#46 — The Doggie Lama

Greetings Philosophers!

Oneness: perhaps the master key to the meaning of life. It is not an intellectual construct, but an experience.

For some reason I found myself thinking a couple of days ago about my experience living with an Awakened Master.

This Master of Present Moment Awareness was my dog Jorg (pronounced George). He went to Nirvana, heaven, or wherever it is that saintly people go on July 2, 1994. And yet I still miss him. Everyday. I still have his ashes.

Have you ever had an animal change your life forever? For me, there was a “before Jorg” and an “after Jorg.” He changed my life because he was the embodiment of unconditional love and compassion.

I remember the day he found me. And he did find me. I was not looking for a dog. One day I came to school, and he followed me to my car. I sent him back and the next day he was there and followed me to my car again. So, I opened the door, he jumped in, and we were connected from that moment forward.

I can share two powerful experiences of many. Once, during a horrible depression I was laid out fully on my back in my bed. My side of the bed was close to the wall. It made it difficult for Jorg to come to me because he could not turn around but had to back out!

So, I am laying there and basically praying for some sense of meaning and love to continue down the path of life. My eyes were closed and then suddenly I felt his head on my chest. He had crawled into this tight space to be near me and share his presence. I can’t tell you how much this meant to me. He probably saved my life. Dogs have such a great emotional intelligence…especially when they are a Doggie Lama.

In the past, my experience of dogs is that they do not like to be stared at. I suppose they see it as a threat. But Jorg would hold my eyes for long periods of time. Once, for over 15 minutes I looked into his eyes, and he looked right back. Eye gazing like that is difficult for most people. But as we gazed into each other’s eyes I had a profound sense of unity. I did not know where he ended, and I began. We were one.

Oneness, as taught by all the great non-dual philosophers, is the nature of Ultimate Reality. Separation is an illusion, the primary illusion that brings so much misery to our lives. Humans have a need for connectedness that is very important. Unfortunately, most of us struggle living in the present moment, where can act from a place of mindfulness and compassion. This disconnection is one of our constant companions.

Once Oneness is experienced, however, it becomes easier to let go of separation and return to Love, the only place where I think we truly know reality as it is. It is a grace, I feel, and Jorg channeled this grace.

A professor friend of mine got to interview the Dalai Lama a long time ago. He picked his questions carefully. One of them was: “What is the purpose of life?” A great question! The Dalai Lama stated that humans are meant to “embody the Transcendent.” And that is what Jorg did. He was the living embodiment of the Transcendent.

It was a great blessing to live with this dog for a few years (he was older when he found me). He broke my heart when he passed away. But he broke it open rather than breaking it down.

For that, I will always be grateful.

Do you live with a Zen master? Perhaps you do. If not, then find one soon!

To Oneness!

Apophat

#45 — Mental Health

Greetings Philosophers!

I have been having conversations with students lately that have been based around their struggles with depression and anxiety.

So, what is the consolation of philosophy for this era where people are being treated for mental health issues more than ever before and yet the suicide rates continue to go up?

Let me first assure you that serious mental illness needs to be treated, often with both medicine and therapy. I do not want to downplay that at all. I know from my own struggle that this kind of help has saved my life many times.

With those qualifications hopefully clear, I wanted to write about the overall feeling so very many of us are experiencing. Does wisdom have any offerings? I think it does.

Life is difficult! Suffering is normal if we live as an isolated ego feeling separate from all other egos. Life is suffering when we feel misunderstood, disconnected, and alone. So where does the idea that “life should be easy” come from? Most people I know have had difficult lives in one way or another. I have yet to meet someone who has not suffered.

There is a whole book to write here, but I will just mention two things.

First, if you are at all awake to what is going on in our world, the humanitarian crisis in not just Ukraine, but in Yemen, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, etc. then something would be wrong with you if you do not feel the weight of all of that misery. That is one reason “ignorance is bliss.” To see what we continue to do to one another and to our planet is depressing.

In this sense, depression is a good sign that you are thinking about others and not just yourself. To be happy in an insane world is its own problem.

Second, everything society pushes on us makes us more miserable. Too many studies have shown the mental health toll that is directly related to social media alone. But society also pushes us to look to money — materialism — and the approval of others, and success and popularity and how we look, among many other things, is where we will find happiness.

But this is completely the opposite of what philosophy teaches! Wisdom, from every tradition I have studied, including atheistic views encapsulated in philosophies such as Existentialism, teach that we can only find happiness by working with our own minds. Happiness is an inner job and we will never find it outside of ourselves. We may find temporary gratification, but not lasting joy and serenity.

Happiness comes from giving rather than getting. And yet our society gives us the opposite message. So, we must be strong, we must think for ourselves, we must seek within, if we are to find contentment and peace. We need to stop buying into what the media teaches, in all its many forms, when it tells us what will make us happy.

Just a little thought proves that we are being brainwashed and conditioned into constantly seeking what we are looking for in all of the wrong places.

When we embrace suffering, we let it teach us compassion and wisdom. When we run from it with distractions, drugs, money, alcohol, etc. we are playing into the conditioning we have received.

I want my suffering to break my heart open so that I will love more, not less. That is my wish for you too. And that is the consolation of philosophy.

To Love!

Apophat

#44 War

Greetings Philosophers!

Russia has invaded the Ukraine. This, on top of everything else, has caused many people’s stress and anxiety to go up.

Can philosophy help us?

While it can’t solve this problem politically, it can help us deal with it on a personal level. For one thing, it provides perspective. For example, in the Bible it says that “there is nothing new under the sun.” War has raged throughout human history. This speaks to what, for lack of a better term, can be called “the human condition.”

Wars will continue to rage as long as humans remain as they are. War, as with all suffering, invites us to leave Plato’s “cave,” and come out to the real world. Of course, what is real is an open question (and a very good one to ponder).

But at the least, it is a call to stop thinking “the shadows on the wall” of the cave are real. It is a call to wake up, to pay attention, and to work with my own mind.

This is only possible in the present moment. Perhaps our life is more perfect than we think when we move out of our thoughts and into our being.

One of my favorite authors, Thomas Merton, wrote: “You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.”

It relaxes me to realize that I do not need to know the future or dwell on the past to enjoy what I can do in the present moment. It is my imagination that says there should be more and my whining nature to say that things are not good enough the way they are just now.

How much of human misery is self-generated by this insatiable need to know? How much joy are we losing due to our own addiction to being in control?

Today, right now, breathing in and breathing out, I am OK. The practice comes by remembering this need to keep coming back to this present moment.

Eckhart Tolle writes: “In today’s rush we all think too much, seek too much, want too much and forget about the joy of just being.”

Perhaps — and just perhaps — the best thing I can do to end war is to make peace with myself. If I can “vibrate” with the finer energy of love, then — perhaps — I can influence the “vibration” of fear and hatred that keeps us in a cycle where wars are inevitable.

From this loving space, an intuition may arrive about something I can do, such as making a donation to the Red Cross or another organization that is helping the refugees.

My favorite visual of just being in the present moment is watching a dog with its head out of a car window as it is driven along. It is a picture of bliss and I wish you all this present moment awareness bliss throughout the turmoil of these times.

Apophat