In 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan responded to a photograph of
the earth seen as the tiniest blue speck on a ray of
sun, it was taken from Voyager 1 spaceprobe at a distance of an astonishing 6 billion km as it entered
interstellar space:
‘Consider that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you
love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever
was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands
of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager,
every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king
and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful
child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt
politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader,"
every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a
mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.’
Back home in 2013, an unusual
year of extreme global weather, violence and significant loss is coming to a close
and as that happens there’s a growing feeling that we are surfing the waves of
an accelerating and uncertain tide, while politics, economics and
meteorological events roll out and threaten to tip us into unknown waters.
And we are the lucky ones: money may be tight, but most of us here in
Ireland have a roof over our heads, enough food and drink, medicine and
healthcare.
The Irish weather is pretty bearable and we
have a general sense that whatever storms have been breaking across the country
in the last few weeks will be temporary, not too harsh, we may experience some
power cuts, but we can trust that we will have warmth, clean water and
something to wear as a matter of course.
We also trust that our material needs will continue to be met. In fact we are told by recycling agencies
that the quantities of waste packaging has risen at an alarming rate this year,
so it seems most of us here have more than enough.
But how many of the world’s population at
this moment can rest in the safety of that feeling, and how does this
discrepancy in equality come about on a boundary-less dust mote caught in the
rays of the sun; on our blue dot of a planet?
After his moonwalk in 1971, astronaut Edgar
Mitchell described what he later came to understand as a Savikalpa Samadhi moment: during his flight in Apollo 14, his physical body dissolved into
a greater consciousness and he understood that his body and the stars in the heavens
are not separate things, but that “ a learning, self-organizing principle” underlies all creation. He said, “Part of my epiphany in space was recognizing
that beneath the blue and white cover of Earth, we humans were behaving like
juveniles. We are a juvenile species. By and large, we are so consumed with
greed and self-service that we miss the larger point. This is what the great
mystics in all religions have tried to get us to see. No one who has had such
an experience could be violent”.
Mitchell described what meditation practitioners
seek to achieve and stabilise; an
irreversible cognitive experience that provides the impetus for the practice of
limitless compassionate action through wisdom and skillful means. In his book A
Hierarchy of Needs, psychologist
Abraham Maslow coined the term peak
experience to describe how a cosmic shift in awareness such as this allows
for a whole new attitude to emerge in a person’s thinking. When experienced it will prompt irreversible
changes in the brain/mind – from personal to transpersonal.
What is it then, that causes humanity to
organise itself in a way that belies this natural intelligence?
In Buddhism we study the Four Reminders to help us
to become familiar with the concept of interdependent existence, to contemplate
the fact that all we do with body speech and mind has a wider effect beyond
ourselves: that we are intimately connected to the whole
universe – we are a minute organism dancing in the cosmos with far reaching
effects, because in essence we are
the cosmos.
There is nothing we do or think that doesn’t impact
upon others, whether it is sitting in meditation or prayer, or sending our
redundant computer to Ghana to be stripped of its metals and burnt by young boys who should
be at school.
When on a visit to Naropa University 16th
Karmapa, was asked to summarise Buddhism in a sentence, he said simply, ‘Everything changes’. But when we contemplate what change means we
often make the mistake of believing it is the domain of someone else, the
prerogative of something outside ourselves, we think of change coming our way
in manageable bite sizes, whereby we’ll retain an element of control. We can also be caught in the notion that
change in this context is a negative thing. Change can be slow and insidious or
it may come crashing down like a tree in last nights storm, what is important
is the way in which we respond to it: to the sudden onslaught of anger from a
distraught child; or in the face of unexpected redundancy, or a financial windfall,
or a diagnosis of a serious illness, or, in the way we appreciate how the spacecraft
window can casually frame a miracle.
The key lies with our capacity to be skilful,
to look beyond the immediate impact of an ending or a beginning, and to know
what is needed; to go beyond a juvenile response or deluded thinking, or the
urge to go to war, and become aware of the dissonant emotional response that is
generated within us by any irksome news of a difference. It requires a personal discipline inspired by
an altruistic outlook that is guided by knowing inwardly that what Edgar Mitchell experienced is true for us all. The
Buddha knew it, Christ knew it, the ancient mystics knew it.
Sadly most of us won’t be able to travel in a
spacecraft, so we need another tool.
The Tripitaka, or ‘Three Baskets’
of Tibetan Buddhism contain all the teachings need to train, step by step, in this way of being. As Mattieu Ricard says, it is
a skill to be learned and you have to put some effort into it.
For the last three years Ringu Tulku Rinpoche
has been teaching a shedra online, on the Bodhicharyavatara by Shantideva.
The
Bodhicharyavatara summarises the heart of the Tripitaka, the Buddha’s
teachings. Shantideva was an 8th century Mahasiddha, who was
born of a noble family in Sri lanka, and refused a palatial home life in order
become a monk and join a monastery. He was known as the original Lazy Lama
because he shirked his studies, but in fact he was a brilliant man, blessed by Buddha
Manjusri, who after being teased by his sangha for his lazy ignorance imparted the complete
teachings in one sitting, from memory. It is said that as he taught he rose from his
seat and disappeared into the sky.
diligent use of the disciplines of patience,
generosity, right conduct and equanimity, until eventually wisdom arises. The advice given is practical
and accessible for our modern times, relating to the development of bodhicitta; the kindly, open and wise heart that recognises
it is not separate from you, me, or the stars in the sky.
The shedra is broken down into chapters, and
Rinpoche teaches in 15 minute mp3 sessions that arrive into your email mailbox often
weekly, depending on his schedule. They can be watched, listened to or read as
transcripts, according to your mood and Ringu Tulku will answer questions and
elaborate points when requested.
Sources:
Dr.
Edgar Mitchell with Dwight Williams (1996) The
Way of the Explorer, An Apollo
Astronaut’s Journey Through the Material and Mystical Worlds. Putnam Adult
ISBN 0-399-14161-8
Maslow, A. H. (1962). Towards a Psychology of Being.
Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company.
Sagan, Carl; Freeman J., Dyson;
Jerome, Agel (2000). Carl Sagan's Cosmic Connection: An
Extraterrestrial Perspective. Cambridge University Press. pp. XV,302. ISBN 0-521-78303-8.
Dr Chris
Hadfield http://www.space.com/19558-chris-hadfield-earth-from-space-photos.html
The Four Reminders
http://www.bodhicharya.org/ringu-tulku/teachings/video/
