Three Doors to Freedom

Unnecessary Tyranny

2010-02-25T22:04:38-08:00

"One should respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways."

~ Bertrand Russell

Wordlessness

2009-07-17T20:04:24-07:00

What matters is the right relationship between words and wordlessness, the wordlessness in which much more happens than in all the words one can string together ... All that words should do is lend the silence form and contours.

~ Etty Hillesum, Holocaust Heroine

Where is the Love?

2009-05-07T20:11:31-07:00

If you only have love for your own race
Then you only leave space to discriminate
And to discriminate only generates hate
And when you hate then you're bound to get irate, yeah
Madness is what you demonstrate
And that's exactly how anger works and operates
Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight
Take control of your mind and meditate
Let your soul gravitate to the love, y'all, y'all

~ Black Eyed Peas

The Passenger Sitting in 9E

2009-05-03T20:37:48-07:00

John Block writes in "American Way":

On the Chicago-bound plane out of Los Angeles International Airport, I sit elbow to elbow with a middle-seater -- a slender Asian lady who is middle-aged like me -- playing solitaire on the computer. A book in a language that I cannot discern rests in her lap.

I try to sleep; then I try to write. I can do neither, but somehow the hours pass. I think, “At least I am in an aisle seat and am able to stretch my left leg.”

When the 757 touches down, a passenger in front of me applauds and I activate my cell phone. There are 11 new messages. The first is from my sister, and the next two are from my wife. I already know what they both want to report, so I hit delete three times. The fourth is from my project supervisor: “John, I’m so sorry about your dad …” Then she says in that gentle lilt of hers that she is sure that I’d been a great son. Dry-eyed the whole morning and throughout the flight, I unexpectedly well up. I twist my head left. Commanding myself to keep quiet, I continue to watch the aisle as we head toward the gate.

I feel 9E wrestling in her purse and then a hand patting my own. I turn back. With her eyes locked on mine, she holds up a tissue. I try to smile as I wipe my cheeks. “Thank you,” I murmur. She nods. Then she lets me take her hand and squeeze it. As I pull my luggage from the overhead compartment and into the busy aisle, she nods again.

In Sanskrit, the term "bodhisattva" denotes those beings who live wisdom and compassion with no hindrance in the mind. May we all sit next to - or even better yet become - bodhisattvas like the passenger in 9E. As well as recognising that buddhas and benefactors constantly surround us.

God Knows

2009-05-03T18:15:36-07:00

It's not that God conceived us in His likeness. The trouble is that we conceive him - or her - in ours.

And you non-theist seekers out there, you're not exempt in this. Even when we use a different term for what we're after, what we think might save us, that too is a projection - by whatever name it's called (englightenment, nirvana, freedom, buddhahood, salvation).

Any God or goal we vainly try to bring to mind, to conjure up, can only be a creature of our own conjecture - a limited and inherently dubious higher power that suffers from the same ultimate dilemma we do.

Yet all but the most enlightened mystics among us continue to heap ideas, descriptions and doctrines upon that which we seek, often only serving to obscure it further. Then we fight, with ourselves or with others, to defend our version as the real one. Depictions of the divine may be very helpful to encourage spiritual maturation, but who decided they were to die for?

How can our merely mortal, fleeting theories and theologies furnish a salvation that transcends all worldly woes, even death itself? Wouldn't any God born of our theories be ... just another theory? And so subject to the fickle way in which whatever we think or feel is subtly filled with doubt, capable of being called into question, dissatisfying.

Who needs a God that is less than conclusive, that has to compete with all the other idea-ologies, that is open to debate? That is why T.S. Eliot refers to the ultimate as "costing not less than everything": all our feeble efforts to define it (and ourselves) have to be forsaken. This "condition of complete simplicity" - not a barren emptiness, but a completeness replete with joy and blessings - cannot be attained through mental machinations. It is the result of genuine spiritual practice, a peeling-away of our habitual tendency to cling to partial formulations.

We do well to remember why in earlier times it was forbidden to utter (or even write, in most cases) the name of G*d. Any label we choose to use is a pale, inadequate reflection, a mere glimmer of the true glory before which every knee would indeed happily bow, in its own way. So let us hold our ideas of God or goal as "this" or "that" just a little more lightly. Theories about God do not matter too much. Direct experience does.

God is Back

2009-04-24T16:31:15-07:00

A new book, God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith Is Changing the World by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge (respectively Editor in Chief and Washington Bureau Chief of The Economist) is causing a stir. The New York Times is derogatory, whilst the BBC's North America editor says it's "brilliant". Meanwhile the authors explain their premise in a Fox News blog and sum it up by saying:

"The deeper reason why God is back is that the American religious model is spreading around the world: religious establishments are being weakened and upstart religious groups are using all the tools of modernity, from megachurches to radio and television, to spread the world" (sic)

Whether you subscribe to the authors' theory or not, the growth of new delivery means - and meccas - for old religious messages is a fascinating phenomenon of our time. Do these new ways water down the salvific strength of the ancient teachings? Or do they bring solace to thousands of disillusioned souls who might otherwise never set foot on sacred ground? Or both, or neither? Even Buddhists might have a thing or two to learn by studying such trends - with an open mind!

The Compassionate Heart of the Enlightened Mind: "Bodhicitta"

2009-04-23T04:27:24-07:00

It is the supreme elixir
That overcomes the sovereignty of death.
It is the inexhaustible treasure
That eliminates poverty in the world.
It is the supreme medicine
That quells the world’s disease.
It is the tree that shelters all beings
Wandering and tired on the path of conditioned existence.
It is the universal bridge
That leads to freedom from unhappy states of birth.
It is the dawning moon of the mind
That dispels the torment of disturbing conceptions.
It is the great sun that finally removes
The misty ignorance of the world.

~ SHANTIDEVA, the Peace Master

Buddhist Monk becomes Pop Star

2009-04-13T07:05:55-07:00

The Buddha taught in many different ways, depending on his audience. From this, the doctrine of "skillful means" arose, allowing the teachings to adapt to changes in society and culture without losing their essence or effectiveness.

Here a monk exemplifies this process by finding a fresh new way to make the teachings accessible to today's audience: BBC News: Buddhist monk becomes pop star.

Lamentations: innovative and inspiring

2009-04-11T21:04:46-07:00

On Good Friday evening, we were heartened and uplifted by a very different service at the beautiful Catholic church where our wedding was celebrated seven years ago. Unsure quite what to expect, we settled into a darkened, strangely silent church for Lamentations - a reflective prayer experience acknowledging our personal sufferings and those of the world.

The service turned out to be remarkably evocative, and for us felt very similar to powerful meditations on suffering and compassion that we have practised and led in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. It began and ended with music composed by Nicole Nordeman, exquisitely sung and accompanied by piano. The opening song was Burnin'; the congregation seemed swept up into silent participation, actively engaged in their hearts and minds, not merely listening as spectators. This emphasis on what we would call "practice", the experiential rather than the didactic, seemed both unusual for a church service and highly effective.

Prayers and a psalm led to a one-line supplication sung repeatedly: "There is a longing in our hearts O Lord for you to reveal yourself to us". The haunting refrain, tinged with the inherent sadness of supposed separation, led directly into two personal accounts of deep grief elegantly told by those who suffered. This was followed by a slideshow of images of suffering around the world - poverty, famine, war and the other afflictions we so readily forget about or become inured to on our television screens. Set to evocative music by Danielle Rose, the congregation was drawn directly into the experience of empathy.

An answer-and-response sequence from scripture followed, and the main part of the service ended with another heart-opening song by Nicole Nordeman: Hold On.

The congregation was then invited to visit four stations within the church, each set up for the expression of individual prayers of sorrow: a room to make prayer-beads (one bead for each person desired to remember); a "wailing wall" for notes written to express each lament of the heart and placed within the rocks; the Pieta (statue of Mary holding the dead Jesus) to gaze upon; and the cross laid upon the floor, surrounded by candles, to venerate. Regardless of the extent to which one or more of these spoke particularly to an individual, they seemed to us a vital and effective way to bring sorrow into practice - in each case taking specific action with body and mind to acknowledge suffering and move into it, rather than our usual aversive reaction of trying to avoid such emotion at all costs.

The great religious traditions all recognise that through the recognition of suffering (our own and others), the development of empathy and the resultant natural arising of compassion, our hearts are opened and we draw naturally closer to that which we seek, which passes beyond all suffering. In our view, this interpretation of Lamentations by the Catholic church was a shining practical step in the right direction. We're so glad we went.

Burnin' (Nicole Nordeman)

2009-04-10T21:12:44-07:00

Started rubbing sticks together
Thought a spark would take forever
Never dreamt this fire would appear
Moses saw the bush in flames
And heard the branches speak his name
I wonder if he felt this kind of fear

'Cuz I'm burnin', yeah I'm burnin'
And I know I'm gonna blister in these flames
And I'll stay here till this smoke clears
And I'll find you in the ashes that remain

Used to be that I could say
My faith was one arm's length away
From any flame ever felt too warm
Asked for matches and I received a gallon full of gasoline
And now my cozy campfire days are gone

And I'm burnin', yeah I'm burnin'
And I know I'm gonna blister in these flames
And I'll stay here till this smoke clears
And I'll find you in the ashes that remain

Knock with caution at the door
They said beware of what you're praying for
So I'll stand with my whole desire
in the middle of this forest fire
Until I've nothing left to show
And new life begins to grow

'Cuz I'm burnin', yeah I'm burnin'
And I know I'm gonna blister in these flames
And I'll stay here till this smoke clears
And I'll find you in the ashes that remain