Discussed on Sunday, September 25, 2005

Discussed on Sunday, 9/25/2005

Post-Katrina analysis leads many pundits to the blame game. Surely there is no merit in sweeping problems under the carpet. It is better to examine the causes and effects.

Was racism a factor that leaves thousands of poor people stranded in New Orleans? Probably. But perhaps it is also the result of human’s self-centered tendency to think that everyone else is just like me. For people with cars it is natural to just plan an exit and drive away from the pending disaster. There is so much to worry about in such dire situations, why bother about other people? We are also bombarded with the conservative notion about self-reliance: if everyone take responsibility for his own safety then all will be fine. It is not until we see the pictures of poor people on TV trapped in unbearable filth that it dawned on us that there are helpless people besides us.

Thomas Kuhn coined the term “paradigm shift” to describe the difficult transition required to break away from entrenched thinking. Thinking outside the box is tough. It is not our habit to look at things from other perspectives.

Some people see Buddhism as an elitist pursuit requiring too much intellectual effort. They say that Dhamma is too difficult to understand by the average folks. This is partly true. Buddhism has no appeal to some people. But it is not a matter of formal education or great intellect. Indeed the Buddha’s teachings require us to take a major paradigm shift, and this is going against the stream. We are too fettered to our egocentric view of the world. We consider that everything happens around us with “I” located at the center of the universe. We are eternal, the everlasting soul, a self that will last forever, associated with a first cause of existence - called God by many names. All these are delusional.

The Buddha explained that there is no such eternal soul or self. There is no first cause, no creator. Everything is transient and interdependent. Everything is the converging and diverging of shifting conditions.

It is problematic when people take the word “non-soul” or “non-self” at face value. Intellectually they imagine that this means nothing. A purely rational analysis is not sufficient and will lead to wrong views. There is no need to disown the reality of different personalities. All that the Buddha advised us to do is to observe everything as they are. Do not speculate. Do not intellectualize. Just observe. Clearly we do exist as individuals, albeit an impermanent existence. Each of us is a changing life force. There is nothing wrong about referring to people as “you”, “he”, “she” and “I”. Just do not think of anyone as some eternal soul.

Buddhists need to understand two interrelated truths: the conventional world where languages are indispensable, and the ultimate truth where languages failed to express reality. In our conventional world we need languages but all linguistic labels are not the things in themselves. Symbols and languages have limitations and are inadequate to describe true reality. Languages are like the photographic chemicals used to fix an image, turning a living entity into a static picture in time. To be aware of both conventional truth and ultimate truth, we must learn to observe carefully without subjective, cultural and traditional baggage.

Meditation trains the mind and sharpens its observational power, to boost self-restraint and to focus our attention. In meditation we are purifying the mind. The mind must be taught to observe without pre-judging, to refrain from the instinctive reactions of our lizard brain. The mind reacts to pleasant, unpleasant or neutral sensations with craving, aversion or confusion. When the mind is not sensitive enough to detect sensations as they arise, then blind reactions are prone to happen. It is no wonder people can be easily manipulated by exploitative tactics of the unscrupulous.

A lot of people have difficulty with meditation. Dropout rate is very high. Why? Mainly, they are not very clear about what they are doing, why they spend the time to meditate, and how they are suppose to get benefit. Thus it is easy to have doubt, to feel frustrated by the pointlessness of sitting, to suffer from the pain of long sitting, to crave for the bell to ring, etc. If we treat the practice as another ritual, an endurance test, a fight with boredom or pain, we are going in the wrong direction. All these are easily corrected when we know why we are sitting, what we are doing, and learn to gauge our progress. Finding a good meditation teacher is quite important, but good teachers are indeed rare. Be very careful with charismatic teachers. Make sure they are humble, wise and selfless. Always follow the dhamma teachings, not a personality.

Meditation is a training to eliminate human suffering in a very deep psychological way. The techniques in purification of the mind involve both mental focus to overcome the mind’s attention deficit tendencies and also silent observation of the body-mind complex. When the mind is calm, silently abiding on the meditative object, not jumping between past, present or future, there is experience of timelessness. In this clarity of mind, one observes existence that is impermanent, constantly changing, unstable, interdependent and thus without any eternal self. All these will lead to a deep silence, non-attachment and freedom.

Discussed on Sunday, September 11, 2005

Discussed on Sunday, 9/11/2005

A professor commented on the political choices made after 9/11. One choice is vengeance, the other forgiveness. He explained the idea of cognitive dissonance:

Psychologists, communication and cultural theorists have long been aware of a phenomenon known as cognitive dissonance, which refers to the mental and emotional discomfort people feel when confronted with a discrepancy between what they say they believe and the actions they are performing.

The discomfort of this discrepancy is alleviated only when the person
Either changes his belief to better fit with his actions
Or changes his actions to better fit with his beliefs.

Most humans have a strong need for consistency between their beliefs and their actions and cannot stay in a state of cognitive dissonance for long.

When people are perplexed and have doubt in their mind, cognitive dissonance might be one of the underlying factors. There are many examples of cognitive dissonance.

Watching the aftermath of Katrina and the outpouring of empathy from people everywhere, we are just as dismayed by the crooks and charlatans who exploit human kindness with their phony charities. When a religious broadcaster calls for the assassination of an elected foreign leader, we can’t help but be shocked. When someone who often speaks of compassionate religious faith pursues the enemies with unyielding anger, promising retribution that would be swift and severe, one must be troubled.

In the Kalama Sutra we also find cognitive dissonance. After listening to various spiritual teachers and observing their behaviors, the people of Kalama were very confused.

The Buddha advised the Kalamas not to rely too much on authority and intellectual arguments. Instead, pay attention to cause and effect, to see if the “walk” matches the “talk”. See beyond the facade. Make sure that one’s thought, speech and action are wholesome, i.e. free from lust, hatred and delusion. Only wisdom and understanding can truly dispel the perplexity.

Buddhist practices are simple but difficult. First, we must learn to observe ethical behavior, exercise self-restraint in thought, speech and action. Secondly, practice mental concentration and be mindful of distractions. Finally, cultivate wisdom to understand causality, to see things as they really are, free from delusions. These practices will lead us to freedom from suffering.

Discussed on Sunday, August 28, 2005

“Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast.”

Music comes in many moods: sunny major keys, gloomy minor keys and many other flavors in between. Some musical instruments are naturally happy while others have a somber timbre. Each will find its own audiences in response to their likes and dislikes.

For example, the Chinese urhu (ur-hu), a two-string instrument played with a string bow, has a natural sad bitter tone but can produce very moving music. It is a melancholy instrument by nature although it can be used to play cheery tunes. Urhu was a favorite instrument for blind street-musicians in China. Some suggested that it is not a very suitable instrument to play exclusively, especially if one does not have happier diversions. It creates a depressive atmosphere unhealthy to the mind.

The Buddha taught us to cultivate a cheery and serene inner life. It is important to create a peaceful and joyous environment inside and out. Nurture is just as important as nature, sometimes even more so.

For example, some cultural traditions dictate widows to wear black for the rest of their lives. It is a rather repressive and inhumane practice, also damaging to mental health. No one should be condemned to such a dreary existence for the rest of one’s life. Along the same vein, teenagers should not listen predominantly to raucous or sad music. And violent video games are potentially harmful.

We know that children growing up in a happy, cheery, safe and secure environment tend to have higher self-esteem and confidence. Of course, more than just protecting and nurturing children, they need to be taught to discern right from wrong.

A distinction should be made between “guilt” and “shame”. When one has done something wrong and hurtful, one should feel guilty and make an effort to change and make reparations. However, sometimes children feel “shamed” for something they have no influence or control, and this is very unhealthy. For example, children easily feel ashamed for the poverty of their family, their physical handicaps, abuse by others or for their parent’s problems, etc. It is not their fault and they should be taught to understand that this kind of “shame” is unwarranted.

From the Buddhist perspective, even “remorse” is an unhealthy mental state when it casts a constant shadow in one’s life. One should deal with the problem and then move on! Unfortunately, many religions and parents use “guilt” and “shame” indiscriminately. Fear is another negative mental energy that is easily manipulated by some religions, politicians, and parents to control others. The threats of hell fire and brimstone have no place in Buddhist teachings.

Instead of fear and shame, one should learn to be a critical thinker, to discern cause and effect. In Buddhism, wholesome actions are those free from craving (lust), ill will (hatred) and self-delusion (ignorance). Wholesome action begets wholesome result, and unwholesome action begets unwholesome results.

Each human being is a bundle of life-force energy vibrating with infinitely complex overtones and frequencies similar to the harmonics of tones. Some vibrations are positive, such as the feelings of joy, friendliness, kindness and compassion. Other vibrations are negative, such as anger, sadness, lust, hatred and hostility.

All Buddhas taught purification of the mind. It is important to amplify the positive energy and remove the negative energy. Metta meditation is a rudimentary practice for all Buddhist, to cultivate an intimate experience and the constant presence of loving-kindness, of friendliness. This is the base for further meditation training, including living in the moment. When practicing metta meditation, it is important to “feel” kindness vibrating in every part of the body.

Each human being is a unique vibrating life force. Each will resonate with similar forces. As the saying goes: birds of a feather flock together. People gravitate towards those with similar frequencies: i.e. similar taste, interest, preferences, values, etc. One can be more or less judged by the company that one chooses to keep. It is how cliques are formed. Thus all religions sooner or later split into sects, and all nations have conflicting political views from opposing political parties.

Karma means action. Individual choices aggregate into collective choices. People “deserve” the government they get because the community as a whole accepted a decision based on collective preferences. Unfortunately, the minority who objected to certain choices will suffer the consequence just the same. Nevertheless everyone must do one’s share to make a positive change to improve the world even when the action seems useless.

For example, there was a time everyone accepted secondhand smoke as inevitable. It takes many years for some activists and communities to change this wrong perception. Now smokers must smoke outdoor. Hopefully one day they will give up the addiction all together. Similarly, we must fight all kinds of injustice and prejudice based on gender, race, sexual preferences, age, etc.

The question of karmic justice always comes up. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why are some children born with certain physical defects or born into a dysfunctional family? Why are peace-loving people forced to fight invaders and die for their country? Why do hurricanes and tsunami destroy good and bad people indiscriminately?

From the Buddhist perspective, the so-called karmic justice should not be seen as retribution or punishment for bad deeds. Karmic consequence must be understood through the concept of Conditioned Origination (Dependent Co-Arising), the natural law of existence.

People who strengthen their positive energy will gravitate towards positive environment, and conversely those with negative energy will be attracted to negative vibes. Good things tend to happen with good vibes and bad things tend to happen with bad vibes. If one is prone to greed, lust, anger, hatred and delusion, bad things tend to follow. If one is kind, friendly, compassionate, joyful, discerning, good things tend to follow. This is how karmic justice works.

Positive and negative conditions alike can take a long time to mature and reach fruition. A rich man with a beautiful seaside villa might enjoy this luxury for years and even generations. However, few will notice the Teutonic plate below the earth’s crust is shifting all the time and might erupt into a strong earthquake and tsunami at any moment, destroying everything in split seconds. Our human perception of time is too limited to see the true reality of life and complexities of conditions. We must learn to see cause and effect of actions with a longer time span and from all angles.

For human beings, as an ever-changing bundle of life energy, in reality there is no birth and no death. Nothing is created, nothing annihilated. All are merely shifting conditions. One could regard the momentary existence as a series of births and deaths, or rebirths. Ours is an unstable existence, driven by urges, desires and delusions. Our existence requires continuous sustenance, feeding the five body-mind aggregates with four types of nutriment required for survival. The process of feeding goes on all the time. We need to practice mindfulness of the moment and act accordingly. While one develops full awareness of the moment in meditation by detaching the mind from the past and future, in everyday living we must pay attention to cause and effect that develop “in time”.

The Buddha’s teachings focus on human suffering and the ending of suffering. Period. This teaching is therapeutic in the ultimate sense, i.e. to get out of the cycles of rebirth. The Buddha proclaimed that there is a “deathless” state. It is timeless. Nirvana is the result of purging all unwholesome mental conditions, the negative vibrations of greed, lust, anger, hatred, fear, confusion, ego, etc. When there is no more negative condition how can bad things happen? The cultivation of wisdom, a direct insight, is the only way to reach the deathless state.

Bhikku Bodhi wrote in the introduction of “The Numeric Discourse of the Buddha – the Anguttara Nikaya” the cultivation of wisdom. Here is the passage from the book (page 11-12):

......"The systematic training designed by the Buddha to nourish the growth of wisdom is called vipassana-bhavana, the development of insight (14, 72). While the texts recognize the possibility of attaining insight first and then developing tranquility afterwards (72, 83), the classical paradigm of the path treats tranquility as the foundation for insight. Thus a med­itator intent on following the path to its consummation first masters the practice of concentration to a degree sufficient to make the mind calm and unified. Then, with a still, luminous mind, he or she attends mind­fully to the field of immediate experience, beginning with the body (11). As mindfulness becomes sharper and clearer the meditator learns to distinguish the five aggregates: matter or physical form (rupa); feeling (vedana), the affective tone of experience, either pleasant, painful or neu­tral; perception (sanna), the factor responsible for noting, distinguishing and recognition; volitional formations (sankhara), the intentional aspect of mental activity; and consciousness (vinnana), the basic awareness operating through the senses. The meditator attends to these five aggre­gates as they arise and pass away (59), thereby uncovering the mark of impermanence (anicca). The insight into impermanence brings the real­ization that the aggregates, being unstable and constantly disintegrating, are really concealed forms of suffering (dukkha). And whatever is imper­manent and suffering cannot be identified as a truly existent self. Thus when rightly viewed the five aggregates, which we cherish as "I" and "mine", are seen as "not mine, not I, not my self" (anatta).

Impermanence, suffering and non-self are, for the Buddha, the three universal characteristics of phenomena (48). The three are inextricably interwoven, and insight into one leads naturally to the others (142 §§5-7). To contemplate them deeply is the essence of insight meditation, the knowledge and vision of things as they really are (138-40). As the knowl­edge born of insight penetrates to deeper and deeper levels, it engenders a profound revulsion towards conditioned existence (nibbida). The mind turns away from all the formations (sankhara) comprised within the five aggregates, which are seen as "a disease, a boil, a dart". Instead, it focuses upon the deathless element, Nibbana, perceived as the only true security and peace. This revulsion blossoms in dispassion (virago), the fading away of lust and craving, and dispassion in turn culminates in lib­eration (vimutti), the mind's release from all fetters (128, 182, 183)." ......
[The numbers in brackets refer to the suttas in this anthology.]

Discussed on Sunday, August 14, 2005

Some of the topics discussed:

What does Sutra (or Sutta) mean?

In Buddhist literature it refers to the collection of sayings of the Buddha and his disciples. The word probably has its root in putting a thread through a collection of objects, such as flowers to make a garland. Ancient sayings were passed down orally. Over a period of time they were organized into collections of texts. The earliest and most essential sutras are the five Nikayas (in Pali), or their equivalent, the four Agamas (in Chinese). These texts captured the earliest recorded teachings of the Buddha. There are other Sutras that emerged in later time with various degrees of authenticity.

It is important to understand that the Buddha instructed his disciples to treat the words as a tool of understanding only, and never to hold the words as ultimate authority. In the Kalama Sutra the Buddha advised the Kalama people not to trust ancient sacred text as the final authority. In other texts the Buddha compared his sayings to a raft. Just like a raft that serves to take the passengers across turbulent waters, upon reaching the other shore the raft has served its purpose and should not be dragged along. For this reason, Buddhists do not take a fundamentalist view of sacred scriptures.

What are Embryonic Stem Cells? What is Life?

Embryonic stem cells have the ability to develop into any type of cells and thus hold great promises in medicine, such as regenerating tissues. Stem cell line is a cell colony of identical stem cells maintained at their undifferentiated state, which is a laborious and expensive undertaking. There are less than 200 known stem cell lines in the world.

Why should Buddhists take an interest in stem cell research? It will help to understand why politicians and religious people are making such a fuss about this scientific research. This will deepen one’s understanding of the life process and to avoid seeing reality with emotional baggage.

One cannot speak of life without understanding life force and the consciousness. It is also necessary to differentiate between potentials (or conditions) for life versus life (a living organism) itself, living tissues versus living organisms.

For example, does the living stem cells in a petri dish represent life? Or for that matter, does a sperm cell or an egg cell represent life? Is a 5-day-old embryo sitting in a test tube life?

One cannot properly understand this without returning to the fundamental law of nature that the Buddha taught: Conditioned Origination (or Dependent Co-arising). All existence and occurrence are the result of multitudes of converging factors (conditions). For something to happen, all the contributing factors must be present to satisfy the requirements. An embryo sitting in a tank of liquid nitrogen will never evolve into life because of the frigid condition. It only represents a potential for life, a contributing piece of condition.

Ignorance, Self-Delusion, Irrationality, the Lizard Mind

Human are by nature self-deluded. Such is the Buddha’s observation. Until a person remove the self-delusion and can see reality for what it is, there is doubt, perplexity and unrest, i.e. not a happy camper. Human beings also all suffer from the scattered mind syndrome to various degrees (the name in vogue is attention deficit hyperactive disorder –ADD/ADHD). Human beings find it hard to control themselves from craving, aversion and confusion. They have no self-restraint. Neuroscientists attributed such lack of self-control as a remnant of the “lizard brain”. Professor Terry Burnham wrote that humans behave irrationally under the influence of their ancient brain structure. In the documentary “Why dogs smile and chimpanzee cry”, animal behaviorists observed that all animals species evolved emotional responses such as love, kindness, compassion, joy and sorrow, which allow the animal to act more like human than lizards. Unfortunately, some human beings are acting more like animals with their killing rampages, spreading violence and hatred across the world. The same people who proclaim their reverence to life (in a petri dish, no less) then shock and awe innocent citizens berserk. Curious isn’t it?

Sila, Samadhi, Panna

The Buddha’s instructions are therapeutic, a three-prong attack on these morbid human conditions, the unwholesome emotions of lust, hatred and delusion. He told his followers to practice:
(1) ethics self-restraint
(2) concentration mind control
(3) insight mental transformation.

In the Anguttara Nikaya, VI-13, the Buddha also mentioned the cultivation of loving-kindness, compassion, altruistic joy, equanimity, “signless mind” and discarding the notion of “I am”. These serve to overcome ill-will, cruelty, discontent, attachment, running after “signs” and self-obsession, respectively.