Happiness vs. greed: "Money won't change you but..."
Good grief, there certainly seems to be a whole lot of important
Tibetan Buddhist lamas coming to visit NorCal these days. Perhaps they
are here to show their compassion for us after all these horrible
wildfires. In any case, Tenzin Lungtok, the seventh Ling Rinpoche, just
gave a talk to the U.C. Berkeley community on the importance of
happiness and compassion -- and here's my full report on the event
(including my excellent commentary of course). Sorry that it's so long
but Ling Rinpoche had a lot of important stuff to say.
BTW, the seventh Ling Rinpoche is a direct reincarnation of the Dalai
Lama's senior tutor who died in 1983 -- so this Ling Rinpoche is rather
young, only 33 years old.
The very first thing he talked about was Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Shocker! "They live in conditions that are very poor, very wretched
over there." Yeah, they do -- thanks to the USA, which caused all that
misery in the first place. And even now, American war profiteers seem
to be desperate to start even more new "wars" and to also keep the same
old tired ones going. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50130.htm
"And in the United States itself there is no war," Ling Rinpoche
continued, "but there are many problems in the mind here, even among the
wealthy." Especially among the wealthy. Some of those guys are
bat-dookie cray-cray!
"Is all this happening because of karma, and is thus unavoidable?"
Apparently not. "In fact there are things we can do to change all this
for the better -- we can become patient, tolerant and satisfied with
what we have. But here in America there is the problem of greed." No
shite, Sherlock.
"Attitudes like greed create problems, and because of these problems we
simply don't have minds that are capable of contentment." Apparently
kindness is the key to contentment. "And if we can't find what we want
by kindness, we may turn to lies and violence -- and also to trying to
keep others from getting what they want as well, in order to feel more
superior to them." Rinpoche may be on to something here. That does
seem to be America's main attitude right now. Our neighbors are
homeless and dying of hunger? Hurray! Now we're better than them.
"And because of greed, then we lie, we steal, we kill." This is starting to sound very familiar as well. What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine too -- that seems to be
Washington's main approach to governance in the last five decades. Or
is it six? Or seven? I myself have devoted my life to protecting
justice against greed. Greed is the main predator on justice? Why am I
not surprised.
Then Rinpoche goes on to say that this all-about-me attitude basically
sucks eggs. "It is a narrow way of thinking." For sure. No future
there.
"Fighting and arguing with others is a major part of this type of
thinking. Naturally we all want happiness -- there's nothing wrong with
that. But we don't know what we need to do to be happy." Yeah, well.
Americans could begin by not financing the slaughter of babies in
Syria, Gaza and Yemen. That would be a good start. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50137.htm
"We need to make our minds more open and expansive." Snap! "Not just
thinking about ourselves. We need to be more concerned with the world
in general." This is good stuff. But then, oops, my pen ran out of
ink. New pen please! Hope I am getting this all down correctly.
"If our attitude is more open and expansive, we can stop problems and
achieve far-reaching goals." World peace would be a good goal, right?
This is where you are spozed to nod your head up and down, America. But
apparently not.
"If you have an expansive attitude, things go better." Narrow
thinking? Not good. "The results are always problems." Just look at
the swamp that America has created in Afghanistan -- and Flint.
"A lack of contentment and blaming others is a large cause of our
problems." The immigrants did it! The Russians did it! Not. "If we
learn to take responsibility for our own blame, problems can be solved.
Otherwise our minds become distracted away from seeing what is actually
good -- distracted by greed and desire." https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/family-detention-center-border_us_5b7c2673e4b0a5b1febf3abf
Then he talked about work. "People here do it for salaries, housing,
cars, etc. They don't even think about if they are actually enjoying
their work." How many Americans are stuck in yucky boring dead-end
jobs? But I myself have a job that I like right now -- I'm working on
becoming a better person. And also trying to be more patient with
jerks.
"Morality is good," he continued. "Morality, concentration and
wisdom." Hmmm. Perhaps it is time for Americans to start choosing
their leaders because they are wise. Nah. Never happen. But maybe it
could....
"Technological development is not
enough to enjoy a good life. Look at all the people in more developed
countries who are not happy." And also look at all those happy people in
that technological desert Bhutan for instance, far happier than us.
"Of course technology does help -- but in a limited way. To obtain
far-reaching advances, we really need to develop the qualities of the
mind." Xfinity and Apple won't make us happy. Not really. Let's place
our bets on kindness instead.
"For example the kindness of our parents, our teachers and our friends
have done more for us than technology." We would never have even
reached adulthood without their kindness. That type of kindness is even
more better than gold-plated toilets and really fast cars. "Loving
kindness is priceless." And it's harder to come by as well.
"There is too much violence, crime and war in the world. Whether you
accept religion or not, loving kindness and compassion are important.
Affection for others. With these tools, all the problems in our world
could be solved. And we could all receive real, genuine happiness. No
more problems in the world." Boom. Done and dusted. Works for me.
"If you see something, if you see an injustice, do something. Of
course we should protest if someone does something wrong -- but not hate
them. And we should feel even more compassion for people who lack
kindness." Because they are losers, duh!
"And if you have made mistakes in your life before? Then take that
occasion to learn from them. And treat others as you would treat
yourself." Unlike what Christian hypocrites in Washington do today. "And be kind to yourself as well -- but avoid self-cherishing because that only leads to anger." Bottom line? "We depend on all others for our happiness."
Then someone asked about what to do when comparing oneself unfavorably
to all those beautiful people on TV? "Then just turn off the TV," he
said with a smile.
And during the Q&A that followed, I too couldn't resist standing
up. "I always make all my decisions based on whether or not what I was
planning to do might benefit the most sentient beings. So thank you for
coming here today because hearing your talk definitely benefited more
sentient beings than if I had just sat home and watched TV." He smiled
at this too. "But my question is, what do you see happening in the
future -- say five or ten years from now?"
Ling Rinpoche answered that he was not a soothsayer or fortune teller
but that the way to a better future is, "Don't be attached to the
results. Just do what you can, try to keep benefiting all -- and then act!"
I was so impressed with this young guy who speaks like a wise old man
that I grabbed up one of those traditional white offering scarves that
you are supposed to give to lamas and ran after him to the elevator like
some desperate Beatles fan from the '60s. "Wait! Wait!" I cried. But
the elevator closed in my face -- but then me and my friend went off to
buy tacos on Telegraph Avenue and got all greedy for guacamole.
PS:
We also ran into a Palestinian friend of mine on the Avenue who told us
that Israeli colonialists were now offering money to Palestinian
Israelis in Jerusalem if they would move off to that hell-hole the
"settlers" have now created on the West Bank. Hey, that's way better
than just straight-up murdering them, right? Although I do gotta admit
that Palestinian Israelis living in the West Bank are a hecka lot
vulnerable to getting murdered. Money won't change that fact either. James Brown nailed it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GomjY2car6g
Perhaps Israeli colonialists are doing all this killing because they
are not very happy? Too greedy? Perhaps they should switch to loving
kindness instead!
_____________________________
Stop Wall Street and War Street from destroying our world. And while you're at it, please buy my books. https://www.amazon.com/Jane-Stillwater/e/B00IW6O1RM
