Polls show we are seriously concerned about the degradation of our environment and general quality of life, yet are mostly unwilling to make present sacrifices; we abhor the polarisation of politics, yet continually participate in that process. This reflects widespread, paralysing Disconnect and Conflict in the face of urgent, unprecedented human challenges. Here are two important, yet largely ignored causes:

• We suffer from a sense of insufficiency – not enough money or time – so feel we cannot afford/ don’t want to think about the future or about “bigger” issues, but just cope and get by in our cocooned world. Three points to ponder. Firstly, we actually enjoy far more material wealth than our ancestors and in North America, we are wealthier than those in most other countries. So “insufficiency” is relative and created by our desires and expectations..which we can change. Secondly, if our work environment seems soulless and if job security is minimal, we should be aware that we have helped create it through our votes and our purchases.  If we don’t think about changing this situation (a “big” issue), it will stay on the same path, with the gap between the 1% and 99% rapidly increasing. Thirdly, are we ever really “cocooned”, isolated and insulated from the rest of the world?
• We are confused and conflicted about who “we” are… and on the individual level who our “I” is (since the “We” is just our collective “I”).  Contrary to what we generally believe, the “I” and “We” are not stable, unchanging entities, but more like a container for many roles and personae, each of which is changing constantly. At different times, “We” may mean our country, ethnic group, race, religion, ideology, Western/ Eastern, and more.  Some of these roles may be in conflict with others. We generally treat life as a series of either-or decisions, without realizing that decisions could actually be both-and!  For example, you could choose to give up chasing the “dream/ cutting edge” mansion, cars, bling, vacations and retirement portfolio and switch to a job and lifestyle which pay less, but is enjoyable, fulfilling, healthier and maybe more environmentally-friendly.  Even staying in the same jobs, we could choose to take less pay and enjoy more holiday or family time, perhaps sharing our jobs with those presently unemployed. In both examples, you are making decisions which in a real way benefit you as well as others, rather than trying to hoard the most $ for yourself….which research shows doesn’t necessarily make us happier.

While a common knee-jerk reaction may be to dismiss the above as mere woolly-headed idealism, far removed from “reality”, it may indeed point to quite the opposite – the fact that our present culture and belief systems tend to make us see “reality” in an overly materialistic sense, which is historically, logically and factually limited. Science and technology can’t solve all our problems, because most of our problems are in our heads and hearts (we have enough resources to feed and house the whole  global population!), and concern our sense of self (“I”) and its relationship with the “outside” world, which our parenting and education system rarely investigate in a meaningful and profound way. This is a profound Gap or Disconnect, which is reflected in our collective lives. If we haven’t investigated who we really are, what will make us really happy and how we can achieve this in a world of people who want the same thing, how can we make logical decisions? The present Free Market ideology is just that – a notion that an unregulated Free Market will solve all problems… not dissimilar from Communism or many popular religions or demagogues.  There is no simplistic and simple solution!!
Understanding who “I” and “We” really are, why we constantly feel not having or being enough (and more!) are part of humanity’s ageless, spiritual and philosophical challenge. What sets us apart from the rest of history is that we have so amped up our scientific and technological powers, we are capable of destroying global civilisation.  We have concentrated on increasing our Power but have neglected investigating the User of that Power – you and I. We are in a Karmic crisis of our own making…and must work it out one way or another. There is a way and it starts here and now! It’s simple, but not simplistic and certainly not easy…but it is a Way.  The Dao De Jing reminds us that the Thousand Mile Journey is travelled one step at a time.  Learn to take care of the present moment…and the next and next… and we will arrive!

A recent Time mag cover story “Rethinking Heaven” gives me hope that serious inquiry into religious belief may yet enter into the popular media. I think this is important because although “hard-headed” topics like the “economy”, “terrorists”, “rogue states” like Iran or North Korea may dominate our conscious thinking and choices, religious and other core beliefs (mostly unexamined and unconscious) have been shown to be consistent, powerful factors in our decision making.
The gist of the Time article (by Jon Meacham) is that while most American Christians think of Heaven as an afterlife reward for “devout”, “true” etc. Christians, there is persuasive and growing biblical scholarship which contends Jesus preached about a Heaven on Earth.. heaven as transforming and improving the way we live our lives here and now….with more “heavenly” compassion, charity and love. So getting to Heaven is actually a project we can achieve or contribute to before we die..in fact, here and now.

Since 85% of all Americans believe in some sort of after-life, a shift in how we think of heaven can have profound and widespread repercussions in how we live our everyday lives. If, for example, we think that Armageddon or the Day of Judgement is approaching or that we will be rewarded in heaven for killing the enemies of our religion, we won’t care much for the obvious, pressing, human challenges – disease, poverty, slavery, torture, the abused environment (of which we are in integral part) and more. On the other hand, if we think that Heaven and Hell are actually states of mind we are experiencing day-to-day, it would lead to lots more personal introspection and transformation and lots more care for the “external” world – other people, animals, trees, the oceans and rivers etc.
It occurs to me that even if there is some sort of after-life which includes various dimensions of heaven and hell, will our challenge not still remain “How do I respond here and now?” Will be then not need what we need here on Earth – clarity, compassion and an understanding of how we connect to our environment, whether heavenly or hellish? Won’t “heaven” and “hell” exist in our (after-life) consciousness, just as it exists in our present consciousness? In short, perhaps our notion of the Future (our projection of our Past experiences) is no escape from the demanding challenges of the ever-present Now? We cannot respond in the Past or Future, but only Now. Unfortunately, most of the time for most of us, our minds and consciousness are rarely in the Now…..and so bad things often happen…and keep on happening!

How do I (consciously and fully aware)respond now?” is a fundamental question which is related to other fundamental questions, which are not routinely asked in westernized, economically advanced cultures including, “Who am I?”..apart from the ever-changing identification of name, body, role (whether professional, religious, familial etc). “Am I really separate from God or are God and I intimately related and if so, in what ways?” These questions are designed to go beyond the usual, knee-jerk beliefs of “This is my view of God, which is the right view and which I will stick to and even die for”. The tenacity and commitment of such views is to be admired (and which North Americans admire), but what if you are wrong? What if you dig your chosen hole ever deeper with ever more energy…but the hole is in the “wrong” place?

To come to clarity and compassion, which are the elements of Enlightenment (in both Eastern and Western mystical traditions), we have to truly open our Hearts and Minds and Inquire…which means putting on the table/ chopping block all our treasured core beliefs. If you core beliefs are so obviously “true”, why shouldn’t you put them up for scrutiny?

Dealing with Death and Loss
While leading a meditation retreat last weekend, 2 deaths rocked many of those close to me and me also.  They were both sudden and unexpected and one was extremely violent and horrendous. These occurrences meshed with what we were inquiring into during the retreat - the fact of constant change and insubstantiality, despite our widespread hope/ presumption of permanence and solidity. Change is the constant rather than the aberration, as the Buddha pointed out 2500 years ago. He concluded that we suffer because we are attached…we want to hold on to that which is ever slipping through our fingers like water or sand. Modern science tells us that seemingly solid entities like cells, molecules and atoms, are always vibrating and changing, containing a good dose of emptiness/ space!

The commonly recognized Five Stages of grief/ loss/ dying are 1. Denial  (I feel fine) 2. Anger (Why me?) 3. Bargaining (with God, with the Powers that Be)   4. Depression   5. Acceptance.  It is possible to get stuck in a particular stage, without ever progressing to final Acceptance. These Five Stages were identified by the psychiatrist, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.
The final Kubler-Ross stage, Acceptance, is what the Buddha has advocated (non-attachment) in each moment, whether seemingly positive or negative, and it is the goal of Buddhist meditation…awareness and non-attachment in each present moment.  It does not have to be a grand “tragedy/ loss” as defined by society – death, divorce, job loss, serious illness etc -, but it can be something as simple as an insult or snub, whether real or imagined.  Acceptance does not mean condoning or justifying what has happened, but acknowledging the fact that it has happened.  The challenge is then how to respond in the next moment…and the next ongoing. If we are caught in denial, anger, bargaining, depression and more, we will not have the necessary clarity and compassion to make the right decision in the present moment, since we will be reacting rather than appropriately acting.

Some thoughts regarding death and loss:

Our next meditation retreat is April 27-29. See www.harmonydawn.com and www.powerofbalance.com

What does thinking outside the box mean - generally and as regards the specific, important issues of our times?  To me, the “box” as popularly used means not only our collective suppositions and conditioned patterns (nationality, culture, religion, ideology, political party, economic system etc), but also our individual ones, which could include “sacred cow”/ untouchable ones like religious belief, family dynamics and our presumed unique “personality”.  The Buddha taught that the more we are attached, the more we suffer because life is continually changing and insubstantial..not solid or graspable.  Compulsive, conditioned patterns (The Box) are attachment and we seem to be suffering more as technology speeds up societal change, giving us ever more powerful weapons and tools, while our rigidity, “stuckness” or just plain, lazy inertia prevents us from rising to the challenge/ crisis of change, keeping us stuck in the past.  We generally err on the side of doing nothing, which often means doing the same, even if it hasn’t worked in the past.  Some crude analogies:  a child with a loaded gun or the ability to simply press the atomic doomsday button.  If the latter analogy seems excessive, think of the American presidents capable of pressing The Button and think of their (immature) emotional and mental states!

What elements make up our current “Box”?  Much of it is still determined by the Bush-Cheney administration, which was demonstrably catastrophic in terms on money spent, lives lost, corporate excess, “Big Government” expenditure and of course one of the worst recessions ever.  The much-maligned Democrat Bill Clinton actually passed on a budget surplus and healthy American economy to George W. Bush. Here are some major Box building blocks for North Americans:

The good news is that we can change sufficiently to be able to think Outside of the Box, but It’s probably not in our parental upbringing or in our formal education.  To think outside of the Box, you have to transcend your own internal software, which is your belief system and  stereotypes– personality, gender, race, religion, culture etc. If you see no reason to transcend any of these (as yet, especially if young), then you will be in the Box, even if you think your own particular box is hip, cutting edge etc.  A Box is confined and predictable.
Questions, comments and disagreement are welcome.  Email me via www.powerofbalance.com, www.harmonydawn.com or www.andyjames.ca. 

Recently, “Zen” seems to have entered every day speech as in, “Being Zen” about this or that, having a “Zen moment”, trying to “Get Zen”, “Dogs being Zen” etc. The latter struck a cord with me because I have an 18- month old dog, Rosie, whose consciousness is changing daily. Also I have been teaching Buddhist meditation for 28 years and practising for 38 years, so Zen, a Chinese form of Buddhism, is one of my long-standing subjects of study and wonderment.

Words and concepts are treasures, but popular culture (especially the marketers/ spinners) has an unfortunate tendency of devaluing them through misuse and /or overuse. Prominent word victims include Love, Yin-yang, Enlightenment, Freedom, Meditation, Elite, Socialist etc. People routinely use any of these words to sell or demean. So here are a few thoughts on Zen before it too gets Yin-yanged.

Thumbnail History: Zen is an unique Chinese form of Buddhism which arose around 500 CE, about 1000 years after the original Buddha (Siddartha) taught in India. Focusing on “direct transmission”, often to the detriment of book-learning and tradition, Zen was originally quirky and unpredictable, reflecting many of the characteristics of Daoism, which is one of the three philosophical pillars of China…together with Confucianism and later, Buddhism (non-native) itself. Zen is actually a Japanese term for the Chinese “Chan”, which in turn is an attempt to pronounce the Indian “dhyana”, meaning Penetrating Wisdom, necessary for Enlightenment. Another ultra-cool fact about “Chan” is that it originated in an obscure monastery in the heartlands of China, called Shaolin…which also gave rise to the martial tradition that influenced martial arts all over the Far East- Korea, Okinawa, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan etc. The currently popular, Ultimate Fighting Challenge (UFC) franchise may be seen as a crude, renegade descendant of the Shaolin Temple. If you want reasons and explanations, please feel free to ask.

So how does this relate to Zen and Dogs? It seems to me that when people colloquially use the word “Zen”, they are usually describing a vague state of consciousness. Most are probably ignorant of the fact that the Perennial or Ageless Wisdom spiritual traditions and modern philosophers like Ken Wilber describe different levels of consciousness in detail. For example, in Hinduism, the various chakras or energy centres are also describing levels of consciousness – from the lower like survival and procreation to emotions and relationships and to thinking mind. Chakras can also be trans-personal…beyond the individual. The human consciousness challenge is not only to reach higher than conventional levels of consciousness, but to healthily balance and integrate all levels (wonder why sex is such an obsession?).
Dogs are not in a Zen state, but a more natural, instinctive state, somewhat similar to a human baby or toddler..except of course they have mature physical functioning. Although dogs are bred to try to understand and integrate with humans, they are animals. Accepting something is not necessarily being “zen” with it unless the acceptance is unconditional and total; a “zen” moment is not just the relative absence of stress or busyness.

Zen is an ongoing process of consciousness development, the goal of which is enlightenment. Thus it is very unlikely that you can go away for a weekend or read a book and “get zen”. Zen and Buddhism is a way of life that brings awareness, clarity and compassion into the present moment, which is our only opportunity to act. We think about the past and future constantly, but we are only ever in the Now. Buddhist Meditation is about staying in the present moment and experiencing the radical transformation which that shift can bring. It is simple and necessary, but not easy. It take perseverance, courage, humility and surrender.

I have two meditation retreats coming up in April – 13th-15th and 27th-29th. See www.powerofbalance.com or www.harmonydawn.com