John Boehner

The other day, after meeting Pope Francis, John Boehner announced he's stepping down as Speaker of the House and even resigning his seat.

My gut reaction to this news was confusion. I felt like that I "should" be happy to see him go. He stands across the political aisle from my views, and I guess that means he's an "enemy." However, I also know that he has been a moderate voice on the Republican side who's been faced with an uprising from the Tea Party group. The Tea Party view points are even further away from mine, so maybe it comes down to "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." I contemplated what this may mean for the future for a bit, and conclude that I am personally fearful that a hard-line Tea Party representative will replace him. Thus while I disagree with him on many points, the evil you know is better than the evil you do not know. Further, I could observe a seed of compassion in Boehner that I do not see in many other Republicans in this Congress. In conclusion, I am sad to see him go (even if I should be happy given our political differences).

After diving into work for a bit, I pulled up a few news pages. As expected all the headlines revolved around Boehner's announcement. They provided some additional information I didn't know - especially that he had had a private meeting with Pope Francis outside of his addressing Congress. I also learned this day fulfilled a long-time dream of his. They also gave examples and context on just how hard he had to fight within factions of the GOP, and I realized how frustrating that would be for him on a personal level. My conclusion that I'm sad to see him give up and quit became more firm.

By that evening, the headlines expanded to include the reactions of other political headliners. In short, Ted Cruz was out dancing in the street, celebrating this decision. That his resignation makes Cruz happy made it all the more obvious that I should not be happy with this decision to give up his elected position. In this case, the enemy of my enemy is indeed my friend.

To John Boehner: I am sorry to see you give up on this fight. But I understand that being Speaker in the current climate is an untenable and unwinnable situation. I truly hope your audience with the Pontiff has opened your heart and eyes to the possibilities of where treating everyone with compassion can lead us. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors and implore you to keep your humility. If your next professional step requires compromise with opposing viewpoints, may the world see you're doing the best with what you've been given.


Because a thing is national of the past, it need not follow that it must be national of the future. -- Sri Aurobindo

One Thing At A Time

Somewhere along the line I read or heard mention of the practice to focus solely on a single task at a time. This was quite a while ago on my journey, so I cannot picture the original source that opened this concept to me. However, it aligns well with the mantra recitation I've written about before  - where when I'm doing something mundane like washing the dishes, I will often repeat "Om Namah Shivaya" to help focus my mind and stop the Ego monologue.

In recent times, this mantra practice has stopped in many home-based tasks because I nearly always have Pandora playing one of three stations (if you're curious, they're Krishna Das Radio, Bhagavan Das Radio, and MC Yogi Radio). The results are similar, however, as I focus on the music and chants and contemplate their meaning rather than doing it on my on in silence.

Back to the point, doing one task at a time, being un-attached to the results of that action, has been a beneficial practice for me. I lost track of the times I've run up the stairs of my townhouse, spilling tea or coffee on the carpeted steps. What used to happen is that I'd wander downstairs for a refill, then jog back upstairs to get back to work. My task was "getting back to work" which doesn't quite fit. The result was that I'd jog up the steps, the liquid would slosh a bit, and sometimes splatter onto the carpet. Then I'd have to delay "getting back to work" to address the "clean up this mess" task before it could stain the carpet. Spilling carelessly is just one side event, but others might include toe-stubbing or forgetting what I actually went downstairs to do in the first place. I'm sure we've all been there!

Nowadays, as my coffee cup empties, I move downstairs with the single task "refill coffee." That may change into "rinse out coffee maker" and other little things in between. Then when I'm going back upstairs, my task is "carry coffee to office." With my focus on that task, there hasn't been a single spill or toe-stub since. It seems to work.

Recently I read 101 Zen Stories (a fun short read) and came across this gem (reproduced without permission; 101 Zen Stories attributes this to Essential Zen. May the original authors be pleased with my use of their story):

Seung Sahn would say, "When you eat, just eat. When you read the newspaper, just read the newspaper. Don't do anything other than what you are doing."

One day a student saw him reading the newspaper while he was eating. The student asked if this did not contradict his teachings.  

Seung Sahn said, "When you eat and read the newspaper, just eat and read the newspaper."

One can of course chalk this little story up to "do as I say, not as I do" but that would discount the wisdom in focusing one's mind on a single task. Rather it speaks to the speed of our modern society. As eating takes some focus, it also takes some time. Reading takes more focus and also takes time. In the interest of time, I believe there's leeway in this teaching to combine certain activities without missing the point. There's no need to try to create a list of activities that are OK to combine, but maybe to point out a key activity that you cannot combine:  Listening. You cannot listen well when you are also reading, when you are waiting to speak next, when you are watching TV, or many other activities. Not listening fully is disrespectful. After all, you expect to be heard when you're speaking, right? So put down your phone, put down the book, face your friend, and listen with respect.

Performing your task with singular focus yet being un-attached to the results is a concept I would like to visit in a future post.


Opinions are not knowledge, they are only sidelights on knowledge. Most often they are illegitimate extensions of an imperfect knowledge. -- Sri Aurobindo

Still here!

Less Writing Recently

Well, it's again been too long since I've posted. There are a few reasons for this. First, I tend to use this blog as my own personal one-to-many soapbox to shout my opinions. But that's also how I use Facebook. Given the higher level of interaction on FB versus a blog, that's where I've been doing most of my recent writing. It does pose a challenge, however, since FB posts must be more succinct and to the point than a rambling blog post. And I do miss my longer form writing practice.

More significantly, however, many of my blog posts evolve over time. They start as a gut reaction to something I've read or experienced. Then I mull over the concept in my mind for a while. Sometimes a couple hours, sometimes a couple weeks. During this internal mulling period, the topic and key points will take shape in my head until I've worked through various details and paths, then I set it to "paper" in a post. Many times, the post follows quite well the script in my head (although any faithful reader will find the exceptions in poorly thought out posts like this one!).

This process has been curtailed recently. Nowadays, as I practice more often "present moment awareness" and "be here now" philosophies, I still find myself running an internal monologue. These are the seeds to blog posts. However, that internal conversation of rehashing opinions and refining arguments is counter to present moment awareness. Thus, I consciously turn off my monologue, partake in an abbreviated breathing meditation, then move on with my day. The end results is that my obsessive train of thought gets stopped at a station, never to reach its destination.

I've started to mitigate this a bit by jotting down notes of topics I'd like to think and write about in the future. It's certainly not a bad thing to spend time thinking about the issues of the day -- yet I do believe it's a bad thing to live your life with that constant Ego voice running amok all day long.

So let me catch up a little here with a few different topics and plant a couple seeds out there for others to think over (but not to ruminate!). I hope to get back to some 'real' writing soon.

Reading

I often read several books at a time, inching my way through each. My recently purchased iPad provides me a more mobile platform (using the Kindle app, which is quite good) and lets me catch up on some books I have in PDF format (hint: email it to your @kindle address with "convert" as the subject line). I've never been able to read books in front of a computer, so this helps. Here are a few things I've been exploring recently:

Bhagavad Gita
Most ancient texts are not simply republished in the latest translation. Instead, they're translated and published along side commentary. After reading some of these, I really wish someone would publish the New Testament in this format. (To be honest, however, I have not looked that hard for this yet.)

For my exploration of the Bhagavad Gita, I'm actually reading two translations/commentaries at once. I'll finish a chapter in Bhagavad Gita As It Is and then I'll read the same chapter in Jnaneshwari. These books could hardly be more different even though they cover the exact same ancient text. I quickly discovered the first is written from the perspective of the Krishna Consciousness movement. I have nothing negative to say about that movement, except that I do not prescribe to it. In their view, they place Lord Krishna above all else - they draw clear distinctions from the Buddhist and other Hindu views that "we're all one." Regardless, they come from a pure and well-intentioned place, and there are many parallels easily drawn from their interpretation.

Jnanashwar lived 800 years ago and is a fascinating person. All of his writing was done before he died at the young age of 21. His commentary on the Bhagavad Gita became so famous that his name and the works title are nearly synonymous. His commentary is wonderfully uplifting and I am enjoying it quite a bit.

I'm only into the 3rd chapter of the Gita. The first chapter harped a little too much on justification of war for my taste, but I am learning a lot and will be diligently finishing these commentaries in short order (I hope!).

Essays Divine and Human
This is a collection of works by Sri Aurobindo. I recommend finding this (or I can send over a PDF if you'd like). The author addresses many subjects from poetry to European influences in Hindu India to divine topics. His writing style as crisp and powerful as his insights. I can only read one or two essays in a sitting because this is one of those works that you have to reflect on what you just read to really let it sink it. A cursory overview won't do it justice.

Politics

It's the start of the next political season in the USA. The next Republican debate is tomorrow evening, and the Democrats will debate soon. My personal opinion is that the entire GOP slate is un-electable. Each of the candidates has numerous positions on issues that I strongly disagree with, but there are many common themes as well. The GOP is well underway continuing it's War on Women and it's misguided evangelical Christian motivations. Eventually when the field thins some more, maybe I'll treat each candidate individually. For now, I'll just address two:

Donald Trump
Trump is the biggest egomaniac I've ever seen. While I write a lot here about working to reduce one's Ego, Trump brings this to an entirely new level. He's racist, misogynistic and classist. I read an analysis of his speeches that determined he speaks at a 3rd grade level -- well below any President in history, and below all of his contemporaries. The problem here is that when you rant like a 3rd grader, you end up with a bunch of 3rd graders following you.

My son quipped over the weekend that he heard people only like Trump because he's not afraid "to tell it like it is." I've heard variations of this theme for months. The challenge here is that nobody else says those things on a national stage because they're not bigoted buffoons. If you really think Trump is the best person to lead this country, you really need to spend some time in self examination of your beliefs and priorities. Sadly, most of his followers likely lack the cognitive capacity required for that much-needed introspection. My fingers are crossed that people will wake up to his antics soon.

Bernie Sanders
Sanders is my current candidate of choice for many reasons. In comparison with the rest of the field, Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz are more aligned on big-government business-as-usual issues than Clinton is with Sanders. That's very revealing. Sanders has proven leadership, a solid platform, and a no-nonsense approach. The media slander (or outright ignoring him) and the "socialist" label hasn't damped his campaign so far, and he has much room for growth. He recently addressed the Christian Liberty University, and it was all-around wonderful.

If we can get out the word regarding his platform (because the media isn't helping him) I think many middle-of-the-road voters will find solace in his viewpoints. I'm planning to head down to DC next month for a rally in support of Sanders. Hope to see you there!

Conservatives (in general)
While my Facebook feed is relatively cleared of Fox News junkies (they've either been unfriended or hidden), sometimes likes/shares still filter through. I am continually amazed at how negative all of it is. From the Drudge Report (which is barely news -- a blog opinion isn't a news source, and neither is a UK tabloid) to Allan West's disgusting website, nearly every article is strongly negative. I've repeated many times that the right wing is driven by fear, so it's not worth diving into again, but keep an eye out on this as you read their content. Fear and hatred are no basis for a political party. As a contrast, I do see many posts from the left wing edge as well. They too fall into the same missing-sources trap sometimes, but even in those cases, the message is often "this good thing happened" or "we need to address this issue" or "how can help with this tragedy" versus the right-wing standards of "this is horrible", "blame this person for this situation", and "look at this tragedy". The differences are startlingly obvious if you take a moment to look.

Parting Shots

I truly hope to write more in the coming weeks. But even if I don't, let me depart for now with just a few more points.

Diet -- nearly every non-genetic physical ailment can be resolved by moving to a whole-grain plant-based diet. Avoid meat, minimize dairy, minimize processed foods. You don't need to spend 4 days a week killing your joints in a gym to lose weight. Just make better choices and stay active. It really is that simple. See Forks Over Knives for more.

Patience -- the opposite of anger is patience. Every task or event in your life is an opportunity to practice patience. The point of practicing something is that it will eventually become the default response. It's easy to be angry, everyone knows how to do that. But anger makes absolutely nothing better. Nothing. Be patient. When you have a new "problem" arise in your life (from mundane traffic situations to serious home repairs), if you face the necessary actions as a set of tasks, patiently moving to the goal without attachment, everything works much better than the alternative of facing it with anger and self-righteousness.

I experience suffering in my life. But countless others are experiencing more suffering than I am. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all be free from suffering?


Man may be, as he has been defined, a reasoning animal, but it is necessary to add that he is, for the most part, a very badly-reasoning animal. -- Sri Aurobindo