A Bodhisattvas Christmas Carol: Part 6 - Stave 5: Christmas Day, Spiritual Rebirth and Amitabha

Hi everyone, great to see you again and wow, a few new faces, excellent! How kind of you to bring your friends! Firstly, my most sincere apologies for being slightly behind schedule with this penultimate instalment. What with visiting family in Wales, trying to do various bits of shopping and receiving a few visitors in the evenings, I confess I have struggled to get to my laptop, but such is the Holiday Season, and it's so important to engage with others for it's own reward, not out of obligagion. We have to be kind to ourselves at what can be a very stressful time of year for many, but the sweetly smelling and the bedazzling emotional and financial maelstrom that is Christmas does provide an interesting opportunity to practice that which we have been discussing in this series. 

Notwithstanding, I also would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has taken the time to feed back their appreciation and support for this series and this blog in general, especially the people (you know who you are) who have offered to help me get an agent and a publisher for "A Bodhisattva's Christmas Carol". Your desire to see this turned into a book and belief in my capacity as a writer to do so is unexpected and I'm really touched by all the re-shares on social networking sites etc. You know what? I'm gonna do it, going to not only try and get this published in hard copy and available in the shops and online in time for next Christmas, but  also to make 2014 the year when I make writing my career, professionally! 

The Dharma-Farmer at work, Dec 2013... Daunted but amongst friends... I love you all so much!

It is pretty scary, but exhilarating to think of such a thing, and gives me a great goal to work on which won't be affected by my poor ill-health and general lack of mobility. So, I guess The Dharma Farmer is heading to press, and on that note, I suppose I'd really appreciate any help and support you feel you can offer along the way. I love writing, but have no idea how to go about the rest of it, so if you feel like you want to support me in this dream, I'd be so grateful, I couldn't even put in into words. Messages and comments, your own thoughts, your own experiences, even if you just post the link to a few friends, the more exposure my work gets, the more regular traffic I get through here, the better my chances of securing a publishing and distribution deal. I've already been approached by advertisers looking to post their solicitations on here, but I quickly disregarded the idea as morally reprehensible. 

Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)
 sought to convey the inner turmoil of Man through short stories,
novels and plays, the JK Rowling of the 20's, 30's and 40's.

Bill Bryson, OBE (1951-present)
consistently hilarious and informative,
I implore you to read his work!

Brad Warner - (1965-present):
Sōtō Zen priest, author, blogger, documentarian and
punk rock bass guitarist!

I wish, to as great an extent as possible, to try and forge a career as a writer without any fiscal carrots being dangled before me, for it's own sake. I want to keep my motivation for writing pure! I don't want to make any real money from this, just enough to stay warm, fed and within reach of a power socket. That's all I need in life, materially speaking. Shelter, warmth, food and clothing (the last one is an optional extra). Anything else is a bonus or possibly surplus to requirements. If I can get this exploration of A Christmas Carol published, then I will be donating the vast majority of the proceeds to charity, probably one that works with the homeless at this time of year. I don't mind going without so long as others worse off than me don't have to. I have no idea if I/we can do this, but a lot of you seem to believe in me... I choose to believe in the power of us, as a collective. If this is to happen, if I am to make any progress in the steps of my literary heros (Bill Bryson, Brad Warner, Somerset Maugham, and within the Triratna Buddhist movement, Sangharakshita, Vishvapani, Subhuti etc) then I know that I can't make it happen just by writing alone. For me to manifest a similarly striking and radical change in my life as Scrooge did, I'll need your help, dear reader, and would never be so ignorant or arrogant as to assume otherwise. I need to stay receptive to being taught, and hearing some hard truths about areas of improvement. Speaking of lessons being hard, has Scrooge changed in light of his journey?

"I am here: the shadows of the things that would have been, may be dispelled. They will be. I know they will!''' Scrooges delights in being able to change his future, but could we today be more grateful for the oft-overlooked gift that each dawn heralds: the chance to turn it all around in the here and now?

 Straight away we spot that the final stave is called "The End of It", signifying that this the end of Scrooges initial transformation but not the end of the story, as we shall see. Scrooge is about to emerge as a whole new creature, a testimony to Darwinian, to the "Higher Evolution of Mankind itself." Most importantly, this is the end of it, the end of the greed, the ignorance to the reality of life, to the end of animosity in his heart. The the blinkers which limited his view of the world have been torn apart, the chains of self-grasping shatter in the light of that "cold cold" December's morn. His world perspective has been radically altered for good - he simply can't slip back into his old ways now! Here we can see provided a very obvious parallel with the 'None-Returners' and the 'Arahants' of the early Pali cannon (or scriptures); the former being disciples of the Buddha who had made so much progress that their momentum prohibited any form of regression, the latter constituting those who experienced Enlightenment in the presence/time of the historical Buddha. Of the two, Scrooge could be considered the Non-Returner, as although not a fully enlightened being at this stage, his intellectual, rational mind would cause his new emotional understanding to deepen and manifest in an unassailable upwards spiral of progress as the years go by (but more on that in the final chapter, next time). Judging from his actions on this crisp, bright Christmas Day 170 years ago, he is well on the way to Sainthood.

From the triumphant "Yes!" at the opening of the scene, the sense of relief is palpable in Scrooges euphoria. Dickens summarises the story in one line, a microcosm of Scrooge's journey, and explains the changes to be made too:

"...the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his own. Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make amends in!

'I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!' Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. 'The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. Oh, Jacob Marley! Heaven, and the Christmas Time be praised for this! I say it on my knees, old Jacob, on my knees!'

He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions, that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his call. He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet with tears."  

Newly integrated, he sees the world with Akshobian clarity without any attachment to it. He is physically moved by the overwhelming gratitude at a chance of redemption, and we can see for the first time him externalising positive emotions in the world of the living. The emotional positivity that he exudes is down to his insight into the transience of life and this new level of awareness manifests in his taking immense delight in things he was too self-absorbed to notice before, as exemplified noticing his own door knocker:

"I shall love it, as long as I live!'' cried Scrooge, patting it with his hand. ``I scarcely ever looked at it before. What an honest expression it has in its face! It's a wonderful knocker!" 

His gratitude is obvious, for the first time he is able to view the world with the same wide-eyed wonder which we discussed as the start of our expedition. Life has come alive to him, and the change is spellbinding as he moves from appropriation to a life of appreciation, a life of more refined beauty, in which Dickens describes the morning as. "Cold, cold! Golden sunlight; Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious. Glorious!" He fumbles with his clothes, unable to control his excitement at the gift of redemption and insight we all owe to ourselves, past, present and future, to try an open up to:

   "'I don't know what to do!' cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoon of himself with his stockings. 'I am as light as a feather, 

I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world!"

No longer proud or conceited, his exalted states manifest themselves spontaneously and his almost- involuntary dancing about renders shaving hazardous, although "if he had cut the end of his nose off, he would have put a piece of sticking-plaister over it, and been quite satisfied."

The famous "Window scene" is the most memorable in the story, and with good reason...

The famous incident at the window ("What's to-day, my fine fellow?") is the first example of the discerning wisdom of Amitabha's deep and profound love shining forth in this stave, but by no means the last. Whilst Ratnasambhava whispers that all beings are deserving of love and care on a fundamental level, going further, Amitabha recognises that the needs of each being are unique and circumstantial, as exemplified by Scrooge's miraculous rebirth this day. His exclamations of "What a delightful boy... A remarkable boy!" is the first time we have ever heard him pay anyone a compliment, and reminds us how even acts of kindness and generosity as small as this is so, often neglected by us all on a daily basis, can mean so much to other people, illustrated so movingly by Dickens over and over again in this final stave. 

Scrooge meets with many people that morning; his housekeeper Mrs. Dilber, who assumes that he has lost his mind (such is the change in him), the small boy, the poulterer (providers of poultry of biblical proportions, evidently) and the charity collector from the afternoon before. What's interesting here is that he treats each ad everyone differently, but all with the same love and kindness (and contrite apology, if required). For those who were victims of his cruelty, his humility and honesty is sincere, and shows ongoing integration on his part, as the model would suggest. Importantly for us, he doesn't try to explain, rationalise, contextualise or excuse his appalling behaviour, something our ego will always try to do when we have to face up to and take responsibility for our past unskilful, hurtful, selfish ways. The exchanges with the charity collector and Fred in particular are so vital to the psychological realism of the character. To see the "portly gentleman" causes Scrooge to feel the pain of remorse sharply but he holds firm in his convicions and honours his spiritual insight:

"It sent a pang across his heart to think how this old gentleman would look upon him when they met; but he knew what path lay straight before him, and he took it." 

Again, if this isn't the response of someone both fully "tuned into" his current experience, and fully changed of heart, I don't know what is! Admirably, we witness Scrooge displaying a hitherto unknown level of skilful ethical determination and please also note that Dickens keeps the amount  donated by Scrooge to the gentleman a secret between them only. We always must be mindful of the insidious yawning chasm between doing good for the sake of itself, and acting out of the ego's subconscious vanity and conceit. The aspiring Bodhisattva doesn't differentiate between the good of themselves and the good of others, they just engage with pure awareness, delighting in the opportunities as they present themselves, like an elephant playfully bounding from one cool lotus-pool to the next. Again, illustrating Dickens' intention to set the best example, this is a sadly missed point in most people's recollection of the story, and another reason I chose to write on the subject. The collector's astonishment at what have must been a seizable figure is commendably hushed away by Scrooge as unimportant in the bigger scheme of things, the matter of wider human suffering and the desperate need for social change in Victorian (and modern) times; if you recall, the gentleman was collecting to house and feed those unable to do so by their own meagre means:

"`If you please,'' said Scrooge. ``Not a farthing less. A great many back-payments are included in it, I assure you. Will you do me that favour?... Don't say anything, please!''

We can help those already helping others, and I'm sure some of you wonderfully generous folk already donate to charities on a regular basis, or support their activities in other small ways. If so, good for you! We can't change the world, just the way we see it. What's important is that we have the tools to start to experience a genuine and kind-hearted warmth towards our fellow brothers and sisters on this planet. "Take what you need and give what you can." is our motto in Triratna. 

This Christmas, or indeed at any time of the year, that we give to each other at all, be it our time, our energy, love, reassurance, bravery or patience, as well as material representations of this, THAT is what matters, not the amount which we can spare. We are all of different means, and that's ok, that's life. Scrooge, now a man of 'means', metaphorically, spiritually and literally speaking, is ecstatically happy to give. He wants to give, he rejoices in it's merits, and gives repeated thanks for the opportunity to both make amends and (more importantly) respond to the cries of the world. He sees how it is well overdue, and such is the picture painted of the brand-new 'old-man' that afternoon, walking the streets and falling in love with life again that merely recalling it brings a lump to my throat. His twinkling eyes in the snow, experiencing the weight of his body and the cold air on his cheeks. He talks to small children, beggars, treating each with love, kindness, and, it must be stressed, great spirits. His radiant expression of joy at seeing beauty and feeling connected and love for the first time in years leaves me in no doubt that Dickens is unknowingly alluding to those four "sublime abodes" I mentioned earlier in this journey. These, to recap, were equanimity, joy in the happiness of others, loving-kindness and compassion, of which, the loving-kindness or 'metta' (in Pali) of Amitabha is the most obvious:

"He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows: and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk -- that anything -- could give him so much happiness. In the afternoon he turned his steps towards his nephew's house."

Amitabha, "The One of Infinite Love"

In our mandala of the Five Buddhas, Amitabha is the Buddha of the West, and who's name translates as "The One of Infinite Warmth" or "Infinite Light". Just as Ratnasambhava embodies open-palmed generosity in the face of equality or sameness, so Amitabha is seen to embody love, warmth and compassion in the Wisdom of Ultimate Discernment, or particularity. This emotional counterpoint to the wisdom of the other Buddhas brings equilibrium to the mandala, and enables the discerning individual to see all things as both the same and unique, simultaneously. Each being is a result of a incalculable combination of conditions, in fact, becoming ever more unique from second to second, and Amitabha is the antithesis of attempts to live a spiritual life with a 'one-size-fits-all' approach. On a very real, practical level, we are not all equal, all the same. We all have differing tastes, preferences, ways of interpreting the world and ways of manifesting our desires or cravings, all specific to each and every one of us. Even on a deeper level, I can't be certain, for example, that the shade of red I perceive in the image above looks exactly the same to you. Obviously, on a basic level, all the six senses (taste, touch, smell, sight, hearing and mental perception) are subjective, and no two people would experience a bowl of soup identically in either appearance, weight, taste, smell or by associations. We are organic beings, we are not just pre-programmed automatons hard-wired to launch DNA at each other, and Amitabha's loving, steady gaze bears this truth out. He is traditionally a deep red, like the final embers of a sunset, suggestive of platonic or fraternal love and compassion that shines on all equally. 
His symbol of the lotus is representative of our ever-unfolding path, of our opening up to this pure, more refined love as we circumambulate the mandala and start to feel that warmth diffuse through us. 

By discrimination and discernment, we mean not just an intellectual understanding, but a deep emotional realisation, based upon one's own reflections and ever deepening spiritual realisations. We know the result of hands on hot stoves, and therefore abstain based on a deeply held understanding, a deeper knowing than pure rational conjecture. That's the type of level we aught to be aiming for, to deeply understand the incomparable beauty that lies in all of our hearts, and to feel kindly and compassionately towards it. Through it's capacity to see things as they truly are, this pure facet of the Enlightened mind is able to convert sensory craving and attachment, and is far from being schmaltzy or dripping with an undue, doughy-eyed sentimentality. This is a concrete understanding on a supra-rational level, which generates a deep and sacred love of all life for its uniqueness, not for what may be gained via the senses. An acknowledgement of our idiomatic humanity and tastes should not lead one to further exacerbate our dualistic craving, grasping and aversion. We can't well say with one breath that we love all life on this planet, but still hold prejudices against certain groups based on superficial differences. 

In fact, in his excellent book, "The Path of the Inner Life", Bhante (an Indian name for a spiritual 'teacher') Sangharakshita wrote that the path of deeper spiritual realisation involves gradually becoming:

"indifferent to the objects of perception... arising out of [an attitude of] renunciation. If the aspirant can resist the solicitations of the objects of perception, and turn their senses, as it were, inside-out like the five fingers of a glove, in the reversing of their direction, they will merge into a single inner sense, and with this subtle inner sense, they will be able to perceive spiritual realities."

By training the mind to turn it's attention inwards and savour the joys of inner experience rather than just relying on external ones. We can slow down a bit and feel less painfully drawn about by all this choice and advertiser's nose-ring, like an animal to market, and instead replace it with the delight born of a greater sense of connection with others, one of the true joys of the human condition. Amitabha expresses this lessening of our grasping nature, this withdrawing of our energies from the fleeting world of sensory gratification with the aesthetically beautiful image of the sun slipping below the horizon as we bask in the final, burnished remnants of the day. This is why he appears in the Western quadrant of the mandala. But could he hold a special significance for us in the geographical (or 'social') West today? 

I'd rather not, but thank you...

We can be addicted to gossip too...

Western society, due to developments in advertising seems to be characterised by material, emotional and even sometimes spiritual craving and greed, even more so than elsewhere in Samsara (the frustrating every-day mundane world, profane, material world). Our culture seems to be based on acquisition and upgrading, "I, me, me, mine!" as the Beatles sang, keeping us hooked with constantly new phones, films, McTemtations and bands. American supermarkets (and increasingly, European one's too) personify the suffering of choice. How many times when buying food on the go or in a restraunt have we felt a bit lost in the face of all the abundance and head-spinning variant of toppings, fillings or 'extras'? Sometimes I just want a cheese sandwich and a black coffee, dammit! We tread water in the exhaustive and exasperating plethora of daily decisions we have to make in a multiple choice society, and never more so than ever before in Man's evolution. 

The synonyms of the word 'craving' reveal it's disconcerting, painful and undesirable nature; 'thirst', 'lust', 'burning', 'hunger', 'addiction' and 'pining' are not readily associated with free and easy states of mind. Thankfully, Amitabha's association with the extinguishing off these torturous flames, born of his capacity to discern things for what they really are is so powerful that it is naturally seen as the antidote to the ceaseless cravings of the hungry ghosts (or pretas) in the Wheel of Life. 

The swolen-bellied, patheticly-mouthed "Hungry Ghosts' or 'Pretas'-
unlike the spirits of Marly's visitation, these creature wail in anguish at the pain of never being able to satisfy their own thirst and hunger... Sounds horrific, but do we share more traits with them than we'd care to admit...? 

They themselves, with their insatiable neurotic hunger and underdeveloped mouths represent the torment of unendingly frustrated greed or an unslakable thirst. Amitabha transforms these corrosive desires in us through the contentment of meditative absorption, urging us to rein in our scattered energies and focus them on the spiritual realities and mysteries within, again, of which the sun melting into the western horizon is both representative and a great source of such inspiration. Perhaps his message to us in the West is to try and break the habit of constantly chasing sensory experience over a multiplicity of conflicting desires? What Amitabha whispers to us is a gentle and loving reminder to stop mindlessly devouring things and each other, step back from it all and ask ourselves if there might not be more to life than mental and physical consumption, especially if you can't take any of it with you and will be of no use to you on your death bed, should you be so lucky as to get one. 

In his memoirs, Bhante explains that an axial moment of his life came in 1947 whilst still living in Southern India when, during meditation, he was suddenly privy to a very intense vision, in which Amitabha was holding up and extending a red lotus to him. 

"The colour of the Buddha was a deep, rich, luminous red, like that of rubies, though at the same time soft and glowing, like a setting sun...and he sat, in the usual cross-legged posture, on an enormous red lotus that floated on the surface of the sea... It was more wonderful, more appealing, than any earthly red: it was like red light, so soft, but at the same time, so vivid as to be altogether without parallel... How long the experience lasted, I do not know, for I seemed to be out of time as well as out of body... but the experience itself never faded. Nearly a quarter of a century later, the figure of the Red Buddha is as clear to me, in recollection, as it was the next morning... "   

Sangharakshita (centre) on his formal Ordination day.
Kusinagar, May 12th 1949.

Amitabha himself is virtually never depicted in anything but the meditation position, his hands forming the 'Dhyana' mudra or gesture (folded in his lap again as in meditation) and, fully aware of the significance of this, he took it as a highly auspicious sign that now finally was the time for the young man from London to leave the realm of sense-desires (the kama-loka), and unfold the red lotus of his inner contemplation within his heart. It was finally time to ask for formal Ordination! Now, with the vision of Amitabha in his heart and mind, once more he immediately set forth on foot and walked over 1000 miles to Kushinagar (the site of the Buddhas death) where two years later in 1949 he was ordained as a Sramanera or novice Buddhist monk. He was 24 years old by then, and had been living the life of the homeless ascetic wanderer on the roads of India for over two years. Prior to that, he had absconded from the British army at the end of WWII amidst the chaos and violence that sadly marked the birth of modern, newly independent India. After a twenty years of "working for the good of Buddhism" in the Himalayan foothills, he returned to London for permanently, and in 1967 the Western Buddhist Order was establish. Were it not for this vision of Amitabha, 66 years ago, this blog would not exist, and I would almost certainly be either dead by now or making concerted efforts towards it. Such was the significance of his decision to formally seek ordination, being as it was a deeper manifestation of his own Going For Refuge (to the Three Jewels), that in the Manchester Buddist Centre (MBC), the rupa or statue in our main shrine hall is in fact a representation of this vision. As someone who considers myself a devotee and disciple of Sangharakshita's, for this reason Amitabha and the Manchester Buddhist Centre shall forever hold a special place in my heart.

Our Amitabha statue/rupa in the MBC, beautifully decorated in celebration of
Sangha Day 2013

In the context of the Enlightened mind, the wisdom of Amitabha perceives objects as distinct and differing, but against a backdrop of sameness, reminding us again how we accumulate, aggregate and grow out of each of the five stages into the next. The vision of Amitabha reassures us that our craving, from the inner dimension of our experience to the outside world, can be thus reversed and transformed into contentment and love through meditative practice and allowing the lotus in our hearts to flush with 'Agape' or non-Eros (non-erotic) love. In the Far East, he is associated with the "Pure Land" of Sukhavati, analogous to the Christian conception of heaven, a non-polarised world of androgyny, which prevents sexual dimorphism. There us no anger, no mad lust, no grasping or craving, simply the freedom to do nothing but sit on a lotus and listen to Amitabha expound the Dharma. For medieval Japanese society wherein this belief originated, this would indeed have been heaven, and to this day there still survive a few schools who's entire system of practice is based around this radiant crimson figure.

Sangharakshita's description of the process of radical transformation seems to bear striking resemblance to the path that Scrooge had trodden over the course of this book, and now seems to be manifesting as a one would expect, were you to be so brazen as attempt some kind of cross-cultural-psycho-spiritual-literary-analysis:

"The path of the higher evolution, the spiritual path is divided into two great stages. It's divided into what we call the Darsana Marga or the Path of Wisdom, and into the Bhavana Marga or the Path of Transformation. The Path of Wisdom represents the initial spiritual experience or insight, or vision, at the heights of one's being, and Bhavana Marga, the Path of Transformation represents the gradual transformation of ones whole being in all its aspects in accordance with that original insight and or vision."

A Sister and fellow Sangha member makes an offering during a puja (devotional ceremony) in the MBC Lotus Hall - another Amitabha reference. Note the lotus upon which he sits, representing the unfolding and opening of the heart to higher states of metta, compassion and love, the lifeblood of the Triratna Order, with whom my friends and I practice.

As I've said, it looks like we are in it for the long run. That's the 'problem' with wanting to change our lives around. Once we recognise that we can change, and we can clearly see why we it might be of practical use to oneself and others, then if we are in any way humanistically inclined, ultimately we really have to. This isn't something we can just walk away from, no matter how much we might like to, on rare occasions. Once we've tasted that freedom from ourselves and our addiction to the "Me Show", it's impossible to forget. We don't have a choice. Well, apart from directly going against the flow and hurting each other, or alternatively just drift along through life, eyes half shut, asleep to the true wonder of the world. Not much of  choice though, is it? It really is a rather extraordinary place, but as they say, familiarity breeds contempt. And that is applicable for us too. If we stay too long trapped in the same job, the same house, the same relationship, the same personality, diet or mood even, with nothing seeming to change or grow, we feel trapped. We feel like we are stagnating, drowning, "Crushed under the Weight of the Enormous Bullshit", to quote the memorable and sadly-missed British hardcore band, Rueben. You know what? I've had worse 'problems'.

Bill Hicks said it most memorably for me:

"I think it's interesting the two drugs that are legal - alcohol and cigarettes, two drugs that do absolutely nothing for you at all, but are taxable, are legal, and the drugs that might open your mind up to realise how you're being fucked every day of your life? Those drugs are against the law. Coincidence? See, I'm glad mushrooms are against the law, cos I took 'em one time, you know what happened to me? I laid in a field of green grass for four hours, going, 'My God, I love everything.' Yeah, now if that isn't a hazard to our countries...How are we gonna justify arms dealing if we know we're all one?"

As discussed, we have levels of truth, from provisional to absolute, rendering comedians and thinkers
such as the late Bill Hicks able to both "love all the people, all the time", and also express frustration at unskilful behaviour within that. I believe denying children educational materials on Darwinism is a breech of human rights.

If we, on perches never loftier, can't learn to feel warmth and eventually love ourselves in spite of our shortcomings (with a view to transforming them into gold), then what chance to we have of being able to extend the hand of friendship to our fellow occupants of the world we all live in? I prefer to see it as a pithy truism, rather than a cliche, and people say it not without good cause. If we can start to withdraw from the world of sensory pleasures then we can lessen our attachment to them. We will feel less swayed hither and thither by a world seemingly obsessed with one-up-manship and the social prestige of having this pair of shoes over another, or this bottle of wine over that one. When we feel less swayed, more stable, we can be more receptive to feelings of kindness in our hearts and and the miracle of our ongoing and comically short lives. Like Scrooge, we really aught to delight and embrace the chance to be reborn every day. We just need to put in place the conditions to be most supportive of our highest aspirations, whatever they may be. 

So, with one more chapter in this verse needing writing before Christmas Day, I best be off. I can see another all-nighter looming, and wish to extend kindness to myself now more than ever. I shall leave you with the inspirational image of Scrooge finally sitting down to his first ever Christmas with his family and friends-to-be, or strangers as we insist on calling each other. In the life-giving warmth and restorative glow of Amitabha's love, everyone is special, every being sacred, every life on this earth precious. Strangers? Nothing could be less strange than our urge to immerse ourselves in the aesthetic and divine pleasures within in order to connect to, and share such wordless treasures unhesitatingly with our fellow "travellers to the grave". There is no need to kick-out in disgust and supercilious resentment at advertising or consumerism - we are all just trying to do the best we can with what resources we have available. It's the prerogative of all life on this planet. Rather than mindlessly chase the ungraspable and temporary baubles that are temptingly dangled before our very eyes, we can instead learn to see them with new eyes, rising above temptation with a well mannered smile and a heart free from the corrosion of judging those less able to break/aware of their conditioning. We can develop a healthy appreciation of our tiny place in this wide-skied world of wonder, and furthermore, our limitless capacity to do good in this in spite of our short stay makes any act of kindness sacred. 

With such Amitabha-esque, all-encompasing, discerning love flowing through us, we can easily let go of out old ways and be 'reborn' minute by minute, day by day. Like old Ebeneezer, this Christmas we can try and be kinder to ourselves and others, and dropping into that place of quiet beauty, rest and soothe our weary bodies and minds in the bespoke tropical waterfalls and far-flung universes of each others hearts... 

Yours, in Metta, with a hug and a twinkle in his eyes,
The Dharma-Farmer xx

May any merit gained in my acting thus be dedicated to the welfare, the benefit and the emancipation of all.

A Bodhisattvas Christmas Carol: Part 5 - Stave Four: Spiritual Insight, letting go of old ways and Vairocana

"Old age, Sickness and Death: it's amongst us, it's in us, it's between us..." - Pramodana, 2013 (see below)
But can we see the ultimate truth of the matter...?

Hey guys, wow, I'm genuinely delighted to see you again, how's it all going? So far we have encountered two of the three Spirits that Dickens has in store for us, and I noticed earlier a pattern emerging; in the story, as we move from spirit to spirit, their verbal exchanges become more concise. The first spirit simply jogs Scrooge's memory, very little advice is given to him. The second spirit is engaging and warm, but isn't afraid of raising his voice and spelling it out to the reader. By the third, we are into the realm of wordless, knowing nods and bony, accusatory gestures. This suggests an awareness on Dickens' part that the most "ponderous", sobering flashes of insight often leave nothing to be said, and reminds me of a beautiful Philip Larkin poem:

"For nations vague as weeds,
For nomads among stones,
Small-statured cross-faced tribes
And cobble-close families
In mill-towns on dark mornings
Life is slow dying.

So are their separate ways
Of building, benediction,
Measuring love and money
Ways of slowly dying.
The day spent hunting pig 
Or holding a garden-party,

Hours giving evidence
Or birth, advance
On death equally slowly.
And saying so to some
Means nothing; others it leaves

Nothing to be said." 

                   

                                                                   - Philip Larkin, "Nothing to Be Said"

Philip Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985)
Another dead hero.... 

If we desire to learn how to live, we have to figure out to 'die' properly too. Conversely, if we understand what it really means to die into each moment, if we can better understand the certainty of death and the futility of appropriation in the face of it then life instantly becomes richer and more wonderful for it. We have to learn to let go of our habits, of the stories we tell ourselves, and really open up to and trust that flow of delight and grounded, integrated energy that sends us fearlessly out into the world every day. Today then, I hope to illustrate a bit more clearly what is meant by both insight and death and their importance within this Dickensian masterpiece, the mandala and Stage Three of spiritual life/progress.

With the ringing of the bell still in his ears, we join Scrooge, clearly already shaken when finally, looming out of the shadows, is the chilling hooded figure of the Spirit of Christmas Future. A point I've long-wanted to make is the constant reference to time in the book. Marley's arrival is heralded by a cacophony of bells, Scrooge lives in the shadow of the clock tower and in addition to the large bell signalling the exit of the Spirit of Christmas Present it is an anniversary too - seven years since Marley died, this very night"! Tiny Tim is living on borrowed time, the same borrowed time that Scrooge used to wield power over his debtors - the whole book is about time travel and how we experience time itself. Clearly the overarching message that Dickens wants to convey to us is that time is precious, and getting ever-more so! Perhaps because Scrooge himself is of advancing years, he heeds the final lesson all the more so, but most of us under that age of 50 probably haven't given much thought to dying, not seriously. We are aware of it in a really impersonal way I think, as if it wont happen to us, but to some old person in a hospital bed in at least 30 years time or so (if not longer). 

But life just isn't like that. Most people I know have someone in their lives who has been or will be affected by cancer. I found out tonight that my sister has less than 2 months to live. It has been predicted that by 2020, one in two people born after that point will get cancer in their lifetime. At the Manchester Buddhist Centre, we recently lost an Order Member of nearly 30 years. His name was Pramodana and after being ordained by Sangharakshita himself, he went on to set up medditation classes and Buddhist centres across the North-West, and was instrumental in his involvement with establishing both the Blackburn and the Manchester Sanghas (fellowships of Buddhists). He was a kind and loyal friend to all, down to earth, and somehow managed to integrate an immense compassion with a fiery and wicked sense of humour. He used to enjoy this blog, and was always very encouraging about my writing, giving sound advice invariably skilfully. He was diagnosed on April 5th as having advanced stage 4 kidney cancer. He dedicated his remaining time to reflection, meditation, spreading the Dharma, giving talks, leading Order Member days at the Centre etc, and when he lost the use of his legs and retired to a friends cottage to see out his final weeks, he saw an endless stream of friends and well-wishers. Sangharakshita, on hearing the news, wrote to him rejoicing in his "cheerfulness", sending him much metta, and saying "I'm sure the Dharma is supporting you more strongly than ever." It really did...

As a boy...

Pramodana (far left) and Suvajra (right) with Sangharakshita,  after their Ordination,
January 3rd 1985  

In the late 80's

September 2013

The short goodbye... With his partner Acharasraddha, November 2013

 Pramodana died peacefully surrounded by friends and loved ones on December 1st 2013, having spent his final day in great spirits, "cracking jokes" and laughing with friends (check out www.Pramodana.net for his story in his words). He was 62. Not a day has gone by when I don't think of him. I can't get my head round the fact that I will never seem him again. Never! It's most bizarre, but I'm comforted by his most profound teaching, his final, silent one, and one which shall forever be emblazoned  on my heart. My friend, it was an honour and an inspiration... I loved you more than words can say... Thank you! As I said, in showing others how to die properly, he has taught me a better way of living too... Please consider watching the 15 minute video below... It tells you so much about a wonderfully humble, funny man, and a great teacher... Great talk! 

Fair thee well, my brother... 

SADHU! SADHU! SADHU!

On the ever spinning wheel of life, we are bound to change. Literally shackled to change - we don't change, we are change itself, just as we can't be 'stuck in traffic' - we are the traffic! We can't stay the same. It isn't possible, and if not for a second, much less so for being eternally 21 (Still? Really?) That being said, when life is on the up-swing, when we can can recognise the spiral pattern of progress - 

inspiration + awareness x skilful effort % awareness = positive spiral change 

- in our lives, we develop confidence and faith (shradha) that we are doing the right thing. We open up to deeper forces within us, become aware of higher potentialities, like a range of mountains whose forever-receeding summits are always just out of sight. Something blossoms, and we feel the lotus of compassion opening within our hearts. It's almost like a supra-personal force is working through ourselves, and we may spend much time in states of quiet, absorbed bliss. Regrettably though, we can't 'fix' an imperfect world. Life will always have challenges and no-one can control it all, so eventually, in spite of our best efforts, 'the machine breaks', to quote E.M. Forster. Something will always happen in life; some kind of personal loss, unemployment, illness of offense is caused, and we hit the buffers hard, falling back into old patterns. Though a more authentic, engaging skilful person we now are, something is blocking this new force, this deep attraction to higher values, and our inspiration can dry up if we stop making an effort. So what blocks this inspiration? What is it that damms the stream of the Dharma from flowing though us forever more?  

It's us! It's 'me', 'you' and 'I'. We are the ones holding ourselves back! We fear change, it's scary, it's unknown, and we feel less in control of life. Guess what? We never were! It was all an illusion, an emotional trick played on us by our egos, congratulating us on the great job we've done with our lot in life. We are sometimes too proud to admit it... "I'm a decent person", we rationalise. "I don't need to make any real effort to change, I'm not that bad.. I'm pretty awesome truth be told..." Clinging to self-identity is the root cause of this blockage, so we really need to let go of the old self/selves. We need not so much to let "the old 'me' die", to use a rather melodramatic turn of phrase, but to see clearly that there was never a separate, fixed 'old me' to 'die' in the first place! We, like Scrooge, need to see things as they really are, in their most profound and absolute sense. If he is to change and never go back to his old ways, he really does need to lift the veil of ignorance from his eyes once and for all, and holding his old limiting views up to the light of Vairocana's brilliant white incandescence, discard them once and for all! But without a ghostly visitation to drive the lesson home, how do we stand any chance of that happening? 

Without the aid of time-traveling ghosts, I'm afraid we are going to develop insight the hard way...
It's just as scary, sadly...

The answer lies with spiritual insight, trying to really 'feel' the reality of our situation more deeply. For this chrysalis-like metamorphosis we are attempting, we are going to need to know and understand (at least intellectually or conceptually) a few basic bits of Buddhist doctrine which make it a belief system unlike anything else on earth in either religion or philosophy since the dawn of time itself. Possibly the most important of these teachings, that which marks it out from any of the theistic (creator-God) religions is the principle of "non-fixed self" or "anatnan". I shall explain further, so sit tight, this might get a little bumpy, and please, keep your qualms inside the ride at all times... 

When we investigate phenomena, we need to understand that both the external 'object' (it, he or she) and the 'subject' (me) doing the experiencing are mental constructions of our own making. That is, they both exist solely as reflections or interpretations of sensory experiences in our minds. How often have we stumbled over something in the dark, thinking it was 'X', but with the lights on and a freshly bloodied nose, it turned out to be 'Y' (on that occasion, why would she leave a hoover there?) This occurs as a result of the way experience naturally unfolds through our senses, and for all of us there are two dimensions to conscious experience. Firstly, there is an inward 'perceiving' dimension and secondly, an outward 'perceived' dimension, the former the 'subject' of our awareness, the latter being the 'object' of it. Me 'in here', you 'out there'. We perceive the representation of objects, the "artist's impression", based on our sensory experiences of them. Through no fault of our own, we think and act in terms of a solid, fixed perceiver ("I") standing independent of the perception itself and a real, independent perceived object standing outside the perceived moment too. 'I' tell myself that 'I' am seeing 'my table', and although true on a basic, conventional level, if we start trying to define either the 'I' that perceives, or even the table by playing the game "what's it made of?" (great fun with children and adults alike) we very quickly realise that for all our technological advances, we have never known less or been less able to define so little in this Brave New World of ours. As once physicist famously remarked, we have become exceedingly good about knowing nothing at all, and please bear in mind, he is referring to the 20% of the universe we know about. The other 80% is believed to be made up of  so-called 'dark matter', but we're not really sure because we've never seen proof of it! As we move from an atomic level to a subatomic level, the rules of physics which governs the former has no bearing on the latter whatsoever, in many instances become completely contradictory. For example, an electron can't be observed by looking directly at it, but only by not looking at it, and at which points in-between it is said to both simultaneously exist everywhere on the periphery of the atom, and no-where at all. Moreover, they seem to be aware of when they are being observed! It really is mind boggling! There are always relative layers we can penetrate through, from provisional truths all the way through to absolute or perfect wisdom - the wisdom of the ultimate natures of Life, Death, Reality and Truth. 

Candles and shrine in the Buddha's cave, where he spent many rainy seasons.
 Pilgrimage, February 2013 - Vultures Peak, Rajgir, India

In less abstract terms, we instinctively perceive that the object of our awareness is fixed, independent of other factors and forever-lasting, and then with an arrogance that would be outrageous were it not subconsciously done, we try and attribute those false characteristics to ourselves! 'I' see a nice set of "candles'. The "candles" are the object of my awareness. I see them, I might even smell them, and the mind creates or digs out the folder on the concept 'candle', which conjures up memories of and associations with them so I can respond accordingly i.e. I don't try to eat it. Whist perceiving it, my mind tricks me into thinking that the 'candle' is real in an absolute sense and moreover insidiously, if the perceived (candle) is real and fixed, then so is the perceiver, me. Sadly, this may be far less true than we could ever have imagined. Metaphysically speaking, 'you' couldn't be more wrong, as it were! But what is this 'candleness' we are observing? What is 'a candle'? A consultation of the dictionary reveals:

candle

ˈkand(ə)l/

noun

1. 1.

   a cylinder or block of wax or tallow with a central wick which is lit to produce light as it burns.

   "the candle flickered in the cold night air"
2. 2.

   PHYSICS

   a unit of luminous intensity, superseded by the candela.

verb

1. 1.

   (of a poultry breeder) test (an egg) for freshness or fertility by holding it to the light.

   "the egg was candled—it was fertile"

When we investigate the phenomenon "candle', we see that it can represent a physical object, a measurement of light and is also a verb. When a physical object, it can be said that 'candle' is the word we use to describe a wick, surrounded by wax, possibly with a metal fixing plate at the bottom. It's not that our definition isn't correct, it is. The problems occur when we forget that it only provisionally true. A 'candle' is the label we apply signify, to represent a block of wax with a central wick fabricated for purposes of illumination at that moment in time. We do this to make conversation and shopping easier. 

That's ok, everyone does it, and without this evolutionary mechanism, we simply couldn't survive; to find ourselves suddenly without this framework or reference point can send people insane e.g. when LSD experiences turn nasty. Trust me, it's not pleasant. Centuries of humanity's most brilliant minds seeing the world as concrete, investigable and ultimately real has given rise to the most highly sophisticated technological advances and discoveries imaginable, and many some way beyond that. This self-referential dualism of subjective consciousness is useful for other things too - we have a 'self-image', as we say. It creates memories too, we can project ourselves into the future, and in itself it is this mechanism, this self-aware mind which elevates us above the animal kingdom.

 Our culture reinforces it in us, and we reinforce these assumptions in each other. Fine, up to a point, but the down side is that this characteristic of the human condition also creates all the suffering in our lives. Hatred, Greed and Delusion, the three mental poisons as we saw two days ago, are all born here. Whether we care to admit it or not, deep down we think of ourselves as the most important thing in our life.  I know my happiness is the most important thing to me, and the trick is redefining happiness as well as trying not to treat every idea I encounter as 'real'. For example, that people assume that there are such entities as 'Buddhism', 'Islam' or 'Christianity' shows how ignorant we are of the true nature of reality; they are all just convenient constructs used to convey general information about very vague and disparate belief systems, vague in fact to the point of being virtually useless. Time and time again, we see headlines involving 'Muslim' terrorists or read articles on 'black' actors, yet in the absolute sense, these labels don't actually exist as separate entities in and of themselves. By this I mean, without Muslims, would there be an Islam? All three religions are subject to sectarianism, and just as there are massive fundamental differences between Catholics and Protestants, no two Buddhists practice the Dharma (the path of growth/teachings of the Buddha) in the same way. My cultural conditioning is worlds apart from that of a Tibetan monk, and thus it impossible to say simply "they are both Buddhists". People refer to each other as if these things really mean something absolute (what sport's team is 'theirs' etc,), they treat other human being differently based on these constructs, and over the millennia, many billions of innocent lives have been lost because of people thinking that their deeply held convictions are not only correct, but that the mere presence of such convictions proves it! Labels are limiters! They are just thoughts, concepts and constructs of the human mind, and they are ultimately NOT real in the objective sense i.e. what is 'real' to be is real only to me, an not another being on the planet. It is LITERALLY all in your head Yet countless people today are willing to die for the belief that inside them is a real 'grasper' as the Buddhist tradition puts it (the fabled 'soul' or 'atman') and real things to be grasped at in the 'external' dimension of their experiences. The world is actually all 'internal', when you think about it. This is why colourblindness can be so confusing for people who live with it. When we see a leaf on a tree, when we recognise the species by the shape and the colour, all these stimulus may originate from the external, but they are constructed inside our own minds. Light bounces off the leaf, it strikes the retinal, gets converted and sent along the optic nerve to the brain, which uses these tiny electrical signals to tell us that the leaf has a colour, that it is a green leaf, and we recognise that it is an oak or a pine tree (it is still Christmas, lest we dare forget). 'Green' is a construct in our own mind to describe certain frequencies in the visible spectrum which don't get absorbed by the matter of the leaf and bounce back into our field of vision. What I see as green may not been what you do. What then about all the different shades of green..? And so on... 

My point is simply that the world does exists external to us, there are such things as Christians (in case you were wondering) and that leaves are indeed often green, but all only on a very limited and subjective, provisional level only. As we dig deeper, as we cast the beam of our critical intelligence and reasoning upon various phenomena, we find that these provisional and relative 'truths' or concepts are far too vague and indelicate for anything more than very rudimentary, everyday use. Take the matter of my table again. It looks solid, it is made of wood, and has four legs, so I can see clearly that it is indeed a 'table'. But really, what I'm looking at is a few pieces of wood, held together with pins and iron, which science tells me is actually mostly empty space, on an atomic level. Were I to saw it in half, or even remove the legs and fix them to the other side of the tabletop, then although we still have the same amount of wood, the same number of pins, it would no longer be a 'table'. It's very 'tableness' was completely dependant on other phenomena ( the materials, designer, manufacture etc), so it was never really independent. It was never going to stay unchanging, it wasn't 'fixed' or permanent after all, and in that sense, can we truly ever 'own' anything? Finally, because I no longer have a table, I'm upset - the table itself is eventually a cause of suffering for me one way or another. Therefore Buddhism posits that the three main characteristics or 'lakshanas' (marks/attributes) of the table, in fact... 

ALL worldly, mundane phenomena are:

 

1. Impermanent or 'Anitya' 

(not lasting or fixed eternally)

2. Composite in nature or 'Anatman' 

(existing in dependence on other 'things')

3. A cause of eventual suffering/frustration or 'Dukkha' 

(in themselves, they can't provide eternal happiness as they get old and break)  

This is all mildly (or if you are at all like me, very) interesting, philosophically speaking, but how does this apply to us and our desires to change into a kinder, calmer, more robust person? Spiritual death, the letting got of our old ways and habits is synonymous with spiritual rebirth, the emergence of a new, more evolved, more complete, more alive individual. We gather up all our emotional and psychological energies and aspirations, we put them to good use for the benefit both ourselves and others, and we become more receptive to what can feel like a higher dimension of being. We feel more malleable, more porous, more permeable. We feel more aware to the true nature of things. As we become more spiritually receptive, it can start to feel like we are expanding into the unknown, we make life changes, we see the world a different way. We are becoming more spiritually receptive. Having at least an intellectual understanding of  few key and unique Buddhist teachings  

 More so than ever, as I keep saying, we need to understand develop an emotional equivalent of our intellectual assertions and abstract . Spiritual receptivity is the primary conductor for insight, and the more we can trust that our actions of body, speech and mind, and no figure in the Buddhist pantheon of archetypes comes more readily to mind than the mysterious and ineffable Vairocana.

Vairocana "The Illuminator". His rays of wisdom into the true nature of reality
lights up all worlds, and he turns the golden wheel of the Dharma eternally for the benefit of all beings.

In the bounteous southern realm of Ratnasambhava, as we become more infused with healthy, happy thoughts, we feel can feel lighter, like we have been raised up or are living on a more elevated plane of being. The psychologicalWith Ratnasambhava being associated with the southern realm, as we rise we move closer to the centre of the mandala, we gravitate towards and are subsequently exposed to the all-pervading wisdom of Vairocana. Shining and irradiating a glorious white light like the brightest star in the sky, Vairocana is always associated with the sun. In the same way as the suns beams travel evenly and pervade all of space in every direction, so a Vairocana's wisdom irradiates omnidirectionally. His central wisdom is the wisdom of spiritual insight, of seeing reality exactly as it is as it manifests in every inch if the universe, hence his central positioning within the mandala. Just as his colour, white, is composed of all other colours, so the wisdoms of the other four Buddhas are the distillation of his original all-encompassing wisdom, known as the Dharma-Dhatu, analogous to the attainment or Enlightenment of the historical Shakyamuni Buddha. To symbolise this tie with historical events, Vairocana's symbol is that of the Dharmachakra or the 'Wheel of the Dharma', a golden, sun like wheel whose spokes again remind us of the sun, and so it makes perfect sense that his mudra (the Dharmachakra pawatana mudra) is the gesture of the turning of that Wheel, the propagation of the highest and sublime truths, the truths and teachings we gave already discussed. Relatively easy to comprehend, but incredibly hard to put into practice consistently due to how deeply engrained our previous conditioning and habits are, the teachings of Emtiness (sunyata), of the Middle Way between nihilism and eternalism (unique in the history of human thought), the Four Noble a Truths and the three Lakshanas present enough material for many lifetimes of reflection. Indeed, Sangharakshita has said that one could get all the way to Enlightenment itself simply by feeling our understanding of impermanence. The teachings of the Buddha are like a recipe book. It's no good starving and looking at the pages mournfully wishing you could have the cake when all you need to is buy the ingredients, roll up your sleeves and get on with it! Nothing in this world worth having comes easily. Just ask Scrooge. 

Whether embodying Death, the uncertain future, the wisdom of Vairocana or Spiritual Insight,
the message is clear...

Our budding Bodhisattva is shown a series of scenes, only this time showing the harsh treality of the transience of life and through different scenes, the reader is left to silently absorb the other main lesson, that the consequences of our actions will live on long after we die. Surely the question of whether or not we will be judged by God, Allah or whatever celestial authoritarian you care to believe in is irrelevant. I can't guarantee that you will be judged in some kind of afterlife, but I can GUARANTEE that you will be judged for better or worse by those you leave behind. This is the fate of Scrooge. One by one, he views scenes of an increasingly distressing nature to him, based upon his current spiritual trajectory. Former associates exchange light-hearted banter at the expense of "Old Scratch", (whomever he may be) confessing that even the promise of a free hot meal, priceless in those days, would barely muster in them the energy to attend his funeral. We find out that included in this group is probably his only friend; "we used to stop in the street and and speak whenever we met" he proudly declares. Again, this is incredibly painful to hear for Scrooge, but:

"...nothing doubting that to whomsoever they applied they had some latent moral for his own improvement, he resolved to treasure up every word he heard, and everything he saw; and especially to observe the shadow of himself when it appeared. For he had an expectation that the conduct of his future self would give him the clue he missed, and would render the solution of these riddles easy."

In case we were in any doubt as to the identity of the deceased, Dickens also takes us to visit Ebeneezer's former housemaid, who is selling the pilfered bed-curtains and garments of "Old Scratch" in an area of disrepute and questionable morality, even by Scrooges pitiful standards . Once more, Scrooge overhears foreboding conversations which trouble him as to the identity of the recently departed and the sad, ignominious end he met:

"..why wasn't he natural in his lifetime? If he had been, he'd have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with Death, instead of lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself."

The selling of the bedding and clothes "disgusted" Scrooge... They were his, after all!

After this scene, Scrooge backs into a table upon which, "plundered and bereft, unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of this man." Dickens refers to good deeds of the dead as immortal and for the first time, Scrooge hears the author's voice personified as his own conscience. The fact that the final spirit "seemed to scatter gloom and mystery" backs up the notion that the silent spirit is indeed the personification of both death and the future. The word "scatter" reminds the reader that the effects of both are indiscriminate and can affect any one of us at any time. Death, strife and tragedy are arbitrary and in effect, the insinuation is that the true glory of man lies in both his character and the capacity to which he uses it to do acts of good in the world in spite of the certainty of death. Therein lies the crowning splendour of our shared humanity, in Dickens' eyes. Surely this is essentially the same profound messages expressed in the insight of Vairocana and the third stage of becoming more spiritually receptivity and spiritual death, as well as going some way to convey the purity and sublime altruism of the Bodhisattva ideal?In addition, "scatter" comes with connotations of agriculture, farming, and reaping what one sows, yet again an expression of conditioned co-production. Man may be mortal, but our skilful action and karma lives on unaffected and brings life to the world from beyond the reaches of death, from the realm of the transcendental.

 "It is not that the heart and pulse are still; but that the hand was open, generous, and true; the heart brave, warm, and tender; and the pulse a man's. Strike, Shadow, strike! And see his good deeds springing from the wound, to sow the world with life immortal!"

Much as spiritual death and increased receptivity to transformative energy are the most obviously dramatic parts of the path of lasting change, so it follows that this should be he dramatic climax of the story. Again, in terms of psychological realism, Dickens is on the money once more. It was fear of his mortality and subsequent fate which shocked him into seeing the need to change his ways, and knowing  he has to face up to the truth which "leaves nothing to be said", so it makes sense that he doesn't waste time with idle speech with the phantom, who's silence exacerbates Scrooge's already keen sense of urgency. This again is metaphor for the unspoken lesson in this stave - our own impending mortality should leave no time to waste!

"Ghost of the Future!.. I fear you more than any spectre I have seen. But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart. Will you not speak to me?'

   It gave him no reply. The hand was pointed straight before them.

   'Lead on!' said Scrooge. 'Lead on! The night is waning fast, and it is precious time to me, I know. Lead on, Spirit!"

Scrooge is not only humbled and contrite but eager to change, desperate, in fact. He want's to let his old self 'die', his future depends solely on a chance to be reborn and although he "feared the silent shape so much that his legs trembled beneath him, and he found that he could hardly stand when he prepared to follow it", his is now ready to relinquish being the centre of attention in his own world, and instead of being the one wielding the power over other people, by now he can let other people lead him instead, and take their advice to heart. Scrooge's glimpse into the insubstantiality of 'self' and the wider material world allows him to later re-experience that flow of progress and growth that had started way back in stave two. If we can just get out if the way, then we can let our old habits slip away, eventually to be fully replaced by more skilful interests. After all, the path of Buddhism is one of ever-increasing delight and pleasure, on an increasingly refined level the further you go with it.
  

For us, the same reawakening process is true, and for us the perfect meditation to generate direct insight is the Six Element Practice. Once more, I urge you to look it up, but essentially it is a methodical deconstruction of the entire psycho-physical organism that constitutes 'us' into the six elements - Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Space (think about it, we all need it to exist) and finally consciousness itself. Through reflecting on the truth that within those aggregates there is no fixed, unchanging 'us' to cling on to, we can actually directly experience what the concepts within the book, the mandala and the third stage are pointing us towards. We will still experience a dualistic view if the world for some time yet, but we don't grab at the experiences, leaving awareness and progress unobstructed. 

The Six Elements:
From bottom to top - Earth, Air, Fire, Water (the green disc), Space (the flame) and Consciousness (the tip) -
This forms the basis for many Buddhist monuments (called Stupas).
This practice is a perfect 'vipassana' or 'insight' meditation.

We need to remain mindful of the deeper, more real, ultimately inexpressible, unknowable dimension of reality and allow this brilliant Wisdom of Vairocana to radiate through every fibre of our being, transforming us whole. The first step towards this level of receptivity is understanding the need to let go of out unskilful ways, and let the old person 'die', with dignity and kindness. We need to work on cultivating a healthy understanding of how little time we might actually have left on this mortal coil. That way, out problems become sacred, a real test, a door into the Dharma, an opportunity really break through! When life become problematic or moments of loss occur, as they inevitably will, we can use them to deepen our emotional understanding of these essential and powerful teachings. These teachings of the Buddha on suffering and why we experience it encourage us to observe our emotional responses to difficulties or things breaking down (the body, a relationship etc), and it gives us a great opportunity to challenge the unskilful, grasping side of our sense of selfhood. We can try to stop ourselves being deliberately mislead by the ego and it's mental constructions. The more we try and spot this in everyday life, the deeper our emotional understandings of the true nature of reality becomes. We can ask "where is this sense of a fixed, separate self?" Are you your thoughts? Your memories? Your habits? Your body? Your feelings? Your personality? Your diet? Your preferences? Are any of those fixed and completely stable? Can we find a 'me', independent of it all, an eternal soul in the Christian (not the poetic) sense? The answer may be a long time coming, and not what you expected, but please, try it for yourself. If your body, speech and mind are all subject to decay, then could Dickens be right about it all? If everything was fixed, then we couldn't change. Technically, we wouldn't be able to breathe (changing our lung capacity), dress ourselves (we couldn't have bought new clothes since birth) or even be born (going from a state of non-existance to the more preferable alternative)... If it wasn't for death, there would be no life. The wisdom of Vairocana reassures us that, ironically, if we have already 'died' in our hearts and minds to our own old ways, then our integrated, skilful deeds and actions can become immortal and in a sense, because there is no permanent 'I' inside of us to die, then in that sense we enter the realm of the deathless and shall live on forever as the fruit of our karma, our intentional actions.    

If we can gather the inner fortitude to "enter the tiger's cave, where many footprints lead in, but none come out again..." (Sangharakshita, talking on the stage of insight and spiritual death) then we too can be reborn in the same way as Scrooge, and what a blessed relief that would be! What we do when 'we' (or more accurately, when the better, more improved version of us) gets to that point, that is another matter altogether. How do we discern between the needs of so many? If so many constructs and labels are only relatively true, what then of the Wisdom of Equality, for example? Stay tuned for the next instalment... Just remember:

"If you die before you die, you wont die when you die." - Vidyamala 

Yours, fondling the shroud longingly,

The Dharma-Farmer xx  

   

Many any merit gained in my acting thus be dedicated to the awakening and happiness of all beings.
This article is dedicated to the memory and skilful means of Dharmachari Pramodana. O now, when the bardo...