How Well Can You Keep It Together

Brain science is really discovering a lot about how the brain and the mind works, but we don't really know what the capacities and limitations of the human mind are yet in spite of all of this new research.  Brain/Mind science is still very new and the position of this blog has always been that we often don't realize the extent of our potential as human beings.  Now, I'm not proposing that anything is possible in terms of mind over body phenomena.  But to be fair, we don't really know what is really possible or impossible.  The effort to study the effects of meditation on the brain promises to help us get a more realistic understanding about ourselves and what the true potentials are.  This leads me to a story I would like to pass along.

The startle response is a universal human response which takes a third of a second to run its course and involves short quick muscle spasms in five facial muscles mostly around the eyes.  The response is activated by a sudden loud sound or a shocking sight.  This response is a reflex and is the work of the brain stem.  In the 1940's it was proven that control of this reflex lies beyond the scope of voluntary control.

Paul Ekman, PhD, a professor and researcher at the University of California in San Francisco, began studying the startle response. He found that there was a relationship to the strength of the startle response and the intensity in which the same subject generally experiences feelings of fear, anger, disgust and sadness.  A person with a more powerful startle response experiences stronger versions of these four emotions.

The sound they use in the test is similar to the sound of a gunshot going off near your head.  In the 50 years that the startle response has been studied, no one has been able to suppress their flinch even though they are told when the noise will sound.  As you may have guessed from the build up...now someone on record has. An individual we will call Oser is a European convert to Tibetan Buddhism who has practiced meditation in the Himalayan region for over 30 years.  He was hooked up to machinery that would measure all of his physical reactions and was given the standard instructions for this test.  The researchers count down from ten to one at which point the subject hears the loud noise.  The researchers instruct to try to suppress the inevitable flinch so that an observer would not know that he felt the startle response.  Some people do better than others of course, but no one has ever come close to suppressing the flinching muscle spasms that occur. Even people who use fire arms routinely in their profession were unable to suppress a flinch.

However, Oser did.

Using two different types of meditation during the test, Oser managed to perceptibly mask his flinch in one test and significantly decrease (and on some indicators reverse) his physiological reactions using another type of meditation in the second test.  Ekman thought it was a tremendous long shot that a trained meditator would be able to beat this test.  It made sense that Ekman didn't believe that it was humanly possible to suppress the startle reaction because of the conclusiveness of the research up to now.  However, now someone has, and these results point to something even more profound which is the incredible potential for a person to have emotional balance and control given the relation of Ekman's research of the startle reaction to a person's experience of anger, fear, etc. 

I don't necessarily think that we all should start meditating (although, part of me thinks that.)  But more that we all have the potential to improve ourselves and our lives in ways that will make and those around us happier and we should definitely take advantage of it. 

For much more on the tests run on Lama Oser including fMRI scans check out this article that ran in Shambala Sun which discusses this among many other tests that he participated in.

The Smallest Action is Better than the Greatest Intention

The words of the title of this post have been important ones for me over the years.  In a world that can be overwhelming in its size and complexity, I have often pushed myself out of apathy or inertia with this mantra.  Actions, even seemingly minute ones, can have a great impact if they are actually taken.  A challenge for me is often getting started or thinking through what the effect will be and wondering if it will make any difference?  When I have encountered the contrary voice in my mind reacting to my puny efforts to make myself or the world better...my response has been that an action, no matter how small and seemingly insignificant, has an effect, even if that effect is only to stop me from succumbing to cynicism.  Things don't often start big: a journey of ten thousand miles begins with a single step.

I do believe that action is cumulative and we would do well to remember that.  For me, a decade ago I aspired to vegetarianism but wasn't ready to take the plunge.  So I gave up beef thinking that if I could swear that off for the rest of my life the cumulative effect of that would be significant even if it seemed like less than I aspired to.  The Dalai Lama has a great example from his own personal life that I feel is similar.  For health reasons he can't be a vegetarian, so he rotates days where he eats meat and days that he will not eat meat.  Even though he can't be a vegetarian everyday, for half of his life he is avoiding eating meat and thus preserving animals' lives which is obviously much better than eating meat everyday.   This all isn't to say that you shouldn't do big things or set big goals.  The point is that all action doesn't have to be grand and that we should also pay attention to the little stuff which is important and can really add up.  Over time small actions are like compound interest and can pay big dividends over the course of a lifetime.  Think about walking...not a real profound from of exercise, but if you do it a little bit everyday over a number of years you will be much healthier overall.

I recently encountered a book that reenforces the justification of my mantra.  The topic of the book is about tipping points and how much is necessary to cause things to suddenly exponentially move and change.  The message of the book is that the human mind likes to think of the world in terms of incremental change which is linked to inputs, so that if we put a certain amount of effort into something there will be a corresponding result.  However, in many cases things don't work this way.  Often times things stay very stable until things reach a tipping point and at this point radical change occurs.  The book explores this phenomenon in detail and is called, no surprise: "The Tipping Point, How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" by Malcolm Gladwell.

In terms of my smallest actions quote, the subtitle of the book says it all.  How can you ever know the results of all of those little actions that you take everyday? You could be saying hello to a stranger, eating one less bite of dessert, picking up a stray piece of litter, planting flowers in the neighborhood, or taking the stairs instead of the escalator.  The answer has always been that you can't know what the outcome of these small actions will be.  However with this idea of the tipping point, there is another reason to take action.  Now beyond encouraging yourself that you are doing something positive for yourself or others, no matter how small, you can also think that your positive actions are contributing toward a tipping point of some type.  Maybe your metabolism is kicked into a higher gear, the crime rates in your neighborhood drop or someone will see what you've done and be inspired...all because your small action helped push things over some tipping point.

So keep up the good work generating good karma in the world brave reader, no matter how small.  A little bit every day may push us across that magical line...the tipping point.

FBOW: We are all Interrelated

In the past three posts I related very briefly scientific research that promotes being more relaxed and calm and the positive effect it has on people's health and lives.  The importance of taking heed of this very new research on advice that is very old is that it is central to our happiness and the effect that we have on the world.  Something that I think is very true is that we are constantly creating the world that we live in.  Our actions and even our thoughts, which affect our feelings and perceptions, are constantly reinforcing or challenging the ways of the world.

I am always inspired by the first chapter of the Dhammapada which is appropriately entitled: Choices. It reads: We are what we think, all that we are arises with our thoughts.  With our thoughts we make the world.  Speak or act with an impure mind and trouble will follow you as the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.  ...Speak or act with a pure mind and happiness will follow you as your shadow, unshakable.  

It is important to improve upon our own happiness first as a way to help others.  We live in a society that is not driven by humanistic values, but instead it is driven by values regarding productivity, consumption and monetary value.  These values encourage us to sacrifice our lives for material success and recognition of our accomplishment and station.  To challenge this assumption of our worth and look to what is fulfilling to us uniquely and personally is a monumental challenge.  What good is material success if we lose our body to ill health and our mind is constantly racked by stress?  We need to promote and find happiness for ourselves for our own good.  Then our lives will be worth something more than being one more cog in the macro economic machine.  

Human beings are intensely peer susceptible animals and as such what we choose to do with our life affects those around you.  If you choose to manage stress better, make more healthy choices or be more compassionate that will likely improve your personal relationships in your family or among your social circle.  This will have an impact on other people, even if we never know the extent to which we affected others. 

I once worked with a guy in college at a video store who was intensely hyper with a very short attention span and very fast mouth.  Working with him was always a bit of a chore and I thought that he must have thought I was boring because I wouldn't always entertain all of the random tangents he would talk about.  One day to my surprise he told me that he really enjoyed working with me because he was really calm and relaxed when I was around.  I was shocked because I didn't get that impression from him, but also because that was what he called relaxed.  Yikes.  

Too often we have big desires to change the world but we neglect to examine ourselves first.  We have the most power to affect change in ourselves and through those action (and thoughts) we do change the world.  Maybe not in the dramatic way we are used to seeing in movies, but maybe not being dramatic and flashy the change is deeper and actually more profound and lasting.   

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it well when he said that, "...all life is interrelated.  We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality; tied in a single garment of destiny...strangely enough, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.  You can never what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way the world is made.  I didn't make it this way, but this is the interrelated structure of reality."

(By the way...FBOW stands for For Better Or Worse.)

Serving Others Also Means Caring for Yourself

The last couple of posts have been about the value of enhancing our calm and the new medical research that supports taking time out every day to engage in focused relaxation.  However, there is a procrastination factor that prevents us from internalizing it and taking this advice to heart no matter how relevant and useful it might be to us (and I think it is useful to everyone).  It is very difficult to initiate a change that is not addressing an immediate problem in our daily life unless there is some type of dramatic event which we responding or reacting to.  I think that this dilemma is at the core of many of the problems in the West.

But let me focus my attention on the population that I think needs to take all of this information about relaxation into account... society's helpers.  I did not go to school for social work, or think I would ever be involved in that that type of work, but I have often landed at non-profits that serve people in some capacity.  Social workers are wonderful people with beautiful motivations in their approach to career and in wanting to serve the community, but as good as they are at helping others they are often equally bad at caring for themselves.  I have often been shocked at the coping strategies for stress that I witness from the group of people who are suppose to give advice to others in need of support or redirection in their lives.  I use "social worker" in a broad way here.  All professions that are working on societal problems or working with people struggling with difficult circumstances all are included in who I'm addressing here.  Actual social workers, therapists, teachers, nurses, doctors, police officers, fire fighters and even civil servants, government workers and people working in the justice system are all dealing with stress involving other people's lives either at a systematic or individual basis and are engaging with people at challenging points in their lives.  I believe that for people in these professions taking heed of the research about the benefits of making time for relaxation is critical and should be taken up immediately.  Because your capacity to help or bring wisdom and compassion to a situation is limited by your stress level and what you are bringing to the situation.  The key point is that the best ways you can support others is by truly caring for yourself too.

The role of helper or healer can be challenging and draining.  Working with people is frustrating and helping to improve people's lives is often a slow and circular process where the same issues keep coming up again and again.  It is essential that people dealing with the struggles of others engage in a very real and consistent practice that heals themselves and produces the calmness and the clarity to endure through the slow process of change.  After all if you are on the edge of burnout how good are you going to be at helping others?  If you aspire to change the world in a positive way good intentions are not enough.  We need to accept our limitations and do something about them, not pretend that we are not deeply affected by what we encounter in our work.  If you believe that people can change for the better and improve their lives, then first experiment on yourself and prove it.  See if you can change your coping mechanisms for dealing with stress to more positive ones.  Can you quit smoking, have a better relationship with food or alcohol?  Can you take the plunge and start an exercise routine or begin sharing with a counselor?  Trying to address your habits will give you insight into the obstacles of helping others and what a struggle it can be to change.  More importantly, it will help restore you so you bring your best self to your work and your life.  Replenishing your inner resources is critical in social work and will make you a better support for others.

It isn't selfish to spend time on yourself, you should think of it as improving the main tool that you are using to bring positive change to the world.  If you wanted to cook better food one of the things you might do is buy better pans and knives.  You would pay attention to your tools and materials and this would help determine the quality of the outcome.  This is really the same concept.  People in these  professions have such an opportunity to be models for the people they work with and others in the same professions.

Please don't misunderstand.  This is not a call for you to be perfect or even aspire to be.  We are all human.  What is important is to not neglect ourselves.  I know from personal experience how difficult it can be to commit to doing something like this every day.  I meditated off and on for about five years before I resolved to commit to a daily practice, and now that I am the father of an infant transitioning into a toddler, I am lucky to meditate twice a week.  But what I am committed to is trying my best to having a balanced approach.  Taking up self care is supposed to reduce stress and create health in your life.  Thus, approach this task with compassion, patience and a recognition that steps backwards are often part of moving forward.  The work you do is so important to all of us whether you are a teacher, counselor, social worker, caretaker, healer, etc.  So please deeply consider the benefits of calmness and the relaxation response and think about taking up a practice of some kind.  Please pass this along to people who you know who might need to hear it.

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) conducted a study in 2004 that indicated a lack of self-care among social workers.  Here is an article discussing the problem which I think applies to all of us in this society to some extent, if you want more on this topic give it a look.  The Profession Must Prioritize Self-Care


And again here are basic instructions for initiating the relaxation response and list of other equivalent activities: http://www.massgeneral.org/bhi/basics/eliciting_rr.aspx

Science Discovers Relaxation

Dr. Herbert Benson is a person we should all be more familiar with.  He wrote the Relaxation Response 35 years ago, a ground breaking book which documents the effects of relaxation on the body.  Herbert Benson, M.D., is the Director Emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute (BHI), and Mind/Body Medical Institute Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  Throughout his career, Dr. Benson has worked to build awareness and value of mind body medicine and validate it through research.

His newest book, the Relaxation Revolution, reveals more striking results from his more than 30 years of research on the value of a few short minutes of meditative practice on our health and wellness.  The initial findings in the Relaxation Response were that engaging in focused meditative activity activates a response in our body which is the exact opposite of the response our body has during times of stress.  Much of our health problems are caused or made worse by stress which makes this very simple fact quite a powerful discovery.  Engaging in the relaxation response can directly address certain common health problems such as hypertension, stress headaches, anxiety-related symptoms, mild depression, etc.  However, medical research shows that engaging in the relaxation response can also help improve the symptoms of any number of illnesses.

The new book builds upon this initial finding as the power of mind body medicine becomes more undeniable.  New research shows that the protection against stress from engaging in meditation, yoga, contemplative prayer, etc. over time also affects the behavior of the practitioner's genes.  The activity and responses of your cells and even your genes, are effected by regular engagement in the relaxation response.  In fact, your genes' behavior is modified due to the relaxation response and this then affects your cells in terms of their resiliency to stress and how they deal with age and illness.  It is not that the relaxation response reverses the aging process for your cells, instead the reaction it elicits creates a buffer, or an insulation, against the effects of stress that are so damaging.

To top it all off, long term engagement in meditation creates habitual responses in our bodies, brains, cells and genes.  And according to Dr. Benson, when enough change happens within our bodies over a long enough time, these changes to our genes are passed down to our children.  It is important to note here that the structure of our DNA has not changed, but instead the genes' activity or behavior has changed.

These new discoveries really throw down the gauntlet in terms of managing our stress and being calmer people.   We owe it to ourselves, our society and our children to strike a different course in a time of skyrocketing health care costs, proliferating lifestyle diseases, and a nation struggling with depression, anxiety and mental illness .  The relaxation response seems to be a simple and powerful way to do so.  One of the most amazing things to consider is that cultures for thousands of year have been engaging in the relaxation response through their spiritual traditions and practices.  This is not a discovery of science but instead an affirmation of a spiritual (or simply human?) practice that has great benefit and usefulness to the practitioner.  This points to the fact that spirituality has a part to play in being human, and that our spiritual traditions have valuable lessons that we can learn from in how to live well.  The fact that scientific inquiry is catching up with some of these more subtle spiritual lessons is exciting and will be very challenging to the traditional scientific and religious institutions.

As an end note, I do not hold spirituality and religion to be the same thing.  Religion can be a spiritual endeavor, but in many cases it is not.  Likewise, a spiritual life or practice doesn't need to be a part of a religion.

For more on the relaxation response: listen to Dr. Benson being interviewed on abc (5min)
Or for those of you who want a deeper drill down on this topic: here is Dr. Benson discussing his new book at Harvard U (39 min)

Put Some Time into Being Calm

I think people don't spend enough time on things that are very basic because we think certain things just come naturally or are too boring to spend much time on.  In reality these things are often the background upon which other things in our life occur.  When you pay attention to improving fundamental things that you may usually take for granted you are creating a solid foundation of habits which will affect whatever you do.  Some examples of what I am talking about here is how we breathe, how we listen to others or the habitual movement of our thoughts.  These are very basic things that we do everyday, but don't pay much attention to.  If we were to do these things even just the tiniest bit better or more mindfully, we would see a big impact over time in other areas of our lives.

As discussed in the last post, our brain is plastic and will adapt to how we think and respond.  Our mind or brain is the foundation from which everything we do comes from.  Every situation we encounter in life will depend upon our brain/mind taking in information, processing and filtering that information and then responding.  Therefore it is of the utmost importance for it to function the best it can. Working toward a calmer and more relaxed mind improves the way the brain and body work.  It seems to me because of this that it would rationally be within every one's self interest to put some thought and effort into being calmer and more relaxed.

My family and I were very fortunate to have a chance to see the Dalai Lama give a public talk in front of the Capitol building in Washington DC a couple of weeks ago.  A common theme he discusses is the value and importance of having a calm mind.  He lays out many reasons for this including the fact that a calm mind can deal with problems and unexpected events better than an excessively reactive mind.  He asserts that we simply think better and make better decisions when we are calm.  He also focuses on the health benefits of having a more relaxed mind versus one that is constantly stressed out.  Medical science has been very clear that stress is a big factor in pretty much every type of disease and illness.  Reducing stress is a recommended remedy for every type of malady.

A relaxed person who is cool and collected under fire is something that many of us value or admire, but I think its not something many of us work very hard to cultivate in ourselves long term.  I believe that a calm mind is something worth while to pursue for all of the reasons that the Dalai Lama lays out and many more.  One thing I am often criticizing about American problem solving is that we want to have simple and clear solutions to problems even if reality often doesn't work that way.  However, I would argue that in developing a more relaxed attitude we find something close to the magic wonder drug that we are looking for.  We will age more gracefully, be happier and healthier, deal with disease and conflict better, and the list goes on.  Being calm also allows us to be our best selves more often.  So much of the time we are distracted by stress, fear or anxiety and we can't let our natural personality shine through.  Being calm helps the mind function well and be free to perceive what is occurring in real time and think quickly and holistically.  When too much emotion floods our system it slows the processing of our brain down and we can't respond at our best.

For all of these reasons I believe that the development of inner calm is of real value and will help people lead happier and healthier lives.  I have linked here a short video with Jon Kabat-Zinn discussing the value of meditation in training our minds to be more present and relaxed.  His work and research has been one of the bridges between modern medicine and meditation over the past 20 years.  The video is about 4 minutes please take a look, and in the next post we will take look at some of the new research about relaxation and how it affects our health and ability to deal with disease.

Can We Learn to Be More Compassionate?

I believe that a critical and fundamental assertion that is often overlooked is that we can train our mind. For a long time this contrasted somewhat with biological science which told us that our neurons were fixed after a certain age and that our brain did not really change much after that.  However, more current research has overturned the fixed brain theory and now the brain is described by neuroscientists as being plastic.  This means that the Buddhist point of view, among others,  has had a good sense of how the human mind works and what its potential is.  What we do, think and feel matter and can alter the wiring and structure of our brains.

The affirming message in all of this is that we can change, even later in life, and expand our potential.  Alternatively the uncomfortable fact that accompanies the first is that if we are not involved in our own development then we are leaving it to chance.  We must use it or lose it so to speak.  We have an unprecedented capacity for wisdom, compassion, insight, skill development and to be healthy emotionally and physically.  But it is our responsibility to make sure that we are on a path for the changes to be positive and productive.

There is a similar responsibility that comes with a growing understanding of how flexible our minds and brains are.  It took the pressure off when things were more fixed.  After all, after the age of 25 (or whatever it was) your brain was fixed.  You could only be expected to change so much after that; you were already programmed.  Therefore if you weren't a master concert level musician by your mid to late 20's you could just blame your parents that they didn't get you started young enough.  Brain science is very new and can't tell us everything about ourselves, but it is inspiring to dwell on the thought that we do have some freedom to chart our own destiny if we have determination and commitment to do so.

One of the meditations in Buddhism is to reflect upon your luck at being born into a situation that has certain freedoms and advantages.  You reflect upon these things to inspire yourself to work on positive changes and to take advantage of the opportunities you have.  It is helpful to imagine others' situations who have no freedom or opportunities for spiritual practice or self development.  I think of these new discoveries of neuroscience in that context.  We are very fortunate, in spite of the responsibility it puts on us, that at least to some extent where we go, our brain will adapt and follow.

Linked here is a article from Scientific American about the studies going on and if meditation can affect our ability and capacity for empathy...Please check it out.  Meditate on this: You can learn to be more compassionate

The Reincarnation of a Blog

I have been very remiss in keeping up with posts here, but I have been incubating an idea for a spin off of the current blog.  I started this blog as an idea to create on-line support for our Buddhist reading group at Lake Street Church.  It was intended to help people to think about the ideas and concepts that we went over in our group at a different point in the week.  Many of these valuable spiritual ideas are more valuable the more we use them and, thus I wanted to create a platform that encouraged further reflection.


However, I don't think the blog was used very much by many members of our group and most of the audience was coming from outside even Lake Street Church's larger community.  This has led me to the idea to write a blog that about the concepts, ideas and teachings of Buddhism from a modern perspective.  I believe that Buddhist philosophy is of tremendous value to people living in Western countries.  Its teachings address much of what ills us as a people.  It could very well be more important and useful to people now than it has ever been in historical times.  Our world moves faster and faster with more ways to distract us arriving everyday.  We often find ourselves reacting to life instead of actively choosing how we want to live.  Along with this it is important to realize that science is catching up with the Buddhist world view and Eastern mystic traditions generally.  Advances in Physics and Neuroscience are unveiling discoveries that support the underlying theories of meditation practices and explanations of the world initially taught by Buddhist teachers and mystics thousands of years ago.  My conclusion in all of this is that ever more so, these are ideas and teachings whose time has come.


This newly reincarnated blog will not only attempt to give readers food for thought  in maintaining balance and perspective in the modern world, (there are many blogs that already do this) but this blog will reference scientific studies or research supporting Buddhist ideas or meditative techniques.  


However, most importantly the blog will address the critical question of why it matters for you to pay attention to these ideas.  A member of our reading group recently wrote, "It's like I get the 'what it is' but not the 'why it is important', if that makes any sense."  and it very much does.  Of all of the information available today and with all of the self help guides and gurus out there the why it is important is truly critical when competing for a person's attention.  It is my total conviction that the ideas that we will survey here are some of the most tried and tested ones out there that have withstood the tests of time and gracefully matured to greatness.  They are ideas that will help us to live more fulfilling, successful lives while also making the world a more rational and compassionate place.  I look forward to taking on this project, and I hope that you will join me, at least from time to time.  

Protecting Our Flame

Something that came up in discussion this past week is the tendency to be enthusiastic about the things that are inspiring which can lead people to overcommit before they are ready.  It is natural to be excited and to dive into new things, but maybe more important is a steadily growing and sustained commitment to new practices or disciplines.

Take exercise as very mundane example.  A person is motivated to start a new exercise program because they will be attending a class reunion, and they really want to be in shape before they meet their old friends again to give a good impression and show everyone how successful they are.  So for a few months they are really committed to exercise and they are very disciplined in maintaining their exercise regimen.  However, after the reunion is done, they slack off and they don't continue to work so hard now that the event of the reunion is behind them.

For all of the disciplines or practices that we might be be taken by, it is easy to get fired up and commit heavily short term to certain new ideas or philosophies while intense interest and inspiration lasts.  However, personally I think it is much more powerful to take a more measured approach.  A commitment  to a little bit of practice for many years can produce very fulfilling results over time.  We can compare it to saving money and generating compound interest.  We are all told that we can amass a fortune if we just start saving a little bit each week and let it grow steadily over time.  This is also so with meditation practice, mindfulness practices or efforts to improve our character.

On the other hand, what is gained if we enthusiastically begin such things but we don't continue because the regimen or expectations were unsustainable?  To improve ourselves or make fundamental changes to the way we live takes time.  Therefore, I am an advocate of a patient and temperate approach.  Be careful of the commitments that you make, think about them, and take them seriously when you choose to make them.

Taking advice from Shantideva's book... those endeavors of real value, and the progress that we make in pursuing them, should be defended and protected and not allowed to be lost.

This Fragile Human Life

The current disaster in Japan is a striking reminder to us of life's fragility and how urgent it is not to put off what is important.  The situation many residents in Japan find themselves in is the one that Buddhism constantly is reminding us of...  life is impermanent and can change in an instant.  The changes we may face vary in their severity, but whether they be the loss of a loved one, an unexpected life change or being confronted with death itself, we must not put off what has meaning until later.  Whether that is spending quality time with family, letting bygones be bygones or just taking time out to do what you love is a type of spiritual practice.

Buddha said that of all meditations, meditation on death is the ultimate one.   When we commit to being true to ourselves in spite of the busyness of the world, which tries to rob us of our time and trick us into spending it on other things, we are participating in this important meditation.  The realization that you don't have a lot of time makes you spend it more wisely and this leads to maturity and wisdom in your actions.  The tragedy in Japan and in other places in the world is a reminder to us that these things happen to all people.  What matters is not avoiding these disasters, as that is impossible.  What truly is important is that you be prepared if that disaster strikes and don't leave a lot of things undone.

The reminder of the fragility of life should also be used to have empathy and concern for our fellow beings who want to be happy and avoid tragedy just like us.  Please keep the people of Japan in your thoughts.  Send them your compassion and/or your prayers and hope that whatever good can come out of this situation will.

Here is a link a friend of mine provided to donate to the Red Cross, put "aid to Japan" with your donation to make sure it goes there.  http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=38380&tid=001

The Rational Desire for Other's Happiness

As we continue reading the Way of the Bodhisattva, I find myself thinking about the idea of aspiring for the happiness of others and what that means.  It occurred to me this week that achieving your own happiness is like hoping to fill a small shot glass full of water.  Whereas wanting happiness for all of humanity (or even beyond that for all sentient beings) is like aspiring for the ocean to be full of water.

It follows then that the water in a small glass of water can be quickly lost.  However, the water in the ocean will take thousands of years to dry up, assuming it ever will.  It is not a perfect analogy, but if you move your aspiration to the happiness of others, and put less focus on the water in your own glass, so to speak, you will be less affected by the constant fluctuations of fortune that we all experience.

Also, this seems to me to be a very rational approach.  Conscious investment in one individual's happiness puts a lot of your energy in one basket.  Let's face it, a lot of life is chance.  We all like to think that we are happy or successful by our own efforts alone, but it is probable that just as much is influenced by luck.  Therefore spending your energy on a larger pool is a way to make a wiser investment.

After all, the final argument one could make is that if you spend your life pursuing happiness for yourself, at the moment of your death that happiness will expire totally.  On the other hand, if we concern ourselves with the well being of others, we can rest assured that it will definitely out live us.  And the bigger our circle of care and compassion is, the more confident we can be that it will last long beyond our individual lives.

How We Grow Patience

Recently we have been reading chapter six on patience which, in my opinion, is the most critical chapter in the book.  It begins with this:

All the good works gathered in a thousand ages,
Such as deeds of generosity,
And offerings to the Blissful Ones-
A single flash of anger shatters them.

No evil is their similar to anger,
No austerity is there similar to patience.
Steep yourself, therefore, in patience,
In various ways, insistently. 

From this passage, we can sense the imperative to cultivate the type of patience that can defeat our anger.  This is a very large goal for most of us and can be off putting.  In our fast moving society, which focuses on immediate gratification, we have many opportunities to practice patience every day in smaller ways.  We can prepare our minds to deal with the larger challenges of anger and hatred which are harder to tackle by practicing on the smaller annoying or frustrating inconveniences of life.  This is a practical and doable way to grow our capacity for patience.

I overheard a person talking to his friend on the El a couple weeks ago about how annoyed he was when the person in front of him on the escalator blocked his way and prevented him from walking up.  He confessed that he was in no rush on this occasion and didn't even know why he was so annoyed.  We are often habitually impatient because this is encouraged by the world around us.  However, we can choose to be mindful and to respond with patience instead of frustration or exasperation.

Keeping this practice in mind may help to make us calmer and more relaxed.  This will not not only train us to not get upset habitually but will also spread a little more calm in a world which desperately needs it.  In the comments section share your stories of being impatient in everyday life, or moments when you realized you were being impatient and changed it.

This Precious Human Life

Last week we discussed self centered love and affection versus a more universal type of love which can be developed for all people regardless of one's personal attachments.  The question was asked if that is really possible and if there are people who experience this.  I think that this is a very good question and it relates to one of the reasons I was attracted to Buddhist thought and philosophy in the first place.  Buddhism believes that human beings (and therefore: us) have great potential and worth.  In fact we have the most potential to achieve the highest spiritual attainments than any other type of sentient being in existence.  (Wrap your mind around that!)

Recently I heard a lecture by Robert Thurman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Thurman) which addresses the assumptions within Buddhism about the worth and potential of an individual.  Robert Thurman asks in his lecture, "how much do you really appreciate yourself and what are you capable of achieving?  ...Is it all you can do to learn a little about Mozart and go to the Opera once in a while?  Or maybe all you can do is trudge through life doing the same old things that you've always done? Is this what you are capable of?  Is that really it?"  He offers multiple examples like this, and his and Buddhism's answer, of course, is "No."  You are capable of much much more. You are a human being and have "the highest evolutionary ability" and potential on earth.  You have the highest opportunity "to become the most magnificent being...that could be the source of blessing and benefit to millions (of beings.)"  And if you think your potential is less than this then you are really selling yourself short.

Thurman extolls that we have the capacity to develop sharp diamond like concentration, a imperturbable serene calmness or even self transcendence!  But instead we waste our time or wait for the next distraction or entertainment.  Buddhism challenges us to confront our own limited ideas about what we are and what we can achieve with the brief time of our life.  If we truly can become enlightened or achieve universal love for all of humankind may be irrelevant... just believing that we can, may help us to accomplish much more than we would have imagined possible.

You can listen to Robert Thurman's lecture on this subject by clicking here and either stream or download it.  There are multiple engaging podcasts of Thurman lecturing on Buddhism if you are interested.

The Desire to Change the World

In reading and discussing the last section in Chapter 5 last Sunday we got into a discussion on how you change the world and other people.  This is a critical question in Buddhism, as what is the point of attaining insight into ourselves and how to live if it can't be shared in a meaningful way.  It is especially a problem in the Mahayana tradition as your motivation for enlightenment is for the purpose of helping others.

Making this question current and relevant is the display of violence this past week involving the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others in Arizona.  How can our study, meditation and the rest prevent such tragedies from occurring?  How do we share the truth of compassion and interdependence of life with those who, not only have not realized it, but act in a contrary violent way?  Shantideva also asked this question hundreds of years ago in ancient India and gives us an answer that is not totally satisfactory but has a ring of truth to it.

Harmful beings are everywhere like space itself.
Impossible it is that all should be suppressed,
But let this angry mind alone be overthrown,
And it is though all foes have been subdued.

To cover all the earth with sheets of leather-
Where could such amounts of skin be found?
But with the leather soles of just my shoes
It is as though I cover all the earth!

And thus the outer course of things
I myself cannot restrain.
But let me just restrain my mind,
And what is left to be restrained?

Through working on ourselves in an honest and true way and living as an example of someone who has transcended negative emotions (or at least is working to do so) is the best way to change the world.  We are interconnected and we do influence others and the world everyday.  For Americans this approach may seem slow and ineffective.  But look at your own life for a moment and what has made you change or inspired new ways of thinking in you?  Change is never successfully imposed from the outside.  Instead meaningful change grows from the inside out because people are inspired by an experience or another person to look at the world and act in a different way.

In spite of our best intentions, we cannot force the world to change even if it is for the better.  Shantideva points out that we just don't have the power to do that.  We must inspire change and prove it is possible by doing it, and in this way we will change the world...even if it not as fast and as dramatic as the world needs or as we would like.

Tether the Elephant with Mindfulness' Rope.

Chapter five of Shantideva's text is titled "Vigilant Introspection."  In this chapter we start getting more practical advice about how to make progress on the path of the Boddhisattvas and the first step is mindfulness.  It is not unique to Buddhism that in order to develop something or achieve some goal you first must be able to act when it matters.  Shantideva talks about the virtues of mindfulness and encourages us to cultivate it.  The question is can we master our attention and direct it upon the task you want to attend to?  Can we do better at refraining from negative activities which we habitually fall into?  Mindfulness is the critical skill that we need to be able to make real and lasting progress in these efforts.

If with mindfulness' rope, 

The elephant of mind is tethered all around, 

Our fears will come to nothing, 

Every virtue drops into our hands. (from pg. 61)

If you cannot control your mind, then your mind controls you.  I think most of us have situations where we are in control but have other situations where we let go of that control.  Think for example how you may deal with conflict at home vs. in the work place.  You would not engage in certain behavior at work because it would damage critical relationships or cost you your job.  But at home we let our hair down and talk to people in ways we would not in a more formal environment.  I think this illustrates the capacity for control and a subtle form of discretion that is exercised, maybe subconsciously, when we need to use it or not. 

When we let go of the reins of our mind like this is, when we do things with less than our best self and commit harmful actions, we hurt ourselves or others.  

With the goal of developing mindfulness we develop more awareness of what we do, when we do it and eventually why we do it.  From this position we will be able to change ourselves in a meaningful and lasting way but as Shantideva warns: 

For those who have no introspection,

Though they hear the teachings, ponder them, or meditate, 

Like water seeping from a leaking jar, 

Their learning will not settle in their memories. (from pg. 64)

This is a very appropriate post for New Years and may even help some of those New Years resolutions stick this time.  ;)  Please post your reflections or your resolutions for the new year in comments.