Rock, Scissors, Paper

With palms together,

Good Morning All,

 

One of the most profound teachings of the Buddha was about overcoming hate. Hatred is one of the three poisons and it is easily spread. Today, we spread hate through our words and deeds, our unkindness, our inability to be present and attentive, our willingness to put whole groups of people into categories barely giving their humanity a nod.  We spread hate through our eager willingness to retaliate, as if revenge will pacify our raging hearts. The worst part is that we do this instantly and on a worldwide basis.

 

The Buddha said that hate only begets hate. Being angry and hateful creates anger and hatefulness in others. And so on.  Love begets love. Being loving creates lovingness in others. And I believe this is true, but I also believe this is a very slow and very painful process.  There are no quick fixes for hate.

 

This very slowness of the process is a serious problem in a worldwide community of instant connectivity. Within seconds, pictures of bombings, rocket attacks, police brutality, ethnic and religious violence, wife beating, and so on are sent around the world. We have immediate reactions to these images, we make conclusions about the perpetrate rs we suffer with the victims and, as victims ourselves, want to not hurt, so we attack back.

 

Yet, we should rather love back. We should listen to the deeper meanings, the pain and suffering of those hateful people who attack us and vilify us, so that we can understand them and their point of view.  We see that they and we are essentially the same  We are all beings just trying to survive in a world.  When we set aside our hate we see the needs of our own children and families. When we set aside our hate, we offer love a gate to enter our hearts.

 

This is very scary because to open our selves to love means to experience vulnerability.  Those who have experienced trauma of the heart and body know this is such a challenge.  Yet, we know that hate just creates more hate and closed doors wither away our hearts and minds.

 

To effectively deal with this we must recognize our own impermanence. Regardless of what we do, open or closed, we are not forever.  So, in the time we have, how do we really want to live?

 

Be well. 

 

Harvey So Daiho Hilbert, Ph.D. 
May All Beings Be Free From Suffering

On the web at:

http://www.daihoji.org/

http://www.zencenteroflascruces.org
and http://daihoji.blogspot.com/

 

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Far From Buddha

With palms together,

Good Morning All,

 

When we study the precepts, we are entering the study of moral life. We sometimes think of morality as a tricky thing.  But I say, the only tricky part is getting caught between the things we want or don't want and wanting or not wanting them both at the same time. Of course, Philosophy 101 classes and Ethics classes are full of those arguing about what is good and what is evil.  Or which I should do, honor the principle or support the greater good. We look to our group, family, or culture for answers.  Is this the "Christian" thing to do?  The Buddhist thing?  The Jewish thing?  We sometimes have guiding questions, "what would Jesus do?"  Or, "what would Buddha do?"  We look to the sources: does evil reside outside of us or inside?  Are we born evil or good?  Do we inherit morality? Is it us, the Adversary, or is it God?

 

So many questions. And while, at the time, given our age and circumstance, they may appear to not be useless, they are in the end, very useless questions. Because in the end, we are what we do and the measure of this is not fixed.

 

When the inside and the outside meet, that is it. Evaluation, discrimination, all are useless. They are hindrances to clear thought and action.

 

When I think of myself as a Buddhist, for example,  I am far from Buddha. Just as if I think of myself as a Jew or Christian or Muslim, I separate myself from God.

 

Morality is non-dualistic. It is just being one with the universe in thought, feeling, and action.  When we are one with the universe, with no space for judgment, then we are the universe: not good, not bad, not right, not wrong, not pure, not defiled, not born, not dead.  

 

Be well.

Harvey So Daiho Hilbert, Ph.D. 
May All Beings Be Free From Suffering

On the web at:

http://www.daihoji.org/

http://www.zencenteroflascruces.org
and http://daihoji.blogspot.com/

 

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Stirring the Dust

With palms together,

Good Morning All,

 

We shared a few really nice hours with friends yesterday around and in their pool. Eating and drinking iced tea and lemonade, swimming and floating in the pool, all are good things. But the best part is sharing with others.

 

Someone suggested that I should back off a little at the synagogue, that I was alienating others as a new kid on the block coming in and taking over. Its funny how organizations are so often like this. Intentions are one thing, perception is a whole other thing. Sometimes an organization grows stale, it languishes in inertia, then someone comes in and stirs the dust and all the particles get upset.  I understand this.  I see myself as a catalyst sometimes whose destiny is to be a stirrer of dust.  

 

Well, the dust has been stirred. I am willing to sit down and see what new patterns emerge.

 

Meanwhile, the Zen Center is thriving. We had three new people from El Paso visit Sunday and were nearly at capacity.

 

This is so even over the summer when people are often away for this vacation and that vacation. I am pleased.

 

We will continue to work on making this a vital center of Zen practice. Please feel free to join us.

 

Be well.

Harvey So Daiho Hilbert, Ph.D. 
May All Beings Be Free From Suffering

On the web at:

http://www.daihoji.org/

http://www.zencenteroflascruces.org
and http://daihoji.blogspot.com/

 

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Independence Day

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

Hoopla today in the USA. Independence Day should give us pause to be thankful of the things independence from oppression offers us. Yet this independence is conditional, it always is. We are never independent, as if we are stand alone entities, pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. This most profound and basic statement of American value contains a fatal flaw. Someone must make the boots, the pants, and the shirts we wear. Someone must drill for the oil we burn, grow and harvest the food we eat, make the chemicals and do the magic that creates the plastic that forms so much the framework of our lives.

We celebrate our independence from oppression here today, yet live deeply oppressed. What's the name of the boot on our neck? Desire. True independence is our awakening to our true interdependence.

Be well,

The Truth is Out There?

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

Have you ever noticed how things change? Of course you have, it happens that we notice this so often, we've developed phrases for it: things change, whatever, so it goes, and so on. Yet, what we don't so often notice is just how much energy we put into keeping absolutes permanent. We want some things not to change, truth, for example. We want something we perceive to be true to stay that way. Otherwise our world would be a relativistic nightmare, we fear. Yes, we need our anchors.

The trouble is we look for anchors in all the wrong places. We look for them, first of all, as if they exist somewhere out there. We reify them, make them concrete and hard, like a statue or a note from God on a tablet made of stone. At this point we decide these are, indeed, the truth and the truth must be defended. And so it goes.
Yet, when we bother to examine truth closely what do we see? We see that truth always depends on the perceiver. Truth is, by definition, a mental construction. It does not exist independent of us. Therefore it is something we have invented to perceive, an overlay of sorts, like a gel used in theater to color a subject.
So where to look for truth and what is its true nature?

Here's a twister: the absolute truth is always relative to a context. We can say killing is wrong and that is an absolute truth and that would be true, but at the same time we must understand that the context of this absolute is the context of the value we place on life. So if life is being threatened and there is no other way to prevent it from being killed, we must kill the threat.

Second. Context is always subjective and relative. Context depends on a perceiver and perceivers exist in context with one another: they are, therefore relative. Some may argue that absolutes exist, by nature apart from a perceiver. To those I would ask, show me an absolute that could be understood without a context.

We begin with being still and we end in that stillness. Knowing that the stillness is not something out there, but something we are, as being itself. Stillness is not "running" when we are running. Stillness is not "working" when we are working. Nor is stillness "sitting" when we are sitting. Truth, like stillness, is both universal and relative. Hold onto it and it becomes false.

Be well.

Zen Stories

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

This morning the sky is overcast, a somewhat unusual state here in the desert. Still, we do have our rainy season and the 4th of July weekend is the 'traditional' mark of its beginning. This morning I go to Zen Center. This afternoon I have a lunch discussion group on Zen Stories at the International Delights Deli and Cafe. A cup of Zen Tea, a liitle rice, salad, hummas and pita, and good conversation.

Story telling is a great teacher. Stories are not like television or movies where so little is left to the imagination. Stories require us to truly engage ourselves, use our history, experience, imaginations, and feelings to co-create and explore the story. In the process we tease out the meanings and the lessons and personalize them. Because of this, stories are always different. Stories include, by definition, both the story-teller's story and the reader.

Today we will study story number four in 101 Zen Stories edited by Reps and Senzaki
http://www.101zenstories.com/

Be well.

When Worlds Collide

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

A somewhat tumultuous conversation after services last night lead me to think a lot about consistency of values and actions. If one holds themselves out to be a person of faith and that faith calls for or points to certain values, then we should attempt to behave according to those values. So goes the story line. On the other hand, we each must come to our own values through our own spiritual work. It appears that spiritual work or reflection is no guarantee that common values will emerge. And then what? We cannot discount the values we oppose. We cannot dictate values. Yet, at the same time a group's cohesiveness often depends on shared values.

So what are we to do?

One thought I had is that people might begin speaking of only what their values are, rather than what others should not value. This will at least give us a set of values cast as positives. From this list of values, we could select those we believe are either worthy of our attention or less worthy of our attention, and then work on objectives and goals.

Of course, the problem with such a plan is that it ignores the crux of the issue: ethical dilemmas. An ethical dilemma occurs when two values of equal merit conflict with one another. Such an example might include a woman's right to choose what happens to her own body verses the value of life. Or the value of freedom on the one hand and the value of peace on the other.

Traditionally value conflicts or ethical dilemmas are dealt with by two types of resolution, a deontological perspective and a consequentialist perspective. A deontological approach is rules based, such as those within Judaism: a set of commandments decides.A consequentialist approach looks at what happens if each of the two paths to a conflict are taken, attempts to weigh the consequences for all concerned, and selects the path that leads to the greater good over bad for most of the people involved.

Yikes. Another problem! What happens to those people who hold a value, such as non-violence and others are able to establish the moral supremacy of their value, armed intervention?

We might say that some values are universal, peace, for example. But is peace always a universal value? This is the heart of true spiritual practice, in my opinion.

It is to those who engage in this true spiritual practice that I bow.

Be well.