One of the things I like most about Buddhism is that it’s a science, the science of life. Now science usually has a very sec connotation, but in fact we are here talking about the most romantic science there is, where nothing is excluded. Buddha said to never take his words for truth without us discovering it for ourselves and he said so for a reason. There is a saying in Zen Buddhism which says; If you meet the Buddha, kill him. Now this sounds of course rather harsh, but it is not at all meant to provoke aggression, it means that whenever we are trying to find truth outside of ourselves, we are doing something wrong. Instead of attributing the course of our lives to external forces, and creating dogmatic believes around them, we start from the very naked point where we say; what is it exactly we’re dealing with here? Buddha said; life is suffering, but there is an antidote. Life is an enormously complex puzzle for us human beings and Buddhism is nothing less than the science dedicated to solving it, what works and what doesn’t? This way it doesn’t condemn about good and evil, but much more in term of causes and consequences, A causes B, very much like in science. On top of that, this science has been lasting for over 2500 years and has spawned many marvelous teachers who have crystalized the teachings even more. Many Western people started practicing Buddhism because religion din’t work for them, so they tend to go much more to the core of Buddhism without falling for the typical Eastern traps in which Buddhism is created into some sort of religion. It is my believe that this is the way the Buddha wanted his teachings to be practiced, so that we can become fully human with good hearts thriving on our own wisdom. When the Dalai Lama talks about compassion, it’s not because this is written somewhere and we have to follow it blindly, it’s because he knows that it works and he encourages people to find this out for themselves. We find out everything for ourselves, with great teachers along the side line the helping us, but eventually everyone travels his/her own journey.
A great advocate of this pure view on Buddhism is Ven. Robina Courtin. Although her style of teaching might be somewhat unusual (she is not exactly the typical quiet nun), what she says goes very much to the core of the teachings, without any bullshit.
In contemporary psychology a new technique has been getting a lot of amazing results in various psychiatric and personality disorders; Neurofeedback. Through EEG-scanning a person is confronted with his or her brainwave activity, getting immediate feedback from any form of mental activity. Mental disorders such as ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) are characterized by certain patterns in brainwaves, deviating from the equilibrium. The person itself then has to of induce or reduce certain brainwaves by inducing or reducing certain mental activities. This way it is taught which mental activities disturb the equilibrium and therefore the balance in the brains, which are typical for the mental disorder. Although research in neurofeedback remains controversial (some attribute it to the placebo effect), it’s results are at least noteworthy. I believe it also shows some amazing parallels to the Buddhist view of the mind. It is therefore not surprising that mindfulness practice is encouraged in Neurofeedback. In Buddhism one tries to gain a similar state of mind, which is relaxed, open, yet awake. Thoughts and emotions are not discarded but rather observed without trying to judge or reach for anything. In Buddhism this is called resting in the nature of the mind, which brings out all the positive qualities we as humans posses, wisdom, compassion, insight. We slowly let go of our neurotic patterns and become more and more who we really are. In this case feedback is not provided by a computer screen showing brainwaves, but by being mindful of the movements of our mind. Trungpa compared this with letting wild bulls into a meadow, wild as they may be, giving them space will cause them to calm down and become peaceful; it goes the same for our discursive thoughts. It is quite exciting to see both Western and Eastern psychology moving closer towards a more unified view of the healthy mind. We do have to keep in mind that the Eastern insight on this subject is far more ancient and thorough. With our Western empirical techniques, however, we can put this in a scientific frame and thereby also convince the skeptical minds of this matter.
I have just finished a month of abstinence from alcohol. Eventhough I only drink during weekends, I think it’s good to now and then refrain from any mind-altering substance for a while. First of because it’s damaging to the body and secondly because it affects the mind as well. During my month of abstinence I have given a lot of thought about this. I remembered my time when I was straightedge for 6 years. Straightedge is a movement originated in the hardcore punk movement during the 80’s and comprises refraining from alcohol, tobacco and recreational drugs. To me this was always a way to keep my mind clear so that I could focus on my own path and grow as an entity, thus a very positive thing. This was until I actually became involved into the straightedge scene because I was in a hardcore punkband. I was struck by the fact that many straightedge youngsters there who were straightedge were basically just assholes, always complaining about people and matters instead of taking positive action. Although they did not take any intoxicating substances, I believe that still their minds were intoxicated with negativity. Not surprisingly, many straightedge kids, upon giving up on straightedge, made a 180 degree turn and even started using harddrugs. I believe that during periods of abstinence, if you do not work with your mind, it’s not really worth it. Because when we give up on such things, our neuroses are enlarged and if we don’t work with them, they can come out disguised through sublimation (preaching, converting, violent activism etc.). So during this month i did not only try to cleanse my body, I also really tried to cleanse my mind, by contemplating and observing it. I always encourage abstinence, but if we don’t work with our minds simultaneously, it does not work.
I was having a firy discussion with friends yesterday, who claimed that everything we do is selfish and that there’s no such thing as altruism. To me there’s not really much difference, since when you help other people it often really helps yourself as well. On the other side when you’re a complete asshole, it might give some shortlasting satisfaction but you will always end up feeling miserable. So this is some sort of mean unmature selfishness. People who tend to live in a more sociable way, do this not only because others will benefit from it, but also they themselves. So in a way this is selfish, but a more mature version of selfishness. I think that this realisation in people can grow without limits, with the boundaries of selfishness and altruism fading more and more. I think ego is a healthy part of human beings, it keeps you alert, and usually has some sense of truth in it. But she needs to be tamed, because if she gets too much attention, she becomes spoiled like a difficult child. Chogyam Trungpa always referred to ego as a cocoon, we might feel as if it were comfortable, but deep inside we want to break out. I think we never really get rid of the cocoon, but instead will start wearing it as a beautiful suit, we still wear it, but it does not limit us in any way.
Humans suffer from aggression. We all have it, it’s an evolutionary leftover meant to protect ourselves and our peers from harm. In modern societies we have managed to tame aggression through laws and cultural morality. We have set up our societies in such ways that outer aggression is channeled and any outburst of aggression is punished by law and order. This all by itself is good and quite necessary, if not, chaos would rule the streets and the law of survival of the fittest would count. But there’s an inherent problem to all of this; namely that often our aggression is not tamed at all. Though it might seem from the outside that a society is very non-aggressive, aggression might take place inside the people in heavy forms. This aggression can result in extreme harshship towards ourselves, often expressed through extremely high standards we have set up for ourselves. So the problem is, now that we have tamed the outer aggression, it has now turned towards ourselves, resulting in totally new problems we as a society are still very inexperienced in dealing with. Au contraire, in modern societies being hard on yourself is often seen as a virtue, leading you to obtaining your goals and achievements. The problems that come along with this (burnout, depression etc.) are highly prevalent and many people suffer from this in silence. The aggression we aim towards ourselves then eventually comes out again, but then through catharsis (think of the high school shootings) or in subliminal ways (i.e. religious extremism). Now there is also some sort of quality on sometimes being disciplinate on ourselves, just like it is sometimes good to be disciplinate on someone else (like the Zenmaster to it’s student). It gets the most out of us and we can pour the very best out of ourselves. But there’s a very thin line between striving and harshship. So now that have spend centuries in designing our societies to keep outer aggression stabilized, we now need to focus more on our inner worlds and find ways to deal with our inner aggression. Then there’s no aggression towards others as well as ourselves.
A notion I have been thinking a lot of lately is karma. Originated from Hinduism and Buddhism it is literaly translated as ‘action’ or ‘deed’ and describes how everything we do, say and think (body, speech and mind) results in similar consequences. Therefore negative action, speech or thought results in similar negative consequences. Obviously our lives are full of both negative and positive experiences, all blended up which eventually forms the shape of our lives. Usually we have a strong tendency towards the “positive” fruition in our lives and neglecting the negative parts of our lives. I think the only way to actually reflect upon our body, speech and mind is to also accept the negative aspects in our lives. Painful as they may be, they can work as a mirror in how we ourselves contributed to what is happening in our lives. Instead of complaining; “Why me?” we can look straight at the heart of the problem and see it as a teacher instead of an enemy. This is one of the hardest things to do because it requires us to be naked, and let go of our defensive walls against life. Can we look in the mirror and accept our bodies with all it’s little unevenness? It can be painful to accept the way we are perceived by others, let alone by ourselves. Our love lifes, our jobs, our financial status. Sure enough the problems that we face many times need positive action, but in doing so, acceptance is always the first step. Without it it becomes a fight instead of working with it and we never get to see the root cause of the problems. When we can accept our karma as it is we can rest more with the insecurity of life and begin to see clearly how we ourselves can contribute to the content of our lives.
We can spend our whole lives practicing yoga,meditating, singing mantra’s, improve ourselves in many ways, all of which are really helpful methods. But often the very core of our problem, our pain, is being avoided. It’s very hard to get to that core, to actually become conscious of it. It’s usually created in the very beginning of our youth and is entangled in everything we do. We can be spiritually very wise, very scholared, but still have the core belief “I am worthless”. No matter what we do, as long as we don’t deal with this, it won’t go away. It’s tough becoming conscious of those hardcore patterns, usually because there’s so much other stuff piled on top of it.
Flow is “the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity”, as it is described by the pioneer in positive psychology Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. I think this is one of the most interesting psychological constructs that Western Psychology has offered in the last few decades. In (Tibetan) Buddhist practice this is often called Lungta, ‘Windhorse”. Which basically means that you fully immerse into the present moment and ride it’s energy. Whilst this being one of the most whortwhile states of being for a human being, it is also one of the most difficult states to “accomplish”, because it involves letting go of our ego’s. It is often seen in professional athletes, who are so deeply trained into their discipline, that they can actually let go of their selfconsciousness and become fully one with what they’re doing. The fact that they had to train for years to actually be able to do so, says something about how hard it is to experience this in daily life. We are so often obstructed by our own minds and concepts, that we miss out on being fully present and thereby limiting our potential. Letting go is like standing at the edge of the cliff and someone says “Jump”; it goes against the grain of our habitual patterns. Because we are having a constant fight with life, others and ourselves, we are missing out on the continuous current that flows through our lives. But luckily we can train this state of letting go, which like professional athletes requires repetition and discipline. In this way, life itself becomes an art.
What is the direction us humans are taking? I think we as a kind are at a pivotal point in which we are confronted with the products of our greed and aggression through economical, social and environmental crisis. If there would ever be a time to change our attitude towards life, now would be it. So which direction are we taking? We have seen that greed doesn’t work, nor trying to gain any kind of profit on the short run. We as individuals, but also as a kind have to mature. It will take a revolution not only in the economical and environmental section but a revolution that seeps into our entire lives. Because everything is interlinked and if one aspect becomes spoiled with aggression, other fields will also suffer from that. I think solving these modern issues will not only require action but will also ask of us to tame our aggression. It will take healthy views at cultural and religious differences in which we respect our rationality and do not cling onto dogmas. It will also take daily practices in which we can maintain this new mindset (e.g. meditation), because human aggression is like a thief in the night that sneaks in if we aren’t wakeful. This all needn’t be done in a scary totalitarian way because there are many methods that we can use to achieve this, methods we can derive from our own cultures, religions and traditions. In this way we can begin to see more sharply how we can design our society in a more sustainable way and actually move forward as the human race. This very possibility of a more wisdom-filled society is in our hands, but it will take a lot of effort and a whole new way of thinking, a positive revolution.
Where I have been obsessed for many years by the Smashing Pumpkins, this (healthy) obsession has gradually shifted towards Icelandic singer Björk these last years. I am not the kind of music listener that listens to music like fast food. When I encounter a new artist that i really like, I want to hear every song to it’s bone, totally unravel the art someone has to offer. Often the bone is pretty easily reached and my attention shifts to another artist. But with some artists it is different because simply every aspect about him of her is fascinating. Björk seems to have thought about every single aspect of her art through music, fashion, pick of instruments, lyrics, all of it meant to carry her vision. She takes full advantage of everything modern technology has to offer, but does so in a very sustainable way, respecting the wisdom of our forefathers. In this way she has become an advocate of the way we can be fully human and incorporate our innate wisdom into everything we do in life, wether it be music, arts, politics or social relationships. She shows us that we can do everything with full attention, intelligence and egolesness. It all boils down to the question; in the long run, what works and what doesn’t?
P.S. As a tribute to her I am currently recording a cover of Björk called “Unravel’ which I will soon put online.