Even if you do not believe in reincarnation, live as if you do!

Why?

Your perspective gets much larger. More spacious. Less crowded. It’s easier to sort out what is important and what can wait.

On a light note, there’s also what I call the “just-in-case” principle: live as if you believe, just in case you find out that it is true when you die…..

My son pointed out some specifics of the benefits of acting as if we believe in reincarnation:

1. We have a larger perspective. We realize we don’t need to dwell so much on things have are happening or have happened in our lives. We’re working on a much larger scale.
2. There’s a long-term meaning to our lives, rather than the “It-doesn’t-matter-what-I-do-in-my-life-because-nothing-matters-anyway” attitude.
   
3. If we’re very materialistic, acting as if we believe in reincarnation helps us to shift our focus to the spiritual dimension of life.
4. The belief in past lives helps us to make sense of what happens in this lifetime in a much deeper way.

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Nonetheless, we can make use of the ultimate plane in problem-solving.

How?

You’ve probably heard of the movie Room With a View. I’d like to propose that we can problem-solve more skillfully if we have a life with a view!

Before going any further, how do we usually problem-solve? No matter what way we choose, there is duality. There is always “me” at the centre. It’s “me-and-my-problem.” “Me-and-the-situation.” “Me-and-the-other-person.”

Example: I try to understand how I can work with a co-worker-from-hell! I think about the specific work situation; the larger work situation of the organization altogether; the roles of the other employees; the psychological components that may be coming into play etc. etc. etc.

I am not dismissing the myriad approaches that are offered in the thousands of books, DVD’s, personal training programmes etc. that are available to us today.

I’m offering an add-on. A view that differs from all other views.

And what is this view? It’s known as emptiness, which has nothing to do with nihilsim. You could call it the view that goes beyond all views.

Whenever I’m in any situation in my life, I try to flash on\touch in with this view. It helps me to let go. It somehow puts “my problem” into a more spacious perspective, allowing me to get out of the suffocating cocoon of habitual patterns that “me-and-my problem” have created. We connect with the mind of the Dragon.

It’s the constant interplay between the two that allows the situation itself to offer a “solution.” The “problem” doesn’t necessarily vanish. But things become more workable on a daily basis. After all, magic happens when one sees beyond the duality of the mundane world, when we close the gap between “self” and “other.”

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Whenever I write about kindness, generosity, compassion etc., someone will ask me “Before we help someone, shouldn’t we be asking ourselves if the person deserves\is worthy of our help, generosity and kindness”?

Here’s what the Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche (SMR) tells his students in response to the view — (that our help should be conditional) that underlies that question:

Especially I think these days it is a sense very much of materialistic culture where everything is appealing to our sense of satisfaction and us wanting. And often when we need to give we become uncomfortable. We might actually feel like whoever we’re giving to is not worthy….. Being kind to another person doesn’t necessarily mean, or be determined by, the action of the other person. It’s just that kindness is appropriate. In fact, the more the other person is suffering or irritating, in a sense, the more kind and compassionate we should be. <source: from Seminary at Shambhala Mountain Centre, Colorado, July 17, 2010>

In short, while we usually practice conditional (“what-can-I-get-out-of-this”) kindness, we can now practice unconditional kindness. And while we might feel uncomfortable at first, we get to like it!

The benefits of practicing unconditional generosity:

• the mind becomes happier, less claustrophic, enoyable for everyone; and
• we create “tremendous merit and benefit personally for our own personal lives, as well as for the community…and the world as a whole” (SMR) because our intention is pure, not bound by ego.
• we are open to receive; if we are open to receive, then we grow.

There is no better reality than the one we live in – where a good heart can be realized. – Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche

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bird covered in oil from BP oil spill 2010

…….This has been a powerful and meaningful time. More than ever, I feel
how fortunate we are to have these teachings. Especially recently, we have seen a series of natural and manmade disasters. It is as if the earth is asking us to be kind to each other and to itself. Now, more than any other time in history, the fate of our own planet is in our hands.

Our future increasingly comes down to how we as human beings conduct ourselves. …….As we gain more material mastery and therefore have more physical comfort, if our mental anguish is not addressed, the disparity becomes greater. That feeling of dissatisfaction and uneasiness can develop into animosity and hatred. It is at that point that we lash out. It is therefore necessary for us to address not just material physical needs, but also psychological and mental needs. That is particularly what the Shambhala teachings address; how we can approach life from a very basic point of goodness, inspiration, and possibility. As the teachings say, each human mind and heart must be put in the cradle of loving-kindness.

We must each have the opportunity to develop our inherent qualities of strength, love, kindness, and thoughtfulness. If these aspects of our mind can be developed at the same rate as our material progress, a natural harmony and balance can take place. One of the key things about these teachings is that we are being asked to not run away from the world, but to engage in our life in the world.

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The common cold had turned into pnuemonia and my beloved grandfather lay dying. I was in university at the time. But my time was devoted to my grandfather. Not my classes. I was getting ready to go to the hospital. It was 19h00. The telephone rings. My grandfather has just died. And I hadn’t gone to visit him that day….

Today is Sunday, April 04, 2010. But I am remembering when it was April 04, 1987,

It’s 19h00. We are meditating in the shrine room.

The telephone rings. We have been dreading this call from Halifax, Nova Scotia. It means that our beloved spiritual guide Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, crazy wisdom master, has died.

I was inconsolable. I could not stop crying.

It didn’t take long for the rest of the world to pay tribute to this great mahasidda (teacher who has great spiritual abilities.)

Here’s an example from one of Canada’s major newspapers, The Globe and Mail, April 06, 1987:

Buddhist founded group

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the international leader of a Buddhist sect, has died in a Halifax hospital after several months of ill health. He was 47.

The Rinpoche died Saturday night of respiratory failure after a cardiac arrest.

The Rinpoche arrived in Halifax last year to establish a new international headquarters for his group, which was previously based in Boulder, Colo. He was the founder of Vajradhatu, an international association of about 100 Buddhist meditation and study centres in the United States, Canada and Europe.

The Rinpoche is one of about 100,000 Tibetan Buddhists who fled their homeland in 1959 with their exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, after an unsuccessful rebellion against Communist Chinese rule.

He had been in and out of hospital since last fall because of heart and respiratory problems.

Rinpoche is an honorific title that means “precious one.” He also held the title Vidyadhara, a Sanskrit word meaning holder of great insight.

His church consists of 5,000 followers, of whom 700 live in Canada.

This media article deals with dry facts.

Now here’s an exquisite description of the man himself, written and delivered by Alan Sloan, a senior Shambhala Training director and a Buddhist teacher, in March, 2006, Halifax.

I would like to propose a toast to what I personally feel is the essential Chogyam Trungpa. If I close my eyes and think of Rinpoche, the very first impression, the first thought is of his incredible warmth, his tenderness and amazing sensitity to what it means to be human. The Vidyadhara {Sanksrit: awareness holder} was the most human being I ever met. He made us feel that being human was precious, that having a human body, heart and mind was the greatest treasure. He clearly loved his life and communicated that love to us. In his presence, every detail of perception, every emotion, thought, word, the most ordinary activities, all seemed potent and filled with meaning.

His tenderness was pervasive and penetrating. Whatever rock hard opinions his students held were illuminated and then melted, like glaciers, by [his] heat and brilliance. He loved us so passionately. His love encouraged us to be truly human, to feel everything, no matter how painful or pleasurable, exactly as it is — to respect our own experiences no matter what.

I would like to raise a toast to the ultimate human drala {blessing energy that arises when we go beyond aggression}, to the Father and Grandfather Guru, to the kindest and most generous spiritual friend, who continues to inspire us all to be truly human and truly liberated….”

This passionate, loving description is a hard act to follow. However, here’s my post script to this toast to Trungpa — thank you for your wonderful son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. I can hardly believe that I should have two such magnificient spiritual friends in one lifetime!

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For me, it’s a delicious juxtaposition when Valentine’s Day + the Tibetan New Year fall on the same day as they have this year on February 14, 2010.

What follows are my notes of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche’s address to his international Shambhala Buddhist sangha at 13h00 EST today.

Let me stress that this is merely what I heard — not necessarily an absolutely precise transcription of what was said. But I believe it’s close enough to share its inspiring message.

The words in {   } are my interpretation only. Words in (  ) are from Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the Sakyong’s father.

• Courage and effort are part of our {Shambhala Buddhist} tradition;
• {By contrast} It’s easy to fall asleep {not being awake;  just sleepwalking through life by being caught up in habitual patterns etc.} and hope that it all gets better;
• {It takes courage to} take responsibility for our own thoughts and projections;
• Don’t need to give into hate. Must have the power and maturity to express our love. Kindness will save our mind and planet;
• Love is the natural outpouring {on the relative or conventional plane} of our basic goodness {on the ultimate or absolute plane}. It’s a feeling of offering.
  • (“The closest analogy I can think of at this point is the general basic goodness of drinking a glass of ice water.” Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche; paras 4 + 10, please click here);
• (Love) liberates us from a mind that is stuck in just wanting;
• Ability to love brings peace and soothes others;
• Sometimes we are foolish and overwhelmed and possessed by wanting more. We become unhappy and wanting creates pain for others.
• Kindness = not struggling with our selves. Kindness is not a ceremony but a simple human exchange;
• Love is powerful emotion. Kindness is the daily [SMR actually said "more common and practical] expression of love. This is a viable path. When we decide that love is our path, it’s a very powerful moment;
• As Shambhala warriors, we are being challenged by wanting to hate; this is where we have to remember our tradition of courage; if we have something {good} to offer, we must demonstrate that;
  • (“The whole Shambhala training process is connected with how to manifest, so that people can do things without deception.” Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche; para 2)
• Not continously driven and wanting;
• Meditation has shown us that through kindness we can stop torturing ourselves by thinking that there just one more thing that we need to be happy;
• So take charge of your attitude {rather than just being driven by negative thoughts that are generated by your mind}. If we decide we want to be awake, we can. Otherwise we’ll sleepwalk throughout our life.
• Awake = the attitude that any part of our life is an opportunity to be awake and good;
• When things become difficult, see this as part of {what is being generated by our} mind;
• Look at our life as the possibility of enlightenment itself;
• If we have positive and strong attitude, then our home life can be our path to enlightenment;
  • (“As they say, charity begins at home.” Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche; para 2)
• Home is neutral. It’s up to us to decide whether it will be positive or negative. This is the notion of the householder living an awakened life rather than hiding in our life. On the premise that home can be the basis of goodness, then we can move into the world with this attitude.

The complete address can be found here.

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The telephone rang at 06h00 on February 5, 2010! I’m an early bird. But not that early!

Ferhan, a former workplace colleague, apologized for calling so early. And then got down to business:

“I feel extremely negative lately,” she said. “I don’t understand what’s happening. There seems to be a lot of discord around, my mind seems even more discursive than usual. I feel dragged down by heavy emotions. Like they’re almost taking me over.”

“Donovan’s Season of the Witch is upon us,” I replied.”

“What? What witch?” she said.

“Oh yes I forgot. You would have been in diapers when that song was popular. Well, the ‘witch’ in this case is called Mamo.”

“Specifically,” I continued, “it’s the Dön [pronounced "dun"] Season. From February third to the twelfth. A lot of negativity built up over the past year gathers together now. Maybe you’re picking up on that.”

She asked if I could send her an e-mail with more explanation.

Dear Ferhan,

The Dön (obstacles) Season comes at the end of the Tibetan year, which changes every year, unlike the Western New Year, which always takes place on January 01.

Here’s a sort of “nutshell” quotation from Harald Dienes, Blue Lapis Clinic:

Accumulated negative karma tends to ripen towards the end of the lunar year. It is a time when we are more susceptible to seemingly external influences such as distractions, illness and collective upheavals. According to tradition this is a time when we allow for closure of the expiring year and do not embark on any new projects…..

The Tibetan New Year is  sometimes in January, sometimes in February or March. This year it is February 14, 2010. Valentines Day!  So, before this date, negativity is heightened for about two weeks.

Because of our lack of paying attention to the conditions of our life, obstacles sneak in, says Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.

Here’s an analogy: You’re a knitter. If you drop a stitch and don’t notice it, just keep knitting, then drop another stitch and on and on in this way, when you have the finished product, you’ll notice the holes. So you have to pay attention. A line in Donovan’s song Season of the Witch puts it this way:

You’ve got to pick up every stitch.

Now for the good news!

…..what is it we can do as antidote for obstacles?….engaging in practice …… restarting and rekindling our ….. mind of enlightenment. Loving kindness and compassion………

• We can work with obstacles, understand them. Then they can help us to become more aware of what is happening moment-to-moment as much as we can every day of the year; become appreciative of the life force.
• We can slow down right now, reflect on what’s happening; a time to amend relationships and friendships, quarrels.
• This is the time to “hold your seat” and just be aware of the negativity that arises, rather than indulge in it. If we indulge then we have to be aware of that also. Awareness is the antidote.
  <Source: Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche: The Dön Season; my unedited transcription of an  online talk in real time; January 27, 2008; Halifax, Canada>

FYI…Buddhists, besides practicing mindfulness and awareness of situations, also practice something called The Mamo Chants to pacify the turmoil of the Mamos.

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Humtpy Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king’s horses, and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

I’ve had lots of experiencing falling off the wall.

In the context of this post, Humpty Dumpty refers to our manufactured self (ego). It’s not a stable structure because none of the “parts” exist in any solid, permanent way independent from the causes and conditions — that we call “our life” — which themselves are constantly changing and shifting.

I spent a lot of time in a never-ending cycle that looks like this:

1. sat relatively comfortably on my wall; and then
   
2. something would come along to challenge this comfort and I would fall off the wall and then try to “get my life back together again.”

Then the two stages of this cycle would start again.

Stage One:

“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall”

I’m “holding it all together.”  Ego feels comfortable. Those who have a Twitter account see the status message in the bottom right-hand side of their screen everyday, e.g. “Twitter status: all good.”  In the same way, when we’re in Stage One of the cycle, we can say “Ego’s status: OK.”

Example from my life:  Pretty nice life – good family, fun sisters, girl’s camp in the summer (canoeing, horseback riding, head of the “Orange tribe”), private girl’s school, friends, piano lessons, skiing lessons, play bridge, join a sorority, university grad, meet husband-to-be and get married

Stage Two:

“Humpty Dumpty had a great fall…”

(I-just-want-my-life-back.)

Example from my life: made the wrong marriage. It fell apart. How I felt is best described by the following quote:

“When the marriage broke up it had the effect of throwing me into a totally groundless state, which these days might be called a severe depression. I was scared and I was angry and I couldn’t get anything to come back together.” (click here for source)

Stage Two happens when “your comfort zone becomes your cage.” My old reference points get frayed at the edges, don’t hold up like they used to. I am frightened. The rug is pulled out from under me and I land on the floor! My ego, which relies on old habitual patterns to convince itself that it exists, swings into action to somehow “get-my-old-life-back.” This reliance on old, familiar, habitual patterns ensures that I will fall part once again.

Stage One again.

Stage Two again.

And on and on.

I finally had to examine this cycle very carefully.

I came to two conclusions:

1. I realized I can’t get anything from the past “back;” To believe that I can get my old life back is false; and

1. I decided not to make futile efforts to put my life together again, only to fall off the wall once again. So I simply sat there on the ground like Humpty Dumpty and rested in that state, and watched my mind making feeble verbal attempts to get back to Stage One: “Let’s-try-this. Let’s-try-that.”

At age 45 I got to Stage Three. Hopefully, Tiger Woods has reached this stage as well and will come out of the dark tunnel of an ego that has crashed.

Stage Three:

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Example from my life: I had fallen very much in love with a work colleague — not workable. It reminds me of a line from the song “You walk by and I fall to pieces.” Collapsed in a way I had not collapsed in my life before. Became very ill. I was 45 year’s old. Lyrics from the song Undun by the Guess Who kept running through my mind!

At this point in my life, I began to realize that, rather than seeing my experience as an “obstacle” (and blaming others) to a fulfilling life, I could use it as a key to open another door that goes beyond ego’s tricks. Put another way, I could use my experience as a jump-off point to spiritual development to go beyond self-absorption.

I also noticed that it was Humpty Dumpty that fell. Not the wall! In the context of this post, the wall represents the unchanging, primordial ground that underlies all changing things in our world. Or put another way, the wall symbolizes the primeval groundlessness (open space beyond our attachments, fixations, clingings and obsessions) on which we can “sit” whether we fall off or not!

What a delicious piece of irony…..

Resources:

• Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche: Ruling Your World
  

• Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche: The Sanity We Are Born With

• Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche: Working with Negativity (article in magazine Garuda, Spring 1972; also a chapter in Myth of Freedom)

• In the Face of Fear: Buddhist Wisdom for Challenging Times, ed Barry Boyce et al
  

• Robert Kull: Seeking Wisdom in Extremes
  

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On Friday November 06 Iras and I drive to the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto to participate in the Light Exchange. Bring in old Christmas tree lights and get the new, energy-saving led ones.

About six months ago, Iras has a change for-the-better in her financial situation. So as we drive back home, I asked her how that affects her life. She makes an interesting statement:

I can’t change my life. So I just made it better. Not in any big way though. I just paid off my debts.

The big question we all have is: How can I change my life (karmic stream\patterning)?

Instead of driving to the St. Lawrence Market in a car, let’s imagine that we are on a stream where we are paddling our canoe from Kingston to Ottawa. We follow a certain route. But then we decide we’d like to change directions. We take another route.

Likewise, sometimes a decision is made to change the course of a river so that certain land will be irrigated.

To repeat: the big question we all have is:  How can I change my life (karmic stream)?

Only when we go beyond creating and then maintaining it! That means making a change in our habitual patterns at the very moment they arise. How? By undercutting the attachment to the thoughts and emotions that make up habitual patterns. Again, how? By doing something different rather than the same old thing. What’s that expression? Something like “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

The point we want to stress is that

……we are creating future actions. We can change the course. We are not stuck in our karma. (Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, Class Four, page 86 of the Sutrayana Transcripts)

Back to Lilly’s statement above:“Well, I can’t change my life so I made it better. Not in any big way though. I just paid my debts.”

I suggested to Iras that she did exactly the right thing. By actually taking responsibility for an area that needed taking care of, she actually made a change in her karmic stream and therefore in her life overall.

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A few years ago I noticed that certain music evoked a kind of bittersweet longing, a particularly difficult emotion for me. It was causing me suffering.

I discovered that this particular music — a kind of Top Ten on my own personal hit parade — turned out to actually trigger deep-seated habitual desires, cravings….and it was mainly the negative ones that were triggered. So everytime I listened to these songs, it strengthened negative habitual tendencies.

• Roy Orbison: You Got it
• Bonny Raitt: Something to Talk About
  Huey Lewis and the News: Power Of Love
• Elton John: I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues
• Climax: Prescious (sic) and Few
• Melissa Manchester: You Should Hear How She Talks About You
• G. Rafferty: Right Down the Line
• Glass Tiger: Don’t Forget Me
• Sister Sledge: We Are Family
• Barry Manilow: Read ‘Em and Weep

What is longing? I needed to understand it.

I was grateful to get some insight into this longing and the habitual patterns behind it from a wonderful book entitled Transforming Problems into Happiness that discusses situations like longing as a fixation on desire; craving.

I contacted a friend of mine, Randy Chakerian, the director of the Corvallis Meditation Centre, Oregon. He also joined the Prison Dharma Network, through which he teaches meditation and dharma to prison inmates.

Here’s a transcription of our correspondence.

Question:  We hear people say “I’m longing for those old days,” etc. etc.

In terms of the factors that create and maintain our karma, what is longing comprised of? e.g. If I listen to certain music, it seems to trigger certain memories that I feel positive towards. But those situations are gone. I long.

Any suggestions?

Answer: For some reason the term mogu popped into my mind when I was thinking about “longing.” I Googled it  (mogu) and up popped a page from the glossary of Jeremy Hayward’s Warrior-King of Shambhala. I can’t copy the entry because it’s a weird Google Books page, but here’s the URL .[Scroll down to devotion: (Tibetan: mogu)]

Basically he says mogu, devotion, is a combination of mopa, longing, and gupa, humbleness.

I’m assuming that it would still be a karma-generating situation, although the resulting karma would be quite positive [in the case of "mogu"], of course. As far as the nidanas go, I should think longing is a form of attachment, so it would be a “klesha,” albeit a somewhat benign one in this case [of "mogu"], but if that’s right that would make it, what, the 8th/9th nidanas [factors that create and maintain our karma]?

Question: You mention devotion. I think that something my ego has been devoted to in past lives has not been very positive. And that whatever it is is triggered by these songs.  That’s about as far as I’ve been able to understand.

Answer: I’d say the problem(s) about “longing for the old days” are (a) it’s just stubborn clinging to habitual tendencies/patterns, and (b) it’s not relating fully to the present moment. I know that sounds harsh — there’s some sort of bittersweet comfort in clinging to past experiences, no matter how painful they may have been —  but as Philip Whalen, the great beat-zen poet wrote somewhere, “This [very moment] never happened before” — which is always true, if you think about it…

Question: What exactly are habitual tendencies\patterns comprised of?

Answer: Two components:

1. Kleshas (heavy emotions, including my “clusters of thoughts” idea)
2. Karma (action) – body, speech and mind

My conclusion: I wrote the e-mail re the nature of longing to you because I noticed a few years ago that when I listen to certain songs, it triggers something that I don’t think is very positive. I need to understand what happens here. Would like to write a post for my ‘log on the nature of longing and relate it to my overall theme of karma. I ask myself  What exactly is triggered?” Is it my negative karma\habitual patterns (or something)?  After writing to you, I came across this quote from His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV in The Path to Tranquility, the reading for October 23:

“What is reborn are our habits. Enlightenment is the ending of rebirth, which means a complete non-attachment or nonidentification with all thoughts, feelings, perceptions, physical sensations, and ideas.”

Answer: and, one might add, complete non-attachment, therefore, to one’s past, and an end, therefore, to any vestiges of “longing…”

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