Twilight in America

This morning I was reading ‘a treasury of sublime instructions’ from a high Tibetan lama. America contains symbol ‘Ah’, which sounds unborn nature of truth. It’s also symbol at throat chakra. Sometimes when I sit and visualize colors according to my Buddhist practice, I think of American flag and how uncanny it is that they are same. I sit and pray for liberation from physical, verbal and mental afflictions. And yet country I was born into is rocking itself into hell realm. Blood soaked terrain propels more blood soaking and cycle continues; there seems to be no choice. Propelled by afflictions.

In contemplating sufferings of cyclic life in general, they can be broken down into six sufferings. Life is uncertain. We can never find a sense of satisfaction. We have to shed our bodies over and over again. We are born over and over again. What goes up must come down. And we do this alone. We may think we have companions but we die alone. Period.

There are more than 5 billion humans on planet now and few study dharma. It’s a precious jewel more hidden than seen. As Hummer cruises down freeway, with wheels that afford a very high panorama, I pass another SUV smashed in on side, and debris everywhere. Do people see, do they know? They just drive around in their Hummers, with bullet proof shadowy glass protecting bodies that are bound to disintegrate some day. They are bouncing above it all in what some referred to as ‘god’ realm here…Los Angeles. Sunny days, wealth, oceans of offerings to yourself. And only yourself. Accumulate, borrow, accumulate more.

I cried at lunch yesterday as a friend told me about a CEO of a well-known movie studio and how much he makes a day; how much he spent to redecorate his office that he doesn’t use. How he also had a quadruple by pass. And my mind flashes abruptly to begging bowls penetrating stone fences of Bodhgaya. $10,000 a day to sit in a soft malleable chair and bark at your employees could feed whole of Bodhgaya for half a year! "It’s out of whack", she said. And so do astrologers, psychics, New Age yogis. Yet there’s no visible awareness of samsara and how it all goes round and round. It isn’t just about living a comfortable happy existence this lifetime, people. It’s your own future life at stake. Call it Catholic sin appreciation time. It works for them. You reap what you sow. And so…and so, if you had a clue about fact that your warmongering would take you straight to lowest hell in Dante’s inferno, and you really knew this - it wasn’t just an antiquated Italian classic - you might really think or realize you are thinking?

I came back from India with an upper respiratory infection. When I finally saw my doctor weeks later, she told me I probably had had walking pneumonia; this was before media people coined SARS. I had been in poorest state of India, Bihar, and air there is notorious, a disease den. People walk streets with surgical face masks. You pick your nose and goop is dark. TB floats through air freely. And people die. Lots of them. It’s not on news. It happens every year. It’s foggy, it’s cold, air is damp and so get lungs. I laid in my guest house bed every day wondering if I would get worse or better. I took my Cipro. I didn’t even feel strong enough to go doctor’s. My dharma friends said if I died there in Bodhgaya, it would be a real blessing. In midst of high lamas and especially His Holiness Dalai Lama. Yes, illness is looked at differently. It’s seen as a purification of past deeds, negative karma popping off. All stored in body. And yet, I come back here and this new mysterious illness is a news breaker. Some Western people have caught disease and are dying. It’s news and it’s plummetting airline ticket sales. That’s news. But that TB kills thousands a year from all over Asia. Is that news?

We live in a land of Costcos, of sterilized supermarkets with pasturized milk, genetically engineered beef, plastic containers, rubber gloves. The supermarkets here don’t smell. They freeze you. You should probably wear a ski suit to shop at Ralphs or Vons. We drive Hummers to prevent death. We pull skin taught on our faces to avoid looking at aging process. We think we can defy death. We think that our minds our so powerful. But mind that is contaminated is only as powerful as its contaminates. It can’t see. It can only see through its own dirty lens.

I watch TV and see talking shriveled up American men in suits. I think of invention of suit and tie. Clothing symbols of achievement. Wow. We became stiff. A few years back I would take photos of these talking men and sew them into crotch of my warn out underwear. It was part of my art work at time. They were down there. They still are. But they feel old and gasping. I watched Rumsfeld deliver a speech on TV. He could hardly get a breath. They were short heaves and his chest seemed hard and I thought, "that man is suffering so much". And has no idea. As a yoga teacher, I see physical structural ailments much more now. The caved in chest, sagging shoulders, color of skin. Not even a suit or a tummy tuck can hide what’s really going on.

Dear Friends,

May this find you all well and happy.

I feel need to share with you some thoughts about what helps me deal more positively deal with impressions and feelings about this increasingly ugly war.

Natural Feelings and Questions

Regardless of our beliefs about whether it is right or justified, it is natural to be affected by tension, pain, sorrow and anger around it.

It is natural to feel pain of those being bombed and losing their loved ones whether they be Iraqis or American or British families losing their precious spouses and children.

It is natural for many to feel angry about America’s choice to ignore UN and cause death of so many innocent people – including its own.

And equally natural for those who think about Saddam Hussein’s reign-of-terror to see him as a threat to world peace.

Some may see all this as a senseless waste of human life, not to mention so much money and human energy, that could be used for health and education programs in USA and around world and thus - eliminating all our enemies with love, food and education - rather than with weapons.

Some people, depending on their beliefs and programmings, might wonder: v Why do these people - Iraqi and Coalition - have to go through this pain and loss?

v Why do these people have to be bombed?

v Why has Saddam Hussein killed so many of his people?

v Why doesn't he leave so his people are not killed?

v How has America become so self-righteous and oblivious to others’ beliefs, rights and dignity?

v What has happened to truth?

v When will we live in peace and love?

v How long will we create pain for ourselves?

Many of us feel so helpless and unable to do something about it.

Seven Truths

In our previous issue we have mentioned Seven Steps that each of us can take towards making a difference.

In this issue, I would like to briefly mention a few philosophical thoughts that might help us perceive this differently.

1. One spiritual truth is that all is happening within and being controlled by certain cosmic laws. That these laws do not allow anything to happen which is not exactly what we need for our next evolutionary step.

As St. Paul has said, «Not a hair can move on a person’s head without God allowing it.»

This applies to this war in Iraq and Sept 11th and every other horrible event that has occurred – and of course beautiful ones too.

Thus, it seems that there must be some higher spiritual reason for this horrible, painful and hate-and-fear-creating this war.

This is not to say that we will always need war.

Neither does it mean that we should not do every we can to stop it – if we believe that it is wrong – or simply not solution to problem.

2. The second concept is that all events and situations have sole function of provoking our inner learning process.

Thus we each need to look inwardly to see what we can learn from this situation.

What might be some possible lessons?

a. Some may need to learn to use power more wisely and not for personal benefit.

b. Many will need to learn forgiveness and understanding.

c. Others will need to learn to feel God’s presence even in midst of bombs, pain and loss of loved ones.

d. Certainly one main lesson for all of us is to transcend our narrow identification with our personal country, religion or political beliefs and experience unity with and interest in all beings regardless of where they live and what they believe.

e. Another lesson is to put ourselves in others’ position and imagine how they – our "enemies" feel and realize that they are human beings like us with families, children, fears and needs.

f. Still another is to free ourselves from any hate towards any being and see all as expressions of divine.

g. And perhaps most important is to remove from ourselves those characteristics which lead to such situations.

We are being asked to see where we ourselves misuse power, where we lie to ourselves and others in order to serve our needs and where we are indifferent to others and their needs. Especially our indifference to those to who belong to «other» groups, nationalities, religions political systems.

In order to heal ourselves from this illness of alienation, which enables those in power to separate us for their own benefits, we will need realize and put in practice our unity with all. Then they will have no power.

As long as we favor one person, group, religion or nation over another, we are not experiencing unity, and we are contributing to problem.

It is important that we free ourselves from limiting ourselves with these superficial temporary roles as Americans, Iraqis, Israelis, Moslems, Christians or Jews and realize that we are all immortal souls playing these temporary roles in order to discover our true divine nature and inherent unity in God.