In response to Mara!

In his quest for finding a way out of suffering, Buddha followed severe ascetic practices that professed ignoring the body and its needs completely. Depleted to nothing more than just skin and bones he was very close to his death when young Sujatha offered him some food.

Realizing that such extremity had not brought him any closer to the truth Buddha ate the food offered by this young woman. She had saved his life but had not answered his questions.

So he sat in meditation once again and vowed not to get up until he had his answers.

The story goes that the demon ‘Mara’ tried to distract him with all kinds of threats and temptations. But Buddha sat still and attained what he sought all along.

Buddha simply understood that keeping the mind still enables us to be free of agitation caused by the demons of our feelings, thoughts, emotions and sensations.

While this does not explain complex issues like how the universe was formed or if human life has a purpose. It can definitely refrain us from entering a cesspool of questions for which we perhaps can never have the answers. He encouraged us to not take our questions seriously and treat them like dancing Mara.

We all have our ‘Mara’s’, that hound us from time to time.

Am I worthy? Am I good enough? Am I accomplished? Am I respected? Am I loved?

When my own ‘Mara’ visits there is not one other human who can dismiss him for me. Hearing the words, ‘yes, you are worthy’, ‘yes, you are good’, ‘yes, you are loved’ from several others does not chase away my ‘Mara’.

Over time I have discovered that there is little left to do but to sit still and allow for ‘Mara’ to stay for as long as he wishes to. Sometimes reacting to him also encourages him to stay longer. Just being aware of his presence and continuing to do what I do is the only way to be free of him.

When he leaves on his own after many unsuccessful attempts to disengage me all I can do is say, “Goodbye, I’m sure I will see you soon.”

Over time Mara’s visits have come down, his ferocity has dampened and his stories are less appealing. But he’s very creative so I should expect to see him every so often.

Apparently Buddha hesitated teaching what he had experienced because he was not certain that it could be taught. Now some 2500 years later, I feel grateful for the human who resisted the ‘Mara’ of doubt and shared his learning’s with others.

It occurs to me that these stories are all that we have to help each other!

This iconic painting titled ‘ The Scream’ by Edvard Munch in one among my favorites.

While on a walk with his friends, the artist apparently felt like he heard a scream resembling the sensation of angst that passed through nature. The blood red evening sky along with the reflective waters added to his anxiety and he simply stood at the spot frozen while his friends walked along.

Most of us who have actually been alive to the experience of living have felt this existential angst at one point or another. It’s a crushing force that seems to obliterate our individuality by smudging it into the mass collective of the universe.

The reason I find this work impressive is because it communicates the idea it carries with simplicity. It is not artistically exquisite or complicated. Yet it expresses a common phenomenon brilliantly!

Pieces of art be it music, paintings, sculptures, writings or movies that truly appeal to us are those that express what is quintessentially true to us with great clarity. Everything else is just noise in a noisy world!

The art world can be intimidating. I was especially anxious when I was still very new. Was I asking the right questions? Was I making the correct observations? What if I liked something everybody found hideous? What if I opened my mouth and gave proof of my ignorance? And such!

When we allow ourselves we all know, we know what we like and we know what we don’t like and that’s all that there is to art too!

The Vinegar Tasters

The battle for ideological supremacy is perhaps as old as mankind itself.

In this ancient Taoist painting, Confucius, Buddha and Loa Tzu (founder of Taoism) are seen tasting vinegar from the barrel.

As the story goes, Confucius balks at the sour taste as in his mind human life was constantly out of step with the heavens and strict enforcement of laws and regulations were essential to bring earthly life in conjunction to its counterpart – the heavens.

For Buddha, life was essentially filled with suffering and therefore his expression is one of stoicism. The bitterness of the vinegar is just another instance of the suffering that humans need to transcend through wisdom and compassion.

Loa Tzu is the only one seen rejoicing despite the bitter sour taste of the vinegar. To him all of life’s difficulties and challenges had to be embraced with joy and a sense of humor. In his mind there was no imbalance in the universe and everything that occurred was harmonious and natural.

Of course it’s a Taoist painting and therefore it upholds his truth as the one that brings ultimate happiness. For in essence as humans we all crave wellbeing and wish to avoid suffering.

Its funny however that in the Chinese culture where these three ideologies reside side by side, most often blended and undifferentiated, they should still compete with each other for the slightest bit of supremacy if possible.

In my own mind they are all right and they are all necessary for harmony and balance. After all Confucius’s regulations are necessary for a society to operate successfully, Loa’s Taoist sense of good humor and acceptance is necessary for myriad personalities within a family to thrive and get along and Buddha’s sense of training the mind in order that it may avert itself from excessive attachment is the ultimate self-help guidance available to humans.

Sadness in Spring

Winter has passed and spring has arrived with her vivid colors, sounds and scents.

Yellow sunlight, filters through the cherry trees with white flowers and pierces the cool dimness of my study. Gold dust seems scattered into the air and patterns of light are painted upon the floor and the bookcases.

The blue-sky, ochre bushes, pale pink flowers, green blobs of sprouting tender leaves arrest the wandering mind making one want to participate in this fairy tale architecture with a sweet story filled with pretty illustrations.

I too was excited about spring.

 I almost started with; Once upon a time - children playing soccer in parks and playgrounds, came back home to their loving families, ate dinner while they laughed and chatted and were tucked into bed with a story filled with adventure.

And then I heard on the news that such stories don’t happen everywhere!

Elsewhere, dark hues of boiling red blood, charred flesh, pieces of bones, hair, molten metal, jarred remains, smoke, dust, shrill cries, screams, panic, pain, murder of hopes and dreams all wrapped up and tied with helplessness enters the life of young children.

It is truly heartbreaking, and an unspeakable dejection of the spirit, far beyond all pain and all anxiety, simply because I cannot comprehend such hatred aimed at young children.

The weariness of an unsafe and callous world has come to visit me and I feel helpless in my inability to control or influence it in the least.

There is but only one thing left to do at such times – to exercise self-compassion.

 This is the time for compassion towards my own self. To respond to the self, like I’m responding to a suffering friend. To shut off the news channels and to trash the newspaper, to be quiet, to soak in silence, to meditate, to sip a cup of tea, to take a warm shower, eat a simple meal, care for a pet and snuggle with someone I love.

I know my heart will open once again to happiness, to kindness and I will feel deep gratitude not only for sunlight, fresh breeze and flowers but for being blessed with a human heart that though battered, wounded and patched up, can open and learn to love life all over again.

When the world is poised on the edge of a sword, ‘one’ less angry human is perhaps enough to keep it from tipping over.

What makes us great?

The ice age came and left, taking with it the wooly mammoth and the saber-toothed tiger, both great beasts! The receding age did not dispute their greatness; it did not frame them, bind their legacy in a book or place a head stone upon their remains.

Nature renews herself and disposes that which is redundant without hesitation; this may as well be the open secret of her consistent ‘greatness’.

Human history is a continuum of great civilizations that have risen and fallen throughout time. Many a people of these fallen civilizations secretly long for the sense of greatness that has been lost.

Why do great civilizations fall?

We can argue that the weightiness of ‘being great’ is selectively prone to the gravitational pull of humility. We can also assert that inner inertia and staunch resistance to change leads a stagnant civilization to its downfall.

However in my mind the most common cause is hubris. Pompous leaders who are disconnected with the prevailing reality have led many a great nation to its demise.

Complacent egotism, excessive pride, haughtiness and unrivaled confidence do not bring about the kind of ‘greatness’ that is lasting.

 Lasting greatness is brought about by the cultivation of courage in facing the unknowable, by tolerating our anxiety in the face of change, by upholding that which we truly believe in, by honoring the choice of a people who may choose a path that is different from our own and by withholding the exercise of our own power over others.

Much is demanded from civilizations that wish to remain great or hope to be reinstated.

Like nature, greatness too requires that we face life as it stands and corresponds with us today. It requires that we relinquish those ideas and institutions that are incongruent with our times in order to thrive.

History, be it individual, national or cultural can both inform our success and inhibit our progress. Like nature we too need to hold our changing identities lightly. Or we risk becoming a wooly mammoth protesting the end of the ice age.

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