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.