So, here's the thing: It seems like every time I find a perfect moment here in Marin, it is instantly interrupted by the grating, disturbing noise of a leaf blower or a hedge trimmer. Poor me. I am not saying occasionally I am interrupted, I am saying almost every time. I think the little yard next door gets trimmed about five times a day. No shit!
So, at first I decided that I wasn't choosing my spots very well. I tried different locations. Have you ever noticed how much noise a garbage truck can make? Astounding. Then I realized this problem was happening at other locations. No matter how much strategy I employed, at church or Buddhist meditation or in business meetings, I invariably have someone sit next to me who is coughing, chewing, muttering trying to get a wrapper off of something. It drives me crazy.
I am forced to think about my karma in this. I say forced because I have finally given up on blaming others. This is my problem. What then is the karmic cause for being disturbed by noise when I seek peace and quiet? I must be making noise which disturbs others. Everything has a cause. Everything has an effect.
Well, yes. The downstairs condo lady says our heavy foot steps bother her. I have been trying to remember to tiptoe around in the morning and evening. But, it has to be more than that. In the Catholic doctrine, a sin can be committed in thought, word or deed. Bingo! There it is. The noise I generate by thinking and speaking criticisms of others is enough racket to cause a lot of trouble.
We educated, hip, modern souls learned the lessons of critical thinking very well. We can rip apart a book or a movie or a policy or a person with elegant logic and articulate another persons faults with remarkable precision. This is the noise that I contribute to the world. The world gives back in good measure.
This is yet another task I must practice. If I want peace and quiet, I must first live it. I have to set up the causes which will reward me with what I want. Right now I am the biggest loser in this conflict.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Friday, August 1, 2014
If You Have to Kill, Try Killing With Kindness
The Seven Social Sins, sometimes called the Seven Blunders of the World, is a list that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi published in his weekly newspaper Young India on October 22, 1925.[1] Later he gave this same list to his grandson, Arun Gandhi, written on a piece of paper on their final day together shortly before his assassination.[2] The Seven Sins are:
In any conflict, both sides can get mighty righteous. That is why they embark on the destructive ugly road of conflict. Every act of violence sets the stage for future ones. We have to be idiots not to notice this. Lama Marut says that ignorance isn't not knowing. It is ignoring what you know. Wow.
When Gandhi wrote of these Blunders, he was trying to articulate the root causes of violence. My experience of bringing these ideas to friends has been a thunderous silence. For most of my friends, the very first point "Wealth Without Work" is already a deal breaker. What are some ways of getting wealth without work? Stealing. Using slave labor. Conquering. Stock market. Oops. Inheritance can put some distance, that's good.
Why do I keep bringing this up? I guess that I am stubborn and a bit pig headed. Or very pig headed. I am not shoving this conversation at you, dear readers, because I am righteous, but rather because I am struggling to figure out my life and the context in which I live.
Of course I am dismayed about the suffering that is happening right now in the world. But on a simple personal level, I am struggling between the act of turning the other cheek and that of standing up for myself. Great ideas both, but neither quite gets me out of a reactive mode.I need to find the root cause of my getting into the situation in which I have to react.
If Buddhism or Christianity has it right, the problem is my little ego. If 'I' was not attached to an outcome and let God's will enter the picture, 'I' couldn't possibly have a problem, could I? If I am one with the universe, then there is no Julie in any case so I can't possibly have a problem. I am confused.
- Wealth without work.
- Pleasure without conscience.
- Knowledge without character.
- Commerce without morality.
- Science without humanity.
- Worship without sacrifice.
- Politics without principle.
In any conflict, both sides can get mighty righteous. That is why they embark on the destructive ugly road of conflict. Every act of violence sets the stage for future ones. We have to be idiots not to notice this. Lama Marut says that ignorance isn't not knowing. It is ignoring what you know. Wow.
When Gandhi wrote of these Blunders, he was trying to articulate the root causes of violence. My experience of bringing these ideas to friends has been a thunderous silence. For most of my friends, the very first point "Wealth Without Work" is already a deal breaker. What are some ways of getting wealth without work? Stealing. Using slave labor. Conquering. Stock market. Oops. Inheritance can put some distance, that's good.
Why do I keep bringing this up? I guess that I am stubborn and a bit pig headed. Or very pig headed. I am not shoving this conversation at you, dear readers, because I am righteous, but rather because I am struggling to figure out my life and the context in which I live.
Of course I am dismayed about the suffering that is happening right now in the world. But on a simple personal level, I am struggling between the act of turning the other cheek and that of standing up for myself. Great ideas both, but neither quite gets me out of a reactive mode.I need to find the root cause of my getting into the situation in which I have to react.
If Buddhism or Christianity has it right, the problem is my little ego. If 'I' was not attached to an outcome and let God's will enter the picture, 'I' couldn't possibly have a problem, could I? If I am one with the universe, then there is no Julie in any case so I can't possibly have a problem. I am confused.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)