Infinite Potential

December 6, 2013 | By Waking Times | Reply

James C. Wilhelm, Contributor
Waking Times

The message for which I am primarily known has remained consistent for 52 years: unity, freedom, peace, love, justice, gratitude, giving. These words represent a powerful, stunning, and absolutely possible reality available to all humanity.

In 1976 I asked, “What do I do with the power that the ineffable experience of peace and love makes available to me?” I received two answers:

Communicate the possibility of lasting inner peace to as many people as possible.
Assist anyone who may choose peace, love, justice, equality of opportunity, responsibility, freedom to realize that these gifts are who they are.

I asked the question because the realization of peace within me brought with it the realization that I am not fulfilled until all sentient beings are fulfilled. And it was obvious to me that something about the way we humans were living was not working.

Though cause and effect relationships can be difficult to correlate, there is no doubt that over the course of the past few thousand years humans have made many harmful changes to other humans and to the planet. We cannot presume that because we have found ways to bend physical reality and other life forms to our human will that such self-focused choices are representative of an ethical system to which we should adhere. And many of us do make this presumption.

Our human minds are very good at justifying anything we want to do. A popular human justification consists in the notion that humans are on earth to control and exploit earth’s resources as we see fit. Our short term view, from the perspective of the micro-flash of an average human lifespan, distorts our thinking. The thinking distortion causes us to imagine that any action we take is moral action as long as we can justify it within ourselves.

Not all humans believe the ends justify the means. Many of us around the world and in the Unites States believe that justice, equality of opportunity and freedom have been taken from the average person and set aside for only the wealthiest people who are able to influence the passage and enforcement of laws. This power to influence governments explains why the rich get richer, the middle class is evaporating and the poor get poorer.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Freedom, justice and the ability to have a fair shot at success belong to all humans and those who see themselves without these precious values have the power to take them back.Taking back our freedom begins with taking responsibility for our situation. Above all, this means taking responsibility for our personal transformation, which is what occurs when we relax, breathe mindfully, and allow the loving peace that is always within us to express itself in ourselves and in our world. This recalls words spoken by Abraham J. Muste in 1940:

…if we are to have a new world, we must have new men; if you want a revolution, you must be revolutionized. A world of peace will not be achieved by men…who have not themselves…undergone an inner revolution.

Our commitment to personal transformation will, in turn, drive the transformation of people all over the world.

The United States spends close to a trillion dollars a year to defend itself from “enemies”. Despite the staggering amount of money spent to defend against the never-ending list of foreign and domestic enemies and the vast quantity of nuclear and conventional weapons that we possess, we are not safe. Indeed, military and intelligence spending continues to rise year after year and new enemies continue to make themselves known. Perhaps the enemy is that group of people who desire and benefit financially from this unconscionable weapons spending.

We the people have given up our dollars for weapons that don’t keep us safe while our educational system continues to weaken and people remain hungry and homeless. We have watched as our children, sisters and brothers have gone without food and healthcare and, most of all, we have surrendered our freedom, our security, and our privacy. If we value freedom and choose to regain and maintain freedom we must take back responsibility for the course of our own lives and in doing so, take back our freedom. It will not be given back to us. We must take it. Frederick Douglass said in 1857:

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will…The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

Yes, we the people elect our fellow citizens to public office and these people tell us they are the leaders of the nation; they are not. They dance on strings, pulled this way and that by a monied oligarchy, which ensures the never-ending presence of enemies against whom we must arm ourselves with ever newer, ever better, ever more weapons. This is the military-industrial complex about which President Dwight Eisenhower warned us in his final speech to the nation in 1960. Eisenhower also said:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in a final sense a theft from those who are hungry and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.

How is it possible for the top 1% of America’s population to own 42% of the nation’s wealth while the bottom 80% of Americans own only 7%? There are many explanations for this, too many to address in anything short of a lengthy book. I summarize an answer here by stating that the 1% is totally organized, in agreement on their central goals, and focused on them like a laser beam. One element of this focus is their use of wealth to purchase influence within the nation’s political system, to elect presidents, to pass laws that work in their favor and to hold dominion over the rulings of our highest courts.

Being organized and focused on agreed upon goals is smart and effective; purchasing laws that work to increase wealth and power is a usurpation of the democratic processes of government. Our “government of the people, by the people and for the people” has been redefined as “government of, by, and for the elite oligarchy.

Clearly defined and agreed upon objectives are necessary to the achievement of goals, whether in a family or a social system. The vast majority of Americans, the 99%, are fractured into many factions, each with its own agenda and its own set of goals. We have been indoctrinated to focus on differences and to oppose each other and even to hate each other. We separate ourselves according to financial status; we have divorced ourselves from each other along racial and religious lines, differences in political parties and other illusory distinctions that serve to prevent us from agreeing on almost anything.

The 99% of Americans, the vast majority of our people must, therefore, transcend our apparent differences and join together as the one mind that we essentially are. Jim Morrison said 46 years ago:

They got the guns, but we got the numbers. Gonna win yeah, we’re taking over. Come on!

Martin Luther King Jr said in 1967:

We have experimented with the meaning of nonviolence in our struggle for racial justice in the United States, but now the time has come for man to experiment with nonviolence in all areas of human conflict, and that means nonviolence on an international scale…

No individual can live alone; no nation can live alone, and as long as we try, the more we are going to have war in this world. Now the judgment of God is upon us, and we must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools.

One way to “live together as brothers” is to recognize our essential sameness rather that our superficial differences. At the very core of our human essence we are one. Corporately controlled media outlets teach us we are different; we can disregard this and begin to love each other. We must come together and declare among us a set of focused goals that we all share. We must then be responsible for taking unified, focused action aimed at the realization of these goals. Focusing as one our common energy we are infinitely powerful and capable of anything. We can light this whole world afire with freedom, justice, equality of opportunity and love.

The issues facing us today are intensified and enhanced versions of issues that have confronted humanity for many years, even centuries. It is thus necessary for those of us who share the vision of possibility to prepare ourselves for change at the level of the cultural paradigm itself. It is here that our responsible action will bring about our mutual and widespread freedom, peace and abundance.

We will not regain our freedom if we leave it to someone else. We will not regain our freedom and create justice without a commitment to radically change the way things have always been done. We are talking about a new paradigm that lives into the words of the United States Constitution:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The Constitution does not state, We the 1%… It says, “We the people,” and we are that people of which this document speaks.

Our Declaration of Independence, the document that declared on July 4, 1776, our independence from a despotic and unjust government states:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

The radical change now required is not an extreme idea – it is the only practical path across the great divide from slavery to independence. We will not vote or legislate our way across this divide. Power has never given up power – power must be taken.

I suggest we follow the path guided by our inner peace and organize ourselves for peaceful change, peaceful revolution. We must act now by following the lead of our role models from the past like the Reverend Dr. King Jr, and Mahatma Gandhi, who said:

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.

Indeed, “…they got the guns, but we got the numbers.” Let us all: black, white, Hispanic, Native American, women, men, foreign born, oriental, unemployed, employed, professional, production worker, Muslim, Christian, Jew, atheist, all religions, all races, all of us human beings, come together as the one we essentially are and take back our freedom, our peace, our justice. The time to act is now.

About the Author

Jim Wilhelm is an international spiritual teacher, self-development mentor, author, lecturer, philosopher, Emmy award-winning television producer, and successful entrepreneur. He has shared his experiences of practical mysticism around the world for more than 40 years. Jim has translated his mystical understanding into practical knowledge that we all can apply in our lives.

Meditation Is Rest: Rest Makes Your Mind Efficient

October 26, 2013 | By WakingTimes | Reply

OSHO
Waking Times

Meditation makes you a master and the mind becomes a slave. And remember: the mind as a master is dangerous because, after all, it is a machine; but the mind as a slave is tremendously significant, useful.

“When I say, “Drop the ego, drop the mind,” I don’t mean that you cannot use the mind any more. In fact, when you don’t cling to the mind you can use it in a far better, far more efficient way, because the energy that was involved in clinging becomes available. And when you are not continuously in the mind, twenty-four hours a day in the mind, the mind also gets a little time to rest.

“Do you know? – even metals need rest, even metals get tired. So what to say about this subtle mechanism in the world. In such a small skull you are carrying such a complicated bio-computer that no computer made by man is yet capable of competing with it. The scientists say a single man’s brain can contain all the libraries of the world and yet there will space enough to contain more.

“And you are continuously using it – uselessly, unnecessarily! You have forgotten how to put it off. For seventy, eighty years it remains on, working, working tired. That’s why people lose intelligence: for the simple reason that they are so tired. If the mind can have little rest, if you can leave the mind alone for a few hours every day, if once in a while you can give the mind a holiday, it will be rejuvenated; it will come out more intelligent, more efficient, more skillful.

“So I am not saying that you are not to use your mind, but don’t be used by the mind. Right now the mind is the master and you are only a slave.

“Meditation makes you a master and the mind becomes a slave. And remember: the mind as a master is dangerous because, after all, it is a machine; but the mind as a slave is tremendously significant, useful. A machine should function as a machine, not as a master. Our priorities are all upside down – your consciousness should be the master.

“So whenever you want to use it, in the East or in the West – of course you will need it in the marketplace – use it! But when you don’t need it, when you are resting at home by the side of your swimming pool or in the garden, there is no need. Put it aside. Forget all about it! Then just be.”

Osho, Ah, This!, Talk #2

The Timelessness of Time

December 4, 2013 | By WakingTimes | 5 Replies

Linda George, Contributor
Waking Times

There is something fascinating about science.  One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact. -Mark Twain

The dance along the artery. The circulation of the lymph. Are figured in the drift of stars. -T. S. Eliot

The scientific paradigm that assumed the world was ‘out there’, separate from the observer, separate and apart from everything else has finally, thanks to the discoveries of the quantum revolution, been busted. We now know those die-hard assumptions, the ones on which most of our materialistic world has been built upon, are false. The world is not only ‘out there’. That level is surface, it is the level of manifestation – and may be the least of it. It’s as if the universe, the Creator, OM, God was playing with us… because we just don’t see it! But the invisible world is where ‘reality’ most truthfully lies. When we neglect (in our ignore-ance) the invisible, we create a division within our own souls – and  our bodies, that can take lifetimes to heal.

The study of time is an interesting one and can help us to see the division more clearly. To the materialist, time is linear – moving in sequential order from past to present to future. To the mystic, poet and dreamer, time is unity, eternity, infinity. It is happening now and always will be. Two different worldviews, two ways of perceiving reality. The truth about time depends on who is looking at it. In the Newtonian worldview, time was uncomplicated, it was linear and that was that. Then Einstein shattered this shell of belief and linked forever, time with space – bringing to our awareness the truth that time is relative – a concept in fact. But the materialist continues to view time as linear – and, to all intents and purposes, so do most of us as we go about our day to day lives, compelled as we are to live in a predominantly material reality. Unless we access a portal to a different level of consciousness (drug or spiritually induced) we ‘feel’ the passing of time – and it feels to be moving from past, to present, to future.

Men say time passes. Time says men pass.

To the astrologer, the question of time is particularly pertinent. The birth or natal chart is constructed for themoment in time in which the incoming entity takes its first breath. As Carl Jung said so well:  “Whatever is born or done this moment of time has the qualities of this moment of time.” Each moment in time has a particular quality, a pattern to it – comprised of the planetary energies of the cosmos – and this pattern becomes stamped onto the DNA of the newborn, forming a spiritual and physical template for the life ahead. Thus, a moment in time is imperative, in the knowledge system of astrology – which so beautifully links the material with the spiritual. From the entry point of a moment in time, its birth into the material world, the individual is set on the linear time pathway. It has entered the world of separateness, the playground of duality, the place of division. But the Soul, and the other ‘bodies’ (emotional, mental and higher) which make up the individual entity – reside still in that other reality: unity, eternity, a place of timelessness.

It may sound lofty, or perhaps, confusing, but  the birth chart is a perfect example of the intersection of the two ways of looking at time: science and magic are united in the  symbolism of the birth chart. The cross of matter being  the two axes, vertical and horizontal, creating the division of the four elements that make up the physical world and the circle, enclosing the cross is the snake eating its own tail – representing eternity, without beginning or end. I cannot think of a more perfect representation of the wholeness that we are. We are indeed spiritual beings having a human experience. The celestial sphere of the circle houses the planets – each unique fields of information, with frequencies that directly interact and influence our own fields. Because they exist within the circle – they have, as we do too, a time-bound aspect and a timeless one. Again, it depends on how we are seeing them – which time perspective lens we are using.

The birth chart can very successfully be read, and usually is, within the context of this one lifetime, and in the linear timeframe. But the symbols can also be read from the other perspective: the infinite, eternal, timeless one. In this ‘reading’ – everything in the chart is karmic. That is, it arose from something that went before. We can see in the planets, ancient wounding – and we can see too, when we shift our perspective, the healing potential of those same planets.

In evolutionary astrology, we acknowledge the existence of the Soul and accept that the Soul is timeless and infinite. We accept that the Soul carries within it, every experience we have ever gone through. Every lifetime we have lived, is therefore with us still. There is no past, present, future, where the Soul is concerned. Everything is just now. The Soul is having a human experience in the now, and this experience is inevitably and indelibly shadowed by the wounds of division – inflicted at some stage, any stage, on its long trek through countless lifetimes. The Soul carries the wounds of physicality as a form of memory that becomes lodged in the cellular structure of subsequent bodies – if they are not brought to awareness and released.

We attain our greatest freedom when we recognise our limitations. -Anthony Storr

There are spiritual laws and man-made laws – we cannot break either with impunity. Our free will is free only insofar as we recognize that we are not, ultimately free. We are born into this life bearing the scars of all our previous lives – because they are with us still as energetic holding patterns. The horoscope is a map, if you like, of these energetic holding patterns. And there are many more beyond the scope of our current understanding of the chart – and probably beyond astrology. But the chart does reveal the individual laws that govern us in this present lifetime. It is a map then, like it or not, of our fate. Our freewill is the power we have been given to recognize it and work with it. We may rail against our fate, but let us not despair – just as physical scars can heal, so can Soul wounds. It is true they are not easy to heal and this is because the most important quality we need to heal them, is patience. We need to get out of time. Be timeless. When we do, our minds and bodies soften and we connect with the natural world. We become open,  trusting, honest – as opposed to the time-bound state where we are constricted and closed, rushed, anxious and fearful.

In this brief lifetime, where time passes, more quickly it seems the older we get, there is a background feeling of urgency and busy-ness. We do not easily or willingly set aside the time and patience needed to get to the root of our issues, our pains and wounds. We want a quick fix – so we look to doctors,psychologists, therapists of all description. We have not been taught to trust the body’s self-healing intelligence. We do not know how to be still and listen to our heart’s intelligence.  We don’t have time to connect with nature. And in a culture that has repressed the truth about reincarnation, we haven’t a clue that we carry wounds from former lives into this one; and that our pains are often ancient scars alive and well in the now. We have wounds that may take more than one lifetime to uncover and heal. This healing journey is one we are all on and it is one of the reasons for which we took birth.

It may help then, to step out of the materialist mind-set and see time through the lens of the mystic. There is no time. We are infinite. We have eternity to get it; whatever our particular it may be. We must not lose heart, even when it feels like such a struggle. The struggle is part of the purpose and while it might seem as if we take two steps forward in life, and one back – no one is immune from the challenges. Our suffering is not unique to us alone. Patience, insight, compassion for oneself, enquiry, stillness, trust, connection – to the natural world, to animals, to each other  – we need them all. We need to see our life, our body, our challenges and issues as experiments. Life is in fact an experiential exercise – that is all it is. We cannot easily get out of it so we might as well play the game. Experience it: the good, the bad and everything in between.

And while we do, let us not forget what we have been told by those who have had their consciousness taken out of this life and gone into the infinite,  and then returned: beyond this linear lifetime, the overwhelming nature of the universe, the place we will go when we leave here,  is pure love.

“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” -William Blake

About the Author

Linda George is a writer and evolutionary astrologer living in New Zealand. She has been deeply involved in astrology, alternative health, spirituality and metaphysics for 35 years. Author of two books on consciousness and astrology – both finalists in the Ashton Wylie Mind/Body/Spirit book awards, she is committed to joining with others in ‘spreading the word’ in these waking times. Please join us. Her blog is www.acosmicride.wordpress.com

**Read other articles from Linda George, here.**

This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.

Researchers Finally Show How Mindfulness and Your Thoughts Can Induce Specific Molecular Changes To Your Genes

December 5, 2013 | By WakingTimes | Reply

Michael Forrester, Prevent Disease
Waking Times

With evidence growing that training the mind or inducing specific modes of consciousness can have beneficial health effects, scientists have sought to understand how these practices physically affect the body. A new study by researchers in Wisconsin, Spain, and France reports the first evidence of specific molecular changes in the body following a period of intensive mindfulness practice.

The study investigated the effects of a day of intensive mindfulness practice in a group of experienced meditators, compared to a group of untrained control subjects who engaged in quiet non-meditative activities. After eight hours of mindfulness practice, the meditators showed a range of genetic and molecular differences, including altered levels of gene-regulating machinery and reduced levels of pro-inflammatory genes, which in turn correlated with faster physical recovery from a stressful situation.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that shows rapid alterations in gene expression within subjects associated with mindfulness meditation practice,” says study author Richard J. Davidson, founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds and the William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Most interestingly, the changes were observed in genes that are the current targets of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs,” says Perla Kaliman, first author of the article and a researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona, Spain (IIBB-CSIC-IDIBAPS), where the molecular analyses were conducted.

The study was published in the Journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.

Mindfulness-based trainings have shown beneficial effects on inflammatory disorders in prior clinical studies and are endorsed by the American Heart Association as a preventative intervention. The new results provide a possible biological mechanism for therapeutic effects.

Gene Activity Can Change According To Perception 

According to Dr. Bruce Lipton, gene activity can change on a daily basis. If the perception in your mind is reflected in the chemistry of your body, and if your nervous system reads and interprets the environment and then controls the blood’s chemistry, then you can literally change the fate of your cells by altering your thoughts.

In fact, Dr. Lipton’s research illustrates that by changing your perception, your mind can alter the activity of your genes and create over thirty thousand variations of products from each gene. He gives more detail by saying that the gene programs are contained within the nucleus of the cell, and you can rewrite those genetic programs through changing your blood chemistry.

In the simplest terms, this means that we need to change the way we think if we are to heal cancer. “The function of the mind is to create coherence between our beliefs and the reality we experience,” Dr. Lipton said. “What that means is that your mind will adjust the body’s biology and behavior to fit with your beliefs. If you’ve been told you’ll die in six months and your mind believes it, you most likely will die in six months. That’s called the nocebo effect, the result of a negative thought, which is the opposite of the placebo effect, where healing is mediated by a positive thought.”

That dynamic points to a three-party system: there’s the part of you that swears it doesn’t want to die (the conscious mind), trumped by the part that believes you will (the doctor’s prognosis mediated by the subconscious mind), which then throws into gear the chemical reaction (mediated by the brain’s chemistry) to make sure the body conforms to the dominant belief. (Neuroscience has recognized that the subconscious controls 95 percent of our lives.)

Now what about the part that doesn’t want to die–the conscious mind? Isn’t it impacting the body’s chemistry as well? Dr. Lipton said that it comes down to how the subconscious mind, which contains our deepest beliefs, has been programmed. It is these beliefs that ultimately cast the deciding vote.

“It’s a complex situation,” said Dr. Lipton. People have been programmed to believe that they’re victims and that they have no control. We’re programmed from the start with our mother and father’s beliefs. So, for instance, when we got sick, we were told by our parents that we had to go to the doctor because the doctor is the authority concerning our health. We all got the message throughout childhood that doctors were the authority on health and that we were victims of bodily forces beyond our ability to control. The joke, however, is that people often get better while on the way to the doctor. That’s when the innate ability for self-healing kicks in, another example of the placebo effect.

Mindfulness Practice Specifically Affects Regulatory Pathways

The results of Davidson’s study show a down-regulation of genes that have been implicated in inflammation. The affected genes include the pro-inflammatory genes RIPK2 and COX2 as well as several histone deacetylase (HDAC) genes, which regulate the activity of other genes epigenetically by removing a type of chemical tag. What’s more, the extent to which some of those genes were downregulated was associated with faster cortisol recovery to a social stress test involving an impromptu speech and tasks requiring mental calculations performed in front of an audience and video camera.

Biologists have suspected for years that some kind of epigenetic inheritance occurs at the cellular level. The different kinds of cells in our bodies provide an example. Skin cells and brain cells have different forms and functions, despite having exactly the same DNA. There must be mechanisms–other than DNA–that make sure skin cells stay skin cells when they divide.

Perhaps surprisingly, the researchers say, there was no difference in the tested genes between the two groups of people at the start of the study. The observed effects were seen only in the meditators following mindfulness practice. In addition, several other DNA-modifying genes showed no differences between groups, suggesting that the mindfulness practice specifically affected certain regulatory pathways.

The key result is that meditators experienced genetic changes following mindfulness practice that were not seen in the non-meditating group after other quiet activities — an outcome providing proof of principle that mindfulness practice can lead to epigenetic alterations of the genome.

Previous studies in rodents and in people have shown dynamic epigenetic responses to physical stimuli such as stress, diet, or exercise within just a few hours.

“Our genes are quite dynamic in their expression and these results suggest that the calmness of our mind can actually have a potential influence on their expression,” Davidson says.

“The regulation of HDACs and inflammatory pathways may represent some of the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic potential of mindfulness-based interventions,” Kaliman says. “Our findings set the foundation for future studies to further assess meditation strategies for the treatment of chronic inflammatory conditions.”

Subconscious Beliefs Are Key

Too many positive thinkers know that thinking good thoughts–and reciting affirmations for hours on end–doesn’t always bring about the results that feel-good books promise.

Dr. Lipton didn’t argue this point, because positive thoughts come from the conscious mind, while contradictory negative thoughts are usually programmed in the more powerful subconscious mind.

“The major problem is that people are aware of their conscious beliefs and behaviors, but not of subconscious beliefs and behaviors. Most people don’t even acknowledge that their subconscious mind is at play, when the fact is that the subconscious mind is a million times more powerful than the conscious mind and that we operate 95 to 99 percent of our lives from subconscious programs.

“Your subconscious beliefs are working either for you or against you, but the truth is that you are not controlling your life, because your subconscious mind supersedes all conscious control. So when you are trying to heal from a conscious level–citing affirmations and telling yourself you’re healthy–there may be an invisible subconscious program that’s sabotaging you.”

The power of the subconscious mind is elegantly revealed in people expressing multiple personalities. While occupying the mind-set of one personality, the individual may be severely allergic to strawberries. Then, in experiencing the mind-set of another personality, he or she eats them without consequence.

The new science of epigenetics promises that every person on the planet has the opportunity to become who they really are, complete with unimaginable power and the ability to operate from, and go for, the highest possibilities, including healing our bodies and our culture and living in peace.

About the Author

Michael Forrester is a spiritual counselor and is a practicing motivational speaker for corporations in Japan, Canada and the United States.

Sources:
wisc.edu
brucelipton.com
ts-si.org

Kuan Yin: The Compassionate Rebel

December 3, 2013 | By WakingTimes | Reply

Image Source

Nitin Kumar, New Dawn
Waking Times

It is unfortunate that Buddhism’s most enduring (and universal) contribution to the world has been insufficiently translated as compassion. The original Sanskrit word is karuna, which holds within itself traces of the fragment ‘ru’, meaning to weep. While the Oxford dictionary describes compassion as pity bordering on the merciful, karuna is actually our ability to relate to another in so intense a measure that the plight of the other affects us as much as if it had been our own.

The term karuna is central to the entire Buddhist tradition. It is frequently described as a love for all beings, equal in intensity to a mother’s affection for her child. However, it is quite unlike conventional love (Sanskrit: priya, kama or trishna), which is rooted in dualistic thinking and is egoistic, possessive and exclusive, in contrast to the all-encompassing nature of compassion. The root meaning of karuna is said to be the anguished cry of deep sorrow and understanding that can only come from an unblemished sense of oneness with others.

In fact, the evolution of Buddhism in Asia and its spread throughout the world is, from a spiritual point of view, none other than the unfolding of karuna in history. Nowhere is this more explicitly exemplified than in the Chinese assimilation of Buddhism. Few would deny that the defining symbol of this integration is the goddess, who with her sweet and merciful disposition, has won the hearts of not only the Chinese, but also profoundly affected even those who, belonging to a foreign tradition, have only had a fleeting interaction with her. This divine female is none other than Kuan Yin, beloved goddess of over a billion people the world over. Her name too signifies her compassionate nature, literally meaning ‘One who hears the cries of the world.’

It remains a historical fact that Kuan Yin is the Chinese version of the male god Avalokiteshvara, whom the ancient texts eulogise as the patron deity of compassion. It is fascinating, however, to observe that nowhere in India (where he originated) or Tibet (where he remains the most popular deity) is the latter ever deified as a female figure. In China too, his worship began as a male god, but over time, changed into a goddess and by the ninth century her popularity had prevailed over that of Avalokiteshvara’s.

There are many reasons why this gender transformation took place. As Avalokiteshvara evolved into the supreme personality of the Buddhist pantheon, with this heightened pedestal came the inevitable elitism. Karuna, however, cannot be and is not (as it has become today under the pseudonym of compassion), the exclusive preserve of a charmed circle, but rather a symphonic identification with the masses, sharing their suffering and pleasure alike. No wonder then that Avalokiteshvara shed streams of tears observing the plight of his people. Now, any emanation from a divine form is bound to hold a dynamic potential within itself and indeed Indian mythology is replete with examples where fluids emerging from deities have led to enormous consequences. Tears similarly are a spontaneous emotional response to external stimuli and represent the outward flow of Avalokiteshvara’s infinite karuna.

From these pearls emanated a beautiful female as attractive as she was compassionate. The goddess Tara, thus born, has continued her upward spiral of popularity and remains one of the most loved and widely recognised deities of the Buddhist pantheon today. Truly, even though Avalokiteshvara retains his foremost status in the gallery of Tibetan gods, in the popular imagination it is Tara, who with her supple charm, has come to symbolise the tenderness of karuna.

It is relevant here to observe that Kuan Yin is often depicted in art holding a leafy twig, derived from the ‘weeping willow’ tree, known so due to its trailing leafy branches that droop to the ground and along which raindrops trickle down like tears. One of its distinctive characteristics is remaining green throughout the year, pointing perhaps to the goddess’ fertility aspect, which is further echoed in images showing her with an infant.

The willow also has a deeper and direct connection with Chinese culture and it is believed that Lao Tzu, the author of Tao-te Ching, loved to meditate under its shade (6th century BCE). It was under the same tree that the younger Confucius had his famous interview with Lao Tzu, telling his disciples afterwards:

I know how birds fly, fishes swim and animals run. But there is the dragon – I cannot tell how he mounts on the winds through the clouds, and rises to heaven. Today, having seen Lao Tzu, I can only compare him to the dragon.

Over centuries, Kuan Yin’s visual depictions have highlighted her lithe, flowing form, much like the willow tree itself, which has the ability to bend during the most ferocious winds and then spring back into shape again. Indeed, who wants to stand rigid like the tall oak that cracks and collapses in a storm? Instead, one needs to be flexible like the willow, which survives the tempest.

Or perhaps, Kuan Yin merely uses the willow branch to sprinkle the divine nectar of life on her devotees, which is stored in the vase she holds in her other hand.

The Chinese (ever disposed to envisage friendly divinities in idealised human forms) seem to have been initially perplexed by Avalokiteshvara’s complex iconography. Not for them his thousand hands or even the seven eyes of Tara. Exposed for eons to the essentially humanistic philosophy of Confucianism, such images were alien and felt to be unsuitable for portraying the ‘soft’ emotion of karuna, the yearning passion a mother feels for her child.

The Tibetan mind solved the craving for a down to earth, visual embodiment of karuna by envisioning the goddess Tara; the Chinese genius did the same by enclosing this virtue in the graceful and beautiful Kuan Yin, who was eminently human in appearance and approachable by all. Indeed, she gradually became the favoured goddess of the peasants and fishermen of China, retaining her place in their hearts to the present day.

Additionally in China, not only had popular gods always been real people who had once lived in specific times and places, even mythical figures were turned into historical cultural heroes who were then venerated as the founding fathers of Chinese civilisation. Unlike Greece, where human heroes were transformed into Olympian gods, in China the reverse held true and if a god or goddess was not perhaps originally a human being, there was often an effort to turn her or him into one.

Kuan Yin thus again had to change from a goddess into a living woman, so that she could be worshipped as a Chinese goddess. Truly, the human character of Chinese deities is one of the most distinctive features of their religion, and like ordinary mortals they too have birthdays, ancestries, careers and titles. Therefore, even though Kuan Yin is not given a date of birth in any of the Buddhist sutras, her birthday is widely celebrated on the nineteenth day of the second month of the lunar calendar.

The legend describing how Kuan Yin was once a woman gives a fascinating insight into the working of the Chinese genius and the process by which she was given a distinctively local flavour and absorbed into their pantheon:

It is said that in the past, there once lived a king under whose rule the people led a peaceful existence governed by Confucian ethics. He had three daughters; the eldest two having already married the grooms of their father’s choice. The youngest offspring however, was unlike any other normal child. Firstly, when she was born, her body glowed with an almost unearthly light so much so that the palace seemed on fire. She was thus befittingly named Miao Shan (Wonderful Goodness).

Secondly, as she grew up, she wore only dirty clothes and never did display any urge to adorn herself. Further, she would subsist on only a single meal every day. In her conversations she would talk about the impermanence of material things and how human beings suffer because of their attachment to such objects. Naturally worried about their daughter’s detached inclinations, her parents proposed that (as per the Confucian ideals of filial piety) she too marry a husband of their choice. To this she replied:

“I would never, for the sake of one lifetime of enjoyment, plunge into aeons of misery. I have pondered on this matter and deeply detest this earthly union (marriage).” Nevertheless, when her parents insisted, she agreed to comply with their wishes if only her future mate would save her from the following three misfortunes:

1) When people are young, their face is as fair as the jade-like moon, but when they grow old, the hair turns white and faces become wrinkled; whether walking, resting, sitting, or lying down, they are in every way worse off than when they were young.

2) Similarly, when our limbs are strong and vigorous one may walk as if flying through air, but when we suddenly becomes sick, we are confined to the bed.

3) A person may have a large group of relatives and be surrounded by his flesh and blood, but when death comes, even such close kin as father and son cannot take the person’s place.

Finally she concluded: “If indeed my future husband can ensure my deliverance against these misfortunes, I will gladly marry him. Otherwise, I vow to remain a spinster all my life. People all over the world are mired in these kinds of suffering. If one desires to be free of them, the only option is to leave the secular world and enter the gate of Buddhism.”

This narrative of course, is parallel to one of the most significant episodes from the life of the Buddha when he encountered the three maladies of physical existence: sickness, old age and death.

Exasperated to no end, the king summoned an old and experienced nun of his kingdom. He asked her to take the princess under tutelage and expose her to as much hardship as possible in the nunnery, so that she realise the futility of her desired path. The instruction was tinged with a threat of annihilation if after seven days Miao Shan was not ‘reformed’.

Needless to say, all the travails she had to undergo at the monastery, including hard manual labor, were insufficient to deter her from the path of Dharma. However, Miao Shan did realise that she was being thus subjected because the inhabitants of the nunnery were under the threat of death. She addressed them, saying:

“Don’t you know the stories about the ancient prince Mahasattva, who plunged off the cliff in order to feed the hungry lions, or King Sivi’s cutting off his flesh to save a dove? Since you have already left the life of a householder, you should regard this material body as illusory and impermanent. Why do you fear death and love life? Don’t you know that attachment to this dirty and smelly leather bag (body) is an obstacle?”

At the end of the stipulated period, the monarch, in a mad and frenzied reaction, ordered that Miao Shan be beheaded. As her executioners approached the monastery gates, Miao Shan rushed out of the building, eager to embrace her impending death. No sooner had she kneeled at the stake and the deadly sword been raised, than a blinding thunder rose. Before the assailants could regain their composure, a tiger darted out of the darkness and carried away the swooning girl into the nearby hills. The king, now beyond the bounds of reason, ordered the hermitage to be burnt down with all its inhabitants.

It was not long before his karma caught up with him and he fell sick with kaamla (jaundice). He was restless for days on end, finding no rest even in sleep. The disease spread all over his body and the best doctors throughout the land were unable to cure him. One day, a holy mendicant came to his door and predicted: “If some person would willingly consent to give his or her arms or eyes without the slightest anger or resentment, the elixir made of these potent ingredients will surely relieve you from your suffering.”

“Where alas will I find such a compassionate being?” lamented the king. “In this very land,” said the monk. “Go southwest in your dominion, on top of the mountain there is a hermit who possesses all the characteristics which are necessary for your healing.”

No sooner had he heard this than the king ordered his envoys to hurry to the abode of the recluse. On being informed of his plight and its prescribed remedy, the hermit readily agreed to undergo the supreme sacrifice, requesting them to ask the suffering king to direct his mind to the three treasures of Buddhism and then very calmly proceeded to gauge out both the eyes and asked one of the men to sever the two arms. The three worlds shook under the impact of this terrible sacrifice.

When he had fully recovered, the king made haste with his wife to pay homage to the one who had so miraculously saved his life. After bowing low before the mutilated form, as soon as they raised their heads they let out a shriek of astonished horror; the hermit’s true identity lay bare before them. She was none other than their youngest daughter Miao Shan. Realising what she had done for him, despite all that he had done to her, the king fell prostrate upon the floor and asked for forgiveness. Overcome with emotion, the parents embraced her and the father said: “I am so evil that I have caused my own daughter terrible suffering.”

Miao Shan replied, “Father, I have suffered no pain. Having given up these human eyes, I shall see with diamond eyes. Having yielded the mortal arms, I shall receive golden arms. If my calling is true all this will follow.”

Much sobered by this intense experience, the king returned to his palace and ordered a statue to be made of her, which, emphasising her sacrifice was to be without eyes and hands. Now, in Chinese, the sound for ‘bereft’ or ‘deficient’ are virtually identical with ‘thousand.’ At some stage in the transmission of this message, the two words were confused and the sculptor toiled away, desperately seeking some way to capture the essence of the king’s wishes. He very imaginatively (or perhaps following Indian or Tibetan models) placed one eye on each palm, making the number of eyes equal to the arms, giving rise in the process to an awesome and complex image of breathtaking splendour.

Unable to relate to the thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara, the above legend provided a rational explanation to the bewildered viewer and helped integrate the goddess into the Chinese ethos.

The story of Miao Shan represents the fusion of the Buddhist theme of the gift of the body and the Confucian concept of filial piety. In the former tradition, giving is one of the six perfections performed by a bodhisattva (would be Buddha). Amongst the different forms of gifts, that of one’s own body is the best. The only difference is that while the bodhisattvas give up their bodies in order to feed or save sentient beings regardless of any formal relationship with them, the fact that Miao Shan does so for her father is where the Confucian model comes in.

In the former context, a tale is narrated of the Buddha, who in one of his previous births was a pigeon. He saw a man lose his way during a snowstorm, driven to the point of starvation. The pigeon gathered twigs and leaves, made a fire and threw himself wholeheartedly into it, to become food for the distressed soul. It is this lofty ideal that Kuan Yin was following, a self-sacrifice par excellence, motivated by pure (selfless) and indiscriminate compassion (karuna).

On the other hand, Kuan Yin as Miao Shan gives a bold and provocative message, challenging Confucian value systems as delineated in the ‘Classic of Filial Piety’ (published by the emperor Xuan in CE 722). Her life glorifies austerity, celibacy and renunciation, which, as per Buddhism, are highly valued (against the householder, who is necessary in Confucianism for creating offspring to perpetuate the lineage). In times of the Ming for example, one could achieve religious sanctification by performing one’s domestic obligations to the fullest degree. Eventually, Chinese of all social strata and both sexes came to know Kuan Yin as the strong-willed yet filial girl, who refused to get married and rebelled against stifling authority.

The goddess Kuan Yin is a symbol, not only of the Chinese assimilation of Buddhism, but also of the many hued flavour of karuna, expressed through the softer wisdom of a woman. She is a pointer to the re-emergence of the goddess and the gender transformation of Avalokiteshvara in China represents perhaps a universal imperative, which is similarly reflected in the emanation of the goddess Tara from the compassionate tears of the same bodhisattva. Though often images are encountered which show her sporting a moustache, emphasising masculinity, this is negated by the softness of her demeanour.

Can anything be more subtly female than her graceful poise – modest and inward looking, yet potent enough to generate and compassionately nourish the whole outside world? In the words of Martin Palmer: “The divine feminine cannot be suppressed for long. In China, it emerged by the transformation of the male into the female,” only god (or the goddess) knows how it will transpire in other cultures.

References and Further Reading:

Blofeld, John, Bodhisattva of Compassion The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin, 1988.

Boucher, Sandy, Discovering Kwan Yin, Buddhist Goddess of Compassion, 1999.

Cabezon, Jose Ignacio, Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender, 1992.

Colin, Didier, Dictionary of Symbols, Myths and Legends, 2000.

Farrer-Halls, Gill, The Feminine Face of Buddhism, 2002.

Jones, Lindsay (ed), Encyclopedia of Religion (Previously Edited by Mircea Eliade) 15 volumes, 2005.

Keown, Damien, Oxford Dictionary of Buddhism, 2003.

Kinsley, David, The Goddesses’ Mirror Visions of the Divine from East and West, 1995.

Palmer, Martin and Jay Ramsay, with Man-Ho Kwok, Kuan Yin Myths and Prophecies of the Chinese Goddess of Compassion, 1995.

Phillips, Kathy J. (Photography by Joseph Singer), This Isn’t a Picture I’m Holding: Kuan Yin, 2004.

Watson, Burton (translator), The Lotus Sutra, 1999.

Wright, Arthur F, Buddhism in Chinese History, 1959.

Yu, Chun-Fang, Kuan Yin The Chinese Transformation of Avalokiteshvara, 2001.

**The above is reprinted with permission of the author and was originally published on www.exoticindiaart.com. Many articles on the living traditions of Indian art, culture and aesthetics are available at the site.**

The above article appeared in New Dawn No. 99 (November-December 2006).

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