Tannishblog

Again from the weekly offerings of Lama Suryas Das via Dzogchen.org, comes a pithy summation of the Middly Way:

We are always on a spiritual path but we don’t realize it, therefore we encounter many obstacles. If you really wish to develop your life, you must first develop your mind. Contemplation on the process of your own life is the main and authentic practice of Buddhism.

          ~ H.H. the Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa

For the rest of the world, it is beneficial that there are more master teachers than just the Dalai Lama. One man, great as he may be, can only reach so many people - even with today’s technology. Great Tibetan masters are very rare, and all are aging in this world. For an American, they can be as unreachable as the stars. May their teaching fall on open minds, so their teachings can continue in the next generation.No matter one’s spiritual anchor, we all can benefit from the work of the Buddhist community as minds are awakened one by one. 

Namaste.

We were strolling through the annual art fair in Minneapolis last Saturday. Amidst comments on the size, quality and geographical origins of the many exhibits, we noticed ourselves at the World Market section of Hennepin Street. right before us is a Tibet shop. I always support the Tibetan community when opportunity arises. Among the many Dharma books and colorful wall hangings, imported hand-made crafts, clothes, and jewelry, were a few of the Dalai Lama’s teachings printed on burlap for inexpensive wall decor. One in particular, my (non-Buddhist) wife appreciated, nodding her head in time to the meter of the message.

The Paradox Of Our Age

We have bigger houses but smaller families;

more conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees but less sense;

more knowledge but less judgment;

more experts, but more problems;

more medicines but less healthiness.

We’ve been all the way to the moon and back,

but have trouble in crossing the street to meet our new neighbour.

We built more computers to hold more copies than ever,

But have less real communication;

We have become long on quantity,

but short on quality.

These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;

Tall mean but short characters;

Steep profits but shallow relationships.

It’s a time when there is much in the window

But nothing in the room.

                                            His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama.

To contrast all the interest in our next World War as it begins, fascination with biblical prophecy as it seems to pertain to current events, I would again like to show you an alternate view of "how the world works."

First, I offer another quote brought to us by the Dzogchen Organization.

Everybody has the beauty of enlightenment in his or her own mind. Buddhahood is within yourself. Wisdom is within yourself; it cannot be found somewhere else.

      ~ His Holiness the Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa

While the Western world implodes from its own carelessness, bringing on war and environmental damage, a few quiet people around the world are devoting their lives to improve whatever will be left of the planet after Western ideals run their inevitable course. While other religious icons recline in riches accumulated over centuries, making pronouncements based on medieval practices, some people of modest means are living lives of compassion caring for others in need. From his web site:

Dear My Friends,
On this small planet, in the daily dreams of our life, beneficial deeds are always recommended, simply because we are all born to help each other.

By sharing our love with different expressions and through the practice of generosity, morality and understanding, we will then be fulfilling our purpose of being members of the human race.

How refreshing that a person take such a stance wholly unheard in our dysfunctional society. How rare is the individual whom advances the well being of others over himself? If, as is often quoted, the "meek shall inherit the earth," I dearly hope people like the Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa survive to bring the dregs of humanity back from the ashes of our current conflagrations. 

In light of our current focus on Israel and Lebanon (and our ignoring Iraq and Afghanistan), I bring to you, via my weekly email from Dzogchen.org , a Buddhist perspective on war. This may explain why I'm so "far-left" on the issue, or why there's never been a war to enforce or to indoctrinate people into Buddhism.

……. At the end of the talk someone from the audience
asked the Dalai Lama,
"Why didn't you fight back against the Chinese?"
The Dalai Lama looked down,
swung his feet just a bit, then looked back up at us
and said with a gentle smile,
"Well, war is obsolete, you know."
Then, after a few moments, his face grave, he said,
"Of course the mind can rationalize fighting back…
but the heart, the heart would never understand.
Then you would be divided in yourself,
the heart and the mind, and the war would be inside you."

 How refreshing!

Regular readers (if any) will know I have the pleasure of a close, long-distance friendship with a righty blogger, Leucanthemum, who regularly challenges my temperament as I surely challenge hers. She writes a column for her local newspaper in Western Illinois, which she also posts online. I get her weekly email every Wednesday.

I also receive an email from the Dzogchen Foundation, founded by Lama Suryas Das. His goal, if I may paraphrase it, is to advance the teachings of the Dharma in the west, specifically in America, and bring compassion and reason back into our fractured, paranoid society. My weekly email is just one of the many ways he tries to improve humanity. Such are the Karmic convergences that I get both emails on the same day.

This week’s Dharma quote:

Johann von Goethe said that there were nine requisites for contented living:

Health enough to make work a pleasure. Wealth enough to support our needs. Strength to battle with difficulties and overcome them. Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them. Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished. Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor.

Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others. Faith enough to make real the things of God. Hope enough to remove all anxious fears of the future.

As you can see, he doesn’t always choose strictly from the Buddhist canon, which can be refreshing. Even for a dharma-phile, Buddhist texts tend to be obscure. Please re-read the above passage. We’re going to play compare-and-contrast.

Meanwhile in Friday’s Klips, my friend writes about gun laws around the world and emerging United Nations Policies. Please, read today’s offering. I could site the whole article, so concise is her writing, but instead I’ll snip the following:

While the rest of us were watching the brouhaha over the publication of classified information, while we were listening to high-ranking and high-visibility Americans “patriotically” insult their country, the United Nations had a major conference on gun control, claiming it was aimed “only at illegally owned weapons”, but not acknowledging that two of their primary humanitarian organizations, UNESCO and UNICEF have been actively campaigning — and funding campaigns — to outlaw firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens in places like Brazil. This they do by changing the definition of “law-abiding citizen”. They have already succeeded in effectively banishing lawful possession of firearms in Kenya by making the licensing for it so expensive and restrictive that only the very few socially, politically and financially connected elite can afford to own one by law. And, with violence commonplace in outlying areas, a Kenyan without a gun is likely to die quickly and savagely, often at the hands of neighboring, non-law-abiding Kenyans or Ugandans…

She packs a lot in here, playing to her audience of God-fearing gun-toters. She alludes to the Liberal indignation over banking record- and phone call-monitoring, to the tradition of openly criticizing America in hope of a better future (a distinctly Democratic process many believe should only be practiced when agreeing with the incumbent administration), and to the unstated belief of most Americans, right or left, that we hold the Golden Key of TRUTH, and that the world should listen only to us – especially the United Nations. Then she goes forth to enflame a Righty fear of firearm confiscation, as if what is happening outside the US can be measured by the yardstick of our cultural biases. Or can be fairly represented by a 300-word essay. In this one powerful paragraph she fans the flames of derision, division, and fear.

I see no sign of “Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others”; No nod to “Faith enough to make real the things of God”; although I assume much of her readership considers themselves devout Christians; no allusion to “Hope enough to remove all anxious fears of the future”. Her stereotypical conservative view does very little to better the world, and much to fracture it.

What I’m trying to illustrate is the dichotomy of thought between modern American ideals and a suppressed religious (for lack of a better term) tradition older than Christianity that aims unerringly toward the betterment of humanity. They are literally worlds apart. While the first snippet reminds us that even in the West, attempts were made at compassionate thought, yet today, they have been thoroughly stifled.

On a person level, such disparity of messages causes many struggles in my mind: while my heart-and-soul – eternal bastion of the Liberal-minded, and endless target for derision by the Right – tells me that happiness lies in the well-being of others, I am constantly bombarded with hate-speak via inescapable media outlets of all camps. Some days I feel my head wanting to explode (figuratively speaking, of course).

Such is the dilemma of a 21st Century Dharma practitioner.