WELCOME TO MY WORLD

I am reminded far too regularly of how callous a person can be toward another person, I’m not talking about the indifference often shown to individuals we don’t know, no I mean people actually being really callous and cruel about folk, sometimes people they don’t know or even worse people they actually do know, people they work with, friends, even occasionally family.

I’m sure we would all (or at least most of us) admit that occasionally we show total indifference towards the problems of others, we hear of someone we don’t know, or perhaps barely know, having a problem of some sort, and in this modern, haven’t really got time to care society we just don’t give it a second thought, I don’t really know this person, its not affecting me so why should I care. I myself am guilty of this sometimes, I’m not particularly proud of it but it happens.

But sometimes, rather than simple indifference we will see or hear someone being cruel or callous regarding the plight of another human being, maybe for example they hear someone they don’t know, or just know a little, has a serious illness and you will hear them make some kind of cruel joke about the situation or something similar, ok so they don’t know this person but surely that doesn’t make it right.

It doesn’t just happen regarding folk they don’t know though, sometimes its a person they know quite well, it might be a friend, it could be someone they work with every day and like I said it may even be a relation. The problem could be health, finance, family problems etc. Many of us will have heard people saying totally inappropriate things regarding these situations and someone they know, making cruel jokes, remarking how they deserve it, even sometimes showing enjoyment at the situation. If its someone you work with then perhaps you don’t like this person much, in reality of course you may not like a relation much either, but why take delight in their problems, if you can’t support them and show concern then can’t you just remain neutral or indifferent rather than revelling in their plight.

I just find myself asking the question, “why so callous”, what brings people to a place where they need to find joy in the suffering of other human beings, sometimes to the point of seeming to wish even worse for the other person. I simply don’t understand this attitude, is life really so bleak for these people ? The callousness shown by some individuals towards others just doesn’t make sense to me and when I witness it at close hand regarding someone I know then it makes my blood boil.

At my place of work we have something called “global e-mails”, these are simply informative or instructive e-mails sent out by the company to all employees, thus global. Today we received a global concerning the use of social networks, of which of course Facebook, of which I am a user, is one of the biggest. This e-mail was discussing the act of putting posts on social networks making insulting or bullying etc mention of workmates or discussing the workplace in a derogatory manner, it wasn’t giving tips on how best to do this, no it was of course telling us not to do it. According to the e-mail some large and well known employers have already had reason to discipline or even terminate employment of employees over this very topic, not my employer as yet, well as far as I know.

Making derogatory remarks about your workplace seems something which happens a lot and is no doubt because many people are unhappy in the workplace, as long as these aren’t giving away company secrets, national secrets or harming the companies reputation then I see no real problem.

But after reading this e-mail I found myself wondering just who it is who posts bullying, insulting or even just simply moaning things about fellow workers. If one is posting things of a bullying nature regarding work mates then to be honest one needs ones arse kicking, bullying is not good, but to use a social network for bullying seems to me to be a particularly cowardly way to go about it.

What I also find difficult to understand personally is folk making derogatory or insulting remarks about workmates, taking the Mickey out of workmates online and even just generally moaning and whining online about fellow employees. For a start I see online Mickey taking as simply another form of online bullying anyway (unless it is a bit of the two way mutual joking variety), meanwhile if I have a gripe with a workmate or a fellow employee has upset me in some way then generally I will talk to them about it myself or if I don’t feel able to face them with it then I will simply let it go and put it down to just one of those things, I do not go online and slag them off.

I am assuming that the folk doing this are perhaps too scared or shy to face the person who has upset them, so they go online to moan and whine about the other person behind their back, not a nice thing to do really, but also not a very bright thing to do. Do they not realise that the person they are slagging off behind their back may be a member of places like Facebook or that at least other employees who know this person, friends or even family may be on the networking sight, see the comments and tell the other person about it. This of course would then lead the other person to be very angry and end up in a much worse confrontation than it would have ever been, simply don’t do this, if you don’t want to talk to the person you have a problem with then just leave it, don’t publicise it online.

Bullying, online or otherwise, is a horrible thing to do, moaning and whining about other folk online is wrong and potentially dangerous, please do not take part in any of these practices.

Early in the week I ended up getting in an argument with a fellow worker in the shipyard, he is a line manager who runs a meeting I attend every morning, I took offence at comments and implications made by him, even though I should know better and I allowed myself to become angry and took part in a pointless argument, it was documented in my post “A Strange and Bad Tempered Kind of Day”.

Two days later (yesterday) in the same daily meeting the same manager upset another regular attendee, a loud and fairly nasty argument took place which resulted in the second chap storming out of the meeting and taking no further part. I wasn’t the first person this manager has upset and the chap from yesterday wont be the last person he angers either, some mornings he comes to the meeting in a fairly stroppy mood and isn’t shy at having a go at anyone he perceives is not giving him their full support, the trouble is he often simply doesn’t see the true picture of what’s happening around him.

It is of course easy to see all of this as purely the fault of the manager in question but it takes two to have an argument, one person can’t have a disagreement with himself can he ? I have thought about these events and have been having a think about the manager involved.

He has quite a high level managerial job were he has a fairly large number of men under his control, he has people at a high level relying on him and chastising him if he fails. He must suffer a much higher level of pressure than me in his day to day work life, and the fact is that when people are put under pressure they react in different ways, he simply doesn’t react too well, he becomes frustrated and angry and sometimes takes it out on other people. But its simply because he’s trying to do his best in his job,  he’s trying to keep the pressure off himself and he sometimes feels he is being held up and put under pressure by having to rely on other people, he like the rest of us is striving for happiness and part of being happy in this day and age is not being under pressure and stressed at work.

This has reminded me of one of life’s truths, a truth which is well recognised in Buddhist philosophy, this truth is that all of us, no matter who we are, are entitled to happiness and that, generally, the actions of us all are aimed at obtaining or maintaining that happiness, well most of our actions anyway, sometimes we just don’t recognise this in other folks actions.

When we become involved in these kind of events perhaps we need to take a step back, figuratively speaking, and try to see things from the other guys perspective, we need to realise that the other person is just like us, that they are just striving for happiness the same as we are. This is never easy but if we can manage to think like this then we may avoid many stressful confrontations and have a happier, more serene existence.

I am quite disappointed for not seeing this myself at the time and allowing myself to become angry with him, in the future in these circumstances I will endeavour to enhance my calm and thus to lead a more serene life in the working environment, well at least that’s the plan

I have felt many times during my life that I am totally inadequate in various arena’s of my personal life and at work, but I also believe that I’m not alone in this, I think its a common feeling amongst people in general, it is I believe a big problem for many people.

In fact I believe that everyone has felt inadequate at some time during their life, if anyone reading this is thinking to themselves “well I’ve never felt inadequate at anything in my life” then I think they are fooling themselves or are very lucky indeed. I am going to assume that at some point or points in your life, perhaps not for a long time now or maybe very recently, you have felt inadequate, don’t worry so have the rest of us, but for some, these feelings of inadequacy can be a much bigger problem, they can take over a life.

One can feel inadequate in ones personal life, in regards to a relationship or at work. For instance a person can feel they are not performing as they should at work, they may feel, in a relationship that they are not an adequate partner for a loved one either as a provider, romantically or sexually, in family life they may feel inadequacy as a provider (again) or as a parent or even as offspring, in relation to their life in general a person can feel they are a failure due to many other reasons, I personally have felt many of these inadequacies at one time or another during my life.

In many cases though I believe that these feelings of inadequacy are false, these inaccurate feelings are I think caused by our own often false perception that perhaps we are not doing quite as well as we should in our efforts, I believe these perceptions are often false because what we are seeing is a perception filtered through our own experience, fears and personal paranoia. What we perceive through these personal filters is not necessarily the truth nor how others see our performance. In fact I believe we are usually the worst person to evaluate our own performance in most endeavours in life, we will often have an inflated or deflated view of our own success or lack thereof.

Although there is every chance these feelings are false they still feel all too real to us all the same and cause us to feel inadequate in the workplace, in a relationship, in family life, and in fact in life in general. We need to find ways to fight these feelings, we have to try to remember that what we are feeling is almost certainly clouded by our own misperceptions and that how adequate we are is probably being seen in a completely different light by others around us. We need to try and remember that these feelings of inadequacy are just in our own heads and aren’t real, and yes I know only too well from personal experience that its not always so easy when your convinced in your own mind that your not good enough.

A major problem is that when we believe we are inadequate, even though these feelings are probably inaccurate, then the way we react to this can in fact cause us to perform below what we are capable of, it can become self perpetuating in that although we weren’t underperforming to begin with, the worry and stress of thinking we were can then cause us to actually underperform eventually, this can cause a spiral of self confidence, in fact a lack of self confidence is, obviously, a major cause of us feeling inadequate, talk about stating the obvious.

One thing we need to understand and remember is that we as a person can only perform to the best of our own ability, yes of course different people have different levels of ability, but as long as we perform to the best of “our own” ability then we should be happy we are being as effective as we can, we are being as adequate as we are capable, and that surely is all we or anyone else can ask of us. If we are doing our best then we shouldn’t feel we are letting anyone, including our self, down, surely we are only letting our self or others down if we aren’t trying. If you are doing your best then your confidence should remain intact, yes like I said I know from personal experience that this is easier said than done, but, if your self confidence is intact then you, hopefully, shouldn’t feel inadequate in whatever your doing.

Feelings of inadequacy will dent ones self confidence, cause dissatisfaction in your life, make you unhappy, cause rifts in relationships of many kinds, cause problems at work, bring on depression and anxiety, in fact feelings of inadequacy could, just possibly, completely ruin a life. Of course the trick is to banish these feelings of inadequacy, not easy, it takes a lot to train your mind to try to see through the veil put in front of your eyes by your own false perceptions or to try and trust that what others are telling you regarding your performance is possibly truer than your own vision of just how adequate or otherwise you are.

If you are having major feelings of inadequacy causing problems in your life, if you are unable to work through this and put these feelings aside then don’t be afraid to seek help, counselling will probably help you through it, but please don’t just let it mount up and take over your life, take control back, either by yourself or with help.

This weekend Gareth and I went down to Manchester for the rugby league Grand Final but this was also the weekend when the EDL, “English Defence League”, were heading for a demonstration in Manchester city centre, we actually saw a bunch of them on the platform when we passed through Bolton, they certainly made an intimidating sight, I guess around a hundred or more, shouting, chanting and waving banners, many wearing full face ski masks. Luckily we had no intentions of going anywhere near the city centre ourselves.

The EDL are a right wing organisation who are “supposedly” against only the “extremist” Islamic factions, although personally I’m not sure how much effort they put into making a distinction between extremists and ordinary everyday Muslims, instead aiming their hatred at all Muslims from what I’ve heard. As it happens, as I suppose was inevitable, an anti fascist group, “Unite Against Fascism”, decided to turn up and protest against the EDL’s demonstration, things got heated and more than 40 arrests were made.

Of course the EDL claim that they went to Manchester simply to conduct a legal, non violent demonstration and that they were doing nothing wrong, so could someone answer me this, why ski masks, if people are turning up for a legal demonstration and intend to do no wrong, why wear ski masks ? I would have thought they would only wear ski masks either to hide their identity because they think they are doing something wrong or to appear intimidating, either way it seems hardly the actions of someone intending to do nothing wrong and not encourage violence.

I don’t know whether the first breach of orderly conduct was made by the EDL or by the anti fascist group, but the EDL must have known they would attract something like this and it also seems clear that many of the EDL members turned up looking to antagonise the situation, of course I’m not saying that the anti fascists were blameless here, if they had simply stayed away there would probably have been no trouble.

To me the EDL looks and sounds like a fascist right wing group, the sort of group who could be very dangerous, I would lump them in with the likes of the BNP, nationalistic, hate mongering groups, who see nothing wrong in terrorising a person simply for the colour of their skin, their religion or their beliefs. They seem to want to ethnically cleanse Britain so only white “ethnically pure” Britons remain, personally I’m of the opinion that a mix of cultures simply makes the world a more interesting, colourful and fun place to be. Of course I’m not defending extremists of any kind here, be they Islamic, Jewish or Christian, violent extremists must be stopped, but most Christians, most Jews, most Muslims, most folk of any religion, race or creed are normal, non violent peaceful people.

Now I’m not against demonstrations or protests at all, I believe that when used in a good cause, against some injustice, to make a point about government legislation or to protest a human rights violation for instance they can do good.

But to demonstrate or protest against fellow human beings is just simply wrong and sickening, to persecute a fellow human being just because they are different to you is wrong in so many ways, it shouldn’t be allowed to happen. Who gives anyone a right to say they are better than someone else or they should have more rights just because they are a different colour. We are all the same, we are all members of the human race and we should all try to learn to live together and get on rather than protesting against one another or worse.

Racism, bigotry, religious intolerance and all things similar to these should never be tolerated, tolerance is great, tolerance is good, but I’m afraid in this case it allows intolerance to thrive.

I have just finished reading the book “Buddhism for Dummies”, (Your easy to understand guide to Buddhist traditions, beliefs and practices) by Jonathan Landaw and Stephan Bodian. I decided to read this book to give me a thorough understanding of Buddhism as I am developing an interest in much of the philosophy inclusive to Buddhism. This book does hold a very large amount of information within its 363 pages and should give any reader a good grounding in (I guess) most things Buddhist.

I read this book as I would any book, start to end and cover to cover, having done so though I’m not sure that this is the best way to use this particular book, perhaps this is just me, please don’t let me put you off doing the same as your experience may be different to mine. I personally found reading through the book in this way quite hard going at times, there was a heck of a lot to take in in every chapter, I suppose its in the nature of this range of books that an awful lot of information is crammed in between the covers, its inevitable of course.

What I found was that because of the differing schools of Buddhism and the slightly different way they interpret things and practice Buddhism it became a little confusing sometimes(for me anyway) bouncing from info from one school to info from another (and yes there are different flavours of Buddhism). Also because I am mainly interested in the philosophical side of Buddhism and of course the practicalities of using these philosophies in modern daily life, I found certain sections a little tedious, like for instance the large section on the history of Buddhism, of course a book of this type should include this kind of thing, and it may be the kind of thing your interested in, its just that I’m not really that interested in the history of Buddhism, interesting as it no doubt is.

This book isn’t inherently a bad book, its just I found it difficult as a read through from front cover to back cover kind of book, what I think its going to be most useful to me as is a reference book for future use. It is crammed full of excellent information and knowledge regarding Buddhism, its laid out in such a way that it should be fairly easy to dip into and look up information that I may require as my study goes further, it will be kept nearby so that I can do just this and I believe it will get plenty of use in this way.

Buddhism for Dummies contains sections on Introducing Buddhism, Buddhism Past and Present, Buddhism in Practice, Travelling the Buddhist Path, and more, it covers the life of Shakyamuni Buddha, important concepts such as “The Four Noble Truths” and the “Eight Fold Path” amongst many other things. This book does cover most aspects of Buddhism and isn’t badly written either, its just not a book I always enjoyed reading all the way through but it is a book I’ll probably keep returning to for reference.

I saw something on TV on Friday night which kinda made me think and I reckon may have made other people who saw it think as well, it came on of all things “Friday Night with Jonathan Ross”, often amusing but not a show that you would expect would generally make you think. On the show Mr Ross interviewed Vivienne Westwood who made a great plea regarding the plight of the planet, global warming and all that, she was actually pretty good as well, but it wasn’t this to which I’m referring.

Also on the show was James May of “Top Gear” fame, although he does have some of his own shows as well which I’ve never seen, apparently on one of his own shows he goes into space, well only just into space actually, but still above the layer of air, oxygen etc, the atmosphere of our planet I guess. They showed film of the view of our protective atmosphere from the outside, it looked such a thin, such a very thin layer of air and everything else needed to make life possible on our planet, a frail curtain of blue separating us from unending blackness.

I think It does kind of put our existence into perspective, being able to see from above just how thin and fragile it is, inside this tiny slim layer of life giving gases and chemicals exists everything we know, nothing living could exist on our planet without it and yet we seem to be doing so much to destroy it and so very little to fix the problems we are causing, it looked like there was hardly anything at all separating us from the vast vacuum of space.

Strange that an interview with James May of all people should elicit thoughts like this, but there you go, there it is, we have the slightest of protection against instant extinction, perhaps we should take care of it a little better don’t ya think.

I have recently changed my “Religious Views” section on my Facebook profile to “Relaxed Christian / Agnostic / Philosophical Buddhist” which is what I reckon I am, if such a thing even exists, perhaps I should have just put “Confused” :-0

Firstly I suppose I’m a very relaxed Christian, in as much as I was bought up rather loosely as a Christian, I have had spells of going to church and I still have very Christian thoughts, beliefs and responses, but I’m also very relaxed in as much as I’m now pretty much a non practicing Christian, I don’t go to church and I find I struggle with some of the dogma and find it hard to reconcile “my” idea of Christian values with many of the judgemental thoughts and ideas prevalent in the modern Christian world, in fact the bigotry and persecution prevalent in the world of organised religion in general.

I guess, in fact I know, that I also struggle with being a Christian because I’m kind of an “agnostic”, not an atheist an “agnostic” (many folk are confused about this), I don’t deny that there is possibly a God I just don’t know (personally) whether God exists or not. As a rational modern man I find it difficult to believe in an unknown, spiritual being when I have no proof of his existence, of course there is no empirical proof either way regarding the existence of God, and I suppose there never will be, so while I find I still have the need to believe in something I find it difficult to rationally believe in the existence of a God for which I have seen no proof, I guess I’m kind of an “agnostic theist”, I do still have a spiritual side.

As regards Buddhism, well for me (and it seems much of the world) the jury is still out as to whether Buddhism is actually a religion or not, personally I see it more as a philosophy, an extensive set of guidelines for living a more balanced, happy and moral life, and God knows I need that help.

It is the philosophy of Buddhism that I like and find I can believe in. The fact that Buddhism essentially puts the control of my own spiritual well being firmly in my own hands rather than relying on a supreme spiritual being or God to sort out the spiritual side of things for me appeals to me greatly, I don’t have to believe in an unproven supreme being, only in myself, not that believing in myself is always so easy for me    to be honest.

I also find when looking at the basic ideas behind Buddhist philosophy that it doesn’t take too much away from the way I believe a good Christian should live his or her life anyway, great emphasis is placed upon love, compassion and caring for others. Also Buddhist philosophy does not rule out following the religion of your choice, in fact Buddhism see’s the merit and good in other religions, leading a good spiritual life is leading a good life whatever religion or philosophy you follow.

I also believe that much of Buddhist philosophy and the ideas therein could help with the problems and issues I still face in my life, I’m not saying that I will become a Buddhist, I am saying that I would like to learn more, as much as I can about Buddhist philosophies and put them into practice. There are aspects I don’t fully believe in, reincarnation is a perfect example, but I do believe that the ideas and philosophies within Buddhism can help me with my issues and help guide me in living a moral and happy life.

Another aspect of Buddhism I wish to learn more about and put into practice is meditation, this also, I believe, will be of help to me. I’m not saying this will be easy, I’m not perfect, very far from it, I do have my problems, I’m impatient, shallow, and often unable to control my emotions. It will no doubt take a while for me to start seeing any real benefit from my study of Buddhist Philosophy and practice in meditation but I intend to try anyway, perhaps the real benefit will be from the journey itself.

Part six of the series.

In this part I’m going to attempt to talk about the complex subject of Karma, this is far too complicated for me to go into too much detail, I’m still trying to get my head around much of it, so I have tried to simplify it as much as possible.

The Karmic Law of Cause and Effect.

Many have heard of karma with out really understanding what its all about, essentially karma deals with the way you lead your life and what results will come into effect because of your actions, in other words “what you sow, so shall you reap”.

The idea is that if you live your life full of negativity and evil then you will be paid back with negativity and evil and of course if you surround yourself with good then your benefit will be good. In some instances it is in this life that the benefits or otherwise will be felt but believers in reincarnation believe that often it is in future lives that you will reap your karma. We all know that not everyone who commits bad or evil deeds seems to pay for them just as sometimes folk who do good seem to see no benefit, traditional Buddhist wisdom has a get out clause for this seeming injustice in that it may take many lives for the karmic results to take effect, bit of a shame that. As someone who doesn’t really believe in reincarnation I find this bit hard to swallow but I do believe that if you fill your life with negativity then your more likely to reap negativity within this lifetime and if you try to live a positive lifestyle your more likely to feel positive results, what goes around comes around. There are also different levels of bad or evil intent and therefore different levels of karmic effect, as a simplistic example, if you kill an insect then that is bad, but if you were to kill that insect accidentally, standing on it without seeing it, then the karmic result would be much less than if you killed the insect on purpose.

Buddhist Precepts.

To help with living your life well and therefore avoiding negative karmic consequences Buddhism has a set of precepts or ethical guidelines, commandments if you like, I am only going to list the more basic precepts which should be followed by laymen, there are many more for monks and nuns and variations from tradition to tradition but they mainly follow the same idea’s.

The five basic precepts are as follows,

Do not kill  -  This involves the killing of any living being and has various levels, killing an insect for instance is not as bad as killing a human, also killing a stranger is less evil than killing a parent, its complicated but any killing is bad, obviously.

Do not steal  -  Self explanatory really.

Do not engage in sexual misconduct  -  This involves such things as rape, adultery etc.

Do not lie  -  Again, self explanatory.

Do not use intoxicants  -  Alcohol and drugs of course, the use of alcohol especially is I guess hard for many to avoid these days but I don’t make the rules, sorry.

In some traditions there are a further five precepts for lay folk as follows, Do not speak of others errors and faults  -  Do not elevate yourself and blame others  -  Do not be stingy  -  Do not give vent to anger  -  Do not defile the three jewels of refuge (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha).

Purifying Negative Karma.

If a person has transgressed then it is, to a certain extent, possible to purify ones karma, of course very serious transgressions such as murder can never be fully cleansed and karma will have its payback. The main routes for purifying ones karma consist of the following.

Regret  -  Feeling remorse for what you have done and recognising you have made mistakes, note, this is not guilt, it is regret, guilt is bad as it traps you in the past.

Resolve  -  Deciding you are not going to make the same mistakes again and following through with that resolve.

Reliance  -  Depending upon your refuge in the three jewels (Buddha, dharma & sangha) and dedicating yourself to eliminate negativity.

Remedy  -  Taking positive actions to counter balance the negativity and harm you have created.

So that, in a nutshell, is karma, its cause and effect, the guidelines to avoid the pitfalls and the ways of purifying your karma once you have, almost inevitably, fallen into one of these pitfalls. As I said earlier, I do believe that if you live your life negatively and badly then you will be more likely to have negative payback in this life, so I do in my way believe to a certain extent in karma and its results, I personally don’t believe in reincarnation though so future lives don’t really interest little old me much, if you meanwhile do believe in reincarnation, well just live well and positively is all I can say.

My first book review is actually about two books but 2 books which are extremely similar and go together as a perfect little pair, these books are “The Little Book of Wisdom” and “The Little Book of Buddhism” both by His Holiness The Dalai Lama.

These are handy little pocket sized books at 9.6 x 7.8 x 1.4 cm (many books claim to be pocket books but these actually are) wading in at 160 / 144 pages respectfully, the price quoted on the back for both is £2.50 each although at the moment (as this is written) they are on sale at Amazon at £1.99 each, a pocket sized bargain.

Each of these books are actually tiny stores of wisdom in the form of quotes, 1 per page, from the Dalai Lama himself, in “The Little Book of Wisdom” these quotes are divided into sections, spiritual life, self development, happiness, love and compassion, the inner enemies, moral values, family and friends, Buddhism, religion, world peace, global issues and death & liberation, for instance opening this book to a random page gives me on the subject of inner enemies “NO GOOD EVER CAME OF ANGER – Anger may seem to offer an energetic way of getting things done, but such a perception of the world is misguided. The only certainty about anger and hatred is that they are destructive”, this is just a random example of snippets of wisdom dealing with daily life and its issues.

“The Little Book of Buddhism” follows the same route but all of the quotes refer to the core teachings of Buddhism, there are no sections within this book, it just flows from page to page, again opening a page at random gives us “Try to consider as transitory all adverse circumstances and disturbances. Like ripples in a pool, they occur and soon disappear”

Both of these books, either singly or together form a treasure house of little snippets of wisdom which can be carried anywhere and dipped into, either at random or looking for enlightenment on a particular subject. I’m not saying these books are the answer to all of life’s ills or that they will turn you into an overnight philosopher but they can be uplifting and inspirational and a help when dealing with many day to day issues.

At the price and being small enough to carry in the pocket anywhere, these books are super little must haves, get one or both of them and just dip in now and again to find inspiration and a balance to every day problems.

“LIVING IN HARMONY – Peaceful living is about trusting those on whom we depend and caring for those who depend on us”

“The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being”

While checking the news on the Yahoo front page today I came across this headline “Pandemic ‘could kill 750,000 in UK‘”, this is the worst kind of sensationalism simply pandering to many peoples fears and I think is to be condemned as scare mongering and little more.

This “news” piece is referring to a report prepared by the Department of Health  last September, it was reporting on the worst possible case scenario if a flu pandemic was to get out of hand along the lines of a few horror films of recent years. It was of course created long before this present situation was even a glint in its diseased daddies eye, the report has nothing to do with the present situation, but this wont stop folk who are susceptible to this kind of paranoid reporting thinking their lives and the lives of everyone they know are in the gravest danger, it is just wrong and lacking in any integrity.

I’m not intending to play down the situation as it is but lets look at the facts as they stand, ok a large number of people have died in Mexico, apparently the source of the present pandemic, but not many of these deaths have been conclusively proven to have been caused by the swine flu in question. There have been cases in a number of other countries, but almost without fail these cases outside of Mexico have been rather less severe, mainly consisting of normal flu symptoms and little more, also almost all of these folk had recently returned from Mexico. It also ignores the fact that the UK is probably the best prepared nation in the world for this kind of event and the fact that in any kind of normal flu epidemic there will always be some deaths without a massive number of people dying.

All this kind of reporting does is cause panic, I can imagine many healthy folk rushing to doctors and hospitals and demanding anti viral jabs despite not needing it, its just attention grabbing, and guess what it works, its got me writing about it for crying out loud

The news services need to think more about what they print, of course this wont happen, so they should be made more accountable, of course this wont happen either, so we will just put up with it and try to sift the good, intelligent reporting out from the mountain of crap it has to hide within.

The actual news item is available in the following link.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090501/tuk-pandemic-could-kill-750-000-in-uk-6323e80.html

Part five of the series.

I am going to die, you are going to die, everyone is going to die, everybody does eventually die.

It sounds like a lead in to a trailer for a disaster movie doesn’t it, of course it isn’t (well I guess it could be but not in this case) it is in fact the greatest certainty there is about life, this certainty is that anything or anyone that has ever lived, will die or already has died.

We are not invincible, any of us, it doesn’t matter where in the world we are, it doesn’t matter how rich, how famous, how popular, how healthy, or even how pious we are, we will eventually die.

There are so many ways we can die, we can contract a disease from which we do not recover, we can be involved in an accident, we may be killed by another person, we may even take our own life. With so many ways to die and with a relatively fragile body it is silly to think we can avoid death, the first step in dealing with the idea that we are going to die is to come to terms with our own mortality, to realise it happens to everyone and we are no different.

Ok so now we know, eventually, at some point, hopefully a long way in the future, we are going to die, but when will it be, although we know for definite we will die what we don’t know (usually) is when it is going to happen.

It could be today or tomorrow, it could be next week, next year or twenty years from now or more.

We don’t know how short or long a time we have left to live, so how do we know when to start doing something about it, and what are we going to do about it, well of course we cant do anything to stop it, what we can do is prepare for it.

What we do have at the moment is life and time (we just aren’t sure how much time), we have a sentient intelligence (well most of us) and we have a golden opportunity to change the way we live our life, the way we look at things and the way we think about death.

Do not waste the precious opportunity you have in life, you may think you have plenty of time but in reality none of us can know this, if you wish to make a change then the time is now, of course there are a variety of ways to do this but if you want to study a philosophy that can change the way you think about death and eventually lessen your fear of it then perhaps Buddhism has the answers.

Buddhism teaches us that nothing is permanent, nothing lasts for ever, including us, yet most of us would like to go on for ever in regards to the fact that most of us don’t want to die, we have formed an attachment to our lives, to our bodies and we don’t really want to give either up if we can help it.

But regardless of whether you study Buddhism or not you could still believe in a soul, a spirit or re-incarnation, if you do then it is surely only the physical body that dies, your essence remains, Buddhism has a similar belief in as much it believes in you having an essence (sort of) and many Buddhists believe of course in re-incarnation.

It is the Buddhist view that you are part of an overall reality, that the self isn’t who or what you are but simply what you perceive yourself to be, if so then you should not have the same fear of physical death, it is only the perceived self which dies, your essence as part of the whole of reality goes on, plus if you believe in re-incarnation as another step on the path to Nirvana then you may even welcome death as a step onward and upward (to infinity and beyond).

So according to Buddhism there is no separate self to die, just a false perception of who or what you are, the ego, in reality made up of events, thoughts and emotions experienced during this life, death is just another experience for this self to go through.

Whether you believe this or not I think that learning Buddhist philosophy, learning kindness, compassion, love, wisdom and perhaps gaining enlightenment and insight to true reality through the teachings of the Dharma has to be a great way to change your life.

While you have the chance, when you know you’re going to die, some day, then surely you would rather face death knowing you have done the best you can, been the best you can, and not regretting the way you have lived your life.

Of course you don’t just have your own death to cope with, sooner or later (preferably much later) you will have to cope with the death of a loved one.

I have no wish to delve deeply into this and to be honest I don’t feel qualified to do so anyway, but studying Buddhism would probably help to some extent, if you have learnt Buddhist philosophy then you will know about the fact that there is no separate self and that your loved one is only moving on from this physical form.

But we haven’t all achieved enlightenment, and we do form loving attachments and dependencies to our loved ones so people will still mourn the loss.

It is best not to try and block grief, meditation can help in allowing pain to surface and can also help in handling it, instead of blocking grief try to use this grief to try and understand and feel compassion for all the other people in the world feeling loss and grief.

The unconditional acceptance of the way things are lies at the very heart of Buddhism, always remember to be kind and compassionate to yourself, allow yourself to feel the pain, loss and grief as this can often be the cause of great relief.

Part four of the series.

The posts I am writing at the moment titled “A JOURNEY – LEARNING ABOUT BUDDHISM – “are just my attempt at putting into words my thoughts and understandings from what I am reading in my first book on Buddhism “Buddhism for Dummies” and as such you must realise that I am a complete beginner and that I am myself attempting to understand the terms and concepts therein, sometimes it is relatively easy to put into my words what I read and what I believe is being conveyed within the words in the book.

But now I am going to talk about enlightenment and this is a very complex subject to get your head around as a newbie, even the writers of the book state that “Enlightenment is impossible to convey in words, it is something one need’s to experience” they quote an old Buddhist adage,

“Painted cakes can’t satisfy hunger. You can look at pictures of pastries all day long, but you won’t feel fulfilled until you taste the real thing for yourself. In the same way, you can read dozens of books about enlightenment, but you won’t really understand what they’re talking about until you catch a glimpse of the actual experience”

But I’m going to give it a go.

There are various schools / traditions of Buddhism but regardless of which school of Buddhism one looks at the ultimate target is enlightenment or awakening, the name Buddha itself actually means “awakened one” or in other words an enlightened being.

These different flavours of Buddhism also differ a little in the way they put across the route to enlightenment but essentially they are often fairly similar and they all end up more or less in the same place.

Buddha was not and never claimed to be a supernatural being, he said he was just an ordinary person, a human being like me and like you, who had found enlightenment.

Because of this many Buddhist schools believe we all have the same potential, we all have the inert spirit of Buddhahood within us, the only difference is our perception is clouded by our petty emotions, thoughts and feelings because we have not awakened the potential within ourselves, all we need to do is gain enlightenment, I find this idea very comforting, of course enlightenment can take a lifetime to achieve, or if you believe in re-incarnation, a few lifetimes.

So what is enlightenment? It is often referred to as Nirvana (nibbana), the complete liberation from suffering, what suffering? At this point we can look back to “The Four Noble Truths” as taught by Buddha; (see A JOURNEY – LEARNING ABOUT BUDDHISM – THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS) these truths are,

Suffering

Cause of suffering

Cessation of suffering

Eight fold path to the cessation of suffering

Suffering is defined in this case as dissatisfaction with your life as you perceive it and can involve craving, attachment, hatred, ignorance, greed, anger, jealousy, longing, fear. So what causes this suffering, Buddha said that all suffering was caused by desirous attachment, in other words you suffer because of your desire for things and your attachment to them, objects, people and self image etc.

Enlightenment ends this suffering; it brings about the end of the illusion of separation, what is the illusion of separation, what does that mean?

The illusion of separation is a false state of mind which we all carry around with us, it comes in the form of believing we have a separate self, the separate self is kind of the ego, it is the self we see ourselves as and we believe all others see us as, we see ourselves as separate from the whole of existence, in reality it is simply our ideas, thoughts and feelings etc, the very things which cloud our perception of reality, all of these things are prone to change, they are impermanent, they are not the truth of reality, just our perception of reality.

Of course on an everyday level things do have differences, for instance, even when enlightened you still recognise you have a body of your own, as does everybody else, but you and everything else in existence are also part of a unified whole which is reality, everyone and everything around us (and yes you as well) are all part of the same thing, true reality.

This is what enlightenment is, it is the ability to see absolute truth, the complete realisation of things as they really are, the nature of reality, when you see that this separate self is just simply ego, that the life our ego lives is just a game not to be taken seriously, material things are impermanent, empty, meaningless in the overall scheme of things then you lose your attachment to them, you no longer crave them, you don’t miss them if you don’t have them, you are not jealous of those that have them, your suffering is ended.

At this point you will have gained enlightenment, you will be awakened to reality and your perception of reality will no longer be clouded, you will feel an unshakable tranquillity, contentment and bliss, you will be filled with loving kindness, compassion, wisdom, clarity, peace, tranquillity, fearlessness, you will have reached Nirvana.

Buddhism is a path toward reaching this goal, through learning the Dharma (teachings of Buddha), following a good path through life and through meditation, the hope is to become enlightened, of course you may never reach full enlightenment but I have no doubt that in the attempt to gain awakening your life will still be improved.

If I have completely missed the point of enlightenment here, then I apologise, this is simply what I believe enlightenment is from my study thus far, I would be glad of any corrections or additions anyone who has studied this subject and gained a better understanding can give in their comment.

Part three of the series.

I have been learning about “The Four Noble Truths”, these four truths quite simply form the basis of all the teachings of Buddhism, if you can eventually manage to follow these truths then you will surely be living a much happier and more enlightened life, these four truths are,

Suffering

Cause of suffering

Cessation of suffering

Eight fold path to the cessation of suffering

To understand what these mean we need to go into a bit more detail about each of them.

Suffering

Suffering is defined in this case as dissatisfaction with your life as you perceive it and can involve physical pain, mental issues and emotional misery, this can be itemised in three main forms, meeting with what you dislike, being parted from what you like and not getting what you want.

Self deception is a problem which can further build upon suffering, you may avoid properly looking at yourself, not seeing what the problem is, preferring instead to seek distraction, instead of facing up to something, have another drink, buy yourself something or find something else to distract you.

Cause of suffering

So what is the origin of your suffering, what causes you to suffer, Buddha said that all suffering was caused by desirous attachment, in other words you suffer because of your desire for things and your attachment to them, objects, people and self image.

To find the cause of your suffering look within yourself, it is not some kind of punishment from other people, it isn’t caused by your circumstances or some kind of super natural force, nor is it purely random.

It is in fact directly related to your own attitude, how you view things and how you deal with things, lets say for example you have a friend, perhaps you view this person as your best friend, this friend on a couple of occasions is there for you in times of need, supports and listens to you and offers you good advice.

Maybe you now begin to see this friend as someone capable of helping you in all situations, a paragon who can do nothing wrong, you are putting an unrealistic image of this person in your mind; you have raised him or her onto a pedestal.

Of course this friend is only human and eventually something will happen, your friend will let you down, perhaps through no fault of their own, suddenly this person has fallen from the pedestal, they are flawed, because of the unrealistic image you had viewed this person with you now feel let down, perhaps betrayed, of course in reality this person is no less a friend than before but your vision of them has been warped and you see only failure. This is perhaps a little over the top but you get the idea.

Your suffering is not so much caused by things that happen to you, it is more with your point of view, your perception of these things, your desire and clinging attitude to things and your unrealistic image of something, someone, perhaps even yourself.

Cessation of suffering

So can there be an end to your suffering, yes there can be, it involves the removal of desirous attachments, you have to stop desiring things or people you cannot have, as we have already learned nothing is permanent so you cannot own a thing for ever, a person cannot be yours, they are not a belonging and a relationship isn’t automatically for ever.

To end your suffering you have to learn to let go, let go of unrealistic expectations, let go of harmful behaviour, let go of your clinging attitude, let go of yourself, none of this is easy or simple but it is possible if you really want it and are willing to work for it.

Eight-fold path to the cessation of suffering

This is kind of like an instruction manual, a recipe to end your suffering and consists of the following eight things.

Right view

This is the ability to be able to see your suffering and what is causing it.

Right intention

Sometimes referred to as right thought, the ability to give up your selfish attitudes and replace with opposites, attitudes which benefit others.

Right speech

The ability to speak the truth while saying things which are pleasing to listen to and which are beneficial to others; avoid causing harm with your words.

Right action

To perform actions to help and not harm others or yourself, avoid causing harm with your actions.

Right livelihood

Avoid occupations which involve causing harm or deception, be honest and kind in your dealings with others, and always try to be ethical in your chosen occupation.

Right effort

This involves your spiritual practices, try to always be aware of what’s happening in your mind, be positive, not negative.

Right mindfulness

Pay attention to now, do not get too caught up in the past or future, instead focus on the present.

Right concentration

This involves keeping a focused mind, a sharp mind, free from distraction and dullness, try to give what you are dealing with your full attention, this will help you gain an insight into the true nature of things.

These are the elements of the spiritual path, hey nobody said it was easy but even if you are not a Buddhist and didn’t intend to purposefully follow Buddhist teachings these things are still surely worth striving for.

Part two of the series.

I have been reading about the life of “The Buddha”, ok so there are more than just the one Buddha, the word Buddha actually means “awakened one” or in other words an enlightened being, but in this case I am talking about the one most people will think of as the Buddha, the man who started the ball rolling, Shakyamuni Buddha.

Many people not acquainted with Buddhism think that Buddha is or was a god, a supernatural being but he wasn’t, he was a human being, albeit an unusual and important one but just a human after all.

The Buddha was born an Indian prince, his name was Prince Siddhartha, he was born around 2,500 years ago (he lived from 563 BCE to 483 BCE), he lived in the rarefied atmosphere of a royal court where, because of a prophecy, he was protected by his father from all things which would have enabled him to see any suffering or pain.

Even when he was old enough to marry and he and his wife had a child, he was kept a virtual prisoner within the palace with out even knowing it. Everything and everyone around him was purposefully beautiful, he knew nothing different, he had never seen pain, illness or suffering.

When he was 29 years old he managed to persuade his father to let him see the real world, for the first time he saw suffering, pain, sickness, loss and it had a profound effect upon him. At this time he met up with a travelling spiritualist who was searching for truth and a way to end suffering, Prince Siddhartha decided this was what he must do.

He found a way to escape from his life in the palaces and go his own way, he shunned all the trappings of royalty, symbolised by the cutting of his long hair, a sign of royalty.

He joined up with some spiritualists who were living in the forest and denying themselves of all things material, he spent 6 years of self denial, eventually eating practically nothing, of course this brought him to near death at which point he realised that he would never reach enlightenment if he starved himself to death.

He decided upon a path of not denying himself but instead a middle path, a path of avoiding extremes, the term “The Middle Path” is much used in Buddhism.

It was now at the age of 35 years and with his strength restored he came to the Bodhi tree (The Tree of Enlightenment), he sat down below it with the intention of meditating until he reached enlightenment, as he neared his goal he was approached by Mara the Tempter who tried to stop him by tempting him, threatening him and even with visions of his wife and son but in the end he defeated Mara the Tempter and eventually reached enlightenment.

He had achieved Buddhahood , he had become an awakened one, he had gained limitless wisdom, compassion and the skill to teach and help others, he had become a Buddha, he changed his name to Shakyamuni Buddha.

Now he began to travel and teach and create the Sangha community, these were his followers, monks and nuns who he taught his wisdom, but only if they wanted to be taught, his teachings were never forced upon anyone.

He was “Turning the wheel of dharma” to whoever wanted to learn (Dharma means spiritual teachings), this included people from any caste (level of society), and also to women, both unheard of, (he was perhaps the first feminist), even his son and his own father became his followers.

His lessons were so profound that the Sangha community grew very quickly and very large, he continued to travel and teach for the rest of his life.

Shakyamuni Buddha died at the age of 80 years old in 483 BCE, he had followers around him and even continued to teach up to his death, his final words were “All things are impermanent” and “Work out your own salvation”, still cornerstones of Buddhism today.

There is, as far as I am aware no reason to doubt that Prince Siddhartha or Shakyamuni Buddha are a real historical figure, there is a lot of documented proof of the existence of this extraordinary, focused, intelligent and compassionate person.

He was also clearly a great teacher and was the individual who began what we know today as Buddhism, how much of the more “creative” parts of his story you believe is a matter of personal preference of course, some of it is fairly hard for the modern western mind to come to terms with and perhaps should be thought of as more symbolic rather than absolute truth.

All the same I don’t think his place in history or in the spiritual advancement in the world can or should be taken lightly.