Summary of where we are going

The question for our time is "What works?".  A few thousand years ago the question was answered by simply observing the world and how it worked. There is suffering, it is possible to understand that suffering and where it comes from and there is a path away from that suffering. No grandiose 'understanding', no hierarchical system, no leader to be followed without question, just observations about how suffering arises, let go of and prevented.

The path away from suffering has a number of components, none more important than the other, all of them intertwined. Having a right View is to not have a point of view. Thinking clearly is to accept non-thinking, that is, not thinking out of fear and anxiety of the past and the future. Realizing the only place you can do anything about either is in the present moment with right Thinking. Recognizing that right Speech is really just committing to loving speech and even more importantly to deeply listening to others first. This is the only way to really communicate. While right Action is more complex each part is simple. Protect life, practice generosity, behave responsibly and consume mindfully. One of the most important tools to stay on the path is right Concentration or cultivation of a mind that is one pointed and yet maintains evenness.  We achieve these goals through right Diligence over time. If we nourish wholesome seeds that grow in our lives and meet unwholesome seeds with mindfulness we can find our way to happiness of a sustained kind that will last. This path is easier to find and stay on if we choose a right Livelihood. This is simply earning a living without transgressing the ideals of love and compassion. Finally living fully in the present moment is made possible by right Mindfulness, which is the energy that simply brings us back to this present moment we are always in, when we walk we are fully aware that we are walking, when we drink tea we are fully aware that we are drinking tea, when we are unkind we are fully aware we are being unkind and can hold ourselves and other in mindfulness and find a better way of staying on the path.

This is all that we need to know to become happy and helpful to the world. My teachers have said clearly that there is no abstract Truth. Try to walk this path, if it is true for you you will find the benefits. If our understanding is incorrect it will not work and we will need to make changes. Be awake and change course if you need to. The happiness is not sort term pleasure but a deep fulfilling joy that comes with being in alignment with how the world really works and not living in a distortion of understanding that brings short term pleasure but not deep understanding and a joyful life. Ease and the ability to let go and love is the true test of if you are on the right path.

I am not a scholar, not a monk, or authorized by anyone to say what I am saying. Just trying to honestly share what I have found useful and helpful in my life. The thinking that has brought me happiness and an easier, more joy filled life.

Mindfulness- The energy that brings you back to the Present Moment

In the beginning Habit Energy is strong. Ask yourself "What am I doing?". If you are washing the dishes and thinking about something else you are not being present. Alternatively if you are simply present and washing each dish mindfully and fully present in the moment you will find peace and happiness. Mindfulness grows with concentration practice (meditation) and sometimes it may take several years to find a quiet mind. Change does not happen quickly. When we are thinking mindfully we stay in touch with the Present Moment. Suffering and anxiety rarely exist in the present moment. Anxiety about the future and regrets about the past cause a great deal of suffering. Living in the Present Moment when you wash the dishes you just wash the dishes and will find joy and peace in that space. Mindful practice will allow you to see clearly your body, your feelings, your mind and the objects of your mind.

When we see a beautiful rainbow or when we are deep in the mountains and the snow makes it perfectly silent it is easier to find and be in the present moment. We find it in nature or in a beautiful view. It is our work to bring that serenity into our daily lives with mindfulness. 

Boundaries in our lives are our own creations. Like the lines on a map they are entirely fiction, the belief that people exist outside of the relationships with one another or that we exist somehow independent of the environment we live in are fiction as well. As my teacher said "our bodies are 70% ocean".  We all exist as 'inter-being' in the relationship between us and in relationship to those that have come before. We are made up of the star dust, and the sunshine of the universe literally. These are the things we are composed of both physically and mentally. Practicing mindful breathing we realize that breathing is mind, mind is body and the objects outside of us are in reality the relationship between our being and the world that we think, or as it appears to be outside of ourselves. It is not that when we cut the forest down and replace it with houses that these things are not real but that our very being is diminished when we do this is something that is hidden from us by the ego and narrow self interest that it serves. Sometimes when  we injure nature we injure ourselves.

Right Livelihood- making a living without transgressing love and compassion

Making a living in the modern world is no different than making a living in the ancient world, perhaps it is a little harder now. We need to earn a living without transgressing the ideals of love and compassion. The way that we make money and support ourselves and our family can be either the expression of our deepest self or a source of suffering for ourselves and all that come to know us.

Many of the ways people make a living in the modern world are harmful to people and the planet. We have to consider the impacts in our own community but also in the places far away that either supply what we need to do our jobs here or are impacted by the actions we take. These impacts can be far from where we live or even remote into the future.

There are direct impacts like working in the arms trade where killing is the explicit purpose of what is bought and sold but so are the indirect impacts of supporting the transportation infrastructure that moves those arms or even the 'safety' needed to vacation in places that need to be made 'safe' so that we can enjoy the beaches and scenery. Even the consumption of products that require people in other nations be treated in unethical ways to make the products available to us as consumers at the best price. When costs of a product or service are externalized to either the environment or the future we all pay the price eventually.

We have to continually support the creation of new jobs that are supportive of love and compassion so that everyone can find a way to make a living that is healthy and support families and the community in a loving and kind way.

[Photo comment: Who ever thought we would have to protest or bring legal action to insist that our government use the best available science in decision making and for that information to be objectively reviewed? (left)The impact of not having a livelihood that support love and compassion lead to the direct impact on lives like the young men and women who's names are memorialized on the Wall in Washington DC.(right)]

Right Diligence- Nourishing wholesome seeds and helping unwholesome seeds return to store consciousness

What brings you happiness of a sustained kind? Making the right effort to bring about the best things for yourself and others, that stand the test of time, is what real diligence is about. In our lives there are seeds that we inherited from our parents and our larger family and friends, that have been passed down through the ages. These seeds provide fruit when tended but some are seeds of happiness and some are seeds that bring tears. The ability to learn which are which and to tend the ones that bring joy to our lives; being kind, loving, happy, willing to see others point of view, being open to restart when there is a bad beginning, all are seeds we need to care fore everyday and to water daily. The better we care for them the longer they stay around.

On the other hand being selfish, unkind or ignorant are seeds that bring unhappiness over time. Even if in the short run they seem to make you happy, over time they actually make you unhappy. These are the seeds that if you wrap them in mindfulness will return to your store consciousness and not flourish. If you let them grow and you or your friends provide support for them they will grow. 

Knowing which seeds, that you were given by your family and that you acquired along the path in life, are wholesome and which are not and taking the time to nourish health giving ones and not nourishing the unhealthy ones is our main challenge in our day to day lives. Choose wisely how you spend your time each day.

[The photos are of the students that traveled with me to do service learning at Jhamtse Gatsal Children's Community in India. The bracelets on their wrists are mostly ones that were made by the children of the community as a token of love and appreciation. The hands touching one another a sign of support and affection. On the right is the entrance to Tawang, the pass goes over the Himalaya at the low point of 14,000 feet and into an enchanted land between Bhutan and Tibet where the community of children prospers.]

Right Concentration- cultivate a mind that is one pointed and maintains evenness

When we are clear in our speaking and thinking we feel better. How can we exercise our mind to think,speak and be more clear? Practice! If we just sit. And while sitting understand that we really are... just star dust from a distant explosion in a place and time far, far away but still real. Our best science tells us exactly that. We are the remnants of that Big Bang at the beginning of time and the physical beginning of the universe. Yes just well organized star dust that now is so organized it carries feelings and thought in carbon and nitrogen and oxygen that make up our bodies and ultimately our minds.

When we become the moment. When we realize and personify impermanence, non-self and inter-being. When we practice long enough as we sit quietly. We awaken. The goal of sitting is to cultivate a mind that is both one pointed and yet maintains evenness. But too many people think that sitting on a cushion is what meditation is about, when in reality the sitting part is just training wheels for getting up and walking and then striding through life awake and engaged, protectors of life, practicing generosity, behaving responsibly and consuming mindfully in our awareness that life is impermanence, that we are not just ourselves and that ourselves are not just us but that we are inextricably and irrevocably intertwined with others, all the other on the planet, and the plants and animals and the sky and sea and the minerals that make up the earth itself. We are them and they are us, not figuratively but literally.

Sit quietly and let all that sink in. We are both just one, separate and profoundly alone and yet we are One with all that is, at the same time. When I breath in oxygen to fuel my body and thinking were did it come from? Plants. And when I exhale CO2 where does it go... into plants to build their very core of being. When I walk and talk were does the energy come from? From the sun, the most amazing energy collection system on the planet harvesting the sun and creating the food that we eat either directly for the vegetarians among us or indirectly for those that eat the animals that eat the plants first.

When we sit with a quiet mind and an open heart you don't even need a book to read you can simply think deeply about your own breathing or your own hunger and really understand either of them to see how we are interconnected and not all that separate from either other people, the plants on the planet or even the earth that supplies the rest of the material we are literally made of.

"The wind comes up

and the bamboo welcomes it.

The wind goes

and it lets it go."

Right Action- protect life, practice generosity, behave responsibly and consume mindfully

What we do is how we show what we value. Actions are the way we share who we really are as people. What we should do is complicated but comes down to just a few simple principles. Protecting life is one of the core responsibilities we have and doing so while practicing nonviolence toward other and ourselves is what we are called to do. 

Farmers in Gatlang, Nepal, where I have been working with Bipin Lama to rebuild homes after the earthquake 3 years ago. Still so much to do there. People there have so little and yet are so generous.

The second principle is practicing generosity. In the world we live in we all have more than we need and yet there are many that we share this planet with who do not have basic necessities. The school I have been going to and providing support for in a remote and poor part of India is who I look to and am inspired. The children there were both protein and calorie malnourished, now they have enough calories consistently but still struggle to get enough protein. And yet last year they decided to forgo one meal every week at dinner time and to provide that food to another school in the region that is poorer than they are. How many of us know what it is like to go to bed hungry? And yet these children with so little have the generosity in their hearts to do so in recognition of the needs of others and the understanding of their relative privilege. That is generosity.

Behaving responsibly is the third principle of right action. Being honest and treating others fairly based on the principle found in all traditions of treating others as you would like to be treated. And finally consuming mindfully. We consume so much. The average fisherman or farmer in the world provide for themselves and their family by making about $1.5 per day per person in the family. Their income is not $10,000 a year it is less than $10,000 in their entire lifetime. When we consume we look for value but our over consumption of food is literally killing us. Our investments in cars is adding to global warming and our desire to travel is doing more to harm to the environment than any other single activity we do. (Yes I need to change just like everybody else)

Right Speech- Commit to loving speech and deep listening

What we say matters, even how we say it matters. When our thinking is healthy we are tempted to speak about it. But remember that when thoughts leave our body as spoken words they take on a life of their own. We can't take them back. We too often say things that we are not sure of but say anyway. Now is the time to commit to loving speech that is based on things we know to be accurate. Writing is just one way of speaking. The core of speaking though is really listening first, not just to others words but to what they really mean. 

Often our words are shaped by our experience and not all of our experiences have been good. We sometime speak out of anger but most of the 'fighting words' are spoken out of fear. In our childhood we may have been in situations where we could not control our lives and those in control were not able to be kind or thoughtful. Those experiences form who we are and can impact us all through our lives. When we say things, even to the ones we love that are not kind this often comes from our fears that started back in our childhood. If we did not feel love we may still fear being alone, and the way we respond to some situations can be negative, even hostile. When I speak harshly to my son it is often because I am afraid that he will do something that will harm him. 

The photo is of a lake in Ladakh at just over 14,000 ft. On this side of the lake is India (where the people are standing). On the other side is China. If everyone committed to loving speech and deep listening the world would be a very different place.

And yet if I really listen to his words (and even more listen to his actions) I often see that I may not have understood what his intentions really were or that he was doing and saying things to protect himself from what he feared. Loving speech and deep listening are not just a good idea they are the only way we can truly communicate, otherwise we are just living in our own head, in our own past. When I am able listen to those I disagree with I can learn and they are more likely to be able to hear me. Even those people and groups you think you disagree with, listen deeply and you will find that often they are trying to say something you have trouble hearing, gun advocates for example. Part of what they are saying is that they feel vulnerable and that they want to protect those they love. If you can hear that you can have a conversation. And both learn more and be heard.

Right Thinking- think non-thinking

Nyima and Ping have taught me so much about life!

You would think that thinking was a good thing, right? But thinking is a big problem.... We spend so much time thinking about the past and regrets that we have about what we did.... or .... did not do in the past. We experience sorrow even thinking about that past. But what is the space that we can actually do something, do anything. Definitely not in the past. We also think a LOT about the future, some times, far too often we even have anxiety about that future thinking about what could happen, but what can we do about the future? We can plan for it, right but when do we do that... in the present moment of course, not in the future. If we give up thinking anxiously about the future we can actually focus our energy on that space when we actually can do something. When we are drinking tea we should just drink tea, when we are listening to music we should just listen to music. When we are walking the dog we should just walk the dog. Think-- non-thinking. BEing in the present moment we can actually be fully present to one another and to ourselves, our feelings and needs and even our thoughts. The time we spend being regretful and sorrowful about the past or the time we spend being anxious about the future is time we could spend actually applying what we have learned from the past or doing something about our future in the present moment.

Suffering and the path away from suffering

 I will be sharing some of the writing and thinking I have been doing (and some photos of course). I have had the privilege to learn about how to live life from some of the greatest living teachers and now at 67 I think it is time I tested if my understanding of their ideas are sound. I want to share my thoughts about what really matters to me and see if it matters to you too. Suffering is such a big part of all of our lives. We just keep creating it even though we know there is a path that leads away from it. I will be sharing the teachings I have received over my life about what is important. And to reflect on the teachings I have received from those I respect as my teachers.

Right View- is no point of view

As we look out at the world the first thing we realize when thinking deeply about it is that each time we move to another place, each time we see the world from a new perspective the world looks and feels different. If I look out my front window I see the ocean, out the back window are the mountains. Asking 'which is right' is a very silly and naive question, of course they are both 'right'. As I move from home to work, or from Bellingham to India what I see and think and feel about the world changes. When I come to understand what another person thinks and feels I can see the world differently, sometimes very differently. 

Our view of the world is just one view, it is very incomplete. When we understand that our view is just one aspect of a complex whole we are better able to understand why others views seem wrong to us. When time passes or our our station in the world changes we almost always see the world differently. The right view, is not to hold a view, to embrace having no point of view, so that we can see what is really there..... I grew up as a child on the NW corner of Yellowstone Park in rural Montana, my wife, Jiasong, grew up in Hong Kong. We have very different views of the world now. Who is right? We both have part of the truth that the other can not even imagine. Only when we really listen to others and only when we understand not just their words but their understanding of the world can we see another view. Every person has a small slice of the Truth, when we share them and understand another person then we know, see, and comprehend more. Until we stop believing that we believe is the whole picture, the Truth, and start to understand others points of view, we are trapped in a very small world indeed.

Right View is no point of view.