Anger when allowed to fester will over time becomes hate. These are the most destructive of our human emotions, but they are also the most misunderstood. The laws of the universe will tell you that like attracts like. Law of Attraction is fact, not fiction. When someone does not understand it, it does not mean that it is false. Anger will bring more anger, hate will bring more hate.  Our world sadly is full of both.

What do we do about this? Creating groups to ‘fight hate’ will not work. The very word fight should tell you this, at least on an intellectual level.  Mother Teresa once said she would never attend an “anti war demonstration”, but she would attend a “Peace Rally”.  Hate and anger will only bring more hate and anger. This law is undeniable and history has proven it so, yet we REFUSE to learn from our mistakes.

The emotion of hate and anger are hard wired into our brains. But this is in the primitive area, not the “thinking” brain. Yet we become slaves to these primitive ways of behavior and thought. Why? Because we do not want to do the ‘work’ to change them. We instead want someone else to do it for us.  We tell others they need to learn how not to hate. Yet we don’t understand that we are seeing our own hate in them.  If we did not hate, we would see no hate.

When a person enters an dark room, one completely devoid of light fear begins to mount in them. Hate and anger are fear based emotions, they are like complete darkness.  To dispel the fear in this room all we need do is turn on the light.  Once the light is on, darkness cannot be present. Darkness is the absence of light. Hate and anger are the absence of love and compassion. Once there is love and compassion, hate and anger die.

In order to dispel hate and anger from our lives we must live in the present. All hate comes from remembering things in our past. When you abandon the past and live only in the present it is not possible to hate.  To better understand this try this mediation. It will only take 5 minutes of your day, but will bring an understanding of why you become angry and hateful.

Sit in a quiet place were you will not be disturbed. Begin to focus on your breath and let go of other thoughts. See only the breath in your mind. Once you are calm imagine a person who has harmed you sitting in front of you. Now without making any reference to the past, try hating this person in the present. Hate requires a reference point. Now try feeling compassion and love. These emotions need no reference point. Feeling love and compassion for your enemy becomes easy.

It may take time for you to succeed in this meditation. The past is not always easy to let go of. We have a tendency to become attached to the drama of it all.  If you train your mind to let go of hate and anger you will find love and compassion in it place.  From here you will be well on your way to happiness and joy.

Some will say this person does not deserve my compassion or love. What you are really saying is that you do not deserve to be happy.  Your anger and hatred might harm the other person, but they are KILLING you.

If you think my words are wise it is because you are seeing wisdom in yourself.

I see it all the time, quotes and articles like “We fight for them”, “injustice here”, “wipe out this or that”. On social networks like Facebook I get dozens of join my cause messages. These acts of compassion are great, but we are missing something very important.

Jesus taught us to love one another, Buddha taught us the power of our mind. Yet we all missed the meaning of these teachings. We cannot help anyone else in our world, UNTIL we help ourselves first!

When you focus on injustice you will get more injustice. When you focus on violence, you will get more violence, when you focus on hate you will get more hate, even if you are trying to rid the world of these problems.  Are there really more problems in the world? No, but the modern age has brought them to our eyes and this focus causes us to suffer. Am I saying we should stop caring? Definitely NOT, but we do need to change the way we see things.

Science has proven the power of the Master Mind. This happens when a group of people get together to focus on a task. When the focus is positive, two minds become exponential and become like four. This continues when additional people are added. If one mind is out of sync, then the entire process dies.

Imagine if a group of people got together and looked for the good in our world. They would find more good than they ever could have imagined. Imagine another group getting together and focusing on good health, how immense would the benefit be? As this practice crossed the planet our world would change overnight. This is the law of the universe, one we are always in opposition to.

Currently there is a Tibetan Monk being held by the Chinese government. There is much opposition to this which is understandable. What if we all focused on his enlightenment? As bad as his situation is there is still great good in it. He is in the position to develop immense merit by developing COMPASSION for his captors! In every situation we can find good.

Do you really want to help the people of your causes? Help them see the good in their situation and work to be happy were they are! From there, with positive emotion and energy the circumstances of their suffering can be changed! The mind, the way we thinking is the  KEY to not just happiness but EVERYTHING else!

To succeed in what we consider to be important we must adapt the teaching of the avatars. Understanding ourselves and how we think, making the proper changes will bring us to an understanding of what love and compassion really mean.  Are you creating causes and the need for causes (a worrier) or are you making changes in yourself and seeing the results in the outside world (a warrior).

In the book Power vs Force by David Hawking he discusses the positive  effects on our world by positive thinking. To our knowledge we have only had one avatar on the planet at one time. These men include Krishna, Buddha, Christ and possibly several Lama’s and Gurus over the centuries (Paramahansa Yogananda comes to mind in the 20th). These people have had unparalleled success in raising the consciousness of their disciples. We can see this because the truth in their teaching still lives today. The book theorizes that one avatar can change the energy of 1000 people. Two at the same time in history would affect a country. Four avatars like Buddha would change the world. With this in mind we can see how important our personal development really is.

We cannot have a positive effect on our world by using any negative actions. We can only work on ourselves and try to help those who want our help.  When we work on ourselves we increase our influence on others with our actions.  We cannot change things overnight, and us being in distress and unhappy will only add to the problems.

In the Dhammapada the Buddha taught “We are what we think, all that we are arises with our thoughts, with our thoughts we make the world.” Anyone who reads this will  understands it on an intellectual level. We need to understand these words in our very being. We must become these words.

With this in mind I will develop compassion, wisdom, understanding and happiness. These traits like the flame of a candle can be shared eternally without ever diminishing the original flame.  They will only go out when the fuel (compassion, wisdom, understanding and happiness) is exhausted. But as long as I feed the flame, it shall remain.

If I chose every moment how I feel, I chose to be happy.

What is compassion? According to the Buddha’s teaching without compassion man will never find peace, nor will he ever be truly happy.

Compassion is a human emotion prompted by the pain of others. More vigorous than empathy, the feeling commonly gives rise to an active desire to alleviate another’s suffering. It is often, though not inevitably, the key component in what manifests in the social context as altruism. In ethical terms, the various expressions down the ages of the so-called Golden Rule embody by implication the principle of compassion: Do to others what you would have them do to you. ^[1]

Compassion should not be confused with sympathy. When being sympathetic we feel the pain of the other party and suffer with them. Compassion means to understand the suffering of other people and wishing to end that suffering. These are much different viewpoints.

Buddhism has a Golden Rule also. Very similar to the Christian version above. It states; “Have compassion for all living beings and if you cannot have compassion then do no harm to them.” This is a very active statement, and a great way to live your life.

To practice compassion one must first develop it for one’s self. You cannot feel love and compassion for others if you don’t feel it for yourself FIRST.  Always treat yourself with the proper love and respect; you deserve it! From there you can begin to feel compassion for close friends and family members with easy. Remember we are talking compassion not sympathy!

Here is a simple meditative practice you can do to help develop greater compassion for others.  First get into the posture you would use for meditating. Calm the mind by focusing on your breathing. Once you have calmed down remember back to a time when you did something or said something that really hurt someone. We all have had these moments in our past. Remember the feelings you had when this happened. Really relive it. Now turn the tables and you become the person you hurt with your words or actions. Feel the pain they felt because of the things you said or did.  Feel the harm you did in this moment.

Next turn the table again and send forward love and compassion to this person. Then feel the way they would feel under these circumstances. Feel the difference. Now send this love and compassion to all your friends and other people in your life. Notice the great feeling you experience when you are finished. Vow to not do damage to anyone again.

Compassion brings happiness. Showing compassion will cause it to be returned to you also.

Is Buddhism a Religion?

“Buddhism does not accept a theory of God, or a creator. According to Buddhism, one’s own actions are the creator, ultimately. Some people say that, from a certain angle, Buddhism is not a religion but rather a science of mind. Religion has much involvement with faith. Sometimes it seems that there is quite a distance between a way of thinking based on faith and one entirely based on experiment, remaining skeptical. Unless you find something through investigation, you do not want to accept it as fact.

From one viewpoint, Buddhism is a religion, from another viewpoint Buddhism is a science of mind and not a religion. Buddhism can be a bridge between these two sides. Therefore, with this conviction I try to have closer ties with scientists, mainly in the fields of cosmology, psychology, neurobiology and physics. In these fields there are insights to share, and to a certain extent we can work together.”

Fear is one of the strongest emotions we have. Understanding this emotion will help us on the path to becoming happy. Fear comes in many different flavors, but we mainly need to deal with one two.  The first is the type of fear that comes from impeding real danger, and second is the type that comes from irrational thinking.  In our class room we refer to this as False Evidence Appearing Real. (F.E.A.R)

What exactly is fear? Fear is an emotional response to a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger. The brain causes the adrenal glands, located on top of the kidney’s to secrete adrenaline or cortisol into the blood stream. This causes many different effects in the body including increased hate rate, rapid breathing, more blood to flow to the larger muscle groups and less blood to flow to the digestive tract. (This is why butterflies in the stomach).

Having this happen in cases of real danger is great. It can and will save your life. The problem is when it happens continuously and for reason that are not impeding danger. This is the area we want to work with and learn to control. We cannot stop the brain from triggering the emotion, but we can learn to calm it down and control it. Learning to control fear, like anger will lead to a much happier life.

Irrational fear also leads to anxiety and worry. These are two extremely negative and psychologically damaging states of mind. An 8th century Indian Buddhist Teacher Shantideva spoke extensively about these states of mind and come to this therapy for thinking. What he taught was;

“If you look at the cause of the fear and can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying? If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying?” Today’s cognitive psychology has adopted this ancient way of thinking.

To my mind there are two excellent ways of dealing with these irrational states of mind we all encounter at some point in our lives. The first is to spend some time in mediation or reflection on the problem, looking for solutions. The second is to share the problem with a friend or family member. Both are excellent method at relieving the stresses of life.

When people talk about spirituality people often times think about meditation and leaving the physical body.  Now this does happen, but it is not the goal. The goal is to understand the body and it’s senses better. Meditation is about the connection of mind and body not just mind or just body. It is about becoming aware.

The health of the body is of utmost importance if we want to be happy. It is possible to be happy with a failing body, but this is far more challenging.  Happiness is also a practice, it is a path or a journey. You don’t just wake up one day in bliss. The causes must be set in motion for there to be an affect.

The health of the body is affected by two main things according to Tibetan Medicine. The first is the mind, how and what we are thinking. The second is what we are eating. Both are great challenges for people in our world. To obtain optimum health and happiness we must work on our thinking and what we are habitually eating.

In this day and age eating is a challenge. We are extremely busy, which is something we choose to be.  We often eat on the run, even while driving our cars. There is no consideration on what is being put into the body. Obesity in our culture is in epidemic proportions. This is all because of the mindless way in which we nourish our bodies.

Here is a point at which you can get started. First eliminate the fast food. Even a salad from a fast food outlet will offer your body little in nourishment. Learn about what you are putting into your body. Next take time when eating. I used to wolf down food as if I was in a race. Now I eat more slowly and deliberately enjoying the sensations of eating and tasting.  I also listen to my body and stop eating when it tells me. If I eat something it does not like, I listen to this also and refrain from its consumption in the future.  Eating has become a mind / body event.

Next take a serious look and reflection about how you think about your health. Your thoughts guide and control your body. Stress creates an acid environment and will lead to disease. Thinking about illness, is both physically and mentally stressing. You need to laugh and enjoy life, not worry about illness and death.  I am never sick and even when the people around me are I don’t internalize it. I think about health and my amazing immunity to illness.

If you  smoke, drink alcohol or ‘do’ drugs work on eliminating these from your life. The more your learn to listen and understand your body the more you feel the effects of how these substances are poisoning you.  I have never smoke or consumed drugs of any kind. I have virtually eliminated alcohol from my life because I can feel the effects in my cells for days afterward (this is from 1 or 2 drinks).

Exercise is a must. Get off the couch and go for a walk or bike ride with the family. Finally drink lots of water. It removes toxins and gives life. Remember we are spiritual beings have a physical experience. Make your body strong and healty so you can enjoy the journey and find happiness.

“We feel money and power can bring happiness and solve problems, but they are not definite causes of those desired states. If that were so, it would follow that those who have wealth would necessarily have happiness, and those who do not have wealth would always experience suffering. Money and power facilitate, but it is clear that they are not the primary causes of, happiness and solving our problems. It is justified for us to make material and financial development for building our nation and providing shelter, etc. for ourselves; we need to do that. But we also need to seek inner development. As we can see, there are many people who have wealth and power who remain unhappy, due to which their health declines, and they are always taking medicines. On the other hand, we find people who live like beggars but who always remain peaceful and happy.
Therefore, in our daily life a certain way of thinking makes us happy, and a certain way of thinking makes us unhappy. In other words, there are certain states of mind which bring us problems, and they can be removed; we need to make an effort in that direction. Likewise, there are certain states of mind that bring us peace and happiness, and we need to cultivate and enhance them.”

–from Generous Wisdom: Commentaries by H.H. the Dalai Lama XIV on the Jatakamala

Welcome to the 21st Century. Technology was supposed to make our lives easier, at least that is what they told us.  But today we seeing people walking down the street, driving their cars, at the grocery store and even in the bathroom talking on their cell phones. So much for freedom.

We have become so attached to technology that we cannot imagine life without it anymore. The price however is the stress levels this technology is costing us. Do we really need to be connected all the time? As many of you know I run a martial arts school. Every month we have a belt testing. At the start of testing we ask parents and visitors to turn off or put their phones on vibrate. Each testing at least 2 or 3 phones go off. The parent, embarrassed run out to answer the phone. Was it really that important?

I think it is time for people to get their priorities in life straight. If you are one of these people that I am referring to your stress levels may well be out of control. How are you sleeping at night? How are your personal relationships? How is your health? You need to take a serious inventor and get focused on what matters before it is too late.

Here are some examples to help you detach from these attachments.

• Turn off your phone when you are eating or spending time with family
• Answer your email once of twice per day only
• Force yourself to take quiet time to reflect on how you are feeling.
• Get some exercise, go for a walk
• Spend time with family and friends.

Technology is great as long as it serves US. Your employer also need to understand that you are no good to anyone when you are all stressed out. If you need to get up 20 minutes earlier in the morning and do some meditation.  There is no better way to quiet the mind.

Blue Buddha: lost secrets of Tibetan medicine “Twelve hundred years ago the people of Tibet developed a comprehensive medical system. They understood how the mind affects the body. They knew subtle ways of changing the body’s chemistry with medicines made from plants and minerals. They blessed their medicines in lengthy rituals. And they encoded this knowledge in a series of elaborate paintings called thangkas. Blue Buddha: Lost Secrets of Tibetan Medicine traces the odyssey of traditional Tibetan medicine from it’s roots in ancient Tibet, to a worldwide interest in it’s traditional medical wisdom. We meet several leading physicians in India, as the program introduces us to the basic concepts of this ancient system of healing. We also trace the fate of the 77 thangkas that comprise the Atlas of Tibetan Medicine, the great mnemonic device that encodes the entire system of healing. From the snows of Siberia and the Himalayas to the vital culture of Tibet in exile, in Dharamsala, India, this is a stunning look at where Tibetan medicine has come from.

Blue Buddha: Lost Secrets of Tibetan Medicine focuses on the life of a Buddhist monk and a doctor who practices traditional Tibetan medicine in Siberia. It hasn’t always been easy. At times he’s been hounded by the KGB and forbidden to leave the country. Through it all he’s kept his faith in the power of Buddhist medicine. This documentary follows Tuvan Lama, in his role as vital member of this remote community, as he treats his patients, conducts traditional rituals and passes on this vast medical heritage to the next generation. Just as Buddhism informs the rituals of this community, Tuvan Lama believes Buddhism and Tibetan Medicine go together, as they are inseparable. He believes one has to know the foundation of Buddhism in order to understand the foundations of the medicine. To his mind, it needs to be understood with the body, the mind, and the soul.”

-CBC http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/show_bluebuddah.html

“I would like to explain the meaning of compassion which is often misunderstood. Genuine compassion is based not on our own projections and expectations, but rather on the rights of the other: irrespective of whether another person is a close friend or an enemy, as long as that person wishes for peace and happiness and wishes to overcome suffering, then on that basis we develop a genuine concern for his or her problems. This is genuine compassion.

Usually when we are concerned about a close friend, we call this compassion. This is not compassion; it is attachment. Even in marriage, those marriages that last only a short time, do so because of attachment – although it is generally present – but because there is also compassion. Marriages that last only a short time do so because of a lack of compassion; there is only emotional attachment based on projection and expectation. When the only bond between close friends is attachment, then even a minor issue may cause one´s projections to change. As soon as our projections change, the attachment disappears, because that attachment was based solely on projection and expectation. It is possible to have compassion without attachement, and similarly, to have anger without hatred.

Therefore we need to clarify the distinctions between compassion and attachment, and between anger and hatred. Such clarity is useful in our daily life and in our efforts toward world peace. I consider these to be basic spiritual values for the happness of all human beings, regardless of whether one is a believer or a nonbeliever.”

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