Edward’s Diary Entry 65 – Virtue 18. Gentleness (Mardavam) / What to do about harshness?

Cruelty, hard-heartedness, harshness, wantonness, unkindliness, lack of leniency…

I was lucky to be able to speak with Guru Nanda about this, for the first time, as he had been away quite a long time… So I asked him this:

EW: Guru Nanda, what is meant by gentleness, and why should we not be harsh to others?

GN: Gentleness is virtuous and therefore intelligent. Harshness show a lack of understanding of the world.

EW: But doesn’t the world show both gentleness sometimes and harshness at others?

GN: Of course, the world may seem like that, but virtuous human beings are never harsh, for that shows lack of understanding. We human beings have many natures. One aspect of our higher nature is gentleness, and therefore cruelty is lower nature, and to be avoided. Harshness is only an option if there is a particular master-to-pupil relationship in which it is understood that some harshness may be applied by the teacher, although this is always done with benevolence at heart, so it is really benevolent, not cruel. It is not harshness for the sake of harshness.

EW: But why is gentleness a virtue? What makes being mild, soft or kind into an act of intelligence for a human being?

GN: You must understand that the mind can be many things – mind has many impulses. But the wise person will always choose the most intelligent way to behave, the best route at all times, and will always choose gentleness over harshness. First, because the mind and heart are in union with something greater than ourselves, and that union can only be forged by true intelligence. Second, because being harsh or unkindly shows up a defect of the mind, derived from self-centeredness, arrogance, violence and other shortcomings of the heart. Thirdly, because it is untrue that these defects themselves can remedy or correct any kind of behaviour that we are faced with. Harshness only engenders and increases harshness; cruelty, cruelty; violence, violence. These can only be cancelled out and cleaned by gentleness, and therefore gentleness is superior to harshness and must be chosen by our true intelligence over any other option.

EW: Yes, but why is gentleness more intelligent? What do you mean by that?

GN: You are brought up to see the world as outside of yourself. Let’s say you think it is “you” versus “the world”. You think that by forcing something or being harsh, you can rearrange the “world” out there somewhere. But who is doing the forcing? What are you forcing against? You are just following an impulse. What impulse is that? What you follow, you become. If your mind follows harshness, you sow harshness and you reap it later. It comes back to you. Or better to say it roots in you and reappears. Because you have not really affected the world by your impulse; you have just had a thought, a very weak thing, and that thought has gained power and become emotional – stronger maybe, but still a weak thing that soon dies away and only leaves the mark of habit. What you have done is to reinforce your own impulse. This all happens in your mind. Because “the world” and your “mind” are the same. Your only perception of the “world” is inside your head. You interpret the world out there inside your head, with sense impressions and memories. So being efficient and productive means using intelligence, which comes from the universe itself – see it in nature, in the sun, the earth, the flowers, in your own body – and gentleness is part of intelligence, because by accepting gentleness within your mind, you are rooting it, you are strengthening it, and you will see it reappear for you.

EW: I’m sorry to insist, but I still don’t see why gentleness is intelligent.

GN: Intelligence is the ability to discern reality. To see our true status in this world requires intelligence and discernment. Today you know it is much easier for all of us to begin to see reality because of globalisation, instant communication, increased knowledge and the ready availability of knowledge. We know we are little specks of dust on a green and blue planet in a huge solar system in a remote corner of the galaxy amidst untold galaxies of an expanding universe (image shows the “Pale Blue Dot”, or Earth as photographed on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 space probe from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometres out in space). And there is harmony in all this. Some small comets may fall, but generally in our lifetimes things are quite stable. The Earth moves gently around the sun, the moon gently around the Earth, and so on. So this gentleness of movement is the virtue we should aspire to and apply. By seeing our place in the universe we become gentle. On the contrary, by defending a fictitious Self or ego we become harsh and violent. So anything that tends to increase the sway of self-centredness or ego over the human being is unintelligent and is to be rejected, and vice versa, anything that tends to annihilate or disintegrate our self-centredness or ego is intelligent and is to be welcomed, and this is why gentleness is superior to harshness, cruelty or even to apathy, which stems from lack of empathy, lack of putting yourself in another’s position.

EW: You mean we should stand up to cruelty by being gentle? How is that possible? We will be overrun, shot down, and maybe even killed!

GN: There are other elements of intelligence besides gentleness. Maybe if you are intelligent you shouldn’t even be in that position, to get beaten down and shot!

EW: OK, but what if I am?

GN: My dear boy, if you are and you haven’t been able to avoid it, you will be shot down and become a martyr. But if you die in peace and gentleness, have no doubt you will turn back upon the source of all and find enlightenment.

EW: Thank you Guru Nanda, I guess that’s a comfort, but to sum up, gentleness is better than harshness because it is more intelligent. So what do we do if we’re a little dumb still?

GN: We’ll talk about that next time, I think. Question time has to finish now. We have our practises to do, and they promote peace and gentleness in our minds, so that’s what we have to do now! Doing is much better than talking.

Take it all away

Take away my birthplace, it just had to be and was.

Take away my parents, just thank them for being there.

Take away my tears and temper, I was small then.

But don’t take away my laughing and smiles.

Take away my nation, it was an island after all.

Take away my passport, it never belonged to me.

Take away the churches and temples, they smelt too old.

But don’t take away my wishing, or my joy.

Take away my schooling, the authority and power.

Take away my country and flag, the guns and the bombs.

Take away my race, my gender, my beliefs and lies.

But don’t take away learning, or the quickening of my heart.

Take away my culture, my reading, my books.

Take away my pride, my pretending to know.

Take away my thinking, my thought, me and mine.

Take away my very concept of I.

But don’t take away my crackling, vibrating pulse,

My expanding ice sheet of power,

Or my question “who" and "why”.

Edward’s Diary Entry 64 – Virtue 17. Non-Covetousness (Aloluptvam) / What to do about desires?

Greed, avarice, insatiability,  wantonness, lack of control over senses, desiring and coveting…

Non-Covetousness (aloluptvam) must be a kind of will, a faculty to remember and enforce a decision, or withdraw from action, or opt out of a situation. The most detailed definition of this Sanskit term is “non-wavering, freedom from greed and desire.” So it is negative in one sense (freedom from), but also positive in another (ability not to waver or follow desires). 

This is how it works: Raw information may enter through the 5 channels – seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching. That’s simple. The data is registered either semi- or un-consciously in normal waking consciousness, or consciously with some degree of Self-Awareness. If consciously, with Self-Awareness present, the impression can be followed and acted upon or not. If unconsciously, with no Self-Awareness present, the impression will trigger pre-existing memories and continue on automatically. Impressions from the 5 channels are one thing. But there is also Channel 6, the TV programme already running in the mind – about 1 terabyte of memory, they say – and this kicks in at any time. This is the channel that is permanently switched on. It’s software running in the backoffice. You dip into it and see it on screen when you slip in the REM dream state. But we don’t much understand it because the programming language is unknown to us.

So this 17th Virtue is a kind of controller at the gates of perception, a discriminating screen of awareness that allows or disallows reaction. All of us have Virtue 17’s vice: we covet or desire material objects to a greater or lesser extent. We’ve mostly been brought up that way. Material objects come first, just like children’s toys; then come mental objects such as “my country” and “your religion”. The more mental objects become objects of strong desire, the more knee-jerky the mind becomes: say this word and you’re applauded, say that word and you’re crucified! This only happens when human beings don’t use their thinking mechanism appropriately and lack an awareness of some kind of higher nature within themselves. If the attitude is “anything goes”, all is on the same level. If there is at least some kind of authority – like a big boss in the sky – then at least we can start to reason, but it normally won’t get very far as soon as the reasonable thoughts are overtaken by the unreasoning desires.

Avarice and greed, and coveting, is only intense desire for something, so we are talking about controlling desires. These are normally conditioned emotional reactions to stimuli; or memories hanging around in the mind-stuff waiting to latch onto their favourite sense-objects again. So in the beginning, we have to promote a degree of Self-Awareness.

1) Find or invent and do exercises to occupy the mind, in search of inner calm. The rituals or prayers or mantras we can use are to keep the mind occupied while “we” just watch over it and wait…

2) Practise Virtue 3, Perseverance, because we need to realign ourselves with conscious activity and it obviously takes a good while.

3) Use Nature to remember yourself – your existence – at pre-determined times throughout the day, say every other hour on the hour. Look at the sky or a tree or a mountain and think and sense “I am here, I am seeing this; thank you.”

4) Start with little things, we won’t fix the whole universe in one go, will we? Don’t bite off more than you can chew. It’s better to conquer small things first and work your way upwards. Every little decision is an opportunity to be conscious of what’s going on inside you.

5) Watch the 5 channels, but stay present in the background.

6) Try and find a remote control device to examine Channel 6 and choose only the best programmes  – lots of it is just junk programming!

7) Listen to chants or mantras, and if all else fails, just get down on your knees and pray.

Remember we were born to find Channel 7!

Who makes you happy?

After writing about a stone being happier than a man, we have to complete the picture. The question put to me was “Where does happiness come from?” And a finger was pointed at me: I make someone happy. Mmm… Yes, it’s true. We do things for others and this produces a certain joy in another, maybe. It depends on the giver and the receiver. Sometimes I have given charity and it was resented because it wasn’t “enough”! Sometimes I have not and it has been resented, too. Sometimes what I have given has been accepted graciously. So a transaction depends on both sides.

But I had to ask, “What is the origin of joy or happiness as a human experience?” “Where does it occur?” I have an intention, I wish someone well, and they reject it. Am I wrong? No, the other person or the situation was wrong perhaps. Let’s say my intention was OK. I perform an action, like giving someone a smile. This action is seen as nice, and so joy supposedly ensues in the other person. But where does this “joy” come from?

I say it is a human experience and is therefore a product of the human mind, or something even beyond the normal mind, and the human in question is the one experiencing the joy. This joy or happiness comes from within the person experiencing it. Fortuitous circumstances may trigger it, a beautiful landscape may elicit it, someone may do something nice and provoke it… someone may even do something nice to a third party and you see it and you experience gladness. Whatever happens, it comes from within the experiencer, the perceiver. That’s where human happiness comes from. From within.

So the question is: do you want to wait for “circumstances to coincide”, or for someone to do something nice, or do you want to take control of your self and generate it yourself? The yogi generates it herself. Ask Ms. Tao Porchon-Lynch, 97 year-old yoga master and activist, above.

Or Yogmata Keiko Aikawa, below, world peace campaigner, both of whom took part at the Yoga for SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), UN International Day of Yoga, on the eve of June 21st 2016, broadcast live from the ECOSOC Chamber, UN Headquarters, New York via webtv.un.org.

(Ode for the occasion of Yoga Day 21 June 2016) Unite!

We, who were born into time and space

We, who woke up one day having forgotten who we were

We, who oft wondered why things were the way they were

We, who sought for pleasure and joy out there, somewhere…

We, who mused and perused books to learn how to live

We, who began to see there was another world, waiting

We, who long fooled ourselves, thinking and feeling, and not doing

We, who finally gave up words and took up actions

We, who sat still, very still, day after day

We, who found a secret source of joy, inside

We, whose budding leaves sensed the sap ascending the trunk

We, at the break of dawn,

We, united at last.
And now, I am here, now.

UN celebrates 2nd International Day of Yoga

We're lucky that the UN has now “officialised” yoga to some extent, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon stating "By proclaiming 21 June as the International Day of Yoga, the General Assembly has recognized the holistic benefits of this timeless practice and its inherent compatibility with the principles and values of the United Nations." Thanks, UN!  To participate in this, our writer Edward Wells is attending a 90-minute yoga class at 7am to start off the day with 26 yoga postures instead of his normal morning physical and mental exercises. Today, be smart and find out more about yoga! See Demystifying Yoga here.

Migrant crisis? No, Nation-state disobedience!

Illustration by YAK, source http://www.un.org/en/udhrbook/

For the UN's "World Refugee Day", 20 June 2016

The human mind, among other things, is a great killer. There is a war in Syria. People are killing each other for ideas. “My idea is better than your idea, therefore you die.” “Your idea is wrong, therefore I kill you.”

Lack of human understanding leading to bloodshed is a grave problem. And no one seems to be able to solve it. Locals fight, and other big fighters come into the picture and the fight gets bigger – supposedly highly complex and difficult to understand for us simple common People… Sorry, it’s easy for some to understand. What else can participants and supporters do? If human relations break down so much, spreading anger, hatred and violence, and examples of good international conduct are few are far between, and receive no prime time TV coverage, how can these unfortunate People do anything other than kill each other? That is unfortunately the normal outcome of a dispute: neighbouring regions do it; anxious nation-states do it; different religions do it; different political factions do it; economic interests at cross-purposes do it; drug cartels do it; pirates do it; hey, why can’t we do it, too?

But if we all killed someone because of a disagreement, we wouldn’t be here writing and reading about it. We’d all be dead. So there is some hope. Why does man have to become totally uncivilised and brutish, worse than animals, as Tolstoy said. Animals don’t kill each other off for “ideas”. Humans do, and if they do, despite all the fine suits, nice ties and cool talk – oh yes, don’t worry: lots of talk – they are uncivilised inside. It is their minds that are to blame, nothing else. And that’s where the eventual solution will have to come from.

Then of course, the unfortunate People who want to escape the big fight are accused of going and creating an “immigration crisis”, “migrant crisis” or a “refugee problem”. Are we crazy? There is no such thing. There are only People trying to get away from horror, killing and the destruction of their homes and children. This shows lack of understanding, acceptance and compassion. It is a shameful situation in 2016. Why? Because I’m an emotional person? No, let’s get objective. Because a total of 132 nation-states signed and ratified The International Covenant onEconomic, Social and Cultural Rights entering into force on 3 January 1976, based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which originally received the votes of 48 states in favour way back in 1948, yes 1948, when intentions were of course very good in the aftermath of WW2, what with over 60 million killed in that “misunderstanding”. The signatories of the 1976 Covenant include – get this –: Syrian Arab Republic, United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russian Federation, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iraq… So why are these countries killing People in Syria?

Obviously today’s diplomats and leaders must think the “common People” are stupid. It is they who, in the name of politics, disobey International Law and make excuses for their inability to solve the problem – to quote the preamble of the UDHR, of acting “towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” In case you’re in doubt, brotherhood means not killing. Instead, they foment conflicts, send covert missions, finance rebel groups one day, then turn around and support others the next, send in materials like pick-up trucks (oh dear, they’ve mounted guns on the back, how terrible!), train insurgents, then sell weapons to make money, and finally send in the bombers, missiles and ground troops. These diplomats and leaders would do better to immediately resign so that replacements can be found who can actually solve the problems at hand in a peaceful way. The solution, of course, may take one or two generations, after such hatred and mistrust, so it will take able, good-hearted persons to lay the foundations for a peaceful future that respects and obeys International Law.

So Art. 13 of the UDHR says anyone can move across any frontier at any time and settle anywhere. It doesn’t say except in a refugee crisis. It says every person in the world has this right. Especially in a war situation. If it is not true, please let’s have the UDHR repealed and return to the Dark Ages and feudalism. Because that is what the nation-states are doing, being feudalistic. If it is true, please let’s oblige our statepersons and brothers to obey the Law. Aren’t we supposed to obey laws for the common good?

But no, on the contrary, frightened nation-states are now using “fear” and “terrorism” to inflict injustice on both their citizens and those of other countries – making freedom of movement impossible, building either permanent or make-shift walls and fences, tightening customs controls, only accepting certain quotas of refugees via “pledges” and promises that never materialise. Using institutionalised fear to restrict liberties is an old story… Research it and see. And little by little, little encroachments become permanent deepening abysses of injustice, and thus they People are deprived of their innate, inborn, inherent rights.

How many states obey International Law? None of the above in this conflict. And the untruths and disobedience of nation-states are not lost on the People, and so the People think it is either alright to do overtly what governments do covertly and/or openly, or alright to draw their own arbitrary discriminatory lines and worsen the problem. But refugees are People and have their rights nonetheless, all excuses aside.

So the question remains, how do we bring “good intentions” from 1948 into realities in 2016, 68 years later? Isn’t there an increasingly global awareness of humanity’s problems? “We, the People…” are not in the same position as in 1948, when travel was difficult and communication slow. Today we are globally connected, with broader outlooks, and faster communications. So what’s the excuse?

Art. 28 says “Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.”

The solution starts from frame one and works upwards. This article’s first solution is to capitalise People, as the United Nations has done in some of its writings (but not in all, as “State” is capitalised more, although there are also inconsistencies there), and to relegate “government”, “nation” and “state” to lower case. None of the small-lettered words shall have more importance than the People of the World. No more capitalised president, leader, government, nation until they really deserve it, if ever, and certainly no more upper case military forces, dictator, or boss. It is People who have inherent rights that must be respected. Upper-case People always!

And apart from that, mediate on the human mind: you live inside one. See how thoughts and ideas separate us, and inquire as to how this can be overcome to promote the spirit of brotherhood. It’s the only solution. Peace can never be imposed on a human being, it has to come about naturally through the right use of the mind. And it starts with yours and mine, not with… his, hers or theirs. 

Family accounts for the International Day of Yoga…(21 June - 3 days to go)

On a typical day – in this century, not the 19th, as depicted – if you’re one of the 391,000 being born, some 163,800 people are dying, making a net daily population growth of some 227,000. Of the deceased, 25,000 have died of hunger today, despite the fact that there are more than double the number of overweight in the world (1.6bn) than there are undernourished (770m).

You may be among the 2,500 people who have realised this today and just committed suicide. Or you may be among the 3,000 dying in road accidents. No! Sorry, you wouldn’t be reading this if you were…. But those are the statistics. We don’t know how many have been killed in wars, terrorism and other forms of violence…

If you survive, you get publicly educated to the tune of US$1.30 a day. You get public healthcare at the rate of US$1.50 a day. So far so good... But watch out, we also spend US$0.65 per day on military pursuits, which is half of what is spent on education, so when you get out of school and remember only half of what you’ve learnt, the cost is exactly the same as what has been spent on means of mutual destruction. And we thought we were smart…. and innocent, right?

Well, don’t worry, the sun shines on all alike at the rate of some 3 trillion MWh today, which apart from a few clouds and the fact that only half the world gets the biggest blast of this at any one time, is more than enough to keep the whole planet going, with or without us crazy, unaccountable human beings who really don’t seem to know what to spend money on in a cost-effective way.

If there is some kind of next step in evolution, it will have to be like this:

·    Long term planning for effective spending and use of resources… “Long-term” means for the next 2500 years. Not for one 4-year election period.

·    Proper education of human wants, needs and desires to account for the above, including:

ü  Immediate preparations for global Television Channel supporting “yoga”, “meditation” and “self-awareness” and “world citizenship” as a means for real human education. 2016 is the 2nd year that the UN celebrates the International Day of Yoga on 21 June. See Background here. And it is now 63 years since the first World Government of WorldCitizens was declared.  These initiatives, together with available social media and large-scale funding contributions, will bring more calmness and peace to the human mind. And from there, we can work towards:

o  Commencement of an ongoing ban on violence of all kinds, especially in the younger generation. No more hammer-bashing heroes, no more military honours, no more soldiers, no more children’s and teenage and adult “entertainment” lauding violence of any kind. No more vengeance and revenge, no more good guys and bad guys, no more fighting, no more terror, no more scary movies. Things are scary enough without them. Sorry, entertainment industry – you’re simply 19th-century and you have to adapt or be phased out.

o    Immediate ban on negative emotions of all kinds. No more self-justification or justification for others that they “couldn’t help it”. Diminish wishy-washy soap operas full of neurotic examples, and plan for obsolescence over the short term – one generation.

o   Initial curtailment and cessation within one generation of arms and weapons production. 5-year slowdown and 10 year ban on the manufacture of bullets and rockets and explosives and nuclear weapons. There are enough nuclear weapons (total approx. inventory 15,850 “warheads”, Source: SIPRI) already to kill everyone on the planet dozens of times over.

o   Thiis would require current-day politicians from all over the world to actually meet, sit down together, decide to work and actually earn their income for the benefit of humanity – not for the benefit of their homeland political parties or personal interests. This would phase out many and we would be left with a handful of good-hearted, straight-thinking politicians. And if we change, they change, for sure.

·    With this, everything else will fit into place over the medium term – say within 3-4 generations. Without this, a miracle will have to happen if humanity wants to survive the next 50 to 150 years without large-scale die-out from famine, disease or warfare. Either we accept the New Age, or we go out with the Old One. The New World is capable of doing the accounts for the entire planet. What are we waiting for?

We can’t use Forbes’ Wealthiest Countries list 2015 and choose the top 80. We have to go for Wikipedia, because they provide easy access to the population data from each country. The first 80 are all above Int$15,000 a year as measured in GDP data per capita: from Qatar at No. 1 with some Int$132,099 per capita, down to Palau at Int$15,182. The population of these 80 countries is around 2.1 billion, or 28% of the world total. These countries, capable of giving their populations income levels above a bare minimum of 15,000, will have to help the remaining 72%, which are in worse condition, often through no real fault of their own, as they were colonised and pushed around by the bigger powers of old.

The figures are in what are called Geary–Khamis dollars, more commonly known as international dollars (Int$). Let’s say we could encourage these 80 countries to request an annual contribution of Int$0.50 per capita for New Era educational affairs. That’s Int$1,053,556,795. Umm… yes, 1 billion 53 and a half million dollars for a Global TV channel promoting the spiritual process, aka yoga, aka self-awareness, aka virtues, or enhanced human consciousness, or call it “global welfare”… Not bad for a start, compared to CNN's $856 million budget, and about half of the BBC’s ₤2.2 billion (of which about  £255.2 million comes from a UK government grant)!

It definitely can be done. Why wait until it’s too late? Why do I have to wait for the world to improve slowly, if it ever does! Let’s just talk to Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and others like Saudi Prince Al-Waheed bin Talal, recently pledging to donate his £32 billion fortune to charity, Warren Buffet, GeorgeSoros, technology pioneer and Intel founder Gordon Moore, Laura and John Arnold Foundation, and many more. With a little legwork, we can even top the BBC’s 2.2 billion.

I am ready to give my 50 cents to the foundation of this TV channel. In fact, instead of 50 cents a year, I’ll give 50 cents a month! It’ll be worth it.

In five years time, we can even rake some savings off the public military expenditure for educational purposes, at, say 10 cents a day per capita from the US$0.68 per day per capita currently being spent. That’s an annual budget of Int$270 billion, right? 

How about that for a business plan to support human life and all life on this planet, instead of wasting money on violence, weaponry and killing?

Edward’s Diary Entry 63 – Virtue 16. Compassion towards Living Beings / How to improve empathy?

Fear of certain animals, uncaring attitudes, insensitiveness, lack of caring, aversion and unfeelingness…

The right use of feelings is to use them to recognise our connectedness to the world: to a stone, a plant, a tree, an insect, a reptile, a mammal and a fellow human being. Feelings can be generated by thoughts, so a stone is a bone of the earth – we adults have 206 bones. A plant and tree take in our exhalations and create oxygen. Insects do subtle work at the limit of perception – by seeing what they do, we value the connectedness of our eco-systems better. Reptiles have their place in the universe, and in our reptilian brains; we can learn from them too. Mammals generate emotions with no conflict with thought: a wonderful thing! Humans beings are sometimes very difficult to deal with, because of wrong thinking and wrong feeling; and therefore ideal objects for our incipient or growing compassion.

- So we can sit and look at a stone. I think I will find one and put it on my altar, and spend 5 minutes meditating on its significance.

- In the last week, a rose bought from a street-seller to whom charity is due has blossomed out handsomely and has lasted longer than many others on my altar, and I am wondering why… as my meditation practise has been very fruitful and strong of late, and I have never had a rose that has lasted that long and looked so magnificent without even changing the water.

- I have spared the lives of 4 cockroaches recently when walking home at night. In my duty as a part-time barman I would have had to eliminate them if they had been in the wrong place, like hiding behind my bar! But in the street, I have sidestepped at least one, lest I tread on it. They will soon be killed by someone else, but not by me.

- I had a dream the other night about my ceiling falling down (which is actually true, due to a drain problem in the flat above me), and when it opened up, a greenish-gray lizard fell out and brushed my right thigh, and I woke up laughing! My real encounter with a baby garden snake produced the above photo, as someone had run away from the scene and told me about it. I got close enough for the little creature to “taste” me with its flicking tongue and realise I was not dangerous.

- Dogs and cats are easy. We stopped in the street to greet a particularly friendly and well-groomed dog called Kiko the other day, whose elderly owner said Kiko was much more loving than her own son, poor thing! But the faithfulness and love of dogs above humans is well known to all…isn’t it?

- So what do we do with humans when they get obstreperous? How do we increase empathy without getting upset? We need a daily programme for this, and it starts with the stone and works its way up the ladder. It’s easy – most of the time! – to practise “love” on those we already love. So the challenge is practising compassion on things and people we are somehow adverse to. That’s the trick.

1) Learn to love a pebble on the beach – take it out from under your beach towel, without complaining, and try to feel love for it and cherish it for 10 minutes. You’re cheating if you pick only the most beautiful pebble!

2) Plant a plant and look at it for 5 minutes a day, and touch it gently for another 5 minutes.

3) Save a fly or a spider stuck in your window instead of killing it. Force yourself to look at a cockroach and feel no fear.

4) Watch salamanders, lizards or snakes and think well of them for 10 minutes.

5) Find a pet you don’t care for very much, or the farm or zoo animal you wouldn’t normally pay attention to, and watch it for 10 minutes and try to empathise with it. See how it moves, acts and expresses its emotions, whatever they are.

6) Choose someone you “don’t like very much” and try to find some good things about him or her – even if they’re in your own family! Give something to a stranger in need. Smile at someone who looks sad or anxious and see what happens.

Start small and enlarge your capacity for empathy bit by bit. How are we ever supposed to love “God” if we can’t even stand up to a spider or a mouse? They may have been put there to test us!

Amy said “no” to rehab and died. Will your government do the same, and kill you in the process?

44 years ago today, June 16th, we were given the Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, stating, “The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, having met at Stockholm from 5 to 16 June 1972, having considered the need for a common outlook and for common principles to inspire and guide the peoples of the world in the preservation and enhancement of the human environment,…calls upon Governments and peoples to exert common efforts for the preservation and improvement of the human environment, for the benefit of all the people and for their posterity.” The final principle says:

“Principle 26

Man and his environment must be spared the effects of nuclear weapons and all other means of mass destruction. States must strive to reach prompt agreement, in the relevant international organs, on the elimination and complete destruction of such weapons.” (my emphasis)

             

44 years ago, UN intentions were good, but what did governments do? Did they rethink and obey? No. They immediately increased nuclear warheads from some 40,000 all the way up to 70,000 over the following decade and a half. They obviously didn’t “strive”, did they? Today, warheads are down to some 15,800. But even this is still at 1959 levels. How long does a “prompt” agreement take? When are you going to force your government to give up hard drugs and say “yes” to Rehab? Before it’s too late.

Source: https://fas.org/issues/nuclear-weapons/status-world-nuclear-forces/

Edward’s Diary Entry 62 – Virtue 15. Aversion to Slander / What to do about a malicious tongue?

Backbiting, criticising others, slandering, calumny, gossiping, talking bad…

Apaisunam tells us to “refraining from scandal-mongering and talking ill of others”. In other words, the Sattwic individual has a “non-malicious tongue”. Why? Because criticising others denotes a false and mistaken view of the world. From the outmoded, ego-centric, “I-am-a-separate-individual-and-smarter-than-you” perspective, it places the focus on the other person’s so-called “wrongs” and misses the point that the ego overlooks its own faults. That’s the traditional viewpoint.

More practically, it is inefficient, wasteful and useless to harbour thoughts about third parties being wrong and should therefore be criticised behind their backs, because this criticism may serve no purpose. Is the conversation factual and informative? Is it a learning experience? OK. If not, if it's an emotional barrage against someone, it is pointless. The other person is sure they are right. They have their own perspective. We shouldn't get upset about this. 

It is much more useful to focus on one’s own “faults” and observe them. Under observation, they shrink naturally. No amount of pressure exerted on another will change them, because change comes from within. Just a small amount of pressure put on your own failure to promote a virtue will go a long way. So here are 3 things to do:

1) Whenever you find your tongue wagging and your speech becoming overly arrogant, critical or judgmental, shut your trap immediately. Breathe deeply seven times and make a mental note of the urge you feel to judge another. Rewind and think again. Review the situation from a fresh standpoint: place yourself in that other person’s skin and find reasons for his or her actions: he sincerely believes his actions are good; he is defending himself or a loved one; he is protecting his belief systems; he has been brought up that way; he is a product of his life circumstances and cannot help it in any case; he truly has no knowledge of the virtue in question anyway, so cannot be expected to act virtuously and we, knowing this, should practice compassion, charity and gentleness.

2) Another method is to admit a case of non-virtuous behaviour in another and immediately see when you have done exactly the same or something similar. When you see you have done the same, criticise yourself, not the other. And use this to grow.

3) Refuse to listen to people who talk bad behind others’ backs. Politely say so and turn away. They will go and find other people willing to waste time listening to gossip. You are too busy enjoying your present moment to indulge in useless behaviour, aren’t you? We need all the energy we can get to stay aware, practise Self-Awareness, and live in the present, so we cannot waste our mental energy on partial, subjective, one-sided opinions about others.

Let the dead bury their dead. We are too busy being alive. 

Edward’s Diary Entry 61 – Virtue 14. Tranquillity / Peacefulness (of mind) / What to do about nervousness?

Agitation, nervousness, anxiety, stress, worry, mind drifting, mind wandering…

Virtue 14, Santi, means “serenity, peacefulness or tranquillity of the mind“. Its opposite is agitation. The root of the agitation or nervousness problem is a lack of connection with something deeper within oneself. The superficial ego, untrained, like land untilled and left to grow wild with weeds, gets agitated and anxious, fuelling worrying thoughts and never keeping still, like the traditional monkey of Indian tales grasping after coconuts without holding onto them even for a second. Identification with this superficial mind is the problem.

Let me tell you the story of the multiflora rose, an exotic invasive perennial shrub native to China, Japan, and Korea, but introduced into the United States in the 1860s. By the 1930s it was widely planted in the Midwest and northeastern states at the encouragement of the USDA Soil Conservation Service for erosion control, wildlife habitat enhancement, and as a natural barrier to roaming farm animals (i.e. “living fence”). During the 1960s, conservationists were warning of the dangers of this plant to unmanaged natural areas. The USDA failed to take action, however, until it was too late. Today, many states have banned the sale of this plant, as it is just too invasive for proper control. It turned out – as in many cases of either intentional or unintentional “imports” into the New Continent – that no natural predators were available to check its propagation. Goats are the only solution, but Americans don’t have too many of these, so rooting it out or cutting it back is the only solution, as this plant produces millions of seeds that fall off and create dense thickets of thorny bushes, taking over habitats and choking out other species.

This plant was promoted for the wrong reasons, and its dangers were not seen. Even experts in agriculture are sometimes short-term thinkers and lack an awareness of natural ecology. If you fool around with nature, she’ll fool around with your intentions. But today, people are learning. See the US Invasive Species list here, if you want.

Sometimes we cannot see that there is often more intelligence in a working local eco-system than in our own human brains.

Now read instead of “multiflora rose in America”, “agitation in the mind”, and you’ll get the message. Our minds are calm, receptive reservoirs of the running waters of intelligence when we are young. The soil is ready, and what is planted in us, and what we later plant ourselves, is what we will reap. Society in the form of some well-intentioned, no doubt, but all-too-smart "educators" starts importing noxious weeds into our systems, and these quickly put out roots and start generating seeds. The flowers come, but along with them, the thorns and the red berries that will drop off and bring up many more clumps of thorny bushes. Agitation, nervousness, anxiety, stress, worry… all these things, which have always existed in the human mind, take over the calmness and run rampant in the brain to produce thoughts, emotions and actual physical and chemical changes in the body. When someone is stressed out, you can see the results in trembling, hunched shoulders, a look of fear in their eyes, foreheads creased, fingernails in mouth, feet twitching and all kinds of fidgeting. It’s a wonder people live so long what with so much energy going into useless activity!

What are the remedies? Here are a few:

1) Set up a mind enhancement programme: Find out about meditation and yoga and do some exercises for at least 15 minutes a day.

2) Wait 2 seconds before reacting. Decide not to “import” anything into your mind without a thorough “thought health inspection” first. Are these thoughts or ideas valid? Where do they come from? Are they useful? Does thinking help? How much thinking is good thinking? When does useful thinking turn into useless worrying?

3) Take 7 deep breaths. In times of trepidation, just “relax” by following your breathing. Close your eyes and take a break for 5 minutes and sense your breath coming in and out. Listen to your surroundings and accept everything. Just let it flow.

4) Think about your mortality. Contemplate how lucky you are to be alive today. You don’t know when you’re going to die. So live fully now. Life is a treasure. But it’s a treasure you don’t get to keep forever.

5) Observe yourself and get a sense of presence. Try to promote a sense of “awareness” of yourself. What is your mind doing now? Watch what it is thinking. What is your body doing? Watch how it is moving. Why are you biting your lips? Picking your fingernails or cuticles? Biting your nails? Scratching your head, flapping your hands around, clenching your jaw, twitching your legs up and down? These are habits, so new habits may have to be installed, but meanwhile, just watch and see what happens. Get out of your petty ego, look at a tree or a cloud, or a rose in a vase, and just breathe and smile.