What constitutes hard work? Does sitting at a desk in front of a computer constitute hard work? Does attending meetings in board rooms constitute hard work? Does counting money and scheming to make more constitute hard work? Does bathing an invalid constitute hard work? Does cleaning kitchens, bathrooms and public spaces constitute hard work? Does carrying heavy objects all day constitute hard work? Does building or maintaining a building constitute hard work? I hear the words "work hard" and "hard work" bandied about quite a bit in the media. Usually these words are used in relation to making money by those who have made a lot of it. Does making peace rather than war constitute hard work? Does giving rather than taking constitute hard work? Does preventing your own fear from being harsh or inhuman to others constitute hard work? I find it very hard work to do that which is more compassionate or more righteous thing over that which comes easily to me. That is why it takes conscious practice on my part to choose hard work over habit or impulse.
Epicureans
This is a time of obesity in the consumer world and hunger in the laborer world. Is it any wonder that American cable television boasts hour after hour about expensive food consumption and preparation? The elite, who have captured and dominate the international television industry, are obsessed with material pleasure and excess. This is not new, of course, but the elite of today number in the millions. They are served by billions who labor harder and harder as their overall compensation dwindles as a proportion of planetary resources and production. Greed is in. The Epicureans flaunt their devotion to pleasure, while always talking on TV about how they have paid their dues or worked their way up. This is myth in most cases. The masses are lulled into submission with false promises of open access to the upper levels of society drilled into their hypnotized TV-medicated brains. They stuff down their anger with starch and fat. There is no happiness in obesity or hunger. There is ultimately no happiness in attachment to pleasure and excess. There is happiness in the practice of moderation and living to promote economic equality and justice for everyone.
Christmas
Rituals like Christmas, it must be remembered, are the products of the past. These rituals bind us to the past. Do we want to be bound to the past, or do we want to look to the future? Christmas, in particular, stems from an ancient celebration/exhortation of the return of the sun for the new year in many pre-Christian cultures, primitive cultures, I might add. The reality is that every new year celebrated also is a year closer to our death. In light of that reality, I think jolly fat men in red could be replaced by sober men in black. My practice at Christmas is not based in disdain for fellowship and good will, when I refuse to engage in materialistic symbolism. My practice at Christmas is actually based in the observation of all mortality, renewal of spirit and the celebration the exemplary human ability to cooperate in peace, even in a time dominated by those who prosper by hatred and war.
History
Personal history. the traveled path of life, is much like human history. We re-enact evolutionary history in the womb, from single-celled organism to mammal. We struggle from blindness, ignorance and selfishness to awareness, intelligence and socialization. As we age, we pass through stages of civilization from gullible to informed, based on our environment, resources and capacity to learn. Hopefully, we learn to be mindful of ourselves, others, the planet, the Universe. We learn to be responsible. We learn to be compassionate. Hopefully. It takes a lot of work to grow from our history to a more enlightened present. That work is called practice.
Gifts
It is a time of holiday gifts. Gifts are frequently tokens of esteem, appreciation, homage, competition, attraction, speculation, sympathy, commemoration, conformity or other human feelings/motives. The operative word is token. The motive behind the token is often obscure to both giver and recipient. This is the product of living without mindfulness. Those driven by conformity during the holidays are often motivated by a desire to fit in or to be judged worthy of esteem and respect. Retail advertisers depend on this motivation to manipulate the susceptible buyer. I happen to believe the greatest gift I can give to individuals and society is my practice of daily mindfulness, compassion and responsibility. I cannot wrap this in a box with a pretty ribbon. I simply do this to the best of my ability every day of the year.
Light
The solstice approaches in the Northern Hemisphere. Light slants and throws long shadows in the middle of the day. The clarity of this light is noticeably sharper than the light of Summer. This light is blue and cool. It is not the light of evolving life. It is the light of pause and reflection. With this light comes the cold. The cold wind chastens. It disciplines the haughty and self-indulgent. It makes the strongest shoulders contract to conserve body heat. I am learning to walk in this cold. I am learning to stand erect in it, to breath its harsh bite with deep and measured breaths. I am learning to open my eyes wide in this cold, to survey its magnificent lessons about Nature and Life. Facing Winter is facing Death. It is part of my practice.
Tyrants
George Bush the Elder and his aristocratic wife, Barbara, heir to a media fortune, celebrated the Thailand King's birthday in Thailand this week. The Thai King, educated at Harvard University, subverted the democratically elected government of his country recently and supported a military coup, which still holds power. The American corporate-owned press has neglected this abuse of democracy for obvious reasons. Tyrants still roam freely on this planet. They feast at elaborate ceremonies together. They are lauded. Books are published which hail them as exemplary human beings. And, obviously from this birthday in Thailand, they all stick together. My practice entails resisting the tyranny of the few and of the many.
Sagacity
No fool like an old fool. Older is wiser. Both these adages apply. Where do we find the middle path in looking to elders for wisdom and advice? It is a difficult call. When I see men like James Baker, former Secretary of the Treasury/State and Right Wing hatchet man, being lauded as wise because he has been around power for a long time, I shudder. George Bush the Elder, reviled in 1992 as a failed President, is now gaining the dusty frost of aged respectability. The wealthy and rich, in my experience, are seldom wise. Their wealth and the habits they have developed to keep it tend to stunt their life experience. They are insulated, spoiled and rather rigid in their perspective. The aged poor, those who have struggled for survival throughout their lives, are also limited by their poverty. Their wisdom tends to be tainted by their habit of grabbing onto whatever they do have and never letting go. The middle path seems to lie in the direction of those who have known a fair share of success, security, failure and insecurity. True wisdom is based in some education, as well as experience. And, it seems to me the most foolish of paths to accept sagacity in anyone without questioning it continually.
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