Please note...

My post today is on Persist: The Blog.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/31/2011

"To keep the body in good health is a duty. . . otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/31/2011

"To keep the body in good health is a duty. . . otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

The Bush Tattoos

(George H. W., that is...)

I remember only a single image from my dream last night. It's former President George H. W. Bush lying on a beach. His swimsuit is light blue, with an intricate patter of small, colorful figures. Above the waistline of the swimsuit, his belly is covered with multiple tattoos of similar, though even brighter figures, in amongst a fuzz of small hairs, shimmering in the sunlight.

A respectful Memorial Day to American readers! To all others, my gratitude for checking in on The Buddha Diaries. And if anyone could help me with that dream...

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/30/2011

"Your body is precious. It is our vehicle for awakening. Treat it with care."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/30/2011

"Your body is precious. It is our vehicle for awakening. Treat it with care."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/29/2011

"Little by little a person becomes evil, as a water pot is filled by drops of water...
Little by little a person becomes good, as a water pot is filled by drops of water."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/29/2011

"Little by little a person becomes evil, as a water pot is filled by drops of water...
Little by little a person becomes good, as a water pot is filled by drops of water."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

THIS MORNING...

... I sat. I closed my eyes and straightened my back. I bought my attention to the breath. I began to allow the body to relax... And the mind kicked in.

It asked: why are you doing this? Is this not a total waste of your time? Are there not many other things you could and should be doing? You could, for example, be reading the New York Sunday Times. You could be taking another hour in bed. You should be writing your blog, or outside in the back yard, changing the water in the fountain. (It got soapy yesterday, with cleanser dripping down from the balcony above, where the outside furniture was being given a wash. This morning, it's filled with foam.) So many things you could be doing with this time...

And yet... the choice is made. The commitment, really. And I learned long ago that Why? is the least useful of questions, one that takes me straight from my heart to my head, usually without productive results. I suppose I could come up with reasons for doing this. It clears out the mind, relaxes the body, gets me out of my head and into the here and now. It refreshes. It enriches my life, expands my view of the world, prepares me for life's end...

And, having stuck with my meditation through those initial doubts, I ended up with the realization that there are few, if any more pleasant ways to spend the time than in silent concentration on the breath; that what results is a quiet kind of joy, a distance from all those things that (still!) need to be done, a serenity that I can find in no other way. And the modest wisdom that realization represents.

Metta to all! And a happy and restful Memorial Day!

LOYALTY

What are the limits of loyalty?

It’s a vexing question, and one that troubles me particularly in the light of everything that’s happening in our political life today. On one side of the spectrum, I see an excess of loyalty to right-wing ideology and those who are attempting to implement it; on the other, an absence of loyalty that make progress toward goals I believe in difficult if not impossible. On the one side, intransigence; on the other, a contentiousness and a lack of solidarity that makes progress difficult, if not impossible.

I was reminded by this excellent op-ed piece in yesterday’s New York Times about the Democratic disarray which opened the door to Reaganism and the rise of right-wing power. The prime concerns of Hubert H. Humphrey (the centennial of whose birth is celebrated in the article) were social justice and a fair economic playing field. Had the party honored his leadership at the time, we might be living in a different America at the start of the 21^st century. Instead, fired by a well-justified but narrowly-focused rage against the Vietnam war, the party fled from Humphrey in droves, and stood by as Nixon trounced the anti-war McGovern. (I was, I confess, amongst them. Remember, "Dump the Hump"?)

We find ourselves today in a situation with Barack Obama that is in some ways a similar. There are those on the left who are willing to make the war(s) their primary, if not single issue. I, too, am deeply troubled by these endless, quite possibly irresolvable conflicts. And there are those with genuine, multiple, principled disagreements with the President's leadership on the economy and other fronts. I am personally just as greatly troubled, though, by the resultant, dangerous absence of solidarity and support among liberals and progressives, which leaves our side at once enfeebled and demonstrably vulnerable to the lock-step loyalty of Republicans. In our seemingly unshakable insistence on our individual rectitude on any given issue, we risk losing sight of the greater goals.

So what are the proper limits of loyalty? At what point are we compelled to stand on our own principles and mutiny against our leadership—at the risk of causing our ship to founder on the rocks? This is something that we did with extraordinary success last November, withdrawing our support from Democratic candidates in anger or disappointment, or simply abstaining because of our deflated enthusiasm.

We all have beliefs and principles at stake. Should we be prepared to sacrifice any of them—or none?

My thinking is that beliefs and principles are all very fine and may feel very good, but they don’t get us very far. I’m much aware that for every belief that I hold dear, there is someone who holds an opposite, quite possibly incompatible belief. (I may even have a few contradictions in my own thinking!) And rigid adherence to my principles—that is, ideology—can be as destructive as willingness to compromise them. The question is, when does it serve me better to bend, like the proverbial willow in the wind, rather than risk being blasted into oblivion like the oak?

Loyalty, it seems to me, must be a matter for negotiation—between me and my conscience as well as between me and my opponent. Blind loyalty is no better than its absence, and can be very much worse. We saw the effects of it in Nazi Germany. We also, sadly, see the results of intransigence in the never-ending (never-starting!) “peace talks” between the Israelis and the Palestinians. No matter how much “right” there is on either side, there can be no resolution before both sides are ready for some serious give-and-take. Mindless loyalty to the cause on either side will not lead to the peace from which both would surely benefit.

Still, a leader should not be called upon to do constant, paralyzing battle with those on his own side. The useful yardstick, for me, is the greater or the lesser harm: will his efforts lead to a better or worse result? Which might be different from, and lesser than what I myself deem to be the optimum result.

If by loyalty we mean being able to count on backing and support in tough circumstances, it seems to me that we on the left would do more to further our cause by lending that support than angrily withdrawing it when the optimal goal is not more immediately in sight, or when we happen to disagree. Barack Obama is not—at least in my view—the great betrayer of all principle and breaker of promises that he’s made out to be by those who are disappointed in the slow—they might say, non-existent—pace of change. I say rather that he has his eyes on the same prize as myself: social and economic justice, an end to oppression of all kinds, peace in the world and shared prosperity, a proper balance between humankind and nature. But these results do not come easy in today’s contentious political environment, and I personally don’t have the responsibility, nor the skills--as he does, with our support and that of his political allies--to make those things happen.

My own contention is that Obama is (in what has become a tritely popular construction in the political rhetoric of the day) on "the right side of history"; that he has both the vision and the patience to persist; and that he deserves the solid backing of our support. He has mine. I hope he has yours.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/28/2011

"To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one's own in the midst of abundance."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/28/2011

"To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one's own in the midst of abundance."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/27/2011

"There are five things which no one is able to accomplish in this world: first, to cease growing old when he is growing old; second, to cease being sick; third, to cease dying; fourth, to deny dissolution when there is dissolution; fifth, to deny non-being."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/27/2011

"There are five things which no one is able to accomplish in this world: first, to cease growing old when he is growing old; second, to cease being sick; third, to cease dying; fourth, to deny dissolution when there is dissolution; fifth, to deny non-being."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Jared Lee Loughner's Mental State.

Well, that was a short hiatus!! I'm glad I didn't force the inspiration though--force never works. It fights the natural flow of the stream of life. Now, on with the new post!!

(Artists rendering of accused killer, Jared Lee Loughner, in court. Photo Credit: Associated Press)

By Richard A. Serrano, Los Angeles Times

May 26, 2011

Reporting from Tucson—

A federal judge ruled Jared Lee Loughner mentally incompetent to stand trial in the Jan. 8 shooting spree that gravely wounded an Arizona congresswoman after two medical experts agreed he suffered from schizophrenia and for several years has been troubled by delusions and hallucinations.

They said on the news that they will "attempt" to make him fit for trial. If he's not fit for trial, then he clearly wasn't mentally fit when he committed the crime. However, if we dope him up enough, we can throw him in prison and exact our revenge on a mentally sick man??? How can he be thrown in prison, after treatment supposedly makes him "fit for trial" when he wasn't mentally fit at the time of the crime? I don't for one minute excuse his actions, and firmly believe he should be isolated from society, in a hospital, for the criminally insane, for the rest of his life. However, that said, how can he be convicted as a mentally fit man, after the crime was committed as an mentally unfit man? By that logic, a prisoner who committed a crime as a mentally fit person should be able to be acquitted, if he later develops a mental illness that renders him insane.

Being someone with a mental illness, you can't just "make it go away." Now, I'm not a danger to society, like Loughner, (nor am I defending him) but it seems our justice system, and much of America, (if not the world) is ignorant as to the fact that a mental illness isn't curable--at this present time. The last place we should put this individual is in prison, where he will only be agitated further, which could place the staff and other inmates in danger. I think it's safer for everyone to put him in a treatment facility where they have the medications, staff and experience with such cases. As distasteful as it may sound, he does deserve humane treatment. Just because he committed barbaric acts, doesn't give us the right to be barbaric in return. This isn't just a test of his sanity, but a test of how we will behave toward someone who has caused a lot of suffering. If we treat him with brutality in return for how he treated the Congresswoman, then we have just as much a lesson to learn about compassion as he does.

It scares me sometimes how vengeful people can be when they talk of torturing and tormenting prisoners for their crimes. I always look at people who speak that way in a different light. It makes me wonder what's going on in their heads!! It's scary how quickly their religious values and moral beliefs about laws and behavior go out the window when the target is a criminal. It's never ok to treat people in such a way--even if they are hardened criminals. Why? Because then we lose our humanity as a society--and within ourselves. If we behave that way toward criminals, then are we really that different from them?

~Peace to all beings~

Kensho: The Heart of Zen

Kensho: The Heart of Zen
An authoritative and prolific translator of and commentator on East Asian religious texts, Cleary tells us that kensho means "Zen insight into the essence of one's own being." To explain this concept in depth, he translates and comments on three Zen texts and divides his book into corresponding parts, which he titles "The True Mind," "Applications," and "Zen Koans." The three Zen texts are Chinul's (Korean, 1158-1210) Straightforward Explanation of the True Mind, several works by Hakuin (Japanese Zen master, 1689-1769), and The Book of Ease, a Chinese koan collection. Cleary's approach is to state a theme, expound on it, quote several passages from one of the three works to illuminate the concept, show what this contributes to the Zen understanding of true mind, and summarize his presentation. His work is tightly reasoned, complex, and for the advanced student of Zen.

MediaFire 

Filesonic

Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life

Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life - Thich Nhat Hanh, Lilian Cheung
If Vietnamese Zen Buddhist master Nhat Hanh says the same thing over and over, it could be because not enough people have heard him, and those who have need a reminder. He speaks to both groups in this work, coauthored by Harvard nutritionist Cheung, urging mindfulness about what people put in their mouths. It's a diet book and a meditation book, an unusual hybrid that makes sense for Nhat Hanh because it applies his essential wisdom: pay attention; breathe. If you consistently do that, you'll eat less, and at least two-thirds of Americans surely need to follow that advice. This book adds a lot of eat-this-and-not-that rules, as well as exercise guidelines, delivering so much information the effect is a little overwhelming. But the core meditation instructions are quintessential Nhat Hanh, steely and loving. This could be the diet-and-exercise book for those who have failed using other methods and need a fresh approach. For Nhat Hanh's many fans, it is the sole wellness book they'll need to remind themselves to only pay attention.


filesonic (EPUB)
filesonic (PDF)

depositfiles (EPUB)
depositfiles (PDF)

uploading (EPUB)
uploading (PDF)

FEED YOUR HEAD

This morning I posted the draft of a new chapter for my book on Persist: The Blog. It's called "Feed Your Head." I hope you might be interested enough to pop over and take a look.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/26/2011

"Misdirected life force is the activity in disease process. Disease has no energy save what it borrows from the life of the organism. It is by adjusting the life force that healing must be brought about, and it is the sun as transformer and distributor of primal spiritual energy that must be utilized in this process, for life and the sun are so intimately connected."


~The Buddha


Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/26/2011

"Misdirected life force is the activity in disease process. Disease has no energy save what it borrows from the life of the organism. It is by adjusting the life force that healing must be brought about, and it is the sun as transformer and distributor of primal spiritual energy that must be utilized in this process, for life and the sun are so intimately connected."


~The Buddha


Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

NY 26th

(Cross-posted on VoteObama 2012)

The stunning reversal in New York's 26th Congressional District yesterday, while a hopeful sign for the Democrats, suggests some rather depressing things about the American electorate. Personalities aside--and I'm guessing that the winner was a more... well, winning personality than the woman she defeated--one would want to assume that voters were persuaded as much by promises and policies when they elected a Republican just a half year or so ago, and by a vast majority. One might also, fairly, assume that yesterday's result was in good part an utter repudiation of what the Republicans have done, and what they have proposed to do, since gaining control of the House of Representatives.

My own conclusion is that voters were not listening last November. It's not that Republicans failed to make their intentions clear. True, they dressed those intentions up in fancy rhetoric about jobs and tax cuts, and sold them aggressively to easily seduced buyers. But really, who could be surprised by their continuing, stubborn, irrational opposition to everything the President presented--even when, at times, his proposals met with or surpassed their own requirements? Who could be surprised by their draconian budget proposal, their attack on Medicare, their inalterable opposition to putting an end to the Bush tax cuts? All these were perfectly predictable, to anyone who cared to listen to their message.

The point is, people listened to what they wanted to hear. They listened to the fear and the greed in their own gut, not to the unconcealed ideology or its predictable consequences. There was no exercise of judgment, no critical discernment. I have to add, ruefully, that something similar can be said about Democratic voters in 2008. They projected all their desires and all their hopes on candidate Obama. He became some kind of messiah, rather than the politician that he was, and is, necessarily, in order to reach the Oval Office. He could never have fulfilled all the expectations that built up around him. (I hear you say, "But he promised!" Don't you listen to a politician's promises with an ounce of realistic skepticism?)

If it were in my power to endow American voters with a gift--excuse, for a moment, the presumption!--it would be the gift of that skepticism. And I'm not talking about the cynical form that discounts all hope and aspiration with a smirk; nor the kind that belittles every effort to progress. I'm talking about the kind of skepticism that simply asks reasonable questions and insists on reasonable answers; the kind of skepticism that requires the careful examination of conscience and the weighing of likely outcomes; the kind of skepticism that is as skeptical of itself and its own self-interest as it is of others.

So the wild pendulum swing in New York's 26th District is less a cause for celebration among Democrats than for some sober self-questioning. Where were all those voters in November, 2010, who so miraculously saw the light in May, 2011? What does it mean, that the pendulum swung so far, so fast? What dangers does the swing suggest, and how must they be addressed? The success of a democracy depends on the educational maturity of the demos. No nation can be run on the basis of purely emotional self-interest. It must be governed by rational choices and well-thought decisions. But alas, given the history of the past couple of years, I'm compelled to wonder if this is what people find so objectionable about Obama? I remain, um, skeptical.

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/25/2011

"Let no sleep fall upon thy eyes till thou hast thrice reviewed the transactions of the past day. Where have I turned aside from rectitude? What have I been doing? What have left undone, which I ought to have done? Begin thus from the first act, and proceed; and, in conclusion, at the ill which thou hast done, be troubled, and rejoice for the good."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/25/2011

"Let no sleep fall upon thy eyes till thou hast thrice reviewed the transactions of the past day. Where have I turned aside from rectitude? What have I been doing? What have left undone, which I ought to have done? Begin thus from the first act, and proceed; and, in conclusion, at the ill which thou hast done, be troubled, and rejoice for the good."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Low on Inspiration: A Hiatus.

As many of you can see, I haven't written much lately. Well, it appears that I've been bitten by the "writer's block" bug. Be sure to subscribe by email to the blog for my return. In the meantime, check out the vast archives, located on the lower right hand column of the blog. I will try to return soon, replete with fresh ideas and insights; it might be later today, or a couple weeks from now!! But, rest assured, I won't go far, dear readers!! As always, I'll be reading my fellow bloggers' posts in the meantime. May the time apart be filled with smiles, love and happiness for you all.

~Peace to all beings~

JOPLIN, MISSOURI

I imagine those poor folk in Joplin must have thought the world was coming to an end. This New York Times panoramic view, with what remains of St. Johns Regional Medical center at the horizon, is breathtaking evidence of the extent of the destruction. Unimaginable. The images, as usual, speak louder than all the words that have been written; and the widely-played five minute video from the mini market, which I discovered posted in full length on the Huffingtion Post, evokes the horror of those few minutes even in utter darkness, with only momentary flashes of lightning to illuminate the scene. The voices document the anticipation, the chaotic arrival of the tornado itself, and the terrified aftermath.

Later this morning, I will be sending some money to one of the organizations aiding the victims. It's a small gesture of compassion, and as usual it feels inadequate to the enormity of the suffering. From a lecture visit to Drury University some years ago, I have friends in the neighboring city of Springfield. I heard from one of them yesterday, to say that he is planning to make the trip to Joplin as soon as it is permitted, to see what he can do to help. It's good neighbors like these that remind us of what is best in the human spirit. Sad that it sometimes takes tragedy to jolt us into our better selves. To paraphrase a famous utterance, "Today, we are all Missourians."

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/23/2011

"An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/23/2011

"An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

STICK ART

I love these modest, ephemeral art works by my niece, Charlotte Docking, who lives in England. They share the art-and nature quality of better-known contemporary artists like Andy Goldsworthy, but have their own unique blend of ritual and whimsy...

I like the evocation of primal, slithery creatures--snakes, centipedes, nautilus--in artfully distributed sticks and tree bark, and my mind engages in the intricate process of laying out the pieces. Quite simple, and yet eloquent. Though modest in medium and scale, works such at these can resonate in the human consciousness at the same archetypal level as the ancient, monumental grandeur of Stonehenge or the enigma of "crop circles" today. The imagination works in wonderfully diverse ways. I hope she does more. I hope she finds a place to show the photo-documentation...

ROUTINE

(I think this is the beginning of an essay...)

These past few days have been a curious lapse for me. Things have seemed out of sync. What started out as wi-fi troubles in our home network led to a temporary aversion to all things electronic, including my blogs. Not unlike George, the dog, I recognize myself to be a creature of habit. I get upset and discombobulated when my normal routine is interrupted, for whatever reason. One of these, currently, is our regular migration from the city to our cottage in Laguna Beach. It has been more than two weeks since we were there, and it will be another ten days before we get back down. (The cottage is currently on loan to a young British couple, actors hoping to find work in Southern California,; we have arranged an exchange for their flat in Islington, not far from our grandchildren, where we will be staying for ten days in September.)

Routine is useful to me. I’d almost say indispensible. It’s a kind of security blanket, without which my mind is more than usually restless and uncomfortable. Things just seem to move along smoothly when I’m in it; when I’m not, everything goes wrong. That hard-to-reach bulb explodes and needs changing. The garden hose develops a leak. I lose my place in the book I’m reading. At dinner time, I eat more than I need to, to compensate for the discomfort that I’m feeling—and wake up in the morning feeling slow and bloated.

Big things, little things. It all seems out of kilter.

Worst of all, the writing suffers. My usually powerful motivation flies out the window. Long-forgotten fears about “not knowing what to say” come flooding back. When I do sit down to write, I get side-tracked by some triviality that would, in other circumstances, be made to wait for my attention.

Routine is not practice—neither creative nor meditative practice—but I find it essential to facilitate practice.

Is it humdrum? Is it boring? I suppose that it might seem to. I suppose that it might be allowed to become so. To prevent that from happening, it needs to be properly observed and used. Like practice itself, it is a discipline that brings its own challenges and rewards.

I understand routine to be a temporal analogy for spatial orientation. It’s a matter of knowing where, in time, I am. It helps to recognize that is cognate with the word “route.” It’s a navigational device that sees me through the day. Without it, I am blown by the winds and driven by the tides. With it, no matter the external circumstances, I know my longitude and latitude (no coincidence, surely, that these are measured in minutes!) and where I’m headed. I know when it’s time to trim the sails and idle, and when it’s time to tack hard in the opposite direction.

Okay, forgive me, I’m getting carried away with a rather trite metaphor, but I hope that it serves to clarify the point. As I say, I’ve been watching myself go increasingly adrift in the past few days, and need to get back on track. Which will mean rediscovering the routine,

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/22/2011

"The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/22/2011

"The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Awakening the Sacred Body

Awakening the Sacred Body - Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Awakening the Sacred Body brings the ancient art of Tibetan breathing practices to the mainstream. Teacher Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche outlines the theory and process of two powerful meditations-the Nine Breathings of Purification and the Tsa Lung movements-that can help you change the way you think, feel, and experience the world. The simple methods presented in Awakening the Sacred Body and on the accompanying DVD focus on clearing and opening your energetic centers to allow the natural human qualities of love, compassion, joy, and equanimity to bloom. These practices, which bring the mind and breath together with specific body movements, can help you connect to your inner wisdom and achieve a relaxed yet aware state of mind.

Torrent (Invites in Comments)

Preview

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/21/2011

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 5/21/2011

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change."


~The Buddha

Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma