Question

Why do we use our beliefs to excuse bad behavior instead of as inspiration to do better?

Not all people make this choice. For those that do, I believe it has a lot to do with their fear of what is within their own being. Rather than look inward and take responsibility for what they have done, many instead look for an external scapegoat to avoid responsibility for their actions. While there are certain environmental and external factors that contribute to scapegoating, it is ultimately one’s own decision in succumbing to bad behavior and then deflecting responsibility externally. The belief system is inconsequential because it is just a guise to cover up responsibility.

If I Woke Up All-Powerful…

If you woke up one morning and realized you were all-powerful, what is the first thing you would do?

Every morning that I wake up, I realize that I am all-powerful. This power is not the ability to do anything I can imagine, like commanding my physical body fly to the moon and it actually happening. Rather, this power is knowledge—of the surrounding world and of my being. This knowledge power can be applied in many different ways.

• In any given situation, I have a number of choices and viewpoints to consider and I am free to make whatever choice I desire.
• I can choose to not have regret about the past and worry about the future. I am free to live here and now, where life can be fully enjoyed.
• I can be in balance in terms of the emotional and logical continuum. Emotions do not run my life, and I am not paralyzed by logic.
• Negative situations can be turned into positive learning experiences when I change how I think and see them.

The power gained from knowledge helps make me a free being. No longer am helpless in situations (often created in part by me). I know what to choose and if I do not know, I can find out.

For me, this power is cultivated in meditation, prayer, and study. These three help me see and become awake in the present reality.

My Dream Job

What is your dream job? Do you think you’ll ever have it?

I know I am on the right path (holistic medicine) when I open my textbooks and see all of the writers and thinkers I read on a regular basis.

Parker Palmer

Karen Armstrong

Ken Wilbur

Jiddu Krishnamurti

D.T. Suzuki

Thich Nhat Hanh

These people are among a larger body of work that has helped shape the person I am today. Now, I am going to use what I have learned and experienced personally to help others become healthy. This path has taken a long time to find and I have traveled on many detours. The road is now beginning to straighten and traveling is much easier now.

School and Flow

This pile of books is the result of changing my mind and following a different course of action. Last year at this time, I was entering seminary to study church history. I thought this was the proper course of action and yet once I was into the program, nothing was clicking. What happened was that I failed to allow myself time to let the right path unveil itself. Instead, I forced the issue and tried to make something work that was not going to work (square peg into a round hole syndrome). My philosophy, theology, and spirituality simply did not mesh with obtaining a Master’s Degree in a strictly Christian environment.

So rather than continue to force the issue, I abruptly abandoned my seminary education. I did not know what I was going to do or where I was going. However, I gave myself permission and freed myself from my own self-built problem.

Now I am on the cusp of beginning again. I am starting a program that is truly the right fit and am working with the flow rather than against it. I have finally found my vocation.

Naming Infinity

A few months ago, I had a dream that led me to start thinking about the religious, spiritual, and philosophical significance regarding the mathematical concept of infinity. Combining this with my never-ending interest in Russian and Soviet history and culture, Naming Infinity would seem like a perfect book for me. Just released in March, Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor’s book was supposed to tell a true story of religious mysticism and mathematical creativity.

The authors of this book wanted to convey the idea “that a religious heresy [Name Worshipping] was instrumental in helping the birth of a new field of modern mathematics [set theory]” (5). What the book actually contained was a thorough history of early twentieth-century Russian mathematics through three people—Dimitri Egorov, Pavel Florensky, & Nikolai Luzin—who happened to be religious and were involved in the Name Worshiping religious ideology. Readers of J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey were given a glimpse of what Name Worshipping is about through Franny’s involvement with the Jesus Prayer and the Russian mystical classic The Way of a Pilgrim (13). There was very little examination of Name Worshipping and analysis of the religious beliefs and mystical experiences of these three mathematicians or of any mathematicians in general in this book. Religion, spirituality, and mysticism were treated as a secondary trait of these scholars, reduced to a role of classification and identification, and not fully investigated by the authors.

Naming Infinity is really a history book that touches briefly on the math philosophies of these three Russians and the differences between Russian, French, and German philosophies of that time. These philosophies are interesting and helped me think and learn about some of the history behind the concept of infinity. However, I was looking specifically for the mystical connection that was not there. The history drowned this out and only left us with this short attempt at a connection between the math and mysticism.

It is not necessary to resolve the ultimate problems in the philosophy of mathematics in order to see that Name Worshipping—a religious viewpoint regarded as heresy by the Russian Orthodox Church and condemned by the Communist Party as a reactionary cult—influenced the emergence of a new movement in modern mathematics. In contrast to the French leaders in set theory, the Russians were much bolder in embracing such concepts and non-denumerable transfinite numbers. While the French were constrained by their rationalism, the Russians were energized by their mystical faith. Just as the Russian Name Worshippers could “name God,” they could also “name infinities,” and they saw a strong analogy in the ways in which both operations were accomplished. A comparison of the predominant French and Russian attitudes toward set theory illustrates an interesting aspect of science: if science becomes too cut-and-dried, too rationalistic, this can slow down its adherents, impeding imaginative leaps. (189-190)

No Death, No Fear

Thich Nhat Hanh’s 2003 book No Death, No Fear is another in a long series of spiritual classics by the Buddhist monk. I have nothing negative to say about this book and can only offer four passages that show the essence of this book.

There’s a very funny story in the sutras. A woman left a saucepan of milk with her neighbor, saying: “Please keep it for me; I shall come back in two or three days.” There was no refrigeration, so the milk curdled and became a kind of cheese. When the woman came back she said: “Where’s my milk? I left milk behind, not cheese, so this is not my milk here.” The Buddha said that this person had not understood impermanence. Milk will become yogurt or cheese if you leave it for a few days. The person wanted only the milk of five days ago and refused to take the cheese. Do you think that milk and cheese are the same or different? They are neither the same nor different, but it takes several days for the milk to become cheese. With the insight if impermanence we can see the truth about the universe and all phenomena, the true nature of being neither the same nor different. (76)

The impermanence of all things is a critical understanding on one’s spiritual journey. Once a person learns how to look deeply and see the impermanence in everything, the fear and sorrow often associated with death dissipates. Seeing this impermanence also shows one how everything is both real and not real.

When the Buddha was asked, “What is the cause of everything?” he answered with simple words. He said, “This is, because that is.” It means that everything relies on everything else in order to manifest. A flower has to rely on non-flower elements in order to manifest. If you look deeply into the flower, you can recognize non-flower elements. Looking into the flower, you recognize the element sunshine; that is a non-flower element. Without sunshine, a flower cannot manifest. Other elements are essential, such as minerals, soil, the farmer and so on; a multitude of non-flower elements has come together in order to help the flower manifest. (35-36)

Hanh prefers to use the word manifestation instead of creation. Manifestation implies a transition from one form to another, whereas creation indicates something coming from nothing. Mindfulness involves looking at how everything manifests, including issues in both the physical and psychological realms. For example, people who suffer from a victim mentality can often work through their suffering when they realize how their issues are manifested in part by the decisions and choices they make.

Sooner or later the cloud will change into rain or snow or ice. If you look deeply into the rain, you can see the cloud. The cloud is not lost; it is transformed into rain, and the rain is transformed into grass and the grass into cows and then to milk and then into the ice cream you eat. Today if you eat an ice cream, give yourself time to look at the ice cream and say: “Hello, cloud! I recognize you.” By doing that, you have insight and understanding into the real nature of the ice cream and the cloud. You can also see the ocean, the river, the heat, the sun, the grass and the cow in the ice cream. (25-26)

This is an example of how to look mindfully into something. This practice can be done for anything.

We can use an example that is easy to understand, of a tangerine or a durian fruit. If there is a person who has never eaten a tangerine or durian fruit, however many images or metaphors you give him, you cannot describe to him the reality of those fruits. You can only do one thing: give him a direct experience. You cannot say: “Well, the durian is a little like the jackfruit or like a papaya.” You cannot say anything that will describe the experience of a durian fruit. The durian fruit goes beyond all ideas and notions. The same is true of a tangerine. If you have never eaten a tangerine, however much the other person loves you and wants to help you understand what a tangerine tastes like, they will never succeed by describing it. The reality of the tangerine goes beyond ideas. Nirvana is the same; it is the reality that goes beyond ideas. It is because we have ideas about nirvana that we suffer. Direct experience is the only way. (16)

Those of us that have had spiritual and mystical experiences know how difficult it is to describe them to non-spiritual people. Heck, it is hard for even spiritual people to convey the experience to other spiritual people. Spiritual and mystical encounters go beyond ideas and notions, including logic. This is why arguing about spirituality with a logician is fruitless and is often only an exercise in stroking egos.

However, this talk of direct experience goes beyond religion and spirituality. For example, my son and I can sit next to each other on the couch and look at the same cup sitting on a table and be looking at both the same cup and a different cup. This is because our experiences, although the same regarding the general viewing of a cup, are also different. Not only do we see the cup from different angles, but we also bring different biological, psychological, social, and spiritual frameworks to the cup viewing. We can also consider the properties of the cup itself: how the light hitting the cup is constantly changing, how the material that the cup itself is made from is slowly changing, the changing properties of the table it is sitting on, etc. It is impossible for him to see the cup as I do and vice-versa. It is also impossible for either one of us to see the cup the same as the moment in the time that just passed. Since we are constantly seeing different cups, it is impossible to either prove or disprove our experience or the existence of the cup itself.

Thich Nhat Hanh’s books constantly earn my coveted 5-Star Rating because they cultivate this type of thought and reflection.

Krishnamurti: “I don’t mind what happens.”

In his book A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle quoted Krishnamurti talking about his secret, the essence of his life’s teaching: “I don’t mind what happens” (198).

This is essential practice for one to deal with suffering. Eventually, through an awakening helped by study and meditation, one can see the causes of suffering for what they are in the present reality. Once this happens, the need to cling to these causes of suffering dissipates.

Matthew 5:38-42

You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on (your) right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.

It takes radical and complete faith to completely adopt the teaching Jesus is offering here. This faith comes from a person not minding what happens. For example, since I don’t cling to a belief of revenge or retaliation, I don’t mind offering both sides of my face to my attacker. Again, since I don’t cling to possessions, I don’t mind if they are taken from me.

Father’s Day

What is the most valuable lesson your father taught you? Bonus points if you show us your dad.

My father taught me many valuable lessons, too numerous to list here and all are too valuable to rank. These lessons are valuable in shaping the father I am today. Realizing that fatherhood is a full-time and lifelong job, I constantly think about what I say and how I present myself to the children. Everyday, I am setting an example of how a father operates in the world and I need to do my best to set a good example, based on how the fathers in my life have operated.

Father’s Day is also a good time to consider one of the simplest and most powerful prayer one can meditate on.

Matthew 6:7-15 (NAB)

In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one. If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.

Today is also the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. The Northern Hemisphere has reached its maximum tilt angle toward the sun, meaning the length and intensity of the sun’s light is at their peak today. As Jesus said in the passage below, we are all sources of light. Like the seasons, the intensity of our light varies and clouds occasionally obscure that light. However, we can take a lesson from the sun and be a consistent and quality supplier of light and energy for others (including ourselves).

Matthew 5:13-16 (NAB)

You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.

Biggest Obstacle in the Last 24 Hours

What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve had to overcome within the last 24 hours?

By effort and heedfulness,
discipline and self-mastery,
let the wise one make for oneself
an island which no flood can overwhelm.

Dhammapada 2.25

If you are looking for obstacles, they will appear. If you change your thinking and become wise and balanced through study and meditation, the impact of these obstacles is reduced. Eventually, they no longer are obstacles and become events that no longer oppose, stand in the way, or hold up progress.

The Nicomachean Ethics

Reading Aristotle’s The Nicomachean Ethics reminded me of a recent training I conducted at work. I teach a simplified form of process development in a culture that propagates making easy processes difficult.

•    Ben: Using this method of process development, you only need to monitor these four parameters: cycle time, fill time, first stage pressure, and second stage pressure.
•    Technician: The machine gives you over fifty parameters to monitor and if you can correlate those with your defects, you can see what is going wrong in the process.
•    Ben: If you simplify your process, you do not need to go through fifty parameters to find your problem; you only need to look at four.
•    Technician: So what do we do with the other 46?
•    Ben: Ignore them. Just because they are there does not mean you need to use them.

The Nicomachean Ethics is a lot like this: needlessly making something simple unnecessarily complex. Now, I do recognize the age of this material and the historical context from which it derives. I do have the advantage of learning from sources not available to the Greeks of antiquity. However, this book is considered to be a bedrock of philosophy here in our postmodern world and I cannot help but think this might be a source of a big problem facing us today: making seemingly simple ideas and things needlessly complex.

Aristotle’s main idea is this: “Thus a master of any art avoids excess and defect, but seeks the intermediate and chooses this—the intermediate not in the object but relatively to us” (37). Moderation is a virtuous and ethical route for a person to take. This revelation from Aristotle is fine and earth shattering enough on its own and he could have left it at that. However, in his desire to be all things to all people (my interpretation), Aristotle decided to apply this teaching to a wide-ranging swath of human existence—goodness for man, moral virtue, intellectual virtue, friendship, and pleasure—and attempted to explain how we ought to live in these realms. Think if it as a philosophical micro managing of human experience.

The product of this application is a work that reads like the stereo instructions of human experience.

Acts just and unjust bring as we have described them, a man acts unjustly or justly whenever he does such acts voluntarily; when involuntarily, he acts neither unjustly nor justly except in an incidental way; for he does things which happen to be just or unjust. (125)

This is the soul of The Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle used language like this to explain this doctrine of seeking the intermediate route. While I think it may have served its purpose back in the day, I think it may have been detrimental to human existence over the ages. Rather than simply allow the main idea to stand on its own, Aristotle set a precedent for humans to overanalyze most everything they experience. While I understand the reality that there are complex things in the world, the inability for many people to either see simplicity or strive for simplification is worrisome. In my opinion, it makes human experience much more difficult than it needs to be.

I am reminded of my astronomy, where I learned of William of Ockham and his razor: “Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.” This idea is also seen in this saying, often attributed to Einstein: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”