Hi Everybody,
We were talking last time about some really interesting research by the sociologist Nicolas Christakis and others at Harvard, that reveals the surprising extent of the social and emotional networks of which we are all a part, and the fact that the way we respect and respond to all the people we encounter in the course of the day, from partners and work colleagues to ticket sellers and travelling companions, clearly has effects well beyond the people we actually encounter, as they in turn carry those effects on into their relationships and their social networks. That's where we pick up the thread today...
'...as people like Jeffrey Sachs, the eminent economist, and Sam Harris, the brilliant psychologist and writer, and Daisaku Ikeda, one of the world's leading writers on Buddhism in today's society, remind us almost in unison, so close are their views, that perhaps the greatest challenge facing us all as individuals, in this 21st Century society is how to learn to lift our gaze so to speak. How to extend this courageous and compassionate value system that the practice helps us to develop, out beyond the circle of familiar friends and colleagues, out to a wider society, indeed out to a global society, this global village that the scientists keep telling us we now live in. When it is put as boldly as that it sounds like little more than wishful thinking. But Buddhism has always taught that the two are indivisibly intertwined, the individual and the social. It argues that a fundamental change in the values and the principles that an individual chooses to adopt, a fundamental shift towards the positive, has this enduring ripple effect, spreading out gradually, slowly perhaps, but nevertheless continuing spread, out through family and friends into the local society and beyond. Indeed Buddhism teaches that a movement towards a better society, based upon the principles of respect for the lives of others, simply cannot be created as a top down process. It has to start with a profound change taking place within the lives of countless individuals, gradually changing the way wider communities function.
So Buddhism places the power of indivdual action at the very heart of its ethical teaching. Thus there is no question for example want world peace, although most unquestionably believe that to be an unattainable goal. And in any case there doesn't seem to be any meaningful path along which it could be achieved. Buddhism however reminds us, every single day, of two powerful truths. That however difficult it may be to achieve, it remains a meaningful and desirable goal, so giving up is not an option. And second, however difficult the path, it starts right at our own feet, and we can begin moving along it whenever we choose. It involves each one of us coming to understand, with our whole life, that we are not powerless, and that we can, through the choices that we personally make, and the actions that we personally take, have a profound and beneficial effect upon our particular society and our environment.
That is to say, that what we choose to do, the values and the principles that we choose to adopt, unquestionably matter. '
That's it for today. Bit shorter than usual but I don't want to break into the discussion of what we mean by morality, which is where we go next, and have to stop half way through. So I'll leap into that next time, and do it in one piece.
Best wishes. Keep well. Keep reading !
I've had lots of really generous comments from all sorts of different kinds of readers. Some groups I'm told are buying the book all together and then using it as a group study tool, which is amazing. I'm not sure by the way whether or not I ever mentioned that I don't make any money out of these books. It all goes back into the kosen rufu fund or to pay for foreign translations, or to enable me to send them off at cost to distant places like New Zealand when freight charges are so costly. I am frankly still amazed at how widely the books have travelled.
See you soon.
Tuesday 29 April 2014
Friday 25 April 2014
my buddhist blog number 35
Hi Everybody,
I was walking in the rain early this morning with Gatsby. It was still wonderfully refreshing in the woods with the brilliant green of the young leaves on the trees, and everywhere signs of spring busting out all over.And would I go out every morning for this upliftingwalk if I didn't have Gatsby? I doubt it.
We were talking in the last episode about how important it is to take note of the extraordinary clarity and modernity of Shakyamuni's perceptions all those centuries ago, of our fundamental need as human beings to live in such a way as to create harmonious and balanced relationships within these three dimensions that make up our lives, with ourselves first of all at the centre, we can achieve nothing if we are at odds with ourselves, and then with the extension of human society around us, and then beyond with the wider environment.
And it is extraordinary to observe how some of the very latest offerings from today's scientists and philosophers take up those same themes and express remarkably similar views. So we have Jeffrey Sachs for example, the noted American economist, when he tries to define what he believes to be the greatest challenge facing modern societies, clearly embraces all of those three dimensions; ourselves, society, and the environment.
' Ours, he writes, ' is not the generation that faced the Cold War. Our is not the generation to have first grappled with the nuclear demon, although we still grapple with it today. Our challenge, our generation's unique challenge is learning to live peacefully and sustainably in an extraordinarily crowded world...facing the challenge of living side by side as never before, and facing a common ecological challenge that has never been upon us in human history until mow...'
Sam Harris, neuroscientist and philosopher, in his stimulating nand controversial book, The Moral Landscape, in which he puts forward what seems to me the extraordinarily ' Buddhist ' argument that the primary basis for making any ethical decisions should be to increase the well-being of mankind as a whole. He writes,
' As we better understand the brain, we will increasingly understand all the forces...kindness, reciprocity,trust, openness to argument, respect for evidence,intuitions of fairness, impulse control, the mitigation of aggression etc... that allow friends and strangers to collaborate on the common projects of civilisation. Understanding ourselves in this way, and using this knowledge to improve human life, will be among the most important challenges to science in the decades to come.'
' ...that allow friends and strangers to collaborate on the common projects of civilisation...' It's a powerful phrase that projects an immensely bold vision; this inextricable and essential bond between individual development and social progress. It could be seen I suggest, as very much a scientist's...or perhpas I should say a neuroscientist's ..version of Buddhist vision that we touched upon earlier, presented by the eminent authority on Buddhism, Daisaku Ikeda;
' ...only a teaching that gives each individual the power to draw forth his or her Buddha nature can lead all people to happiness and transform the tenor of the times...In other words there can be no lasting solution to the problems facing society that does not involve our individual state of life.'
Our individual life state, our very own individual values and principles, playing a key role in resolving the profound problems faced by modern society. Buddhism has always taught that although a Buddhist practice is very much an individual activity, enabling ordinary people to build a strong and resilient inner self, it only becomes meaningful as something that is lived in society. That is to say, the daily determination to live as a Buddhist, rather than simply knowing and understanding Buddhist principles, becomes apparent above all in our behaviour, and in the way we handle the realtionships that occur at every level in our lives, from the most fleeting to the most complex.
As you might expect, we spend a great deal of time talking about the way in which a Buddhist practice can help us as individuals, to understand our lives and to develop happy and productive relationships within a relatively close environment of family and friends and work colleagues. Of course. The fact is that those are the very relationships that have by far the biggest influence on our lives. They make up the very fabric of our lives from day to day and from year to year. And as we all know, maintaining harmonious and creative and fulfilling relationships even within this relatively narrow compass, takes considerable energy and effort and compassion.
But the research of Christakis and others now offers us a quite different and I suggest, an immensely illuminating perspective in looking at what has always been a strong theme in Buddhist teachings. Namely that the way we respect and respond to all the people we encounter in the course of the day, from partners and work colleagues to ticket sellers and travelling companions, clearly has effects well beyond the people we actually encounter, as they in turn, carry those effects on into their relationships, and their social networks..
That's it for today.
Hope it made a contribution to your thinking.
See you again soon.
William
I was walking in the rain early this morning with Gatsby. It was still wonderfully refreshing in the woods with the brilliant green of the young leaves on the trees, and everywhere signs of spring busting out all over.And would I go out every morning for this upliftingwalk if I didn't have Gatsby? I doubt it.
We were talking in the last episode about how important it is to take note of the extraordinary clarity and modernity of Shakyamuni's perceptions all those centuries ago, of our fundamental need as human beings to live in such a way as to create harmonious and balanced relationships within these three dimensions that make up our lives, with ourselves first of all at the centre, we can achieve nothing if we are at odds with ourselves, and then with the extension of human society around us, and then beyond with the wider environment.
And it is extraordinary to observe how some of the very latest offerings from today's scientists and philosophers take up those same themes and express remarkably similar views. So we have Jeffrey Sachs for example, the noted American economist, when he tries to define what he believes to be the greatest challenge facing modern societies, clearly embraces all of those three dimensions; ourselves, society, and the environment.
' Ours, he writes, ' is not the generation that faced the Cold War. Our is not the generation to have first grappled with the nuclear demon, although we still grapple with it today. Our challenge, our generation's unique challenge is learning to live peacefully and sustainably in an extraordinarily crowded world...facing the challenge of living side by side as never before, and facing a common ecological challenge that has never been upon us in human history until mow...'
Sam Harris, neuroscientist and philosopher, in his stimulating nand controversial book, The Moral Landscape, in which he puts forward what seems to me the extraordinarily ' Buddhist ' argument that the primary basis for making any ethical decisions should be to increase the well-being of mankind as a whole. He writes,
' As we better understand the brain, we will increasingly understand all the forces...kindness, reciprocity,trust, openness to argument, respect for evidence,intuitions of fairness, impulse control, the mitigation of aggression etc... that allow friends and strangers to collaborate on the common projects of civilisation. Understanding ourselves in this way, and using this knowledge to improve human life, will be among the most important challenges to science in the decades to come.'
' ...that allow friends and strangers to collaborate on the common projects of civilisation...' It's a powerful phrase that projects an immensely bold vision; this inextricable and essential bond between individual development and social progress. It could be seen I suggest, as very much a scientist's...or perhpas I should say a neuroscientist's ..version of Buddhist vision that we touched upon earlier, presented by the eminent authority on Buddhism, Daisaku Ikeda;
' ...only a teaching that gives each individual the power to draw forth his or her Buddha nature can lead all people to happiness and transform the tenor of the times...In other words there can be no lasting solution to the problems facing society that does not involve our individual state of life.'
Our individual life state, our very own individual values and principles, playing a key role in resolving the profound problems faced by modern society. Buddhism has always taught that although a Buddhist practice is very much an individual activity, enabling ordinary people to build a strong and resilient inner self, it only becomes meaningful as something that is lived in society. That is to say, the daily determination to live as a Buddhist, rather than simply knowing and understanding Buddhist principles, becomes apparent above all in our behaviour, and in the way we handle the realtionships that occur at every level in our lives, from the most fleeting to the most complex.
As you might expect, we spend a great deal of time talking about the way in which a Buddhist practice can help us as individuals, to understand our lives and to develop happy and productive relationships within a relatively close environment of family and friends and work colleagues. Of course. The fact is that those are the very relationships that have by far the biggest influence on our lives. They make up the very fabric of our lives from day to day and from year to year. And as we all know, maintaining harmonious and creative and fulfilling relationships even within this relatively narrow compass, takes considerable energy and effort and compassion.
But the research of Christakis and others now offers us a quite different and I suggest, an immensely illuminating perspective in looking at what has always been a strong theme in Buddhist teachings. Namely that the way we respect and respond to all the people we encounter in the course of the day, from partners and work colleagues to ticket sellers and travelling companions, clearly has effects well beyond the people we actually encounter, as they in turn, carry those effects on into their relationships, and their social networks..
That's it for today.
Hope it made a contribution to your thinking.
See you again soon.
William
Wednesday 23 April 2014
my buddhist blog number 34
Hi Everybody,
Hope all is well with you. Since I managed to write 2 number 32's, this one gets to be 34! We're in the middle of Chapter 6, talking about about how our values and the choices that we make affect those around us, and we've introduced this brilliant sociologist Nicolas Christakis from Harvard who'se done some groundbreaking work on what you might call emotional or value networks. So let's dive straight in.
' Very briefly what their research has revealed is that values and patterns of behaviour in our life spread, or percolate perhpas is a better word, naturally and easily throughout our network of friends and family and colleagues, without any conscious effort or activity on our part, or even without our being in the slightest aware that such a process is going on. That is to say, we may not set out in any way with the intention of spreading these qualities, which include fundamentally important things about us such as our integrity, and our respect for others, and our habitual life states such as our optimism or our pessimism, but nevertheless the spreading or the percolation goes on.
Moreover, and this is perhaps the most surprising thing, the research has revealed for the first time, the extraordinary extent of these emotional networks, if I may call them that. Because the sociologists argue, this ripple effect doesn't stop at our own network of friends and colleagues as we might expect. It goes on, they suggest, to have some effect on their network of friends and colleagues as well, and even beyond that to their friends and colleagues as well. They talk of what they call three degrees of influence. It is in my view a truly surprising result, but it has been established as valid in repeated studies , to become acepted as a wholly new insight. Because these scientists are telling us that who we really are, what values we really hold, what behaviours we demonstrate, has an effect not just on our close friends, but on their friends as well, and beyond that, to the friends of their friends. People that is to say, whom we personally may actually encounter only very rarely, possibly never, or only at second hand through accounts and stories of friends and work colleagues, and even if we are entirely unaware that we are transmitting and receiving these influences in any way.
So clear are the results of their repeated research that the sociologists have actually chosen to borrow a metaphor to describe them, so they talk about these qualities, these values and these states of mind being infectious, as if we can actually transmit our basic respect or disrespect for others, our optimism or our pessimism, to other people across a quite widely spread network.
So this issue that we are talking about, to which we happen to give this slightly forbidding name of ethics or morality, cannot be just a private or a personal issue, as it is so often presented. Of course it starts with individuals, but it's not essentially about individuals. It determines the effect that we have on those around us, and further out into society, and of course beyond society into the environment, sinc eit is becoming increasingly clear that our survival as a species depends so closely on how we, as individuals and as communities, choose to behave in relation to everythign else on the planet.
It's important to take note I think, of the extraordinary clarity and modernity of Shakyamuni's perception, all those centuries ago, of our fundamental need as human beings, to live in such a way as to create harmonious and balanced relationships within these three dimensions, or these three concentric circles as they are sometimes described, that make up our lives, with ourselves first of all, and then with the extensions of human society around us, and then beyond, with the wider environment. And it is extraordinary to observe how some of the very latest offerings from today's scientists and philosophers, take up these same themes, and express remarkably similar views. '
I think that's enough for one swallow don't you. Trying to slice a fairly complex argument into digestible bite-sized chunks isn't easy. I tend to think that less is more, but where to stop and still make sense aint easy. Anyway, hope you read to here, and hope sincerely tha tit makes sense!
See you next time,
William
The Case for Buddhism is doing well on Amazon UK
Hope all is well with you. Since I managed to write 2 number 32's, this one gets to be 34! We're in the middle of Chapter 6, talking about about how our values and the choices that we make affect those around us, and we've introduced this brilliant sociologist Nicolas Christakis from Harvard who'se done some groundbreaking work on what you might call emotional or value networks. So let's dive straight in.
' Very briefly what their research has revealed is that values and patterns of behaviour in our life spread, or percolate perhpas is a better word, naturally and easily throughout our network of friends and family and colleagues, without any conscious effort or activity on our part, or even without our being in the slightest aware that such a process is going on. That is to say, we may not set out in any way with the intention of spreading these qualities, which include fundamentally important things about us such as our integrity, and our respect for others, and our habitual life states such as our optimism or our pessimism, but nevertheless the spreading or the percolation goes on.
Moreover, and this is perhaps the most surprising thing, the research has revealed for the first time, the extraordinary extent of these emotional networks, if I may call them that. Because the sociologists argue, this ripple effect doesn't stop at our own network of friends and colleagues as we might expect. It goes on, they suggest, to have some effect on their network of friends and colleagues as well, and even beyond that to their friends and colleagues as well. They talk of what they call three degrees of influence. It is in my view a truly surprising result, but it has been established as valid in repeated studies , to become acepted as a wholly new insight. Because these scientists are telling us that who we really are, what values we really hold, what behaviours we demonstrate, has an effect not just on our close friends, but on their friends as well, and beyond that, to the friends of their friends. People that is to say, whom we personally may actually encounter only very rarely, possibly never, or only at second hand through accounts and stories of friends and work colleagues, and even if we are entirely unaware that we are transmitting and receiving these influences in any way.
So clear are the results of their repeated research that the sociologists have actually chosen to borrow a metaphor to describe them, so they talk about these qualities, these values and these states of mind being infectious, as if we can actually transmit our basic respect or disrespect for others, our optimism or our pessimism, to other people across a quite widely spread network.
So this issue that we are talking about, to which we happen to give this slightly forbidding name of ethics or morality, cannot be just a private or a personal issue, as it is so often presented. Of course it starts with individuals, but it's not essentially about individuals. It determines the effect that we have on those around us, and further out into society, and of course beyond society into the environment, sinc eit is becoming increasingly clear that our survival as a species depends so closely on how we, as individuals and as communities, choose to behave in relation to everythign else on the planet.
It's important to take note I think, of the extraordinary clarity and modernity of Shakyamuni's perception, all those centuries ago, of our fundamental need as human beings, to live in such a way as to create harmonious and balanced relationships within these three dimensions, or these three concentric circles as they are sometimes described, that make up our lives, with ourselves first of all, and then with the extensions of human society around us, and then beyond, with the wider environment. And it is extraordinary to observe how some of the very latest offerings from today's scientists and philosophers, take up these same themes, and express remarkably similar views. '
I think that's enough for one swallow don't you. Trying to slice a fairly complex argument into digestible bite-sized chunks isn't easy. I tend to think that less is more, but where to stop and still make sense aint easy. Anyway, hope you read to here, and hope sincerely tha tit makes sense!
See you next time,
William
The Case for Buddhism is doing well on Amazon UK
Saturday 19 April 2014
my buddhist blog number number 32
Hi Everybody,
Right we'eve just started Chapter 6, Buddhism and Ethics. I really hope you're not put off by that chapter title. I think this is one of the best chapters in the book, because it tackles some really tough questions and comes up, I like to think, with some meaningful and constructive answers. I like to think!
Anyway, here we go on page 102.
' So if we seek to live any sort of valuable and creative life, let alone the most valuable and creative life of which we are capable, we need some structure don't we, some guidelines to point us in the right direction, and keep us on the right track? And essentially that is what this chapter is about. What sort of structure does Buddhism have to offer?
As you might expect the discussion as to how we should best handle the realtionships that make up the fabric of our lives is as old as civilisation itself. The basic question that we are asking for example, ' What shall I do? ' or to put it in a more comprehensive way, ' How should I choose to live my life?' didn't just occur out of thin air. It was first put in those very terms by Socrates himself, way back in the 4th Century BCE. So it is sometimes called the Socratic Question. And, as Socrates taught all those centuries ago, it may sound simple, even banal, but if that is our initial impression then we are deceiving ourselves, because it isn't. Indeed he argued that it is just about the toughest question we can put to ourselves, since it's really about the natire of our life. So it's not a question that anyone who cares to think about their lives to any meaningful extent, can avoid or duck under.
It's certainly true that most of us, most of the time, live our lives within pretty much well-worn routines, following well-trodden paths and often scarcely thinking about the choices that we make from one moment to the next, one day to the next, in this circumstance or that. although unquestionably, those accumulated choices, come to shape us and our character, even if we're scarcely aware that that is what is going on. We all have huge comfort zones that we take refuge in and hate to depart from. But that fundamental question doesn't go away. It sits there you might say, as a sort of constant backdrop to everythign we say and do, every single day of our lives.
And then suddenly, as we all know, it can leap out into the very foreground of our consciousness, whenever we encounter something that is not part of the routine. A crisis in our lives that may involve a crucial relationship, with a partner or colleague or a child for example, or the loss of someone we hold very dear, and then...what shall I do we ask ourselves...sometimes in considerable anguishor distress, as we realise that we are being confronted with who we really are. We've all been there many times. And it ism precisely at times like these that we have the greatest need of that support structure, those guidelines, of values and principles that we have embedded solidly in our lives, in all those countless choices that we have made day after day, year after year, to shape who we are.
Perhaps the greatest wisdom and the greatest virtue of the Buddhist practice, is that it is there, every single day, renewing it's deeply-held positive values and guidelines. All those days when things are going swimmingly and routinely, as well as those occasions when the challenge to us is strong, and we have to confront who we really are.
And this classical age-old question has a twin, ' What should we do, how should we live? ' Because of course we are al born into families, and families sit within communities, and communities sit within societies. 'No man is an island entire of itself ' the poet reminds us. The value choices that we make of course have some effect on everyone with whom our lives come in contact. What our friends and work colleagues believe and do affects us , just as what we believe and do affects them. Although it is only very recently that we have become aware of just how powerful this subliminal ripple effect is, as a result of some immensely intriguing research carried out over the past two years, in the US, by sociologist Nicolas Christakis and others, at Harvard University.'
And that's where we go next time, to look at how our values and choices and filter out into the social networks of which we are a part, and far more widely than we would ever expect.
See you then.
Best wishes,
William
Right we'eve just started Chapter 6, Buddhism and Ethics. I really hope you're not put off by that chapter title. I think this is one of the best chapters in the book, because it tackles some really tough questions and comes up, I like to think, with some meaningful and constructive answers. I like to think!
Anyway, here we go on page 102.
' So if we seek to live any sort of valuable and creative life, let alone the most valuable and creative life of which we are capable, we need some structure don't we, some guidelines to point us in the right direction, and keep us on the right track? And essentially that is what this chapter is about. What sort of structure does Buddhism have to offer?
As you might expect the discussion as to how we should best handle the realtionships that make up the fabric of our lives is as old as civilisation itself. The basic question that we are asking for example, ' What shall I do? ' or to put it in a more comprehensive way, ' How should I choose to live my life?' didn't just occur out of thin air. It was first put in those very terms by Socrates himself, way back in the 4th Century BCE. So it is sometimes called the Socratic Question. And, as Socrates taught all those centuries ago, it may sound simple, even banal, but if that is our initial impression then we are deceiving ourselves, because it isn't. Indeed he argued that it is just about the toughest question we can put to ourselves, since it's really about the natire of our life. So it's not a question that anyone who cares to think about their lives to any meaningful extent, can avoid or duck under.
It's certainly true that most of us, most of the time, live our lives within pretty much well-worn routines, following well-trodden paths and often scarcely thinking about the choices that we make from one moment to the next, one day to the next, in this circumstance or that. although unquestionably, those accumulated choices, come to shape us and our character, even if we're scarcely aware that that is what is going on. We all have huge comfort zones that we take refuge in and hate to depart from. But that fundamental question doesn't go away. It sits there you might say, as a sort of constant backdrop to everythign we say and do, every single day of our lives.
And then suddenly, as we all know, it can leap out into the very foreground of our consciousness, whenever we encounter something that is not part of the routine. A crisis in our lives that may involve a crucial relationship, with a partner or colleague or a child for example, or the loss of someone we hold very dear, and then...what shall I do we ask ourselves...sometimes in considerable anguishor distress, as we realise that we are being confronted with who we really are. We've all been there many times. And it ism precisely at times like these that we have the greatest need of that support structure, those guidelines, of values and principles that we have embedded solidly in our lives, in all those countless choices that we have made day after day, year after year, to shape who we are.
Perhaps the greatest wisdom and the greatest virtue of the Buddhist practice, is that it is there, every single day, renewing it's deeply-held positive values and guidelines. All those days when things are going swimmingly and routinely, as well as those occasions when the challenge to us is strong, and we have to confront who we really are.
And this classical age-old question has a twin, ' What should we do, how should we live? ' Because of course we are al born into families, and families sit within communities, and communities sit within societies. 'No man is an island entire of itself ' the poet reminds us. The value choices that we make of course have some effect on everyone with whom our lives come in contact. What our friends and work colleagues believe and do affects us , just as what we believe and do affects them. Although it is only very recently that we have become aware of just how powerful this subliminal ripple effect is, as a result of some immensely intriguing research carried out over the past two years, in the US, by sociologist Nicolas Christakis and others, at Harvard University.'
And that's where we go next time, to look at how our values and choices and filter out into the social networks of which we are a part, and far more widely than we would ever expect.
See you then.
Best wishes,
William
Monday 14 April 2014
my buddhist blog number 32
Hi Everybody,
Today is a new horizon, we move onto Chapter 6 in the book, Buddhism and Ethics. I really like this chapter. It was quite difficult to write because it sets out to cover lots of tricky issues, but I'm pleased with the result, which is not always the case. Anyway let's dive straight in.
' What we decide to do, how we choose to behave, unquestionably matters. Moreover it reveals a great deal about who we really are; the principles that we have, the values that we hold and the things that are really important to us. Indeed that is true I would suggesteven in what we might consider to be otherwise wholly trivial encounters in our working day. Do I take the trouble to smile at the lady behind the lunch counter and exchange a few pleasant words, or do I choose to keep my head down and ignore her because I happen to have this problem chewing away inside me? Should I respond to that aggressive e-mail equally aggressively? Do I take the trouble to listen to the arguments being put to me, and properly consider their value, or do I just ignore them and cling on to my own views? Do I get up in this heavily overcrowded carriage and noffer my seat to that older man who looks a bit weary, or do I just get on with reading my book?
It matters.
It matters in the sense that the choices that I make determine who I really am. Indeed the psychologists tell us that they determine who I am in two senses. First because my actions and my behaviour are an indication to the people around me what sort of person I am, since it is by my actions rather than by my words that my character can truly be judged. But most importantly they suggest that my character is to an extent shaped and determined by my choices and my actions, in the sense that by continually acting in certain ways I develop habitual ways of behaving. So in this way, my choices yesterday and today and tomorrow, shape the person I become. Psychologists talk in terms of our developing habitual dispositions, or patterns of behaviour. Buddhists might talk perhaps in terms of life tendencies or habit energy, but the idea is essentially the same.
Buddhism argues that patterns of choices and patterns of behaviour become so deeply ingrained in our lives that they acquire their own energy, and so become more and more difficult to break out of. And we all instinctively know that to be true don't we? We are very much creatures of habit. We all know that we can all too easily acquire patterns of behaviour that we find difficult to overcome, even when we know full well with out intellect, that these habits really don't help us or create value in our lives, because they are so dysfunctional or unattractive or destructive in some way.
It calls to mind the slightly scary Buddhist mantra that runs...
...take care of your thoughts because they will become your words...take care of your words because they will become your actions..take care of your actions because they will become your habits... take care of your habits because they will become...your life...
It's not for nothing that one of the most important things written about the life of Shakyamuni was that the real significance, the real purpose of his appearance in this world lay in his behaviour as an ordinary human being. Not his behaviour as a agod notice, or as any sort of special or superhuman being, but just as an ordinary human being. One of us.
This discussion lies slap bang in the middle of the slightly fuzzy, often controversial area of thought and debate that is known as ethics or morality, the words are used virtually interchangeably. Morality is essentially about how human beings choose to live their lives in relation to one another. It concerns the principles and the values...some religions of course would say the commandments or the rules...that we embrace and take on board to shape and guide the way we think about and deal with the multitude of relationships and encounters that we have with other people.
And if we think about our lives even momentarily, if we have any concern for the effect our life has on others around us, we clearly need some sort of structure don't we? The plain fact is that all our lives, from the moment we arrive until the moment we depart, is made up of encounters and relationships of one kind or another; an immeasurably complex network of relationships and encounters of every possible shape and size and frequency and intimacy, from the most fleeting, to the most enduring and long-lasting relationships we have within the circle of our family and friends and colleagues.
So if we seek to live any sort of valuable and creative life, let alone the most valuable and creative life of which we are capable, we need some structure don't we, some guidelines to point us in the right direction, and keep us on the right track? And that essentially is what this chapter is about. What sort of structure does Buddhism have to offer? '
That's it for now.
See you next time.
William
The Case for Buddhism is available from, Amazon
Today is a new horizon, we move onto Chapter 6 in the book, Buddhism and Ethics. I really like this chapter. It was quite difficult to write because it sets out to cover lots of tricky issues, but I'm pleased with the result, which is not always the case. Anyway let's dive straight in.
' What we decide to do, how we choose to behave, unquestionably matters. Moreover it reveals a great deal about who we really are; the principles that we have, the values that we hold and the things that are really important to us. Indeed that is true I would suggesteven in what we might consider to be otherwise wholly trivial encounters in our working day. Do I take the trouble to smile at the lady behind the lunch counter and exchange a few pleasant words, or do I choose to keep my head down and ignore her because I happen to have this problem chewing away inside me? Should I respond to that aggressive e-mail equally aggressively? Do I take the trouble to listen to the arguments being put to me, and properly consider their value, or do I just ignore them and cling on to my own views? Do I get up in this heavily overcrowded carriage and noffer my seat to that older man who looks a bit weary, or do I just get on with reading my book?
It matters.
It matters in the sense that the choices that I make determine who I really am. Indeed the psychologists tell us that they determine who I am in two senses. First because my actions and my behaviour are an indication to the people around me what sort of person I am, since it is by my actions rather than by my words that my character can truly be judged. But most importantly they suggest that my character is to an extent shaped and determined by my choices and my actions, in the sense that by continually acting in certain ways I develop habitual ways of behaving. So in this way, my choices yesterday and today and tomorrow, shape the person I become. Psychologists talk in terms of our developing habitual dispositions, or patterns of behaviour. Buddhists might talk perhaps in terms of life tendencies or habit energy, but the idea is essentially the same.
Buddhism argues that patterns of choices and patterns of behaviour become so deeply ingrained in our lives that they acquire their own energy, and so become more and more difficult to break out of. And we all instinctively know that to be true don't we? We are very much creatures of habit. We all know that we can all too easily acquire patterns of behaviour that we find difficult to overcome, even when we know full well with out intellect, that these habits really don't help us or create value in our lives, because they are so dysfunctional or unattractive or destructive in some way.
It calls to mind the slightly scary Buddhist mantra that runs...
...take care of your thoughts because they will become your words...take care of your words because they will become your actions..take care of your actions because they will become your habits... take care of your habits because they will become...your life...
It's not for nothing that one of the most important things written about the life of Shakyamuni was that the real significance, the real purpose of his appearance in this world lay in his behaviour as an ordinary human being. Not his behaviour as a agod notice, or as any sort of special or superhuman being, but just as an ordinary human being. One of us.
This discussion lies slap bang in the middle of the slightly fuzzy, often controversial area of thought and debate that is known as ethics or morality, the words are used virtually interchangeably. Morality is essentially about how human beings choose to live their lives in relation to one another. It concerns the principles and the values...some religions of course would say the commandments or the rules...that we embrace and take on board to shape and guide the way we think about and deal with the multitude of relationships and encounters that we have with other people.
And if we think about our lives even momentarily, if we have any concern for the effect our life has on others around us, we clearly need some sort of structure don't we? The plain fact is that all our lives, from the moment we arrive until the moment we depart, is made up of encounters and relationships of one kind or another; an immeasurably complex network of relationships and encounters of every possible shape and size and frequency and intimacy, from the most fleeting, to the most enduring and long-lasting relationships we have within the circle of our family and friends and colleagues.
So if we seek to live any sort of valuable and creative life, let alone the most valuable and creative life of which we are capable, we need some structure don't we, some guidelines to point us in the right direction, and keep us on the right track? And that essentially is what this chapter is about. What sort of structure does Buddhism have to offer? '
That's it for now.
See you next time.
William
The Case for Buddhism is available from, Amazon
Thursday 10 April 2014
my buddhist blog number 31
Hi Everybody,
Beautiful spring day here today. Just amazing running in the park with Gatsby early on with the dew still on the grass and the clear blue sky...already having done an hours chanting! Can't think of a better way to start the day. Richmond Park of course is where the cover photograph for this book was taken. And in fact Gatsby was running around and was just out of frame to the right. Didn't quite make it onto the cover.
Right, we're into the closing passage of Chapter 5, with a section which is headed...
Co-operation with others is the key to our humanity.
' That really brings us to what is perhaps the greatest question of them all, the question that, when it comes down to it, all great philosophies are really about. Where do we turn to acquire our moral or our ethical values, that guide us in the complex maze of relationships and encounters that makes up all our lives? How do we understand, deep within ourselves, that behaving like this say is fine and to be commended and makes us feel good about ourselves, whereas behaving like that isn't really good enough, and leaves us feeling not so good about ourselves, or worse? How do we know that?
It's an important question isn't it? And we learn from the scientists that it sits right at the heart of the human psyche. We find a really fascinating persepctive from the evolutionary biologists for example, who suggest that since the very earliest stages of our existence we have always lived as social animals, always. Therefore how we relate to others must have been a major factor in our evolution. It is they argue, buried deep within our heritage, deep within our DNA. The idea is known technically as group selection, but put simply all that means is that our unique ability to support and cooperate with one another has been the absolutely key factor in the survival and flourishing of mankind. As the evolutionary biologists point out, we're not a particualrly impressive animal physically. We don't have the benefit ot natural armour, or strength, or speed, or stealth relative to many other species. We are in fact a pretty easy lunch! Essentially therefore it has been our ability to reason and to plan, and above all to work together, that has really set us apart. Our survival and growth and spreading around the world depended on our collective abilities, on our ability to work closely together and band together with others in overcoming difficulties and pursuing a collective goal.
So, the argument goes, in our early history, any groups or tribes who learned how best to co-operate, and support one another and work together, then that entire group would inevitably have a much greater chance of success and survival, over any other group, whatever they were doing, hunting or seeking shelter or coping with a hard winter. The co-operative group would have by far the greater chance of survival, and so their entire gene pool would be passed onto future generations.To us that is, and so become embedded as a essential part of our human nature.
In a sense that idea provides a sort of scientific underpinning for many of the fundamental ideas we find in religion and philosophy. Christianity for example tells us to love they neighbour as thyself. Immanuel Kant, perhaps the greatest moral philosopher of the western world, gave us in the 18th Century, his famous categorical imperative, which argues that, in addition to displaying respect for others, if we are searching for a single, over-arching guiding principle as the basis for our actions and behaviour towards others, then it always to how we would wish others to behave towards us.
Buddhist ethics, I would argue, embodies both those views, and that in fact is where we go next, to look at the deeply interestign issue of Buddhism and ethics. '
Hope you've managed to stay with it so far. I promiose that we deal with ethics in a really down-to-earth and practical way. No head in the clouds stuff.
See you then.
Best wishes,
William
Beautiful spring day here today. Just amazing running in the park with Gatsby early on with the dew still on the grass and the clear blue sky...already having done an hours chanting! Can't think of a better way to start the day. Richmond Park of course is where the cover photograph for this book was taken. And in fact Gatsby was running around and was just out of frame to the right. Didn't quite make it onto the cover.
Right, we're into the closing passage of Chapter 5, with a section which is headed...
Co-operation with others is the key to our humanity.
' That really brings us to what is perhaps the greatest question of them all, the question that, when it comes down to it, all great philosophies are really about. Where do we turn to acquire our moral or our ethical values, that guide us in the complex maze of relationships and encounters that makes up all our lives? How do we understand, deep within ourselves, that behaving like this say is fine and to be commended and makes us feel good about ourselves, whereas behaving like that isn't really good enough, and leaves us feeling not so good about ourselves, or worse? How do we know that?
It's an important question isn't it? And we learn from the scientists that it sits right at the heart of the human psyche. We find a really fascinating persepctive from the evolutionary biologists for example, who suggest that since the very earliest stages of our existence we have always lived as social animals, always. Therefore how we relate to others must have been a major factor in our evolution. It is they argue, buried deep within our heritage, deep within our DNA. The idea is known technically as group selection, but put simply all that means is that our unique ability to support and cooperate with one another has been the absolutely key factor in the survival and flourishing of mankind. As the evolutionary biologists point out, we're not a particualrly impressive animal physically. We don't have the benefit ot natural armour, or strength, or speed, or stealth relative to many other species. We are in fact a pretty easy lunch! Essentially therefore it has been our ability to reason and to plan, and above all to work together, that has really set us apart. Our survival and growth and spreading around the world depended on our collective abilities, on our ability to work closely together and band together with others in overcoming difficulties and pursuing a collective goal.
So, the argument goes, in our early history, any groups or tribes who learned how best to co-operate, and support one another and work together, then that entire group would inevitably have a much greater chance of success and survival, over any other group, whatever they were doing, hunting or seeking shelter or coping with a hard winter. The co-operative group would have by far the greater chance of survival, and so their entire gene pool would be passed onto future generations.To us that is, and so become embedded as a essential part of our human nature.
In a sense that idea provides a sort of scientific underpinning for many of the fundamental ideas we find in religion and philosophy. Christianity for example tells us to love they neighbour as thyself. Immanuel Kant, perhaps the greatest moral philosopher of the western world, gave us in the 18th Century, his famous categorical imperative, which argues that, in addition to displaying respect for others, if we are searching for a single, over-arching guiding principle as the basis for our actions and behaviour towards others, then it always to how we would wish others to behave towards us.
Buddhist ethics, I would argue, embodies both those views, and that in fact is where we go next, to look at the deeply interestign issue of Buddhism and ethics. '
Hope you've managed to stay with it so far. I promiose that we deal with ethics in a really down-to-earth and practical way. No head in the clouds stuff.
See you then.
Best wishes,
William
Sunday 6 April 2014
my buddhist blog number 30
Hi Everybody,
We ended last time on the theme of personal growth, learning how to transform out basic attitude to problems and the challenges that we inevitably encounter, so that instead of being cast down by them, we use them to grow our own self-confidence and our sense of our own capability, both immensely important to our overall sense of well-being. No one says it's easy! Of course not, but it is essentially what Buddhism is all about. That's where we pick up the thread of the argument.
' And that clearly has wider implications for the people around us in all the various areas of ourn life. For as long as we are operating under stress in our lives, then we don't really have much time and space for others. But as we change, and develop this ability to handle our own challenges without being so taken over by anxiety and stress, but with courage and confidence and a growingn sense of our own capability, so we have more resource left over so to speak, to support and encourage those around us. Moreover, we find that we have more life-energy to seek out opportunities to help others. From simply giving sharing our own experiences of coping with troubles, to giving moral and emotional support, to devoting real tiem and energy to people in the midst of their own crises. Giving and sharing that is, rather than taking and consuming, that's the key change. And Buddhism has always taught that exerting ourselves in this way, focusingn outwards rather than inwards, concentrating our energies on the needs and concerns of others, rather than on our own current little crop of difficulties, which of course we will always continue to have, is what leads to the most rapid growth in our own resourcefulness, and capability, and sense of well-being.
Buddhism has been promoting this idea as a value-creating principle of social behaviour for a very long time, but it now finds ample support in modern sociological and psychological research. Richard Layard for example, has proposed that it should be built into the school curriculum for all children, so that they come to understand the basic principle of altruism that could be said to lie at the very heart of a healthy and supportive society.
' We should teach the systematic practice of empathy,' he writes, ' and the desire to serve others. This needs a proper curriculum from the beginning of school life to the end, including the detailed study of role models...the basic aim should be the sense of an overall purpose wider than oneself.'
I don't think that is being over-idealistic. It's about building the foundations of a truly supportive society. And many scientists would agre with Professor Layard. As one psychologist among many has expressed it, an act of altruism releases a wpowerful win-win situation. It triggers...
' ..a cascade of positive effects. It makes you feel generous and capable, gives you a greater sense of connection with others, and wins you smiles, approval and reciprocated kindness.'
There are two key words in that passage....connection...and...reciprocated, key because they describe the crucial nature of relationships with the group, or the community. We pick up that point next time , when we learn from the evolutionary biologists that that crucial relationmship sits right at the hear tof the human psyche.
See you then.
Many many thanks for reading this,
William
We ended last time on the theme of personal growth, learning how to transform out basic attitude to problems and the challenges that we inevitably encounter, so that instead of being cast down by them, we use them to grow our own self-confidence and our sense of our own capability, both immensely important to our overall sense of well-being. No one says it's easy! Of course not, but it is essentially what Buddhism is all about. That's where we pick up the thread of the argument.
' And that clearly has wider implications for the people around us in all the various areas of ourn life. For as long as we are operating under stress in our lives, then we don't really have much time and space for others. But as we change, and develop this ability to handle our own challenges without being so taken over by anxiety and stress, but with courage and confidence and a growingn sense of our own capability, so we have more resource left over so to speak, to support and encourage those around us. Moreover, we find that we have more life-energy to seek out opportunities to help others. From simply giving sharing our own experiences of coping with troubles, to giving moral and emotional support, to devoting real tiem and energy to people in the midst of their own crises. Giving and sharing that is, rather than taking and consuming, that's the key change. And Buddhism has always taught that exerting ourselves in this way, focusingn outwards rather than inwards, concentrating our energies on the needs and concerns of others, rather than on our own current little crop of difficulties, which of course we will always continue to have, is what leads to the most rapid growth in our own resourcefulness, and capability, and sense of well-being.
Buddhism has been promoting this idea as a value-creating principle of social behaviour for a very long time, but it now finds ample support in modern sociological and psychological research. Richard Layard for example, has proposed that it should be built into the school curriculum for all children, so that they come to understand the basic principle of altruism that could be said to lie at the very heart of a healthy and supportive society.
' We should teach the systematic practice of empathy,' he writes, ' and the desire to serve others. This needs a proper curriculum from the beginning of school life to the end, including the detailed study of role models...the basic aim should be the sense of an overall purpose wider than oneself.'
I don't think that is being over-idealistic. It's about building the foundations of a truly supportive society. And many scientists would agre with Professor Layard. As one psychologist among many has expressed it, an act of altruism releases a wpowerful win-win situation. It triggers...
' ..a cascade of positive effects. It makes you feel generous and capable, gives you a greater sense of connection with others, and wins you smiles, approval and reciprocated kindness.'
There are two key words in that passage....connection...and...reciprocated, key because they describe the crucial nature of relationships with the group, or the community. We pick up that point next time , when we learn from the evolutionary biologists that that crucial relationmship sits right at the hear tof the human psyche.
See you then.
Many many thanks for reading this,
William
Wednesday 2 April 2014
my buddhist blog number 29
Hi Everybody,
Great news today from two huge allies. One from my dear friend Jason Jarrett, he of the Buddhist podcast, now moved to Vancouver. He is frantically busy the whole time travelling the world in his big new job, but he tells me that he has started editing the recordings of The Case for Buddhism that I have been periodically firing across to him, for upcoming podcast programmes. That is such great great news, because the feedback we get from around the world on the support and encouragment that people get from the podcast is just so inspiring. And the second piece of news from another dear friend Tiziana in Bogota. She's the lady who burnt so much midnight oil translating the Reluctant Buddhist and Buddhism and the Science of Happiness into Spanish for South America. Recently SGI Dominican Republic have been buying lots of copies of Il Budista Reacio as the Spanish version is called, and today she sent them 70 copies of both. That just blows me away. That something I wrote sitting in my study here in Kew, should touch people's lives in Santo Domingo! Isn't that amazing. Yes is the short answer!
Anyway, back to The Case for Buddhism , and we're in the middle of this chapter that discusses what I have called Buddhism and the Problem Paradox. How does Buddhism help us to deal with all the tough stuff tha tlife throws at us? And this paragraph has a sub heading... a personal training programme.
' So a Buddhist practice isn't in any way about a form of escapism, about finding some inner meditative refuge away from the pace and clamour and constant complexity of modern life. Although that of course is one of the most widely held stereotypes of what Buddhism is about, namely getting away from it all, or most of it. Buddhism is above all about ' fighting optimism.' About struggle and challenge, about challenging attitudes and behaviours that don't create value, or that don't lead to positive outcomes. It's far easier of course for us to go on simply complaining about problems that arise, or responding to them instinctively, which most often means negatively. As we all know so well, few things in life are more difficult than challenging patterns of thought or behaviour that we have spent years cultivating and nurturing and embedding into our lives. It takes real self- knowledge and courage and great persistence, simply not bein gprepared to give up.
Setting out to achieve that change in perspective, that change in attitude, is essentially the role that the daily Buddhist practice plays, the daily Buddhist, personal training programme. Indeed the true greatness of this practice in my view is precisely that. It enables us to achieve that slight shift in perspective, that slight shift in understanding, and strange as it may seem, that is all that is needed. It may only be a slight change, but time and time again it proves to be enough to enable us to look at the problem with a completely different attitude, that then leads on to tangible, positive, sometimes even remarkable outcomes in people's lives. And every time it does so, it reinforces the confidence and the resolve to tackle the next issue that comes along in the same way. And in that way we find ourselves moving steadily from being generally anxious and negative about problems, to being focused and confident about resolving them.
That is the shift in attitude that we are seeking. So theproblems remain the same, but our sense of being able to overcome them has changed profoundly. And problems that we feel confident we can overcome, actually change in character. They no longer seem so looming or so threatening. In fact we consciously change the way we talk about them and describe them to ourselves and to others. We start to call them challenges, and the change is by no means simply verbal. Problems are negative and threatening. Challenges are stimulating and uplifting. As soon as you say, ' I've got this challenge coming up next month,' you feel differently about it don't you? You feel immediately that you are preparing to stand against it...and win.
Given our powerful cultural conditioning it's important to emphasise perhaps, that we are not talking here about something akin to stoicism, about merely putting up with problems, or being broad shouldered in bearing them as a burden, Not at all. That's a completely different approach. What we are talking about here is transformation, about seeing problems differently and turning them into a source of personal growth, growing our self confidence, and our sense of our own capability, both immensely important contributors to our sense of well-being.
Nichiren Buddhists often describe this approach to problems with the phrase, turning poison into medicine. That is to say, taking a difficult and maybe seemingly impossible situation, and not simply enduring it, but turning it around completely, to create longer term value and self fulfilment out of it.
It's interesting that there is a phrase that modern psychologists use that strongly buttresses the virtue of this age-old Buddhist teaching. The psychologists talk about the ' constructive contribution ' that is made to our lives in tackling suffering and problems in this way. '
That's enough for one episode I think. Next time we look at the way this positive approach to life, helps us immensely to help others.
See you then, William
In case you are interested, The Case for Buddhism is available from Amazon.
It's doing well.
Great news today from two huge allies. One from my dear friend Jason Jarrett, he of the Buddhist podcast, now moved to Vancouver. He is frantically busy the whole time travelling the world in his big new job, but he tells me that he has started editing the recordings of The Case for Buddhism that I have been periodically firing across to him, for upcoming podcast programmes. That is such great great news, because the feedback we get from around the world on the support and encouragment that people get from the podcast is just so inspiring. And the second piece of news from another dear friend Tiziana in Bogota. She's the lady who burnt so much midnight oil translating the Reluctant Buddhist and Buddhism and the Science of Happiness into Spanish for South America. Recently SGI Dominican Republic have been buying lots of copies of Il Budista Reacio as the Spanish version is called, and today she sent them 70 copies of both. That just blows me away. That something I wrote sitting in my study here in Kew, should touch people's lives in Santo Domingo! Isn't that amazing. Yes is the short answer!
Anyway, back to The Case for Buddhism , and we're in the middle of this chapter that discusses what I have called Buddhism and the Problem Paradox. How does Buddhism help us to deal with all the tough stuff tha tlife throws at us? And this paragraph has a sub heading... a personal training programme.
' So a Buddhist practice isn't in any way about a form of escapism, about finding some inner meditative refuge away from the pace and clamour and constant complexity of modern life. Although that of course is one of the most widely held stereotypes of what Buddhism is about, namely getting away from it all, or most of it. Buddhism is above all about ' fighting optimism.' About struggle and challenge, about challenging attitudes and behaviours that don't create value, or that don't lead to positive outcomes. It's far easier of course for us to go on simply complaining about problems that arise, or responding to them instinctively, which most often means negatively. As we all know so well, few things in life are more difficult than challenging patterns of thought or behaviour that we have spent years cultivating and nurturing and embedding into our lives. It takes real self- knowledge and courage and great persistence, simply not bein gprepared to give up.
Setting out to achieve that change in perspective, that change in attitude, is essentially the role that the daily Buddhist practice plays, the daily Buddhist, personal training programme. Indeed the true greatness of this practice in my view is precisely that. It enables us to achieve that slight shift in perspective, that slight shift in understanding, and strange as it may seem, that is all that is needed. It may only be a slight change, but time and time again it proves to be enough to enable us to look at the problem with a completely different attitude, that then leads on to tangible, positive, sometimes even remarkable outcomes in people's lives. And every time it does so, it reinforces the confidence and the resolve to tackle the next issue that comes along in the same way. And in that way we find ourselves moving steadily from being generally anxious and negative about problems, to being focused and confident about resolving them.
That is the shift in attitude that we are seeking. So theproblems remain the same, but our sense of being able to overcome them has changed profoundly. And problems that we feel confident we can overcome, actually change in character. They no longer seem so looming or so threatening. In fact we consciously change the way we talk about them and describe them to ourselves and to others. We start to call them challenges, and the change is by no means simply verbal. Problems are negative and threatening. Challenges are stimulating and uplifting. As soon as you say, ' I've got this challenge coming up next month,' you feel differently about it don't you? You feel immediately that you are preparing to stand against it...and win.
Given our powerful cultural conditioning it's important to emphasise perhaps, that we are not talking here about something akin to stoicism, about merely putting up with problems, or being broad shouldered in bearing them as a burden, Not at all. That's a completely different approach. What we are talking about here is transformation, about seeing problems differently and turning them into a source of personal growth, growing our self confidence, and our sense of our own capability, both immensely important contributors to our sense of well-being.
Nichiren Buddhists often describe this approach to problems with the phrase, turning poison into medicine. That is to say, taking a difficult and maybe seemingly impossible situation, and not simply enduring it, but turning it around completely, to create longer term value and self fulfilment out of it.
It's interesting that there is a phrase that modern psychologists use that strongly buttresses the virtue of this age-old Buddhist teaching. The psychologists talk about the ' constructive contribution ' that is made to our lives in tackling suffering and problems in this way. '
That's enough for one episode I think. Next time we look at the way this positive approach to life, helps us immensely to help others.
See you then, William
In case you are interested, The Case for Buddhism is available from Amazon.
It's doing well.
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