Tannishblog

Happy Easter!

For those of you contemplating a huge meal in honor of the gruesome death of a Jewish rabble-rouser and his subsequent mysterious disappearance, please remember, as the saying goes, "He Died For Your Sins."

This simple yet unsubstantiated claim is ambiguous: Did he die to absolve us of past sins, thereby cleansing humanity of its depravity, or did he die to pave the way to a continuation of sins, compounded by a deific belief in this peaceful man as a reason for violence and by technological advances in warfare? Much ill has been perpetrated in the name of Jesus. Much good has been done, as well, but the ill lasts longer.

 Jesus Christ, by all accounts, was a peaceful, tolerant man. More of a political advocate that a religious figure, he bucked the trend of his time and caused the Roman government some consternation. For this, he died a gruesome death, a public spectacle for political gain. What humanity has done to him since is even more frightening. Whole nations have been destroyed because they didn’t see the need to convert to Christianity. Just ask any of the vestiges of the great Sioux nation, for one example. The list is too long to enumerate here.

 Our president believes in Jesus. He leapt to the forefront of the world stage propelled by his stated religiosity: "I listen to a higher father," he said. I wonder whom he meant? Not long after he stole the presidency through illegal vote-purging in Florida, he was presented with a world-class disaster from which to make a name for himself and to show the world what he’s made of. He did all of that.

Our born-again Christian president twisted truth in order to go to war on a nation unconnected to the aforementioned tragedy, causing repercussions not limited to bankrupting the richest nation on earth, killing tens-of-thousands of innocent people, destroying a nation and killing or damaging thousands of young Americans, their families, and ensuring a continued drain on the national economy in the form of providing for the maimed soldiers and their families. The full effect of this disaster will be felt for at least a generation. So much for believing in the Prince of Peace.

Is this what it means to "listen to a higher father"? Is this what it means when people say Christ dies for our sins? I didn’t work; we continue to sin, but now we can do it in Jesus’ name. Any true follower of Jesus would put a stop to war. Any true follower of Jesus would hold accountable the people responsible for destroying so much for lies. :Thou Shall Not Kill", yet this man does. "Thou Shall Not Steal", yet this man and his allies are stealing the sovereignty of a proud people only to steal its oil. That covers covetousness as well. "Thou Shall Not Lie", yet that’s all we hear from our administration.

Are these actions of a Christian nature? Did Jesus die for this? Or perhaps the ill-fated Jew died so you can eat Ham at Passover? Bon Appetite.

First, a snippet from an article at The Olympian Online about banning Al Gore’s film in schools:

"Condoms don’t belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He’s not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who doesn’t want the film shown at all.

"The information that’s being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is," Hardison told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn’t in the DVD."

I’ll show my intolerance again by saying anyone who starts a sentence with "The bible says" has already lost credibility. Whose to say that the bible itself is "a very cockeyed view?" I will. I’m sick of Jesus zombies shoving their morality at others.

So, the Christ cultists in Washington state don’t want their broods (seven kids?!?) to know how much Americans are depleting planetary resources and poisoning their God’s perfect world. Better to mindlessly consume, overpopulate with abandon and invoke the scriptures than face the hard facts of the consequences of human shortsightedness.

Now why does the phrase "suffer the children" come to mind?

I was asked today about why I left Christianity. I didn’t have to think too hard on it, but I remembered to apologize in advance if I inadvertently offended while answering.

I left my family’s heritage as Northern European Lutherans as a teen when the pastor read what I later recognized as a canned sermon against the peace sign. this was circa 1973, the heyday of Vietnam protesting and not too far removed from the summer of love, 1967. Much of hippydom was still in the air then. Yet my Pastor, to who I’m supposed to look for spiritual wisdom, was delivering a political diatribe cloaked in religiosity toward a growing political movement of the day: the peace sign was a "broken cross turned upside down" which by it’s very existence denoted an anti-Christian sentiment. It was to be shunned and all good Christians should disassociate from any connection to the hated symbol.

I remember leaving the church that hot Sunday shaking my head. I was still too green to shout "Bullshit!" yet what I was feeling was in line with such outbursts. I decided then that the church was not the place for me. I never went back.

These days I can flesh out my feelings through retrospection. What keeps me away from the church is a tendency I see to preach hatred, intolerance and blind acceptance to the "flock." As Galileo aptly stated: " I find it hard to countenance that the very God that bestowed upon us the gifts of intellect and reason should want us to forego their use." Indeed.

This trend toward isolationism and intolerance has been played out in recent years in politics after 1994 when the Christian Coalition became the Republican Majority Congress. Since then we have seen hate, white supremacy, and intolerance drive an entire political framework with special emphasis on foreign policy. We’ll be cleaning up this mess for decades.

On a smaller scale, we can see how Christians sometimes attack each other. CNN reports today how one homeowner in a Denver subdivision is being fined $25 a day for a peace-sign shaped Christmas wreath on her house. What the article hasn’t the balls to note, I will infer here: The subdivision is all white. They are mostly Christians of the protestant variety, i.e. Methodists or Baptists. Most drive late model SUV’s or pickups. Most hail from smaller communities. The report did mention that some were military families.

Racial profiling? Stereotyping? You bet! I’m using the same twisted logic used against this neighbor of theirs. A peace sign as a symbol of Satan! Get a life! I freely admit a hole in my tolerance toward Christians. I’ve been accused of this and it’s true: I cannot abide when good people spend most of their spiritual energy thinking about Satan’s Worldly Evil ™, and not the actual teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Religion is about becoming better people, not about closing one’s mind and becoming nasty. Those who forget that are lost sheep indeed.

I begin my day in meditation. Or at least that is my intention. Most days, my hour of practice is spent chasing my mind like a dog and his tail. This itself can be interesting when an effort is made to note all the places the minds wants to go that day.

This morning, while I follow my thoughts, I find my mind wants to bash Christianity. This is an issue with me, one I try to keep off this blog: such is not the way to enlightenment.

Nonetheless, my thoughts travel to the core of my issue - values and actions. I ponder the Ten Commandments and how our Christian nation has abandoned them. Let’s look at them. As familiar as we are to the texts, I will not list them here. Its fascinating to me that they are open to interpretation, succinctly worded as they are…

 I note, for a prominent example, that our president, who ran a campaign openly professing his allegiance to Jesus, has promoted policies which violate many of the highest laws to which a Christian is supposed to be beholden. I will dispense from enumerating the wrongful actions of our administration. My point is to note how little the commandments factor into the lives of modern Christians

I mention this only in contrast to a Buddhist teaching that an outsider might liken to the Judeo-Christian commandments. These are the Ten Precepts that children and novice Buddhists learn, known as the Dasa-sikkapada.

1. I undertake to abide by the precept to abstain from killing.
2. I undertake to abide by the precept to abstain from stealing.
3. I undertake to abide by the precept to abstain from sexual misconduct.
4. I undertake to abide by the precept to abstain from lying.
5. I undertake to abide by the precept to abstain from liquor that causes intoxication and heedlessness.
6. I undertake to abide by the precept to abstain from untimely eating.
7. I undertake to abide by the precept to abstain from dancing, singing, music, and visiting unseemly shows.
8. I undertake to abide by the precept to abstain from the use of garlands, perfumes, cosmetics, and embellishments.
9. I undertake to abide by the precept to abstain from the use of high and luxurious beds.
10. I undertake to abide by the precept to abstain from accepting gold and silver.

Note the similarities: killing, stealing, lying and sexual misconduct are covered. Intoxicants are prohibited. Cultural moors defined proper times for monks to eat, usually in mornings. Since Buddhism is not hampered by a concept of a divine being, there is room for more directives of behavior. I would categorize these latter precepts into the realm of frivolous entertainments. One focus on enlightenment is to eschew materialism in favor of spiritualistic pursuits, to refrain from distractions of flesh and reduce influence of the many permutations of ego, such as pride, lust, greed and power.

These last points, I find, are completely absent from Christian teachings. At least my layman’s understanding has not uncovered such wisdom. While they are also culturally bound, and next to impossible to participate while in Western civilization, we can at least maintain awareness of their negative influence and abstain as much as we can.

Taken in whole, I find the Dasa-sikkapada more useful as a guide to life, a path to wisdom. To me, life is already too complicated to bother with improvable arguments of God. Let us instead concern ourselves with what we can master, what we have the power to address in this life to bring about positive change in ourselves and those around us. Thus we can change the world.

The past week’s Big Story is the newest Congressional mishap starring Mark Foley. This brings to mind two teachings that, if taught in wider circles of influence, would go far to alleviate these types of problems.

First, teaching on the dangers of attachment. While it is natural and necessary for the mind to become attracted to ideas, concepts or objects, it is harmful to cling to our attractions too tightly. In the case of Mr. Foley, as well as many instances in our own lives, the very act of longing for something caused his undoing. His inability to distance himself from the objects of his desires, even those objects were only theoretical, caused human suffering. While all current evidence suggests that no child was hurt by his interests, the potential for damage was high. Regardless, Mr. Foley’s behavior hurt himself, his friends and members of his family.

This leads to the Buddhist teaching of the "three poisons", which are essentially the judgments we make against all things: like it; hate it; indifference. The judgments themselves aren’t problematic, but our attachments to them are. If we like something too much, we suffer because of it. Common examples of too much attachment include various addictions people are subject to, like drugs and alcohol, gambling, greed and gluttony. All these expressions of liking things too much cause suffering of self and others.

Likewise, over-avoidance leads to problems as well. We see what hate can do to people everyday in expressions of anger, murder and warfare. All the myriad shades of negative emotions cause suffering. Even if the hatred is kept at bay, secreted in ones’ heart, health issues can occur so that, the very act of feeling hatred, although not openly acted out, can cause great suffering to the person harboring such feelings.

Even the decision to ignore or be indifferent to a person or idea can cause suffering. Although this is the hardest of the three to quantify, the very act of turning one’s back to an issue can have indirect negative ramifications. The current political strife in Darfur, while not obviously connected to any in the West, is affected by our collective indifference to the plight of this poor nation. The longer we ignore the horrors in Africa, the more innocent lives are lost and ruined. Likely, if we continue to do nothing, the perpetrators will become emboldened to advance such tactics elsewhere on the continent or in the world. Thus, indifference can be as dangerous as hatred itself.

As for Mr. Foley, he could benefit by understanding of the three poisons, and by a concerted effort to wrest control of his life from the choices he’s made. Making value judgments is a necessary part of functioning in our world, but letting those judgments control us is backward. Instead, we should understand how we feel, accept our decisions, and strive to keep an emotional distance from them - a buffer zone, if you will, from which we can keep our perspective and a clear understanding of the benefit or detriment of acting on our impulses. If Mark Foley has such a internal check in place, perhaps he and his family wouldn’t be hurting now.

As I read Time Magazine’s cover story about the current trends in genetic research, I hear an echo of my conservative workmate saying: "I don’t believe in evolution. It shouldn’t be taught in schools without also teaching alternative theories on the origin of man." This, a conditioned response of his Baptist college education, makes me think of how institutions can control young minds through selective application of knowledge.

This is nothing new, of course, societies have edited information flow for centuries. Ignorance is the second best method of keeping a populace docile. Fear is the first. Let’s not forget that organized religion as an institution, regardless of flavor, has as a foremost reason of being the goal of controlling the masses. So it’s not surprising that my friend, as result of his upbringing, would utter such a narrow-minded statement.

As I read the article, I can’t help but to point out to myself the assertions and assumptions that would raise the hackles of religious conservatives. Again, I hear my friend, and again I mentally respond: "That is the sound of One Mind Closing." But, to be fair, the scientific view of evolution must also close its mind to creationism. According to TIME:

Scientists didn’t need to wait for the chimp genome to begin speculating about the essential differences between humans and apes, of course. They didn’t even need to know about DNA. Much of the vitriol directed at Charles Darwin a century and a half ago came not from his ideas about evolution in general but from his insulting but logical implication that humans and the African apes are descended from a common ancestor.

Reading the above paragraph, I recall my feeling that creationism as a theory is an application of human arrogance. To assert that, because we have dominated this world as a species, we are superior to all creations is absurd. Maybe whales think the same thing of themselves; they, too, are at the top of their food chain.

Meanwhile I recall my response to my Baptist friend. "I never understood the antipathy between viewpoints," I said. "One says that God created us, the other dhows us some of His methods. To me, they compliment each other, not contradict" I’ve said this whenever I encounter a Creationist. Invariably, the conversation shifts and I never get a straight answer to my statement.

I bounce back to pondering closed minds: What benefit does a creationist position bring to the discussion? Perhaps my bias is showing, but I cannot think of any. Darwinian thinking, however, has formed a foundation of modern medical advances, spawned new schools of scientific inquiry, genetics being the latest. Whether or not the theory is true, mankind has benefited by its exploration. Closing one’s mind to the possibility that Darwin was into something only foments division, creates animosity and hostility. I’m of the opinion that the world does not need more of that.

Mainly, though, I remain ambivalent. Who Cares? Like much of the religious realm of thinking, we should all have our freedom to pursue whatever dogma we chose to embrace. Yet, the controlling aspect of religious culture won’t allow this. We see this played out on a grand scale in current affairs: "Think as I think, or suffer." is the Theistic mandate. I project this thinking to imagine a world that shuns "secular" inquiry. The resulting model is much like Medieval Europe or 18th Century middle East, full of disease and hardship, hatred and persecution, needless suffering by today’s standards. The "Who Cares" attitude that has prevailed in our world, as  regards scientific advances allows for the lifestyle our modern militant theists enjoy. Do they realize this?

Sometimes one altered aspect of a society is overlooked for another. The news media only has room for the most sensational scoops. So many interesting things fall through the cracks. Much has been said about our right to bear arms, the need to curb availability of handguns, or the often disastrous deeds of gun owners legal and not.

The NY Times today has a short editorial on a Florida law that loosens accountability for people who shoot first and ask question later. It’s troubling at best considering similar laws are on the books or slated in other states.

The law, passed in the last year in 15 states and being considered in eight others, allows the extraordinary use of deadly force when a person simply doesn’t want to back away from a confrontation.

We’re going back to the wild west, here. Who is most likely to benefit from such a law? Police, for one.

In one case, a retired police officer shot twice and seriously wounded an apparently unarmed neighbor who had knocked on his door in a dispute over the number of garbage bags put out for collection. The shooter will remain free as long as his self-defense argument holds, and it well may.

I would add others: people struggling with anger management issues; disgruntled employees; ex-military types affected by PTSD; people engaged in questionable activities that could lead to a crime; bouncers; and fearful people.

Fear is becoming endemic in America. Although much has been written about our emerging Culture of Fear, the new media has been largely silent on the topic. Perhaps the omission is out of a echo of guilt?

We Americans fear, more each year. In our escalating fear, we become controllable. Media broadcasts bombings, shootings, rape, traffic fatalities with abandon, forgoing any mention of goodwill, charity, civility and helpfulness. As a result, we lock our doors, alarm our cars, hand cell phones to our teens, send the young ones to day care centers after school to keep them off the streets. We’ve installed metal detectors in our high schools, airports have them, too, and x-ray machines. We drink water from store bought bottles because we fear contaminates in tap water. We worry about data theft, identity theft, burglary, contracting diseases, baldness, bad breath, our weight. Many things we worry about are statistically unlikely, many are silly. But some fears are indeed wise. Chose for yourself which are valid, and trust your assessment.

Commercials and advertising feeds our fear of countless little things. Mostly, ads exploit us in three ways: our fear of rejection; our fear of insecurity; and our fear of belonging. In addition, ads promote themselves through three channels; power, sex appeal, and status. through these messages, some overt, some subliminal, we are fed artificial needs, and artificial fears. It make us buy things.

The combination of fear and slack gun laws will directly affect many of us. It will kill and maim many people. As fear expands and guns proliferate, situations that could be mended with words will instead end in gunfire. And it can happen anywhere.

Am I promoting fear by writing this? You bet! This one’s real, though. Be aware of the dangers in our dysfunctional world, but don’t give in to them.

Tonight' excerpt is from Steve Hagen's book Buddhism Plain & Simple. It begins his chapter on Wisdom.

Seeker: "Teach me the way to liberation."
Zen Master: "Who binds you?"
Seeker: "No one binds me."
Zen Master: "Then why seek liberation?"

Our prison, our dungeon, is within us. It's in our own mind, our own thinking. We strap ourselves into chains of our own making, and we do the same to each other. We train our children in the ways of bondage.

All this is based on ignorance. We don't see the way we are. We don't see our situation for what it is, nor do we see how to deal with it. As Yang Chu says, we pass by the joys of life without knowing we've missed anything.

As you read this, ponder on the many times you've become distracted, spaced out, or fallen into a reverie or daydream. The untamed mind does this repeatedly. The untrained person goes along unwitting, being dragged through emotive responses raised by rouge thoughts without knowing how to stop. In short, the mind controls the person.

Seen this way, don't you agree this is backward? Who is the master of an untrained mind, and who is the slave? Shouldn't the rolls be reversed?

Not only do we go through life senselessly emoting or reacting to mental contortions that have no basis in what is actually before us, we often miss chances to react to opportunities as life presents them. Our busy brains are filling our heads with static, as it were, drowning out the signal of our lives. A wise person would take control of the signal, reduce the static, and begin to view life with a clear and flexible, uncluttered mind. A wide person would become the mind's master.

If you think you are already master of your cognition, try sitting in a comfortable place in silence, ten or fifteen minutes would suffice, and just breathe. Don't try to think, don't try to not think, just watch the flow of brain activity while attending your breath. See if you can keep your mind upon the mechanism of respiration for the duration. If not, note where your thoughts take you. You'll be surprised at how far the mind travels while the body stays still.

What strikes me about Buddhism in general, and specifically Zen, is - to the Western mind - it seems to contradict itself. This is because we in the West tend to view the words as we view most things, as immutable. That is not the case. What the Zen beginner often struggles with, among other things, is a paradigm-shift in thinking hitherto stifled by Western mores; that words are insufficient to convey the ideas, but those are the best tools we have. As example, I give you two quotes below, seemingly contradictory, but in fact both statements are correct in the Zen view:

The willow is green; the flowers are red. 

and…

The flower is not red; nor is the willow green.

Have I lost you? These statements illustrate the fluidity of thought necessary to take the first steps in Buddhist thinking: While the first statement, verifying color of the objects, is obviously true - on a conventional level - the second statement reminds us that without the mind to interpret, compartmentalize, and aggregate concepts, neither the objects (the willow and the flower) nor their properties (their respective colors) can exist.

Why bother to differentiate this? Because the knowledge of mind as a necessary and inseparable factor in viewing our world leads to the understanding of how important it is for us to try to temper our minds. Adding the mind into our empirical equations reminds us that a calm mind produces better results than a turbulent mind; that our very perceptions can shift dramatically as our mental state changes. It is therefore our first priority to understand the workings of our minds.

How is this done? Sitting in meditation, without distractions, allows one to gain focus on how the mind's discourse can lead us, instead of us leading our mind. The results can be fascinating, but it takes perseverence - and a touch of courage. 

I begin to understand that after a grueling work week, the last thing we want to do is think in service to our blogging habit. Some counter this by quick posts or catblogging on Fridays, some have open threads wherein their readhership can entertain itself. I usually fail to post on Friday nights.

With the (hopeful) rejuvination of this blog, I propose a tradition I haven't yet encountered in the blogocube: Friday Night Zen. While my family celebrates Shabbot, I can also try to cleanse my spirit by reaquainting myself with the truly important - as I see it. (A week of reading the news can make one forget…) So without further delay, I offer a Zen quote for your enlightenement (pun intended.)

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few." 

– Shunryu Suzuki  

 Namaste