An Inconvenient Truth

With Palms Together,

Good Morning All,

 

We saw An Inconvenient Truth last night. Al Gore should receive a medal for his efforts with his slide show and this film.  It is a deeply challenging film, scary, yet hopeful.  And a moral statement about us as a species.

 

Many people feel politics and religion do not mix.  I have been one of them.  Yet, on closer inspection, ethics and morality are at the heart of both so how do we really separate them? I believe most people who say this, are using a rather narrow understanding of "political" to mean American politics, democrat, republican, independent, or green parties.

 

Al Gore believes this environment crisis is not a political issue, per se,  but a moral one. I agree with this when using a lessor definition of politics.  Yet, when it comes to what to do with the moral question and challenge, we are left with ethics and ethics demand action. Individual action and social action.  Social action is by definition political as it is done within a body politic.

 

Our religious commitments are the nexus between the individual and the community, the community and the universe, the univesre and the Universal.  

 

If you have not seen this film, I urge you to see it.  I saw yesterday that Gore has a book just released by the same title.  Read it.  Get involved on some level large or small: this is your planet and your planet is the home of all of your generations.

 

 

http://www.participate.net/campaigns

 

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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What's in Your Closet?

With palms together,

Good Morning All,

 

Someone wrote to me recently asking about pornography the precpt regarding sexual misconduct.  The letter was refreshingly candid and clearly presented a picture of a man working hard to understand himself and the precepts.

 

Internet pornography is a huge mega-billion dollar industry. This means that a lot of people go to these site and a lots of women and men participate in conduct that creates the materials for these sites.

 

The existence of this industry, like prostitution, raises a number of good questions about our nature, ethics, and our biology.

 

Just what is pornography, anyway?  I was sitting in Barnes & Nobles the other day with a friend and her step-daughter who was 16 going on 21. This young lady picked out a copy of Cosmo, she was wearing a very mini, mini skirt, and was clearly suffering from raging hormones. The cover of the magazine promised information on ver specific sexual issues and questions, the pictures in the magazine were tantizingly sexual. What do we make of this?

 

Is creating or viewing pornography a violation of the precepts? And if so, how?

 

When does sexual content or conduct become "misconduct"?

 

I have my own understanding of these questions, but I would like to hear yours.

 

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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Seeking

With palms together,

Good Morning All,

 

Enlightenment.  Powerful word. Lots of people searching for it, most with only a vague feeling as to what it is. Which creates a question in my mind.  If we do not have a clear idea as to what this is, why are we searching for it?

 

Do we think enlightenment will make us feel better?  Think better?  Be better people?  Will it make us superior to the next person?  Will it be a sign that we are somehow special, or that we have finally arrived?

 

When you come to the practice of Zen, check your motives rather than your enlightenment.

 

Seeking satori is a big problem.  To search means that we are looking. And when we are looking, we are too busy to be present. Stop looking.

 

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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The Birds Are Up, The Trees Are Up...

With palms together,

Good Morning All,

 

Another wonderful morning comes our way.  I am listening to the birdsong out side the living room window. The rain we have been having has seemingly made everyone happy. The grass in the courtyard feels more alert, the trees seem taller, and clearly the birds are happy.

 

Have you noticed that life is like that?  Conditions create conditions. When we are surrounded by love and nurturance, we are loving and nurturing; when we are under stress we are more brittle and anxious. Internal and external coincide.

 

Yet both sides of this coin lead to our suffering.  To be happy and wish for the conditions of happiness are as powerful sources of suffering as stress and anxiety. You say, but wait, shouldn't we be happy?  Shouldn't we work to be happy and create the conditions for happiness?  I say, of course.  In the process though, do not let go of the fact that these conditions are impermanent and will, sooner or later, cease to exist. 

 

This means we can and should properly live only here and now. An eye toward tomorrow, a wink to the past, but fully present now. My sense is that the birds enjoy their day, whatever their day is. And the trees enjoy their day, whatever their day is. They do so because they are completely one with it.

 

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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Losing and Gaining

With palms together,

Good Morning All,

 

A young lady lost her engagement ring in the grass near our courtyard yesterday.  She spent hours out there trying to find it.  For awhile, I searched with her, but the tiny ring was not to be found.

 

As we searched, she talked about the ring, just receiving it, her happiness, and her panic and hurt over losing it.  Yet, she also talked about her fiance.  How he said not to worry, that he will borrow a metal detector to search more deeply for it and if that failed he would just buy her another.

 

Nothing was really lost.  Nothing was really gained. Everything was revealed.

 

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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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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