such carnage especially given how sacred cows are to them--both cows and water buffaloes are of the bovine family. This "festival" seems in total contradiction to that as well as the teaching of Ahimsa (do no harm, practice non-violence). It is said that to kill a cow in Hinduism is like killing a Brahman so how do they reconcile this festival with that teaching?

It's not my place to tell Hindus what to do in their religion but I beg of them to contemplate how this festival could be in keeping with ahimsa and the sacred veneration of cows. I'm trying not to let anger slip into my heart over this so I will follow the advice of Lama Zopa to read and contemplate the Golden Sutra today (also known as the Golden Light Sutra). It is a sutra that is often coupled with a vow to domestic animals killed that they might be reborn in the human realm. It is usually done by those who have killed animals and wish to atone. I will also be reading and contemplating the Lankavatara Sutra and especially Chapter 8, which speaks of animals and eating meat. I dedicate any merit or good will cultivated from this to all the animals slaughtered during the festival and to the participants that they might realize the suffering they are causing and end it. This is interesting timing with the coming of Thanksgiving here in America. Another holiday where people slaughter animals and come together as friends and family. I don't understand why animals have to be killed in order to celebrate family togetherness. Below I have put together some of the main points of Chapter 8:

Thereby I and other Bodhisattva-Mahāsattvas of the present and future may teach the Dharma to make those beings abandon their greed for meat, who, under the influence of the habit-energy belonging to the carnivorous existence, strongly crave meat-food. These meat-eaters thus abandoning their desire for [its] taste will seek the Dharma for their food and enjoyment, and, regarding all beings with love as if they were an only child, will cherish great compassion towards them. Cherishing [great compassion], they will discipline themselves at the stages of Bodhisattvahood and will quickly be awakened in supreme enlightenment; or staying a while at the stage of Śrāvakahood and Pratyekabuddhahood, they will finally reach the highest stage of Tathagatahood. Indeed, let the Blessed One who at heart is filled with pity for the entire world, who regards all beings as his only child, and who possesses great compassion in compliance with his sympathetic feelings, teach us as to the merit and vice of meat-eating, so that I and other Bodhisattva-Mahāsattvas may teach the Dharma.

Mahāmati, in this long course of transmigration here, there is not one living being that, having assumed the form of a living being, has not been your mother, or father, or brother, or sister, or son, or daughter, or the one or the other, in various degrees of kinship; and when acquiring another form of life may live as a beast, as a domestic animal, as a bird, or as a womb-born, or as something standing in some relationship to you; [this being so] how can the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva who desires to approach all living beings as if they were himself and to practise the Buddha-truths, eat the flesh of any living being that is of the same nature as himself? There is no logic in exempting the meat of some animals on customary grounds while not exempting all meat.

James: In other words, you wouldn't eat your dog or cat so why eat any other animals? I have read the sutras that speak of Buddha saying eating meat is o.k. for monks because they can't be picking and choose what food to accept and not accept. I also know that in some countries the climate does not permit much vegetable growing and some people need meat for the diet though that is being questioned by modern science. So I do not believe Buddhism requires vegetarianism but I do think it is a helpful practice to help cultivate compassion and non-violent attitudes. I try not to be judgmental and forceful when it comes to vegetarianism because that doesn't help convince people of vegetarianism but instead drives them away and causes more suffering. I just let the sutras speak, give my own opinion (it is my blog after all) and as is just in my view -- let people decide for themselves. I do think, however, that we can all agree (or at least most of us) that is "festival" in Nepal is barbaric and excessive. I hope that one day soon it will be abolished.

Om shanti shanti shanti (Hindu mantra of peace).

~Peace to all beings (especially today, water buffaloes in Nepal!!)~

Just Taking a Moment...

... today to draw your attention to this article in yesterday's New York Times. It reports on a survey by a non-profit organization called Leveraging Investments in Creativity in conjunction with Princeton Survey Research Associates International and Helicon Collaborative, and it tells you nothing you don't already know (if you're an artist!) about the plight of artists in a cultural climate dominated by commerce and the cult of celebrity. It says, presumably in the dry language of statistical analysis, precisely what I have been observing and writing about in essay form for thirty years and more: that in terms of economic theory alone, the supply of artists and their work vastly exceeds demand. The "market" is limited to the topmost strata of the fortunate (and usually, but not always gifted!) few; and the great majority of those who think of themselves as artists (and that includes writers, actors, dancers, musicians, and so on) must find other than conventional definitions of "success" if they are to fulfill their sense of mission in life. This is where the notion of practice comes in handy. As one who could imagine himself in no way other than as a writer, I am grateful to have discovered the daily meditation practice that now serves me as a model and inspiration for a daily writing practice. Together, they make it possible for me to "persist"--by no coincidence, the title of my soon-to-be-published collection of essays, "Persist: In Praise of the Creative Spirit in a World Gone Mad With Commerce."

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/25/2009

On the political front, we have always pursued the path of truth and justice in our struggle for the legitimate rights of the Tibetan people. We have never indulged in distortions, exaggerations and criticism of the Chinese people. Neither have we harboured any ill will towards them. Above all, we have always held to our position of truth and justice without siding with any of the international political power blocks.

~The Dalai Lama

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Thus Have I Seen: Visualizing Faith in Early Indian Buddhism

Thus Have I Seen: Visualizing Faith in Early Indian Buddhism
Although Buddhism is often depicted as a religion of meditators and philosophers, some of the earliest writings extant in India offer a very different portrait of the Buddhist practitioner. In Indian Buddhist narratives from the early centuries of the Common Era, most lay religious practice consists not of reading, praying, or meditating, but of visually engaging with certain kinds of objects. These visual practices, moreover, are represented as the primary means of cultivating faith, a necessary precondition for proceeding along the Buddhist spiritual path. In Thus Have I Seen: Visualizing Faith in Early Indian Buddhism, Andy Rotman examines these visual practices and how they function as a kind of skeleton key for opening up Buddhist conceptualizations about the world and the ways it should be navigated.
Rotman's analysis is based primarily on stories from the Divyavadana (Divine Stories), one of the most important collections of ancient Buddhist narratives from India. Though discourses of the Buddha are well known for their opening words, "thus have I heard" - for Buddhist teachings were first preserved and transmitted orally - the Divyavadana presents a very different model for disseminating the Buddhist dharma. Devotees are enjoined to look, not just hear, and visual legacies and lineages are shown to trump their oral counterparts. As Rotman makes clear, this configuration of the visual fundamentally transforms the world of the Buddhist practitioner, changing what one sees, what one believes, and what one does.

Uploading

Depositfiles

Thank-You Tibet!

James: When you think of the awesome power of the Chinese Communist Party and the relative weakness of Tibet one would think that Tibetan culture would have been extinguished like a butter lamp being blown out by a cold, Himalayan wind. Countless Tibetans have fled Chinese occupied Tibet for decades upon decades but the most important aspect to the exodus was the knowledge carried out with these hearty folks -- especially the monks and elders. They have carried with them the sacred and historic traditions of Tibetan Buddhism and the greater Tibetan culture. So while Tibet itself is still under siege the Tibetan heart is alive and beating strong. Tibetans have been adopted and taken in by the world and all have benefited. Tibetans are given sanctuary to ride out the storm of religious intolerance and militant occupation of their homeland and the world has been given access to the precious jewel of Tibet -- Tibetan Buddhism.

To be sure Tibetans must long for home and be greatly pained to see their homeland changed so much. As well as obviously worrying for their friends, family and fellow Tibetans still living in that stunningly beautiful country. However, if any peoples are prepared to outlast and actually thrive due to such change and upheaval it would be the Tibetan people. That is because most of them are Buddhist and as we fellow Buddhists know the core of the Buddha's teachings are on how to deal with suffering and change. Surely some Tibetans wanted to stand and fight--and some did but the majority knew it was better to push that ego aside and move on toward India and the greater Tibetan diaspora so that their culture could survive. If they would have stayed to fight then they would have probably been nearly completely wiped out as a people and as a culture. Their traditions would have been lost under the dusty, dirty boot of oppression but as it is their culture is alive and well in dozens of countries keeping the flame burning.

Thich Nhat Hanh has often spoke of what it means to have a home and what is our true home. He like the Dalai Lama is an exile from his homeland. In Nhat Hanh's case, Vietnam:

Who amongst us has a true home? Who feels comfortable in their country? After posing this question to the retreatants for contemplation, I responded. I said: “I have a home, and I feel very comfortable in my home.” Some people were surprised at my response, because they know that for the last thirty-eight years I have not been allowed to return to Vietnam to visit, to teach, or to meet my old friends and disciples. But although I have not been able to go back to Vietnam , I am not in pain. I do not suffer, because I have found my true home.

My true home is not in France where Plum Village practice center is located. My true home is not in the United States . My true home cannot be described in terms of geographic location or in terms of culture. It is too simplistic to say I am Vietnamese. In terms of nationality and culture, I can see very clearly a number of national and cultural elements in me –– Indonesian, Malaysian, Mongolian, and others. There is no separate nationality called Vietnamese; the Vietnamese culture is made up of other cultural elements. I have a home that no one can take away, and I feel very comfortable in that home. In my true home there is no discrimination, no hatred, because I have the desire and the capacity to embrace everyone of every race, and I have the aspiration, the dream to love and help all peoples and all species. I do not feel anyone is my enemy. Even if they are pirates, terrorists, Communists, or anti-Communists, they are not my enemies. That is why I feel very comfortable.

Every time we listen to the sound of the bell in Deer Park or in Plum Village , we silently recite this poem: “I listen, I listen, this wonderful sound brings me back to my true home.” Where is our true home that we come back to? Our true home is life, our true home is the present moment, whatever is happening right here and right now. Our true home is the place without discrimination, the place without hatred. Our true home is the place where we no longer seek, no longer wish, no longer regret. Our true home is not the past; it is not the object of our regrets, our yearning, our longing, or remorse. Our true home is not the future; it is not the object of our worries or fear. Our true home lies right in the present moment. If we can practice according to the teaching of the Buddha and return to the here and now, then the energy of mindfulness will help us to establish our true home in the present moment.

James: The Dalai Lama and many, many Tibetans understand this concept and thus where ever they are, they are home. We should all do this regardless of what country we live in. We could be living in our home country yet still feel disconnected from it, which can make us feel isolated and maybe even ignored. If, however, we follow the advice of The Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh then we will never feel alone where ever we go because home is not a place but rather a state of being/mind. Our true home travels with us and can be accessed at any time. It can not be taken away regardless of how many foreign soldiers might occupy our country. So, In recognition of the survival of Tibetans and Tibetan culture, 2010 will be a year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Tibetan resilience. An organization called, Thank You Tibet! is setting up a community online to find creative ways to honor Tibetan culture and people. If you have some time and the inclination do check it out because who amongst us hasn't benefited in someway by Tibetan culture?

~Peace to all beings~

A Slow Day

Ellie came back from her morning walk with her friend Nancy and told me, as we were getting breakfast together, that they had been talking about me behind my back--specifically about their mutual perception that I am always in a rush, always feeling the pressure to move on, and often so impatient to get the job done that the job gets done more hastily than it should be. I need, they decided for me, more time for the poetry in my writing--not necessarily poems, but just the poetry.

I get what they mean. I know this about myself, and have struggled with this pattern for years. It's an old story, a bit boring at this point and familiar to anyone who has followed my writing over the years, because I have returned to it on more than one occasion. I first became consciously aware of this reactive pattern at a "Write For Your Life" workshop led by the writer Lawrence Block. In a process designed to uncover the "Big Lie" that holds us back from the full power of our creative potential, Larry nudged a memory of my near-strangulation at birth by the umbilical cord and the resultant, unconscious conviction that "I have no right to be here." I had been hurrying away from everything ever since--from academic jobs, from writing, from relationships, from social events. It was always time to leave, time to be done with it, time to move on.

So it was no surprise to hear it again. Though I have struggled mightily to remain conscious of the pattern, and despite years of meditation focused on the here and now, I'm aware that I slip back into it all too easily. Even this blog, though I write in it virtually every day, bears the stamp of my impatience. It offers me the opportunity to get it said fast and move on to the next thing to be taken care of. It's not often that I linger over a thought or image, or allow myself to delve too long or deep into its meaning. I started out, as a writer, as a poet. I even published, early on, two books of poems. But I didn't stick with it, did not allow myself the mental space and time to fully develop that potential. I moved on.

So I took my time yesterday. I did not do much. Sat around a lot, and tried to pay attention every time the urge to be doing something, to be doing the next thing, took over. It's not new, what Ellie relayed to me from her conversation with Nancy, but that fact makes it no less important to listen to.

More poetry, eh? We'll see....

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/24/2009

We must improve the relationship between China and Tibet as well as between Tibetans in and outside Tibet. With truth and equality as our foundation, we must try to develop friendship between Tibetans and Chinese through better understanding in the future. The time has come to apply our common wisdom in a spirit of tolerance and broadmindedness to achieve genuine happiness for the Tibetan people with a sense of urgency.

~The Dalai Lama

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Culture Vultures

(Our weekend in Los Angeles... continued.)

We were looking forward to a fine theater experience on Saturday night--that is, until we got there. But more of that in a moment. On the way over to Westwood, we stopped at a couple of galleries we had missed the previous day. First stop was Suzanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, where we found an entertaining installation of objects and wall pieces by Sean Duffy. Riffing exuberantly on American culture of the 1950s, Duffy mixes sound, iconic object and image to update formative memories--presumably from childhood--and give them a new context in the contemporary world. Among the highlights are an old-style vinyl long-playing stereo player...

... rebuilt with three pickup arms to play the same record (Dusty Springfield) three times simultaneously at fractional intervals--with surprisingly mellow results! It's as though the song is echoed twice, lending the music an eerie quality of depth and resonance, like memory itself. The surface of the player was used as a palette for the paint used to make a three-dimensional "painting" of this wrecked car engine...

... whose every surface has been scrubbed, gessoed, and meticulously repainted to reproduce the original stained and rusted surfaces. The piece is about recycling, reinvention, entropy and renewal--the stuff of human experience. I'd be remiss to omit mention of a piece de resistance, installed in a separate, small gallery space--a large, gleaming disco ball constructed entirely out of spinning fans, lights, and colored plastic ties...

... to create the suggestion of a hectic, overworked globe struggling with the winds of change. Curiously, with so many fans working in conflicting directions, the winds succeed in virtually canceling each other out, leaving nothing but a persistent, gentle whirr. Duffy's work is a charming and engaging blend of nostalgia, fantasy, imaginative exuberance, and sly cultural observation.

Sharon Lockhart, by contrast, at Blum & Poe's palatial new quarters on La Cienega, offers a sober reminder of the plight of the worker in today's recessionary times through the unsparing lens of her film and still cameras. "Lunch Break," the title of the show, combines two film installations with three related series of photographs documenting the activity in a shipyard in Bath, Maine. In one set of photographs, stand-alone lunch boxes, left open...

(sorry, I have no pictures other than this online gallery announcement, but I'm sure you'll find others if you visit the site) ... double as portraits of their owners; in another set, workers are seen at lunch around institutional dining tables. The whole collection is an uncompromising, quasi-anthropological investigation, a study of the bare-bones dignity and individuality of those who labor on society's behalf, for little money and often in heart- and soul-less environments. All of which led me to reflect on the odd and, yes, striking contrast between the life depicted in these powerful photographs and the high-end gallery environment in which they come to our attention. The new Blum & Poe space is cavernous, spectacular in its immaculate whiteness...

... a veritable temple to our society's best substitute for religion: art. There's a certain poignancy in the juxtaposition of the two.

Okay, theater. We had, as I said, been looking forward immensely to seeing "Equivocation," the current offering at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood. We had heard wonderful things about the play from friends, and came with high expectations. And were disappointed. That, actually, in an understatement. I always say that every theater experience is a good experience, if only because of the social interaction that takes place between stage and audience, and amongst the audience members themselves. I may have to revise my adage. My instinct prompted me to leave this one at intermission, one hour and fifteen minutes into the event, and with another hour and a half still to go. We stayed, hoping to be proven wrong in the second part--and regretted our decision.

I really did want to like the play. Here's what it boils down to: lies--the "equivocations" of the title--often tell the truths that the truth is unwilling or unable or dares not tell. The play posits the fictional commissioning of Shakespeare ("Shag") by James I of England, through the agency of the (equivocating) courtier, Sir Robert Cecil, to write a historical drama documenting the Guy Fawkes plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament--and with them, the king himself along with his family; and conflates this plot line with the contemporary real life tragedy of the destruction of the Twin Towers and the subsequent equivocations resorted to by the boy "king," George W. Bush and his administration to justify torture, revenge, and further bloodshed.

It's an interesting conflation of metaphors, surely, but it all gets into a dreadful wordy, pedantic muddle in the play. The headiness of the play's central conceit is compensated by over-the-top emotional conflict between the actors which, for me, never quite rang true. The whole thing is further muddied by a heavily Freudian sub-plot having to do with the character of Shakespeare's daughter and his guilt over the death of her twin brother, his son. It all gets to be too much, too complicated, too fraught with false emotion, too noisy with set-up conflict. The graphic torture, disembowelment and execution scenes do nothing to relieve the agony of argument. Homage to Shakespeare it may be; Shakespeare it is not.

I do see where this kind of drama fits in the modern-contemporary tradition of theater of cruelty and theater of the absurd, of Brecht and Artaud, Genet, Ionesco, Piaranello and Beckett. It's as close as we can come to tragedy, some have argued, in a world abandoned by the gods whose wrath made sport of human fate even as they gave it universal context. I know about post-modernism and its love of fractured narrative. Even so, I have always believed in the theatrical concept of tragic necessity--that sense of inevitability that promotes the suspension of disbelief, a kind of karmic logic--and I could not find it here. It felt like what it is--a clever conceit, extended far beyond dramatic necessity into intellectual play.

I'd be interested to hear from others who may have seen the play, and have had a quite different experience from my own... For me, the magic of the theater simply didn't happen.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/23/2009

On my part, I remain committed to contribute my efforts for the welfare of all human beings, and in particular the poor and the weak to the best of my ability without any distinction based on national boundaries.

~The Dalai Lama

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Spiritual Experiences and Spiritual Realizations.

In Buddhism, we distinguish between spiritual experiences and spiritual realizations. Spiritual experiences are usually more vivid and intense than realizations because they are generally accompanied by physiological and psychological changes. Realizations, on the other hand, may be felt, but the experience is less pronounced. Realization is about acquiring insight. Therefore, while realizations arise out of our spiritual experiences, they are not identical to them. Spiritual realizations are considered vastly more important because they cannot fluctuate.

The distinction between spiritual experiences and realizations is continually emphasized in Buddhist thought. If we avoid excessively fixating on our experiences, we will be under less stress in our practice. Without that stress, we will be better able to cope with whatever arises, the possibility of suffering from psychic disturbances will be greatly reduced, and we will notice a significant shift in the fundamental texture of our experience.

- Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche, “Letting Go of Spiritual Experience,” Tricycle, Fall 2004. Special thanks to Phil for the quote.

James: When I first started practicing the Dharma and meditation in particular I would have these spiritual experiences such as a feeling as though I was floating while meditating. I have had amazingly vivid and seemingly real dreams of being visited by great Buddhist teachers during deep contemplation while sitting. However, in my opinion they are like empty calories in the long run of my practice. It's like eating a gooey, sugary treat while hiking, which gives me an explosion of tasty pleasure but in the long run it is empty of the kind of energy needed for sustained progress along the path. If I indulge in these sugary treats too much then I get a stomach ache and realize that the special treats if indulged in too much can cause more suffering than benefit.

Spiritual experiences like moments where visions of enlightenment break through my ego-mind barriers and tempt me to obsess over them like a sugary but empty food. They are shiny objects for the ego-mind to latch onto and use to claim some sort of exceptionalism, which (I have found in my personal experience) is a result of placing too much importance to these experiences

When I have had spiritual experiences they are quick bursts of exciting phenomena experienced while meditating that explode into my mind like a bright comet, which enthrall me but burn out quickly. I find, however, that realizations are rare but that they, unlike a comet are like earthquakes that shift, shatter and altar my life forever. For example, it was nice, entertaining and tantalizing to feel so at one with things while meditating that it felt like my body was blurred and blended into the surroundings like I was the subject of an artist's painting. Whenever I feel this, it always makes me happy but is nothing like actually realizing (and thus seeing) emptiness in all things and places without having to induce it through deep meditation.

~Peace to all beings~

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/22/2009

I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of inner peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion and elimination of ignorance, selfishness and greed.

~The Dalai Lama

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Enlighten Up! (2009)

Enlighten Up! (2009)
Kate Churchill is a filmmaker and a dedicated yoga practitioner who insists that yoga can transform anyone. She decides to prove it. Her plan: select a subject, immerse him in yoga and follow him... Kate Churchill is a filmmaker and a dedicated yoga practitioner who insists that yoga can transform anyone. She decides to prove it. Her plan: select a subject, immerse him in yoga and follow him until he finds a yoga practice that transforms him. Her subject: Nick Rosen a skeptical, 29 year-old journalist living in New York City.

Intrigued by the opportunity to peek behind the curtain of a 5.7 billion dollar “spiritual” industry, Nick signs on to investigate yoga for 6 months. Before he can say OM, he finds himself twisted up like a pretzel, surrounded by celebrity yogis, true believers, kooks, entrepreneurs and a gentle teacher from Brazil who leads his class with his feet behind his head.

The more Nick investigates yoga the more contradictions he discovers, leading him to question whether yoga is anything more than a workout. As Nick searches for concrete facts and discards the lofty spiritual theories of his yoga teachers, he strays further from Kate’s original plan. The two find themselves lost in Northern India, embroiled in a struggle between Kate’s expectations and Nick’s overt rejection of “spirituality.”

They circle the globe talking to mystics, gurus, mad men and saints searching for the true meaning of yoga. Ultimately, both Nick and Kate end up in places they never could have imagined. They don’t find the answers to their questions, they find much more.

BtJunkie

Art Rounds 11/09

We're in town for the weekend, and will be spending the better part of it checking in on the art galleries to see a number of shows we have been postponing. Yesterday, Friday, we started out at the furthest point from our house, LA Louver Gallery, where we had been looking forward to seeing the latest collection of paintings, drawings and etchings by Tom Wudl, whose work we have followed since the early 1970s. I was especially interested because I had read, in advance, the text included in the announcement, that the work in this show were inspired by the Avatamsaka Sutra, the "Flower Ornament Sutra." This painting...

and this drawing...

... should give you some idea of the result. (Please use the link above for titles and other details. You'll also find a useful statement by the artist.)

In an art world where it seems that size is still regrettably some measure of success, these pictures dare to be quite tiny in scale. (The gallery even offers a magnifying glass for close examination!) They are meticulously executed, accumulations of finely painted details which come together to create the overall image in much the same way as pixels create the digital image--or atoms gather to create what our eyes perceive as objects. I see each of these pictures as a meditation, an enactment of practice as an aid to focusing the mind even as it creates an object of remarkable, compelling, breath-taking beauty. Acts of uncompromising, dedicated attention, they require the same commitment from the viewer, inviting the eye to participate in each moment of their creation. They become, seductively, without overt or pious religious intent, objects of spiritual devotion in the same way that icons and mandalas have done over the centuries. A truly wonderful experience.

From Venice, we drove back to Culver City to Cardwell Jimmerson Gallery to see the work of a good friend, Peter Sims, who has been a loyal member of our artists' group for years in a fine exhibition that also includes the work of another friend, Bob Burchman, and a third artist, Ron Griffin. Titled Abstraction in Reverse, the show explores the interface between representation and abstraction in the work of these three artists. Peter Sims, our friend, has been taking as the "subject" of his paintings tiny fragments from the world of design--a candy wrapper, a bar code--and enlarging them into what look to be large-scale geometric abstractions. In this remarkable painting (excuse the cell phone photo; be sure to link to the exhibition site, above, for better images) ...

... he takes one small corner of a tapestry by the Bauhaus artist Gunte Stoelzl and transforms the image on a huge canvas, building up layer after layer of paint (160 lbs of it!) until the thing becomes a gleaming mass of pattern, flowing form, color. The texture of the paint mimics, in a strange way, the texture of the weaving, but takes it to a place the original designer never could have imagined--a place where paint itself reigns as the monarch of the moment of its making.  In this way, the artist transforms the cultural trivia of our times into an aesthetic reality of its own--showy, sexy, seductive, sensual, rich in sheer abundant presence.  The trite phrase "a treat for the eyes" takes on a whole new meaning here.  This is a visual banquet.

Bob Burchman--a sometime reader of The Buddha Diaries, I'm happy to report--has a different approach.  He paints reflections of art works, captured as photographs and rendered as faithfully as possible in paint on canvas.  Here's the reflected image of a famous work by the Los Angeles-based artist Ed Ruscha... 

... with, in the background, the reflections of the other pictures in the exhibition in which it is included.  Skillfully done, these paintings leave the viewer's eye in the illusory space between the real world and its mirror image--and the mind in the same space between reality and illusion.  For the Buddhist, it's all an experiential, existential reminder of one of the basic truths of the Buddha's teaching: that what we perceive to be the real world is no more than the construct of our minds.  Burchman's paintings place us smack in the middle of the enigma of our selves and our relation to the apparently solid world around us.  

Ron Griffin also addresses the illusory nature of reality.  In paintings like this one...

... the seemingly collaged common objects--sheets of office stationery, envelopes--are in fact painted on the surface of the canvas (the printed lettering, reversed, is done by a transfer process).  In two remarkable, large-scale "books", Griffin walks us through a series of similar fragments of the real world--a take-a-number ticket, for example, of the kind you pull to mark your place in the supermarket line--recreated in trompe l'oeil detail in modeling paste and paint.  The play, here again is between what we imagine that we see and the reality that actually meets the eye.  The skill with which this play is set in motion is what assures the success of the visual and mental tease.    

We made a final stop at Cherry and Martin where we found a stunning series of C-print photographs of the Biosphere in Arizona by the artist Noah Sheldon.  

This man-made "natural" closed system proved to have a curious history.  Once the pride of biological sciences, it is now apparently in a state of some neglect, and Sheldon's pictures capture some of its shabbier aspects.  This is not, clearly, their intent, which perhaps more accurately to reflect on the environment itself--the beauty and the mystery of planet we inhabit and the way in which we apprehend and experience it through the senses.  His interest in the synesthetic experience in which sight, sound, smell and touch are stimulated simultaneously is evident in the sensual quality of his photographs, whose matte surfaces contrast with the usual glossy expectation of the C-print and seem to open up the image seductively to the eye.  At the same time, Sheldon's pictures remind us poignantly of the delicacy and vulnerability of the natural world, at a moment in history when such reminders are an important remind of its need for our protection.

Altogether, a good day at the galleries.  Thanks for joining me for this brief review!

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 11/21/2009

The problems we face today, violent conflicts, destruction of nature, poverty, hunger, and so on, are human-created problems which can be resolved through human effort, understanding and the development of a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood. We need to cultivate a universal responsibility for one another and the planet we share. Although I have found my own Buddhist religion helpful in generating love and compassion, even for those we consider our enemies, I am convinced that everyone can develop a good heart and a sense of universal responsibility with or without religion.

~The Dalai Lama

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Are (Some) Buddhist Magazines Behind the Times?

Lately there has been a lot of tension between Buddhist magazines and the online Buddhist community. These magazines sadly are missing the point behind the rise of the Buddhoblogosphere. It being a representation of how popular Buddhism is becoming in America but more importantly with how it's becoming popular with others besides the traditional American Buddhist core -- rich, white academics on the two coasts.

And it's popular not because we proselytize but because people investigate it and find it helps them. They are missing this bigger picture that America is quite well suited for the reason and rationality of Buddhism. Americans are trained in the scientific method. So it is refreshing to many of us to find a way of life (Buddhism) that is not only o.k. with questioning authority and the truthfulness of things -- It encourages it (as is seen in the Kalama Sutra), which I see becoming one of the root sutras/suttas for many American Buddhists. However, many (not all) in the American Buddhist establishment do NOT like the spirit of the Kalama Sutra when it involves them. They do NOT like to be questioned, debated or challenged.

A lot of times the articles printed in these magazines are deeply cerebral dissections of esoteric sutras and discussions around issues that rarely touch the average Buddhist practitioner. And while I actually do like digging through sutras/suttas, I'm using it as an example to show that many of these magazines aren't getting the average man's point of view on Buddhist practice. I'm not saying one way of learning is better than another but I just wish that the elitists didn't look down their nose at those of us who respond well to online interactions. It has helped a lot of people and broadened Buddhism a great deal. Is it perfect? Of course not but it deserves more respect than it is sometimes given.

Buddhist blogs tend to be (not always) more approachable and easier to relate to as we discuss how the Dharma affects our direct, day-to-day lives. We might not always have the glossy pictures, so-called experts and titles before and after our names but we live in the real world where we don't have time on our hands to spend hours and hours at the temple or sangha (if we so lucky as to have one near-by in the first place). We are just average people like most people in this world including those looking into Buddhism for the first time. A recent article wrote that seeing the Buddhist community discuss their disagreements isn't flattering and might turn away practitioners. I think that's disingenuous at best but at worse betrays a desire to scrub Buddhism of the "dirty peasants" that are apart of Buddhism as much as peaceful, smiling monks.

Addendum:

The "Question Authority" picture is in part in response to the idea espoused by some in Buddhists circles that we Buddhists are to just sit down and shut up and follow our "leaders" regardless of what they say. This is called the, "Argument from authority logical fallacy" which says, "Source 'A' says, 'p'. Source A is authoritative. Therefore, 'p' is true." This is a fallacy because the truth or falsity of the claim is not necessarily related to the personal qualities of the claimant, and because the premises can be true, and the conclusion false (an authoritative claim can turn out to be false).