Lam Rim II




Lama Je Tsongkhapa b. 1357, d. 1419. Birthplace, Amdo in eastern Tibet

Update on my dharma education. The Four Noble Truths were snowed out on Wednesday, and we miss the following Wednesday for a Lama Chopa Tsoh, which I sort of understand, but would not undertake to explain lest my profound ignorance be revealed.

But we did have a good first session (for me, I skipped week 1 due to Obamamania). As I begin the Lam Rim, my need for this blog as an outlet really increases. I want to take responsibility for not distracting the dharma teachers, Sarah and David, but it is hard to resist an interesting discussion. I feel that I have a lot in common with the others in the sangha. None of us are native Tibetans, as least not in the present incarnation. Some of us share a need to reconcile certain aspects of the culture I grew up in, with the point of view expressed in the dharma, even when the aspects are not in conflict, but simply different ways of understanding.

A simple example. I was raised in a series of Christian churches as a child. My parents were children of the jazz age, and didn't go to church. But they weren't existentialists either, so they retained respect for religion and wanted their children educated in the Christian tradition. My siblings and I went to a Quaker church first, and I regret that we didn't stay. From what I know of their form of worship, I am in total sympatico, especially the absence of an authoritarian leadership. But anyway, we didn't. Our next church was Baptist, and seemed very well-to-do. We attended Sunday School briefly. The teacher made a point of having us memorize the following:

For God so loved the world

That he gave his only begotten son

And whosoever believes in him

shall not perish

But shall have everlasting life

It was not, for me the beginning of the path, but it does contain seeds of the path. Human life contains the fear of death, or if not fear, the awareness of our own mortality. It was a preoccupation for me early in my life, when I found the thought of my own eventual annihilation both shocking and terrifying, akin to falling into the ocean to be eaten by beasts. When I was taught this poem, I was given the sense that it was important, and when I realized that it was telling me that other people feared death in the way that I did, it connected.

But even at the beginnings, I had reservations, based on the process of rational thinking that I have depended on from the beginning. Everlasting life seemed to be a promise too good to trust. Unlikely in the face of what is seen in the world of everyday experience, where things are born, live and die. To believe beyond the evidence trusted by the rational and scientific mind, is the struggle for faith, and it lasts for a lifetime.

But soon we moved on to the church that was most instrumental in my spiritual development, but not for the reasons one might assume. A couple named Roy and Helen Sturr lived next to my parents, and Mr. Sturr was an elder in the Bible Presbyterian Church. They went every Sunday in his gray 1952 Ford. Their only child was grown and gone, so they took us to church with them. The Bible Presbyterian Church was a conservative fundamentalist church. By conservative, I mean that they were not flashy, like the evangelicals of today. They believed literally in the Bible, but since in those days no one was likely to challenge them on it, it was hardly an issue. Intellectual smart alecks like myself had not yet gone to college and learned the ways of the skeptics.

My moment of disillusion with the church coincided with the onset of the age of reason; I was around 13-14 when a crisis broke out in the church over the process of hiring a new pastor, after the Rev. Eugene Faucette retired. A war broke out on the board of deacons that painted an ugly picture and carried a nasty scent. This event coincided with the conclusion of a process of reasoning that concluded with a rejection of church's expectation of belief in miracles and the literal Resurrection as a condition of faith. On scientific grounds, it simply was not on, and as I am sure it has for many millions, it compelled me out of the realm of religion as I progressed rapidly from skeptic to agnostic to atheist.

Where I remained, until instincts of social justice gave rise to increased political awareness. Given the events of the day, the foreign war in Vietnam and the domestic war over civil rights in America, it was probably inevitable that I would become a communist, and that I would experience it as a substitute for religion. A rational belief system with a goal of social justice for all people, that does not require belief in fairy tales. As we later learned, not only does Marxism not require fairy tales, it doesn't tolerate them either; witness the priests, nuns both Christian and Buddhist, Monks and Lamas who have been humiliated and killed throughout the socialist world. And what became of the fear of death and the promise of redemption? Nothing left but the cruel darkness of the Gulag.

It was also around this time that I first encountered Buddhism, in a rather unlikely spot. At about the age of 14, I was in a Rexall Drug Store on Puritas Avenue on the west side of Cleveland. Browsing through a paperback book rack, I found a copy of "The Way of Zen" by Alan Watts. It exerted a very strong attraction and I read it through several times, despite the ideas being foreign and very difficult to understand; especially in a western culture which offered no opportunity for instruction in the dharma. As I grasped it then, Buddhism offered an intriguing intellectual puzzle regarding ego and emptiness, a locus of enlightenment contained somehow within the individual, a connection to a culture guided by compassion and ethics, and no expectation of belief in a creator god. The early American interest in Japanese culture and Zen Buddhism probably came to the west through servicemen and others returning from Japan during the occupation. It first surfaced among the beatniks of NYC; Jack Kerouac and Alan Ginsberg were early adherents. Later on, Alan Ginsberg became a student of Gelek Rinpoche, the founder of Jewel Heart.

It was also in the seventies that I first became exposed to the story of Krishnamurti, though I cannot recall how. The Krishnamurti is unique in the history of religious movements. Jeddu Krisnamurti was discovered in the late ninteenth century by the Theosophists living at their ashram in India. The Theosophists were compilers of esoteric knowledge, led at that time by Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbetter. They were in India seeking the expected reincarnation of the "world teacher," the spiritual figure known in the west as Jesus, and in other cultures by other names. The return of the teacher had been predicted by many religions, according to the Theosophists.

Krishnamurti was picked out as a child of ten, by C.W. Leadbetter due to the "purity of his aura." Sadly a number of years later Leadbetter was tried for molesting children is his role as priest of a religion he had established in Australia. There is some speculation that he moved to Australia to escape similar charges in England.

That aside, Krishnamurti was raised by the Theosophists as an English gentleman in preparation for the day that his role as world teacher would be announced to the world. A religious order, The Order of the Star, was begun in his name, and acquired thousands of adherents, growing to a substantial organization by the time of the announcement.

But Krishnamurti had developed a personal realization that religious movements, far from reliably supporting the spiritual development of people were more likely to develop patterns of corruption and motives for the accululation of wealth and power. A view which I had largely come to share. He further teaches that all of education, politics and religion were illusions that obsure the truth. On the day of his installation as the world teacher, he instead announced that the people who were following him instead follow their own understanding gained through direct personal experience. Humans are responsible for finding their own truth, by looking within and confronting every pre-conceived notion and replacing the mind of conventional thought with the mind of courageous seeking of the truth.

Krishnamurti dissolved the Order of the Star, and sent everyone home. For the rest of his life, he traveled the world teaching his philosophy of reliance on self effort to establish a basis for living. I found this remarkable and unique approach to human freedom absolutely inspiring, and it has been a primary basis for my spiritual development ever since. Even in my current practice of Tibetan Buddhism, I am directing my efforts at learning the fundamental underlying principles of Buddhism and not so much toward learning the details of Tibetan ritual, though I find them beautiful, and inspiring.

I became alienated from leftist politics due to the violence of the movement. During my period of service in Vietnam I developed a clear and very strong ethic regarding personal responsibility for the choices I make and the effect on other people. Although generally supportive of the objectives of the Vietnam war prior to serving, the experience itself and further reading about Vietnamese history led me to realize the fundamental flaws in American foreign policy supporting the war. Having seen first hand the suffering of the innocent, and coming to understand through education the just nature of the Vietnamese struggle against domination by outside powers, it was very difficult for me to reconcil the conflict which thereafter existed between my military and my human responsibilities.

It forms the basis of my political philosophy today. When the government acts in the name of the individual citizen as it does every day, it is the responsibility of the citizenry to direct the government, and to confront it when govenment policy acts with malice or lack of wisdom. Although expresson of this philosophy began in the streets, in the sixties, it has gradually become part of the fabric of the politics and is now expressed within the system at the highest level; hence President Barak Obama.

In the seventies, I continued to follow a path of spiritual development. During the "acid revolution" of the sixties a writer named Carlos Castenada became popular, writing a series of books on the life of a Jaqui Indian shaman named Don Juan, whose life of magic centered around use of peyote, which accounted for its popularity among members of the acid generation. The tales of magic did not ring true for me, and it later turned out that Don Juan was a fiction created by Castenada.

It did however spark an interest in native American culture, and led quickly to a discovery of the great spiritual power of many native cultural leaders. Foremost among these were two; Handsome Lake of the Iroquois people, and Black Elk of the Oglala Lakota. In the case of each I found an opportunity to encounter the power of the visionary experience of native shamans and the power of this experience in the lives of the people. It was exposure to this vision that helped me understand the nature of the world of existence which lies just outside ordinary human perception. The world we touch and feel with the tools of faith and intiution

Those who know the story of Black Elk and of his people, know that he was present at Wounded Knee Creek, when the heart of the people was destroyed by the American arm. Black Elk believed on that day that the circle of life surrounding the people was forever broken. Events proved him wrong. Today the spirit teaching of native peoples are gaining strength at the very time when western thinking is in crisis. It may well be that the spirit thought broken by military power may yet serve to lead the people out of their confusion as to how to live in the world.

Be that as it may, it was my exposure to the reality of the world of spirit that led me to reconsider what I thought I knew about my own religion, and most importantly, about the nature of Jesus. Having dismissed Jesus as an unscientific fraud, I was now forced to reconsider. Having accepted that the world of Black Elk's vision was real in an expanded sense of understanding the meaning of "real" it then became evident that my dismissal of the nature of Jesus as a being with spiritual power was probably premature and uninformed.

At that point in my life I had finished graduate school, and was working as a group therapist. I was very focused at that time on the use of individual and group therapy, and of the nature of the relationship between the person seeking treament and the therapist.

DHL - working

Republicans Fear ND2

I agree with Paul Krugman's assessment of the Republican boycott of the stimulus package, that it was motivated in part by fear of a second New Deal. Except that I'm not sure the Obama package amounts to a New Deal; that devil is in the details, and I really ought to do a little googling before I go shooting my mouth off. But I have not thus far heard any details of a plan worthy of a new Roosevelt. My experience so far has been that the president is more than a few steps ahead of everyone, so I hope that as things take shape, they will not be the usual ineffective grab bag. I'm still sanguine.

As far as Republican fear is concerned, they seem not to have yet realized that the election, which President Obama won in a good imitation of a landslide, was in large part an expression of the electorate's hope for exactly that which the GOP seems to fear most; ND2 Our local neocon shill on the PD editorial board, a guy name Kevin O'Brien, was hootering today about Rahm Emanuel saying that it would be a shame to waste a crisis. He did a rif on Democratic fear-mongering, but it fell flat. I agree with Rahm Emanuel, it would be a shame to waste a crisis. We have now seen what unregulated private power can accomplish in the way of self-reward, and anti-democratic predation. It would be a shame to not strike against the accumulation of power that has fallen to the private sector, and out of the hands of the people, while the memory of the damage done is fresh in our memory, and our anger still righteous.

White Phalenopsis - winter, 2007

Bye-Bye Blackwater

Here's a bit of irony; the government of Iraq, a shaky but so-far successful democracy to the surprise of many, including myself, has declared Blackwater, Inc., persona non grata. Hey! I didn't think American puppet states were allowed to do that. Might there be a lesson in this for the State Department? And the Defense Department? That having private contractors operating in a war zone is a very bad idea?

The privatization of the military was a conservative fad and a bad idea. During the hot phase of the Iraq war, I was astounded to read of encounters between U.S. forces and Blackwater teams that ended in U.S. Army personnel being held under arms by Blackwater, pendng feedback from higher authority. In a war zone! And mind you, I am not prone to the use of exclaimation points! When my nephew returned from duty in Iraq last fall, he acknowledged that it was not uncommon.



DHL