formlessness

formlessness.
light and darkness.
the forms begin to emerge.
sex.  voo doo.  money.  the arts.  food.
creative expression.  happiness and sadness.
intellectual thought.  romantic love.  the assertion
of the will of “i am.”  the softness of the heart.  ahh.
a noticing begins.  an observation.  a suspicion
i am not any of the forms.  i meditate.  the
inner shifts:  a melting.  what remains?
fear of death; clinging to life.  KATZ!
dissolving happens.  no words.
formlessness.

Now:  please stop reading, and meditate!  :-)

.

Resolving Intractable Conflicts: An Inner Approach (Part I)

A conflict arises when one or more parties want to change the status quo. If all parties are satisfied with the way things are, no conflict arises. The scope of a conflict can be defined as the difference between the current state of affairs and the desired state of affairs.

An example: "I want to paint my house purple, but I cannot because my neighborhood council's bylaws forbid it." If I would be content with a white house, which in our example would be allowed by the bylaws, there would be no conflict. Conversely, if there were no bylaws relevant to paint color, I could paint my house purple with no problem.

One of the first rules of conflict resolution is that in order to non-violently reach a solution (that is, in order to find a new state of affairs with which all parties feel satisfied), the parties need a safe space within which to meet and interact. In our example, if the house-owner was so angry that he was breaking into the council's offices and smashing the computers, and the council members were stealing the house-owner's stuff and sabotaging his car, it would be very difficult to create a safe space for negotiation.

And yet, on the world stage, this is often how various peace processes unfold. On the ground violence is happening while in the conference room a small group of people is meeting to discuss peace. Have the parties truly created a safe space? Does a tiny oasis in the midst of a sea of violence feel safe?

If there exist two entrenched parties, each bent on getting all of what they want, then violence will continue until the discomfort of the violence outweighs the desire for the new state of affairs. Another example: If Team A wants a given land mass to be governed under Religion A laws, and Team B wants the same land mass to be governed under Religion B laws, we might be in for a long conflict for the simple reason that religious beliefs are so ingrained that to change them is more painful, in some cases, than the worst physical torture imaginable. "Kill the children, burn down the homes and fields, pull out my fingernails, but I will not allow you to impose your religious rules on me or my township."

Once the opposing parties decide they wish to seek a non-violent resolution of their differences, there exist many techniques and methods which can be employed to find solutions, even in very complex situations. (Richard Holbrooke's book, "To End a War," about the Bosnian peace process, provides excellent examples.)

But how to get to this point? How to get the two or more warring parties to choose good-faith negotiation over violence? Holbrooke offers one answer to this vexing question. He argued that the United States should threaten to send its army to Bosnia if the violence continued. Two teen-age boys are fighting, and the father comes along and says, "Cut it out or I'll give you a good whipping." While this approach has pros and cons, and may or may not work in the medium and long term, it presupposes the existence of a force sufficiently large to overwhelm both opponents. This approach also requires the political and financial will needed to employ it.

There is another approach. It is admittedly more subtle, and will require time and patience to bear fruit. In my exploration of the inner world, I have found that all dark roads lead to the same place: the fear of death. I can begin in my mind, thinking at length about philosophy or religion or art. I can explore various desires: for money, power, prestige, women. I can delve deeper into the realms of dark emotion: anger, aggression, jealousy, hatred, greed.

But if I keep going; if I keep asking myself, "What is underneath this thought? What is underneath this feeling? Why do I hold onto this philosophical position? Why do I feel greed?" ultimately I get to the same answer: "Because I am afraid of dying."

The root blackness inside of me is the fear of death. Put another way, the root blackness inside of me is the desire for life. (The Buddha taught that desire is the root-cause of all suffering, and for me, the root of all desires is the desire for life.)

(One caveat here: the blackness is the *desire* for life, not life itself. Life is a well-spring of delight; a fresh river running through a misty forest. It is the *desire* for life, the clinging to life, which creates suffering.)

I am fortunate because I have discovered meditation. And for a variety of reasons, the clod of stuckness inside of me I label "fear of death" has been partially dissolved. It is not as strong as it used to be. For this reason, I feel much more freedom in my life: I feel I have many more choices in many dimensions. I am happier, and I find I can get along with just about anybody. I hold very few intellectual ideas for which I am willing to fight. The light of awareness has partially melted the fear of death, and I have become more peaceful.

It is in the candle's very nature to extinguish darkness. If you bring a candle into a dark room, the room will light up -- the darkness will vanish.

If you have a rusty pipe, and you run scalding water through it, eventually some of the rust will loosen, and the inside of the pipe will become cleaner. It is the nature of running water to cleanse.

If a person is filled with unconsciousness (greed, hatred, rage, aggression) and the person is greeted with consciousness, awareness, light, and love, eventually the hatred will dissolve. Eventually the behavior of the unconscious person will shift. The beliefs he once held so dear will begin to loosen. The bargaining positions he once was so attached to will become more fluid. Slowly, slowly, more options will begin to appear on the negotiating table.

Does this mean when you sit across the table from Adolf Hitler, you appease him? No. What is needed is fewer leaders who are mired in the thick, black filth which Hitler was stuck in.

So the question becomes: how do we seduce people into the process of becoming more conscious? More light? More flexible? More loving? More sharing? More collaborative? How do we seduce people into participating in the variety of activities that are now available to us which deepen meditation and right prayer?

To begin with, I will offer one answer to my own question: those of us who practice need to enjoy ourselves. People want to be around people who are happy, celebrating each moment, smiling, enjoying. Joy, when it is not forced, when it arises from a true place inside, is infectious and magnetic.

If anyone has other ideas for seducing people into consciousness-raising activities, please do not be shy: comment away!

(As always with words, there is so much more to say. I see this post as a catalyst for dialogue, rather than an end in itself.)

Resolving Intractable Conflicts: An Inner Approach (Part II)

In Part I of this blog-post, I wrote about the need to seduce people into the practice of meditation techniques and right prayer, so as to bring about the conditions needed for more fruitful negotiations of intractable conflicts.

James Hillman, a well-known Jungian psychologist, has said that a person comes to the earth "knowing" what he is to do here. Joseph Campbell echoes this sentiment when he talks about "following your bliss" (for to do so implies your "bliss" exists inside of you).

The model of the archetypes (that each of us tends to be more of a king, a warrior, a lover, an artist, a businessman) sheds more light on this concept. In my own life, it seemed to me early on that I was here to be an artist.

The interesting thing about meditation, yoga, tai chi, right prayer and the like, is *anyone* on any life path can engage in these activities, with more or less the same effect. The result is that a loosening happens. I discussed this loosening in Part I with regards to ideas, beliefs and bargaining positions. But the loosening also happens around so-called "soul-purpose." If a person starts out on a warrior's life path, meditation can eventually lead him in another direction.

I experienced it as a lifting up. Imagine my artist's life is depicted as a bicycle moving along on a road. When I began meditating, it was as if I began to become detached from the bicycle, and started to float above it. The bicycle still had momentum: it continued along its artist's way. But "I" was free from the path. I could make other choices in my life. And I did. Slowly, slowly, the bicycle lost its momentum, because I had stopped pedaling. And then I had many more options in my life.

It is precisely this state (the state of having many options) which is useful to resolving intractable conflicts.

If we assume that each of us is merrily strolling along on our life paths, following our bliss, what is needed for an individual to decide to meditate? My spiritual transformer has suggested three conditions are needed (kudos to my friend and fellow traveller for sharing these with me [http://www.shunyo.org/]).

First, a person must understand that s/he is going to die. Not just mentally, but in a deep way. The moment one really grocks this fact, the big questions arise: why am I here? Who am I? What is the purpose of life? And the various spiritual practices are known to offer doorways into these questions.

Second, a person must come to know that the endless stream of projects and purposes which the mind creates will ultimately lead nowhere. With the multitude of projects available to us (from home improvements to making our own YouTube videos) this is a difficult thing to see. And yet, I know from my own experience it is true.

To find out, ask yourself: what am I hoping to gain by completing the projects I am working on? Certainly you need a small income for the basics. But beyond this, what is the underlying goal? If you are like me, the goal will have an inner component: I want to be happy, to be content, to feel good about myself.

If you keep looking, eventually you will see that doing the outer-world thing does not deliver the goods. (Don't take my word for it! Have a look inside...)

I spent a long time looking for the most meaningful career for myself. I chose music composition. After a performance of one of my works, sitting exhausted in a cafe, I suddenly realized that no matter how many pieces I wrote; no matter how many awards I won; no matter how many people came to see my extravaganzas; I was still going to have this hole inside of me. I was still going to be miserable.

This is the insight that is needed.

The Buddha said there exists suffering. And -- desire is the root cause of suffering. A corollary to these words is, no amount of trying to fulfill desire (and that, in the end, is what "doing projects" is about) will alleviate the suffering. The way is in.

Once I saw that composing wasn't going to reach the core of my wounds, I looked for a deeper solution. This search led me to spiritual discipline.

The third thing that is needed for a person to discover a practice is a person needs to begin to learn from his mistakes. My transformer used to say, as I remember it, make as many mistakes as you like, but only make each one once.

The great thing about this simple guideline is it leads a person into many different life choices. And as a person explores all the outer world has to offer, living as intensely and joyously as possible, she will eventually discover the truth of axiom number two: nothing in the outer world, ultimately, is going to help. (An aside: it might take a bit of introspection to notice that one is, in fact, repeating one's mistakes.)

We now have more information to guide us in our quest toward spiritual practice. We can remember, in a deep way, that death awaits us. We can attempt to stop duplicating our mistakes. We can examine the deep purpose of each activity we undertake. We can say no when the TV invites us to watch another episode of "My Favorite Show," and instead give our loved one a long, heart-full hug.

And then, we can spend a few moments in the "Spiritual" section of the book store or newspaper calendar, and see what phrase catches our eye, whispering gently, come, come...

As Rumi put it, "Walk out into the indications of where you must go."

Love.