May I become at all times, now and forever

How many days it has been since I have posted anything

life in Singapore can be intense - and consuming.

The following is a “concluding prayer” from Ethics for the New Millennium, by the Dalai Lama, which I just finished reading, this morning.

May I become at all times, both now and forever

A protector for those without protection

A guide for those who have lost their way

A ship for those with oceans to cross

A sanctuary for those in danger

A lamp for those without light

A place of refuge for those who lack shelter

And a servant to all in need

THE MIND'S KNOWING ESSENCE - MORE EARLY MORNING TWEETS

The Lee Kuan Yew school is - potentially - one of the world’s highest leverage institutions.  How can it fully realize that potential?

The primal delusion that mobilizes the forces of greed and anger is always cunningly concealed in the deepest resources of the heart. MCK

The mind’s knowing essence is a vast awareness; an unobstructed inner space that contains everything but retains nothing. MCK

Easter Morning Query: God has given me gifts for which I am thankful.  Am I fully using them in the service of God’s purposes? 

New early morning reading.  HH Dalai Lama, ETHICS FOR THE NEW MILLENIUM. Reference: ENM

The contemporary rhetoric of growth and economic development reinforces people's tendency toward competitiveness and envy. ENM

“Carew” birds early morning calls. Memories of the quiet Sri Lankan garden view, writing Paradise Poisoned. 

Reflections on "love."

My mother, certainly the most influential woman in my life, was sparing in her praise. I believe that child-rearing practices in the 1940s, when I was being reared, emphasized discipline rather than affirmation. And the world “love” almost never crossed her lips - at least in my presence. Apart from literary allusions - she could be the most vibrant, engaging conversationalist I have ever met - I only heard her use the word twice in serious conversation. Once she told me she believed I was “in love” with someone. Since we had never discussed such matters, I was dumbfounded at her perceptiveness. It was true. On another occasion, when I told her that I “loved” a difficult close relative we had in common, who was facing a crisis in her life, she responded “I don’t know what that would mean.” I know others whose use of the term is equally infrequent. Perhaps they believe that their “love” is like a precious jewel that would lose its value if reproduced in large quantities or a non-interest drawing savings account that would run a deficit if too many withdrawals were made. My mother said as much about her view of the matter, when I once asked her about this.

Christian marriage vows include promises to “love and honor” however I am convinced that most individuals making such pledges have little appreciation of what they might mean. Certainly this is true in the case of first marriages but frequently in the case of second or subsequent marriages as well. For many, perhaps most, a more descriptive pledge would be, “I promise to love and honor you, as long as we both shall live, so long as you fulfill my expectations.” Why is this so?

My thinking on the topic of “love” has been enriched by a distinction - between “love” and “attachment” that the Dalai Lama emphasizes in several of his books. Being “in love” which is the initial basis for most intimate relationships and, I believe, most decisions to marry, is almost always based on “attachment.” Attachment is significantly tied to physical attraction, but also, typically, to shared interests, congeniality, shared cultural compatibility and perhaps a need to feel loved and to feel secure. For women, especially in traditional societies, a stable income source to provide for themselves and children has also been a consideration, though this less true today. Attachment often involves dependence, which stifles authentic communication. This complicates the possibility of lasting relationships and lasting “love” still further. When circumstances change, attachment fades. “You are not the woman - or man - I married” one or both ‘partners’ will say or feel. This, of course, is inevitably true - not only of marriages but of any long-term close relationships.

“Compassion” is a term the Dalai Lama sometimes equates with love. In one of his writings he offers a powerful illustration. He tells of a monk who spent seventeen years in “a Chinese Gulag” where periodic torture was part of the regimen. Later they became friends. “On several occasions,” the monk recounted, “I faced serious danger.” “What was the danger?” the Dalai Lama asked. “Being unable to love and show compassion toward my Chinese guards” was the response. Mahatma Ghandi, believed that God was love and that oppressors should be loved, though not their evil deeds. A similar message is found in many quoted sayings of Jesus, chronicled in the Gospels of the Christian Bible. I common theme in all of these equates love with unconditional acceptance.

Perhaps my favorite passage on love is from a friend of many years, the late Donella (Dana) Meadows. Dana wrote:

Love is receiving someone in a space of total trust, openness, good will, acceptance.

I can take each person I know and rank them on a scale which is the degree of openness and love with which I receive them – the amount of careful attention I am willing to give them, the ability I have to be with them. Notice that the quality lies in me, not them.

Some people in my world are objects, which I have a fixed concept about and am not at all open to any information to the contrary.

I can change who they are just by opening myself to them.

What Dana is saying, in a somewhat more personal way, is similar to the wisdom offered by the Dalai Lama, by Buddha, Jesus, by Gandhi, by the monk who was released after 17 years of imprisonment and many others. The world around us and those who inhabit it are, in large degree, an artifact that we create. Should we wish to live in a world that is mostly inhabited by lovable people, and have such a “reality” be the basis for loving relationships, we have that choice.

Neuroplasticity and Spirituality

I wrote this note to a new acquaintance, this morning. She is an oncologist, but also believes that neuropsychology and spirituality have important roles to play in cancer treatment. That was what we discussed when we met. I thought others might be interested in the topic and references as well.

Dear .........,

For some time I have been wanting to share references on neuroplasticity with you, but have not done so. I first learned about this from listening to podcasts of one of my favorite American Public Media radio programs, Speaking of Faith. I have been interested in the relationship between neuroscience and spirituality ever since I read the Dalai Lama’s book, The Universe in a Single Atom and learned about the Mind and Life Conferences, with which you are no doubt familiar. The interview I listened to some time ago, and again this morning, was with Matthieu Rickard. Ricard is the son of the French philosopher Jean-Francois Revel and before becoming a Buddhist monk in his twenties, earned a Ph.D. degree in molecular genetics at the Institut Pasteur. He is a board member of the Mind and Life Institute. A particular passage in his discussion of neuroplasticity is one that I still remember. “A virtuoso violinist practices for years to gain his virtuosity. We can measure the changes in his (or her) brain. A chess master studies for years to gain mastery and we can measure those changes. Why should we think it would be any different with compassion....”

Anyhow, when listening to Ricard earlier this morning, I thought of you once again and have finally gotten around to writing this note. Here is the link to his interview. I prefer the uncut version, which I listen to while cooking, cleaning or taking a meal. However the produced version takes less time and covers the essential points.

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/ricard/

http://download.publicradio.org/podcast/speakingoffaith/unheard_cuts/2009/11/12/20091112_ricard_uc_ricard_64.mp3?_kip_ipx=165231802-1268701213

With best wishes,

Dormgrandpop

Meditation as an alternative to 'extreme' sports competitions and drugs

I have two close acquaintances who are passionately committed to what are often described as ‘extreme’ sports. One competes in several 100 mile ultra marathons each year. When not actually competing, training for these events is an irrevocable life priority. The other’s commitment is to the equestrian equivalent of the ultra marathon, 100 and 50 mile horseback races over arduous terrain.

Each has their tales of physical privation, endured and surmounted, to share with compatriots and friends. During one race, the marathoner, towards the end of an event, lost the sight of one eye, but pressed on. When he became completely blind, he pressed his ‘crew’ of friends to help him continue to the finish line. Their better judgement prevailed, however, and he was persuaded to stop at about mile 90. The endurance racer began to suffer internal bleeding toward the end of one event. Only after finishing the race did she allow friends to rush her to a nearby emergency room for resuscitation. Neither she, nor attending veterinarians would ever allow a horse to compete with an injury, but she is much less forgiving of her own body.

What these sports have in common with avocations such as rock climbing, extreme motorcycle racing and, perhaps any athletic event, intensely practiced, is partly the sense of camaraderie among practitioners, but especially the focused mental “high,” excluding all else from one’s mental and physical being, they produce. Downsides of such activities include the physical risk they entail - one can be permanently injured or die - and the fact that old age is their enemy - most ultrasportspersons are forced to abandon their passion by their 60th birthday at the latest. (Though my endurance racing acquaintance is, with total focus steely determination, continuing to complete at age.

73).

Drugs, of course, represent another path towards attaining the mental high that ultra marathons, equestrian endurance racing and other intensely practiced sports produce. The upside of drugs, especially in the brief pre-addictive period, is that no discipline is required to achieve the desired result. But the downside of drug use, of course, far outweighs these transient benefits. In a short period of time, they are addictive (though addiction can be an attribute of ultra sports as well) and are destructive to both body and mind.

Since a principal goal of ultra-sports, and drugs is a mental state of focus and exhilaration (the spiritually inclined might say ‘enlightenment’). It seems reasonable to ask whether or not such a mental state is attainable through mental activity alone. If possible, this would have the advantage of limited downside physical risk and might offer the advantage of greater insulation from the physical ravages of old age. Practitioners of meditation believe this is possible. Tibetan meditative practice, with which I have been struggling, seems to be a promising option. It embraces traditions spanning more than two millennia.

I have experimented periodically with meditative practices for many years. My religious affiliation is with the Society of Friends (the Quakers). ‘Listening’ for the ‘Still Small Voice’) of God, is central to Quaker practice. An an undergraduate, I studied the Spiritual Exercises of Jesuit founder St. Ignatius Loyola. Inspired by my friend and collaborator, Donella Meadows, I experimented with Zen meditation and related practices. For one entire year, between marriages, I wrote six haiku every day,which was a remarkable way to become more vividly aware of seasonal cycles and natural things.

About eighteen months ago I decided to make a fairly serious commitment to TIbetan meditative practice, using the Dalai Llama’s small volume, How to Practice: The Guide to a Meaningful Life (Atria Books, 2003) as my guide. I begin most days, in the early morning hours studying this book and striving, with very limited success, so far, to follow its precepts. It is my companion when I travel.

The practice, as I have come to understand it, begins with ‘morality,’ the avoidance of non virtues such as killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, divisive talk, harsh speech, senseless chatter, covetousness, harmful intend and wrong views. The essence of Tibetan Buddhist morality is a belief that an innate desire to avoid pain and achieve happiness is something all sentient beings have in common. Its central message is “Help others. If that is not possible, do no harm.”

Morality provides the foundation for ‘concentrated meditation,’ a discipline that is intended to produce ‘calm abiding of the mind,’ leading, with sufficient practice, to a state described as the ‘mind of clear light,’ ‘enlightenment’ or ‘Nirvana.’

Meditative practice, seriously undertaken, does indeed appear able to produce somewhat similar mental states to drugs and extreme sports, along with more lasting benefits. However in this writings, The Dalai Lama urges would-be practitioners not to underestimate its rigors. The Lord Buddha lived for six years as an ascetic before attaining enlightenment and Tibetan Buddhists believe he was a reincarnation of a individual who had already attained enlightenment in many previous lives. The Dalai Lama, who has devoted a lifetime to meditative practice describes his own attainments with characteristic modesty. He also recounts the the account of another proficient meditator, who having experienced clear light of the mind, described the path he had followed to attainment as more rigorous than the tortures he had endured at the hands of Chinese Communist jailers during years of imprisonment.

In other words, serious meditative practice may, indeed, be an alternative to drugs and extreme sports, but it probably is not an option for the indolent, the impatient or the faint hearted.

Viewing systems as a whole: an insight from the Dalai Llama about medicine, economics and morality

As I was posting the part of my sabbatical proposal dealing with systems analysis, a passage from a book I was reading earlier this morning came to mind.  The book is entitled, How to See Yourself as You Really Are (2006).  His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, is the author.  Here is the passage (from pp. 52-53).

In the field of medicine, ...it is not sufficient to concentrate just on one speciality.  The whole body needs to be considered.  In Tibetan medicine, the diagnostic approach is more holistic, taking into consideration interactive systems.

Similarly, in economics, if you just go after profit you end up with corruption. Look at the increasing corruption in many countries.  By considering all commercial actions to be morally neutrai, we turn a blind eye to corruption.  When, as they say in China, “It doesn’t make any difference whether a cat is black or white,” the result is that a lot of black cats - a lot of morally bankrupt people - are creating a lot of problems.

Reasons for giving thanks to President Bush

For many weeks, learning more about Tibetan meditative practice has been a goal during my early morning ‘quiet time.’ How to Practice: A Guide to A Meaningful Life, by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama has been my principal resource.

Forgiving enemies is a a theme of many spiritual traditions. However the Dalai Lama’s views regarding enemies are even more demanding. He believes they should be valued as spiritual gifts because of the opportunities to change, grow stronger and practice compassion they provide.

The Chinese Communist leaders who ordered the invasion of Tibet, tortured and killed many Tibetan citizens and drove the Dalai Lama into exile provide an illustration. He acknowledges that the invasion catalyzed needed changes in Tibetan spiritual practices and raised the visibility of those practices on a global stage. He speaks of how Communist outrages compelled a rigorous testing of his own monastic vows emphasizing radical compassion, forgiveness and non violence.

I would not place President George Bush in the same category as the Chinese Communist leaders who ordered the invasion of Tibet. But I believe we must recognize contribution of his administration’s failed economic policies, flawed international policies, corruption and incompetence that even conservative-leaning publications such as The Economist have highlighted. Absent these failures, the transformational election America has just witnessed might well not have occurred. President Bush provides us, too, with an opportunity to practice compassion and to forgive.

A bleak picture of how things are on our planet - and a message of empowerment

I have begun my fourth audiobook from among the Dalai Lama’s writings. The title is ‘How to expand love: Widening the Circle of Loving Relationships.’  The voice of His Holiness’ translator from 1979 to 1989, Professor P. Jeffrey Hopkins, has become a frequent companion.

The following excerpt from Professor Hopkins’ introduction provides a succinct, bleak  picture of humanity-created trends on our planet. He describes them as ‘dark forces:’   

• increasing tendencies toward greed, exploitation and lust.  
• rampant consumerism;  
• incessant manipulation of opinions that reinforce coarse urges; 
• the ubiquitous presence of contentless entertainment;   
• increasing divides between rich and poor;  
• sound-byte explanations for complexities of human existence;  
• overeating to the point of pain and obesity ;  
• movements to roll back worker rights to 19th century levels; 
• a ridiculous emphasis on economic profit as if this could be the only goal of breathing. 
  

Sadly, these trends dominate  many facets American culture.  It is the ubiquitous influence of our culture that is catalyzing similar trends globally.

But the Dalai Lama’s message is one of hope and empowerment, not despair.  The path to altering these trends can - indeed must - begin with transformation of ourselves. Seeking enlightenment, for the welfare of all, must become part of a daily practice. The task requires time, effort, patience and discipline. But it is possible.

The Dalai Lama is not a terrorist

Earlier this month I shared a note to my son about audiobooks by the Dalai Lama to which I have been listening.  I have now completed four and am listening to two of the deeper ones, not written for popular consumption, a second and third time. The voice of an official translator of His Holiness, P. Jeffrey Hopkins, has been my morning companion for many days.  A couple of days ago, I interrupted my audio studies to listen to NPR’s ‘Morning Edition,’ one of my principal news sources.  A report, focusing on Tibet, featured a statement by People’s Republic of China Government officials branding the Dalai Llama, recipient of the 1989 Nobel; Peace prize, as “a terrorist.’  The statement struck me not only as patently false, but inept.

As  anecdote from the book to which I was listening, How to See Yourself as you Really Are. came to mind. To illustrate the importance of not hating, His Holiness recounted a conversation with a monk who had been imprisoned and tortured by the Chinese for 18 years. “What was the greatest challenge you faced during those years of imprisonment” His Holiness asked, and was amazed at the response.  “My greatest fear,” the monk responded, “was that I would cease to love the guards who were my torturers.”

For a summary of the Dalai Llama’s views on the present conflict in Tibet and many other matters, check out his official website at www.dalailama.com/news.220.htm. Here is a brief excerpt from a recent statement, given on March 28.

Chinese brothers and sisters, I assure you I have no desire to seek Tibet’s separation. Nor do I have any wish to drive a wedge between the Tibetan and Chinese peoples. On the contrary my commitment has always been to find a genuine solution to the problem of Tibet that ensures the long-term interests of both Chinese and Tibetans. My primary concern, as I have repeated time and again, is to ensure the survival of the Tibetan people’s distinctive culture, language and identity. As a simple monk who strives to live his daily life according to Buddhist precepts, I assure you of the sincerity of my personal motivation.

 

I have appealed to the leadership of the PRC to clearly understand my position and work to resolve these problems by “seeking truth from facts.” I urge the Chinese leadership to exercise wisdom and to initiate a meaningful dialogue with the Tibetan people. I also appeal to them to make sincere efforts to contribute to the stability and harmony of the PRC and avoid creating rifts between the nationalities. The state media’s portrayal of the recent events in Tibet, using deceit and distorted images, could sow the seeds of racial tension with unpredictable long-term consequences. This is of grave concern to me.  Similarly, despite my repeated support for the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese authorities, with the intention of creating a rift between the Chinese people and myself, the Chinese authorities assert that I am trying to sabotage the games. I am encouraged, however, that several Chinese intellectuals and scholars have also expressed their strong concern about the Chinese leadership’s actions and the potential for adverse long-term consequences, particularly on relations among different nationalities.

The Dalai Lama is NOT a terrorist!