Why Did The Good Samaritan Cross The Road?

About a year ago, feeling the need to re-charge my batteries, I spent a few very enjoyable days at a Buddhist centre on the other side of the county. It must have been well over thirty years since I had been in an 'Ashram' or monastic institution. Buddhism is an offshoot of Hinduism, just as Christianity and Islam are offshoots of Judaism. My monastic background was in the Kashmiri Shavite tradition of Hinduism, but the way the whole place was set up and run, and the disciplines observed, were instantly familiar. Here was a group of bright people from a wide variety of backgrounds, covering a wide age-range and of both genders. They were all, in a determined and disciplined way, in pursuit of spiritual fulfilment and enlightenment.

I never was one to do well in, or around, institutions of any type. So my visit was never going to be more than a few days in a conducive environment, to do some meditation and to connect with the spiritual pursuits of others. I took the opportunity to read some of the literature on offer. There was the usual explanation of the nature of the self, and the usual claim that this particular Buddhist path is the only path that will get you to your spiritual goal. One thing I learned a long time ago is that nobody has a monopoly in this arena.

It was also instructive to see that this community (with its rather privileged lifestyle), in a fantastic huge property in wonderful surroundings, was seeking to justify it's monastic isolation. The argument was that by leaving society and concentrating on achieving their own enlightenment, they were enriching the spiritual capital of the world and, thereby, helping the rest of mankind. That seemed to me to be a bit of a stretch and to display a naive fear of appearing to be selfish.

All spiritual pursuits are, by their very nature, selfish. We follow these paths and practices to make sense of our own lives and to find internal peace for ourselves. There is no need to pretend that we do this for the benefit of others, even though others may end up benefiting from our efforts. We seek spiritual peace out of self-interest.

There are two kinds of self interest. Greed and disregard for others characterise one kind. Care and loving for others (because it aids our own well being) characterise the other. This second kind of self interest is Enlightened Self Interest.

The Good Samaritan crossed the road because, if he had passed by on the other side, he would have felt terrible. He crossed the road because it made him feel better and contributed to his happiness by helping his fellow man.

Keeping So'ham Simple

I've been getting a bit of feedback from people saying they're 'struggling' with meditation. I'm a bit surprised, but then perhaps, I shouldn't be. I do think that many folk are simply expecting too much, too soon, of what essentially is a very simple mental exercise.

Learning how to ride a bike is extremely difficult at first. Once you've learned, it takes no obvious skill, you just let your body get on with it. Meditation is a bit like that. The more you do it, the easier it gets. Except that learning to ride a bike is much harder than learning to meditate.

There are so many traditions and disciplines that employ meditation and promote no end of varied and contradictory methods and practices. Most of them claiming to be the only true path to enlightenment. Meditation gets built up into this massive spiritual 'big deal' that only accomplished Yogis and Buddhist Monks can get to grips with.

The point about 'So'ham' or 'breathing' meditation, (see: Friday 18th December 2009 'Meditation De-Mystified') is that it doesn't need any special time, place, discipline or method to be of use. You can sit down in a special place set aside for meditation, at a set time, in a very disciplined way, and if that's your bag, you'll get a lot of benefit from it. But all of that is so unnecessary.

Listening to you breath can be done in any situation, place or time. I find that it works really well when I'm driving or doing some repetitive task. I've often done it in a bored moment at a party, when observing the goings on from the edges of things, or even in a meeting when things have got tedious. So'ham simply helps to flip from being fully immersed in the goings on around you, to being just one step detached from things, going from being an actor in the play to being a member of the audience. There is nothing more to it than that.

It's especially handy when someone, or some situation, is doing it's very best to piss you off.

I recommend starting by not making a big, disciplinary epic of the whole thing. Just try a bit of 'So'ham' when you're driving, travelling on the bus, waiting in the queue at the bank...

Where observation leads sometimes may be tedious and obvious, sometimes full of insight and, very occasionally, deeply spiritual. There is no point approaching the act of observation with expectations- the two aren't compatible - what you observe is what it is and no more.

Why do it at all?

That only becomes obvious when you notice that you simply feel better for doing it.

From the Silversmith's Bench:

There is slush where the snow used to be. The workshop is freezing and the tools are too cold for my delicate digits. (Never could work in gloves!). As a result, the jewellery bench in the front room is busy. Got to do something for god's sake.

I've been hacking 'OM' symbols out of lumps of pure silver. Every time I make one I give it away. It just doesn't feel right to make 'Oms' for money. You can't give a silver 'Om' to anyone. They've got to be ready for it. The timing has to be right. So far, each recipient has been really jazzed. I always supply the right sized silver chain so it can go to work right away.

I use silver for it's white purity and because it's not so intrinsically valuable. Somehow, 'Oms' shouldn't be flash.

I know that Will, my dearest younger Son, is getting engaged in many meaningful conversations springing from the big one he wears, as he travels throughout the East. The Orientals see that about his neck and ask him:

" Do you know what that is? Do you know what it means?"

I think, at first, they take a little offence, thinking they are seeing a tourist wearing a bauble they don't comprehend. I can understand that. Will does know what he's wearing and why. I'm sure it's opened a few human intercultural doors.

What is the 'Om'?

On a musical instrument, there is one note from which all others are generated by the physics of harmonics. This note is called 'the Fundamental'.
It's the lowest and strongest note the instrument can produce. 'Om' is the fundamental note of the universe. The cosmic vibration from which all arises.

In Western cosmology we have come to understand that once these was a tiny tiny thing called a 'Singularity', which expanded around 13 billion years ago and spawned our universe. In eastern philosophy there is the central 'Witness'; the singularity at the centre of consciousness. To the oriental mind, this is also a creator. The creator of our inner universe.

'Om', the fundamental note, is the sound of those singularities. The basic vibration from which all things spring. Everything else, inside or out, is a harmonic vibration arising from the 'Om'. It is the symbol of our oneness with the universe.

"I am that- That I am " is a literal verbal translation of So'ham - Ham'sah.

Listen!

'Om' the primal sound.

“In the beginning there was the Word"

I wonder who's going to get the next one off the bench?

MEDITATION DE-MYSTIFIED

I’ve had a few requests to say something about meditation. Here’s an attempt to produce something that’s useful to the more cynical Western mind, without the deep and unfathomable jargon that often surrounds the subject.

When my Guru (yes I had a Guru!) was asked:
“How does one meditate?”
He used to reply,
“When you sit down to meditate, whatever you do, don’t think of a monkey.”

So you sit down to meditate and what’s the first thing you think about? You’ve got it; A MONKEY. The point he was making is that it doesn’t matter what your mind happens to be thinking of. Meditation is not about controlling your mind, it’s about observing what it gets up to.

If you think about what happens when you’re dreaming, there’s a part of you constructing the dream, and another part that is experiencing, watching (witnessing?) the experience. This is what in Eastern understanding is known as ‘The Witness’ or ‘Witness Consciousness’. The very act of observing your inner goings on, in an objective way, makes you aware of this part of your being.

Meditation is a practice (and that’s a very good word for it) of observing the inner universe. As Westerners, we tend to be very good at observing the Universe out there. And why not? The external universe is amazing, fascinating and full of wonders. If you think about what your own mind can conjour up, both in external observation, (which has to be handled internally to make any sense), and in internal stuff, like the immense possibilities of dreams, the ‘Inner Universe’ is just as enormously gob-smackingly huge as the Outer one.

‘Meditation' is about watching and observing the inner Universe. A universe every bit as worthy of study and exploration as the external one.

So what’s the trick? Eastern philosophies mention and use things called ‘Mantras’ as a means of getting into ‘observation mode’. Unfortunately many of us Westerners find repetition of word-based mantras very difficult and often it actually distracts the attention away from simply ‘watching' all the goings on.

There is one ‘Mantra'. (and I’m not sure calling it a ‘Mantra' truly helps), that does not require repetition of words. It merely requires an act of observation. This meditation tool is known as So’Ham or Ham’Sa. Which of those you choose depends solely on where you happen to begin.

There is one sound that is always with you as long as you are alive. That sound is the sound of your own breathing. No breathing- no living. A non-breathing person, is generally referred to as ‘dead’. So as long as you aren’t, in fact, dead, your breath keeps on chugging in and chugging out. Most of the time we are completely oblivious to our breathing, except when we’ve been exercising very hard or when we are in very very quiet places. Even so, it’s always there, going in, going out. At any time, we can listen to it, if we’re so inclined.

Try shutting your eyes and listening to the natural sound of your breath. Don’t work at ‘breathing’ just listen to the sound as your breathing proceeds on its automatic course.

As the air comes in it makes a kind of ‘Humming' sound. As it goes out, the sound is more of a ‘sigh’ or a ‘Sahhh’. Don’t take my word for this. Close your eyes, listen to the sound and you’ll hear it for your self. This is ‘Ham’Sa”. If you start listening on the out-breath, it becomes ‘Sah’Hamm’. Hence the two names for the same thing.

This tool for getting into observation mode is very easy, always with you, wherever you are and whatever you happen to be doing. All that is required is to listen. Listening is a very concentrated form of observation. This ‘Maha Mantra’ as the Siddhas of the East call it, is the simplest and most ‘portable' method of meditation. I won’t go into the wonders that will be revealed as your inner journey of exploration goes forth, not here at least.

All I can say is try it. Practice it. (Practice in any new skill is always helpful.). It’s value will be blindingly obvious. After a while, your breathing may start doing weird things. Don't try to control that - observe, watch, experience. This is no harder than watching TV.

By the way, watch out for little Blue Lights!

REALITY CHECK

For most people it’s not at all difficult to tell what’s real and what’s not. Dreams, for instance, aren’t real while what happens while we’re awake is. But is it all that simple? How do we know, for instance, that we’re not dreaming everything we’re aware of? ‘Well it’s obvious’ you may say, "what a silly question!" People under the influence of various drugs, or who are suffering from some mental illnesses can be wide awake and experience hallucinations that have no ‘reality’. So the question, ‘How do I know what’s real?’ is not so silly after all.

This is a question that has occupied Western philosophers for hundreds of years. If I can show what’s real and what’s not real, then perhaps I can find out whether God is real or not and perhaps understand the limits of what can be known as fact. This is all known as the problem of duality, how to connect my conscious being with everything I experience as ‘real’.

One of the tests for reality is to get a second opinion. “Did you see that too?” is the classic reality check. If the other person says “Yes”, then it’s probably real. Except that the other person could also be a figment of your imagination. So, while the second opinion is a good everyday tool for checking up on reality, it isn’t absolutely beyond question. If you really want to get picky you can take this all a step further and ask “How do I know I’m real?” Well, if you want to define reality, perhaps it’s not such a bad place to start. If we can prove the reality of our own person, then we can see how that proof might be extended.

It was a very clever guy called Rene Descartes that came up with the answer. He said “I think, therefore I am.” The very fact that I’m asking the question proves I must be real. It’s a very neat answer and hard to argue with. The next step is to take that proof of our own reality and make the next step which is to prove things outside us actually do exist. That’s a lot more difficult. Descartes came up with an ingenious answer and he needed God’s help to do it.

This is how his argument went. I think of a thing called God. God is, by definition, all seeing, all knowing, the creator of everything and (also by definition) perfect. As God is perfect he must exist, as something that doesn’t exist is less than perfect. Therefore God exists. God created everything, so everything must exist, therefore the universe must be real. Oh dear! That’s a string off assumptions based on an idea we’ve simply created in our mind. It’s not exactly a satisfactory proof of reality. Western philosophers have been tossing this one around for centuries and I’ve yet to see a proof of reality.

It’s interesting to note that this is a question only asked in Western thinking. Eastern philosophers have never bothered with ‘Dualism’ as we call the problem. They don’t even worry about ‘reality’ as any kind of a problem. That’s probably because they’ve never recognised anything as real or unreal.

The word we use for defining reality is the word ‘is’. When we say something ‘is’ we mean it’s real. But what does saying something ‘is’ add to our understanding? ‘The car ‘is’ black’ tells us nothing more than to say ‘black car’. All the word ‘is’ does is connect other words or ideas together. You can take any sentence that uses ‘is’, take the word 'is' out, and no meaning is lost.

So is there any such thing as ‘reality’? The purely objective answer has to be ‘probably not’. Does this amount to a hill of beans in the way we live our lives? Certainly not. If something is real to you, then it’s real enough for all practical purposes.

So whether or not things are real doesn’t really matter? If you find a large lump of yellow metal that looks like gold, asking if it’s ‘real’ isn’t so silly.

THE WITNESS

In the Western world we have a somewhat conceited approach to knowledge. We only value knowledge that comes from our own tradition and way of thinking. There are other ways of looking at the universe that come from the east – especially the Indian sub-continent, which we tend to dismiss because they don’t conform to our mental comfort zone. There is a written philosophical tradition that goes back well over five thousand years that takes an approach to the acquisition of knowledge that is very different to our own. There’s a lot in it that is of real value to anyone who might want to explore matters of the spirit without buying into belief systems that fly in the face of scientific understanding. Some of these ideas are difficult and uncomfortable for the western mind because they cross boundaries between science and spirit in an amazingly casual way. They are, however, important ideas that are well worth the effort.

Here’s one they made earlier:

When you’re dreaming you experience the dream in a very interesting way. Part of your brain is doing the dreaming and another part is ‘watching’ the dream as it unfolds. There are two levels of consciousness operating to make the dream work. There’s the movie on the screen and the person sitting in the audience watching it. This bit doing the watching is called the Witness or Witness Consciousness. Awake or asleep, part of our brain is always processing data and another part is watching it. We also call this awareness. This concept of the Witness, is basic to many of the ways eastern thought approaches an understanding of our place in the universe and how the universe actually works. It’s also that which we can define as the inner ‘me’; the part of us that experiences our life and all that happens in it. In the western tradition we would probably consider this to be our ‘Soul’; our central spark of life that many believe exists beyond the physical world: The immortal bit.

Western religions that arise from the Old Testament of the bible, such as Christianity, Judaism and the Muslim faith, and the philosophical thinking that comes from this tradition, have concentrated on making the connection between the individual soul and the rest if creation.

Very often, in order to make this connection, these ways of thinking require us to believe something that defies reason to make it all work. The eastern approach doesn’t do this. In this way of looking at things, consciousness is a universal phenomenon that is the basic building block of the universe. It can be found in everything from a brick to a human to a star. The witness is a bit of that very same stuff. Consciousness has some remarkable properties. It exists outside space-time and is a part of its fabric at the same time. It is also all joined-up in a way that makes ideas like the latest thinking in cosmology look rather familiar.


These are very difficult ideas and can be a bit uncomfortable to contemplate but let’s try and take it all a bit further. Our inner being, the witness, is made of consciousness and so is everything else. Therefore the problem of connecting our existence to everything else does not exist. Because consciousness does not exist in space-time, it does not conform to its laws and is actually all the same continuous phenomenon all joined up and identical.

If both we, and the universe, are made of the same identical continuous stuff then there would be a meaningful connection to be made. Rather than viewing God as the creator and grand designer, we could define God as consciousness, which would make a lot of religious people fairly happy. If all of this consciousness is all joined up and it is the separation between us, God and the universe that is the illusion, then God is the universe, we are the universe and, we are God. That sounds extremely blasphemous and such a statement would have got you burned at the stake not so long ago.

You don’t have to accept this hypothesis but if you, at least, go along with it far enough to explore its potential, it becomes an interesting and useful way to understand both the physical nature of the universe and the way our spirit fits into it. And there’s no need to chuck your intellect in the bin while you’re doing it.

There may come along some bright spark who succeeds in devising a scientific explanation of consciousness. At present it sits outside the realms of science as it doesn’t conform to the laws of physics. If you are of a scientific mind it is almost automatic to reject the idea of consciousness altogether and put it firmly into the realm of spiritual mumbo-jumbo. It’s not that simple. Science wants to see observable effects of the things it theorises about and consciousness does have observable physical effect. Nature, left to its own devices would never assemble a brick wall (it certainly wouldn’t produce a space rocket) and yet these physical things are there to be observed. The universe favours disorder. In the natural process ordered piles of bricks (walls) tend to fall down and become disordered. When we search space for radio signals that are the hallmark of intelligent life we are looking for the signs of consciousness acting on the universe.

IMMORTALITY

Fear of dying is something we all share. We spend our lives doing our very best to avoid the one true inevitability. There are those who say ‘I’m not afraid of dying’. There is a very simple experiment to test this: Point a loaded gun at someone who makes this declaration and see if they duck. Instinct will take over and that person will duck first and think later. It is very difficult to imagine a universe that our consciousness is not a part of and it is very uncomfortable to contemplate not being.

The instinct to stay alive is a Darwinian imperative. Any species that did not fear death would not last long in the survival stakes. All religions’ first job is to offer some way of dealing with that fear. Immortality, in whatever form, is their stock in trade.

The trouble is that fear makes people dangerous. The suicide bomber and the kamikaze both give their lives for a promise of immortality. People who ‘give their lives to Jesus’ do it because the other side of that contract is ‘the sure and certain knowledge of eternal life’. The reason such people have a problem with science is they can’t reconcile a scientific view of the universe with their need for immortality. Science says the bible is a myth, and therefore, when you die – that’s the end. Finish. Kaput. So they mount an attack on science. Never mind that they use the products of science every day in every way, and that it is science and not religion that has made the lot of the common man so bearable. It never ceases to amaze me that a person can watch an evangelical preacher furthering ‘intelligent design’ on that ultimate product of science, the television, and not have a problem with what the preacher is saying.

Science itself is not completely blameless in all of this. Science has great difficulty in dealing with ideas that it cannot quantify. There is a strong tendency in science to act from a perverse kind of scientific ‘belief’. When it comes to matters of the spirit and “the ‘super-natural’, instead of saying “I don’t know’, science says “if it can’t be described by science it can’t be true’. That is an assumption based on a belief. The belief is that the scientific method is infallible. One only has to look at the history of science to see instance after instance of radical thinkers (who later turned out to be absolutely right) being ridiculed and rejected as absurd by the main body of scientific thought. Religion does not have the monopoly on dogma. In fact every major leap forward in science has been resisted by scientific dogma. It is painful to watch so-called objective thinkers behaving in such a way but it goes on every day in the scientific community.

The word ‘immortal’ means exactly what? Not mortal – incapable of dying. Not even the most rabid fundamentalist would suggest that our physical body doesn’t die. The religious position is that there is a part of us that exists beyond the physical body (generally referred to as the ‘soul’) that is incapable of dying. Even that idea is problematical. I have witnessed, close up, the results of brain damage, and there are too many of us who have watched Alzheimer’s disease rob a loved one of everything that made them who they are. If the ‘soul’ is the essence of our being, how can this happen? Do Alzheimer’s patients recover their conscious awareness when they die? When all brain activity has eased and the body remains alive, where is the soul? There can be little doubt that our consciousness is a product of the physical structure of our brain, so when the brain ceases to be, must not consciousness also cease?

Science teaches us that time is not an inflexible constant, it changes with velocity and it is as much a physical dimension as up down or sideways. In our daily lives, this variability of time is not apparent at all. Clocks go at the same rate anywhere on the planet. For everyday purposes, measurement of time is constant. There is another component to time, however, and that is our perception of it. Time can seem to fly by or it can seem to drag on interminably. Our conscious experience of time is very variable indeed. There are states of awareness where time can seem to stop altogether. Eastern mysticism describes a mental state known as ‘Samadhi’, a state of bliss, achieved through meditation, in which one experiences time ceasing to be. In my earlier hippy years I experienced this by combining meditation with an unwisely large does of lysergic acid. This is not a practice I would recommend. While in that state of consciousness, time did, indeed, cease. From the point of view of one’s perception of time, it is possible for time to stop completely. If, time is not progressing, is that not a case of being aware and immortal? If time cannot pass and one is conscious, death (from one’s own perception) can’t happen. To dismiss this as mere hallucination misses the point. It is a demonstration of the fact that consciousness has a way of stepping outside physical time. In the physical universe, time does keep marching on. The point is that our perception of time is just as important as any other view of it.

There have been many surprisingly similar descriptions of ‘near death’ experiences. States of consciousness where one enters a tunnel of light, where one can look back at our physical bodies. These descriptions are so numerous and consistent that many scientists accept that such a phenomenon does in fact exist. Their explanation is that it is a natural experience of the brain finally shutting down prior to death. I find that a perfectly reasonable explanation. If, however, the experience of brain death is one that generates a state of timeless in the consciousness, then does this not constitute a conscious existence beyond the physical? If, by the very process of dying, one perceives time to cease, then one can have one’s scientific cake, and eat one’s spiritual cake at the same time. From the physical point of view, we do indeed die and cease to be. The brain can no longer support our consciousness. From the internal viewpoint, we have left the physical restriction of time altogether.

So there does not have to be an argument between science and spirit when it comes to death. Of course we die. Of course our consciousness is gone from the dead brain. But, in the infinitesimal moment of death, it is quite possible to achieve a state of awareness that does indeed constitute immortality.

MORE DESIDERATA

Literally 'More Things To Be Desired', this is my attempt to add a 21st century footnote to Max Erhman's masterpiece:

Desiderata Mages 2009
Being born in a human body is the greatest of all opportunities. Your time in that body will pass in the blink of an eye. Make the most of your life.

Adventures are to be welcomed and embraced. A life with no adventure is like a car that never leaves the driveway.

Be tolerant, especially of yourself. The rest of the world will find ways to beat you up. It needs no help from you. Being born is an opportunity to attain perfection, and that takes a lifetime of endeavour. Don’t expect perfection of yourself. If you were already perfect there would be little point in living.

Justice and fairness are concepts for children. The world is not a fair place. It is what it is, for good or ill. All you can do is deal with whatever is handed to you with a determined heart. None-the-less, be just and fair in your dealings with others, without expectation that others will do the same for you.

There are as many paths as there are people on the planet. As long as your path has a heart, it is a good path and it is yours and yours alone.

There will always be disasters. They are a fact of life. Living to avoid them is unrealistic, they’ll happen anyway.

Love is the most enduring experience. Love and beauty are the things we most value and live longest in our memory.

Have faith in your own abilities. The world is unpredictable and it can change for the worse or the better very quickly indeed. You can’t control the wave you’re on, but you can be good at riding it.

All attachments are temporary. Attachments to things slow you down and make you fearful. Attachments to people, especially those you love, are the most dangerous of all. All things and beings must pass.

Happiness matters more than all other things. Happiness is a state of mind, not a state of affairs. Helping others to be happy is the best way to ensure you own happiness.

Whatever your endeavour may be, get on with it. All things in life can be replaced, with the exception of time. Time is an arrow that goes only one way. Time is the most valuable commodity there is. Respect time, and make the most use of it. Even one second can never be regained.

Above all, love your self.