The beginning

Post ONE:

                “It is not too late to seek a newer world.” These words, written by Alfred Lord Tennyson, offer hope to a disenchanted seeker of knowledge, frustrated in the search for complicated answers to simple questions.  Tennyson’s words are echoed by Epicurus who wrote, “Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young, nor too weary in the search for it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the benefits of wisdom.” Life should not be a still-life of angst. It should be a journey of illumination. We all want answers to life’s questions. A true seeker hopes to find the right path to get to those answers.

            Many people desperately look to the usual suspects for those answers--Material possessions, wealth, status, sex, fame and all those other things we’ve been taught since our toddler days will make us happy and peppy and have us waking up in the morning with a song in our hearts. We think that “he who dies with the most toys wins”. If you’re reading this blog, you’ve probably realized that you’re not going to find your answers there. To paraphrase Michael ‘Meat Loaf’ Aday, “You’ll never find gold on a sandy beach and you can’t drill for oil on a city street.” More often than not, these physical things are the cause of our discontent, because comparing what we have to what others have is usually what makes us unhappy.  Most suffering is caused by craving and avarice. If we learn to give up useless craving, we can live happier in the moment.

            Many people give up the search for something deeper and better, resigned to living life by-the-numbers. Thoreau said “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” The majority of people today feel resigned to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. We accept that life is what we see and we toil on, like good soldiers. Some of us hope for a miracle which will bring us the happily-ever-after that fairy tales promise us. We wait for answers. We wait to feel good. We wait to wait. Sadly, the waiting doesn’t help. We learn only by learning, not by waiting.

            The Buddhists understand this, as do the Native Americans. They have very different expectations about what leads to happiness and fulfillment than most of us westerners do. As the Duwamish Indians say, “I love a people who do not live for the love of money”. Buddhism, like Native American spiritualism, is not a religion but rather a philosophy for living. They are both based on observations of the natural world and depend more upon understanding than on faith.

            As you may know, there are many types of Buddhism, just as there are different denominations of Christianity. There is Theraveda Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism (Also known as Tantric or Vajrayana Buddhism). As far as the Native Americans go, there are nearly 100 different tribes, each with their own specific culture.  There is no single, written-in-stone set of rules and morals for all Buddhists or all Native American beliefs. However, there are many commonalities among all Buddhism, just as there are recurring themes and ways of viewing the world shared by the tribes of the first Americans. This blog collects the most common themes, notions and sayings, using them in a very general sense.

             The basic precepts of Buddhism are (1) to lead a moral life where you harm no one, (2) to pay attention to your thoughts and actions because they have ramifications in an interconnected world, and (3) to continually develop wisdom and understanding which will help you grow and evolve as a person.  Unlike most other systems of worship, Buddhism offers a way to eliminate suffering during life, not after it’s over. You can find happiness in living, not in dying. This comes as very good news to many of us. Buddhism means “To be awake”. A seeker wants to be awakened to the truth. In this case, the truth is within ourselves and that’s where we should be looking.

            In most religions, faith means trust in an outside force or person. We’re told to look outward and hope for guidance or assistance. We hope this external force will deliver our salvation. The Buddhists believe that there is nothing you can find outside you that you don’t have inside you. No need to beg for what you already have.  “As the Buddhists say, “The way is not in the sky. It is in the heart.” Western religions once realized that but forgot it. In the lost scrolls of Nag Hammadi, Jesus said “If heaven were in the sky, the birds would be closer to it than we are.” That sounds very Buddhist.

            The Buddhists believe that when we change ourselves for the better inside, there is a ripple effect that spreads outward and benefits the whole world. Buddha once said, “We are what we think. All that we are arises from our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.” The Aborigine have a custom called ‘the Walk-About’, where they travel the world to learn about themselves. Buddhists take the opposite approach. They search within themselves to change the world. That’s the place we should all be looking. Whether or not we succeed is less important than the fact that we keep trying. We may never change the world but the continuing search for enlightenment fulfills us in ways that nothing else could.

            The search for inner-harmony and spiritual balance is a common keystone of Native American beliefs. They are less rigid and compartmentalized than most modern western people are about the means of attaining this enlightenment. Unlike the modern American/European idea that philosophy, religion, literature and cultural history are all disparate, unconnected entities, Native Americans firmly believe that these things are all part of a greater spiritual state that cannot be separated. The Native Americans believe that everything in our culture, past and present—mental, spiritual and environmental—contributes to making us what we are. Every person we meet, every lake we swim in and everything we read are puzzle pieces that make up the human being we are. The Hopi Indians believe “All things have meaning, form and power.” When we interact with other people and with nature, when we learn about them, we’re learning about ourselves. If we learn what we’re meant to learn, the whole will be greater than the parts.

The Native Americans believe in the Circle of Life, whereas Buddhists belief in the similar concept of karma. The Native American belief in the Circle of Life means that everything comes back to the beginning. Our journey leads us back to ourselves. The circle is an important symbol in their culture. Just as the earth, the sun and the moon are round, life is circular. Moving through the circle is an ongoing journey of personal evolution. Ideally, if you act and think in a way that is positive, healthy and respectful to others, you should find yourself in a more positive place with each trip around the loop. Conversely, if you are angry or bitter, the belief is that your trip along the circle will end in a place you probably don’t want to be, unless you’re a masochist who enjoys misery. Buddhists call this Karma. Karma is the relationship between intent and reward, which means that the universe rewards your intentions. The belief is that if you have good intentions and want to help people, the universe will deliver future happiness but if you have unkind motivations, you’ll end up unhappy.  As the Crow Indians like to say, “The more you give, the more good things come to you.”

            The wisdom of these philosophies is that they show us ways to improve and reach enlightenment on our own. As the Crow Indians say, “You already possess everything necessary to become great.” The Buddhists echo this thought, saying, “The mind is everything. What you think, you will become”. The Hopi Indians believe, “Teaching should come from within instead of without.” To quote a song lyric about a popular film, “Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man that he didn’t already have”. Another saying from the Hopi Indians is, “Wisdom comes when you stop searching for it and start living as you were intended to.”

            Both the Buddhists and the Native Americans base their interactions with others on respect, kindness and consideration. These practices don’t focus on the “dog-eat-dog” competitiveness that you’ll find in daily life or the “eye for an eye” anger of other schools of thought.  As the Arapaho Indians like to say, “When we show our respect for other living things, they respond with respect to us”. Both believe that to help others is better than to beat others. The Native American Indians believe we should “Help one another and not strive to be another’s undoing”. These philosophies are tolerant of other beliefs, never declaring anyone wrong or stupid or inferior for their personal views.  To quote a Shawnee saying, “Trouble no man about his religion—respect him in his views and demand that he respect yours.”

            Both of these spiritual philosophies acknowledge the interconnectedness of all life. Psychiatrist Carl Jung compared Buddhism to his theory of the Collective Unconscious. The Collective Unconscious is a psychic system of universal and collective remnants of our innate nature which is identical in all individuals but cannot be explained by anything in the individuals own life. The Collective Unconscious does not develop but is instead inherited, consisting of pre-existent forms and archetypes. Jung considered the personification of the Collective Unconscious as a Wise Old man. Interestingly, the Wise Old man is an important symbol in Native American mythology. The Native Americans believe in the interconnectedness of everyone and everything. They see all people and all of nature as being one. To the Native Americans, nothing is separate and no one is alone.  As the Sioux say, “With all things and in all things, we are relatives”.

            Confucius said “Whoever knows essentially his own mind can also know that of other men and can collaborate in the transformation and progress of Heaven and Earth.” A seeker needs to be mindful to truly experience life. Thoreau said to “Live deliberately and suck the marrow out of life. To put to route all that is not life.”  Socrates told us “the unexamined life is not worth living.” We are a curious race and we spend time studying every particle of our physical world. We’ve walked on the moon and send probes into space. Human history is a timeline of great discoveries. And yet, we avoid studying the greatest enigma of all…ourselves!

            Why don’t we know ourselves as well as we know our computers or I-phones? Why are we less curious about ourselves than we are about celebrities? Why aren’t we compelled to know our inner working? We should be. We have to and need to and must. To quote the Buddha,” It is better to conquer yourself than to win 1,000 battles.” We don’t have to be sitting under the Bodhi Tree to have an epiphany about ourselves. We have chosen to begin this exploration. We are pioneers of the greatest frontier. “Oh brave new world that has such beings in it.”

            Seneca said “How can the soul which misunderstands itself understand others?” The truth is that it can’t. Each of us has so many more layers of majesty and magic within ourselves than we’re taught we know. Our lives should not be limited to sticking our toe in the water when there’s a whole ocean to swim in. “Oh, to hold life henceforth in the palm of new joy.” A whole new world is calling for you to discover it. “Seek and ye shall find,” even if you’re looking for yourself. We need to listen and learn. We need to be still and subdue our own mind so that we are not distracted from exploring the real “final frontier”, which is our own soul. This is the truth that Buddha and the Native Americans knew centuries ago. We modern seekers are still trying to catch up with them.

            Now we will begin this journey together and see if we can find hidden treasure in the oceanic depths of our minds, hearts and souls. A true seeker can only promise his or herself to keep seeking. “This above all, to thine own self be true.” Simple words but so important. We owe it to ourselves to listen.

  “It is not too late to seek a newer world.”