Saving Zanskar and Repaying the Kindness of a Truly Compassionate Being

One of the blessings of my visit to India earlier this year was the chance to spend time immersed in Tibetan culture. What I truly believe is a culture of compassion. While there, I gave some lectures on English and computers to several Geshe’s. And became very close to one in particular – Geshe Lobsang Yonten,  pictured right. The photo was taken in Dharamsala, days before I was to leave. I think, if my memory is correct, Geshe-la and I were debating about something related to Tsongkhapa’s view of the ultimate truth and I cracked a joke part way through. Geshe-la thought it was very funny, as you can see. Geshe Lobsang Yonten is a Lharampa Geshe from Zanskar a remote region of Ladakh. But, I am getting ahead of myself, so, let me go back to the start in order to set the focus of this story.

It was the week after I attended the Mind and Life conference held at HH Dalai Lama’s residence. This was about April 2009. I had been hanging out with the Geshe’s, not getting much of my thesis written, but having a lot of fun. I must have eaten something bad because over night I went from feeling normal to the worse kind of sick I had ever experienced. I couldn’t eat or even walk, and I slept for about 18 hours of the day. While the other time was spent in the bathroom. This went on for over a week. Once I surfaced, I became very serious about what went in my body. So, I thought I would ask Geshe-la if it would be possible if I could use his kitchen (when he wasn’t using it of course) to cook for myself. I thought that if I knew what and how the food I was eating had been cooked, I would have a better chance of staying healthy. So, I walked to Geshe-la’s house. He was just arriving home from English class, and I must have had a strange look on my face because he looked at me as you would a sick puppy, and proceeded to tell him about where I had been. Needless to say this was a turning point in my stay in India.

After this, Geshe Yonten looked after me like a mother. Cooking for me, not even allowing me to do the dishes. I had to really push him to let me help. He would cook my breakfast, and dinner. Poor me, I had to cook my own lunch as he was at English class. Yet, he would always check in to make sure I was Okay. He even gave me a set of keys to his house so that I could come and go as I pleased. We also, along with few of the other Geshe’s, would go walking into the surrounding mountains each night, sometimes stopping for tea or Mo-mo’s. Although I never had a brother growing up, this is how I imagined it to be. I got to see the depth of Geshe-la’s kindness and as you probably know, in the Buddhist tradition, we are taught the notion of caring more for others, compared to ourselves. This is something that we aspire to develop and something I have been taught to venerate. Yet, seeing it first hand is truly amazing and totally inspiring. Of course, those with this level of compassion, do not think anything of it. Caring for others is “just what you do!” No bliss and bubbles, just grounded kindness.

Sometimes in life we get a chance to help someone great, do something great.

So when I heard of Geshe-la’s project to educate children from his region of Zanskar (for some reason he chose not to mention it too me while I was in India. I guess he thought I would be too busy to help), I simply had to get involved.

Save Zanskar Project

In 2003, Geshe-la started what was to become the foundation of the Save Zanskar project when he brought 17 of the poorest children from Zanskar to Manali and Dharamsala to be educated. As the parents of these children simply cannot afford to send their children to school, without Save Zanskar, many of them will never see the benefits of an education.

Ultimately, Geshe-la would like to expand this project in order to educate many more children than he can by himself. Thus, the aim of the Save Zanskar project is to promote education, in order to save the distinct culture of this traditionally Tibetan region of northern India.

I have witnessed first hand Geshe-la’s compassion. His natural disposition is to look after others more than he looks after himself. He cared for me as a mother would, taking on the responsibility without thought or concern for himself. These kinds of people are special, and we Westerners, could learn from these examples. To my mind, these actions are the actions of a truly compassionate person – a Bodhisattva.

Freedom from suffering starts with an education.

What Can I Do?

The cost to house, cloth and education each child per year is $430.00 USD. If you would like to help these kids please email more for me information or go to the Save Zanskar website.

Finally, in true Geshe Yonten style, he never mentioned that his project was the focus of a documentary by a leading American based film maker (if you cannot see the video, perhaps because you are reading this via email, click on this link). I have also added some additional photo’s of Geshe-la and the children.

Climbing the Mountain One Nugget of Gold at a Time

It has been a while I know, and given that tomorrow is my weekly supervisory meeting, I should be working on my thesis. Yet I find myself thinking about compassion. So much for not “breakin the chain”. Actually I joke, because Jerry’s Chain method has, after almost 3 weeks, shown to be worth the effort. And as I have already completed today’s daily work, its all good. However, I did not want to talk about Jerry, big red crosses or any of that stuff. Instead I wanted to discuss the importance of what I like to call a culture of compassion.

This rather simple, yet not unambiguous, phrase will no doubt be misunderstood by some people, as compassion in my opinion does not preclude somethings that would prima facie appear to be the opposite of compassion – for example, aggressive behavior. And if anyone has watched Tibetan monks debate, you will understand my point.

The Tibetan Buddhist monastic tradition defines compassion as the wish that one or many sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. Yet, for many the very meaning of compassion is gentleness. If you take the notion of freeing beings from suffering seriously, then at certain times, and only if you have the necessary wisdom, aggression or wrathfulness can be a tool used to help, not harm. Parenting is a good example of this.

I would like to explain the meaning of compassion which is often misunderstood. Genuine compassion is based not on our own projections and expectations, but rather on the rights of the other: irrespective of whether another person is a close friend or an enemy, as long as that person wishes for peace and happiness and wishes to overcome suffering, then on that basis we develop a genuine concern for his or her problems – His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

When I met His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala earlier this year, he was not gentle. In fact, just like a father he was quite stern and direct. He smiled only once or maybe twice in our half hour meeting. So, if gentleness is the meaning of compassion, then HHDL lacks it. And I reckon there would not be too many people who would claim this. Suffice it to say, I do not agree with the notion that the appearance of kindness or gentleness is evidence of a good heart. Don’t misread this, I am not suggesting that compassionate people are not gentle, that would be silly. Compassion’s key is attentional focus and as the more astute of you may notice, this is something the Tibetan tradition points out without dearth of repetition. I will expand on this notion of “attentional focus” later. For now, let us simply earmark it as an important concept in cultures where the notion of compassion is venerated.

In my understanding of compassion, which may well be incomplete or even incorrect, compassion has three core themes. (1) The understanding that all beings desire happiness. (2) That the right to be so, is implicit in this statement. It is not that difficult to see this played out in much of our conscious life, by how much time we spend manipulating external circumstances trying to find this elusive feeling of happiness. (3) The recognition that our mind has a role to play in this process. For instance, if you believe that happiness will be found in external circumstances, you might just find yourself working 80 hours a week and climbing over others to get that next promotion. Why would someone do this? Because they believe, consciously or not, they will be better off by doing so. Clearly this is a misunderstanding of where, or should I say, how happiness is to be found. Working 80 hours a week is not a problem. Hell, the Dalai Lama works far more than that. The problem here is not the amount of work but rather their willful disregard of others.

As a side point: to generate compassion you must first recognise the above for yourself, by yourself. That is to say, you must see how you desire happiness and you must see how functional states of mind are necessary conditions for happiness. See this post for more on the connection between wisdom and compassion.

With this understanding as a platform, cultures of compassion such as the Tibetan monastic community can have frank, robust and honest discussions, even disagreements without fear of backlash from hurting peoples ego’s. How? Because they do not externalise ego’s pain. If, or I should say, when, the ego is bruised in debate, monks will not blame their debating opponents. Of course there is sometimes tension in debate, after all some of us are still quite ordinary, yet blame is never laid at the feet of another. It is selfishness or egoism which is to blame. And we do just that. This is because the source of our discomfort are these dysfunctional states of mind, not others attitudes. This, in the tradition, is called mind training. An apt description that conveys the internal process.

People who are compassionate are or have at some point gone through the process of training their mind to be compassionate. This starts by shifting your attentional focus from only your happiness to that of others. But notice one thing. There is no mention of changing your appearance, as there is no room for the happy-clappy types in this culture. The Tibetans have a name for these types, they are called a-pur-dop’s, that is, pretenders. And pretenders, in the end, get caught out. Usually when someone attacks them or harms them in someway.

What this allows in terms of community, be it a philosophy department, a family or whatever, is an environment of trust, without the need for fake friendliness or overstated gentleness. A place where each person cares for the welfare of others, without the need to appear so, is a place which fosters the notion that just like me, you want to be happy and you have the right to be so. This is a culture of compassion. Does this entail liking every person you meet? No. Is it possible to have compassion for someone that might be labeled a “trouble maker”? Yes, absolutely! And in fact, it is at this point in your training, that you begin to see for yourself the power of compassion. For real compassion is stable even in the face of those makers of trouble. This is why compassion is important, because we all face problems. People misunderstand our intentions, misread our body language and tension ensues. If your attentional focus is pointing towards yourself, this tension will turn into anger or resentment, and we all know where that leads – the dark side, of course. As your attentional focus begins to shift, so your compassion increases and through this you will tend to see good in people without clinging onto the negative aspects of their personality. This has the knock on effect of feeling close to others, even if you have just met them.

So, when Buddhism talks about compassion, it is talking about ones attentional focus, not simply about self-interested friendliness or overstated gentleness. Because, in the end, self-interested friendliness is simply politics with a smile, gentleness with an agenda and no one likes an a-pur-dop, right.

You may ask: why the photos of books and sunshine? This article has nothing to do with sunshine, books, nuggets of gold, or for that matter, climbing mountains. I will leave it up to you to decide an answer to those questions. At least in my mind there is a direct link between the development of genuine compassion and photos of sunshine (at the metaphorical level) and stacks of books on philosophy. Perhaps I will explain myself at a later point. For now here is a hint…cognitive functional shift.

Until next time…learn to recognise the direction of your attentional focus, and be kind to yourself by being kind to others.

Learning to be Consistent Using the Chain Method

Writing and Meditation

Writing a PhD thesis is the largest project I’ve worked on. As I began writing I often found myself feeling slightly uncomfortable. At first I wasn’t sure what it was. Then I twigged! A PhD is a huge project, which is by and large self managed. Its size can lead to anxiety, which in turn can lead to procrastination as a coping mechanism. This, in fact is what I was doing. I was spending my time reading. Thinking I needed to know more, before the writing could start. Intuitively however, I knew something was off and so I Googled. I wondered if anyone else was experiencing similar problems. Of course, there were plenty of people sorting through similar issues, with many different ideas on its cause and a solution. Most of them were silly. Some of them made sense but, just didn’t seem to hit the money. They spoke of being relaxed. But I was already relaxed. Maybe too relaxed, in fact.

In the end, I found a method suiting my personality. One that I felt comfortable with but, more importantly, one I felt could be fun. So, I’m guessing by now you want to know what this method is? I reckon you might even be thinking about how you can use it for your own projects.

Jerry Seinfeld’s Chain Method

The Jerry Seinfeld Chain Method or JSCM – after Jerry’s own productivity technique for writing. But, this method could just as easily be called the Principal Skinner Envelope Licking Method or PSELM (of course that will only make sense to those who know of the TV show, The Simpsons), and in some ways the PSELM is probably a better description of the underlying psychology. The JSCM is a method based on healthy self-competition. It’s an easy enough concept to grasp. You get a calendar such as the one in the photo. It is important that it is a one sheet calendar, as the days need to be easily visible. Place the calendar in a prominent place. In my case it is near the door of my room. So whenever I walk in or out, there is it. Reminding of how well, or not, I am doing. Then, for whatever project you are working on set yourself a daily goal. For me, the calendar on the left represents X hours of meditation per day. The one of the right, X number of words writing per day. Then once I have met my set goal I mark the day with a big red cross. The goal is to build up the chain of crosses. As Jerry says: Don’t break the chain!

Funny enough, it works. Although the photo above was taken on the first day and only has one cross. As you build the chain, you begin to feel invested in seeing the chain unbroken and growing. I am now up to day four and have four red crosses. Strange, I know, but it works. It’s quite satisfying to mark the calendar each day. And the thought of not getting that red cross gently pushes you to make your daily meditation or writing goal. Its a carrot and a stick method in one.

You can read more about how Jerry and his method here

News From Windy Ole Hobart

Today is a good day. If only because a book I have been waiting on has arrived ahead of time. Published in 1964 The Self in Indian Philosophy is an scholarly survey of the different notions of self according to the various schools of…well…Indian philosophy, but I guess that was pretty obvious.

As some of you may know, my thesis is focused on Personal Identity. In particular the tension between the Buddhist theory of selflessness and the givenness of first person experience. This book will help me better understand the different views on selfhood according to the non-Buddhist philosophical school of ancient India.

Talking about deconstruction. Boy, is it windy here. Hobart gets these wind gusts that I have never experienced. The other day a part of a tin roof was ripped off a building very close to the cafe. An area of the university that is generally packed with people. Luckily, it was the first day of semester break, so all the undergraduates were off doing whatever 20-somethings do. It could have been a very dark day indeed if not for this fact.

Besides the wind, Hobart is a pretty city with a population of just over 200,000. Although Hobart is the capital city of a state of Australia, it really is just a country town. Which by the way, is why I like living here. Unfortunately, however, there is not much by way of a sangha community here. Maybe this will change over time. For now though, I’m pretty much on my own. Tasmania is the ideal place for meditation retreats, and given there is basically no weekly meditation courses or classes on basic Buddhist philosophy, the people of Hobart, I feel, could really do with something that could cater for this. Perhaps, in time a monastery and dharma center can be built here.

On other news. I have moved into another room in the house that the university found for me (see the above photo). It is a great little space, with a wonderful view over the university football oval (which does get a little noisy on the weekend). I have started to do much of my writing here, as there are less distraction here, than in the university supplied office. And as you can see I’m close enough to still be in walking distance from the coffee shop.

I hope you are all doing well. Till next time…take care!

Bruises, News and a Scholarship

Bruised Fingertips

It has been a while, I know. I am sorry about that, really. So what have I been up to, you ask? Well, its a little like this…read some stuff on Buddhist thought, personal identity, cognitive science and what it means to have a sense of self. Write about what I read. Eat something then, sleep. Get up the following day and do it all again. Sound like fun? Well, I guess that depends on what your writing about. For me, I’m having a ball. Being a postgrad student is a real blast. I feel like I am doing something useful which allows me to continue being a Buddhist monk at the same time. As a friend of mine recently said: not too many people get to do what they want in life. Make the most of it. He’s right, and I will. Hopefully, along the way I can

Some News

In December at the Australian Association of Buddhist Studies conference, I will be presenting a work in progress essay entitled Madhymaka Constructionism: Establishing the Unreal. It is a paper on a constructionist view of persons that I argue resolves the tension between the doctrine of selflessness and the givenness of first-person experience.  I believe the event is open to the public, and it will be held during the same week as the Dalai Lama teachings. So, if you are in Sydney at that time, don’t be a stranger. I will be attending HH Dalai Lama’s teachings in Sydney too.

In early next year I will be traveling to the University of Tibetan Studies in Sarnath India for research.  During this trip I will be visiting Bodhgaya for HH Dalai Lama teachings.

So, keep your ear to the ground.

And a Scholarship

Recently, I secured a stipend scholarship through the University of Tasmania. The scholarship is for the full 3 year duration of the PhD and will allow me to focus exclusively on producing quality work. All of this, of course, could not have been possible without the generosity and support of the following people.

Venerable Geshe Thubten Loden, Venerable Toby Gillies, Professor Robert Thurman, Manikam Nedumaran, Peter Whitby, Barry and Fay Scott, Anthony Joseph, Tim Mckibbon, Rosemary McKew, Michael Colton, Trevor Kitcher, Barbara Spencer, Joseph Szili, Louise Fagan, Adrian Reif, Philip Miller, Bruce Galbreath and Arwen O’Connor.

For their support, I am truly grateful.

I’d also like to thank the University of Tasmania and Professors Jeff Malpas, Wayne Hudson and Dr. Lucy Tatman. The application process far easier than it would have been without your support.

So, now I have no excuses for failure…well… other than my lack of skill, of course.

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