Sometimes it seems we are resigned to being passive listeners to Big Media spewing its endless toxic effluent stream of multi-international corporate newspeak. Yesterday, a Tibetan nun asked me if I was following the Olympics and I said no, I did not wish to lend legitimacy to a political regime with an open policy of genocide towards Tibet and its unique culture, but on closer examination, that was not found to be true. One has to be highly disciplined to both stay in tune with what deserves our careful attention in the media, and to tune out that which does not.
Now that every major media outlet is ramping up nationalistic medal counts from Beijing, while perennially feeding and lampooning the hubris of political dignitaries, I must again remind myself that each person creates their own reality. Yes, the responsibility is ours to choose‚ resignation? Or hope? So while it is important to have our eyes open and not deny troublesome situations- for example, Microsoft’s cowardly deference to this same Beijing regime, denying protected First Amendment free speech rights based on thinly disguised fables conveniently protecting their bottom line- the task of a peace warrior is to see the bigger story fable (called samsara in Buddhism) – not to get sunk by it, and to help free others from drowning in it.
Yesterday, I listened to a 75 year old Tibetan lama one of the few remaining great masters who escaped from Tibet in 1959 during the Chinese invasion, explain that all sentient beings, even ants, mosquitoes, pythons, piranha, hell beings, ghosts, and all 6.5 billion humans on Earth, have at their core, tathagatagarbha or Buddha nature. This is outlined in full in a Mahayana sutra called Uttaratantrashastra.
Briefly, Buddha nature means that every sentient being is essentially pure, without any sin, transcending all concepts of good and evil in a state which is only fully realized after lifetimes of spiritual practice. It sounds remote and inaccessible, but anyone can achieve it. All of our mental garbage can be removed- sent to the recycle bin or compost heap. The fundamental clarity of our mind is like a perfectly stainless mirror- sometimes referred to as the innate mind of clear light. Okay, this may seem a weighty load of esoteric jargon for a general interest blog?
Please take what you like and leave the rest. The point I am trying to make here is that there is hope. Our demons and problems are only temporary. You and I can make a difference in the world. Just as importantly, you and I can make a difference in achieving a state of lasting happiness within ourselves, without needing to ride the rollercoaster of drama fed to us by personal and social conditioning.
Yesterday, I had a momentary insight into the surrealistic fantasies of modern life which obscure our ability to see things as they are. I had blissfully soaked up a morning of teachings from my Tibetan teacher, and then after being transported across town in a fossil fuel burner, found myself in Cal Anderson Park for an afternoon of play with my five year old daughter. As she started in on the monkey bars, we heard a commotion of strange and foreboding musical sounds coming from a different part of the park.
“What’s that? Let’s go see”, her five year old mind busily scanning the world for new information to analyze. We walked closer and encountered three female dancers with painted white faces, moving in mysterious ways in the middle of the water sculpture – designed to resemble a large river flowing down from a volcano. A man was playing the trombone. Another man was sounding gongs. Everyone was in the water, moving in unison.
We had stumbled into the middle of a free outdoor performance of the Greek opera, Psyche. The dancers at times stepped out of the sculpture river, moving out and around the onlookers. Nearby, some people were juggling. A woman walked through the middle of the performance, talking on her cell phone, seemingly oblivious to all dramas but her own. Mothers nursed their infants. A 747 flew directly overhead. Broadway, Seattle, Planet Earth time: Now. The brilliant orb of the sun moved in and out of the clouds casting shimmering diamonds on a Columbia River in miniature, flowing from Mount Olympus. The American tragicomedy of our incessant search for happiness blended with the jealousy and revenge of ancient Gods and Goddesses, like the waters of the fountain mixing with itself.
We follow the performance as it moves from one area of the park to another. I swim through multiple worlds of mind simultaneously. We stay mesmerized halfway through a second showing, before eventually the monkey bars and playmates call my daughter away. I sit down in the shade, one eye on my singing giggling dynamo, the other studying non profit quarterly balance sheets, pausing now and then to savor my momentary insights into inner freedom.
What does any of this have to do with community acupuncture? Nothing, everything. Water in water. Time and freedom to contemplate and practice seeing things clearly.
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