Cruelty

The minor cruelties of life are the most socially erosive. I see examples of these minor cruelties every day in my crowded urban environment. The adolescent thug lounges across three subway seats as people stand around him in the aisles. Groups of young pedestrians push past a tenuously balanced elder on a crowded sidewalk. The entitled customer holds up a cashier line for no reason with little regard for those behind him. Drivers routinely risk the well being of others by running red lights.

When I walked into my 90-year-old mother's hospital room last evening on a relatively quiet hospital floor in a renowned urban hospital, I found that the meal server had placed her food tray just out of her reach and had not helped her raise her bed to an eating position. My mother, having had a hip replacement two days earlier, had been struggling to reach her meal prior to my arrival. I later saw the meal server when she collected the tray officiously. It was obvious that she was oblivious to how cruel and alienating her attitude was.

The minor cruelties add up to the major atrocities in society. This is a well known process. It can be reversed only by education and example. I consider it part of my practice as a humanist in society to foster attitudes of cooperation and consideration of all human beings in life situations. As a citizen, I believe I can do this best by modeling considerate and cooperative civil behavior in public situations. In work situations, modeling cooperative and considerate behavior with peers is a way of working against a culture of cruelty. As a supervisor, intervening against cruel or antisocial behavior is an ethical responsibility in my opinion.

The politics of fear in America have many side effects. One unfortunate side effect is the obvious hesitancy of people in public situations to engage with strangers. This generalized social isolation is destructive to the fiber of social cooperation and consideration. It makes open expression of compassion a rare commodity. And, it makes each of us more vulnerable to the cruelty of others.

Suffering

Suffering is not composed of the difficulties and tragedies of life. Suffering is in the perception of life by the individual mind. This is the reason for practice. By practicing meditation and other forms of strengthening the mind and body, it is possible to endure life's inevitable challenges without suffering. This is true liberation.

Liberation

One way of achieving enlightenment in ancient prescriptions is striving for emptiness. Emptiness implies letting go of ego and a cluttered mind. Meditation is a traditional method for practicing emptiness of mind and liberation from suffering.

While I understand these concepts, I feel the ancient concepts of enlightenment and liberation are relevant in a very different way in modern society. As we become liberated from religion through science, our minds can open to many other ways to achieve liberation from suffering. For example, some would see pharmaceutical technology as a substitute for meditation or psychoanalysis in the pursuit of personal insight and evolution.

The problem with technological substitutes or alternatives for meditation and reflection is simple. Most of us cannot develop our own technological substitutes for these activities. In other words, liberation in a full sense is impossible, since we depend on a factory to make the pills which may take the place of practice. Capitalism fosters this dependence on product as a substitute for practice.

The beauty of practice as an approach to liberation from personal suffering is its empowerment. It requires no dependence on pills, gurus or mentors. By emptying a life of dependence and taking full responsibility for its suffering, a seeker who develops a daily practice of meditation and mindful investigation of being achieves one first step toward liberation.

Death

Death is our great commonality. The more a society flees from death and dying, the less it invests in the common good. The wealthy indulge themselves in delusions of immortality, aided by plastic surgeons and medical gurus. The poor slave away their lives for the rich under the delusion that they will live forever in their children, whose lives might be better.

We are born alone. We die alone. There is no reason to believe in any personal, conscious immortality.

Accepting mortality as the human condition can lead to an awakening. The awakened focuses on the quality of human experience in the moment and the means to improving that quality. The compassionate person, once awakened, strives to bring that quality of his/her experience to others by trying to awaken them.

Stunning surprises, terrible accidents or life-threatening diseases bring this awareness to most. The elderly often awaken a short time before they die. How sad it is to waste a life asleep only to awaken just before death. The wise person accepts his/her mortality and incorporates that acceptance in his/her relationship to the world.

Identity

A constant battle in my daily practice is one between my identity and my humanity. I see this same battle play out in the human family. The signs are everywhere.

A prime and relatively benign example is the Muslim head scarf, an outward statement of religious and cultural identity. Yes, it is just a piece of fabric. Just as red AIDS ribbons were initially. However, in countries where rabid Muslim extremists have killed innocent thousands through terrorism, this statement of identity is a barrier to harmony and trust. And, in countries where women have fought for decades for liberation from male oppression, this piece of fabric is a statement of identity with forces which would oppress women again if allowed.

I recall the early days of the rainbow flag, now a symbol associated GLBT liberation and identity. The flag's multicolors are not a reference to Dorothy's song in "The Wizard of Oz", "Over the Rainbow", as I have heard the uninformed state on several occasions. The rainbow flag was meant to symbolize a minority movement which united people of all colors and ethnic backgrounds. It was a symbol of merged identity, of shared humanity.

Getting past identity responses is difficult. As human beings, we have many tribal and familial habits of identifying with people like us which have served for centuries to provide us with a sense of safety and social stability. The reality is that groups do differ in cultural and biological ways. However, getting past that identity factor is essential to reaching a state of compassionate peace with all living beings.

Being politically correct in a conformist sense does not abolish identity issues, though it does provide a more peaceful public environment in which to do the individual work of reaching down to basic humanity to create peace and cooperation in each human situation. Getting past identity requires mindful practice. It is an important step to achieve the individual peace that promotes world peace.

Christians

"What would Jesus do?" That was the central mantra of the Christianity in which I was raised. In fact, the utter failure of the representatives and officials of that Christianity to live by that standard drove me from that Christianity and the other mainstream Christian sects.

Similarly, I say to Buddhist practitioners, "What would Gotama do?" I tire of those who identify themselves as Buddhists or Buddhist-friendlies and live as materialistic hedonists with little or no regard for those in need around them. I bristle at those who turn Buddhism into a lucrative career path by selling it to the wealthy as a balm for their already lapsed social consciences.

Practicing mindfulness and compassion in the moment every day is not easy. The world is immersed in suffering all around us. The awakened sees the suffering and is compelled to action, right action , to ease it in whatever incremental way possible in each life situation. Jesus and Gotama, as best as I can tell, were awakened human beings. They did not set out to be demigods, used by scoundrels for political and materialistic purposes. They tried to promote a daily practice of peace and justice for all human beings.

Addiction

I am impressed by the current trend in U.S. society to accept binge drinking and public intoxication. In the urban environment, it is matter of course to see inebriated people in public in the middle of the day. On weekends, drunk young people are commonplace during the afternoons on city streets.

Thirty years ago, this would have been unacceptable public behavior, associated with sociopaths and derelicts. Not so today. What has happened?

Well, the U.S. was led for eight years by an alcoholic, who, despite claims of longterm sobriety, managed the government like an unruly drunkard. President Obama chose to resolve a serious racial incident, involving a cop and a Harvard professor, by having a beer with them. When did drinking alcohol become a panacea?

While I believe it is useless to try to control human behavior, like drinking alcohol, by stern prescriptions of sobriety, I am concerned that all the ills associated with addiction will once again blossom with the inevitable social repercussions. Domestic and random violence are among the worst of these.

Personal and social peace is dependent on the mindfulness of individuals. Alcohol/drug use is antagonistic to mindfulness. Mindfulness requires a useful, alert brain. Managing brain function cognitively is difficult enough in itself without adding external intoxicants.

The occasional medicinal use of alcohol, cannabis or other intoxicants may have some beneficial effects for some people. However, the routine, habitual use of intoxicants has no beneficial effect for any individual or society. Learning this lesson is a necessary first step for many on their path to personal growth.

Equilibrium

I'm rebooting, clocking slowly, monitor blinking. The harsh adrenaline edge of unpacking and repositioning has softened with the gradual return of deep, healing sleep. Another Monday, more like the good old Mondays past, begins with a list of to-do's.

Moving is like running. You have to persist until your pace kicks in sync with your breath. Then it's automatic, less painful. But, when you stop, you must stretch before you can walk comfortably into the rest of your day. So, today I am stretching, reminding myself to breath deeply and proceed with mindful caution.

There is so much to be learned from daily life, if you simply pay attention.

Arrogance

Whatever a fool learns,

It only makes him duller.

Knowledge cleaves his head.

For then he wants recognition,

A place before other people,

A place over other people.

"Let them know my work,

Let everyone look to me for direction."

Such are his desires,

Such is his swelling pride.

---Dhammapada

The challenge of secular humanist practice in the 21st century is the double edged sword of knowledge which comes with education. I believe it takes a considerable amount of formal or informal education to progress from ritualistic religion to humanism. Academia or School of Life, either or both bring the thinker, the awakened, to humanism in name and/or practice.

Class consciousness is corrosive to humanist practice. Education and its socioeconomic benefits can lead to an unconscious and poisonous elitism in the humanist, as it has in the religious for centuries. The intentional denial of classism in the U.S. presents a particularly difficult challenge to humanist awareness in practice. The veneer of political correctness and superficial diversity, based in race and ethnicity, covers an entrenched socioeconomic class system, which is becoming more and more destructive to the democratic ideals of the U.S..

Within humanist communities, often centered in cosmopolitan centers, which in themselves are becoming economically gated communities for the wealthy, the challenge of elitism can often be ignored and minimized. It may be fashionable in some circles to scoff at the concept that simplicity, modesty and even poverty can lead to greater mindfulness, liberation and compassion. The secular cult of materialism and greed may be seen as acceptable and even honorable among "Sunday humanists" as it has been for centuries among "Sunday Christians", for example.

Arrogance leads to prescriptive moralism. The elite bolster their own holiness, their own superiority, in endless, subtle ways. Before long, a jewel-encrusted Hierophant is dispensing indulgences within a gated, vaulted cathedral, while the great mass of humanity starves on its steps.

The solution is simple to see and difficult to master. This is the middle way. This is the true meaning of practice. Practice is lived on the ground with the people in every situation of every day. This is humanist practice, as I see it and attempt to live it.

Fear

How much of your life is governed by fear? Fear of animals? Fear of disease? Fear of pain? Fear of violence? Fear of theft? Fear of poverty? Fear of loneliness? Fear of loss? Fear of fire? Fear of commitment? Fear of abandonment? Fear of the unknown? Fear of social ostracism? Fear of forgetfulness? Fear of mockery? Fear of passion?

My experience with fear, which is extensive, has taught me that the first step of freeing myself from its effects is to acknowledge and clearly examine it, despite my anxiety in that process. "Face your fear." It's a common approach, and it works, with practice and conscious effort.

The most dangerous fear is the fear that goes unrecognized. It eats like invisible termites at the foundation of personal integrity. Eventually, integrity gives way to fear and collapses under strain. The erosion of the German popular psyche in the Nazi era is an all-too-grotesque example.

My humanist practice has developed in part as my success at confronting my own fears has grown. I see these growth processes as intertwined. This is no surprise to anyone who has studied psychology and cognitive neuroscience.

Fear triggers fight-or-flight mechanisms in the brain and body. It is difficult to be a nurse, when fear is constantly encouraging you to flee, I assure you. But, my battle with fear began earlier than that. It began with my fear of loss and abandonment as a child. As I struggled out of a pre-adolescent, suicidal depression, precipitated by the sudden deaths of seven key people in my life, I recognized that I had to force myself to see beyond my fear responses. It was very difficult, but I did it with the routine determination and perserverance of a gymnast. And, I still do.

In this age of PTSD awareness, more and more understanding of fear is uncovered by science. Fear is hard-wired. Living with fear and trauma-memory which re-triggers it, requires practice in order to be able to function as a caring and open person in the world. The individual must change to adapt to a slow-changing world of violence, insecurity, ignorance and poverty.

Breaking free of the crippling, inhibiting and/or diverting effects of fear through desensitization by experience is at the core of all forms of human liberation. Being truly, mindfully compassionate often requires acknowledging and calming one's own fear in the moment. Being balanced on the mindful path as a humanist is a constant quest to live in internal peace with all that is human within.

Practice

Some years ago, while I was adjusting to living and working in Manhattan, I was involved with a sect of Japanese Buddhism, whose mission was to bring its brand of world-peace-oriented practice to Western lives through direct person-to-person contact. During one of our meetings, I voiced my frustration with my own inability to perform my role in the group to my own perfectionist standards. The Japanese leader of the meeting smiled benignly as I ranted. When I stopped, he broke the ensuing silence by saying, "Relax, Paul. It's only practice."

I was stunned. Nothing about my experience with that Buddhist group seemed at all relaxing at the time. Each of us individually chanted sutra at home every morning before going to work and every evening. We attended group chanting twice a week. We spent weekend evenings on the streets of lower Manhattan talking with whomever would listen about Buddhism, happiness and world peace. We sometimes brought these people back to my apartment to chant and discuss Buddhism.

It has taken many years and a lot of hard-road mileage for me to catch up with my Japanese mentor. I smile now whenever I think of his kindness and my ignorance.

Now I see that practice is what I am doing right now. That's it. The quality of this practice, this moment, is dependent on how seriously I consciously fill each preceding and following moment with mindfulness, compassion and right action. My practice is the constant, unrelenting commitment to be fully at peace with all humanity, while acting in the world for justice and truth. My practice is practice, because it will never be perfect. It is the process of my life.

Texting

I recently had an experience which baffled me. An old friend posted a comment on my first essay for The New Humanism, a journal of the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy. She was good enough to email me to alert me to her dissatisfaction with the comment on retrospection. When I read the comment, I was stunned. It didn't read at all like her, as I have known her for about 25 yrs..

The comment has been removed with her consent. I have processed my initial feelings of disappointment and anger at the glibness of the comment in the context of a journal, which I highly respect as a serious forum for Humanism. The whole experience has made me think quite a bit.

It seems we are all becoming sloppy with our speech in print. That is, with texting and Facebook-ing day in and day out, our communication is becoming too immediate and uninhibited in general. This is one of very few situations which have effected me in this way, but I hear stories quite regularly in media about cyber-bullying and bad communication in new media. More contact, less quality. I feel the pull of it, the challenge to be who I am with one line.

My own style of writing is frequently criticized in on line situations. I have been told I am too formal, too stuffy, cold, too intellectual, too uptight, etc.. I have stopped frequenting chatroom situations because of this and have no intention of embracing Twitter.

There are reasons why I write as I do. I began my schooling with severe dyslexia in a Roman Catholic school in 1955, when Catholic nuns saw dyslexia as a sign of the devil. I spent many hours crying in a closed coat closet at the back of my first grade classroom. This unintentionally Skinnerian method scared me into reading from left to right eventually. I learned to slow down and ignore the mockery of my classmates as I picked through the words through restrained sobs.

Later on, I had two pen pals. One in Australia and one in France. They were wonderfully encouraging tutors. The girl in Australia, who planned to be a nurse, gave me my first compliment as a writer. She wrote that she waited every week for my letters and saved them to read at night before she went to sleep. My French correspondent, who wrote to me to learn English, gave me confidence by allowing me to explain English idioms to him and coach his study of my language. Since I was useless at French, this was a true gift: I learned that I could communicate intelligently with someone in another culture without having to be discouraged by my deficiency in their language.

My pre-medical course in college was grueling for me. It was a bad fit, but my parents urged me on for their sake. In my sophomore year, I desperately wanted to be an English Literature major. I was immature and seventeen. I allowed myself to be talked out of it by my parents. My English Literature professor at the time became quite upset and ignored me for the rest of the time I was at that campus. In a strange way, I took his anger as a compliment.

The years have given birth to a series of personal journals with diary entries, poetry and short stories. I am a writer. I have been since an early age, but I have only been able to say that I am a writer with confidence for the last several years.

Now I find writing is becoming casual speech, and casual speech is corrupting writing, in my opinion.

I know I am definitely not the first 60-year-old who has felt like a stranger on a strange planet. But, I am not happy or comfortable feeling that way. I want to be in tempo with the Zeitgeist. I try to maintain an interest in expanding and changing technologies.

I guess I have found a boundary which I do not wish to cross. 'It's all good' has never been my slogan, because it isn't all good. Some of it is pretty awful. I will continue practicing considered, honest and mindful speech to the best of my ability. Whether by mouth or by keyboard. It is who I want to be and who I continue to try to become.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is part of most of my days. Any show of basic human kindness in this increasingly materialistic and impersonal culture is appreciated and acknowledged by me. The simple holding of a door, as I enter a building, touches me. The genuine greeting of a clerk at a cash register merits my respect and appreciation, as a person who has worked with the public for many years. The unseen train operator, who sees me running for my train and leaves the doors open after the platform has cleared, gains my appreciation and respect. The stranger on a sidewalk, who deftly lets me pass or moves to one side to share the way as she approaches, deserves my smile and nod. The shopper in a crowded supermarket, who is careful to not block my way with his cart, is never taken for granted by me. The shop employee, who notices me squinting at an empty shelf and asks, "Can I help you?" with sincere interest, impresses me and gains my respect. The elderly person, who stops to let me pass and says with a winded smile, "You go ahead, I know I'm slow.", deeply humbles me with her acknowledged kindness.

Thanksgiving isn't a just holiday. Thanksgiving is an acquired, in-the-moment habit which makes the world a little better for everyone.

Finally, I have to publically thank the person who anonymously shared this Thanksgiving photograph on the Web. I have to say, I identify with the turkey.

Extremes

One of the goals of my practice, learned from Buddhist and monastic Christian practice, is the narrowing of my moment-by-moment attention away from the extremes of my reactions and desires. It is the most difficult and most rewarding aspect of my practice.

In the US, we live in a country of extreme views and extreme differences in wealth and well-being. While the extremes, diluted by a bureaucratically grinding government, generate slow social progress, the temperament of America is fickle and often unfocused. Materialism is the common ethos of the country. Freedom, as touted and seen by most Americans, is a euphemism for selfish pursuit of monetary wealth and/or celebrity. This adds to the challenge of practice for me.

Tempering the extremes of reaction and desire, brings calmness to the mind. Calmness of the mind allows for self-confidence and an understanding of self. Self-confidence and self-understanding allay many personal cravings. Allaying personal cravings allows the perception of the needs and humanity of others. Generally perceiving the needs and humanity of others, without seeing them through selfish insecurity and/or desire, breeds compassion. Compassion brings love. Love extinguishes fear and violence.

This doesn't just happen. It's exhaustive labor much of the time. A simple subway ride in the city with this consciousness brings countless tests of my resolve to practice. Driving in the city makes this practice nearly impossible for me. But, the commitment to the effort has paid off.

Practice

There is a current media blitz, waged by humanists and atheist organizations in the US. One of these promotes Greg Epstein's "Good Without God", an examination and exposition of humanism in modern society. This is all good. The more options of developing a constructive daily practice the better.

However, in this Facebook age, I do worry that a core piece of the message conveyed by Greg Epstein and others is being missed in the same way that a core piece of many religions is missed routinely. Humanism and religion are structures of intellectual conviction about the nature of the human experience and how best to make that experience worthwhile, moral, ethical, meaningful.

The practice of humanism or religion is the daily application of principles to reality in each human life. Some call this service, some call this mindful compassion, some call this practical morality. This practice piece, in my opinion, is the core value and worth of humanism or any religion.

The Facebook age is about information sharing, networking and virtual community. None of these is practice, as understood by most belief systems. These may lead to or support practice, but practice is something the individual does in real time with real people on real issues. Painting a disabled person's apartment is practice. Visiting hospice patients is practice. Volunteering in poor school systems is practice. Caring for your own elderly parents on a daily basis is practice. Teaching your children nonviolence and ethics is practice. Writing against injustice or for social progress to your political representatives is practice.

Virtual practice is not real practice.

Service

This Sunday is National Secular Service Day, sponsored by secular humanist groups across the country. A wonderful idea. Hopefully, those who participate will be inspired to view human services in a new light.

George Bush the First is notable for trying to put a more philanthropic face on Reaganite materialism. After Reagan tore apart as much of the social service system in this country as he could, G.B. the Elder, tried to sell volunteerism as the remedy for all the societal chaos and suffering, caused by Reagan's policies. Well, as we can see from the urban pockets of murderous poverty and drug addiction, the amount of homeless people everywhere and the perversion of the public perceptions of what a socially-responsive government should be, the points-of-light theory of the Reaganites was bullshit.

Human services of good quality, delivered by highly qualified professionals, are superior to any hit-or-miss Republican model of volunteerism and 'social entrepreneurism'. There is no legitimate profit margin in caring for people properly and justly in a society which has vast differences in incomes. People cannot be itemized and made into commodity units. Life just doesn't work that way, as much as GAO CPAs, tax-resenting wealthy people and corrupt politicians would like to believe this.

Every day in this country dedicated, underpaid professionals work miracles with very little support in government-funded institutions: Public clinics, public hospitals, shelters, halfway houses, residential communities for the disabled, state mental institutions, child-protection agencies, public housing agencies. These service providers are my heroes. I have been fortunate enough to work shoulder-to-shoulder with some of them. I have profited greatly as a person by being among their ranks.

So, if you are inspired by a volunteer gig as a service-giver to a worthy cause this Sunday, make supporting the provision of government-funded services part of your practice by actively supporting politicians and officials who sponsor legislation and programs for the poor and needy. Do not begrudge tax dollars which go to helping people. Begrudge tax dollars which go to killing people, for whatever rationalization. Promote and show your willingness to pay for services to alleviate human suffering and to improve the general quality of life in this country.

Ethics

Peter Galbraith, son of a prominent American political family, has demonstrated the etiquette and importance of ethics in true democratic culture. He has been castigated for it by corrupted men in international seats of power.



The corrupt shrug at the practicality of corruption in others. This is the way of politics and the world of materialistic men without ethics and higher vision. Keeping their secrets overrides keeping their standards of ethical behavior. When exposed, the corrupt encircle each other defensively, like a pack of attacked wolves. The truthsayer is isolated, punished, expelled.

This behavior has infected all layers of civic culture and business culture in the U.S. and in the developed world. It is symptomatic of governmental and corporate reactions to overpopulation, stressed environments and stretched natural resources. Greed is a symptom of the awareness of the wealthy classes, usually well educated, to the impending environmental disasters on this planet.

Is this behavior conscious? I doubt it is as conscious as it is pervasive and infectious. Capitalism has no consciousness. Corporations have no definable consciousness. Accumulation of wealth drives capitalist corporations in the same way hunger drives a pack of wolves. However, the hunger of corporations is unmitigated. Corporations never have full bellies. They never sleep.

The practice of truthfulness in all things is a bad business model in a capitalist world. This is a crucial conflict for any person who wishes to practice mindfulness, truthfulness and compassion in his/her daily life. It is a moment-by-moment choice. Making the right choice and taking the right action in each moment over time builds practice. In my experience, living in this practice, while never easy or monetarily enriching, builds the strength and skills which also ensure living well within the realities of the world.

Practice?

What is practice? My answer to that question is this: Practice is moment-by-moment, mindful, intentional and purposeful thought and behavior, guided by an informed, personal, ethical standard, based in love, compassion and peace.

Practice is awakened living. Practice is attempting to live every moment as a whole, human, conscious, peaceful being. I could go on, but I think I have made myself clear on my ideal concept of practice.

Practice goes beyond thought or belief or intention. Believing in ethics, believing in peace, believing in truth and justice is not enough. Practice is behavior, joined with these ideals. Right action with right thought in every situation from awakening to going to sleep.

I strongly believe that Christian practice, Buddhist practice, Jewish practice and Muslim practice, if motivated by compassion and peace, supersede their religious ideologies. In other words, practice supersedes dogma as a form of human growth and the promotion of general human well-being.

Secular humanist, or ethical humanist, practice is entirely harmonious with religious practice, when motivated by compassion and peace. Dogma is often the enemy, for dogma seeks to control human behavior and thought through ritualized and codified prescriptions.

The practitioner of peace and compassion needs no dogma. There are no magical ceremonies which can truly enhance the practice of mindfulness, truthfulness, compassion and nonviolence. Dogma divides. Compassion and nonviolence bring together. Practice is that simple, but it is also that difficult.

Nonviolence

I have learned a great deal from Asian philosophy and culture. I have not practiced martial arts, but I have studied their basic philosophy. Unfortunately, the Western interpretation and mutation of martial arts often blurs the lines between self defense to immobilize or fend off an aggressor and intentional or lethal harm to an aggressor.

There is power in living nonviolently, in my opinion. To firmly root oneself in nonviolent thought and nonviolent action takes practice. More practice for some than for others. Playing violent video games is not consistent with nonviolent practice. Supporting blood sports is not nonviolent practice. Joining the military is not nonviolent practice. Engaging in threatening speech or action is not nonviolent practice.

The key to nonviolent practice is the bridling of instinctive anger and conditioned anger. First, one must acknowledge the presence of anger in the moment. Then one must develop ways to deal with the anger immediately and consciously in the moment. Suppressing or repressing anger is not nonviolent practice. Acknowledging and channeling anger consciously and consistently is nonviolent practice. Exposing one's anger for what it is, accepting it and understanding its stimulus are essential conscious actions.

Many of us go through life experiencing habitual anger with roots in bad relationships in our pasts. This anger, if unexposed and left unattended to, will be an obstacle to many relationships. It will also inhibit personal growth.

Practice encompasses making conscious all the senses and all the emotions in our bodies. Then, moment by moment, mindful experience and channeling of our emotions builds a practice for personal growth. This is the central healing relationship we must build within ourselves before we can truthfully benefit the world around us in our practice as mindful, compassionate human beings in society.

Alcohol

I recently heard a broadcast on NPR about the rising incidence of alcoholism in young American female population. There is also a statistical rise in alcohol abuse in both sexes.

It is my opinion that one cannot effectively practice a life of mindfulness, truthfulness and compassion while also using alcohol on a daily basis. I have come to this opinion after many years of studying the issue and working with people in my nursing practice.

Alcohol alters hormonal and brain chemistry when used regularly in even moderate volumes. The human brain, while marvelous, is limited in its intoxicant-free state. The nature of a mindful, truthful and compassionate daily practice while living in the real world is arduous and unrelentlingy demanding, if one commits to practicing during all one's waking hours.

Many people function in the world while using alcohol in moderate and even large amounts of alcohol. But, practice is not about functioning. Practice is about being the best human being one can be at any given moment, no matter how stressful or demanding, with every ounce of one's potential. Any substance use or abuse, which leeches energy or capacity from the human body, is an antagonist to practice.