The Vajra Parrot Squawks!

The clouds have lifted, the rain has stopped (quite an event in this part of India) and the sun is shining - and once again nature mirrors the human mind.

Even though I know this isn't going to last for long it doesn't stop me from enjoying the moment, fleeting as it may be.

The clouds always lift, eventually, and we can sunbathe again before too long - something to remember the next time we're caught up in some 'negative weather conditions'... in our own heads.

What more of a birthday tribute can I make, other than to say that merely seeing a picture of the Dalai Lama, or remembering him, makes me want to be a better person and to help others.

Having, like so many other Dharma brothers and sisters across the world, received a major Vajyayana empowerment and teachings from this great man, I feel privileged and blessed to have made a connection to him in this lifetime, and number him among my gurus.

I hope His Holiness continues to benefit countless others for many, many years, and that all his aspirations are fulfilled without delay.


GANG RI RA WE KOR WAI ZHING KHAM DIR
In this pure realm, surrounded by snow moutains,

PEN DANG DE WA MA LU JUNG WAI NE
Is the source of complete happiness and benefit,

CHEN RE ZIG WA TEN DZIN GYA TSO YI
Avalokiteshvara, Tenzin Gyatso.

ZHAB PE SI TAI BAR DU TEN GYUR CHIK
May you stand firm until the end of existence.

I was thinking earlier about how conditioned we've been to always be doing *something*. It's insidious. Maybe we've been nagged by parents, other relatives, irate bosses or teachers, but the message is the same: idleness = bad, activity = good.

But is it?

In many ways this conditioning is at the heart of how we're disconnected from ourselves and our mental processes. Why? Because sitting around 'idly' watching our minds is commonly perceived as being on the Spectrum of Negativity: anywhere from wasteful and non-productive to just plain silly. Yet in reality, watching how the mind works, and how our bodies and minds are so intimately connected, is an incredibly productive thing to do. And you have to be doing nothing in order to derive anything benefit from this process.

One has only to look at the blooming Mindfulness industry to see the health benefits of kicking back and watching what's going on. It's not all about hippies lounging around, waxing mystical about some mental trip; it's about adults taking responsibility for their thoughts and uncovering a lot of new information about who they are, how they react and - more importantly - why they react to things the way they do. This idling about, simple as it is, can liberate people from negative habitual patterns very effectively, or help people to deal with them productively.

Let's go back to the beginning. It is because we're so conditioned to be doing all manner of things, and not used to really relaxing (idling), that when the world suddenly 'stops' - and unsightly terrain sharply comes into focus - in a traumatic mental event (boyfriend dumps you, cat dies, best friend doesn't reply to texts, etc. etc.) we're left in a bit of a pickle.

What to do? What are these feelings? Why is this happening to ME? Got to stop this! Got to get out of here! Got to.... blah blah blah... And in no time we're crawling up the walls. All too familiar?

Really, the mind is just playing true to form, doing what it's been conditioned to do for many years: hence the activity, the maelstrom that's gaining momentum inside your cranium. This is what the mind does. It doesn't know any other way of dealing with these situations. And this is what you're experiencing. It's like dominoes knocking each other over in one of those Guiness Book of World Records documentaries. We've all heard of the flight or fight response? This chaos is actually a form of 'flight' - paradoxically, the 'fight' response is to stand one's ground... and do nothing.

The more we undo the conditioning to be doing *something* all the time the less the mind whips itself into a frenzy when things come crashing down about our ears. Standing/sitting one's ground and looking into the eye of the storm is what we're about here. This is the path of heroes, not idlers.

So, really, the best thing to do in negative situations is actually to do *nothing*: to be as idle as you can for as long as it takes, watching what's going on without making any effort to judge that the experiences are good or bad.

You can watch your body language too, and use this to help you. Have you noticed, for example, that when you're in a negative spiral your breath is tighter and shallower? Next time you're angry or jealous try and notice your breath. And when you're relaxed or happy, nave you noticed that the breath is long and fine? Try and see it. If you find yourself stressed, regulate your breathing, make it like the breathing you experience when you're calm and happy. It works. But first you have to recognise it for yourself, and this can only be done when you allow yourself a little idle time on a regular basis.

Then you can see how idleness is not wasteful but, in fact, an incredibly potent tool for survival and daily living. You can gain all sorts of insights as to where feelings - positive and negative - come from, what they really mean and, if you're lucky, the direct experience that these are just thoughts: nothing to be so perpelexed about after all, just clouds, floating about in the ether...

In other words, less wall-climbing all round.

Idleness is a virtue in many ways, and one which we all need to cultivate mope and more. We owe it to ourselves.

“Man…sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future... he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”

~ The Dalai Lama

Many Western Buddhists, looking at the other theistic world religions, are too quick to look down on them. I myself have been guilty of this: I confess, and I regret. It's too easy to dismiss their beliefs as fairytales or eternalistic, pious nonsense and, invoking His Holiness the Dalai Lama's relationship with the scientific community, to make the assertion that Buddhism is a 'rational' and respectable path by comparison.

It isn't.

There are cartloads of 'irrational' beliefs in Buddhism. In many ways it appears, superficially at least, to be just the same as any other religion. Let's make no bones about it: it is dotted with superstitions, legends and - dare I say it - in some instances - fantastical nonsense, all of which put the tall tales of 16th Century Europe to shame.

When the medieval scholar, Erasmus, complained that there were enough relics of the True Cross to build a galleon, and enough of the Virgin Mary's milk on which to float it, he caused a bit of a stir. He wasn't disbelieving in Christianity, we must remember: but was merely highlighting the flannel, mummery and unnecessary, legendary accretions that encrusted and obscured the vitality of the Christian message, which really is about liberation and reconciliation. Noble things, worthy of respect. I fear that in the Buddhist tradition, the jewel in the heart of the lotus is itself encrusted with the accretion of ages.

In our quest to become 'real' Buddhists many of us Westerners tend to reject the beliefs of our youth and adopt the beliefs and customs of the new belief system (along with the alien culture associated with it) we have chosen. I even eat tsampa for breakfast these days. In this way, for example, we might swap childhood beliefs of Jesus in the manger for the story of Siddhartha Gautama's being born in Lumbini or, eschewing the conventionalities of Western clothing, swank about in tie-dyed garments from Nepal.

As we all know, according to tradition, Jesus was born from the womb of an immaculately conceived mother; Siddhartha, however, emerged from his mother's armpit. Jesus waited until he was 12 until he began to lecture the rabbis and priests on the finer points of the Mosaic law; the 1 minute old baby Siddhartha, however, announced to the world that he had come to save humanity from suffering and - not to be outdone - walked in the ten directions and caused lotuses to bloom from his footprints. Cool stuff, eh, Buddhist chums?

Please tell me, though: which of the stories is the more rational? Why would you believe the latter, but not the former?

When I lived in Rome, in a different life, I was greatly amused to learn that the famous Trefontane (Three Fountains) arose from the places on which St. Paul's head had bounced after his decapitation by Nero's henchmen. Ridiculous! we cry... yet have you heard the story of Arya Nagajuna's being decapitated by a stalk of kusha grass? And how his head, which magically turned to stone, now rolls in search of the missing body, ready to be reunited?

Buddhism is as mired in outdated, curious worldviews as any other belief system. When I looked at Google Earth the other day, I couldn't find the continent of Jambudvipa, now matter how hard I tried, nor Mount Meru, though I visualise this every day when I offer mandalas.

What's necessary and what's superfluous on this path? What is skilful and what is not? What is more important: the jewel in the heart of the lotus, the message of liberation from suffering, or the lotus on which it rests? You decide.

If believing in armpit births or rolling heads rocks your world of course you're welcome to believe that, but it doesn't make you an "Uber Buddhist" who's more Buddhisty than practitioners who do not... believing in stories that can't scientifically be possible is your choice, but does it help you realise the nature of your own mind and be a more compassionate person?

On this path - this being purely my own opinion, speaking from the point of view of a deluded, fellow human being - it isn't the purity or quantity of beliefs that's important but, rather, the purity of intention and the application of method.

The message at the heart of Buddhism is very simple and direct. We must not lose sight of this in our scramble to believe things or adopt the many upaya which abound in the Dharma market place. All of these things are meant to help us realise simplicity, though we seem to allow ourselves to be complicated by them, somewhat ironically.

Nobody is going to overcome suffering and its causes merely by holding to a rigid orthodoxy, while continuing to treat the people around them badly; rather, we need to be going back to basics, accumulate positivity, decrease negativity, drop the bullshit, self-conceit and masks, and watch our mind and habitual processes, and maintain right views. Of course, first, we need to know what right views are. We need to discern what is Buddhism and what is, in fact, culture, legend or pious speculation; and judge between what is skilful/necessary and what is not, without blindly grasping on to whatever someone says is true just because they wear an exotic hat.

With this in mind, believers in tall tales of any tradition: please don't criticise believers in other tall tales - after all, one myth is as mythical as another myth.
Maybe it's wise for people in glass houses not to show their stones off to the general public but, rather, get on with what they have to do and be of some benefit to the world around them.