The Beauty of Unity

A rampant situation in our world is that of ceasing to see another human being as an equal, as a fellow human  focusing on their differences rather than our similarities. In so doing, we see them as “other”. In our reality, we turn this person into an enemy. They practice a different religion, eat different food, see the world in a different way, so they are not the same as us. They are less than us, thereby undeserving of our utmost love, attention, and compassion. Sometimes this occurs nearby, in our neighborhoods and towns. We have enmity towards the Jewish neighbor because he doesn’t celebrate Christmas or the Muslim woman in the apartment next door is somehow inferior because she wears a hijab and refrains from eating pork. Often, this hate is directed outside our borders, far away, to those we haven’t even met. Our knowledge of them is second hand, fed to us by our media. We are told to hate them because our worlds are far too different for there to ever be accord. Because of this, we go to war. We kill, innocents and warriors alike. Civilizations are destroyed under the guise of protection and freedom, so that ultimately avaricious corporations can increase their wealth. Sometimes it becomes so intense and difficult to deal with that watching the news brings us sorrow and tears to our hearts. Reading the newspaper makes us want to check out of the current social paradigm, to go somewhere untouched by this discord.

How and where can we repair this erroneous mindset in which we see others as others, making them enemies instead of friends? How can we see the Muslims across the ocean as  fellow humans equally worthy of love and respect as we are ourselves? How can we not laugh at and judge Hindus because they treat the cow as a sacred object? We can begin by stopping this practice of othering?

We can stop seeing our differences and recognize that we are all intrinsically interconnected. We all need each other to exist in this world. We need to recognize our inherent humanity, we need to recognize that we are all desiring of freedom from hurt, pain, and fear. We are all human. We all breathe. We all bleed. And we all have the capacity for love and greatness. We are all doing the best we can in the situations we are in with the mental, spiritual, and material capcities we have available to us at the time. Let’s bring this propensity of ours to see the differences between one anothter to the light of consciousness so that we can examine its falseness and see the damage it causes to our societies and planet. Let’s replace this ugly tendency with our inherent gifts of adoration and trust so that we may see the beauty and power within ourselves and the rest of the world. 

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Pain and Awakening

Consciousness of the physical body is a powerful gateway to awakening. One of the triggers that all of us as human beings have is running towards that which causes us joy and running away from that which will cause us pain. Everyone wants to avoid illness and suffering at all costs. However, suffering is unavoidable. The nature of the body and that of things in the physical realm are to feel pain, to suffer, and eventually to pass away. We will lose this human body of ours. That is an unavoidable truth. Yet we tend to move about our existence as if it were permanent. 

How can we use such seemingly negative aspects of reality as positive, beneficial tools? We can adopt the view that feeling physical pain, fear, or to suffer can be the most beautiful opportunities of the human life. Suffering can be a doorway to waking up. Instead of forcing us away from the present moment, away from the body, suffering can also be a hearkening to what is here now, as it is. Not dreaming of something else, not wishing for things to be different from how they are, but embracing and being with that which is here now, as it is. Seeing that which is here as sacred. Experience the holiness of this physical body, complete with its pains, illnesses, and sadness. Allow the mind to relax and soften so that it stops grasping for things to be different than from how they are. Mentally envision yourself taking on the suffering of others as you suffer. The Buddhist meditation practice of Tonglen can be a very powerful tool here. 

Instead of saying things to yourself such as “Why me?” Try saying “Yes, me,” “Thank you,” “I will be here with this as it is, in its full, sacred splendor.” Begin with small pains like paper cuts. Then slowly open yourself up more and more to the pain of being a being in the physical world. No longer denying that which is already here. Then, you begin to crack your whole being open more and more, allowing more room for space, for love, and awakening to the realization that there truly is no self to cling to.

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Inquiry into Being

To discover your limitations is the same as to discover your limitlessness. To discover your shadow is the same as to discover your light. To discover your humaness is to discover your Buddhaness. To discover you’re finite is to discover you’re infinite. -Anam Thubten

When we honestly ask ourselves the question, “Who am I?” We will be met with a litany of egoic false beliefs based on the stories we as individuals and as a society perpetuate. Many of these stories are limiting and defeatist. They perpetuate victimization, oppression, and the lie of separation. If we see that the true nature of everything, including ourselves, is, and always has been, pristine, luminous, and immeasurable, we begin to loosen the grip of the false beliefs. All we can ever really know is beingness because it is within this that everything arises.

One purpose of meditation is that of letting the mind be still so that it may calm itself. There are two primary types of meditation in Buddhist teachings. One is called shamatha, or calm abiding meditation. Here, we pay attention to the breath and allow the breath to calm the body and the mind. The second is called vipasyana, which gives us insight into the true nature of reality. This form of meditation is about inquiry. Inquiry into the nature of our thoughts, our beliefs, and the structures we believe to be ourselves and the outer world. We ask ourselves what is real, what is true and in doing such we come to the recognition that our guiding assumptions about ourselves and the world must be investigated. What is it that guides your life? What have you formed around your self that you see as so permanent and whole, but is essentially ephemeral? We cling to these beliefs about ourselves and the world, not disregarding their validity and assuming, because of our teachings and cultural indoctrination, that they are the abiding, ultimate truth of reality. Usually they are not. Usually they are lies. 

Unexamined, these thoughts drag us around from one point of suffering and discontentment, towards some illusion of happiness that then dissolves and itself becomes another source of pain. We are frightened to ask the deeper questions of “Who am I? What are my beliefs? Are they true?” We are afraid to face our beingness in its luminous, naked state because we have falsely been led to believe that we must build fences and walls around us in order to be protected from thoughts and beliefs that themselves do not actually exist.

We want only to stick to these things that we think will cause happiness and we run from that which causes discomfort. But both of these are intrinsic parts of being. In essence, on the ultimate level, the distinction of happiness and discomfort do not exist. These are constructions of the mind. And if we open ourselves up fully, completely, to both experiences, we open ourselves up to the fullness of being. We stop becoming so deluded by egoic misrepresentations of value and wholeness and can come to the realization that it all always has been whole. And so are “we” whole and complete.

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