Peter Occhiogrosso: March 2009 Archives

"We were created in this world to give us an opportunity to break and transform our nature. We come in operating solely on a desire to receive for the self-alone mindset and our goal is to convert that desire into one of sharing, loving, and thinking of others first." (Yehuda Berg)  

When you meditate, all the masters say, you're not supposed to "do" anything, but just "be." And yet even Zen meditation teachers talk about meditation helping us to see what truly is. You see yourself and your actions and the world with greater clarity, dissolving the veil of self-delusion. Still, isn't "seeing" also a kind of "doing"? Most meditation teachers tell you that when thoughts arise, you ought neither let yourself indulge in them, thereby prolonging the thought process, nor make any effort to "force" the thought away, which will distract you from meditation. Just observe the thoughts as if they are clouds reflected in a mirror on the ground, and let the thoughts pass. They call this by the lovely phrase "mirror mind." Afterward, you presumably emerge from meditation with clarified vision as a result of all this passive "seeing." That vision may manifest as a desire to change something about yourself, or to be of service to others in some way.

According to an article by Michelle Boorstein in The Washington Post, "Prayer has become more common at presidential appearances under the Obama administration, including at nonreligious events such as stimulus rallies. The White House is acting in a deliberately inclusive, interfaith way that seems to limit opposition." People pursuing a nonsectarian spiritual path sometimes find themselves conflicted about the role they feel organized religion should play in everyday life, especially in the political arena. And the policies of President Obama, arguably the most progressive candidate elected to this office in recent memory, may be challenging to many of his supporters. But I disagree.

My first spiritual teacher of any consequence was a Muslim. He was also, I should add, a member of the Gelugpa Order of Tibetan Buddhism, an Eastern Orthodox Christian, and a devotee of Divine Mother Sarada Devi and Sri Ramakrishna. Lex Hixon, known to many of his followers as Sheikh Nur al-Jerrahi, was clearly many things to many people. I first encountered him when I drove to Riverdale to interview him for my second book, Through the Labyrinth. I owe a lot to Lex, but more than anything, he mentored me in the value of religious pluralism, something in which he believed so ardently that he practiced several different spiritual traditions simultaneously. This is no small feat when you consider that following just one path can absorb huge amounts of time and psychic energy.

Anger may be passionate, but that doesn't mean it's always a shadow passion. There is such a thing as righteous anger. Jesus showed righteous anger when he chased the money changers from the Temple of Solomon. Muhammad waged battle against fellow Arabs who sought to destroy him and his followers (although, as pointed out in a recent article by a leading Muslim scholar, he "spent less than 20 hours in battles which cost less than 500 casualties, nearly half of them Muslims"). Now the Dalai Lama has strongly condemned continuing Chinese Communist clampdowns in Tibet. In what the New York Times described as a "blistering speech," His Holiness called for autonomy for Tibet and further stated "that the Chinese Communist Party had transformed Tibet into a 'hell on earth' and that the Chinese authorities regard Tibetans as 'criminals deserving to be put to death.'"

The celebrated director David Lynch, whose films include Eraserhead,  Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire, as well as the TV series Twin Peaks, has long promoted the value of meditation. The David Lynch Foundation gives millions of dollars to schools for "Quiet Time" programs "utilizing the stress-reducing Transcendental Meditation technique." It will now be presenting a benefit concert entitled "Change Begins Within," headlining (Sir) Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Donovan, Sheryl Crow, Moby, and flutist Paul Horn, who has recorded many albums of meditation music.