Ain’t Got No Art, No Music, No ‘Rithmetic, And Yet….

 

*Wonder of Wonders, and More Wonders Waiting to be Discovered*

 

      A delightful song from my youth was a hit for Sam Cooke, titled “Wonderful World,” and the first lines go: “Don't know much about history, Don't know much biology, Don't know much about a science book, Don't know much about the French I took.”

     I was listening to this song the other day and was enjoying it for the great tune that it is, but the lyrics got me to thinking. The school subjects listed as being things the singer is not good at reminded me that I am not very good at some of them either! So for instance, art, music, science and math, as incredible as they are, have not been areas where I have shown (till now) any great aptitude.

     However, as a layperson, I am in awe of the power they have to express universal truths and insights that can be of great benefit. Each of these instruments has a common language particular to them that allow their gifts to be expressed in communal human experience, regardless of a person’s background or native tongue.

     Aren’t we thrilled by the art and music which so move and elevate us? And then there are the incredible innovations brought about by science, and the miracles of mathematics like pi, the Golden Ratio, the Fibonacci Sequence and the equations that gave us General Relativity and Quantum Theory. Awe-inspiring.

     No, I don’t have a talent for these things, but I always had an interest in ultimate causes. What lies at the basis of any of these phenomena? What is that energy from which they originate, before it is expressed or defined or made visible or heard? First there is this primal energy, and then only later come the initial instigation, conception, inception and creation that bring a musical or artistic or scientific expression into being. This original energy has no boundaries, no beginning or end; it is impersonal and not define-able or describable.

      There is something else, even deeper, even more miraculous, which these amazing tools of art, music and science can’t touch. Here I may be treading on thin ice, as what I would want to describe here may sound very foreign and far-fetched, but I want to push the envelope a bit. The wise ones throughout time have spoken of an intelligence that is not based on subject and object, time and space, causation or differentiation. They point to a core experience available to us all that does not know limitation.

     We have been miseducated to be fascinated by the content of our experience—our thoughts and emotions, ideas and sensations—but we generally ignore our essential being which is the source of all that is experienced. Not knowing of the existence of this essential being, we seek meaning in objective experience, and we overlook and neglect the infiinte awareness from which all of the thoughts, emotions and objective experiences originate.  

   Again, I acknowledge the fact that this is unfamiliar to most people and may seem implausible, but for those who meditate or who observe their lives carefully and thoroughly, they see that there is a level of our experience that goes unheeded. We can sit quietly and see that the mind is an endless source of thoughts, but yet, if we relax and loosen the fascination with the parade of thoughts, we see that there is a basis for the thoughts which doesn’t come and go. The mind and the world of phenomena are in constant flux—impermanent and ceaselessly changing—but there is something that doesn’t change, which remains ever present in waking, sleep and dream, and quite possibly in birth, life and death. What is that?

   In India there is a great story about the choice of where to put one’s attention. If someone throws a ball, most dogs will naturally chase after the ball over and over again, but if a ball is thrown in front of a tiger, the tiger doesn’t go after the ball, it goes after whoever is throwing the ball! In this way, we can either chase after the ball—the thoughts and emotions and the constant flux—or we can be interested in that from which the ball comes.

    In my own life, I can still be fascinated by art, music, science and math, but I know that there is something greater to be interested in. This greater thing is so precious and dear and so worthy of reverence and devotion, but it can continue to remain hidden to us for a very long time, even if we have been tirelessly seeking it. Never mind. This is where persistence and an iron will come in. “Come what may, I will not give up. Till my death, I will persist in this inquiry. I will not allow discouragement to defeat me. I will recognize what is unimportant, and I will keep my eye on the prize.”

   Thank you, Sam Cooke, for the last line in your song: “What a wonderful world it would be.” Indeed, what a wonderful world, where we are not fooled any longer, where we can see clearly and without impediment, where we know what is true and what is false. May it be so.   

Hidden Good Fortune

      

I would like to humbly suggest, dear friends, that often our good fortune is very much present, peeking out at us from hidden corners, but unrecognized if we assume that it has to look a certain way. Birthdays are one point in a person’s year when a life can be accounted for, and yesterday such a day arrived for me, but my good fortune did not make its appearance in the way that we have been taught it should come. During these unusual lockdowned times, I have been leading a life of hermetic seclusion in a place that is unfamiliar to me, apart from family, friends and community. Which means that when a birthday comes, there are no friends or family in person to celebrate with, no party to attend, no gifts to gush over—none of the things we usually associate with birthdays.

And yet, I spent my day, apparently alone as I was, embraced on all sides by loving good wishes. I did not lack for anything, and the evidence of my obvious good fortune was all around. I marvel at what has been given to me, and those gifts will continue to arrive in abundance, without even asking for them.

One of these gifts is the willingness to look at things newly and openly, and to no longer to be bound by conventional norms. So, I have just mentioned the convention of what a birthday needs to look like, but knowing now that this convention need not hold true, what else have we been told that is not true?

For my age cohort, it is likely that there will be a few more birthdays, and then death will come. Normally this news is greeted with revulsion, denial and fear, but just as I have come to question the context of birthdays, I have also come to question a lot of other things, including the repeated myths of what death will be. I do not know what will happen when death arrives, but I know to be open to what I don’t know, and to be skeptical of what I have been told about what anything will be.

The best possible response to the unknown-ness of death is abundant life, richly lived. So, yes, aging, degeneration, decay, disease, death—richly lived and courageously received.

I wish for all great good fortune. May we flourish in our lives and be of benefit to ourselves and to others.

Saint Valentine's Day

 

   

* Love without reason or context or separate object. Love as the essential principle of our being. *

A day devoted to love . . . for indeed, isn’t it so that all of us all around the world want to love and be loved? Simply that: to love and be loved. Maybe the most fundamental of all desires, one that permeates human society and is evident to the bursting point in so many ways, especially today.

Valentine’s will be a day when the established beliefs surrounding love will be on full display, and restaurants, florists, resort hotels, chocolate shops and greeting card companies will see rich profits. Of course, there are also the wine distributors and video streaming services that provide the many bottles of Chardonnay and the unending entertainment diversions for the people alone at home tonight thinking that something is wrong.

Many unfortunate men who heedlessly overlook the very strict rules surrounding this day will be sleeping on the couch for a while.

If one is so inclined, a day like today is a brilliant opportunity to consider what actually is going on. What is “love” after all, and is the Hollywood and pop music version of love we have been taught to cherish in fact authentic? How has this come about, and why have things been so prominently expressed in the specific form of romantic love, as if it overshadows all other?

For me as someone who has not been partnered for, what, maybe 200 years now and without much motivation to change that, I feel that I have an outsider’s vantage on the whole parade. I want for the moment to put aside all of the conventional thinking and deeply consider these questions.

I want to see love not only in its objective form or as a mercantile exchange—“I will love you if you love me,” but love as a fundamental attribute that is not generated or induced. Love without a reason, love as the essential ground of being of who we truly are, love as another word for the inherent attraction of subatomic particles and the unified field of the universe. Love not as a merely human domain, but as an ultimate principle which is not created, but ever exists.

Love for a partner, for a friend or family member, for God or for the suffering world has a new context where ALL is included and embraced and nothing excluded. Again, love without reason or goal or object. Love as the shining forth of the awareness that fully encompasses all phenomena in the form of “good” and “bad,” “wished for” and “not-wished for,” “me” and “not-me.”

So yes, hooray, a celebration of love on this day—and on all days. Love without limit, love amidst all conditions, love beyond birth and death. May it be so.

No Travel, No Destination

 

 ** The most profound journey is not one that involves traveling to exotic lands, but rather the path of unfolding discovery that allows us to clearly see what is always and forever right in front of us. ** 

When I was very young, maybe eight or nine, something extraordinary happened. But it wasn’t in the form of an event in time or a notable experience. It was instead something that just sort of arrived on the scene unheeded and didn’t ever depart: curiosity took me by the throat and wouldn’t let loose.

What a glorious friend to have, and she went everywhere with me. “What is this; why is that; how does this thing connect to that other thing?” she would whisper. “What are all those things that are not plain to the sight and which remain unseen?” was her higher-level examination question. This urge to look under every rock simmered for a while, but at some point it boiled over, and its beckoning call would eventually dictate the arc of my young life.

Yes, such a brilliant guide to have, growing up as I did in the segregated South with all sorts of inherited assumptions about race, gender, class, acceptable behavior and supposed success. One day, sitting in a classroom at Myers Park High School, a thought arrived in my mind stream, “They haven’t told us everything.” I knew at once that the way I was being educated by the society around me could not be the be-all and end-all.

But where to turn? Who would know whatever it is that “they” haven’t told us? The books and professors at my university were a support along the way, but my search wasn’t satisfied by learned lectures. “Well, the folks up north at those prestigious universities, maybe they know.” Not really. “Well, maybe it is in Europe; they’ll know what it is.” But it was more of not really knowing, just with a different accent.

Fortunately, the loyal sister of curiosity is persistence. Looking, looking, looking—being intensely interested, picking up each rock, examining it carefully, not finding what was being sought, putting the rock back down and going to the next one. Over and over again, and again, and again. Lots of questions, thousands of books, many stamps in a passport, numerous brilliant conversations, endless retreats and meditation sessions . . .

As I move into old age, there is not one speck of regret for any of that, because you see, I have been allowed an insight. Every bit of my seeking and longing has led me to where I am today: clarity that this journey I have been on is not to a place, or a state of mind, or to a finish line where there is total certainty. No, none of that. I walk in different shoes now.

The most profound journey is the path of unfolding discovery that allows us to clearly see what is always and forever right in front of us. A key part of this discovery is becoming aware of the miseducation which initiated us into a confused world of hearsay and misperception. In seeing this, we can relax our grip on all the misbegotten concepts and presuppositions that have solidified in our lives. We become humble enough to not-know-but-what-to-know. We are alert to what teaching each moment brings, and we are courageous enough to heed what is being revealed. No goal, no destination—no travel needed, no further knowledge required. Resting as pristine primordial awareness for short moments many times, we are all already fully arrived.

 

 

    

     

 

 

 Unexpected Gratitude

 For all of us around the world, my goodness, what a time it has been over these past years and what challenges we have all faced. And yet, even amidst overwhelming anxiety, care and worry, let us not forget:  there is a place of rest for us---ever-present, ever-available and untouched by any of the descriptions we could apply to it. To be able to rest in this basic space of bliss, peace and clarity for short moments many times is a blessing beyond compare. In the great natural abundance which is our birthright, we are embraced by beauty, and not only reminded of our many gifts, but brought into full appreciation of them.

   On this beautiful morning in this beautiful place, I am surrounded by the reminders of these gifts.

   So, so many things that we can't even account for which have been given to us...... A man whose head is being held underwater for minutes has forgotten everything else but breath, and once his head emerges from the forced imprisonment of the water, he breathes with delight and joy, gasping in appreciation for something that he had taken for granted for the whole of his life.

   A village woman in a war zone in the Sahara gets up early each morning to fetch water from a well six kilometers away and hopes to avoid the rape, robbery and murder that could await her along the way. Upon her safe arrival back home, she revels in the good fortune of the tenuous safety that has been provided to her on that one day. She would have difficulty imagining people whose source of water is only a few footsteps away and whose access to it is without any impediment.

  There are circumstances in which one feels trapped and limited and unhappily dictated to by the course of fate, and possibly in that circumstance cannot see the benefit. And yet, AND YET, as we look back on those same circumstances that had been labeled unfortunate or sad, we can come to feel gratitude for all that we were given---even if those gifts were hidden from us as they were being given.

  As we continue on our way and our vision becomes clearer and less distracted, we won't have to artificially create thanksgiving and fix it for a time or place. We will become closer companions with the wisdom which embraces us and the sweetness of experience unfettered by wish or expectation, and the fragrance of these blooms will be so present and evident for us that no summoning will be necessary. 

May it be so. May we rest in our essential being.

  

                                                               Abundant Life

 “To live life more abundantly.” Isn’t this a call that so many of us want to heed? In all the many shapes it takes in our lives, don’t we hunger for greater meaning, understanding, love, insight and connection? Even in the misshapen forms that seem so foreign to genuine abundance—greed, mindless consumption, utter self-focus, competition—there is the same wish to live more abundantly . . . only misperceived.

Throughout our lives we have been so grossly miseducated about our true being and what this “abundance” is that we are searching for. We have been trained to seek within the limited context of a mere human individual looking out at a separate world of objects. We have been trained to think that we are enclosed within this skin suit of a body and that we were born, live and then will die within that body. But, dear ones, is this ultimately true?

I have no conclusive or satisfying answers to give you, no guaranteed steps to take. All I can offer is an invitation, to myself and to others, to simply be humble and open. Humble and open. Maybe also courageously available to the possibility of being shocked into recognition by the wonders that surround us—hidden as they have been by the erroneous, inherited assumptions we have cultivated.

Yes, open to what we don’t already know, and extremely skeptical about what we think we already know. To be gifted with the amazement that comes from gently resting moment-by-moment as the settled basic state of infinite intelligence, where there is no goal to be accomplished, no improvement that needs to be made. We can take instruction from a rainbow which both is, and is-not. Teachings surrounds us on all sides. We are not lacking.

I See You

 Almost a decade ago I was writing a blog titled "Read, Relax, Recognize," and then somehow I fell out of it and moved to other things, but these present times are so fraught with conflict and confusion---it's time to get back to work!

And so, with that short introduction, here we go again!

                                                                  "I See You"

Many years ago I was on the adventure of my life, driving in a VW van with friends across the Alps, through northern Italy and into southern France. On the Saturday night before Easter, we arrived in the beautiful ancient city of Arles. We parked the van and quickly found a seat in a café in the main square, close to the ancient Roman amphitheater, very eager to observe the holiday crowd doing all the interesting things that crowds do.

Many of the local men had been drinking heavily throughout the evening, and all around us was noise and mayhem. Suddenly, two guys began shouting at one another, and as they grew angrier and angrier the conflict escalated into a right violent fight with lots of flying fists. As they were too drunk to land many blows, they ended up grabbing one another’s shirts and continued the struggle that way.

Both of the men were completely lost in their anger, and this sad episode was surely not meant to have a peaceful outcome, but then something quite extraordinary happened. One of the men happened to glance into the eyes of the other, and then amidst the struggling, he kept looking. His opponent could sense that the other man was actually seeing him for the first time---not as an enemy but as another person. At once both men looked deeply at each other, they held their gaze, smiled, gave up their struggle and began to dance together in one another's arms. Yes, they danced together in one another's arms!! How amazing and unexpected a change of attitude it was. 

In the whole of my life I will never forget this, and it is not only because we were saved one bloody fistfight on an Easter evening, but also because this is such a grand metaphor of how life can be. When we actually SEE one another as fellow human beings, our apparent differences look a lot different. We can have wildly divergent opinions, be of different ethnicities, have opposite views of politics and have no language or culture in common, but we can surely see one another despite all of that.

There is a beautiful greeting in the Zulu language: “Sawubona.” It means “I see you,” but this lovely phrase is not meant only in the common way of, “Oh, there is a body standing there,” but rather, “I see you in all your humanness and in our commonality as people.” When we see another in this way, we are seeing the essence, and we are not being distracted by all the labels and distinctions. When we have this clear vision, we allow our recognition of the oneness of all things to be sustained. We hold this truth to be self-evident---that there is only One thing here, and when we see, that One-ness is what we are seeing.

“Namaste” is another lovely greeting that exemplifies what I am pointing to. This is a greeting used in India; the word comes from Sanskrit and is a combination of “nama” and “te.” "Nama" means to bow, make reverential salutation or have adoration for, and “te” means “to you.” Its deeper meaning is “the god in me bows to the god in you,” and the greeting is done with the two palms brought together in front of one’s heart to symbolize the oneness. How wonderful a way to greet and be greeted, and how brilliant a reflection of the way things really are! 

As noble and as inspiring as these customs are, it is so easy to forget this practie of clear seeing, isn't it? Surely we need reminders as we move through our day-to-day existence. We are constantly coming into contact with people with whom we wildly disagree, people who we feel are getting it totally wrong, and we sense the need in ourselves to make them see their wrong-ness. It may well be that at some level, yes, they are getting it horribly wrong, but where is our attention directed? Are we seeing only our disagreements and their wrong-ness, or are we truly able to SEE them as essentially non-different from ourselves?

When we observe a passenger at the airport shouting and cursing at the employee because the plane was late, we can be pretty sure that the passenger has lost sight of what really matters. If, however, we can bring forth loving support, respectful relating and gracious kindness---even in the midst of grand disagreement or upset---then we can be equally certain that the important things are being acknowledged.

I look at the present political landscape in the US and I observe people expressing points of view or supporting theories that seem to me, well, crazy. But I have to pause. My first reaction upon hearing these things was to resist and make the people wrong and to get angry that they could think and behave in this way. Then, thank goodness, this practice of seeing somehow came to the rescue. I could still disagree with them, but I did not need to disdain them or make them "other." Instead, what I found myself doing was introspecting: "The things these folks support truly do seem crazy to me, but, BUT, what are the ways in which I am equally deluded?" Seen from the vantage of absolute clarity and wisdom, how many of my long held assumptions are crazy, that is, totally misaligned with reality? Humility is crucial; we should never assume that we have it absolutely right, for who knows how very much we don't know?  

When I first came to study, live and work in Germany, it was only a few decades after the war. The older Germans I was meeting who were so kind to me, what had they done in the war? Likely many of them had personal stories that they were not very proud of. The priest in the Catholic dormitory where I lived had been in the Wehrmacht and in an American internment camp. The administrator at the tennis courts where I taught tennis in Munich had been in the SS on the Eastern Front. What horrors had he seen, and committed? It was an education for me. I could condemn the actions and want them to take responsibility for what they had done, but I could not hate the person. 

And now for the most extreme example; please bear with me. This horrible war in Ukraine which Russia has unleashed not only on Ukraine, but in a sense, on the whole world. We see Russian soldiers committing atrocities; we see civilians dying in the streets, children blown apart by bombs, the grandmother of a friend of mine, 91 years-old, killed by shelling in Mariupol. I am struggling here; how can I make peace with the anger I feel for the Russian soldiers and their leaders who are doing these horrible things? 

A friend recently posted a YouTube video of 220 Russian musicians really rocking out to the song "The Final Countdown" in a park in Moscow last year, before the war began. Look at all of these beautiful young people and this gloriously happy scene, viewed 2.7 million times by people from all around the world. These young Russians are laughing, singing and playing their hearts out. We can all share their joy and feel the commonality with them. And yet, maybe some of these same young Russian musicians have been conscripted into the army, and they are the ones who are now raining death and destruction on civilians in Ukraine. I surely cannot justify or support their actions, but no, I can't hate them. In my mind's eye I see them there playing their instuments in the park in Moscow---living a human life with all its twists and turns. I know there are many ways to respond to the tragedy that they are participating in, but hatred is not the way.

As with all things, the decision to maginalize, or to include, is a choice we have. No outer circumstance can force us to forget our commonality; we decide that for ourselves. As for myself, I know for sure that I want a life that is filled with joy and peace and which aspires to find the end to conflict, both in the world and in myself. Only by each of us making that choice in each moment and in each encounter will the war-ravaged world we live in be transformed. 

Hmm, better to dance than hate, wouldn’t you say!