On My Mind, January 18, 2010: Haiti/Help

 

So often, when disaster hits, we feel distanced. It is so difficult to be of assistance when funds are limited and we are not part of a large help group from one or the other branches of government or on the staff of a large charitable organization.

It is in those times that we are most needed for prayer and meditation. These moments that we spend sending good thoughts and feelings into the universe are greatly needed and greatly appreciated.

Those performing the physical tasks of search and rescue and medical assistance are in dire need of vast amounts of energy. Those hanging onto life under unbearable circumstances need our strength and assurance that there is someone, somewhere, looking over them.

Do not imagine that if you have few physical means at your disposal that you are not powerful on all levels of being. Some few are set aside for just this purpose when extra energy and hope and presence is called for.

Patrul Rinpoche offered these lines in preparation for deep compassion meditation:

Bodhichitta, precious and sublime:

May it arise in those in whom it has not arisen;

May it never decline where it has arisen;

But go on increasing, further and further!

(Cited in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, by Sogyal Rinpoche)

Now, duly prepared, simply sit and send good thoughts to Haiti. Whatever energy and compassion you send will be accepted and put to good use.

No matter what, Never forget that SPIRIT COUNTS!

Om Mani Padme Hum

On My Mind, January 1, 2010: Soft

Earth could use a little respite from all the bombs and bruisings.  They have had no affect on political thinking, really, and it just makes a big mess for us all to clean up.

And it's so costly.  Every time someone tries to kill himself for the sake of some ideal or another, the rest of us have to pay to have more invasive, not to mention, more unhealthy, body checks at the airports.  It can't be good for the human body to be radiated to the bare bones every time we try to fly.

I don't think flying will be able to withstand too much more pressure.  Probably more and more of us will opt to drive or stay home.

lets all just agree to disagree from now on and let the violence play out in the video games and movies.  God knows they are harrowing enough and certainly seem real enough to satisfy even the most bloodthirsty among us.

When we travel, lets forget that Mohammed and Jesus probably wouldn't like each other much.  they don't live on this planet now.  We do.  Lets bury every past war and every diagreement from the beginning of time to the present moment and just start over again.

And lets use our wisdom this next billion years:  disputes aren't that big a deal that we need to be offended clear down to our children's children's children and then some.

Forgive instantly, irrevocably, every time.

Let us do just as all of our ancient spiritual leaders have suggested we do from our conception to our death:

Let us love one another.

Love one another

as God asked us to do.

Om Mani Padme Hum.

On My Mind, December 26, 2009

Christmas is over now.  Everyone is rushing to return what they got that they didn't want or exchange what didn't fit or redeem their gift certificates at stores they seldom visit.  The malls will be packed with people again.

Today is the day that everyone avows their belief in the TRUE meaning of Christmas, ie Christ's birth, and acclaims that, though the day of opening gifts and overindulging on sweets and rich foods may be lots and lots of fun, the real reason they celebrate is Christ's having been born 20 centuries ago.

Santa and his helpers have been shelved until next year by the retailers who dusted them off for this year's Xmas promotions.

Many retail stores earn 90 percent of their profit during the Christmas season, and if people don't run out and buy something from them, they are likely to go under.

Perhaps, I don't know, expanding merchandise to include goods people need and use year round might be a wise decision for those folks?

No?

Un-American, you say?  Where would we get the gimcracks and doodads we pass on to our loved ones when at last we close our eyes to this world?  Certainly not from the diaper isle at the grocery store.

We good people are against abortion, by God, but we are not against letting the little buggers die of disease and starvation once they get here.

Count how many AIDS and Disaster orphans are still flooding the world while we return our unwanted gifties.  While we stuff the last of the turkey into the casserole, let us say Grace for the homeless and hungry families in our own country that we would rather let the Salvation Army deal with on our dimes and our quarters.

Om mani padme hum.

On My Mind, December 22, 2009

It is very easy to see the faults and foibles of others, but when we deign to point them out, invariably, we stumble across our own, most often, in a far more embarrassing way. Call it Karma or Poetic Justice, or Just Deserts.

Well, it may not be quite that heavy, really. It may be that we are all culpable in one way or another and sooner or later, we'll be shown up to be imperfect. Whether by Divine Intervention or Divine Retribution or not, it is a real good lesson, and a real good idea not to point out others' faults all of the time.

From my own experience, when we continuously point out mistakes or they are continuously pointed out to us, the human response is usually to 1) make more mistakes out of nervousness or self-consciousness, 2) vow not to change the way we do it, even if it's wrong, just to annoy the critic, 3) find something to criticize in the critic, 4) grow angry and stop doing it entirely, ever, 5) grow angry and break something.

Decidedly unhelpful.

Another approach, as Buddha suggests, is to spend less time observing others' faults and more time correcting our own. Dang, that's hard. We have to look in the mirror to see ourselves, and if that mirror is dusty, well, just forget it.

One suggestion is to wipe the dust off our mirror so we can see ourselves clearly. Works fine for hair dos and clothing glitches, but not so much for attitude adjustments. For those, we have to see inside.

One spiritual leader suggests that we stand behind the mirror and simply act as the mirror does and reflect back what the other person is showing us, non-judgmentally. That's nice, but if they are showing us anger and hostility, that means we reflect back anger and hostility. An improvement, I guess. At least we're being non-judgmental about it, but who wants to be someone else's bad mood?

No, the "mote in one's own eye" type of spiritual lesson is aimed at the heart of each person, not at the exterior and how we respond/react to external stimuli. It is intended for us, individually, to determine where our weaknesses lie, intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, educationally, socially, experientially and work on correcting our lacks and adjusting our view of ourselves and the world around us. It is aimed at our understanding the concept of detachment: detaching from our personal circumstances in order to see, sense, intuit, the larger frame of things and where our particular set of molecules fits in to make the whole.

I know, gossip is fun, and carping may come naturally, but don't do it for a week and see how your own mood improves, and how all your relationships seem to blossom.

Om mani padme hum.

On My Mind, December 17, 2009

Seems like everything is a remake this year, with of course a new twist tossed in to make it seem somewhat new. It’s as though the entertainment industry is as fixated on special effects as our kids are on electrotech. If the property is already written and audience-approved, then all that is needed is the extra gimmick that will catch and hold the attention of the younger generation.

Kind of seems lazy to me, but what do I know? I would imagine the time writers and actors take perfecting their skills is minor to the number of hours needed to effect a big smashup, blowup scene that screams and rumbles across the screen at tornadic velocity every third second of the every new ‘old’ movie. I should be impressed.

Oddly, after the first few ‘special effects’ movies we’ve all seen and were awed by, these newer repeats are real yawners. Been there done that, sort of a thing. It’s how the human brain works. Can’t be helped.

They have brought back 3-D. When 3-D first came out, half a century or so ago, we were all awed and amazed and a little intimidated by it. Of course, this new 3-D beats it by ten thousand percent, because it is supposed to mimic (or probably be the precursor to) a mass audience virtual reality/holographic sort of a thing. OK, that’s the downside of all of this: Everything impressive has to be topped. Every success must not only be duplicated, but it must be bettered. And here's the rub:

They run out of ideas. They run out of places to go from here. They start remaking movies that were successes and doping them with stuff from their own recent successes, usually in the special effects category. We've seen them. Both. The old movie (or what’s semi-recognizable as such, usually in the characters’ names and occupations) and the WOW visual effects of things blowing up or crashing into each other. That old, easily bored human brain again. "So now what?" it seems to say, repeatedly.

Innovators, not to be daunted, start throwing inventions together and calling them state-of-the-art: The telephone became boring, the computer became stale, the TV was just plain nothing and so they tossed all the tech into one phat piece and called it IPod, then Blackberry with Apps! And so on.

That being said, I’m going to find the nearest showing of the new Sherlock Holmes Movie with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, and that will be my Christmas treat this year. Hey, we all want to be entertained sometimes, even us old H’Art of Zen Grinches. Blessings for the holidays.

Om Mani Padme Hum