Politicians

The recent death of Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts gave the awake observer some tremendous insights into politics, government as we know it, and politicians. The mindful and truthful have been testifying against politics, government and politicians since these phenomena were invented. And King Solomon would again shake his head and shrug if he were alive today. Nothing new under the Sun.

At a time when politicians in the majority are taking bribes (they call these 'campaign contributions') from the private health insurance industry to keep the American people slaves to premiums which support a Byzantine insurance bureaucracy, we have heard somber, solemn and totally hypocritical eulogies about the one Senator in Congress who has consistently supported universal health care with no buts or ifs.

'That's the way our system works, ' I have heard them say in defense of their hypocrisy and corruption. They speak of the interests of corporations as though they were of equal moral and ethical merit as the interests of the population, The People. This is not only lying. It is unconstitutional. We are supposed to be a democracy of the people, by the people and for the people. Corporations are not people. CEOs and lobbyists are people, but they are an infinitesimal minority of the people. Why are their interests being held above those of all the people?

Most troubling to me is the lack of counterpoint coming from the Kennedys themselves. In order to provide themselves the glory of a state funeral, it appeared, they have allowed the most despicable celebrities of the political class to jump on the funeral publicity train. The very people who have plotted to defeat the central pillar of Edward Kennedy's career, universal health care, rushed to fill well positioned church pews in Boston.

Death is not negotiable. It has no nuance. It is not debatable. It has no Right or Left. And neither does Truth.

If Americans could grasp and internalize their mortality, stripped of all the opiates of religion, plastic surgery, hormone enhancement, and television, perhaps they would demand Truth from their politicians. Perhaps they would demand that a Truthful legacy be granted to honor a man of the caliber of Senator Kennedy. Perhaps they would demand basic human rights, like health care, for all Americans and all the people in the world.

Struggle

Holy men are often depicted as masochists. I understand this. To stand for justice, truth, compassion, peace and fairness in life is somewhat masochistic in human societies which tend toward the hedonistic, selfish, greedy and bellicose.

The Middle Way offers a less masochistic alternative. Masochism Lite, perhaps.

Practice should always be embraced as simply that, practice. You will win some days and lose some days. But, practice is always a struggle against the animal roots of the human species, which can weigh down right action and right thinking in many situations. You see, humans, all humans, have animal brain elements (by 'animal' I mean 'non-human animal') and human brain elements. The frontal lobe brain elements can override the animal brain elements. In fact, as toilet-trained and clothed animals, we have started out with this type of override training fairly early in life. Education is the fuel of the human brain. But, the reptilian and basic mammalian brain elements are still in there and functioning without our conscious control much of the time.

So, every human's practice is a struggle on a very basic level. If we could all just talk about this struggle more and acknowledge it as our most basic commonality, perhaps that would be a great beginning of getting along, despite more superficial differences. This would entail being candid and frank about a whole range of instincts, compulsions, obsessions, bodily functions and desires.

Perhaps that is the place where many of us started our practices. By understanding and accepting the less human parts of ourselves, perhaps we can approach one another with greater humility and acceptance.

I struggle in my practice every day to deal with anger, reflexive reactions, libido, defensiveness, compulsions, anxieties and other physical impediments. This is the 'white noise' of my consciousness, through which I have been trying to hear the more human me, the compassionate me, the mindful me. Sometimes it's a out-and-out wrestling match, but, with time and daily commitment to trying, it has become a more gentle struggle, if I remember to stay in the moment.

Principles

I recently heard an author on the radio bemoaning her conscience and principles, instilled in her brain by parents, teachers and ministers. Her quest, apparently, is to become unprincipled. While I understood her resentment over certain sexist aspects of her conditioning, I think she is perhaps throwing the (well raised) baby out with the bath water.

While I no longer subscribe to my native Christianity, I do appreciate the one central commandment of the mythic Christ: Love thy neighbor as thyself, or, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That is the basic principle of all compassion and mindfulness. And, if followed, naturally leads to right thought and right action in its practitioner.

Perhaps this is the key to secular humanist morality and ethics. No harsh paternal figure required. No flames of hell as deterrent. No heavenly virgins as reward.

Being human in the most mindful and compassionate way in the moment when alone or with others as a practice is perhaps a higher standard of behavior than the standard of religions which offer ritual absolution for routine, mindless, hateful behaviors without a requirement of subsequent intellectual or behavioral changes.

My principles are my practice. If I proceed with intentional mindfulness and compassion through each day to the best of my ability, I feel it will be unnecessary to fret over the dictates of any religion, social trend or social pressure, which may be at odds with being a truthful, loving and open member of the human family.

Monks

When I was a teenager, I fantasized about becoming a monk. I thought it would be the solution to all my problems. I could retreat from a world I found harsh and inhospitable. I could dedicate my days to meditation, prayer for others, prayer for peace, perhaps a little farming too. How idyllic those fantasies were.

My otherwise devoutly Catholic parents would not sign my permission papers when I wanted to join the Jesuits at 16. It wasn't because they thought being a Jesuit was a bad thing. They preferred that I, their possession, become a medical doctor. In retrospect, they did me an unintentional favor.

How compassionate a person could I have been if I sealed myself off from the experiences of making a living, working in the capitalist system, paying rent, developing a career, working as an openly gay man in my jobs as a teacher, a nurse, an administrator? How would I have known what it means to be poor without a 'big daddy' organization to back me up? How would I have developed myself out of my narrow Catholicism to a broader humanism while being dependent on The Church for my bread and butter? Would I have been able to avoid being corrupted by the mainstream status that comes with a clerical collar?

Those who practice in organized and isolated intentional communities may reach enlightenment, I suppose. But, the historic Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed all lived in the world as individuals. They all pulled away from the conventions of their times to seek Truth. The monasteries and madrassas came later. In fact, one can see these intentional communities and schools as symptoms of de facto humanists' frustration with human society's persistent evils. In this light, I see them as symbols of a kind of surrender, a kind of failure.

While organized groups of devout moralists managed to transmit valuable cultural elements through the ages, they failed to instill practice in the populations they came from, with few exceptions. Practice in the real world with real worldly responsibilities and stresses is hard. But, the rewards of this practice are commensurately great. By practicing in the world, one can develop the strength to aid others in their practice. In this way, potentially, humanist practice can spread through a society over time.

Think of a world where every human being lives in mindfulness with compassion. Think of a world where speech is always based in truth. Think of a world where everyone prizes the act of giving over the act of seeking individual gratification. This would be a world of practice. This kind of world can only be achieved when all its people are just as concerned for the happiness and health of all as they are concerned for the happiness and health of themselves. My mind holds one prayer: it is a plea to future human generations to achieve such a world.

Choices

In every moment, the mindful and compassionate person must balance identity and humanity. This is practice.

Racism is a choice of identity over humanity. Sexism, including hatred of people for differing sexual orientations, is a choice of identity over humanity. Religious intolerance is a choice of identity over humanity. Ignoring the needs of the working poor, uninsured, mentally ill, addicted, homeless or any other peaceful human beings in need is a choice of identity over humanity.

Choosing peace is often a choice of humanity over identity. Choosing charity is often a choice of humanity over identity. Choosing humility is often a choice of humanity over identity.

Continuing to thoughtlessly choose identity over humanity in moment-by-moment living creates a bad personal environment, which will eventually alienate and marginalize. The evil of the world is built on countless individual choices of identity over humanity.

Walking the Middle Path by attending to a daily practice, committed to peace, mindfulness and compassion, entails balancing identity with humanity in every moment. Rather than seeking to change one's humanity, the seeker works relentlessly to change one's identity to harmonize with one's humanity.

Reactionary

One of the great lessons of human history is related to the swings of cultures and political movements caused by reactionary retaliation of one regime against another. These reactionary movements create great suffering and are often associated with wars, pogroms and social retrogression.

Large reactionary movements are a reflection of individual reactionary process. It seems a human characteristic to conform up to a breaking point, whereupon the conformist becomes a reactionary, once his/her tolerance has been exhausted. Then he/she embarks on an extreme counter position to try achieve some perceived equilibrium. This tug o' war can eventually achieve moderation of course, but the collateral damage to relationships and community is often devastating.

I believe our current mass-media culture is caught in a reactionary cycle. Usually, this is described as partisanship. Currently, the two-party system in the U.S, appears to be the tool of forces intent on manipulating and diverting the greater population through partisan reactions in order to protect and foster the socioeconomic domination by the few, who greedily hold the wealth of the country.

The unproductive nature of this process is best illustrated currently by the organized demonstrators who disrupt public meetings with government officials who are trying to develop universal health care systems in the U.S.. The demonstrators are apparently poorly educated and economically challenged supporters of the far Right. They are ginned up by propaganda on Rightist radio or by Rightist operatives. Perhaps they are paid to act in disruptive and antisocial ways at these meetings. This methodology, lifted from Mein Kampf, is a tried and true method of those at the top who wish to sabotage any political movement in a society with a growing impoverished and uneducated class.

Their reactionary tendencies, motivated most probably by racial, religious and social prejudices, are being used to defeat a political movement which would vastly improve their own lives. Their lack of education and information makes them vulnerable to be used in this way. Their frustration and economic dysfunction produce the sense of deprivation and entitlement which is the grist of the demagogue's propaganda mill.

How can this cycle of politics and history ever be disrupted? How can the human family become a functional force for health, education and general wellbeing on the planet?

If a society insures unlimited educational opportunities and health promotion for its citizens, it will begin on the path to societal wellness and progression. This is simple common sense. But, capitalism is not built on simple common sense. Overpopulation does not allow for simple common sense approaches to the most basic human needs.

The individual can begin a practice of being proactive vs. reactive in his/her own life. Perhaps, if enough individuals practice proactively over time, we can start a wave of more generalized proactive practice in society. Proactive practice entails guarding against dichotomy and polarity when approaching human issues. Proactive practice is the Middle Way or Middle Path.

Narratives

I have been in several new social situations recently. The word, narrative, came up in one of those situations. My mind instantly clicked on that word as very relative to my recent social experiences.

Prior to one of these situations, I found myself uncharacteristically thinking about what I would answer to certain questions I might be asked. I say 'uncharacteristically', because some years ago I decided to greet each potential situation as a blank slate by simply showing up and by not thinking about the situation before it even became a situation. However, this appointment potentially related very closely to my practice's foundations. I realized my speculation about the meeting was really an inventory of myself and my self perception.

Happily, I recognized that I had only one honest answer to any question which could be asked of me: The simple truth of my being in the moment of the question would be my answer. I experienced immediate relaxation of mind and body with this recognition.

Narratives, resumes, c.v.'s, portfolios are all condensations of our skills and accomplishments. Too often, these narratives are confused with identities. Unfortunately, they are most often based in the past. To anchor your identity to the past is stifling. While those things you have done may inspired confidence in your abilities, they are not a true measure of who you are or your human potential. In fact, many such narratives are tainted with minor fictional enhancements and distortions, while others do not begin to express the fullness and value of a life.

My practice entails being the truth of everything all I have been, I have done, all I have mastered and all I have failed to do in my life. Being that truth creates its own spontaneous narrative, when one is requested. This is known in many disciplines as being able to live in the moment, in the past and in the future simultaneously. In other words, experiencing having been, being and becoming as one. And, from this state, one may proceed on the journey to enlightenment.

In my opinion, enlightenment is not an accomplishment. It is also an unending work in progress. And the journey to enlightenment can be lit my a simple lantern: The lantern of my own truthfulness, mindfulness and compassion in every moment to the best of my ability.

Perversion

Sexuality, as an abstract concept or personal identity, is itself a perversion of a simple bodily process. Feeling the need to define oneself according to one's sexual needs or actions is a symptom of the loss of our humanity. It is, perhaps, symptomatic of population pressures, dehumanization of the industrial/electronic age, the new corporate fascism, the new resurgence of orthodox deity worship, and/or any number of other modern stresses combined.

People who are born at the ends of the sexual-preference bell curves are forced by the prejudices and hatreds of those in the middle to assert their difference politically as a form of self defense. In a post-Kinsey age, this speaks to the depth of the U.S. society's sexual dysfunction.

The need to have sexual stimulation and release is simply a human and an animal need. It is anatomic, biochemical, hormonal. If modern humans managed their bowels in the same way they manage their sexual organs, a vast portion of the human population would die of terminal constipation.

In short, sex of all kinds, like food, has been packaged and manipulated for profit and social control by capitalists and politicians. So, it is becoming increasingly difficult to have a sexually healthy life by rejecting myths and fears, fostered by media advertisers working for the powers who wish to control and/or sell sex.

In my own practice, I have grown to appreciate my sexual needs in concert with my other bodily needs. A central part of this process is the acceptance of responsibility for my own sexual needs and satisfaction of those needs. After all, do I require another person to attend to my adult needs to eat, to sleep, to digest, to eliminate? No. And, do I feel guilt when I eat to satisfy hunger, sleep to avoid fatigue, relax after a meal to digest, or lock the bathroom door behind me? No.

When we see ourselves as powerless to satisfy our basic physical needs by moderation, regulation and conscious practice, we lose our humanity and our freedom. When we deny ourselves healthy practices to satisfy the will of others, we shrink as human beings and sacrifice our own personal evolution. As with all areas of life, the person who is healthy in his/her own sexual practices has so much more to give to others when given the opportunity to share.