Tengu House

"Everything Happens for a Reason"

My friend told me yesterday that something I'd said had helped her. This would be last year, when she was going through a difficult time, and we'd been chatting online. Mostly about music theory and the business of music, as my friend is also a musician, but also about more personal stuff, because that's what friends talk about.

Funny thing: I couldn't remember what I'd told her. I often fall into the habit of dispensing advice based on whatever Buddhist theory I'm studying at the moment, and evidently something I'd said had helped her. I was glad I could be of help, but I had no idea what I'd said, so I asked her.

She said, "Everything happens for a reason."

No, I don't think so. "Everything happens for a reason" is one of those platitudes against which I've railed for most of my life. A platitude is a bullshit line that's intended to make people feel better, even though it in fact holds no significant truth. This particular platitude implies that there is some omnipotent higher power pulling the strings somewhere, which is another bullshit line against which I've spoken and written.

There is such a thing as universal causality, which is both scientific and Buddhist in nature, being the subject of one of the Buddha's great discourses. It states that everything has a cause, and that cause has a cause, etc. In the event of a car crash, for instance, the crash may have happened because someone fell asleep at the wheel. She may have fallen asleep because she was up all night studying for a big exam; She was studying for the exam last night because she lacks the self discpiline to study during the alotted time, and had to get in some last-minute book time.

Just an example. I bring it up because it's relatively close to the idea of everything happening for a reason, but it means something completely different. Either way, I doubt I'd have quoted this principle while giving a friend advice on how to handle something.

Probably I said something more like, "Life is experiential" or "Everything is impermanent" or "Change is inevitable". Don't dwell on the negative, because picking and choosing (moving toward the pleasurable while avoiding the unfavorable) is the opposite of mindfulness.

Or something like that. Whatever I said, I'm honored that it was hgelpful. But I also think it's telling that I got credited with throwing out a platitude that I would have never said. I didn't correct her when she told me that, by the way. Whatever I'd said had made her feel better, which wasn't really my objective, but I'm glad about it. If she equates that with a bullshit line that carries its own partially hidden religous meaning, I guess that's okay. I mean, I didn't want to ruin the feel-good value of whatever I'd told her, so I let it go.

What do y'all think? I'd especially like to know what you think about the line "Everything happens for a reason". If you believe it, what's the reason? Does it mean that there's a secret divine purpose for every occurrence? Everything that happens was first planned out by your god(s)?

 

Is That What You Want?

Torn, aren't you? I mean, on the one hand, it's something the Buddha could've said, isn't it? And who's to say he didn't, at least at some point in his long life, say something at least similar to this?

On the other hand, was the Buddha prone to three-second feelgood soundbites? Sounds a bit forced, doesn't it? In the scriptures, everything I've ever seen (I'm by no means an expert of any kind, mind you) took several hours of reading to get through.

So did he say this, or didn't he? The world may never know.

But it's true, isn't it? If you remove your own obstacles to your bliss, then what remains will be your bliss. I know it's easier said than done - and that is the whole point to Buddhism. Once we've established that there is a less-than-satisfactory condition to everything in the universe and in our lives - the First Noble Truth - then we can begin to explore what to do about it. And the first thing we learn to do about it is this: we begin to remove our own pre-concieved ego and desire - our attachment.

And that's where it begins.

Year of the Dragon

At some point, we find the temple beckoning. It's a new year, the year of the dragon, and I find myself wondering if it would be worth it to reconnect with the temple, even if it means putting up with some very strange political bullshit.

The Buddha taught that we should only adhere to that which makes sense to us, right?

Haven't been here much lately

Hey all! I haven't been very active on this blog in about a year. In the off chance that you noticed this and wondered why, here are some reasons:

1. It turns out that my cat is actually a space traveller and I've been busy trying to help him get back to his home planet.

2. I got married, and as luck would have it, turns out she's really a secret agent for the CIA and we've been going on a lot of top-secret missions together.

3. I ran away and joined he circus, and in a freak training accident involving the Human Cannon, I was inadvertently launched so hard that I flew all the way around the world. Twice. I just landed yesterday.

4. I joined a band and have been practicing and performing instead of writing on this blog (this one is actually true).

5. At some point, I just found that writing about Buddhism is much less enjoyable than writing about some other things (Also true). I still practice, but not as fervently as before, and I'm not writing much about it. I might get back into it in the coming year, but I'm not making any resolutions.

If you want, you can check out my Outlaw Bass Player blog by following the link in "My Other Blogs" on the right here, somewhere. Have fun!

Labels - Right-Winger

    They’re calling me a “right-winger” because I don’t like Obama. I’ve also been called a racist because I don’t like Obama, but I’ll save that one for another post.

“Right-winger”. What does that mean, exactly? Does it mean Republican? Because I’m certainly not a Republican; I’m a Libertarian, if I have to affiliate with any party (although I seldom do). I’ll also save the “Teabagger” thing for another post. I just don’t have enough time today to go into everything that’s wrong with that expression.

By my own reckoning, a right-winger is a die-hard member of the Christian Right. A Christian Coalition type, like the Fallwell group or those weirdos from the Westboro Baptist Church.

But it’s also Sarah Palin, isn’t it? And Rush Limbaugh. And that’s where I fit in, I guess. Because although I’ve made a point of rejecting Christianity in all its forms, I do like Palin and Limbaugh. I don’t think either of them should be president, but I like the ideal for which they stand.

Why? Because although people make mistakes (like Palin's comment about Paul Revere warning the British), at their core, they’re Conservative. And being Conservative is about a lot more than religion. You have to go to its core to find why I’m attracted to the fundamental ideals of the Conservative movement, but it's not an overly complicated concept.

By definition, a Conservative believes that government must be severely limited. I don’t mean you say government must be limited, while actually expanding government’s size, scope and power (like W did). I mean seriously limiting the ability of the government, on any level, to interfere in the private life of the individual, like Jefferson did. What this means is that the government has only sharply limited ability to interfere with your liberty. And by liberty, I mean Reagan’s definition of liberty: the rights to enjoy the fruits of your own labor. Palin, Limbaugh and others have actually spoken out against government expansion. Palin actually did something about it while she was governor of Alaska, which I find respectable and honorable.

By contrast, Obama is on record saying that he wants to “spread the wealth around”, meaning your paycheck and mine. This isn’t even disputable, as it’s too well documented to argue about whether he said it. He believes, and has said on a number of occasions, that the government has a responsibility to ensure that no American makes too much money. In my estimation, this is an outright evil perversion of the government’s mandate – and intentional attempt to usurp your right to the fruits of your own labor.

As a Buddhist, I’ve met people who believe that CNN is too far right. I like to say that our preferences tell more about us as people than they do about what we're preferring (or not preferring). If I say I don't like broccoli, for instance, that tells you more about me than about broccoli. I don’t consider myself a right-winger any more than a left-winger. In fact, I don’t think of myself as any kind of winger at all. I believe a lot of what Reagan said was right, but the same can be said of Gandhi. And King (Martin, not Rodney). Chris LeDoux was right when he said "It's all mud and blood and barbecue sauce and fingerpaintin' the town."

For me, the bottom line is this. We humans weren't meant to live under the control of some government, which is why it's part of our nature to struggle against authority, if we see that authority as usurping our natural freedom. On the one hand, you have people who want you to live, insofar as it’s possible, under the sweat of your own brow, but to enjoy everything you’ve earned without government intervention. On the other hand, you have people who want to regulate how much your sweat will earn, and take the rest away from you in order to give it to others who haven’t earned it. And picking one of those two sides, evidently, will get you labeled a something-or-other-winger.

I guess it's a label I can accept, as long as I feel there's an acceptable reason for it.

 

Quote from Pema

"The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else's eyes. " — Pema Chödrön

 

 I think this is a particularly powerful Pema quote. I'm only just now learning how powerful something like this can be - the idea that you can control how you react to others, based on how you feel about yourself. Sounds extraordinarily cliche, doesn't it? But it couldn't be more true.

And in our study, in our everyday practice, don't we find that almost everything depends on how we view the universe? The whole subject of Buddhism deals entirely with what's going on within our own minds.

Update to Changes in 2011 - Here's the View from Halfway Through

Okay, so the changes that have come in 2011 have been real, but they’ve been completely different from the changes I was expecting.

For one thing, this year I’ve become much more involved in music. I’d been writing songs and playing guitars around the house for years, and back in the day I played with a few bands in South Carolina, Alaska and California, but none of that was anything serious, and all of it was a long, long time ago. In April I decided to buy some cheap used gear and get busy looking for a band who needed a bass player (bass is my weapon of choice, although I also play rhythm guitar and a little lead). Long story short, I hooked up with Outlaw Lynn and Who’s Drivin¿, and have been playing out with them. For more on the band, see my blog "Long Colt" http://tenguhouse.typepad.com/long_colt/ or our website at http://www.whosdrivinonline.com/.

Additional time in the dojo has not been forthcoming, with the exception of a few garage sessions, mostly in judo. I’ve done almost no aikido since leaving Shudokan last year. I did, however, get into the Shotokan karate class I mentioned below, and I attended a few classes with them, which I loved. But with the new emphasis on the band, time and other resources have been strained and maintaining a consistent class schedule has proved difficult. Right now the idea is to re-establish a presence at the karate dojo (probably once a week) and possibly train a little with Chris at a judo dojo he;s checking out this week. As with all things, we shall see.

I’ve continued my Buddhist practice, but training has gone the way of my martial arts training. Will probably resume that as time permits, but right now it’s just meditation and every now and then some reading or whatever. I’ve cut back my visits to the Shambhala Meditation Center too, but I might sit with them this Thursday though, if time permits. I'm much less interested in training with them toward a monastic bent than I was before I did their level 1 training in February. That was good training, fun, with a strong emphasis on meditation basics, but I think I was looking for something more of an introduction to the Shambhala organization as a whole. Not really a complaint, mind you - I've enjoyed sitting with them and all that. But I'm still undecided about training with them further.

In all it’s been a hectic year so far, but I actually enjoyed the first half of 2011. Now it’s time to see what kind of trouble we can get into for the second half.

An End to Christianity

 

I normally refrain from saying such things, but this whole Harold Camping affair has my ire up. These people spent millions of dollars to convince hundreds of families to cash in their life savings, sell or give away their homes, quit their jobs and pull their kids out of school, because the Christian Judgment Day was coming (this past Saturday, as I'm sure you heard). Yesterday Camping was quoted as saying he was "flabbergasted" that the Rapture hadn't occured as he'd predicted, and that the end of the world was evidently not, in fact, imminent.

It boggles the mind.

While it may fairly be said that Camping and his brigade of fucktards don't represent the teaching of the mainline Christian churches, to me this is just one more example of the kind of insanity brought on again and again throughout history by the blind devotion espoused by Judeo-Christianity and Islam.

How long are we going to continue this strange devotion to bronze-age superstitions? How many people have to be "flabbergasted" by the absolute and complete failure of their belief system? When is the human race going to finally rise up out of this age of hocus-pokus self-delusion?

I'm calling for an end to this madness. I'm asking anyone who reads this and agrees with me to speak up and act out, to encourage as many people as possible to finally put an end to the silliness of Christianity and its many wierd little branches and versions and sub-lines in their daily lives. We can really live without this nonsense; in fact, I believe we can live better, more productive lives without it. If you're tired of being told, "Through God all things are possible" by people who couldn't find Montana on a map (of Montana), you're with me. Sorry to be so rude about it, but it's going to have to end sometime. Isn't it?

At long last, let's do something about it. The insanity isn't going to stop itself.

Changes in 2011

Some of the things I'm going to change starting in January:

I'm going to write more, both here and in my fiction.

I'm going to get back into Buddhist training. I intend to do as many Shambhala-related trainings as I can in 2011, and plus at least one Shambhala sitting a week - and also, to continue my zen sitting at the cabin every night.

Back into the dojo, but not the same one. Continuing to take a break from aikido. I've checked out the Shotokan karate classes going on in West Houston, and am pretty excited about those guys. They appear to be the real deal, and I expect to train with them as soon as my retarded ankle heals (from where I took a header off the top of the stairs last week).

More blogging. Buddhist training will be covered here, while MA training will be covered at Aiki-Kuzushi. My other blogs will probably go away, as I really don't have a lot of use for them. Now that I think about it, though, maybe one covering life at the cabin would be cool. I could use LongColt for that, and post to it maybe once a month or so.

OK I guess that's about it. Will post more later. Maybe.

When Things Fall Apart - sort of

There's a lot of hurt going on here. I have this friend who recently helped me see how things can go to shit in an instant. She did this by taking this beautiful relationship, this friendship we've shared for some years, and crushing it. To be fair, she did what she did because she was hurting, and I suspect in part because of outside influences on her state of emotional health. She's been through a lot.

So I spent a few days in intense meditation. Not sitting for three days straight or anything, of course, but twenty minutes here, an hour there, for about three days. I didn't get much sleep but I did read a lot of Chogyam Trungpa, Lama Surya Das and Pema Chodron, and I've come to the following realizations.

First of all, nothing has actually fallen apart. Nothing has gone to shit, as I thought. This was simply my overreaction to my own misperceptions about virtually everything involved. My understanding of what was going on was completely clouded over, because my own attachment to that relationship wouldn't let me see that the whole thing was an illusion anyway. In fact, the illusion itself was a construct of my attachment.

Once all the dust settles, my friend and I will still be friends (I hope). We'll at least still know each other and will be able to start rebuilding whatever we had before, and we will both have learned something from the experience. It's not going to be easy, and I've made it more difficult than it needed to be by acting out of those hurtful emotions that always go along with episodes like this. But this kind of healing -- this kind of understanding -- is what comes from knowing where to turn when you're hurting; whose teaching to read, which voice to listen to. In my case, these teachers helped me pull myself out of this abyss of despair, and pretty quickly - although it still hurts, it doesn't look like it did a few nights ago.

Next time things fall apart for you, I recommend asking your teachers about it. Even if they don't know they're your teachers.