Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Buddhism Without Beliefs - 7 - Activism

(For Podcast, click here.  For ITunes version, click here.)  


Today we finish our book series on Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor.  This morning, I would like to talk about how one practices Buddhism in a world of strident  and aggressive politics—do we engage or do we remove ourselves from the fray?  Stephen Batchelor wants to dispel the misconception that Buddhism is simply a practice of individual isolation.  When we look back on the Buddha’s life, we find that he did take time during the rainy season for introspection and meditation, but the rest of the time, he was out talking with people, encouraging them, advising kings and warlords and farmers and business people, people from all walks of life. 

Before I go any further, I want to declare a very important objective.  I am going to talk about activism only, without diving in ANY political debate, discussion, dogmatism or doctrine. I’m not going to advocate a particular candidate or issue.  I am adamant that these Sunday mornings of spiritual reflection are NOT to be used for any political persuasion.  We are together to simply learn skills and practices that help us relieve suffering, be happier and be better citizens in the world.  A key component of the Buddhist practice is to recognize that we are inseparably interconnect to each other, others who want and need the same that we do, to be loved and cared for, regardless of what their words or actions might imply.  Now, I concede that people go about trying to be loved and cared for in many unskillful ways.  Any of us who have ever gone to a bar looking for love may be guilty of that.   Regardless, we can learn to share loving-kindness and compassion with ourselves and with others, and that can make a great difference in the world.

What do the Buddhist practices have to do with the political process, with our responsibility as a human being to care about other human beings, to in fact care about all beings?  If engaging in the world is part of this practice, then how do we engage in a skillful way?

I thought a great example would be the Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi .  She is Buddhist, she is an activist, and she feels strongly that her Buddhist practice drives her political actions.  For those of you not familiar, Suu Kyi was the daughter of the man that founded the modern Burmese army and help Burma gain independence from the British.  He was assassinated when she was quite young, and also had a brother that drowned at age eight.  This woman knew sorrow from an early age.  Burma has one of the longest running civil wars and had been ruled by a military since 1962,   Her mother gain some prominence in the newly formed Burmese government, raised Suu Kyi as a Buddhist, then Suu Kyi had an opportunity to come to England and study at Oxford

She fell in love, got married, had two children, and then, in 1988, her mother became ill, and she went back to Burma to care for her.  She was unable to return to England for 24 years.  She could have left, but she determined that she would have been unable to as effectively confront the military debacle that was ruining her country.  She gave up seeing her children grow up in England.  She was not allowed to see her husband when he was dying from cancer.  She gave her life to fighting for democracy in her country. 

And yet, in Suu Kyi’s own words"It was not a sacrifice. It was a choice that I made. I decided to follow a path that I thought was right. And so really, I deserve no praise for it, nor do I really deserve compassion for any of the problems I might have met along the way because it was my choice,"

One of her most famous essays was Freedom From Fear, which began: "It is not power that corrupts, but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it."

So, we might think that we have no power.  We might wonder how we might make a difference.  We might think that violence or hatred is required.  Who knows?  Only you can decide for yourself.  Only you can determine what is needed when.  The Buddhist teachings encourage us that when we are present in the moment, only then do we have access to the unlimited innate wisdom within us--the innate power to see what needs to be said, what needs to be done, to relieve the most suffering.  What will do the most good?  That is our question to be answered.

I’ve been searching for the next book for us to discuss, and yesterday, thanks to Roz Stoneking, it came to me clearly.  Next week, we’ll begin Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, entitled, “Being Peace”.  They will be available in the bookstore next week.

Unity has a prayer that begins, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.”

We can dare to imagine a world with more loving-kindness and compassion.  We can be the difference that we want to see.  We can join together to transform a situation.  Margaret Mead, a cultural anthropologist, has encouraged me from the first time I heard her quote,

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

As we go through the season of heightened political debate, you may feel powerless, but I believe that you are not; none of us are.  We each have the power to choose how to respond, what to do, how to make a difference.  Aung Sun suu Kyi discovered that patience and a clear focus can in fact move mountains.  She was released in 2010, elected to parliament, and took her oath of office just two months ago.  This last week, the US lifted its sanctions on Burma, sanctions that had been in place since 1988.

The situation in Burma is a complicated one, and Aung Sun Suu Kyi has her critics.  But, she has stood for what she believed in:  the value of human life and the power of democracy.  Here are the questions we can ask of ourselves:

What is mine to do?
What can I say or do to relieve suffering?
What can I say or do to create the most good?

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Buddhist Without Beliefs – 6 – Inner Freedom

(For Podcast, click here.  For ITunes version, click here.)  

Today we continue our book series on Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor.  This morning, I would like to talk about how Buddhist practices are designed to help us find and experience unlimited freedom—this is a freedom beyond all others—it is the inner freedom that is available to everyone.  How can we liberate ourselves from the cycle of suffering through the practice of these teachings?    To do so, we can look at how craving, aversion and ignorance causes us to suffer in the first place.    

When we were all children, most of us wanted the freedom to stay up late or watch TV and we thought that was what happiness was all about.  Then, as we became teenagers, we wanted the freedom to stay out longer and be with our friends and we thought that would bring us happiness.  Then, we got out of the house, away from our parents and wanted the freedom that being on our own would bring, the freedom that money could buy, being able to buy and do the things that we thought would make us happy.  This desire for freedom in some form or fashion seems to be an important part of our psyche.    So, here we are today. At whatever point you are in your life you are here, right now.  Now, when you think about being free, what comes to mind?  What is the freedom you desire? It’s powerful to be able to acknowledge that, even though we’ve grown up, we may still might feel enslaved to our old ways of thinking about ourselves and the world, we may still feel enslaved to any thought or emotion or sensation that arises within us.  

In a superficial way, freedom is sometimes described as an ability to chase after any desire that we have.  We want the freedom to eat what we want to eat, to drink what we want to drink, the freedom to act on any whim that strikes us.  But what Buddha discovered is that acting on any whim that arises is actually no freedom at all. In fact, it becomes the worst kind of imprisonment.  We are imprisoned by our desires, forced to act on them, unable to withstand the feelings of withdrawal that arise if not acted upon.   What Buddha discovered was that NOT acting on every whim of desire was the FIRST step towards ultimate happiness.  Starting with a willingness to see clearly what these whims are all about, we start to see the world at a deeper level of richness, of fullness, of true reality, of true freedom. 

Stephen Batchelor points out that we are our own jailers.  We keep seeking freedom from what is. Instead, we can learn to harness present awareness into a freedom to be, into a freedom to choose the best response for each situation.   In Buddhism, the desire for Ultimate Freedom is one of the tools that we can harness to find the long-lasting peace and happiness that we’ve been looking for all along.  As adults, we are no longer constrained by our parents, or at least not physically.  But we may feel constrained by our unskillful habits or constrained by our emotions or even our thoughts, constrained by our illusions about what life is about or constrained by what we think we are supposed to be doing.  It’s easy to get lost in the shackles of illusions that keep us from being completely happy and at peace.  The Buddha taught that the only obstacle to complete freedom and happiness is our own misguided way of thinking. 

The very important first step to finding this deep sense of happiness, is to disengage from the constant need to become entangled with our passing thoughts and emotions. 

Buddhism teaches us to focus our desire on this inner freedom of choice.  Emotions or thoughts will continue to arise, and yet we always have the freedom to choose IF to react and then HOW to react.
-Matthieu Ricard, "Working with Desire" (Tricycle, Summer 2004)
“If we know how to focus on our inner freedom, we can experience all sensations within the pristine simplicity of the present moment, in a state of well-being that is free from grasping and expectation.”

When we become aware of our emotional and mental entanglements, only then, we can see them more clearly, see them for what they are—only illusive and illusory, and only then can we become free of them. 

In a beautifully written book entitled Wake Up to Your Life, Ken McLeod gives an eloquent description of how bringing attention to our thoughts and emotions can free us from their hold.  He gives a four-step process for dismantling these old patterns.

  1. Recognize:  When we have sensations or emotions or thoughts, we begin to pay attention to them early on.
  2. Disidentify: We can start to see these sensations or emotions or thoughts as NOT who we are, see them as just ephemeral desires or aversions arising and allowing them to fall away
  3. Develop a practice: We practice not identifying with them.  Each time a thought or emotion arises, we have an opportunity to form a new habit, to pay attention, to examine it and disidentify with it, so we can see it more clearly.
  4. Cut through with practice:  Each time a thought or emotion arises, we can apply the antidote to it, the antidote of awareness and compassionate attention.  Again and again, until compassionate attention becomes the habit.

And when compassionate attention becomes the habit, then we are truly free to live our lives in peace regardless of what arises.

Let's not wait for some magical time when we get it right every time.  Let’s start now, working at it, with each thought and emotion, a fresh opportunity to practice, and with each opportunity, we open ourselves to this incredible freedom little by little.  Over time, our lives do become magical, in that sense of wonder and deep happiness from the experience of inner freedom.  We have everything we need to experience the freedom of living.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Buddhism Without Beliefs – 5 – the four unique aspects of Buddhism

(For Podcast, click here.  For ITunes version, click here.)  

As part of our book series on Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor, I would like to talk about what makes Buddhism different from other ways of living.  What the Buddha most likely taught and what got added later appears at times to be in conflict with each other, much like what happened in Christianity around Jesus’ original teachings.  Both men taught tasks to be done, not beliefs to be affirmed.  Batchelor has gone back to the original teachings to discover what was unique about The Buddha’s original teachings, in comparison to other major religious paths.  We can then assess if Buddhism is something that we might want to try out.  Is this something that we can take on as a way of life, can we imagine that this process will relieve suffering, our own and others?

Batchelor finds four distinct aspects that the Buddha taught.  He calls it the Four P’.  There is also a wonderful article in the most recent copy of Tricycle Magazine by him that includes this information:

1.       The principle of conditionality
2.       The process of the four noble Tasks
3.       The practice of mindful awareness
4.       The power of self-reliance

1.       The principle of conditionality:  Sometimes called dependent origination, it is this idea that everything arising is the result of something that came before.  There’s an underpinning of karma here, the idea of cause and effect, but karma is distinctly different in Buddhism than in Hinduism or in the way it is sometimes interpreted in western culture today.  In Hinduism, Karma is very linear—this thing happened which caused this other thing to happen.  The Hindu caste system is based on this specificity of Karma—if you did it, it happens to YOU.  But the Buddha described this process as much more complex—so many things happened in the past that cause so many other things to happen now—it is often impossible to understand the complexity of cause and effect.  Therefore, we can simply acknowledge two things:

o        That we are inseparably interconnected to each other
o        That we simply have this present moment to do something different, in order to impact the future in a positive way

There are no guarantees in Buddhism that if you act like a good person that you will have no suffering in your life.  In fact, the first Noble Truth points out that regardless, life will include some suffering.  Also, this idea of no beginning and no end can be seen as distinctly different from the Bible that proclaims a beginning in which God created the earth and the heavens.  Who knows who’s right?  It’s easy to see how we can stray into wondering about the origins of life as we know it.  Once again, The Buddha didn’t belabor where we came from, but rather simply noticed that cause and effect seemed to hold true in his experience.    We can continue to bring the teaching back to something very practical.  Ask the question so what?  If we are inseparably interconnected, and what we think and what we do makes an impact, then what shall we think and what shall we do?

2.       The process of the four noble Tasks:  Batchelor identifies The Buddha’s original teaching, the very first one that he gave at The Dear Park in Sarnath, India, as a unique way of living.  Not ignoring suffering, but facing it full on, and realizing that we are suffering because we are trying to be happy in inherently dissatisfying ways, and that there is a way out of this cycle of suffering, and that following the Eightfold Path relieves suffering.   You don’t have to believe it, but rather just try it out.  See if it works for you. 

3.       The practice of mindful awareness:  There are many similarities with the practice of meditation in Buddhism and other religious practices.  In Christianity, centering prayer is often described as a type of meditation.  However, this idea that there is value in practicing being present, being fully aware, moment-by-moment, in our daily lives is a specific practice that began when The Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree.  You get to decide:  do you want to live your life in the past or in the future or in the present?  This is a moment-by-moment decision that we are making.  It’s not that he decried the idea of reflection on our past experience or planning for the future.  He simply found that those activities are actually taking place in the present.  And it is the distraction, the lack of presence that is causing the suffering.  We distract ourselves by hanging on to, or pushing away, or ignoring things/people/thoughts/emotions/sensations in our lives.  We are making this decision either consciously or unconsciously, and The Buddha discovered that we can make a choice to be present, that being present is a tool to relieve suffering.

I find this to be one of the most powerful parts of the teaching.  When I choose to be more fully present, I am more likely to act in a way that relieves suffering—others’ suffering and my own!  When I practice being present, not allowing myself to drift off into thoughts and distractions, I make better decisions about what to do, I am more aware of the possible impact of my thoughts and actions.  I am more aware of the possibilities. 

Batchelor emphasizes that when we are no longer running away from anything, we can invite confusion, invite fear, invite anxiety.  See it, examine it, be curious about it.  What is this?  This is the open question that we talked about last week. 

Here, in this moment, we find heaven, not in the future or in some far off land.  Here, when we are present, and can cultivate qualities that create more happiness in our life:  qualities like loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity.  In Buddhism, the concept of nirvana arose—this goal of extinguishing the flame of craving, aversion and ignorance.  The question becomes is that a goal that we reach at the end of our life, or something we can strive for in each moment?   After The Buddha’s death, it turned into a goal that would require many lifetimes to achieve (but what is it that lasts from one lifetime to another if everything is impermant????)  Over time, there became this idea of nirvana as almost like heaven in Christianity, a far off ideal that we are all striving for but never quite reaching.  When, you read some of the Buddhist texts, nirvana starts to sounds a whole lot like heaven.  So, you decide.  Shall you spend your lifetime working towards a goal in the future, or shall you spend each moment finding the heaven hidden there beneath the craving, aversion and ignorance?  It truly is your choice.

4.       The power of self-reliance:  Lastly, there is no doubt about it.  The Buddha emphasized that YOU are responsible for your experience.  Later, the teachings became entangled in the importance of having a teacher, or getting an empowerment, or needing something outside of yourself to succeed.  And perhaps these accessories do help accelerate the process.  But, The Buddha, before his death, refused to appoint a successor.  He exclaimed that no leader was needed.  Each person can lead themselves.  His last words were allegedly ones of personal encouragement.  “Strive on, do not be deterred.”

So, there we have it:  Four simple points to understand the Buddhist teachings beyond the cultural overlays and later additions.  You decide.  This is not about having blind faith.  You can strive on.  You can test these practices for yourself.  See what works.  Do not take my word for it.  Do not take The Buddha’s word for it.  Strive on.  We can be inspired to explore the possibility of a different way of living.  We can imagine the possibility that our pre-conceived notions and conditioned responses are not necessarily the ones that will relieve suffering.  We can examine our thoughts, our emotions and our actions moment-by-moment to determine what is good and skillful, and what is not. 

Strive on, do not be deterred.