For the Sake of Alliteration...

Christian Mingle needs to change its name to Christian Couples. That would open the door for Muslim Mingle, to be followed by Buddhist Bonding, Hindu Hookups, and so forth.

;)

It Lies within Our Power

Ending Gun Violence in America

I recommend meditating for at least twenty minutes before reading or watching the news. It simply contains too many psychic toxins to approach it without centering and calming yourself first. Watching news reports (or worse, political debates) without meditating can be the emotional equivalent of knocking over a wasp’s nest without first putting on protective clothing.

Here in the nation’s capital, another unhinged person with a gun; another ideologically-motivated shooting. Mitt Romney is “appalled.” President Obama says that “violence has no place in our society.” But it is not enough to be appalled, and gun violence is in fact woven into the very fabric of American society. The presumptive Republican nominee for the presidency is beholden to the NRA's agenda, and our sitting president has no substantive plan for getting guns off the streets (or at least out of the hands of the mentally unstable).

In Washington, DC we have a volatile mix: freedom of expression (a good thing), the convergence of widely divergent ideologies (a neutral thing), and absurdly easy access to firearms (in my view, a decidedly bad thing). The first (free speech) is something most of us cherish and wish to preserve; the second, an inevitable part of life in the most politically-charged environment in the Western world. That leaves the third thing: the fact that buying and walking around with a deadly weapon here is a ridiculously easy thing to do. Given the incredible damage this ease-of-access does in this country, you’d think a comprehensive plan to change it would be a no-brainer. You’d be wrong.

This time, it happened to be a deranged individual driven to shoot by the vitriol of the Family Research Council, an organization that seems driven not only to block gay and lesbian people from marrying, but from even existing. Of course, that’s not an excuse for reacting violently. Nevertheless, long periods of verbal violence almost always result in its physical expression.

Fortunately, the LGBT community released a statement deploring the gunman’s actions immediately after the incident: http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/joint-statement-from-lgbt-organizations-on-frc-shooting. By standing in solidarity with an organization that makes no secret of its fundamental enmity toward them, this coalition of organizations is following the teachings of great spiritual leaders like the Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, Mahatma Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King. The Buddha taught,

      “Hatred does not cease by hatred; by love alone does it cease.” *

And Jesus of Nazareth:

      "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” **

Next time, it may be an individual inspired by heated anti-choice rhetoric to shoot a doctor; or a religious radical driven by “holy war” mentality; or simply another disaffected high school or college student. It’s all domestic terrorism, and I would suggest that it’s more of a problem than anything we face from abroad. These perpetrators of gun violence all have at least two things in common: 1) They are sufficiently unbalanced to maim and kill for their cause; and, 2) They live in a country in which buying a gun is often as easy as obtaining a driver’s license. The latter fact is itself a form of madness; it can be successfully countered only by a groundswell of radically awake and aware citizens who are devoted to peace.

There’s a movement going on right now called “Demand a Plan;” it’s a petition of American citizens to both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to create a substantive plan for ending gun violence in the United States. It makes the sobering point that, during the next presidential term, some 48,000 people in this country will lose their lives to gunfire. If you’re sickened by turning on the news and hearing about the shooting du jour, I encourage you to sign up here: www.DemandAPlan.org.

Sanity has to prevail. We need a mindfulness revolution, an ahimsa (non-harming) movement strong enough to counter the powerful gun lobby and the vested interests that support it. We will have to be careful to approach this project with the energy of mindfulness rather than the energy of warfare. If we come at it in a combative way, we will have already capitulated to those devoted to perpetuating a violent atmosphere. 

It does lie within our power to end gun violence in America. Mindfulness and peaceful action will enable us to achieve this realistic and highly worthwhile goal.



WKF


www.DemandAPlan.org

* The Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha, © 1976 by Thomas Byrom
** Matthew 5:44, NIV, © 2008


Copyright © 2012 by William K. Ferro
All rights reserved

The Anti-Meditation

Choosing Health over Poison

I used to be a smoker. In fact, I continued smoking for quite awhile after beginning a yoga and meditation practice. Madness, I know. Cigarette smoke contains too many deadly toxins to count; smoking is a very good—albeit slow—way of killing yourself. So why did I continue doing it for so long, even after starting a regular meditation practice?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention place nicotine (along with the chemical compounds that constitute cigarette “tar”) close to the top of its “most addictive substances” list. It’s right up there with heroin and cocaine! It’s also no secret that cigarette manufacturers have worked on the formula over the past several decades to make their products ever more addictive. The addition of things like ammonia—and chemicals to prevent cigarettes from burning out between drags—has made cigarettes among the most addictive substances on the planet. People who smoke are drug addicts, whether they choose to see themselves that way or not.

Smoking is viewed as anathema in yoga, meditation, and holistic living circles, and with good reason. Since focus on the breath is so central to these practices, the habitual inhalation of toxic fumes represents their antithesis. You might even say that smoking is “The Anti-Meditation.”

Interestingly, neurologists have discovered that tobacco smoke has a fascinating effect on the human nervous system: it tends to provide the release that the brain craves, whatever that may be. If you’re feeling listless and lacking in energy, smoking can make you feel alert. If you’re overstressed, it can make you feel relaxed. These effects make nicotine unique among drugs: it literally affects the human brain in contrary ways depending on the need of the moment. Hence its insidiousness as an addictive drug.

Once the brain has habituated to nicotine’s effects, it seeks them again and again on a biochemical level. This is the so-called “hijacked brain” effect common to all addictions. The brain becomes convinced it cannot function without the chemical “hit” it has become accustomed to. There is also a strong psychological component to nicotine addiction. Smokers tend to associate the whole smoking ritual—opening the pack, lighting up, taking the first drag, and so on—with feelings of well-being and calm. (It’s a lie, of course; well-being is actually the last thing that smoking induces.) A wise counselor once told me when I was still smoking, “Don’t be fooled; smoking will kill you, one way or another. If you’re not killed suddenly by a heart attack or stroke, you’ll suffer a lingering death from lung cancer or COPD.” Wise words-- which I nonetheless ignored for far too long.

Thich Nhat Hahn proved—once again—to be the source of wisdom that finally changed my behavior. In one of his articles, he states the following:

Not all internal formations are unpleasant. There are also pleasant internal formations, but they can still make us suffer. When you taste, hear or see something pleasant, then that pleasure can become a strong internal knot. When the object of your pleasure disappears, you miss it and you begin searching for it. You spend a lot of time and energy trying to experience it again. If you smoke or drink alcohol and begin to like it, then it becomes an internal formation in your body and in your mind. You cannot get it off your mind. You will always look for more. The strength of the internal knot is pushing you and controlling you. So internal formations deprive us of our freedom.*

I was helped a great deal by Nhat Hahn’s Fifth Mindfulness Training, which reads as follows:

Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I will practice looking deeply into how I consume the Four Kinds of Nutriments, namely edible foods, sense impressions, volition, and consciousness. I am determined not to…use alcohol, drugs, or any other products which contain toxins…I will practice coming back to the present moment to be in touch with the refreshing, healing and nourishing elements in me and around me, not letting regrets and sorrow drag me back into the past nor letting anxieties, fear, or craving pull me out of the present moment. **

The solution to nicotine addiction was, for me at least, a long period of extended meditation on this mindfulness training, along with aspects of the First:

Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivating the insight of interbeing and compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to support any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, or in my way of life…**

When I came to see smoking as the antithesis of nonviolence—when I fully internalized that truth—giving up smoking became inevitable. To harm and kill is antithetical to the ahimsa principle, including when the recipient of that harm is oneself. In time, I came to realize that I could no longer reconcile such an act of self-hostility with a lifestyle of nonviolence. If I was willing to harm myself in such a fundamental way, harming others was a very short trip away. I gave it up for good.

Now, when the urge to smoke comes (usually in response to strong emotions such as anger, grief, and jealousy), I use the following gatha until the craving subsides:

Breathing in, I am aware of a strong desire to smoke.
Breathing out, I smile to my craving.
Breathing in, I know I can handle these emotions without a cigarette.
Breathing out, I release my craving.

This is what works for me. Breathing deeply in full awareness, I am reminded of how precious it is to be able to breathe freely. Meditating on dissolving the internal formation—the inner “knot” of craving—helps me past the immediacy of the urge. Whatever methods work for you to stop self-destructive habits like smoking and other acts of self-poisoning, I encourage you to employ them. Such positive self-control is foundational to mental and physical health, to a lifestyle of health and sustainability. Without it, we are not free; we become slaves to whatever craving happens to drive us in any given moment. Clearly, living in such an unmindful state, we can do a lot of damage, both to ourselves and others.

* http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1756
** The Five Mindfulness Trainings by Thich Nhat Hahn, http://www.plumvillage.org/mindfulness-trainings/3-the-five-mindfulness-trainings.html.

Copyright © 2012 by William K. Ferro
All rights reserved



Self-Transformation

Through the Ahimsa Principle

During the Axial Age in India, yogis began to cultivate methods to achieve self-transcendence and enlightenment. One of the principles they developed toward this end, ahimsa, would become foundational to Indian thought. The word means “non-harming;” these ancient truth-seekers understood that the first step toward transcending the limited self (with all its “me-first” demands) was to commit to causing no harm to any sentient being. That included the practitioner himself, other persons, and also animals—any being that was sentient and able to feel pain. The idea was that, since all livings beings naturally seek happiness and avoid suffering, to cause suffering in another being was antithetical to the spiritual quest. As a result, these yogis were usually vegetarians; they also believed that certain occupations (such as soldier, executioner, or butcher) were out of the question for the serious spiritual seeker. The taking of life—including the life of an animal—was considered the ultimate offense against the ahimsa principle.

Postmodern spiritual seekers have rediscovered and reinterpreted this concept. We understand that harm can be done simply through thought, attitude, and word. Realizing that careless and cavalier comments about the taking of life put us at cross-purposes with the enlightenment we seek, we cannot afford to be dismissive about such topics as warfare, torture, and the destruction of species. Even if we no longer share the ancients’ view that an animal we meet in the street might be the reincarnation of a loved one, we must not condone any form of animal cruelty. Simply by failing to be mindful about barbaric practices, we can tacitly and unwittingly give them our approval. If we are serious about cultivating ahimsa, we will be mindful of those who profit from the misery of war, and adjust our purchasing and voting habits accordingly. Those of us who are omnivores will cultivate awareness of how the animals that make up our diets are treated. Are they cramped together in unnatural, terrifying conditions, or allowed to roam freely? As Thich Nhat Hanh teaches, if we consume animals that have been treated inhumanely, we consume their terror and pain. Everything we take into our bodies affects our mind, our whole being. Mindfulness is definitely required.

When my country sank deep into the abyss of its post-911 madness, I was shocked and horrified to hear perfectly respectable, civilized adults debating the finer points of torture. Astonishingly, some of those individuals had the title “Reverend” in front of their names. After my government cynically used the completely understandable anger and outrage of the populace as a launching pad for wars of opportunity, I found it very difficult not to respond with the energy of anger. It took a long time, and a great deal of meditation, to learn to resist with the energy of love. I was helped by the Buddha’s simple prescription in the Dhammapada: “Hatred does not cease by hatred; by love alone does it cease.” As my country enters its 12th year of unceasing warfare, it is more important than ever that this idea penetrate the consciousness of as many people as possible.

A deep commitment to ahimsa enables us to respond to unenlightened attitudes and behavior without malice. If we respond without such a commitment, we will simply add fuel to the fire. I’m reminded of a video I saw once of a peace demonstrator banging a counter-demonstrator over the head with his “Make Love, Not War” sign! Without the energy of mindfulness, any one of us can easily fall into such embarrassing, self-defeating traps.

Radical self-transformation is indeed possible through the practice of ahimsa. It starts with a non-harming attitude toward oneself, and then radiates outward. Mindfulness is the key; yoga and

meditation are the tools.

Copyright 2012 by William K. Ferro

All rights reserved

The Muses

My muses are the brother-and-sister team of Pepe Miguel and Polly Rae. They have both logged an impressive number of hours at my side, and rightly claim the credit for inspiring some of my best work.

Cheers,

WKF