Happy Birthday Dad

30 May 2013 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , , ,

DadToday would have been my Dad’s 87th birthday.

This photograph of him hangs on the wall next to my desk at home, and I look at it often and remember him with great fondness and love.

He wasn’t a religious man, only going to church for weddings and the like, though he always supported my Mom in her church activities.

As a boy, I remember him as always being at work. Back then, it was quite common for people to work on Saturdays too, and as a printer, he was always busy.

My Mom was definitely his Honzon. If ever she went away for the day, she would leave him a packed lunch, an apple cut into quarters and maybe a cheese sandwich, just to make sure he ate something. He was a bit lost whenever she wasn’t around.

His one big love in life, apart from his family, was printing. Our house was always full of books and paper and print samples, and if he was ever given a book as a present, he was far more interested in who had printed it than what it was about.

In later years, he had a passion for free pistol shooting, he kept meticulous sets of figures of his scores, and used to compile the tables of scores for the club to which he belonged. He was very angry when the Government brought in stricter gun laws, and he was unable to keep his much cherished guns. He always felt that they were punishing the innocent, for the sins of the guilty.

Sadly he spent the last couple of years of his life in the World of Tranquillity. He had a heart condition that meant he didn’t have the life-energy to get out and do very much. He still read quite a lot and watched sport on TV, but he slept a lot more.

You were a great Dad, and, in your own quiet way, a great man. You were Wise, Courageous and Compassionate in so many ways, though maybe I didn’t always appreciate it at the time. I pray for you every morning and evening during Gongyo, and although I know you are back here with us somewhere, I miss you a great deal.

Happy Birthday Dad.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

3rd Party Fire And Distress

22 May 2013 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , ,

A Broken HeartSometimes we become involved in other people’s problems, whether we want to be, or not. At times like this, Wisdom, Courage and Compassion are needed, but in a slightly different way than when we have problems of our own. I have needed to have the Wisdom to step back from the problem, and look at it in a dispassionate way.

The Courage to determine my feelings, from that detached viewpoint and the Compassion to offer help if required, knowing that your offer may well be rejected. Just be there, with an open heart and a calm mind. Too often,  people on the periphery feel the need to state their opinions, whether that helps the problem or not. These opinions may well be founded on sound principles and deeply held beliefs, but they are not help, they are just opinions.

If you find yourself in such a situation, you must be prepared to wait to be asked for your help. Staying detached, objective and silent, may be all the help you can offer at that time. Time is a great healer, often the only healing medium we have, so be prepared to extend your Wisdom, Courage and Compassion over the long term.

Putting It In Context

20 May 2013 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , , ,

Put That Problem Into ContextArriving back in the office this morning, following my nice long weekend, I was greeted by the dreaded bulging inbox. Most emails were asking about forgotten passwords or the whereabouts of mislaid deliveries, but one stood out like a sore thumb.

One of our clients had missed her subscription reminders and so had been locked out of our virtual album product. Her collection data was safe and sound, but she wasn’t to know that. However, judging by the panicked tone of her email, you might have thought that the world had stopped turning or the sun had suddenly gone out … ‘nothing short of an absolute disaster ‘ was the way she described it.

Naturally, I fixed the problem within minutes and soothed her furrowed brow, but the incident got me thinking.

How often do we see something, which in real terms is a minor irritant, maybe a worrying occurrence at worst, as the end of the world? Somebody puts a ding in your car on your way to work, or the first tube is full after you’ve waited a full ten minutes for it to arrive, or maybe you spill coffee on your nice clean white shirt … disaster !!!

But when we take a deep breath, let our pulse return to normal, and look at these events in the cold light of day, they really are nothing. The problem is that we are all too often distracted by the minutiae of life whilst we fail to see the bigger picture. Your car may have a dent in it, but nobody was injured, the next tube has plenty of space and you get in on time anyway, the stain on your shirt may be annoying, but at least you weren’t scalded in the process.

So next time you think your world has come off the rails, take time to see the problem in context. It may not be as trivial as the examples I’ve given, but is it really as bad as you first thought, I rather doubt it. Remember, even the end of the world won’t be the end of the world in real terms.

Goal Setting

10 May 2013 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , ,

Goal SettingSo many of us strive for a personal goal, something that we believe will make us happy. That may be money, status, property, love or anything else you would like to cite.

Often however, we fail in our efforts because we focus on the wrong aspect en-route, but Kyo Chi Gyo I can help put that right.

No it’s not another chant like Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. Kyo Chi Gyo I (pronounced keyo chee geyo ee) is a tried and trusted method for achieving anything your heart desires. Let’s find out what each part means …

Kyo – the goal you wish to achieve.

Chi – is the wisdom needed to reach that goal.

Gyo – is the action you need to take to reach the goal.

I – the status you will attain when the goal is reached.

So having set Kyo (our goal) firmly in our heart, we chant for Chi, the wisdom to achieve our goal. Of course, this wisdom doesn’t simply appear, we have to get ourselves into a learning life-state and use every avenue to gather that wisdom. Once the wisdom has been attained we can use it to guide our actions (Gyo).

The trick is to concentrate on Kyo at all times. So many people fail to achieve their desired status because they take their eye off Kyo, their goal.

The rational behind this is that by focussing on your goal, you concentrate on something concrete. Your status, I, is about you and is not a physical entity, making it an ethereal target and your task that much more difficult.

Let’s give you real world example …

It’s the last minute of the F.A. Cup Final, it’s 1-1, but to add to the excitement, one team has just been awarded a penalty. A single player has been given the ball and is going to take the penalty.

In this example Kyo is successfully converting the penalty, Chi is the skill needed to kick the ball accurately and maybe knowing which way the keeper tends to dive. Gyo is accurately kicking the ball, in the desired direction with enough force to beat the keeper, and I is being remembered as the player who scored the winning goal in the Cup final.

Let’s assume that the player is the regular penalty taker for his team, and that he’s really good at scoring from them. He has practiced for hours, kicking the ball exactly where he wants it to go and disguising his intentions from the keeper, so his Chi is near perfect. He may have taken dozens of penalty kicks during his playing career, so he has the correct action, Gyo, also well defined.

If he concentrates on Kyo, scoring the goal, he has a very good chance of success. If, however, he lets I, his status, control his thoughts, he has a much greater chance of missing.

So it’s all about reaching your goal, Kyo. Your task is to hone your Chi and Gyo along the way. Your status, I, whatever that may be, will look after itself as soon as achieve your goal.

Unrealistic Expectations

07 May 2013 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , ,

Too Great ExpectationsWe all live with expectations, of ourselves, of others and of the outcome of situations in our lives, and it is all too easy to be disappointed when those expectations are not met.

However, you must remember, your happiness is in your own hands, so being unhappy when your expectations are dashed, is your own decision.

For myself, I find that taking some quiet time to examine why I am disappointed solves a lot of these problems. Sometimes my expectations are too high, unrealistic you might say, sometimes the simple acceptance that those expectations are not those of others explains the outcome.

Allowing your expectations of others to be, even in part, the basis of your happiness shows a certain lack of Wisdom, so learn from the pain, don’t repeat the mistake and move on.

So to help maintain your happiness, set realistic expectations for yourself and accept that failing to meet those expectations does not mean failing completely.

Class, My Ass

05 May 2013 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , , , ,

The Class SystemDriving back from Reading tonight, following a great day with my son, his fiancée and his mum, I was listening to Radio 4. Following a rather interesting program about credit, the good and evil aspects of borrowing and the social stigma of bad debt, there was an article about the BBC part-sponsored, BBC Lab UK’s Great British Class Survey.

I had heard about the new classes, seven in all, that had been observed, following the compilation of the survey, in which over 161,000 people took part. The seven classes range from the Elite, the most privileged group, set apart from other classes because of wealth. Highest scoring economically, socially and culturally, to the newly classified Precariat the poorest, most deprived class who score low economically, socially and culturally.

I’m not convinced about all this, so I decided to conduct my own little one man survey, to see whether it stood up to scrutiny. I went to the BBC Class Calculator page and entered my current details, with all the financial, social and cultural options. I came out as an Emergent Service Worker, who are typically young, have little money, but are very social and cultural. Well they got the bit about little money right at least.

Then I entered my details from a few years back, before I was made redundant, lost my home and my marriage failed. The social and cultural options haven’t changed, only the earnings and the property, but amazingly I used to be Elite.

It is complete twaddle. Money doesn’t give you class, nor does losing it take your class away. All this little test proved was that we, as a society, value people far more for what they earn and own, than who and what they are as people. I know several people who don’t really have two pennies to rub together, yet they ooze class. On the other hand, I know lots of people who have more money than sense and who wouldn’t have any class even if they could buy it.

Why don’t we try to conduct another survey, where people’s class is measured by their sociability, their altruism, their compassion and their caring for those around them. That’s what gives a person class, not obscene amounts of filthy lucca tucked away in tax havens, or tied up in second and third homes, pushing prices still further out of the reach of the people who really need them.

We are being governed and controlled by those people who are, by and large, in the Elite class, and who will do their utmost to keep themselves there, not to say, keep the rest of us as far down the ladder as they possibly can. The UKIP results this week may be a protest vote, but by all that’s holy, it’s time for a serious shake up in the way this country is structured.

Flames Of Wisdom

03 May 2013 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , ,

Flames Of WisdomSo many of the ills in modern society are driven, if not caused, by our insatiable desire to earn, to own, to use, more and more.

Companies spend millions creating adverts to reach our deepest psyche and flick on the basest of urges, often I suspect, without us even realising the manipulation we are undergoing.

Aside from our own mental suffering, our cravings are having disastrous consequences in third world countries, the collapse of the clothing factory in Bangladesh being an indirect result of our need to ever cheaper garments.

Nichiren spoke of earthly desires being used as fuel for the flame of Wisdom.

Buddhism teaches the converting of personal ambitions and desires, even base ones, into good traits like Wisdom, through altruistic living. A Buddhist doctrine that earthly desires are enlightenment, indicates that greed, anger through violence, and egocentricity can be transformed into altruistic traits such as compassion, trust and nonviolence.

The underlying delusions that drive our desires, including the desire for the development of science and civilisations, can be essentially transformed in a way that changes selfishness into altruism, violence into nonviolence and suspicion into trust.

The Western exploitation of emerging countries, for cheap labour and materials, simply to satisfy an ever growing market is totally unsustainable and must change. Until we can stop enriching certain groups at the expense of others, and concentrate on enriching all people by our actions, there will never be a sustainable peace, economy or even happiness in the world.

You Decide

27 Apr 2013 1 Comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , ,

HonestyWhen you find yourself in a situation where you have to decide what happens next, you must be completely honest with everyone concerned, including yourself. When that decision is possibly not what others expect or want, you must show a lot of compassion when you announce it.

Of course you can hurt others if when your decision is contrary to theirs, but you will hurt them more by delaying or by going along with them, just to go with the flow. Eventually, your feelings will show and the result will only be more angst for all.

We all have a responsibility for the decisions we make in life. As we know, karma is the collection of causes and effects that our decisions amass. So when you feel that you have to make a decision that will be difficult for others to accept, make it quickly, announce it gently but firmly, and reduce the pain, to you and those affected, to the minimum.

Badgering The Scientists

25 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , ,

Badgering The ScientistsSometimes, being caught up in traffic can be a good thing. For example, had I sailed through to the office this morning, I might well have missed the latest round of debate on the forthcoming, and in my opinion, ill conceived badger cull, taking place in Somerset and Gloucestershire this coming summer.

A meeting will take place today at the Royal Society in London, to further examine the science behind the cull. Two of the protagonists, speaking on Radio 4’s Today program, made it clear that there is anything but consensus amongst scientists when it comes to the best way to eradicate, or even reduce, the incidence of bovine TB in the UK.

Professor Ian Boyd, for the action, said the badger cull was part of a wider set of solutions needed to combat the disease. He added: “TB is a complex and potentially quite dangerous disease. I think it would be very unfortunate if, as a result of protester activity, we lost the option in future of being able to use culling as a method in specific circumstances to control tuberculosis.”

But in contrast, Cambridge University zoologist Professor  Sir Patrick Bateson told the programme the proposed badger cull was ill thought out, difficult to monitor and evaluate. He pointed out that the number of badgers was unknown, so the proposed 70% cull is impossible to evaluate. He also revealed that both cats and rats carry the bovine TB disease.

Professor Boyd said he has some sympathy for the arguments against the cull, but also stated that badgers are the major carrier ‘as far as we know’, further admitting that the science behind the action is still imperfect at best. He proposes to ‘test the system’ to see whether it is effective, but once the badgers are dead, it’s a little late for them.

I feel that we are approaching the problem from the wrong end. Although I have sympathy for the cattle farmers or this country, I would prefer to see a campaign of cattle inoculation before we let the hunters loose on the population of one of our most iconic indigenous wild animals. At the very least, we must be certain that killing these animals will have the desired effect. There is much evidence to suggest the opposite.

Shame On You

23 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , ,

ShameEvery day, online, in the press, on radio and TV, we hear reports of people in positions of power or authority, abusing those positions in order to gain yet more wealth or power. It is said that power corrupts, and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. It seems, with the ever growing gap between rich and poor, that responsibility and being held to account, are fast fading traits from a bygone age.

As Daisaku Ikeda says, “We must establish the correct standard of value upon the foundation of the dignity of life. Leaders of society, including politicians and schoolteachers, should teach children the distinction between good and evil and lead society in the direction of goodness. Today, however, the higher the status that people achieve, the more wrongdoings they tend to commit. Those in high status think only of their selfish interests while exploiting ordinary people. The “me first” attitude prevails. Looking at those adults, children cannot possibly grow upright. Such social trends, in a sense, are destroying our children. Adults must first reflect on their own way of life. Without self-reflection, adults are not qualified to scold children.”

History shows us, that given sufficient provocation, citizens who feel a total lack of power or hope for their future, will take matters into their own hands, often with catastrophic consequences. Remember the French and Russian revolutions, bloody events where the citizens of the country took back control.

How long will it be before we begin to see, that our leaders, and those with wealth and power, are heeding the lessons of history, and using wisdom, courage and compassion to reverse the ugly trend towards increasing greed, selfishness and elitism?

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