Buddha’s Path in Practice: An end in itself or a means to a better world? (Khenpo Sodargye)

Below are some notes on a very compelling dhamma talk by the Tibetan monk Khenpo Sodargye at the Lady Mitchell Hall in Cambridge. A full video of the talk can be watched here. The audio may be heard here. The organisers thank all those who helped contribute to the event, to all who attended, and to Rachael Harris (left) presiding and to Catherine Hardie (right) for interpreting so brilliantly into English.

Buddha’s Path in Practice:

An end in itself or a means to a better world?

(Khenpo Sodargye)

Listening to each other…

Looking back at the twentieth century and the many conflicts throughout the world, we look forward and hope things will be different in the twenty-first century and that we take advantage of the opportunities for cooperation and collaboration to make a better world. While scientific advances of the West have certainly led to huge material improvements in the standard of living, the wisdom traditions of the East such as Buddha-dhamma have a lot to teach us. So there is a lot of scope for mutual exchange.

Buddhadharma

I am going to talk about whether the practice of Buddha’s teaching is a practice for personal advancement or a benefit to the wider world. I have been engaged in the practice and study of Buddha’s dhamma for a long time. This dhamma is extremely vast. It is difficult to encapsulate its essence. Of course, it is said by some that the purpose of this teaching is to attain liberation, remove mental afflictions and enter nirvana. According to others, however, even after attaining enlightenment, one should dedicate oneself to the advancement of other beings. According to Patrul Rinpoche, a renowned master of the Tibetan tradition in the 19th century, the objective is not to become enlightened as an end in itself but as a means to liberate other sentient beings.  As the Buddhist Chaplain at Cambridge said when I met her, the Buddha’s teaching is a powerful medicine of great value in the current age to those who are committed to understanding and practicing the teachings.

Compassion for the world

On the one hand, the current age brings unprecedented material blessings, but also unprecedented suffering. All kinds of events transpire around the world each day that we see in the news: war, pollution, food safety to name but a few. To take one example, three hundred thousand people have died in Syria in the last five years and a million people are displaced either within Syria’s borders or outside Syria, and we are seeing the effects of this in Europe and the different attitudes of people in this country to these refugees which I’m sure you are aware of. I would urge you think about the plight of these people who have lost their homes. Of course, I’m not making any requests of you, but asking for compassionate mind. Even if we do not have the means to do something, we should think about this. There are some who say that ordained monks should not think about this, that they should seclude themselves in a cave and examine the nature of mind. But in my opinion, as an ordained person, caring about sentient beings in the environment around us is very important.

Compassion for sufferers of depression

Challenges are not restricted to conflicts. Think also of depression. Over the next twenty years, this is expected to be the second highest cause of illness after heart disease. I’d like to say a few things tonight about depression and how the Buddha’s teaching can help with this. The reason I would like to talk about depression is because in the UK, 26% of the population are depressed, that is 16 million people, one in four! In China, there are 90 million sufferers — which is the population of the UK, Austria and Holland combined. Depression has existed in the past, but it is a growing problem in the modern age. Many famous names in history, many artists and writers suffered depression. Freud described it as a loss of interest in the outside world. It is not feeling down because of some reason that we are naturally upset about, but something more serious, a feeling that hope is extinguished and a loss in confidence.

Medication or Meditation?

Depression is a subject I have paid a lot of attention to and studied a lot. The word did not even exist in Tibetan in the past. It is a new word, invented in recent times. So it seems depression was not common in Tibet. In terms of treating this disease, there are various approaches, including psychological and medical. While medicine might stop the symptoms, once the medicines stop, the symptoms return. Also, there are side-effects to medication. So I believe that to cure this illness of the mind, we need a cure of the mind. I have myself witnessed the great usefulness of Buddhist practices in countless instances, too many to name: the use of meditation, emptiness meditation, mindfulness meditation, mantra meditation and altruistic practices.

1. Mindfulness Meditation

In recent times, there has been an enthusiasm in the West for mindfulness practices, but they existed already in Buddhist tradition. One metaphor of mindfulness is of the mind like the reins that bring a stampeding elephant under control, after which positive mental states arise more readily. It teaches us to focus single-pointedly, and focusing on everything which arises in our life in this way is a very powerful practice. So mindful meditation is one very useful practice.

2. Contemplative Mindfulness

Another way of practicing this is as a contemplative meditation on the body, emotions, the mind, and phenomena. Focusing on the physical form, we realize its impermanent nature. We reduce our grasping towards it. Meditating on emotions, we realize their changing nature, and loosen our grasp on emotional states. Contemplating mindfulness and examination of our minds, we focus on the current moment and so understand the nature of our mind and do not cling to its persistence. Finally, contemplating phenomena, we recognize the empty and selfless nature of phenomena. There is no conflict between emptiness and achieving things, striving towards goals with effort. (Regarding the nature of phenomena to be inherently empty is something we have to have an understanding of, just as physicists describe matter to be made up of atoms in a state of flux. It is a common misunderstanding of emptiness to think of it as nihilistic and meaning we can’t have goals.)

Of course these four approaches to mindfulness are in the Southern Theravada tradition as well, the four foundations of mindfulness. By engaging in this meditation practice, it does heal mental affliction. And even if we do not suffer depression, practicing them is a good preventative measure to prevent future illness.

3. Selflessness

Another Buddhist practice which can be helpful is realizing selflessness: selflessness of being and selflessness of phenomena. A lot of depression is caused by strong grasping of self. The investigation of the two forms of selflessness is very important in this context.

4. Mantra Meditation

As well as single-pointedness, mindfulness and selflessness, another practice I would like to share is mantra meditation. I have a lot of personal success with this both in my own life and with others. Although I am not a doctor, I have helped many people with this method. This tantric mantra was given to me in 1986. I think it had an extraordinary effect in helping me become unshakeable in my faith in the dhamma. In the beginning I would not have described myself as someone who was unmoveable in my practice. This mantra has ten syllables. It is not something I have taught in front of an audience before. But it is not something that needs faith. I believe it is like a medicine that the doctor prescribes. There is no need to understand it. It just works. If you have the need, write it down to share. Recite it 10 times, 10000 times. In terms of whatever endeavours we engage in, to overcome obstacles it really is a mantra of great potency. I would like to share it with you.

Om Sancha Maha Ruo Ka Na Hum Pat

…

Om Sancha Maha Ruo Ka Na Hum Pat

Om Sancha Maha Ruo Ka Na Hum Pat

5. Equanimity of a Mind at Ease

There is a saying in Tibetan: after you go up a mountain, you have to come down. Happiness and sadness follow each other. It is good to maintain a mind at ease.

6. Dhamma Study

Research into Buddha’s teaching is really invaluable and indispensable. The ideas of selflessness and of dependent origination are of absolute importance to our everyday lives! Engaging with these teachings, it is advisable to raise objections. Debate and rational investigation are the crux of our methodology in the Tibetan tradition.

7. Parents, Family & Community

The last thing is to benefit others and to look after one’s parents. As Durkheim observed in his empirical studies, depression often has its roots not at the individual level but in the community, or common mind. So it is important to work at the higher level of the community also. Thank you!

Questioning Dogma

Question from the audience:

“I recited this mantra 1000 times a day and got into Cambridge and I think this is why I got in!”

Another audience member: 

“Oh, I want to recite this mantra!”

Khenpo Sodargye:

“In fact there are many people who got into Cambridge who didn’t recite this mantra!”

The most important blog you'll ever read!

What are you feeling? Excitement that I’m about to tell you the meaning of the universe, life and everything? Or cynicism – you’ve heard it all before? Just to clarify something early, this likely isn’t the most important blog you’ll ever read. In fact, nothing you ever read will be of much importance compared to the things that you do. Yet here you are reading this! In fact, you’re not likely to hear anything new, especially if you’ve been reading for a while.

So how do you feel now?

Angry? Touch in with the anger and take its temperature.

Thinking of what you’ll click on next? Touch in with that feeling and give up the clickety-ghost.

Still reading persistently? Go use that energy to touch in with your own vital creativity.

Restless, don’t know what to do? Feel it really, then make the choice to let the monkey go.

Are you enlightened yet? Thought not. Feel that special unenlightened feeling. When you’re enlightened, you’ll never get to feel it again.

Blissed out and feeling high as a mountain? Wow, my blog really did that to you? Punches the air. But don’t get complacent. Keep practicing.

And remember, don’t forget to breathe… 

With your whole body.

Just as you can tense a muscle and let it go to fully relax it, so you can do the same with your mind. Really touch in with your emotions, even the negative ones, and get to know their energies. Thank them when they arise, for they are your teachers. When the energy is stripped to its essence, only wisdom remains.

There’s only one thing you can’t touch into, and that’s inertia. If the visit is unwelcome, then like in-laws your only defence is to prepare yourself (...leave the house, lol) before the moment of arrival. Become aware of the approach signals, and move your body and move your mind, deploying your imaginative resources to harness your strengths and be your best – yourself.

Peace out! A wonderful thanksgiving to you all!

–okei, naturally not celebrating… except in spirit. :^) Thanks for reading!

Source: This is actually based on a Buddhist talk I went to, but I thought I'd leave out the technicalities, spice it up and give it a thanksgiving theme.

This was originally posted to Buddhist Travellers in 2010.

Music & Meditation (Osho)

The opening and closing videos are by Toumani Diabete, the kora master from Mali, playing Debe alongside the great Ali Farka Touré, and playing Toumani with his Symmetric Orchestra.

Music: Meditation or Intoxication 

(Osho)

Which is music for you, meditation or intoxication? 

It's a striking question!

WHILE LISTENING TO STRINGED INSTRUMENTS, HEAR THEIR COMPOSITE CENTRAL SOUND; THUS OMNIPRESENCE.

The same! You are hearing an instrument -- a sitar, or anything. Many notes are there. Be alert and listen to the central core, the backbone of it around which all the notes are flowing, the deepest current which holds all the notes together -- that which is central, just like your backbone. The whole body is held by the backbone. Listening to the music, be alert, penetrate the music, and find the backbone of it -- the central thing which goes on flowing, holding everything together. Notes come and go and disappear, but the central core flows on. Become aware of it.

Basically, originally, music was used for meditation; particularly Indian music developed as a method of meditation, Indian dancing developed as a method of meditation. For the doer it was a deep meditation, and for the audience also it was a deep meditation. A dancer or a musician can be a technician. And he can be a great technician, but the soul comes only when the musician is also a deep meditator.

And music is just the outward thing. While playing on his sitar, one is not only playing on his sitar, he is also playing on his alertness inside. The sitar goes on outwardly and his intense awareness moves inside. The music flows outwardly, but he is alert, constantly aware of the innermost core of it. And that gives samadhi. That becomes ecstasy. That becomes the highest peak.

It is said that when the musician has really become the musician, he will break his instrument -- because it is of no use. If he still needs his instrument, he is not a real musician yet. He is just learning. If you can play with music, with meditation, sooner or later the inner music will become more important, and the outer will become not only less important: ultimately it will become a disturbance. You will throw the instrument away from you, because now you have found the inner instrument. But it cannot be found without the outer; with the outer you can become alert more easily. Once you have become alert, leave the outer and move inwards. And for the listener also, the same!

But what are you doing when you listen to music? You are not meditating. On the contrary, you are using music as something like alcohol. You are using it to be relaxed, you are using it for self-forgetfulness. This is the misfortune, the misery: the techniques which were developed for awareness are being used for sleep. And this is how man goes on doing mischief with himself.

If something is given to you which can make you awake, you will use it to make yourself more sleepy. That is why for millennia teachings were kept secret -- because it was thought to be useless to give techniques to a sleepy man. He will use them for sleep; he cannot do otherwise. So techniques were given only to particular disciples who were ready to shake their sleep, who were ready to be shattered out of their sleepiness.

Ouspensky dedicates one book to George Gurdjieff as "the man who disturbed my sleep". Such people ARE disturbers. Persons like Gurdjieff or Buddha or Jesus, they are disturbers. That is why we take revenge upon them. We may have been dreaming beautiful dreams and he comes and disturbs our sleep. We want to kill him. The dream was so beautiful. And if it is beautiful, then it is more dangerous because it can attract you more, it can become a drug.

We have been using music as a drug, dancing as a drug. And if you want to use music and dancing as drugs, then they will become not only drugs for your sleep, they will become drugs for sexuality also. So remember this point: sexuality and sleep go together. When you awake you will be more loving, the whole energy of sex will have been transformed to love.

To summarize:

WHILE LISTENING TO STRINGED INSTRUMENTS, HEAR THEIR COMPOSITE CENTRAL SOUND -- their complete central sound -- THUS OMNIPRESENCE. 

And then you will know what is to be known, or what is worth knowing. You will become omnipresent With the music, finding the composite central core, you will become awake, and with that awakening you will be everywhere.

Right now, you are somewhere -- a point which we call the ego. If you can become awake, this point will disappear. You will not be anywhere then, you will be EVERYWHERE -- as if you have become the all. You will have become the ocean, you will have become the infinite.

The finiteness is with the mind.

The infiniteness enters with meditation.

Carrie: Thank you so much, Okei. The sitar video is absolutely beautiful. I could listen to it over and over again. For me, the music is a simultaneous blend of intoxicant and meditation. :)Namaste!

okei: Yeah, it's cool! The kora is like a sitar, but it's a "21-string West African harp".

Denise: ♥

Kathy: The same idea is also the core behind other instruments like Scottish bagpipes. They also have a central, "drone" sound around which the rest of the melody is played. Music certainly does have a way of transporting us, doesn't it? :) Thanks, Okei!! :) Blessings!

okei: Thanks for dropping by, Denise, and Thanks Kathy! They do indeed... and it does, but we are bombarded with music and even bombard ourselves sometimes.
The ease of listening to music, with the transfer to digital, the ability to store thousands of tracks on a small device, instead of just a few as in the past, makes this more true than ever, that it becomes just mindless noise to fill the silence.
And this can be said of anything, even that which is most spiritual, so it's worth paying heed to Osho's warning (extracted from the above):

"If something is given to you which can make you awake, you will use it to make yourself more sleepy. That is why for millennia teachings were kept secret -- because it was thought to be useless to give techniques to a sleepy man. He will use them for sleep; he cannot do otherwise."

This originally appeared on Buddhist Travellers in 2010.

Kubla Kahn (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

Kubla Kahn                    Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment. 

By Samuel Taylor Coleridge   

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
   Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round;
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. 

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:
And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;
And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
   The shadow of the dome of pleasure
   Floated midway on the waves;
   Where was heard the mingled measure
   From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice! 

   A damsel with a dulcimer
   In a vision once I saw:
   It was an Abyssinian maid
   And on her dulcimer she played,
   Singing of Mount Abora.
   Could I revive within me
   Her symphony and song,
   To such a deep delight ’twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
     

Painting: ‘A Sea Spell’ by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The "I"

These are notes based on a dhamma talk by Bhante Bodhidhamma.

The Observer

Mindfulness (sati) is an awareness of certain characteristics. Buddha's teachings could be reduced down to the single idea of not-self (anatta), which is quite a confusing concept to explain. Someone once asked the Buddha, "is there a self?" Buddha said nothing. He then asked, "is there not a self?" Still Buddha said nothing. When he was questioned later, he said "if I had said there is no self, they would have put me in the camp of the annihilationists, if I had said there is a self they would have put me in the camp of the eternalists". So he said nothing. When you meditate, where is it that you feel the observer? I'll leave that as something for you to investigate.

Desire for Happiness & Its Effects

But let's begin again. What is it you want out of life? Contentment, meaning, fulfilment, the desire to make a difference, success, zen-mind, nibbana? We all desire happiness, however we might define it. We want this happiness to grow. But once we become psychologically dependent on anything for happiness, then the disappearance of this object creates suffering. I have to then always be on my guard that my object of happiness isn't taken away. If the threat is bigger than me, then I will fear it. Right there, are the three relationship responses arising from the desire for happiness: acquisitiveness (which remember eventually turns into an active greed), aversion (to keep the enemy away), and fear if the enemy is bigger than me. This trilogy underlies everything we are doing. The mistake we've made is to try to seek happiness in a world which is constantly changing and a world which we can't control. Happiness then is conditioned, and we don't have control over the conditions, not even of our own body. The mistake comes down to one of identity.

Identity is Beyond our Control

If sadness arises, I don't and can't control it. It is just an emotion. I might learn some new technique which works amazingly the first time, but then it stops working. The body, sensations, heart, and the mind with its imaginings, are all containers or turmoil and movement. Ayn Rand expressed in Buddhist terms the final delusion that through the power of will we can control our life. Some very successful people have applied her philosophy in their lives, and they recognised for themselves that after a while the power of will reaches its limit. We can make ourselves comfortable. But as for the power we have over our lives, it is minimal. Have you ever experienced the exchange of oxygen with carbon dioxide in the lungs? Did you know that every week you create a completely new cornea? I didn't either. Who can fathom the mysteries of this body.

Body

We have to find a place which is objective. This is the position of vipassana, becoming aware of sensations in the body. If you notice a pain in the knee, attention is drawn towards it. The word pain will be somewhere in the mind. When you observe the pain, there is a reaction. We experience aversion to the pain. Pain and the reaction, and then allowing the reaction to die away. So long as the pain is not ridiculous, then as you become equanimous with it, you drive your attention into the pain. Then the pain becomes something else, like pressure or heat. To experience feeling through feeling, going beyond the initial perception, the word and stories and past experiences that make us see things through a context, we drive attention into the pain itself and the actual perception changes.

Mind

When you come to the surface of the pain, you see that pain is a mental construct to tell us that something is wrong. It's the same with emotions. When I feel anxious, that is a reaction, normally to fear. Even more extreme, panic is the fear of fear. As we become accustomed with the feeling of fear, not getting caught up in the story, the reaction disappears. We are left with the raw feeling of fear. Perception changes. Nausea, cold, heat, trembling. Something different. Through careful investigation we see how the mind is creating the world we're living in.

Heart

When it comes to thought and imagining, the mind is always creating stories. Connect the stories which the growth of the emotion we are experiencing. When we're depressed, we start thinking depressing thoughts. The more you think them, the more depressed you feel. The mind is the mechanism by which depression develops. On the positive side, all the joys of life, such as good food or a good meditation. A feeling of wanting to hold on to, or at least to repeat it. It was such a great party. We want it again. It is very difficult to distinguish from the enjoyment because they are so close. But what is the aftermath of attachment? Immediately we form a habitual relationship and wanting this to grow.  This is the beginning of addiction. When we can't get it, it's frustration.

Boredom

The unacknowledged driving force of the consumer society is desire for something different and exciting and pleasurable to overcome boredom. I know a monk who went through boredom watching the breath. The teacher suggested different points, different exercises. The boredom drove him insane. Boredom is a sense of aversion where you're not getting the satisfaction we used to get. A society that sees happiness in terms of excitement is prone to boredom.

Silence

I tell the story of a monastery of St. Francis which I visited. There are signs everywhere to keep silent. And all these 12 year old kids are making a racket. There was no effort by the teachers to keep them quiet. Silence has gone out the window in our society. We cannot understand it.

Joy without Attachment

Searching for happiness, we have to be careful not to have the wrong relationship with joy and the pleasures of life. This is not to say we shouldn't have these joys. Buddha talks of the beauty of life and how he enjoys giving the dhamma talks. When someone doesn't take the teaching, he doesn't feel sad. When they do, he is joyful. Buddha is always living in a state of love, compassion, joy, peace. When he is by himself, he is in peaceful equanimity. He goes off into the forest to meditate. "Why?" his disciples asked, "since he is already enlightened". He replied, for quiet abiding and to set a good example to others. Notice the quiet abiding comes first. The desire is for silence.

Change

There is nothing in the world worth holding onto. The reason is you can't hold onto it. Anything you hold actually changes in your grasp. When wrong relationship arises, allow it to just pass away. These are conditions that you can't get rid of by doing. As soon as you feel greed for something, or annoyed about something, we can't repress it and pretend we don't feel it, or it comes back at us, the "return of the repressed" as Freud calls it. This process of changing our wrong relationships to things is a struggle. Buddha's last words were not: relax, take it easy, but "work diligently".

Open Hearted Contentment

When someone complained that this training was difficult and painful, all for the sake of Nibbana — so what? But when you get Nibbana, you are contented, without attachment. This contentment is said to be one of the greatest virtues of one who has realised Nibanna. It comes across as equanimity. It is not coming from a fixed position, not from a prejudice, coming to everything with an open heart and an open mind.

Purifying the Heart

If we go back to the enlightenment experience of the Buddha, there are three knowledges. The process of insight is inseparable from the process of purification (moving towards an ethical life). In the 1980s, there was the idea that you go for a long enough retreat and you would reach enlightenment. The result for many was despair. Many turned to drugs. When they gave up, all the old conditioning came up. So you see, you can't give up! Unfortunately, you've all entered on the spiritual path, so you've got not choice now. Now you've set out on the path, you must continue!

Absorption of the Self

When have you been most happy in life? Is it not when you've committed yourself or absorbed yourself in something. We have this idea of free will in Western philosophy, but there is no free-floating will, free from conditions. All will does is empower your intention. You can change your situation by understanding conditions, and so move towards happiness. The presupposition of I am is that something exists before the sense of identity. In meditation, we get back to the point of not knowing. Feeling a sensation in the body, I am no longer the sensation, but the feeler of that sensation. When you hurt your finger, you are the finger. Jump out of that and you want to retaliate against a door even. When you lose your temper, you are your temper. That is what identity means. Disidentifying the body from its sensation, the heart from its emotions, and the mind from its thoughts, we pull out something from its confusion, that something being the observer.

The Observer Revisited

Going back to my original question, "where do you experience that observer?" You are aware of yourself being the observer. If you are aware of it, you can't be that. Buddha is pointing to something behind that, to a point which is not aware of itself, yet complete, entire, unconditioned. Next time you are in meditation, just find out. I'll leave that with you.

Two Consciousnesses

Whenever you want to do something, do it with a full heart. Then lose yourself, lose sense of time. At the end it is done. You only recognise it afterwards. That's it. We have a lot to be going away to work on. Let us meditate and work on it.

Metta Prayer

May I be free of greed and selfishness


May I be free of anger and ill-will 


May I be free of fear and anxiety 


May I be free of ignorance and delusion 



May I be kind & gentle, sympathetic & benevolent
May I be forgiving and compassionate
May I be joyful and rejoice in the success of others
May I be peace-loving and calm

May I be liberated of all my sufferings
May I experience the peace & bliss of Nibbana.

~*~

May all beings be free of greed and selfishness


May all beings be free of anger and ill-will 


May all beings be free of fear and anxiety 


May all beings be free of ignorance and delusion 



May all beings be kind & gentle, sympathetic & benevolent
May all beings be forgiving and compassionate
May all beings be joyful and rejoice in the success of others
May all beings be peace-loving and calm

May all beings be liberated of all their sufferings
May all beings experience the peace & bliss of Nibbana.

Painting: "Woman at the Window" by Salvador Dalí.

By The Window (Edward Dowden)

 

STILL deep into the West I gazed; the light
Clear, spiritual, tranquil as a bird
Wide-winged that soars on the smooth gale and sleeps,
Was it from sun far-set or moon unrisen?
Whether from moon, or sun, or angel’s face	5
It held my heart from motion, stayed my blood,
Betrayed each rising thought to quiet death
Along the blind charm’d way to nothingness,
Lull’d the last nerve that ached. It was a sky
Made for a man to waste his will upon,	10
To be received as wiser than all toil,
And much more fair. And what was strife of men?
And what was time?
Then came a certain thing.
Are intimations for the elected soul	15
Dubious, obscure, of unauthentic power
Since ghostly to the intellectual eye,
Shapeless to thinking? Nay, but are not we
Servile to words and an usurping brain,
Infidels of our own high mysteries,	20
Until the senses thicken and lose the world,
Until the imprisoned soul forgets to see,
And spreads blind fingers forth to reach the day,
Which once drank light, and fed on angels’ food?
It happened swiftly, came and straight was gone.	25
One standing on some aery balcony
And looking down upon a swarming crowd
Sees one man beckon to him with finger-tip
While eyes meet eyes; he turns and looks again—
The man is lost, and the crowd sways and swarms.	30
Shall such an one say, ‘Thus ’tis proved a dream,
And no hand beckoned, no eyes met my own?’
Neither can I say this. There was a hint,
A thrill, a summons faint yet absolute,
Which ran across the West; the sky was touch’d,	35
And failed not to respond. Does a hand pass
Lightly across your hair? you feel it pass
Not half so heavy as a cobweb’s weight,
Although you never stir; so felt the sky
Not unaware of the Presence, so my soul	40
Scarce less aware. And if I cannot say
The meaning and monition, words are weak
Which will not paint the small wing of a moth,
Nor bear a subtile odour to the brain,
And much less serve the soul in her large needs.	45
I cannot tell the meaning, but a change
Was wrought in me; it was not the one man
Who came to the luminous window to gaze forth,
And who moved back into the darkened room
With awe upon his heart and tender hope;	50
From some deep well of life tears rose; the throng
Of dusty cares, hopes, pleasures, prides fell off,
And from a sacred solitude I gazed
Deep, deep into the liquid eyes of Life.

The Legalist Doctrine of Han Feizi (3rd century B.C.)

The essence of legalist doctrine is the use of sovereign law to secure the authority of the ruler, to harness the talents of the ministers, to keep harmony among the people, and to protect the peace from enemies abroad. In short, the aim is to make the state strong and to keep it under control. In this emphasis on the strong state it conflicts with traditional Confucian values that put neighbours and family first.

The essential energy of the state is focused on the knowledge and practice of agriculture and warfare. Agriculture is practiced in times of peace to fill the granaries, and warfare in times of war to repel invaders, preserve alliances and crush enemies. These two activities keep men busy and keep the state strong.

Rewards are clear, penalties severe. Punishments include ministers. Rewards include commoners. With these two levers of authority, the sovereign keeps control of the state. If he should ever be foolish enough to give either power away, then he will lose authority.

Everything has its specific function, every person has his specific qualification. The ruler just assign names. When names and forms are in agreement, superior and inferior are in harmony. The calamity of the ruler originates in self-assertion because his function is solely to rule, not to interfere. When the name exceeds the form, this deserves punishment. When the form exceeds the name, this too may be punished because it signals an attempt to gain favour or it takes away another's responsibility. To speak without knowing, or to not speak when one knows, both deserve to be punished. When forms and names match each other, then this deserves reward. Chastisement and commendation are the two handles by which fear of punishment and greed for reward are exercised.

"Rules and measures" is the sovereign's treasure. "Allies and followers" is the minister's treasure. Thus, the sovereign uses rules and measures to divide up alliances that could threaten his authority. If the ruler's personal bias of like and dislike are concealed, then the ministers' true hearts will be revealed. If the ministers reveal their true hearts, then the ruler will never be deluded. With laws and numbers that are definite and impartial, the ruler will not be deceived. Ministers must never realise wishes that are outside the rule of law, nor bestow favours that are within the rule of law. 

When high and low are connected, everything will be in order.

So it was that "the early kings esteemed legalism".

Thus advised Han Feizi. And he was killed for his troubles.

Comments: So we see how even an enlightened kind of authoritarianism, just like capitalism today, is based on fear and greed. It is successful precisely because it utilizes human nature instead of trying to change human nature. And yet, though endowed with external strength, the authoritarian and the capitalist society are both internally conflicted. When we all go for the same aim, whether it be power or money, naturally there is conflict. The ruler and the state want to be strong because they are afraid of the dark days, the days of war and lack that leave their imprint on our memory, on our history, on our subconscious, but by being afraid of the dark days, we are always living in the dark days. The only way out is if we could switch from this reactive victim-mentality to the creator-mentality. This is what Nietzsche spoke of in his "Genealogy of Morals", a summary of which you can read at the link. Indeed, we must overcome our greed and fear, and with gentle reason heal our inner conflicts.

Desiderata of Hope (Max Ehrmann)

Three poems by American poet Max Ehrmann, most famous for his Desiderata.

I sit and smile at myself

I.
I sit and smile at myself,
As deep into the dark I dream and write.
What boots it to me that I should waste my youth
And burn the oil of night?
For I'll but live my little day
     And then away.

I sit and smile at myself,
As dreaming, half the sweet of life I miss,
And beat my soul against the deadened wall
Of fate, and lose the kiss
Of love and laughter light,
     As here I write.

I sit and smile at myself,
And yet as I dip oar into life's swift sea,
I somehow feel that I, poor fool, still do
The work that's meant for me.
So on and on and on I write
     Into the night.

II.
Sing on, O singers all!
(A voice calls out) sweet dreamers, dream yet on
And chant and chant upon the beach of night,
Until the graying dawn
Finds flags of brotherhood unfurled
     Across the world.

For life's a battle hard
And singers still must come from out the throng
To soften them who in the hot pursuit
Will listen to a song.
So spin thy lays in ringing rhyme
     At midnight time.

This be excuse enough,
Thou scribbling, ever scratching, jingling seer,
And in the final counting of the world,
When each man's page is clear,
And all is o'er with earth's wild pace,
     Thou'lt have thy place.

We sit and judge

We sit and judge without delay
On how each one betakes his way,
And laugh at every narrow man
Who can't enjoy the things we can,
And deep in Hades, souls we plant,
That can enjoy the things we can't.

Sleep Sweetly

Sleep sweetly now that the gates of the
     crimson night are closed, and leave
     tomorrow's struggle for tomorrow;
The earth is peaceful, only the stars and still moon
     are abroad, and they wage no war.

Painting: 'Towards a Better World' by Luis Ricardo Falero

Six Primitive Egos in 'Le Petit Prince'

Before the Little Prince arrives in the desert on planet Earth, and meets the narrator-aviator representing the author Antoine de St. Exupéry, he visits six other planets. Each of these planets is inhabited by a primitive ego, a single adult character who has lost the innocence of childhood.

1. The king who gives orders to the universe, and tailors these orders to be reasonable so that the universe obeys and his illusion isn't broken.
2. The showman who wants to be admired.
3. The drunkard who drinks in order to forget the shame of his drunkenness.
4. The businessman who believes he owns every star he sees and spends his days counting and re-counting them.
5. The lamplighter who follows his primordial orders to re-light and extinguish the lamp on his planet each morning and evening, despite the change of circumstances of his planet that make this task exhausting and futile.
6. The geographer who studies the world second-hand through the comparison and assessment of the character of witnesses, but never sees it himself.

The Little Prince himself is not without ego. Ironically, our first encounter with him is the sound of his voice ordering "draw me a sheep!". This is reminiscent of the king, from the first planet he visited, in whom the prince unwittingly provoked a crisis by not obeying. 

The Little Prince also feels a sense of ownership towards a flower on his planet, whom he loves very much, and towards his planet generally, but unlike the businessman, his ownership involves looking after and being useful for the things that he owns. 

Unlike the six primitive egos that he meets, that the narrator tells us are so numerous on Earth, the sense of ego of the Little Prince is child-like, innocent and unselfish. More important though, it is without self-importance, even more so when he comes to see how little he really is compared to the vastness of the universe.

What gives his life importance then is not his sense of ego, but his love, his sense of place, his friendship, his rituals, his own experience. He learns all this from the wise fox, and in turn passes it on to the narrator after he befriends him. The narrator in turn passes this wisdom on to us.

It is sad that the book ends with the Little Prince leaving Earth, as if his childhood innocence could not survive any longer on this planet.

Postscript: I once had the idea of four primitive ego types: the master (1), the slave (5), the idol (2) and the idolator (3, 4, 6). Exupéry, however, distinguishes three types of idolatory in the drunkard, the businessman and the geographer. Perhaps these correspond to the three roots (the mental states that cloud the mind) of self-hate, selfish greed, and self-delusion. The geographer is like the university professor who writes books about books, but never perceives reality itself. On the subject of which I hope that, unlike the geographer, anything I write about a book is an exploration of truth (and beauty). 

He who Just Is (Tom Bombadil)

Adapted from Samsaran's musings by okei:

Tolkien in writing 'The Lord of the Rings' saga said that he was attempting to give Western Europe its own epic mythology and he succeeded quite well. Tolkien, the devout Catholic, called upon pagan mythology and added a touch of Christian mysticism. Take the One Ring: "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them". Created by Sauron, himself a “fallen angel”-character, it represents evil. Note how this evil shapes itself to the character of the bearer, that is to the degree of the bearer's pride, and to their ego. Ego makes us vulnerable to the siren call of power, of control, of dominion.

J. R. R. Tolkien explained in a letter to Milton Waldman in 1951, “The chief power of all the rings was the prevention or slowing of decay (change viewed as negative); an Elvish motive. But they also enhanced the natural powers of the possessor, approaching “magic” and leading to a lust for domination. And they had other powers, such as invisibility and making the invisible world visible. The Three Rings of the Elves were beautiful and powerful, directed to preserving beauty and did not confer invisibility. But in secret Sauron made the One Ring, the Ruling Ring that contained all the others’ powers and controlled them, making their owners’ thoughts known, governing what they did, and eventually enslaving them. But the Elves became aware of his plan and hid the Three Rings, and tried to destroy the others.”

In the hands of the man Isildur, it plays to his human desire for power and selfish nature. In the hands of Gollum, a small soul, it merely makes him a petty thief and murderer. Gandalf and Galadriel, being great souls, see that in taking the ring they would be capable of terrible deeds and so passed the test and did not take it. The ring was relatively safe in the hands of Bilbo and Frodo because humility was the greatest virtue of the hobbits so they had little ego for it to play upon.

Only Tom Bombadil was entirely unaffected by the ring’s power. The part he played to the story was almost incidental, rescuing the hobbits in their journey through the Wild Wood from the menacing willows. He is a magical character, singing to the trees and able to soothe the turbulent forces of nature with the melody of his voice, jovial and powerful like a forest-shaman. He is many people's favourite character, and it was disappointing to see him left out of Peter Jackson's epic film adaptation. But perhaps we should not be surprised, for like the nature-god Pan who was missing from the otherwise excellent 1983 film adaptation of 'The Wind in the Willows', his presence is more of mystical significance. Mystery is shrouded in forgetfulness. Tom is He who Just Is. It could be said that he is in Middle Earth, but not of it, an elemental force of nature, an elder God in his own right, simply taking human form as a convenience. In this way, he is the ego-less, the “Buddha” of Middle Earth, more powerful than Gandalf, the great Elven Lords or even Sauron himself. He alone is not part of what the Buddhists would call “samsara”, the world of illusion, so he alone was immune from the evil of the ring. He desires nothing that the ring could give him. Already divine and eternal, he is the epitome of Castaneda's ideal of one who has transcended the "four enemies": fear, clarity, power and old-age. Gandalf knew he could have kept the ring in perfect safety, but he feared it was so insignificant to him that he would lose it.

What Tolkien is getting across here is that all evil is the result of ego. It is the result of our desire to control others. One devoid of ego cannot be deceived by evil. Even Gandalf and Lady Galadriel knew that in their desire to use it for good they would eventually be perverted by it. The ring gave the bearer knowledge but it was a tainted knowledge. Incomplete wisdom is often worse than no wisdom at all.

Yet to be without evil still does not make him perfect. Unlike Lady Galadriel, whose beauty is reflected in her surroundings, Tom Bombadil makes no effort to tame the wild and foreboding spirits that inhabit his domain. That the hobbits are saved from the willows and ultimately succeed to destroy the ring is thanks in larger part to Gandalf who alerted Tom of their quest and supports them in their onward journey. The world is still in need of those who have not yet abandoned ego and who strive to do good.

Despite Tom Bombadil not having the all-pervading influence of someone like Gandalf, he remains my favourite character. I am drawn to him by his good humour, and I leave him reminded of this inspiring and important lesson: that without ego one cannot be subject to the whims of the world and evil can take no hold in our hearts.

Blessings,

☯ Samsaran ॐ (originally here) Adaptation: —okei

Painting: ’Aphrodite’ by the English painter Briton Rivière (1840-1920)

Two Poems by Lorca

Philosopher Will Buckingham plays classical guitar, accompanied by two poems of Federico García Lorca in translation and a selection of Bulgarian art. The video was taken at the Bulgarian Cultural Institute, 15th Feb. 2013. at a book reading of 'Descent of the Lyre'. More information here.

"Arbolé, Arbolé seco y verdé" literally means "Tree, tree dry and green" but it is almost impossible to translate capturing both the rhyming sound of it, and the opposition between "dry" and "green". So it is best left in Spanish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pym3t1YZikA

 Arbolé, Arbolé... (original)

Arbolé, Arbolé
Seco y verdé.

The girl with the beautiful face
Is gathering olives
The wind, prince of towers
takes her by the waist.

Four horsemen pass by
on Andalusian ponies
with suits of azure and green
and long flowing robes.
"Come to Cordoba, young dear"
The girl does not hear.

Three young bullfighters pass by,
Slender about their waists
with suits of orange
and swords of ancient silver.
"Come to Sevilla, young dear"
The girl does not hear.

When the evening draws on,
In purple dusk diffusing,
a young man passes by carrying
roses and myrtles of moonlight.
"Come to Granada, young dear"
But the girl does not hear.

The girl with the beautiful face
still goes on gathering olives
with the grey arm of the wind
encircling her waist.

Arbolé! Arbolé!
Seco y verde.


Captive (original)

Through the indecisive
branches
went a maiden
who was life.
Through the indecisive
branches.
With a tiny mirror,
she reflected the day
which was aglow
upon her clear forehead.
Through the indecisive
branches.
Upon night's shadows,
lost, she wandered,
weeping dew,
for time held captive.
Through the indecisive
branches.