The Dalai Lama Speaks of Love

"The foundation of all spiritual practice is love. That you practice this well is my only request. From the earliest stages of our growth, we are completely dependent upon our mother's care and it is very important for us that she express her love. if children do not receive proper affection, in later life they will often find it hard to love others.

In the beginning of Buddhist practice, our ability to serve others is limited. The emphasis is on healing ourselves, transforming our minds and hearts. But as we continue, we become stronger and increasingly able to serve others.

The Buddhist notion of attachment is not what people in the West assume. We say that the love of a mother for her only child is free of attachment. Cultivating closeness and warmth for others automatically puts the mind at ease. It is the ultimate source of success in life.

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive."

--the 14th Dalai Lama

The Prescription Kings

Americans make up 5% of the world population and consume 85% of the world's prescription narcotics. Dude - that's awesome if you're a pill popper or the owner of a pharmaceutical company. For the rest of us, it's a sad commentary on doctors, their patients, and most of all Big Pharm a.k.a. the multi-billion dollar companies like Eli-Lilly and Merck who lobby Congress to write bills in their favor. And write them they do.

It would take a thesis to roll out the nefarious ways of the pharmaceutical companies and how they conduct slanted studies, push products to doctors with hefty checks as  "thank yous," and manipulate governmental laws. But with only coffee as my upper, it's not a happening idea.

As a former cancer patient and pain pill popper, I certainly know the value of narcotics when used for a good reason, although a skilled hypnotist could have done the trick as well. But alas, insurance companies don't cover that service -  they cater to Big Pharm alone. So for the sake of my wallet, the contents of the little brown bottle with child-proof cap was more practical than keeping a hypnotist by my bedside.

All roads lead back to the motivator - greed - as the number one reason such imbalances exist. CEO's have replaced kings as the rulers of the land, employing millions of workers, (no longer called serfs in the modern era), to line their coffers. The big "C's" - Communism and Capitalism - have both failed because of a root cause, the human ego. A voracious animal, it breeds an insecurity that makes a person grasp for more and more, despite all evidence that enough is enough.

Our rulers, elected or otherwise, will always be subjected to the corruption of selfish human drives unless that man or woman embraces deeply spiritual or humanitarian values. False power corrupts, but real power is born of a need to act decisively and swiftly, to save beings from their suffering.

The Buddhists have a prayer of aspiration that is worthy of repeating here: "May All Beings Benefit." In the meantime, vote with your feet.








 

Most Dangerous Country on Earth

Gallup and the Worldwide Independent Network polled 68 countries at the end of 2013 to determine which country was considered the biggest threat to world peace. The winner for this undistinguished honor was the USA, with Pakistan coming in a distant second. The other baddies of the world ranked so low that they are not even worth citing. (China was almost off the radar, which was an oversight of gargantuan proportions.)

Granted, the countries most wary of the the United States are in the Middle East and our neighbors in South America, all of whom have experienced the wrath of Uncle Sam's military-industrial complex directly. 

Ironically, when questioned which country was the most desirable for habitation, the US was also number one again.

This raises an interesting point. The United States is perceived as the world cop because it plunders the planet for resources, to insure its high standard of living - often in the name of democracy. While the rest of the world abhors the rape of their resources for American comfort, it is that very American standard of living that appeals to the rest of the world.

Herein are the ties that bind. The quest for material wealth puts the needs of the powerful few over the vast majority. And that majority, witnessing affluence, dreams of it as well. The cycle of materialism thus becomes a prison of the mind whether one is king, bean counter, or worker bee.

Thus, the wheel of samsara rolls on. Getting off this merry-go-round, which spins faster and faster out of control, requires one to go to the power source to regain control. But that power source lies not in an electrical switch built from copper and wire. It is an inner awareness that triggers decisions dictating every molecule of life.

Working for the welfare of the whole will be the only way to insure the survival of earth's population in the coming centuries. Let's not saw the branch we are sitting on, please, and enjoy the view instead.

Everything's Real in Reality

A precocious four year old was cavorting about the living room playing charades with her mommy, grandma and me. Acting out a terrifying Tyrannosaurs Rex, then a slithering snake, she was totally engaged in the excitement of the moment. Then, with a skip and a hop, her attention ricocheted elsewhere and she whisked into her mother's childhood bedroom. 

The tiny lady re-emerged proudly wearing a bead necklace, compliments of mommy's suitcase. But instead of resuming the game in which we were embroiled, she marched straight up to me and delivered the following words about one inch from my face - a feat made possible as I was sitting on the floor:

"Everything is real in reality."

Then she made poste haste for the bedroom, to adorn herself in yet more finery. When she re-entered the gaming area, she remarked, "I'm smart, kind, and beautiful," then resumed the game with a wonderful pantomime of 'a moon'.

I was gobsmacked. Why did this fun-loving little one, with no apparent interest other than charades and mommy's necklaces, suddenly veer into metaphysical musings squarely directed at me? To top it off, her serious communication resembled a zen koan, and zen koans always bedevil me. 

After pondering the meaning of her cryptic message for 24 hours, one interpretation rose from the depths of my foggy mind. Perhaps Reed was assuring me that the phenomenon we were acting out have their counterparts as three-dimensional life forms but we are not the parts we are playing. It was an act of compassionate to tell me that - otherwise we might have been dinner for the Tyrannosaurs Rex.

Still, there is something in her pointed lesson that remains an enigmatic Rubik's Cube of the mind. So I leave you with Reed's koan to contemplate for yourself... 

Everything is real in reality. 

Go figure.

Don't Get Sick Here

The United States, one of the richest countries in the world, has state of the art medicine and medical facilities - for the richest people in this country. Try being poor, or better yet middle class, and find out that medical attention may cost an arm and a leg. 

A group of friends were talking recently and one woman recounted that her mother lost her home when she had to sell it to pay for medical bills. An Irishwoman in the group was horrified; in the British Isles that would never happen.

Granted that in countries with socialized medicine, a sick person might have to wait for months to get an urgent test requiring specialized high tech equipment. Not a good deal either. But in these countries, private policies are also available for more flexible care and they don't cost the equivalent of rent or a car payment plus insurance.

Now that Obamacare has set in, the situation should theoretically improve. But God help the computer illiterate. Or worse yet, those short on patience or time. One must be a person of leisure and saintliness to navigate the many phone numbers given that lead to the wrong department - and that is after waiting on the phone on hold for an hour listening to the schlock muzak that loops over and over and over and over. 

Mind you, being the resident of many African nations or other massively poor/war torn countries may insure you no medical care at all, especially for deep-country dwellers and deep-city impoverished peoples, i.e. Congolese refugees in South African townships or the 8 million Syrian refugees. So Americans shouldn't really complain.

It's just hard to watch the disorganization and lack of funding when it comes to the care of human beings, as this country is awash in a sea of plenty. It's not only perplexing; immoral would be a better term.

But since the world is gradually evolving into a global economy with its concomitant environmental impact (for the worse at the moment), let's hope that the trend towards globalization morphs into worldwide care for each other. Afterall, we live on a small planet.

The Meatball Fix

The problem with making a decision in favor of something means that one has decided against another thing. With every action, inevitably a reaction occurs in direct proportion and velocity, forming its antipode.

About six months ago, my body told me it didn't want animal flesh anymore in the form of sudden nausea when confronted with a plate of chicken, meat and fish. Then, it had an equal and opposite reaction on New Year's Eve. Every year my husband and I host what is called a "Planetary Healing Circle," a guided visualization by a group of willing participants to send positive energy to people and places on the planet in need of prayerful thoughts. After prayers, we party.

Because of my fear of entertaining uncertain numbers of people with food stuff, guests are asked to bring an offering of food; this insures the proper amount and variety of goodies. One guest brought a tray full of turkey meatballs. After leading an hour long deeply energizing, peaceful meditation, my innards piped up, "Gimme meatballs," whilst still floating in the bliss of group goodwill in the meditation room.

About twenty herb-spiced-turkey-meatballs-swimming-in-marinara sauce later, my stomach was about to burst. But an unamed subpersonality was gloating. Finally, a real hit of honest to god protein.

At about 2AM, with the guests long departed and the fairy lights dimmed down, I realized that pre-bed herbal capsules were stuck in my esophogus, the gelatin caps slowly melting and causing digestive angst. Normally, my little feet would creep downstairs for a glass of water, but this time, that voracious inner carvniore said, "More meatballs."

Washing down pills with turkey meatballs is very effective, by the way. And lest anyone think this sometime vegetarian had a bad reaction to such an influx of bird, not the case. It went down like a rootbeer ice cream float on a hot summer day.

The old aphorism, "The body knows" must be at work here. Although I don't plan to continue this turkey meatball habit, somewhere in the depths of my mortal coil the cells are boogying.

Apologies to all my turkey brethren. It's not my fault that human beings are part carnivore, with little side fangs in our mouths for ripping flesh more effectively. But I promise to control the urge to savage the animal kingdom in this new year. Scouts honor.

The Unbearable Politeness of Being

Theoretically, it is impossible to become enlightened and simultaneously act in a self-serving manner. Like the surgeon who uses dissolving stitches, analyzing one's own mind in order to understand its modi operandus dissolves egotistical motives; the ultimate metaphysical manifestation of courtesy.

How does one set about doing this in the fast paced western world of materialism?

The Dalai Lama and other great masters instruct students to critically examine the teachings and the teacher before buying into them. While this lazy American practitioner makes no claims as to a true understanding of the dharma, nonetheless it seems important to carefully examine doctrines for their relevance. Personal understanding, grounded in experiential knowledge, is the only foundation upon which to build. 

Conversely - or perhaps paradoxically - trust, faith and dedication are vital ingredients in following a path to realization. When one is a beginner, a worthy teacher must be found.

As one ventures into the newness of every moment, it is essential strike a delicate balance between common sense and the commitment to a goal that may seem elusive and mysterious. This applies not only to the spiritual path but every other endeavor in this conundrum called "life." Nobody has the magical formula but as long as there is breath there is possibility.