Waving the White (Prayer) Flag

When I first began reading about Buddhism and Tibetan culture, I was inspired by the romance of Tibetan Prayer flags. 

Prayer flags come in sets of five different colors. The colors are arranged from left to right in a specific order: blue, white, red, green, and yellow with each color representing the five elements. Blue symbolizes the sky and space, white symbolizes the air and wind, red symbolizes fire, green symbolizes water, and yellow symbolizes earth. According to traditional Tibetan medicine, health and harmony are produced through the balance of the five elements.

Each flag is printed with prayers. As the sun shines through them and the wind passes over them and they slowly unravel, the prayers are slowly dispersed into the world. There is just something about this that makes me feel good. My flags hang on my balcony and they remind me throughout the day to be compassionate, to be grateful for all I have, and to be generous to those in need. They are the last thing I see when I begin my morning meditation and the first thing I see upon its completion.

Traditionally, prayer flags are flown until they completely disintegrate. Hence the reason you see grayish flags slowly moldering on the homes of many Buddhists. My flags, however, are not disintegrating uniformly. Rather, my white flags, are coming to pieces before my eyes while the others are largely intact.

The white flags represent wind, which is the element responsible for our thoughts and our movements. I wonder if the flags are consumed as needed by the surroundings. Or do the tattered white flags symbolize something specifically about my thoughts and movements - too much, too little, too deep, too frivolous, too self-centered, too much in the past, too focused on future tasks. Who knows? And, since the rope finally rotted through this past weekend, I guess I will never know if the other flags would have endured or soon followed the white flag's dispersal. 

Spiritual Path: Karma Finally Catches Up With Me

Bangkok: 10 years ago. Today I would call it Karma.

Last summer I took a leap and followed a path that had been calling me. After a few classes on meditation I knew I had made the right decision, but there was so much to learn. Following the new year, I began attending a series of Discovering Buddhism classes offered through the Kadampa Center. This series consists of 14, six-week courses, each focused on one aspect of Buddhist philosophy. If you attend all 14 courses, including a two week retreat, and complete the assignments, you receive a certificate. 

It is possible that one day I may become a certified Buddhist, until then, I will continue working to improve myself. 

 The most recent course focused on the rather complicated topic of Karma. To complete the course, students were asked to answer this following question:  

 According to the Buddha, every aspect of our experience of life, no matter how trivial or insignificant, is the result of karma, our past actions of body, speech, and mind. Do you agree or disagree with this? Why? Whether you believe this or not, how would your life be different if you lived as if this were true?

My Answer:

Even before I took my first class at the Kadampa Center, I always felt that there was a cause and effect for all things that happen in this life – I simply lacked the framework for properly understanding it. Of course, I was previously more apt to apply this outlook to the problems of others rather than myself. From a distance it is often easier to see how someone is making a rather uncomfortable bed in which they will one day be whining about having to sleep. And, I hate to admit, I have rather bluntly and with a lack of compassion pointed out to family, friends, and co-workers that the unhappy situation in which they find themselves appears to be due to loose lips, poor choices, or not taking the time to read and follow the instructions.

Over the last ten years or so, I have attempted to think of myself as a self-contained, pragmatic person; however, following my recent introduction to the intricacies of Karma, I feel as if the light has broken through the clouds. Rather than attempting to exist as an island with no cares in the world, I now find that I am trying harder to be kind and compassionate to the people I interact with on a daily basis and more friendly to people randomly encountered throughout the day. I feel myself taking the time to recognize when I am being impatient, not practicing generosity, about to say something without thinking, or obsessing about the fly that is buzzing around my home. My nascent awareness (and sharp wit) may not prevent me from speaking before thinking in every occasion, but I do feel that by recognizing those actions that result in unhappiness and making the effort to avoid them, my happiness quotient has increased.

If I had this knowledge from an earlier age, rather than learning it at the contemplative age of 50, I am unsure how my life would be different today. Perhaps I would have worked harder to maintain some relationships and ended others more quickly. Perhaps I would have considered the long-term consequences of my choices rather than the short-term pleasures I sought. In retrospect, there are some decisions and words I wish I could take back. However, regardless of these past actions, today I can only learn from the past and act in a manner that generates positive karma to carry forward. After all, I would not be on this happy path today had I not acted as I did in the past. For that I am grateful.

Namaste!  

The Karma of Breaking Bad

Last year, I made a resolution to explore my spiritual side. This consisted of attending meditation classes at a local Buddhist temple. I followed that by taking an Introduction to Buddhism class. Since then, I have continued my meditation practice and reading. Buddhism is a bit like being your own therapist in that it forces you to be aware of your thoughts and recognize that YOUR actions and reactions result in your own happiness or suffering.  I am intrigued by these teachings, in that it is easy to see the wisdom of being both wise and kind as a means to avoid mental suffering.

I have found that my practice over the past year has made a noticeable difference in my life. I am a more considerate driver (LOL), more patient with and empathetic to others, slower to judge, more thoughtful in my speech, more focused on finding the positive, and much more analytical of my motivations resulting in a contentedness I have not felt for many years.

A few weeks ago, I took the next step on this journey by signing up for a Discovering Buddhism class, which is a two year course divided into 14 different curricula. The current course work focuses on Karma, which when directly translated, simply means “action.”

There are four laws of Karma

1)    Karma is definite: Virtuous actions always lead to happiness, while non-virtuous actions always lead to suffering.

2)    Karma expands over time like a seed that grows into a mighty oak tree.

3)    There is no result without a cause (i.e. cause and effect)

4)    Karma cannot be lost; however bad Karma can be purified and good Karma can be destroyed by anger.

Pretty simple actually - I am not to blame, but I am responsible for my life, my joy, and my suffering. Which brings me to the topic of today’s blog post: The AMC series Breaking Bad.

Several family members, friends, and colleagues have recommended this show, but I have been actively trying to reduce the amount of time I spend in front of the television, so I simply added the first season to my Netflix queue last year. A few weeks ago, the first CD made its way to my mailbox and I am now obsessed with the tragic life of Walter White.

If you are not familiar with the series, this synopsis from IMDB pretty much sums it up: “Informed he has terminal cancer, an underachieving chemistry genius turned high school teacher uses his expertise to secretly provide for his family by producing the world's highest quality crystal meth.” While there is plenty of tragedy, sadness, and anger, there is also plenty of love and humor to balance the series.

What intrigues me is that while I watch it, I see all the laws of Karma at work. Walter’s motivations are honorable, yet the non-virtuous means he utilizes for obtaining his goal does not lead to happiness and security for his family. Rather, as he states in a fit of anger, for every step forward, he is pushed three steps further from his goal. The karmic seeds he plants in the first season continue to bear bitter fruit in the second season and probably into seasons to come. His actions negatively affect not only his psyche, but also the lives of his family, co-workers, partners and “employees.”

Buddhists do not believe in chance, meaning we are where we are in life due to the choices we have made in the past. I am beginning to think there may be something to this since my Netflix queue seems to have been perfectly attuned to my spiritual journey.  Or maybe I am simply more attuned to Karmic results due to the classes I am attending. Either way, I am grateful for the life lesson and excellent entertainment this series provides.

Lesson learned: Meth is bad and will ruin your life – whether you are cooking, selling, or using it!