The Laws of Karma explained: The Meaning of Life and Why 'bad' things happen to 'good' people...

This kind of misunderstanding is rife online, and makes it easy to understand why some people spout such nonsense.

Hi there, I hope you are well. Brother's and sisters, as part of the last post, I opened up the forum and asked if people had any burning issues that they wished me to write about. There have been some great suggestions come in, and I would like to say thank you for those - keep 'em coming! The first topic I will write about by request is Karma and Rebirth, and in spite of it's perennially thorny nature, I am more than happy to oblige. Two days ago I received the following email which caught my eye:

"I recently made contact with someone who is suffering from a terminal illness. He believes that his illness is due to karma-vipaka and he will be reborn in a more healthy physical body. We are discussing karma-vipaka and that the body is also impacted by biological/ hereditary/ enviromental facts not solely 'KV' and its important to understand this. What other teachings can we discuss to support him to understand what/ why this is happening to him and to ease his suffering....thank you Uncle Dharma-Farmer..."

Wow... That's a really tough situation to be in. If you read this, my friend, I am very sorry to hear that, and considering that I am going through a cancer scare at the moment, it seems rather fitting to prioritise this request. To answer the question directly, yes, perhaps there are a few things to reflect on here which hopefully will ease your suffering. To keep this VAST subject as short as possible, I will look at Karma-Vipaka this week, and Rebirth will be considered in a few days time, if that's cool? Aside from the obvious suggestion to look into the Four Noble Truths, I hope the following is of use...

The Three Lakshanas:
The first teachings I would suggest discussing in conjunction with Karma-Vipaka are the Three Lakshanas, or marks/characteristics of conditioned existence. This is the teaching that all phenomena, including this screen, you and me, dear reader, are: 

1. Impermanent (Anitya) - not eternal or ever-lasting.
2. Composite (Anatta) - compounded of other things and lacking a fixed, independent nature.
3. Frustrating (Dukha) - ultimately dissatisfying, and eventually, a source of suffering. 

Take a car for example. We all know it doesn't last forever, mainly BECAUSE is it made up of lots of smaller parts which wear down and break through repeated use and as a result cannot provide us a never-ending source of happiness. In fact, eventually it becomes a source of suffering BECAUSE it doesn't last forever and because it is compounded (made up) of other 'things'. It may even become a source of frustration before that... Think of the tax, the insurance, the stress when the paintwork gets scratched, the worry of it being stolen when parking in a decidedly dodgy neighbourhood etc. Not only that, no car, in and of itself, is able to be a fundamental source of uninterrupted happiness and joy. Nothing can, but because of our ignorance in this matter, we project our desires for things to be otherwise onto the world and thus time and time again we set ourselves up for a disappointing fall. 

Cheery huh? It's easy to see why some people might initially think Buddhism is a pessimistic belief system, but when we consider these characteristics, they all offer us a gateway to freedom. If we see things as they really are, or at least try to, they begin to lessen their hold over us. We can see our own lives as they really are: as finite, inter-connected and full of ups and down which we don't have full control over. Life, in reality, is an absurdly complex series of arisings and ceasing of phenomena, people, places, and perceptions that are in a constant state of flux. Deal with it, or not, but don't expect it to be anything other than thus. In fact, there is a real freedom and appreciation that can come with getting your head around the idea that because nothing stays the same or is as it seems, all beings, times and places are to be cherished, honoured and savoured. Experiences are what we make of them. They are just experiences, and we create the labels 'good' and 'bad', positive or negative, based on our emotional responses (usually subconscious and habitual) to them. Life is neutral. It's is just... Life... Fleeting, finely interwoven and fluctuating, forever...

Buddhism in this sense is neither pessimistic nor optimistic. It is simply realistic. In light of this non-judemental realism, we can in fact go one step further and we can confidently assert that Buddhism is in fact melioristic, meaning that it encourages the individual to better society as a whole by their own conscious efforts of self-improvement. The teachings of Buddhism are very empowering, both collectively and for the individual, and as a belief system it refuses to accept any power you try and project onto it. That power is yours alone to squander or make use of, as you see fit. Surely, to work for the betterment of all beings is enough to give life a sense of meaning?

The human body and our minds are no different to a car, or anything else in that sense. They are temporary, and constantly changing. They are made up of mental events and organs and what we call 'the body' and 'the mind' are actually nothing more than linguistic conveniences, a synopsis through nouns, and nowhere can we find one specific thing called 'the body' or 'the mind' which is independent of all their constituent parts. They have a symbiotic relationship with each other, and in fact are both totally dependant and interconnected through a myriad of other obscenely complex and incalculable factors, both internal and external. Even the number of parts it involves changes from person to person, most obviously in amputees or people who have had organs removed.. No two bodies are identical, not even in twins. Each individual body is a not a fixed thing but in reality, a process, constantly changing, just like every other thing in the universe. It is the nature of reality itself, and the idea that our bodies should be any different, that 'we are the exception to the rule' is rationally absurd. If it is a fact of life that all things must pass, then we need to start coming to terms with it pretty sharpish. Often people, once they come to terms with the facts of the Three Lakshanas, actually feel a release, as if a huge burden has been dropped. They are no longer looking at their bodies, their minds and the world around them in terms of what the Buddha described as 'topsy-turvey views' - The Four Viparyasas or 'perverse delusions', we all have to some extent. As a supportive and closely related teaching I would advise us all to look them up and consider. They, along with the Three Lakshanas, explain much suffering in this world. They are, in brief:

The Four Viparyasas.
1. That which is pleasurable is actually a source of future suffering
2. That which is separate is actually inter-connected and interdependant/lacking fixed self.
3. That which is pure is actually impure
4. That which is permanent is actually transient and constantly changing.

Look at a beer for example: 1) at the very least it costs money and kills brain cells, whilst in excess it gives us a hangover. 2) To enjoy a beer outside a bar in a hot summer's day, many factors need to happen in exactly the right order. The beer didn't just magic itself into existence, neither did the bar nor the drinker, and on the most obvious level, your consumption of it is entirely dependant on someone having to (at the very least) provide you with a glass from which to drink. The beer is NOT just the liquid, it is everything that supports the creation of the liquid and it's epic journey from an idea in one person's mind, into a glass, into your actual face. 3) I think the idea of 'impurity' is easy enough to understand - it is made up of ingredients, and most people enjoy the idea of drinking a beer on a hot day more than actually drinking the beer itself... It's almost as if we try and match up the mental construct of 'beer' to the reality, but in doing so, we invariably fail. They never taste as crisp and refreshing as the adverts make out and this, again leads to a disappointment on our part. Jean Claude Van Damme and his unfeasibly restricted denim-clad crotch has much to answer for. Finally, 4) everybody knows that the first sip tastes the best, and the further down the pint you get, the more 'normal' it tastes. Besides, as you drink it, the beer in the glass changes in volume, and then is broken down by the body into different chemicals. In truth, that 'beer' was a process, from start to finish, and above all else it was a choice. It is a conscious, willed decision to drink the enticingly flavoured ethanol (in and of itself, a highly toxic poison) due to it's capacity to induce the pleasant sensation of mild brain damage. Thus we are brought onto the nub of the matter, the issue of conscious decisions and volitional actions of body, speech and mind having undeniable consequences, or Karma-Vipaka, as it is otherwise known.

Firstly then, let us clarify the term first:

"Karma"

Karma is NOT some all-seeing cosmic version of poetic justice, mysteriously floating through the universe, exacting revenge of 'bad' people once we ourselves are no longer looking. It is nothing to do with people 'getting their come-upance'. It has nothing to do with accruing 'merit' (whatever the hell that might be) and certainly isn't something you receive. It is not something to be feared, and almost certainly not what you think it is. Tibetan Buddhists talk about it a lot in relation to past lives, which again will be left to next weeks post exploring rebirth. It is not something which is aware of you, and it is not a creator God (and neither was the Buddha, for that matter). I shall allow my teacher, Sangharakshita, to explain further...

It is NOT a way of justifying treating people cruelly or unskilfully, and must NOT be used to perpetuate social inequality, as it is used in modern Hinduism and in the Brahminical society of the Buddha's day. This type of 'Kamma' is not what we are discussing, and was dismissed by the historical Buddha outright! "It is by worth, and not by birth that one is considered to live a noble life", he was quoted as saying on more than one occasion. Our 'worth' to society, of course, is defined by our contributions to the world's happiness and wellbeing, and not by hereditary honour, education, financial means or IQ. It is our Karma, our CHOICES and DEEDS of body, speech and mind that lend a higher purpose, a meaning and thus a sense of nobility to our lives. Karma is 'chosen action'. Vipaka is the consequence of that action. It is as simple as that.

Karma is one of the five categories of natural laws which the Buddha said govern our universe, called the 'Niyamas'. They are the five orders of unalterable forces which shape our lives, and within which we have to operate. We don't have a choice, any more than a fish chooses to live in water. We need to understand these laws if we are to grow into happier, well rounded individuals. It's like gravity: it just is. Whether you believe in it or not has no bearing on how gravity operates, but how well you understand it (or not) will affect how you operate within. It is a context to reality itself, and by understanding how it works, you will react and respond accordingly, and as with the gravity, a misunderstanding of these natural laws can have serious effects on our lives. It's why ducks take off from the ground, just to be sure. So what are these Niyamas? Briefly and in the most simplistic of terms, they are:

1. The Utu Niyama - The Physical-Inorganic

These laws, such as magnetism, gravity etc cover subjects like geology, chemistry and physics.

2. The Bija Niyama - The Physical-Organic

This covers the laws governing the realm of botany, biology, genetics, stem-cell research etc. 'Bija' means 'seed'.

3. The Citta Niyama - Perception and Mental activity

This is the laws which govern organisms once they are aware of their surroundings, and covers behavioural sciences in animals and psychology. 'Citta' means 'mind'. 

4. The Karma Niyama - Volitions and Conscious Choices

This is the order of existence which is concerned with human beings who have the capacity to be self- aware, and conscious that their actions affect other people. This covers intentions, speech and actions. The world 'Karma' means 'action' and pertains to the world of ethical responsibility. The word 'Vipaka' literally means 'ripening' or 'consequence'. People in popular culture say "Karma" when what they are actually referring to is the "Vipaka".

5. The Dharma Niyama - The Spiritual

The most mysterious of them all is the Dharma Niyama. Once a self-aware person starts leading a 'spiritual' life, they start to come under the operation of these sets of laws as well as the others. Here we are into the realm of the Sublime, The Wordless, The Transcendental and moving towards Ultimate Truth of Reality itself! This covers the arts, poetry, religious experience and music. Here the word is used to mean 'in relation to Ultimate Truth', though 'Dharma' itself changes in meaning dependant upon the context.

From the outset, I do want to be clear that this conception of the Niyamas is a very simplistic one, and I am fully aware that, for example, biology is, ultimately, an expression of physical processes (most things are, as one of my high-school teachers was so keen to self-righteously point out, much to my perpetual irritation. It made me want to set fire to his Lancia Delta). The other thing to note is that like my old physics teacher, we have a tendency to over-simplify things in an effort to make sense of them. We are all, constantly under the sway and influence of many of these laws at once. 

For example: I experience the light of the sun (Utu Niyama) which is perceived by my eyes and my skin (Bija Niyama). This pleasurable experience makes me happy and overconfident (Citta Niyama) and more likely to wear ill-fitting shorts (Karma Niyama). The resulting distress caused to onlookers and passing traffic makes me question my desire to be attractive or the centre of attention. Wishing to be more self-assured or less vain, I start to meditate and after a while I gain flashes of Insight into the transience of life (Dharma Niyama) and more at ease in myself, I bin my disturbingly tight shorts. In this way, we can see the progressive order of conditionality, of reality and of the Niyamas themselves, each one marking a definite evolutionary milestone on the long, long road from the first explosive nanoseconds of the Big Bang to the our present day world of iPads, fracking and frappuccinos.

As should now be clear, the fact that this person has been diagnosed with a terminal disease involves the interaction of many different Niyamas (or groups of Laws). It explains why 'bad' things happen to 'good' people, and in fact urges us to disregard the notion of value judgements altogether. Earthquakes happen because the earth is composed of tectonic plates floating above a molten ball of semi-liquid magma and due to the pressures exerted along plate lines, we experience sudden shifts and pressure release as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The 100,0000 people who lose their lives in a tsunami do so as a result of having mortal bodies, governed by the Bija Niyama, and those bodies being entirely dependant on the earth, on terra-firma, which in turn is dependant on the relative stability of geophysical phenomena, the Utu Niyama... It has NOTHING to do with "their Karma in a past life", and to suggest so is glib and an insult to those families destroyed and leaves the ones left behind heartbroken and confused. 

In life, I personally believe that there are no acts of God, just acts. Acts of kindness, acts of cruelty, but conscious acts which arise in dependence on a VAST network of condition, some social, some genetic, some environmental but ALL of them governed and operating by the natural and unavoidable laws of the different Niyamas. One of the inevitable drawbacks of having a body is that one day, you won't. Not you, not me, none of us are exempt. In little more than 100 years, most humans alive today will be gone, and the world will be in the hands of a hopefully healthier and happier generation. This is why we make the effort to practice and lead by example NOW, to set up better conditions for them to inherit. For BILLIONS of years you and I didn't exist, but that's not upsetting, and it will be no different when we are gone. That's fine by me, just so long as we appreciate what we have whilst we have it and tidy up before we leave, clearing our plates and laying the spiritual table out neatly and with polished silverware for the next diners to enjoy. 

The world is full of real people experiencing very real problems, just like this guy, for whom I have every sympathy, but we need to concede, at the end of the day, that all suffering is born out of our merely rational understanding of the truths expressed above. If I really, and I mean really understood the teachings of the Lakshanas and the Niyamas, I wouldn't be loosing sleep at night about the state of my colon. I wouldn't be bursting into tears at the silliest things - the smell of cut grass, the cool breeze in the air and the curiously gratifying sensation of fishing a cold, soggy tea-bag out of the sink. For some reason, I can't get my head around the fact that my sister will never get to experience this last one ever again... Silly I know, but it's a reminded to me to stay present, to "be here, now" as my father's hippy generation used to say. 

This very sums up Karma-Vipaka and the experiential nature of faith in Buddhism. We must try to think clearly, act decisively and then reflect on the outcome for ourselves and others as to whether they were skilful or unskilful. Operating on the basis of Love rather than Power, we can't go too far wrong.

It all comes down to you and your own actions and choices, about taking responsibility where you can (in the Karma Niyama) and accepting those things you have no control of. If you try and hand all your responsibility and power to the Buddha, he simply smiles silently and hands it back, encouraging us all to take full responsibility for our states of mind and our lives in general. It is worth reminding ourselves that the Hindu conception of 'Kamma' is something very different, and is arguably a belief for self-substantiating and justifying the horrors of the Caste system, but more on that another time. 

Unless this brother of ours has been subsisting solely on red meat, cheep vodka and deep-fried cigars for the last 20 years, it is profoundly unlikely that his actions, his Karma, have been the sole cause of his illness, his Vipaka. Come to think of it, that's been pretty much my life up to the point when I discovered Buddhism in a meaningful way, but even so, if I do have cancer, it doesn't mean it's my fault per se. It just means that I have a body, albeit for a limited time only, and that ahead of you, dear reader, I am going jump the cue and get a sneak preview of the greatest unanswerable question in the world: What happens at and after death? This will be our subject to kick around in a few days time, but for now, I just want to send out lots of love and Metta to this guy who, in the words of the Buddha, is "going through a seriously sh*t time". I may be wrong on that quote, but if I am, it sure as hell ain't my Karma... Besides, all this talk just takes us away from our present moment, this present experience, which fleeting, imperfect and compounded as it is, is the only place we will ever be, the only place our hearts can heal. It's the power of Love. It's the 'wow' of the now.

Yours, wishing you all health, happiness and harmony in your healing hearts,

The Dharma-Farmer xx

This article is dedicated to anyone who is living with a terminal illness, or a serious illness of any sort.
May all beings be well, may all beings be content, may all being find peace in the maelstrom of life.
May all live without fear. May we value each other whilst we still have the time.

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Confession Time: Size does Matter! - The Power of Apology and Devotion in Buddhism.

Hi, and thank you for returning. I (almost) wouldn't have blamed you if you hadn't. Firstly, I just want to make an apology and take ownership of a few minor indiscretions. A few months ago, I promised regular readers that I would write shorter, more concise posts, skilfully offering a few reflections on the topic at hand. My intention was to provide an authentically modern and Buddhist perspective on whatever we were considering before opening up the forum for you, dear reader, to post your own reflections in the 'comments' box at the bottom of the page. I feel that in many ways I have strayed from this brief, and ironically with my lengthy posts, fallen short of the mark. Sorry about that. The monkey learns... 

Speaking of monkeys, I'm afraid I may have done them a disservice too. I regret that in my last post I allowed frustration to seep in, and I want to acknowledge making one or two comments which were not entirely skilful or professional. For example, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osbourne, I referred to as "a strategically-shaved ape". My intention was to highlight that here in Britain many people seem to passively accept our economy being governed by a man who has no qualifications to do the job. Many people aren't aware of this, and many others don't care. It's a real shame, and the fact deserves wider recognition. I wish to stay true to my beliefs, and to raise awareness of things like this, but want to avoid any undue malice in the process. I'm sorry George, but with all due respect, if any, it's hard to see how you are the best man for the job. This man, by the way, earns £145,000 a year, has a personal fortune of at least £5m just from shares in his family business, and has created a tax system whereby (surprise, surprise) he isn't even considered a 'top-rate earner". He then tells the people of Britain that "we are all in it together"... Hence I stand by my position, and so to all tree-dwelling primates out there, please forgive me.

Let the facts speak for themselves... Enough said.

I accused many people of treating their opinions as facts, and of allowing the baubles of our modern consumerist society to rob them of their capacity for self-awareness. On this occasion, in the heat of the moment, I wasn't much better. In an age where many people struggle to find 10 minutes to meditate, why I am writing articles which take 30 minutes to read? Up with this I shall not put! On reflection, I can now see how the message is in danger of getting lost. In the future I will try and present you with easily digestible, bite-size nibbles, leaving you savouring my Dharma-Dunkers, rather than gagging on the foot-long Krispy-Kreme of Truth, if you pardon my rather phallic metaphor...

Sadly, only one or two people pointed this short-coming out. I think it's safe to concede that I wasn't overly harsh but in keeping with the last post, I'd like to point out an obvious irony here: in an article intended to inspire clear thinking, I acted rather mindlessly. That being said, having to point out my own failings to others suggests that I am not entirely wrong in my assessment: the constant bombardment of distractions in modern life make it hard to live life with full attention.  

I know a lot of you may think I am being unduly harsh on myself, but I say these things in an air of kindness, and Nag Champa so all is well. If you choose to try confession yourself, please remember this is NOT an exercise in self-flagellation or trying to make oneself feel bad or guilty. For some, this can be a slippery slope, and above all else, you've always got to be kind to yourself, whatever you are faced with in life. It's all about self-Metta, first and foremost, and it can work alongside contrition. The whole point of the exercise is to gently bring awareness to the discrepancy, however slight, between one's actions and one's ideals.  But such is the strength of my desire to grow, to leave my old habits abandoned at the roadside of life, like unskilful snake-skin, that I set the bar very high indeed. In fact, the bar is ALWAYS being raised, the skin is always being shed. Always be realistic, and never defeatist - you will never conquer yourself by hatred, only by love. 

Ideally, I would like to be moving towards a level of self-awareness whereby I am not reliant on others to point out any transgressions of the five precepts. Hurtful, unskilful actions of body, speech and mind need acknowledging to oneself at least, and going further, in Buddhism a public confession to your peers and spiritually more experienced friends is considered the best way to strengthen one's desire to learn from the experience and change for the better. It really works too, trust me. As I write, the slight (and it is only slight) sting of shame is fast being replaced with an inspiring and positive mustering of my energies, to their very depths. The "Confession of Faults" is an integral part of both our practice and Puja (devotional ceremonies, pronounced 'poo-jah') in the Triratna Buddhist Order, and I am keen to engage the sub-rational, emotional aspect of my being with the intention of growing beyond myself. 

This is the point of Puja and devotion in Buddhism and explains the disparity between our higher aspirations and our actions; Man is not just his or her intellect or rational conscious thoughts. If we plumb the very depths of human nature, we see that there is another dimension to us as beings, possibly much larger than we care to admit. Aside from our reason, our theory, our intellectual knowledge of the Dharma and of life in general, we are also comprised of our emotions, our deeper volitions, and this part is often more unconscious than conscious. Our founder, the Ven. Urgyen Sangharakshita, discusses this in a brilliant series of talks on the Noble Eightfold path, again available on www.freebuddhistaudio.com (click here for the link to download the talks for free, I implore you!). The following, I feel, is very, very true of our emotional core...

(above) Sangharakshita in the early 60's, during his tutorship under Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, 

one of great Masters of the last century. Let no person question the authenticity or the lineage of 

the Triratna Buddhist Order (formerly known as the FWBO).

"It's obvious that we cannot just go against our emotions. The emotions are stronger than reason. If we want to put into practice what we know to be right, what we know to be true, we have to enlist, in one way or another, the cooperation of the emotions. We have to be able to tap those deeper sources within ourselves and harness them also, so that we may implement what we know to be right and true. Only then shall we be able to put what we know into actual practice. And this we may say, in a sense, is the central problem for most people... to find emotional equivalents for our intellectual understanding... Until we have done that, no further spiritual progress is possible."

How often do we fail to achieve something because 'our heart is not in it?' This is the whole point of confession and apology, of poetry and devotion in Buddhism; over time, to bring the emotions gradually in line with our abstract, intellectual knowledge. The following, taken from our Puja itself and arranged by Sangharakshita, is from chapter II of Shantideva's 'Bodhicaryavatara':

CONFESSION OF FAULTS:

The evil which I have heaped up, 

Through my ignorance and foolishness - 

Evil in the world of everyday experience, 

As well as evil in understanding and intelligence -

      All that I acknowledge to the Protectors. 

Standing before them 

With hands raised in reverence, 

And terrified of suffering, 

I pay salutations again and again. 

May the leaders receive this kindly, 

Just as it is, with its many faults! 

What is not good, O Protectors, 

I shall not do again.

Please note: here the word 'evil' is not meant in the Islamic or Judeo-Christian understanding of the word, but rather, in the sense of a volitional fault or unskillful action; that which leads directly, or through a lack of mindfulness to harm to either others, oneself, or both. We need to asses our own intentions when compassionately reflecting on our actions and retrospectively discerning 'good' from 'bad', skilful (Kusala) from unskilful (Akusala). When I recite the above verses and engage with them fully, the results can often be electrifying and deeply moving, with far reaching implications, so long as I 'get out of the way' and allow them to be so.

Myself performing Puja at the Triratna International Retreat 2012. Boom - Puja Power!

I know I don't need to be cruel to be funny, but why do people feel the need to be funny in the first place? For my sake as much as anybody else's, it's worth briefly investigating. For me, on here, is it ultimately coming from a sincere desire to inform with a smile, to help others, to satirise - yes, very much so. That being said, I am also aware that part of my conditioning (I am the eldest of five children) means that I do have an insecure streak, much as admitting it feels a bit uncomfortable. Like most people I am keen to be liked, to be affirmed as worthwhile, but in addition to this, I desire to be widely read, and of this I need to be mindful. Other writers make careers out of snide, harsh, sensationalist comments, but I am better than that.

Going further, when I examine my motivation behind the desire to be a professional writer at all, I happily discover that the intention is skilfull - I just want to make the Dharma available to beings, and I'm sure you'll agree that there's worse things to invest your time and energies in. Land wars in the middle east, for example. It's all part of my learning curve, of maturing as a writer, so thank you for bearing with me. When I attempted to make an audio recording of my previous post, a podcast for a blind friend of mine, it took HALF AN HOUR to read. If this were a book, that would be normal for a chapter, but this isn't a book, it's a blog. I hope that one day I might be published, as I feel compelled to give the gift of the Dharma, and frankly the wider the audience, the better. But I would rather this manifested, if at all, based on my capacity as a writer and your support for my cause, rather than stemming from a neurotic desire to be liked. 

I hope this post has clarified how we can compassionately learn from our mistakes and after which just get on with actually living our lives - it doesn't pay to spend too much time over-analysing everything. I hope you share your thoughts with others, creating ripples of positivity and across the world. I like to provide a bit of comic relief and a place online whereby people can learn about the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha in an environment which is not po-faced or pretentious. I am happy to bear my warts and all, admit my limitations and am keen for this blog to remain tongue-in-cheek, irreverent and iconoclastic. I share my thoughts, albeit with their obvious subjective faults, as an offering to you, so that you too may take the issues raised, and turn them over in your own mind and come to your own conclusions, much as did I in writing them. 

The Power of Confession has long been acknowledged as in integral part of the integration process, as the words suggest, and can be found in every form of transformative psychology and spirituality. 

Thus I come to the end of this post. There is much more I could have said, but I'll leave it there, for now. I will, from this point onwards, make a concerted effort to remain upbeat and kind, taking the subject seriously but holding it lightly. It's a good practice for life in general, as is keeping it short and sweet, and I do encourage people to share their thoughts below, should you have any. Do you have any particular problems you wish to discuss or for me to consider and write about? Do you find a discrepancy between your words and deeds, between your intellectual understanding of the Dharma and it's practical application? If so. how do you deal with it? Believe me, I am very interested in your experiences. We all practice differently, and looking at my 'stats' page, we have visitors here from LITERALLY all over the world, Brisbane to Beijing, London to Lisbon, New York to.. Well... Just plain old York. This is why I urge you consider sharing this using the new links at the top of the page: Beings WILL benefit, and who knows what immeasurable good could come of it...? Exciting stuff, huh? 

Wherever we are, and by whatever means work for us, if we can all keep raising the bar, if we can all take each day as it comes and simply try and become a slightly kinder person to ourselves and others than we were yesterday then it's a hell of a start. Then we can all, one by one, step by step, move ever-closer to that dream of universal emancipation for all beings, in love and peace. My word count is finite, but your potential is limitless - never forget that!

Yours, feeling inspired,

The Dharma-Farmer xx

May any merit gained in my acting thus go to the benefit of all beings.

May we all get better at compassionately critiquing our deeds, and in kindness, getting on with life.

May we all be able to hold up the unstained mirror of truth to ourselves and others. And vote more conscientiously.

The irony of "Common Sense" - Why don't people think any more?!

Hello, and welcome, to the brand-new Dharma-Farmer page! I am delighted that you have decided to join us. We appear to be a growing crowd, which gives me some small measure of hope. I trust you are well, but if not, then I am sorry to hear that. Fear not, you are in safe hands and good company. We look after each other here. Firstly, I must start by confessing that this is not the article I was originally planning to write. Not at all. Whilst meditating on meditation (as it were) and common misconceptions, so rich a vein did I strike that I thought it prudent to allocate an entire article to it. I'm glad I did. It matters. A Lot!

I was reflecting on thinking itself, the investigation of mental events (Dhamma-Vicaya, pronounced Da-Ma-Vi-Chi-Ya) and I noticed that asking Google the question "Why don't people think any more?" yielded pretty much ZERO results. Clearly the situation is much worse than I'd feared: Not only are most people leading increasingly reactive lives and not used to pausing to apply reason and logic to a given situation, but generally speaking, people in the world today aren't even questioning why this may be so, which I find terrifying, and unsurprisingly this got me thinking some more. I've always been told by friends that I need to 'stop over-analysing everything', but I enjoy the incisive nature of mind, and relish any given opportunity to work on 'Vipassana', or 'Insight'. As the Buddha insisted, we have to learn to think for ourselves, and without learning to think more clearly, no Insight will arise. Without the penetrative quality of luminescent rationale, we shall lack the revolutionary flashes of Insight, the glimpses of Perfect Vision (the first 'step' on The Noble Eight-fold Path)  to which we later aspire to bring our lives into accordance with. In short, without the ability to clearly think things through for ourselves, we won't get very far at all, and one cannot muster the full weight of one's emotional convictions to effect lasting change. Something to reflect on, should you feel inclined...

Many people have a misconception that 'the Dharma Life' or 'a Buddhist life' is all about constantly exuding a kind of mindless, imperturbable equanimity, about spending your time in some fuzzy, warm, blissed-out utopian state, never experiencing anything other than radiant cosmic love and 'oneness' with all Life. Sorry to break it to you folks, but that is clearly nonsense. H.H. The Dalai Lama freely admits that sometimes, for no real reason, he wakes up in a bad mood, or he loses his temper and snaps at people. Why? Because he is a human being, albeit a highly evolved one. The capacity to be self-aware is that which makes us truly human in the first place, and with that comes the sense that we can become something more, something better. We can learn to use mindfulness and awareness to try and think clearly, allowing us to separate fact from value, truth from opinion (see video below). This will eradicate much suffering from our lives. Try it - it really works, and makes life so much easier. The fact is we don't have angry thoughts - we have thoughts which make us angry, or more correctly; thoughts arise upon conditions, and we make value judgements based on our emotional responses to them. WE make ourselves angry. WE do this to ourselves, and it's completely unnecessary! "I am tired and it feels unpleasant" is a fact. "It's a bad thing and not fair because it's Saturday night" is the value judgement. You see what I mean? A huge part of the Higher Evolution of Man involves bringing awareness to our emotional states. With radiant clarity we can perceive them for what they are, seeing through them and growing beyond them, beyond our habitual fixed views, beyond ourselves. 

As we all know, we can love someone very much, but that doesn't stop them doing things that cause feelings of irritation and anger to arise. I love all beings, and not in a idealistic cartoony kind of way, and sometimes we have to rely on those that love us to point out our faults in order for us to consciously evolve into better, more peaceful, more 'Enlightened' people. The Buddha describes a true friend as someone who isn't scared to point out one's shortcomings, and suggested these friends be seen as akin to "a treasure-map pointing us towards the real path of peace." It is with that in mind, it is with an attitude of loving-kindness that we proceed today, whereby I found myself reflecting on the simple fact that these days many people seem to lack initiative and have gradually lost the capacity to think, not just for themselves, but at all. This isn't necessarily their fault either. Our economy is founded on two greats 'pulls': greed for that which we want but don't have, and aversion to that which we have but don't want (as well as not having our every whim and desires instantly met). These two mental states are both expressions of a fundamental ignorance to the true nature of life, of reality. It's our job to see through our own delusions. No-one else can do it for us.

In reality there are NO safe refuges in the material world, no guarantees, nothing in which we can eternally rely on. If you can think of something as a support for your happiness, it isn't. Everything in the world is impermanent, and whilst some things last for a long time, they cannot provide states of eternal gratification and joy. Not cars, not jobs and certainly not houses. Not a partner, not a child, not even an economy can be relied on forever. Nothing can. It's just unrealistic, isn't it? We all know these things as rationally true, but how lamentably quickly we all forget this, and act as though life were somehow otherwise? 

We live in an age whereby we are so constantly distracted from out direct experience, what we are feeling, thinking etc, that not unlike a drug addict, we need increasingly greater stimulation to feel anything at all. Never before has a society had so much and yet been so comfortably numb, as the song goes. The machinations of our reductionist, materialist society constantly dangle the shiny baubles of bogus gratification just out of reach, and the marketing executives, bless 'em, understandably want to perpetuate this state ignorance and intellectual sedation. They themselves are only marginally less self aware, and hence we find ourselves in a time of spiritual impoverishment. It's important to recognise why. Tempting as it is, we must judge others not and working together, move forward with a sense of emotional positivity beyond a system which clearly doesn't have all the answers. One thing is for certain though - there is a crisis looming, and be it social, economic, environmental or spiritual, we need all the thinkers we can get. I'm not here to make value judgements, just point out the facts. Logic is no longer taught in schools, and nowadays, ironically, even common sense appears to be a tragic rarity. I should know; I work for the police.

It's hardly surprising, but most people don't actually know what irony is or how to use it in conversation. For those people, fear not, you are not alone, and I admit I had to double check, ironically. To be clear on the matter, it is a mode of speech in which the words are the opposite of what the author intends; the literal meaning being counter to the figurative. Alternatively, situational irony is where the outcome is the opposite of what we would normally assume to occur e.g. a man needing medical attention gets run over by the ambulance, the police station gets robbed etc. The fact that common sense is such an uncommon thing means that it is an example of both, and we can now use the phrase ironically. Irony is a form of sarcasm, if that helps. And we all know what sarcasm it, right?

Confucius (552-479 B.C.E):
"The superior person makes the difficulty to be overcome their first concern. Success only comes later."

A disinclination to clarify and rectify terms like 'irony' isn't just a recent problem, by the way. A Chinese contemporary of the Buddha, Confucius, knew this well, saying it was the first step on the path to social harmony. Unbeknownst to most, the 1995 hit by Alanis Morrisette of that title doesn't actually give any examples of irony, which IS ironic, and hence the title. She's a very smart woman, and of the few people who spotted that her examples were flawed, even fewer got the joke. "An old man turns 98, he won the lottery, and died the next day." That's not ironic, it's just unfortunate and really sad. A traffic jam when you are already late? It can be irritating as hell (or not), but it's NOT ironic.  A song entitled "Ironic' which doesn't give any examples of irony - now THAT's ironic. I was 12. I got it - why did no-one else? It seems to have gotten worse since then, too.

Is it any wonder that even today, nearly 20 years later, so few people get the joke when you consider how completely acclimatised we are to taking everything unquestioningly at face value? Add to this the advent of smart phones and widespread internet access in most of the developed world, knowledge become rather disposable. "Jus'googleit" is in danger of becoming a word (or technically speaking a contraction) in it's own right. Even my Mum uses "J.F.G.I" regularly. The 'F' stands for 'flipping', honest. Spellcheckers and autocorrect software mean that we never have to pay much attention to our spelling. Calculators in maths lessons/examinations have long be criticised and has arguably lead to reduced numeracy levels with each successive generation. I'm not going to criticise predictive text per se (although heaven knows I've sent some genuinely bizarre messages whilst inebriated in my time) but my point is simply that nowadays we live in an age where most of the time we no longer have to think much for ourselves and as a result initiative appears to be going out of fashion. In the UK, as in most places, we are told how to dress, which musical artists are 'hot', which celebrities are cool, and which TV shows to watch. The more insidious marketing geniuses can sometimes combine all of the above in one fell swoop. We are continuously bombarded by advertisers who couldn't care less if purchasing their designer sports watch, studded with diamonds and still water-resistant at the bottom of the Marina trench, renders you unable to afford to do any actual diving! There's not even any sunlight seven miles below the surface by which to see the damn thing, but no-one notices because it sounds good and most importantly, it sells. 

Gemma Worrall,  20, a beauty salon receptionist from Blackpool made the headlines recently with her incomprehensibly misinformed tweet. Apparently she has 17 GCSEs. It's good to know that the British education system is working, and that exams aren't just getting easier as many of us feared... Oh, and she is now being offered a TV career.

When did we switch off? When did we transition into a culture and society which at best celebrates mediocrity and at worst applauds stupidity? TV shows with no obviously redeemable features, such as "The Only Way Is Essex" (or "T.O.W.I.E" as infinitely cooler people than me call it) and "I'm (Barely) a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here" seek out, encourage and and make superstars (for five minutes) out of people who 200 years ago would have been killed at birth or died in the streets, such is the severity of their mental and emotional deficiencies. I'm serious. Opinion, as always, is far from unanimous, but many people believe that the gene pool is getting both shallower and more overcrowded, and a scientific paper has been published by Stamford University confirming that as a species we are regressing genetically. I'm willing to believe this, provisionally. 

I am a commited Buddhist, and I have in my heart a sincere and profound wish for all beings to experience health, happiness and harmony, including you, dear reader. I mean that. There is not a living being that I would wish to suffer. However, Joey "Essex" is a man of such low intelligence that he once confessed "I don't know how to blow my nose." When I heard that, I nearly shat blood. "No-one ever showed me how" he lamented sadly, possibly imagining whole realms of cosmic nasal pleasure, forever closed to him. Who knows? I happen to think it is disgraceful the way these 'stars' are treated. I wan't Joey to be well, I want him to have a long and happy life, but I fear that the choices others have made for him will render him unable to experience either professional longevity or deep-seated contentment. Let's call a spade a spade folks: The producers of these 'reality' shows pay very clever scouts/agents lots of money to seek out people with crippling emotional problems, learning difficulties and exceptionally low intelligence in order to put them all in front of a few cameras. The producers simply sit back and watch the cash pour in. And pour in it does. These people don't need photo-shoots and 'vajazzles', they need professional help, and in some instances, plastic cutlery.

In the history of humanity, the last 20 years have been without precedent, as for the first time we see clever, self-aware people are being marginalised in popular culture. For several millennia, societies across the globe placed extraordinary stock in the capacity to think clearly, or at all. People lived and sacrificed their lives for ideas such as reason, and democracy. Now we live in the age of egalitarianism, the absurd idea that all people are completely equal, irrespective of pre-determined genetic factors such as age, race, gender, IQ etc and this in turn is destroying the respect we once had for teachers and leaders. Mind you, those same leaders are hardly helping the situation. On the morning prior to announcing the new budget, UK Chancellor and 'money-man' George Osbourne choses to promote the occasion by 'tweeting' and tagging popular boy-band "One-Direction" in order to...  To do what exactly, George?!. You see my point? This is hardly surprising though, coming from a man who, we aught to remind ourselves, has NO qualifications in international trade, commerce, mathematics or economics. Not even home economics! I wouldn't trust him with a toaster, much less the economy of a country on the verge of a double-dip recession and financial ruin. In fact, let us be absolutely clear, this is the first real job the man has had of this nature, unless you count his few years prior in the shadow cabinet, where the British taxpayer paid for him to pretend to be running the country's finances, and criticise genuine economists over their decisions. I'm sorry, but I wouldn't want the my surgeon's training to consist of a period whereby he pretended to be a surgeon, mocking the genuine article holding the scalpel. Why then do we tolerate it in our country's leaders? 

Chancellor of The Exchequer, holder of the purse strings, Ladies and Gentlemen... George Osbourne!
How does a man with no credentials or professional experience in the field of economics manage an economy?
History will judge the man, but here he resembles a strategically shaved ape holding a bomb... 

This shift from meritocracy to idocracy has been recent and dramatic, as I have said. At one end of the spectrum of human endeavours, my father can still recall with absolute clarity the miraculous 1953 conquering of Everest by Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay et al. This is unsurprising as the news broke the day before a 27 year old Queen Elisabeth was crowned Queen of England, but even so. A sprightly, skinny ten year old he may have been, but he still wells up with pride (we will overlook for now that Hilary was originally from New Zealand) when he recalls the sense of achievement which swept the world. It was a achievement for all to rejoice in: It had been done - Man had finally conquered the Roof of the World! Upon their return, they were both knighted immediately, and rightly so. Nowadays, people 'conquer' Everest with 'nothing more at their disposal' than several thousand pounds worth of equipment, ropes pre-cut into the slopes to "ease congestion",  and a vale of sherpas with GPS. After all, one shouldn't be expected to carry one's own tent and oxygen, heaven forbid! This season, around 800 teams (each team has between 15 and 40 support staff) will be attempting to 'go for it'. I'm surprised that people aren't made to queue patiently with a ticket like at their local deli, sampling free hummus at Base Camp. It might make them feel more at home. Wealthy students do it on their gap year, en route to boogie-bording down a Hawaiian mountain on a dolphin, naked. It makes me shudder, then weep, and then shudder again, and only the fact so many have lost their lives attempting it and that a few brave or attention-starved folk insist on doing it without oxygen masks stops me from mercilessly rubbishing the entire enterprise altogether.

Closer to home, the banality is more palpable. A good friend of mine was a be-mulleted teenager in 1980 when The Jam became the first band in history to top the UK charts and go straight to pole position in their first week of sales. The track, ironically (and yes, it is ironic), was "Going Underground", in case you were wondering, and in order to do this, the band managed to sell a jaw-dropping 3 MILLION-plus copies in a week. That's over 428,571 a DAY, or 53,571 an HOUR. My friend bought several of those. Everyone did. Music lovers clubbed together, radio DJs were talking about it as if it were the Second Coming, and that Sunday night, gathered around the radio, a nation waited with baited breath. When the news broke, house parties erupted spontaneously across the length and breadth of this fair isle. "The next morning, when we all got to school... well... You would have thought England had won the world cup! Mods and rockers were hugging and giving each other high fives, kids were dancing in the playground, even football rivalries were put aside... Well, until lunch time at least!" he japes as a misty-eyed fondness descends. Nowadays, dear old Justin Bieber need only shift a pathetic 20,000 copies/downloads to achieve the same feat, and in fact it's considered yet another nail in the coffin of his career if he fails to do so. As a musician, this makes me very sad indeed, for all of us, including young Justin, who as it happens is an absurdly talented guitarist and drummer, and will no doubt be carved up, chewed through and spat out once he has lost his flavour. I hear that Lady Gaga, again one of the greatest artists of her generation, has just been dropped by her record label. Her first album sold 15m records. Five years later, her latest offering sells less than 2m copies. That's still a LOT more than I've sold, mind you, but you see my point. Same artist, same person, but people are no longer being told to go and buy her records. She is a human being, and the indignation and suffering she is going through right now must be quite literally unimaginable. It breaks my heart, and I wish I could give her a hug. She deserves better than this. They all do.

Meet Stefani Germanotta, 28 years old today, by coincidence! Two years ago she was listed by 'Forbes' magazine in the Worlds Top 100 Most Powerful Women. Today her career is in free-fall. Happy Birthday hun, may you be well. 

Not only do we celebrate non-achievement, stupidity and botox'd superficiality, those who wish to be a lamp unto themselves are considered weird, erratic, and possibly a danger to others. I see no signs of this changing either, regrettably. Thank goodness for comedians and their inability to suffer fools gladly! For example, Bill Hicks detested people talking about the 'miracle' of childbirth, suggesting that whilst we can be happy for someone, it's rarely an achievement worthy of praise, as such: "It's no more a miracle than eating food and a turd coming out of your ass! It's a chemical reaction, that's all it is, and I have some good news for you, folks - the 'miracle' is spreading like WILDFIRE... Hallelujah! I tell you what would be a real miracle,what would be praiseworthy; raising a kid that doesn't talk in cinemas! There's your miracle, right there..." He is not wrong, on several points, 

Firstly, ALL of life is a miracle to be savoured and appreciated, not just one part of it. How people can claim to sanctify life and pontificate about the sacred duty of parenthood when there already too many humans on this planet is utterly beyond me. If you want to have a child simply to scratch the biological itch, or because you and your partner kinda want the attention then just SAY IT! It's ok to want to start  family, it's natural and normal, and were it not for conception, half the people alive wouldn't be here today.* It's healthy to be honest, so be honest with yourself. If you think it will bring you and your beloved closer together then just say it! Please though, don't speak of the sanctity of life when people are starving and dying in the streets less than 10 miles from most of our doors. Sorry, but you can't have it both ways. Perhaps we should try ask ourselves every day, as often we you can remember to, no matter what we are doing - "Why am I doing this?"

Secondly, I think we do, as individuals and a collective, need to reassess our capacity to discern that which is genuinely praise-worthy from the mundane. The word 'celebrity' comes from the word 'celebrate'. For what are we celebrating most of these people on TV and in magazines? What have they actually done to deserve and earn our admiration? I have been writing this article, without pause, for 9 hours now (NOT an achievement - I love writing) and I've just ordered a take-away curry, deliverable to my door, at the click of a button - now THAT is a technological miracle, and one dear Bill sadly never got to experience. The gift of language, of communication and connection, that oft overlooked capacity to convey one's heartfelt desires, aspirations and thoughts, mediating between emotions and the rational mind, bridging our inner worlds and the outer - THAT is an evolutionary miracle. The central nervous system is a miracle. The fragility of life on this planet and the utter implausibility of our own existence - THAT is a miracle of improbability. 

Perception too is a miracle, but more miraculous than any of these is the simple fact that many years ago in India, someone had a realisation which still holds the key to setting Mankind free from the servitude of our own minds, forever ending all suffering. That people think I'm weird for wanting to help them sunder the bonds which bind shows the real state of affairs. In terms of human endeavours, within a social context of mediocrity, ignorance and greed, I write with a longing in my heart. I pray you may reflect on and find inspiration in these words of his:

"Better than a thousand meaningless words collected together 

is a single meaningful word on hearing which one becomes tranquil.

        

Though one should conquer in battle thousands upon thousands of men, 
yet he who conquers himself is truly the greatest in battle.

 

It is indeed far better to conquer oneself than to conquer other people..."

We must find our own path through life, and doing no harm, lead by example.
Pictured is one of the daily school visits to the Manchester Buddhist Centre, and a dear friend doing his bit.

If you conquer your own mind, you conquer the world. It just takes some clear and methodical thought, that's all. Some people may well have gotten out of the habit of thinking, period. Their aspirations may have been reduced to looking pretty and finding a wealthy sexual partner who can placate their neurotic need for affirmation, caused by their own ignorance and misguided beliefs. But hey, we all have to start somewhere, right? I personally think there is more to life than endless, thankless, ultimately futile reactive cycles, oscillating between insatiable cravings and painful aversion, but that's just me. I am not interested in judging those who thinks differently. By their own admission, and with pride I hear people freely admit to being fake and shallow, but our 'civilised' materialist and hedonistic societies collude and condone anything which serves their own endless self-substantiation. People are explicitly told that it's ok to live this way (fake is fab, innit?), because 'they have good heart'. They ain't doin' nobody no harm, are they? But what about the harm they are doing to themselves? That's what upsets me. Many millions of people, through the actions and conditioning dictated to them by others, have been reduced to little more than consumers, units, margin and profit, mannequins and wage-slaves. It takes on average nearly £250,000 to raise, clothe, feed and educate a child to post-graduate level in the West. The marketing people are fine with that. It keep the cogs in their system nicely oiled, and them in expensive timepieces. 

It's so predictable, isn't it? It's as if there is some kind of media recipe for this sad perpetual money-spinning cycle: Check bank balance. Create a magazine, then create celebrities, and put those celebrities in it.  Sell lots of magazines. Check bank balance. Build up those celebrities in a way which maximises their earning potential (for you) and then tear them down, exposing them as 'charlatans' all along. Check bank balance. Publish the photos of the Marbella-meltdown, get a few close ups of the cellulite and the streaky mascara (and that's just the guys), and hound into rehab, cameras flashing every tearful step of the way. Again, check the bank balance, and ensure that readers are introduced to the next big thing. Ensure next big thing is more overtly sexualised and attention grabbing than the last big thing. Repeat. WARNING!! Keep creative, intelligent, free-thinking individuals marginalised, uncool and and outnumbered for the sake of aforementioned bank balance - we can't allow these types to start spoiling the party now, can we?*  

 Yours, pissing in their punch, mindfully,

The Dharma-Farmer xx

May any merit gained in my acting thus be dedicated to the benefit of all beings in their quest for truth.

May all beings be happy, healthy and in harmony with what is alive in their hearts.

*May all beings be able to spot my repeated ironic tone in certain comments.

May none be offended by my empty words, born out of frustration at the society which normalised banality and make the development of the true individual so hard. For those individuals wishing to march the their own drum, 

I am with you every step of the way!

May we all find peace, may we never think it's too late to change!