Memento Mori

Memento Mori (Latin)--"Remember you must die."

In the Middle Ages, a popular school of art arose which was known as Memento Mori. Essentially, the term means, "Remember you must die," and the art form was designed to remind people of their mortality.

Remembering my own mortality is easier now than it was before. I thought, as we all tend to do in our youth, that I would live forever. I managed to hold onto that belief until I fell apart some years back and found myself in Damascus facing my own demise. The strange part about that whole experience was that I did not die, and for the past several years, I have been left to wonder why.

Given the utter and catastrophic conclusion of my dreams after I fell apart and committed a crime, I still have no idea why I'm here. I do try each day to find reasons, but like Marc Antony when he knew that the jig was up and Octavian was going to kill him at Actium, I have let go of hope and therefore let go of any anxiety about my demise.

Is what I now feel a tragedy or a moment of enlightenment? I'm not sure exactly. But I know that by expecting absolutely nothing from life, I also feel no sense of anxiety about it. Ergo, I don't care if I die. In fact, I will welcome death like a long-lost friend and fall into her arms and rest eternally in peace.

The Buddha spoke most eloquently of letting go of desires--i.e. hopes and dreams of earthly delight. By doing so, he said wisely, we become free and death is not fearful. In fact, as Thich Nhat Hanh says, we have nothing left to fear in death since it is merely another phase of our becoming and the gateway to potential nirvana.

I remind all my readers today, then, to remember you will die. Make your life simpler, delight in the small miracles, and forget about the rest. 

A History of Violence

Transformation is not simply a word. It is a genuine reality for many people. If a human being's heart is moved toward making a real change, then true conversion is possible. Think of Paul and the dramatic change he made after he was literally struck down on Damascus Rd.  Despite the fact that he spent the majority of his subsequent years on earth inside prison cells or being stoned by people in cities that did not believe in his change or in what he taught, he lived a pure life and left behind some of the most powerful words about transformation and the power of love in the Bible.

Think also of Mary Magdalene, a woman who reputedly was a prostitute, yet after she met Jesus, she became an apostle, a devout follower. No one wanted to believe in Mary's change either, but she was probably one of the most important people in the New Testament and in Jesus' life. She was in fact the first person who saw him after he was resurrected.

I know how rare it is for people to believe that you are capable of change after you make a mistake in this life. I know because I am a person who erred greatly, and yet, I have transformed as utterly and completely as a butterfly after changing from a caterpillar. The butterfly can never go back to its cocoon. It's transformation is absolute. And, I, like the butterfly, have transformed my life. I have transformed as an act of daily will and commitment. My change is complete. And though most people don't want to believe I have changed after the unfortunate crime I committed, I can only prove my change is true by living a pure life, one in which I am mindful of my actions, one in which I love others and show compassion for all beings. I am "being" peace and showing I am peaceful each and every day.

If you have ever been in my situation and you have undergone a change, yet you still feel judged by others, do not trouble yourself or feel despair. Live a good life, one which you are unashamed of. Be happy and forgiving of yourself. Love yourself, even if no one else, except God, loves you. And whether people believe in your change or not, you will be free and happy and can find peace.

No one is born perfect or absolutely good. We all err, and we all must forgive one another for it. If we don't, we are all less free. Freedom is our birthright, and no matter what mistakes we make, we all deserve a right to be free.

Being Happy is Embodying Happiness

Being on the "right path" has to do with the very concrete ways in which you live your life in every moment. This makes you happy, and it also makes the people around you happy. Even if you haven't "done" anything yet to make them happy, once you are walking that path and you are happy doing so, you become fresh and compassionate and people benefit from being around you.

Look at the tree in the front yard: the tree doesn't seem to do anything. It just stands there, vigorous, fresh, and beautiful, and everyone benefits from it. That is the miracle of being. So if you can be yourself, this is already love, this is already action. Action is based on nonaction, and nonaction is the practice of being.

--Thich Nhat Hanh, The Art of Power

The most beautiful thing I have learned about life is contained in the simplicity and power of the Buddhist concept of action and being through nonaction. It is the most unique and complete teaching I have found and it is one which applies to all of us. The Buddha did not teach a religion. He did not even really teach a philosophy. Instead, what he taught was a science of finding happiness and ending sorrow.

In its simplest terms, as Thich Nhat Hanh says in the passage above, we can be most powerful and most happy by embodying the peace and the joy that comes from living fully in each moment. The idea is that you simply need to be your highest self. Let your truest and purest self shine through. Make other people's lives better just by being yourself, by embodying love, compassion, and peace in every moment.

We are all looking for a way to be happy. And we have the power to be so within us. Happiness is not an external quantity to be found by chasing after dreams and illusions. It is found in the simple act of being yourself, of loving yourself, and of sharing your being with others so that they too might find the way to happiness.

The Buddha was asked to simplify his teachings and tell people the answer to the question of how to be happy. He said, in the simplest and yet most profound terms that, to be happy, we should simply:

1. Avoid doing the bad things (i.e. things which cause suffering to you and others).
2. Do the good things (i.e. things which cause joy and eliminate sorrow for you and others).
3. Purify and subdue your own mind.

These steps sound too simple to some people, but if you put them into practice, you will find that there is no art to being happy. It is a practical, concrete science that begins with living fully and being fully in this moment, this instant, and letting go of all the painful desires and cravings that make life harder than it has to be. Forget about fame, wealth, sex and power. Focus on the diamond at the center of you. It is your soul. Love that. Foster it. And happiness will come like the spring rain.

Just breathe....

Measure for Measure

Woe to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed! Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not been betrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you stop betraying, you will be betrayed. --Isaiah 33:1

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There are those among us who are evil. There is no other word for them and there are no cogent explanations for why they exist, but we all know they do exist, and they exist to do wrong to others. These people are the ones who enjoy hatred, sorrow, and pain and care nothing for love or compassion. These people follow the wind. They live by no creed or code. And, the Holy Bible makes clear the fates of those who follow the whirlwind. Those people will inherit the wind itself because of their own evil deeds, and their very lives will be lost in the dust. As Isaiah wisely said of such persons, they will be destroyed and betrayed. This is a truth borne out by many other spiritual and philosophical works. The Buddha spoke intensely of the subject of reaping what one sows in the Dhammapada. He said that one who is busily performing evil deeds to harm others may go on doing so for a long time without the seed of their evil works bearing their fruits. But, as surely as day follows night, the evil fruit will bear. Likewise, those who perform good works and plant therefore good seeds will bear beautiful fruit in time. This is as certain as the flower budding out in spring.

We must all love one another and take responsibility for our actions. We must measure accordingly our words and deeds and make each of them count.

Pure, Transparent Freedom

I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom.  ~Simone de Beauvoir

Freedom is a beautiful and noble ideal to which we should all aspire each day. Freedom is made of the individual rights of all the people who make up the world. If even one person's freedoms are railroaded for convenience sake, we all suffer for it. And, I am saddened to say that here in my own country, I see freedom eroding bit by bit each day as our government throws our civil liberties to the wind.

But history is littered with such episodes where fascists, despots, or simply brutes have taken the rights of the common man and woman and destroyed them. At one such frightening time in history, Sir Thomas More was one man who stood against the brutishness of his sovereign. And as he said, so bravely and beautifully in response to his son-in-law, William Roper, who asks him if he would "give the Devil the benefit of the law?" in A Man for All Seasons,

SIR THOMAS MORE: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

ROPER: I’d cut down every law in England to do that!

MORE: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!   

Sir Thomas More, by the way, was the only man willing to stand in opposition to Henry VIII when he was trying to seek a divorce from his lawful wife in order to marry Anne Boleyn. The King asked More too much when he asked that he betray his own conscience and agree to vote for the alteration of the laws prohibiting his divorce from a woman whom had in no way injured or betrayed him. Thomas More, sadly, spent his remaining years being tortured in the Tower of London and ended up with his head on a spike.

Such tragic instances as Thomas More's are sadly too commonplace in history. There are so many countless people who have stood against authority when authority was plainly wrong. Few of them, however, lived to tell of the tale.

We live now in dangerous times when people like More are difficult to find. You might come across one here or there, perhaps in an Abby or hidden away as a hermit. They are hidden because they know the world and what it is capable of. 

It's time to ask yourself a hard question: "Are you waiting for someone else to be your hero, or are you willing to stand for something?"

I am ready to stand for one thing and one thing only: Freedom. The beautiful freedom Thomas Payne spoke so brilliantly of when he shouted, "Give me liberty or give me death."

I think it's time now, my friends, to remember that freedom is lost for everyone when we allow anyone to be abused in the name of the law. Stand for liberty, for EVERY American citizen's liberty, not just your own.

The Unexpected

Natalie Portman in her unexpected and jaw-dropping role as a knowing young stripper in 'Closer'

How well do you deal with unexpected events in life? Do you find them thrilling and dangerous or do you find them brutal and absolute? The Zen philosophy is that we should anticipate nothing. But if we must anticipate something, then we should expect the reverse of what we imagine may happen.

The wise and soulful Hindus believe that we should live with the total acceptance of the reality that, our souls (our atmans) are all that matter about us as living creatures. Hence, we should set our sights on the eternal and the ultimate consciousness from which we all came and to which we all shall return. These earthly matters, the wise sages of India tell us, are nothing but maya (illusion) and we must take the reins and control our wild desires for pleasure, money and fame.

I believe both are true and that the stage of our soul's education in life is determined by constant battles between reality and illusion.

Swami Vivikananda tells us that we must learn always through all of the painful blows life brings to our souls, that while these blows may hurt us, they also teach us the necessary ability to discern between truth and fiction, between illusion and reality. Swamiji's name is based on the Hindu word 'vivek' which means to discern between good or truth and bad or falsity. His name suited him perfectly, and we should learn from his brilliant example, his rare ability to see reality and to dismiss and refuse to accept illusions.