What! Me Panic?

Thursday, July 18, 2013:

DELIVERANCE

His thoughts are calm, his speech is calm, his deeds are calm; such is the calm of one who has obtained Deliverance by Right Knowledge.

DHAMMAPADA 96

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What! Me panic?

I have a miles to go, most certainly. However, I do find that meditation practice gives me an emotional balance I neither expected nor did I want. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not implying I’ve reached some sort of heavenly bliss where nothing bothers me, but, since I have begun this practice, I can face more adversity without panic. I sit and, when I rise, I go to work... move my hands... it just works that way. I don’t have to try. It is often said in AA that you can’t think my way into right action but you can act your way into right thinking. While I don’t disagree with this adage, I know that the action of sitting… not necessarily thinking about my problems... but just sitting with them… that often the solution percolates to the top. Meditation, for me, isn’t a passive practice. It is preparation for action… action for problems I neither know of nor do I hope to resolve. I just sit long enough for the Heart of Compassion to sink in without me even knowing it.

geo 5,408

Is Justice Blind?

Wednesday, July 17, 2013,

The Courage of Convictions

There could be no bigger mistake than to think that ignorance is somehow dumb and stupid, or passive and lacking in intelligence. On the contrary, it is shrewd and cunning, versatile and ingenious in the games of deception, and in our wrong views and their burning convictions we find one of its deepest and, as Buddha said, most dangerous manifestations;

What do you have to fear from the wild elephant

Who can only damage your body here and now,

When falling under the influence of misguided people

and wrong views

Not only destroys the merit you have accumulated in the

   past,

But also blocks your path to freedom in the future!

Glimpse After Glimpse

Sogyal Rinpoche

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I can be absolutely right about my convictions and completely wrong about the spirit in which I express them. There was a time when I jumped on band-wagons to express outrage at every injustice… imagined or real. Today I am more cautious and lend my spirit to causes only after going through a checklist to search my motives:

·         Am I acting out of guilt… afraid to take no stand lest I be judged by others?

·         Do I have first-hand knowledge or am I being led by the convictions or charisma of others?

·         Am I motivated by even a hint of revenge or anger?

·         Am I compelled by ego to ride above the common crowd on my high-horse to save or lead others?

·         Am I motivated by fear?

·         Have I taken time to sit with myself and seek guidance from the Heart of Compassion?

·         Am I trying to solve the problem rather than provoking divisiveness?

These are but a cursory review before I put my signature on a petition, stand in protest, or take the opposite view. My heart goes out in sympathy for the family of Trayvon Martin (though I cannot understand the anguish and despair they must feel). But I am also aware that there are demagogues who exploit feelings while they are raw; whether I feel George Zimmermann’s conviction was just or that the law caused a great injustice to the Martin family. I have to take the time to seek out my own heart on the matter before I fly off the handle with raw emotion either way. It takes a certain amount of restrain and fearlessness to take this position but I have faith that time proves me out more often than not and my mind is free to explore the solutions. This is true in personal relationships as well as in national conflicts.

geo 5,407

When Superstition Was Science

Tuesday, July 16, 2013:

When Astrology Was Science

I find it curious, as I think back on it, Mercury went retrograde right after Bonnie’s surgery. You astrologers know that Mercury is the planet associated with communication and the medical arts/sciences. An astrologer would have advised us to wait on the surgery until the planet was no longer retrograde. They would've said that it is no wonder at all that Bonnie’s surgery went well but that she had a difficult time recovering. In retrospect, I would have to give them that much. However skeptical I might be of what I consider to be oogah-boogah sciences, I can suspend my beliefs enough to allow room for beliefs I think of as primitive, superstitious, and of no discernible consequence. I am grateful for the skills and the knowledge gained by medical practice since science superseded superstition, but that doesn't mean that I sneer at what practitioners have employed for aeons before the ascension of the sciences. After all, I had to set aside my biases against the power of the Heart of Compassion to see that there was a better way of living that incorporated beliefs beyond my limited comprehension. I haven’t abandoned my preferences towards scientific empiricism in my spiritual practice. I simply employ that which works and shelve that which I don’t understand under the category of “To Be Revealed”.

geo 5,406

Just Enough

Monday, July 15, 2013:

This morning I didn’t want to pray or meditate… especially to meditate. I am a little under the weather, as they say, and don’t feel up to doing much at all. Going to the hospital several times a day to sit with Bonnie is about all I have the strength for as I feel a slight cold coming on. Habits established over the years have me sitting on the cushion regardless of how I feel. Once I sit the routine kicks in and there I am. There I am with a warm nothingness enveloping my spirit and a calm arises and emotions still. This is the heart opening to the grace of God… the union I am seeking. I don’t have to believe in it at all… not God or anything. I just sit and breathe… that is enough to kick-start it. I am grateful that this habit was set long ago because, had I felt like I did this morning, I would not have yielded to the Spirit of Compassion today. I stood from meditation with enough strength to carry on… nothing all that miraculous… just enough, that is all.

geo 5,405

Karma

Sunday, July 14, 2013:

Supposing George Zimmermann is not innocent; supposing he did track down Trayvon Martin with the intention to kill him; supposing the jury was motivated by racially; supposing all that and more; the prosecution did not present evidence convincing enough to pass muster. Can I be angry? Can I be disappointed? Can I regret the outcome?

I have friends on both sides and I get it. I’m white… I’m white and it is supposed that because I am white I haven't a dog in this fight… that I should back off if I think George Zimmermann is innocent… or at least not guilty. However; it isn’t supposed that, because I’m white, I shouldn’t jump in if I think George Zimmermann is guilty and got away with murder.

Truthfully, I sat on my hands throughout the controversy over this case. I have learned, from personal experience with the judicial system, as it stands in the USA, that prosecutors don’t care one way or another whether the accused is innocent or guilty… they just don’t like to lose ( as witnessed by how they stick to their guns even when DNA evidence later proves otherwise). I know that defense lawyers don’t like to lose either. They don’t care about innocent or guilty; they just want to defend, as best they can, their client… get a lighter prison sentence or a “not guilty” verdict. We watch from the sidelines and some, in the news media and the rest of us watching it on T.V., see these sensational trials as a rating grabber, or a game, and could care as much about the results of these trials involving the lives, of the accused or the victim, meaning little more to them than a scorecard… no more than the results of the Super Bowl… it gets ratings. Everybody chooses sides and some even place bets.

So I sit after the verdict came in yesterday and prayed for the Martin family… and the extended family of Afro-Americans. I know, however, no one got by with anything. George Zimmermann and his family have a weight over their hearts and I pray for them too. Karma doesn’t weigh things in terms of guilty or not guilty as the legal system does. Karma isn’t a scorecard… it measures intent… the spirit. What I have to pay attention to is my own karma. If I am to take grief, or joy in the outcome, it affects how I act towards others. Karma determines how I act towards others and that determines how well I sleep at night or, more importantly, whether or not I would have pulled the trigger if I were George Zimmermann.

geo 5,404

A Simple Compassion

The past couple of weeks have been interesting. My mind has been jumping around from one fear to another; from relief to relief; from doubt to doubt. I suppose it isn't a complete disassociation from my spiritual core because, in the end, my faith endured. I had to let go of everything and resort to a simple compassion that springs from a love that is greater than any love my own heart has the capacity of. I'm not unique in this because examples of similar experiences are to be seen everywhere. It happens when firefighters stand in harm's way... rushing into burning buildings disregarding their own lives for the sake of another.  It happens when a soldier holds true to his squad under fire and sacrifices his own life for the sake of his fellows. It happens when a mother brings her child to her breast and gives of herself without thinking about it. It happens whenever and wherever anyone gives of themselves regardless of their beliefs. The Heart of Compassion transcends all dogma and cares deeply for all of  us no matter what.

geo 5,403

p.s. I got confused 

on numbers of days

 the past week .

Spiritual Warfare

A SPIRITUAL WARRIOR

Difficulties and obstacles, if properly understood and used, can be an unexpected source of strength…

… To be a spiritual warrior means to develop a special kind of courage, one that is innately intelligent, gentle, and fearless. Spiritual warriors can still be frightened, but even so they are courageous enough to taste suffering, to relate clearly to their fundamental fear, and to draw out without evasion the lessons from difficulties.

Glimpse After Glimpse,

Sogyal Rinpoche

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This “spiritual warrior” talk can be confusing to some. The topic of spirituality was being discussed in martial terms in a meeting I attended some time ago. A woman protested, “Why all this military talk? That way of thinking is behind all our violence and wars…” I still think about that woman’s objection.

            First off: Wars today are usually declared by politicians. The most peace loving people I know are veterans of war. Secondly: martial terms are used universally in the texts of nearly every spiritual or religious teaching. The Christian Bible has several references to armor. My favorite one is from the Epistle to the Ephesians (6:13-18) where it admonishes us to “put on the whole armor of God… for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, and against wickedness in high places.” The writer continues, identifying the rest of a soldier’s equipment: loins girded with truth (I find it interesting that the truth is a jock-strap protecting our most valuable assets); breast-plate of righteousness; feet shod with the gospel of peace; and the shield of peace.

            It doesn’t take much to see the rest of the military terms used to create a cooperative and disciplined cohesion of a fellowship. The Buddhists call it the dharma and the Sangha to be taken as seriously as a soldier preparing for war.

geo 5,901