words

"When the mind is still, silent, open,
neither seeking nor resisting,
then it is possible to see what is true."
-Krishnamurti


"The farmer channels water to his land,
the fletcher whittles his arrows,
the carpenter turns his wood,
and the wise direct their minds."
-Buddha, The Dhammapadda

The Human Risk of Sovereignty

NAIROBI, Kenya — After a long and tense debate with the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations has decided to withdraw 2,000 peacekeepers, far fewer than Congolese officials wanted, according to a draft resolution.

Congo is still haunted by countless armed groups, and a new rebellion recently erupted in the middle of the country. But the Congolese government has been demanding that the United Nations reduce its 20,000-plus peacekeeping force because Congolese officials see the United Nations presence as a violation of their sovereignty.

-From The New York Times 5.27.10

Reading this short note on the state of affairs in The Democratic Republic of Congo (a name that is perilously optimistic in its own right), I can't help but draw on the diverging parallels of human suffering and national rights to an obscure political concept named "sovereignty." This sovereignty should be a privilege allotted countries capable of functioning up to a bare minimum threshold of both form and protection for its citizens; a human index ladder onto which The Democratic Republic of Congo has not even climbed the first rung. This "nation" is failed in all but name; it offers nothing more to its citizens than marauding bands of drunken soldiers raping, looting, and killing with impunity alongside the various ethnic and tribal militias which have terrorized Congo since the fall of Mobutu; a corroded and inept government that acts as a vampire bat, sucking whatever life is to be had out of the free society already plunged into perpetual freefall. And thus, to have this "nation" demand the United Nations, in all of its brilliant incompetence, leave the country to its own will, should be a serious cause for concern for the international community. The peacekeeping force needs to be many thousands more, especially in the perilous east of the sprawling nation, where laws are a distant memory of a long completed colonial legacy and nothing more; the people of the Congo continue to suffer under an inept regime; the United Nations, far from perfect, providing the only means of stability for millions caught in a viscous cycle of violence; and the international community, doing nothing, not even tongue wagging, at the violence that rages. And yet this peculiar concept of sovereignty trumps all, in this forgotten land in the heart of Africa.

Enlightenment

" In the midst of clouds of illusion and impermanence, dances the lightening of life.

Can you say you won't die tomorrow? Practice the Dharma."

-Dilgo Kyentse Rimpoche

"To be in his presence was to experience a living example of what lies at

the end of the spiritual path."

Robjom Rimpoche, on Dilgo Kyentse Rimpoche

greed

"from understanding that greed is unskillfull, and from the thoughts and feelings that follow,

we become less self-centered in our life, and these thoughts and feelings then become the condition for acts of generosity and service. The acts of a generous heart strengthen feelings of love and compassion even further, freeing our mind from the suffering of stinginess, selfishness, and pride. Thus through this natural chain of events, we become happier."

_Joseph Goldstein

seeking

i seek not personal happiness or contentment as a purpose of travel

these are understood to be the logical outcomes to internalized trainings of the mind.

i seek, instead, a connection to the mysteries of the world,

a connection to my own hidden mysteries, the illuminating lamp lit on the darkest of nights, the most desperate of situations, stumbling blinded in the windstorm in a desert, and reaching shelter.

the most uncomfortable of situations can bring out the best in humanity, in self.

i see to understand for myself the different shades of sunsets that span the vast continents

and unite us all in a cloak of shared humanity;

to see if the moon looks different from the other side of the earth.

i seek nothing on a journey and everything.

just to be, to bear witness, to sit, to admire, to feel the change along with the days.

understanding that this, too, will fade, just as it has risen;

and the journey will continue.

quantum

in quantum physics, the very act of observation alters the supposedly objective reality that is being observed. the observer fundamentally creates reality by observing it, and how we look determines the phenomena that we perceive. Until an observer sees an atom, the atom occupies an infinite number of possible outcomes simultaneously. Upon observation, all of these possibilities collapse into a single reality....

tantric practitioners apply a similar principle to alter and expand their view of reality,

to free it from the reference point of an observing subject. by altering states of consciousness

through ritual and meditation, adepts manifest latent, simultaneous realities, beyond the

bounds of conventional perception.

-Ian Baker

smells

the smell of fresh woodchips,
sandalwood, earth, country, life, swirling, enmeshed,

enters my nose.

i imagine a swirl of color accompanying the spiraling radiance,

pervading, focusing, the concepts fall back to sensation,

birds above, breeze, sun, life.

trenches

the mind is tenacious

it will grab, grasp, fingers dug in,

scratching the layers of paint

off the decrepit, peeling walls.

Dug in, trenches deep,

the ruts of recollection,

tracks of cyclic detriment,

frozen in the february freeze,

thawing out the path,

reshaping the tracks of the mind,

such hard work,

so much persistence.

leaving

escaping the frantic madness,

energy can corrode,

as well as inspire;

the breeze cools my back,

the material of my green shirt thin against its incessant howling,

music fills the spaces behind,

vaguely familiar,

or was it something i chose to ignore once,

amidst the madness, hustling, moving, ignoring, proceeding, encapsulated amongst the canyons?

the sun will shine on all places,

whether i can imagine or not.

Rarity

"Ask yourself, how many of the billions of inhabitants of this planet

have any idea of how rare it is to have been born as a human being.

How many of those who understand the rarity of human birth ever think

of using that chance to practice the Dharma? How many of those who start,

continue?"

-Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

practice

"Through practice, it is possible to train the heart and mind,

to make them concentrated, to make them steady and luminous and

free. Its possible to become balanced in the face of every kind of experience.

With honesty we can learn to be unmoved. We can come to understand that

which is deeper than these forces. We start to see that the worst and most

difficult things also change, that they too, are empty experiences, lights and

shadows that we all share and that arise and pass in the clear space of mind."

-Jack Kornfield