The Basic Basics

     It's eye-opening to periodically travel to another country. Just taking off in a plane, I feel as if I'm leaving all my usual concerns & responsibilities behind, and a whole new world of possibilities seems to open up. We see more clearly who / what WE are - or want to be!

    Individually, most of us, especially in our “WIERD” (Western Industrialized Educated Rich & Democratic) culture, have a gnawing, usually unexamined sense of "lack," "not enough."
    But get a group of insecure individuals together, it's very easy to rouse an energized mob mentality. Populist politicians expertly manipulate mobs to do anything at all. Throughout history, we've done, & continue doing, every type of collective bullying - "rape, pillage & plunder" - at least partially to avoid our personal nagging inferiority complex. We've called group bullying different names in different times: feudalism / monarchy / dictatorship, patriarchy / sexism / misogyny, religious conflicts, colonialism, slavery, multinational corporations, racism, etc. The ultimate result is always destruction of intelligent, nurturing collaboration and along with it, indigenous peoples & cultures.

    Bullies with the most powerful military, defeat & impose their own political, financial & religious ideas on the vanquished. In their enthusiasm to plunder, invaders are ignorant & intolerant of the human beings, ways of life, values & cultures they destroy. The "winners" go on to write creative history & celebrate their victory over "savages, heathens, etc." "Might makes right!"

    All colonial powers profited immensely from plundering former colonies. Other nations also profited from centuries of free slave labor. "The typical wealth of the 600-700 aristocratic families in Britain is estimated at about £16-20 million ... you likely can double it to account for estate planning." 

    Especially those who've profited most from centuries of bullying, would do well to humbly face the often lurid details of how their personal fortunes were made, and tone down the self-satisfied celebratory hubris. Those of us who've earned our own way in life from nothing might find it easier to empathize with the less fortunate, and be more generous & nurturing.

    Embodying our true nature, imho, is our ONLY security - to nurture all, and in the process, heal ourselves & our planet.

Even as a parent protects with their life  

their child, their only child,  

so, with a boundless heart  

should one cherish all living beings!

Radiating kindness over the entire world ...
freed from hatred and ill-will.
This is what should be done  

by those who are skilled in goodness.

The Metta Sutta (The Buddha's Words on Lovingkindness)

‎⁨St Mary Redcliffe Church⁩, ⁨Bristol⁩, ⁨England

Ego is the last to go ...

     We're usually far more eager to claim ownership of a concept or the messenger, than to really understand and embody the message.

     There's an old story of several blind men coming across an elephant. Based on which part of the animal each had their hands on, each of their descriptions was completely different. The fellow holding the elephant's ear vs the one holding the foot, the belly etc. Yet they were all correct - partially.

     But most of us would rather grab hold of & claim as ours anything, even a partial truth, than to open up to & become porous to all of reality. Just more useless attempts at creating & maintaining a solid sense of self - ego.

"Expert Opinions" & the Capacity to Learn

     Roger Walsh MD, PhD describes how he learned "to appreciate the importance of an experiential foundation for intellectual understanding and the extraordinary extent of miscommunication and projection which operated in these areas.

     Many times, I listened to people explaining their misgivings about such-and-such a program and I was left wondering if we could possibly be talking about the same thing. I was no exception to these barriers and was amazed to see how radically my perceptions of a person or program depended on my psychological state.

     For example, on first reading the books of Ram Dass, I announced to several people that he was either psychotic or knew so much more than I did that I couldn't understand him, but I suspected the former. Six months later, on rereading the books, I found myself amazed that I could have failed to appreciate the depth of wisdom in them.

     Going through the est training in 1975, I walked out after the first three days feeling that I already knew all this. Some months later, I had the opportunity of meeting its founder Werner Erhard and found to my amazement that the man seemed to know considerably more about the workings of the mind than I did. Somewhat humbled, I went back and redid the est training and was astounded to find out how much it seemed to have improved. It became apparent that I had tried to protect my self-image as a highly trained mental health professional who must therefore know more than the people giving the est training, most of whom did not have professional degrees. I had apparently thus blocked my ability to hear anything of deeper significance than I already knew.

     ... the general principle should be clear by now. Basically, my defenses, biases, and lack of experience limited my capacity to appreciate people or information of greater wisdom than I myself possessed. Moreover, it seemed that not only was I passively incapable of hearing it, but was also at times actively defended against it." 

       Walsh R. "Journey beyond belief." Journal of Humanistic Psychology 1984; 24(2): 30-65.

 

Letting Go of Dukkha

     "Let go of anger. Let go of pride. When you are bound by nothing you go beyond sorrow."                    Buddha

     “Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing through the facade of pretense. It's the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.”          Adyashanti

Dale Chihuly's glass art & Space Needle, Seattle WA

What Do I TRUST ???

     What do I trust? is a fundamentally important open question to ask. Our self-concept and worldview are based entirely on our current most reliable information / paradigm about what is true, trustworthy, reliable (in this shifting, changing, uncontrollable world).
     What do you trust? a Rolex? a yacht? a Mercedes (German-built of course)? being right while everyone else is wrong? a 10-million-dollar bank account (in Switzerland)? a special diet? another special diet? a really, really special diet? working harder, smarter, longer & longer & longer? a respected well-paying profession? special people to work with? much more special people to work with? washing your hands till they're really, really, really clean? a magic spell to let you live for 100 disease-free years? MANY people chase after at least some of these 'magic potions' COMPULSIVELY for a LIFETIME. "And how's that working for you?"
     What if someone told you (gently) that what you're betting your life's happiness on is complete & utter crap? Would you let go, re-evaluate & formulate a more reasonable paradigm? Or do you "pride" yourself for hanging on to your opinions, right or wrong, like a bulldog? Do addicts drop gambling, booze, or cocaine based on the heart-felt advice of loved ones, counsellors, physicians?
     Do you truly trust anyone? Has your basic goodness / sanity / Buddha-nature recognized the very same perfection in another person? If yes, then that person is trustworthy - at least as much as you are - which is shy of 100% isn't it? Because there's dukkha - unsatisfactoriness, imperfection - in ALL PHENOMENA, including you & me - despite our core of perfection.
     At some point, some (but not all) of us eventually learn that staking our "one precious life" on transient crap ... is crap.
     This is serious. Our hair IS on fire - life is fleeting. What do I trust? Who am I? What's going on here? - critical open questions to orient oneself in a world of addictive distractions.