TAXI REFLECTIONS: Triggers

TAXI REFLECTIONS: Triggers: Is karma really so hard to see in operation? Don’t we only have to look back at our own lives to see clearly the consequences of some of ou...

Triggers

Is karma really so hard to see in operation? Don’t we only have to look back at our own lives to see clearly the consequences of some of our actions? When we upset or hurt someone, didn’t it rebound on us? Were we not left with a dark and bitter memory, and the shadows of self-disgust? That memory and those shadows are karma, the results of our past actions, words, and thoughts. If we examine our actions, and become really mindful of them, we will see that there is a pattern that repeats itself. Whenever we act negatively, it leads to pain and suffering, whenever we act positively, it eventually results in happiness.

Glimpse After Glimpse,

Sogyal Rinpoche

&

Does karma mean that the harm done to me in the past is unchangeable? If my old tapes rule my life, am I stuck with the karma I’ve acquired over a lifetime? I am careful of how I look at a lifetime of negative words, actions, and thoughts. Can flipping them to the positive be enough to turn my karma around into a better direction? These things are hard to discern, depending on how I perceive the past from where I sit in the present. I can see two distinct ways to look at the problem of karma: one is to look at it loaded with nostalgia. Nostalgia is a tricky thing. It can fool me into longing for the joys and regretting the sorrows of the past. The other way of looking at karma is a rigorously honest self-examination. Sometimes this takes help because I can be blinded and side-tracked by nostalgia and get stuck in remorse. I have witnessed far too many of the people I have worked with“triggered” when they approach the Fourth Step of AA. The Fourth Step is the one where a thorough inventory is taken and, on the Fifth Step, we share what is found there with another human being. Sometimes these two steps ought to be done together. with the help of someone who can be trusted and who is knowledgeable about how to direct the karma so that it can be disposed of. One of my favorite people, Big Al, used to say, “Take the bullet out of the gun and the trigger has no power.” At any rate, it is damned near impossible to do this effectively on my own and that is why most AA’s insist that we work the Steps with a trusted sponsor.

geo 5,529

Erroneous Views

Erroneous views keep us in defilement

While right views remove us from it.

But when we are in a position to discard both of them

We are then absolutely pure.

The Sutra of Hui Neng

&

Before I do anything I make sure that anything I do doesn’t do me. Taken down the stream of righteousness into the morass of morality; where one is bad and the other is good; one is healthy and one is unhealthy, I become a helpless pawn to anything suggested by bad comb-overs. My heart breaks when I see so many good intentions taken and used to wrap coils of restraints on anything that moves; anything that moves spiritually or socially in the politics of religion. Driven by fear… fear blocking… barring… the simplicity of looking inside… from not listening… to ignoring the Christ that abides… to the Buddha within… from not finding my own center... I am driven with a separation of the heart from the computer between my ears and behind my eyes. This can be overcome so simply and so easily by sitting after an even simpler checklist… sitting… breathing… letting the Heart of Compassion rise from the ravenous gut to the ever chattering brain… uniting them…. Letting all concepts of right and wrong drop to the floor like so much excrement. Liberty… that is what I find… liberty to act and think with a clear head and heart full of compassion… I move from the darkness into the light.

geo 5,528

Bambi is Venison

It takes the wildman in me to accept some of what goes down everywhere.
The wildman accepts the lion that eats the antelope.
The antelope accepts the grass that is eaten.
The grass that is eaten by the antelope
devours the earth and rain with abandon.

Would the turkey breast meat I consumed this morning on a bagel, compressed and deli-sliced to appear like ham, be any happier if it was from a pig rather than a bird? Do I feel better about eating range-free fed sirloin steak than veal? Do I feel better about the eggs, from range free hens, I ate this morning too?

If all the people who oppose guns would accept that a hunter is on a higher moral plane than those who by their meat wrapped and packaged already butchered out of their sight then they might have a point.

We are animals that eat animals. Bambi is venison and Porky Pig makes for good sausage. Should I then feel guilty that Charlie the Tuna wants to be eaten?

Children should write the Animal Bill of Rights.

A child at the zoo asked, as we paused at the cage where the chimps were housed, "What did he do wrong to go to jail?"
"He just got caught."
"Is it wrong to get caught?"
"Yes."
"Oh, I get it. That's why my dad is in prison. He just got caught."

Focusing and Listening

There is a direct linkage among self-examination, meditation and prayer. Taken separately, these practices can bring much relief and benefit.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS p. 98

If I do my self-examination first, then surely, I’ll have enough humility to pray and meditate --- because I’ll see and feel my need for them…

…No matter how or where I start, I eventually arrive at my destination: a better life.

From: DAILY MEDITATIONS, p. 316

&

“A better life…” What is a better life if, before we started our adventure, our lives weren’t that bad? Why bother if I have everything I need or want and my life is going well enough for me? Some launch out on this quest out of a desire for life after death: a heaven of sorts, whether that is the streets of gold or the fear of hell of an unknown karma. My intention, when I sit, is to make conscious contact with the Heart of Compassion because that is what completes the circle within which my life takes on the mantel of grace. The direct result of prayer is preparation for meditation. Meditation might prepare me for an unknown future but I can’t bother myself thinking about that. When I sit I give only a part of it to concentration on my body and my breath… about 25%. And I give about that much to prayer. 50%; therefore, goes to pure meditation where the gates are opened to inspiration. I get out of the way and, when the monkey chatter returns, it is important that I go back to my breathing. As I take this adventure, the chatter slows down and I spend more of the time in blissful peace between thoughts.

            Now, this “better life” business doesn’t matter either. In that space between breathing and thinking it all goes away and I abide within the wonder of creation. It is an adventure more than a practice… brave and wise Odysseus on a venture through the hazards and joy of the journey home.

geo 5,525

Shedding the Ego

In becoming an enlightened being, this does not destroy the living being, or take it away, or lose it; nevertheless, it does mean having shed it.

Dōgen; Rational Zen

I take that the living being is another way to say the ego. I have attended sessions where folks talk about crushing, smashing, and destroying the ego. Nonsense! Isn’t it better not to set myself up for failure than to attempt somehow to come to some sort of agreement with it by letting go of it?Just the act of trying to destroy the ego is a form of self-righteousness that leads to all sorts of abuses of power... not to mention abuses of my material body. Using doctrine, or a set of oughts and ought nots, I can pick up the mantel of a cause and with the arrogance of a true believer completely disregarding the opinions and beliefs of others. Yes, even as I am writing, I’m thinking of others out of the loop on this, erroneously believing it isn’t about me. But it is. Shedding the ego can be the simple act of being kind and understanding to others even when they are nasty and vindictive about my core beliefs. We pray that our President and Congress would come to some sort of understanding on this before the nation sinks into a morass we can’t get out of.

geo 5,524

Are You Serious?

Taking life seriously does not mean spending our whole lives meditating as if we were living in the Himalaya Mountains or in the old days in Tibet. In the modern world, we work to earn our living, but we should not get entangled in a nine-to-five existence, where we live without any view of the deeper meaning of life.

            Our task is to strike a balance, to find a middle way, to learn not to overextend ourselves with extraneous activities and preoccupations, but to simplify our lives more and more. The key to finding a happy balance in modern life is simplicity.

                                                                                                                              Glimpse After Glimpse,

Sogyal Rinpoche

&

Everything in moderation doesn’t translate to giving up my passion. It is a mistake to think that life and art are separate entities. Life and art grow from each other in the same manner that grass needs water and soil. My heart needs inspiration lest I fall into mediocrity. It is a error, in my opinion, to dismiss our passion thinking that spirituality is about chasing guru’s or seminars. Once you get it, you get it… it is then time to move on. I loved the period of time I lived on the mesa above Arroyo Hondo New Mexico with a group of brave explorers of a higher consciousness. Those days have passed and they can no longer be recovered. I won’t go to Tibet and New Mexico is out of the question for now. Love holds me here in Santa Barbara but that doesn’t mean that I have to sink into the granola spirituality of Southern California. We take a hard-core look at work and play… Commitment to craft and excitement in play make for a grand life. My aim today is to live a grand life where play and work cannot be distinguished from each other. Even if that work would seem to be below me, I have given myself and my time to it. Why not have some fun doing it? It is AA’s rule 62: Don’t take yourself so damned seriously.

geo 5,523