Edward’s Diary Entry 37 – Virtue 16: Compassion towards all beings (Daya)

“In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate…” Thus begins the Quran, and before Mohammed was the Buddha, image chosen here, who admonished us to be compassionate to all living creatures, to all things that breathe. And before the Buddha, the Gita listed this Virtue – this divine endowment – as the 16th Virtue or empowerment of the Sattwic mind. The “Daya” of the Gita is often translated as “empathy”, which is the same thing as “com-passion”, feeling for, or with, others. Not to be confused with weeping sentimentalism, which is more of a “thought process” of generating pity and then feeling superior to those poor people who suffer! That’s called ego-feeding. Anything that breathes must be respected and given compassion. Because we breathe too. Because, again, what is induced is connectedness and the effacing of the individual, egoic, frightened little "self-versus-the-universe" concept. No one is alone in their suffering, all life “suffers”, as it is material and physical and strives to endure, but eventually decays and disintegrates, so its existence cannot be much more than suffering, which is not to say that it is exempt from joy – on the contrary. Joy is always present in a sane mind and sane being – you can see it for yourself in insects chirping, birds singing, animals playing and humans at their best. The opposite is what happens, unfortunately, mostly in humans: stress (mental insanity), depression (about what?), anxiety (wrong wiring maybe?), hatred (why?)… Lucky animals, they don’t have a thinking brain that distresses them! Which is why compassion towards all beings is important – if you connect to the natural world and its animals, you are practising empathy. If you then reach out to other human beings, stop criticising them, accept them as they are, you are practising empathy and becoming more human… Can you practise empathy and criticise others? No. Can you be empathetic and want to correct others? No. Compassion accepts, just like – whatever you do – the universe accepts you. Because apart from a story in the Bible about turning someone into salt, you don’t usually get stuck down suddenly when you do something nasty. The universe is too compassionate for that. So let’s be more like the universe. And reinforce compassion in humans.

Edward’s Diary Entry 36 – Virtue 15: Aversion to Slander (“A non-malicious tongue”)

This is also called Absence of faultfinding  (Apaisunam) or absence of narrow-mindedness. The admonition is to “refrain from scandal-mongering and talking ill of others, and correcting them unnecessarily”. Now why is this a Virtue, we can ask? Personally, because of my introverted and sensitive character, I have always felt something wrong with talking about people behind their backs, drooling over girls and women, criticising others too much and other backbiting pursuits, so it was easy enough for me to understand this. It gives me a plus for this Virtue, and so my concentration can go for others. But why is this a “divine endowment”? Well, from the standpoint of mental health, if one is Sattwic or wise, one already realises that 1) It is the mark of a weak, externally stimulated character to see and talk about faults in others, viz “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” [Mt 7:3]. My mission is to work on the huge faults within me, not talk about others’ faults. 2) It wrong psychology to criticise others and not criticise oneself first – it is the trick of the ego that does this, making “myself” invisible to myself, but revealing all the faults and imperfections of another. 3) It is a waste of time and energy to concentrate on others, because we will never have either enough time or enough energy to correct 7.4 billion humans minus one (me!), who imagines him or herself already perfect enough to find fault with the rest of humanity. And 4) It is a wrong “reading” of reality to see faults in another and criticise them. The right readout of reality is to practise one’s own Virtues and USE THE SO-CALLED IMPERFECTIONS OF OTHERS as mirrors to see what we also are capable of, and why we should not go down that road. Most faultfinding is an egoic exercise that perpetrates ego in oneself and the other person (strengthening it) while perpetuating the state of ignorance and lack of awareness. This is why in the painting Botticelli shows us how Midas with his donkey ears listens to Ignorance and Suspicion while extending his hand to Slander (or Calumny), attended by Fraud and Conspiracy, with black-robed Repentance behind them and, well out of earshot, Truth herself looking upwards to heaven and impervious to all the scandal-mongering going on. 

Halfway through...

Well, we’re halfway through the 26 Virtues. It’s a long haul, I know - like walking in the dark sometimes, but look at that ray of hope shining down on the top of the barn - but each has to be studied and meditated on as we go along. And that’s only the beginning. They have to be mentally accepted and acted on as well. Not as a set of morals applied by force from outside, or under duress, but as a gift from inside, welcomed because they correspond to what you are able to see and understand in life thanks to you disposition or Life Plan. If you have followed me from the beginning, you will remember that the 26 Virtues were just part of a little Plan to “look within” instead of just leaving the mind to wander or continue to be influenced by “outside” or normal human conditioning. So bear with me, we have Virtues 15 to 26 to inspect yet, and I hope you will receive a little enlightenment from this exercise, while we look at other things along the way.

Good wood

There’s something similar about trees and the human mind. We do not know how far the roots go down or spread around under the ground. When it comes to searching for nutrients and water, the tree shows nature’s intelligence in adapting to what is – the roots go anywhere they can find sustenance. Above ground, we do not see the root system – it is a kind of theoretical knowledge we have about the tree’s underground nature. That’s like our human subconscious or unconscious. It’s our root system to which we hardly ever pay attention in our minds – being difficult to see, as we mostly concentrate on the “outer world”, but not impossible. We can look inwards and see the nutrients rising up… On the surface, what we do see is the trunk rising up and all the branches spreading out. In this photo, there’s not much spread because the trees are a little crowded in their forest habitat and strive to rise higher than those around them, to reach the vital sunshine when their leaves come out in spring. That’s the part of our minds we normally have access to. Notice how the trunks and branches adapt to their environment, twisting and turning to form a kind of “personality” that adapts more or less their surroundings, much like our personalities adapt to our human society. With the soil below and the sky above, the tree just grows and thrives or, if it can’t, it dies and rots away to form more soil. The trees can’t move; their roots keep them bound to the earth. We should learn from this. We humans, with our minds, have the possibility of movement over the surface of life, and that keeps us constantly entertained and… maybe even distracted. We interact with others, conveying ourselves from place to place. But what are our roots doing? Where are they searching for nutrients? What are our trunks formed of? How slow or fast does the sap run through us? What kind of growth rings do we produce as each year rolls by? What do our branches reach out to? Where are our tree tops? When do our leaves come out of their buds? When will they wither, turn brown and drop off? What species of tree are we? Will we produce good wood? Do we grow fruit and seeds? What will happen when the lumberjack arrives and cuts us down? How should we live our lives in a forest of thoughts, feelings and instincts? Where is the "tyger, tyger, burning bright, in the forest of the night"? And more questions, and more...

Edward’s Diary Entry 35 – Virtue 14: Tranquillity (of mind)

He has a tranquil mind… According to the Gita, this is the kind of mind a Sattwic individual may have, that's serenity of the mind (Shanti), peacefulness or tranquillity. Again, back in Rome, Marcus Aurelius in his Meditations said, “It is in your power to withdraw yourself whenever you desire. Perfect tranquillity within consists in the good ordering of the mind, the realm of your own.” The trouble for a beginner is that too much tranquillity drifts off into sleep, too little tranquillity is conducive to anger. The blue cow in a painted pasture inspires me, Edward, to chew the cud of calmness. Because a pacified mind is ready to look beyond or within. My problem is finding the right balance between peacefulness and tranquillity on the one hand, and enough energy to stay focused and awake, and not drift off into thoughts that veil the present moment. I have sometimes made a deal with my mind. I say: Look, I’ll give you ten minutes to roam and think about anything you want – past, present or future; not work, because that will come later, but just about anything else. And the mind answers with a mixture of everything – even work! But you just let it be – its nature is to wander. After the ten minutes, it must allow me to concentrate on one single thought only. Most times, it works. The one single thought is “Who am I?” Following the in-breath, the hold, and the outbreath, and the hold, helps a lot. There are times when a powerful presence of peace has come over me and leaves me happy and content just to continue breathing and being alive…

Mind Rating Chart

Hey, take a break. Just stop for a minute and rate yourself. This is a “health chart” that’s a little different from the norm. Take your life or someone else’s and rate yourself, or them, and see how you experience your life. Remember, your life was given to you and you don’t know why. And you don’t know for how long. The only thing you really have is your Self-Awareness and your attention in your present moment.

0) Personality type. Do you know your personality type? The way you have been socially and personally “wound up” to act and experience life? Try doing an Enneagram Test and find out about yourself, answering all 144 questions. Accept the way you are and work with what you’ve got. (If you want a test in English or Spanish, just ask us or leave a comment, and you can have one to do, and we'll give your personality type.)

1) THE NOW. On a percentage scale, estimate how much time per day you spend in THE NOW, as opposed to being occupied and dwelling on the PAST or the FUTURE, ie, memories, conflicts from the past, hopes and expectations for the future, what kind of language you use to describe your thoughts and feelings… If you use “should”, “would”, “might”, the passive voice, impersonal forms and other thought-motivated expressions, you are probably living in a thought-generated fantasy world. If you tend to speak more from the I, use the active voice, the present and only use more complicated grammatical forms to talk reasonably about past and future experiences with a laugh, you are more likely to be in THE NOW.

2) LIFE PLAN. On a yes-no scale, or if not a definite “yes”, then on a percentage scale, say whether you have a life philosophy or life plan and whether you adhere to this to a major degree or whether it is only a thought or opinion that comes and goes depending on mood and circumstances, and you’re actually just drifting.

3) MORALS. Take into account all 26 Virtues for a well-developed Moral Structure of the mind and heart and say whether you have a set of standards that you adhere to, live up to, and how successfully you do so. You take into account all Virtues as given: 1. Fearlessness; 2. Purity of Mind/Heart; 3. Steadfastness/Perseverance; 4. Charitableness/Almsgiving; 5. Self-Mastery/Control of Senses-Passions; 6. Readiness to Make Sacrifices/Worship; 7. Studiousness; 8. Austerity/Ability to Make Efforts; 9. Straightforwardness; 10.Non-Violence/Non-injury in thought, word, deed; 11. Truthfulness; 12. Absence of Anger/Wrath; 13. Renunciation (of fruits of action)/Non-Attachment; 14. Tranquillity/Peacefulness (of mind); 15. Aversion to Slander/Nonmaliciousness; 16. Compassion towards Living Beings; 17. Non-Covetousness; 18. Gentleness; 19. Sense of Shame in Doing Evil Actions/Modesty; 20. Faith in the Strength of your Higher Nature (Absence of fickleness); 21. Energy/Vigour; 22. Forgiveness; 23. Endurance/Forbearance; 24. Chastity/Cleanliness in Thought and Act; 25. Absence of Malice/Hatred; 26. Aversion to Praise/Absence of Overweening Pride.

4) THINKING. Score yourself for logical, rational thinking processes, ie, thinking in a self-beneficial way, facing the NOW, or whether you thinking process is basically OUT OF TUNE with the NOW and dwells mostly on the PAST or the FUTURE or on SELF-JUSTIFICATION or SELF-DEFENCE or SELF-DEFEATING or SELF-INCRIMINATING processes.

5) FEELING. Score yourself for positive emotions, affirmative feelings, empathy and compassion for others, in application of your MORALS or VIRTUES in relation to yourself and to others, or whether you are un-empathetic or uncaring in any way or have difficulty connecting or understanding others due to negative feelings or obsession with yourself only.

6) INSTINCTS. Score yourself for instinctive behaviour or ingrained attitudes that signify you are AT HOME / IN CONNECTION with your basic instincts and you have them under some degree of control or whether they are OUT OF CONTROL, BLOCKED or DISTURBED in any way.

7) EGO. Score yourself for your Egoic behaviour, ie, whether you place others or your life circumstances before your egoic needs, your SELF or IDEA OF YOURSELF over others, defending yourself and your appearance and ideas over those of others, or whether you have your EGO under control and do not allow it to overstep certain boundaries and cause havoc with your surroundings.

8-9) LOWER VS. HIGHER. Now give yourself a rating for HIGHER NATURE versus LOWER NATURE and see where you stand on the rating of SPIRITUALITY vs. PHYSICALITY.

NAME
ENNEA-TYPE
“NOW” RATING
LIFE PLAN
MORALS
THINKING
FEELING
INSTINCT
EGO
LOWER NATURE
HIGHER NATURE

After doing all this, just give up for the time being and have some fun, or meditate without thinking. Just be. This was just a “pause that refreshes”.

Edward’s Diary Entry 34 – Virtue 13: Renunciation (of the fruits of action - Tyagah):

This Virtue literally means “giving up”; giving up of egoism and the fruits of action. Charity is also tyaga. I liked the phrase – had to look it up – “Not caring for the fruits of action, necessary actions are to be performed.” There is something regal and noble about this. The “I” cannot care about the results of what “I” do. If “I” am doing my actions according to a Life Plan (with its Virtues, morals, exercises and self-awareness), my doing is good. The fruits of action are the results of my “karma”, which is simply my doing. “Necessary actions are to be performed.” This is impersonal, an injunction to do what is necessary and not even a “you” or an “I” need be mentioned. This fits in nicely with years of philosophy telling me “to be in the world but not of it”. In other words, according to Sadhguru, a friend of my Guru Nanda, we must give up all identification, with our body, our mind, our beliefs, knowledge, culture, religion, etc. Identifying is looking to a result of an action. And that limits us. So when we follow Self-Inquiry (Who Am I?), we first try to see who this “I” is that is supposedly “doing something”. We have to track it down relentlessly, like a dog tracking its master. If our dog’s nose is good, we will eventually hunt down our master, through field after field, or street after street, and then we will jump for joy and bathe in the master’s presence. And then we will be at peace with ourselves once again: God and Master and Dog… Arjuna’s carriage pictured here, captained by Krishna, is my reminding factor for this Virtue.

Edward’s Diary Entry 33: Uttermost farthing… (Virtue 12 revisited...)

“Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.” Mt 5:26

What do we have to get out of? Prison. What prison is this? The prison we throw ourselves into by becoming angry and insulting others. Here in Matthew, as in other passages, is a psychological teaching equivalent to the Buddha’s admonitions and the Bhagavad Gita’s explanations of virtue. It is not enough not to kill. Killing comes from angry thought. We have to see the futility and harm of an angry thought in the mind to perform this mind-cleansing work for perfection. It is certainly not expressing anger to prevent it from creating “stress” – that new-fangled theory that can only be considered dangerous! Neither is it not harbouring anger and suppressing it (sublimation). Nor repressing the angry thought without understanding it (non-expression of negative emotions). It is analysing what is going on in the mind and seeing that anger is not a solution; it is merely an aspect of lower human nature and a sign of an agitated and weak mind, easily overcome by external influences. The virtue in question is No. 13, “Absence of anger/wrath”. The way to deal with it is seeing anger come one day, the decision is made not to give way to anger the next day, supported by all the other necessary virtues like gentleness, charitableness, chastity in thought, speech and deed (good only), and others. It is not a question of belief, although believing this is probably better than believing modern-day teachings about “anger”. Since every thought has its consequences, every angry thought towards our “brothers” – symbolising any other human (and any other breathing creature) – has its affect on the mind. It’s not a “sin” or something to repent about, or say you’re sorry for. It’s simply that harm is done to one’s own mind through ignorance. Just a little basic knowledge will do the trick of unifying us with the universe. Your thought affects the entire universe. A good thought strengthens goodness, a bad thought fosters badness. It’s your choice. And if you want to get out of prison, meaning transforming your mind and stepping beyond it to true human happiness, you have to pay back every single angry word and thought you have ever indulged in – even a quarter of an angry thought, i.e. the farthing*. Until that time, you’re trapped. So let’s pay what we owe as soon as possible and leave the prison of the ignorant mind.

*The “correct” symbolic equivalent in the King James Bible, as the original Greek word was the quadrans (κοδράντης, kodrantes), one-fourth part of a Roman “as”, and the lowest-value coin cast in bronze in Biblical days. Imagine how clean the mind has to be not even to accept “one-fourth” of an angry thought!

Edward’s Diary Entry 32 – Virtue 12: Absence of anger/wrath

A heron sitting on a branch, looking out to the left, the side of the human heart. Pinkish sky above, bluish water below. Anger and wrath trickle down the weeping willow to the right and are distilled in the waters below, fizzling out as their futility is seen by the quiet, contemplative mind. Absence of anger is Akrodha according to the Gita. Akrodha is said to be “checking anger”. When one’s ego of course is “provoked”, we react, so it is no use simply “checking” one’s anger and trying to become tolerant. The serious meditator will look deeply into anger and see that it is not a question of controlling, subduing, overcoming. It is a question of understanding. When we truly understand what it is to be angry, anger cannot come. When we see the passions and excitations, the power they have over us due to our lack of attention and self-awareness, we overcome anger and wrath. It is said that “anger begets eight kinds of vice: rashness, injustice, persecution, jealousy, taking possession of others’ property, harsh words, cruelty and killing.” So if you can eradicate anger, all bad qualities will die by themselves. How to eradicate anger? Develop a life philosophy that reflects reality. What is there to be angry about? What human passions and lusts need to be thwarted for anger to ensue? It is easy to see that by applying other positive virtues (charity, gratitude, compassion, purity and renunciation of the fruits of action) anger has little place in the human heart. It is normally due to a false outlook on life – something threatens the self or the ego and the innate passions are stymied and anger bares its teeth and starts snarling. Humans are supposedly so strong, yet just about any little chance occurrence will produce anger, whether it’s computers that don’t work, flies that settle on our noses, cold winds, hot summers, or a misunderstood word… Can’t we just get in line with Reality and accept things as they are? Aren’t we strong enough to live according to a philosophy that accepts change, chance and the chimeras of fate? Are we so weak as to succumb to anger at every new turn? Next entry is a look at Christ’s teaching on anger… 

Edward’s Diary Entry 31 – Virtue 11: Truthfulness

Someone said “Water makes external cleanliness. Truthfulness is the detergent of the heart.” But truth seems to be far beyond our petty selves. It is something high and mighty. Truth is satya or satyam (Sanskrit: "unchangeable; that which has no distortion; that which is beyond distinctions of time, space, and person; that which pervades the universe in all its constancy") from the root sat (truth), being in accordance with one's words, thoughts and deeds. Is it any wonder that I chose the head of Socrates to represent this virtue? He was always purported to tell the truth, even if it meant drinking the hemlock in consequence. But did he really tell the truth? Didn’t he in fact ask a lot of questions and when everything was totally clear up to a certain point for the logical or rational mind, he relegated to myth and legend and similes to attempt to represent the truth in words? A petty mental truth is really just a human thought, and that’s not much, as we can prove by the fact that another thought can come to contradict it, and always does. Our computer language of 0 and 1 is simply transferred from our own logical thinking processes: yes-no, no-yes. And even our strongest thoughts are then swayed by others, by new opinions, by emotions and feelings and of course, so easily by our so-called “instincts”… So as a start, “truth” for Edward is simply sticking to the Life Plan and applying it in thought, word and deed. It’s as simple and concise as that, or let's say, as “sat”. 

Edward’s Diary Entry 30 – Virtue 10: Non-Violence (Ahimsa)

This is the famous one, following Gandhi: non-violence/non-injury in thought, word and deed. Do unto others as you would have done unto you. This is like the other virtues in that it requires constant alertness and sensitivity in all areas of life, towards others, meaning other human beings, towards animals and even plant life. And this alertness, this sensitivity, or always watching out for our mental reactions based on like and dislike – things we have been taught or conditioned to have a reaction to – is the solution to our lower natural inclinations. If I have not opened my mind and my heart to others, only seeing my own needs and not those of others, then I am egoic, a fictitious entity who lacks appreciation of our common existence. A yogi asked the other day where exactly does “you” end and “someone else” begin? Do we end at our skin? I tried rubbing my hands together and then placing them a few inches from someone else’s, and there was a charge that jumped from one skin boundary to the other. So if our self-awareness has grown and expanded to such an extent that we encompass others around us, we cannot possibly do violence or harm to them, because they are part of us and we are part of them. For personal reasons I chose Picasso’s painting of a Mediterranean window looking out to sea, with the doves billing and cooing in the window, as a symbol of non-violence or Ahimsa. And so we see that modern-day “environmental protection” and sustainability is nothing else than what the Vedanta said millennia ago, that no harm should be done to the creation, as any harm done to others will always come back to us in manifold ways and hurt us as well. Human violence is only a mental concept showing essential ignorance of the reality of the world.

Edward’s Diary Entry 29 – Virtue 9: Straightforwardness (Arjavam):

The Zen archer does not look, but sends his arrow straight. There is no crookedness. “Crookedness” is deceit, lying to oneself or to others, pretending. But if as normal conditioned human beings we have a “splintered personality”, how can we be straightforward? Well, we have to study our “personality” and relate it to Enneagrams or other self-help parameters and see all the different aspects of ourselves that we carry around. When we learn to see all the contradictory things going on in our minds as it reacts to impressions – both self-generated (from our own thoughts) and generated by others (words, actions and thoughts of other people), we can stand a little more aloof from them, and practise silent presence and self-observation. We are quite complicated inside our little heads. So inadvertently we often lie, or avoid the truth. As Freddy Mercury sang, we are the Great Pretenders. It is so difficult to be straightforward, and even Socrates was stated to argue (Republic, Part I, to Cephalus) “...it would not be right... to tell the strict truth to a madman.” And who knows the truth anyway? It is something that the Mullah Nasrudin said he “has never said, nor would he!”. Simply because it isn’t “sayable”. What is conveyable is what we can say to be kind and gentle to others, helpful, pleasing and courteous. What this Virtue and others tell us is that speaking unkindly, discourteously and unpleasantly is not only bad for the hearer; it is bad for our own minds. We have to decide to suppress the taint in our lower nature – the taint of thousands of years of violence, crime, wars, killing, madness, belief systems, creeds and dogmas; the stain of centuries of anger, jealousy, envy and resentment; the toxic waste of modern day society that we have been taught since childhood and haven’t analysed yet. This we have to do first before anything deeper can happen. And so, tired of wandering without a course, we decide to take up the compass of Straightforwardness and try to practise this Virtue as best we understand it today. What will happen tomorrow we do not yet know. The gurus will tell us: “no separation, you and the universe are one”; but we have to find this out for ourselves, inside ourselves, for it to be true for us…