Spiritual Materialism; How Westerners Miss the Mark

The Buddha reportedly told people that they were also Buddhas. He said he was the same as everyone else but that he was awake and they were still asleep. - He said that everyone has Buddha Nature or the ability to be awake if we can aware of it.

According to Doubting Thomas, that well traveled old apostle, Jesus Christ said it too:

Jesus and Buddha

'When you become acquainted with yourselves
then you will be recognized
and you will understand
that it is you who are children of a living father.

But if you do not become acquainted with yourself
then you are in poverty and it is you who are the poverty.'

So what is our problem anyway, we are also floating here in empty space on the thin crust of life with the same amount of nothing as the buddhists and Taoists... and yet... with thousands of years of this beautiful spiritual philosophy we miss the mark. As John Giorno complains 'none of us here got enlightened.

I have a dear friend on the way to Plum Village now and I talked with her about it:

I told her that I have been listening to a lot of Thich Nhat Hanh and San Francisco Zen Centre podcasts and that they help me to clear things up 'life and death and all of the thoughts and ideas I have about them... Like a crystal clear lake to reflect the world in... somehow expanding my mind and heart while making them both clam and quiet.'

She said 'i know this feeling when i finally manage to meditate... its getting calm and warm and i feel deep trust in everything... i feel the oneness and the all love... Metta'

I told her a fourth hand story I heard that explains why it is so hard for westerners to meditate: Thai monk told an American meditator that Westerners do it all wrong. He said that if you want to build a table you have to follow a process: first go to the forest to select a tree, then cut the tree and mill it onto boards, then draw and carefully cut the pieces, then put them all together. Then, and only then, you should start to sandpaper and make it smooth. But we westerners go to the forest with sandpaper; we try to meditate although we have not yet worked out what kind of practice we are doing.

My friend said: 'i understand, and also westerners are used to just go to the stores and buy a table'

We just listen to the dharma like we are in a shop. Like we are shopping for a new table. Trungpa Rinpoche called it 'Spiritual Materialism'. We like to wear Metta and Buddhism and Compassionate living like a new dress from the shop, like a new table in the kitchen.

She said 'We can not just take this old coat off so easily.'

Thousands of years with the beginnings of enlightenment, all clouded by greed and manipulated to create and support violent and oppressive power structures. We have a big heavy old coat to remove and a chilly environment to do it in.

We need all the Metta we can give.

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The Birth of Engaged Buddhism

Thich Thay Nhat Hanh

Shambala Sun's John Malkin asked Thich Thay Nhat Hanh:
"Will you describe the origins of Engaged Buddhism and how you became involved in compassion-based social change?"

Thich Nhat Hanh replied:
"Engaged Buddhism is just Buddhism. When bombs begin to fall on people, you cannot stay in the meditation hall all of the time. Meditation is about the awareness of what is going on-not only in your body and in your feelings, but all around you.

When I was a novice in Vietnam, we young monks witnessed the suffering caused by the war. So we were very eager to practice Buddhism in such a way that we could bring it into society. That was not easy because the tradition does not directly offer Engaged Buddhism. So we had to do it by ourselves. That was the birth of Engaged Buddhism.


Buddhism has to do with your daily life, with your suffering and with the suffering of the people around you. You have to learn how to help a wounded child while still practicing mindful breathing. You should not allow yourself to get lost in action. Action should be meditation at the same time."

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Here is a regularly updated list of other things Cory writes

Evolution and Karma

Exploring links between the eastern idea of collective karma for all living beings and the western scientific discovery of evolution. In the San Francisco Zen Center talks on collective karma and Anil Dash's blog about the problems of the western perception of karma it seems we western people understand karma a lot more easily if it is described as being like evolution. Indeed, the understanding of evolution from the western perspective has given rise to much of the modern environmental movement as in David Attenborough's 'Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life'.

At Sterling College in Craftsbury Common Vermont, K. Jeffrey Bickart shared David Quammen's 'The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction' as an introductory ecology course book. At the same time George Gardner introduced us to the work of Thay Thich Nhat Hahn and helped to guide us in mindfulness meditation and shared dharma. We were offered contemplation and compassion as a world view and evolutionary theory for getting closer to the surrounding ecology. The connections that have been arising from these understanding, as well as through the study of Human Ecology, Ethnoecology and the practice of meditation, have been astounding.

As we begin to better understand the mind and nature we become more compassionate toward the rest of life on the planet and we are making our way to a new, more holistic, paradigm.

Refuge of Nocturnal Birds

High on a cliff there's a twisted pine;

intently it listens into the abyss

with its trunk curved down like a crossbow.

A refuge of nocturnal birds,

in the deepest hours of midnight it resounds

with the swift fluttering of wings.

Even my heart has a nest

suspended into the darkness, and a voice;

it, too, lies awake listening at night.

Compassion

Lately I have been listening to a lot of Thich Nhat Hahn ('Being Peace' and 'Touching the Earth') and have just read His Holiness the Dalai Lama's 'How to Expand Love: Widening the Circle of Loving Relationships'. These works have made me aware of a meditation on love and kindness called Metta. According to the research of Karen Armstrong's 'A History of God' and the work of the Dalai Lama, Metta, or loving kindness, is the basic teaching of all major religious traditions.

Karen Armstrong was recently awarded the TED Prize and is asking for people to affirm the 'Charter for Compassion'. The charter is a call for morality and compassion to return to the center of spiritual and political activity. According to the teachings of Armstrong and H. H. Dalai Lama compassion is actually the heart of religion and politics. The golden rule, for instance, was taught by Confucius 500 BC. He said: "Do not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself."

Watch Karen Armstrong's TED Talk:

http://www.tedprize.org/karen-armstrong/

Affirm the 'Charter for Compassion':

http://charterforcompassion.org/share/the-charter/

Read more about 'How to Expand Love: Widening the Circle of Loving Relationships'.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Expand-Love-Widening-Relationships/dp/0743269683

Read excerpts from 'Being Peace':

http://www.cit-sakti.com/peace/peace-being-peace.htm

Check out the guided meditation from 'Touching the Earth':

http://touchingtheearth.posterous.com/

Finally, here is a quote from 'The Confucian Analects':

"Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness."