A Bodhisattva's Christmas Carol - Part 2: Stave One - Dickens the humanitarian, the Psychology of Change and Mandalas explained..

Charles Dickens, circa 1843, aged 31, when "A Christmas Carol" was published.

Ah, you're back, how wonderful! Thank you. Two days ago, we started looking at "A Christmas Carol" through both more contemporary (psychological) as well as more spiritual (Buddhist/humanitarian) lenses, and asking how this charming and wonderful tale can help us grow into kinder, more compassionate and more contented people. We now face a very obvious question, one I hope this second part will serve to answer - why change at all? 
The answer, I feel, lies with our perspective of the world. 

Before we cast off on our intrepid voyage of self-awakening, it's appropriate to make a few contextual observations about the books general tone, and about Charles Dickens' own views on Christmas and society at large. These days, I feel that many people's disillusion with the holiday season seems to stem from it's over-commercialisation. Perhaps some more spiritually inclined amongst us feel frustration at a debasement of that which once was held sacred? A sense of something lost, the child-like innocence of yesteryear, now sadly long gone maybe? Nostalgia just isn't what it used to be, huh?. I'm sure (like myself) some people have experienced negative conditioning in the past, creating painful associations at this time of year. On the other hand, I know many people who adore the festivities, quirks and customs, make exceedingly merry and go back to work with a glow in their hearts, Dickens in the preface refuses to be drawn into the "Christmas debate" directly, and his narrator throughout is neutral and non-judgmental, allowing the reader to infer his real feelings between the lines spoken by his characters, some views explicit, others less so. Although not a point to be examined in too much detail on this occasion, it is well worth noting that Dickens consistently exemplifies and quite literally personifies Right Speech (the Fourth Precept or "Training Principle") throughout the book. This suggests a man writing with phenomenal awareness and out of an immense compassion for the world, even for those for whom the truth may be a little close to the bone. What we might reasonably term his "Bohisattva-esque (altruistic) aspirations are obvious, and for those who consider themselves Buddhists, it's certainly an interesting way of viewing this seminal figure. After a life of hardship, struggle and immense tragedy, he dedicated his writing career to social change and raising awareness of the conditions the everyday person in the streets faced. Of all writers of the period, his deeply humanitarian and considerate nature stood him head and shoulders above his peers. An adolescence born of intense suffering haunted him throughout his life (he only ever told one living soul about the shame and debt prisons of his youth) and with so much sorrow in the world, who was he to create any more?


"I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me.  May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.
Their faithful Friend and Servant,
C. D.
December, 1843."


From the off, we sense his subtlest talents as a writer manifesting in the preface, even if we do not notice them on first glance. The first thing I'd like to expand on before we plunge into models of spiritual advancement or ancient Indian mandalas is Charles Dickens as a skilful social commentator. He draws you in so cleverly and hints to the readers that what he is about to tell them is something interesting, something that may well be for their benefit but he also hopes that they don't take any perceived criticism too harshly. The Victorians were far more religious than our modern audience, and to imply that the more materialist readers of the day would be automatically doomed to Hell would have offended many, and possibly ended his career. In the wrong hands, this book could have been a Fire-and-Brimstone abomination, and done serious amounts of harm, or at the very least angered and insulted the reader. However, his warm, conversational, informal but gently insistent style throughout the story mirrors the way in which any sincere appeal to the senses and reason must be conveyed if the listener is to take notice: "To begin with... I tell you..." etc. Commendably, this essentially secular tale is characterised by a distinct LACK of religious proselytising and hence it's amenability and applicability to the modern atheist reader and condition. Seldom does Scrooge himself give mention to either Heaven or Hell, barring notably when replying to his nephew's offer of Christmas dinner together and later, when presented with visions of his own cold, lifeless body under a sheet. 

That being said, the nightmarish vision in which his old partner Jacob Marley and fellow phantoms are condemned to drag their heavy iron chains for eternity is clearly analogous to a Hell-realm, be it psychological, Judeo-Christian or Buddhist. Interestingly they are not there as a result of some kind of divine retribution, but instead "are of their own making", an observation readily associated with the pivotal Buddhist teachings of conditionality ("dependant origination" or pratitiya samutpada). Essentially, the idea is that all phenomena exist (originate) only on the basis (dependance) of other phenomena. Everything is interconnected through time and space. Thus yesterday shapes today, and who we are or choose to be today defines who we will become tomorrow. Actions DO have consequences, and it's our responsibility to choose wisely. It was the image of the chains being a metaphor for this immutable law that lead me to the idea of "A Christmas Carol" being seen as a unacknowledged Buddhist parable in the first place. 

As a writer generally, Dickens was wisely sensitive to his audience, not condemning the societal elite per se. He himself had come from very humble origins and only a partial education, so was not in the habit of insulting those who had enabled him to climb the social ladder. It was more endemic attitudes of greed, ignorance and hatred that he was keen to expose and here he doesn't pull all the punches. Through various opening conversations with Scrooge, he suggests early on that in the Victorian period most people relate to each other in terms of distinctly segregated social strata, bearing more of a resemblance to the modern Hindu caste system than the Western trends today, "Big Society" etc. Dickens states very clearly his alternative humanitarian vision through Scrooge's irrepressibly positive nephew Fred, and the wretched Marley's lamentations. 

What I find so striking, and rarely mentioned is that although the weights and constant travelling is torturous, the real agony of the spirits, that which makes their existence unbearable, is their incapacity to help others. They are rendered impotent, unable to make amends for past selfishness, unable to do good in this world (as shown by a female spirit unable to help a starving child). They "squandered" the only chance they had to make something meaningful of their lives, and now it is too late. This is existential pain in it's most literal (or perversely ironic) form. Marley's cries of "No rest, no peace. [The] Incessant torture of remorse" reminds us that the karmic result of our hurtful, selfish and generally unskillful actions is constantly forging for us our own mental chains. Most of us already drag these laboriously in the wake of our subconscious minds; iron links of guilt, regrets for failings and mistakes long gone. They were poured from the flaming molten crucible of our own Ignorance and welded by the green-flamed acetylene torch of lust, greed or "Want". Now, in the present, if we are not careful, they weigh us down, imprison us, holding us back from getting out there as a more authentic and unshackled "us": This in turn makes it harder to help (and by extension, meaningfully connect with) others. In this way we can bring a tangible purpose to our lives. This seemingly common desire for all humanity can therefore be seen as one of the few true measure of happiness - our perceived capacity to be of service, to have a use and a purpose in life, and thus enjoy increasingly deeper and more meaningful connections with others. The path of the Buddhist is simply one of breaking those inhibiting chains or fetters, once and for all...

"Oh! Captive, bound, and double-ironed, not to know that any spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

These lines, echoing the sublime altruistic vows of the Bodhisattva, work so beautifully in highlighting Dickens' own vision of humanity, especially when coupled with Fred's assertion that "there are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say, Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time…. as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!" Well said, Sir!

From the very first stave then, Dickens has set the tone of the book, and made clear both 
his own personal beliefs and intentions. It's also interesting to note the musical link between the story being referred to as a "carol" and it's sections as "staves", staves being the lines 
upon which standard musical notation is written. Please note also that a carol is something 
that cannot be a solo performance, it requires teamwork and supporting each other which 
suggests to me that by entitling the story a "Carol", his intention was very much for his book 
to bring people and their families closer together in a similar fashion and with the same 
warm-hearted bonhomie.  

From both modern psychological and Traditional Buddhist perspectives, with the departure of Marley's spirit the story then goes on to describe the roadmap to inner transformation in stages strikingly similar to Sangharakshita's "Five Stages of Spiritual Development". In this model the stages and (I believe) their corresponding staves/Jinas (Archetypal Buddhas) in the story are:

1. Integration - Staves 1 and 2 - Marley's Ghost/The Ghost of Christmas Past - Akshobhya

2. Emotional Positivity - Stave 3 - The Ghost of Christmas Present - Ratnasambhava

 3. Vision & Insight - Stave 4 - The Ghost of Christmas Future - Vairocana

4. Spiritual Rebirth and Transformation - Stave 5 - Christmas Day - Amitabha

5. Spontaneous Compassionate Creativity - The Final Outcome and Future - Amoghasiddhi 

It's worth here providing a few notes on what a mandala is, just to be clear. In the words of Sangharakshita himself:

"Communication between human beings can take place in one of two modes or types; the mode of concepts (thoughts, abstract ideas and so on) and the mode of images. The mode of concepts appeals to the rational intellect and critical intelligence, but the second type, the mode of images, aims rather at the subconscious depths which lie beneath the rational intelligence... The first type is employed by science and philosophy, the second by the arts [visual, musical etc] and imaginative literature. A mandala can most simply be described as a circle of these symbolic forms or images, and these forms, Buddhas and Bodhisattva's, can be described as archetypal images. [In this instance] the central form or symbol represents reality itself, with the other archetypal forms distributed around the four cardinal points. These represent the four principle aspects of that reality itself. There are many different types of mandalas, but the most important is the mandala of the Five Buddhas. The Buddhist mandalas are a symbol of [psychological and spiritual] integration on the highest possible level, which is the level of Supreme Enlightenment."

The Mandala of The Five Jinas/Dhyani Buddhas.
The four central figures represent (clockwise from bottom):
Akshobhya (Unshakable stillness), Ratnasambhava (Generosity), Amitabha (Love) and Amoghasiddhi (Creativity),
which are all aspects of the more Enlightened Mind and it's interaction with reality (Wisdom), represented by Vairocana in the centre. A picture paints a thousand words... 

 Any conceptual formulation of the Dharma (and to my mind, that would be all of them) is by it's nature not to be understood by the letter, but by the spirit, or so I believe. This model and mandala are psychological, they are metaphorical, and symbolic, and are to be understood as way of illustrating a facet or pattern of conditionality or "reality" as we so endearingly term it. The mandala is thus to be visualised, as it were, in three dimensions, a sphere, an orb, not a circle. In terms of the "Five Stages" model, please do not think for a moment that I am suggesting that one needs to be a fully integrated individual before we can turn our minds to a more positive outlook on life. It would be foolish to assume that either need be followed in a liner fashion per se or that one would have to enter a mandala from a certain direction. Although the tradition in many countries is to enter from the East, some schools will switch certain figures around the compass points. The fact is that when we talk in metaphors and concepts, we don't want to fall into the trap of over-literal interpretation, or cynically dismiss outright. The Dharma is often described as a finger pointing at the moon, and not to be mistaken for the moon itself, just as the Buddha described the Dharma as a raft to be used to traverse the swollen and thunderous rivers of Life itself - when we finaly land on the other shore, safe and well, we don't then subsequently carry on dragging the raft over land, do we? We should try to see the Dharma, modern psychology and such models of progress as a means to an end, as it were. A purely rational, intellectual understanding is not enough, we need to work these things through us, on increasingly deeper levels. WE are the secret ingredient that makes the whole thing work. Psychologically and spiritually speaking, Buddhism advocates (indeed is founded on the principle) that human potential is limitless. Just a little bit of positive change every day soon adds up, and acts of kindness benefit all...


"Think lightly not of goodness,
‘It will not come back to me’,
for by the falling of water drops
a jar is filled.
The wise with goodness fill themselves,
 as they soak it up little by little." - The Buddha


In the mandala, each archetypal Buddha (note: not the historical Shakyamuni Buddha) represents or emphasises a particular aspect of the Enlightened mind. Communication can be either rational, conceptual and intellectual, based on ideas and theories, or it can be through images, such as the visual arts or music. The level of symbolic communication is a higher level, able to convey the most sublime, wordless expressions of our shared humanity, and the phase "a picture paints a thousand words" bares testimony to this. With regards to working with either conceptual or symbolic formulations of the Dharma, it is often be best to simply work with your experience on a day by day, moment by moment basis, whatever that might be. You may wake up with a feeling of stillness, positive or negative, and you will either find it feels right to go with the Akshobhyan equanimity, or you may turn your thoughts to Amoghasiddhi in a conscious effort to rouse some energy and get "psyched up" for a day of fearless positivity for the benefit of all. These are merely the gardening tools of the mind; what you plant and how you tend it is entirely your responsibility. Remember that please, and remind me as often as possible. 

But why change at all? In order to motivate us to change our ways, we need to see clearly that there is a need for self improvement and development in the first place. In many instances, moments of true insight hove into view with most clarity when brought around by periods of prolonged dissatisfaction or suffering, or often having a real shock, something profound that shakes us up to our core. If we don't open ourselves up to and absorb these experiences deeply we are in danger of loosing momentum and motivation to achieve sincere and lasting change for the better. Granted, a lot of people develop a curiosity in the Dharma and Buddhism when life is peachy and all is rosy in the garden, but in my experience, "shraddha" or "faith/confidence" in the teachings of the Buddha rarely as tangible and true as when we have to face up to some hard truths about life and ourselves. More often than not, we suffer as a result of knowing we have to change, but feeling overwhelmed at the idea. This however is just our perception of the discrepancy between our ideals and our actual capabilities and we are rarely as bad as we often think ourselves. We needn't be scared. It's a very positive thing to have dreams and goals in the first place, vital in fact. In terms of the spiritual life or a life of deeper meaning, one can't have such aspirations without a sense of the profound, the absolute, and the wordless sublime. Sunsets, music, poetry, a smile, even football and street litter on a rainy day - all can have a sort of unspeakably beauty to them if you are receptive to it. Higher ideals are therefore vital, the desire to want to lead by example an honourable one but equally, until such a time whereby you yourself actually become an Enlightened being, it's worth remembering that (should you think of yourself in such terms) you are a practicing Buddhist not a Buddha! We may not get it right every time, but we can always get better at falling short and dusting ourselves off. Aim for the moon - if you miss, you will still be a star! 

We often forget: just as we don't need enough rubber to cover the surface of the earth to make it safe for walking, just the soles of our own shoes, we don't need (and more importantly) can't demand or expect change in others without first changing ourselves.

True transformation starts with a profound shift in perspective, and trauma is often a force for change. Evolution at any stage or time is hardly characterised by smooth metamorphosis and seamless transitions. Instead, looking back over the 4.3 billion years of life evolving on this planet, progress often lurches forward with jagged and often violent explosions into previously unexplored biological, scientific, intellectual or spiritual territory. Scrooge is not a man of transitions, gentle or otherwise. He is clearly a man of fact, and of reason, but interestingly he can't deal with or face up to the fact of change itself. To counter this, he likes to control things, people, situations, perhaps born out of his disappointing, lonely childhood and the loss of his true love, Belle, in his early twenties. This manifests itself in his world of logic, and arid rationalism, desiccated and devoid of warmth, as he controls the lives of his tenants. He is so resistant to change, even the weather at the start of the story can't affect him! The image of him being "as solitary as an oyster" is a great simile, one of a double prison; one environmental/circumstantial, and one built of our own bidding. He is surrounded by people of good cheer, such as Fred and Bob Cratchit, and yet is utterly detached from that sense of warmth and positive interconnectivity that they seem to radiate. When we first meet him, he is generally speaking impermeable to external influence, but in spite of all this, Scrooge's horrific vision of the tortured souls' fate, and of a chance to avoid the same for himself is enough to set the wheels of radical transformation in motion.

The first step on the Buddha's famous "Eightfold Path" (to inner transformation and eventual Enlightenment) is often translated as "Right Vision." Ironically though, so often the flashes of insight, the blinding lights on the road to Damascus that we so desperately need for change to be lasting are born out of life's least favourable scenarios: Loss of possessions, partners, jobs, friends and family. You've got to go there to come back, as the old saying puts it. 

Fear is one of the primary motivating factor for change, and our resistance to change is echoed in Scrooge's desperate cry of "I won't believe it!" at the weird goings on that fateful eve. In spite of what his senses are telling him, he still denies that which is blindingly obvious, just like all of us at first. He sees and deals with poverty on a daily basis, but he is deaf to the cries of the world. Up to this point in his life, he has been totally exploitative in his relationships with others. We are told that he cares so little for people that he genuinely isn't bothered whether he is called Scrooge or Marley, seeing others merely in terms of what he can get out of them, in exploitative terms. He is dismissive of family, charity and of human life itself, and regularly manipulates others and abuses his position of authority, a contrast to his later begging for help from the various spirits. Humility and shame can definitely be therefor seen as doorways to growth for all of us. If we are to change completely, it has to be from the core of our inside out. Just as "the spectres voice disturbed the very marrow of his bones", it has to strike us deeply. Such it was with old Ebaneezer Scrooge. 

 So now, reminded of our shared humanity and common duty to our fellow man, and with the hideous clanking of our own chains still ringing in our ears, what is the first thing we need to do? We need to get a grip! We need to mentally and spiritually "pull ourselves together", which is where the phrase comes from. We need to integrate ourselves emotionally and psychologically, weaving the differing and contradictory threads that we have spun over all the years into a single length of rope strong enough to carry the varying strains of life, preferably with no danger of snapping. We may keen to use our present experiences to try and evolve into better people in the future, more calm, more kind, more patient etc, but we can't limit this integration to our present experiences alone. That  would restrict us to merely polishing the visible one-eighth of the iceberg. We really are the sum of our experiences, and it's these experiences that we now look towards with a sense of quite literally, pulling our (differing and sometimes conflicting) selves together, but also with a definite sense of perspective and purpose, of kindness and warmth. We need to sharply and without value-judgements illuminate our previous experiences before we can hope to fully understand our present state. We didn't choose to grow up, it was something we were subjected to, and we could have no more controlled our earliest conditioning than we could the colour of our skin, again, an important fact to remember when judging ourselves and others. In my experience it feels like it all happened in a blur, a million years ago, to someone else. In the most profound sense, it did. Hence in Stave Two and part Three of our exploration we move to Scrooge's second meeting; with the Ghost of Christmas Past, and it is to this etherial spirit we turn our gaze to next time as we explore Stave Two: The Ghost of Christmas Past, Integration and Akshobhya. See you in two days!

Yours, in Metta and with a sincere desire to change, 
The Dharma-Farmer xx

As with anything I've ever written, may any merit gained in my acting thus be used for the alleviation of the suffering of all beings, wherever you are, whatever time of year, personal beliefs or states of mind, if any. 

May we all be well, live in peace, and be free from suffering. Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!