mind? what mind?

It is the enemy who can truly teach us to practice the virtues of compassion and tolerance.

- The Dalai Lama

The whole of humanity is one human family. This planet is our only home.

- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

I’m an avid reader of science fiction books, as well as a person that enjoys SF movies the most.  Usually, in these stories (or accounts of possible futures, as some call them in not-so-tongue-in-cheek manner) humans –excuse me, “hupersons” (don’t want to be called a sexist!) strive to find or make new homes among the planets of our solar system, or out among the stars.  As families generally do, they splinter off, finding or building new homes.  Can you imagine attempting to build a house to fit all the billions of your brothers, sisters, cousins, parents, grand-parents, and children, all descendants from the single mother that at least some geneticists claim we all share?  Before long, even that immense house will become to crowded, too limiting for our sanity.

Home is not where we hang our metaphorical hat, it’s where we come from; and for our species that is this small, insignificant ball of matter and energy that we call “Earth” or “Terra”.  As when each of us grows up and moves out of our parents houses (huts, tents, igloos, caves, or whatever) we remember where we grew up.  Usually, we think of that as “home”: “I’m going ‘home’ to visit my family”, “I’ve just gotten a letter from ‘home’”, etc.  And so, what H H the fourteenth Dalai Lama says is true.  We humans (excuse me again, “hupersons”), according to the geneticists, are one family and this planet is our Family Home.

Now listening to:

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced - Third Stone From The Sun

"The true essence of humankind is kindness.  There are other qualities which come from education or knowledge, but it is essential, if one wishes to be a genuine human being and impart satisfying meaning to one’s existence, to have a good heart."

    - H.H. The Dalai Lama

Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit—such as love and compassion, patience, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony, which bring happiness to both self and others.

    - His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Currently listening to: Miles Davis - Best Of Miles Davis - Someday My Prince Will Come

So, there’s hope for me yet…  It’s true, the more calm and quiet I keep my mind - even when (especially when!) faced with adversity or the anger of others, the closer to happiness I become.  I have a long way to go yet, but it’s encouraging to know that there is hope for me still.

As long as there is a lack of the inner discipline that brings calmness of mind, no matter what external facilities or conditions you have, they will never give you the feeling of joy and happiness that you are seeking. On the other hand, if you possess this inner quality of calmness of mind, a degree of stability within, then even if you lack various external facilities that you would normally consider necessary for happiness, it is still possible to live a happy and joyful life.

- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

His Holiness, and many other Tibetan people have faced far more adversity and anger than I can truly imagine, but through their’ example I’ve been shown that it is possible to face it with calm and equanimity.

Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom and dignity. It is not enough, as communist systems have assumed, merely to provide people with food, shelter and clothing. Human nature needs to breathe the precious air of liberty.
- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Anger is the real destroyer of our good human qualities; an enemy with a weapon cannot destroy these qualities, but anger can. Anger is our real enemy.
- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Look at children. Of course they may quarrel, but generally speaking they do not harbor ill feelings as much or as long as adults do. Most adults have the advantage of education over children, but what is the use of an education if they show a big smile while hiding negative feelings deep inside? Children don’t usually act in such a manner. If they feel angry with someone, they express it, and then it is finished. They can still play with that person the following day.-His Holiness the Dalai Lama, “Imagine All The People”

I am sitting at the computer desk, listening to an Ottmar Liebert CD, with all kinds of thoughts circulating around in my head.  So many, and yet none will filter down to the conscious level where I can capture them.  It’s as though the thoughts wish to remain in the realm of feelings and senses.  What I do know is that my thoughts have varied from finding ways to work from home, to thoughts of how to attain a certain level of peace with myself.  I’ve thought of the words I’ve read by the Dalai Lama on Ethics and spirituality, and Alexander Pope’s Essays on Man and Man’s place in the universe.  I distinctly have the feeling that all life, all matter, all thought; everything is part of the greater whole.  That my own place is as one cell, one speck in a universe of specs.  My own place as a cell, I feel wonder at the whole, and I also wonder what part this little spec holds?  Do my thoughts, my consciousness affect the thoughts and consciousness of the whole?  Do I affect all others?  If I read correctly, the Dalai Lama believes so.  The whole is all, and is also the component parts.  Each component part is also a whole unto itself, made up of component parts.

The example used by the Dalai Lama is a clay pot.  The clay pot, regardless of what it holds, is made up of clay.  But the clay has been molded by hands - the causes and effects that are part of what the clay pot is made of.  The clay is made of other component minerals, soils, and water.  Each of those is made of more fundamental components.  And so on.  The effect - the molding of the clay into the pot, what caused the person doing the molding to make this particular pot?  What caused them to take up pottery making in the first place?  Is it a craft handed down from generation to generation?  Is it simply a leisure activity?  Is it just a job?  Why?  What parts of the makers’ life affected the making of the clay pot?

Every action we take, every word we speak, indeed, every thought we have, as a part in the universe around us, affects the universe in some small way, sometimes in seemingly major ways.

So what are the pieces and parts that make me what I am?  What happened to mould me into the being that I am today?  Does the cause and effect go back to my father and mother joining at a particular time of a particular day?  The speed and tenacity with which one sperm cell swam upstream and joined with one egg cell?  Could it be so fundamental that that one sperm cell makes a difference?  What if a different sperm cell was victorious?  Would I be here, would I be someone else?  Did the arguments taking place between my parents help to mould me?  Did interaction with my older sister when I was a baby have any effect in making me who I am?  Thoughts to ponder.

(original entry in my journal, April 2002) 

Happy 72nd Birthday to

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Official site of His Holiness