Edward’s Diary Entry 47 – Virtue 26: Absence of Overweening Pride (Atimanita)

"How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: 'Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a wilderness, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?'” ...Depicted is Gustave Doré’s version of Lucifer’s Fall.

Atimanita is great pride, or the expectation of or passion for honour. A proud man thinks that he is superior to others and that he is worthy of being honoured by others. A proud woman is the same. This is wrong thinking, because it is some external factor that makes a man or woman think he or she is superior – money, possessions, power, even beliefs and supposed righteousness. But a “saint” or practitioner of the virtues is never superior, but always places him or herself behind others, and serves others, because by so doing, he or she serve all, and this also benefits the man or woman doing the service. Givers are thankful to receivers. Takers simply want more.

In the “taker”, we have the epitome of the overbearing ego, the inflated sense of being “something” or “someone”, called overweening pride. Such people talk, shout and trumpet their own self-importance for all to see. Like children blowing incessantly on a new whistle. And yet when you sit quietly and look inside, where all is dark... you find no sign of this supposed “ego”. Where is it? Lost in impulses, lost in thoughts. One thought comes, an image maybe, another thought continues. In between, where is this ego? Where is this “I”? You try to track it down. You are it. It is you. Awareness sees it come and go. And yet when we are unaware, we think we are it. And it runs its course. “I” like this; “I” want that. “I” think this; “I” am feeling that. How very tiresome that each “I” grabs onto each thought and makes it its own. It is this Awareness that sees the “I” entering and exiting, and watches… poised behind it, waiting and watching. Cultivate Awareness and see.

And let the ego deal with the world; but throughout, let Awareness be there, for that is more real than a mere ego, a mere picture of oneself....

To tattoo or not to tattoo? That is the question.

Skin. Throughout your life, your skin will change constantly, for better or worse. In fact, your skin will regenerate itself approximately every 27 days (that’s a lunar cycle). Red blood cells live for about four months, while white blood cells live on average more than a year. Skin cells live about two or three weeks (data differ, as above). Colon cells have it rough: they die off after about four days. Sperm cells have a life span of only about three days. Brain cells typically last an entire lifetime (neurons in the cerebral cortex, for example, are not replaced when they die). So, except for the brain cells (without yoga of course!), which are eternal when compared to other body cells, most cells and skin cells in particular, will replaced themselves in quite a short time. This is why some people say you (as a cellular being) are completely renewed and different in 7 to 10 years (except for your poor brain of course, which only gets worse [without yoga]).

So we are modern, we want to be “natural”, eat “healthy foods”, protect animals from harm and abuse, maybe even banning bullfighting in Spain. We look at ingredients and say E-this, E-that – no, that’s no good; I want something more organic. I’m thinking of being a vegetarian, at least eating more fruit and vegetables (what about pesticide sprays and maturing agents? – well, dear writer, don’t make it too complicated!). We are seeking an identity – we want to be “eco-friendly”, “sensitive to the environment”, “caring and kind to other and to animals”. We are the fruit of previous revolutions in society, thinking, music, spirituality, whatever. We want to be “different”.

So this “different” that we want to be now includes going to a tattoo artist, bearing the pain of the application of a fixed design onto the skin in an indelible way – um, “indelible” means permanent and that cannot be removed – or if it can be removed, it is with another more expensive laser treatment that is not exempt from complications and doesn’t guarantee perfect results. Why do humans want to get tattoos?

We are born without a specific identity. When we as youngsters grow up, we seek our identity. It’s only natural, they say. The personality forms from the family and social milieu and reaches out to find an identity. That’s the way life is for humans today; it’s always been that way, they say. We need an identity. Some are satisfied with their identity as simply their personalities – they way they think and feel, they way they talk, the way they act towards themselves and towards others. They show an amount of self-assurance.

Others are not content with being something, but also have to show it – as if they had to prove something. What they have to prove we don’t know. So they dress in a particular way, they wear their hair in a special style, they talk or gesticulate in a certain manner. Some are not content with dressing, baring certain body parts, styling or talking. They have to stamp something onto their bodies to say something – what they have to say we don’t know.

Let’s see what they are trying to say. Stamping things onto the body has been done for millennia. Ever since man first acquired animals won from the wild and made to serve man for his particular purposes – usually for eating their bodies (meat) or using products from their bodies (sinews for bowstrings, horns for making noise, leather for keeping warm, milk for filling their bellies, wool for making clothes, also honey from bees). The exceptional one is “wool for making clothes” as wool grows seasonally, and is shed naturally in spring, or sheared off, and causes no harm to the animal, in fact, shearing relieves the sheep of excess heat required during the previous winter period. In all other cases – except honey, which if taken in appropriate quantities, does not harm the hive – human beings harm animals to get what they want. Aren’t we lovely? (And we wonder why cute little animals are afraid of us?)

So today, to “express oneself” to the world, as potential tattoo-receivers, we have to ask another human being who is an expert in skin branding treatments to harm us so we can say what we want to say. This costs money because the “branders” are professionals in this activity and have to paid, but for the receiver, it’s an aesthetic action, we are told, because the idea is that one looks “nicer” or more “beautiful” with a tattoo than without one. Except of course that the audience may be limited to those who may have permission or are able for some reason to contemplate one’s pudenda, lower back, buttocks, or the mid-right section of a left breast. If it’s an arm, the audience is larger, depending on the length of one’s shirt-sleeve.

OK, so the message is what? That something we didn’t even create – skin (which is Nature’s creation) – is not as pretty as skin plus something we can draw on it? Or maybe we are so proud of our drawing or that of someone else that it makes skin look better when applied to it? If it looks so good, why can’t it be framed and put on the wall? Or published on one’s timeline on Facebook? Or be worn as a badge, to be put on or taken off depending on one’s mood, the weather, or one’s outfit for the day? Sorry, no coats-of-arms or shields allowed – that’s outdated!

No, I guess the identification thesis is the best, so let’s look at the ways man has invented for identifying things by marking something on them:

Branding, banding, docking. This is for identification purposes. Someone owns animals and marks them to identify ownership. The animal is captured, held down and a hot iron is used to burn a mark on its hide, which causes trauma to the skin, but it heals, and then leaves an indelible mark. This is usually done with free-range animals like cows, calves and horses, sometimes with pigs. For sheep, simple earmarks are usually used, consisting of inserting a metal staple through the delicate ear and dabbing it with iodine so it won’t get infected. Lambs tails and testicles are “docked”, meaning a rubber band is placed over the tail or the scrotum to cut off blood circulation to these appendages and they are left to wither away. If you think dumb animals don’t suffer, try doing it to your testicles or your finger and see. In America, the black slaves brought from Africa were often branded, as they were considered to be just animals, and were owned by real pedigreed White Men. That was from the 1700’s to 1865, supposedly, but remember Blacks later still had to fight for their rights ONE CENTURY LATER in 1965, and are even today often looked down upon in some regions of America. Hate has a way of overstaying its welcome doesn’t it? Your history lessons might remind you that slaves in the Roman Empire were also branded, but that was around the birth of Christ, right?

Human tattooing. We are not going to consider branding black slaves as tattooing, because they were forcibly marked, whereas “tattooing” is something supposedly “voluntary”, except for strict social STIGMAS against the absence of tattoos, as in aborigines in the South Pacific, related to “rites of passage”, just like Judaic and Moslem “circumcision” (hey, don’t forget ablation = female genital mutilation) – another rite of passage or health measure, depending on one’s point of view – and in Native Americans and South American tribes and Indonesian peoples, etc. In fact, many “Great Spirit” peoples (aka primitive people [sic]) seem to care little about their bodies and perhaps in some cases skin markings actually had some kind of spiritual significance. Not necessarily today, as Japanese mafia, Russian mafia, sailors away from home and away from Mummy or their girlfriends, and gang members all seem to need tattoos to tell them which clan, which Mummy, which girlfriend, which gang, they belong to. As if their brains couldn’t do that, poor fellows. And poor African women, as well, with markings and etching on their bodies in some parts of the Dark Continent, as it was once called!

Oh, but today, dear writer, don’t you realise that tattoos have “come of age”? Now it’s not the Nazi concentration camp prisoners at Auschwitz who wear numbers etched onto their skin – the Nazis must have applied about 400,000 prisoner serial numbers in only 2 years (only to those who were supposed to work, not those sent immediately to the gas chamber – that was called “saving ink”). Dear writer, please understand, today the highest paid singers, musicians, soccer players and film stars also need to supplement their identities with permanent artistic etchings on their skin. Gen X and Gen Y members all have to have tattoo, don’t you understand? For the rich, that’s no problem, they can pay to take them off if they find they have mistakenly tattooed the wrong name on their arms (poor Melanie!). For the poor, you got it, you keep it, until it droops and fades and looks horrible in your old age – if you survive that long!

So it’s now “in” to do this, despite all former evidence. Why ask so many questions? If something’s “in” or “in fashion”, it’s “in” and it’s the “thing to do”, because everybody else is doing it. Um, sorry, but this dear writer has to retort: “Look, we older guys (above 22) have been around quite a while and we’ve seen things come and go, and today, despite your desires to get one, some people still look down on tattooed arms, legs and other visible parts of the body. They try not to hire people with tattoos. They may be wrong or right, but what’s “in” somewhere may be “out” for another social class. Because we older guys and gals (pushing half a century or more), have been around long enough in life to see that passing fashions don’t usually stay. They come and go. Like the wind. And tattooing is certainly not based on any reason or any reasonable or logical or rational human behaviour. And we folks love reason. We think that what makes us human. Not a brand, not a skin colour, not a sign or an identifier. It’s human reason that makes us human. The ability to think and reason.

So if you’re really keen to get a mark on your skin and you’re not content with your own beauty marks or freckles, don’t go for the permanent kind of tattoo at first. Get a provisional or temporary tattoo and see what it does for you, and for your supposed “identity”. After looking at it in the mirror for a few days and showing it to whomever you want and getting tired of it, decide if you really want to go for something permanent. Or visit an old Nazi concentration camp. Or a Russian prison. Or make friends with the Latin Kings. See what you think. Then decide.

Need more reasons? Look at the 26 Virtues:

Fearlessness	Don’t be afraid to be a non-conformist and not wear a tattoo.
Purity of Mind/Heart	Isn’t it your heart that counts, and not a picture on your skin?
Steadfastness / Perseverance	Keep on discovering who you are, persevere. Don’t come to a conclusion today. You have a whole lifetime ahead of you.
Charitableness /Almsgiving	Is spending money for a tattoo for yourself better than making a contribution to an animal shelter, the poor or the needy?
Self-Mastery/Control of Senses-Passions	You think you like something today, but will you like it tomorrow? Remember your favourite pop group when you were 8, 12, 16?
Readiness to Make Sacrifices / Fire Worship	Will you help a wounded animal? Or brand its skin with fire to identify it?
Studiousness	Have you studied any information about tattoos, beside how much it will cost?
Austerity	Is splashing out on a tattoo an example of being austere (in the meaning of “having a plain and unadorned appearance”)? Why adorn yourself? What is the reason for outer adornment?
Straightforwardness	Aren’t you being evasive, or avoiding the explanation, for decorating your body?
Non-Violence/Non-injury in thought, word, deed	Your skin is a living organ of your body, the biggest organ. Aren’t you being violent towards it if you inject ink into your dermis, the layer below your epidermis?
Truthfulness	What is the truth? Are you being truthful to yourself and others when you think about getting a tattoo?
Absence of anger/ Wrath	Will you just get angry for a while if someone advises you not to get a permanent tattoo at a young age?
Renunciation (of fruits of action)	This involves giving up “egoism”. Are you giving up or promoting egoism by printing something on your skin? Is a tattoo an identifier of your soul or spirit, or of your body and ego?
Tranquillity / Peacefulness (of mind)	Will a nice decoration on your skin that you can never remove give you peace of mind?
Aversion to Slander/Nonmaliciousness	Will you criticise others for wearing or not wearing a tattoo, and say how silly they are for getting one or not getting one?
Compassion towards Living Beings	Will you be compassionate to yourself and not subject your skin to permanent ink? Will you be compassionate towards others who give you advice?
Non-Covetousness	Aren’t you practising “coveting” or the desire to possess something, by thinking about getting a decoration for your skin?
Gentleness	Are you being gentle towards your skin, your life, by pricking it with needles at 80-150 pricks a second?
Sense of Shame in Doing Evil Actions/Modesty	Isn’t modesty good? Will you be modest about your tattoo, or will you want to show it off to others and have them think you're better than you were before you got it? Why better? Aren’t you good enough the way you are?
Strength Higher Nature (Absence of fickleness)	Isn’t a decoration on your skin for today kind of fickle, capricious? What if you change your mind in 10 years’ time? What will you do?
Energy / Vigour	Where is your “energy”, your “brilliance”, your “light”? In a decoration on your skin, or in your soul?
Forgiveness	Forgive yourself for wanting something to mark your skin. Be kind to yourself.
Endurance / Fortitude	Be strong and resist the temptation to give in to fashion. Be your own person.
Chastity/ Purity / Clean in Thought and Act	Pure skin can be part of purity.
Absence of Malice/Hatred	Don’t feel bad about being told not to do something by a parent or tutor.
Aversion to Praise/Absence of Pride	Feel proud of yourself as you are, not with a skin decoration.

Edward’s Diary Entry 46 – Virtue 25, Absence of Malice (Adroha)

Freedom from malice, ill-feeling; ill-will, hatred, including the absence of the desire to injure others. Mildness.

Take the thesis: “I” am the only important thing in the world. The world bows before “me”. Everything should abide by “my” rules. The universe is “mine”. This is not really so crazy. It may even be true in a sense. Because when you realise the whole “I” or “Self”, the universe may very well be all “you”, and  “you” may be the whole universe! But on the petty egoistic level, it is illogical and childish to place ego first. If in a world of 1000, 100,000, 100,000,000 or today’s world of 7.4 billion, everyone thinks of “himself” first and others only second, there will be (and there is, of course) constant strife, constant battling, constant competition. Very little cooperation. It is impossible for the world to give and produce for “one” only, to the detriment of all others. The world isn’t prepared for this. The world, we see today – thanks to increasing “world consciousness” – is FINITE. But the wants, needs and desires of the EGO are infinite. So something’s wrong. And it’s not the WORLD – because that’s what we’ve got: one world, finite resources. Compared to the immensity of the desires of individual egos.

So we take the opposite thesis: “Others” are the only important thing in the world. “I” bow before all others. “I” abide by the rules of the world. “I” only exist for the universe. It is crazy for the ego. But it may be true in a deeper sense. Abandon “self” and “I” and the universe may be all “yours”. But in the worldly sense, this is madness. How can “I” do something for today’s 7.4 billion people? I cannot reach that far. But I can do something for 10 people, 100 or even 1000. If I think of them first, these people will be pleased with this, and “I” will cause no strife. I cannot produce or give to all, but I can be less of a burden on the world, and give to the few I find around me. I can be prepared for this. I have finite resources at my disposal, but my benevolence is INFINITE. The needs of others may be overwhelming, but my gentleness and compassion can be increased to infinity. There is nothing wrong with this. It’s called building a new world. Because that’s what we have to do: regardless of what others may decide, we have to concentrate on serving and helping others – even in intention only – and in the end, logic tells us that we would wind up having all our needs met, at least our basic needs, as soon as others, too, do the same with their surroundings, with us. Logically, it has to create a better world than blindly following the wishes of the individual ego.

The middle road – neither one thing nor the other, or both in equal proportions – cancels itself out and we lead “lives of quiet desperation” and mediocrity, which is all too often the norm.

So let’s say the Universe is one. We are integrated somehow in this Universe, part and parcel of it. So wishing others ill, or feeling malice towards others, is based on wrong thinking, wrong feeling, negating the unity of the Universe. If one sees oneself in others, how can there be ill will? It is like wishing evil to oneself. And if we do wish evil to ourselves, as in self-condemnation, it is also based on wrong thinking. That is falling into an ego trap. A split ego criticises another splinter of the same ego… Is this not madness? You find a screw loose and just kick the machine instead of tightening the screw up. Because the machine is you! Yes, Wrong thinking is fuelled by the uncontrolled passions and desires, and when these are thwarted, they produce angry thoughts, malice and ill will. And if this anger and malice is expressed, it does ill to the expresser and to the receiver as well – if he or she is not self-aware enough to counter this.

So "ill will" can be conquered by the practise of the Virtue of Adroha, absence of malice or hatred. Malice is cancelled out by kindness. It must be reinforced by the conquest of the basic wrong thought in the mind that “I” am separate from the universe and have to “fight against” someone or something else. As with all the Virtues, there has to be some degree of Self-Awareness, of being conscious of your present moment, if this vice is to be conquered by a Virtue. If there is no awareness, there is no possibility of control.

Contemplate the look of the lady with the dove on her shoulder, where no ill will is apparent, malice conquered by a pure mind.

Edward’s Diary Entry 45 – Virtue 24: Chastity, Purity (Saucam)

Pure air. Clouds in the sky, or better, a cloudless sky. That was my symbol chosen for chastity, aka, purity, in Sanskrit saucam.

Chastity or Purity is of two kinds: external and internal. External purity is done by means of earth and water – clean body, clean clothes and clean home, making life more pleasant. Internal purity is done through the mind, heart and intellect freed from deception, lust, anger, greed, pride, jealousy, hypocrisy, likes and dislikes. As we work and play, the body, our clothes and our offices and homes get dirty, cluttered, untidy and need to be set back in order. So we wash, change clothes, tidy up and get things organised, which occupies our attention to detail and promotes awareness of our surroundings, and hopefully self-awareness as well.

During the use of our mind in this process or in all others, we also get it dirty, cluttered, untidy and it needs to be put back into order. This is the practise of internal “Chastity” or “Saucam”. Uncleanliness happens for various reasons, which I give 3 provocative names to here:

1) SELF-ABUSE. Our own minds have been “untrained” for years so as not to see Reality – we see the world and ourselves through our own filter, our own conditioning, through our perception of self, our nationality, race, creed, belief system, even childhood traumas, some allege! We look through tinted glasses with tainted thoughts and feelings that have never been examined on the basis of anything Real or at least some set of standards acquired consciously and not just forced upon from outside. We’ve been told what to think, what to do, which sphincter to compress at which particular time… So obviously, daily mental activities will accumulate more conditioning: the more we mentate, the more we remain the same, or get worse… This is violence against ourselves, or self-abuse.

2) RAPE. People around us – due of course to their conditioning and non-self-aware state – will tend to impinge on our mental activities and tell us what to do, suggest how we should behave, communicate negative thoughts, reactions and feelings to us, try to convince us of their opinions, broadcast their perceptions of the world onto us, infect us with wrong thinking, complaints, anger, jealousy, envy and other useless human behaviour patterns. They will want to force their opinions onto us. This is violence against others, or rape.

3) WAR. The Zeitgeist in general and the media in particular will impinge on our mental processes and try to influence us, convince us, promote impulse shopping, get us to vote for someone, give us some scriptwriter's picture of a crazy universe, with aliens from outer space who want to kill us, or fantasy worlds to trap us, or stressful social situations that may happen to us, or comical idiocies that force us to laugh... whatever. Our poor, unexamined, untrained minds, our sense of self which is just the result of outside forces, gets taken over by an outside power and manipulated at will, unless of course we have a strong ego that defends itself and tries to conquer all others. Slaves and masters, masters and slaves, it doesn’t matter that much. It’s society against you. It’s total warfare, violence of all against one.

So for the “Striver after Reality”, or the Practitioner of Virtues, the mind must be cleaned periodically, and everything put into its place, ordered and organised, placed under the critical intellectual faculty, accepted or rejected on the basis of a certain discerning faculty in the mind that we (unwillingly) have to give a name to, so let’s call it the forerunner of the Higher Self, or the Intellect.

What does the reasonable mind, then, do to clean itself? This was dealt with a little by the Stevie Wonder article on Mind Cleaning. And we will have to look at it again soon. 

But let’s make a note of the Western use of “chastity” here. This kind of simple chastity has been converted into almost a religion, meaning abstaining from sexual intercourse of any kind, or negating the sexual function of human beings, which is a great pity. Because it’s not WHAT you do or don’t do that’s important for a practitioner of the Virtues, but HOW you do it or don’t do it. The “how” is the tough part. So chastity means a lot more than just curbing the sexual appetites… The right term is more "being pure in mind" than just "being chaste in body", as dealt with in Mt. 5:27: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart...” Meaning that the new dispensation was not about acting, or WHAT, but about being and mind, ie, HOW.

Vice Plan - 3 Virtues to go, then back to the flip side...

Vices: What to do about lower nature?

Right after introducing the 26 Virtues, the plan is to look at the flip side: vices and what to do about them.

These are manifold. Anything that is not Virtue is vice. So with only 26 virtues to go by, just about everything else turns out to be vice. Too bad, eh? Some of the body’s and the mind’s favourite things are just vices, but as long as you don’t know it, everything’s fine. You can contine along life's simple path, unaware that anything's wrong. But then it hits you, like it did Dante: “Midway along the journey of our life; I woke to find myself in a dark wood; for I had wandered off from the straight path…”  And then you start wondering… Who was it, really, who taught me the difference between good and bad? Did I ever know? Do they change colour like chameleons? What am I supposed to do now that it's almost too late...?

Edward’s Diary Entry 44 – Virtue 23: Endurance, Fortitude, Forbearance (Dhrti)

The black stallion is a reference of mine to the childhood book King of the Wind, about the Arabian horse Sham and the mute orphan stableboy Agba. The picture is an attempt to represent Virtue 23, called Endurance, Fortitude, Forbearance (Dhrti), derived from dhr- meaning “to bear”, so “to endure” does not exactly refer to an effort made over a long period of time, but rather to the effort of accepting anything that “happens” with an even temperament, accepting things as they are, and “not being weak or miserable even in distressing circumstances” (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 11.11.29-32). It is said: “The sage absorbs within himself all calamities. He is steadfast even when he is in very trying and most adverse conditions. This is a particular Sattwic vritti or “state of mind” which removes depression or exhaustion of the body and senses when they sink down. An aspirant who is endowed with this divine attribute never gets disheartened, even when he is under severe trials and difficulties and tribulations. Dhrti is a divine tonic when the body and the senses are in a state of low spirits or dejection.” In the Christian world we have Mt 10:22: “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he who endureth to the end shall be saved.” This is repeated at: Mt. 24:13, and Mk 13:13. In Lk 21:19: (King James) we find: “In your patience possess ye your souls. (Modern) By your endurance you will gain your lives.” A power like Dhrti or fortitude, however, can be used for several purposes, depending on character type.

The Tamas character:

“The fortitude by which a foolish man does not abandon “sleep” (non-apprehension of reality), fear (fancied aversion to something existent or non-existent), grief (non-acceptance of something already pertaining to the past), depression (self-centred emotional reaction to supposedly “adverse” circumstances), and arrogance (self-centred attribution of excessive importance) is the lowest kind of fortitude.”

The Rajas character:

“The fortitude by which a passionate character is totally attached and holds on firmly to duty, pleasure and wealth, desirous of enjoying further future rewards of joy promised by them, is the second lowest kind of fortitude, used to increase the unconscious passions.”

The Sattwic character:

“The fortitude by which a wiser character practises yoga (concentration) to steadily control the activities of the mind, sense organs and the organs of perception is the purest kind of fortitude.

So the only enduring endurance, strong fortitude or valuable forbearance is of the Sattwic kind, as this alone allows us to continue the pursuit of reality, aligning us with the universe – not with what our stupidity sees, or our passions want, but rather with what our critical intellectual faculties of reasonable doubt will at any time allow us to see. Mind as mirror, which when flattened and polished, can reflect All.

Edward’s Diary Entry 43 – Virtue 22: Forgiveness (Kshama)

Isn’t it funny how the crown in the jewel of the Earth, the cream of the crop, the so-called highest being in the evolutionary chain… is such a disgrace? And he has to learn from lowly beings such as ants, birds and dogs. Well, pardon my French, but the comparison is unfair. Why should there be anything “higher” or “lower”? There are just differences in brain structure and possibly potential. But there is no doubt that man is often a disgrace. Why, we can bear a grudge for years, no, decades, without getting over it. I personally know family members who don’t talk to other family members, once bosom-buddies who have bickered and fallen out over something stupid (and it wasn’t Sinatra’s something stupid like “I love you”!), and so many examples of lovers who have turned 180º and now hate each other. Not to mention identification or obsession with nation-states or religious ideas, producing rejection, anger, hatred, violence and death. Oh yes, we can get angry over anything: the “big” things like what religion or nation you belong to; or the “little” things like a toothpick, thumbtack, or a fly. So Virtue 22 was prescribed for the benefit of our chaotic untrained minds which tend to do these silly, childish and peevish things. It is called forgiveness, and Cesar Millán the Dog Whisperer in a talk with Eckhart Tolle explained why a dog is such a noble being. With every new moment, dogs always start again from "zero", having forgiven and forgotten completely anything that happened just before. You say a harsh word to a dog and it cringes, and then you say “walkies” and it’s over; he’s ready to go. You are angry and mistreat him; you realise your foolishness and repent, and the next moment he’s all over you. I know a dog who walks around and picks out the chief dog-hater (or at least the one who “doesn’t like dogs” the most) in a group of humans and goes for him, trying to win him over, striving to make that human see the foolishness of his ways, cajoling him into liking him! Smart dog – probably a gift from heaven. So why do we superior beings, supposed lords of the universe, always start by remembering the last “bad” action performed by another unto us? Knowingly, the savants of old said we need to practise “Kshama”, “forgiveness” to solve this. It’s the only solution for unwise, yet-to-be-civilised man. To forgive, or “give up desire or power to punish", is a transcendental action in the Now, because to “forgive” is in the present, and the action in the past that seems to us to be wrong – and this is the subject of eternal debate – could not have occurred otherwise. It is done; it cannot be changed in the past, so “forgiving” the past – amongst friends, parents, siblings, relatives, or anyone – is an action that absolves the past, washes it clean and changes the present for both the forgiver and the forgiven. It is a liquidator of erroneous ideas. It shows generosity, compassion and other virtues. It is the mark of the wise being. Like the dog, who was taught to be a dog by man, remember. So whenever something that seems “bad” happens to you and you think someone is to blame, just act like a dog and forget it, or if you’re cultured, remit and repeat this: “ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἔλεγεν Πάτερ, ἄφες αὐτοῖς· οὐ γὰρ οἴδασιν τί ποιοῦσιν.” You know the saying about forgiveness, so be divine...