The future from now

When we project from modesty, it is hope.
When we project from immodesty, it is delusion.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Love After Love


The time will come

when, with elation

you will greet yourself arriving

at your own door, in your own mirror

and each will smile at the other's welcome,




and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you




all your life, whom you ignored

for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,




the photographs, the desperate notes,

peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit. Feast on your life.


Derek Walcott

organic metaphors etc

Sir Ken Robinson: Education should be like a Michelin standard, not fast food standard.






“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom” - Anais Nin

Quotes from Search Inside Yourself

"By happiness I mean here a deep sense of flourishing that arises from an exceptionally healthy mind. This is not a mere pleasurable feeling, a fleeting emotion, or a mood, but an optimal state of being. Happiness is also a way of interpreting the world, since while it may be difficult to change the world, it is always possible to change the way we look at it" - Matthieu Ricard


"between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness" - Viktor Frankl

Mindful quote

"When you let go of clamoring to get more of what you don't really need, it frees up oceans of energy to pay attention to what you already have. And what you have expands naturally. " - Lynne Twist, July 2012, Mindful magazine April 2013

Ruth Ozeki: Creativity & Transformation

"There's no need to be a professional artist or writer to transform difficult situations into creative work. Poems, or journal writing, or quilts, or collages, or songs need never be made public. They can be utterly private, because in privacy is where the work is done, even for the so-called professional artists

Humans, all of us, are boundlessly creative beings, and as long as we recognize this and give ourselves permission to respond to our difficulties artistically and intuitively, not just medically or practically or rationally, then we can access this way of transforming suffering into something meaningful, which may benefit us all." - Ruth Ozeki, Nothing is Wasted, Shambhala Sun March 2013

Simple prayer on a bhutanese tour site

from: blue mountain holiday

A Simple Buddhist Prayer

By the power and the truth of this practice,
may all beings have happiness, and the causes of happiness.
May all be free from sorrow, and the causes of sorrow.
May all never be separated from the sacred happiness
which is sorrow less.
And may all live in equanimity,without too much attachment and too much aversion,
And live believing in the equality of all that lives.

May all beings be filled with joy and peace.
May all beings everywhere,
The strong and the weak,
The great and the small,
The mean and the powerful,
The short and the long,
the subtle and the gross:
May all beings everywhere,
Seen and unseen,
Dwelling far off or nearby,
Being or waiting to become:
May all be filled with lasting joy.
Let no one deceive another,
Let no one anywhere despise another,
Let no one out of anger or resentment
Wish suffering on anyone at all.
Just as a mother with her own life
Protects her child, her only child, from harm,
So within yourself let grow
A boundless love for all creatures.

Let your love flow outward through the universe,
To its height, its depth, its broad extent,
A limitless love, without hatred or enmity.
Then as you stand or walk,
Sit or lie down,As long as you are awake,
Strive for this with a one-pointed mind;
Your life will bring heaven to earth.
Sutta Nipata
Buddha’s Discourse on Good Will

TEDBlog: 4 scientific studies on how meditation can affect your heart, brain and creativity

HEALTH TEDTalks

4 scientific studies on how meditation can affect your heart, brain and creativity

Posted by: Kate Torgovnick
January 11, 2013 at 12:09 pm EST

• More

Many people have tried to sell me on the idea of meditating. Sometimes I try it, and have an incredible, refreshing experience. But usually, as I close my eyes and focus on my breathing, while I know that I’m supposed to be letting all thoughts go, more and more fly through my mind. Soon I have a laundry-list of “to-dos” in my head … and then my legs fall asleep. It’s all downhill from there.

Today’s TED Talk, however, might actually convince me to give meditation another shot.

“We live in an incredibly busy world. Our pace of life is often frantic, our minds are always busy, and we’re always doing something,” says Andy Puddicombe at the TEDSalon London Fall 2012. “The sad fact is that we’re so distracted that we are no longer present in the world in which we live. We miss out on the things that are most important to us. The crazy thing is, people assume that’s just the way life is. But that’s not really how it has to be.”

In this talk, Puddicombe — who is as equally as turned off by incense as me — shares the fascinating story of how he become a monk, and gives a convincing argument for why it is worth it to take 10 minutes a day to refresh the mind.

“Most people assume that meditation is all about stopping thoughts, getting rid of emotions, somehow controlling the mind, but actually it’s much different than that,” says Puddicombe. “It’s more about stepping back, seeing the thought clearly — witnessing it coming and going — without judgment, but with a relaxed, focus mind.”

To see a demonstration, with juggling, watch this surprising talk. And after the jump, four recent scientific studies that bear out that there might actually be something to this meditation thing.

For years, meditation fans have said that the practice keeps them healthy. But a new study,published in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes in November 2012,actually tested this. For the study, 201 people with coronary heart disease were asked to either (a) take a health education class promoting better diet and exercise or (b) take a class on transcendental meditation. Researchers followed up with participants for the next five years and found that those who took the meditation class had a 48% reduction in their overall risk of heart attack, stroke and death. It’s an initial study, but a promising one. [Time]

Is meditating a good way to increase creativity? Maybe, but it depends on what kind. Researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands looked at the way two types of meditation — focused-attention (for example, focusing on your breath) and open-monitoring (where participants focus on the both the internal and external) — affected two types of creative thinking — the ability to generate new ideas and solutions to problems. In a study published in April 2012 in Frontiers in Cognition, they revealed that the participants who practiced focused-attention meditation did not show improved results in the two creativity tasks. However, those who practiced open-monitoring meditation did perform better at task related to coming up with new ideas. [Meditation Research]

Researchers at UCLA wanted to study the brains of people who had been meditating for years, versus those who had never meditated or who had only done it for a short period of time. They took MRI scans of 100 people — half meditators and half non-meditators. They were fascinated to find that long-time meditators showed higher levels of gyrification (a folding of the cerebral cortex that may be associated with faster information processing). In a study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience in February of 2012, they shared that, the more years a person had been meditating, the more gyrification their MRIs revealed.  [UCLA Newsroom]

Distractions are everywhere. But can meditation help a person better navigate through them? A computer scientist at the University of Washington teamed up with a neuroscientist at the University of Arizona to test this. The pair recruited 45 human resources managers, and gave a third of them eight weeks of mindfulness-based meditation training, a third of them eight weeks of body relaxation training and a third of them no training at all. All the groups were given a stressful multitasking test before and after the eight weeks. In a study published in the Proceedings of Graphics Interface in May of 2012, they showed that the mindful-mediation group reported less stress as they performed the multitasking test than both of the other groups. [Washington.edu]

So, how do you feel about meditation?

Einstein's quote

"A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." - einstein

Meaning vs Happiness

Credit to The Atlantic via link below: --- Inspiring article for aspiring boddisattvas...

There's More to Life than Being Happy

"It is the very pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness."

Kacper Pempel/Reuters

In September 1942, Viktor Frankl, a prominent Jewish psychiatrist and neurologist in Vienna, was arrested and transported to a Nazi concentration camp with his wife and parents. Three years later, when his camp was liberated, most of his family, including his pregnant wife, had perished -- but he, prisoner number 119104, had lived. In his bestselling 1946 book, Man's Search for Meaning, which he wrote in nine days about his experiences in the camps, Frankl concluded that the difference between those who had lived and those who had died came down to one thing: Meaning, an insight he came to early in life. When he was ahigh school student, one of his science teachers declared to the class, "Life is nothing more than a combustion process, a process of oxidation." Frankl jumped out of his chair and responded, "Sir, if this is so, then what can be the meaning of life?"

As he saw in the camps, those who found meaning even in the most horrendous circumstances were far more resilient to suffering than those who did not. "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing," Frankl wrote in Man's Search for Meaning, "the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

Frankl worked as a therapist in the camps, and in his book, he gives the example of two suicidal inmates he encountered there. Like many others in the camps, these two men were hopeless and thought that there was nothing more to expect from life, nothing to live for. "In both cases," Frankl writes, "it was a question of getting them to realize that life was still expecting something from them; something in the future was expected of them." For one man, it was his young child, who was then living in a foreign country. For the other, a scientist, it was a series of books that he needed to finish. Frankl writes:

This uniqueness and singleness which distinguishes each individual and gives a meaning to his existence has a bearing on creative work as much as it does on human love. When the impossibility of replacing a person is realized, it allows the responsibility which a man has for his existence and its continuance to appear in all its magnitude. A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the "why" for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any "how."

Viktor Frankl [Herwig Prammer/Reuters]

In 1991, the Library of Congress and Book-of-the-Month Club listedMan's Search for Meaning as one of the 10 most influential books in the United States. It has sold millions of copies worldwide. Now, over twenty years later, the book's ethos -- its emphasis on meaning, the value of suffering, and responsibility to something greater than the self -- seems to be at odds with our culture, which is more interested in the pursuit of individual happiness than in the search for meaning. "To the European," Frankl wrote, "it is a characteristic of the American culture that, again and again, one is commanded and ordered to 'be happy.' But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to 'be happy.'"

According to Gallup , the happiness levels of Americans are at a four-year high -- as is, it seems, the number of best-selling books with the word "happiness" in their titles. At this writing, Gallup also reports that nearly 60 percent all Americans today feel happy, without a lot of stress or worry. On the other hand, according to the Center for Disease Control, about 4 out of 10 Americans have not discovered a satisfying life purpose. Forty percent either do not think their lives have a clear sense of purpose or are neutral about whether their lives have purpose. Nearly a quarter of Americans feel neutral or do not have a strong sense of what makes their lives meaningful. Research has shown that having purpose and meaning in life increases overall well-being and life satisfaction, improves mental and physical health, enhances resiliency, enhances self-esteem, and decreases the chances of depression. On top of that, the single-minded pursuit of happiness is ironically leaving people less happy, according to recent research. "It is the very pursuit of happiness," Frankl knew, "that thwarts happiness."

***

This is why some researchers are cautioning against the pursuit of mere happiness. In a new study, which will be published this year in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Positive Psychology, psychological scientists asked nearly 400 Americans aged 18 to 78 whether they thought their lives were meaningful and/or happy. Examining their self-reported attitudes toward meaning, happiness, and many other variables -- like stress levels, spending patterns, and having children -- over a month-long period, the researchers found that a meaningful life and happy life overlap in certain ways, but are ultimately very different. Leading a happy life, the psychologists found, is associated with being a "taker" while leading a meaningful life corresponds with being a "giver."

"Happiness without meaning characterizes a relatively shallow, self-absorbed or even selfish life, in which things go well, needs and desire are easily satisfied, and difficult or taxing entanglements are avoided," the authors write.

How do the happy life and the meaningful life differ? Happiness, they found, is about feeling good. Specifically, the researchers found that people who are happy tend to think that life is easy, they are in good physical health, and they are able to buy the things that they need and want. While not having enough money decreases how happy and meaningful you consider your life to be, it has a much greater impact on happiness. The happy life is also defined by a lack of stress or worry.

Nearly a quarter of Americans do not have a strong sense of what makes their lives meaningful.

Most importantly from a social perspective, the pursuit of happiness is associated with selfish behavior -- being, as mentioned, a "taker" rather than a "giver." The psychologists give an evolutionary explanation for this: happiness is about drive reduction. If you have a need or a desire -- like hunger -- you satisfy it, and that makes you happy. People become happy, in other words, when they get what they want. Humans, then, are not the only ones who can feel happy. Animals have needs and drives, too, and when those drives are satisfied, animals also feel happy, the researchers point out.

"Happy people get a lot of joy from receiving benefits from others while people leading meaningful lives get a lot of joy from giving to others," explained Kathleen Vohs, one of the authors of the study, in a recent presentation at the University of Pennsylvania. In other words, meaning transcends the self while happiness is all about giving the self what it wants. People who have high meaning in their lives are more likely to help others in need. "If anything, pure happiness is linked to not helping others in need," the researchers write.

What sets human beings apart from animals is not the pursuit of happiness, which occurs all across the natural world, but the pursuit of meaning, which is unique to humans, according to Roy Baumeister, the lead researcher of the study and author, with John Tierney, of the recent book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. Baumeister, a social psychologists at Florida State University, was namedan ISI highly cited scientific researcher in 2003.

The study participants reported deriving meaning from giving a part of themselves away to others and making a sacrifice on behalf of the overall group. In the words of Martin E. P. Seligman, one of the leading psychological scientists alive today, in the meaningful life "you use your highest strengths and talents to belong to and serve something you believe is larger than the self." For instance, having more meaning in one's life was associated with activities like buying presents for others, taking care of kids, and arguing. People whose lives have high levels of meaning often actively seek meaning out even when they know it will come at the expense of happiness. Because they have invested themselves in something bigger than themselves, they also worry more and have higher levels of stress and anxiety in their lives than happy people. Having children, for example, is associated with the meaningful life and requires self-sacrifice, but it has been famously associated with low happiness among parents, including the ones in this study. In fact, according to Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert, research shows that parents are less happy interacting with their children than they are exercising, eating, and watching television.

"Partly what we do as human beings is to take care of others and contribute to others. This makes life meaningful but it does not necessarily make us happy," Baumeister told me in an interview.

Meaning is not only about transcending the self, but also about transcending the present moment -- which is perhaps the most important finding of the study, according to the researchers. While happiness is an emotion felt in the here and now, it ultimately fades away, just as all emotions do; positive affect and feelings of pleasure are fleeting. The amount of time people report feeling good or bad correlates with happiness but not at all with meaning.

Meaning, on the other hand, is enduring. It connects the past to the present to the future. "Thinking beyond the present moment, into the past or future, was a sign of the relatively meaningful but unhappy life," the researchers write. "Happiness is not generally found in contemplating the past or future." That is, people who thought more about the present were happier, but people who spent more time thinking about the future or about past struggles and sufferings felt more meaning in their lives, though they were less happy.

Having negative events happen to you, the study found, decreases your happiness but increases the amount of meaning you have in life. Another study from 2011 confirmed this, finding that people who have meaning in their lives, in the form of a clearly defined purpose, rate their satisfaction with life higher even when they were feeling bad than those who did not have a clearly defined purpose. "If there is meaning in life at all," Frankl wrote, "then there must be meaning in suffering."

***

Which brings us back to Frankl's life and, specifically, a decisive experience he had before he was sent to the concentration camps. It was an incident that emphasizes the difference between the pursuit of meaning and the pursuit of happiness in life.

Peter Andrews/Reuters

In his early adulthood, before he and his family were taken away to the camps, Frankl had established himself as one of the leading psychiatrists in Vienna and the world. As a 16-year-old boy, for example, he struck up a correspondence with Sigmund Freud and one day sent Freud a two-page paper he had written. Freud, impressed by Frankl's talent, sent the paper to the International Journal of Psychoanalysis for publication. "I hope you don't object," Freud wrote the teenager.

While he was in medical school, Frankl distinguished himself even further. Not only did heestablish suicide-prevention centers for teenagers -- a precursor to his work in the camps -- but he was also developing his signature contribution to the field of clinical psychology: logotherapy, which is meant to help people overcome depression and achieve well-being by finding their unique meaning in life. By 1941, his theories had received international attention and he was working as the chief of neurology at Vienna's Rothschild Hospital, where he risked his life and career by making false diagnoses of mentally ill patients so that they would not, per Nazi orders, be euthanized.

That was the same year when he had a decision to make, a decision that would change his life. With his career on the rise and the threat of the Nazis looming over him, Frankl had applied for a visa to America, which he was granted in 1941. By then, the Nazis had already started rounding up the Jews and taking them away to concentration camps, focusing on the elderly first. Frankl knew that it would only be time before the Nazis came to take his parents away. He also knew that once they did, he had a responsibility to be there with his parents to help them through the trauma of adjusting to camp life. On the other hand, as a newly married man with his visa in hand, he was tempted to leave for America and flee to safety, where he could distinguish himself even further in his field.

As Anna S. Redsand recounts in her biography of Frankl, he was at a loss for what to do, so he set out for St. Stephan's Cathedral in Vienna to clear his head. Listening to the organ music, he repeatedly asked himself, "Should I leave my parents behind?... Should I say goodbye and leave them to their fate?" Where did his responsibility lie? He was looking for a "hint from heaven."

When he returned home, he found it. A piece of marble was lying on the table. His father explained that it was from the rubble of one of the nearby synagogues that the Nazis had destroyed. The marble contained the fragment of one of the Ten Commandments -- the one about honoring your father and your mother. With that, Frankl decided to stay in Vienna and forgo whatever opportunities for safety and career advancement awaited him in the United States. He decided to put aside his individual pursuits to serve his family and, later, other inmates in the camps.

RECOMMENDED

No Flowers On the Psych Ward

The wisdom that Frankl derived from his experiences there, in the middle of unimaginable human suffering, is just as relevant now as it was then: "Being human always points, and is directed, to something or someone, other than oneself -- be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself -- by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love -- the more human he is."

Baumeister and his colleagues would agree that the pursuit of meaning is what makes human beings uniquely human. By putting aside our selfish interests to serve someone or something larger than ourselves -- by devoting our lives to "giving" rather than "taking" -- we are not only expressing our fundamental humanity, but are also acknowledging that that there is more to the good life than the pursuit of simple happiness

How a sense of sacred can help sustainable business

How a Sense of Sacred can help sustainable business

A wonderful article by Guardian.

Sustainability leaders could learn from Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, who believes in a deeper human connection with nature and looking beyond purely material consumption

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• Jo Confino
• Guardian Professional, Tuesday 8 January 2013 15.10 GMT
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Business leaders tend to focus on power and profit margins but finding a connection with nature could be far more fruitful. Photograph: Cultura Creative/Alamy

There is a saying from a famous Buddhist master that the miracle of life is not being able to walk on water but on being able to walk on the Earth.

This came to mind as I read an introduction by Prince Charles in What has nature ever done for us?, Tony Juniper's new book on the importance of natural capital. Prince Charles says that a key reason we are so wantonly destroying the natural world on which our very lives depend is that "there now abounds a disturbing lack of a sense of the sacred".

"This is very important," he writes. "If nothing is sacred, most of all nature, then we create the potential for the perfect kind of storm, to which it will be virtually impossible to adapt, let alone mitigate."

He hits the nail on the head; we are not going to save ourselves and countless species from destruction with innovations in technology and business thinking alone, unless we heal our profound disconnection with Mother Earth.

I recently wrote about the importance of epiphanies in creating change and experienced one a few years ago when I was doing my masters degree in responsibility and business practice.

We spent a week at Shumacher college in Devon and one exercise was to go to a river valley on Dartmoor and, wearing a blindfold, experience nature via a sense of touch and smell. Halfway through the exercise, we were asked to switch our attention and try to feel how nature might be experiencing us in that moment.

It was only afterwards that I realised how important that change of focus actually was. How arrogant of me to have believed that it was only 'I' who could have an experience of the world around me, which was not being reciprocated.

It isn't just Shumacher college that realised that a deep connection to nature can lead to profound change. The Natural Change Project, set up by WWF, offers leaders potentially life-changing experiences of wild places. And the social enterprise, Leaders' Quest, has a similar philosophy.

Building bridges with nature

This type of experience is particularly important for business leaders and transformational change will come only if they understand the meaning of sustainability in their guts, rather than as an intellectual exercise aimed at safeguarding profits.

Money and power often create separation and what we need these leaders to feel is intimacy and that community is an inclusive concept.

I recently spent two weeks at a retreat with Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh at his Plum Village centre near Bordeaux in France. It was my third visit and each one ranks among the happiest times of my life.

The practice of mindfulness teaches me that true happiness comes from a deep appreciation of the profound simplicity of life in the present; the joy of breathing, of walking, of contemplation, of good wholesome food and company.

This naturally engenders the understanding that everything is connected in the web of life in a far more profound way than trying to get one's mind around the energy, water, food nexus.

It is in this atmosphere of quiet meditation that I rediscover a sense of peace and inspiration – like a water channel dredged of mud and debris – which allows me to return to the Guardian with renewed vigour.

The problem with modern society, however, is that it tends to ride roughshod over these simple pleasures because there is no economic value in them. Instead, we are sold a way of life that deepens our sense of isolation and loneliness.

Looking beyond material consumption

Thich Nhat Hanh, or Thay as he is known, says repeatedly that we have more than enough to already be happy and that buying more material goods will only expose us to more unhappiness. How often do we really appreciate our good health or feel gratitude for those people around us? In most cases only when we are in danger of losing them.

Sitting in his modest Toadskin hut, around a crackling fire, Thay tells me that there is nothing wrong with consumption, only what we consume: "When we do walking meditation we consume. In the context of modern civilisation, to walk like that is a waste of time. You don't do anything. You don't talk or think and that is a waste of time because time is money.

"So we consume time but for us this is good consumption because we allow our body and mind to relax and rest and every step we touch the wonders of life, the refreshing and healing elements of life.

"After half an hour of walking like that you feel refreshed and restored and that does not need a lot of money, does not need anything at all ... from the parking lot to the place where they [readers] work; walk in such a way that every step can restore their peace and their joy and love for life. Teach them how to stop their thinking."

It's easy to dismiss this kind of approach as lacking relevance to the complexities and pressures of modern life and Thay is the first to admit that living the life of a monk is far easier than living in the 'real' world.

But rejecting such a simple approach often just protects us from the deeper recognition of the collective loss of our freedom and sense of connection, in exchange for power, fame, money and sexual gratification.

Juniper does a wonderful job in his latest book by showing the marvels and infinite complexity of Mother Earth and how that connects to the health and economic success of the human species. He also gives powerful arguments for why we should be valuing natural capital rather than taking nature for granted. But will this knowledge actually lead to a transformation in our behaviour?

Thay suggests that a greater intellectual knowledge of the impact of our destructive behaviour, or of nature's wonders, will not create the change that is necessary and that only a deeper connection to our hearts and a personal insight into the inter-being of everything in the universe, can offer hope to humanity.

"We are very intelligent but we have to learn how to love Mother Earth," he says. "When you look at the sun during your walking meditation, the mindfulness of the body helps you to see that the sun is in you; without the sun there is no life at all and suddenly you get in touch with the sun in a different way.

"You see the relationship between you and the sun change ... Before, you see the sun as something very far away and not having too much connection, but the connection is very, very deep. You are a child of the sun, you come from the sun, and that is something true with the earth also ... your relationship with the earth is so deep, and the earth is in you and this is something not very difficult, much less difficult then philosophy.

"If you can feel that Mother Earth is in you, and you are Mother Earth, then you are not any longer afraid to die because the earth is not dying. Like a wave appears and disappears and appears again."

The full interview with Thich Nhat Hanh will appear on Guardian Sustainable Business next week.

Jo Confino will also be in conversation with Tony Juniper at a lunchtime lecture at the RSA this Thursday

Eckhart & Ken

EF Schmacher: On the Edge of the Forest

Headspace - Andy Puddicombe

From Huffpost

The Wisdom of Uncertainty

Posted: 01/07/2013 12:03 pm

 

Contrary to popular opinion, as human beings we really don't know very much at all. I'm aware that might cause the mind to bristle a little, perhaps even bring out a little righteous indignation in some, but when you look deeply, it's impossible to deny.
In an uncertain world, it is only natural that we should search for certainty. It provides a feeling of comfort, of safety, perhaps even a sense of purpose or belonging. In a world where everything is constantly changing, where people, places, situations and even our very own mind is in a constant state of flux, the illusion of certainty is highly appealing.
But it's important to differentiate between what we know and what we believe, what we know and what we suspect, and what we know and what we've been told. Because what we actually know is only what we experience, no more and no less. If we let go of everything we have ever read, have ever heard, or have ever told ourselves to be true, we are left with nothing but our experience. In fact even this is constantly changing, as each moment, each experience, gives way to the next.
So we are left with nothing but the experience of the present moment, the certainty of now.
For some, this type of reflection is a revelation, a cause for celebration, an opportunity to let go of old baggage and the vehicle to a renewed sense of wonder and curiosity in life. This is of course accompanied by the sound of collective consciousness breathing an enormous sigh of relief as each and every one of us realizes that we no longer need to pretend to have all the answers. Phew.
For others, it is the cause of heart palpitations, rising blood pressure and sweaty palms -- in short, an overwhelming desire to engage with thought, to sidestep fear, to repeat a well-rehearsed opinion in the mind, to hang on to the remnants of belief and to sure up any illusion of certainty we might cling to. Anything, literally anything, to avoid peering into the chasm of uncertainty that is life itself.
But there is no shame in not knowing, there is only freedom. An uncertain mind is an open mind. It is a mind which is curious, interested, reflective and malleable. When we meet life with a genuine sense of uncertainty, we cease to project that which we think we know and instead begin to see life for what it really is. The same goes for the people around us. It is only in letting go of our preconceptions and opinions of others that we allow them to be who they truly are, to change and evolve from one moment to the next.

This is the wisdom of uncertainty.
It is not a rejection of the human intellect, it does not disrespect the opinion of others, nor does it negate or devalue the experience of others. If anything, it fosters the search for greater intellectual understanding, whilst embracing the ideas of others. In this way, it offers the opportunity for a calm and considered response to the events of life, resolution where there is conflict and peace where there is war.
But the wisdom of uncertainty nonetheless highlights the importance of experiential understanding. To think about contentment is one thing, to be content is quite another. It is not enough to simply believe, we need to discover, to find out for ourselves. It is not enough to suspect, we need to feel, to know it personally and intimately.
Just to be clear, this is not about thinking about uncertainty, which is no more than doubt and confusion. On the contrary, this is the direct experience of uncertainty itself, from moment to moment, free from thought, judgment, opinion or analysis. It is nothing less than naked awareness, the nature of mind, life itself, unfolding before our eyes.
If you'd like to find a way of feeling less stressed and more content in your life, why not commit 10 minutes a day to looking after the health of your mind. In fact why not set yourself the Mind Man Challenge and see if you can do 10 minutes every day for 10 days. I've recorded a special programme, which is completely free to use and which you can access online or as an app on your iPhone or Android.
Simply visit www.getsomeheadspace.com to sign up to the challenge and make today the day you commit to giving the mind the TLC it deserves.

wkup.org - Gross National Happiness

Original link here 

Talk and Q & A with Dr. Ha Vinh Tho

(Dharma Teacher in the Plum Village Tradition,

Program Coordinator at the Gross National Happiness Centre in Bhutan)

// TALK //

There is a potential to create relationship with what’s going on in Bhutan and the Wake Up movement. We share common interests and practices. Hopefully this is a beginning of cooperation with young people in Bhutan and the Wake Up movement.

I will walk you through certain aspects of GNH in the light of Buddhist teachings; I will try to make it as practical and concrete as I can.

Why GNH? Why do we need to approach the economy and the social system differently than we have done until now?

We can understand the need for a new economic paradigm in the light of the Four Noble Truths, from the first teachings of Buddha:

First Noble Truth: Suffering

This has to do with having courage to acknowledge the suffering in ourselves and outside ourselves. Difficulty of acknowledging suffering around us is that it could create despair, discouragement and anger. It is important that we have the courage to look directly at the suffering in our own mind and in the world and yet not get overwhelmed by it but, on the contrary, that it becomes a source of energy to transform suffering into Compassion and Understanding.

Three numbers to describe the suffering:

1 million - the number of people that take their own lives every year. Most of them are young people. The majority of them come from rich, affluent countries. There are more young people that take their lives every year than those that die from war. I have traveled to so many countries that are war-ridden and seen a lot of war and suffering. When I realized that more young people from rich countries are taking their lives than in war, it was a shocking realization for me. This is the first number and it points to the suffering that individuals go through and it speaks of the meaninglessness of some lives.
(own notes: there are 40-42 million sex workers in the world.. demand is scarier than supply..)
 

2.5 billion - the number of people living underneath the poverty line on this earth today. Technology, science and progress have created more wealth than ever before, and yet 2.5 billion people live below the poverty line. These people are at any time in danger of not having food or water. We are not speaking about the ones who do not have access to comfort but of the ones who lack basic resources.

1.5 - the amount of earth we are using every year. The earth needs 18 months to produce what we consume in 12 months. We are using 1.5 planets, but we only have 1 earth.

These three figures have to do with suffering on personal level, social level and planetary level. Why then GNH? We need to promote a different approach to economic development and progress; one that really puts the human being and his happiness in the centre of all policies to address these issues and transform suffering and offer alternatives on all three levels.

It has to begin with personal level, transformation of the self. But it needs to have an impact on all levels: my immediate surrounding family and friends, then on the society at large, and finally on the planet. It is important to always keep in mind the need for this multilevel transformation process. The crucial question is: how do we approach transformation of suffering on all levels; Individual, immediate surrounding, country, and the way we live on planet earth?

We start with the diagnostic so we can identify the suffering. So far, I’ve identified it from the outer perspective. But what each one has to do for himself or herself is to look honestly inward and figure out; what is my own suffering, what is my own confusion, and how does my own suffering contribute to the suffering of the world?

We then move on to the Second Noble Truth:

Second Noble Truth: Identifying the causes of suffering

There are inner causes and outer causes. We need to look at both simultaneously. Many of the social movements we have seen in the recent past try to address the outer causes and often forget the inner causes of suffering. Many of you have seen the calligraphy by Thây: “There no way to happiness, happiness is the way”. I think this is a crucial point. We cannot reach happiness by adding more suffering, fear or anger. We need to find peace in ourselves to bring about outer transformation.

There are three causes of suffering (The three poisons of the mind ):

1. Ignorance. The Sanskrit word “Avidya” literally means absence of light, of wisdom, of understanding. This is fundamentally the illusion that one can attain happiness while making others suffer. This is ignoring the reality of interdependence of the world. The need to destroy others to be the best, the richest. This is the illusion of separate self; that my happiness can come from disregarding completely the suffering of others. Awakening, enlightenment is the act of shedding the light of mindfulness on the reality of interdependence of life. Your happiness is my happiness. Your wellbeing is my wellbeing. This is wisdom, understanding (Prajna in Sanskrit).

2. Greed. Gandhi famously said 'the earth could produce enough to satisfy all her children’s needs, but not all the people’s greed.' There is enough food to feed every single human being on the planet. The problem is not that we don't have enough - it is that we don’t distribute properly. Some of us take so much and do not share, and do not care that others suffer. Imagine having a birthday cake and I take 80% of the cake, and all others have to share the 20%. This is exactly what the West is doing. The West is taking up 80% of the earth’s resources.

When I honestly look at myself – why am I getting greedy, why do I feel compelled to buy more, to consume more? Deep down it is triggered by a feeling that there is a vacuum in me; that I am not quite fulfilled, I am not quite complete. I hope this experience, this object will make me complete, will somehow overcome this feeling of dissatisfaction.

So, consumerism is the result, not the cause of the problem. But on the other hand, consumerism is one of the major causes for the depletion of the natural resources of the earth. The deeper cause is the lack of meaning in our lives, the lack of purpose. So we buy things to fulfill that void. The satisfaction I get from getting a new thing is very short-lived. Still, I find myself falling into the trap again of wanting a new item- each one has his own favorite thing. Greed is very powerful, and our society is geared towards strengthening greed. The whole marketing/advertising business is trying to convince us that greed is good because it enables growth. And growth is what the economy needs. If you consume, you are a good citizen because it promotes growth and the economy will be well off. This is the way things have been for decades, and we recognize it has not brought happiness. Yet it has been difficult to overcome this want for more.

I believe the worst is when it manifests on the human level – we find it difficult to create true relationships, long-term relationships, true friendship and true love. The other person is used to bring me fulfillment, and I don’t actually acknowledge him or her. The other person is considered as an object to fulfill my own needs. This seems to work for a short time, but when things get boring, we jump to the next person, the next experience, just the way we move from one object to the next. Until we look seriously into what it is we are looking for, it is difficult to create a long lasting meaningful relationship. So I dare to say that Lisi and I have been together for over 40 years now - it was not always been easy and simple but it was a relationship based on values, common commitments, ideals, and the understanding that her happiness is the key to my own happiness and vice versa. I’m not saying this to look good, just saying this as a testimony that it is possible and if we could do it, you can do it too.

If our greed becomes less because our mindfulness grows stronger, purpose, morality, we consume less. Statistically, each of us has to consume 1/3 less. If each of us does that, the earth can survive. So it is not by consuming more that we will become more happy, it is by being happier that we will consume less, and therefore lessen the pressure on the environment.

3. Violence. Hatred, aggression. It starts with negative, aggressive thoughts, that become violent words, then manifest into violent actions. Mind, speech and action escalating to wars. We see that our governments are spending hundreds and hundreds of billion dollars every year on weapons. Weapons are a physical manifestation of fear and aggression. If I have no fear, I have no aggression. If I have no aggression, I don’t need weapons. If we could reduce our fear by a fraction, we could reduce the money we use on weapons; we could use the money to feed all the hungry children in the world. We cannot reduce fear and aggression in the world until we reduce it within ourselves. Most of us have not killed, but all of us have the seed of violence. We probably have had violent thoughts and even spoke violent words to others. We sometimes think it is legitimate to say violent things. This is the seed of violence that can grow to become guns, to bombs. We must start by transforming the violence that is in our own mind.

This allows us to look at the third noble truth.

Third Noble Truth – State beyond suffering

There is a state beyond suffering. It is important for us to realize that this state is not such a far away world that we can only reach after 99 years of meditation in a cave. It is readily available and we can create it. I would like to emphasize the collective dimension here. It is not only about myself overcoming my own suffering on my own, it is about creating a community, a society, that is conducive to generating Mindfulness and Happiness. You have heard about the mindful practices required for the achievement of happiness. But I would like to emphasize the community, the collective.

Han has visited us in Vietnam – the Peaceful Bamboo Family (s. Eurasia Association) is such a place where all kinds of people, ‘normal’ and with disabilities, young and old, people from all kinds of backgrounds can live together in harmony. It is nowhere near perfect, but it is a community that is committed towards this goal of living in harmony. Plum Village is also a place where not only people try to live in harmony, but is dedicated to teaching how to do so.

// QUESTIONS & ANSWERS //

Written Questions

What is GNH?

It is an effort to create the conditions that enable for a community to live in harmony, not only in a small scale, but on a nationwide scale. And this is the innovative dimension on GNH. To promote a practice and a lifestyle that is centered on the deeper needs of people, all beings and the planet. And we need to promote an economic system that is based on these values because the economy plays a major role, so if we do not change the economy, we cannot change life and society.

Is it easy? No. Is it a success? Not yet. You can’t say Bhutan has achieved it, but Bhutan is on the path. And by being on the path, it is showing the world that there is an alternative option to an economy based on competition and greed. An economy centered on ethical values and respectful of our planet.

At the GNH Center, we are trying to create such a place, where GNH can be experienced. We want to offer people an environment that is permeated by these values, the way we build the centre in a fully ecological way, the way we run it in an environmental friendly manner, the way we practice together so that people have a transformative experience and bring this experience back into their own communities. We hope that by and by there will be GNH Centers in many places on earth.

What is the way to transform suffering into happiness?

There are three main components:

1. Wisdom. Knowledge of Self: Prajna. The power to turn our mindfulness inward and understand our own mind and the way we function in order to transform it. And then applying these insights into our daily lives. Buddhism is a path of liberation through understanding. This understanding must be manifested into the way I speak, the way I act, the way I deal with friends and family, the choices that I make in my life.
2. Discipline, the practice: Sila. If we take our understanding seriously, we need to put it into action in our every day lives. I suppose many of you have taken the 5 mindfulness training and that is a good basis for an ethical life. GNH is the effort to find this global ethics on a national level. We look at the way the government functions, the way the society functions in the light of mindfulness, of ethical values.
3. Mindfulness, Concentration, Meditation: Samadhi. These are the tools that we are given to enable us to go though the transformation process. If we practice mindfulness and meditation daily, our understanding grows, and our practice grows. We need to transform from both sides, inner and outer. There is a need to change our environment that is conducive to the transformation. We need to take steps, bold steps to go through with it.

I would like to share with you my personal experience. I used to work with ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross). I decided to change work, and got 2 offers simultaneously. One was from a big power company in France. One of the directors told me that there is so much suffering in the employees, and he would like to change that. Good salary - $20,000/month, free house, etc. This was quite tempting. I would be helping 160,000 employees and make the most amount of money I ever had.

And then I got another offer from the GNH Centre – the salary was a third of what I used to make, a fraction of what was being offered by the electric company. I had a moral dilemma: the French company is running 150 nuclear power plants, and I have always been ecologically engaged, and working for this company was going against my morals. So I decided to go to Bhutan.

Looking at this from a purely material perspective, this was a huge sacrifice. My buying power dropped considerably, but it was a boost for my mental well-being. Material wealth and mental well-being are very different things. This choice brings me much more happiness; to be aligned with my values and morals and having the feeling that I can contribute (even though modestly) to the happiness of all beings brings me a deep satisfaction.

This is to convey to you that it is not difficult to make the right choices - it just takes a little courage. It is so rewarding that you would not regret these choices.

Going back to GNH – I was asked:

What is your definition of happiness?

I don’t think there is a definition, I don’t think there needs to be one. Happiness is an experience. If you have the right practice, surround yourself with the right people, create an healthy environment, then you experience happiness; then you reflect on what made you happy and you come to a deeper understanding. When I look at myself and my life and what made me truly happy, it is not difficult to identify the causes of my happiness.

Happiness can be three things:

1. State of mind/emotion - which is temporary, more pleasure than happiness.
2. Trait or character - an optimistic person who seems happier, satisfied with life, and this is more trait of character often connected with childhood experiences and karma.
3. Happiness as a skill – This is the most important; because it is a skill, you can cultivate it, learn it and spread it. This is what I’m interested in, that happiness can be learned and cultivated. For example, compassion is a key element to happiness and if I look back at my own life, and when I had the opportunity to alleviate suffering of others, simple things to big things, both bring me as much happiness. Compassion doesn’t only manifest when we can do big things. It can be manifested modestly. Compassion is a very important aspect of happiness. Everything that we do to bring happiness to others is a source of happiness to self.
   There was an interesting study done recently. A group of people got money to do what they want with it. They then followed up with the people who got the money and how they felt about it. All the people who spent it on themselves had lost the satisfaction rapidly; but the people who did something for others with the money had a much longer lasting happiness. So there is a lot of research on happiness – psychological, sociological and economical. I was at a meeting where many researchers shared their research and I can share that with you. But, don’t take my word for it – look back and try to really see what the causes of not just short lasting pleasure but long lasting happiness, and share those experiences.
   
   

How can we measure happiness?

If we are speaking of GNH, we are speaking of something more comprehensive than the passing emotions people feel. There is the World Happiness Report you can find online (by Jeffery Sachs and Lord Layard).

Happiness Measurement in GNH is a mix of objective and subjective factors. Objective measures include dimensions like health, education, community vitality, natural environment and more. But we should not underestimate the subjective factors of psychological well-being, and find the mix of the two. For example, some of you wear glasses. You go to the optometrist, then he will show you the letters and will ask you if you to see better or worse with different glasses. Your answers can be described as subjective, he has to take your word for it but they are objective enough so that you can get a pair of glasses that work. So don’t think only hard, material quantitative evidence can be used as scientific evidence.

I won’t go into the 9 domains and the 72 indicators of GNH. I will instead send you links on what they are. When you read up, you can see how the measurement is done. It is scientific, it is not wishy-washy.

http://www.2apr.gov.bt/

http://www.gnhcentrebhutan.org/about/

http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/

What are the four pillars of GNH?

First pillar: Sustainable development. The economic development should directly be connected with the preservation of the environment. As soon as you realize happiness includes happiness of every other organism and mother earth, there is no way to get around sustainable development. It is an economic paradigm that enables the conservation of the environment. But it also includes a fair distribution of resourses.

Second Pillar: Preservation of the Environment. Bhutan is the first country in the world to go 100% organic. This is a concrete example of sustainable development. It is possible. Don’t believe those who say you need fertilizers and GMOs in order to feed the world.

Third Pillar: Preservation and Promotion of Culture and Spirituality. Happiness strongly depends on cultural values and practices. One of the indicators is time use. People in developed countries have higher standard of living, but less time for family and friends.

Fourth Pillar: Good Governance. This is a political pillar. How do we promote a government that puts the right things in priority? This is our responsibility as a citizen to choose the right government. The goal is to create happiness and well-being. These are the basics and I will send you the links to the details.

Oral Questions

Q1 // Simon Question on the noble truths of Buddha. Another cause of suffering in myself is that when you are confronted with suffering of the world, that makes me panic and want to fix it right away. I am very interested in how you can react to this kind of data in a peaceful way.

A: I grew up during the time of the Vietnam War. Although I am partly Vietnamese, I was mostly not in Vietnam during the war and saw it from outside. I joined the peace movement and was engaged politically and I was very angry. I was looking at the news and saw the bombs and people dying. I joined the left-wing political party that was promoting a change through violence against the current system. I tried that for a while, but it did not have a positive influence.

I then went to India – to Nepal, and had some kind of spiritual experience when I was lost in the mountains alone; I thought I was going to die out there. I got very upset and angry, felt unjust that I was going to die such a stupid death, then I was in despair, cried, felt pity for myself. Then, I had a breakthrough experience. I came to a moment of acceptance. Suddenly the environment was no longer hostile. I felt oneness with the world. Shortly after I came to inner tranquility and peace, an old man passed by and showed me to the next village. That was the first experience.

A second one happened in Israel in a military camp. I had been visiting prisoners all morning. I was exhausted. There is a lot of suffering and maltreatment in military prisons. I felt a lot of compassion for the prisoners and felt angry with the soldiers. I stepped outside and a soldier came out to talk to me because he heard I spoke French. After talking for a little bit, he asked me – do you think I am bad? I suddenly realized that I was unable to see the human being beyond the uniform and machine gun. This boy was younger than my son. As a practicing Buddhist, I judged the function and the uniform and I had not been able to see through the outer appearance.

Why do I share these two experiences? Because these are moments when the negative feelings arise as a consequence of feeling separated, cut off from the situation. As if these experiences as if they were outside of me, having nothing to do with me – be it hostile nature and the hostile soldier. But if you go deep in these situations, not judging too fast and touching the place of oneness, you can no longer feel anger but compassion. Things are the way they are around me because of what exists inside of me.

On one hand, it is quite normal and natural that we get shocked and angry. On the other hand if we realize the non-duality between me and the world we get relieved because we understand that we have the power to change our own mind and thereby, to change the world. I can always have an impact on the world because I can change something that is inside of myself - my actions, my words, my thoughts; therefore I can change the world as soon as I can do something about it. I am not in despair anymore. And, if I add anger, despair to a situation that is already difficult, then I am adding to the suffering to the world.

As a young man my spontaneous reaction to the war was anger and I joined the leftist group, but I realized that anger was not a path to peace. We have to find concrete specific place, small steps at a time where to begin the work of transformation. When my wife and I went to Vietnam, we had nothing, and we started modestly. It’s important to have the big picture, but no matter how small, concrete actions will grow and bear fruit. If you are in an organization helping hundred thousands of people, you are helping one person at a time, one hundred thousand times. So helping one person is as good as helping many.

Two things we should never forget:

1. If we can transform our selves, we can change the world

2. There is always someone you can help

Energy of anger can be necessary because it shows that you care, that you are not indifferent; but this energy has to be transformed. If it remains anger, it doesn't change anything. Channel this energy into something positive and you can bring happiness to the world.

Q2 // Matthias How do you present this to people to other belief systems?

A: I presented to you in Buddhist terms because I was aware I was speaking to people interested in a Buddhist approach. GNH is deeply inspired by Buddhist principles, but it is usually presented in neutral terms, in a non-religious way. You can present the four pillars in a way that is totally accessible to non-Buddhist.

I was at a meeting in NYC with high level scholars and hardly any were Buddhist. Second day was at the UN; Bhutan had presented GNH a little while ago and 68 states has already signed support for the concept, mostly not Buddhist. So don’t think GNH can only be presented in Buddhist terms. It can be presented in other terms. GNH Centre is looking into convening a meeting with people from all different religions and non-religions to see the values and principles they have in common. The aim is to try and look at the economy – GNH is first to promote an economy that is good to people, all sentient beings and the planet. It is not limited to Buddhism. It is interesting to see that scientists, politicians, economists are all interested in GNH and are not Buddhists.

Q3 // Sander In the Netherlands, we have a new political party called 'The Party for Happiness'. I am getting tired of politics. Relationship between Buddhism, GNH and politics. What is your vision on it?

A: Do you know the 14 Mindful Training? Yes – I would recommend you to study the 14 Mindful Trainings. You will see that it is a manifesto of socially engaged Buddhism. So politics has almost become a dirty word because people who are practicing it are practicing it in non-ethical ways. But Politics is noble because it is about serving your community, how do you do it in the right way? The GNH Centre is trying to do politics in the right way – serving people in the right way. For me, there is no contradiction between Buddhist values and politics or spiritual values and politics. What we need to avoid is political games. If we can manage to realize that real politics is something very noble, then we don’t need to be afraid of politics. We just need to stay away from power games for egotistic interest of certain groups. Politics is noble, but has to be reinvented. I can only encourage young people to join real politics, acting to serve the community. True Buddhism has political impact, but no political games.

Q4 // Collin If you are trying to increase GNH – what is the most effective action you can take nationwide?

A: GNH has to be implemented from 2 sides: bottom up and top down. Great thing about Bhutan is that it has enlightened leaders who are trying to implement GNH. In Bhutan, top down is stronger than bottom up, while in the West, bottom up is stronger. So, in Bhutan, we need to educate the people so everyone understands GNH.

Our GNH Center will have no waste, only organic food from around the center. Center is the place where people are actually doing what they are preaching. For GNH, we need initiatives like small communities, networks who show that it is possible to do it. It is small groups doing something right and showing examples that embody the principles of GNH. Small steps. One aspect is being living example of GNH principles, and the other important part is education. If we can educate the next generation to become ambassadors of GNH, it will thrive.

We hope that GNH grows in a viral way and spreads in the world. Even on the political level, more people and more are realizing present economic system is not working and GNH is one of the only serious alternatives. Bhutan is like a lab for other countries. There are a lot of possibilities for GNH Centers to be created around the world.