The Hardest Work In The World

This spontaneous prayer jumped into my head this morning while walking:

Lord, let all that I do, and say, and think, be in the service of harmony. 

It seems simple enough on the surface but as I meditated on the phrase I began to see how deeply it touches the core human desire for joy which is by extension the diminishment of dissonance. It seems to me that everything I do to increase harmony, both interior and exterior harmony, enables me to touch joy.  The more I act in the service of harmony, the more I touch joy.

The biblical admonition to "magnify the Lord" is to "magnify Harmony" and diminish dissonance wherever it is found. In the Buddhist sense this is to come into resonance with the present moment, recognizing that it is only in the present moment that this is possible.   

Our human condition keeps us perpetually balanced on the knife edge of the present. That edge is so sharp there is the constant danger of falling off into the past or into the future. The past and future exist only as shadowy phantoms in our mind. Though they are seductive, beckoning us like a mirage,  they can not quench our thirst for joy. And this causes suffering. 

To be in the present means to be in resonance with "what is" . To be unified with "what is" forces a rejection of "what isn't" which in this case is the past or the future. It is also fundamentally a rejection of the illusion of duality in favor of the acceptance of our own divine nature. Indeed, even modern physics has begun to pierce the illusion of duality in its quest for a unified theory and everywhere boundaries fall away. This is expressed elegantly in Thich Nhat Hanh's Order of Interbeing which encourages followers to remember their true nature as the true nature of the universe; light. 

Of course this is heresy to the ego. Dissolving into divine light, even momentarily, is decidedly unpalatable to an ego hellbent on preserving its individual identity, an identity barricaded behind a wall of bricks made of past experiences or future dreams. The fear this generates creates much dissonance which in turn creates endless suffering. This is the human existential dilemma.  

Becoming comfortable on the knife edge of the present means learning to let go of ideas of the past and future, at least momentarily. Only then is harmony available. Only then can joy be touched. This requires an extinction of thinking, or at least a continuous redirection of thoughts away from the past or future. The tool for this is abundantly available in the breath. We need a north star and this is it! A tightrope walker needs a steadying pole and the spiritual pilgrim needs the breath to help him or her return to the present moment.

"Breathing in, I have arrived. Breathing out I am home."

The deepest human desire is for love and love is felt strongest when we resonate not only with each other but with all that is. This gives birth to profound liberation of the soul. When  all our faculties are brought together in the service of harmony we become like Saint Theresa of Avila whose only prayer was "All for God." Though we physically appear alone, like the strings of the lute we quiver with the same music. That is joy. 

Just sit there right now

Don’t do a thing

Just rest.

For your separation from God,

From love,

Is the hardest work

In this

World.

Let me bring you trays of food

And something

That you like to

Drink.

You can use my soft words

As a cushion

For your

Head.

~Hafiz~

The Gift: Poems by Hafiz

Translations by Daniel Ladinsky

Bowl of light

The thought came to me this morning walking on the Biltmore Estate: Our experience of the world is largely dependent on our intention. If we intend to live in a world that is filled with beauty, love, and peace then we will experience the world as being filled with those qualities.  In large and small ways through our consciousness we create the universe we inhabit. In these times we are confronted with images and information that seem to suggest that the world is anything but filled with love, beauty, and peace! Indeed the world is filled with both light and dark forces. We can not change that dynamic and quite possibly beauty, love, and peace may arise from their opposites. All we can hope to do is choose the way we react to the constantly changing circumstance we experience. If we choose to find beauty in our surroundings, we will! In- deed that choice may even create beauty where none was before. If we choose to find and increase love in all our relationships, we will! If we choose to live in a world filled with peace we will find that path! The universe is not separate from our perception of it: both arise co-dependently. Mind and object of mind equally participate in universal manifestation.

Zombie Politics

What if Money Didn't Matter? The Wisdom of Alan Watts

St. Lars Labyrinth, Sweden

Gary Snyder; Poet and Buddhist Thinker

(note: I came across this conversation this morning and was touched by the clarity of his position regarding the environment and current ecological and political situation and the individual's role in responding to the present needs of the planet and society. I was especially moved by the idea that we do not work to change or fix broken systems. We do so because it is the right (ethical) thing to do and, in affect, to change ourselves and save our "souls". I believe it is true that in the larger scheme of things there is very little we can do that will not be undone at some time by some negative or positive force. This does not absolve us of our own personal responsibility to do the right (ethical) thing. Buddhism can inform that action but so could any other "ism". A radical pro-life activist could see killing an abortion provider as "doing the right thing". Humans follow the path they are called to follow. May that inner voice arise from compassion and love and not from limited (small mind) view!)

You made a comment in Turtle Island [1974] that has stuck with me as a puzzle: “Knowing that nothing need be done, is where we begin to move from.” What did you mean, exactly? 

 Yes, that’s a Buddhist point. Lots of people have asked me about that. In the larger scale, things will take care of themselves. It’s obviously human hubris to think we can destroy the planet, can destroy life. It’s just another exaggeration of ourselves. Actually we can’t. We’re far too small. The time scale is far too large, and the resistance of cellular life is far too great. [James] Lovelock [the British environmentalist] is very interesting on this, on the extraordinary resilience of cells. But that’s no excuse. That would be no excuse for doing things poorly. A kind of bottom line is that all human activity is as trivial as anything else. We can humbly acknowledge that and excuse ourselves from exaggerating our importance, even as a threat, and also recognize the scale and the beauty of things. And then go to work. Don’t imagine that we’re doing ecological politics to save the world. We’re doing ecological politics to save ourselves, to save our souls. It’s a personal exercise in character and in manners. It’s a matter of etiquette. It’s a matter of living right. It’s not that the planet requires us to be good to it. It’s that we must do it because it’s an aesthetic and ethical choice.

Would you say, then, that there’s a lot of hysteria out there? What about the ozone hole? 

Those issues are all real. Those issues are all real, but they’re not total. And the power of the universe far surpasses any damage we can do to it.

Adapted from Nobody Home: Writing, Buddhism, and Living in Places, by Julia Martin and Gary Snyder, published by Trinity University Press, 2014. Reprinted courtesy of the publisher.

Feed Your Angels.

FEED  YOUR ANGELS STARVE YOUR DEMONS by William Stanhope

A few days ago while driving out to Hawkscry through the Sandy Mush Valley the following simple thought popped into my head: Feed your angels. Starve your demons.
This idea resolved perfectly an internal argument I had been having about battling negative thought patterns that reap so much havoc in my life. Somehow, I knew the idea of actually battling these forces was not the right approach; in my experience the energy used to fight was more likely to increase the negative pattern rather than extinguish it since it often involved some form of suppression. The idea of starving rather than battling demons means depriving them of their essential nourishment; attention. This is not quite the same thing as ignoring them. And it is not suppression. It is more an act of compassion, perhaps a psychic nod to the existence of imperfection ( a little bow of gratitude for the opportunity to consciously choose a brighter path) but also an acknowledgement that humans are a work in progress and that what we most need is to know that we are worthy of love in spite of our imperfections. So we do a little bow of recognition and then gently turn to feed our angels with what they need most; attention. I think my angels have gotten rather thin in fact. Demons are attention hogs! They can never get enough. They feast on judgement, fear, doubt, self loathing, hate, jealousy, boredom, anger, to name a few. Angels, on the otherhand feast on love or more exactly anything that does not have judgement, fear, doubt, self loathing, hate, jealousy, boredom, or anger, listed in the ingredients. They especially relish gratitude, kindness and generosity. This year I will take more care to feed my angels with what they need.