“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” – Dalai Lama

Once when asked to explain his religious beliefs, the Dalai Lama simply replied, “My religion is kindness.”

I have always found this to be a brilliant answer, both for its simplicity and its depth. We live in a time when many proclaim their religion as the centerpiece of their lives, yet among many of the most vocal and vehement, we can find no kindness, no mercy or compassion in their preaching and actions. And so, is it not important to ask what is the proper understanding of religion?  Ought it not be what we live “religiously?”  And is it not true that the fountainheads for the great religions all taught love, compassion, forgiveness and tolerance?  That there have been many religious movements that grew up in their names that practice much the opposite is among the great shames of humanity. 

Buddhism, at least as it has transferred into the West, seems to remain very dedicated to the original spiritual and ethical teachings of The Buddha, and If one claims to be a Buddhist, the ongoing meditation, the basic religious instruction, remains how to alleviate suffering wherever one finds it, and that would include in ourselves. To act with kindness seems then to be an excellent instruction towards that fulfillment, something to live religiously. Yet do we really have a sense of the depth of this instruction?

What is it to be kind? Certainly, it is to be gentle and helpful, to care for the well-being of all, doing what we can to support and protect those who need our support and protection.  Buddhism, in its call to look deeply into the causes of suffering and to offer remedy leaves no room for moralistic or sectarian persecution or self-aggrandizement at the expense of others.  “Be kind,” says the living patriarch of Tibetan Buddhism.  There is no room for equivocation.  Kindness – all-inclusive kindness.  Love – all-inclusive love. Tolerance – all-inclusive tolerance. Forgiveness – all-inclusive forgiveness. Mercy – all-inclusive mercy. Truthfulness and honesty – all-inclusive truthfulness and honesty.  Compassion – all-inclusive compassion. These are the spiritual and ethical underpinnings of any true religion and are what the Dalai Lama sums up in his call to kindness.  Can a person authentically call themself religious if these virtues are not the cornerstone of their life, what they live by religiously and look to foster in their society? Unfortunately, it often seems that many of those who make the biggest issue of identifying as religious are not bringing these seeds of kindness into the world – rather, just the reverse.

The Dalai Lama’s call to kindness is based in the important Buddhist instruction called The Four Noble Truths which expounds on the existence of unnatural human suffering caused by attachment to ego for identity.  Ego grasps after identity in specialness and chases after happiness in such forms as materialism, status, competition, relationships, religious and political affiliation, judgment, and exciting stimulation and entertainment.  Ego does not know how to be kind, not really.  Kindness comes from what is authentic, the heart of a human being.  The remedy offered in the Noble Truths teaching begins with “right view,” developing understanding of the fundamental nature of existence based in interconnection, interdependence, and impermanence leading to a healthy sense of selflessness and care for all and the need for cultivating wisdom and compassion. This selflessness is not the kind of martyr-complex so many raised in “religious” cultures suffer from, it is a joyous weightlessness which realizes, as The Dalai Lama taught, our own happiness can be fostered through the practice of compassion which brings happiness to others. Is it not your experience that you feel best when acting kindly, generously, compassionately expecting nothing in return?

Further, The Noble Truths teaches us to practice kindness in our intentions, our speech, our actions, our livelihood, and in all our efforts. It then advises us to develop our mind through meditation, which fosters mindfulness, concentration, mental stability, wisdom, and the awakening of our deepest sense of Being. It allows us to know the essence of ourselves that is free of the need for external validation or conditions for our well-being.  It is quite a realization to discover that these “religious” practices which focus into bringing kindness to others are what can bring the happiness we chase after yet find so elusive and are thus kindnesses to ourselves.

Buddhism teaches that looking outside ourselves to fulfill our sense of well-being and happiness can never bring us what we are truly looking for – the sense of fulfillment which can be called peace and joy in being alive. Likewise, all our attempts to satisfy ego’s need to be significant to others and to live up to expectations imposed through our family and societal influences (which we then often internalize as our own) leave us unable to find ease in life.  Kindness is in allowing ourselves to be liberated from these judgmental attitudes.  It is written that Jesus instructed, “judge not, lest ye be judged,” and I have long seen this as an instruction not only against hypocrisy, but that to engage in the mind of judgment towards others ensnares us in vulnerability to the judgment of others and to those judgments we have internalized upon ourselves.

What I have found to be true is that a life based in religious dedication to kindness can lead to unshakable satisfaction with being alive. On the other hand, ego-pursuits when accomplished, while temporarily generating a kind of shallow happiness, lead always to returned dissatisfaction, for what is really sought cannot be found there.  Our society, built around the “pursuit of happiness,” has us anxiously looking to something or someone to quell this thirst only to have our attention pulled to the next object of “happiness.”  So – kindness is living in such a manner as to free us of this unease. Importantly, there is a paradoxical effect to this kind of unselfish generosity of virtuous action in that it is the surest way to find peace and happiness for ourselves.  This is not about the kind of sense of religious obligation to care for others at the expense of oneself that fosters an attitude of resentment.  The generosity of kindness is joyful, emanating from a soul that knows itself and how to nourish itself through the celebration of goodness that envelops others.

The instruction to kindness must begin with ourselves, and we cannot be kind to ourselves if we do not know ourselves, so Buddhism’s instruction to meditation is the practice of coming to know our true selves, finding within ourselves an immeasurable well of stability, goodness, wisdom, and compassion that is our true self. In the practice of meditation, we realize we are the intelligent, compassionate, wise mind of awareness prior to ego, and we can engage in a therapeutic relationship to our egoic mind that calms and corrects our fears and mistaken insecurities. Our acts of kindness then arise from this inexhaustible well, and our own happiness is the result of that unshakable goodness radiating generously into the world, enveloping ourselves along with others.

This teaching, this emphasis on ethical, emotional goodness for our religious commitment, is not limited to Buddhism.  When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment is, his instruction was concise and directive – to love.  Likewise, all the major world religions are permeated with instructions to kindness, love, mercy, charity, forgiveness, truthfulness, and honesty, yet we find so many throughout history and today who act in the name of their religion lacking these virtues.  On the contrary, great cruelty and harm have been perpetrated throughout history and continue today in the name of religion.  Therefore, we are left to ask, can we, in fact, be considered truly religious if we ignore the central ethical teachings of our religion to focus on narrow interpretations of morality as excuse to persecute those we see to be “other” than acceptable to our particular sectarian interpretation of a religious life?  Is this persecution not a violation of the call to be virtuous and kind, loving and tolerant in our conduct toward others that all the original religious sources call us to? How much better our society would be if instead of parading and legislating moralistic religiosity we were truly religious, if we religiously sought to embody and bring into public policy the teachings of Jesus, of Buddha, of the many great original religious sources who encapsulated their religion in instructions to love, to kindness, to mercy, honesty, modesty, charity, and tolerance, to wonder at and protect the natural world. Nor does one need to identify with a religion to know and live these truths. These virtues are also honored by those who hold to a philosophy called secular humanism, believers in shedding religious identifications to embody the essence of the great religious teachers as the core of what it is to be human.  We need human mercy, compassion, and kindness. As both Buddha and Jesus instructed and lived, there is no room for hatred or persecution in a life religiously dedicated to kindness.  The Dalai Lama truly understands and lives his religion.  It would be a great step forward for humanity if all who call themselves religious would also.

 “If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?” – Dogen (13th century Founder of Soto Zen)

20^th century consciousness teacher Eckhart Tolle tells us “The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being.” When Tolle or another consciousness teacher uses the word Being with the “b” capitalized they are attempting to point to the state of the ultimate origin and nature of all things, which, of course, includes human beings. Yet, our modern mind breaks everything into hierarchies of value – amongst people, and then in Nature, all broken up into their thingness and value.  Yet, here we are, right in the absolute nature of all things, except that the human mind causes us to stray from this absolute off into virtual realities, fantasies ABOUT our ideas ABOUT the nature of things.  People are full of ideas, and they contradict one another all over the place. No wonder we are confused; no wonder life keeps being difficult and illusive, leaving us constantly, to some degree, dissatisfied.  Buddhism calls this dukkha, a kind of unnatural suffering unique in Nature to humans.  Enlightenment within these Eastern systems is the cure, it’s, as the Buddhists refer to it, “awakening” into our simple, yet infinitely mysterious and wondrous, natural existence here-and-now.

Enlightenment is Truth – again with the capitalization – and we would be right to ask, “truth according to whom?”  Well, it is truth as the Universe manifests it.  And you would be right to question whether we can know what that is absolutely. No, we cannot, but what Zen tells us is that we can know the truth of this immediate moment as it is arising and passing, and we can, when we become exquisitely, deeply present, realize the truth that is our infinite origin.  Buddhism insists that everything we need, and insight into The Absolute, is already within us, for we are an expression of that Absolute.  Enlightenment is enlightening. Enlightenment is bringing the light of applied open awareness into this moment unfolding. It is realizing we ARE the awareness within which this moment unfolds and all within it are expressions of and channels for the Universe expressing itself as this moment in awareness. Here we are.  There is no absolute separation into this and that, into me and you, into the “ten thousand things,” as ancient Eastern philosophies call this fragmentation of Life into objects we call this and that. We are all the one This.  It is the light of consciousness channeled into manifestation through us.

The Chinese cousin to Zen, Taoism, names this ultimate truth Tao, or “The Way,” this term being synonymous with Buddhism’s Dharma, teachings into Ultimate Reality.  And the principle book describing the philosophy of Tao is titled The Tao Te Ching, written about 2500 years ago, purportedly by the sage Lao Tzu, and it begins, “The Tao that can be named is not the Tao.” So, it contradicts itself right out the gate.  Truth is elusive – yet – as Dogen said, it is happening right where we are.  How could it not be?  Truth is everywhere.  Truth is the Universe unfolding in its absoluteness here and now and enlightenment is being present for this unfolding, realizing we ARE the unfolding in connection with all that co-arises and passes with what we experience as “me.” It sounds so complex, yet it is the simplest of all things, for it is who/what we and everything are.  We are here to simply live “this.” For a bird or a squirrel, “this” is no task at all, but for a human being, it is the endeavor of a lifetime (lifetimes) should one feel compelled to pursue it.

Enlightenment for a modern human is very difficult because to be enlightened is to be where and when you are where and when you are, to be present in the deepest possible way, no past, no future, “just this,” as the Zen Master says. Our problem is that we moderns are all over the place, time and space and dimension traveling in our minds, filled with judgments about good and bad.  Enlightenment is here and now without judgement yet experienced with deep discernment.  Judgement is our projecting our ideas about things and situations upon them, and we have so many judgments, cutting up the world into our likes and dislikes, our identifications and our alienations.  Discernment is deeply seeing into the nature and rhythm and subtlety of things and situations. “What is this?” asks the student.  “This is this,” answers the teacher.  How deeply can you see into this?  There are no valuations, for it is all the sacred unfolding in ten thousand variations.  This is Zen.  Seeing deeply is Zen.  Seeing deeply that the many are One, that there is only the unfolding, moving inextricably toward deep understanding of inherent perfection in everything is enlightenment.

“Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.” “You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.”  – Alan Watts (20^th century spiritual philosopher)

I understand this may seem all very esoteric, yet it is opening us to realize how enlightenment can function in our day-to-day lives. Amidst all the ugliness and divisiveness, the prejudice and harm done by those caught in what Buddhism calls egoic delusion, amidst the blows to our well-being that life can deliver, small and great, the sicknesses and losses, the disappointments and frustrations, the aggravations and grievances, enlightenment awaits for us to make our path the path of whatever may arise, beautiful or challenging – to be one with our life, with Life.

Enlightenment is the realization that the world is passing phenomenon, what we judge to be good and bad, yet, there is, beneath all the comings and goings, the light of Being, that which does not pass, untouchable and only good.  It is our essence, it is the essence of all things, it is the One Essence.  To see this, to live this in this moment, is enlightenment, for enlightenment is this moment of absolute reality. When the unshakeable goodness of existence is clear, even in the midst of the confusion and harm done by human ego declaring itself above all else, this is enlightenment. We are here to be awake in as many moments as we are capable of, and if, like a Jesus or a Buddha or a Dalai Lama, or the innumerable saints of human existence, we can string together enough of these moments, to others it appears as an enlightened being, but it is just a human being knowing who they are and living this knowledge the majority of their moments.

20^th century Japanese Zen master Takashina Rosen explained, “The real Buddhism… rests in the everyday, in the ordinary, without anything abnormal about it. The ordinary person suffers because they cannot be at rest in ordinariness… From the viewpoint of enlightenment, truth is normal.  It is not something special.  The willow is green, the flower red, the fire hot, and the wind ever moving… The truth is not outside daily life…  but, the unenlightened person has not realized their self.  Because they lack self-realization, their ideas are at the mercy of every fluctuating fashion, and they are swayed by every rumor.  Their object in life never goes beyond pleasure. But the disciple who earnestly seeks truth steps outside that routine and realizes the self; then the immortal truth arises in what is mortal.  This is the real life.  Finally they reach the ultimate goal of Zen, to adapt freely to the world… The willow is green and the flower red… When each is at peace in their own part, they can contribute to the glory of life. We call it ordinary life, and it is, but this is also the Truth unchanged throughout the ages… There is no better or worse because there is no inequality.  Where there is no inequality, the heart is tranquil and the world radiates the light of peace.”

A human being is a human being, not a race or nationality or political party or sexual orientation or socio/economic class.  Animals and plants are beings of another order, yet still beings.  The soil and rocks, the waters, the sky, this planet are still other orders of beings.  To be enlightened is to see all as the Great Being manifesting in the myriad beings, all deserving of honoring and treatment with care and respect. We, ourselves, are expressions of this Great Beingness, and any diminishment you may have had imposed upon you is a violation of Dharma, of Tao, and is to be disregarded as ignorance, the great defiler and obscurer of the One True Nature, the One True Being. Do not allow this defilement to become how you defile yourself, nor ought you project it onto others.  Enlightenment is freedom from ignorance.  It is seeing and experiencing how Sacred Life unfolds as you and as all.

You have experienced enlightenment in rare moments of clarity, when for whatever reason, by sublime wonder, or life-shattering event, the shallow story of yourself in time stopped, and there you were, no separation between you and the circumstance.  American Zen teacher Charlotte Joko Beck described enlightenment as when there is no distance between you and your circumstance, when there is no resistance to what is.  Enlightenment is a practice – over and over, endeavoring to live an optimal human life. It is here.  It is now. We must get our ignorant opinions out of our own way to allow the light of Being which shines through us to become unobscured by all our egoic misperceptions.  Awaken!  The Universe is expressing itself through us and all around us.  See this and you become profoundly real and true in such a moment.  Take this lesson and apply it over and over and over until the absolute truth of it is permeating your everyday life. This is the road of enlightenment.  Seek the light of Truth. 

The 20^th century French existential philosopher, Albert Camus, while the shadow of fascism stained his Europe, once wrote, “In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love. In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile. In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm. I realized, through it all, that… In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.” The light of Being and Truth is that invincible summer, clearing away prejudice, fear, and indifference.  This is enlightenment. Our society and most of us have a long way to go.  Yet, there is comfort in knowing enlightenment is the ultimate direction and destiny for us all.  We must do our best to walk it in our everyday life.  An individual, a group, a nation that moves toward the light is fulfilling the promise of invincible summer, while those who move against it into divisiveness, greed, prejudice, domination, and chaos move toward the darkness, and suffering is the cost. Each day, every day, seek to move toward the invincible summer, the perfect light beneath all form, and know you are doing your part in the Universe’s, the Dharma’s, God’s, if you will, intent and purpose. Then, no matter who casts the shadow of ignorance, or for how long, you can have faith that “invincible calm” can be yours while living your not so ordinary, ordinary life.

“Obstacles do not block the path; obstacles are the path.” – Zen proverb

When we are facing difficult times, it is important that one has faith.  In the Zen realm, this does not mean, however, to have faith in some exterior supreme power, for in Buddhism the supreme power of the Universe is known to work through us, not upon us. This means that we understand there is a Great Intelligence behind all things which allows us to be in harmony with whatever happens in our lives, delightful or terrible, and it is happening through us.  I do not say within us, for this would imply that we are separate from the flow of Life, and that sense of separation is exactly what overwhelms us.  In that state of confined consciousness, we are too small to truly appreciate or master the flow of Life, but when we know, when we can feel that we are one with this flow, this is true faith. We can have faith, because we have experienced our existence as one with the Universe, and there is a Great Intelligence that beats our hearts, breathes our lungs, and guides our minds when we quiet the cacophony of mental noise generated by the shallow, self-obsessed dimension of mind which is the ego. In the silence of focused awareness, it is discovered that awareness IS intelligence, is The Intelligence that created the stars, all life, and created you and me. We discover we are that awareness beneath the noise of our minds and can find peace.

In Buddhism, it is taught not to believe what you are given as religious instruction simply on the authority of the religious source, teacher or script, but to honor the wisdom of centuries of practice and discovery that is being shared through the instruction, and then, to apply the instruction in your own practice to discover the validity of the instruction for yourself. What is asked is, as 20th century Zen Master Dainin Katagiri would say, “wholeheartedness” in your search for truth, in your development of the necessary presence to realize truth when it appears.  There is a saying in Zen, that for one who truly wishes to realize truth, it must be approached with the singlemindedness of one “whose hair is on fire, searching for a pail of water.” All other matters must be suspended, our usual lives brought, to some degree, to a stop.  This does not necessarily mean literally – though it can.  It means we must stop running our old stories in our minds, our old orientation to ourselves in the world.  We must enter into this present moment deeply where Eternity and Truth unfold if we are to discover who we truly are.

Sometimes when I teach a class, the first thing I say will be, “How’re you doing?” to which the responses will be some variation of “good, doing good,” or “okay, doing okay.” To which I will respond, “Isn’t that remarkable with everything you have been through in your life.”  Then, as I go on with the class, I will say, “and in fact, you are probably a better person for the hard stuff you have faced.” This will then lead into a discussion about the truth of what I have just said.  People will realize that when marriages, relationships, jobs, states of health or security ended, as hard as these episodes in life were, they were necessary for us to evolve into clearer and wiser, perhaps more compassionate people. We realize that the worst things can often be the best things in the big picture.

What is always true is that when big challenges or obstacles confront us, this is an invitation to stop our life as we know it, since what is occurring is not in the script we have in our mind about what our life is supposed to be. In such a moment, a true teacher will ask, “according to who?” It is then that we might realize we are attempting to live within an impossible story in our minds about the “good life” which our society has foisted upon us, colored by a personal script about who we think we are and what is possible or expectable for us, created by our upbringing and personal experience.  This “me” we have in our mind is incessantly telling itself who we think we are, and what life is supposed to be for “me.” “Obstacles” are the wrench thrown into the machinery. Severe illness, relationship or occupational crises or endings, natural disaster, loss of loved ones, existential crisis where our sense of meaning in life is lost, political/social upheaval which disrupts clarity as to the future – these are some of the obstacles that may confront us and bring about a stopping. This stopping, however, does not have to be met with fear and trepidation.

We generally live our lives on momentum, inside a routine which carries us day to day, hour to hour, moment to moment along the well-worn path of our obligations, expectations, habits, and sources of distraction and pleasure, as well as our anxieties and upsets.  Our attention level is minimal, just paying enough attention to run our routines while our minds are filled with current agendas plus fantasies about what would make life more pleasurable or problematic, as well as with ruminations about the past. Most people are generally okay in their lives, meaning they are managing. Then, something arises that throws them completely, an “obstacle” on the path of their narrative. They are shocked.  They may have the sense to know this is a watershed, that from this moment, their story changes forever.  They are stopped.  Conventionally these obstacles are experienced as tragedies.  There is trauma, loss, grieving, anger, sorrow, fear, a sense of untetheredness. A fork in their path is in front of them.  One fork circles back around and puts them back on the same old path, their life then becomes, figuratively, running in circles.  Or – they take the path the great poet Robert Frost called “the one less traveled,” and open a new phase to their journey, one guided by what has been, but also open to what has never been experienced before, and they touch something heroic and stable within themselves, and grow as human beings.  They become okay with whatever traumatic event occurred and this new path is one they can walk with greater wisdom and skill. For some people, their lives are a struggle with being stopped perpetually, their obstacle being some chronic mental anguish which separates them from a life well lived, but the same principle applies. Being stopped is the invitation to commit to growing spiritually in order to heal psychologically.

Generally, people are lost in their narrative of being “me” in their mortal timeline separate in the Universe, struggling to get along amongst all the other separate beings in a competitive game of seeking their place in a hierarchical social structure which brings with it tremendous insecurity.  As we play out this narrative of “me” struggling with “them” and “that” out there, “obstacles,” events which stop us, which stop the narrative, will occur.  And there we are, naked and alone, so to speak, unsure of what the next moment and the ensuing moments will bring.  It is then, however, that something marvelous can happen. With our egoic mind shocked into silence, a gap opens where our silent mind, the mind of Being, says “just take the next step.” We are awake, we are present in a manner such as when we would be walking in a foreign land we’ve been told is both dangerous and wonderous. Here is where we either truly evolve or fall back. To be neurotic is to keep falling back. If you have the determination and courage to reach for sanity, you take that step.

And so we are left to ask: What is this “path” upon which obstacles are to be expected and that, in fact, brings clarity as to the nature of our personal path? As with all things Buddhist, it is about awakening into the truth of the nature of existence. It is the realization that the Universe is a unity, in a sense, a Great Being, a consciousness event which brings forth the multiplicity of physical forms through which the Universe is awakening to its own Being, and this includes through you and me. Many spiritual traditions, in some form, will identify our existence as the Universe or God or Spirit experiencing and expressing Itself through human form and that humanity has a special place in this unfolding as the one creature capable of knowing itself as God’s or Spirit’s or The Universe’s creation.  Orientalist Alan Watts expressed this as “we are the Universe peering into itself,” and what I have discovered in my own path of practice is that when through meditation we realize the silent dimension of Being within us, we can learn to peer back, experiencing that our personal dimension of Being is the Great Being expressing Itself through us.  We discover that our existence is multidimensional, that we exist as both mortal beings and That which is immortal unfolding in the Infinite Here-and-Now. This is what Buddhism calls awakening and opens life in ways unimaginable from the confines of our ego. This is how spiritual realization simultaneously becomes psychological liberation.

The Zen Master, Shunryu Suzuki, a compatriot of Katagiri, is famous for teaching, “Zen mind, beginner’s mind.” He offered that in those moments when the events of our lives have stopped us in our tracks – or we are chronically stopped by mental anguish of some sort – and we do not know which way to go, he tells us to rely upon “our ‘original mind’ which includes everything within itself.”  He tells us, “It is always rich and sufficient within itself… it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything.”  He also said, “Each one of us must find our own way, and when we do, that way will express the universal way… to discover something quite new and different moment after moment.”

So, whether we are talking about individuals or our society, which seems perhaps to be falling apart, we must reserve our fears of doom.  The wise course is to persevere, to just take the next step, to discover how to walk with better balance and grace, to walk with assurance, discovering the happiness which comes with this faith validated.  We are not alone; we are on a path traveled by all humanity towards greater sanity, spirituality, and harmony, overcoming obstacles as they appear. Our deepest nature invites us to celebrate the wonder of existence step-by-step on our and the Universe’s Path, obstacles turned into opportunities to realize unimagined potential lying obscured beneath our insecure mind.

“Karma in Buddhism means to act, to work, or to do.  Buddhism doesn’t separate mental and physical acts, so ‘to act’ includes both mental and physical action… karma is something like a continuous energy… It’s a huge storehouse of human acts that is your individual life, but also there is a certain potential power there that belongs not only to human life but to everything… Through spiritual practice you can deeply understand the presence of karma in human life. You see that you exist right in the middle of a huge world that is appearing and disappearing from moment to moment, and you realize that your life is interconnected with all beings.  Then you want to take good care of your interconnected life, and you begin to think deeply on how to use your consciousness, your will, and your determination to create good karma and to create opportunities for good karma to appear in the human world.” – Dainin Katagiri (Each Moment Is The Universe)

What vague understanding people may have of the concept of karma usually has something to do with thinking that if they do good, then good will come to them, and if they do bad, bad will come to them.  Well, sometimes this happens, but all too often, it seems that bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people, so it’s a little hard to take karma in this sense as anything other than a religious instruction to get people to behave themselves, much like in Christianity with the concepts of heaven and hell. 

As with all things Buddhist, it is all far more subtle and far reaching than this simplistic representation.  The very beginning of Buddhism is the story of an individual, Siddhartha Gotama, a 5^th century B.C. prince of northern India, who had renounced his birthright to search for the answer to the puzzle of human emotional suffering. As there was no such thing as psychology or science to investigate his question, he engaged in his search the practices of his time.  So, rather than looking to such things as research groups and analysis, he looked within his own mind, reasoning that the answers to the collective problems of humanity originate within the minds of individuals.  If he could truly understand his own mind, perhaps he could uncover universal truths about all human minds.

In ancient cultures, these matters of mind and emotion were addressed as spiritual issues, the concept of spirituality being entirely different from religions of the West.  From ancient texts such as the Upanishads, written in poetic and mythic fashion, the human condition and humanity’s place and purpose within the cosmos had been explored by engaging the faculty of the human mind at its deepest level.  It was understood that at a level deeper than individual intellect, at the root of human consciousness, exists a silent dimension of universal intelligence, accessible when awareness is turned inward through the deepest levels of meditation. By turning the eye of awareness, which is usually distracted by outer stimulation and the antics of the shallower dimensions of mind inward, they practiced entering this domain of primal intelligence inherent in every human, and here, the most profound secrets of human existence can be explored and understood.

Siddhartha had become a master of the art of meditation and having vowed to find the answers he sought, he entered into the deepest level of trans-personal consciousness, a level so deep that an individual can explore the primal human archetypal drives and eventually merge consciousness with the Universe. In this state, he wrestled with the shallower individual dimension of his mind, his ego, facing its pull to be lost in desires, fears and self-doubt, and he realized the human condition at the deepest level possible.  He “awakened” into the secrets of human suffering and found the answers he sought as to what could be done to overcome it.  For this awakening, he became known as The Buddha, which is the word in his Pali language which means The Awakened One, and when he began to share his insights, his teachings became known as Buddhism, the study and practice of awakening.

Among the insights he realized was a deeper understanding into the ancient concept known as karma, the word meaning “action” in his ancient language. A simple explanation of karma is that If your intentions and actions are good, you don’t necessarily receive good; rather, you become good, you become goodness incarnate.  You experience the connections you have with others and the happiness that comes with looking after others’ happiness.  You, in a sense, become goodness by your sense of self expanding, not in an egoic manner, but in a spiritual one.  You see and feel the vastness of existence and the transitory nature of events and circumstances. Intuitively, the wholeness and completeness of Life, which contains everything, the pleasure and the pain, birth and death, beginnings and endings, gains and losses is revealed.  The pains and disappointments, the tragedies of life, cannot then break your goodness, your well-being.  In this sense, karma does not mean that if you build a life of doing good, good fortune comes to you, but that you are your own good fortune, transcendent of circumstances.  You have the insight and faith in processes deeper than your own material and personal circumstances that allow you to be in gratitude for the totality of existence itself, not specific circumstances. You become able to see that even that which is conventionally unfortunate contains valuable lessons and reassurances of one’s own capabilities, and thus contains good.

On the other hand, if your actions are selfish and destructive, you are likewise obsessed with gaining what you think is good for yourself and have little to no sense of your connection or responsibilities to others, and you will become small and afraid psychologically, and then, no matter how many riches or successes in the world are achieved, true happiness and well-being will never be yours. You will need to be successful and fortunate all of the time and when difficulty arises, as it will, you will not have the inner faith and resources to remain stable and positive. Thus, we see that karma is a spiritual state which manifests as the way we experience the world, which then will lead to further “actions” which are either beneficial to the greater good or harmful.  This builds good or negative karma that will manifest in ways often not as expected, but in ways that are necessary in the evolution of individuals and human society into deeper consciousness and positive action.

As Zen Master Katagiri noted, karma is not just about individuals, it is also the complex interweaving of individuals with ALL the forces and interrelationships in life. Actions take place with individuals at various levels of social organization, from families, through communities, through nations, through the human collective, all the way to the collective life and forces of this planet, which shape the experience of each individual and the levels of human society for good or ill.  We are even creating planetary karmic consequences of actions, which include attitudes of mind which then lead to physical actions and political policies, which lead to either suffering or flourishing on a planetary level.  We make political choices that are either based in wisdom and generous compassion or ignorant selfishness, in kindness or meanness, which create harmony or disharmony, foster respect or disrespect for the rights of all.  These choices and actions generate karmic results for years, even generations, to come. 

Since suffering is the topic of Buddhism, it is a study of how suffering is generated and what can be done about it. Karmic awareness is essential in this study guiding how we make decisions concerning our actions which will lead to the cessation of suffering as we are able, or to suffering’s increase. For human societies, it is very clear we need to do good, that is, act with compassion, kindness, and wisdom, if we are to have societies that minimize suffering and maximize well-being.  Individual material wealth and power are not good karmic priorities for a society. Politics that emphasize divisions, making winners and losers, included and excluded groups, which is hurtful and judgmental, rather than inclusive and compassionate, which makes decisions based in dogmatic and fanciful opinions over facts, delusional desires and fears over truth, will not, cannot, have good karmic results. And when collective karma has resulted in circumstances that are difficult and challenging, perhaps even threatening to liberty and life, then the rules of karma tell us it will do us no good to be dependent upon beneficial circumstances for our sense of meaning, purpose, and well-being, but rather to living a life of goodness and kindness, of compassion and wisdom for our own sake and the sake of those we touch.  Good karma grows not from circumstance, but rather from the inner faith and resources to endure and even thrive spiritually and psychologically the cruelty and stupidity of karmic actions which are bringing suffering.  Buddhism, and particularly Zen, arose in dangerous and unstable historical circumstances where individuals had next to no power or influence over the circumstances of their lives, but the awakened wisdom of The Buddha taught that our karma was our own responsibility. He taught that we have inherent within us the ability to gain the perspective which can guide us toward increasing stability and well-being, which can turn the negative into positive when we remember that goodness begets goodness and evil begets evil, while goodness CAN eventually transform evil.  Have faith – karma is at work.  It’s up to us to work with it, to guide it as best we can through our good intention and action. 

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many… Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find what agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” – Buddha

Dogma is instruction to believe what one is told whether there is any personal experience of its truth, or whether it holds up to examination.  In fact, where dogma is concerned, the instruction is to reject anything which contradicts and challenges it, even our own experience or observation.  While dogma is usually associated with religion, particularly what could be called fundamentalist religion, dogma permeates many aspects of life.  It could be said that culture is an amalgam of dogmas, what anthropologists call totems and taboos, what is believed to be true and not true, what is valued and not valued, what is prized and what is rejected, what to do and what not to do. As a culture is based in basic agreements on certain principles and a set of beliefs which act, in a sense, as glue holding society together, a certain amount of dogma is necessary, such as after centuries of evidence, freedom is a better principle than tyranny, and organized and reasonably regulated freedom is better than anarchy.

A healthy society is built around a balance of core beliefs which have demonstrated over time to be beneficial to the general population, handed down as the principles of the society, with encouragement to question, examine, investigate, and propose new ways of thinking, doing, and being. On the other hand, societies built on rigid dogma, twentieth century communism and fascism, in example, chafe the natural human inclination to freedom, to question, to experiment and find out what is true from false, and such societies require escalating levels of violence to hold the dogma and compliance to it in place.  In comparison, the relative success of Western liberal democracies over the communist and fascist societies of the twentieth century can be credited to Western democracies’ openness to plurality and diversity, the valuing of human life over rigid dogma, and openness to question and evolve its principles. 

Our society today is caught in confusion caused by rapid change and is faced, as often happens in history, by demagogic leaders seeking to exploit this unease by offering visions of stability and “greatness” through surrendering democratic ideals to demagogic dogma. Dogma has strong appeal to the insecurity of human ego, which thrives on categorization, judgment, specialness, and defensive certainty, the ego being a bit paranoid even when “healthy,” and extremely dangerous when unhealthy.  Authoritarian leaders will tap into this insecurity, offering safety and specialness to those who will give their unquestioning loyalty to what amounts to a cult, whether religious or political, sometimes the two overlapping. The psychological repression, denial and rationalization necessary to hold together allegiance to rigid and emotionally, if not physically, violent dogma can then get very dangerous in its “us” vs “them” mentality – “them” being everyone who is not in the circle of identification and allegiance to the dogma. Democracy cannot flourish where dogma exerts its inflexible demand for unquestioning allegiance and willingness to twist truth to meet the dogma’s demands.

Dharma, on the other hand, the teachings, practices, and great insights of Buddhism, is not very dogmatic, as the quote from Buddha that begins this column illustrates.  Dharma teaching is always aimed at freeing us of the ego-identification that craves dogmatic thinking. Of the various classical Buddhist traditions, I always felt the most affinity with the old Chinese Ch’an masters, the precursors to Zen, who held to but one instruction as essential – to meditate, to look within for truths which are inherent in every person, revealing a silent primal intelligence that frees us of ego-identification and dogma.  As the Taoist and Ch’an sages taught and lived, life is like a river, and to live it gracefully and truthfully, learning its secrets, we must ride the current of the river – wherever it goes and however it expresses itself, realizing we ARE the river when we open to the intuitive intelligence beneath egoic mind.  This requires mindfulness, the meditative increasingly deep presence-with-the-moment-as-it-is, learning to pay exquisite attention to the way things actually are.  Strict dogma, religious or political, is like being on a raft tied to the bank of the river. It goes nowhere, seems reassuringly constant, yet eventually, the pull of the river will break the rope, pulling the raft into the river, likely to crash against the rocks of reality.

Buddhism intrigued me when I first began to explore it seriously as a philosophy and psychology because of its rejection of dogma, very importantly teaching to not blindly believe what you are told. Its teachings were offered as suggestions for our personal exploration, and then, if in that exploration, the truth of the teaching was experienced, then you can believe your own experience.  I learned that Buddhism, in its purest form, is an exploration of the human condition, a study of what it is to be human from the inside out.  In direct rebuke of dogma, a Zen koan teaches – “Do not confuse the finger that points towards the moon for the moon.” The finger pointing represents the teachings and practices that are in support and guidance toward enlightenment, the moon in this analogy being the awakening out of all dogma into what works in bringing increasing peace, wisdom, and compassion into our experience of life. It is not the teaching that is held sacred, but the realization by our own experience, guided by the teachings, of all life as sacred. 

Buddhism teaches that compassion arises naturally when we see the “suffering” caused by attaching our sense of self to the grasping delusions of the ego and offers in solution, through applied awareness, our experiencing infinite interconnectedness with all Life. The Dalai Lama sums up and personifies the result of this perspective simply as, “My religion is kindness.” Very little dogma there. Living kindness as religious instruction is like a koan, an unfolding exploration of its inspiration, expression and impact. You have to live it, not read or preach about it.  The destination is enlightenment – the ability to see and interact with all beings as expressions of the unity of life, realizing a deeper harmony.  It is to awaken out of living in dogmas of separateness and conflict into Reality.  We are the Tao, The Universe expressing itself through our lives and all of Life.  Knowing, feeling, living this is enlightenment, the moon the dharma finger points to.

While it is good that other religions also point toward reverence for life, toward kindness, love, forgiveness, and compassion with their teachings, there seems to have been serious misperception in the communication and hearing.  In substituting dogmatic moralizing for instruction in true self-realization of these virtues, these religions often fail to generate their application, sometimes quite the opposite.  Following Buddhism’s example, they might do well to teach less dogma and more dharma, less moralizing and more compassion and dedication to virtuous openness.

American democracy is a religion of sorts. As envisioned by its founders, strongly influenced by the ancient Greeks from the last time democracy had been attempted by a society, the founders, applying contemplative reason and logic, held life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, forged in a realm where all are considered equal, to be its dynamic evolving underlying principles.  They never intended the Constitution to be dogmatic, rather a living, questioning, seeking finger pointing the way, around this bend and over that hill, sometimes over a mountain or down a river, searching for how to emphasize individual liberty within “more perfect union.”  What is true is that the koan of democracy is still out there as the moon our Constitution points toward and it needs fearless dharma heroes, like the founders, people who looked to reason and contemplative honesty to lead us toward its fullest meaning and expression. 

Unfortunately, we seem plagued by lazy-minded dogmatists, opportunists spouting platitudes of freedom and liberty, ignoring the true meaning of these virtues, attempting to tie us perilously to the shore of their narrow beliefs, resisting the pull of the river of progress.  There have always been those who held dogmatic beliefs which could not accommodate what called to us from around the bend, and so they resist going there, perhaps denying that it even exists. They want to tie our country to the land of their dogma, worshipping strict self-serving interpretations of our foundational principles, protecting their privilege and bias with delusional insistence that what is untrue is true.  Their denial of the challenges of the present and the future lock us into dangerous regressionism, leaving us unable to face the very real challenges of our present historical time.  We cannot afford to be in the grip of dogmatic political and religious movements, trying to tie the raft of our nation to the bank of what they imagine is “great” with their frayed rope of manipulative untruths.  The world is changing. Around the bend looks very little like the terrain we have crossed in the past.  Global warming, AI, irresistible globalization, the breaking down of ethnic, racial and gender barriers, the challenge of addressing the abuse of the precious principle of freedom of speech by the wild west of unregulated internet and media spreading sensationalism, disinformation, conspiracies, and propaganda. There is a great need for us to be the UNITED States of America with the courage and openness of the founders to lead us around these bends.  Remember the analogy of the raft tied in the river?  Eventually the pull of the river breaks the rope of dogma and the raft crashes upon the rocks of reality. We need courageous dharma leaders who pursue the koan of democracy, who have the skills of presence and vision to steer us down the river of reality, to find our way to the calm waters of unity and peace, into the adventure that is the future. For this, the Buddhist dharma approach of honesty and fearless examination of what-is and needs-to-be might help – and Buddhists don’t care whether you’re Buddhist.  Dedication to honesty and compassion – to kindness – are enough.

“You don’t ‘have’ a life, you ‘are’ life. The One Life, the one consciousness that pervades the entire universe and takes temporary form to experience itself as a stone or blade of grass, as an animal, a person, a star or a galaxy.”  – Eckhart Tolle

Scientists, and thus our culture and our psychologies, cannot seem to grapple with the phenomenon of consciousness, its appearance and ubiquitousness in nature, because we have yet to shake off the anthropocentric view that only humans are truly conscious, and that consciousness arises from our brain.  In the general population there may be acknowledgement of consciousness in other animals, but then it usually remains isolated to what we consider higher level animals like our dogs, cats, or the apes – again, only through association to humans can we accept functioning self-aware consciousness.  Only recently has the possibility of consciousness just as complex as that of dogs been attributed to pigs and elephants, somewhat less so in cows, and then more generally to the mammal species, while complex, seemingly self-aware intelligence in some non-mammal species, such as in octopi or crows, is also being acknowledged.  As usual, we have humanity at the center of the universe and there is an outward spiral of relevance from there, always the reference point being association with human identity and interests.  We are an egocentric species living in an egocentric culture.  We are a dualistic culture, which means we understand things by disassembling them. 

We are quite blind to a very different perspective which has been held by mystical philosophies of every culture dating back thousands of years, which holds the Universe as THE organism of our cosmic reality and every star, planet, life-form, particle of sand, molecule, and atom is an appendage, an expression of, a cell, an organ in the body of the Universe.  This goes not only for matter, but for consciousness, for these perspectives hold that there is no material world without the world of consciousness pervading and generating it. In the ancient Vedic tradition of South Asia, the progenitor of Hinduism and Buddhism, it is viewed that the Universe is primarily unmanifested consciousness called “Brahman.”  This could equate to Western religions’ notion of God, except that there is no projection of human qualities or volition to shape or interfere in the affairs of humanity; there is simply pure creative infinitely intelligent potential that bursts forth as the physical world, which in its human manifestation is referred to as “Atman.”  The Way of Brahman is called Dharma, quite transcendent of human interests, for Brahman is manifesting an entire Universe.  Wisdom traditions tell us it is wise to align with Dharma, but humans want the Universe to bend to us. This is our fall from Grace.  

Atman roughly equates to the Western notion of soul, yet this does not quite correlate either, for the Western notion of soul has implications of the continuation of the ego or personality, whereas “Atman” is more understood to be the true and original Self which is pure consciousness, the “witness consciousness” of Brahman experiencing and interacting with itself.  Importantly, it is understood that every physical manifestation – every person, animal, plant, mineral formation – is Brahman manifested, Universal consciousness channeled through whatever cognitive capacity the entity possesses – humans more complex than other animals, animals more complex than vegetation, vegetation more complex than mineral, yet, at its essence, through the many, resides the One.  So, this perspective is called non-duality, the recognition that all the Universe is One, manifesting as many.

 So here we are, now thousands of years later, with our anthropomorphic notion of God, our personal, judgmental, lawgiving, divisive notions of God that have been the source of endless divisiveness, conflict and war, which have humanity separated from Nature in a callous relationship of exploitation.  Our science has been the butcher, carving up all of Nature, figuring out how the various cuts can serve humanity, failing to recognize divinity anywhere in our world, not even in humans.  Our theology has God in Heaven and humanity fallen, separate from God, and all the world is just the makings, the great hardware and grocery store for humanity to get our consumer goods.  And we are damn near at the breaking point with this planet-as-store-for-humanity ideology.  God is nowhere to be found. Dharma is ignored.

AND….. almost miraculously, our science, in its slicing everything down to its next level to better discover how to exploit the world, has found….. consciousness.  Science is beginning to recognize consciousness in plants – real cognition, storage of information, and communication kind of consciousness.  Any pre-European invasion Native American could have told you this.  And more.  They would tell you of the animals, the mountains, the rocks, the trees and plants, the rivers and the winds possessing wisdom and speaking to us.  They would also tell you that this phenomenon of consciousness is in all things because it is the consciousness of the Great Spirit.  And in their condescension, Europeans called these magic people superstitious heathens.  As Native Americans, Australian Aborigines, and mystics in every culture would tell you in their own cultural vernacular, we are not the source of consciousness; we are channels, receivers, processors, and broadcasters of consciousness energy originating from Spirit, God, the Cosmos permeating every atom of the material world.  This is also the discovery with which modern Western science is grappling.  Our reductionist bias has had us taking the physical world apart and studying it for four hundred years, and we finally took it apart down to the subatomic level, the quantum-world level, and we find… consciousness in particles interacting with each other, energy waves becoming particles under observation and particles popping out of and back into the quantum soup.  Consciousness beats our hearts and balances the genius biome universe in our guts as well as concentrating, focusing, and working in the very complex organization of matter which is the human brain.

The difference between Western religions’ idea that God created the world like a potter, and the Vedic, the aboriginal, and mystics’ sense that God is IN the world, is the game changer.  The challenge is for humanity to reframe its religious impulse from worshiping the idea of God standing outside of Nature and our everyday world into the sacred spiritual sense of the mystical non-dual traditions.  Science now has evidence corroborating that consciousness pervades not only ourselves but every animal, plant, and mineral of this world.  If we are ready to accept the obvious, that consciousness seems to be functioning not only in our brains but in every cell and organ of our bodies and at the subatomic level of matter, this opens us to a science-based spirituality which heals the human-Nature rift of the modern world.  Yet, science seems unable to cross this boundary to address the very real possibility that there is Universal Consciousness (and what else could we give the name God?).  It is simply too threatening to the existing dualistic, materialistic, egocentric, reductionistic basis of our culture.  With this realization, however, a new civilization can be born – not based in strife and exploitation – but rather in reverence for ALL.  This revelation opens the way for humanity to move forward in this Universe with a viable, beautiful future relating to all as sacred. It takes us out of the dead-end we are now facing.

When you go to a yoga class or a meditation class, there is a good chance you will encounter the greeting phrase “Namaste.” It is a Hindu word which translates as “God within me recognizes and salutes God within you.”  While most of today’s Westernized Hindus do not live this philosophy any more than Christians demonstrate Jesus’s core teachings of universal love, tolerance, acceptance, and non-materialism, a new and viable human civilization will need to be built on a religious foundation of Namaste, not so different from Jesus’s all-encompassing love, the recognition that “we are ALL God’s children,” even the animals, flowers, waters, earth, and air.

The Vedic tradition teaches consciousness, mysterious, infinitely intelligent and creative consciousness energy, in perfect harmony and balance, is our core Self.  To know our true Self, we must penetrate the noise of the egoic, personal mind to find the silent intelligence of infinite, dynamic stillness which flows through us – Its source, the Universe. This is the true purpose of meditation – to find not only our true Self-as-consciousness, but our kinship with all of Life.  How wonderful a realization!  How wonderful a home in the Cosmos, in Nature, in Infinity awaits us there!  Everywhere you look, you discover, as the Vedic teachings tell us, Tat Tvam Asi, I am That.  Life, Sacred intelligence is at work everywhere, unblemished by human ego.  In the Western traditions, this is Eden, and it can be reclaimed.  Western science does not need to be banished; it can be celebrated as the vehicle that took us from ignorance to wisdom at last, its purpose now not to exploit the world, but to protect and join the energies of consciousness and manifestation in harmonious unity.

But first – we must recognize the error, the horror, which is human egocentrism, the viewpoint of separateness and our compulsion to stratification of who and what does and does not count in our mindset of exploitation.  We must begin working our politics, our economics, our religion, and our science toward the true principles of the spiritual impulse that flows through humanity.  We must recognize and realize the intelligence, the Universal Mind of our Source, which tells us our purpose is to celebrate the sacredness of every person, every animal, every plant, and even mineral.  To do this, we must learn individually, and then collectively, to quiet down our restless, greedy, insecure, thinking, emoting minds to find our Source, to find intelligence that is vast and wise and compassionate and knows Dharma.  This is who we are. Then we will know what to do to heal ourselves, our societies and our planet.  This Earth, this Universe, is our real temple.  Let us come home to worship.  Instead of living in the delusion that we have the answers, let us begin living in the open question of the wonder that is human life, always open to include what we had not been able to include before.