Intentionality

The spiritual path is a path of focused intentionality. Often, we find ourselves consumed with thoughts about the "consequences" of our actions to the point that we cease to be truly present and mindful of the action itself. We take up a particular job, because we will be paid a certain wage; we become involved in a particular group, because we will benefit in a certain way; we join this religious institution or that, because we will be accepted and promised some imaginary reward as a "chosen people".

It occurs to me that we could spend less time focused on the "payout" and more time focused on the moment. The only opportunity we have to further our expression of Perfect Compassion is in the moment. I look at the times when I have failed to be mindful of that, and it saddens me.

I see times when the Fundie McNuggets®, the Neo-cons, the warmongers and homophobes were permitted to push my buttons, and when that distraction itself took my focus away from the fact that these people seek to avoid suffering and find happiness too... therefore they are no different from me.

A Fundie McNugget® for example, has been so ingrained to believe that their scriptural texts are something more than a plagiarised collection of myths, superimposed on the more important core teachings of Rav Yeshua (Rabbi Jesus the Nazarene), that they begin to become immersed in the mythos itself. No longer really present in the moment, their delusion becomes a belief that they have to follow this or that fundamentalist precept, in order to avoid suffering. Sometimes, they even miss the point altogether, and become like Fred Phelps and the late Jerry Falwell -- where there is no way to miss the intolerance, discrimination and lack of compatibility with the teaching of Rabbi Jesus. Other times, it's more subtle, and we read how "tolerant" someone was of a gay person, a Black person, a Muslim, etc., while in their next breath, they are pointing out how they imagine those who do not superstitiously adhere to their religious dogma are doomed to suffer in their imaginary hell.

There are those who believe that Governor Sarah Palin is such a great choice for Vice President, because she's a wholesome soccer-mom, pretty, well-spoken (in their minds) and the biggie for the Fundie McNuggets® -- she's "pro-life".

Ah... wait a second... by definition, a person who is "pro-life" believes that all life is sacred, from the "moment of conception to the moment of natural death".  Right?

Well dearest ones... I'm afraid that war doesn't qualify as being a "natural" cause of death. So someone who is so allegedly "pro-life", who vocally supports the unprovoked war in Iraq and Afghanistan (or any war for that matter), is a hypocrite or a liar. Someone who consistently votes against stem-cell research, which has the potential to save millions of lives, is not "pro-life". Someone who is in favour of capital punishment, regardless of the nature of the accused's crime, is not "pro-life".

So let's just be clear. Sarah Palin is not pro-life... she's anti-abortion. Period.

It also seems to me that the real objective of the world's religious traditions must shift, returning to the "original intentionality" upon which those traditions were created in the first place. Religion ought to be concerned less with building churches, temples, mosques and monuments, and turn instead toward building interior temples of compassion, forgiveness and understanding.

Zen Master Hsing Yun, author of Describing the Indescribable, writes:

Intention is the core of all conscious life. It is our intentions that create karma, our intentions that help others,our intentions that lead us away from the delusions of individuality toward the immutable verities of enlightened awareness. Conscious intention colours and moves everything.

When we truly begin to understand this, we recognise that there is no "us" or "them". We are inseparable from the Fundie McNugget®, the potentially dangerous Sarah Palin, the militant separatist lesbian or gay guy, the "brain surgeon" in the Oval Office... and if we are inseparable from them, then there is a little fundie, a little dangerous soccer mom, a little separatist, a little moron-absconding-with-illegitimate-power in each and every one of us!

And so we can turn our intentionality toward recognising that, and then moving a step beyond that to realise too that these appearances are impermanent phenomena... that the truth is that we are, and have always been Love. And whatever is not love is fear. Therefore those things which seem contrary to love... the people, circumstances, events and beliefs in our daily experiences that "push our buttons" are opportunities for us to move through the fear, so that it can cause us no more suffering.

Namasté!

_____________________________________________________________

Author of "The Dharma of Compassion - One Monk's Reflections on the Teachings of the Enlightened & Anointed Ones" -- a book that looks at the parallel teachings of the Buddha and the Christ, Lama Gurudas Sunyatananda is a Franciscan priest and Buddhist contemplative monk, who has shared these timeless teachings throughout the world, for more than 25 years.

Lama Gurudas shares the ways in which anyone can begin to recognise and understand the nature of suffering, unhappiness and restlessness in their lives, and employ a series of simple, uncomplicated meditation strategies, mindfulness exercises and personal decisions to improve the quality of their own lives, while doing their part to reduce the experience of suffering in the lives of others.

Focused on the interdependence of all beings, and the Common Ground of Compassion, his workshops bring the teachings of Buddha, Gandhi, Christ and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. into focus, and empower others to experience dramatic transformation in their lives. Lama Gurudas is the Spiritual Director of the Contemplative Order of Compassion -- a grassroots community of contemporary, Western Buddhists, vowed to living a non-religious, non-theistic, post-modern expression of the ancient Dharma, and committed to bringing better health, healing and freedom from hunger, intolerance, violence and suffering to all sentient beings.

He resides at the Lojong Ladrang in historic Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with his life-partner and companion, Craig, and their imaginary dog, an imaginary scarlet macaw, and two imaginary pandas.

"My religion," he explains, inspired by the example of his spiritual father, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, "is compassion... my god is love... my path is service."
_____________________________________________________________

Copyright © 2008 The Office of Lama Gurudas Sunyatananda/Lojong Monastery. (Lojong Media Publications) All rights reserved.